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14 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/">Petter Reinholdtsen
</a>
21 <h3>Entries tagged "english".
</h3>
25 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/First_Skolelinux___Debian_Edu_Squeeze_update_released.html">First Skolelinux / Debian Edu Squeeze update released
</a>
31 <p>Last Sunday,
2013-
03-
03,, Holger Levsen announced the first update
32 of
<a href=
"http://www.skolelinux.org/">Skolelinux / Debian Edu
</a>
33 based on Debian Squeeze. This is the first update since
34 <a href=
"http://lists.debian.org/debian-edu-announce/2012/03/msg00001.html">the
35 initial release
2012-
03-
11</a>. This is the
36 <a href=
"http://lists.debian.org/debian-edu-announce/2013/03/msg00000.html">release
37 announcement email from Holger
</a>:
</p>
39 <blockquote><p>Hi,
</p>
41 <p>it's my pleasure to announce the immediate availability of Debian
42 Edu
6.0.7+r1 ("Debian Edu Squeeze").
</p>
44 <p>Debian Edu
6.0.7+r1 is an incremental update to Debian Edu
45 6.0.4+r0, containing all the changes between Debian
6.0.4 and
6.0.7 as
46 well Debian Edu specific bugfixes and enhancements. See below (in this
47 mail) for the full list of (edu) changes. Please see
48 <a href=
"http://www.debian.org/News/2012/20120311">http://www.debian.org/News/
2012/
20120311</a>
49 for more information on "Debian Edu Squeeze".
</p>
51 <p>Images are available for download at
52 <a href=
"http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/">http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/
</a></p>
55 <br>1fe79eb4f0f9ae1c58fc318e26cc1e2e debian-edu-
6.0.7+r1-CD.iso
56 <br>a6ddd924a8bd9a1b5ca122e8fe1c34ec debian-edu-
6.0.7+r1-DVD.iso
57 <br>ac6c72cd7925ccec51bfbf58e2a7c69c debian-edu-
6.0.7+r1-source-DVD.iso
</p>
60 <br>a4b58233b672a99c7df8dc24fb6de3327654a5c3 debian-edu-
6.0.7+r1-CD.iso
61 <br>9b524915e0ff2aa793f13d93123e5bd2bab2dbaa debian-edu-
6.0.7+r1-DVD.iso
62 <br>43997614893fc5e9e59ad6ce066b05d07fd836fa debian-edu-
6.0.7+r1-source-DVD.iso
</p>
64 <p>These images are suitable for amd64+i386.
</p>
66 <p>Changes for Debian Edu
6.0.7+r1 Codename "Squeeze", released
70 <li>sitesummary was updated from
0.1.3 to
0.1.8
72 <li>Make Nagios configuration more robust and efficient
</li>
73 <li>Comply with
3.X kernel
</li>
75 <li>debian-edu-doc from
1.4~
20120310~
6.0.4+r0 to
1.4~
20130228~
6.0.7+r1
77 <li>Minor updates from the wiki
</li>
78 <li>Danish translation now complete
</li>
80 <li>debian-edu-config from
1.453 to
1.455
82 <li>Fix /etc/hosts for LTSP diskless workstations. Closes: #
699880</li>
83 <li>Make ltsp_local_mount script work for multiple devices.
</li>
84 <li>Correct Kerberos user policy: don't expire password after
2 days.
86 <li>Handle '#' characters in the root or first users password.
88 <li>Fixes for gosa-sync:
90 <li>Don't fail if password contains "
</li>
91 <li>Don't disclose new password string in syslog
</li>
93 <li>Fixes for gosa-create:
95 <li>Invalidate libnss cache before applying changes
</li>
96 <li>Multiple failures during mass user import into GOsa²
</li>
97 <li>gosa-netgroups plugin: don't erase entries of attribute type
98 "memberNisNetgroup". Closes: #
687256</li>
99 <li>First user now uses the same Kerberos policy as all other users
</li>
101 <li>Add Danish web page
</li>
103 <li>debian-edu-install from
1.528 to
1.530
105 <li>Improve preseeding support and documentation
</li>
109 <p>End-user documentation in English is available at
110 <a href=
"http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Documentation/Squeeze/">http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Documentation/Squeeze/
</a>
111 - translations to French, Italian, Danish and German are available in
112 the debian-edu-doc package. (Other languages could use your help!)
</p>
114 <p>If you want to contribute to Debian Edu, please join our
116 <a href=
"http://lists.debian.org/debian-edu/">debian-edu@lists.debian.org
</a>!
119 <p>I am very happy to see the fruits of a year of hard work. :)
</p>
125 Tags:
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu
</a>,
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english
</a>.
130 <div class=
"padding"></div>
134 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Frikanalen___Complete_TV_station_organised_using_the_web.html">Frikanalen - Complete TV station organised using the web
</a>
140 <p>Do you want to set up your own TV station, schedule videos and
141 broadcast them on the air? Using free software? With video on demand
143 <a href=
"http://www.digistan.org/open-standard:definition">free and
144 open standards
</a>? Included a web based video stream as well? And
145 administrate it all in your web browser from anywhere in the world? A
146 few years now the Norwegian public access TV-channel
147 <a href=
"http://www.frikanalen.no/">Frikanalen
</a> have been building a
148 system to do just this. The source code for the solution is licensed
149 using the GNU LGPL, and
150 <a href=
"http://github.com/Frikanalen">available from github
</a>.
</p>
152 <p>The idea is simple. You upload a video file over the web, and
153 attach meta information to the file. You select a time slot in the
154 program schedule, and when the time come it is played on the air and
155 in the web stream. It is also made available in a video on demand
156 solution for anyone to see it also outside its scheduled time. All
157 you need to run a TV station - using your web browser.
</p>
159 <p>There are several parts to this web based solution. I'll mention
160 the three most important ones. The first part is the database of
161 videos and the schedule. This is written in Django and include a REST
162 API. The current database is SQLite, but the plan is to migrate it to
163 PostgreSQL. At the moment this system can be tested on
164 <a href=
"http://beta.frikanalen.tv/">beta.frikanalen.tv
</a>. The
165 second part is the video playout, taking the schedule information from
166 the database and providing a video stream to broadcast. This is done
167 using
<a href=
"http://www.casparcg.com/">CasparCG from SVT
</a> and
168 <a href=
"http://www.mltframework.org/">Media Lovin' Toolkit
</a>. Video
169 signal distribution is handled using
170 <a href=
"http://www.ob-encoder.com/">Open Broadcast Encoder
</a>. The
171 third part is the converter, handling the transformation of uploaded
172 video files to a format useful for broadcasting, streaming and video
173 on demand. It is still very much work in progress, so it is not yet
174 decided what it will end up using. Note that the source of the latter
175 two parts are not yet pushed to github. The lead author want to clean
176 them up a bit more first.
</p>
178 <p>The development is coordinated on the
179 <a href=
"irc://irc.freenode.net/%23frikanalen">#frikanalen IRC
180 channel
</a> (irc.freenode.net), and discussed on
181 <a href=
"http://lists.nuug.no/mailman/listinfo/frikanalen">the
182 frikanalen mailing list
</a>. The lead developer is Benjamin Bruheim
183 (phed on IRC). Anyone is welcome to participate in the
190 Tags:
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english
</a>,
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/frikanalen">frikanalen
</a>,
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug
</a>,
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/video">video
</a>.
195 <div class=
"padding"></div>
199 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Dr__Richard_Stallman__founder_of_Free_Software_Foundation__give_a_talk_in_Oslo_March_1st_2013.html">Dr. Richard Stallman, founder of Free Software Foundation, give a talk in Oslo March
1st
2013</a>
205 <p>Dr.
<a href=
"http://www.stallman.org/">Richard Stallman
</a>,
206 founder of
<a href=
"http://www.fsf.org/">Free Software Foundation
</a>,
207 is giving
<a href=
"http://www.nuug.no/aktiviteter/20130301-rms/">a
208 talk in Oslo March
1st
2013 17:
00 to
19:
00</a>. The event is public
209 and organised by
<a href=
"">Norwegian Unix Users Group (NUUG)
</a>
210 (where I am the chair of the board) and
211 <a href=
"http://www.friprog.no/">The Norwegian Open Source Competence
212 Center
</a>. The title of the talk is «The Free Software Movement and
213 GNU», with this description:
216 The Free Software Movement campaigns for computer users' freedom to
217 cooperate and control their own computing. The Free Software Movement
218 developed the GNU operating system, typically used together with the
219 kernel Linux, specifically to make these freedoms possible.
222 <p>The meeting is open for everyone. Due to space limitations, the
223 doors opens for NUUG members at
16:
15, and everyone else at
16:
45. I
224 am really curious how many will show up. See
225 <a href=
"http://www.nuug.no/aktiviteter/20130301-rms/">the event
226 page
</a> for the location details.
</p>
232 Tags:
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english
</a>,
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/opphavsrett">opphavsrett
</a>,
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/personvern">personvern
</a>,
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet
</a>,
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance
</a>.
237 <div class=
"padding"></div>
241 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Frikart___Free_Garmin_maps_for_European_countries_based_on_OpenStreetmap.html">Frikart - Free Garmin maps for European countries based on OpenStreetmap
</a>
247 <p>If you, like me, want an updated a map for your Garmin GPS, there is
248 now a great source of free maps available from
249 <a href=
"http://www.frikart.no/garmin/index.html">Frikart
</a>. To
250 download a map, just click on the country you are interested in, and
251 download the map type you want. There are
8 different maps available,
252 using different colours and data selection. Pick one of Roadmap, Topo
253 Summer, Topo Winter, Roadmap II, Topo Summer II, Topo Winter II,
254 "Trails - overlay map" and "Cross country - overlay map" (see the web
255 page for descriptions).
</p>
257 <p>The maps are updated weekly, so if you find something wrong in the
258 map you can just edit the
259 <a href=
"http://www.openstreetmap.org/">OpenStreetmap
</a> map source
260 (anyone can contribute) and fetch a fixed map a week later. :)
</p>
266 Tags:
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english
</a>,
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/kart">kart
</a>.
271 <div class=
"padding"></div>
275 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/_Electronic__paper_invoices___using_vCard_in_a_QR_code.html">"Electronic" paper invoices - using vCard in a QR code
</a>
281 <p>Here in Norway, electronic invoices are spreading, and the
282 <a href=
"http://www.anskaffelser.no/e-handel/faktura">solution promoted
283 by the Norwegian government
</a> require that invoices are sent through
284 one of the approved facilitators, and it is not possible to send
285 electronic invoices without an agreement with one of these
286 facilitators. This seem like a needless limitation to be able to
287 transfer invoice information between buyers and sellers. My preferred
288 solution would be to just transfer the invoice information directly
289 between seller and buyer, for example using SMTP, or some HTTP based
290 protocol like REST or SOAP. But this might also be overkill, as the
291 "electronic" information can be transferred using paper invoices too,
292 using a simple bar code. My bar code encoding of choice would be QR
293 codes, as this encoding can be read by any smart phone out there. The
294 content of the code could be anything, but I would go with
295 <a href=
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VCard">the vCard format
</a>, as
296 it too is supported by a lot of computer equipment these days.
</p>
298 <p>The vCard format support extentions, and the invoice specific
299 information can be included using such extentions. For example an
300 invoice from SLX Debian Labs (picked because we
301 <a href=
"http://www.linuxiskolen.no/slxdebianlabs/donations.html">ask
302 for donations to the Debian Edu project
</a> and thus have bank account
303 information publicly available) for NOK
1000.00 could have these extra
308 X-INVOICE-AMOUNT:NOK1000.00
309 X-INVOICE-KID:
123412341234
310 X-INVOICE-MSG:Donation to Debian Edu
311 X-BANK-ACCOUNT-NUMBER:
16040884339
312 X-BANK-IBAN-NUMBER:NO8516040884339
313 X-BANK-SWIFT-NUMBER:DNBANOKKXXX
316 <p>The X-BANK-ACCOUNT-NUMBER field was proposed in a stackoverflow
318 <a href=
"http://stackoverflow.com/questions/10045664/storing-bank-account-in-vcard-file">how
319 to put bank account information into a vCard
</a>. For payments in
320 Norway, either X-INVOICE-KID (payment ID) or X-INVOICE-MSG could be
321 used to pass on information to the seller when paying the invoice.
</p>
323 <p>The complete vCard could look like this:
</p>
328 ORG:SLX Debian Labs Foundation
329 ADR;WORK:;;Gunnar Schjelderups vei
29D;OSLO;;
0485;Norway
330 URL;WORK:http://www.linuxiskolen.no/slxdebianlabs/
331 EMAIL;PREF;INTERNET:sdl-styret@rt.nuug.no
334 X-INVOICE-AMOUNT:NOK1000.00
335 X-INVOICE-MSG:Donation to Debian Edu
336 X-BANK-ACCOUNT-NUMBER:
16040884339
337 X-BANK-IBAN-NUMBER:NO8516040884339
338 X-BANK-SWIFT-NUMBER:DNBANOKKXXX
342 <p>The resulting QR code created using
343 <a href=
"http://fukuchi.org/works/qrencode/">qrencode
</a> would look
344 like this, and should be readable (and thus checkable) by any smart
345 phone, or for example the
<a href=
"http://zbar.sourceforge.net/">zbar
346 bar code reader
</a> and feed right into the approval and accounting
349 <p><img src=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-02-12-qr-invoice.png"></p>
351 <p>The extension fields will most likely not show up in any normal
352 vCard reader, so those parts would have to go directly into a system
353 handling invoices. I am a bit unsure how vCards without name parts
354 are handled, but a simple test indicate that this work just fine.
</p>
356 <p><strong>Update
2013-
02-
12 11:
30</strong>: Added KID to the proposal
357 based on feedback from Sturle Sunde.
</p>
363 Tags:
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english
</a>,
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/standard">standard
</a>.
368 <div class=
"padding"></div>
372 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Sleep_until_morning___home_automation_for_the_kids.html">Sleep until morning - home automation for the kids
</a>
378 <p><img align=
"left" style=
"margin-right:25px;" src=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-02-10-morning-light.jpeg"></p>
380 <p>With kids in the house, one challenge is getting them to sleep
381 during the night and wake up when it is morning. I mean, when I
382 believe it is morning, and not two hours earlier. In our household we
383 have decided that
07:
00 is the turning point, but getting the kids to
384 sleep until
07:
00 is a small challenge every day. They have adapted
385 quite well, and rarely wake up at
05:
00 any more, but some times wake
386 up at times like
05:
50,
06:
15,
06:
30 or
06:
45, and it is hard to put
387 the awake one to bed again without disturbing and waking the rest.
388 And I understand perfectly well that they fail to sleep until
07:
00
389 some times, as there is no way for them to know if it is before or
390 after the magic moment without coming and asking us parents.
</p>
392 <p>But yesterday I came up with a method to solve this problem. It
393 involve home automation. A few years ago I bought a
394 <a href=
"http://www.telldus.se/products/tellstick">Tellstick
</a> and RF
395 switches at the local
<a href=
"http://www.clasohlson.com/">Clas
396 Ohlson
</a> shop, allowing me to control lights and other electrical
397 gadgets using my Linux server. When I moved from the old flat to a
398 small house, I put away all this equipment as most of the lighting in
399 the house was not using wall sockets and thus not easy to connect to
400 the gadgets I had. But recently I bought a
401 <a href=
"http://www.telldus.se/products/tellstick_net">Tellstick
402 Net
</a> to be able to read sensor input as well as control power
403 sockets. I want to control ovens in the basement to avoid the pipes
404 to freeze, and monitor the humidity to detect flooding. The default
405 setup for Tellstick Net is to be controlled by the vendor web service,
406 which to me is a security problem, but it is also possible to build
408 <a href=
"http://developer.telldus.com/blog/2012/03/02/help-us-develop-local-access-using-tellstick-net-build-your-own-firmware">firmware
409 with local access
</A> instead of being controlled by a Swedish
410 company, thanks to the release of the GPL licensed firmware source
411 code. I plan to get that running before I let it control anything
412 important. But while working on this, one idea to make it easier for
413 the kids came to me yesterday. We can set up a night light controlled
414 by the computer, and turn it automatically on at
07:
00. The kids can
415 then check the light in the morning to know if they are supposed to
416 get up or not. They joined me in setting everything up, and I
417 repeated the concept several times before bed times to make sure they
418 remembered to check the light before getting up in the morning.
</p>
420 <p>We tested it this morning, and all the kids stayed in bed until
421 after
07:
00, and every one of them commented on the fact that the
422 "morning light" was turned on and signalled that the morning had
423 arrived. So this look like a success, and I am excited to see how
424 this develops the next few days. :) I really hope this can allow us
425 all to sleep a bit longer in the morning.
</p>
427 <p>A nice advantage of this setup is that we can remote control when
428 to tell the kids to get up. We do not have to wait until
07:
00, and
429 can also delay it if we want to.
</p>
435 Tags:
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english
</a>.
440 <div class=
"padding"></div>
444 <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>
451 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_backport_bitcoin_qt_version_0_7_2_2_to_Debian_Squeeze.html">last
452 bitcoin related blog post
</a> mentioned that the new
453 <a href=
"http://packages.qa.debian.org/bitcoin">bitcoin package
</a> for
454 Debian was waiting in NEW. It was accepted by the Debian ftp-masters
455 2013-
01-
19, and have been available in unstable since then. It was
456 automatically copied to Ubuntu, and is available in their Raring
459 <p>But there is a strange problem with the build that block this new
460 version from being available on the i386 and kfreebsd-i386
461 architectures. For some strange reason, the autobuilders in Debian
462 for these architectures fail to run the test suite on these
463 architectures (
<a href=
"http://bugs.debian.org/672524">BTS #
672524</a>).
464 We are so far unable to reproduce it when building it manually, and
465 no-one have been able to propose a fix. If you got an idea what is
466 failing, please let us know via the BTS.
</p>
468 <p>One feature that is annoying me with of the bitcoin client, because
469 I often run low on disk space, is the fact that the client will exit
470 if it run short on space (
<a href=
"http://bugs.debian.org/696715">BTS
471 #
696715</a>). So make sure you have enough disk space when you run
474 <p>As usual, if you use bitcoin and want to show your support of my
475 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
476 <b><a href=
"bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b&label=PetterReinholdtsenBlog">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b
</a></b>.
</p>
482 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>.
487 <div class=
"padding"></div>
491 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Welcome_to_the_world__Isenkram_.html">Welcome to the world, Isenkram!
</a>
498 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/First_prototype_ready_making_hardware_easier_to_use_in_Debian.html">asked
499 for testers
</a> for my prototype for making Debian better at handling
500 pluggable hardware devices, which I
501 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lets_make_hardware_dongles_easier_to_use_in_Debian.html">set
502 out to create
</a> earlier this month. Several valuable testers showed
503 up, and caused me to really want to to open up the development to more
504 people. But before I did this, I want to come up with a sensible name
505 for this project. Today I finally decided on a new name, and I have
506 renamed the project from hw-support-handler to this new name. In the
507 process, I moved the source to git and made it available as a
508 <a href=
"http://anonscm.debian.org/gitweb/?p=collab-maint/isenkram.git">collab-maint
</a>
509 repository in Debian. The new name? It is
<strong>Isenkram
</strong>.
510 To fetch and build the latest version of the source, use
</p>
513 git clone http://anonscm.debian.org/git/collab-maint/isenkram.git
514 cd isenkram && git-buildpackage -us -uc
517 <p>I have not yet adjusted all files to use the new name yet. If you
518 want to hack on the source or improve the package, please go ahead.
519 But please talk to me first on IRC or via email before you do major
520 changes, to make sure we do not step on each others toes. :)
</p>
522 <p>If you wonder what 'isenkram' is, it is a Norwegian word for iron
523 stuff, typically meaning tools, nails, screws, etc. Typical hardware
524 stuff, in other words. I've been told it is the Norwegian variant of
525 the German word eisenkram, for those that are familiar with that
528 <p><strong>Update
2013-
01-
26</strong>: Added -us -us to build
529 instructions, to avoid confusing people with an error from the signing
532 <p><strong>Update
2013-
01-
27</strong>: Switch to HTTP URL for the git
533 clone argument to avoid the need for authentication.
</p>
539 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>.
544 <div class=
"padding"></div>
548 <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>
554 <p>Early this month I set out to try to
555 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lets_make_hardware_dongles_easier_to_use_in_Debian.html">improve
556 the Debian support for pluggable hardware devices
</a>. Now my
557 prototype is working, and it is ready for a larger audience. To test
559 <a href=
"http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/">source
560 from the Debian Edu subversion repository
</a>, build and install the
561 package. You might have to log out and in again activate the
562 autostart script.
</p>
564 <p>The design is simple:
</p>
568 <li>Add desktop entry in /usr/share/autostart/ causing a program
569 hw-support-handlerd to start when the user log in.
</li>
571 <li>This program listen for kernel events about new hardware (directly
572 from the kernel like udev does), not using HAL dbus events as I
575 <li>When new hardware is inserted, look up the hardware modalias in
576 the APT database, a database
577 <a href=
"http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/modaliases?view=markup">available
578 via HTTP
</a> and a database available as part of the package.
</li>
580 <li>If a package is mapped to the hardware in question, the package
581 isn't installed yet and this is the first time the hardware was
582 plugged in, show a desktop notification suggesting to install the
583 package or packages.
</li>
585 <li>If the user click on the 'install package now' button, ask
586 aptdaemon via the PackageKit API to install the requrired package.
</li>
588 <li>aptdaemon ask for root password or sudo password, and install the
589 package while showing progress information in a window.
</li>
593 <p>I still need to come up with a better name for the system. Here
594 are some screen shots showing the prototype in action. First the
595 notification, then the password request, and finally the request to
596 approve all the dependencies. Sorry for the Norwegian Bokmål GUI.
</p>
598 <p><img src=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-01-21-hw-support-1-notification.png">
599 <br><img src=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-01-21-hw-support-2-password.png">
600 <br><img src=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-01-21-hw-support-3-dependencies.png">
601 <br><img src=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-01-21-hw-support-4-installing.png">
602 <br><img src=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-01-21-hw-support-5-installing-details.png" width=
"70%"></p>
604 <p>The prototype still need to be improved with longer timeouts, but
605 is already useful. The database of hardware to package mappings also
606 need more work. It is currently compatible with the Ubuntu way of
607 storing such information in the package control file, but could be
608 changed to use other formats instead or in addition to the current
609 method. I've dropped the use of discover for this mapping, as the
610 modalias approach is more flexible and easier to use on Linux as long
611 as the Linux kernel expose its modalias strings directly.
</p>
613 <p><strong>Update
2013-
01-
21 16:
50</strong>: Due to popular demand,
614 here is the command required to check out and build the source: Use
616 svn://svn.debian.org/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/; cd
617 hw-support-handler; debuild
</tt>'. If you lack debuild, install the
618 devscripts package.
</p>
620 <p><strong>Update
2013-
01-
23 12:
00</strong>: The project is now
621 renamed to Isenkram and the source moved from the Debian Edu
622 subversion repository to a Debian collab-maint git repository. See
623 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Welcome_to_the_world__Isenkram_.html">build
624 instructions
</a> for details.
</p>
630 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>.
635 <div class=
"padding"></div>
639 <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>
645 <p>This Christmas my trusty old laptop died. It died quietly and
646 suddenly in bed. With a quiet whimper, it went completely quiet and
647 black. The power button was no longer able to turn it on. It was a
648 IBM Thinkpad X41, and the best laptop I ever had. Better than both
649 Thinkpads X30, X31, X40, X60, X61 and X61S. Far better than the
650 Compaq I had before that. Now I need to find a replacement. To keep
651 going during Christmas, I moved the one year old SSD disk to my old
652 X40 where it fitted (only one I had left that could use it), but it is
653 not a durable solution.
655 <p>My laptop needs are fairly modest. This is my wishlist from when I
656 got a new one more than
10 years ago. It still holds true.:)
</p>
660 <li>Lightweight (around
1 kg) and small volume (preferably smaller
662 <li>Robust, it will be in my backpack every day.
</li>
663 <li>Three button mouse and a mouse pin instead of touch pad.
</li>
664 <li>Long battery life time. Preferable a week.
</li>
665 <li>Internal WIFI network card.
</li>
666 <li>Internal Twisted Pair network card.
</li>
667 <li>Some USB slots (
2-
3 is plenty)
</li>
668 <li>Good keyboard - similar to the Thinkpad.
</li>
669 <li>Video resolution at least
1024x768, with size around
12" (A4 paper
671 <li>Hardware supported by Debian Stable, ie the default kernel and
673 <li>Quiet, preferably fan free (or at least not using the fan most of
678 <p>You will notice that there are no RAM and CPU requirements in the
679 list. The reason is simply that the specifications on laptops the
680 last
10-
15 years have been sufficient for my needs, and I have to look
681 at other features to choose my laptop. But are there still made as
682 robust laptops as my X41? The Thinkpad X60/X61 proved to be less
683 robust, and Thinkpads seem to be heading in the wrong direction since
684 Lenovo took over. But I've been told that X220 and X1 Carbon might
687 <p>Perhaps I should rethink my needs, and look for a pad with an
688 external keyboard? I'll have to check the
689 <a href=
"http://www.linux-laptop.net/">Linux Laptops site
</a> for
690 well-supported laptops, or perhaps just buy one preinstalled from one
691 of the vendors listed on the
<a href=
"http://linuxpreloaded.com/">Linux
692 Pre-loaded site
</a>.
</p>
698 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>.
703 <div class=
"padding"></div>
707 <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>
713 <p>Some times I try to figure out which Iceweasel browser plugin to
714 install to get support for a given MIME type. Thanks to
715 <a href=
"https://wiki.ubuntu.com/MozillaTeam/Plugins">specifications
716 done by Ubuntu
</a> and Mozilla, it is possible to do this in Debian.
717 Unfortunately, not very many packages provide the needed meta
718 information, Anyway, here is a small script to look up all browser
719 plugin packages announcing ther MIME support using this specification:
</p>
725 def pkgs_handling_mimetype(mimetype):
730 version = pkg.candidate
732 version = pkg.installed
735 record = version.record
736 if not record.has_key('Npp-MimeType'):
738 mime_types = record['Npp-MimeType'].split(',')
740 t = t.rstrip().strip()
742 thepkgs.append(pkg.name)
744 mimetype = "audio/ogg"
745 if
1 < len(sys.argv):
746 mimetype = sys.argv[
1]
747 print "Browser plugin packages supporting %s:" % mimetype
748 for pkg in pkgs_handling_mimetype(mimetype):
752 <p>It can be used like this to look up a given MIME type:
</p>
755 % ./apt-find-browserplug-for-mimetype
756 Browser plugin packages supporting audio/ogg:
758 % ./apt-find-browserplug-for-mimetype application/x-shockwave-flash
759 Browser plugin packages supporting application/x-shockwave-flash:
764 <p>In Ubuntu this mechanism is combined with support in the browser
765 itself to query for plugins and propose to install the needed
766 packages. It would be great if Debian supported such feature too. Is
767 anyone working on adding it?
</p>
769 <p><strong>Update
2013-
01-
18 14:
20</strong>: The Debian BTS
770 request for icweasel support for this feature is
771 <a href=
"http://bugs.debian.org/484010">#
484010</a> from
2008 (and
772 <a href=
"http://bugs.debian.org/698426">#
698426</a> from today). Lack
773 of manpower and wish for a different design is the reason thus feature
774 is not yet in iceweasel from Debian.
</p>
780 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>.
785 <div class=
"padding"></div>
789 <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>
795 <p>The
<a href=
"http://wiki.debian.org/AppStreamDebianProposal">DEP-
11
796 proposal to add AppStream information to the Debian archive
</a>, is a
797 proposal to make it possible for a Desktop application to propose to
798 the user some package to install to gain support for a given MIME
799 type, font, library etc. that is currently missing. With such
800 mechanism in place, it would be possible for the desktop to
801 automatically propose and install leocad if some LDraw file is
802 downloaded by the browser.
</p>
804 <p>To get some idea about the current content of the archive, I decided
805 to write a simple program to extract all .desktop files from the
806 Debian archive and look up the claimed MIME support there. The result
808 <a href=
"http://ftp.skolelinux.org/pub/AppStreamTest">Skolelinux FTP
809 site
</a>. Using the collected information, it become possible to
810 answer the question in the title. Here are the
20 most supported MIME
811 types in Debian stable (Squeeze), testing (Wheezy) and unstable (Sid).
812 The complete list is available from the link above.
</p>
814 <p><strong>Debian Stable:
</strong></p>
818 ----- -----------------------
841 <p><strong>Debian Testing:
</strong></p>
845 ----- -----------------------
868 <p><strong>Debian Unstable:
</strong></p>
872 ----- -----------------------
895 <p>I am told that PackageKit can provide an API to access the kind of
896 information mentioned in DEP-
11. I have not yet had time to look at
897 it, but hope the PackageKit people in Debian are on top of these
900 <p><strong>Update
2013-
01-
16 13:
35</strong>: Updated numbers after
901 discovering a typo in my script.
</p>
907 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>.
912 <div class=
"padding"></div>
916 <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>
922 <p>Yesterday, I wrote about the
923 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Modalias_strings___a_practical_way_to_map__stuff__to_hardware.html">modalias
924 values provided by the Linux kernel
</a> following my hope for
925 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lets_make_hardware_dongles_easier_to_use_in_Debian.html">better
926 dongle support in Debian
</a>. Using this knowledge, I have tested how
927 modalias values attached to package names can be used to map packages
928 to hardware. This allow the system to look up and suggest relevant
929 packages when I plug in some new hardware into my machine, and replace
930 discover and discover-data as the database used to map hardware to
933 <p>I create a modaliases file with entries like the following,
934 containing package name, kernel module name (if relevant, otherwise
935 the package name) and globs matching the relevant hardware
939 Package: package-name
940 <br>Modaliases: module(modaliasglob, modaliasglob, modaliasglob)
</p>
943 <p>It is fairly trivial to write code to find the relevant packages
944 for a given modalias value using this file.
</p>
946 <p>An entry like this would suggest the video and picture application
947 cheese for many USB web cameras (interface bus class
0E01):
</p>
951 <br>Modaliases: cheese(usb:v*p*d*dc*dsc*dp*ic0Eisc01ip*)
</p>
954 <p>An entry like this would suggest the pcmciautils package when a
955 CardBus bridge (bus class
0607) PCI device is present:
</p>
959 <br>Modaliases: pcmciautils(pci:v*d*sv*sd*bc06sc07i*)
962 <p>An entry like this would suggest the package colorhug-client when
963 plugging in a ColorHug with USB IDs
04D8:F8DA:
</p>
966 Package: colorhug-client
967 <br>Modaliases: colorhug-client(usb:v04D8pF8DAd*)
</p>
970 <p>I believe the format is compatible with the format of the Packages
971 file in the Debian archive. Ubuntu already uses their Packages file
972 to store their mappings from packages to hardware.
</p>
974 <p>By adding a XB-Modaliases: header in debian/control, any .deb can
975 announce the hardware it support in a way my prototype understand.
976 This allow those publishing packages in an APT source outside the
977 Debian archive as well as those backporting packages to make sure the
978 hardware mapping are included in the package meta information. I've
979 tested such header in the pymissile package, and its modalias mapping
980 is working as it should with my prototype. It even made it to Ubuntu
983 <p>To test if it was possible to look up supported hardware using only
984 the shell tools available in the Debian installer, I wrote a shell
985 implementation of the lookup code. The idea is to create files for
986 each modalias and let the shell do the matching. Please check out and
988 <a href=
"http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/hw-support-lookup?view=co">hw-support-lookup
</a>
989 shell script. It run without any extra dependencies and fetch the
990 hardware mappings from the Debian archive and the subversion
991 repository where I currently work on my prototype.
</p>
993 <p>When I use it on a machine with a yubikey inserted, it suggest to
994 install yubikey-personalization:
</p>
997 % ./hw-support-lookup
998 <br>yubikey-personalization
1002 <p>When I run it on my Thinkpad X40 with a PCMCIA/CardBus slot, it
1003 propose to install the pcmciautils package:
</p>
1006 % ./hw-support-lookup
1011 <p>If you know of any hardware-package mapping that should be added to
1012 <a href=
"http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/modaliases?view=co">my
1013 database
</a>, please tell me about it.
</p>
1015 <p>It could be possible to generate several of the mappings between
1016 packages and hardware. One source would be to look at packages with
1017 kernel modules, ie packages with *.ko files in /lib/modules/, and
1018 extract their modalias information. Another would be to look at
1019 packages with udev rules, ie packages with files in
1020 /lib/udev/rules.d/, and extract their vendor/model information to
1021 generate a modalias matching rule. I have not tested any of these to
1024 <p>If you want to help implementing a system to let us propose what
1025 packages to install when new hardware is plugged into a Debian
1026 machine, please send me an email or talk to me on
1027 <a href=
"irc://irc.debian.org/%23debian-devel">#debian-devel
</a>.
</p>
1033 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>.
1038 <div class=
"padding"></div>
1042 <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>
1048 <p>While looking into how to look up Debian packages based on hardware
1049 information, to find the packages that support a given piece of
1050 hardware, I refreshed my memory regarding modalias values, and decided
1051 to document the details. Here are my findings so far, also available
1053 <a href=
"http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/">the
1054 Debian Edu subversion repository
</a>:
1056 <p><strong>Modalias decoded
</strong></p>
1058 <p>This document try to explain what the different types of modalias
1059 values stands for. It is in part based on information from
1060 <URL:
<a href=
"https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Modalias">https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Modalias
</a> >,
1061 <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> >,
1062 <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> > and
1063 <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> >.
1065 <p>The modalias entries for a given Linux machine can be found using
1066 this shell script:
</p>
1069 find /sys -name modalias -print0 | xargs -
0 cat | sort -u
1072 <p>The supported modalias globs for a given kernel module can be found
1076 % /sbin/modinfo psmouse | grep alias:
1077 alias: serio:ty05pr*id*ex*
1078 alias: serio:ty01pr*id*ex*
1082 <p><strong>PCI subtype
</strong></p>
1084 <p>A typical PCI entry can look like this. This is an Intel Host
1085 Bridge memory controller:
</p>
1088 pci:v00008086d00002770sv00001028sd000001ADbc06sc00i00
1091 <p>This represent these values:
</p>
1096 sv
00001028 (subvendor)
1097 sd
000001AD (subdevice)
1099 sc
00 (bus subclass)
1103 <p>The vendor/device values are the same values outputted from 'lspci
1104 -n' as
8086:
2770. The bus class/subclass is also shown by lspci as
1105 0600. The
0600 class is a host bridge. Other useful bus values are
1106 0300 (VGA compatible card) and
0200 (Ethernet controller).
</p>
1108 <p>Not sure how to figure out the interface value, nor what it
1111 <p><strong>USB subtype
</strong></p>
1113 <p>Some typical USB entries can look like this. This is an internal
1114 USB hub in a laptop:
</p>
1117 usb:v1D6Bp0001d0206dc09dsc00dp00ic09isc00ip00
1120 <p>Here is the values included in this alias:
</p>
1123 v
1D6B (device vendor)
1124 p
0001 (device product)
1126 dc
09 (device class)
1127 dsc
00 (device subclass)
1128 dp
00 (device protocol)
1129 ic
09 (interface class)
1130 isc
00 (interface subclass)
1131 ip
00 (interface protocol)
1134 <p>The
0900 device class/subclass means hub. Some times the relevant
1135 class is in the interface class section. For a simple USB web camera,
1136 these alias entries show up:
</p>
1139 usb:v0AC8p3420d5000dcEFdsc02dp01ic01isc01ip00
1140 <br>usb:v0AC8p3420d5000dcEFdsc02dp01ic01isc02ip00
1141 <br>usb:v0AC8p3420d5000dcEFdsc02dp01ic0Eisc01ip00
1142 <br>usb:v0AC8p3420d5000dcEFdsc02dp01ic0Eisc02ip00
1145 <p>Interface class
0E01 is video control,
0E02 is video streaming (aka
1146 camera),
0101 is audio control device and
0102 is audio streaming (aka
1147 microphone). Thus this is a camera with microphone included.
</p>
1149 <p><strong>ACPI subtype
</strong></p>
1151 <p>The ACPI type is used for several non-PCI/USB stuff. This is an IR
1152 receiver in a Thinkpad X40:
</p>
1155 acpi:IBM0071:PNP0511:
1158 <p>The values between the colons are IDs.
</p>
1160 <p><strong>DMI subtype
</strong></p>
1162 <p>The DMI table contain lots of information about the computer case
1163 and model. This is an entry for a IBM Thinkpad X40, fetched from
1164 /sys/devices/virtual/dmi/id/modalias:
</p>
1167 dmi:bvnIBM:bvr1UETB6WW(
1.66):bd06/
15/
2005:svnIBM:pn2371H4G:pvrThinkPadX40:rvnIBM:rn2371H4G:rvrNotAvailable:cvnIBM:ct10:cvrNotAvailable:
1170 <p>The values present are
</p>
1173 bvn IBM (BIOS vendor)
1174 bvr
1UETB
6WW(
1.66) (BIOS version)
1175 bd
06/
15/
2005 (BIOS date)
1176 svn IBM (system vendor)
1177 pn
2371H4G (product name)
1178 pvr ThinkPadX40 (product version)
1179 rvn IBM (board vendor)
1180 rn
2371H4G (board name)
1181 rvr NotAvailable (board version)
1182 cvn IBM (chassis vendor)
1183 ct
10 (chassis type)
1184 cvr NotAvailable (chassis version)
1187 <p>The chassis type
10 is Notebook. Other interesting values can be
1188 found in the dmidecode source:
</p>
1192 4 Low Profile Desktop
1205 17 Main Server Chassis
1206 18 Expansion Chassis
1208 20 Bus Expansion Chassis
1209 21 Peripheral Chassis
1211 23 Rack Mount Chassis
1220 <p>The chassis type values are not always accurately set in the DMI
1221 table. For example my home server is a tower, but the DMI modalias
1222 claim it is a desktop.
</p>
1224 <p><strong>SerIO subtype
</strong></p>
1226 <p>This type is used for PS/
2 mouse plugs. One example is from my
1230 serio:ty01pr00id00ex00
1233 <p>The values present are
</p>
1242 <p>This type is supported by the psmouse driver. I am not sure what
1243 the valid values are.
</p>
1245 <p><strong>Other subtypes
</strong></p>
1247 <p>There are heaps of other modalias subtypes according to
1248 file2alias.c. There is the rest of the list from that source: amba,
1249 ap, bcma, ccw, css, eisa, hid, i2c, ieee1394, input, ipack, isapnp,
1250 mdio, of, parisc, pcmcia, platform, scsi, sdio, spi, ssb, vio, virtio,
1251 vmbus, x86cpu and zorro. I did not spend time documenting all of
1252 these, as they do not seem relevant for my intended use with mapping
1253 hardware to packages when new stuff is inserted during run time.
</p>
1255 <p><strong>Looking up kernel modules using modalias values
</strong></p>
1257 <p>To check which kernel modules provide support for a given modalias,
1258 one can use the following shell script:
</p>
1261 for id in $(find /sys -name modalias -print0 | xargs -
0 cat | sort -u); do \
1263 /sbin/modprobe --show-depends "$id"|sed 's/^/ /' ; \
1267 <p>The output can look like this (only the first few entries as the
1268 list is very long on my test machine):
</p>
1272 insmod /lib/modules/
2.6.32-
5-
686/kernel/drivers/acpi/ac.ko
1274 FATAL: Module acpi:device: not found.
1276 insmod /lib/modules/
2.6.32-
5-
686/kernel/drivers/char/nvram.ko
1277 insmod /lib/modules/
2.6.32-
5-
686/kernel/drivers/leds/led-class.ko
1278 insmod /lib/modules/
2.6.32-
5-
686/kernel/net/rfkill/rfkill.ko
1279 insmod /lib/modules/
2.6.32-
5-
686/kernel/drivers/platform/x86/thinkpad_acpi.ko
1280 acpi:IBM0071:PNP0511:
1281 insmod /lib/modules/
2.6.32-
5-
686/kernel/lib/crc-ccitt.ko
1282 insmod /lib/modules/
2.6.32-
5-
686/kernel/net/irda/irda.ko
1283 insmod /lib/modules/
2.6.32-
5-
686/kernel/drivers/net/irda/nsc-ircc.ko
1287 <p>If you want to help implementing a system to let us propose what
1288 packages to install when new hardware is plugged into a Debian
1289 machine, please send me an email or talk to me on
1290 <a href=
"irc://irc.debian.org/%23debian-devel">#debian-devel
</a>.
</p>
1292 <p><strong>Update
2013-
01-
15:
</strong> Rewrite "cat $(find ...)" to
1293 "find ... -print0 | xargs -
0 cat" to make sure it handle directories
1294 in /sys/ with space in them.
</p>
1300 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>.
1305 <div class=
"padding"></div>
1309 <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>
1315 <p>As part of my investigation on how to improve the support in Debian
1316 for hardware dongles, I dug up my old Mark and Spencer USB Rocket
1317 Launcher and updated the Debian package
1318 <a href=
"http://packages.qa.debian.org/pymissile">pymissile
</a> to make
1319 sure udev will fix the device permissions when it is plugged in. I
1320 also added a "Modaliases" header to test it in the Debian archive and
1321 hopefully make the package be proposed by jockey in Ubuntu when a user
1322 plug in his rocket launcher. In the process I moved the source to a
1323 git repository under collab-maint, to make it easier for any DD to
1324 contribute.
<a href=
"http://code.google.com/p/pymissile/">Upstream
</a>
1325 is not very active, but the software still work for me even after five
1326 years of relative silence. The new git repository is not listed in
1327 the uploaded package yet, because I want to test the other changes a
1328 bit more before I upload the new version. If you want to check out
1329 the new version with a .desktop file included, visit the
1330 <a href=
"http://anonscm.debian.org/gitweb/?p=collab-maint/pymissile.git">gitweb
1331 view
</a> or use "
<tt>git clone
1332 git://anonscm.debian.org/collab-maint/pymissile.git
</tt>".</p>
1338 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>.
1343 <div class="padding
"></div>
1347 <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>
1353 <p>One thing that annoys me with Debian and Linux distributions in
1354 general, is that there is a great package management system with the
1355 ability to automatically install software packages by downloading them
1356 from the distribution mirrors, but no way to get it to automatically
1357 install the packages I need to use the hardware I plug into my
1358 machine. Even if the package to use it is easily available from the
1359 Linux distribution. When I plug in a LEGO Mindstorms NXT, it could
1360 suggest to automatically install the python-nxt, nbc and t2n packages
1361 I need to talk to it. When I plug in a Yubikey, it could propose the
1362 yubikey-personalization package. The information required to do this
1363 is available, but no-one have pulled all the pieces together.</p>
1365 <p>Some years ago, I proposed to
1366 <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/
2010/
05/msg01206.html
">use
1367 the discover subsystem to implement this</a>. The idea is fairly
1372 <li>Add a desktop entry in /usr/share/autostart/ pointing to a program
1373 starting when a user log in.</li>
1375 <li>Set this program up to listen for kernel events emitted when new
1376 hardware is inserted into the computer.</li>
1378 <li>When new hardware is inserted, look up the hardware ID in a
1379 database mapping to packages, and take note of any non-installed
1382 <li>Show a message to the user proposing to install the discovered
1383 package, and make it easy to install it.</li>
1387 <p>I am not sure what the best way to implement this is, but my
1388 initial idea was to use dbus events to discover new hardware, the
1389 discover database to find packages and
1390 <a href="http://www.packagekit.org/
">PackageKit</a> to install
1393 <p>Yesterday, I found time to try to implement this idea, and the
1394 draft package is now checked into
1395 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/
">the
1396 Debian Edu subversion repository</a>. In the process, I updated the
1397 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/d/discover-data.html
">discover-data</a>
1398 package to map the USB ids of LEGO Mindstorms and Yubikey devices to
1399 the relevant packages in Debian, and uploaded a new version
1400 2.2013.01.09 to unstable. I also discovered that the current
1401 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/d/discover.html
">discover</a>
1402 package in Debian no longer discovered any USB devices, because
1403 /proc/bus/usb/devices is no longer present. I ported it to use
1404 libusb as a fall back option to get it working. The fixed package
1405 version 2.1.2-6 is now in experimental (didn't upload it to unstable
1406 because of the freeze).</p>
1408 <p>With this prototype in place, I can insert my Yubikey, and get this
1409 desktop notification to show up (only once, the first time it is
1412 <p align="center
"><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/
2013-
01-
09-hw-autoinstall.png
"></p>
1414 <p>For this prototype to be really useful, some way to automatically
1415 install the proposed packages by pressing the "Please install
1416 program(s)" button should to be implemented.
</p>
1418 <p>If this idea seem useful to you, and you want to help make it
1419 happen, please help me update the discover-data database with mappings
1420 from hardware to Debian packages. Check if 'discover-pkginstall -l'
1421 list the package you would like to have installed when a given
1422 hardware device is inserted into your computer, and report bugs using
1423 reportbug if it isn't. Or, if you know of a better way to provide
1424 such mapping, please let me know.
</p>
1426 <p>This prototype need more work, and there are several questions that
1427 should be considered before it is ready for production use. Is dbus
1428 the correct way to detect new hardware? At the moment I look for HAL
1429 dbus events on the system bus, because that is the events I could see
1430 on my Debian Squeeze KDE desktop. Are there better events to use?
1431 How should the user be notified? Is the desktop notification
1432 mechanism the best option, or should the background daemon raise a
1433 popup instead? How should packages be installed? When should they
1434 not be installed?
</p>
1436 <p>If you want to help getting such feature implemented in Debian,
1437 please send me an email. :)
</p>
1443 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>.
1448 <div class=
"padding"></div>
1452 <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>
1458 <p>During Christmas, I have worked a bit on the Debian support for
1459 <a href=
"http://mindstorms.lego.com/en-us/Default.aspx">LEGO Mindstorm
1460 NXT
</a>. My son and I have played a bit with my NXT set, and I
1461 discovered I had to build all the tools myself because none were
1462 already in Debian Squeeze. If Debian support for LEGO is something
1463 you care about, please join me on the IRC channel
1464 <a href=
"irc://irc.debian.org/%23debian-lego">#debian-lego
</a> (server
1465 irc.debian.org). There is a lot that could be done to improve the
1466 Debian support for LEGO designers. For example both CAD software
1467 and Mindstorm compilers are missing. :)
</p>
1469 <p>Update
2012-
01-
03: A
1470 <a href=
"http://wiki.debian.org/LegoDesigners">project page
</a>
1471 including links to Lego related packages is now available.
</p>
1477 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>.
1482 <div class=
"padding"></div>
1486 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/A_Christmas_present_for_Skolelinux___Debian_Edu.html">A Christmas present for Skolelinux / Debian Edu
</a>
1492 <p>I was happy to discover a few days ago that the
1493 <a href=
"http://www.skolelinux.org/">Skolelinux / Debian Edu
</a>
1494 project also this year received a Christmas present from Another
1495 Agency in Trondheim. NOK
1000,- showed up on our donation account
1496 December
24th. I want to express our thanks for this very welcome
1497 present. As the Debian Edu / Skolelinux project is very short on
1498 funding these days, and thus lack the money to do regular developer
1499 gatherings, this donation was most welcome. One developer gathering
1500 cost around NOK
15 000,-, so we need quite a lot more to keep the
1501 development pace we want. Thus, I hope their example this year is
1502 followed by many others. :)
</p>
1504 <p>The public list of donors can be found on
1505 <a href=
"http://www.linuxiskolen.no/slxdebianlabs/donations.html">the
1506 donation page
</a> for the project, which also contain instructions if
1507 you want to donate to the project.
</p>
1513 Tags:
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu
</a>,
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english
</a>.
1518 <div class=
"padding"></div>
1522 <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>
1528 <p>Let me start by wishing you all marry Christmas and a happy new
1529 year! I hope next year will prove to be a good year.
</p>
1531 <p><a href=
"http://www.bitcoin.org/">Bitcoin
</a>, the digital
1532 decentralised "currency" that allow people to transfer bitcoins
1533 between each other with minimal overhead, is a very interesting
1534 experiment. And as I wrote a few days ago, the bitcoin situation in
1535 <a href=
"http://www.debian.org/">Debian
</a> is about to improve a bit.
1536 The
<a href=
"http://packages.qa.debian.org/bitcoin">new debian source
1537 package
</a> (version
0.7.2-
2) was uploaded yesterday, and is waiting
1538 in
<a href=
"http://ftp-master.debian.org/new.html">the NEW queue
</A>
1539 for one of the ftpmasters to approve the new bitcoin-qt package
1542 <p>And thanks to the great work of Jonas and the rest of the bitcoin
1543 team in Debian, you can easily test the package in Debian Squeeze
1544 using the following steps to get a set of working packages:
</p>
1547 git clone git://git.debian.org/git/collab-maint/bitcoin
1549 DEB_MAINTAINER_MODE=
1 DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS=noupnp fakeroot debian/rules clean
1550 DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS=noupnp git-buildpackage --git-ignore-new
1553 <p>You might have to install some build dependencies as well. The
1554 list of commands should give you two packages, bitcoind and
1555 bitcoin-qt, ready for use in a Squeeze environment. Note that the
1556 client will download the complete set of bitcoin "blocks", which need
1557 around
5.6 GiB of data on my machine at the moment. Make sure your
1558 ~/.bitcoin/ directory have lots of spare room if you want to download
1559 all the blocks. The client will warn if the disk is getting full, so
1560 there is not really a problem if you got too little room, but you will
1561 not be able to get all the features out of the client.
</p>
1563 <p>As usual, if you use bitcoin and want to show your support of my
1564 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
1565 <b><a href=
"bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b&label=PetterReinholdtsenBlog">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b
</a></b>.
</p>
1571 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>.
1576 <div class=
"padding"></div>
1580 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/A_word_on_bitcoin_support_in_Debian.html">A word on bitcoin support in Debian
</a>
1586 <p>It has been a while since I wrote about
1587 <a href=
"http://www.bitcoin.org/">bitcoin
</a>, the decentralised
1588 peer-to-peer based crypto-currency, and the reason is simply that I
1589 have been busy elsewhere. But two days ago, I started looking at the
1590 state of
<a href=
"http://packages.qa.debian.org/bitcoin">bitcoin in
1591 Debian
</a> again to try to recover my old bitcoin wallet. The package
1592 is now maintained by a
1593 <a href=
"https://alioth.debian.org/projects/pkg-bitcoin/">team of
1594 people
</a>, and the grunt work had already been done by this team. We
1595 owe a huge thank you to all these team members. :)
1596 But I was sad to discover that the bitcoin client is missing in
1597 Wheezy. It is only available in Sid (and an outdated client from
1598 backports). The client had several RC bugs registered in BTS blocking
1599 it from entering testing. To try to help the team and improve the
1600 situation, I spent some time providing patches and triaging the bug
1601 reports. I also had a look at the bitcoin package available from Matt
1603 <a href=
"https://launchpad.net/~bitcoin/+archive/bitcoin">PPA for
1604 Ubuntu
</a>, and moved the useful pieces from that version into the
1607 <p>After checking with the main package maintainer Jonas Smedegaard on
1608 IRC, I pushed several patches into the collab-maint git repository to
1609 improve the package. It now contains fixes for the RC issues (not from
1610 me, but fixed by Scott Howard), build rules for a Qt GUI client
1611 package, konqueror support for the bitcoin: URI and bash completion
1612 setup. As I work on Debian Squeeze, I also created
1613 <a href=
"http://lists.alioth.debian.org/pipermail/pkg-bitcoin-devel/Week-of-Mon-20121217/000041.html">a
1614 patch to backport
</a> the latest version. Jonas is going to look at
1615 it and try to integrate it into the git repository before uploading a
1616 new version to unstable.
1618 <p>I would very much like bitcoin to succeed, to get rid of the
1619 centralized control currently exercised in the monetary system. I
1620 find it completely unacceptable that the USA government is collecting
1621 transaction data for almost all international money transfers (most are done in USD and transaction logs shipped to the spooks), and
1622 that the major credit card companies can block legal money
1623 transactions to Wikileaks. But for bitcoin to succeed, more people
1624 need to use bitcoins, and more people need to accept bitcoins when
1625 they sell products and services. Improving the bitcoin support in
1626 Debian is a small step in the right direction, but not enough.
1627 Unfortunately the user experience when browsing the web and wanting to
1628 pay with bitcoin is still not very good. The bitcoin: URI is a step
1629 in the right direction, but need to work in most or every browser in
1630 use. Also the bitcoin-qt client is too heavy to fire up to do a
1631 quick transaction. I believe there are other clients available, but
1632 have not tested them.
</p>
1635 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Now_accepting_bitcoins___anonymous_and_distributed_p2p_crypto_money.html">experiment
1636 with bitcoins
</a> showed that at least some of my readers use bitcoin.
1637 I received
20.15 BTC so far on the address I provided in my blog two
1638 years ago, as can be
1639 <a href=
"http://blockexplorer.com/address/15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">seen
1640 on the blockexplorer service
</a>. Thank you everyone for your
1641 donation. The blockexplorer service demonstrates quite well that
1642 bitcoin is not quite anonymous and untracked. :) I wonder if the
1643 number of users have gone up since then. If you use bitcoin and want
1644 to show your support of my activity, please send Bitcoin donations to
1645 the same address as last time,
1646 <b><a href=
"bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b&label=PetterReinholdtsenBlog">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b
</a></b>.
</p>
1652 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>.
1657 <div class=
"padding"></div>
1661 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Ledger___double_entry_accounting_using_text_based_storage_format.html">Ledger - double-entry accounting using text based storage format
</a>
1667 <p>A few days ago I came across
1668 <a href=
"http://joeyh.name/blog/entry/hledger/">a blog post from Joey
1669 Hess
</a> describing
<a href=
"http://ledger-cli.org/">ledger
</a> and
1670 hledger, a text based system for double-entry accounting. I found it
1671 interesting, as I am involved with several organizations where
1672 accounting is an issue, and I have not really become too friendly with
1673 the different web based systems we use. I find it hard to find what I
1674 look for in the menus and even harder try to get sensible data out of
1675 the systems. Ledger seem different. The accounting data is kept in
1676 text files that can be stored in a version control system, and there
1678 are at least
<a href=
"https://github.com/ledger/ledger/wiki/Ports">five
1679 different implementations
</a> able to read the format. An example
1680 entry look like this, and is simple enough that it will be trivial to
1681 generate entries based on CVS files fetched from the bank:
</p>
1684 2004-
05-
27 Book Store
1685 Expenses:Books $
20.00
1689 <p>The concept seemed interesting enough for me to check it out and
1690 look for others using it. I found blog posts from
1691 <a href=
"http://blog.spang.cc/posts/hledger_rocks_my_world/">Christine
1693 <a href=
"http://bugsplat.info/2010-05-23-keeping-finances-with-ledger.html">Pete
1695 <a href=
"http://blog.andrewcantino.com/blog/2010/11/06/command-line-accounting-with-ledger-and-reckon/">Andrew
1697 <a href=
"http://blog.iphoting.com/blog/2012/11/29/command-line-double-entry-accounting/">Ronald
1698 Ip
</a> describing how they use it, as well as a post from
1699 <a href=
"https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups=#!topic/ledger-cli/r0oWjwbQ9Bo">Bradley
1700 M. Kuhn
</a> at the Software Freedom Conservancy. All seemed like good
1701 recommendations fitting my need.
</p>
1703 <p>The
<a href=
"http://packages.qa.debian.org/l/ledger.html">ledger
</a>
1704 package is available in Debian Squeeze, while the
1705 <a href=
"http://packages.qa.debian.org/h/haskell-hledger.html">hledger
</a>
1706 package only is available in Debian Sid. As I use Squeeze, ledger
1707 seemed the best choice to get started.
</p>
1709 <p>To get some real data to test on, I wrote a
1710 <a href=
"http://www.nuug.no/tools/lodo2ledger">web scraper
</a> for
1711 <a href=
"http://www.lodo.no/">LODO
</a>, the accounting system used by
1712 the
<a href=
"http://www.nuug.no/">NUUG
</a> association, and started to
1713 play with the data set. I'm not really deeply into accounting, but I
1714 am able to get a simple balance and accounting status for example
1715 using the "
<tt>ledger balance
</tt>" command. But I will have to
1716 gather more experience before I know if the ledger way is a good fit
1717 for the organisations I am involved in.</p>
1723 Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu
">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english
">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug
">nuug</a>.
1728 <div class="padding
"></div>
1732 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Scripting_the_Cerebrum_bofhd_user_administration_system_using_XML_RPC.html
">Scripting the Cerebrum/bofhd user administration system using XML-RPC</a>
1738 <p>Where I work at the <a href="http://www.uio.no/
">University of
1739 Oslo</a>, we use the
1740 <a href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/cerebrum/
">Cerebrum user
1741 administration system</a> to maintain users, groups, DNS, DHCP, etc.
1742 I've known since the system was written that the server is providing
1743 an <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XML-RPC
">XML-RPC</a> API, but
1744 I have never spent time to try to figure out how to use it, as we
1745 always use the bofh command line client at work. Until today. I want
1746 to script the updating of DNS and DHCP to make it easier to set up
1747 virtual machines. Here are a few notes on how to use it with
1750 <p>I started by looking at the source of the Java
1751 <a href="http://cerebrum.svn.sourceforge.net/viewvc/cerebrum/trunk/cerebrum/clients/jbofh/
">bofh
1752 client</a>, to figure out how it connected to the API server. I also
1753 googled for python examples on how to use XML-RPC, and found
1754 <a href="http://tldp.org/HOWTO/XML-RPC-HOWTO/xmlrpc-howto-python.html
">a
1755 simple example in</a> the XML-RPC howto.</p>
1757 <p>This simple example code show how to connect, get the list of
1758 commands (as a JSON dump), and how to get the information about the
1759 user currently logged in:</p>
1762 #!/usr/bin/env python
1765 server_url = 'https://cerebrum-uio.uio.no:8000';
1766 username = getpass.getuser()
1767 password = getpass.getpass()
1768 server = xmlrpclib.Server(server_url);
1769 #print server.get_commands(sessionid)
1770 sessionid = server.login(username, password)
1771 print server.run_command(sessionid, "user_info", username)
1772 result = server.logout(sessionid)
1776 <p>Armed with this knowledge I can now move forward and script the DNS
1777 and DHCP updates I wanted to do.
</p>
1783 Tags:
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english
</a>,
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sysadmin">sysadmin
</a>.
1788 <div class=
"padding"></div>
1792 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Why_isn_t_the_value_of_copyright_taxed_.html">Why isn't the value of copyright taxed?
</a>
1798 <p>While working on a
1799 <a href=
"https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/free-culture-lessig">Norwegian
1800 translation of the Free Culture by Lawrence Lessig
</a> (
76% done),
1801 which cover the problems with todays copyright law and how it stifles
1802 creativity, one idea occurred to me. The idea is to get the tax
1803 office to help make more works enter the public domain and also help
1804 make it easier to clear rights for using copyrighted works.
</p>
1806 <p>I mentioned this idea briefly during Yesterdays
1807 <a href=
"http://www.farmann.no/2012/11/14/john-perry-barlow-in-oslo-friday-nov-16
1808 -15-30-19-00/">presentation
1809 by John Perry Barlow
</a>, and concluded that it was best to put it
1810 in writing for a wider audience. The idea is not really based on the
1811 argument that copyrighted works are "intellectual property", as the
1812 core requirement is that copyrighted work have value for the copyright
1813 holder and the tax office like to collect their share from any value
1814 controlled by the citizens in a country. I'm sharing the idea here to
1815 let others consider it and perhaps shoot it down with a fresh set of
1818 <p>Most valuables are taxed by the government. At least here in
1819 Norway, the amount of money you have, the value of our land property,
1820 the value of your house, the value of your car, the value of our
1821 stocks and other valuables are all added together. If the tax value
1822 of these values exceed your debt, you have to pay the tax office some
1823 taxes for these values. And copyrighted work have value. It have
1824 value for the rights holder, who can earn money selling access to the
1825 work. But it is not included in the tax calculations? Why not?
</p>
1827 <p>If the government want to tax copyrighted works, it would want to
1828 maintain a database of all the copyrighted works and who are the
1829 rights holders for a given works, to be able to associate the works
1830 value to the right citizen or company for tax purposes. If such
1831 database exist, it will become a lot easier to find out who to talk to
1832 for clearing permissions to use a copyrighted work, which is a very
1833 hard operation with todays copyright law. To ensure that copyright
1834 holders keep the database up-to-date, it would have to become a
1835 requirement to be able to collect money for granting access to
1836 copyrighted works that the work is listed in the database with the
1837 correct right holder.
</p>
1839 <p>If copyright causes copyright holders to have to pay more taxes,
1840 they will have a small incentive to "disown" their copyright, and let
1841 the work enter the public domain. For works with several right holders
1842 one of the right holders could state (and get it registered in the
1843 database) that she do not need to be consulted when clearing rights to
1844 use the work in question and thus will not get any income from that
1845 work. Stating this would have to be impossible to revert and stop the
1846 tax office from adding the value of that work to the given citizens
1847 tax calculation. I assume the copyright law would stay the same,
1848 allowing creators to pick a license of their choosing, and also
1849 allowing them to put their work directly in the public domain. The
1850 existence of such database will make it even easier to clear rights,
1851 and if the right holders listed in the database is taxed, this system
1852 would increase the amount of works that enter the public domain.
</p>
1854 <p>The effect would be that the tax office help to make it easier to
1855 get rights to use the works that have not yet entered the public
1856 domain and help to get more work into the public domain and .
</p>
1858 <p>Why have such taxing not happened yet? I am sure the tax office
1859 would like to tax copyrighted work values if they could.
</p>
1865 Tags:
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english
</a>,
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freeculture">freeculture
</a>,
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/opphavsrett">opphavsrett
</a>.
1870 <div class=
"padding"></div>
1874 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__Angela_Fu_.html">Debian Edu interview: Angela Fuß
</a>
1880 <p>Here is another interview with one of the people in the
<a
1881 href=
"http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu and Skolelinux
</a>
1882 community. I am running short on people willing to be interviewed, so
1883 if you know about someone I should interview, Please send me an email.
1884 After asking for many months, I finally managed to lure another one of
1885 the people behind the German
1886 "
<a href=
"http://wiki.it-zukunft-schule.de/">IT-Zukunft Schule
</a>"
1887 project out from maternity leave to conduct an interview. Give a warm
1888 welcome to Angela Fuß. :)</p>
1890 <p><strong>Who are you, and how do you spend your days?</strong></p>
1892 <p>I am a 39-year-old woman living in the very north of Germany near
1893 Denmark. I live in a patchwork family with "my man" Mike Gabriel, my
1894 two daughters, Mikes daughter and Mikes and my rather newborn son.
1896 <p>At the moment - because of our little baby - I am spending most of
1897 the day by being a caring and organising mom for all the kids.
1898 Besides that I am really involved into and occupied with several inner
1899 growth processes: New born souls always bring the whole familiar
1900 system into movement and that needs time and focus ;-). We are also
1901 in the middle of buying a house and moving to it.
</p>
1903 <p>In
2013 I will work again in my job in a German foundation for
1904 nature conservation. I am doing public relation work there. Besides
1905 that - and that is the connection to Skolelinux / Debian Edu - I am
1906 working in our own school project "IT-Zukunft Schule" in North
1907 Germany. I am responsible for the quality assurance, the customer
1908 relationship management and the communication processes in the
1911 <p>Since
2001 I constantly have been training myself in communication
1912 and leadership. Besides that I am a forester, a landscaping gardener
1913 and a yoga teacher.
</p>
1915 <p><strong>How did you get in contact with the Skolelinux / Debian Edu
1916 project?
</strong></p>
1918 <p>I fell in love with Mike ;-).
</p>
1920 <p>Very soon after getting to know him I was completely enrolled into
1921 Free Software. At this time Mike did IT-services for one newly
1922 founded school in Kiel. Other schools in Kiel needed concepts for
1923 their IT environment. Often when Mike came home from working at the
1924 newly founded school I found myself listening to his complaints about
1925 several points where the communication with the schools head or the
1926 teachers did not work. So we were clear that he would not work for
1927 one more school if we did not set up a structure for communication
1928 between him, the schools head, the teachers, the students and the
1931 <p>Together with our friend and hardware supplier Andreas Buchholz we
1932 started to get an overview of free software solutions suitable for
1933 schools. One day before Christmas
2010 Mike and I had a date with Kurt
1934 Gramlich in Gütersloh. As Kurt and I are really interested in building
1935 networks of people and in being in communication we dived into
1936 Skolelinux and brought it to the first grammar schools in Northern
1939 <p>For information about our school project you can read
1940 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__Mike_Gabriel.html">the
1941 interview with Mike Gabriel
</a>.
</p>
1943 <p><strong>What do you see as the advantages of Skolelinux / Debian
1946 <p>First I have to say: I cannot answer this question technically. My
1947 answer comes rather from a social point of view.
</p>
1949 <p>The biggest advantage of Skolelinux / Debian Edu I see is the large
1950 and strong international community of Debian Developers in the
1951 background which is very alive and connected over mailinglists, blogs
1952 and meetings. My constant feeling for the Debian Community is: If
1953 something does not work they will somehow fix it. All is well
1954 ;-). This is of course a user experience. What I also get as a big
1955 advantage of Skolelinux / Debian Edu is that everybody who uses it and
1956 works with it can also contribute to it - that includes students,
1957 teachers, parents...
</p>
1959 <p><strong>What do you see as the disadvantages of Skolelinux / Debian
1962 <p>I will answer this question relating to the internal structure of
1963 Skolelinux / Debian Edu.
</p>
1965 <p>What I see as a major disadvantage is that there is a gap between
1966 the group of developers for Debian Edu and the people who make the
1967 marketing, that means the people that bring Skolelinux to the
1968 schools. There is a lack of communication between these two groups and
1969 I think that does not really work for Skolelinux / Debian Edu.
</p>
1971 <p>Further I appreciate that Skolelinux / Debian Edu is known as a
1972 do-ocracy. Nevertheless I keep asking myself if at some points a
1973 democracy or some kind of hierarchical project structure would be good
1974 and helpful. I am also missing some kind of contact between the
1975 Skolelinux / Debian Edu communities in Europe or on an international
1976 level. I think it would be good if there was more sharing between the
1977 different countries using Skolelinux / Debian Edu.
</p>
1979 <p><strong>Which free software do you use daily?
</strong></p>
1981 <p>On my laptop I am still using an Ubuntu
10.04 with a Gnome Desktop
1982 on. As applications I use Openoffice.org, Gedit, Firefox, Pidgin,
1983 LaTeX and GnuCash. For mails I am using Horde. And I am really fond of
1984 my N900 running with Maemo.
</p>
1986 <p><strong>Which strategy do you believe is the right one to use to
1987 get schools to use free software?
</strong></p>
1989 <p>I am really convinced that in our school project "IT-Zukunft
1990 Schule" we have developed (and keep developing) a great way to get
1991 schools to use Free Software. We have written a detailed concept for
1992 that so I cannot explain the whole thing here. But in a nutshell the
1993 strategy has three crucial pillars:
</p>
1997 <li>We really take time to get what sort of stories, questions and
1998 concerns the schools head and the teachers have about using different
1999 kinds of IT and we take time to enrol them into Free Software.
</li>
2001 <li>Our solution for schools is never just technical. In the centre
2002 are always the people who are going to use the software. From the very
2003 beginning of the planning for a school, we tell the schools head that
2004 they are paying us not only for a technical solution for their school,
2005 they also pay us for leading all the communication processes
2006 needed. If they do not want that, we are not working with them because
2007 we cannot give a guarantee for the quality of our work then.
</li>
2009 <li>Another focus lies in the training of teachers and students in
2010 co-administrating the IT-System at their school. They start getting in
2011 contact with the Skolelinux / Debian Edu community and they get the
2012 offer to become more and more independent from us.
</li>
2020 Tags:
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu
</a>,
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english
</a>,
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/intervju">intervju
</a>.
2025 <div class=
"padding"></div>
2029 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_European_Central_Bank__ECB__take_a_look_at_bitcoin.html">The European Central Bank (ECB) take a look at bitcoin
</a>
2035 <p>Slashdot just ran a story about the European Central Bank (ECB)
2036 <a href=
"http://www.ecb.europa.eu/pub/pdf/other/virtualcurrencyschemes201210en.pdf">releasing
2037 a report (PDF)
</a> about virtual currencies and
2038 <a href=
"http://www.bitcoin.org/">bitcoin
</a>. It is interesting to
2039 see how a member of the bitcoin community
2040 <a href=
"http://blog.bitinstant.com/blog/2012/10/30/the-ecb-report-on-bitcoin-and-virtual-currencies.html">receive
2041 the report
</a>. As for the future, I suspect the central banks and
2042 the governments will outlaw bitcoin if it gain any popularity, to avoid
2043 competition. My thoughts go to the
2044 <a href=
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wörgl">Wörgl experiment
</a> with
2045 negative inflation on cash which was such a success that it was
2046 terminated by the Austrian National Bank in
1933. A successful
2047 alternative would be a threat to the current money system and gain
2048 powerful forces to work against it.
</p>
2050 <p>While checking out the current status of bitcoin, I also discovered
2051 that the community already seem to have
2052 <a href=
"http://www.theverge.com/2012/8/27/3271637/bitcoin-savings-trust-pyramid-scheme-shuts-down">experienced
2053 its first pyramid game / Ponzi scheme
</a>. Not very surprising, given
2054 how members of "small" communities tend to trust each other. I guess
2055 enterprising crocks will try again and again, as they do anywhere
2056 wealth is available.
</p>
2062 Tags:
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bitcoin">bitcoin
</a>,
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english
</a>,
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/personvern">personvern
</a>,
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet
</a>.
2067 <div class=
"padding"></div>
2071 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/12_years_of_outages___summarised_by_Stuart_Kendrick.html">12 years of outages - summarised by Stuart Kendrick
</a>
2077 <p>I work at the
<a href=
"http://www.uio.no/">University of Oslo
</a>
2078 looking after the computers, mostly on the unix side, but in general
2079 all over the place. I am also a member (and currently leader) of
2080 <a href=
"http://www.nuug.no/">the NUUG association
</a>, which in turn
2081 make me a member of
<a href=
"http://www.usenix.org/">USENIX
</a>. NUUG
2082 is an member organisation for us in Norway interested in free
2083 software, open standards and unix like operating systems, and USENIX
2084 is a US based member organisation with similar targets. And thanks to
2085 these memberships, I get all issues of the great USENIX magazine
2086 <a href=
"https://www.usenix.org/publications/login">;login:
</a> in the
2087 mail several times a year. The magazine is great, and I read most of
2090 <p>In the last issue of the USENIX magazine ;login:, there is an
2091 article by
<a href=
"http://www.skendric.com/">Stuart Kendrick
</a> from
2092 Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center titled
2093 "
<a href=
"https://www.usenix.org/publications/login/october-2012-volume-37-number-5/what-takes-us-down">What
2094 Takes Us Down
</a>" (longer version also
2095 <a href="http://www.skendric.com/problem/incident-analysis/
2012-
06-
30/What-Takes-Us-Down.pdf
">available
2096 from his own site</a>), where he report what he found when he
2097 processed the outage reports (both planned and unplanned) from the
2098 last twelve years and classified them according to cause, time of day,
2099 etc etc. The article is a good read to get some empirical data on
2100 what kind of problems affect a data centre, but what really inspired
2101 me was the kind of reporting they had put in place since 2000.<p>
2103 <p>The centre set up a mailing list, and started to send fairly
2104 standardised messages to this list when a outage was planned or when
2105 it already occurred, to announce the plan and get feedback on the
2106 assumtions on scope and user impact. Here is the two example from the
2107 article: First the unplanned outage:
2110 Subject: Exchange 2003 Cluster Issues
2111 Severity: Critical (Unplanned)
2112 Start: Monday, May 7, 2012, 11:58
2113 End: Monday, May 7, 2012, 12:38
2114 Duration: 40 minutes
2115 Scope: Exchange 2003
2116 Description: The HTTPS service on the Exchange cluster crashed, triggering
2119 User Impact: During this period, all Exchange users were unable to
2120 access e-mail. Zimbra users were unaffected.
2124 Next the planned outage:
2127 Subject: H Building Switch Upgrades
2128 Severity: Major (Planned)
2129 Start: Saturday, June 16, 2012, 06:00
2130 End: Saturday, June 16, 2012, 16:00
2133 Description: Currently, Catalyst 4006s provide 10/100 Ethernet to end-
2134 stations. We will replace these with newer Catalyst
2136 User Impact: All users on H2 will be isolated from the network during
2137 this work. Afterward, they will have gigabit
2142 <p>He notes in his article that the date formats and other fields have
2143 been a bit too free form to make it easy to automatically process them
2144 into a database for further analysis, and I would have used ISO 8601
2145 dates myself to make it easier to process (in other words I would ask
2146 people to write '2012-06-16 06:00 +0000' instead of the start time
2147 format listed above). There are also other issues with the format
2148 that could be improved, read the article for the details.</p>
2150 <p>I find the idea of standardising outage messages seem to be such a
2151 good idea that I would like to get it implemented here at the
2152 university too. We do register
2153 <a href="http://www.uio.no/tjenester/it/aktuelt/planlagte-tjenesteavbrudd/
">planned
2154 changes and outages in a calendar</a>, and report the to a mailing
2155 list, but we do not do so in a structured format and there is not a
2156 report to the same location for unplanned outages. Perhaps something
2157 for other sites to consider too?</p>
2163 Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english
">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug
">nuug</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/standard
">standard</a>.
2168 <div class="padding
"></div>
2172 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Amazon_steal_books_from_customer_and_throw_out_her_out_without_any_explanation.html
">Amazon steal books from customer and throw out her out without any explanation</a>
2178 <p>A blog post from Martin Bekkelund today tell the story of
2179 <a href="http://www.bekkelund.net/
2012/
10/
22/outlawed-by-amazon-drm/
">how
2180 Amazon erased the books from a customer's kindle, locked the account
2181 and refuse to tell the customer why</a>. If a real book store did
2182 this to a customer, it would be called breaking into private property
2183 and theft. The story has spread around the net today. A bit more
2184 background information is available in Norwegian from
2185 <a href="http://www.digi.no/
904658/hun-ble-kastet-ut-av-amazon
">digi.no</a>.
2186 It is no surprise that digital restriction mechanisms (DRM) are used
2187 this way, as it has been warned about such abuse since DRM was
2188 introduced many years back. And Amazon proved in 2009 that it was
2190 <a href="http://boingboing.net/
2009/
07/
20/amazons-orwellian-de.html
">
2191 break into customers equipment and remove the books</a> people had
2192 bought, when it removed the book 1984 by George Orwell from all the
2193 customers who had bought it. From the official comments, it even
2195 <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/
2009/
07/
18/technology/companies/
18amazon.html
">Amazon
2196 would never do that again</a>. And here we are, three years
2199 <p>And thought this action is
2200 <a href="http://www.itavisen.no/
904648/forbrukerraadet-helt-haarreisende
">against
2201 Norwegian regulations and law</a>, it is according to the terms of use
2202 as written by Amazon, and it is hard to hold Amazon accountable to
2203 Norwegian laws. It is just yet another example of unacceptable terms
2204 of use on the web, and how they are used to remove customer
2207 <p>Luckily for electronic books, there are alternatives without
2208 unacceptable terms. For example
2209 <a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/
">Project Gutenberg</a> (about 40,000
2210 books), <a href="http://runeberg.org/
">Project Runenberg</a> (1,652
2211 books) and <a href="http://www.archive.org/details/texts
">The Internet
2212 Archive</a> (3,641,797 books) have heaps of books without DRM, which
2213 can read by anyone and shared with anyone.</p>
2215 <p>Update 2012-10-23: This story broke in the morning on Monday. In
2216 the evening after the story had spread all across the Internet, Amazon
2217 restored the account of the user, as reported by
2218 <a href="http://www.digi.no/
904675/helomvending-fra-amazon
">digi.no</a>
2219 and <a href="http://nrk.no/kultur-og-underholdning/
1.8368487">NRK</a>.
2220 Apparently public pressure work. The story from Martin have seen
2221 several twitter messages per minute the last 24 hours, which is quite
2222 a lot, and is still drawing a lot of attention. But even when the
2223 account is restored, the fundamental problem still exist. I recommend
2224 reading two opinions from
2225 <a href="http://blogs.computerworlduk.com/simon-says/
2012/
10/rights-you-have-no-right-to-your-ebooks/index.htm
">Simon
2227 <a href="http://blogs.computerworlduk.com/open-enterprise/
2012/
10/is-amazon-playing-fair/index.htm
">Glen
2228 Moody</a> if you want to learn more about the fundamentals and more
2229 details about the original story.</p>
2235 Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english
">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/opphavsrett
">opphavsrett</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/personvern
">personvern</a>.
2240 <div class="padding
"></div>
2244 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_fight_for_freedom_and_privacy.html
">The fight for freedom and privacy</a>
2250 <p>Civil liberties and privacy in the western world are going down the
2251 drain, and it is hard to fight against it. I try to do my best, but
2252 time is limited. I hope you do your best too. A few years ago I came
2253 across a marvellous drawing by
2254 <a href="http://www.claybennett.com/about.html
">Clay Bennett</a>
2255 visualising some of what is going on.
2257 <p><a href="http://www.claybennett.com/pages/security_fence.html
">
2258 <img src="http://www.claybennett.com/images/archivetoons/security_fence.jpg
"></a></p>
2261 «They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary
2262 safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.» - Benjamin Franklin
2265 <p>Do you feel safe at the airport? I do not. Do you feel safe when
2266 you see a surveillance camera? I do not. Do you feel safe when you
2267 leave electronic traces of your behaviour and opinions? I do not. I
2268 just remember <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panopticon
">the
2269 Panopticon</a>, and can not help to think that we are slowly
2270 transforming our society to a huge Panopticon on our own.</p>
2276 Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english
">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/personvern
">personvern</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet
">sikkerhet</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance
">surveillance</a>.
2281 <div class="padding
"></div>
2285 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/ColonHelp_produser_sue_WordPress_to_silence_critic.html
">ColonHelp produser sue WordPress to silence critic</a>
2291 <p>Thanks to a blog post by
2292 <a href="http://ramblingfoo.blogspot.no/
2012/
10/a-shitstorm-is-comming.html
">Eddy
2293 Petrișor</a>, I became aware of yet another "alternative medicine"
2294 company using legal intimidation tactics to scare off critics.
2295 According to the originating blog post about the detox "cure"
2296 <a href=
"http://insulaindoielii.wordpress.com/2012/10/11/colon-help-sues-wordpress/">ColonHelp
2297 and its producers Zenyth Pharmaceuticals actions
</a>, the producer
2298 sues Wordpress to get rid of the critical information. To check if
2299 the story was for real, I contacted Automattic, the company behind
2300 wordpress.com, and they reply was "We can confirm that Zenyth is
2301 seeking a court order against WordPress / Automattic. However, we
2302 don't believe the Terms of Service have been violated in this
2305 <p>The story seem to be simply that a blogger checked the scientific
2306 foundation for a popular health product in Rumania, ColonHelp, and
2307 reported that there was no reason at all to believe it improved the
2308 health of its users. This caused the company behind the product,
2309 Zenyth Pharmaceuticals, to use legal intimidation to try to silence
2310 the critic, instead of presenting its views and scientific foundation
2311 to argue its side.
</p>
2313 <p>This is the usual story, and the Zenyth Pharmaceuticals company
2314 deserve everyone to know how it failed to act properly. Lets hope the
2315 <a href=
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streisand_effect">Streisand
2316 effect
</a> can make it rethink its strategy.
</p>
2318 <p>What is the harm, you might think. I suggest you take a look at
2319 <a href=
"http://www.whatstheharm.net/detoxification.html">a list of
2320 victims of detoxification
</a>.
</p>
2326 Tags:
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english
</a>,
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/skepsis">skepsis
</a>.
2331 <div class=
"padding"></div>
2335 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Why_is_your_local_library_collecting_the__wrong__computer_books_.html">Why is your local library collecting the "wrong" computer books?
</a>
2341 <p>I just read the blog post from Tim Retout
2342 <a href=
"http://retout.co.uk/blog/2012/10/02/the-library-challenge">about
2343 the computer science book collection available in his local
2344 library
</a>, and just wanted to share my comment on his theory about
2345 computer books becoming obsolete so soon. That is part of the reason
2346 why the selection is so sad in almost any local library (it is in mine
2347 too), but I believe the major contributing factor is that the people
2348 buying books to the library have no way to know a good and future
2349 computer classic from trash. And they need to know which one will
2350 become a classic in the future, as they would normally buy one of the
2351 recently published books.
</p>
2353 <p>During my university years, I worked for a while at the university
2354 library, and even there the person in charge of buying computer
2355 related books (and in fact any natural science related book), did not
2356 know enough about computers to make a good educated guess. Once, just
2357 before Christmas, they had some leftover money on the book budget and
2358 I was asked if I could pick out a lot of computer books in the
2359 university book store, for the library to buy for their collection. I
2360 had a great time picking all the books I dreamt of buying and reading,
2361 and the books I knew were classics (like most of the
2362 <a href=
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W._Richard_Stevens">Stevens
2363 collection
</a>). I picked several of the generic O'Reilly books (ie
2364 documenting protocols, formats and systems, not specific versions of
2365 products) and stayed away from the 'teach yourself X in N days' class.
2366 I had a great time, and probably picked out more than a hundred books
2367 for the library that evening.
</p>
2369 <p>The sad fact is that there is no way a overworked librarian is
2370 going to know that for example
2371 <a href=
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Practice_of_Programming">The
2372 Practice of Programming
</a> is a must-have in any computer library,
2373 and they will most of the time end up picking the wrong books to buy.
2374 Perhaps you can help your local library make better choices by giving
2375 the suggestions for books to get? I know they would love to hear from
2376 you, even if their budget might block them from getting your favourite
2377 book right away.
</p>
2383 Tags:
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english
</a>.
2388 <div class=
"padding"></div>
2392 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Seventy_percent_done_with_Norwegian_docbook_version_of_Free_Culture.html">Seventy percent done with Norwegian docbook version of Free Culture
</a>
2398 <p>Since this summer, I have worked in my spare time on a Norwegian
<a
2399 href=
"http://www.docbook.org/">docbook
</a> version of the
2004 book
<a
2400 href=
"http://free-culture.cc/">Free Culture
</a> by Lawrence Lessig.
2401 The reason is that this book is a great primer on what problems exist
2402 in the current copyright laws, and I want it to be available also for
2403 those that are reluctant do read an English book.
2406 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Dugnad_for___sende_norsk_versjon_av_Free_Culture_til_stortingets_representanter_.html">called
2407 for volunteers
</a> to help me, but too few have volunteered so far,
2408 and progress is a bit slow. Anyway, today I broken the
70 percent
2409 mark for the first rough translation. At the moment, less than
700
2410 strings (paragraphs, index terms, titles) are left to translate. With
2411 my current progress of
10-
20 strings per day, it will take a while to
2412 complete the translation. This graph show the updated progress:
</p>
2414 <img width=
"80%" align=
"center" src=
"https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/free-culture-lessig/raw/master/progress.png">
2416 <p>Progress have slowed down lately due to family and work
2417 commitments. If you want to help, please get in touch, and check out
2418 the project files currently available from
2419 <a href=
"https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/free-culture-lessig">github
</a>.
</p>
2421 <p>If you are curious what the translated book currently look like,
2423 <a href=
"https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/free-culture-lessig/blob/master/archive/freeculture.nb.pdf?raw=true">PDF
</a>
2425 <a href=
"https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/free-culture-lessig/blob/master/archive/freeculture.nb.epub?raw=true">EPUB
</a>
2426 are published on github. The HTML version is published as well, but
2427 github hand it out with MIME type text/plain, confusing browsers, so I
2428 saw no point in linking to that version.
</p>
2434 Tags:
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/docbook">docbook
</a>,
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english
</a>,
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freeculture">freeculture
</a>.
2439 <div class=
"padding"></div>
2443 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__Giorgio_Pioda.html">Debian Edu interview: Giorgio Pioda
</a>
2449 <p>After a long break in my row of interviews with people in the
2450 <a href=
"http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu and Skolelinux
</a>
2451 community, I finally found time to wrap up another. This time it is
2452 Giorgio Pioda, which showed up on the mailing list at the start of
2453 this year, asking questions and inspiring us to improve the first time
2454 administrators experience with Skolelinux. :) The interview was
2455 conduced in May, but I only found time to publish it now.
</p>
2457 <p><strong>Who are you, and how do you spend your days?
</strong></p>
2459 <p>I have a PhD in chemistry but since several years I work as teacher
2460 in secondary (
15-
18 year old students) and tertiary (a kind of "light"
2461 university) schools. Five years ago I started to manage a Learning
2462 Management Service server and slowly I got more and more involved with
2463 IT.
3 years ago the graduating schools moved completely to Linux and I
2464 got the head of the IT for this. The experience collected in chemistry
2465 labs computers (for example NMR analysis of protein folding) and in
2466 the IT-courses during university where sufficient to start. Self
2467 training is anyway very important
</p>
2469 <p>I live in the Italian speaking part of Switzerland, and the
2470 <a href=
"http://www.spse.ch/">SPSE school
</a> (secondary) is a very
2471 special sport school for young people who try to became sport pro (for
2472 all sports, we have dozens of disciplines represented) and we are
2473 recognised by the Olympic Swiss Organisation.
2475 <p><strong>How did you get in contact with the Skolelinux/Debian Edu
2476 project?
</strong></p>
2478 <p>Looking for Linux / Primary Domain Controller (PDC) I found it
2479 already several years ago. But since the system was still not
2480 Kerberized and since our schools relies strongly on laptops I didn't
2481 use it. I plan to introduce it in the next future, probably for the
2482 next school year, since the squeeze release solved this security
2485 <p><strong>What do you see as the advantages of Skolelinux/Debian
2488 <p>Many. First of all there is a strong and living community that is
2489 very generous for help and hints. Chat help is crucial, together with
2490 the mailing list. Second. With Skolelinux you get an already well
2491 engineered platform and you don't have to start to build up your PDC
2492 and your clients from GNU/scratch; I've already done this once and I
2493 can tell it, it is hard. Third, since Skolelinux is a standard
2494 platform, it is way easier to educate other IT people and even if the
2495 head IT is sick another one could pick up the task without too much
2498 <p><strong>What do you see as the disadvantages of Skolelinux/Debian
2501 <p>The only real problem I see is that it is a little too less
2502 flexible at client level. Debian stable is rocky and desirable, but
2503 there are many reasons that force for another choice. For example the
2504 need of new drivers for new PC, or the need for a specific OS for some
2505 devices that have specific software packages for another specific
2506 distribution (I have such a case for whiteboards that have only
2507 Ubuntu packages). Thus, I prepared compatibility packages educlient
2508 and eduroaming, hoping not to use them ;-)
</p>
2510 <p><strong>Which free software do you use daily?
</strong></p>
2512 <p>I have a Debian Stable PDC at school (Kerberos, NIS, NFS) with
2513 mixed Debian and Ubuntu clients. If you think that this triad
2514 combination is exotic... well I discovered right yesterday that
2515 <a href=
"http://moo.nac.uci.edu/~hjm/Perceus-Report.html">Perceus
</a>
2518 <p>For myself I run Debian wheezy/sid, but this combination is good
2519 only I you have enough competence to fix stuff for yourself, if
2520 something breaks. Daily I use texmacs, gnumeric, a little bit of R
2521 statistics, kmplot, and less frequently OpenOffice.org.
</p>
2523 <p><strong>Which strategy do you believe is the right one to use to
2524 get schools to use free software?
</strong></p>
2526 <P>I think that the only real argument that school managers "hear" is
2527 cost reduction. They don't give too much weight on quality, stability,
2528 just because they are normally not open to change.
</p>
2530 <p>Students adapts very quickly to GNU/Linux (and for them being able
2531 to switch between different OS is a plus value); teachers and managers
2534 <p>We decided to move to Linux because students at our school have own
2535 laptop and we have the responsibility to keep the laptop ready to use;
2536 we were really unsatisfied with Microsoft since every Monday we had
20
2537 machine to fix for viral infections... With Linux this has been
2538 reduced to zero, since people installs almost only from official
2539 repositories. I think that our special needs brought us to Linux.
2540 Those who don't have such needs will hardly move to Linux.
</p>
2546 Tags:
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu
</a>,
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english
</a>,
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/intervju">intervju
</a>.
2551 <div class=
"padding"></div>
2555 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/IETF_activity_to_standardise_video_codec.html">IETF activity to standardise video codec
</a>
2562 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/IETF_standardize_its_first_multimedia_codec__Opus.html">Opus
2563 codec made
</a> it into
<a href=
"http://www.ietf.org/">IETF
</a> as
2564 <a href=
"http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc6716">RFC
6716</a>, I had a look
2565 to see if there is any activity in IETF to standardise a video codec
2566 too, and I was happy to discover that there is some activity in this
2567 area. A non-"working group" mailing list
2568 <a href=
"https://www.ietf.org/mailman/listinfo/video-codec">video-codec
</a>
2570 <a href=
"http://ietf.10.n7.nabble.com/New-Non-WG-Mailing-List-video-codec-Video-codec-BoF-discussion-list-td119548.html">created
2012-
08-
20</a>. It is intended to discuss the topic and if a
2571 formal working group should be formed.
</p>
2573 <p>I look forward to see how this plays out. There is already
2574 <a href=
"http://www.ietf.org/mail-archive/web/video-codec/current/msg00003.html">an
2575 email from someone
</a> in the MPEG group at ISO asking people to
2576 participate in the ISO group. Given how ISO failed with OOXML and given
2577 that it so far (as far as I can remember) only have produced
2578 multimedia formats requiring royalty payments, I suspect
2579 joining the ISO group would be a complete waste of time, but I am not
2580 involved in any codec work and my opinion will not matter much.
</p>
2582 <p>If one of my readers is involved with codec work, I hope she will
2583 join this work to standardise a royalty free video codec within
2590 Tags:
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english
</a>,
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/frikanalen">frikanalen
</a>,
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/multimedia">multimedia
</a>,
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/video">video
</a>.
2595 <div class=
"padding"></div>
2599 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/IETF_standardize_its_first_multimedia_codec__Opus.html">IETF standardize its first multimedia codec: Opus
</a>
2605 <p>Yesterday,
<a href=
"http://www.ietf.org/">IETF
</a> announced the
2607 <a href=
"http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc6716">RFC
6716, the Definition
2608 of the Opus Audio Codec
</a>, a low latency, variable bandwidth, codec
2609 intended for both VoIP, film and music. This is the first time, as
2610 far as I know, that IETF have standardized a multimedia codec. In
2611 <a href=
"http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc3533">RFC
3533</a>, IETF
2612 standardized the OGG container format, and it has proven to be a great
2613 royalty free container for audio, video and movies. I hope IETF will
2614 continue to standardize more royalty free codeces, after ISO and MPEG
2615 have proven incapable of securing everyone equal rights to publish
2616 multimedia content on the Internet.
</p>
2618 <p>IETF require two interoperating independent implementations to
2619 ratify a standard, and have so far ensured to only standardize royalty
2620 free specifications. Both are key factors to allow everyone (rich and
2621 poor), to compete on equal terms on the Internet.
</p>
2623 <p>Visit the
<a href=
"http://opus-codec.org/">Opus project page
</a> if
2624 you want to learn more about the solution.
</p>
2630 Tags:
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english
</a>,
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/frikanalen">frikanalen
</a>,
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/multimedia">multimedia
</a>,
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/video">video
</a>.
2635 <div class=
"padding"></div>
2639 <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>
2646 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Song_book_for_Computer_Scientists.html">mentioned
2647 this summer
</a>, I have created a Computer Science song book a few
2648 years ago, and today I finally found time to create a public
2649 <a href=
"https://gitorious.org/pere-cs-songbook/pere-cs-songbook">Gitorious
2650 repository for the project
</a>.
</p>
2652 <p>If you want to help out, please clone the source and submit patches
2653 to the HTML version. To generate the PDF and PostScript version,
2654 please use prince XML, or let me know about a useful free software
2655 processor capable of creating a good looking PDF from the HTML.
</p>
2657 <p>Want to sing? You can still find the song book in HTML, PDF and
2658 PostScript formats at
2659 <a href=
"http://www.hungry.com/~pere/cs-songbook/">Petter's Computer
2660 Science Songbook
</a>.
</p>
2666 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>.
2671 <div class=
"padding"></div>
2675 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Free_software_forced_Microsoft_to_open_Office__and_don_t_forget_Officeshots_.html">Free software forced Microsoft to open Office (and don't forget Officeshots)
</a>
2681 <p>I came across a great comment from Simon Phipps today, about how
2682 <a href=
"http://www.infoworld.com/d/open-source-software/how-microsoft-was-forced-open-office-200233">Microsoft
2683 have been forced to open Office
</a>, and it made me remember and
2684 revisit the great site
2685 <a href=
"http://www.officeshots.org/">officeshots
</a> which allow you
2686 to check out how different programs present the ODF file format. I
2687 recommend both to those of my readers interested in ODF. :)
</p>
2693 Tags:
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english
</a>,
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/standard">standard
</a>.
2698 <div class=
"padding"></div>
2702 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Half_way_there_with_translated_docbook_version_of_Free_Culture.html">Half way there with translated docbook version of Free Culture
</a>
2708 <p>In my spare time, I currently work on a Norwegian
2709 <a href=
"http://www.docbook.org/">docbook
</a> version of the
2004 book
2710 <a href=
"http://free-culture.cc/">Free Culture
</a> by Lawrence Lessig,
2711 to get a Norwegian text explaining the problems with the copyright law
2712 I can give to my parents and others that are reluctant to read an
2713 English book. It is a marvellous set of examples on how the ever
2714 expanding copyright regulations hurt culture and society. When the
2715 translation is done, I hope to find funding to print and ship a copy
2716 to all the members of the Norwegian parliament, before they sit down
2717 to debate the latest revisions to the Norwegian copyright law. This
2719 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Dugnad_for___sende_norsk_versjon_av_Free_Culture_til_stortingets_representanter_.html">called
2720 for volunteers
</a> to help me, and I have been able to secure the
2721 valuable contribution from at least one other Norwegian.
</p>
2723 <p>Two days ago, we finally broke the
50% mark. Then more than
50% of
2724 the number of strings to translate (normally paragraphs, but also
2725 titles and index entries are also counted). All parts from the
2726 beginning up to and including chapter four is translated. So is
2727 chapters six, seven and the conclusion. I created a graph to show the
2730 <img width=
"80%" align=
"center" src=
"https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/free-culture-lessig/raw/master/progress.png">
2732 <p>The number of strings to translate increase as I insert the index
2733 entries into the docbook. They were missing with the docbook version
2734 I initially started with. There are still quite a few index entries
2735 missing, but everyone starting with A, B, O, Z and Y are done. I
2736 currently focus on completing the index entries, to get a complete
2737 english version of the docbook source.
</p>
2739 <p>There is still need for translators and people with docbook
2740 knowledge, to be able to get a good looking book (I still struggle
2741 with dblatex, xmlto and docbook-xsl) as well as to do the draft
2742 translation and proof reading. And I would like the figures to be
2743 redrawn as SVGs to make it easy to translate them. Any SVG master
2744 around? I am sure there are some legal terms that are unfamiliar to
2745 me. If you want to help, please get in touch, and check out the
2746 project files currently available from
<a
2747 href=
"https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/free-culture-lessig">github
</a>.
</p>
2749 <p>If you are curious what the translated book currently look like,
2751 <a href=
"https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/free-culture-lessig/blob/master/archive/freeculture.nb.pdf?raw=true">PDF
</a>
2753 <a href=
"https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/free-culture-lessig/blob/master/archive/freeculture.nb.epub?raw=true">EPUB
</a>
2754 are published on github. The HTML version is published as well, but
2755 github hand it out with MIME type text/plain, confusing browsers, so I
2756 saw no point in linking to that version.
</p>
2762 Tags:
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/docbook">docbook
</a>,
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english
</a>,
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freeculture">freeculture
</a>.
2767 <div class=
"padding"></div>
2771 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Notes_on_language_codes_for_Norwegian_docbook_processing___.html">Notes on language codes for Norwegian docbook processing...
</a>
2777 <p>In
<a href=
"http://www.docbook.org/">docbook
</a> one can specify
2778 the language used at the top, and the processing pipeline will use
2779 this information to pick the correct translations for 'chapter', 'see
2780 also', 'index' etc. And for most languages used with docbook, I guess
2781 this work just fine. For example a German user can start the document
2782 with
<book
lang="de"
>, and the document will show up with the
2783 correct content with any of the docbook processors. This is not the
2784 case for the language
2785 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Free_Culture_in_Norwegian___5_chapters_done__74_percent_left_to_do.html">I
2786 am working with at the moment
</a>, Norwegian Bokmål.
</p>
2788 <p>For a while, I was confused about which language code to use,
2789 because I was unable to find any language code that would work across
2790 all tools. I am currently testing dblatex, xmlto, docbook-xsl, and
2791 dbtoepub, and they do not handle Norwegian Bokmål the same way. Some
2792 of them do not handle it at all.
</p>
2794 <p>A bit of background information is probably needed to understand
2795 this mess. Norwegian is not one, but two written variants. The
2796 variants are Norwegian Nynorsk and Norwegian Bokmål. There are three
2797 two letter language codes associated with these languages, Norwegian
2798 is 'no', Norwegian Nynorsk is 'nn' and Norwegian Bokmål is 'nb'.
2799 Historically the 'no' language code was used for Norwegian Bokmål, but
2800 many years ago this was found to be å bad idea, and the recommendation
2801 is to use the most specific language code instead, to avoid confusion.
2802 In the transition period it is a good idea to make sure 'no' was an
2805 <p>Back to docbook processing tools in Debian. The dblatex tool only
2806 understand 'nn'. There are translations for 'no', but not 'nb' (BTS
2807 <a href=
"http://bugs.debian.org/684391">#
684391</a>), but due to a bug
2808 (BTS
<a href=
"http://bugs.debian.org/682936">#
682936</a>) the 'no'
2809 language code is not recognised. The docbook-xsl tool chain only
2810 recognise 'nn' and 'nb', but not 'no'. The xmlto tool only recognise
2811 'nn' and 'nb', but not 'no'. The end result that there is no language
2812 code I can use to get the docbook file working with all of these tools
2813 at the same time. :(
</p>
2815 <p>The correct solution is to use
<book
lang="nb"
>, but it will
2816 take time before that will work with all the free software docbook
2819 <p>Oh, the joy of well integrated tools. :/
</p>
2825 Tags:
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/docbook">docbook
</a>,
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english
</a>,
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freeculture">freeculture
</a>.
2830 <div class=
"padding"></div>
2834 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Best_way_to_create_a_docbook_book_.html">Best way to create a docbook book?
</a>
2840 <p>I tried to send this text to the
2841 <a href=
"https://lists.oasis-open.org/archives/docbook-apps/">docbook-apps
2842 mailing list at lists.oasis-open.org
</a>, but it only accept messages
2843 from subscribers and rejected my post, and I completely lack the
2844 bandwidth required to subscribe to another mailing list, so instead I
2845 try to post my message here and hope my blog readers can help me
2848 <p>I am quite new to docbook processing, and am climbing a steep
2849 learning curve at the moment.
</p>
2851 <p>To give you some background, I am working on a Norwegian
2852 translation of the book Free Culture by Lawrence Lessig, and I use
2853 docbook to handle the process. The files to build the book are
2855 <a href=
"https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/free-culture-lessig">github
</a>.
2856 The book got around
400 pages with parts, images, footnotes, tables,
2857 index entries etc, which has proven to be a challenge for the free
2858 software docbook processors. My build platform is Debian GNU/Linux
2861 <p>I want to build PDF, EPUB and HTML version of the book, and have
2862 tried different tool chains to do the conversion from docbook to these
2863 formats. I am currently focusing on the PDF version, and have a few
2868 <li>Using dblatex, the
<part
> handling is not the way I want to,
2869 as
</part
> do not really end the
<part
>. (See
2870 <a href=
"http://bugs.debian.org/683166">BTS report #
683166</a>), the
2871 xetex backend (needed to process UTF-
8) give incorrect hyphens in
2872 index references spanning several pages (See
2873 <a href=
"http://bugs.debian.org/682901">BTS report #
682901</a>), and
2874 I am unable to get the norwegian template texts (See
2875 <a href=
"http://bugs.debian.org/682936">BTS report #
682936</a>).
</li>
2877 <li>Using straight xmlto fail with some latex error (See
2878 <a href=
"http://bugs.debian.org/683163">BTS report
2881 <li>Using xmlto with the fop backend fail to handle images (do not
2882 show up in the PDF), fail to handle a long footnote (overlap
2883 footnote and text body, see
2884 <a href=
"http://bugs.debian.org/683197">BTS report #
683197</a>), and
2885 fail to create a correct index (some lack page ref, and the page
2886 refs listed are not right).
</li>
2888 <li>Using xmlto with the dblatex backend behave like dblatex.
</li>
2890 <li>Using docbook-xls with xsltproc + fop have the same footnote and
2891 index problems the xmlto + fop processing.
</li>
2895 <p>So I wonder, what would be the best way to create the PDF version
2896 of this book? Are some of the bugs found above solved in new or
2897 experimental versions of some docbook tool chain?
</p>
2899 <p>What about HTML and EPUB versions?
</p>
2905 Tags:
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/docbook">docbook
</a>,
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english
</a>,
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freeculture">freeculture
</a>.
2910 <div class=
"padding"></div>
2914 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Free_Culture_in_Norwegian___5_chapters_done__74_percent_left_to_do.html">Free Culture in Norwegian -
5 chapters done,
74 percent left to do
</a>
2920 <p>I reported earlier that I am working on
2921 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Dugnad_for___sende_norsk_versjon_av_Free_Culture_til_stortingets_representanter_.html">a
2922 norwegian version
</a> of the book
2923 <a href=
"http://free-culture.cc/">Free Culture
</a> by Lawrence Lessig.
2924 Progress is good, and yesterday I got a major contribution from Anders
2925 Hagen Jarmund completing chapter six. The source files as well as a
2926 PDF and EPUB version of this book are available from
2927 <a href=
"https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/free-culture-lessig">github
</a>.
</p>
2929 <p>I am happy to report that the draft for the first two chapters
2930 (preface, introduction) is complete, and three other chapters are also
2931 completely translated. This completes
26 percent of the number of
2932 strings (equivalent to paragraphs) in the book, and there is thus
74
2933 percent left to translate. A graph of the progress is present at the
2934 bottom of the github project page. There is still room for more
2935 contributors. Get in touch or send github pull requests with fixes if
2936 you got time and are willing to help make this book make it to
2939 <p>The book translation framework could also be a good basis for other
2940 translations, if you want the book to be available in your
2947 Tags:
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/docbook">docbook
</a>,
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english
</a>,
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freeculture">freeculture
</a>,
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug
</a>,
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/opphavsrett">opphavsrett
</a>.
2952 <div class=
"padding"></div>
2956 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Call_for_help_from_docbook_expert_to_tag_Free_Culture_by_Lawrence_Lessig.html">Call for help from docbook expert to tag Free Culture by Lawrence Lessig
</a>
2962 <p>I am currently working on a
2963 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Dugnad_for___sende_norsk_versjon_av_Free_Culture_til_stortingets_representanter_.html">project
2964 to translate
</a> the book
2965 <a href=
"http://free-culture.cc/">Free Culture
</a> by Lawrence Lessig
2966 to Norwegian. And the source we base our translation on is the
2967 <a href=
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DocBook">docbook
</a> version, to
2968 allow us to use po4a and .po files to handle the translation, and for
2969 this to work well the docbook source document need to be properly
2970 tagged. The source files of this project is available from
2971 <a href=
"https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/free-culture-lessig">github
</a>.
</p>
2973 <p>The problem is that the docbook source have flaws, and we have
2974 no-one involved in the project that is a docbook expert. Is there a
2975 docbook expert somewhere that is interested in helping us create a
2976 well tagged docbook version of the book, and adjust our build process
2977 for the PDF, EPUB and HTML version of the book? This will provide a
2978 well tagged English version (our source document), and make it a lot
2979 easier for us to create a good Norwegian version. If you can and want
2980 to help, please get in touch with me or fork the github project and
2981 send pull requests with fixes. :)
</p>
2987 Tags:
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/docbook">docbook
</a>,
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english
</a>,
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freeculture">freeculture
</a>,
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug
</a>,
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/opphavsrett">opphavsrett
</a>.
2992 <div class=
"padding"></div>
2996 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__George_Bredberg.html">Debian Edu interview: George Bredberg
</a>
3002 <p>The
<a href=
"http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu /
3003 Skolelinux
</a> project have users all over the globe, but until
3004 recently we have not known about any users in Norway's neighbour
3005 country Sweden. This changed when George Bredberg showed up in March
3006 this year on the mailing list, asking interesting questions about how
3007 to adjust and scale the just released
3008 <a href=
"http://www.debian.org/News/2012/20120311.html">Debian Edu
3009 Wheezy
</a> setup to his liking. He granted me an interview, and I am
3010 happy to share his answers with you here.
</p>
3012 <p><strong>Who are you, and how do you spend your days?
</strong></p>
3014 <p>I'm a
44 year old country guy that have been working
12 years at
3015 the same school as
50% IT-manager and
50% Teacher. My educational
3016 background is fil.kand in history and religious beliefs, an exam as a
3017 "folkhighschool" teacher, that is, for teaching grownups. In
3018 Norwegian I believe it's called "Vuxenupplaring". I also have a master
3019 in "Technology and social change". So I'm not really a tech guy, I
3020 just like to study how humans and technology interact and that is my
3021 perspective when working with IT.
</p>
3023 <p><strong>How did you get in contact with the Skolelinux/Debian Edu
3024 project?
</strong></p>
3026 I have followed the Skolelinux project for quite some time by
3027 now. Earlier I tested out the K12-LTSP project, which we used for some
3028 time, but I really like the idea of having a distribution aimed to be
3029 a complete solution for schools with necessary tools integrated. When
3030 K12-LTSP abandoned that idea some years ago, I started to look more
3031 seriously into Skolelinux instead.
3033 <p><strong>What do you see as the advantages of Skolelinux/Debian
3036 The big point of Skolelinux to me is that it is a complete
3037 distribution, ready to install. It has LDAP-support, MS Windows
3038 integration tools and so forth already configured, saving an
3039 administrator a lot of time and headache. We were using another Linux
3040 based thin-client system called Thinlinc, that has served us very
3041 well. But that Skolelinux is based on VNC and LTSP, to me, is better
3042 when it comes to the kind of multimedia used in schools. That is
3043 showing videos from Youtube or educational TV. It is also easier to
3044 mix thin clients with workstations, since the user settings will be the
3045 same. In our VNC-based solution you had to "beat around the bush" by
3046 setting up a second, hidden, home-directory for user settings for the
3047 workstations, because they will be different from the ones used on the
3048 thin clients. Skolelinux support for diskless workstations are very
3049 convenient since a school today often need to use a class room
3050 projector showing videos in full screen. That is easily done with a
3051 small integrated media computer running as a diskless workstation. You
3052 have only two installs to update and configure. One for the thin
3053 clients and one for the workstations. Also saving a lot of time. Our
3054 old system was also based on Redhat and CentOS. They are both very
3055 nice distributions, but they are sometimes painfully slow when it
3056 comes to updating multimedia support and multimedia programs (even
3057 such as Gimp), leaving us with a bit "oldish" applications. Debian is
3060 <p><strong>What do you see as the disadvantages of Skolelinux/Debian
3063 <p>Debian is a bit too quick when it comes to updating. As an example
3064 we use old HP terminals as thinclients, and two times already this
3065 year (
2012) the updates you get from the repositories has stopped
3066 sound from working with them. It's a kernel/ALSA issue. So you have
3067 to be more careful properly testing the updates before you run them in
3068 a production environment. This has never happened with CentOS.
</p>
3070 <p>I also would like to be able to set my own domain-settings at
3071 install time. In Skolelinux they are kind of hard coded into the
3072 distribution, when it comes to LDAP and at least samba integration.
3073 That is more a cosmetic/translation issue, and not a real problem.
3074 Running MS Windows applications within the Skolelinux environment needs
3075 to be better supported. That is, running them seamlessly via RDP, and
3076 support for single-sign on. That will make the transition to free
3077 software easier, because you can keep the applications you really
3078 need. No support will make it impossible if you work in a school where
3079 some applications can't be open source. As for us we really need to
3080 run Adobe InDesign in our journalist classes. We run a journalist
3081 education, and is one of the very few non university ones that is ok:d
3082 by Svenska journalistförbundet (Swedish journalist association). Our
3083 education gives the pupils the right of membership there, once they
3084 are done. This is important if you want to get a job.
</p>
3086 <p>Adobe InDesign is the program most commonly used in newspapers and
3087 magazines. We used Quark Express before, but they seem to loose there
3088 market to Adobe. The only "equivalent" to InDesign in the opensource
3089 world is Scribus, and its not advanced enough. At least not according
3090 to the teacher. I think it would be possible to use it, because they
3091 are not supposed to learn a program, they are supposed to learn how to
3092 edit and compile a newspaper. But politically at our school we are not
3093 there yet. And Scribus lacks a lot of things you find i InDesign.
</p>
3095 <p>We used even a windows program for sound editing when it comes to
3096 the radio-journalist part. The year to come we are going to try
3097 Audacity. That software has the same kind of limitations compared to
3098 Adobe Audition, but that teacher is a bit more open minded. We have
3099 tried Ardour also, but that instead is more like a music studio
3100 program, not intended for the kind of editing taking place in a radio
3101 studio. Its way to complex and the GUI is to scattered when you only
3102 want to cut, make pass-overs, add extra channels and normalise. Those
3103 things you can do in Audacity, but its not as easy as in Audition. You
3104 have to do more things manually with envelopes, and that is a bit old
3105 fashion and timewasting. Its also harder to cut and move sound from
3106 one channel to another, which is a thing that you do frequently
3107 because you often find yourself needing to rearrange parts of the
3110 <p>So, I am not sure we will succeed in replacing even Audition, but we
3111 will try. The problem is the students have certain expectations when
3112 they start an education towards a profession. So the programs has to
3113 look and feel professional. Good thing with radio, there are many
3114 programs out there, that radio studios use, so its not as standardised
3115 as Newspaper editing. That means, it does not really matter what
3116 program they learn, because once they start working they still have to
3117 learn the program the studio uses, so instead focus has to be to learn
3118 the editing part without to much focus on a specific software.
</p>
3120 <p><strong>Which free software do you use daily?
</strong></p>
3122 <p>Myself I'm running Linux Mint, or Ubuntu these days. I use almost
3123 only open source software, and preferably Linux based. When it comes
3124 to most used applications its OpenOffice, and Firefox (of course ;)
3127 <p><strong>Which strategy do you believe is the right one to use to
3128 get schools to use free software?
</strong></p>
3130 <p>To get schools to use free software there has to be good open
3131 source software that are windows based, to ease the transition. But
3132 it's also very important that the multimedia support is working
3133 flawlessly. The problems with Youtube, Twitter, Facebook and whatever
3134 will create problems when it comes to both teachers and
3135 students. Economy are also important for schools, so using thin
3136 clients, as long as they have good multimedia support, is a very good
3137 idea. It's also important that the open source software works even for
3138 the administration. It's hard to convince the teachers to stick with
3139 open source, if the principal has to run Windows. It also creates a
3140 problem if some classes has to use Windows for there tasks, since that
3141 will create a difference in "status" between classes, so a good
3142 support for running windows applications via the thin client (Linux)
3143 desktop is essential. At least at our school, where we have mixed
3144 level of educations, from high-school to journalist-school.
</p>
3146 <p>Update
2012-
07-
09 08:
30: Paul Wise tipped me on IRC about three
3147 useful sources related to Free Software for radio stations: the LWN
3148 article
<a href=
"https://lwn.net/Articles/481607/">Radio station
3149 management with Airtime
</a>,
3150 <a href=
"http://www.sourcefabric.org/en/airtime/">Airtime
</a> which
3151 claim to be a Free open source radio automation software and
3152 <a href=
"http://www.rivendellaudio.org/">Rivendell
</a> which claim to
3153 be complete radio broadcast automation solution. All of them seem
3154 useful to the aspiring radio producer.
</p>
3160 Tags:
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu
</a>,
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english
</a>,
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/intervju">intervju
</a>.
3165 <div class=
"padding"></div>
3169 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Why_do_schools_waste_money_on_IT_.html">Why do schools waste money on IT?
</a>
3175 <p>In the Debian Edu / Skolelinux project, we have realised that one
3176 of the major blockers for the project success is the purchasing skills
3177 in schools and municipalities. We provide what the happy users of
3178 Debian Edu / Skolelinux say they need and to a lower cost than the
3179 alternatives, and yet so few schools decide to use our solution. I
3180 was pleased to discover the same observation done by mySociety and Tom
3181 Steinberg in his blog post
3182 "
<a href=
"http://www.mysociety.org/2012/06/19/can-you-recognize-the-million-pound-chair/">Can
3183 you recognize the million pound chair?
</a>". Read it and weep for the
3184 spending of your tax money.</p>
3186 <p>Of course there are other factors involved as well, like our
3187 projects bad marketing skills and the Linux community fragmentation
3188 causing worry with the people on the outside, so we as a project need
3189 to keep working hard to gain users, but it is a up-hill battle when
3190 public decision makers are unable to understand computer system
3197 Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu
">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english
">english</a>.
3202 <div class="padding
"></div>
3206 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Free_Timetabling_Software___nice_free_software.html
">Free Timetabling Software - nice free software</a>
3212 <p>Included in <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/
">Debian Edu /
3213 Skolelinux</a> is a large collection of end user and school specific
3214 software. It is one of the packages not installed by default but
3215 provided in the Debian archive for schools to install if they want to,
3216 is a system to automatically plan the school time table using
3217 information about available teachers, classes and rooms, combined with
3218 the list of required courses and how many hours each topic should
3219 receive. The software is
3221 <a href="http://lalescu.ro/liviu/fet/
">named FET</a>, and it provide a
3222 graphical user interface to input the required information, save the
3223 result in a fairly simple XML format, and generate time tables for
3224 both teachers and students. It is available both for
3225 <a href="http://lalescu.ro/liviu/fet/download.html
">Linux, MacOSX and
3228 <p>This is <a href="http://lalescu.ro/liviu/fet/features.html
">the
3229 feature list</a>, liftet from the project web site:</p>
3233 <li>FET is free software, licensed under the GNU GPL v2 or later.
3234 You can freely use, copy, modify and redistribute it </li>
3236 <li>Localized to en_US (US English, default), ar (Arabic), ca
3237 (Catalan), da (Danish), de (German), el (Greek), es (Spanish), fa
3238 (Persian), fr (French), gl (Galician), he (Hebrew), hu
3239 (Hungarian), id (Indonesian), it (Italian), lt (Lithuanian), mk
3240 (Macedonian), ms (Malay), nl (Dutch), pl (Polish), pt_BR
3241 (Brazilian Portuguese), ro (Romanian), ru (Russian), si (Sinhala),
3242 sk (Slovak), sr (Serbian), tr (Turkish), uk (Ukrainian), uz
3243 (Uzbek) and vi (Vietnamese) (incompletely for some languages)
3246 <li>Fully automatic generation algorithm, allowing also
3247 semi-automatic or manual allocation</li>
3249 <li>Platform independent implementation, allowing running on
3250 GNU/Linux, Windows, Mac and any system that Qt supports </li>
3252 <li>Flexible modular XML format for the input file, allowing editing
3253 with an XML editor or by hand (besides FET interface)</li>
3255 <li>Import/export from CSV format</li>
3257 <li>The resulted timetables are exported into HTML, XML and CSV
3260 <li>Flexible students structure, organized into sets: years, groups
3261 and subgroups. FET allows overlapping years and groups and
3262 non-overlapping subgroups. You can even define individual students
3263 (as separate sets)</li>
3265 <li>Each constraint has a weight percentage, from 0.0% to 100.0%
3266 (but some special constraints are allowed to have only 100% weight
3269 <li>Limits for the algorithm (all these limits can be increased on
3270 demand, as a custom version, because this would require a bit more
3273 <li>Maximum total number of hours (periods) per day: 60</li>
3274 <li>Maximum number of working days per week: 35</li>
3275 <li>Maximum total number of teachers: 6000</li>
3276 <li>Maximum total number of sets of students: 30000</li>
3277 <li>Maximum total number of subjects: 6000</li>
3278 <li>Virtually unlimited number of activity tags</li>
3279 <li>Maximum number of activities: 30000</li>
3280 <li>Maximum number of rooms: 6000</li>
3281 <li>Maximum number of buildings: 6000</li>
3282 <li>Possibility of adding multiple teachers and
3283 students sets for each activity. (it is possible
3284 also to have no teachers or no students sets for an
3286 <li>Virtually unlimited number of time constraints</li>
3287 <li>Virtually unlimited number of space constraints</li>
3290 <li>A large and flexible palette of time constraints:
3292 <li>Break periods</li>
3295 <li>Not available periods</li>
3296 <li>Max/min days per week</li>
3297 <li>Max gaps per day/week</li>
3298 <li>Max hours daily/continuously</li>
3299 <li>Min hours daily</li>
3300 <li>Max hours daily/continuously with an activity tag</li>
3302 <li>Respect working in an hourly interval a max number of
3305 <li>For students (sets):
3307 <li>Not available periods</li>
3308 <li>Begins early (specify max allowed beginnings at second hour)</li>
3309 <li>Max gaps per day/week</li>
3310 <li>Max hours daily/continuously</li>
3311 <li>Min hours daily</li>
3312 <li>Max hours daily/continuously with an activity tag</li>
3314 <li>Respect working in an hourly interval a max number of
3317 <li>For an activity or a set of activities/subactivities:
3319 <li>A single preferred starting time</li>
3320 <li>A set of preferred starting times</li>
3321 <li>A set of preferred time slots</li>
3322 <li>Min/max days between them</li>
3323 <li>End(s) students day</li>
3324 <li>Same starting time/day/hour</li>
3325 <li>Occupy max time slots from selection (a complex and
3326 flexible constraint, useful in many situations)</li>
3327 <li>Consecutive, ordered, grouped (for 2 or 3 (sub)activities)</li>
3328 <li>Not overlapping</li>
3329 <li>Max simultaneous in selected time slots</li>
3330 <li>Min gaps between a set of (sub)activities</li>
3334 <li>A large and flexible palette of space constraints:
3336 <li>Room not available periods</li>
3339 <li>Home room(s)</li>
3340 <li>Max building changes per day/week</li>
3341 <li>Min gaps between building changes</li>
3345 <li>For students (sets):
3347 <li>Home room(s)</li>
3348 <li>Max building changes per day/week</li>
3349 <li>Min gaps between building changes</li>
3352 <li>Preferred room(s):
3354 <li>For a subject</li>
3355 <li>For an activity tag</li>
3356 <li>For a subject and an activity tag</li>
3357 <li>Individually for a (sub)activity</li>
3361 <li>For a set of activities:
3363 <li>Occupy a maximum number of different rooms</li>
3370 <p>I have not used it myself, as I am not involved in time table
3371 planning at a school, but it seem to work fine when I test it. If you
3372 need to set up your schools time table, and is tired of doing it
3373 manually, check it out.
3375 A quick summary on how to use it can be found in
3376 <a href="http://marvelsoft.co.in/wp/
2012/
03/generate-timetable-for-state-cbse-icse-igcse-schools-free/
">a
3377 blog post from MarvelSoft</a>. If you find FET useful, please provide
3378 a recipe for the Debian Edu project in the
3379 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu#Howtos
">Debian Edu HowTo
3386 Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu
">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english
">english</a>.
3391 <div class="padding
"></div>
3395 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Can_Zimbra_be_told_to_send_autoreplies_to_the_From__address_.html
">Can Zimbra be told to send autoreplies to the From: address?</a>
3401 <p>In the NUUG <a href="http://www.fiksgatami.no/
">FiksGataMi</a>
3402 project (Norwegian version of
3403 <a href="http://www.fixmystreet.com/
">FixMyStreet</a> from
3404 <a href="http://www.mysociety.org/
">mySociety</a>), we have discovered
3405 a problem with the municipalities using
3406 <a href="http://www.zimbra.com/
">Zimbra</a>. When FiksGataMi send a
3407 problem report to the government, the email From: address is set to
3408 the address of the person reporting the problem, while envelope sender
3409 is set to the FiksGataMi contact address. The intention is to make
3410 sure the municipality send any replies to the person reporting the
3411 problem, while any email delivery problems are sent to us in NUUG.
3412 This work well in most cases, but not for Karmøy municipality using
3413 Zimbra. Karmøy is using the vacation message function in Zimbra to
3414 send an automatic reply to report that the message has been received,
3415 and this message is sent to the envelope sender and not the address in
3416 the From: header.</p>
3418 <p>This causes the automatic message from Karmøy to go to NUUGs
3419 request-tracker instance instead of to the person reporting the
3420 problem. We can not really change the envelope sender address, as
3421 this would make it impossible for us to discover when there are
3422 problems with the MTAs receiving problem reports. We have been in
3423 contact with the people at Karmøy municipality, and they are willing
3424 to adjust Zimbra if something can be changed there to get a better
3427 <p>The default behaviour of Zimbra is as far as I can tell according
3428 to the specification in RFC 3834, which recommend that vacation
3429 messages are sent to the envelope sender and not to the From: address.
3430 But I wonder if it is possible to adjust or configure Zimbra to behave
3431 differently. Anyone know? Please let us know at
3432 <a href="http://lists.nuug.no/mailman/listinfo/fiksgatami
">fiksgatami
3433 (at) nuug.no</a>.</p>
3439 Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english
">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/fiksgatami
">fiksgatami</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug
">nuug</a>.
3444 <div class="padding
"></div>
3448 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__Jos__Luis_Redrejo_Rodr_guez.html
">Debian Edu interview: José Luis Redrejo Rodríguez</a>
3454 <p>I've been too busy at home, but finally I found time to wrap up
3455 another interview with the people behind
3456 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/
">Debian Edu and Skolelinux</a>.
3457 This time we get to know José Luis Redrejo Rodríguez, one of our great
3458 helpers from Spain. His effort was the reason we added support for
3459 several desktop types (KDE, Gnome and most recently LXDE) in Debian
3460 Edu, and have all of these available in the recently published
3461 <a href="http://www.debian.org/News/
2012/
20120311.html
">Debian Edu
3462 Squeeze</a> version.</p>
3464 <p><strong>Who are you, and how do you spend your days?</strong></p>
3466 <p>I'm a father, teacher and engineer who is working for the Education
3467 ministry of the Region of Extremadura (Spain) in the implementation of
3470 <p><strong>How did you get in contact with the Skolelinux/Debian Edu
3471 project?</strong></p>
3473 <p>At 2006, I verified that both, we in Extremadura and Skolelinux
3474 project, had been working in parallel for some years, doing very
3475 similar things, using very similar tools and with similar targets, so
3476 I decided it was time to join forces as much as possible.</p>
3478 <p><strong>What do you see as the advantages of Skolelinux/Debian
3481 <p>A community of highly skilled experts working together, with a
3482 really open schema of collaboration and work. I really love the
3483 concepts of Do-ocracy and Merit-ocracy and the way these concepts are
3484 been used everyday inside Debian Edu.</p>
3486 <p><strong>What do you see as the disadvantages of Skolelinux/Debian
3489 <p>Sometimes the differences in the implementations, laws or
3490 economical and technical resources in the different countries don't
3491 allow us to agree in the same solution for all of us, and several
3492 approaches are needed, what is a waste of effort. Also, there is a
3493 lack of more man power to be able to follow the fast evolution of the
3494 technologies in school.</p>
3496 <p><strong>Which free software do you use daily?</strong></p>
3498 <p>Debian, of course, and due to my kind of job I am most of my time
3499 between Iceweasel, <a href="http://www.geany.org/
">Geany</a> and
3500 <a href="http://www.ohloh.net/p/gnome-terminator
">Terminator</a>.</p>
3502 <p><strong>Which strategy do you believe is the right one to use to
3503 get schools to use free software?</strong></p>
3505 <p>I think there is not a single strategy because there are very
3506 different scenarios: schools with mixed proprietary and free
3507 environments, schools using only workstations, other schools using
3508 laptops, netbooks, tablets, interactive white-boards, etc.</p>
3510 <p>Also the range of ages of the students is very broad and you can
3511 not use the same solutions for primary schools and secondary or even
3512 universities. So different strategies are needed.</p>
3514 <p>But, looking at these differences, and looking back to the things
3515 we've done and implemented, and the places were we have spent most of
3516 our forces, I think we should focus as much as possible in free
3517 multi-platform environments, using only standards tools, and moving
3518 more and more to Internet or network solutions that could be deployed
3519 using wireless. I think we'll see more and more personal devices in
3520 the schools, devices the students and teachers will take home with
3521 them, so the solutions must be able to be taken at home and continue
3528 Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu
">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english
">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/intervju
">intervju</a>.
3533 <div class="padding
"></div>
3537 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Song_book_for_Computer_Scientists.html
">Song book for Computer Scientists</a>
3543 <p>Many years ago, while studying Computer Science at the
3544 <a href="http://www.uit.no/
">University of Tromsø</a>, I started
3545 collecting computer related songs for use at parties. The original
3546 version was written in LaTeX, but a few years ago I got help from
3547 Håkon W. Lie, one of the inventors of W3C CSS, to convert it to HTML
3548 while keeping the ability to create a nice book in PDF format. I have
3549 not had time to maintain the book for a while now, and guess I should
3550 put it up on some public version control repository where others can
3551 help me extend and update the book. If anyone is volunteering to help
3552 me with this, send me an email. Also let me know if there are songs
3553 missing in my book.</p>
3555 <p>I have not mentioned the book on my blog so far, and it occured to
3556 me today that I really should let all my readers share the joys of
3557 singing out load about programming, computers and computer networks.
3558 Especially now that <a href="http://debconf12.debconf.org/
">Debconf
3559 12</a> is about to start (and I am not going). Want to sing? Check
3560 out <a href="http://www.hungry.com/~pere/cs-songbook/
">Petter's
3561 Computer Science Songbook</a>.
3567 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>.
3572 <div class="padding
"></div>
3576 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu___some_ideas_for_the_future_versions.html
">Debian Edu - some ideas for the future versions</a>
3582 <p>During my work on
3583 <a href="http://www.debian.org/News/
2012/
20120311.nb.html
">Debian Edu
3584 based on Squeeze</a>, I came across some issues that should be
3585 addressed in the Wheezy release. I finally found time to wrap up my
3586 notes and provide quick summary of what I found, with a bit
3591 <li>We need to rewrite our package installation framework, as tasksel
3592 changed from using tasksel tasks to using meta packages (aka packages
3593 with dependencies like our education-* packages), and our installation
3594 system depend on tasksel tasks in
3595 /usr/share/tasksel/debian-edu-tasks.desc for package
3598 <li>Enable Kerberos login for more services. Now with the Kerberos
3599 foundation in place, we should use it to get single sign on with more
3600 services, and avoiding unneeded password / login questions. We should
3601 at least try to enable it for these services:
3604 <li>CUPS for admins to add/configure printers and users when using
3606 <li>Nagios for admins checking the system status.</li>
3607 <li>GOsa for admins updating LDAP and users changing their passwords.</li>
3608 <li>LDAP for admins updating LDAP.</li>
3609 <li>Squid for users when exam mode / filtering is active.</li>
3610 <li>ssh for admins and users to save a password prompt.</li>
3614 <li>When we move GOsa to use Kerberos instead of LDAP bind to
3615 authenticate users, we should try to block or at least limit access to
3616 use LDAP bind for authentication, to ensure Kerberos is used when it
3617 is intended, and nothing fall back to using the less safe LDAP bind</li>
3619 <li>Merge debian-edu-config and debian-edu-install. The split made
3620 sense when d-e-install did a lot more, but these days it is just an
3621 inconvenience when we update the debconf preseeding values.</li>
3623 <li>Fix partman-auto to allow us to abort the installation before
3624 touching the disk if the disk is too small. This is
3625 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/
653305">BTS report #653305</a> and the
3626 d-i developers are fine with the patch and someone just need to apply
3627 it and upload. After this is done we need to adjust
3628 debian-edu-install to use this new hook.</li>
3630 <li>Adjust to new LTSP framework (boot time config instead of install
3631 time config). LTSP changed its design, and our hooks to install
3632 packages and update the configuration is most likely not going to work
3635 <li>Consider switching to NBD instead of NFS for LTSP root, to allow
3636 the Kernel to cache files in its normal file cache, possibly speeding
3637 up KDE login on slow networks.</li>
3639 <li>Make it possible to create expired user passwords that need to
3640 change on first login. This is useful when handing out password on
3641 paper, to make sure only the user know the password. This require
3642 fixes to the PAM handling of kdm and gdm.</li>
3644 <li>Make GUI for adding new machines automatically from sitesummary.
3645 The current command line script is not very friendly to people most
3646 familiar with GUIs. This should probably be integrated into GOsa to
3647 have it available where the admin will be looking for it..</li>
3649 <li>We should find way for Nagios to check that the DHCP service
3650 actually is working (as in handling out IP addresses). None of the
3651 Nagios checks I have found so far have been working for me.</li>
3653 <li>We should switch from libpam-nss-ldapd to sssd for all profiles
3654 using LDAP, and not only on for roaming workstations, to have less
3655 packages to configure and consistent setup across all profiles.</li>
3657 <li>We should configure Kerberos to update LDAP and Samba password
3658 when changing password using the Kerberos protocol. The hook was
3659 requested in <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/
588968">BTS report
3660 #588968</a> and is now available in Wheezy. We might need to write a
3661 MIT Kerberos plugin in C to get this.</li>
3663 <li>We should clean up the set of applications installed by default.
3666 <li>reduce the number of chemistry visualisers</li>
3667 <li>consider dropping xpaint</li>
3668 <li>and probably more?</li>
3671 <li>Some hardware need external firmware to work properly. This is
3672 mostly the case for WiFi network cards, but there are some other
3673 examples too. For popular laptops to work out of the box, such
3674 firmware need to be installed from non-free, and we should provide
3675 some GUI to do this. Ubuntu already have this implemented, and we
3676 could consider using their packages. At the moment we have some
3677 command line script to do this (one for the running system, another
3678 for the LTSP chroot).</li>
3681 <li>In Squeeze, we provide KDE, Gnome and LXDE as desktop options. We
3682 should extend the list to Xfce and Sugar, and preferably find a way to
3683 install several and allow the admin or the user to select which one to
3686 <li>The golearn tool from the goplay package make it easy to check out
3687 interesting educational packages. We should work on the package
3688 tagging in Debian to ensure it represent all the useful educational
3689 packages, and extend the tool to allow it to use packagekit to install
3690 new applications with a simple mouse click.</li>
3692 <li>The Squeeze version got half a exam solution already in place,
3693 with the introduction of iptable based network blocking, but for it to
3694 be a complete exam solution the Squid proxy need to enable
3695 filtering/blocking as well when the exam mode is enabled. We should
3696 implement a way to easily enable this for the schools that want it,
3697 instead of the "it is documented" method of today.
</li>
3699 <li>A feature used in several schools is the ability for a teacher to
3700 "take over" the desktop of individual or all computers in the room.
3701 There are at least three implementations,
3702 <a href=
"italc.sourceforge.net/">italc
</a>,
3703 <a href=
"http://www.itais.net/help/en/">controlaula
</a> og
3704 <a href=
"http://www.epoptes.org/">epoptes
</a> and we should pick one of
3705 them and make it trivial to set it up in a school. The challenges is
3706 how to distribute crypto keys and how to group computers in one room
3707 and how to set up which machine/user can control the machines in a
3710 <li>Tablets and surf boards are getting more and more popular, and we
3711 should look into providing a good solution for integrating these into
3712 the Debian Edu network. Not quite sure how. Perhaps we should
3713 provide a installation profile with better touch screen support for
3714 them, or add some sync services to allow them to exchange
3715 configuration and data with the central server. This should be
3720 <p>I guess we will discover more as we continue to work on the Wheezy
3727 Tags:
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu
</a>,
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english
</a>.
3732 <div class=
"padding"></div>
3736 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/TV_with_face_recognition__for_improved_viewer_experience.html">TV with face recognition, for improved viewer experience
</a>
3742 <p>Slashdot got a story about Intel planning a
3743 <a href=
"http://entertainment.slashdot.org/story/12/06/09/0012247/intel-to-launch-tv-service-with-facial-recognition-by-end-of-the-year">TV
3744 with face recognition
</a> to recognise the viewer, and it occurred to
3745 me that it would be more interesting to turn it around, and do face
3746 recognition on the TV image itself. It could let the viewer know who
3747 is present on the screen, and perhaps look up their credibility,
3748 company affiliation, previous appearances etc for the viewer to better
3749 evaluate what is being said and done. That would be a feature I would
3750 be willing to pay for.
</p>
3752 <p>I would not be willing to pay for a TV that point a camera on my
3753 household, like the big brother feature apparently proposed by Intel.
3754 It is the telescreen idea fetched straight out of the book
3755 <a href=
"http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks01/0100021.txt">1984 by George
3762 Tags:
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english
</a>,
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance
</a>.
3767 <div class=
"padding"></div>
3771 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Web_service_to_look_up_HP_and_Dell_computer_hardware_support_status.html">Web service to look up HP and Dell computer hardware support status
</a>
3778 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/SOAP_based_webservice_from_Dell_to_check_server_support_status.html">I
3779 reported how to get
</a> the support status out of Dell using an
3780 unofficial and undocumented SOAP API, which I since have found out was
3781 <a href=
"http://lists.us.dell.com/pipermail/linux-poweredge/2012-February/045959.html">discovered
3782 by Daniel De Marco in february
</a>. Combined with my web scraping
3783 code for HP, Dell and IBM
3784 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Checking_server_hardware_support_status_for_Dell__HP_and_IBM_servers.html">from
3785 2009</a>, I got inspired and wrote
3786 <a href=
"https://views.scraperwiki.com/run/computer-hardware-support-status/">a
3787 web service
</a> based on Scraperwiki to make it easy to look up the
3788 support status and get a machine readable result back.
</p>
3790 <p>This is what it look like at the moment when asking for the JSON
3794 % GET
<a href=
"https://views.scraperwiki.com/run/computer-hardware-support-status/?format=json&vendor=Dell&servicetag=2v1xwn1">https://views.scraperwiki.com/run/computer-hardware-support-status/?format=json&vendor=Dell&servicetag=
2v1xwn1
</a>
3795 supportstatus({"servicetag": "
2v1xwn1", "warrantyend": "
2013-
11-
24", "shipped": "
2010-
11-
24", "scrapestamputc": "
2012-
06-
06T20:
26:
56.965847", "scrapedurl": "http://
143.166.84.118/services/assetservice.asmx?WSDL", "vendor": "Dell", "productid": ""})
3799 <p>It currently support Dell and HP, and I am hoping for help to add
3800 support for other vendors. The python source is available on
3801 Scraperwiki and I welcome help with adding more features.
</p>
3807 Tags:
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english
</a>,
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug
</a>.
3812 <div class=
"padding"></div>
3816 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__Mike_Gabriel.html">Debian Edu interview: Mike Gabriel
</a>
3822 <p>Back in
2010, Mike Gabriel showed up on the
3823 <a href=
"http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu and Skolelinux
</a>
3824 mailing list. He quickly proved to be a valuable developer, and
3825 thanks to his tireless effort we now have Kerberos integrated into the
3826 <a href=
"http://www.debian.org/News/2012/20120311.html">Debian Edu
3827 Squeeze
</a> version.
</p>
3829 <p><strong>Who are you, and how do you spend your days?
</strong></p>
3831 <p>My name is Mike Gabriel, I am
38 years old and live near Kiel,
3832 Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. I live together with a wonderful partner
3833 (Angela Fuß) and two own children and two bonus children (contributed
3836 <p>During the day I am part-time employed as a system administrator
3837 and part-time working as an IT consultant. The consultancy work
3838 touches free software topics wherever and whenever possible. During
3839 the nights I am a free software developer. In the gaps I also train in
3840 becoming an osteopath.
</p>
3842 <p>Starting in
2010 we (Andreas Buchholz, Angela Fuß, Mike Gabriel)
3843 have set up a free software project in the area of Kiel that aims at
3844 introducing free software into schools. The project's name is
3845 "IT-Zukunft Schule" (IT future for schools). The project links IT
3846 skills with communication skills.
</p>
3848 <p><strong>How did you get in contact with the Skolelinux/Debian Edu
3849 project?
</strong></p>
3851 <p>While preparing our own customised Linux distribution for
3852 "IT-Zukunft Schule" we were repeatedly asked if we really wanted to
3853 reinvent the wheel. What schools really need is already available,
3854 people said. From this impulse we started evaluating other Linux
3855 distributions that target being used for school networks.
</p>
3857 <p>At the end we short-listed two approaches and compared them: a
3858 commercial Linux distribution developed by a company in Bremen,
3859 Germany, and Skolelinux / Debian Edu. Between
12/
2010 and
03/
2011 we
3860 went to several events and met people being responsible for marketing
3861 and development of either of the distributions. Skolelinux / Debian
3862 Edu was by far much more convincing compared to the other product that
3863 got short-listed beforehand--across the full spectrum. What was most
3864 attractive for me personally: the perspective of collaboration within
3865 the developmental branch of the Debian Edu project itself.
</p>
3867 <p>In parallel with this, we talked to many local and not-so-local
3868 people. People teaching at schools, headmasters, politicians, data
3869 protection experts, other IT professionals.
</p>
3871 <p>We came to two conclusions:
</p>
3873 <p>First, a technical conclusion: What schools need is available in
3874 bits and pieces here and there, and none of the solutions really fit
3875 by
100%. Any school we have seen has a very individual IT setup
3876 whereas most of each school's requirements could mapped by a standard
3877 IT solution. The requirement to this IT solution is flexibility and
3878 customisability, so that individual adaptations here and there are
3879 possible. In terms of re-distributing and rolling out such a
3880 standardised IT system for schools (a system that is still to some
3881 degree customisable) there is still a lot of work to do here
3882 locally. Debian Edu / Skolelinux has been our choice as the starting
3885 <p>Second, a holistic conclusion: What schools need does not exist at
3886 all (or we missed it so far). There are several technical solutions
3887 for handling IT at schools that tend to make a good impression. What
3888 has been missing completely here in Germany, though, is the enrolment
3889 of people into using IT and teaching with IT. "IT-Zukunft Schule"
3890 tries to provide an approach for this.
</p>
3892 <p>Only some schools have some sort of a media concept which explains,
3893 defines and gives guidance on how to use IT in class. Most schools in
3894 Northern Germany do not have an IT service provider, the school's IT
3895 equipment is managed by one or (if the school is lucky) two (admin)
3896 teachers, most of the workload these admin teachers get done in there
3899 <p>We were surprised that only a very few admin teachers were
3900 networked with colleagues from other schools. Basically, every school
3901 here around has its individual approach of providing IT equipment to
3902 teachers and students and the exchange of ideas has been quasi
3903 non-existent until
2010/
2011.
</p>
3905 <p>Quite some (non-admin) teachers try to avoid using IT technology in
3906 class as a learning medium completely. Several reasons for this
3907 avoidance do exist.
</p>
3909 <p>We discovered that no-one has ever taken a closer look at this
3910 social part of IT management in schools, so far. On our quest journey
3911 for a technical IT solution for schools, we discussed this issue with
3912 several teachers, headmasters, politicians, other IT professionals and
3913 they all confirmed: a holistic approach of considering IT management
3914 at schools, an approach that includes the people in place, will be new
3915 and probably a gain for all.
</p>
3917 <p><strong>What do you see as the advantages of Skolelinux/Debian
3920 <p>There is a list of advantages: international context, openness to
3921 any kind of contributions, do-ocracy policy, the closeness to Debian,
3922 the different installation scenarios possible (from stand-alone
3923 workstation to complex multi-server sites), the transparency within
3924 project communication, honest communication within the group of
3925 developers, etc.
</p>
3927 <p><strong>What do you see as the disadvantages of Skolelinux/Debian
3930 <p>Every coin has two sides:
</p>
3932 <p>Technically:
<a href=
"http://bugs.debian.org/311188">BTS issue
3933 #
311188</a>, tricky upgradability of a Debian Edu main server, network
3934 client installations on top of a plain vanilla Debian installation
3935 should become possible sometime in the near future, one could think
3936 about splitting the very complex package debian-edu-config into
3937 several portions (to make it easier for new developers to
3940 <p>Another issue I see is that we (as Debian Edu developers) should
3941 find out more about the network of people who do the marketing for
3942 Debian Edu / Skolelinux. There is a very active group in Germany
3943 promoting Skolelinux on the bigger Linux Days within Germany. Are
3944 there other groups like that in other countries? How can we bring
3945 these marketing people together (marketing group A with group B and
3946 all of them with the group of Debian Edu developers)? During the last
3947 meeting of the German Skolelinux group, I got the impression of people
3948 there being rather disconnected from the development department of
3949 Debian Edu / Skolelinux.
</p>
3951 <p><strong>Which free software do you use daily?
</strong></p>
3953 <p>For my daily business, I do not use commercial software at all.
</p>
3955 <p>For normal stuff I use Iceweasel/Firefox, Libreoffice.org. For
3956 serious text writing I prefer LaTeX. I use gimp, inkscape, scribus for
3957 more artistic tasks. I run virtual machines in KVM and Virtualbox.
</p>
3959 <p>I am one of the upstream developers of X2Go. In
2010 I started the
3960 development of a Python based X2Go Client, called PyHoca-GUI.
3961 PyHoca-GUI has brought forth a Python X2Go Client API that currently
3962 is being integrated in Ubuntu's software center.
</p>
3964 <p>For communications I have my own Kolab server running using Horde
3965 as web-based groupware client. For IRC I love to use irssi, for Jabber
3966 I have several clients that I use, mostly pidgin, though. I am also
3967 the Debian maintainer of Coccinella, a Jabber-based interactive
3970 <p>My favourite terminal emulator is KDE's Yakuake.
</p>
3972 <p><strong>Which strategy do you believe is the right one to use to
3973 get schools to use free software?
</strong></p>
3975 <p>Communicate, communicate, communicate. Enrol people, enrol people,
3982 Tags:
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu
</a>,
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english
</a>,
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/intervju">intervju
</a>.
3987 <div class=
"padding"></div>
3991 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/SOAP_based_webservice_from_Dell_to_check_server_support_status.html">SOAP based webservice from Dell to check server support status
</a>
3997 <p>A few years ago I wrote
3998 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Checking_server_hardware_support_status_for_Dell__HP_and_IBM_servers.html">how
3999 to extract support status
</a> for your Dell and HP servers. Recently
4000 I have learned from colleges here at the
4001 <a href=
"http://www.uio.no/">University of Oslo
</a> that Dell have
4002 made this even easier, by providing a SOAP based web service. Given
4003 the service tag, one can now query the Dell servers and get machine
4004 readable information about the support status. This perl code
4005 demonstrate how to do it:
</p>
4012 my $GUID = '
11111111-
1111-
1111-
1111-
111111111111';
4014 my $servicetag = $ARGV[
0] or die "Please supply a servicetag. $!\n";
4015 my ($deal, $latest, @dates);
4017 -
> uri('http://support.dell.com/WebServices/')
4018 -
> on_action( sub { join '', @_ } )
4019 -
> proxy('http://xserv.dell.com/services/assetservice.asmx')
4021 my $a = $s-
>GetAssetInformation(
4022 SOAP::Data-
>name('guid')-
>value($GUID)-
>type(''),
4023 SOAP::Data-
>name('applicationName')-
>value($App)-
>type(''),
4024 SOAP::Data-
>name('serviceTags')-
>value($servicetag)-
>type(''),
4026 print Dumper($a -
> result) ;
4029 <p>The output can look like this:
</p>
4035 'EntitlementData' =
> [
4037 'EntitlementType' =
> 'Expired',
4038 'EndDate' =
> '
2009-
07-
29T00:
00:
00',
4040 'StartDate' =
> '
2006-
07-
29T00:
00:
00',
4044 'EntitlementType' =
> 'Expired',
4045 'EndDate' =
> '
2009-
07-
29T00:
00:
00',
4047 'StartDate' =
> '
2006-
07-
29T00:
00:
00',
4051 'EntitlementType' =
> 'Expired',
4052 'EndDate' =
> '
2007-
07-
29T00:
00:
00',
4054 'StartDate' =
> '
2006-
07-
29T00:
00:
00',
4059 'AssetHeaderData' =
> {
4060 'SystemModel' =
> 'GX620',
4061 'ServiceTag' =
> '
8DSGD2J',
4062 'SystemShipDate' =
> '
2006-
07-
29T19:
00:
00-
05:
00',
4064 'Region' =
> 'Europe',
4065 'SystemID' =
> 'PLX_GX620',
4066 'SystemType' =
> 'OptiPlex'
4072 <p>I have not been able to find any documentation from Dell about this
4074 <a href=
"http://xserv.dell.com/services/assetservice.asmx?op=GetAssetInformation">inline
4075 documentation
</a>, and according to
4076 <a href=
"http://iboyd.net/index.php/2012/02/14/updated-dell-warranty-information-script/">one
4077 comment
</a> it can have stability issues, but it is a lot better than
4078 scraping HTML pages. :)
</p>
4080 <p>Wonder if HP and other server vendors have a similar service. If
4081 you know of one, drop me an email. :)
</p>
4087 Tags:
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english
</a>,
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug
</a>.
4092 <div class=
"padding"></div>
4096 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/First_monitor_calibration_using_ColorHug.html">First monitor calibration using ColorHug
</a>
4102 <p>A few days ago my color calibration gadget
4103 <a href=
"http://www.hughski.com/index.html">ColorHug
</a> arrived in the
4104 mail, and I've had a few days to test it. As all my machines are
4105 running Debian Squeeze, where
4106 <a href=
"http://packages.qa.debian.org/c/colorhug-client.html">the
4107 calibration software
</a> is missing (it is present in Wheezy and Sid),
4108 I ran the calibration using the Fedora based live CD. This worked
4109 just fine. So far I have only done the quick calibration. It was
4110 slow enough for me, so I will leave the more extensive calibration for
4113 <p>After calibration, I get a
4114 <a href=
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ICC_profile">ICC color
4115 profile
</a> file that can be passed to programs understanding such
4116 tools. KDE do not seem to understand it out of the box, so I searched
4117 for command line tools to use to load the color profile into X.
4118 xcalib was the first one I found, and it seem to work fine for single
4119 monitor setups. But for my video player, a laptop with a flat screen
4120 attached, it was unable to load the color profile for the correct
4121 monitor. After searching a bit, I
4122 <a href=
"http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1347896">discovered
</a>
4123 that the dispwin tool from the argyll package would do what I wanted,
4127 dispwin -d
1 profile.icc
4130 <p>later I had the color profile loaded for the correct monitor. The
4131 result was a bit more pink than I expected. I guess I picked the
4132 wrong monitor type for the "led" monitor I got, but the result is good
4139 Tags:
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english
</a>.
4144 <div class=
"padding"></div>
4148 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__Ralf_Gesellensetter.html">Debian Edu interview: Ralf Gesellensetter
</a>
4154 <p>In
2003, a German teacher showed up on the
4155 <a href=
"http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu and Skolelinux
</a>
4156 mailing list with interesting problems and reports proving he setting
4157 up Linux for a (for us at the time) lot of pupils. His name was Ralf
4158 Gesellensetter, and he has been an important tester and contributor
4159 since then, helping to make sure the
4160 <a href=
"http://www.debian.org/News/2012/20120311.html">Debian Edu
4161 Squeeze
</a> release became as good as it is..
</p>
4163 <p><strong>Who are you, and how do you spend your days?
</strong></p>
4165 <p>I am a teacher from Germany, and my subjects are Geography,
4166 Mathematics, and Computer Science ("Informatik"). During the past
12
4167 years (since
2000), I have been working for a comprehensive (and soon,
4168 also inclusive) school leading to all kind of general levels, such as
4169 O- or A-level ("Abitur"). For quite as long, I've been taking care of
4170 our computer network.
</p>
4172 <p>Now, in my early
40s, I enjoy the privilege of spending a lot of my
4173 spare time together with my wife, our son (
3 years) and our daughter
4176 <p><strong>How did you get in contact with the Skolelinux/Debian Edu
4177 project?
</strong></p>
4179 <p>We had tried different Linux based school servers, when members of
4180 my local Linux User Group (LUG OWL) detected Skolelinux. I remember
4181 very well, being part of a party celebrating the Linux New Media Award
4182 ("Best Newcomer Distribution", also nominated: Ubuntu) that was given
4183 to Skolelinux at Linux World Exposition in Frankfurt,
2005 (IIRC). Few
4184 months later, I had the chance to join a developer meeting in Ulsrud
4185 (Oslo) and to hand out the award to Knut Yrvin and others. For more
4186 than
7 years, Skolelinux is part of our schools infrastructure, namely
4187 our main server (tjener), one LTSP (today without thin clients), and
4188 approximately
50 work stations. Most of these have the option to boot a
4189 locally installed Skolelinux image. As a consequence, I joined quite
4190 a few events dealing with free software or Linux, and met many Debian
4191 (Edu) developers. All of them seemed quite nice and competent to me,
4192 one more reason to stick to Skolelinux.
</p>
4194 <p><strong>What do you see as the advantages of Skolelinux/Debian
4197 <p>Debian driven, you are given all the advantages of a community
4198 project including well maintained updates. Once, you are familiar with
4199 the network layout, you can easily roll out an entire educational
4200 computer infrastructure, from just one installation media. As only
4201 free software (FOSS) is used, that supports even elderly hardware,
4202 up-sizing your IT equipment is only limited by space (i.e. available
4203 labs). Especially if you run a LTSP thin client server, your
4204 administration costs tend towards zero.
</p>
4206 <p><strong>What do you see as the disadvantages of Skolelinux/Debian
4209 <p>While Debian's stability has loads of advantages for servers, this
4210 might be different in some cases for clients: Schools with unlimited
4211 budget might buy new hardware with components that are not yet
4212 supported by Debian stable, or wish to use more recent versions of
4213 office packages or desktop environments. These schools have the
4214 option to run Debian testing or other distributions - if they have the
4215 capacity to do so. Another issue is that Debian release cycles
4216 include a wide range of changes; therefor a high percentage of human
4217 power seems to be absorbed by just keeping the features of Skolelinux
4218 within the new setting of the version to come. During this process,
4219 the cogs of Debian Edu are getting more and more professional,
4220 i.e. harder to understand for novices.
</p>
4222 <p><strong>Which free software do you use daily?
</strong></p>
4224 <p>LibreOffice, Wikipedia, Openstreetmap, Iceweasel (Mozilla Firefox),
4225 KMail, Gimp, Inkscape - and of course the Linux Kernel (not only on
4226 PC, Laptop, Mobile, but also our SAT receiver)
</p>
4228 <p><strong>Which strategy do you believe is the right one to use to
4229 get schools to use free software?
</strong></p>
4233 <li>Support computer science as regular subject in schools to make
4234 people really "own" their hardware, to make them understand the
4235 difference between proprietary software products, and free software
4238 <li>Make budget baskets corresponding: In Germany's public schools
4239 there are more or less fixed budgets for IT equipment (including
4240 licenses), so schools won't benefit from any savings here. This
4241 privilege is left to private schools which have consequently a large
4242 share among German Skolelinux schools.
</li>
4244 <li>Get free software in the seminars where would-be teachers are
4245 trained. In many cases, teachers' software customs are respected by
4246 decision makers rather than the expertise of any IT experts.
</li>
4248 <li>Don't limit ourself to free software run natively. Everybody uses
4249 free software or free licenses (for instance Wikipedia), and this
4250 general concept should get expanded to free educational content to be
4251 shared world wide (school books e.g.).
</li>
4253 <li>Make clear where ever you can that the market share of free (libre)
4254 office suites is much above
20 p.c. today, and that you pupils don't
4255 need to know the "ribbon menu" in order to get employed.
</li>
4257 <li>Talk about the difference between freeware and free software.
</li>
4259 <li>Spread free software, or even collections of portable free apps
4260 for USB pen drives. Endorse students to get a legal copy of
4261 Libreoffice rather than accepting them to use illegal serials. And
4262 keep sending documents in ODF formats.
</li>
4270 Tags:
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu
</a>,
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english
</a>,
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/intervju">intervju
</a>.
4275 <div class=
"padding"></div>
4279 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_cost_of_ODF_and_OOXML.html">The cost of ODF and OOXML
</a>
4285 <p>I just come across a blog post from Glyn Moody reporting the
4286 claimed cost from Microsoft on requiring ODF to be used by the UK
4287 government. I just sent him an email to let him know that his
4288 assumption are most likely wrong. Sharing it here in case some of my
4289 blog readers have seem the same numbers float around in the UK.
</p>
4291 <p><blockquote> <p>Hi. I just noted your
4292 <a href=
"http://blogs.computerworlduk.com/open-enterprise/2012/04/does-microsoft-office-lock-in-cost-the-uk-government-500-million/index.htm">http://blogs.computerworlduk.com/open-enterprise/
2012/
04/does-microsoft-office-lock-in-cost-the-uk-government-
500-million/index.htm
</a>
4295 <p><blockquote>"They're all in Danish, not unreasonably, but even
4296 with the help of Google Translate I can't find any figures about the
4297 savings of "moving to a flexible two standard
" as claimed by the
4298 Microsoft email. But I assume it is backed up somewhere, so let's take
4299 it, and the £500 million figure for the UK, on trust."
4302 <p>I can tell you that the Danish reports are inflated. I believe it is
4303 the same reports that were used in the Norwegian debate around
2007,
4304 and Gisle Hannemyr (a well known IT commentator in Norway) had a look
4305 at the content. In short, the reason it is claimed that using ODF
4306 will be so costly, is based on the assumption that this mean every
4307 existing document need to be converted from one of the MS Office
4308 formats to ODF, transferred to the receiver, and converted back from
4309 ODF to one of the MS Office formats, and that the conversion will cost
4310 10 minutes of work time for both the sender and the receiver. In
4311 reality the sender would have a tool capable of saving to ODF, and the
4312 receiver would have a tool capable of reading it, and the time spent
4313 would at most be a few seconds for saving and loading, not
20 minutes
4314 of wasted effort.
</p>
4316 <p>Microsoft claimed all these costs were saved by allowing people to
4317 transfer the original files from MS Office instead of spending
10
4318 minutes converting to ODF. :)
</p>
4321 <a href=
"http://hannemyr.com/no/ms12_vl02.php">http://hannemyr.com/no/ms12_vl02.php
</a>
4323 <a href=
"http://hannemyr.com/no/ms12.php">http://hannemyr.com/no/ms12.php
</a>
4324 for background information. Norwegian only, sorry. :)
</p>
4331 Tags:
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english
</a>,
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug
</a>,
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/standard">standard
</a>.
4336 <div class=
"padding"></div>
4340 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/ColorHug___USB_and_free_software_based_screen_color_calibration.html">ColorHug - USB and free software based screen color calibration
</a>
4347 <a href=
"http://blog.cihar.com/archives/2012/01/17/colorhug-has-arrived/">discovered
4348 the ColorHug
</a>, a USB dongle from
4349 <a href=
"http://www.hughski.com/index.html">Hughski
</a> to calibrate
4350 the color on a computer screen. The software required is
4351 <a href=
"http://packages.qa.debian.org/c/colorhug-client.html">included
4352 in Debian
</a>, and I decided back then to preorder from the next
4353 batch. Yesterday I finally heard back from them, and got the
4354 opportunity to order. Today I ordered mine, and eagerly await the
4355 delivery. I hope it arrive next week, as I got a confirmation that it
4356 should go in the mail on monday. :)
</p>
4358 <p>If you want to ensure the colors on the screen match the intended
4359 colors, I suggest you check out this cheap tool with free software
4366 Tags:
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english
</a>.
4371 <div class=
"padding"></div>
4375 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__J_rgen_Leibner.html">Debian Edu interview: Jürgen Leibner
</a>
4381 <p>It has been a few busy weeks for me, but I am finally back to
4382 publish another interview with the people behind
4383 <a href=
"http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu and Skolelinux
</a>.
4384 This time it is one of our German developers, who have helped out over the
4385 years to make sure both a lot of major but also a lot of the minor
4386 details get right before release.
4388 <p><strong>Who are you, and how do you spend your days?
</strong></p>
4390 <p>My name is Jürgen Leibner, I'm
49 years old and living in
4391 Bielefeld, a town in northern Germany. I worked nearly
20 years as
4392 certified engineer in the department for plant design and layout of an
4393 international company for machinery and equipment. Since
2011 I'm a
4394 certified technical writer (tekom e.V.) and doing technical
4395 documentations for a steam turbine manufacturer. From April this year
4396 I will manage the department of technical documentation at a
4397 manufacturer of automation and assembly line engineering.
</p>
4399 <p>My first contact with linux was around
1993. Since that time I used
4400 it at work and at home repeatedly but not exclusively as I do now at
4401 home since
2006.
</p>
4403 <p><strong>How did you get in contact with the Skolelinux/Debian Edu
4404 project?
</strong></p>
4406 <p>Once a day in the early year of
2001 when I wanted to fetch my
4407 daughter from primary school, there was a teacher sitting in the
4408 middle of
20 old computers trying to boot them and he failed. I helped
4409 him to get them booting. That was seen by the school director and she
4410 asked me if I would like to manage that the school gets all that old
4411 computers in use. I answered: "Yes".
</p>
4413 <p>Some weeks later every of the
10 classrooms had one computer
4414 running Windows98. I began to collect old computers and equipment as
4415 gifts and installed the first computer room with a peer-to-peer
4416 network. I did my work at school without being payed in my spare time
4417 and with a lot of fun. About one year later the school was connected
4418 to Internet and a local area network was installed in the school
4419 building. That was the time to have a server and I knew it must be a
4420 Linux server to be able to fulfil all the wishes of the teachers and
4421 being able to do this in a transparent and economic way, without extra
4422 costs for things like licence and software. So I searched for a
4423 school server system running under Linux and I found a couple of
4424 people nearby who founded 'skolelinux.de'. It was the Skolelinux
4425 prerelease
32 I first tried out for being used at the school. I
4426 managed the IT of that school until the municipal authority took over
4427 the IT management and centralised the services for all schools in
4428 Bielefeld in December of
2006.
</p>
4430 <p><strong>What do you see as the advantages of Skolelinux/Debian
4433 <p>When I'm looking back to the beginning, there were other advantages
4434 for me as today.
</p>
4436 <p>In the past there were advantages like:
</p>
4440 <li>I don't need to buy it so it generates no costs to the school as
4441 they had little money to spent for computers and software.
</li>
4443 <li>It has a licence which grands all rights to use it without
4446 <li>It was more able to fit all requirements of a server system for
4447 schools than a Microsoft server system, even if there are only Windows
4448 clients because of it's preconfigured overall concept of being a
4449 infrastructure solution and community for schools, not only a
4452 <li>I was able to configure the server to the needs of the
4457 <p>Today some of the advantages has been lost, changed or new ones
4458 came up in this way:
</p>
4462 <li>Most schools here do have money to buy hardware and software
4465 <li>They are today mostly managed from central IT departments which
4466 have own concepts which often do not fit to Debian Edu concepts
4467 because they are to close to Microsoft ideology.
</li>
4469 <li>With the Squeeze version of Debian Edu which now uses GOsa² for
4470 management I feel more able to manage the daily tasks than with the
4471 interfaces used in the past.
</li>
4473 <li>It is more modular than in the past and fits even better to the
4474 different needs.
</li>
4476 <li>The documentation is usable and gets better every day.
</li>
4478 <li>More people than ever before are using Debian Edu all over the
4479 world and so the community, which is an very important part I think,
4480 is sharing knowledge and minds.
</li>
4482 <li>Most, maybe all, of the technical requirements for schools are
4483 solved today by Debian Edu.
</li>
4487 <p><strong>What do you see as the disadvantages of Skolelinux/Debian
4492 <li>There are too few IT companies able to integrate Debian Edu into
4493 their product portfolio for serving schools with concepts or even
4494 whole municipality areas.
</li>
4496 <li>Debian Edu has beside other free and open software projects not
4497 enough lobbyists which promote free and open software to
4500 <li>Technically there are no disadvantages I'm aware of.
</li>
4504 <p><strong>Which free software do you use daily?
</strong></p>
4506 <p>I use Debian stable on my home server and on my little desktop
4507 computer. On my laptop I use Debian testing/sid. The applications I
4508 use on my laptop and my desktop are Open/Libre-office, Iceweasel,
4509 KMail, DigiKam, Amarok, Dolphin, okular and all the other programs I
4510 need from the KDE environment. On console I use newsbeuter, mutt,
4511 screen, irssi and all the other famous and useful tools.
</p>
4513 <p>My home server provides mail services with exim, dovecot, roundcube
4514 and mutt over ssh on the console, file services with samba, NFS,
4515 rsync, web services with apache, moinmoin-wiki, multimedia services
4516 with gallery2 and mediatomb and database services with MySQL for me
4517 and the whole family. I probably forgot something.
</p>
4519 <p><strong>Which strategy do you believe is the right one to use to
4520 get schools to use free software?
</strong></p>
4522 <p>I believe, we should provide concepts for IT companies to integrate
4523 Debian Edu into their product portfolio with use cases for different
4524 countries and areas all over the world.
</p>
4530 Tags:
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu
</a>,
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english
</a>,
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/intervju">intervju
</a>.
4535 <div class=
"padding"></div>
4539 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Cutting_it_short___and_picking_the_right_tool_for_the_job.html">Cutting it short - and picking the right tool for the job
</a>
4545 <p><!-- IMG_5869.JPG -->
4546 <img src=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/panasonic-er-1611.jpeg"></p>
4548 <p>I normally cut my hair short, and my tool of choice has been a
4549 common hair/beard cutter, bought in a electrical shop here in Norway.
4550 But the last ones have not really been up to the task. My last
4551 cutter, some model from Braun, could only cut a few of my hairs at the
4552 time, and cutting my head took forever. And the one before that did
4553 not work very well either. We have looked for something better for a
4554 while, but it was not until I ended up visiting a hairdresser that we
4555 discovered that there are indeed better tools available. But these
4556 are not marketed and sold to "regular consumers". The hair saloons
4557 can get them through their suppliers, but their suppliers only sell
4558 companies. The models they sell, are very different from the ones
4559 available from Elkjøp and Lefdal. The main difference is their
4560 efficiency. It would cut my hair in
5 minutes, instead of the
30-
40
4561 minutes required by my impotent Braun. The hairdresser I visited had
4562 a Panasonic ER160, which unfortunately is no longer available from the
4563 producer. But I found it had a successor, the Panasonic ER1611.
</p>
4565 <p>The next step was to find somewhere to buy it. This was not
4566 straight forward. The list of suppliers I got from the hairdresser
4567 did not want to sell anything to me. But searching for the model on
4568 the web we found a supplier in Norway willing to sell it to us for
4569 around NOK
4000,-. This was a bit much. We kept searching and
4570 finally found a Danish supplier
4571 <a href=
"http://nicehair.dk/panasonic-er-1611-professionel-hartrimmer.html">selling
4572 it for around NOK
1800,-
</a>. We ordered one, and it arrived a few
4575 <p>The instructions said it had to charge for
8 hours when we started
4576 to use it, so we left it charging over night. Normally it will only
4577 need one hour to charge. The following evening we successfully tested
4578 it, and I can warmly recommend it to anyone looking for a real hair
4579 cutter. The ones we have used until now have been hair cutter
4586 Tags:
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english
</a>.
4591 <div class=
"padding"></div>
4595 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/HTC_One_X___Your_video___What_do_you_mean_.html">HTC One X - Your video? What do you mean?
</a>
4601 <p>In
<a href=
"http://www.idg.no/computerworld/article243690.ece">an
4602 article today
</a> published by Computerworld Norway, the photographer
4603 <a href=
"http://www.urke.com/eirik/">Eirik Helland Urke
</a> reports
4604 that the video editor application included with
4605 <a href=
"http://www.htc.com/www/smartphones/htc-one-x/#specs">HTC One
4606 X
</a> have some quite surprising terms of use. The article is mostly
4607 based on the twitter message from mister Urke, stating:
4610 "
<a href=
"http://twitter.com/urke/status/194062269724897280">Drøy
4611 brukeravtale: HTC kan bruke MINE redigerte videoer kommersielt. Selv
4612 kan jeg KUN bruke dem privat.
</a>"
4615 <p>I quickly translated it to this English message:</p>
4618 "Arrogant user agreement: HTC can use MY edited videos
4619 commercially. Although I can ONLY use them privately.
"
4622 <p>I've been unable to find the text of the license term myself, but
4623 suspect it is a variation of the MPEG-LA terms I
4624 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Terms_of_use_for_video_produced_by_a_Canon_IXUS_130_digital_camera.html
">discovered
4625 with my Canon IXUS 130</a>. The HTC One X specification specifies that
4626 the recording format of the phone is .amr for audio and .mp3 for
4628 <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adaptive_Multi-Rate_audio_codec#Licensing_and_patent_issues
">Adaptive
4629 Multi-Rate audio codec</a> with patents which according to the
4630 Wikipedia article require an license agreement with
4631 <a href="http://www.voiceage.com/
">VoiceAge</a>. MP4 is
4632 <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H
.264/MPEG-
4_AVC#Patent_licensing
">MPEG4 with
4633 H.264</a>, which according to Wikipedia require a licence agreement
4634 with <a href="http://www.mpegla.com/
">MPEG-LA</a>.</p>
4636 <p>I know why I prefer
4637 <a href="http://www.digistan.org/open-standard:definition
">free and open
4638 standards</a> also for video.</p>
4644 Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/digistan
">digistan</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english
">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/multimedia
">multimedia</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/personvern
">personvern</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/standard
">standard</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/video
">video</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/web
">web</a>.
4649 <div class="padding
"></div>
4653 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/RAND_terms___non_reasonable_and_discriminatory.html
">RAND terms - non-reasonable and discriminatory</a>
4659 <p>Here in Norway, the
4660 <a href="http://www.regjeringen.no/nb/dep/fad.html?id=
339"> Ministry of
4661 Government Administration, Reform and Church Affairs</a> is behind
4662 a <a href="http://standard.difi.no/forvaltningsstandarder
">directory of
4663 standards</a> that are recommended or mandatory for use by the
4664 government. When the directory was created, the people behind it made
4665 an effort to ensure that everyone would be able to implement the
4666 standards and compete on equal terms to supply software and solutions
4667 to the government. Free software and non-free software could compete
4668 on the same level.</p>
4670 <p>But recently, some standards with RAND
4671 (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reasonable_and_non-discriminatory_licensing
">Reasonable
4672 And Non-Discriminatory</a>) terms have made their way into the
4673 directory. And while this might not sound too bad, the fact is that
4674 standard specifications with RAND terms often block free software from
4675 implementing them. The reasonable part of RAND mean that the cost per
4676 user/unit is low,and the non-discriminatory part mean that everyone
4677 willing to pay will get a license. Both sound great in theory. In
4678 practice, to get such license one need to be able to count users, and
4679 be able to pay a small amount of money per unit or user. By
4680 definition, users of free software do not need to register their use.
4681 So counting users or units is not possible for free software projects.
4682 And given that people will use the software without handing any money
4683 to the author, it is not really economically possible for a free
4684 software author to pay a small amount of money to license the rights
4685 to implement a standard when the income available is zero. The result
4686 in these situations is that free software are locked out from
4687 implementing standards with RAND terms.</p>
4689 <p>Because of this, when I see someone claiming the terms of a
4690 standard is reasonable and non-discriminatory, all I can think of is
4691 how this really is non-reasonable and discriminatory. Because free
4692 software developers are working in a global market, it does not really
4693 help to know that software patents are not supposed to be enforceable
4694 in Norway. The patent regimes in other countries affect us even here.
4695 I really hope the people behind the standard directory will pay more
4696 attention to these issues in the future.</p>
4698 <p>You can find more on the issues with RAND, FRAND and RAND-Z terms
4700 (<a href="http://blogs.computerworlduk.com/simon-says/
2010/
11/rand-not-so-reasonable/
">RAND:
4701 Not So Reasonable?</a>).</p>
4703 <p>Update 2012-04-21: Just came across a
4704 <a href="http://blogs.computerworlduk.com/open-enterprise/
2012/
04/of-microsoft-netscape-patents-and-open-standards/index.htm
">blog
4705 post from Glyn Moody</a> over at Computer World UK warning about the
4706 same issue, and urging people to speak out to the UK government. I
4707 can only urge Norwegian users to do the same for
4708 <a href="http://www.standard.difi.no/hoyring/hoyring-om-nye-anbefalte-it-standarder
">the
4709 hearing taking place at the moment</a> (respond before 2012-04-27).
4710 It proposes to require video conferencing standards including
4711 specifications with RAND terms.</p>
4717 Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english
">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/multimedia
">multimedia</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug
">nuug</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/standard
">standard</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/video
">video</a>.
4722 <div class="padding
"></div>
4726 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__Andreas_Mundt.html
">Debian Edu interview: Andreas Mundt</a>
4732 <p>Behind <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/
">Debian Edu and
4733 Skolelinux</a> there are a lot of people doing the hard work of
4734 setting together all the pieces. This time I present to you Andreas
4735 Mundt, who have been part of the technical development team several
4736 years. He was also a key contributor in getting GOsa and Kerberos set
4737 up in the recently released
4738 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Documentation/Squeeze
">Debian
4739 Edu Squeeze</a> version.</p>
4741 <p><strong>Who are you, and how do you spend your days?</strong></p>
4743 <p>My name is Andreas Mundt, I grew up in south Germany. After
4744 studying Physics I spent several years at university doing research in
4745 Quantum Optics. After that I worked some years in an optics company.
4746 Finally I decided to turn over a new leaf in my life and started
4747 teaching 10 to 19 years old kids at school. I teach math, physics,
4748 information technology and science/technology.</p>
4750 <p><strong>How did you get in contact with the Skolelinux/Debian Edu
4751 project?</strong></p>
4753 <p>Already before I switched to teaching, I followed the Debian Edu
4754 project because of my interest in education and Debian. Within the
4755 qualification/training period for the teaching, I started
4758 <p><strong>What do you see as the advantages of Skolelinux/Debian
4761 <p>The advantages of Debian Edu are the well known name, the
4762 out-of-the-box philosophy and of course the great free software of the
4765 <p><strong>What do you see as the disadvantages of Skolelinux/Debian
4768 <p>As every coin has two sides, the out-of-the-box philosophy has its
4769 downside, too. In my opinion, it is hard to modify and tweak the
4770 setup, if you need or want that. Further more, it is not easily
4771 possible to upgrade the system to a new release. It takes much too
4772 long after a Debian release to prepare the -Edu release, perhaps
4773 because the number of developers working on the core of the code is
4774 rather small and often busy elsewhere.</p>
4776 <p>The <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianLAN
">Debian LAN</a>
4777 project might fill the use case of a more flexible system.</p>
4779 <p><strong>Which free software do you use daily?</strong></p>
4781 <p>I am only using non-free software if I am forced to and run Debian
4782 on all my machines. For documents I prefer LaTeX and PGF/TikZ, then
4783 mutt and iceweasel for email respectively web browsing. At school I
4784 have Arduino and Fritzing in use for a micro controller project.</p>
4786 <p><strong>Which strategy do you believe is the right one to use to
4787 get schools to use free software?</strong></p>
4789 <p>One of the major problems is the vendor lock-in from top to bottom:
4790 Especially in combination with ignorant government employees and
4791 politicians, this works out great for the "market-leader". The school
4792 administration here in Baden-Wuerttemberg is occupied by that vendor.
4793 Documents have to be prepared in non-free, proprietary formats. Even
4794 free browsers do not work for the school administration. Publishers
4795 of school books provide software only for proprietary platforms.
</p>
4797 <p>To change this, political work is very important. Parts of the
4798 political spectrum have become aware of the problem in the last years.
4799 However it takes quite some time and courageous politicians to 'free'
4800 the system. There is currently some discussion about "Open Data" and
4801 "Free/Open Standards". I am not sure if all the involved parties have
4802 a clue about the potential of these ideas, and probably only a
4803 fraction takes them seriously. However it might slowly make free
4804 software and the philosophy behind it more known and popular.
</p>
4810 Tags:
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu
</a>,
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english
</a>,
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/intervju">intervju
</a>.
4815 <div class=
"padding"></div>
4819 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__Justin_B__Rye.html">Debian Edu interview: Justin B. Rye
</a>
4825 <p>It take all kind of contributions to create a Linux distribution
4826 like
<a href=
"http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux
</a>,
4827 and this time I lend the ear to Justin B. Rye, who is listed as a big
4829 <a href=
"http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Documentation/Squeeze">Debian
4830 Edu Squeeze release manual
</a>.
4832 <p><strong>Who are you, and how do you spend your days?
</strong></p>
4834 <p>I'm a
44-year-old linguistics graduate living in Edinburgh who has
4835 occasionally been employed as a sysadmin.
</p>
4837 <p><strong>How did you get in contact with the Skolelinux/Debian Edu
4838 project?
</strong></p>
4840 <p>I'm neither a developer nor a Skolelinux/Debian Edu user! The only
4841 reason my name's in the credits for the documentation is that I hang
4842 around on debian-l10n-english waiting for people to mention things
4843 they'd like a native English speaker to proofread... So I did a sweep
4844 through the wiki for typos and Norglish and inconsistent spellings of
4847 <p><strong>What do you see as the advantages of Skolelinux/Debian
4850 <p><strong>What do you see as the disadvantages of Skolelinux/Debian
4853 <p>These questions are too hard for me - I don't use it! In fact I
4854 had hardly any contact with I.T. until long after I'd got out of the
4855 education system.
</p>
4857 <p>I can tell you the advantages of Debian for me though: it soaks up
4858 as much of my free time as I want and no more, and lets me do
4859 everything I want a computer for without ever forcing me to spend
4860 money on the latest hardware.
</p>
4862 <p><strong>Which free software do you use daily?
</strong></p>
4864 <p>I've been using Debian since Rex; popularity-contest says the
4865 software that I use most is xinit, xterm, and xulrunner (in other
4866 words, I use a distinctly retro sort of desktop).
</p>
4868 <p><strong>Which strategy do you believe is the right one to use to
4869 get schools to use free software?
</strong></p>
4871 <p>Well, I don't know. I suppose I'd be inclined to try reasoning
4872 with the people who make the decisions, but obviously if that worked
4873 you would hardly need a strategy.
</p>
4879 Tags:
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu
</a>,
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english
</a>,
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/intervju">intervju
</a>.
4884 <div class=
"padding"></div>
4888 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Why_the_KDE_menu_is_slow_when__usr__is_NFS_mounted___and_a_workaround.html">Why the KDE menu is slow when /usr/ is NFS mounted - and a workaround
</a>
4894 <p>Recently I have spent time with
4895 <a href=
"http://www.slxdrift.no/">Skolelinux Drift AS
</a> on speeding
4896 up a
<a href=
"http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux
</a>
4897 Lenny installation using LTSP diskless workstations, and in the
4898 process I discovered something very surprising. The reason the KDE
4899 menu was responding slow when using it for the first time, was mostly
4900 due to the way KDE find application icons. I discovered that showing
4901 the Multimedia menu would cause more than
20 000 IP packages to be
4902 passed between the LTSP client and the NFS server. Most of these were
4904 NFS LOOKUP calls, resulting in a NFS3ERR_NOENT response. Because the
4905 ping times between the client and the server were in the range
2-
20
4906 ms, the menus would be very slow. Looking at the strace of kicker in
4907 Lenny (or plasma-desktop i Squeeze - same problem there), I see that
4908 the source of these NFS calls are access(
2) system calls for
4909 non-existing files. KDE can do hundreds of access(
2) calls to find
4910 one icon file. In my example, just finding the mplayer icon required
4911 around
230 access(
2) calls.
</p>
4913 <p>The KDE code seem to search for icons using a list of icon
4914 directories, and the list of possible directories is large. In
4915 (almost) each directory, it look for files ending in .png, .svgz, .svg
4916 and .xpm. The result is a very slow KDE menu when /usr/ is NFS
4917 mounted. Showing a single sub menu may result in thousands of NFS
4918 requests. I am not the first one to discover this. I found a
4919 <a href=
"https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=211416">KDE bug report
4920 from
2009</a> about this problem, and it is still unsolved.
</p>
4922 <p>My solution to speed up the KDE menu was to create a package
4923 kde-icon-cache that upon installation will look at all .desktop files
4924 used to generate the KDE menu, find their icons, search the icon paths
4925 for the file that KDE will end up finding at run time, and copying the
4926 icon file to /var/lib/kde-icon-cache/. Finally, I add symlinks to
4927 these icon files in one of the first directories where KDE will look
4928 for them. This cut down the number of file accesses required to find
4929 one icon from several hundred to less than
5, and make the KDE menu
4930 almost instantaneous. I'm not quite sure where to make the package
4931 publicly available, so for now it is only available on request.
</p>
4933 <p>The bug report mention that this do not only affect the KDE menu
4934 and icon handling, but also the login process. Not quite sure how to
4935 speed up that part without replacing NFS with for example NBD, and
4936 that is not really an option at the moment.
</p>
4938 <p>If you got feedback on this issue, please let us know on debian-edu
4939 (at) lists.debian.org.
</p>
4945 Tags:
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu
</a>,
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english
</a>.
4950 <div class=
"padding"></div>
4954 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_in_the_Linux_Weekly_News.html">Debian Edu in the Linux Weekly News
</a>
4960 <p>About two weeks ago, I was interviewed via email about
4961 <a href=
"http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu and Skolelinux
</a> by
4962 Bruce Byfield in Linux Weekly News. The result was made public for
4963 non-subscribers today. I am pleased to see liked our Linux solution
4964 for schools. Check out his article
4965 <a href=
"https://lwn.net/Articles/488805/">Debian Edu/Skolelinux: A
4966 distribution for education
</a> if you want to learn more.
</p>
4972 Tags:
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu
</a>,
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english
</a>.
4977 <div class=
"padding"></div>
4981 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__Wolfgang_Schweer.html">Debian Edu interview: Wolfgang Schweer
</a>
4987 <p>Germany is a core area for the
4988 <a href=
"http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu and Skolelinux
</a>
4989 user community, and this time I managed to get hold of Wolfgang
4990 Schweer, a valuable contributor to the project from Germany.
4992 <p><strong>Who are you, and how do you spend your days?
</strong></p>
4994 <p>I've studied Mathematics at the university 'Ruhr-Universität' in
4995 Bochum, Germany. Since
1981 I'm working as a teacher at the school
4996 "
<a href=
"http://www.westfalenkolleg-dortmund.de/">Westfalen-Kolleg
4997 Dortmund
</a>", a second chance school. Here, young adults is given
4998 the opportunity to get further education in order to do the school
4999 examination 'Abitur', which will allow to study at a university. This
5000 second chance is of value for those who want a better job perspective
5001 or failed to get a higher school examination being teens.</p>
5003 <p>Besides teaching I was involved in developing online courses for a
5004 blended learning project called 'abitur-online.nrw' and in some other
5005 information technology related projects. For about ten years I've been
5006 teacher and coordinator for the 'abitur-online' project at my
5007 school. Being now in my early sixties, I've decided to leave school at
5008 the end of April this year.</p>
5010 <p><strong>How did you get in contact with the Skolelinux/Debian Edu
5011 project?</strong></p>
5013 <p>The first information about Skolelinux must have come to my
5014 attention years ago and somehow related to LTSP (Linux Terminal Server
5015 Project). At school, we had set up a network at the beginning of 1997
5016 using Suse Linux on the desktop, replacing a Novell network. Since
5017 2002, we used old machines from the city council of Dortmund as thin
5018 clients (LTSP, later Ubuntu/Lessdisks) cause new hardware was out of
5019 reach. At home I'm using Debian since years and - subscribed to the
5020 Debian news letter - heard from time to time about Skolelinux. About
5021 two years ago I proposed to replace the (somehow undocumented and only
5022 known to me) system at school by a well known Debian based system:
5025 <p>Students and teachers appreciated the new system because of a
5026 better look and feel and an enhanced access to local media on thin
5027 clients. The possibility to alter and/or reset passwords using a GUI
5028 was welcomed, too. Being able to do administrative tasks using a GUI
5029 and to easily set up workstations using PXE was of very high value for
5030 the admin teachers.</p>
5032 <p><strong>What do you see as the advantages of Skolelinux/Debian
5035 <p>It's open source, easy to set up, stable and flexible due to it's
5036 Debian base. It integrates LTSP out-of-the-box. And it is documented!
5037 So it was a perfect choice.</p>
5039 <p>Being open source, there are no license problems and so it's
5040 possible to point teachers and students to programs like
5041 OpenOffice.org, ViewYourMind (mind mapping) and The Gimp. It's of
5042 high value to be able to adapt parts of the system to special needs of
5043 a school and to choose where to get support for this.</p>
5045 <p><strong>What do you see as the disadvantages of Skolelinux/Debian
5050 <p><strong>Which free software do you use daily?</strong></p>
5052 <p>At home (Debian Sid with Gnome Desktop): Iceweasel, LibreOffice,
5053 Mutt, Gedit, Document Viewer, Midnight Commander, flpsed (PDF
5054 Annotator). At school (Skolelinux Lenny): Iceweasel, Gedit,
5057 <p><strong>Which strategy do you believe is the right one to use to
5058 get schools to use free software?</strong></p>
5060 <p>Some time ago I thought it was enough to tell people about it. But
5061 that doesn't seem to work quite well. Now I concentrate on those more
5062 interested and hope to get multiplicators that way.</p>
5068 Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu
">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english
">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/intervju
">intervju</a>.
5073 <div class="padding
"></div>
5077 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_screencast__Checking_email_with_kmail_using_Kerberos_authentication.html
">Debian Edu screencast: Checking email with kmail using Kerberos authentication</a>
5083 <!-- Video HTML based on http://www.diveintohtml5.net/video.html -->
5085 <p>The same Debian Edu developer that did the last screen cast I
5086 published, Wolfgang Schweer, has created a new screen cast showing how
5087 to set up Kmail in Debian Edu Squeze to authenticate using Kerberos,
5088 allowing users to check their local email account without providing
5089 any password. The video is embedded here in quarter size,
5090 and also available from <a href="https://vimeo.com/
38601767">vimeo</a>
5092 <a href="http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux/press/screencasts/
2012-
03-
14-Debian-Edu_Configure_Kmail_for_internal_usage.ogv
">Ogg
5093 Theora</a> file. Check it out below.</p>
5095 <p><video id="kmail-kerberos-movie
" width="256" height="184" preload controls>
5096 <source src="http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux/press/screencasts/
2012-
03-
14-Debian-Edu_Configure_Kmail_for_internal_usage.ogv
" type='video/ogg; codecs="theora, vorbis
"' />
5097 <p>Download video as
5098 <a href="http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux/press/screencasts/
2012-
03-
14-Debian-Edu_Configure_Kmail_for_internal_usage.ogv
">Ogg</a>.</p>
5105 Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu
">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english
">english</a>.
5110 <div class="padding
"></div>
5114 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__John_Ingleby.html
">Debian Edu interview: John Ingleby</a>
5120 <p><a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/
">Debian Edu / Skolelinux</a>
5121 users are spread all across the globe. The second inteview after
5122 <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-edu-announce/
2012/
03/msg00001.html
">the
5123 Squeeze release</a> was publised is with John Ingleby, a teacher and
5124 long time Linux user in United Kingdom.</p>
5126 <p><strong>Who are you, and how do you spend your days?</strong></p>
5128 <p>I teach ICT part time at the Rudolf Steiner School in Kings
5129 Langley, near London, UK. Previously I worked as a technical
5130 author/trainer while my children attended the school, and I also
5131 contributed to the Schoolforge UK community with the aim of
5132 encouraging UK schools to adopt free/open source software. Five or six
5133 years ago we had about 50 schools interested in some way, but we
5134 weren't able to convert many of them into sustainable
5137 <p><strong>How did you get in contact with the Skolelinux/Debian Edu
5138 project?</strong></p>
5140 <p>Skolelinux had two representatives at an early Edubuntu meeting in
5141 London which I attended. However at that time our school network had
5142 just been installed using CentOS, LTSP 4 and GNOME. When LTSP 5 came
5143 along we switched to Edubuntu thin client servers so now we have a
5144 mixed environment which includes Windows PCs and student laptops, as
5145 well as their MacBooks and iPads. However, the proprietary systems
5146 have always been rather problematic, and we never built a GUI for the
5147 LDAP server, so when I discovered Skolelinux is configured for all
5148 these things we decided to try it.</p>
5150 <p><strong>What do you see as the advantages of Skolelinux/Debian
5153 <p>By far the biggest advantage is the Debian Edu community. Apart
5154 from that I have always believed in the same "sustainable computing"
5155 goals that Skolelinux is built on: installing Linux on computers which
5156 would otherwise be thrown away, to provide a reliable, secure and
5157 low-cost IT environment for schools. From my own experience I know
5158 that a part-time person can teach and manage a network of about
25
5159 Linux computers, but it would take much more of my time if we had
5160 proprietary software everywhere.
</p>
5162 <p><strong>What do you see as the disadvantages of Skolelinux/Debian
5165 <p>As a newcomer I'm just finding out who's who in the community and
5166 how you're organised, and what your procedures are for dealing with
5167 various things such as editing manual pages and so-on. The only
5168 English language mailing list seems to be for developers as well as
5169 users, so my inbox needs heavy pruning each day!
</p>
5171 <p><strong>Which free software do you use daily?
</strong></p>
5173 <p>Besides the software already mentioned at school we use Samba,
5174 OpenLDAP, CUPS, Nagios and Dansguardian for the network, and on the
5175 desktops we have LibreOffice, Firefox, GIMP and Inkscape. At home I
5176 use Ubuntu and an Android
4 eePad Transformer (but I'm not sure if
5179 <p><strong>Which strategy do you believe is the right one to use to
5180 get schools to use free software?
</strong></p>
5182 <p>That's a tough question! For very many years UK schools installed
5183 and taught only proprietary software, so that at the highest levels
5184 the notion of "computer" means simply "proprietary office
5185 applications". However, schools today are experiencing budget
5186 constraints, and many are having to think hard about upgrading Windows
5187 XP. At the same time, we have students showing teachers how to use
5188 iPads, MacBooks and Android, so the choice of operating system is no
5189 longer quite so automatic. What is more, our government at last
5190 realised that we need people with programming skills, so they're
5191 putting coding back in the curriculum! And it's encouraging that the
5192 first
10,
000 Raspberry Pi units sold out in
2 hours.
</p>
5194 <p>I don't really know what strategy is going to get UK schools to use
5195 free software, but building an active community of Skolelinux/Debian
5196 Edu users in this country has to be part of it.
</p>
5202 Tags:
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu
</a>,
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english
</a>,
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/intervju">intervju
</a>.
5207 <div class=
"padding"></div>
5211 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Writing_and_translating_documentation_in_Debian_Edu.html">Writing and translating documentation in Debian Edu
</a>
5217 <p>Documentation in Debian Edu is provided in several languages, and
5218 it is important to make it both easy to contribute and to keep the
5219 translated versions in sync. To do this we have come up with what we
5220 believe is a very efficient work flow.
</p>
5224 <li>The documentation is written in a
5225 <a href=
"http://moinmo.in">moinmoin wiki
</a> (see for example
5226 <a href=
"http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Documentation/Squeeze">the
5227 Squeeze release manual
</a>) with support for exporting the content as
5230 <li>This docbook document is given to po4a to extract a gettext style
5231 .pot file with the content, which in turn is used to create .po files
5232 with the translated text.
</li>
5234 <li>The .po files are given to translators, and they can always tell
5235 which part of the original wiki document is new or changed. They can
5236 use their normal translation tools like lokalize or poedit to write
5237 the translation. There is even a system in place to handle translated
5240 <li>The translated .po files are combined with the original docbook
5241 XML document using po4a to create a translated docbook document.
</li>
5243 <li>The final step is to use all the generated docbook files and
5244 create PDF and HTML version of the original and translated documents.
</li>
5248 <p>This setup work very well, but have a few issues. The biggest
5249 issue is that
<a href=
"http://moinmo.in/DocBook">the docbook support
5250 we use in moinmoin
</a> is not actively maintained. The docbook
5251 support is also buggy, and our build system contain workarounds to
5252 make sure the generated docbook is usable despite these bugs.
</p>
5254 <p>If you want to have a look at our setup, it is all there in the
5255 <a href=
"http://packages.qa.debian.org/debian-edu-doc">debian-edu-doc
5262 Tags:
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu
</a>,
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english
</a>.
5267 <div class=
"padding"></div>
5271 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Skolelinux___Debian_Edu_Squeeze_is_out_.html">Skolelinux / Debian Edu Squeeze is out!
</a>
5277 <p>This weekend we finally published the first stable release of
5278 <a href=
"http://www.skolelinux.org/">Skolelinux / Debian Edu
</a> based
5279 on Debian/Squeeze. The full announcement is
5280 <a href=
"http://lists.debian.org/debian-edu-announce/2012/03/msg00001.html">available
</a>
5281 from the project announcement list. Now is a good time to test if it
5282 you have not done so already.
</p>
5284 <p>I plan to present the new version at
5285 <a href=
"http://www.nuug.no/aktiviteter/20120313-skolelinux/">a NUUG
5286 meeting
</a> on tuesday. I look forward to seeing you there if you are
5287 in Oslo, Norway.
</p>
5293 Tags:
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu
</a>,
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english
</a>.
5298 <div class=
"padding"></div>
5302 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__Nigel_Barker.html">Debian Edu interview: Nigel Barker
</a>
5308 <p>Inspired by
<a href=
"http://raphaelhertzog.com/tag/interview/">the
5309 interview series
</a> conducted by Raphael, I started a Norwegian
5310 interview series with people involved in the Debian Edu / Skolelinux
5311 community. This was so popular that I believe it is time to move to a
5312 more international audience.
</p>
5314 <p>While
<a href=
"http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu and
5315 Skolelinux
</a> originated in France and Norway, and have most users in
5316 Europe, there are users all around the globe. One of those far away
5317 from me is Nigel Barker, a long time Debian Edu system administrator
5318 and contributor. It is thanks to him that Debian Edu is adjusted to
5319 work out of the box in Japan. I got him to answer a few questions,
5320 and am happy to share the response with you. :)
5323 <p><strong>Who are you, and how do you spend your days?
</strong></p>
5325 <p>My name is Nigel Barker, and I am British. I am married to Yumiko,
5326 and we have three lovely children, aged
15,
14 and
4(!) I am the IT
5327 Coordinator at Hiroshima International School, Japan. I am also a
5328 teacher, and in fact I spend most of my day teaching Mathematics,
5329 Science, IT, and Chemistry. I was originally a Chemistry teacher, but
5330 I have always had an interest in computers. Another teacher teaches
5331 primary school IT, but apart from that I am the only computer person,
5332 so that means I am the network manager, technician and webmaster,
5333 also, and I help people with their computer problems. I teach python
5334 to beginners in an after-school club. I am way too busy, so I really
5335 appreciate the simplicity of Skolelinux.
</p>
5337 <p><strong>How did you get in contact with the Skolelinux/Debian Edu
5338 project?
</strong></p>
5340 <p>In around
2004 or
5 I discovered the ltsp project, and set up a
5341 server in the IT lab. I wanted some way to connect it to our central
5342 samba server, which I was also quite poor at configuring. I discovered
5343 Edubuntu when it came out, but it didn't really improve my setup. I
5344 did various desperate searches for things like "school Linux server"
5345 and ended up in a document called "Drift" something or other. Reading
5346 there it became clear that Skolelinux was going to solve all my
5347 problems in one go. I was very excited, but apprehensive, because my
5348 previous attempts to install Debian had ended in failure (I used
5349 Mandrake for everything - ltsp, samba, apache, mail, ns...). I
5350 downloaded a beta version, had some problems, so subscribed to the
5351 Debian Edu list for help. I have remained subscribed ever since, and
5352 my school has run a Skolelinux network since Sarge.
</p>
5354 <p><strong>What do you see as the advantages of Skolelinux/Debian
5357 <p>For me the integrated setup. This is not just the server, or the
5358 workstation, or the ltsp. Its all of them, and its all configured
5359 ready to go. I read somewhere in the early documentation that it is
5360 designed to be setup and managed by the Maths or Science teacher, who
5361 doesn't necessarily know much about computers, in a small Norwegian
5362 school. That describes me perfectly if you replace Norway with
5365 <p><strong>What do you see as the disadvantages of Skolelinux/Debian
5368 <p>The desktop is fairly plain. If you compare it with Edubuntu, who
5369 have fun themes for children, or with distributions such as Mint, who
5370 make the desktop beautiful. They create a good impression on people
5371 who don't need to understand how to use any of it, but who might be
5372 important to the school. School administrators or directors, for
5373 instance, or parents. Even kids. Debian itself usually has ugly
5374 default theme settings. It was my dream a few years back that some
5375 kind of integration would allow Edubuntu to do the desktop stuff and
5376 Debian Edu the servers, but now I realise how impossible that is. A
5377 second disadvantage is that if something goes wrong, or you need to
5378 customise something, then suddenly the level of expertise required
5379 multiplies. For example, backup wasn't working properly in Lenny. It
5380 took me ages to learn how to set up my own server to do rsync backups.
5381 I am afraid of anything to do with ldap, but perhaps Gosa will
5384 <p><strong>Which free software do you use daily?
</strong></p>
5386 <p>Nowadays I only use Debian on my personal computers. I have one for
5387 studio work (I play guitar and write songs), running AV Linux
5388 (customised Debian) a netbook running Squeeze, and a bigger laptop
5389 still running Skolelinux Lenny workstation. I have a Tjener in my
5390 house, that's very useful for the family photos and music. At school
5391 the students only use Skolelinux. (Some teachers and the office still
5392 have windows). So that means we only use free software all day every
5393 day. Open office, The GIMP, Firefox/Iceweasel, VLC and Audacity are
5394 installed on every computer in school, irrespective of OS. We also
5395 have Koha on Debian for the library, and Apache, Moodle, b2evolution
5396 and Etomite on Debian for the www. The firewall is Untangle.
</p>
5398 <p><strong>Which strategy do you believe is the right one to use to
5399 get schools to use free software?
</strong></p>
5401 <p>Current trends are in our favour. Open source is big in industry,
5402 and ordinary people have heard of it. The spread of Android and the
5403 popularity of Apple have helped to weaken the impression that you have
5404 to have Microsoft on everything. People complain to me much less about
5405 file formats and Word than they did
5 years ago. The Edu aspect is
5406 also a selling point. This is all customised for schools. Where is the
5407 Windows-edu, or the Mac-edu? But of course the main attraction is
5408 budget.The trick is to convince people that the quality is not
5409 compromised when you stop paying and use free software instead. That
5410 is one reason why I say the desktop experience is a weakness. People
5411 are not impressed when their USB drive doesn't work, or their browser
5412 doesn't play flash, for example.
</p>
5418 Tags:
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu
</a>,
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english
</a>,
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/intervju">intervju
</a>.
5423 <div class=
"padding"></div>
5427 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_screencast__Mass_creation_of_user_accounts_in_Squeeze.html">Debian Edu screencast: Mass creation of user accounts in Squeeze
</a>
5433 <!-- Video HTML based on http://www.diveintohtml5.net/video.html -->
5435 <p>One of the Debian Edu developers, Wolfgang Schweer, just created a
5436 screen cast documenting how to create a lot of new users in LDAP on
5437 Debian Edu Squeeze. The video is embedded here in quarter size, and
5438 also available from
<a href=
"http://vimeo.com/37675399">vimeo
</a> and
5440 <a href=
"http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux/press/screencasts/2012-02-29-debian_edu_mass_create_user_accounts.ogv">Ogg
5441 Theora
</a> file. Check it out below.
</p>
5443 <p><video id=
"gosa-mass-user-create-movie" width=
"256" height=
"184" preload controls
>
5444 <source src=
"http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux/press/screencasts/2012-02-29-debian_edu_mass_create_user_accounts.ogv" type='video/ogg;
codecs=
"theora, vorbis"'
/>
5445 <p>Download video as
5446 <a href=
"http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux/press/screencasts/2012-02-29-debian_edu_mass_create_user_accounts.ogv">Ogg
</a>.
</p>
5453 Tags:
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu
</a>,
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english
</a>.
5458 <div class=
"padding"></div>
5462 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Third_release_candidate_of_Debian_Edu___Skolelinux_based_on_Squeeze.html">Third release candidate of Debian Edu / Skolelinux based on Squeeze
</a>
5468 <p>This weekend we wrapped up and published the third release
5469 candidate for
<a href=
"http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu /
5470 Skolelinux
</a> based on Squeeze. The full announcement is
5471 <a href=
"http://lists.debian.org/debian-edu-announce/2012/03/msg00000.html">available
</a>
5472 from the project announcement list. Check it out if you
5473 need a software solution for your school.
</p>
5479 Tags:
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu
</a>,
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english
</a>.
5484 <div class=
"padding"></div>
5488 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Stopmotion_for_making_stop_motion_animations_on_Linux___reloaded.html">Stopmotion for making stop motion animations on Linux - reloaded
</a>
5494 <p>Many years ago, the
<a href=
"http://www.skolelinux.org/">Skolelinux
5495 / Debian Edu project
</a> initiated a student project to create a tool
5496 for making stop motion movies. The proposal came from a teacher
5497 needing such tool on Skolelinux. The project, called "stopmotion",
5498 was manned by two extraordinary students and won a school award and a
5499 national aware with this great project. The project was initiated and
5500 mentored by Herman Robak, and manned by the students Bjørn Erik Nilsen
5501 and Fredrik Berg Kjølstad. They got in touch with people at Aardman
5502 Animation studio and received feedback on how professionals would like
5503 such stopmotion tool to work, and the end result was and is used by
5504 animators around the globe. But as is usual after studying, both got
5505 jobs and went elsewhere, and did not have time to properly tend to the
5506 project, and it has been lingering for a few years now. Until last
5509 <p>Last year some of the users got together with Herman, and moved the
5510 project to Sourceforge and in effect restarted the project under a new
5512 <a href=
"http://sourceforge.net/projects/linuxstopmotion/">linuxstopmotion
</a>.
5513 The name change was done to make it possible to find the project using
5514 Internet search engines (try to search for 'stopmotion' to see what I
5515 mean). I've been following
5516 <a href=
"https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/linuxstopmotion-community">the
5517 mailing list
</a> and the improvement already in place and planned for
5518 the future is encouraging. If you want to make stop motion movies.
5519 Check it out. :)
</p>
5525 Tags:
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu
</a>,
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english
</a>,
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/video">video
</a>.
5530 <div class=
"padding"></div>
5534 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Second_release_candidate_of_Debian_Edu___Skolelinux_based_on_Squeeze.html">Second release candidate of Debian Edu / Skolelinux based on Squeeze
</a>
5540 <p>This weekend we wrapped up and published the second release
5541 candidate for
<a href=
"http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu /
5542 Skolelinux
</a> based on Squeeze. The full announcement did for some
5543 reason not make it the project announcement list, but is
5544 <a href=
"http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce/2012/02/msg00015.html">available
</a>
5545 from the Debian development announcement list. Check it out if you
5546 need a software solution for your school.
</p>
5552 Tags:
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu
</a>,
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english
</a>.
5557 <div class=
"padding"></div>
5561 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/First_release_candidate_of_Debian_Edu___Skolelinux_based_on_Squeeze.html">First release candidate of Debian Edu / Skolelinux based on Squeeze
</a>
5567 <p>One week delayed due to DVD build problems, we managed today to
5568 wrap up and publish the first release candidate for
5569 <a href=
"http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux
</a> based
5570 on Squeeze. The full announcement is
5571 <a href=
"http://lists.debian.org/debian-edu-announce/2012/02/msg00001.html">available
</a>
5572 on the project announcement list. Check it out if you need a software
5573 solution for your school.
</p>
5579 Tags:
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu
</a>,
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english
</a>.
5584 <div class=
"padding"></div>
5588 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_figure_out_which_RAID_disk_to_replace_when_it_fail.html">How to figure out which RAID disk to replace when it fail
</a>
5594 <p>Once in a while my home server have disk problems. Thanks to Linux
5595 Software RAID, I have not lost data yet (but
5596 <a href=
"http://comments.gmane.org/gmane.linux.raid/34532">I was
5597 close
</a> this summer :). But once a disk is starting to behave
5598 funny, a practical problem present itself. How to get from the Linux
5599 device name (like /dev/sdd) to something that can be used to identify
5600 the disk when the computer is turned off? In my case I have SATA
5601 disks with a unique ID printed on the label. All I need is a way to
5602 figure out how to query the disk to get the ID out.
</p>
5604 <p>After fumbling a bit, I
5605 <a href=
"http://www.cyberciti.biz/faq/linux-getting-scsi-ide-harddisk-information/">found
5606 that hdparm -I
</a> will report the disk serial number, which is
5607 printed on the disk label. The following (almost) one-liner can be
5608 used to look up the ID of all the failed disks:
</p>
5611 for d in $(cat /proc/mdstat |grep '(F)'|tr ' ' "\n"|grep '(F)'|cut -d\[ -f1|sort -u);
5613 printf "Failed disk $d: "
5614 hdparm -I /dev/$d |grep 'Serial Num'
5618 <p>Putting it here to make sure I do not have to search for it the
5619 next time, and in case other find it useful.
</p>
5621 <p>At the moment I have two failing disk. :(
</p>
5624 Failed disk sdd1: Serial Number: WD-WCASJ1860823
5625 Failed disk sdd2: Serial Number: WD-WCASJ1860823
5626 Failed disk sde2: Serial Number: WD-WCASJ1840589
5629 <p>The last time I had failing disks, I added the serial number on
5630 labels I printed and stuck on the short sides of each disk, to be able
5631 to figure out which disk to take out of the box without having to
5632 remove each disk to look at the physical vendor label. The vendor
5633 label is at the top of the disk, which is hidden when the disks are
5634 mounted inside my box.
</p>
5636 <p>I really wish the check_linux_raid Nagios plugin for checking Linux
5637 Software RAID in the
5638 <a href=
"http://packages.qa.debian.org/n/nagios-plugins.html">nagios-plugins-standard
</a>
5639 debian package would look up this value automatically, as it would
5640 make the plugin a lot more useful when my disks fail. At the moment
5641 it only report a failure when there are no more spares left (it really
5642 should warn as soon as a disk is failing), and it do not tell me which
5643 disk(s) is failing when the RAID is running short on disks.
</p>
5649 Tags:
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english
</a>,
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/raid">raid
</a>.
5654 <div class=
"padding"></div>
5658 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Automatic_proxy_configuration_with_Debian_Edu___Skolelinux.html">Automatic proxy configuration with Debian Edu / Skolelinux
</a>
5664 <p>New in the Squeeze version of
5665 <a href=
"http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux
</a> is the
5666 ability for clients to automatically configure their proxy settings
5667 based on their environment. We want all systems on the client to use
5668 the WPAD based proxy definition fetched from
<tt>http://wpad/wpad.dat
</tt>, to
5669 allow sites to control the proxy setting from a central place and make
5670 sure clients do not have hard coded proxy settings. The schools can
5671 change the global proxy setting by editing
5672 <tt>tjener:/etc/debian-edu/www/wpad.dat
</tt> and the change propagate
5673 to all Debian Edu clients in the network.
</p>
5675 <p>The problem is that some systems do not understand the WPAD system.
5676 In other words, how do one get from a WPAD file like this (this is a
5677 simple one, they can run arbitrary code):
</p>
5680 function FindProxyForURL(url, host)
5682 if (!isResolvable(host) ||
5683 isPlainHostName(host) ||
5684 dnsDomainIs(host, ".intern"))
5687 return "PROXY webcache:
3128; DIRECT";
5691 <p>to a proxy setting in the process environment looking like this:
</p>
5694 http_proxy=http://webcache:
3128/
5695 ftp_proxy=http://webcache:
3128/
5698 <p>To do this conversion I developed a perl script that will execute
5699 the javascript fragment in the WPAD file and return the proxy that
5701 <tt><a href=
"http://www.debian.org/">http://www.debian.org/
</a></tt>,
5702 and insert this extracted proxy URL in
<tt>/etc/environment
</tt> and
5703 <tt>/etc/apt/apt.conf
</tt>. The perl script wpad-extract work just
5704 fine in Squeeze, but in Wheezy the library it need to run the
5705 javascript code is
<a href=
"http://bugs.debian.org/631045">no longer
5706 able to build
</a> because the C library it depended on is now a C++
5707 library. I hope someone find a solution to that problem before Wheezy
5708 is frozen. An alternative would be for us to rewrite wpad-extract to
5709 use some other javascript library currently working in Wheezy, but no
5710 known alternative is known at the moment.
</p>
5712 <p>This automatic proxy system allow the roaming workstation (aka
5713 laptop) setup in Debian Edu/Squeeze to use the proxy when the laptop
5714 is connected to the backbone network in a Debian Edu setup, and to
5715 automatically use any proxy present and announced using the WPAD
5716 feature when it is connected to other networks. And if no proxy is
5717 announced, direct connections will be used instead.
</p>
5719 <p>Silently using a proxy announced on the network might be a privacy
5720 or security problem. But those controlling DHCP and DNS on a network
5721 could just as easily set up a transparent proxy, and force all HTTP
5722 and FTP connections to use a proxy anyway, so I consider that
5723 distinction to be academic. If you are afraid of using the wrong
5724 proxy, you should avoid connecting to the network in question in the
5725 first place. In Debian Edu, the proxy setup is updated using dhcp and
5726 ifupdown hooks, to make sure the configuration is updated every time
5727 the network setup changes.
</p>
5729 <p>The WPAD system is documented in a
5730 <a href=
"http://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-ietf-wrec-wpad-01">IETF
5732 <a href=
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_Proxy_Autodiscovery_Protocol">Wikipedia
5733 page
</a> for those that want to learn more.
</p>
5739 Tags:
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu
</a>,
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english
</a>.
5744 <div class=
"padding"></div>
5748 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Saving_power_with_Debian_Edu___Skolelinux_using_shutdown_at_night.html">Saving power with Debian Edu / Skolelinux using shutdown-at-night
</a>
5754 <p>Since the Lenny version of
5755 <a href=
"http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux
</a>, a
5756 feature to save power have been included. It is as simple as it is
5757 practical: Shut down unused clients at night, and turn them on again
5758 in the morning. This is done using the
5759 <a href=
"http://packages.qa.debian.org/s/shutdown-at-night.html">shutdown-at-night
</a> Debian package.
</p>
5761 <p>To enable this feature on a client, the machine need to be added to
5762 the netgroup shutdown-at-night-hosts. For Debian Edu, this is done in
5763 LDAP, and once this is in place, the machine in question will check
5764 every hour from
16:
00 until
06:
00 to see if the machine is unused, and
5765 shut it down if it is. If the hardware in question is supported by
5767 <a href=
"http://packages.qa.debian.org/n/nvram-wakeup.html">nvram-wakeup
</a>
5768 package, the BIOS is told to turn the machine back on around
07:
00 +-
5769 10 minutes. If this isn't working, one can configure wake-on-lan to
5770 try to turn on the client. The wake-on-lan option is only documented
5771 and not enabled by default in Debian Edu.
</p>
5773 <p>It is important to not turn all machines on at once, as this can
5774 blow a fuse if several computers are connected to the same fuse like
5775 the common setup for a classroom. The nvram-wakeup method only work
5776 for machines with a functioning hardware/BIOS clock. I've seen old
5777 machines where the BIOS battery were dead and the hardware clock were
5778 starting from
0 (or was it
1990?) every boot. If you have one of
5779 those, you have to turn on the computer manually.
</p>
5781 <p>The shutdown-at-night package is completely self contained, and can
5782 also be used outside the Debian Edu environment. For those without a
5783 central LDAP server with netgroups, one can instead touch the file
5784 <tt>/etc/shutdown-at-night/shutdown-at-night
</tt> to enable it.
5785 Perhaps you too can use it to save some power?
</p>
5791 Tags:
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu
</a>,
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english
</a>.
5796 <div class=
"padding"></div>
5800 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Third_beta_version_of_Debian_Edu___Skolelinux_based_on_Squeeze.html">Third beta version of Debian Edu / Skolelinux based on Squeeze
</a>
5806 <p>I am happy to announce that finally we managed today to wrap up and
5807 publish the third beta version of
5808 <a href=
"http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux
</a> based
5809 on Squeeze. If you want to test a LDAP backed Kerberos server with
5810 out of the box PXE configuration for running diskless machines and
5811 installing new machines, check it out. If you need a software
5812 solution for your school, check it out too. The full announcement is
5813 <a href=
"http://lists.debian.org/debian-edu-announce/2012/02/msg00000.html">available
</a>
5814 on the project announcement list.
</p>
5816 <p>I am very happy to report these changes and improvements since
5817 beta2 (there are more, see announcement for full list):
</p>
5821 <li>It is now possible to change the pre-configured IP subnet from
5822 10.0.0.0/
8 to something else by using the subnet-change tool after
5823 the installation.
</li>
5825 <li>Too full partitions are now automatically extended on the Main
5826 Server, based on the rules specified in /etc/fsautoresizetab.
</li>
5828 <li>The CUPS queues are now automatically flushed every night, and all
5829 disabled queues are restarted every hour. This should cut down on
5830 the amount of manual administration needed for printers.
</li>
5832 <li>The set of initial users have been changed. Now a personal user
5833 for the local system administrator is created during installation
5834 instead of the previously created localadmin and super-admin users,
5835 and this user is granted administrative privileges using group
5836 membership. This reduces the number of passwords one need to keep
5837 up to date on the system.
</li>
5841 <p>The new main server seem to work so well that I am testing it as my
5842 private DNS/LDAP/Kerberos/PXE/LTSP server at home. I will use it look
5843 for issues we could fix to polish Debian Edu even further before the
5844 final Squeeze release is published.
</p>
5846 <p>Next weekend the project organise a
5847 <a href=
"http://lists.debian.org/debian-edu-announce/2012/01/msg00001.html">developer
5848 gathering
</a> in Oslo. We will continue the work on the Squeeze
5849 version, and start initial planning for the Wheezy version. Perhaps I
5850 will see you there?
</p>
5856 Tags:
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu
</a>,
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english
</a>.
5861 <div class=
"padding"></div>
5865 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Handling_non_free_firmware_in_Debian_Edu_Squeeze.html">Handling non-free firmware in Debian Edu/Squeeze
</a>
5871 <p>With some computer hardware, one need non-free firmware blobs.
5872 This is the sad fact of todays computers. In the next version of
5873 <a href=
"http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux
</a> based
5874 on Squeeze, we provide several scripts and modifications to make
5875 firmware blobs easier to handle. The common use case I run into is a
5876 laptop with a wireless network card requiring non-free firmware to
5877 work, but there are other use cases as well.
</p>
5879 <p>First and foremost, Debian Edu provide ISO images for DVD and CD
5880 with all firmware packages in the Debian sections main and non-free
5881 included, to ensure debian-installer find and can install all of them
5882 during installation. This take care firmware for network devices used
5883 by the installer when installing from from local media. But for
5884 example multimedia devices are not activated in the installer and are
5885 not taken care of by this.
</p>
5887 <p>For non-network devices, we provide the script
5888 <tt>/usr/share/debian-edu-config/tools/auto-addfirmware
</tt> which
5889 search through the
<tt>dmesg
</tt> output for drivers requesting extra
5890 firmware. The firmware file name is looked up in the Contents-ARCH.gz
5891 file available in the package repository, and the packages providing
5892 the requested firmware file(s) is installed. I have proposed to do
5893 something similar in debian-installer (BTS report
5894 <a href=
"http://bugs.debian.org/655507">#
655507</a>), to allow PXE
5895 installs of Debian to handle firmware installation better. Run the
5896 script as root from the command line to fetch and install the needed
5897 firmware packages.
</p>
5899 <p>Debian Edu provide PXE installation of Debian out of the box, and
5900 because some machines need firmware to get their network cards
5901 working, the installation initrd some times need extra firmware
5902 included to be able to install at all. To fill the PXE installation
5903 initrd with extra firmware, the
5904 <tt>/usr/share/debian-edu-config/tools/pxe-addfirmware
</tt> script is
5905 provided. Again, just run it as root on the command line to fill the
5906 PXE initrd with firmware packages.
</p>
5908 <p>Last, some LTSP clients might also need firmware to get their
5909 network cards working. For this,
5910 <tt>/usr/share/debian-edu-config/tools/ltsp-addfirmware
</tt> is
5911 provided to update the LTSP initrd with firmware blobs. It is used
5912 the same way as the other firmware related tools.
</p>
5914 <p>At the moment, we do not run any of these during installation. We
5915 do not know if this is acceptable for the local administrator to use
5916 non-free software, and it is their choice.
</p>
5918 <p>We plan to release beta3 this weekend. You might want to give it a
5925 Tags:
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu
</a>,
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english
</a>.
5930 <div class=
"padding"></div>
5934 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Setting_up_a_new_school_with_Debian_Edu_Squeeze.html">Setting up a new school with Debian Edu/Squeeze
</a>
5940 <p>The next version of
<a href=
"http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu
5941 / Skolelinux
</a> will include a new tool
5942 <tt>sitesummary2ldapdhcp
</tt>, which can be used to quickly set up all
5943 the computers in a school without much manual labour. Here is a short
5944 summary on how to use it to set up a new school.
</p>
5946 <p>First, install a combined Main Server and Thin Client Server as the
5947 central server in the network. Next, PXE boot all the client machines
5948 as thin clients and wait
5 minutes after the last client booted to
5949 allow the clients to report their existence to the central server. When
5950 this is done, log on to the central server and run
5951 <tt>sitesummary2ldapdhcp -a
</tt> in the
<tt>konsole
</tt> to use the
5952 collected information to generate system objects in LDAP. The output
5953 will look similar to this:
</p>
5955 <p><blockquote><pre>
5956 % sitesummary2ldapdhcp -a
5957 info: Updating machine tjener.intern [
10.0.2.2] id ether-
00:
01:
02:
03:
04:
05.
5958 info: Create GOsa machine for auto-mac-
00-
01-
02-
03-
04-
06 [
10.0.16.20] id ether-
00:
01:
02:
03:
04:
06.
5960 Enter password if you want to activate these changes, and ^c to abort.
5962 Connecting to LDAP as cn=admin,ou=ldap-access,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
5963 enter password: *******
5965 </pre></blockquote></p>
5967 <p>After providing the LDAP administrative password (the same as the
5968 root password set during installation), the LDAP database will be
5969 populated with system objects for each PXE booted machine with
5970 automatically generated names. The final step to set up the school is
5971 then to log into
<a href=
"https://oss.gonicus.de/labs/gosa/">GOsa
</a>,
5972 the web based user, group and system administration system to change
5973 system names, add systems to the correct host groups and finally
5974 enable DHCP and DNS for the systems. All clients that should be used
5975 as diskless workstations should be added to the workstation-hosts
5976 group. After this is done, all computers can be booted again via PXE
5977 and get their assigned names and group based configuration
5980 <p>We plan to release beta3 with the updated version of this feature
5981 enabled this weekend. You might want to give it a try.
</p>
5983 <p>Update
2012-
01-
28: When calling sitesummary2ldapdhcp to add new
5984 hosts, one need to add the option -a. I forgot to mention this in my
5985 original text, and have added it to the text now.
</p>
5991 Tags:
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu
</a>,
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english
</a>,
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sitesummary">sitesummary
</a>.
5996 <div class=
"padding"></div>
6000 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Changing_the_default_Iceweasel_start_page_in_Debian_Edu_Squeeze.html">Changing the default Iceweasel start page in Debian Edu/Squeeze
</a>
6006 <p>In the Squeeze version of
6007 <a href=
"http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux
</a> soon
6008 to be released, users of the system will get their default browser
6009 start page set from LDAP, allowing the system administrator to point
6010 all users to the school web page by updating one setting in LDAP. In
6011 addition to setting the default start page when a machine boots, users
6012 are shown the same page as a welcome page when they log in for the
6015 <p>The LDAP object dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no have an attribute
6016 labeledURI with "http://www/ LDAP for Debian Edu/Skolelinux" as the
6017 default content. By changing this value to another URL, all users get
6018 to see the page behind this new URL.
</p>
6020 <p>An easy way to update it is by using the ldapvi tool. It can be
6021 called as "
<tt>ldapvi -ZD '(cn=admin)'
</tt>' to update LDAP with the
6024 <p>We have written the code to adjust the default start page and show
6025 the welcome page, and I wonder if there is an easier way to do this
6026 from within Iceweasel instead.
</p>
6032 Tags:
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu
</a>,
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english
</a>,
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/web">web
</a>.
6037 <div class=
"padding"></div>
6041 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Second_beta_version_of_Debian_Edu___Skolelinux_based_on_Squeeze.html">Second beta version of Debian Edu / Skolelinux based on Squeeze
</a>
6047 <p>I am happy to announce that today we managed to wrap up and publish
6048 the second beta version of
6049 <a href=
"http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux
</a>. If
6050 you want to test a LDAP backed Kerberos server with out of the box PXE
6051 configuration for running diskless machines and installing new
6052 machines, check it out. If you need a software solution for your
6053 school, check it out too. The full announcement is
6054 <a href=
"http://lists.debian.org/debian-edu-announce/2012/01/msg00000.html">available
</a>
6055 on the project announcement list.
</p>
6061 Tags:
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu
</a>,
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english
</a>.
6066 <div class=
"padding"></div>
6070 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Fixing_an_hanging_debian_installer_for_Debian_Edu.html">Fixing an hanging debian installer for Debian Edu
</a>
6076 <p>During christmas, I have been working getting the next version of
6077 <a href=
"http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux
</a> ready
6078 for release. The initial problem I looked at was particularly
6081 <P>The installer would hang at the end when it was doing it
6082 post-installation configuration, and whatevery I did to try to find
6083 the cause and fix it always worked while I tested it, but never when I
6084 integrated it into the installer and ran the installation from
6085 scratch. I would try to restart processes, close file descriptors,
6086 remove or create files, and the installer would always unblock and
6087 wrap up its tasks.
</p>
6089 <p>Eventually the cause was found. The kernel was simply running out
6090 of entropy, causing the Kerberos setup to hang waiting for more.
6091 Pressing keys was adding entropy to the kernel, and thus all my tries
6092 to fix the problem worked not because what I was typing to fix it, but
6093 because I was typing.
</P>
6095 <p>The fix I implemented was to add a background process looking at
6096 the level of entropy in the kernel (by checking
6097 /proc/sys/kernel/random/entropy_avail), and if it was too small, the
6098 installer will flush the kernel file buffers and do 'find /' to
6099 generate some disk IO. Disk IO generate entropy in the kernel, and is
6100 one of the few things that can be initated from within the system to
6101 generate entropy.
</p>
6104 <a href=
"http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Documentation/Squeeze/Installation">beta1
6105 of the Debian Edu/Squeeze
</a> version, and we
6106 <a href=
"http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu">welcome more testers and
6107 developers
</a>. We plan to release beta2 this weekend.
</p>
6113 Tags:
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu
</a>,
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english
</a>.
6118 <div class=
"padding"></div>
6122 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Automatically_upgrading_server_firmware_on_Dell_PowerEdge.html">Automatically upgrading server firmware on Dell PowerEdge
</a>
6128 <p>At work we have heaps of servers. I believe the total count is
6129 around
1000 at the moment. To be able to get help from the vendors
6130 when something go wrong, we want to keep the firmware on the servers
6131 up to date. If the firmware isn't the latest and greatest, the
6132 vendors typically refuse to start debugging any problems until the
6133 firmware is upgraded. So before every reboot, we want to upgrade the
6134 firmware, and we would really like everyone handling servers at the
6135 university to do this themselves when they plan to reboot a machine.
6136 For that to happen we at the unix server admin group need to provide
6137 the tools to do so.
</p>
6139 <p>To make firmware upgrading easier, I am working on a script to
6140 fetch and install the latest firmware for the servers we got. Most of
6141 our hardware are from Dell and HP, so I have focused on these servers
6142 so far. This blog post is about the Dell part.
</P>
6144 <p>On the Dell FTP site I was lucky enough to find
6145 <a href=
"ftp://ftp.us.dell.com/catalog/Catalog.xml.gz">an XML file
</a>
6146 with firmware information for all
11th generation servers, listing
6147 which firmware should be used on a given model and where on the FTP
6148 site I can find it. Using a simple perl XML parser I can then
6149 download the shell scripts Dell provides to do firmware upgrades from
6150 within Linux and reboot when all the firmware is primed and ready to
6151 be activated on the first reboot.
</p>
6153 <p>This is the Dell related fragment of the perl code I am working on.
6154 Are there anyone working on similar tools for firmware upgrading all
6155 servers at a site? Please get in touch and lets share resources.
</p>
6161 use File::Temp qw(tempdir);
6163 # Install needed RHEL packages if missing
6165 'XML::Simple' =
> 'perl-XML-Simple',
6167 for my $module (keys %rhelmodules) {
6168 eval "use $module;";
6170 my $pkg = $rhelmodules{$module};
6171 system("yum install -y $pkg");
6172 eval "use $module;";
6176 my $errorsto = 'pere@hungry.com';
6182 sub run_firmware_script {
6183 my ($opts, $script) = @_;
6185 print STDERR "fail: missing script name\n";
6188 print STDERR "Running $script\n\n";
6190 if (
0 == system("sh $script $opts")) { # FIXME correct exit code handling
6191 print STDERR "success: firmware script ran succcessfully\n";
6193 print STDERR "fail: firmware script returned error\n";
6197 sub run_firmware_scripts {
6198 my ($opts, @dirs) = @_;
6199 # Run firmware packages
6200 for my $dir (@dirs) {
6201 print STDERR "info: Running scripts in $dir\n";
6202 opendir(my $dh, $dir) or die "Unable to open directory $dir: $!";
6203 while (my $s = readdir $dh) {
6204 next if $s =~ m/^\.\.?/;
6205 run_firmware_script($opts, "$dir/$s");
6213 print STDERR "info: Downloading $url\n";
6214 system("wget --quiet \"$url\"");
6219 my $product = `dmidecode -s system-product-name`;
6222 if ($product =~ m/PowerEdge/) {
6224 # on RHEL, these pacakges are needed by the firwmare upgrade scripts
6225 system('yum install -y compat-libstdc++-
33.i686 libstdc++.i686 libxml2.i686 procmail');
6227 my $tmpdir = tempdir(
6231 fetch_dell_fw('catalog/Catalog.xml.gz');
6232 system('gunzip Catalog.xml.gz');
6233 my @paths = fetch_dell_fw_list('Catalog.xml');
6234 # -q is quiet, disabling interactivity and reducing console output
6237 for my $url (@paths) {
6238 fetch_dell_fw($url);
6240 run_firmware_scripts($fwopts, $tmpdir);
6242 print STDERR
"error: Unsupported Dell model '$product'.\n";
6243 print STDERR
"error: Please report to $errorsto.\n";
6247 print STDERR
"error: Unsupported Dell model '$product'.\n";
6248 print STDERR
"error: Please report to $errorsto.\n";
6254 my $url =
"ftp://ftp.us.dell.com/$path";
6258 # Using ftp://ftp.us.dell.com/catalog/Catalog.xml.gz, figure out which
6259 # firmware packages to download from Dell. Only work for Linux
6260 # machines and
11th generation Dell servers.
6261 sub fetch_dell_fw_list {
6262 my $filename = shift;
6264 my $product = `dmidecode -s system-product-name`;
6266 my ($mybrand, $mymodel) = split(/\s+/, $product);
6268 print STDERR
"Finding firmware bundles for $mybrand $mymodel\n";
6270 my $xml = XMLin($filename);
6272 for my $bundle (@{$xml-
>{SoftwareBundle}}) {
6273 my $brand = $bundle-
>{TargetSystems}-
>{Brand}-
>{Display}-
>{content};
6274 my $model = $bundle-
>{TargetSystems}-
>{Brand}-
>{Model}-
>{Display}-
>{content};
6276 if ("ARRAY" eq ref $bundle-
>{TargetOSes}-
>{OperatingSystem}) {
6277 $oscode = $bundle-
>{TargetOSes}-
>{OperatingSystem}[
0]-
>{osCode};
6279 $oscode = $bundle-
>{TargetOSes}-
>{OperatingSystem}-
>{osCode};
6281 if ($mybrand eq $brand && $mymodel eq $model && "LIN" eq $oscode)
6283 @paths = map { $_-
>{path} } @{$bundle-
>{Contents}-
>{Package}};
6286 for my $component (@{$xml-
>{SoftwareComponent}}) {
6287 my $componenttype = $component-
>{ComponentType}-
>{value};
6289 # Drop application packages, only firmware and BIOS
6290 next if 'APAC' eq $componenttype;
6292 my $cpath = $component-
>{path};
6293 for my $path (@paths) {
6294 if ($cpath =~ m%/$path$%) {
6295 push(@paths, $cpath);
6303 <p>The code is only tested on RedHat Enterprise Linux, but I suspect
6304 it could work on other platforms with some tweaking. Anyone know a
6305 index like Catalog.xml is available from HP for HP servers? At the
6306 moment I maintain a similar list manually and it is quickly getting
6313 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>.
6318 <div class=
"padding"></div>
6322 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Free_e_book_kiosk_for_the_public_libraries_.html">Free e-book kiosk for the public libraries?
</a>
6328 <p>Here in Norway the public libraries are debating with the
6329 publishing houses how to handle electronic books. Surprisingly, the
6330 libraries seem to be willing to accept digital restriction mechanisms
6331 (DRM) on books and renting e-books with artificial scarcity from the
6332 publishing houses. Time limited renting (
2-
3 years) is one proposed
6333 model, and only allowing X borrowers for each book is another.
6334 Personally I find it amazing that libraries are even considering such
6337 <p>Anyway, while reading
<a href=
"http://boklaben.no/?p=220">part of
6338 this debate
</a>, it occurred to me that someone should present a more
6339 sensible approach to the libraries, to allow its borrowers to get used
6340 to a better model. The idea is simple:
</p>
6342 <p>Create a computer system for the libraries, either in the form of a
6343 Live DVD or a installable distribution, that provide a simple kiosk
6344 solution to hand out free e-books. As a start, the books distributed
6345 by
<a href=
"http://www.gutenberg.org/">Project Gutenberg
</a> (about
6346 36,
000 books),
<a href=
"http://runeberg.org/">Project Runenberg
</a>
6347 (
1149 books) and
<a href=
"http://www.archive.org/details/texts">The
6348 Internet Archive
</a> (
3,
033,
748 books) could be included, but any book
6349 where the copyright has expired or with a free licence could be
6352 <p>The computer system would make it easy to:
</p>
6356 <li>Copy e-books into a USB stick, reading tablets, cell phones and
6357 other relevant equipment.
</li>
6359 <li>Show the books for reading on the the screen in the library.
</li>
6363 <p>In addition to such kiosk solution, there should probably be a web
6364 site as well to allow people easy access to these books without
6365 visiting the library. The site would be the distribution point for
6366 the kiosk systems, which would connect regularly to fetch any new
6367 books available.
</p>
6369 <p>Are there anyone working on a system like this? I guess it would
6370 fit any library in the world, and not just the Norwegian public
6377 Tags:
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english
</a>,
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/opphavsrett">opphavsrett
</a>.
6382 <div class=
"padding"></div>
6386 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Ripping_problematic_DVDs_using_dvdbackup_and_genisoimage.html">Ripping problematic DVDs using dvdbackup and genisoimage
</a>
6392 <p>For convenience, I want to store copies of all my DVDs on my file
6393 server. It allow me to save shelf space flat while still having my
6394 movie collection easily available. It also make it possible to let
6395 the kids see their favourite DVDs without wearing the physical copies
6396 down. I prefer to store the DVDs as ISOs to keep the DVD menu and
6397 subtitle options intact. It also ensure that the entire film is one
6398 file on the disk. As this is for personal use, the ripping is
6399 perfectly legal here in Norway.
</p>
6401 <p>Normally I rip the DVDs using dd like this:
</p>
6405 # apt-get install lsdvd
6406 title=$(lsdvd
2>/dev/null|awk '/Disc Title: / {print $
3}')
6407 dd if=/dev/dvd of=/storage/dvds/$title.iso bs=
1M
6410 <p>But some DVDs give a input/output error when I read it, and I have
6411 been looking for a better alternative. I have no idea why this I/O
6412 error occur, but suspect my DVD drive, the Linux kernel driver or
6413 something fishy with the DVDs in question. Or perhaps all three.
</p>
6415 <p>Anyway, I believe I found a solution today using dvdbackup and
6416 genisoimage. This script gave me a working ISO for a problematic
6417 movie by first extracting the DVD file system and then re-packing it
6422 # apt-get install lsdvd dvdbackup genisoimage
6424 tmpdir=/storage/dvds/
6425 title=$(lsdvd
2>/dev/null|awk '/Disc Title: / {print $
3}')
6426 dvdbackup -i /dev/dvd -M -o $tmpdir -n$title
6427 genisoimage -dvd-video -o $tmpdir/$title.iso $tmpdir/$title
6428 rm -rf $tmpdir/$title
6431 <p>Anyone know of a better way available in Debian/Squeeze?
</p>
6433 <p>Update
2011-
09-
18: I got a tip from Konstantin Khomoutov about the
6434 readom program from the wodim package. It is specially written to
6435 read optical media, and is called like this:
<tt>readom dev=/dev/dvd
6436 f=image.iso
</tt>. It got
6 GB along with the problematic Cars DVD
6437 before it failed, and failed right away with a Timmy Time DVD.
</p>
6439 <p>Next, I got a tip from Bastian Blank about
6440 <a href=
"http://bblank.thinkmo.de/blog/new-software-python-dvdvideo">his
6441 program python-dvdvideo
</a>, which seem to be just what I am looking
6442 for. Tested it with my problematic Timmy Time DVD, and it succeeded
6443 creating a ISO image. The git source built and installed just fine in
6444 Squeeze, so I guess this will be my tool of choice in the future.
</p>
6450 Tags:
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english
</a>,
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/opphavsrett">opphavsrett
</a>,
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/video">video
</a>.
6455 <div class=
"padding"></div>
6459 <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>
6465 <p>Wouter Verhelst have some
6466 <a href=
"http://grep.be/blog/en/retorts/pere_kubuntu_boot">interesting
6467 comments and opinions
</a> on my blog post on
6468 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/What_should_start_from__etc_rcS_d__in_Debian____almost_nothing.html">the
6469 need to clean up /etc/rcS.d/ in Debian
</a> and my blog post about
6470 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/What_is_missing_in_the_Debian_desktop__or_why_my_parents_use_Kubuntu.html">the
6471 default KDE desktop in Debian
</a>. I only have time to address one
6472 small piece of his comment now, and though it best to address the
6473 misunderstanding he bring forward:
</p>
6476 Currently, a system admin has four options: [...] boot to a
6477 single-user system (by adding 'single' to the kernel command line;
6478 this runs rcS and rc1 scripts)
6481 <p>This make me believe Wouter believe booting into single user mode
6482 and booting into runlevel
1 is the same. I am not surprised he
6483 believe this, because it would make sense and is a quite sensible
6484 thing to believe. But because the boot in Debian is slightly broken,
6485 runlevel
1 do not work properly and it isn't the same as single user
6486 mode. I'll try to explain what is actually happing, but it is a bit
6487 hard to explain.
</p>
6489 <p>Single user mode is defined like this in /etc/inittab:
6490 "
<tt>~~:S:wait:/sbin/sulogin
</tt>". This means the only thing that is
6491 executed in single user mode is sulogin. Single user mode is a boot
6492 state "between
" the runlevels, and when booting into single user mode,
6493 only the scripts in /etc/rcS.d/ are executed before the init process
6494 enters the single user state. When switching to runlevel 1, the state
6495 is in fact not ending in runlevel 1, but it passes through runlevel 1
6496 and end up in the single user mode (see /etc/rc1.d/S03single, which
6497 runs "init -t1 S
" to switch to single user mode at the end of runlevel
6498 1. It is confusing that the 'S' (single user) init mode is not the
6499 mode enabled by /etc/rcS.d/ (which is more like the initial boot
6502 <p>This summary might make it clearer. When booting for the first
6503 time into single user mode, the following commands are executed:
6504 "<tt>/etc/init.d/rc S; /sbin/sulogin
</tt>". When booting into
6505 runlevel 1, the following commands are executed: "<tt>/etc/init.d/rc
6506 S; /etc/init.d/rc
1; /sbin/sulogin
</tt>". A problem show up when
6507 trying to continue after visiting single user mode. Not all services
6508 are started again as they should, causing the machine to end up in an
6509 unpredicatble state. This is why Debian admins recommend rebooting
6510 after visiting single user mode.</p>
6512 <p>A similar problem with runlevel 1 is caused by the amount of
6513 scripts executed from /etc/rcS.d/. When switching from say runlevel 2
6514 to runlevel 1, the services started from /etc/rcS.d/ are not properly
6515 stopped when passing through the scripts in /etc/rc1.d/, and not
6516 started again when switching away from runlevel 1 to the runlevels
6517 2-5. I believe the problem is best fixed by moving all the scripts
6518 out of /etc/rcS.d/ that are not <strong>required</strong> to get a
6519 functioning single user mode during boot.</p>
6521 <p>I have spent several years investigating the Debian boot system,
6522 and discovered this problem a few years ago. I suspect it originates
6523 from when sysvinit was introduced into Debian, a long time ago.</p>
6529 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>.
6534 <div class="padding
"></div>
6538 <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>
6544 <p>In the Debian boot system, several packages include scripts that
6545 are started from /etc/rcS.d/. In fact, there is a bite more of them
6546 than make sense, and this causes a few problems. What kind of
6547 problems, you might ask. There are at least two problems. The first
6548 is that it is not possible to recover a machine after switching to
6549 runlevel 1. One need to actually reboot to get the machine back to
6550 the expected state. The other is that single user boot will sometimes
6551 run into problems because some of the subsystems are activated before
6552 the root login is presented, causing problems when trying to recover a
6553 machine from a problem in that subsystem. A minor additional point is
6554 that moving more scripts out of rcS.d/ and into the other rc#.d/
6555 directories will increase the amount of scripts that can run in
6556 parallel during boot, and thus decrease the boot time.</p>
6558 <p>So, which scripts should start from rcS.d/. In short, only the
6559 scripts that _have_ to execute before the root login prompt is
6560 presented during a single user boot should go there. Everything else
6561 should go into the numeric runlevels. This means things like
6562 lm-sensors, fuse and x11-common should not run from rcS.d, but from
6563 the numeric runlevels. Today in Debian, there are around 115 init.d
6564 scripts that are started from rcS.d/, and most of them should be moved
6565 out. Do your package have one of them? Please help us make single
6566 user and runlevel 1 better by moving it.</p>
6568 <p>Scripts setting up the screen, keyboard, system partitions
6569 etc. should still be started from rcS.d/, but there is for example no
6570 need to have the network enabled before the single user login prompt
6573 <p>As always, things are not so easy to fix as they sound. To keep
6574 Debian systems working while scripts migrate and during upgrades, the
6575 scripts need to be moved from rcS.d/ to rc2.d/ in reverse dependency
6576 order, ie the scripts that nothing in rcS.d/ depend on can be moved,
6577 and the next ones can only be moved when their dependencies have been
6578 moved first. This migration must be done sequentially while we ensure
6579 that the package system upgrade packages in the right order to keep
6580 the system state correct. This will require some coordination when it
6581 comes to network related packages, but most of the packages with
6582 scripts that should migrate do not have anything in rcS.d/ depending
6583 on them. Some packages have already been updated, like the sudo
6584 package, while others are still left to do. I wish I had time to work
6585 on this myself, but real live constrains make it unlikely that I will
6586 find time to push this forward.</p>
6592 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>.
6597 <div class="padding
"></div>
6601 <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>
6607 <p>While at Debconf11, I have several times during discussions
6608 mentioned the issues I believe should be improved in Debian for its
6609 desktop to be useful for more people. The use case for this is my
6610 parents, which are currently running Kubuntu which solve the
6613 <p>I suspect these four missing features are not very hard to
6614 implement. After all, they are present in Ubuntu, so if we wanted to
6615 do this in Debian we would have a source.</p>
6619 <li><strong>Simple GUI based upgrade of packages.</strong> When there
6620 are new packages available for upgrades, a icon in the KDE status bar
6621 indicate this, and clicking on it will activate the simple upgrade
6622 tool to handle it. I have no problem guiding both of my parents
6623 through the process over the phone. If a kernel reboot is required,
6624 this too is indicated by the status bars and the upgrade tool. Last
6625 time I checked, nothing with the same features was working in KDE in
6628 <li><strong>Simple handling of missing Firefox browser
6629 plugins.</strong> When the browser encounter a MIME type it do not
6630 currently have a handler for, it will ask the user if the system
6631 should search for a package that would add support for this MIME type,
6632 and if the user say yes, the APT sources will be searched for packages
6633 advertising the MIME type in their control file (visible in the
6634 Packages file in the APT archive). If one or more packages are found,
6635 it is a simple click of the mouse to add support for the missing mime
6636 type. If the package require the user to accept some non-free
6637 license, this is explained to the user. The entire process make it
6638 more clear to the user why something do not work in the browser, and
6639 make the chances higher for the user to blame the web page authors and
6640 not the browser for any missing features.</li>
6642 <li><strong>Simple handling of missing multimedia codec/format
6643 handlers.</strong> When the media players encounter a format or codec
6644 it is not supporting, a dialog pop up asking the user if the system
6645 should search for a package that would add support for it. This
6646 happen with things like MP3, Windows Media or H.264. The selection
6647 and installation procedure is very similar to the Firefox browser
6648 plugin handling. This is as far as I know implemented using a
6649 gstreamer hook. The end result is that the user easily get access to
6650 the codecs that are present from the APT archives available, while
6651 explaining more on why a given format is unsupported by Ubuntu.</li>
6653 <li><strong>Better browser handling of some MIME types.</strong> When
6654 displaying a text/plain file in my Debian browser, it will propose to
6655 start emacs to show it. If I remember correctly, when doing the same
6656 in Kunbutu it show the file as a text file in the browser. At least I
6657 know Opera will show text files within the browser. I much prefer the
6658 latter behaviour.</li>
6662 <p>There are other nice features as well, like the simplified suite
6663 upgrader, but given that I am the one mostly doing the dist-upgrade,
6664 it do not matter much.</p>
6666 <p>I really hope we could get these features in place for the next
6667 Debian release. It would require the coordinated effort of several
6668 maintainers, but would make the end user experience a lot better.</p>
6674 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>.
6679 <div class="padding
"></div>
6683 <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>
6689 <p>The Norwegian <a href="http://www.fiksgatami.no/
">FiksGataMi</A>
6690 site is build on Debian/Squeeze, and this platform was chosen because
6691 I am most familiar with Debian (being a Debian Developer for around 10
6692 years) because it is the latest stable Debian release which should get
6693 security support for a few years.</p>
6695 <p>The web service is written in Perl, and depend on some perl modules
6696 that are missing in Debian at the moment. It would be great if these
6697 modules were added to the Debian archive, allowing anyone to set up
6698 their own <a href="http://www.fixmystreet.com
">FixMyStreet</a> clone
6699 in their own country using only Debian packages. The list of modules
6700 missing in Debian/Squeeze isn't very long, and I hope the perl group
6701 will find time to package the 12 modules Catalyst::Plugin::SmartURI,
6702 Catalyst::Plugin::Unicode::Encoding, Catalyst::View::TT, Devel::Hide,
6703 Sort::Key, Statistics::Distributions, Template::Plugin::Comma,
6704 Template::Plugin::DateTime::Format, Term::Size::Any, Term::Size::Perl,
6705 URI::SmartURI and Web::Scraper to make the maintenance of FixMyStreet
6706 easier in the future.</p>
6708 <p>Thanks to the great tools in Debian, getting the missing modules
6709 installed on my server was a simple call to 'cpan2deb Module::Name'
6710 and 'dpkg -i' to install the resulting package. But this leave me
6711 with the responsibility of tracking security problems, which I really
6712 do not have time for.</p>
6718 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>.
6723 <div class="padding
"></div>
6727 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Free_Software_vs__proprietary_softare___.html
">Free Software vs. proprietary softare...</a>
6734 <a href="http://blog.thingiverse.com/
2011/
06/
20/open-source-vs-closed-source-eulas/
">the
6735 thingiverse blog</a>, I came across two highlights of interesting
6737 <a href="http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Autodesk_EULA
">Autodesk</a>
6739 <a href="http://blog.makezine.com/archive/
2011/
06/things-you-cant-do-with-the-microsoft-kinect-sdk.html
">Microsoft
6740 Kinect</a> End User License Agreements (EULAs), which illustrates
6741 quite well why I stay away from software with EULAs. Whenever I take
6742 the time to read their content, the terms are simply unacceptable.</p>
6748 Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english
">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/opphavsrett
">opphavsrett</a>.
6753 <div class="padding
"></div>
6757 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Experimental_Open311_API_for_the_mySociety_fixmystreet_system.html
">Experimental Open311 API for the mySociety fixmystreet system</a>
6763 <p>Today, the first draft implementation of an
6764 <a href="http://www.open311.org/
">Open311 API</a> for the Norwegian
6765 service <a href="http://www.fiksgatami.no/
">FiksGataMi</a> started to
6766 work. It is only available on the developer server for now, and I
6767 have not tested it using any existing Open311 client (I lack the
6768 platforms needed to run the clients I have found so far), but it is
6769 able to query the database and extract a list of open and closed
6770 requests within a given category and reported to a given municipality.
6771 I believe that is a good start to create a useful service for those
6772 that want to do data mining on the requests submitted so far.</p>
6774 <p>Where is it? Visit
6775 <a href="http://fiksgatami-dev.nuug.no/open311.cgi/v2/
">http://fiksgatami-dev.nuug.no/open311.cgi/v2/</a>
6776 to have a look. Please send feedback to the
6777 <a href="http://lists.nuug.no/mailman/listinfo/fiksgatami
">fiksgatami
6778 (at) nuug.no</a> mailing list.</p>
6784 Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english
">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/fiksgatami
">fiksgatami</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/open311
">open311</a>.
6789 <div class="padding
"></div>
6793 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Initial_notes_on_adding_Open311_server_API_on_FixMyStreet.html
">Initial notes on adding Open311 server API on FixMyStreet</a>
6799 <p>The last few days I have spent some time trying to add support for
6800 the <a href="http://www.open311.org/
">Open311 API</a> in the
6801 <a href="http://www.fiksgatami.no/
">Norwegian FixMyStreet service</a>.
6802 Earlier I believed Open311 would be a useful API to use to submit
6803 reports to the municipalities, but when I noticed that the
6804 <a href="http://fixmystreet.org.nz/
">New Zealand version</a> of
6805 FixMyStreet had implemented Open311 on the server side, it occurred to
6806 me that this was a nice way to allow the public, press and
6807 municipalities to do data mining directly in the FixMyStreet service.
6808 Thus I went to work implementing the Open311 specification for
6809 FixMyStreet. The implementation is not yet ready, but I am starting
6810 to get a draft limping along. In the process, I have discovered a few
6811 issues with the Open311 specification.</p>
6813 <p>One obvious missing feature is the lack of natural language
6814 handling in the specification. The specification seem to assume all
6815 reports will be written in English, and do not provide a way for the
6816 receiving end to specify which languages are understood there. To be
6817 able to use the same client and submit to several Open311 receivers,
6818 it would be useful to know which language to use when writing reports.
6819 I believe the specification should be extended to allow the receivers
6820 of problem reports to specify which language they accept, and the
6821 submitter to specify which language the report is written in.
6822 Language of a text can also be automatically guessed using statistical
6823 methods, but for multi-lingual persons like myself, it is useful to
6824 know which language to use when writing a problem report. I suspect
6825 some lang=nb,nn kind of attribute would solve it.</p>
6827 <p>A key part of the Open311 API is the list of services provided,
6828 which is similar to the categories used by FixMyStreet. One issue I
6829 run into is the need to specify both name and unique identifier for
6830 each category. The specification do not state that the identifier
6831 should be numeric, but all example implementations have used numbers
6832 here. In FixMyStreet, there is no number associated with each
6833 category. As the specification do not forbid it, I will use the name
6834 as the unique identifier for now and see how open311 clients handle
6837 <p>The report format in open311 and the report format in FixMyStreet
6838 differ in a key part. FixMyStreet have a title and a description,
6839 while Open311 only have a description and lack the title. I'm not
6840 quite sure how to best handle this yet. When asking for a FixMyStreet
6841 report in Open311 format, I just merge title an description into the
6842 open311 description, but this is not going to work if the open311 API
6843 should be used for submitting new reports to FixMyStreet.</p>
6845 <p>The search feature in Open311 is missing a way to ask for problems
6846 near a geographic location. I believe this is important if one is to
6847 use Open311 as the query language for mobile units. The specification
6848 should be extended to handle this, probably using some new lat=, lon=
6849 and range= options.</p>
6851 <p>The final challenge I see is that the FixMyStreet code handle
6852 several administrations in one interface, while the Open311 API seem
6853 to assume only one administration. For FixMyStreet, this mean a
6854 report can be sent to several administrations, and the categories
6855 available depend on the location of the problem. Not quite sure how
6856 to best handle this. I've noticed
6857 <a href="http://seeclickfix.com/open311/
">SeeClickFix</a> added
6858 latitude and longitude options to the services request, but it do not
6859 solve the problem of what to return when no location is specified.
6860 Will have to investigate this a bit more.</p>
6862 <p>My distaste for web forums have kept me from bringing these issues
6863 up with the open311 developer group. I really wish they had a email
6864 list available via <a href="http://www.gmane.org/
">Gmane</a> to use for
6865 discussions instead of only
6866 <a href="http://lists.open311.org/groups/discuss
">a forum<a/>. Oh,
6867 well. That will probably resolve itself, one way or another. I've
6868 also tried visiting the IRC channel #open311 on FreeNode, but no-one
6869 seem to reply to my questions there. This make me wonder if I just
6870 fail to understand how the open311 community work. It sure do not
6871 work like the free software project communities I am used to.</p>
6877 Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english
">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/fiksgatami
">fiksgatami</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/open311
">open311</a>.
6882 <div class="padding
"></div>
6886 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Gnash_enteres_Google_Summer_of_Code_2011.html
">Gnash enteres Google Summer of Code 2011</a>
6892 <p><a href="http://www.getgnash.org/
">The Gnash project</a> is still
6893 the most promising solution for a Free Software Flash implementation.
6894 A few days ago the project
6895 <a href="http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/gnash-dev/
2011-
04/msg00011.html
">announced</a>
6896 that it will participate in Google Summer of Code. I hope many
6897 students apply, and that some of them succeed in getting AVM2 support
6904 Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english
">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/multimedia
">multimedia</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/video
">video</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/web
">web</a>.
6909 <div class="padding
"></div>
6913 <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>
6919 <p>Here is a small update for my English readers. Most of my blog
6920 posts have been in Norwegian the last few weeks, so here is a short
6921 update in English.</p>
6923 <p>The kids still keep me too busy to get much free software work
6924 done, but I did manage to organise a project to get a Norwegian port
6925 of the British service
6926 <a href="http://www.fixmystreet.com/
">FixMyStreet</a> up and running,
6927 and it has been running for a month now. The entire project has been
6928 organised by me and two others. Around Christmas we gathered sponsors
6929 to fund the development work. In January I drafted a contract with
6930 <a href="http://www.mysociety.org/
">mySociety</a> on what to develop,
6931 and in February the development took place. Most of it involved
6932 converting the source to use GPS coordinates instead of British
6933 easting/northing, and the resulting code should be a lot easier to get
6934 running in any country by now. The Norwegian
6935 <a href="http://www.fiksgatami.no/
">FiksGataMi</a> is using
6936 <a href="http://www.openstreetmap.org/
">OpenStreetmap</a> as the map
6937 source and the source for administrative borders in Norway, and
6938 support for this had to be added/fixed.</p>
6940 <p>The Norwegian version went live March 3th, and we spent the weekend
6941 polishing the system before we announced it March 7th. The system is
6942 running on a KVM instance of Debian/Squeeze, and has seen almost 3000
6943 problem reports in a few weeks. Soon we hope to announce the Android
6944 and iPhone versions making it even easier to report problems with the
6945 public infrastructure.</p>
6947 <p>Perhaps something to consider for those of you in countries without
6954 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>.
6959 <div class="padding
"></div>
6963 <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>
6969 <p>The last few days I have looked at ways to track open security
6970 issues here at my work with the University of Oslo. My idea is that
6971 it should be possible to use the information about security issues
6972 available on the Internet, and check our locally
6973 maintained/distributed software against this information. It should
6974 allow us to verify that no known security issues are forgotten. The
6975 CVE database listing vulnerabilities seem like a great central point,
6976 and by using the package lists from Debian mapped to CVEs provided by
6977 the testing security team, I believed it should be possible to figure
6978 out which security holes were present in our free software
6981 <p>After reading up on the topic, it became obvious that the first
6982 building block is to be able to name software packages in a unique and
6983 consistent way across data sources. I considered several ways to do
6984 this, for example coming up with my own naming scheme like using URLs
6985 to project home pages or URLs to the Freshmeat entries, or using some
6986 existing naming scheme. And it seem like I am not the first one to
6987 come across this problem, as MITRE already proposed and implemented a
6988 solution. Enter the <a href="http://cpe.mitre.org/index.html
">Common
6989 Platform Enumeration</a> dictionary, a vocabulary for referring to
6990 software, hardware and other platform components. The CPE ids are
6991 mapped to CVEs in the <a href="http://web.nvd.nist.gov/
">National
6992 Vulnerability Database</a>, allowing me to look up know security
6993 issues for any CPE name. With this in place, all I need to do is to
6994 locate the CPE id for the software packages we use at the university.
6995 This is fairly trivial (I google for 'cve cpe $package' and check the
6996 NVD entry if a CVE for the package exist).</p>
6998 <p>To give you an example. The GNU gzip source package have the CPE
6999 name cpe:/a:gnu:gzip. If the old version 1.3.3 was the package to
7000 check out, one could look up
7001 <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
7002 in NVD</a> and get a list of 6 security holes with public CVE entries.
7003 The most recent one is
7004 <a href="http://web.nvd.nist.gov/view/vuln/detail?vulnId=CVE-
2010-
0001">CVE-2010-0001</a>,
7005 and at the bottom of the NVD page for this vulnerability the complete
7006 list of affected versions is provided.</p>
7008 <p>The NVD database of CVEs is also available as a XML dump, allowing
7009 for offline processing of issues. Using this dump, I've written a
7010 small script taking a list of CPEs as input and list all CVEs
7011 affecting the packages represented by these CPEs. One give it CPEs
7012 with version numbers as specified above and get a list of open
7013 security issues out.</p>
7015 <p>Of course for this approach to be useful, the quality of the NVD
7016 information need to be high. For that to happen, I believe as many as
7017 possible need to use and contribute to the NVD database. I notice
7019 <a href="https://www.redhat.com/security/data/metrics/rhsamapcpe.txt
">a
7020 map from CVE to CPE</a>, indicating that they are using the CPE
7021 information. I'm not aware of Debian and Ubuntu doing the same.</p>
7023 <p>To get an idea about the quality for free software, I spent some
7024 time making it possible to compare the CVE database from Debian with
7025 the CVE database in NVD. The result look fairly good, but there are
7026 some inconsistencies in NVD (same software package having several
7027 CPEs), and some inaccuracies (NVD not mentioning buggy packages that
7028 Debian believe are affected by a CVE). Hope to find time to improve
7029 the quality of NVD, but that require being able to get in touch with
7030 someone maintaining it. So far my three emails with questions and
7031 corrections have not seen any reply, but I hope contact can be
7032 established soon.</p>
7034 <p>An interesting application for CPEs is cross platform package
7035 mapping. It would be useful to know which packages in for example
7036 RHEL, OpenSuSe and Mandriva are missing from Debian and Ubuntu, and
7037 this would be trivial if all linux distributions provided CPE entries
7038 for their packages.</p>
7044 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>.
7049 <div class="padding
"></div>
7053 <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>
7060 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/discover-data
">discover-data</a>
7061 package in Debian, there is a script to report useful information
7062 about the running hardware for use when people report missing
7063 information. One part of this script that I find very useful when
7064 debugging hardware problems, is the part mapping loaded kernel module
7065 to the PCI device it claims. It allow me to quickly see if the kernel
7066 module I expect is driving the hardware I am struggling with. To see
7067 the output, make sure discover-data is installed and run
7068 <tt>/usr/share/bug/discover-data 3>&1</tt>. The relevant output on
7069 one of my machines like this:</p>
7073 10de:03eb i2c_nforce2
7076 10de:03f0 snd_hda_intel
7085 <p>The code in question look like this, slightly modified for
7086 readability and to drop the output to file descriptor 3:</p>
7089 if [ -d /sys/bus/pci/devices/ ] ; then
7090 echo loaded pci modules:
7092 cd /sys/bus/pci/devices/
7093 for address in * ; do
7094 if [ -d "$address/driver/module" ] ; then
7095 module=`cd $address/driver/module ; pwd -P | xargs basename`
7096 if grep -q "^$module " /proc/modules ; then
7097 address=$(echo $address |sed s/
0000://)
7098 id=`lspci -n -s $address | tail -n
1 | awk '{print $
3}'`
7108 <p>Similar code could be used to extract USB device module
7112 if [ -d /sys/bus/usb/devices/ ] ; then
7113 echo loaded usb modules:
7115 cd /sys/bus/usb/devices/
7116 for address in * ; do
7117 if [ -d "$address/driver/module" ] ; then
7118 module=`cd $address/driver/module ; pwd -P | xargs basename`
7119 if grep -q "^$module " /proc/modules ; then
7120 address=$(echo $address |sed s/
0000://)
7121 id=$(lsusb -s $address | tail -n
1 | awk '{print $
6}')
7133 <p>This might perhaps be something to include in other tools as
7140 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>.
7145 <div class=
"padding"></div>
7149 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_video_format_most_supported_in_web_browsers_.html">The video format most supported in web browsers?
</a>
7155 <p>The video format struggle on the web continues, and the three
7156 contenders seem to be Ogg Theora, H
.264 and WebM. Most video sites
7157 seem to use H
.264, while others use Ogg Theora. Interestingly enough,
7158 the comments I see give me the feeling that a lot of people believe
7159 H
.264 is the most supported video format in browsers, but according to
7160 the Wikipedia article on
7161 <a href=
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTML5_video">HTML5 video
</a>,
7162 this is not true. Check out the nice table of supprted formats in
7163 different browsers there. The format supported by most browsers is
7164 Ogg Theora, supported by released versions of Mozilla Firefox, Google
7165 Chrome, Chromium, Opera, Konqueror, Epiphany, Origyn Web Browser and
7166 BOLT browser, while not supported by Internet Explorer nor Safari.
7167 The runner up is WebM supported by released versions of Google Chrome
7168 Chromium Opera and Origyn Web Browser, and test versions of Mozilla
7169 Firefox. H
.264 is supported by released versions of Safari, Origyn
7170 Web Browser and BOLT browser, and the test version of Internet
7171 Explorer. Those wanting Ogg Theora support in Internet Explorer and
7172 Safari can install plugins to get it.
</p>
7174 <p>To me, the simple conclusion from this is that to reach most users
7175 without any extra software installed, one uses Ogg Theora with the
7176 HTML5 video tag. Of course to reach all those without a browser
7177 handling HTML5, one need fallback mechanisms. In
7178 <a href=
"http://www.nuug.no/">NUUG
</a>, we provide first fallback to a
7179 plugin capable of playing MPEG1 video, and those without such support
7180 we have a second fallback to the Cortado java applet playing Ogg
7181 Theora. This seem to work quite well, as can be seen in an
<a
7182 href=
"http://www.nuug.no/aktiviteter/20110111-semantic-web/">example
7183 from last week
</a>.
</p>
7185 <p>The reason Ogg Theora is the most supported format, and H
.264 is
7186 the least supported is simple. Implementing and using H
.264
7187 require royalty payment to MPEG-LA, and the terms of use from MPEG-LA
7188 are incompatible with free software licensing. If you believed H
.264
7189 was without royalties and license terms, check out
7190 "
<a href=
"http://webmink.com/essays/h-264/">H
.264 – Not The Kind Of
7191 Free That Matters
</a>" by Simon Phipps.</p>
7193 <p>A incomplete list of sites providing video in Ogg Theora is
7195 <a href="http://wiki.xiph.org/index.php/List_of_Theora_videos
">the
7196 Xiph.org wiki</a>, if you want to have a look. I'm not aware of a
7197 similar list for WebM nor H.264.</p>
7199 <p>Update 2011-01-16 09:40: A question from Tollef on IRC made me
7200 realise that I failed to make it clear enough this text is about the
7201 <video> tag support in browsers and not the video support
7202 provided by external plugins like the Flash plugins.</p>
7208 Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english
">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug
">nuug</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/standard
">standard</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/video
">video</a>.
7213 <div class="padding
"></div>
7217 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Chrome_plan_to_drop_H_264_support_for_HTML5__lt_video_gt_.html
">Chrome plan to drop H.264 support for HTML5 <video></a>
7223 <p>Today I discovered
7224 <a href="http://www.digi.no/
860070/google-dropper-h264-stotten-i-chrome
">via
7225 digi.no</a> that the Chrome developers, in a surprising announcement,
7226 <a href="http://blog.chromium.org/
2011/
01/html-video-codec-support-in-chrome.html
">yesterday
7227 announced</a> plans to drop H.264 support for HTML5 <video> in
7228 the browser. The argument used is that H.264 is not a "completely
7229 open" codec technology. If you believe H
.264 was free for everyone
7230 to use, I recommend having a look at the essay
7231 "
<a href=
"http://webmink.com/essays/h-264/">H
.264 – Not The Kind Of
7232 Free That Matters
</a>". It is not free of cost for creators of video
7233 tools, nor those of us that want to publish on the Internet, and the
7234 terms provided by MPEG-LA excludes free software projects from
7235 licensing the patents needed for H.264. Some background information
7236 on the Google announcement is available from
7237 <a href="http://www.osnews.com/story/
24243/Google_To_Drop_H264_Support_from_Chrome
">OSnews</a>.
7240 <p>Personally, I believe it is great that Google is taking a stand to
7241 promote equal terms for everyone when it comes to video publishing on
7242 the Internet. This can only be done by publishing using free and open
7243 standards, which is only possible if the web browsers provide support
7244 for these free and open standards. At the moment there seem to be two
7245 camps in the web browser world when it come to video support. Some
7246 browsers support H.264, and others support
7247 <a href="http://www.theora.org/
">Ogg Theora</a> and
7248 <a href="http://www.webmproject.org/
">WebM</a>
7249 (<a href="http://www.diracvideo.org/
">Dirac</a> is not really an option
7250 yet), forcing those of us that want to publish video on the Internet
7251 and which can not accept the terms of use presented by MPEG-LA for
7252 H.264 to not reach all potential viewers.
7253 Wikipedia keep <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTML5_video
">an
7254 updated summary</a> of the current browser support.</p>
7256 <p>Not surprising, several people would prefer Google to keep
7257 promoting H.264, and John Gruber
7258 <a href="http://daringfireball.net/
2011/
01/simple_questions
">presents
7259 the mind set</a> of these people quite well. His rhetorical questions
7260 provoked a reply from Thom Holwerda with another set of questions
7261 <a href="http://www.osnews.com/story/
24245/
10_Questions_for_John_Gruber_Regarding_H_264_WebM
">presenting
7262 the issues with H.264</a>. Both are worth a read.</p>
7264 <p>Some argue that if Google is dropping H.264 because it isn't free,
7265 they should also drop support for the Adobe Flash plugin. This
7266 argument was covered by Simon Phipps in
7267 <a href="http://blogs.computerworlduk.com/simon-says/
2011/
01/google-and-h264---far-from-hypocritical/index.htm
">todays
7268 blog post</a>, which I find to put the issue in context. To me it
7269 make perfect sense to drop native H.264 support for HTML5 in the
7270 browser while still allowing plugins.</p>
7272 <p>I suspect the reason this announcement make so many people protest,
7273 is that all the users and promoters of H.264 suddenly get an uneasy
7274 feeling that they might be backing the wrong horse. A lot of TV
7275 broadcasters have been moving to H.264 the last few years, and a lot
7276 of money has been invested in hardware based on the belief that they
7277 could use the same video format for both broadcasting and web
7278 publishing. Suddenly this belief is shaken.</p>
7280 <p>An interesting question is why Google is doing this. While the
7281 presented argument might be true enough, I believe Google would only
7282 present the argument if the change make sense from a business
7283 perspective. One reason might be that they are currently negotiating
7284 with MPEG-LA over royalties or usage terms, and giving MPEG-LA the
7285 feeling that dropping H.264 completely from Chroome, Youtube and
7286 Google Video would improve the negotiation position of Google.
7287 Another reason might be that Google want to save money by not having
7288 to pay the video tax to MPEG-LA at all, and thus want to move to a
7289 video format not requiring royalties at all. A third reason might be
7290 that the Chrome development team simply want to avoid the
7291 Chrome/Chromium split to get more help with the development of Chrome.
7292 I guess time will tell.</p>
7294 <p>Update 2011-01-15: The Google Chrome team provided
7295 <a href="http://blog.chromium.org/
2011/
01/more-about-chrome-html-video-codec.html
">more
7296 background and information on the move</a> it a blog post yesterday.</p>
7302 Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english
">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/standard
">standard</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/video
">video</a>.
7307 <div class="padding
"></div>
7311 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/What_standards_are_Free_and_Open_as_defined_by_Digistan_.html
">What standards are Free and Open as defined by Digistan?</a>
7318 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Is_Ogg_Theora_a_free_and_open_standard_.html
">compare
7320 <a href="http://www.digistan.org/open-standard:definition
">the Digistan
7321 definition</a> of a free and open standard, I concluded that this need
7322 to be done for more standards and started on a framework for doing
7323 this. As a start, I want to get the status for all the standards in
7324 the Norwegian reference directory, which include UTF-8, HTML, PDF, ODF,
7325 JPEG, PNG, SVG and others. But to be able to complete this in a
7326 reasonable time frame, I will need help.</p>
7328 <p>If you want to help out with this work, please visit
7329 <a href="http://wiki.nuug.no/grupper/standard/digistan-analyse
">the
7330 wiki pages I have set up for this</a>, and let me know that you want
7331 to help out. The IRC channel #nuug on irc.freenode.net is a good
7332 place to coordinate this for now, as it is the IRC channel for the
7333 NUUG association where I have created the framework (I am the leader
7334 of the Norwegian Unix User Group).</p>
7336 <p>The framework is still forming, and a lot is left to do. Do not be
7337 scared by the sketchy form of the current pages. :)</p>
7343 Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/digistan
">digistan</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english
">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/standard
">standard</a>.
7348 <div class="padding
"></div>
7352 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_many_definitions_of_a_open_standard.html
">The many definitions of a open standard</a>
7358 <p>One of the reasons I like the Digistan definition of
7359 "<a href=
"http://www.digistan.org/open-standard:definition">Free and
7360 Open Standard
</a>" is that this is a new term, and thus the meaning of
7361 the term has been decided by Digistan. The term "Open Standard
" has
7362 become so misunderstood that it is no longer very useful when talking
7363 about standards. One end up discussing which definition is the best
7364 one and with such frame the only one gaining are the proponents of
7365 de-facto standards and proprietary solutions.</p>
7367 <p>But to give us an idea about the diversity of definitions of open
7368 standards, here are a few that I know about. This list is not
7369 complete, but can be a starting point for those that want to do a
7370 complete survey. More definitions are available on the
7371 <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_standard
">wikipedia
7374 <p>First off is my favourite, the definition from the European
7375 Interoperability Framework version 1.0. Really sad to notice that BSA
7376 and others has succeeded in getting it removed from version 2.0 of the
7377 framework by stacking the committee drafting the new version with
7378 their own people. Anyway, the definition is still available and it
7379 include the key properties needed to make sure everyone can use a
7380 specification on equal terms.</p>
7384 <p>The following are the minimal characteristics that a specification
7385 and its attendant documents must have in order to be considered an
7390 <li>The standard is adopted and will be maintained by a not-for-profit
7391 organisation, and its ongoing development occurs on the basis of an
7392 open decision-making procedure available to all interested parties
7393 (consensus or majority decision etc.).</li>
7395 <li>The standard has been published and the standard specification
7396 document is available either freely or at a nominal charge. It must be
7397 permissible to all to copy, distribute and use it for no fee or at a
7400 <li>The intellectual property - i.e. patents possibly present - of
7401 (parts of) the standard is made irrevocably available on a royalty-
7404 <li>There are no constraints on the re-use of the standard.</li>
7409 <p>Another one originates from my friends over at
7410 <a href="http://www.dkuug.dk/
">DKUUG</a>, who coined and gathered
7411 support for <a href="http://www.aaben-standard.dk/
">this
7412 definition</a> in 2004. It even made it into the Danish parlament as
7413 <a href="http://www.ft.dk/dokumenter/tingdok.aspx?/samling/
20051/beslutningsforslag/B103/som_fremsat.htm
">their
7414 definition of a open standard</a>. Another from a different part of
7415 the Danish government is available from the wikipedia page.</p>
7419 <p>En åben standard opfylder følgende krav:</p>
7423 <li>Veldokumenteret med den fuldstændige specifikation offentligt
7426 <li>Frit implementerbar uden økonomiske, politiske eller juridiske
7427 begrænsninger på implementation og anvendelse.</li>
7429 <li>Standardiseret og vedligeholdt i et åbent forum (en såkaldt
7430 "standardiseringsorganisation") via en åben proces.
</li>
7436 <p>Then there is
<a href=
"http://www.fsfe.org/projects/os/def.html">the
7437 definition
</a> from Free Software Foundation Europe.
</p>
7441 <p>An Open Standard refers to a format or protocol that is
</p>
7445 <li>subject to full public assessment and use without constraints in a
7446 manner equally available to all parties;
</li>
7448 <li>without any components or extensions that have dependencies on
7449 formats or protocols that do not meet the definition of an Open
7450 Standard themselves;
</li>
7452 <li>free from legal or technical clauses that limit its utilisation by
7453 any party or in any business model;
</li>
7455 <li>managed and further developed independently of any single vendor
7456 in a process open to the equal participation of competitors and third
7459 <li>available in multiple complete implementations by competing
7460 vendors, or as a complete implementation equally available to all
7467 <p>A long time ago, SUN Microsystems, now bought by Oracle, created
7469 <a href=
"http://blogs.sun.com/dennisding/resource/Open%20Standard%20Definition.pdf">Open
7470 Standards Checklist
</a> with a fairly detailed description.
</p>
7473 <p>Creation and Management of an Open Standard
7477 <li>Its development and management process must be collaborative and
7482 <li>Participation must be accessible to all those who wish to
7483 participate and can meet fair and reasonable criteria
7484 imposed by the organization under which it is developed
7487 <li>The processes must be documented and, through a known
7488 method, can be changed through input from all
7491 <li>The process must be based on formal and binding commitments for
7492 the disclosure and licensing of intellectual property rights.
</li>
7494 <li>Development and management should strive for consensus,
7495 and an appeals process must be clearly outlined.
</li>
7497 <li>The standard specification must be open to extensive
7498 public review at least once in its life-cycle, with
7499 comments duly discussed and acted upon, if required.
</li>
7507 <p>Use and Licensing of an Open Standard
</p>
7510 <li>The standard must describe an interface, not an implementation,
7511 and the industry must be capable of creating multiple, competing
7512 implementations to the interface described in the standard without
7513 undue or restrictive constraints. Interfaces include APIs,
7514 protocols, schemas, data formats and their encoding.
</li>
7516 <li> The standard must not contain any proprietary "hooks" that create
7517 a technical or economic barriers
</li>
7519 <li>Faithful implementations of the standard must
7520 interoperate. Interoperability means the ability of a computer
7521 program to communicate and exchange information with other computer
7522 programs and mutually to use the information which has been
7523 exchanged. This includes the ability to use, convert, or exchange
7524 file formats, protocols, schemas, interface information or
7525 conventions, so as to permit the computer program to work with other
7526 computer programs and users in all the ways in which they are
7527 intended to function.
</li>
7529 <li>It must be permissible for anyone to copy, distribute and read the
7530 standard for a nominal fee, or even no fee. If there is a fee, it
7531 must be low enough to not preclude widespread use.
</li>
7533 <li>It must be possible for anyone to obtain free (no royalties or
7534 fees; also known as "royalty free"), worldwide, non-exclusive and
7535 perpetual licenses to all essential patent claims to make, use and
7536 sell products based on the standard. The only exceptions are
7537 terminations per the reciprocity and defensive suspension terms
7538 outlined below. Essential patent claims include pending, unpublished
7539 patents, published patents, and patent applications. The license is
7540 only for the exact scope of the standard in question.
7544 <li> May be conditioned only on reciprocal licenses to any of
7545 licensees' patent claims essential to practice that standard
7546 (also known as a reciprocity clause)
</li>
7548 <li> May be terminated as to any licensee who sues the licensor
7549 or any other licensee for infringement of patent claims
7550 essential to practice that standard (also known as a
7551 "defensive suspension" clause)
</li>
7553 <li> The same licensing terms are available to every potential
7559 <li>The licensing terms of an open standards must not preclude
7560 implementations of that standard under open source licensing terms
7561 or restricted licensing terms
</li>
7567 <p>It is said that one of the nice things about standards is that
7568 there are so many of them. As you can see, the same holds true for
7569 open standard definitions. Most of the definitions have a lot in
7570 common, and it is not really controversial what properties a open
7571 standard should have, but the diversity of definitions have made it
7572 possible for those that want to avoid a level marked field and real
7573 competition to downplay the significance of open standards. I hope we
7574 can turn this tide by focusing on the advantages of Free and Open
7581 Tags:
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/digistan">digistan
</a>,
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english
</a>,
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/standard">standard
</a>.
7586 <div class=
"padding"></div>
7590 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Is_Ogg_Theora_a_free_and_open_standard_.html">Is Ogg Theora a free and open standard?
</a>
7596 <p><a href=
"http://www.digistan.org/open-standard:definition">The
7597 Digistan definition
</a> of a free and open standard reads like this:
</p>
7601 <p>The Digital Standards Organization defines free and open standard
7606 <li>A free and open standard is immune to vendor capture at all stages
7607 in its life-cycle. Immunity from vendor capture makes it possible to
7608 freely use, improve upon, trust, and extend a standard over time.
</li>
7610 <li>The standard is adopted and will be maintained by a not-for-profit
7611 organisation, and its ongoing development occurs on the basis of an
7612 open decision-making procedure available to all interested
7615 <li>The standard has been published and the standard specification
7616 document is available freely. It must be permissible to all to copy,
7617 distribute, and use it freely.
</li>
7619 <li>The patents possibly present on (parts of) the standard are made
7620 irrevocably available on a royalty-free basis.
</li>
7622 <li>There are no constraints on the re-use of the standard.
</li>
7626 <p>The economic outcome of a free and open standard, which can be
7627 measured, is that it enables perfect competition between suppliers of
7628 products based on the standard.
</p>
7631 <p>For a while now I have tried to figure out of Ogg Theora is a free
7632 and open standard according to this definition. Here is a short
7633 writeup of what I have been able to gather so far. I brought up the
7634 topic on the Xiph advocacy mailing list
7635 <a href=
"http://lists.xiph.org/pipermail/advocacy/2009-July/001632.html">in
7636 July
2009</a>, for those that want to see some background information.
7637 According to Ivo Emanuel Gonçalves and Monty Montgomery on that list
7638 the Ogg Theora specification fulfils the Digistan definition.
</p>
7640 <p><strong>Free from vendor capture?
</strong></p>
7642 <p>As far as I can see, there is no single vendor that can control the
7643 Ogg Theora specification. It can be argued that the
7644 <a href=
"http://www.xiph.org/">Xiph foundation
</A> is such vendor, but
7645 given that it is a non-profit foundation with the expressed goal
7646 making free and open protocols and standards available, it is not
7647 obvious that this is a real risk. One issue with the Xiph
7648 foundation is that its inner working (as in board member list, or who
7649 control the foundation) are not easily available on the web. I've
7650 been unable to find out who is in the foundation board, and have not
7651 seen any accounting information documenting how money is handled nor
7652 where is is spent in the foundation. It is thus not obvious for an
7653 external observer who control The Xiph foundation, and for all I know
7654 it is possible for a single vendor to take control over the
7655 specification. But it seem unlikely.
</p>
7657 <p><strong>Maintained by open not-for-profit organisation?
</strong></p>
7659 <p>Assuming that the Xiph foundation is the organisation its web pages
7660 claim it to be, this point is fulfilled. If Xiph foundation is
7661 controlled by a single vendor, it isn't, but I have not found any
7662 documentation indicating this.
</p>
7665 <a href=
"http://media.hiof.no/diverse/fad/rapport_4.pdf">a report
</a>
7666 prepared by Audun Vaaler og Børre Ludvigsen for the Norwegian
7667 government, the Xiph foundation is a non-commercial organisation and
7668 the development process is open, transparent and non-Discrimatory.
7669 Until proven otherwise, I believe it make most sense to believe the
7670 report is correct.
</p>
7672 <p><strong>Specification freely available?
</strong></p>
7674 <p>The specification for the
<a href=
"http://www.xiph.org/ogg/doc/">Ogg
7675 container format
</a> and both the
7676 <a href=
"http://www.xiph.org/vorbis/doc/">Vorbis
</a> and
7677 <a href=
"http://theora.org/doc/">Theora
</a> codeces are available on
7678 the web. This are the terms in the Vorbis and Theora specification:
7682 Anyone may freely use and distribute the Ogg and [Vorbis/Theora]
7683 specifications, whether in private, public, or corporate
7684 capacity. However, the Xiph.Org Foundation and the Ogg project reserve
7685 the right to set the Ogg [Vorbis/Theora] specification and certify
7686 specification compliance.
7690 <p>The Ogg container format is specified in IETF
7691 <a href=
"http://www.xiph.org/ogg/doc/rfc3533.txt">RFC
3533</a>, and
7692 this is the term:
<p>
7696 <p>This document and translations of it may be copied and furnished to
7697 others, and derivative works that comment on or otherwise explain it
7698 or assist in its implementation may be prepared, copied, published and
7699 distributed, in whole or in part, without restriction of any kind,
7700 provided that the above copyright notice and this paragraph are
7701 included on all such copies and derivative works. However, this
7702 document itself may not be modified in any way, such as by removing
7703 the copyright notice or references to the Internet Society or other
7704 Internet organizations, except as needed for the purpose of developing
7705 Internet standards in which case the procedures for copyrights defined
7706 in the Internet Standards process must be followed, or as required to
7707 translate it into languages other than English.
</p>
7709 <p>The limited permissions granted above are perpetual and will not be
7710 revoked by the Internet Society or its successors or assigns.
</p>
7713 <p>All these terms seem to allow unlimited distribution and use, an
7714 this term seem to be fulfilled. There might be a problem with the
7715 missing permission to distribute modified versions of the text, and
7716 thus reuse it in other specifications. Not quite sure if that is a
7717 requirement for the Digistan definition.
</p>
7719 <p><strong>Royalty-free?
</strong></p>
7721 <p>There are no known patent claims requiring royalties for the Ogg
7723 <a href=
"http://www.streamingmedia.com/Articles/ReadArticle.aspx?ArticleID=65782">MPEG-LA
</a>
7725 <a href=
"http://yro.slashdot.org/story/10/04/30/237238/Steve-Jobs-Hints-At-Theora-Lawsuit">Steve
7726 Jobs
</a> in Apple claim to know about some patent claims (submarine
7727 patents) against the Theora format, but no-one else seem to believe
7728 them. Both Opera Software and the Mozilla Foundation have looked into
7729 this and decided to implement Ogg Theora support in their browsers
7730 without paying any royalties. For now the claims from MPEG-LA and
7731 Steve Jobs seem more like FUD to scare people to use the H
.264 codec
7732 than any real problem with Ogg Theora.
</p>
7734 <p><strong>No constraints on re-use?
</strong></p>
7736 <p>I am not aware of any constraints on re-use.
</p>
7738 <p><strong>Conclusion
</strong></p>
7740 <p>3 of
5 requirements seem obviously fulfilled, and the remaining
2
7741 depend on the governing structure of the Xiph foundation. Given the
7742 background report used by the Norwegian government, I believe it is
7743 safe to assume the last two requirements are fulfilled too, but it
7744 would be nice if the Xiph foundation web site made it easier to verify
7747 <p>It would be nice to see other analysis of other specifications to
7748 see if they are free and open standards.
</p>
7754 Tags:
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/digistan">digistan
</a>,
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english
</a>,
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/standard">standard
</a>,
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/video">video
</a>.
7759 <div class=
"padding"></div>
7763 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_reply_from_Edgar_Villanueva_to_Microsoft_in_Peru.html">The reply from Edgar Villanueva to Microsoft in Peru
</a>
7770 <a href=
"http://www.idg.no/computerworld/article189879.ece">an
7771 article
</a> in the Norwegian Computerworld magazine about how version
7773 <a href=
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Interoperability_Framework">European
7774 Interoperability Framework
</a> has been successfully lobbied by the
7775 proprietary software industry to remove the focus on free software.
7776 Nothing very surprising there, given
7777 <a href=
"http://news.slashdot.org/story/10/03/29/2115235/Open-Source-Open-Standards-Under-Attack-In-Europe">earlier
7778 reports
</a> on how Microsoft and others have stacked the committees in
7779 this work. But I find this very sad. The definition of
7780 <a href=
"http://www.nuug.no/dokumenter/standard-presse-def-200506.txt">an
7781 open standard from version
1</a> was very good, and something I
7782 believe should be used also in the future, alongside
7783 <a href=
"http://www.digistan.org/open-standard:definition">the
7784 definition from Digistan
</A>. Version
2 have removed the open
7785 standard definition from its content.
</p>
7787 <p>Anyway, the news reminded me of the great reply sent by Dr. Edgar
7788 Villanueva, congressman in Peru at the time, to Microsoft as a reply
7789 to Microsofts attack on his proposal regarding the use of free software
7790 in the public sector in Peru. As the text was not available from a
7791 few of the URLs where it used to be available, I copy it here from
7792 <a href=
"http://gnuwin.epfl.ch/articles/en/reponseperou/villanueva_to_ms.html">my
7793 source
</a> to ensure it is available also in the future. Some
7794 background information about that story is available in
7795 <a href=
"http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/6099">an article
</a> from
7796 Linux Journal in
2002.
</p>
7799 <p>Lima,
8th of April,
2002<br>
7800 To: Señor JUAN ALBERTO GONZÁLEZ
<br>
7801 General Manager of Microsoft Perú
</p>
7805 <p>First of all, I thank you for your letter of March
25,
2002 in which you state the official position of Microsoft relative to Bill Number
1609, Free Software in Public Administration, which is indubitably inspired by the desire for Peru to find a suitable place in the global technological context. In the same spirit, and convinced that we will find the best solutions through an exchange of clear and open ideas, I will take this opportunity to reply to the commentaries included in your letter.
</p>
7807 <p>While acknowledging that opinions such as yours constitute a significant contribution, it would have been even more worthwhile for me if, rather than formulating objections of a general nature (which we will analyze in detail later) you had gathered solid arguments for the advantages that proprietary software could bring to the Peruvian State, and to its citizens in general, since this would have allowed a more enlightening exchange in respect of each of our positions.
</p>
7809 <p>With the aim of creating an orderly debate, we will assume that what you call "open source software" is what the Bill defines as "free software", since there exists software for which the source code is distributed together with the program, but which does not fall within the definition established by the Bill; and that what you call "commercial software" is what the Bill defines as "proprietary" or "unfree", given that there exists free software which is sold in the market for a price like any other good or service.
</p>
7811 <p>It is also necessary to make it clear that the aim of the Bill we are discussing is not directly related to the amount of direct savings that can by made by using free software in state institutions. That is in any case a marginal aggregate value, but in no way is it the chief focus of the Bill. The basic principles which inspire the Bill are linked to the basic guarantees of a state of law, such as:
</p>
7815 <li>Free access to public information by the citizen.
</li>
7816 <li>Permanence of public data.
</li>
7817 <li>Security of the State and citizens.
</li>
7821 <p>To guarantee the free access of citizens to public information, it is indispensable that the encoding of data is not tied to a single provider. The use of standard and open formats gives a guarantee of this free access, if necessary through the creation of compatible free software.
</p>
7823 <p>To guarantee the permanence of public data, it is necessary that the usability and maintenance of the software does not depend on the goodwill of the suppliers, or on the monopoly conditions imposed by them. For this reason the State needs systems the development of which can be guaranteed due to the availability of the source code.
</p>
7825 <p>To guarantee national security or the security of the State, it is indispensable to be able to rely on systems without elements which allow control from a distance or the undesired transmission of information to third parties. Systems with source code freely accessible to the public are required to allow their inspection by the State itself, by the citizens, and by a large number of independent experts throughout the world. Our proposal brings further security, since the knowledge of the source code will eliminate the growing number of programs with *spy code*.
</p>
7827 <p>In the same way, our proposal strengthens the security of the citizens, both in their role as legitimate owners of information managed by the state, and in their role as consumers. In this second case, by allowing the growth of a widespread availability of free software not containing *spy code* able to put at risk privacy and individual freedoms.
</p>
7829 <p>In this sense, the Bill is limited to establishing the conditions under which the state bodies will obtain software in the future, that is, in a way compatible with these basic principles.
</p>
7832 <p>From reading the Bill it will be clear that once passed:
<br>
7833 <li>the law does not forbid the production of proprietary software
</li>
7834 <li>the law does not forbid the sale of proprietary software
</li>
7835 <li>the law does not specify which concrete software to use
</li>
7836 <li>the law does not dictate the supplier from whom software will be bought
</li>
7837 <li>the law does not limit the terms under which a software product can be licensed.
</li>
7841 <p>What the Bill does express clearly, is that, for software to be acceptable for the state it is not enough that it is technically capable of fulfilling a task, but that further the contractual conditions must satisfy a series of requirements regarding the license, without which the State cannot guarantee the citizen adequate processing of his data, watching over its integrity, confidentiality, and accessibility throughout time, as these are very critical aspects for its normal functioning.
</p>
7843 <p>We agree, Mr. Gonzalez, that information and communication technology have a significant impact on the quality of life of the citizens (whether it be positive or negative). We surely also agree that the basic values I have pointed out above are fundamental in a democratic state like Peru. So we are very interested to know of any other way of guaranteeing these principles, other than through the use of free software in the terms defined by the Bill.
</p>
7845 <p>As for the observations you have made, we will now go on to analyze them in detail:
</p>
7847 <p>Firstly, you point out that: "
1. The bill makes it compulsory for all public bodies to use only free software, that is to say open source software, which breaches the principles of equality before the law, that of non-discrimination and the right of free private enterprise, freedom of industry and of contract, protected by the constitution."
</p>
7849 <p>This understanding is in error. The Bill in no way affects the rights you list; it limits itself entirely to establishing conditions for the use of software on the part of state institutions, without in any way meddling in private sector transactions. It is a well established principle that the State does not enjoy the wide spectrum of contractual freedom of the private sector, as it is limited in its actions precisely by the requirement for transparency of public acts; and in this sense, the preservation of the greater common interest must prevail when legislating on the matter.
</p>
7851 <p>The Bill protects equality under the law, since no natural or legal person is excluded from the right of offering these goods to the State under the conditions defined in the Bill and without more limitations than those established by the Law of State Contracts and Purchasing (T.U.O. by Supreme Decree No.
012-
2001-PCM).
</p>
7853 <p>The Bill does not introduce any discrimination whatever, since it only establishes *how* the goods have to be provided (which is a state power) and not *who* has to provide them (which would effectively be discriminatory, if restrictions based on national origin, race religion, ideology, sexual preference etc. were imposed). On the contrary, the Bill is decidedly antidiscriminatory. This is so because by defining with no room for doubt the conditions for the provision of software, it prevents state bodies from using software which has a license including discriminatory conditions.
</p>
7855 <p>It should be obvious from the preceding two paragraphs that the Bill does not harm free private enterprise, since the latter can always choose under what conditions it will produce software; some of these will be acceptable to the State, and others will not be since they contradict the guarantee of the basic principles listed above. This free initiative is of course compatible with the freedom of industry and freedom of contract (in the limited form in which the State can exercise the latter). Any private subject can produce software under the conditions which the State requires, or can refrain from doing so. Nobody is forced to adopt a model of production, but if they wish to provide software to the State, they must provide the mechanisms which guarantee the basic principles, and which are those described in the Bill.
</p>
7857 <p>By way of an example: nothing in the text of the Bill would prevent your company offering the State bodies an office "suite", under the conditions defined in the Bill and setting the price that you consider satisfactory. If you did not, it would not be due to restrictions imposed by the law, but to business decisions relative to the method of commercializing your products, decisions with which the State is not involved.
</p>
7859 <p>To continue; you note that:"
2. The bill, by making the use of open source software compulsory, would establish discriminatory and non competitive practices in the contracting and purchasing by public bodies..."
</p>
7861 <p>This statement is just a reiteration of the previous one, and so the response can be found above. However, let us concern ourselves for a moment with your comment regarding "non-competitive ... practices."
</p>
7863 <p>Of course, in defining any kind of purchase, the buyer sets conditions which relate to the proposed use of the good or service. From the start, this excludes certain manufacturers from the possibility of competing, but does not exclude them "a priori", but rather based on a series of principles determined by the autonomous will of the purchaser, and so the process takes place in conformance with the law. And in the Bill it is established that *no one* is excluded from competing as far as he guarantees the fulfillment of the basic principles.
</p>
7865 <p>Furthermore, the Bill *stimulates* competition, since it tends to generate a supply of software with better conditions of usability, and to better existing work, in a model of continuous improvement.
</p>
7867 <p>On the other hand, the central aspect of competivity is the chance to provide better choices to the consumer. Now, it is impossible to ignore the fact that marketing does not play a neutral role when the product is offered on the market (since accepting the opposite would lead one to suppose that firms' expenses in marketing lack any sense), and that therefore a significant expense under this heading can influence the decisions of the purchaser. This influence of marketing is in large measure reduced by the bill that we are backing, since the choice within the framework proposed is based on the *technical merits* of the product and not on the effort put into commercialization by the producer; in this sense, competitiveness is increased, since the smallest software producer can compete on equal terms with the most powerful corporations.
</p>
7869 <p>It is necessary to stress that there is no position more anti-competitive than that of the big software producers, which frequently abuse their dominant position, since in innumerable cases they propose as a solution to problems raised by users: "update your software to the new version" (at the user's expense, naturally); furthermore, it is common to find arbitrary cessation of technical help for products, which, in the provider's judgment alone, are "old"; and so, to receive any kind of technical assistance, the user finds himself forced to migrate to new versions (with non-trivial costs, especially as changes in hardware platform are often involved). And as the whole infrastructure is based on proprietary data formats, the user stays "trapped" in the need to continue using products from the same supplier, or to make the huge effort to change to another environment (probably also proprietary).
</p>
7871 <p>You add: "
3. So, by compelling the State to favor a business model based entirely on open source, the bill would only discourage the local and international manufacturing companies, which are the ones which really undertake important expenditures, create a significant number of direct and indirect jobs, as well as contributing to the GNP, as opposed to a model of open source software which tends to have an ever weaker economic impact, since it mainly creates jobs in the service sector."
</p>
7873 <p>I do not agree with your statement. Partly because of what you yourself point out in paragraph
6 of your letter, regarding the relative weight of services in the context of software use. This contradiction alone would invalidate your position. The service model, adopted by a large number of companies in the software industry, is much larger in economic terms, and with a tendency to increase, than the licensing of programs.
</p>
7875 <p>On the other hand, the private sector of the economy has the widest possible freedom to choose the economic model which best suits its interests, even if this freedom of choice is often obscured subliminally by the disproportionate expenditure on marketing by the producers of proprietary software.
</p>
7877 <p>In addition, a reading of your opinion would lead to the conclusion that the State market is crucial and essential for the proprietary software industry, to such a point that the choice made by the State in this bill would completely eliminate the market for these firms. If that is true, we can deduce that the State must be subsidizing the proprietary software industry. In the unlikely event that this were true, the State would have the right to apply the subsidies in the area it considered of greatest social value; it is undeniable, in this improbable hypothesis, that if the State decided to subsidize software, it would have to do so choosing the free over the proprietary, considering its social effect and the rational use of taxpayers money.
</p>
7879 <p>In respect of the jobs generated by proprietary software in countries like ours, these mainly concern technical tasks of little aggregate value; at the local level, the technicians who provide support for proprietary software produced by transnational companies do not have the possibility of fixing bugs, not necessarily for lack of technical capability or of talent, but because they do not have access to the source code to fix it. With free software one creates more technically qualified employment and a framework of free competence where success is only tied to the ability to offer good technical support and quality of service, one stimulates the market, and one increases the shared fund of knowledge, opening up alternatives to generate services of greater total value and a higher quality level, to the benefit of all involved: producers, service organizations, and consumers.
</p>
7881 <p>It is a common phenomenon in developing countries that local software industries obtain the majority of their takings in the service sector, or in the creation of "ad hoc" software. Therefore, any negative impact that the application of the Bill might have in this sector will be more than compensated by a growth in demand for services (as long as these are carried out to high quality standards). If the transnational software companies decide not to compete under these new rules of the game, it is likely that they will undergo some decrease in takings in terms of payment for licenses; however, considering that these firms continue to allege that much of the software used by the State has been illegally copied, one can see that the impact will not be very serious. Certainly, in any case their fortune will be determined by market laws, changes in which cannot be avoided; many firms traditionally associated with proprietary software have already set out on the road (supported by copious expense) of providing services associated with free software, which shows that the models are not mutually exclusive.
</p>
7883 <p>With this bill the State is deciding that it needs to preserve certain fundamental values. And it is deciding this based on its sovereign power, without affecting any of the constitutional guarantees. If these values could be guaranteed without having to choose a particular economic model, the effects of the law would be even more beneficial. In any case, it should be clear that the State does not choose an economic model; if it happens that there only exists one economic model capable of providing software which provides the basic guarantee of these principles, this is because of historical circumstances, not because of an arbitrary choice of a given model.
</p>
7885 <p>Your letter continues: "
4. The bill imposes the use of open source software without considering the dangers that this can bring from the point of view of security, guarantee, and possible violation of the intellectual property rights of third parties."
</p>
7887 <p>Alluding in an abstract way to "the dangers this can bring", without specifically mentioning a single one of these supposed dangers, shows at the least some lack of knowledge of the topic. So, allow me to enlighten you on these points.
</p>
7891 <p>National security has already been mentioned in general terms in the initial discussion of the basic principles of the bill. In more specific terms, relative to the security of the software itself, it is well known that all software (whether proprietary or free) contains errors or "bugs" (in programmers' slang). But it is also well known that the bugs in free software are fewer, and are fixed much more quickly, than in proprietary software. It is not in vain that numerous public bodies responsible for the IT security of state systems in developed countries require the use of free software for the same conditions of security and efficiency.
</p>
7893 <p>What is impossible to prove is that proprietary software is more secure than free, without the public and open inspection of the scientific community and users in general. This demonstration is impossible because the model of proprietary software itself prevents this analysis, so that any guarantee of security is based only on promises of good intentions (biased, by any reckoning) made by the producer itself, or its contractors.
</p>
7895 <p>It should be remembered that in many cases, the licensing conditions include Non-Disclosure clauses which prevent the user from publicly revealing security flaws found in the licensed proprietary product.
</p>
7897 <p>In respect of the guarantee:
</p>
7899 <p>As you know perfectly well, or could find out by reading the "End User License Agreement" of the products you license, in the great majority of cases the guarantees are limited to replacement of the storage medium in case of defects, but in no case is compensation given for direct or indirect damages, loss of profits, etc... If as a result of a security bug in one of your products, not fixed in time by yourselves, an attacker managed to compromise crucial State systems, what guarantees, reparations and compensation would your company make in accordance with your licensing conditions? The guarantees of proprietary software, inasmuch as programs are delivered ``AS IS'', that is, in the state in which they are, with no additional responsibility of the provider in respect of function, in no way differ from those normal with free software.
</p>
7901 <p>On Intellectual Property:
</p>
7903 <p>Questions of intellectual property fall outside the scope of this bill, since they are covered by specific other laws. The model of free software in no way implies ignorance of these laws, and in fact the great majority of free software is covered by copyright. In reality, the inclusion of this question in your observations shows your confusion in respect of the legal framework in which free software is developed. The inclusion of the intellectual property of others in works claimed as one's own is not a practice that has been noted in the free software community; whereas, unfortunately, it has been in the area of proprietary software. As an example, the condemnation by the Commercial Court of Nanterre, France, on
27th September
2001 of Microsoft Corp. to a penalty of
3 million francs in damages and interest, for violation of intellectual property (piracy, to use the unfortunate term that your firm commonly uses in its publicity).
</p>
7905 <p>You go on to say that: "The bill uses the concept of open source software incorrectly, since it does not necessarily imply that the software is free or of zero cost, and so arrives at mistaken conclusions regarding State savings, with no cost-benefit analysis to validate its position."
</p>
7907 <p>This observation is wrong; in principle, freedom and lack of cost are orthogonal concepts: there is software which is proprietary and charged for (for example, MS Office), software which is proprietary and free of charge (MS Internet Explorer), software which is free and charged for (Red Hat, SuSE etc GNU/Linux distributions), software which is free and not charged for (Apache, Open Office, Mozilla), and even software which can be licensed in a range of combinations (MySQL).
</p>
7909 <p>Certainly free software is not necessarily free of charge. And the text of the bill does not state that it has to be so, as you will have noted after reading it. The definitions included in the Bill state clearly *what* should be considered free software, at no point referring to freedom from charges. Although the possibility of savings in payments for proprietary software licenses are mentioned, the foundations of the bill clearly refer to the fundamental guarantees to be preserved and to the stimulus to local technological development. Given that a democratic State must support these principles, it has no other choice than to use software with publicly available source code, and to exchange information only in standard formats.
</p>
7911 <p>If the State does not use software with these characteristics, it will be weakening basic republican principles. Luckily, free software also implies lower total costs; however, even given the hypothesis (easily disproved) that it was more expensive than proprietary software, the simple existence of an effective free software tool for a particular IT function would oblige the State to use it; not by command of this Bill, but because of the basic principles we enumerated at the start, and which arise from the very essence of the lawful democratic State.
</p>
7913 <p>You continue: "
6. It is wrong to think that Open Source Software is free of charge. Research by the Gartner Group (an important investigator of the technological market recognized at world level) has shown that the cost of purchase of software (operating system and applications) is only
8% of the total cost which firms and institutions take on for a rational and truly beneficial use of the technology. The other
92% consists of: installation costs, enabling, support, maintenance, administration, and down-time."
</p>
7915 <p>This argument repeats that already given in paragraph
5 and partly contradicts paragraph
3. For the sake of brevity we refer to the comments on those paragraphs. However, allow me to point out that your conclusion is logically false: even if according to Gartner Group the cost of software is on average only
8% of the total cost of use, this does not in any way deny the existence of software which is free of charge, that is, with a licensing cost of zero.
</p>
7917 <p>In addition, in this paragraph you correctly point out that the service components and losses due to down-time make up the largest part of the total cost of software use, which, as you will note, contradicts your statement regarding the small value of services suggested in paragraph
3. Now the use of free software contributes significantly to reduce the remaining life-cycle costs. This reduction in the costs of installation, support etc. can be noted in several areas: in the first place, the competitive service model of free software, support and maintenance for which can be freely contracted out to a range of suppliers competing on the grounds of quality and low cost. This is true for installation, enabling, and support, and in large part for maintenance. In the second place, due to the reproductive characteristics of the model, maintenance carried out for an application is easily replicable, without incurring large costs (that is, without paying more than once for the same thing) since modifications, if one wishes, can be incorporated in the common fund of knowledge. Thirdly, the huge costs caused by non-functioning software ("blue screens of death", malicious code such as virus, worms, and trojans, exceptions, general protection faults and other well-known problems) are reduced considerably by using more stable software; and it is well known that one of the most notable virtues of free software is its stability.
</p>
7919 <p>You further state that: "
7. One of the arguments behind the bill is the supposed freedom from costs of open-source software, compared with the costs of commercial software, without taking into account the fact that there exist types of volume licensing which can be highly advantageous for the State, as has happened in other countries."
</p>
7921 <p>I have already pointed out that what is in question is not the cost of the software but the principles of freedom of information, accessibility, and security. These arguments have been covered extensively in the preceding paragraphs to which I would refer you.
</p>
7923 <p>On the other hand, there certainly exist types of volume licensing (although unfortunately proprietary software does not satisfy the basic principles). But as you correctly pointed out in the immediately preceding paragraph of your letter, they only manage to reduce the impact of a component which makes up no more than
8% of the total.
</p>
7925 <p>You continue: "
8. In addition, the alternative adopted by the bill (I) is clearly more expensive, due to the high costs of software migration, and (II) puts at risk compatibility and interoperability of the IT platforms within the State, and between the State and the private sector, given the hundreds of versions of open source software on the market."
</p>
7927 <p>Let us analyze your statement in two parts. Your first argument, that migration implies high costs, is in reality an argument in favor of the Bill. Because the more time goes by, the more difficult migration to another technology will become; and at the same time, the security risks associated with proprietary software will continue to increase. In this way, the use of proprietary systems and formats will make the State ever more dependent on specific suppliers. Once a policy of using free software has been established (which certainly, does imply some cost) then on the contrary migration from one system to another becomes very simple, since all data is stored in open formats. On the other hand, migration to an open software context implies no more costs than migration between two different proprietary software contexts, which invalidates your argument completely.
</p>
7929 <p>The second argument refers to "problems in interoperability of the IT platforms within the State, and between the State and the private sector" This statement implies a certain lack of knowledge of the way in which free software is built, which does not maximize the dependence of the user on a particular platform, as normally happens in the realm of proprietary software. Even when there are multiple free software distributions, and numerous programs which can be used for the same function, interoperability is guaranteed as much by the use of standard formats, as required by the bill, as by the possibility of creating interoperable software given the availability of the source code.
</p>
7931 <p>You then say that: "
9. The majority of open source code does not offer adequate levels of service nor the guarantee from recognized manufacturers of high productivity on the part of the users, which has led various public organizations to retract their decision to go with an open source software solution and to use commercial software in its place."
</p>
7933 <p>This observation is without foundation. In respect of the guarantee, your argument was rebutted in the response to paragraph
4. In respect of support services, it is possible to use free software without them (just as also happens with proprietary software), but anyone who does need them can obtain support separately, whether from local firms or from international corporations, again just as in the case of proprietary software.
</p>
7935 <p>On the other hand, it would contribute greatly to our analysis if you could inform us about free software projects *established* in public bodies which have already been abandoned in favor of proprietary software. We know of a good number of cases where the opposite has taken place, but not know of any where what you describe has taken place.
</p>
7937 <p>You continue by observing that: "
10. The bill discourages the creativity of the Peruvian software industry, which invoices
40 million US$/year, exports
4 million US$ (
10th in ranking among non-traditional exports, more than handicrafts) and is a source of highly qualified employment. With a law that encourages the use of open source, software programmers lose their intellectual property rights and their main source of payment."
</p>
7939 <p>It is clear enough that nobody is forced to commercialize their code as free software. The only thing to take into account is that if it is not free software, it cannot be sold to the public sector. This is not in any case the main market for the national software industry. We covered some questions referring to the influence of the Bill on the generation of employment which would be both highly technically qualified and in better conditions for competition above, so it seems unnecessary to insist on this point.
</p>
7941 <p>What follows in your statement is incorrect. On the one hand, no author of free software loses his intellectual property rights, unless he expressly wishes to place his work in the public domain. The free software movement has always been very respectful of intellectual property, and has generated widespread public recognition of its authors. Names like those of Richard Stallman, Linus Torvalds, Guido van Rossum, Larry Wall, Miguel de Icaza, Andrew Tridgell, Theo de Raadt, Andrea Arcangeli, Bruce Perens, Darren Reed, Alan Cox, Eric Raymond, and many others, are recognized world-wide for their contributions to the development of software that is used today by millions of people throughout the world. On the other hand, to say that the rewards for authors rights make up the main source of payment of Peruvian programmers is in any case a guess, in particular since there is no proof to this effect, nor a demonstration of how the use of free software by the State would influence these payments.
</p>
7943 <p>You go on to say that: "
11. Open source software, since it can be distributed without charge, does not allow the generation of income for its developers through exports. In this way, the multiplier effect of the sale of software to other countries is weakened, and so in turn is the growth of the industry, while Government rules ought on the contrary to stimulate local industry."
</p>
7945 <p>This statement shows once again complete ignorance of the mechanisms of and market for free software. It tries to claim that the market of sale of non- exclusive rights for use (sale of licenses) is the only possible one for the software industry, when you yourself pointed out several paragraphs above that it is not even the most important one. The incentives that the bill offers for the growth of a supply of better qualified professionals, together with the increase in experience that working on a large scale with free software within the State will bring for Peruvian technicians, will place them in a highly competitive position to offer their services abroad.
</p>
7947 <p>You then state that: "
12. In the Forum, the use of open source software in education was discussed, without mentioning the complete collapse of this initiative in a country like Mexico, where precisely the State employees who founded the project now state that open source software did not make it possible to offer a learning experience to pupils in the schools, did not take into account the capability at a national level to give adequate support to the platform, and that the software did not and does not allow for the levels of platform integration that now exist in schools."
</p>
7949 <p>In fact Mexico has gone into reverse with the Red Escolar (Schools Network) project. This is due precisely to the fact that the driving forces behind the Mexican project used license costs as their main argument, instead of the other reasons specified in our project, which are far more essential. Because of this conceptual mistake, and as a result of the lack of effective support from the SEP (Secretary of State for Public Education), the assumption was made that to implant free software in schools it would be enough to drop their software budget and send them a CD ROM with Gnu/Linux instead. Of course this failed, and it couldn't have been otherwise, just as school laboratories fail when they use proprietary software and have no budget for implementation and maintenance. That's exactly why our bill is not limited to making the use of free software mandatory, but recognizes the need to create a viable migration plan, in which the State undertakes the technical transition in an orderly way in order to then enjoy the advantages of free software.
</p>
7951 <p>You end with a rhetorical question: "
13. If open source software satisfies all the requirements of State bodies, why do you need a law to adopt it? Shouldn't it be the market which decides freely which products give most benefits or value?"
</p>
7953 <p>We agree that in the private sector of the economy, it must be the market that decides which products to use, and no state interference is permissible there. However, in the case of the public sector, the reasoning is not the same: as we have already established, the state archives, handles, and transmits information which does not belong to it, but which is entrusted to it by citizens, who have no alternative under the rule of law. As a counterpart to this legal requirement, the State must take extreme measures to safeguard the integrity, confidentiality, and accessibility of this information. The use of proprietary software raises serious doubts as to whether these requirements can be fulfilled, lacks conclusive evidence in this respect, and so is not suitable for use in the public sector.
</p>
7955 <p>The need for a law is based, firstly, on the realization of the fundamental principles listed above in the specific area of software; secondly, on the fact that the State is not an ideal homogeneous entity, but made up of multiple bodies with varying degrees of autonomy in decision making. Given that it is inappropriate to use proprietary software, the fact of establishing these rules in law will prevent the personal discretion of any state employee from putting at risk the information which belongs to citizens. And above all, because it constitutes an up-to-date reaffirmation in relation to the means of management and communication of information used today, it is based on the republican principle of openness to the public.
</p>
7957 <p>In conformance with this universally accepted principle, the citizen has the right to know all information held by the State and not covered by well- founded declarations of secrecy based on law. Now, software deals with information and is itself information. Information in a special form, capable of being interpreted by a machine in order to execute actions, but crucial information all the same because the citizen has a legitimate right to know, for example, how his vote is computed or his taxes calculated. And for that he must have free access to the source code and be able to prove to his satisfaction the programs used for electoral computations or calculation of his taxes.
</p>
7959 <p>I wish you the greatest respect, and would like to repeat that my office will always be open for you to expound your point of view to whatever level of detail you consider suitable.
</p>
7962 DR. EDGAR DAVID VILLANUEVA NUÑEZ
<br>
7963 Congressman of the Republic of Perú.
</p>
7970 Tags:
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/digistan">digistan
</a>,
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english
</a>,
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/standard">standard
</a>.
7975 <div class=
"padding"></div>
7979 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Officeshots_still_going_strong.html">Officeshots still going strong
</a>
7985 <p>Half a year ago I
7986 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Officeshots_taking_shape.html">wrote
7987 a bit
</a> about
<a href=
"http://www.officeshots.org/">OfficeShots
</a>,
7988 a web service to allow anyone to test how ODF documents are handled by
7989 the different programs reading and writing the ODF format.
</p>
7991 <p>I just had a look at the service, and it seem to be going strong.
7992 Very interesting to see the results reported in the gallery, how
7993 different Office implementations handle different ODF features. Sad
7994 to see that KOffice was not doing it very well, and happy to see that
7995 LibreOffice has been tested already (but sadly not listed as a option
7996 for OfficeShots users yet). I am glad to see that the ODF community
7997 got such a great test tool available.
</p>
8003 Tags:
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english
</a>,
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/standard">standard
</a>.
8008 <div class=
"padding"></div>
8012 <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>
8018 <p>The last few days I have spent at work here at the
<a
8019 href=
"http://www.uio.no/">University of Oslo
</a> testing if the new
8020 batch of computers will work with Linux. Every year for the last few
8021 years the university have organised shared bid of a few thousand
8022 computers, and this year HP won the bid. Two different desktops and
8023 five different laptops are on the list this year. We in the UNIX
8024 group want to know which one of these computers work well with RHEL
8025 and Ubuntu, the two Linux distributions we currently handle at the
8028 <p>My test method is simple, and I share it here to get feedback and
8029 perhaps inspire others to test hardware as well. To test, I PXE
8030 install the OS version of choice, and log in as my normal user and run
8031 a few applications and plug in selected pieces of hardware. When
8032 something fail, I make a note about this in the test matrix and move
8033 on. If I have some spare time I try to report the bug to the OS
8034 vendor, but as I only have the machines for a short time, I rarely
8035 have the time to do this for all the problems I find.
</p>
8037 <p>Anyway, to get to the point of this post. Here is the simple tests
8038 I perform on a new model.
</p>
8042 <li>Is PXE installation working? I'm testing with RHEL6, Ubuntu Lucid
8043 and Ubuntu Maverik at the moment. If I feel like it, I also test with
8044 RHEL5 and Debian Edu/Squeeze.
</li>
8046 <li>Is X.org working? If the graphical login screen show up after
8047 installation, X.org is working.
</li>
8049 <li>Is hardware accelerated OpenGL working? Running glxgears (in
8050 package mesa-utils on Ubuntu) and writing down the frames per second
8051 reported by the program.
</li>
8053 <li>Is sound working? With Gnome and KDE, a sound is played when
8054 logging in, and if I can hear this the test is successful. If there
8055 are several audio exits on the machine, I try them all and check if
8056 the Gnome/KDE audio mixer can control where to send the sound. I
8057 normally test this by playing
8058 <a href=
"http://www.nuug.no/aktiviteter/20101012-chef/ ">a HTML5
8059 video
</a> in Firefox/Iceweasel.
</li>
8061 <li>Is the USB subsystem working? I test this by plugging in a USB
8062 memory stick and see if Gnome/KDE notices this.
</li>
8064 <li>Is the CD/DVD player working? I test this by inserting any CD/DVD
8065 I have lying around, and see if Gnome/KDE notices this.
</li>
8067 <li>Is any built in camera working? Test using cheese, and see if a
8068 picture from the v4l device show up.
</li>
8070 <li>Is bluetooth working? Use the Gnome/KDE browsing tool to see if
8071 any bluetooth devices are discovered. In my office, I normally see a
8074 <li>For laptops, is the SD or Compaq Flash reader working. I have
8075 memory modules lying around, and stick them in and see if Gnome/KDE
8078 <li>For laptops, is suspend/hibernate working? I'm testing if the
8079 special button work, and if the laptop continue to work after
8082 <li>For laptops, is the extra buttons working, like audio level,
8083 adjusting background light, switching on/off external video output,
8084 switching on/off wifi, bluetooth, etc? The set of buttons differ from
8085 laptop to laptop, so I just write down which are working and which are
8088 <li>Some laptops have smart card readers, finger print readers,
8089 acceleration sensors etc. I rarely test these, as I do not know how
8090 to quickly test if they are working or not, so I only document their
8095 <p>By now I suspect you are really curious what the test results are
8096 for the HP machines I am testing. I'm not done yet, so I will report
8097 the test results later. For now I can report that HP
8100 Elite work
8098 fine, and hibernation fail with HP EliteBook
8440p on Ubuntu Lucid,
8099 and audio fail on RHEL6. Ubuntu Maverik worked with
8440p. As you
8100 can see, I have most machines left to test. One interesting
8101 observation is that Ubuntu Lucid has almost twice the frame rate than
8102 RHEL6 with glxgears. No idea why.
</p>
8108 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>.
8113 <div class=
"padding"></div>
8117 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Some_thoughts_on_BitCoins.html">Some thoughts on BitCoins
</a>
8123 <p>As I continue to explore
8124 <a href=
"http://www.bitcoin.org/">BitCoin
</a>, I've starting to wonder
8125 what properties the system have, and how it will be affected by laws
8126 and regulations here in Norway. Here are some random notes.
</p>
8128 <p>One interesting thing to note is that since the transactions are
8129 verified using a peer to peer network, all details about a transaction
8130 is known to everyone. This means that if a BitCoin address has been
8131 published like I did with mine in my initial post about BitCoin, it is
8132 possible for everyone to see how many BitCoins have been transfered to
8133 that address. There is even a web service to look at the details for
8134 all transactions. There I can see that my address
8135 <a href=
"http://blockexplorer.com/address/15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b
</a>
8136 have received
16.06 Bitcoin, the
8137 <a href=
"http://blockexplorer.com/address/1LfdGnGuWkpSJgbQySxxCWhv8MHqvwst3">1LfdGnGuWkpSJgbQySxxCWhv
8MHqvwst
3</a>
8138 address of Simon Phipps have received
181.97 BitCoin and the address
8139 <a href=
"http://blockexplorer.com/address/1MCwBbhNGp5hRm5rC1Aims2YFRe2SXPYKt">1MCwBbhNGp5hRm5rC1Aims2YFRe2SXPYKt
</A>
8140 of EFF have received
2447.38 BitCoins so far. Thank you to each and
8141 every one of you that donated bitcoins to support my activity. The
8142 fact that anyone can see how much money was transfered to a given
8143 address make it more obvious why the BitCoin community recommend to
8144 generate and hand out a new address for each transaction. I'm told
8145 there is no way to track which addresses belong to a given person or
8146 organisation without the person or organisation revealing it
8147 themselves, as Simon, EFF and I have done.
</p>
8149 <p>In Norway, and in most other countries, there are laws and
8150 regulations limiting how much money one can transfer across the border
8151 without declaring it. There are money laundering, tax and accounting
8152 laws and regulations I would expect to apply to the use of BitCoin.
8153 If the Skolelinux foundation
8154 (
<a href=
"http://linuxiskolen.no/slxdebianlabs/donations.html">SLX
8155 Debian Labs
</a>) were to accept donations in BitCoin in addition to
8156 normal bank transfers like EFF is doing, how should this be accounted?
8157 Given that it is impossible to know if money can cross the border or
8158 not, should everything or nothing be declared? What exchange rate
8159 should be used when calculating taxes? Would receivers have to pay
8160 income tax if the foundation were to pay Skolelinux contributors in
8161 BitCoin? I have no idea, but it would be interesting to know.
</p>
8163 <p>For a currency to be useful and successful, it must be trusted and
8164 accepted by a lot of users. It must be possible to get easy access to
8165 the currency (as a wage or using currency exchanges), and it must be
8166 easy to spend it. At the moment BitCoin seem fairly easy to get
8167 access to, but there are very few places to spend it. I am not really
8168 a regular user of any of the vendor types currently accepting BitCoin,
8169 so I wonder when my kind of shop would start accepting BitCoins. I
8170 would like to buy electronics, travels and subway tickets, not herbs
8171 and books. :) The currency is young, and this will improve over time
8172 if it become popular, but I suspect regular banks will start to lobby
8173 to get BitCoin declared illegal if it become popular. I'm sure they
8174 will claim it is helping fund terrorism and money laundering (which
8175 probably would be true, as is any currency in existence), but I
8176 believe the problems should be solved elsewhere and not by blaming
8179 <p>The process of creating new BitCoins is called mining, and it is
8180 CPU intensive process that depend on a bit of luck as well (as one is
8181 competing against all the other miners currently spending CPU cycles
8182 to see which one get the next lump of cash). The "winner" get
50
8183 BitCoin when this happen. Yesterday I came across the obvious way to
8184 join forces to increase ones changes of getting at least some coins,
8185 by coordinating the work on mining BitCoins across several machines
8186 and people, and sharing the result if one is lucky and get the
50
8188 <a href=
"http://www.bluishcoder.co.nz/bitcoin-pool/">BitCoin Pool
</a>
8189 if this sounds interesting. I have not had time to try to set up a
8190 machine to participate there yet, but have seen that running on ones
8191 own for a few days have not yield any BitCoins througth mining
8194 <p>Update
2010-
12-
15: Found an
<a
8195 href=
"http://inertia.posterous.com/reply-to-the-underground-economist-why-bitcoi">interesting
8196 criticism
</a> of bitcoin. Not quite sure how valid it is, but thought
8197 it was interesting to read. The arguments presented seem to be
8198 equally valid for gold, which was used as a currency for many years.
</p>
8204 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>.
8209 <div class=
"padding"></div>
8213 <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>
8219 <p>With this weeks lawless
8220 <a href=
"http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2010/12/06/wikileaks/index.html">governmental
8221 attacks
</a> on Wikileak and
8222 <a href=
"http://www.salon.com/technology/dan_gillmor/2010/12/06/war_on_speech">free
8223 speech
</a>, it has become obvious that PayPal, visa and mastercard can
8224 not be trusted to handle money transactions.
8226 <a href=
"http://webmink.com/2010/12/06/now-accepting-bitcoin/">Simon
8227 Phipps on bitcoin
</a> reminded me about a project that a friend of
8228 mine mentioned earlier. I decided to follow Simon's example, and get
8229 involved with
<a href=
"http://www.bitcoin.org/">BitCoin
</a>. I got
8230 some help from my friend to get it all running, and he even handed me
8231 some bitcoins to get started. I even donated a few bitcoins to Simon
8232 for helping me remember BitCoin.
</p>
8234 <p>So, what is bitcoins, you probably wonder? It is a digital
8235 crypto-currency, decentralised and handled using peer-to-peer
8236 networks. It allows anonymous transactions and prohibits central
8237 control over the transactions, making it impossible for governments
8238 and companies alike to block donations and other transactions. The
8239 source is free software, and while the key dependency wxWidgets
2.9
8240 for the graphical user interface is missing in Debian, the command
8241 line client builds just fine. Hopefully Jonas
8242 <a href=
"http://bugs.debian.org/578157">will get the package into
8243 Debian
</a> soon.
</p>
8245 <p>Bitcoins can be converted to other currencies, like USD and EUR.
8246 There are
<a href=
"http://www.bitcoin.org/trade">companies accepting
8247 bitcoins
</a> when selling services and goods, and there are even
8248 currency "stock" markets where the exchange rate is decided. There
8249 are not many users so far, but the concept seems promising. If you
8250 want to get started and lack a friend with any bitcoins to spare,
8252 <a href=
"https://freebitcoins.appspot.com/">some for free
</a> (
0.05
8253 bitcoin at the time of writing). Use
8254 <a href=
"http://www.bitcoinwatch.com/">BitcoinWatch
</a> to keep an eye
8255 on the current exchange rates.
</p>
8257 <p>As an experiment, I have decided to set up bitcoind on one of my
8258 machines. If you want to support my activity, please send Bitcoin
8259 donations to the address
8260 <b>15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b
</b>. Thank you!
</p>
8266 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>.
8271 <div class=
"padding"></div>
8275 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Student_group_continue_the_work_on_my_Reprap_3D_printer.html">Student group continue the work on my Reprap
3D printer
</a>
8281 <p>A few days ago, I was introduces to some students in the robot
8282 student assosiation
<a href=
"http://www.robotica.no/">Robotica
8283 Osloensis
</a> at the University of Oslo where I work, who planned to
8284 get their own
3D printer. They wanted to learn from me based on my
8285 work in the area. After having a short lunch meeting with them, I
8286 offered them to borrow my reprap kit, as I never had time to complete
8287 the build and this seem unlike to change any time soon. I look
8288 forward to see how this goes. This monday their volunteer driver
8289 picked up my kit and drove it to their lab, and tomorrow I am told the
8290 last exam is over so they can start work on getting the
3D printer
8293 <p>The robotic group have already build several robots on their own,
8294 and seem capable of getting the reprap operational. I really look
8295 forward to being able to print all the cool
3D designs published on
8296 <a href=
"http://www.thingiverse.com/">Thingiverse
</a>. I even got
8297 some
3D scans I got made during Dagen@IFI when one of the groups at
8298 the computer science department at the university demonstrated their
8299 very cool
3D scanner.
</p>
8305 Tags:
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/3d-printer">3d-printer
</a>,
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english
</a>,
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/reprap">reprap
</a>.
8310 <div class=
"padding"></div>
8314 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_development_gathering_and_General_Assembly_for_FRiSK.html">Debian Edu development gathering and General Assembly for FRiSK
</a>
8320 <p>On friday, the first Debian Edu / Skolelinux
8321 <a href=
"http://www.friprogramvareiskolen.no/Gathering/2010-12-03-05-Oslo">development
8322 gathering
</a> in a long time take place here in Oslo, Norway. I
8323 really look forward to seeing all the good people working on the
8324 Squeeze release. The gathering is open for everyone interested in
8325 learning more about Debian Edu / Skolelinux.
</p>
8327 <p>On Saturday, the Norwegian member organization taking care of
8328 organizing these development gatherings, Fri Programvare i Skolen,
8330 <a href=
"http://friprogramvareiskolen.no/Genfors/2010">General Assembly
8331 for
2010</a>. Membership is open for all, and currently there are
388
8332 people registered as members. Last year
32 members cast their vote in
8333 the memberdb based election system. I hope more people find time to
8340 Tags:
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu
</a>,
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english
</a>,
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug
</a>.
8345 <div class=
"padding"></div>
8349 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Why_isn_t_Debian_Edu_using_VLC_.html">Why isn't Debian Edu using VLC?
</a>
8355 <p>In the latest issue of Linux Journal, the readers choices were
8356 presented, and the winner among the multimedia player were VLC.
8357 Personally, I like VLC, and it is my player of choice when I first try
8358 to play a video file or stream. Only if VLC fail will I drag out
8359 gmplayer to see if it can do better. The reason is mostly the failure
8360 model and trust. When VLC fail, it normally pop up a error message
8361 reporting the problem. When mplayer fail, it normally segfault or
8362 just hangs. The latter failure mode drain my trust in the program.
<p>
8364 <p>But even if VLC is my player of choice, we have choosen to use
8365 mplayer in
<a href=
"http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian
8366 Edu/Skolelinux
</a>. The reason is simple. We need a good browser
8367 plugin to play web videos seamlessly, and the VLC browser plugin is
8368 not very good. For example, it lack in-line control buttons, so there
8369 is no way for the user to pause the video. Also, when I
8370 <a href=
"http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/BrowserMultimedia">last
8371 tested the browser plugins
</a> available in Debian, the VLC plugin
8372 failed on several video pages where mplayer based plugins worked. If
8373 the browser plugin for VLC was as good as the gecko-mediaplayer
8374 package (which uses mplayer), we would switch.
</P>
8376 <p>While VLC is a good player, its user interface is slightly
8377 annoying. The most annoying feature is its inconsistent use of
8378 keyboard shortcuts. When the player is in full screen mode, its
8379 shortcuts are different from when it is playing the video in a window.
8380 For example, space only work as pause when in full screen mode. I
8381 wish it had consisten shortcuts and that space also would work when in
8382 window mode. Another nice shortcut in gmplayer is [enter] to restart
8383 the current video. It is very nice when playing short videos from the
8384 web and want to restart it when new people arrive to have a look at
8385 what is going on.
</p>
8391 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>.
8396 <div class=
"padding"></div>
8400 <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>
8406 <p>Michael Biebl suggested to me on IRC, that I changed my automated
8407 upgrade testing of the
8408 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/~pere/debian-upgrade-testing/">Lenny
8409 Gnome and KDE Desktop
</a> to do
<tt>apt-get autoremove
</tt> when using apt-get.
8410 This seem like a very good idea, so I adjusted by test scripts and
8411 can now present the updated result from today:
</p>
8413 <p>This is for Gnome:
</p>
8415 <p>Installed using apt-get, missing with aptitude
</p>
8422 browser-plugin-gnash
8429 freedesktop-sound-theme
8431 gconf-defaults-service
8446 gnome-desktop-environment
8450 gnome-session-canberra
8455 gstreamer0.10-fluendo-mp3
8461 libapache2-mod-dnssd
8464 libaprutil1-dbd-sqlite3
8467 libboost-date-time1.42
.0
8468 libboost-python1.42
.0
8469 libboost-thread1.42
.0
8471 libchamplain-gtk-
0.4-
0
8473 libclutter-gtk-
0.10-
0
8480 libfreerdp-plugins-standard
8495 libgnomepanel2.24-cil
8500 libgtksourceview2.0-common
8501 libmono-addins-gui0.2-cil
8502 libmono-addins0.2-cil
8503 libmono-cairo2.0-cil
8504 libmono-corlib2.0-cil
8505 libmono-i18n-west2.0-cil
8506 libmono-posix2.0-cil
8507 libmono-security2.0-cil
8508 libmono-sharpzip2.84-cil
8509 libmono-system2.0-cil
8512 libndesk-dbus-glib1.0-cil
8513 libndesk-dbus1.0-cil
8523 libtelepathy-farsight0
8532 nautilus-sendto-empathy
8536 python-aptdaemon-gtk
8538 python-beautifulsoup
8553 python-gtksourceview2
8564 python-pkg-resources
8571 python-twisted-conch
8577 python-zope.interface
8582 rhythmbox-plugin-cdrecorder
8589 system-config-printer-udev
8591 telepathy-mission-control-
5
8604 <p>Installed using apt-get, removed with aptitude
</p>
8612 fast-user-switch-applet
8631 libgtksourceview2.0-
0
8633 libsdl1.2debian-alsa
8639 system-config-printer
8646 <p>Installed using aptitude, missing with apt-get
</p>
8649 gstreamer0.10-gnomevfs
8652 <p>Installed using aptitude, removed with apt-get
</p>
8658 <p>This is for KDE:
</p>
8660 <p>Installed using apt-get, missing with aptitude
</p>
8666 <p>Installed using apt-get, removed with aptitude
</p>
8673 <p>Installed using aptitude, missing with apt-get
</p>
8689 kdeartwork-emoticons
8691 kdeartwork-theme-icon
8695 kdebase-workspace-bin
8696 kdebase-workspace-data
8710 kscreensaver-xsavers
8725 plasma-dataengines-workspace
8727 plasma-desktopthemes-artwork
8728 plasma-runners-addons
8729 plasma-scriptengine-googlegadgets
8730 plasma-scriptengine-python
8731 plasma-scriptengine-qedje
8732 plasma-scriptengine-ruby
8733 plasma-scriptengine-webkit
8734 plasma-scriptengines
8735 plasma-wallpapers-addons
8736 plasma-widget-folderview
8737 plasma-widget-networkmanagement
8741 xscreensaver-data-extra
8743 xscreensaver-gl-extra
8744 xscreensaver-screensaver-bsod
8747 <p>Installed using aptitude, removed with apt-get
</p>
8751 google-gadgets-common
8769 libggadget-qt-
1.0-
0b
8774 libkonqsidebarplugin4a
8783 libplasma-geolocation-interface4
8785 libplasmagenericshell4
8799 libsmokeknewstuff2-
3
8800 libsmokeknewstuff3-
3
8802 libsmokektexteditor3
8810 libsmokeqtnetwork4-
3
8816 libsmokeqtuitools4-
3
8828 plasma-dataengines-addons
8829 plasma-scriptengine-superkaramba
8830 plasma-widget-lancelot
8831 plasma-widgets-addons
8832 plasma-widgets-workspace
8836 update-notifier-common
8839 <p>Running apt-get autoremove made the results using apt-get and
8840 aptitude a bit more similar, but there are still quite a lott of
8841 differences. I have no idea what packages should be installed after
8842 the upgrade, but hope those that do can have a look.
</p>
8848 Tags:
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian
</a>,
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu
</a>,
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english
</a>.
8853 <div class=
"padding"></div>
8857 <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>
8863 <p>Most of the computers in use by the
8864 <a href=
"http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu/Skolelinux project
</a>
8865 are virtual machines. And they have been Xen machines running on a
8866 fairly old IBM eserver xseries
345 machine, and we wanted to migrate
8867 them to KVM on a newer Dell PowerEdge
2950 host machine. This was a
8868 bit harder that it could have been, because we set up the Xen virtual
8869 machines to get the virtual partitions from LVM, which as far as I
8870 know is not supported by KVM. So to migrate, we had to convert
8871 several LVM logical volumes to partitions on a virtual disk file.
</p>
8874 <a href=
"http://searchnetworking.techtarget.com.au/articles/35011-Six-steps-for-migrating-Xen-virtual-machines-to-KVM">a
8875 nice recipe
</a> to do this, and wrote the following script to do the
8876 migration. It uses qemu-img from the qemu package to make the disk
8877 image, parted to partition it, losetup and kpartx to present the disk
8878 image partions as devices, and dd to copy the data. I NFS mounted the
8879 new servers storage area on the old server to do the migration.
</p>
8885 # http://searchnetworking.techtarget.com.au/articles/
35011-Six-steps-for-migrating-Xen-virtual-machines-to-KVM
8890 if [ -z "$
1" ] ; then
8891 echo "Usage: $
0 <hostname
>"
8897 if [ ! -e /dev/vg_data/$host-disk ] ; then
8898 echo "error: unable to find LVM volume for $host"
8902 # Partitions need to be a bit bigger than the LVM LVs. not sure why.
8903 disksize=$( lvs --units m | grep $host-disk | awk '{sum = sum + $
4} END { print int(sum *
1.05) }')
8904 swapsize=$( lvs --units m | grep $host-swap | awk '{sum = sum + $
4} END { print int(sum *
1.05) }')
8905 totalsize=$(( ( $disksize + $swapsize ) ))
8908 #dd if=/dev/zero of=$img bs=
1M count=$(( $disksize + $swapsize ))
8909 qemu-img create $img ${totalsize}MMaking room on the Debian Edu/Sqeeze DVD
8911 parted $img mklabel msdos
8912 parted $img mkpart primary linux-swap
0 $disksize
8913 parted $img mkpart primary ext2 $disksize $totalsize
8914 parted $img set
1 boot on
8917 losetup /dev/loop0 $img
8918 kpartx -a /dev/loop0
8920 dd if=/dev/vg_data/$host-disk of=/dev/mapper/loop0p1 bs=
1M
8921 fsck.ext3 -f /dev/mapper/loop0p1 || true
8922 mkswap /dev/mapper/loop0p2
8924 kpartx -d /dev/loop0
8925 losetup -d /dev/loop0
8928 <p>The script is perhaps so simple that it is not copyrightable, but
8929 if it is, it is licenced using GPL v2 or later at your discretion.
</p>
8931 <p>After doing this, I booted a Debian CD in rescue mode in KVM with
8932 the new disk image attached, installed grub-pc and linux-image-
686 and
8933 set up grub to boot from the disk image. After this, the KVM machines
8934 seem to work just fine.
</p>
8940 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>.
8945 <div class=
"padding"></div>
8949 <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>
8955 <p>I'm still running upgrade testing of the
8956 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/~pere/debian-upgrade-testing/">Lenny
8957 Gnome and KDE Desktop
</a>, but have not had time to spend on reporting the
8958 status. Here is a short update based on a test I ran
20101118.
</p>
8960 <p>I still do not know what a correct migration should look like, so I
8961 report any differences between apt and aptitude and hope someone else
8962 can see if anything should be changed.
</p>
8964 <p>This is for Gnome:
</p>
8966 <p>Installed using apt-get, missing with aptitude
</p>
8969 apache2.2-bin aptdaemon at-spi baobab binfmt-support
8970 browser-plugin-gnash cheese-common cli-common cpp-
4.3 cups-pk-helper
8971 dmz-cursor-theme empathy empathy-common finger
8972 freedesktop-sound-theme freeglut3 gconf-defaults-service gdm-themes
8973 gedit-plugins geoclue geoclue-hostip geoclue-localnet geoclue-manual
8974 geoclue-yahoo gnash gnash-common gnome gnome-backgrounds
8975 gnome-cards-data gnome-codec-install gnome-core
8976 gnome-desktop-environment gnome-disk-utility gnome-screenshot
8977 gnome-search-tool gnome-session-canberra gnome-spell
8978 gnome-system-log gnome-themes-extras gnome-themes-more
8979 gnome-user-share gs-common gstreamer0.10-fluendo-mp3
8980 gstreamer0.10-tools gtk2-engines gtk2-engines-pixbuf
8981 gtk2-engines-smooth hal-info hamster-applet libapache2-mod-dnssd
8982 libapr1 libaprutil1 libaprutil1-dbd-sqlite3 libaprutil1-ldap
8983 libart2.0-cil libatspi1.0-
0 libboost-date-time1.42
.0
8984 libboost-python1.42
.0 libboost-thread1.42
.0 libchamplain-
0.4-
0
8985 libchamplain-gtk-
0.4-
0 libcheese-gtk18 libclutter-gtk-
0.10-
0
8986 libcryptui0 libcupsys2 libdiscid0 libeel2-data libelf1 libepc-
1.0-
2
8987 libepc-common libepc-ui-
1.0-
2 libfreerdp-plugins-standard
8988 libfreerdp0 libgail-common libgconf2.0-cil libgdata-common libgdata7
8989 libgdl-
1-common libgdu-gtk0 libgee2 libgeoclue0 libgexiv2-
0 libgif4
8990 libglade2.0-cil libglib2.0-cil libgmime2.4-cil libgnome-vfs2.0-cil
8991 libgnome2.24-cil libgnomepanel2.24-cil libgnomeprint2.2-data
8992 libgnomeprintui2.2-common libgnomevfs2-bin libgpod-common libgpod4
8993 libgtk2.0-cil libgtkglext1 libgtksourceview-common
8994 libgtksourceview2.0-common libmono-addins-gui0.2-cil
8995 libmono-addins0.2-cil libmono-cairo2.0-cil libmono-corlib2.0-cil
8996 libmono-i18n-west2.0-cil libmono-posix2.0-cil
8997 libmono-security2.0-cil libmono-sharpzip2.84-cil
8998 libmono-system2.0-cil libmtp8 libmusicbrainz3-
6
8999 libndesk-dbus-glib1.0-cil libndesk-dbus1.0-cil libopal3.6
.8
9000 libpolkit-gtk-
1-
0 libpt-
1.10.10-plugins-alsa
9001 libpt-
1.10.10-plugins-v4l libpt2.6
.7 libpython2.6 librpm1 librpmio1
9002 libsdl1.2debian libservlet2.4-java libsrtp0 libssh-
4
9003 libtelepathy-farsight0 libtelepathy-glib0 libtidy-
0.99-
0
9004 libxalan2-java libxerces2-java media-player-info mesa-utils
9005 mono-
2.0-gac mono-gac mono-runtime nautilus-sendto
9006 nautilus-sendto-empathy openoffice.org-writer2latex
9007 openssl-blacklist p7zip p7zip-full pkg-config python-
4suite-xml
9008 python-aptdaemon python-aptdaemon-gtk python-axiom
9009 python-beautifulsoup python-bugbuddy python-clientform
9010 python-coherence python-configobj python-crypto python-cupshelpers
9011 python-cupsutils python-eggtrayicon python-elementtree
9012 python-epsilon python-evolution python-feedparser python-gdata
9013 python-gdbm python-gst0.10 python-gtkglext1 python-gtkmozembed
9014 python-gtksourceview2 python-httplib2 python-louie python-mako
9015 python-markupsafe python-mechanize python-nevow python-notify
9016 python-opengl python-openssl python-pam python-pkg-resources
9017 python-pyasn1 python-pysqlite2 python-rdflib python-serial
9018 python-tagpy python-twisted-bin python-twisted-conch
9019 python-twisted-core python-twisted-web python-utidylib python-webkit
9020 python-xdg python-zope.interface remmina remmina-plugin-data
9021 remmina-plugin-rdp remmina-plugin-vnc rhythmbox-plugin-cdrecorder
9022 rhythmbox-plugins rpm-common rpm2cpio seahorse-plugins shotwell
9023 software-center svgalibg1 system-config-printer-udev
9024 telepathy-gabble telepathy-mission-control-
5 telepathy-salut tomboy
9025 totem totem-coherence totem-mozilla totem-plugins
9026 transmission-common xdg-user-dirs xdg-user-dirs-gtk xserver-xephyr
9030 Installed using apt-get, removed with aptitude
9033 arj bluez-utils cheese dhcdbd djvulibre-desktop ekiga eog
9034 epiphany-extensions epiphany-gecko evolution-exchange
9035 fast-user-switch-applet file-roller gcalctool gconf-editor gdm gedit
9036 gedit-common gnome-app-install gnome-games gnome-games-data
9037 gnome-nettool gnome-system-tools gnome-themes gnome-utils
9038 gnome-vfs-obexftp gnome-volume-manager gnuchess gucharmap
9039 guile-
1.8-libs hal libavahi-compat-libdnssd1 libavahi-core5
9040 libavahi-ui0 libbind9-
50 libbluetooth2 libcamel1.2-
11 libcdio7
9041 libcucul0 libcurl3 libdirectfb-
1.0-
0 libdmx1 libdvdread3
9042 libedata-cal1.2-
6 libedataserver1.2-
9 libeel2-
2.20 libepc-
1.0-
1
9043 libepc-ui-
1.0-
1 libexchange-storage1.2-
3 libfaad0 libgadu3
9044 libgalago3 libgd2-noxpm libgda3-
3 libgda3-common libggz2 libggzcore9
9045 libggzmod4 libgksu1.2-
0 libgksuui1.0-
1 libgmyth0 libgnome-desktop-
2
9046 libgnome-pilot2 libgnomecups1.0-
1 libgnomeprint2.2-
0
9047 libgnomeprintui2.2-
0 libgpod3 libgraphviz4 libgtk-vnc-
1.0-
0
9048 libgtkhtml2-
0 libgtksourceview1.0-
0 libgtksourceview2.0-
0
9049 libgucharmap6 libhesiod0 libicu38 libisccc50 libisccfg50 libiw29
9050 libjaxp1.3-java-gcj libkpathsea4 liblircclient0 libltdl3 liblwres50
9051 libmagick++
10 libmagick10 libmalaga7 libmozjs1d libmpfr1ldbl libmtp7
9052 libmysqlclient15off libnautilus-burn4 libneon27 libnm-glib0
9053 libnm-util0 libopal-
2.2 libosp5 libparted1.8-
10 libpisock9
9054 libpisync1 libpoppler-glib3 libpoppler3 libpt-
1.10.10 libraw1394-
8
9055 libsdl1.2debian-alsa libsensors3 libsexy2 libsmbios2 libsoup2.2-
8
9056 libspeexdsp1 libssh2-
1 libsuitesparse-
3.1.0 libsvga1
9057 libswfdec-
0.6-
90 libtalloc1 libtotem-plparser10 libtrackerclient0
9058 libvoikko1 libxalan2-java-gcj libxerces2-java-gcj libxklavier12
9059 libxtrap6 libxxf86misc1 libzephyr3 mysql-common rhythmbox seahorse
9060 sound-juicer swfdec-gnome system-config-printer totem-common
9061 totem-gstreamer transmission-gtk vinagre vino w3c-dtd-xhtml wodim
9064 <p>Installed using aptitude, missing with apt-get
</p>
9067 gstreamer0.10-gnomevfs
9070 <p>Installed using aptitude, removed with apt-get
</p>
9076 <p>This is for KDE:
</p>
9078 <p>Installed using apt-get, missing with aptitude
</p>
9081 autopoint bomber bovo cantor cantor-backend-kalgebra cpp-
4.3 dcoprss
9082 edict espeak espeak-data eyesapplet fifteenapplet finger gettext
9083 ghostscript-x git gnome-audio gnugo granatier gs-common
9084 gstreamer0.10-pulseaudio indi kaddressbook-plugins kalgebra
9085 kalzium-data kanjidic kapman kate-plugins kblocks kbreakout kbstate
9086 kde-icons-mono kdeaccessibility kdeaddons-kfile-plugins
9087 kdeadmin-kfile-plugins kdeartwork-misc kdeartwork-theme-window
9088 kdeedu kdeedu-data kdeedu-kvtml-data kdegames kdegames-card-data
9089 kdegames-mahjongg-data kdegraphics-kfile-plugins kdelirc
9090 kdemultimedia-kfile-plugins kdenetwork-kfile-plugins
9091 kdepim-kfile-plugins kdepim-kio-plugins kdessh kdetoys kdewebdev
9092 kdiamond kdnssd kfilereplace kfourinline kgeography-data kigo
9093 killbots kiriki klettres-data kmoon kmrml knewsticker-scripts
9094 kollision kpf krosspython ksirk ksmserver ksquares kstars-data
9095 ksudoku kubrick kweather libasound2-plugins libboost-python1.42
.0
9096 libcfitsio3 libconvert-binhex-perl libcrypt-ssleay-perl libdb4.6++
9097 libdjvulibre-text libdotconf1.0 liberror-perl libespeak1
9098 libfinance-quote-perl libgail-common libgsl0ldbl libhtml-parser-perl
9099 libhtml-tableextract-perl libhtml-tagset-perl libhtml-tree-perl
9100 libio-stringy-perl libkdeedu4 libkdegames5 libkiten4 libkpathsea5
9101 libkrossui4 libmailtools-perl libmime-tools-perl
9102 libnews-nntpclient-perl libopenbabel3 libportaudio2 libpulse-browse0
9103 libservlet2.4-java libspeechd2 libtiff-tools libtimedate-perl
9104 libunistring0 liburi-perl libwww-perl libxalan2-java libxerces2-java
9105 lirc luatex marble networkstatus noatun-plugins
9106 openoffice.org-writer2latex palapeli palapeli-data parley
9107 parley-data poster psutils pulseaudio pulseaudio-esound-compat
9108 pulseaudio-module-x11 pulseaudio-utils quanta-data rocs rsync
9109 speech-dispatcher step svgalibg1 texlive-binaries texlive-luatex
9113 <p>Installed using apt-get, removed with aptitude
</p>
9116 amor artsbuilder atlantik atlantikdesigner blinken bluez-utils cvs
9117 dhcdbd djvulibre-desktop imlib-base imlib11 kalzium kanagram kandy
9118 kasteroids katomic kbackgammon kbattleship kblackbox kbounce kbruch
9119 kcron kdat kdemultimedia-kappfinder-data kdeprint kdict kdvi kedit
9120 keduca kenolaba kfax kfaxview kfouleggs kgeography kghostview
9121 kgoldrunner khangman khexedit kiconedit kig kimagemapeditor
9122 kitchensync kiten kjumpingcube klatin klettres klickety klines
9123 klinkstatus kmag kmahjongg kmailcvt kmenuedit kmid kmilo kmines
9124 kmousetool kmouth kmplot knetwalk kodo kolf kommander konquest kooka
9125 kpager kpat kpdf kpercentage kpilot kpoker kpovmodeler krec
9126 kregexpeditor kreversi ksame ksayit kshisen ksig ksim ksirc ksirtet
9127 ksmiletris ksnake ksokoban kspaceduel kstars ksvg ksysv kteatime
9128 ktip ktnef ktouch ktron kttsd ktuberling kturtle ktux kuickshow
9129 kverbos kview kviewshell kvoctrain kwifimanager kwin kwin4 kwordquiz
9130 kworldclock kxsldbg libakode2 libarts1-akode libarts1-audiofile
9131 libarts1-mpeglib libarts1-xine libavahi-compat-libdnssd1
9132 libavahi-core5 libavc1394-
0 libbind9-
50 libbluetooth2
9133 libboost-python1.34
.1 libcucul0 libcurl3 libcvsservice0
9134 libdirectfb-
1.0-
0 libdjvulibre21 libdvdread3 libfaad0 libfreebob0
9135 libgd2-noxpm libgraphviz4 libgsmme1c2a libgtkhtml2-
0 libicu38
9136 libiec61883-
0 libindex0 libisccc50 libisccfg50 libiw29
9137 libjaxp1.3-java-gcj libk3b3 libkcal2b libkcddb1 libkdeedu3
9138 libkdegames1 libkdepim1a libkgantt0 libkleopatra1 libkmime2
9139 libkpathsea4 libkpimexchange1 libkpimidentities1 libkscan1
9140 libksieve0 libktnef1 liblockdev1 libltdl3 liblwres50 libmagick10
9141 libmimelib1c2a libmodplug0c2 libmozjs1d libmpcdec3 libmpfr1ldbl
9142 libneon27 libnm-util0 libopensync0 libpisock9 libpoppler-glib3
9143 libpoppler-qt2 libpoppler3 libraw1394-
8 librss1 libsensors3
9144 libsmbios2 libssh2-
1 libsuitesparse-
3.1.0 libswfdec-
0.6-
90
9145 libtalloc1 libxalan2-java-gcj libxerces2-java-gcj libxtrap6 lskat
9146 mpeglib network-manager-kde noatun pmount tex-common texlive-base
9147 texlive-common texlive-doc-base texlive-fonts-recommended tidy
9148 ttf-dustin ttf-kochi-gothic ttf-sjfonts
9151 <p>Installed using aptitude, missing with apt-get
</p>
9154 dolphin kde-core kde-plasma-desktop kde-standard kde-window-manager
9155 kdeartwork kdebase kdebase-apps kdebase-workspace
9156 kdebase-workspace-bin kdebase-workspace-data kdeutils kscreensaver
9157 kscreensaver-xsavers libgle3 libkonq5 libkonq5-templates libnetpbm10
9158 netpbm plasma-widget-folderview plasma-widget-networkmanagement
9159 xscreensaver-data-extra xscreensaver-gl xscreensaver-gl-extra
9160 xscreensaver-screensaver-bsod
9163 <p>Installed using aptitude, removed with apt-get
</p>
9166 kdebase-bin konq-plugins konqueror
9173 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>.
9178 <div class=
"padding"></div>
9182 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Gnash_buildbot_slave_and_Debian_kfreebsd.html">Gnash buildbot slave and Debian kfreebsd
</a>
9189 <a href=
"http://www.listware.net/201011/gnash-dev/67431-gnash-dev-buildbot-looking-for-slaves.html">the
9190 call from the Gnash project
</a> for
9191 <a href=
"http://www.gnashdev.org:8010">buildbot
</a> slaves to test the
9192 current source, I have set up a virtual KVM machine on the Debian
9193 Edu/Skolelinux virtualization host to test the git source on
9194 Debian/Squeeze. I hope this can help the developers in getting new
9195 releases out more often.
</p>
9197 <p>As the developers want less main-stream build platforms tested to,
9198 I have considered setting up a
<a
9199 href=
"http://www.debian.org/ports/kfreebsd-gnu/">Debian/kfreebsd
</a>
9200 machine as well. I have also considered using the kfreebsd
9201 architecture in Debian as a file server in NUUG to get access to the
5
9202 TB zfs volume we currently use to store DV video. Because of this, I
9203 finally got around to do a test installation of Debian/Squeeze with
9204 kfreebsd. Installation went fairly smooth, thought I noticed some
9205 visual glitches in the cdebconf dialogs (black cursor left on the
9206 screen at random locations). Have not gotten very far with the
9207 testing. Noticed cfdisk did not work, but fdisk did so it was not a
9208 fatal problem. Have to spend some more time on it to see if it is
9209 useful as a file server for NUUG. Will try to find time to set up a
9210 gnash buildbot slave on the Debian Edu/Skolelinux this weekend.
</p>
9216 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>.
9221 <div class=
"padding"></div>
9225 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_in_3D.html">Debian in
3D
</a>
9231 <p><img src=
"http://thingiverse-production.s3.amazonaws.com/renders/23/e0/c4/f9/2b/debswagtdose_preview_medium.jpg"></p>
9233 <p>3D printing is just great. I just came across this Debian logo in
9235 <a href=
"http://blog.thingiverse.com/2010/11/09/participatory-branding/">the
9236 thingiverse blog
</a>.
</p>
9242 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>.
9247 <div class=
"padding"></div>
9251 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Making_room_on_the_Debian_Edu_Sqeeze_DVD.html">Making room on the Debian Edu/Sqeeze DVD
</a>
9257 <p>Prioritising packages for the Debian Edu /
9258 <a href=
"http://www.skolelinux.org/">Skolelinux
</a> DVD, which is
9259 supposed provide a school with all the services and user applications
9260 needed on the pupils computer network has always been hard. Even
9261 schools without Internet connections should be able to get Debian Edu
9262 working using this DVD.
</p>
9264 <p>The job became a lot harder when apt and aptitude started
9265 installing recommended packages by default. We want the same set of
9266 packages to be installed when using the DVD and the netinst CD, and
9267 that means all recommended packages need to be on the DVD. I created
9268 a patch for debian-cd in
<a href=
"http://bugs.debian.org/601203">BTS
9269 report #
601203</a> to do this, and since this change was applied to
9270 the Debian Edu DVD build, we have been seriously short on space.
</p>
9272 <p>A few days ago we decided to drop blender, wxmaxima and kicad from
9273 the default installation to save space on the DVD, believing that
9274 those needing these applications are few and can get them from the
9277 <p>Yesterday, I had a look what source packages to see which packages
9278 were using most space. A few large packages are well know;
9279 openoffice.org, openclipart and fluid-soundfont. But I also
9280 discovered that lilypond used
106 MiB and fglrx-driver used
53 MiB.
9281 The lilypond package is pulled in as a dependency for rosegarden, and
9282 when looking a bit closer I discovered that
99 MiB of the
106 MiB were
9283 the documentation package, which is recommended by the binary package.
9284 I decided to drop this documentation package from our DVD, as most of
9285 our users will use the GUI front-ends and do not need the lilypond
9286 documentation. Similarly, I dropped the non-free fglrx-driver package
9287 which might be installed by d-i when its hardware is detected, as the
9288 free X driver should work.
</p>
9290 <p>With this change, we finally got space for the LXDE and Gnome
9291 desktop packages as well as the language specific packages making the
9292 DVD more useful again.
</p>
9298 Tags:
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu
</a>,
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english
</a>,
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug
</a>.
9303 <div class=
"padding"></div>
9307 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Software_updates_2010_10_24.html">Software updates
2010-
10-
24</a>
9313 <p>Some updates.
</p>
9315 <p>My
<a href=
"http://pledgebank.com/gnash-avm2">gnash pledge
</a> to
9316 raise money for the project is going well. The lower limit of
10
9317 signers was reached in
24 hours, and so far
13 people have signed it.
9318 More signers and more funding is most welcome, and I am really curious
9319 how far we can get before the time limit of December
24 is reached.
9322 <p>On the #gnash IRC channel on irc.freenode.net, I was just tipped
9323 about what appear to be a great code coverage tool capable of
9324 generating code coverage stats without any changes to the source code.
9326 <a href=
"http://simonkagstrom.github.com/kcov/index.html">kcov
</a>,
9327 and can be used using
<tt>kcov
<directory
> <binary
></tt>.
9328 It is missing in Debian, but the git source built just fine in Squeeze
9329 after I installed libelf-dev, libdwarf-dev, pkg-config and
9330 libglib2.0-dev. Failed to build in Lenny, but suspect that is
9331 solvable. I hope kcov make it into Debian soon.
</p>
9333 <p>Finally found time to wrap up the release notes for
<a
9334 href=
"http://lists.debian.org/debian-edu-announce/2010/10/msg00002.html">a
9335 new alpha release of Debian Edu
</a>, and just published the second
9336 alpha test release of the Squeeze based Debian Edu /
9337 <a href=
"http://www.skolelinux.org/">Skolelinux
</a>
9338 release. Give it a try if you need a complete linux solution for your
9339 school, including central infrastructure server, workstations, thin
9340 client servers and diskless workstations. A nice touch added
9341 yesterday is RDP support on the thin client servers, for windows
9342 clients to get a Linux desktop on request.
</p>
9348 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>.
9353 <div class=
"padding"></div>
9357 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Pledge_for_funding_to_the_Gnash_project_to_get_AVM2_support.html">Pledge for funding to the Gnash project to get AVM2 support
</a>
9363 <p><a href=
"http://www.getgnash.org/">The Gnash project
</a> is the
9364 most promising solution for a Free Software Flash implementation. It
9365 has done great so far, but there is still far to go, and recently its
9366 funding has dried up. I believe AVM2 support in Gnash is vital to the
9367 continued progress of the project, as more and more sites show up with
9368 AVM2 flash files.
</p>
9370 <p>To try to get funding for developing such support, I have started
9371 <a href=
"http://www.pledgebank.com/gnash-avm2">a pledge
</a> with the
9376 <p>"I will pay 100$ to the Gnash project to develop AVM2 support but
9377 only if 10 other people will do the same."</p>
9379 <p>- Petter Reinholdtsen, free software developer
</p>
9381 <p>Deadline to sign up by:
24th December
2010</p>
9383 <p>The Gnash project need to get support for the new Flash file
9384 format AVM2 to work with a lot of sites using Flash on the
9385 web. Gnash already work with a lot of Flash sites using the old AVM1
9386 format, but more and more sites are using the AVM2 format these
9387 days. The project web page is available from
9388 http://www.getgnash.org/ . Gnash is a free software implementation
9389 of Adobe Flash, allowing those of us that do not accept the terms of
9390 the Adobe Flash license to get access to Flash sites.
</p>
9392 <p>The project need funding to get developers to put aside enough
9393 time to develop the AVM2 support, and this pledge is my way to try
9394 to get this to happen.
</p>
9396 <p>The project accept donations via the OpenMediaNow foundation,
9397 <a href=
"http://www.openmedianow.org/?q=node/32">http://www.openmedianow.org/?q=node/
32</a> .
</p>
9401 <p>I hope you will support this effort too. I hope more than
10
9402 people will participate to make this happen. The more money the
9403 project gets, the more features it can develop using these funds.
9410 Tags:
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english
</a>,
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/multimedia">multimedia
</a>,
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug
</a>,
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/video">video
</a>,
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/web">web
</a>.
9415 <div class=
"padding"></div>
9419 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/First_version_of_a_Perl_library_to_control_the_Spykee_robot.html">First version of a Perl library to control the Spykee robot
</a>
9425 <p>This summer I got the chance to buy cheap Spykee robots, and since
9426 then I have worked on getting Linux software in place to control them.
9427 The firmware for the robot is available from the producer, and using
9428 that source it was trivial to figure out the protocol specification.
9429 I've started on a perl library to control it, and made some demo
9430 programs using this perl library to allow one to control the
9433 <p>The library is quite functional already, and capable of controlling
9434 the driving, fetching video, uploading MP3s and play them. There are
9435 a few less important features too.
</p>
9437 <p>Since a few weeks ago, I ran out of time to spend on this project,
9438 but I never got around to releasing the current source. I decided
9439 today that it was time to do something about it, and uploaded the
9440 source to my Debian package store at people.skolelinux.org.
</p>
9442 <p>Because it was simpler for me, I made a Debian package and
9443 published the source and deb. If you got a spykee robot, grab the
9444 source or binary package:
</p>
9447 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/~pere/debian/packages/lenny/libspykee-perl_0.0.20101009-1.tar.gz">libspykee-perl_0.0
.20101009-
1.tar.gz
</a></li>
9448 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/~pere/debian/packages/lenny/libspykee-perl_0.0.20101009-1.dsc">libspykee-perl_0.0
.20101009-
1.dsc
</a></li>
9449 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/~pere/debian/packages/lenny/libspykee-perl_0.0.20101009-1_all.deb">libspykee-perl_0.0
.20101009-
1_all.deb
</a></li>
9452 <p>If you are interested in helping out with developing this library,
9453 please let me know.
</p>
9459 Tags:
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english
</a>,
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug
</a>,
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/robot">robot
</a>.
9464 <div class=
"padding"></div>
9468 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Links_for_2010_10_03.html">Links for
2010-
10-
03</a>
9476 <li><a href=
"http://arstechnica.com/business/news/2010/09/there-is-no-plan-b-why-the-ipv4-to-ipv6-transition-will-be-ugly.ars">There
9477 is no Plan B: why the IPv4-to-IPv6 transition will be ugly
</a></li>
9479 <li>Scanner looking under clothes
9480 <a href=
"http://www.dagbladet.no/2010/10/03/nyheter/utenriks/reise/overvakingskamera/flyplasser/13667192/">has
9481 already been misused at Heathrow
</a>.
</li>
9483 <li><a href=
"http://wiki.softwarelivre.org/Landell">Landell
9484 Webcasting
</a> - interesting alternative for
9485 <ahref=
"http://dvswitch.alioth.debian.org/wiki/">DVSwitch
</a> with
9494 Tags:
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english
</a>,
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/lenker">lenker
</a>,
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug
</a>.
9499 <div class=
"padding"></div>
9503 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Terms_of_use_for_video_produced_by_a_Canon_IXUS_130_digital_camera.html">Terms of use for video produced by a Canon IXUS
130 digital camera
</a>
9509 <p>A few days ago I had the mixed pleasure of bying a new digital
9510 camera, a Canon IXUS
130. It was instructive and very disturbing to
9511 be able to verify that also this camera producer have the nerve to
9512 specify how I can or can not use the videos produced with the camera.
9513 Even thought I was aware of the issue, the options with new cameras
9514 are limited and I ended up bying the camera anyway. What is the
9515 problem, you might ask? It is software patents, MPEG-
4, H
.264 and the
9516 MPEG-LA that is the problem, and our right to record our experiences
9517 without asking for permissions that is at risk.
9519 <p>On page
27 of the Danish instruction manual, this section is
9523 <p>This product is licensed under AT&T patents for the MPEG-
4 standard
9524 and may be used for encoding MPEG-
4 compliant video and/or decoding
9525 MPEG-
4 compliant video that was encoded only (
1) for a personal and
9526 non-commercial purpose or (
2) by a video provider licensed under the
9527 AT&T patents to provide MPEG-
4 compliant video.
</p>
9529 <p>No license is granted or implied for any other use for MPEG-
4
9533 <p>In short, the camera producer have chosen to use technology
9534 (MPEG-
4/H
.264) that is only provided if I used it for personal and
9535 non-commercial purposes, or ask for permission from the organisations
9536 holding the knowledge monopoly (patent) for technology used.
</p>
9538 <p>This issue has been brewing for a while, and I recommend you to
9540 "
<a href=
"http://www.osnews.com/story/23236/Why_Our_Civilization_s_Video_Art_and_Culture_is_Threatened_by_the_MPEG-LA">Why
9541 Our Civilization's Video Art and Culture is Threatened by the
9542 MPEG-LA
</a>" by Eugenia Loli-Queru and
9543 "<a href=
"http://webmink.com/2010/09/03/h-264-and-foss/">H
.264 Is Not
9544 The Sort Of Free That Matters
</a>" by Simon Phipps to learn more about
9545 the issue. The solution is to support the
9546 <a href="http://www.digistan.org/open-standard:definition
">free and
9547 open standards</a> for video, like <a href="http://www.theora.org/
">Ogg
9548 Theora</a>, and avoid MPEG-4 and H.264 if you can.</p>
9554 Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/digistan
">digistan</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english
">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/fildeling
">fildeling</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/multimedia
">multimedia</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug
">nuug</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/opphavsrett
">opphavsrett</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/personvern
">personvern</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/standard
">standard</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/video
">video</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/web
">web</a>.
9559 <div class="padding
"></div>
9563 <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>
9569 <p>In the <a href="http://popcon.debian.org/unknown/by_vote
">Debian
9570 popularity-contest numbers</a>, the adobe-flashplugin package the
9571 second most popular used package that is missing in Debian. The sixth
9572 most popular is flashplayer-mozilla. This is a clear indication that
9573 working flash is important for Debian users. Around 10 percent of the
9574 users submitting data to popcon.debian.org have this package
9577 <p>In the report written by Lars Risan in August 2008
9578 («<a href="http://wiki.skolelinux.no/Dokumentasjon/Rapporter?action=AttachFile&do=view&target=Skolelinux_i_bruk_rapport_1.0.pdf
">Skolelinux
9579 i bruk – Rapport for Hurum kommune, Universitetet i Agder og
9580 stiftelsen SLX Debian Labs</a>»), one of the most important problems
9581 schools experienced with <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/
">Debian
9582 Edu/Skolelinux</a> was the lack of working Flash. A lot of educational
9583 web sites require Flash to work, and lacking working Flash support in
9584 the web browser and the problems with installing it was perceived as a
9585 good reason to stay with Windows.</p>
9587 <p>I once saw a funny and sad comment in a web forum, where Linux was
9588 said to be the retarded cousin that did not really understand
9589 everything you told him but could work fairly well. This was a
9590 comment regarding the problems Linux have with proprietary formats and
9591 non-standard web pages, and is sad because it exposes a fairly common
9592 understanding of whose fault it is if web pages that only work in for
9593 example Internet Explorer 6 fail to work on Firefox, and funny because
9594 it explain very well how annoying it is for users when Linux
9595 distributions do not work with the documents they receive or the web
9596 pages they want to visit.</p>
9598 <p>This is part of the reason why I believe it is important for Debian
9599 and Debian Edu to have a well working Flash implementation in the
9600 distribution, to get at least popular sites as Youtube and Google
9601 Video to working out of the box. For Squeeze, Debian have the chance
9602 to include the latest version of Gnash that will make this happen, as
9603 the new release 0.8.8 was published a few weeks ago and is resting in
9604 unstable. The new version work with more sites that version 0.8.7.
9605 The Gnash maintainers have asked for a freeze exception, but the
9606 release team have not had time to reply to it yet. I hope they agree
9607 with me that Flash is important for the Debian desktop users, and thus
9608 accept the new package into Squeeze.</p>
9614 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>.
9619 <div class="padding
"></div>
9623 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/My_first_perl_GUI_application___controlling_a_Spykee_robot.html
">My first perl GUI application - controlling a Spykee robot</a>
9629 <p>This evening I made my first Perl GUI application. The last few
9630 days I have worked on a Perl module for controlling my recently
9631 aquired Spykee robots, and the module is now getting complete enought
9632 that it is possible to use it to control the robot driving at least.
9633 It was now time to figure out how to use it to create some GUI to
9634 allow me to drive the robot around. I picked PerlQt as I have had
9635 positive experiences with the Qt API before, and spent a few minutes
9636 browsing the web for examples. Using Qt Designer seemed like a short
9637 cut, so I ended up writing the perl GUI using Qt Designer and
9638 compiling it into a perl program using the puic program from
9639 libqt-perl. Nothing fancy yet, but it got buttons to connect and
9642 <p>The perl module I have written provide a object oriented API for
9643 controlling the robot. Here is an small example on how to use it:</p>
9647 Spykee::discover(sub {$robot{$_[0]} = $_[1]});
9648 my $host = (keys %robot)[0];
9649 my $spykee = Spykee->new();
9650 $spykee->contact($host, "admin", "admin");
9662 <p>Thanks to the release of the source of the robot firmware, I could
9663 peek into the implementation at the other end to figure out how to
9664 implement the protocol used by the robot. I've implemented several of
9665 the commands the robot understand, but is still missing the camera
9666 support to make it possible to control the robot from remote. First I
9667 want to implement support for uploading new firmware and configuring
9668 the wireless network, to make it possible to bootstrap a Spykee robot
9669 without the producers Windows and MacOSX software (I only have Linux,
9670 so I had to ask a friend to come over to get the robot testing
9673 <p>Will release the source to the public soon, but need to figure out
9674 where to make it available first. I will add a link to
9675 <a href=
"http://wiki.nuug.no/grupper/robot/">the NUUG wiki
</a> for
9676 those that want to check back later to find it.
</p>
9682 Tags:
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english
</a>,
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug
</a>,
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/robot">robot
</a>.
9687 <div class=
"padding"></div>
9691 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Broken_hard_link_handling_with_sshfs.html">Broken hard link handling with sshfs
</a>
9697 <p>Just got an email from Tobias Gruetzmacher as a followup on my
9698 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Broken_umask_handling_with_sshfs.html">previous
9699 post about sshfs
</a>. He reported another problem with sshfs. It
9700 fail to handle hard links properly. A simple way to spot this is to
9701 look at the . and .. entries in the directory tree. These should have
9702 a link count
>1, but on sshfs the count is
1. I just tested to see
9703 what happen when trying to hardlink, and this fail as well:
</p>
9707 ln: creating hard link `bar' =
> `foo': Function not implemented
9711 <p>I have not yet found time to implement a test for this in my file
9712 system test code, but believe having working hard links is useful to
9713 avoid surprised unix programs. Not as useful as working file locking
9714 and symlinks, which are required to get a working desktop, but useful
9715 nevertheless. :)
</p>
9717 <p>The latest version of the file system test code is available via
9719 <a href=
"http://github.com/gebi/fs-test">http://github.com/gebi/fs-test
</a></p>
9725 Tags:
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu
</a>,
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english
</a>,
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug
</a>.
9730 <div class=
"padding"></div>
9734 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Broken_umask_handling_with_sshfs.html">Broken umask handling with sshfs
</a>
9740 <p>My file system sematics program
9741 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Testing_if_a_file_system_can_be_used_for_home_directories___.html">presented
9742 a few days ago
</a> is very useful to verify that a file system can
9743 work as a unix home directory,and today I had to extend it a bit. I'm
9744 looking into alternatives for home directory access here at the
9745 University of Oslo, and one of the options is sshfs. My friend
9746 Finn-Arne mentioned a while back that they had used sshfs with Debian
9747 Edu, but stopped because of problems. I asked today what the problems
9748 where, and he mentioned that sshfs failed to handle umask properly.
9749 Trying to detect the problem I wrote this addition to my fs testing
9753 mode_t touch_get_mode(const char *name, mode_t mode) {
9755 int fd = open(name, O_RDWR|O_CREAT|O_LARGEFILE, mode);
9758 struct stat statbuf;
9759 if (-
1 != fstat(fd, &statbuf)) {
9760 retval = statbuf.st_mode &
0x1ff;
9767 /* Try to detect problem discovered using sshfs */
9768 int test_umask(void) {
9769 printf("info: testing umask effect on file creation\n");
9771 mode_t orig_umask = umask(
000);
9773 if (
0666 != (newmode = touch_get_mode("foobar",
0666))) {
9774 printf(" error: Wrong file mode %o when creating using mode
666 and umask
000\n",
9778 if (
0660 != (newmode = touch_get_mode("foobar",
0666))) {
9779 printf(" error: Wrong file mode %o when creating using mode
666 and umask
007\n",
9787 int main(int argc, char **argv) {
9794 <p>Sure enough. On NFS to a netapp, I get this result:
</p>
9797 Testing POSIX/Unix sematics on file system
9798 info: testing symlink creation
9799 info: testing subdirectory creation
9800 info: testing fcntl locking
9801 Read-locking
1 byte from
1073741824
9802 Read-locking
510 byte from
1073741826
9803 Unlocking
1 byte from
1073741824
9804 Write-locking
1 byte from
1073741824
9805 Write-locking
510 byte from
1073741826
9806 Unlocking
2 byte from
1073741824
9807 info: testing umask effect on file creation
9810 <p>When mounting the same directory using sshfs, I get this
9814 Testing POSIX/Unix sematics on file system
9815 info: testing symlink creation
9816 info: testing subdirectory creation
9817 info: testing fcntl locking
9818 Read-locking
1 byte from
1073741824
9819 Read-locking
510 byte from
1073741826
9820 Unlocking
1 byte from
1073741824
9821 Write-locking
1 byte from
1073741824
9822 Write-locking
510 byte from
1073741826
9823 Unlocking
2 byte from
1073741824
9824 info: testing umask effect on file creation
9825 error: Wrong file mode
644 when creating using mode
666 and umask
000
9826 error: Wrong file mode
640 when creating using mode
666 and umask
007
9829 <p>So, I can conclude that sshfs is better than smb to a Netapp or a
9830 Windows server, but not good enough to be used as a home
9833 <p>Update
2010-
08-
26: Reported the issue in
9834 <a href=
"http://bugs.debian.org/594498">BTS report #
594498</a></p>
9836 <p>Update
2010-
08-
27: Michael Gebetsroither report that he found the
9837 script so useful that he created a GIT repository and stored it in
9838 <a href=
"http://github.com/gebi/fs-test">http://github.com/gebi/fs-test
</a>.
</p>
9844 Tags:
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu
</a>,
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english
</a>,
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug
</a>.
9849 <div class=
"padding"></div>
9853 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Rob_Weir__How_to_Crush_Dissent.html">Rob Weir: How to Crush Dissent
</a>
9859 <p>I found the notes from Rob Weir on
9860 <a href=
"http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/robweir/antic-atom/~3/VGb23-kta8c/how-to-crush-dissent.html">how
9861 to crush dissent
</a> matching my own thoughts on the matter quite
9862 well. Highly recommended for those wondering which road our society
9863 should go down. In my view we have been heading the wrong way for a
9870 Tags:
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english
</a>,
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/lenker">lenker
</a>,
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug
</a>,
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/personvern">personvern
</a>,
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet
</a>.
9875 <div class=
"padding"></div>
9879 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/No_hardcoded_config_on_Debian_Edu_clients.html">No hardcoded config on Debian Edu clients
</a>
9885 <p>As reported earlier, the last few days I have looked at how Debian
9886 Edu clients are configured, and tried to get rid of all hardcoded
9887 configuration settings on the clients. I believe the work to be
9888 mostly done, and the clients seem to work just fine with dynamically
9889 generated configuration.
</p>
9891 <p>What is the point, you might ask? The point is to allow a Debian
9892 Edu desktop to integrate into an existing network infrastructure
9893 without any manual configuration.
</p>
9895 <p>This is what happens when installing a Debian Edu client here at
9896 the University of Oslo using PXE. With the PXE installation, I am
9897 asked for language (Norwegian Bokmål), locality (Norway) and keyboard
9898 layout (no-latin1), Debian Edu profile (Roaming Workstation), if I
9899 accept to reformat the hard drive (yes), if I want to submit info to
9900 popcon.debian.org (no) and root password (secret). After answering
9901 these questions, the installer goes ahead and does its thing, and
9902 after around
50 minutes it is done. I press enter to finish the
9903 installation, and the machine reboots into KDE. When the machine is
9904 ready and kdm asks for login information, I enter my university
9905 username and password, am told by kdm that a local home directory has
9906 been created and that I must log in again, and finally log in with the
9907 same username and password to the KDE
4.4 desktop. At no point during
9908 this process did it ask for university specific settings, and all the
9909 required configuration was dynamically detected using information
9910 fetched via DHCP and DNS. The roaming workstation is now ready for
9913 <p>How was this done, you might wonder? First of all, here is the
9914 list of things that need to be configured on the client to get it
9915 working properly out of the box:
</p>
9918 <li>IP address/netmask and DNS server.
</li>
9919 <li>Web proxy URL.
</li>
9920 <li>LDAP server for NSS directory information (user, group, etc).
</li>
9921 <li>Kerberos server for PAM password checking.
</li>
9922 <li>SMB mount point to access the network home directory. (*)
</li>
9923 <li>Central syslog server to send syslog messages to. (*)
</li>
9924 <li>Sitesummary collector URL to submit info to central server. (*)
</li>
9927 <p>(Hm, did I forget anything? Let me knew if I did.)
</p>
9929 <p>The points marked (*) are not required to be able to use the
9930 machine, but needed to provide central storage and allowing system
9931 administrators to track their machines. Since yesterday, everything
9932 but the sitesummary collector URL is dynamically discovered at boot
9933 and installation time in the svn version of Debian Edu.
</p>
9935 <p>The IP and DNS setup is fetched during boot using DHCP as usual.
9936 When a DHCP update arrives, the proxy setup is updated by looking for
9937 http://wpat/wpad.dat and using the content of this WPAD file to
9938 configure the http and ftp proxy in /etc/environment and
9939 /etc/apt/apt.conf. I decided to update the proxy setup using a DHCP
9940 hook to ensure that the client stops using the Debian Edu proxy when
9941 it is moved outside the Debian Edu network, and instead uses any local
9942 proxy present on the new network when it moves around.
</p>
9944 <p>The DNS names of the LDAP, Kerberos and syslog server and related
9945 configuration are generated using DNS information at boot. First the
9946 installer looks for a host named ldap in the current DNS domain. If
9947 not found, it looks for _ldap._tcp SRV records in DNS instead. If an
9948 LDAP server is found, its root DSE entry is requested and the
9949 attributes namingContexts and defaultNamingContext are used to
9950 determine which LDAP base to use for NSS. If there are several
9951 namingContexts attibutes and the defaultNamingContext is present, that
9952 LDAP subtree is used as the base. If defaultNamingContext is missing,
9953 the subtrees listed as namingContexts are searched in sequence for any
9954 object with class posixAccount or posixGroup, and the first one with
9955 such an object is used as the LDAP base. For Kerberos, a similar
9956 search is done by first looking for a host named kerberos, and then
9957 for the _kerberos._tcp SRV record. I've been unable to find a way to
9958 look up the Kerberos realm, so for this the upper case string of the
9959 current DNS domain is used.
</p>
9961 <p>For the syslog server, the hosts syslog and loghost are searched
9962 for, and the _syslog._udp SRV record is consulted if no such host is
9963 found. This algorithm works for both Debian Edu and the University of
9964 Oslo. A similar strategy would work for locating the sitesummary
9965 server, but have not been implemented yet. I decided to fetch and
9966 save these settings during installation, to make sure moving to a
9967 different network does not change the set of users being allowed to
9968 log in nor the passwords required to log in. Usernames and passwords
9969 will be cached by sssd when the user logs in on the Debian Edu
9970 network, and will not change as the laptop move around. For a
9971 non-roaming machine, there is no caching, but given that it is
9972 supposed to stay in place it should not matter much. Perhaps we
9973 should switch those to use sssd too?
</p>
9975 <p>The user's SMB mount point for the network home directory is
9976 located when the user logs in for the first time. The LDAP server is
9977 consulted to look for the user's LDAP object and the sambaHomePath
9978 attribute is used if found. If it isn't found, the home directory
9979 path fetched from NSS is used instead. Assuming the path is of the
9980 form /site/server/directory/username, the second part is looked up in
9981 DNS and used to generate a SMB URL of the form
9982 smb://server.domain/username. This algorithm works for both Debian
9983 edu and the University of Oslo. Perhaps there are better attributes
9984 to use or a better algorithm that works for more sites, but this will
9987 <p>This work should make it easier to integrate the Debian Edu clients
9988 into any LDAP/Kerberos infrastructure, and make the current setup even
9989 more flexible than before. I suspect it will also work for thin
9990 client servers, allowing one to easily set up LTSP and hook it into a
9991 existing network infrastructure, but I have not had time to test this
9994 <p>If you want to help out with implementing these things for Debian
9995 Edu, please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.
</p>
9997 <p>Update
2010-
08-
09: Simon Farnsworth gave me a heads-up on how to
9998 detect Kerberos realm from DNS, by looking for _kerberos TXT entries
9999 before falling back to the upper case DNS domain name. Will have to
10000 implement it for Debian Edu. :)
</p>
10006 Tags:
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu
</a>,
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english
</a>,
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug
</a>.
10011 <div class=
"padding"></div>
10013 <div class=
"entry">
10014 <div class=
"title">
10015 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Testing_if_a_file_system_can_be_used_for_home_directories___.html">Testing if a file system can be used for home directories...
</a>
10021 <p>A few years ago, I was involved in a project planning to use
10022 Windows file servers as home directory servers for Debian
10023 Edu/Skolelinux machines. This was thought to be no problem, as the
10024 access would be through the SMB network file system protocol, and we
10025 knew other sites used SMB with unix and samba as the file server to
10026 mount home directories without any problems. But, after months of
10027 struggling, we had to conclude that our goal was impossible.
</p>
10029 <p>The reason is simply that while SMB can be used for home
10030 directories when the file server is Samba running on Unix, this only
10031 work because of Samba have some extensions and the fact that the
10032 underlying file system is a unix file system. When using a Windows
10033 file server, the underlying file system do not have POSIX semantics,
10034 and several programs will fail if the users home directory where they
10035 want to store their configuration lack POSIX semantics.
</p>
10037 <p>As part of this work, I wrote a small C program I want to share
10038 with you all, to replicate a few of the problematic applications (like
10039 OpenOffice.org and GCompris) and see if the file system was working as
10040 it should. If you find yourself in spooky file system land, it might
10041 help you find your way out again. This is the fs-test.c source:
</p>
10045 * Some tests to check the file system sematics. Used to verify that
10046 * CIFS from a windows server do not work properly as a linux home
10048 * License: GPL v2 or later
10050 * needs libsqlite3-dev and build-essential installed
10051 * compile with: gcc -Wall -lsqlite3 -DTEST_SQLITE fs-test.c -o fs-test
10054 #define _FILE_OFFSET_BITS
64
10055 #define _LARGEFILE_SOURCE
1
10056 #define _LARGEFILE64_SOURCE
1
10058 #define _GNU_SOURCE /* for asprintf() */
10060 #include
<errno.h
>
10061 #include
<fcntl.h
>
10062 #include
<stdio.h
>
10063 #include
<string.h
>
10064 #include
<stdlib.h
>
10065 #include
<sys/file.h
>
10066 #include
<sys/stat.h
>
10067 #include
<sys/types.h
>
10068 #include
<unistd.h
>
10072 * Test sqlite open, as done by gcompris require the libsqlite3-dev
10073 * package and linking with -lsqlite3. A more low level test is
10075 * See also
<URL: http://www.sqlite.org./faq.html#q5
>.
10077 #include
<sqlite3.h
>
10078 #define CREATE_TABLE_USERS \
10079 "CREATE TABLE users (user_id INT UNIQUE, login TEXT, lastname TEXT, firstname TEXT, birthdate TEXT, class_id INT ); "
10080 int test_sqlite_open(void) {
10082 char *name = "testsqlite.db";
10085 int rc = sqlite3_open(name, &db);
10087 printf("error: sqlite open of %s failed: %s\n", name, sqlite3_errmsg(db));
10092 /* create tables */
10093 rc = sqlite3_exec(db,CREATE_TABLE_USERS, NULL,
0, &zErrMsg);
10094 if( rc != SQLITE_OK ){
10095 printf("error: sqlite table create failed: %s\n", zErrMsg);
10099 printf("info: sqlite worked\n");
10103 #endif /* TEST_SQLITE */
10106 * Demonstrate locking issue found in gcompris using sqlite3. This
10107 * work with ext3, but not with cifs server on Windows
2003. This is
10108 * done in the sqlite3 library.
10110 *
<URL:http://www.cygwin.com/ml/cygwin/
2001-
08/msg00854.html
> and the
10111 * POSIX specification
10112 *
<URL:http://www.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/
009695399/functions/fcntl.html
>.
10114 int test_gcompris_locking(void) {
10116 char *name = "testsqlite.db";
10118 int fd = open(name, O_RDWR|O_CREAT|O_LARGEFILE,
0644);
10119 printf("info: testing fcntl locking\n");
10121 fl.l_whence = SEEK_SET;
10122 fl.l_pid = getpid();
10123 printf(" Read-locking
1 byte from
1073741824");
10124 fl.l_start =
1073741824;
10126 fl.l_type = F_RDLCK;
10127 if (
0 != fcntl(fd, F_SETLK, &fl) ) printf(" - error!\n"); else printf("\n");
10129 printf(" Read-locking
510 byte from
1073741826");
10130 fl.l_start =
1073741826;
10132 fl.l_type = F_RDLCK;
10133 if (
0 != fcntl(fd, F_SETLK, &fl) ) printf(" - error!\n"); else printf("\n");
10135 printf(" Unlocking
1 byte from
1073741824");
10136 fl.l_start =
1073741824;
10138 fl.l_type = F_UNLCK;
10139 if (
0 != fcntl(fd, F_SETLK, &fl) ) printf(" - error!\n"); else printf("\n");
10141 printf(" Write-locking
1 byte from
1073741824");
10142 fl.l_start =
1073741824;
10144 fl.l_type = F_WRLCK;
10145 if (
0 != fcntl(fd, F_SETLK, &fl) ) printf(" - error!\n"); else printf("\n");
10147 printf(" Write-locking
510 byte from
1073741826");
10148 fl.l_start =
1073741826;
10150 if (
0 != fcntl(fd, F_SETLK, &fl) ) printf(" - error!\n"); else printf("\n");
10152 printf(" Unlocking
2 byte from
1073741824");
10153 fl.l_start =
1073741824;
10155 fl.l_type = F_UNLCK;
10156 if (
0 != fcntl(fd, F_SETLK, &fl) ) printf(" - error!\n"); else printf("\n");
10163 * Test if permissions of freshly created directories allow entries
10164 * below them. This was a problem with OpenOffice.org and gcompris.
10165 * Mounting with option 'sync' seem to solve this problem while
10166 * slowing down file operations.
10168 int test_subdirectory_creation(void) {
10170 char *path = strdup("test");
10171 char *dirs[LEVELS];
10173 printf("info: testing subdirectory creation\n");
10174 for (level =
0; level
< LEVELS; level++) {
10175 char *newpath = NULL;
10176 if (-
1 == mkdir(path,
0777)) {
10177 printf(" error: Unable to create directory '%s': %s\n",
10178 path, strerror(errno));
10181 asprintf(&newpath, "%s/%s", path, "test");
10189 * Test if symlinks can be created. This was a problem detected with
10192 int test_symlinks(void) {
10193 printf("info: testing symlink creation\n");
10195 if (-
1 == symlink("file", "symlink"))
10196 printf(" error: Unable to create symlink\n");
10200 int main(int argc, char **argv) {
10201 printf("Testing POSIX/Unix sematics on file system\n");
10203 test_subdirectory_creation();
10205 test_sqlite_open();
10206 #endif /* TEST_SQLITE */
10207 test_gcompris_locking();
10212 <p>When everything is working, it should print something like
10216 Testing POSIX/Unix sematics on file system
10217 info: testing symlink creation
10218 info: testing subdirectory creation
10219 info: sqlite worked
10220 info: testing fcntl locking
10221 Read-locking
1 byte from
1073741824
10222 Read-locking
510 byte from
1073741826
10223 Unlocking
1 byte from
1073741824
10224 Write-locking
1 byte from
1073741824
10225 Write-locking
510 byte from
1073741826
10226 Unlocking
2 byte from
1073741824
10229 <p>I do not remember the exact details of the problems we saw, but one
10230 of them was with locking, where if I remember correctly, POSIX allow a
10231 read-only lock to be upgraded to a read-write lock without unlocking
10232 the read-only lock (while Windows do not). Another was a bug in the
10233 CIFS/SMB client implementation in the Linux kernel where directory
10234 meta information would be wrong for a fraction of a second, making
10235 OpenOffice.org fail to create its deep directory tree because it was
10236 not allowed to create files in its freshly created directory.
</p>
10238 <p>Anyway, here is a nice tool for your tool box, might you never need
10241 <p>Update
2010-
08-
27: Michael Gebetsroither report that he found the
10242 script so useful that he created a GIT repository and stored it in
10243 <a href=
"http://github.com/gebi/fs-test">http://github.com/gebi/fs-test
</a>.
</p>
10249 Tags:
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu
</a>,
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english
</a>,
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug
</a>.
10254 <div class=
"padding"></div>
10256 <div class=
"entry">
10257 <div class=
"title">
10258 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Autodetecting_Client_setup_for_roaming_workstations_in_Debian_Edu.html">Autodetecting Client setup for roaming workstations in Debian Edu
</a>
10264 <p>A few days ago, I
10265 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_roaming_workstation___at_the_university_of_Oslo.html">tried
10266 to install
</a> a Roaming workation profile from Debian Edu/Squeeze
10267 while on the university network here at the University of Oslo, and
10268 noticed how much had to change to get it operational using the
10269 university infrastructure. It was fairly easy, but it occured to me
10270 that Debian Edu would improve a lot if I could get the client to
10271 connect without any changes at all, and thus let the client configure
10272 itself during installation and first boot to use the infrastructure
10273 around it. Now I am a huge step further along that road.
</p>
10275 <p>With our current squeeze-test packages, I can select the roaming
10276 workstation profile and get a working laptop connecting to the
10277 university LDAP server for user and group and our active directory
10278 servers for Kerberos authentication. All this without any
10279 configuration at all during installation. My users home directory got
10280 a bookmark in the KDE menu to mount it via SMB, with the correct URL.
10281 In short, openldap and sssd is correctly configured. In addition to
10282 this, the client look for http://wpad/wpad.dat to configure a web
10283 proxy, and when it fail to find it no proxy settings are stored in
10284 /etc/environment and /etc/apt/apt.conf. Iceweasel and KDE is
10285 configured to look for the same wpad configuration and also do not use
10286 a proxy when at the university network. If the machine is moved to a
10287 network with such wpad setup, it would automatically use it when DHCP
10288 gave it a IP address.
</p>
10290 <p>The LDAP server is located using DNS, by first looking for the DNS
10291 entry ldap.$domain. If this do not exist, it look for the
10292 _ldap._tcp.$domain SRV records and use the first one as the LDAP
10293 server. Next, it connects to the LDAP server and search all
10294 namingContexts entries for posixAccount or posixGroup objects, and
10295 pick the first one as the LDAP base. For Kerberos, a similar
10296 algorithm is used to locate the LDAP server, and the realm is the
10297 uppercase version of $domain.
</p>
10299 <p>So, what is not working, you might ask. SMB mounting my home
10300 directory do not work. No idea why, but suspected the incorrect
10301 Kerberos settings in /etc/krb5.conf and /etc/samba/smb.conf might be
10302 the cause. These are not properly configured during installation, and
10303 had to be hand-edited to get the correct Kerberos realm and server,
10304 but SMB mounting still do not work. :(
</p>
10306 <p>With this automatic configuration in place, I expect a Debian Edu
10307 roaming profile installation would be able to automatically detect and
10308 connect to any site using LDAP and Kerberos for NSS directory and PAM
10309 authentication. It should also work out of the box in a Active
10310 Directory environment providing posixAccount and posixGroup objects
10311 with UID and GID values.
</p>
10313 <p>If you want to help out with implementing these things for Debian
10314 Edu, please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.
</p>
10320 Tags:
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu
</a>,
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english
</a>,
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug
</a>.
10325 <div class=
"padding"></div>
10327 <div class=
"entry">
10328 <div class=
"title">
10329 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_roaming_workstation___at_the_university_of_Oslo.html">Debian Edu roaming workstation - at the university of Oslo
</a>
10335 <p>The new roaming workstation profile in Debian Edu/Squeeze is fairly
10336 similar to the laptop setup am I working on using Ubuntu for the
10337 University of Oslo, and just for the heck of it, I tested today how
10338 hard it would be to integrate that profile into the university
10339 infrastructure. In this case, it is the university LDAP server,
10340 Active Directory Kerberos server and SMB mounting from the Netapp file
10343 <p>I was pleasantly surprised that the only three files needed to be
10344 changed (/etc/sssd/sssd.conf, /etc/ldap.conf and
10345 /etc/mklocaluser.d/
20-debian-edu-config) and one file had to be added
10346 (/usr/share/perl5/Debian/Edu_Local.pm), to get the client working.
10347 Most of the changes were to get the client to use the university LDAP
10348 for NSS and Kerberos server for PAM, but one was to change a hard
10349 coded DNS domain name in the mklocaluser hook from .intern to
10352 <p>This testing was so encouraging, that I went ahead and adjusted the
10353 Debian Edu scripts and setup in subversion to centralise the roaming
10354 workstation setup a bit more and avoid the hardcoded DNS domain name,
10355 so that when I test this tomorrow, I expect to get away with modifying
10356 only /etc/sssd/sssd.conf and /etc/ldap.conf to get it to use the
10357 university servers.
</p>
10359 <p>My goal is to get the clients to have no hardcoded settings and
10360 fetch all their initial setup during installation and first boot, to
10361 allow them to be inserted also into environments where the default
10362 setup in Debian Edu has been changed or as with the university, where
10363 the environment is different but provides the protocols Debian Edu
10370 Tags:
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu
</a>,
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english
</a>,
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug
</a>.
10375 <div class=
"padding"></div>
10377 <div class=
"entry">
10378 <div class=
"title">
10379 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Circular_package_dependencies_harms_apt_recovery.html">Circular package dependencies harms apt recovery
</a>
10385 <p>I discovered this while doing
10386 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Automatic_upgrade_testing_from_Lenny_to_Squeeze.html">automated
10387 testing of upgrades from Debian Lenny to Squeeze
</a>. A few packages
10388 in Debian still got circular dependencies, and it is often claimed
10389 that apt and aptitude should be able to handle this just fine, but
10390 some times these dependency loops causes apt to fail.
</p>
10392 <p>An example is from todays
10393 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/~pere/debian-upgrade-testing//test-20100727-lenny-squeeze-kde-aptitude.txt">upgrade
10394 of KDE using aptitude
</a>. In it, a bug in kdebase-workspace-data
10395 causes perl-modules to fail to upgrade. The cause is simple. If a
10396 package fail to unpack, then only part of packages with the circular
10397 dependency might end up being unpacked when unpacking aborts, and the
10398 ones already unpacked will fail to configure in the recovery phase
10399 because its dependencies are unavailable.
</p>
10401 <p>In this log, the problem manifest itself with this error:
</p>
10404 dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of perl-modules:
10405 perl-modules depends on perl (
>=
5.10.1-
1); however:
10406 Version of perl on system is
5.10.0-
19lenny
2.
10407 dpkg: error processing perl-modules (--configure):
10408 dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
10409 </pre></blockquote>
10411 <p>The perl/perl-modules circular dependency is already
10412 <a href=
"http://bugs.debian.org/527917">reported as a bug
</a>, and will
10413 hopefully be solved as soon as possible, but it is not the only one,
10414 and each one of these loops in the dependency tree can cause similar
10415 failures. Of course, they only occur when there are bugs in other
10416 packages causing the unpacking to fail, but it is rather nasty when
10417 the failure of one package causes the problem to become worse because
10418 of dependency loops.
</p>
10421 <a href=
"http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2010/06/msg00116.html">the
10422 tireless effort by Bill Allombert
</a>, the number of circular
10424 <a href=
"http://debian.semistable.com/debgraph.out.html">left in Debian
10425 is dropping
</a>, and perhaps it will reach zero one day. :)
</p>
10427 <p>Todays testing also exposed a bug in
10428 <a href=
"http://bugs.debian.org/590605">update-notifier
</a> and
10429 <a href=
"http://bugs.debian.org/590604">different behaviour
</a> between
10430 apt-get and aptitude, the latter possibly caused by some circular
10431 dependency. Reported both to BTS to try to get someone to look at
10438 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>.
10443 <div class=
"padding"></div>
10445 <div class=
"entry">
10446 <div class=
"title">
10447 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/First_Debian_Edu_test_release__alpha0__based_on_Squeeze_is_released.html">First Debian Edu test release (alpha0) based on Squeeze is released
</a>
10453 <p>I just posted this announcement culminating several months of work
10454 with the next Debian Edu release. Not nearly done, but one major step
10458 <p>This is the first test release based on Squeeze. The focus of this
10459 release is to test the user application selection. To have a look,
10460 install the standalone profile and let the developers know if the set
10461 of installed packages i.e. applications should be modified. If some
10462 user application is missing, or if there are some applications that no
10463 longer make sense to be included in Debian Edu, please let us know.
10464 Also, if a useful application is missing the translation for your
10465 language of choice, please let us know too.
</p>
10467 <p>In addition, feedback and help to polish the desktop (menus,
10468 artwork, starters, etc.) is appreciated. We would like to ship a nice
10469 and handy KDE4 desktop targeted for schools out of the box.
</p>
10471 <p>The other profiles should be installable, but there is a lot more
10472 work left to be done before they are ready, so do not expect to
10475 <p>Changes compared to the lenny based version
</p>
10478 <li>Everything from Debian Squeeze
10480 <li>Desktop environment KDE
4.4 =
> the new KDE desktop in
10481 combination with some new artwork
10482 <li>Web browser Iceweasel
3.5
10483 <li>OpenOffice.org
3.2
10484 <li>Educational toolbox GCompris
9.3
10485 <li>Music creator Rosegarden
10.04.2
10486 <li>Image editor Gimp
2.6.10
10487 <li>Virtual universe Celestia
1.6.0
10488 <li>Virtual stargazer Stellarium
0.10.4
10489 <li>3D modeler Blender
2.49.2 (new application)
10490 <li>Video editor Kdenlive
0.7.7 (new application)
10492 <li>Now using Kerberos for password checking (migration not finished).
10498 <li>SMTP (sender verification)
10501 <li>New experimental roaming workstation profile for laptops.
</li>
10502 <li>Show welcome page to users when they first log in. The URL is
10503 fetched from LDAP.
</li>
10504 <li>New LXDE desktop option, in addition to KDE (default) and Gnome.
</li>
10505 <li>General cleanup (not finished)
</li>
10507 <p>The following features are not working as they should
</p>
10510 <li>No web based administration tool for creating users and groups. The
10511 scripts ldap-createuser-krb and ldap-add-user-to-group can be used
10513 <li>DVD installs are missing debian-installer images for the PXE boot,
10514 and do not set up the PXE menu on eth0 because of this. LTSP
10515 clients should still boot from eth1 on thin client servers.
</li>
10516 <li>The restructured KDE menu is not implemented.
</li>
10517 <li>The LDAP server setup need to be reviewed for security.
</li>
10518 <li>The LDAP directory structure need to be reworked.
</li>
10519 <li>Different sets of packages are installed when using the DVD and the
10520 netinst CD. More packages are installed using the netinst CD.
</li>
10521 <li>The jackd package fail to install. This is believed to be caused by
10522 some ongoing transition, and hopefully should be solved soon. The
10523 jackd1 package can be installed manually for those that need it.
</li>
10524 <li>Some packages lack translations. See
10525 http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Status/Squeeze for updated status,
10526 and help out with translations.
</li>
10529 <p>To download this multiarch netinstall release you can use
</p>
10532 <li><a href=
"ftp://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/squeeze-alpha/debian-edu-6.0.0+edua0-CD.iso">ftp://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/squeeze-alpha/debian-edu-
6.0.0+edua0-CD.iso
</a></li>
10533 <li><a href=
"http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/squeeze-alpha/debian-edu-6.0.0+edua0-CD.iso">http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/squeeze-alpha/debian-edu-
6.0.0+edua0-CD.iso
</a></li>
10534 <li>rsync -avzP ftp.skolelinux.org::skolelinux-cd/squeeze-alpha/debian-edu-
6.0.0+edua0-CD.iso
</li>
10536 <p>To download this multiarch dvd release you can use
</p>
10539 <li><a href=
"ftp://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/squeeze-alpha/debian-edu-6.0.0+edua0-DVD.iso">ftp://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/squeeze-alpha/debian-edu-
6.0.0+edua0-DVD.iso
</a></li>
10540 <li><a href=
"http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/squeeze-alpha/debian-edu-6.0.0+edua0-DVD.iso">http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/squeeze-alpha/debian-edu-
6.0.0+edua0-DVD.iso
</a></li>
10541 <li>rsync -avzP ftp.skolelinux.org::skolelinux-cd/squeeze-alpha/debian-edu-
6.0.0+edua0-DVD.iso
</li>
10544 <p>There is no source DVD available yet. It will be prepared when we
10545 get closer to the final release.
</p>
10547 <p>The MD5SUM of these images are
</p>
10550 <li>3dbf45d59f42a53518b6e3c9ec3b5eb6 debian-edu-
6.0.0+edua0-CD.iso
</li>
10551 <li>22f2cbfce281d1c6e478be452638675d debian-edu-
6.0.0+edua0-DVD.iso
</li>
10554 <p>The SHA1SUM of these images are
</p>
10556 <li>c53d1b69b40cf37cd27aefaf33f6f6a3821bedf0 debian-edu-
6.0.0+edua0-CD.iso
</li>
10557 <li>2ec29d7db676d59d32197b05c277ffe16348376c debian-edu-
6.0.0+edua0-DVD.iso
</li>
10559 <p>How to report bugs:
10560 http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/HowTo/ReportBugsInBugzilla
</p>
10562 <p>Please direct replies to debian-edu@lists.debian.org
</p>
10569 Tags:
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu
</a>,
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english
</a>,
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug
</a>.
10574 <div class=
"padding"></div>
10576 <div class=
"entry">
10577 <div class=
"title">
10578 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/One_step_closer_to_single_signon_in_Debian_Edu.html">One step closer to single signon in Debian Edu
</a>
10584 <p>The last few months me and the other Debian Edu developers have
10585 been working hard to get the Debian/Squeeze based version of Debian
10586 Edu/Skolelinux into shape. This future version will use Kerberos for
10587 authentication, and services are slowly migrated to single signon,
10588 getting rid of password questions one at the time.
</p>
10590 <p>It will also feature a roaming workstation profile with local home
10591 directory, for laptops that are only some times on the Skolelinux
10592 network, and for this profile a shortcut is created in Gnome and KDE
10593 to gain access to the users home directory on the file server. This
10594 shortcut uses SMB at the moment, and yesterday I had time to test if
10595 SMB mounting had started working in KDE after we added the cifs-utils
10596 package. I was pleasantly surprised how well it worked.
</p>
10598 <p>Thanks to the recent changes to our samba configuration to get it
10599 to use Kerberos for authentication, there were no question about user
10600 password when mounting the SMB volume. A simple click on the shortcut
10601 in the KDE menu, and a window with the home directory popped
10604 <p>One step closer to a single signon solution out of the box in
10605 Debian Edu. We already had PAM, LDAP, IMAP and SMTP in place, and now
10606 also Samba. Next step is Cups and hopefully also NFS.
</p>
10608 <p>We had planned a alpha0 release of Debian Edu for today, but thanks
10609 to the autobuilder administrators for some architectures being slow to
10610 sign packages, we are still missing the fixed LTSP package we need for
10611 the release. It was uploaded three days ago with urgency=high, and if
10612 it had entered testing yesterday we would have been able to test it in
10613 time for a alpha0 release today. As the binaries for ia64 and powerpc
10614 still not uploaded to the Debian archive, we need to delay the alpha
10615 release another day.
</p>
10617 <p>If you want to help out with implementing Kerberos for Debian Edu,
10618 please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.
</p>
10624 Tags:
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu
</a>,
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english
</a>,
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug
</a>,
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet
</a>.
10629 <div class=
"padding"></div>
10631 <div class=
"entry">
10632 <div class=
"title">
10633 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/OpenStreetmap_one_step_closer_to_having_routing_on_its_front_page.html">OpenStreetmap one step closer to having routing on its front page
</a>
10640 <a href=
"http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Opengeodata/~3/wUTCzDZk3lc/project-of-the-week-which-way-home">todays
10641 opengeodata blog entry
</a>, I just discovered that the
10642 OpenStreetmap.org site have gotten
10643 <a href=
"http://nroets.dev.openstreetmap.org/demo/index.html?layers=B000FTFTT">support
10644 for calculating routes
</a>. The support is still experimental and
10645 only available from the development server, until more experience is
10646 gathered on the user interface and any scalability issues.
</p>
10648 <p>Earlier, the routing I knew about using the OpenStreetmap.org data
10649 was provided by
<a href=
"http://maps.cloudmade.com/">Cloudmade
</a>,
10650 but having it on the main page is required to make everyone aware of
10651 the issue. I've had people reject Openstreetmap.org as a viable
10652 alternative for them because the front page lacked routing support,
10653 and I hope their needs will be catered for when routing show up on the
10654 www.openstreetmap.org front page.
</p>
10660 Tags:
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english
</a>,
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/kart">kart
</a>,
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/web">web
</a>.
10665 <div class=
"padding"></div>
10667 <div class=
"entry">
10668 <div class=
"title">
10669 <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>
10676 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Time_for_new__LDAP_schemas_replacing_RFC_2307_.html">followup
</a>
10678 <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
10680 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Combining_PowerDNS_and_ISC_DHCP_LDAP_objects.html">merging
10681 all
</a> the computer related LDAP objects in Debian Edu.
</p>
10683 <p>As a step to try to see if it possible to merge the DNS and DHCP
10684 LDAP objects, I have had a look at how the packages pdns-backend-ldap
10685 and dhcp3-server-ldap in Debian use the LDAP server. The two
10686 implementations are quite different in how they use LDAP.
</p>
10688 To get this information, I started slapd with debugging enabled and
10689 dumped the debug output to a file to get the LDAP searches performed
10690 on a Debian Edu main-server. Here is a summary.
10692 <p><strong>powerdns
</strong></p>
10694 <a href=
"http://www.linuxnetworks.de/doc/index.php/PowerDNS_LDAP_Backend">Clues
10695 on how to
</a> set up PowerDNS to use a LDAP backend is available on
10698 <p>PowerDNS have two modes of operation using LDAP as its backend.
10699 One "strict" mode where the forward and reverse DNS lookups are done
10700 using the same LDAP objects, and a "tree" mode where the forward and
10701 reverse entries are in two different subtrees in LDAP with a structure
10702 based on the DNS names, as in tjener.intern and
10703 2.2.0.10.in-addr.arpa.
</p>
10705 <p>In tree mode, the server is set up to use a LDAP subtree as its
10706 base, and uses a "base" scoped search for the DNS name by adding
10707 "dc=tjener,dc=intern," to the base with a filter for
10708 "(associateddomain=tjener.intern)" for the forward entry and
10709 "dc=
2,dc=
2,dc=
0,dc=
10,dc=in-addr,dc=arpa," with a filter for
10710 "(associateddomain=
2.2.0.10.in-addr.arpa)" for the reverse entry. For
10711 forward entries, it is looking for attributes named dnsttl, arecord,
10712 nsrecord, cnamerecord, soarecord, ptrrecord, hinforecord, mxrecord,
10713 txtrecord, rprecord, afsdbrecord, keyrecord, aaaarecord, locrecord,
10714 srvrecord, naptrrecord, kxrecord, certrecord, dsrecord, sshfprecord,
10715 ipseckeyrecord, rrsigrecord, nsecrecord, dnskeyrecord, dhcidrecord,
10716 spfrecord and modifytimestamp. For reverse entries it is looking for
10717 the attributes dnsttl, arecord, nsrecord, cnamerecord, soarecord,
10718 ptrrecord, hinforecord, mxrecord, txtrecord, rprecord, aaaarecord,
10719 locrecord, srvrecord, naptrrecord and modifytimestamp. The equivalent
10720 ldapsearch commands could look like this:
</p>
10723 ldapsearch -h ldap \
10724 -b dc=tjener,dc=intern,ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no \
10725 -s base -x '(associateddomain=tjener.intern)' dNSTTL aRecord nSRecord \
10726 cNAMERecord sOARecord pTRRecord hInfoRecord mXRecord tXTRecord \
10727 rPRecord aFSDBRecord KeyRecord aAAARecord lOCRecord sRVRecord \
10728 nAPTRRecord kXRecord certRecord dSRecord sSHFPRecord iPSecKeyRecord \
10729 rRSIGRecord nSECRecord dNSKeyRecord dHCIDRecord sPFRecord modifyTimestamp
10731 ldapsearch -h ldap \
10732 -b dc=
2,dc=
2,dc=
0,dc=
10,dc=in-addr,dc=arpa,ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no \
10733 -s base -x '(associateddomain=
2.2.0.10.in-addr.arpa)'
10734 dnsttl, arecord, nsrecord, cnamerecord soarecord ptrrecord \
10735 hinforecord mxrecord txtrecord rprecord aaaarecord locrecord \
10736 srvrecord naptrrecord modifytimestamp
10737 </pre></blockquote>
10739 <p>In Debian Edu/Lenny, the PowerDNS tree mode is used with
10740 ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no as the base, and these are two
10741 example LDAP objects used there. In addition to these objects, the
10742 parent objects all th way up to ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
10746 dn: dc=tjener,dc=intern,ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
10748 objectclass: dnsdomain
10749 objectclass: domainrelatedobject
10752 associateddomain: tjener.intern
10754 dn: dc=
2,dc=
2,dc=
0,dc=
10,dc=in-addr,dc=arpa,ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
10756 objectclass: dnsdomain2
10757 objectclass: domainrelatedobject
10759 ptrrecord: tjener.intern
10760 associateddomain:
2.2.0.10.in-addr.arpa
10761 </pre></blockquote>
10763 <p>In strict mode, the server behaves differently. When looking for
10764 forward DNS entries, it is doing a "subtree" scoped search with the
10765 same base as in the tree mode for a object with filter
10766 "(associateddomain=tjener.intern)" and requests the attributes dnsttl,
10767 arecord, nsrecord, cnamerecord, soarecord, ptrrecord, hinforecord,
10768 mxrecord, txtrecord, rprecord, aaaarecord, locrecord, srvrecord,
10769 naptrrecord and modifytimestamp. For reverse entires it also do a
10770 subtree scoped search but this time the filter is "(arecord=
10.0.2.2)"
10771 and the requested attributes are associateddomain, dnsttl and
10772 modifytimestamp. In short, in strict mode the objects with ptrrecord
10773 go away, and the arecord attribute in the forward object is used
10776 <p>The forward and reverse searches can be simulated using ldapsearch
10780 ldapsearch -h ldap -b ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no -s sub -x \
10781 '(associateddomain=tjener.intern)' dNSTTL aRecord nSRecord \
10782 cNAMERecord sOARecord pTRRecord hInfoRecord mXRecord tXTRecord \
10783 rPRecord aFSDBRecord KeyRecord aAAARecord lOCRecord sRVRecord \
10784 nAPTRRecord kXRecord certRecord dSRecord sSHFPRecord iPSecKeyRecord \
10785 rRSIGRecord nSECRecord dNSKeyRecord dHCIDRecord sPFRecord modifyTimestamp
10787 ldapsearch -h ldap -b ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no -s sub -x \
10788 '(arecord=
10.0.2.2)' associateddomain dnsttl modifytimestamp
10789 </pre></blockquote>
10791 <p>In addition to the forward and reverse searches , there is also a
10792 search for SOA records, which behave similar to the forward and
10793 reverse lookups.
</p>
10795 <p>A thing to note with the PowerDNS behaviour is that it do not
10796 specify any objectclass names, and instead look for the attributes it
10797 need to generate a DNS reply. This make it able to work with any
10798 objectclass that provide the needed attributes.
</p>
10800 <p>The attributes are normally provided in the cosine (RFC
1274) and
10801 dnsdomain2 schemas. The latter is used for reverse entries like
10802 ptrrecord and recent DNS additions like aaaarecord and srvrecord.
</p>
10804 <p>In Debian Edu, we have created DNS objects using the object classes
10805 dcobject (for dc), dnsdomain or dnsdomain2 (structural, for the DNS
10806 attributes) and domainrelatedobject (for associatedDomain). The use
10807 of structural object classes make it impossible to combine these
10808 classes with the object classes used by DHCP.
</p>
10810 <p>There are other schemas that could be used too, for example the
10811 dnszone structural object class used by Gosa and bind-sdb for the DNS
10812 attributes combined with the domainrelatedobject object class, but in
10813 this case some unused attributes would have to be included as well
10814 (zonename and relativedomainname).
</p>
10816 <p>My proposal for Debian Edu would be to switch PowerDNS to strict
10817 mode and not use any of the existing objectclasses (dnsdomain,
10818 dnsdomain2 and dnszone) when one want to combine the DNS information
10819 with DHCP information, and instead create a auxiliary object class
10820 defined something like this (using the attributes defined for
10821 dnsdomain and dnsdomain2 or dnszone):
</p>
10824 objectclass ( some-oid NAME 'dnsDomainAux'
10827 MAY ( ARecord $ MDRecord $ MXRecord $ NSRecord $ SOARecord $ CNAMERecord $
10828 DNSTTL $ DNSClass $ PTRRecord $ HINFORecord $ MINFORecord $
10829 TXTRecord $ SIGRecord $ KEYRecord $ AAAARecord $ LOCRecord $
10830 NXTRecord $ SRVRecord $ NAPTRRecord $ KXRecord $ CERTRecord $
10831 A6Record $ DNAMERecord
10833 </pre></blockquote>
10835 <p>This will allow any object to become a DNS entry when combined with
10836 the domainrelatedobject object class, and allow any entity to include
10837 all the attributes PowerDNS wants. I've sent an email to the PowerDNS
10838 developers asking for their view on this schema and if they are
10839 interested in providing such schema with PowerDNS, and I hope my
10840 message will be accepted into their mailing list soon.
</p>
10842 <p><strong>ISC dhcp
</strong></p>
10844 <p>The DHCP server searches for specific objectclass and requests all
10845 the object attributes, and then uses the attributes it want. This
10846 make it harder to figure out exactly what attributes are used, but
10847 thanks to the working example in Debian Edu I can at least get an idea
10848 what is needed without having to read the source code.
</p>
10850 <p>In the DHCP server configuration, the LDAP base to use and the
10851 search filter to use to locate the correct dhcpServer entity is
10852 stored. These are the relevant entries from
10853 /etc/dhcp3/dhcpd.conf:
</p>
10856 ldap-base-dn "dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no";
10857 ldap-dhcp-server-cn "dhcp";
10858 </pre></blockquote>
10860 <p>The DHCP server uses this information to nest all the DHCP
10861 configuration it need. The cn "dhcp" is located using the given LDAP
10862 base and the filter "(&(objectClass=dhcpServer)(cn=dhcp))". The
10863 search result is this entry:
</p>
10866 dn: cn=dhcp,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
10869 objectClass: dhcpServer
10870 dhcpServiceDN: cn=DHCP Config,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
10871 </pre></blockquote>
10873 <p>The content of the dhcpServiceDN attribute is next used to locate the
10874 subtree with DHCP configuration. The DHCP configuration subtree base
10875 is located using a base scope search with base "cn=DHCP
10876 Config,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no" and filter
10877 "(&(objectClass=dhcpService)(|(dhcpPrimaryDN=cn=dhcp,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no)(dhcpSecondaryDN=cn=dhcp,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no)))".
10878 The search result is this entry:
</p>
10881 dn: cn=DHCP Config,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
10884 objectClass: dhcpService
10885 objectClass: dhcpOptions
10886 dhcpPrimaryDN: cn=dhcp, dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
10887 dhcpStatements: ddns-update-style none
10888 dhcpStatements: authoritative
10889 dhcpOption: smtp-server code
69 = array of ip-address
10890 dhcpOption: www-server code
72 = array of ip-address
10891 dhcpOption: wpad-url code
252 = text
10892 </pre></blockquote>
10894 <p>Next, the entire subtree is processed, one level at the time. When
10895 all the DHCP configuration is loaded, it is ready to receive requests.
10896 The subtree in Debian Edu contain objects with object classes
10897 top/dhcpService/dhcpOptions, top/dhcpSharedNetwork/dhcpOptions,
10898 top/dhcpSubnet, top/dhcpGroup and top/dhcpHost. These provide options
10899 and information about netmasks, dynamic range etc. Leaving out the
10900 details here because it is not relevant for the focus of my
10901 investigation, which is to see if it is possible to merge dns and dhcp
10902 related computer objects.
</p>
10904 <p>When a DHCP request come in, LDAP is searched for the MAC address
10905 of the client (
00:
00:
00:
00:
00:
00 in this example), using a subtree
10906 scoped search with "cn=DHCP Config,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no" as
10907 the base and "(&(objectClass=dhcpHost)(dhcpHWAddress=ethernet
10908 00:
00:
00:
00:
00:
00))" as the filter. This is what a host object look
10912 dn: cn=hostname,cn=group1,cn=THINCLIENTS,cn=DHCP Config,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
10915 objectClass: dhcpHost
10916 dhcpHWAddress: ethernet
00:
00:
00:
00:
00:
00
10917 dhcpStatements: fixed-address hostname
10918 </pre></blockquote>
10920 <p>There is less flexiblity in the way LDAP searches are done here.
10921 The object classes need to have fixed names, and the configuration
10922 need to be stored in a fairly specific LDAP structure. On the
10923 positive side, the invidiual dhcpHost entires can be anywhere without
10924 the DN pointed to by the dhcpServer entries. The latter should make
10925 it possible to group all host entries in a subtree next to the
10926 configuration entries, and this subtree can also be shared with the
10927 DNS server if the schema proposed above is combined with the dhcpHost
10928 structural object class.
10930 <p><strong>Conclusion
</strong></p>
10932 <p>The PowerDNS implementation seem to be very flexible when it come
10933 to which LDAP schemas to use. While its "tree" mode is rigid when it
10934 come to the the LDAP structure, the "strict" mode is very flexible,
10935 allowing DNS objects to be stored anywhere under the base cn specified
10936 in the configuration.
</p>
10938 <p>The DHCP implementation on the other hand is very inflexible, both
10939 regarding which LDAP schemas to use and which LDAP structure to use.
10940 I guess one could implement ones own schema, as long as the
10941 objectclasses and attributes have the names used, but this do not
10942 really help when the DHCP subtree need to have a fairly fixed
10945 <p>Based on the observed behaviour, I suspect a LDAP structure like
10946 this might work for Debian Edu:
</p>
10950 cn=machine-info (dhcpService) - dhcpServiceDN points here
10951 cn=dhcp (dhcpServer)
10952 cn=dhcp-internal (dhcpSharedNetwork/dhcpOptions)
10953 cn=
10.0.2.0 (dhcpSubnet)
10954 cn=group1 (dhcpGroup/dhcpOptions)
10955 cn=dhcp-thinclients (dhcpSharedNetwork/dhcpOptions)
10956 cn=
192.168.0.0 (dhcpSubnet)
10957 cn=group1 (dhcpGroup/dhcpOptions)
10958 ou=machines - PowerDNS base points here
10959 cn=hostname (dhcpHost/domainrelatedobject/dnsDomainAux)
10960 </pre></blockquote>
10962 <P>This is not tested yet. If the DHCP server require the dhcpHost
10963 entries to be in the dhcpGroup subtrees, the entries can be stored
10964 there instead of a common machines subtree, and the PowerDNS base
10965 would have to be moved one level up to the machine-info subtree.
</p>
10967 <p>The combined object under the machines subtree would look something
10971 dn: dc=hostname,ou=machines,cn=machine-info,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
10974 objectClass: dhcpHost
10975 objectclass: domainrelatedobject
10976 objectclass: dnsDomainAux
10977 associateddomain: hostname.intern
10978 arecord:
10.11.12.13
10979 dhcpHWAddress: ethernet
00:
00:
00:
00:
00:
00
10980 dhcpStatements: fixed-address hostname.intern
10981 </pre></blockquote>
10983 </p>One could even add the LTSP configuration associated with a given
10984 machine, as long as the required attributes are available in a
10985 auxiliary object class.
</p>
10991 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>.
10996 <div class=
"padding"></div>
10998 <div class=
"entry">
10999 <div class=
"title">
11000 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Combining_PowerDNS_and_ISC_DHCP_LDAP_objects.html">Combining PowerDNS and ISC DHCP LDAP objects
</a>
11006 <p>For a while now, I have wanted to find a way to change the DNS and
11007 DHCP services in Debian Edu to use the same LDAP objects for a given
11008 computer, to avoid the possibility of having a inconsistent state for
11009 a computer in LDAP (as in DHCP but no DNS entry or the other way
11010 around) and make it easier to add computers to LDAP.
</p>
11012 <p>I've looked at how powerdns and dhcpd is using LDAP, and using this
11013 information finally found a solution that seem to work.
</p>
11015 <p>The old setup required three LDAP objects for a given computer.
11016 One forward DNS entry, one reverse DNS entry and one DHCP entry. If
11017 we switch powerdns to use its strict LDAP method (ldap-method=strict
11018 in pdns-debian-edu.conf), the forward and reverse DNS entries are
11019 merged into one while making it impossible to transfer the reverse map
11020 to a slave DNS server.
</p>
11022 <p>If we also replace the object class used to get the DNS related
11023 attributes to one allowing these attributes to be combined with the
11024 dhcphost object class, we can merge the DNS and DHCP entries into one.
11025 I've written such object class in the dnsdomainaux.schema file (need
11026 proper OIDs, but that is a minor issue), and tested the setup. It
11029 <p>With this test setup in place, we can get away with one LDAP object
11030 for both DNS and DHCP, and even the LTSP configuration I suggested in
11031 an earlier email. The combined LDAP object will look something like
11035 dn: cn=hostname,cn=group1,cn=THINCLIENTS,cn=DHCP Config,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
11037 objectClass: dhcphost
11038 objectclass: domainrelatedobject
11039 objectclass: dnsdomainaux
11040 associateddomain: hostname.intern
11041 arecord:
10.11.12.13
11042 dhcphwaddress: ethernet
00:
00:
00:
00:
00:
00
11043 dhcpstatements: fixed-address hostname
11045 </pre></blockquote>
11047 <p>The DNS server uses the associateddomain and arecord entries, while
11048 the DHCP server uses the dhcphwaddress and dhcpstatements entries
11049 before asking DNS to resolve the fixed-adddress. LTSP will use
11050 dhcphwaddress or associateddomain and the ldapconfig* attributes.
</p>
11052 <p>I am not yet sure if I can get the DHCP server to look for its
11053 dhcphost in a different location, to allow us to put the objects
11054 outside the "DHCP Config" subtree, but hope to figure out a way to do
11055 that. If I can't figure out a way to do that, we can still get rid of
11056 the hosts subtree and move all its content into the DHCP Config tree
11057 (which probably should be renamed to be more related to the new
11058 content. I suspect cn=dnsdhcp,ou=services or something like that
11059 might be a good place to put it.
</p>
11061 <p>If you want to help out with implementing this for Debian Edu,
11062 please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.
</p>
11068 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>.
11073 <div class=
"padding"></div>
11075 <div class=
"entry">
11076 <div class=
"title">
11077 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Idea_for_storing_LTSP_configuration_in_LDAP.html">Idea for storing LTSP configuration in LDAP
</a>
11083 <p>Vagrant mentioned on IRC today that ltsp_config now support
11084 sourcing files from /usr/share/ltsp/ltsp_config.d/ on the thin
11085 clients, and that this can be used to fetch configuration from LDAP if
11086 Debian Edu choose to store configuration there.
</p>
11088 <p>Armed with this information, I got inspired and wrote a test module
11089 to get configuration from LDAP. The idea is to look up the MAC
11090 address of the client in LDAP, and look for attributes on the form
11091 ltspconfigsetting=value, and use this to export SETTING=value to the
11094 <p>The goal is to be able to store the LTSP configuration attributes
11095 in a "computer" LDAP object used by both DNS and DHCP, and thus
11096 allowing us to store all information about a computer in one place.
</p>
11098 <p>This is a untested draft implementation, and I welcome feedback on
11099 this approach. A real LDAP schema for the ltspClientAux objectclass
11100 need to be written. Comments, suggestions, etc?
</p>
11103 # Store in /opt/ltsp/$arch/usr/share/ltsp/ltsp_config.d/ldap-config
11105 # Fetch LTSP client settings from LDAP based on MAC address
11107 # Uses ethernet address as stored in the dhcpHost objectclass using
11108 # the dhcpHWAddress attribute or ethernet address stored in the
11109 # ieee802Device objectclass with the macAddress attribute.
11111 # This module is written to be schema agnostic, and only depend on the
11112 # existence of attribute names.
11114 # The LTSP configuration variables are saved directly using a
11115 # ltspConfig prefix and uppercasing the rest of the attribute name.
11116 # To set the SERVER variable, set the ltspConfigServer attribute.
11118 # Some LDAP schema should be created with all the relevant
11119 # configuration settings. Something like this should work:
11121 # objectclass (
1.1.2.2 NAME 'ltspClientAux'
11124 # MAY ( ltspConfigServer $ ltsConfigSound $ ... )
11126 LDAPSERVER=$(debian-edu-ldapserver)
11127 if [ "$LDAPSERVER" ] ; then
11128 LDAPBASE=$(debian-edu-ldapserver -b)
11129 for MAC in $(LANG=C ifconfig |grep -i hwaddr| awk '{print $
5}'|sort -u) ; do
11130 filter="(|(dhcpHWAddress=ethernet $MAC)(macAddress=$MAC))"
11131 ldapsearch -h "$LDAPSERVER" -b "$LDAPBASE" -v -x "$filter" | \
11132 grep '^ltspConfig' | while read attr value ; do
11133 # Remove prefix and convert to upper case
11134 attr=$(echo $attr | sed 's/^ltspConfig//i' | tr a-z A-Z)
11135 # bass value on to clients
11136 eval "$attr=$value; export $attr"
11140 </pre></blockquote>
11142 <p>I'm not sure this shell construction will work, because I suspect
11143 the while block might end up in a subshell causing the variables set
11144 there to not show up in ltsp-config, but if that is the case I am sure
11145 the code can be restructured to make sure the variables are passed on.
11146 I expect that can be solved with some testing. :)
</p>
11148 <p>If you want to help out with implementing this for Debian Edu,
11149 please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.
</p>
11151 <p>Update
2010-
07-
17: I am aware of another effort to store LTSP
11152 configuration in LDAP that was created around year
2000 by
11153 <a href=
"http://www.pcxperience.com/thinclient/documentation/ldap.html">PC
11154 Xperience, Inc.,
2000</a>. I found its
11155 <a href=
"http://people.redhat.com/alikins/ltsp/ldap/">files
</a> on a
11156 personal home page over at redhat.com.
</p>
11162 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>.
11167 <div class=
"padding"></div>
11169 <div class=
"entry">
11170 <div class=
"title">
11171 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/jXplorer__a_very_nice_LDAP_GUI.html">jXplorer, a very nice LDAP GUI
</a>
11178 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/LUMA__a_very_nice_LDAP_GUI.html">my
11179 last post
</a> about available LDAP tools in Debian, I was told about a
11180 LDAP GUI that is even better than luma. The java application
11181 <a href=
"http://jxplorer.org/">jXplorer
</a> is claimed to be capable of
11182 moving LDAP objects and subtrees using drag-and-drop, and can
11183 authenticate using Kerberos. I have only tested the Kerberos
11184 authentication, but do not have a LDAP setup allowing me to rewrite
11185 LDAP with my test user yet. It is
11186 <a href=
"http://packages.qa.debian.org/j/jxplorer.html">available in
11187 Debian
</a> testing and unstable at the moment. The only problem I
11188 have with it is how it handle errors. If something go wrong, its
11189 non-intuitive behaviour require me to go through some query work list
11190 and remove the failing query. Nothing big, but very annoying.
</p>
11196 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>.
11201 <div class=
"padding"></div>
11203 <div class=
"entry">
11204 <div class=
"title">
11205 <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>
11211 <p>Here is a short update on my
<a
11212 href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/~pere/debian-upgrade-testing/">my
11213 Debian Lenny-
>Squeeze upgrade testing
</a>. Here is a summary of the
11214 difference for Gnome when it is upgraded by apt-get and aptitude. I'm
11215 not reporting the status for KDE, because the upgrade crashes when
11216 aptitude try because of missing conflicts
11217 (
<a href=
"http://bugs.debian.org/584861">#
584861</a> and
11218 <a href=
"http://bugs.debian.org/585716">#
585716</a>).
</p>
11220 <p>At the end of the upgrade test script, dpkg -l is executed to get a
11221 complete list of the installed packages. Based on this I see these
11222 differences when I did a test run today. As usual, I do not really
11223 know what the correct set of packages would be, but thought it best to
11224 publish the difference.
</p>
11226 <p>Installed using apt-get, missing with aptitude
</p>
11229 at-spi cpp-
4.3 finger gnome-spell gstreamer0.10-gnomevfs
11230 libatspi1.0-
0 libcupsys2 libeel2-data libgail-common libgdl-
1-common
11231 libgnomeprint2.2-data libgnomeprintui2.2-common libgnomevfs2-bin
11232 libgtksourceview-common libpt-
1.10.10-plugins-alsa
11233 libpt-
1.10.10-plugins-v4l libservlet2.4-java libxalan2-java
11234 libxerces2-java openoffice.org-writer2latex openssl-blacklist p7zip
11235 python-
4suite-xml python-eggtrayicon python-gtkhtml2
11236 python-gtkmozembed svgalibg1 xserver-xephyr zip
11239 <p>Installed using apt-get, removed with aptitude
</p>
11242 bluez-utils dhcdbd djvulibre-desktop epiphany-gecko
11243 gnome-app-install gnome-mount gnome-vfs-obexftp gnome-volume-manager
11244 libao2 libavahi-compat-libdnssd1 libavahi-core5 libbind9-
50
11245 libbluetooth2 libcamel1.2-
11 libcdio7 libcucul0 libcurl3
11246 libdirectfb-
1.0-
0 libdvdread3 libedata-cal1.2-
6 libedataserver1.2-
9
11247 libeel2-
2.20 libepc-
1.0-
1 libepc-ui-
1.0-
1 libexchange-storage1.2-
3
11248 libfaad0 libgd2-noxpm libgda3-
3 libgda3-common libggz2 libggzcore9
11249 libggzmod4 libgksu1.2-
0 libgksuui1.0-
1 libgmyth0 libgnome-desktop-
2
11250 libgnome-pilot2 libgnomecups1.0-
1 libgnomeprint2.2-
0
11251 libgnomeprintui2.2-
0 libgpod3 libgraphviz4 libgtkhtml2-
0
11252 libgtksourceview1.0-
0 libgucharmap6 libhesiod0 libicu38 libisccc50
11253 libisccfg50 libiw29 libkpathsea4 libltdl3 liblwres50 libmagick++
10
11254 libmagick10 libmalaga7 libmtp7 libmysqlclient15off libnautilus-burn4
11255 libneon27 libnm-glib0 libnm-util0 libopal-
2.2 libosp5
11256 libparted1.8-
10 libpisock9 libpisync1 libpoppler-glib3 libpoppler3
11257 libpt-
1.10.10 libraw1394-
8 libsensors3 libsmbios2 libsoup2.2-
8
11258 libssh2-
1 libsuitesparse-
3.1.0 libswfdec-
0.6-
90 libtalloc1
11259 libtotem-plparser10 libtrackerclient0 libvoikko1 libxalan2-java-gcj
11260 libxerces2-java-gcj libxklavier12 libxtrap6 libxxf86misc1 libzephyr3
11261 mysql-common swfdec-gnome totem-gstreamer wodim
11264 <p>Installed using aptitude, missing with apt-get
</p>
11267 gnome gnome-desktop-environment hamster-applet python-gnomeapplet
11268 python-gnomekeyring python-wnck rhythmbox-plugins xorg
11269 xserver-xorg-input-all xserver-xorg-input-evdev
11270 xserver-xorg-input-kbd xserver-xorg-input-mouse
11271 xserver-xorg-input-synaptics xserver-xorg-video-all
11272 xserver-xorg-video-apm xserver-xorg-video-ark xserver-xorg-video-ati
11273 xserver-xorg-video-chips xserver-xorg-video-cirrus
11274 xserver-xorg-video-dummy xserver-xorg-video-fbdev
11275 xserver-xorg-video-glint xserver-xorg-video-i128
11276 xserver-xorg-video-i740 xserver-xorg-video-mach64
11277 xserver-xorg-video-mga xserver-xorg-video-neomagic
11278 xserver-xorg-video-nouveau xserver-xorg-video-nv
11279 xserver-xorg-video-r128 xserver-xorg-video-radeon
11280 xserver-xorg-video-radeonhd xserver-xorg-video-rendition
11281 xserver-xorg-video-s3 xserver-xorg-video-s3virge
11282 xserver-xorg-video-savage xserver-xorg-video-siliconmotion
11283 xserver-xorg-video-sis xserver-xorg-video-sisusb
11284 xserver-xorg-video-tdfx xserver-xorg-video-tga
11285 xserver-xorg-video-trident xserver-xorg-video-tseng
11286 xserver-xorg-video-vesa xserver-xorg-video-vmware
11287 xserver-xorg-video-voodoo
11290 <p>Installed using aptitude, removed with apt-get
</p>
11293 deskbar-applet xserver-xorg xserver-xorg-core
11294 xserver-xorg-input-wacom xserver-xorg-video-intel
11295 xserver-xorg-video-openchrome
11298 <p>I was told on IRC that the xorg-xserver package was
11299 <a href=
"http://git.debian.org/?p=pkg-xorg/xserver/xorg-server.git;a=commit;h=9c8080d06c457932d3bfec021c69ac000aa60120">changed
11300 in git
</a> today to try to get apt-get to not remove xorg completely.
11301 No idea when it hits Squeeze, but when it does I hope it will reduce
11302 the difference somewhat.
11308 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>.
11313 <div class=
"padding"></div>
11315 <div class=
"entry">
11316 <div class=
"title">
11317 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Caching_password__user_and_group_on_a_roaming_Debian_laptop.html">Caching password, user and group on a roaming Debian laptop
</a>
11323 <p>For a laptop, centralized user directories and password checking is
11324 a bit troubling. Laptops are typically used also when not connected
11325 to the network, and it is vital for a user to be able to log in or
11326 unlock the screen saver also when a central server is unavailable.
11327 This is possible by caching passwords and directory information (user
11328 and group attributes) locally, and the packages to do so are available
11329 in Debian. Here follow two recipes to set this up in Debian/Squeeze.
11330 It is also possible to set up in Debian/Lenny, but require more manual
11331 setup there because pam-auth-update is missing in Lenny.
</p>
11333 <h2>LDAP/Kerberos + nscd + libpam-ccreds + libpam-mklocaluser/pam_mkhomedir
</h2>
11335 This is the traditional method with a twist. The password caching is
11336 provided by libpam-ccreds (version
10-
4 or later is needed on
11337 Squeeze), and the directory caching is done by nscd. The directory
11338 lookup and password checking is done using LDAP. If one want to use
11339 Kerberos for password checking the libpam-ldapd package can be
11340 replaced with libpam-krb5 or libpam-heimdal. If one is happy having a
11341 local home directory with the path listed in LDAP, one can use the
11342 pam_mkhomedir module from pam-modules to make this happen instead of
11343 using libpam-mklocaluser. A setup for pam-auth-update to enable
11344 pam_mkhomedir will have to be written until a fix for
11345 <a href=
"http://bugs.debian.org/568577">bug #
568577</a> is in the
11346 archive. Because I believe it is a bad idea to have local home
11347 directories using misleading paths like /site/server/partition/, I
11348 prefer to create a local user with the home directory in /home/. This
11349 is done using the libpam-mklocaluser package.
</p>
11351 <p>These packages need to be installed and configured
</p>
11354 libnss-ldapd libpam-ldapd nscd libpam-ccreds libpam-mklocaluser
11355 </pre></blockquote>
11357 <p>The ldapd packages will ask for LDAP connection information, and
11358 one have to fill in the values that fits ones own site. Make sure the
11359 PAM part uses encrypted connections, to make sure the password is not
11360 sent in clear text to the LDAP server. I've been unable to get TLS
11361 certificate checking for a self signed certificate working, which make
11362 LDAP authentication unsafe for Debian Edu (nslcd is not checking if it
11363 is talking to the correct LDAP server), and very much welcome feedback
11364 on how to get this working.
</p>
11366 <p>Because nscd do not have a default configuration fit for offline
11367 caching until
<a href=
"http://bugs.debian.org/485282">bug #
485282</a>
11368 is fixed, this configuration should be used instead of the one
11369 currently in /etc/nscd.conf. The changes are in the fields
11370 reload-count and positive-time-to-live, and is based on the
11371 instructions I found in the
11372 <a href=
"http://www.flyn.org/laptopldap/">LDAP for Mobile Laptops
</a>
11373 instructions by Flyn Computing.
</p>
11377 reload-count unlimited
11380 enable-cache passwd yes
11381 positive-time-to-live passwd
2592000
11382 negative-time-to-live passwd
20
11383 suggested-size passwd
211
11384 check-files passwd yes
11385 persistent passwd yes
11387 max-db-size passwd
33554432
11388 auto-propagate passwd yes
11390 enable-cache group yes
11391 positive-time-to-live group
2592000
11392 negative-time-to-live group
20
11393 suggested-size group
211
11394 check-files group yes
11395 persistent group yes
11397 max-db-size group
33554432
11398 auto-propagate group yes
11400 enable-cache hosts no
11401 positive-time-to-live hosts
2592000
11402 negative-time-to-live hosts
20
11403 suggested-size hosts
211
11404 check-files hosts yes
11405 persistent hosts yes
11407 max-db-size hosts
33554432
11409 enable-cache services yes
11410 positive-time-to-live services
2592000
11411 negative-time-to-live services
20
11412 suggested-size services
211
11413 check-files services yes
11414 persistent services yes
11415 shared services yes
11416 max-db-size services
33554432
11417 </pre></blockquote>
11419 <p>While we wait for a mechanism to update /etc/nsswitch.conf
11420 automatically like the one provided in
11421 <a href=
"http://bugs.debian.org/496915">bug #
496915</a>, the file
11422 content need to be manually replaced to ensure LDAP is used as the
11423 directory service on the machine. /etc/nsswitch.conf should normally
11424 look like this:
</p>
11430 hosts: files mdns4_minimal [NOTFOUND=return] dns mdns4
11436 netgroup: files ldap
11437 </pre></blockquote>
11439 <p>The important parts are that ldap is listed last for passwd, group,
11440 shadow and netgroup.
</p>
11442 <p>With these changes in place, any user in LDAP will be able to log
11443 in locally on the machine using for example kdm, get a local home
11444 directory created and have the password as well as user and group
11447 <h2>LDAP/Kerberos + nss-updatedb + libpam-ccreds +
11448 libpam-mklocaluser/pam_mkhomedir
</h2>
11450 <p>Because nscd have had its share of problems, and seem to have
11451 problems doing proper caching, I've seen suggestions and recipes to
11452 use nss-updatedb to copy parts of the LDAP database locally when the
11453 LDAP database is available. I have not tested such setup, because I
11454 discovered sssd.
</p>
11456 <h2>LDAP/Kerberos + sssd + libpam-mklocaluser
</h2>
11458 <p>A more flexible and robust setup than the nscd combination
11459 mentioned earlier that has shown up recently, is the
11460 <a href=
"https://fedorahosted.org/sssd/">sssd
</a> package from Redhat.
11461 It is part of the
<a href=
"http://www.freeipa.org/">FreeIPA
</A> project
11462 to provide a Active Directory like directory service for Linux
11463 machines. The sssd system combines the caching of passwords and user
11464 information into one package, and remove the need for nscd and
11465 libpam-ccreds. It support LDAP and Kerberos, but not NIS. Version
11466 1.2 do not support netgroups, but it is said that it will support this
11467 in version
1.5 expected to show up later in
2010. Because the
11468 <a href=
"http://packages.qa.debian.org/s/sssd.html">sssd package
</a>
11469 was missing in Debian, I ended up co-maintaining it with Werner, and
11470 version
1.2 is now in testing.
11472 <p>These packages need to be installed and configured to get the
11473 roaming setup I want
</p>
11476 libpam-sss libnss-sss libpam-mklocaluser
11477 </pre></blockquote>
11479 The complete setup of sssd is done by editing/creating
11480 <tt>/etc/sssd/sssd.conf
</tt>.
11484 config_file_version =
2
11485 reconnection_retries =
3
11487 services = nss, pam
11491 filter_groups = root
11492 filter_users = root
11493 reconnection_retries =
3
11496 reconnection_retries =
3
11500 cache_credentials = true
11503 auth_provider = ldap
11504 chpass_provider = ldap
11506 ldap_uri = ldap://ldap
11507 ldap_search_base = dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
11508 ldap_tls_reqcert = never
11509 ldap_tls_cacert = /etc/ssl/certs/ca-certificates.crt
11510 </pre></blockquote>
11512 <p>I got the same problem here with certificate checking. Had to set
11513 "ldap_tls_reqcert = never" to get it working.
</p>
11515 <p>With the libnss-sss package in testing at the moment, the
11516 nsswitch.conf file is update automatically, so there is no need to
11517 modify it manually.
</p>
11519 <p>If you want to help out with implementing this for Debian Edu,
11520 please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.
</p>
11526 Tags:
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu
</a>,
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english
</a>,
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ldap">ldap
</a>,
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug
</a>.
11531 <div class=
"padding"></div>
11533 <div class=
"entry">
11534 <div class=
"title">
11535 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/LUMA__a_very_nice_LDAP_GUI.html">LUMA, a very nice LDAP GUI
</a>
11541 <p>The last few days I have been looking into the status of the LDAP
11542 directory in Debian Edu, and in the process I started to miss a GUI
11543 tool to browse the LDAP tree. The only one I was able to find in
11544 Debian/Squeeze and Lenny is
11545 <a href=
"http://luma.sourceforge.net/">LUMA
</a>, which has proved to
11546 be a great tool to get a overview of the current LDAP directory
11547 populated by default in Skolelinux. Thanks to it, I have been able to
11548 find empty and obsolete subtrees, misplaced objects and duplicate
11549 objects. It will be installed by default in Debian/Squeeze. If you
11550 are working with LDAP, give it a go. :)
</p>
11552 <p>I did notice one problem with it I have not had time to report to
11553 the BTS yet. There is no .desktop file in the package, so the tool do
11554 not show up in the Gnome and KDE menus, but only deep down in in the
11555 Debian submenu in KDE. I hope that can be fixed before Squeeze is
11558 <p>I have not yet been able to get it to modify the tree yet. I would
11559 like to move objects and remove subtrees directly in the GUI, but have
11560 not found a way to do that with LUMA yet. So in the mean time, I use
11561 <a href=
"http://www.lichteblau.com/ldapvi/">ldapvi
</a> for that.
</p>
11563 <p>If you have tips on other GUI tools for LDAP that might be useful
11564 in Debian Edu, please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.
</p>
11566 <p>Update
2010-
06-
29: Ross Reedstrom tipped us about the
11567 <a href=
"http://packages.qa.debian.org/g/gq.html">gq
</a> package as a
11568 useful GUI alternative. It seem like a good tool, but is unmaintained
11569 in Debian and got a RC bug keeping it out of Squeeze. Unless that
11570 changes, it will not be an option for Debian Edu based on Squeeze.
</p>
11576 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>.
11581 <div class=
"padding"></div>
11583 <div class=
"entry">
11584 <div class=
"title">
11585 <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>
11592 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Time_for_new__LDAP_schemas_replacing_RFC_2307_.html">complained
11593 about the fact
</a> that it is not possible with the provided schemas
11594 for storing DNS and DHCP information in LDAP to combine the two sets
11595 of information into one LDAP object representing a computer.
</p>
11597 <p>In the mean time, I discovered that a simple fix would be to make
11598 the dhcpHost object class auxiliary, to allow it to be combined with
11599 the dNSDomain object class, and thus forming one object for one
11600 computer when storing both DHCP and DNS information in LDAP.
</p>
11602 <p>If I understand this correctly, it is not safe to do this change
11603 without also changing the assigned number for the object class, and I
11604 do not know enough about LDAP schema design to do that properly for
11607 <p>Anyway, for future reference, this is how I believe we could change
11609 <a href=
"http://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-ietf-dhc-ldap-schema-00">DHCP
11610 schema
</a> to solve at least part of the problem with the LDAP schemas
11611 available today from IETF.
</p>
11614 --- dhcp.schema (revision
65192)
11615 +++ dhcp.schema (working copy)
11616 @@ -
376,
7 +
376,
7 @@
11617 objectclass (
2.16.840.1.113719.1.203.6.6
11619 DESC 'This represents information about a particular client'
11621 + SUP top AUXILIARY
11623 MAY (dhcpLeaseDN $ dhcpHWAddress $ dhcpOptionsDN $ dhcpStatements $ dhcpComments $ dhcpOption)
11624 X-NDS_CONTAINMENT ('dhcpService' 'dhcpSubnet' 'dhcpGroup') )
11627 <p>I very much welcome clues on how to do this properly for Debian
11628 Edu/Squeeze. We provide the DHCP schema in our debian-edu-config
11629 package, and should thus be free to rewrite it as we see fit.
</p>
11631 <p>If you want to help out with implementing this for Debian Edu,
11632 please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.
</p>
11638 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>.
11643 <div class=
"padding"></div>
11645 <div class=
"entry">
11646 <div class=
"title">
11647 <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>
11653 <p>A few times I have had the need to simulate the way tasksel
11654 installs packages during the normal debian-installer run. Until now,
11655 I have ended up letting tasksel do the work, with the annoying problem
11656 of not getting any feedback at all when something fails (like a
11657 conffile question from dpkg or a download that fails), using code like
11661 export DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive
11662 tasksel --new-install
11663 </pre></blockquote>
11665 This would invoke tasksel, let its automatic task selection pick the
11666 tasks to install, and continue to install the requested tasks without
11667 any output what so ever.
11669 Recently I revisited this problem while working on the automatic
11670 package upgrade testing, because tasksel would some times hang without
11671 any useful feedback, and I want to see what is going on when it
11672 happen. Then it occured to me, I can parse the output from tasksel
11673 when asked to run in test mode, and use that aptitude command line
11674 printed by tasksel then to simulate the tasksel run. I ended up using
11678 export DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive
11679 cmd="$(in_target tasksel -t --new-install | sed 's/debconf-apt-progress -- //')"
11681 </pre></blockquote>
11683 <p>The content of $cmd is typically something like "
<tt>aptitude -q
11684 --without-recommends -o APT::Install-Recommends=no -y install
11685 ~t^desktop$ ~t^gnome-desktop$ ~t^laptop$ ~pstandard ~prequired
11686 ~pimportant
</tt>", which will install the gnome desktop task, the
11687 laptop task and all packages with priority standard , required and
11688 important, just like tasksel would have done it during
11691 <p>A better approach is probably to extend tasksel to be able to
11692 install packages without using debconf-apt-progress, for use cases
11699 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>.
11704 <div class="padding
"></div>
11706 <div class="entry
">
11707 <div class="title
">
11708 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Officeshots_taking_shape.html
">Officeshots taking shape</a>
11714 <p>For those of us caring about document exchange and
11715 interoperability, <a href="http://www.officeshots.org/
">OfficeShots</a>
11716 is a great service. It is to ODF documents what
11717 <a href="http://browsershots.org/
">BrowserShots</a> is for web
11720 <p>A while back, I was contacted by Knut Yrvin at the part of Nokia
11721 that used to be Trolltech, who wanted to help the OfficeShots project
11722 and wondered if the University of Oslo where I work would be
11723 interested in supporting the project. I helped him to navigate his
11724 request to the right people at work, and his request was answered with
11725 a spot in the machine room with power and network connected, and Knut
11726 arranged funding for a machine to fill the spot. The machine is
11727 administrated by the OfficeShots people, so I do not have daily
11728 contact with its progress, and thus from time to time check back to
11729 see how the project is doing.</p>
11731 <p>Today I had a look, and was happy to see that the Dell box in our
11732 machine room now is the host for several virtual machines running as
11733 OfficeShots factories, and the project is able to render ODF documents
11734 in 17 different document processing implementation on Linux and
11735 Windows. This is great.</p>
11741 Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english
">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/standard
">standard</a>.
11746 <div class="padding
"></div>
11748 <div class="entry
">
11749 <div class="title
">
11750 <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>
11757 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Automatic_upgrade_testing_from_Lenny_to_Squeeze.html
">testing
11758 of Debian upgrades</a> from Lenny to Squeeze continues, and I've
11759 finally made the upgrade logs available from
11760 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/debian-upgrade-testing/
">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/debian-upgrade-testing/</a>.
11761 I am now testing dist-upgrade of Gnome and KDE in a chroot using both
11762 apt and aptitude, and found their differences interesting. This time
11763 I will only focus on their removal plans.</p>
11765 <p>After installing a Gnome desktop and the laptop task, apt-get wants
11766 to remove 72 packages when dist-upgrading from Lenny to Squeeze. The
11767 surprising part is that it want to remove xorg and all
11768 xserver-xorg-video* drivers. Clearly not a good choice, but I am not
11769 sure why. When asking aptitude to do the same, it want to remove 129
11770 packages, but most of them are library packages I suspect are no
11771 longer needed. Both of them want to remove bluetooth packages, which
11772 I do not know. Perhaps these bluetooth packages are obsolete?</p>
11774 <p>For KDE, apt-get want to remove 82 packages, among them kdebase
11775 which seem like a bad idea and xorg the same way as with Gnome. Asking
11776 aptitude for the same, it wants to remove 192 packages, none which are
11777 too surprising.</p>
11779 <p>I guess the removal of xorg during upgrades should be investigated
11780 and avoided, and perhaps others as well. Here are the complete list
11781 of planned removals. The complete logs is available from the URL
11782 above. Note if you want to repeat these tests, that the upgrade test
11783 for kde+apt-get hung in the tasksel setup because of dpkg asking
11784 conffile questions. No idea why. I worked around it by using
11785 '<tt>echo >> /proc/<em>pidofdpkg</em>/fd/0</tt>' to tell dpkg to
11788 <p><b>apt-get gnome 72</b>
11789 <br>bluez-gnome cupsddk-drivers deskbar-applet gnome
11790 gnome-desktop-environment gnome-network-admin gtkhtml3.14
11791 iceweasel-gnome-support libavcodec51 libdatrie0 libgdl-1-0
11792 libgnomekbd2 libgnomekbdui2 libmetacity0 libslab0 libxcb-xlib0
11793 nautilus-cd-burner python-gnome2-desktop python-gnome2-extras
11794 serpentine swfdec-mozilla update-manager xorg xserver-xorg
11795 xserver-xorg-core xserver-xorg-input-all xserver-xorg-input-evdev
11796 xserver-xorg-input-kbd xserver-xorg-input-mouse
11797 xserver-xorg-input-synaptics xserver-xorg-input-wacom
11798 xserver-xorg-video-all xserver-xorg-video-apm xserver-xorg-video-ark
11799 xserver-xorg-video-ati xserver-xorg-video-chips
11800 xserver-xorg-video-cirrus xserver-xorg-video-cyrix
11801 xserver-xorg-video-dummy xserver-xorg-video-fbdev
11802 xserver-xorg-video-glint xserver-xorg-video-i128
11803 xserver-xorg-video-i740 xserver-xorg-video-imstt
11804 xserver-xorg-video-intel xserver-xorg-video-mach64
11805 xserver-xorg-video-mga xserver-xorg-video-neomagic
11806 xserver-xorg-video-nsc xserver-xorg-video-nv
11807 xserver-xorg-video-openchrome xserver-xorg-video-r128
11808 xserver-xorg-video-radeon xserver-xorg-video-radeonhd
11809 xserver-xorg-video-rendition xserver-xorg-video-s3
11810 xserver-xorg-video-s3virge xserver-xorg-video-savage
11811 xserver-xorg-video-siliconmotion xserver-xorg-video-sis
11812 xserver-xorg-video-sisusb xserver-xorg-video-tdfx
11813 xserver-xorg-video-tga xserver-xorg-video-trident
11814 xserver-xorg-video-tseng xserver-xorg-video-v4l
11815 xserver-xorg-video-vesa xserver-xorg-video-vga
11816 xserver-xorg-video-vmware xserver-xorg-video-voodoo xulrunner-1.9
11817 xulrunner-1.9-gnome-support</p>
11819 <p><b>aptitude gnome 129</b>
11821 <br>bluez-gnome bluez-utils cpp-4.3 cupsddk-drivers dhcdbd
11822 djvulibre-desktop finger gnome-app-install gnome-mount
11823 gnome-network-admin gnome-spell gnome-vfs-obexftp
11824 gnome-volume-manager gstreamer0.10-gnomevfs gtkhtml3.14 libao2
11825 libavahi-compat-libdnssd1 libavahi-core5 libavcodec51 libbluetooth2
11826 libcamel1.2-11 libcdio7 libcucul0 libcupsys2 libcurl3 libdatrie0
11827 libdirectfb-1.0-0 libdvdread3 libedataserver1.2-9 libeel2-2.20
11828 libeel2-data libepc-1.0-1 libepc-ui-1.0-1 libfaad0 libgail-common
11829 libgd2-noxpm libgda3-3 libgda3-common libgdl-1-0 libgdl-1-common
11830 libggz2 libggzcore9 libggzmod4 libgksu1.2-0 libgksuui1.0-1 libgmyth0
11831 libgnomecups1.0-1 libgnomekbd2 libgnomekbdui2 libgnomeprint2.2-0
11832 libgnomeprint2.2-data libgnomeprintui2.2-0 libgnomeprintui2.2-common
11833 libgnomevfs2-bin libgpod3 libgraphviz4 libgtkhtml2-0
11834 libgtksourceview-common libgtksourceview1.0-0 libgucharmap6
11835 libhesiod0 libicu38 libiw29 libkpathsea4 libltdl3 libmagick++10
11836 libmagick10 libmalaga7 libmetacity0 libmtp7 libmysqlclient15off
11837 libnautilus-burn4 libneon27 libnm-glib0 libnm-util0 libopal-2.2
11838 libosp5 libparted1.8-10 libpoppler-glib3 libpoppler3 libpt-1.10.10
11839 libpt-1.10.10-plugins-alsa libpt-1.10.10-plugins-v4l libraw1394-8
11840 libsensors3 libslab0 libsmbios2 libsoup2.2-8 libssh2-1
11841 libsuitesparse-3.1.0 libswfdec-0.6-90 libtalloc1 libtotem-plparser10
11842 libtrackerclient0 libxalan2-java libxalan2-java-gcj libxcb-xlib0
11843 libxerces2-java libxerces2-java-gcj libxklavier12 libxtrap6
11844 libxxf86misc1 libzephyr3 mysql-common nautilus-cd-burner
11845 openoffice.org-writer2latex openssl-blacklist p7zip
11846 python-4suite-xml python-eggtrayicon python-gnome2-desktop
11847 python-gnome2-extras python-gtkhtml2 python-gtkmozembed
11848 python-numeric python-sexy serpentine svgalibg1 swfdec-gnome
11849 swfdec-mozilla totem-gstreamer update-manager wodim
11850 xserver-xorg-video-cyrix xserver-xorg-video-imstt
11851 xserver-xorg-video-nsc xserver-xorg-video-v4l xserver-xorg-video-vga
11854 <p><b>apt-get kde 82</b>
11856 <br>cupsddk-drivers karm kaudiocreator kcoloredit kcontrol kde kde-core
11857 kdeaddons kdeartwork kdebase kdebase-bin kdebase-bin-kde3
11858 kdebase-kio-plugins kdesktop kdeutils khelpcenter kicker
11859 kicker-applets knewsticker kolourpaint konq-plugins konqueror korn
11860 kpersonalizer kscreensaver ksplash libavcodec51 libdatrie0 libkiten1
11861 libxcb-xlib0 quanta superkaramba texlive-base-bin xorg xserver-xorg
11862 xserver-xorg-core xserver-xorg-input-all xserver-xorg-input-evdev
11863 xserver-xorg-input-kbd xserver-xorg-input-mouse
11864 xserver-xorg-input-synaptics xserver-xorg-input-wacom
11865 xserver-xorg-video-all xserver-xorg-video-apm xserver-xorg-video-ark
11866 xserver-xorg-video-ati xserver-xorg-video-chips
11867 xserver-xorg-video-cirrus xserver-xorg-video-cyrix
11868 xserver-xorg-video-dummy xserver-xorg-video-fbdev
11869 xserver-xorg-video-glint xserver-xorg-video-i128
11870 xserver-xorg-video-i740 xserver-xorg-video-imstt
11871 xserver-xorg-video-intel xserver-xorg-video-mach64
11872 xserver-xorg-video-mga xserver-xorg-video-neomagic
11873 xserver-xorg-video-nsc xserver-xorg-video-nv
11874 xserver-xorg-video-openchrome xserver-xorg-video-r128
11875 xserver-xorg-video-radeon xserver-xorg-video-radeonhd
11876 xserver-xorg-video-rendition xserver-xorg-video-s3
11877 xserver-xorg-video-s3virge xserver-xorg-video-savage
11878 xserver-xorg-video-siliconmotion xserver-xorg-video-sis
11879 xserver-xorg-video-sisusb xserver-xorg-video-tdfx
11880 xserver-xorg-video-tga xserver-xorg-video-trident
11881 xserver-xorg-video-tseng xserver-xorg-video-v4l
11882 xserver-xorg-video-vesa xserver-xorg-video-vga
11883 xserver-xorg-video-vmware xserver-xorg-video-voodoo xulrunner-1.9</p>
11885 <p><b>aptitude kde 192</b>
11886 <br>bluez-utils cpp-4.3 cupsddk-drivers cvs dcoprss dhcdbd
11887 djvulibre-desktop dosfstools eyesapplet fifteenapplet finger gettext
11888 ghostscript-x imlib-base imlib11 indi kandy karm kasteroids
11889 kaudiocreator kbackgammon kbstate kcoloredit kcontrol kcron kdat
11890 kdeadmin-kfile-plugins kdeartwork-misc kdeartwork-theme-window
11891 kdebase-bin-kde3 kdebase-kio-plugins kdeedu-data
11892 kdegraphics-kfile-plugins kdelirc kdemultimedia-kappfinder-data
11893 kdemultimedia-kfile-plugins kdenetwork-kfile-plugins
11894 kdepim-kfile-plugins kdepim-kio-plugins kdeprint kdesktop kdessh
11895 kdict kdnssd kdvi kedit keduca kenolaba kfax kfaxview kfouleggs
11896 kghostview khelpcenter khexedit kiconedit kitchensync klatin
11897 klickety kmailcvt kmenuedit kmid kmilo kmoon kmrml kodo kolourpaint
11898 kooka korn kpager kpdf kpercentage kpf kpilot kpoker kpovmodeler
11899 krec kregexpeditor ksayit ksim ksirc ksirtet ksmiletris ksmserver
11900 ksnake ksokoban ksplash ksvg ksysv ktip ktnef kuickshow kverbos
11901 kview kviewshell kvoctrain kwifimanager kwin kwin4 kworldclock
11902 kxsldbg libakode2 libao2 libarts1-akode libarts1-audiofile
11903 libarts1-mpeglib libarts1-xine libavahi-compat-libdnssd1
11904 libavahi-core5 libavc1394-0 libavcodec51 libbluetooth2
11905 libboost-python1.34.1 libcucul0 libcurl3 libcvsservice0 libdatrie0
11906 libdirectfb-1.0-0 libdjvulibre21 libdvdread3 libfaad0 libfreebob0
11907 libgail-common libgd2-noxpm libgraphviz4 libgsmme1c2a libgtkhtml2-0
11908 libicu38 libiec61883-0 libindex0 libiw29 libk3b3 libkcal2b libkcddb1
11909 libkdeedu3 libkdepim1a libkgantt0 libkiten1 libkleopatra1 libkmime2
11910 libkpathsea4 libkpimexchange1 libkpimidentities1 libkscan1
11911 libksieve0 libktnef1 liblockdev1 libltdl3 libmagick10 libmimelib1c2a
11912 libmozjs1d libmpcdec3 libneon27 libnm-util0 libopensync0 libpisock9
11913 libpoppler-glib3 libpoppler-qt2 libpoppler3 libraw1394-8 libsmbios2
11914 libssh2-1 libsuitesparse-3.1.0 libtalloc1 libtiff-tools
11915 libxalan2-java libxalan2-java-gcj libxcb-xlib0 libxerces2-java
11916 libxerces2-java-gcj libxtrap6 mpeglib networkstatus
11917 openoffice.org-writer2latex pmount poster psutils quanta quanta-data
11918 superkaramba svgalibg1 tex-common texlive-base texlive-base-bin
11919 texlive-common texlive-doc-base texlive-fonts-recommended
11920 xserver-xorg-video-cyrix xserver-xorg-video-imstt
11921 xserver-xorg-video-nsc xserver-xorg-video-v4l xserver-xorg-video-vga
11929 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>.
11934 <div class="padding
"></div>
11936 <div class="entry
">
11937 <div class="title
">
11938 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Automatic_upgrade_testing_from_Lenny_to_Squeeze.html
">Automatic upgrade testing from Lenny to Squeeze</a>
11944 <p>The last few days I have done some upgrade testing in Debian, to
11945 see if the upgrade from Lenny to Squeeze will go smoothly. A few bugs
11946 have been discovered and reported in the process
11947 (<a href="http://bugs.debian.org/
585410">#585410</a> in nagios3-cgi,
11948 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/
584879">#584879</a> already fixed in
11949 enscript and <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/
584861">#584861</a> in
11950 kdebase-workspace-data), and to get a more regular testing going on, I
11951 am working on a script to automate the test.</p>
11953 <p>The idea is to create a Lenny chroot and use tasksel to install a
11954 Gnome or KDE desktop installation inside the chroot before upgrading
11955 it. To ensure no services are started in the chroot, a policy-rc.d
11956 script is inserted. To make sure tasksel believe it is to install a
11957 desktop on a laptop, the tasksel tests are replaced in the chroot
11958 (only acceptable because this is a throw-away chroot).</p>
11960 <p>A naive upgrade from Lenny to Squeeze using aptitude dist-upgrade
11961 currently always fail because udev refuses to upgrade with the kernel
11962 in Lenny, so to avoid that problem the file /etc/udev/kernel-upgrade
11963 is created. The bug report
11964 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/
566000">#566000</a> make me suspect
11965 this problem do not trigger in a chroot, but I touch the file anyway
11966 to make sure the upgrade go well. Testing on virtual and real
11967 hardware have failed me because of udev so far, and creating this file
11968 do the trick in such settings anyway. This is a
11969 <a href="http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/debian-
26/failed-dist-upgrade-due-to-udev-config_sysfs_deprecated-nonsense-
804130/
">known
11970 issue</a> and the current udev behaviour is intended by the udev
11971 maintainer because he lack the resources to rewrite udev to keep
11972 working with old kernels or something like that. I really wish the
11973 udev upstream would keep udev backwards compatible, to avoid such
11974 upgrade problem, but given that they fail to do so, I guess
11975 documenting the way out of this mess is the best option we got for
11976 Debian Squeeze.</p>
11978 <p>Anyway, back to the task at hand, testing upgrades. This test
11979 script, which I call <tt>upgrade-test</tt> for now, is doing the
11995 exec
< /dev/null
11997 mirror=http://ftp.skolelinux.org/debian
11998 tmpdir=chroot-$from-upgrade-$to-$desktop
12000 debootstrap $from $tmpdir $mirror
12001 chroot $tmpdir aptitude update
12002 cat
> $tmpdir/usr/sbin/policy-rc.d
<<EOF
12006 chmod a+rx $tmpdir/usr/sbin/policy-rc.d
12008 umount $tmpdir/proc
12010 mount -t proc proc $tmpdir/proc
12011 # Make sure proc is unmounted also on failure
12012 trap exit_cleanup EXIT INT
12014 chroot $tmpdir aptitude -y install debconf-utils
12016 # Make sure tasksel autoselection trigger. It need the test scripts
12017 # to return the correct answers.
12018 echo tasksel tasksel/desktop multiselect $desktop | \
12019 chroot $tmpdir debconf-set-selections
12021 # Include the desktop and laptop task
12022 for test in desktop laptop ; do
12023 echo
> $tmpdir/usr/lib/tasksel/tests/$test
<<EOF
12027 chmod a+rx $tmpdir/usr/lib/tasksel/tests/$test
12030 DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive
12031 DEBIAN_PRIORITY=critical
12032 export DEBIAN_FRONTEND DEBIAN_PRIORITY
12033 chroot $tmpdir tasksel --new-install
12035 echo deb $mirror $to main
> $tmpdir/etc/apt/sources.list
12036 chroot $tmpdir aptitude update
12037 touch $tmpdir/etc/udev/kernel-upgrade
12038 chroot $tmpdir aptitude -y dist-upgrade
12040 </pre></blockquote>
12042 <p>I suspect it would be useful to test upgrades with both apt-get and
12043 with aptitude, but I have not had time to look at how they behave
12044 differently so far. I hope to get a cron job running to do the test
12045 regularly and post the result on the web. The Gnome upgrade currently
12046 work, while the KDE upgrade fail because of the bug in
12047 kdebase-workspace-data
</p>
12049 <p>I am not quite sure what kind of extract from the huge upgrade logs
12050 (KDE
167 KiB, Gnome
516 KiB) it make sense to include in this blog
12051 post, so I will refrain from trying. I can report that for Gnome,
12052 aptitude report
760 packages upgraded,
448 newly installed,
129 to
12053 remove and
1 not upgraded and
1024MB need to be downloaded while for
12054 KDE the same numbers are
702 packages upgraded,
507 newly installed,
12055 193 to remove and
0 not upgraded and
1117MB need to be downloaded
</p>
12057 <p>I am very happy to notice that the Gnome desktop + laptop upgrade
12058 is able to migrate to dependency based boot sequencing and parallel
12059 booting without a hitch. Was unsure if there were still bugs with
12060 packages failing to clean up their obsolete init.d script during
12061 upgrades, and no such problem seem to affect the Gnome desktop+laptop
12068 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>.
12073 <div class=
"padding"></div>
12075 <div class=
"entry">
12076 <div class=
"title">
12077 <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>
12083 <p>If Debian is to migrate to upstart on Linux, I expect some init.d
12084 scripts to migrate (some of) their operations to upstart job while
12085 keeping the init.d for hurd and kfreebsd. The packages with such
12086 needs will need a way to get their init.d scripts to behave
12087 differently when used with sysvinit and with upstart. Because of
12088 this, I had a look at the environment variables set when a init.d
12089 script is running under upstart, and when it is not.
</p>
12091 <p>With upstart, I notice these environment variables are set when a
12092 script is started from rcS.d/ (ignoring some irrelevant ones like
12101 UPSTART_EVENTS=startup
12103 UPSTART_JOB=rc-sysinit
12104 </pre></blockquote>
12106 <p>With sysvinit, these environment variables are set for the same
12110 INIT_VERSION=sysvinit-
2.88
12115 </pre></blockquote>
12117 <p>The RUNLEVEL and PREVLEVEL environment variables passed on from
12118 sysvinit are not set by upstart. Not sure if it is intentional or not
12119 to not be compatible with sysvinit in this regard.
</p>
12121 <p>For scripts needing to behave differently when upstart is used,
12122 looking for the UPSTART_JOB environment variable seem to be a good
12129 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>.
12134 <div class=
"padding"></div>
12136 <div class=
"entry">
12137 <div class=
"title">
12138 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/A_manual_for_standards_wars___.html">A manual for standards wars...
</a>
12145 <a href=
"http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/robweir/antic-atom/~3/QzU4RgoAGMg/weekly-links-10.html">blog
12146 of Rob Weir
</a> I came across the very interesting essay named
12147 <a href=
"http://faculty.haas.berkeley.edu/shapiro/wars.pdf">The Art of
12148 Standards Wars
</a> (PDF
25 pages). I recommend it for everyone
12149 following the standards wars of today.
</p>
12155 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>.
12160 <div class=
"padding"></div>
12162 <div class=
"entry">
12163 <div class=
"title">
12164 <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>
12170 <p>When using sitesummary at a site to track machines, it is possible
12171 to get a list of the machine types in use thanks to the DMI
12172 information extracted from each machine. The script to do so is
12173 included in the sitesummary package, and here is example output from
12174 the Skolelinux build servers:
</p>
12177 maintainer:~# /usr/lib/sitesummary/hardware-model-summary
12179 Dell Computer Corporation
1
12182 eserver xSeries
345 -[
8670M1X]-
1
12186 </pre></blockquote>
12188 <p>The quality of the report depend on the quality of the DMI tables
12189 provided in each machine. Here there are Intel machines without model
12190 information listed with Intel as vendor and no model, and virtual Xen
12191 machines listed as [no-dmi-info]. One can add -l as a command line
12192 option to list the individual machines.
</p>
12194 <p>A larger list is
12195 <a href=
"http://narvikskolen.no/sitesummary/">available from the the
12196 city of Narvik
</a>, which uses Skolelinux on all their shools and also
12197 provide the basic sitesummary report publicly. In their report there
12198 are ~
1400 machines. I know they use both Ubuntu and Skolelinux on
12199 their machines, and as sitesummary is available in both distributions,
12200 it is trivial to get all of them to report to the same central
12207 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>.
12212 <div class=
"padding"></div>
12214 <div class=
"entry">
12215 <div class=
"title">
12216 <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>
12222 <p>It is strange to watch how a bug in Debian causing KDM to fail to
12223 start at boot when an NVidia video card is used is handled. The
12224 problem seem to be that the nvidia X.org driver uses a long time to
12225 initialize, and this duration is longer than kdm is configured to
12228 <p>I came across two bugs related to this issue,
12229 <a href=
"http://bugs.debian.org/583312">#
583312</a> initially filed
12230 against initscripts and passed on to nvidia-glx when it became obvious
12231 that the nvidia drivers were involved, and
12232 <a href=
"http://bugs.debian.org/524751">#
524751</a> initially filed against
12233 kdm and passed on to src:nvidia-graphics-drivers for unknown reasons.
</p>
12235 <p>To me, it seem that no-one is interested in actually solving the
12236 problem nvidia video card owners experience and make sure the Debian
12237 distribution work out of the box for these users. The nvidia driver
12238 maintainers expect kdm to be set up to wait longer, while kdm expect
12239 the nvidia driver maintainers to fix the driver to start faster, and
12240 while they wait for each other I guess the users end up switching to a
12241 distribution that work for them. I have no idea what the solution is,
12242 but I am pretty sure that waiting for each other is not it.
</p>
12244 <p>I wonder why we end up handling bugs this way.
</p>
12250 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>.
12255 <div class=
"padding"></div>
12257 <div class=
"entry">
12258 <div class=
"title">
12259 <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>
12265 <p>A few days ago, parallel booting was enabled in Debian/testing.
12266 The feature seem to hold up pretty well, but three fairly serious
12267 issues are known and should be solved:
12271 <li>The wicd package seen to
12272 <a href=
"http://bugs.debian.org/508289">break NFS mounting
</a> and
12273 <a href=
"http://bugs.debian.org/581586">network setup
</a> when
12274 parallel booting is enabled. No idea why, but the wicd maintainer
12275 seem to be on the case.
</li>
12277 <li>The nvidia X driver seem to
12278 <a href=
"http://bugs.debian.org/583312">have a race condition
</a>
12279 triggered more easily when parallel booting is in effect. The
12280 maintainer is on the case.
</li>
12282 <li>The sysv-rc package fail to properly enable dependency based boot
12283 sequencing (the shutdown is broken) when old file-rc users
12284 <a href=
"http://bugs.debian.org/575080">try to switch back
</a> to
12285 sysv-rc. One way to solve it would be for file-rc to create
12286 /etc/init.d/.legacy-bootordering, and another is to try to make
12287 sysv-rc more robust. Will investigate some more and probably upload a
12288 workaround in sysv-rc to help those trying to move from file-rc to
12289 sysv-rc get a working shutdown.
</li>
12293 <p>All in all not many surprising issues, and all of them seem
12294 solvable before Squeeze is released. In addition to these there are
12295 some packages with bugs in their dependencies and run level settings,
12296 which I expect will be fixed in a reasonable time span.
</p>
12298 <p>If you report any problems with dependencies in init.d scripts to
12299 the BTS, please usertag the report to get it to show up at
12300 <a href=
"http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/pkgreport.cgi?users=initscripts-ng-devel@lists.alioth.debian.org">the
12301 list of usertagged bugs related to this
</a>.
</p>
12303 <p>Update: Correct bug number to file-rc issue.
</p>
12309 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>.
12314 <div class=
"padding"></div>
12316 <div class=
"entry">
12317 <div class=
"title">
12318 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/More_flexible_firmware_handling_in_debian_installer.html">More flexible firmware handling in debian-installer
</a>
12324 <p>After a long break from debian-installer development, I finally
12325 found time today to return to the project. Having to spend less time
12326 working dependency based boot in debian, as it is almost complete now,
12327 definitely helped freeing some time.
</p>
12329 <p>A while back, I ran into a problem while working on Debian Edu. We
12330 include some firmware packages on the Debian Edu CDs, those needed to
12331 get disk and network controllers working. Without having these
12332 firmware packages available during installation, it is impossible to
12333 install Debian Edu on the given machine, and because our target group
12334 are non-technical people, asking them to provide firmware packages on
12335 an external medium is a support pain. Initially, I expected it to be
12336 enough to include the firmware packages on the CD to get
12337 debian-installer to find and use them. This proved to be wrong.
12338 Next, I hoped it was enough to symlink the relevant firmware packages
12339 to some useful location on the CD (tried /cdrom/ and
12340 /cdrom/firmware/). This also proved to not work, and at this point I
12341 found time to look at the debian-installer code to figure out what was
12344 <p>The firmware loading code is in the hw-detect package, and a closer
12345 look revealed that it would only look for firmware packages outside
12346 the installation media, so the CD was never checked for firmware
12347 packages. It would only check USB sticks, floppies and other
12348 "external" media devices. Today I changed it to also look in the
12349 /cdrom/firmware/ directory on the mounted CD or DVD, which should
12350 solve the problem I ran into with Debian edu. I also changed it to
12351 look in /firmware/, to make sure the installer also find firmware
12352 provided in the initrd when booting the installer via PXE, to allow us
12353 to provide the same feature in the PXE setup included in Debian
12356 <p>To make sure firmware deb packages with a license questions are not
12357 activated without asking if the license is accepted, I extended
12358 hw-detect to look for preinst scripts in the firmware packages, and
12359 run these before activating the firmware during installation. The
12360 license question is asked using debconf in the preinst, so this should
12361 solve the issue for the firmware packages I have looked at so far.
</p>
12363 <p>If you want to discuss the details of these features, please
12364 contact us on debian-boot@lists.debian.org.
</p>
12370 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>.
12375 <div class=
"padding"></div>
12377 <div class=
"entry">
12378 <div class=
"title">
12379 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Pieces_of_the_roaming_laptop_puzzle_in_Debian.html">Pieces of the roaming laptop puzzle in Debian
</a>
12385 <p>Today, the last piece of the puzzle for roaming laptops in Debian
12386 Edu finally entered the Debian archive. Today, the new
12387 <a href=
"http://packages.qa.debian.org/libp/libpam-mklocaluser.html">libpam-mklocaluser
</a>
12388 package was accepted. Two days ago, two other pieces was accepted
12390 <a href=
"http://packages.qa.debian.org/p/pam-python.html">pam-python
</a>
12391 package needed by libpam-mklocaluser, and the
12392 <a href=
"http://packages.qa.debian.org/s/sssd.html">sssd
</a> package
12393 passed NEW on Monday. In addition, the
12394 <a href=
"http://packages.qa.debian.org/libp/libpam-ccreds.html">libpam-ccreds
</a>
12395 package we need is in experimental (version
10-
4) since Saturday, and
12396 hopefully will be moved to unstable soon.
</p>
12398 <p>This collection of packages allow for two different setups for
12399 roaming laptops. The traditional setup would be using libpam-ccreds,
12400 nscd and libpam-mklocaluser with LDAP or Kerberos authentication,
12401 which should work out of the box if the configuration changes proposed
12402 for nscd in
<a href=
"http://bugs.debian.org/485282">BTS report
12403 #
485282</a> is implemented. The alternative setup is to use sssd with
12404 libpam-mklocaluser to connect to LDAP or Kerberos and let sssd take
12405 care of the caching of passwords and group information.
</p>
12407 <p>I have so far been unable to get sssd to work with the LDAP server
12408 at the University, but suspect the issue is some SSL/GnuTLS related
12409 problem with the server certificate. I plan to update the Debian
12410 package to version
1.2, which is scheduled for next week, and hope to
12411 find time to make sure the next release will include both the
12412 Debian/Ubuntu specific patches. Upstream is friendly and responsive,
12413 and I am sure we will find a good solution.
</p>
12415 <p>The idea is to set up the roaming laptops to authenticate using
12416 LDAP or Kerberos and create a local user with home directory in /home/
12417 when a usre in LDAP logs in via KDM or GDM for the first time, and
12418 cache the password for offline checking, as well as caching group
12419 memberhips and other relevant LDAP information. The
12420 libpam-mklocaluser package was created to make sure the local home
12421 directory is in /home/, instead of /site/server/directory/ which would
12422 be the home directory if pam_mkhomedir was used. To avoid confusion
12423 with support requests and configuration, we do not want local laptops
12424 to have users in a path that is used for the same users home directory
12425 on the home directory servers.
</p>
12427 <p>One annoying problem with gdm is that it do not show the PAM
12428 message passed to the user from libpam-mklocaluser when the local user
12429 is created. Instead gdm simply reject the login with some generic
12430 message. The message is shown in kdm, ssh and login, so I guess it is
12431 a bug in gdm. Have not investigated if there is some other message
12432 type that can be used instead to get gdm to also show the message.
</p>
12434 <p>If you want to help out with implementing this for Debian Edu,
12435 please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.
</p>
12441 Tags:
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu
</a>,
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english
</a>,
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug
</a>.
12446 <div class=
"padding"></div>
12448 <div class=
"entry">
12449 <div class=
"title">
12450 <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>
12456 <p>Since this evening, parallel booting is the default in
12457 Debian/unstable for machines using dependency based boot sequencing.
12458 Apparently the testing of concurrent booting has been wider than
12459 expected, if I am to believe the
12460 <a href=
"http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2010/05/msg00122.html">input
12461 on debian-devel@
</a>, and I concluded a few days ago to move forward
12462 with the feature this weekend, to give us some time to detect any
12463 remaining problems before Squeeze is frozen. If serious problems are
12464 detected, it is simple to change the default back to sequential boot.
12465 The upload of the new sysvinit package also activate a new upstream
12468 More information about
12469 <a href=
"http://wiki.debian.org/LSBInitScripts/DependencyBasedBoot">dependency
12470 based boot sequencing
</a> is available from the Debian wiki. It is
12471 currently possible to disable parallel booting when one run into
12472 problems caused by it, by adding this line to /etc/default/rcS:
</p>
12476 </pre></blockquote>
12478 <p>If you report any problems with dependencies in init.d scripts to
12479 the BTS, please usertag the report to get it to show up at
12480 <a href=
"http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/pkgreport.cgi?users=initscripts-ng-devel@lists.alioth.debian.org">the
12481 list of usertagged bugs related to this
</a>.
</p>
12487 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>.
12492 <div class=
"padding"></div>
12494 <div class=
"entry">
12495 <div class=
"title">
12496 <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>
12502 <p>In the recent Debian Edu versions, the
12503 <a href=
"http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/HowTo/SiteSummary">sitesummary
12504 system
</a> is used to keep track of the machines in the school
12505 network. Each machine will automatically report its status to the
12506 central server after boot and once per night. The network setup is
12507 also reported, and using this information it is possible to get the
12508 MAC address of all network interfaces in the machines. This is useful
12509 to update the DHCP configuration.
</p>
12511 <p>To give some idea how to use sitesummary, here is a one-liner to
12512 ist all MAC addresses of all machines reporting to sitesummary. Run
12513 this on the collector host:
</p>
12516 perl -MSiteSummary -e 'for_all_hosts(sub { print join(" ", get_macaddresses(shift)), "\n"; });'
12517 </pre></blockquote>
12519 <p>This will list all MAC addresses assosiated with all machine, one
12520 line per machine and with space between the MAC addresses.
</p>
12522 <p>To allow system administrators easier job at adding static DHCP
12523 addresses for hosts, it would be possible to extend this to fetch
12524 machine information from sitesummary and update the DHCP and DNS
12525 tables in LDAP using this information. Such tool is unfortunately not
12532 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>.
12537 <div class=
"padding"></div>
12539 <div class=
"entry">
12540 <div class=
"title">
12541 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/systemd__an_interesting_alternative_to_upstart.html">systemd, an interesting alternative to upstart
</a>
12547 <p>The last few days a new boot system called
12548 <a href=
"http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/systemd">systemd
</a>
12550 <a href=
"http://0pointer.de/blog/projects/systemd.html">introduced
</a>
12552 to the free software world. I have not yet had time to play around
12553 with it, but it seem to be a very interesting alternative to
12554 <a href=
"http://upstart.ubuntu.com/">upstart
</a>, and might prove to be
12555 a good alternative for Debian when we are able to switch to an event
12556 based boot system. Tollef is
12557 <a href=
"http://bugs.debian.org/580814">in the process
</a> of getting
12558 systemd into Debian, and I look forward to seeing how well it work. I
12559 like the fact that systemd handles init.d scripts with dependency
12560 information natively, allowing them to run in parallel where upstart
12561 at the moment do not.
</p>
12563 <p>Unfortunately do systemd have the same problem as upstart regarding
12564 platform support. It only work on recent Linux kernels, and also need
12565 some new kernel features enabled to function properly. This means
12566 kFreeBSD and Hurd ports of Debian will need a port or a different boot
12567 system. Not sure how that will be handled if systemd proves to be the
12570 <p>In the mean time, based on the
12571 <a href=
"http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2010/05/msg00122.html">input
12572 on debian-devel@
</a> regarding parallel booting in Debian, I have
12573 decided to enable full parallel booting as the default in Debian as
12574 soon as possible (probably this weekend or early next week), to see if
12575 there are any remaining serious bugs in the init.d dependencies. A
12576 new version of the sysvinit package implementing this change is
12577 already in experimental. If all go well, Squeeze will be released
12578 with parallel booting enabled by default.
</p>
12584 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>.
12589 <div class=
"padding"></div>
12591 <div class=
"entry">
12592 <div class=
"title">
12593 <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>
12599 <p>These days, the init.d script dependencies in Squeeze are quite
12600 complete, so complete that it is actually possible to run all the
12601 init.d scripts in parallell based on these dependencies. If you want
12602 to test your Squeeze system, make sure
12603 <a href=
"http://wiki.debian.org/LSBInitScripts/DependencyBasedBoot">dependency
12604 based boot sequencing
</a> is enabled, and add this line to
12605 /etc/default/rcS:
</p>
12608 CONCURRENCY=makefile
12609 </pre></blockquote>
12611 <p>That is it. It will cause sysv-rc to use the startpar tool to run
12612 scripts in parallel using the dependency information stored in
12613 /etc/init.d/.depend.boot, /etc/init.d/.depend.start and
12614 /etc/init.d/.depend.stop to order the scripts. Startpar is configured
12615 to try to start the kdm and gdm scripts as early as possible, and will
12616 start the facilities required by kdm or gdm as early as possible to
12617 make this happen.
</p>
12619 <p>Give it a try, and see if you like the result. If some services
12620 fail to start properly, it is most likely because they have incomplete
12621 init.d script dependencies in their startup script (or some of their
12622 dependent scripts have incomplete dependencies). Report bugs and get
12623 the package maintainers to fix it. :)
</p>
12625 <p>Running scripts in parallel could be the default in Debian when we
12626 manage to get the init.d script dependencies complete and correct. I
12627 expect we will get there in Squeeze+
1, if we get manage to test and
12628 fix the remaining issues.
</p>
12630 <p>If you report any problems with dependencies in init.d scripts to
12631 the BTS, please usertag the report to get it to show up at
12632 <a href=
"http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/pkgreport.cgi?users=initscripts-ng-devel@lists.alioth.debian.org">the
12633 list of usertagged bugs related to this
</a>.
</p>
12639 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>.
12644 <div class=
"padding"></div>
12646 <div class=
"entry">
12647 <div class=
"title">
12648 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Forcing_new_users_to_change_their_password_on_first_login.html">Forcing new users to change their password on first login
</a>
12654 <p>One interesting feature in Active Directory, is the ability to
12655 create a new user with an expired password, and thus force the user to
12656 change the password on the first login attempt.
</p>
12658 <p>I'm not quite sure how to do that with the LDAP setup in Debian
12659 Edu, but did some initial testing with a local account. The account
12660 and password aging information is available in /etc/shadow, but
12661 unfortunately, it is not possible to specify an expiration time for
12662 passwords, only a maximum age for passwords.
</p>
12664 <p>A freshly created account (using adduser test) will have these
12665 settings in /etc/shadow:
</p>
12668 root@tjener:~# chage -l test
12669 Last password change : May
02,
2010
12670 Password expires : never
12671 Password inactive : never
12672 Account expires : never
12673 Minimum number of days between password change :
0
12674 Maximum number of days between password change :
99999
12675 Number of days of warning before password expires :
7
12677 </pre></blockquote>
12679 <p>The only way I could come up with to create a user with an expired
12680 account, is to change the date of the last password change to the
12681 lowest value possible (January
1th
1970), and the maximum password age
12682 to the difference in days between that date and today. To make it
12683 simple, I went for
30 years (
30 *
365 =
10950) and January
2th (to
12684 avoid testing if
0 is a valid value).
</p>
12686 <p>After using these commands to set it up, it seem to work as
12690 root@tjener:~# chage -d
1 test; chage -M
10950 test
12691 root@tjener:~# chage -l test
12692 Last password change : Jan
02,
1970
12693 Password expires : never
12694 Password inactive : never
12695 Account expires : never
12696 Minimum number of days between password change :
0
12697 Maximum number of days between password change :
10950
12698 Number of days of warning before password expires :
7
12700 </pre></blockquote>
12702 <p>So far I have tested this with ssh and console, and kdm (in
12703 Squeeze) login, and all ask for a new password before login in the
12704 user (with ssh, I was thrown out and had to log in again).
</p>
12706 <p>Perhaps we should set up something similar for Debian Edu, to make
12707 sure only the user itself have the account password?
</p>
12709 <p>If you want to comment on or help out with implementing this for
12710 Debian Edu, please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.
</p>
12712 <p>Update
2010-
05-
02 17:
20: Paul Tötterman tells me on IRC that the
12713 shadow(
8) page in Debian/testing now state that setting the date of
12714 last password change to zero (
0) will force the password to be changed
12715 on the first login. This was not mentioned in the manual in Lenny, so
12716 I did not notice this in my initial testing. I have tested it on
12717 Squeeze, and '
<tt>chage -d
0 username
</tt>' do work there. I have not
12718 tested it on Lenny yet.
</p>
12720 <p>Update
2010-
05-
02-
19:
05: Jim Paris tells me via email that an
12721 equivalent command to expire a password is '
<tt>passwd -e
12722 username
</tt>', which insert zero into the date of the last password
12729 Tags:
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu
</a>,
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english
</a>,
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug
</a>,
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet
</a>.
12734 <div class=
"padding"></div>
12736 <div class=
"entry">
12737 <div class=
"title">
12738 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Thoughts_on_roaming_laptop_setup_for_Debian_Edu.html">Thoughts on roaming laptop setup for Debian Edu
</a>
12744 <p>For some years now, I have wondered how we should handle laptops in
12745 Debian Edu. The Debian Edu infrastructure is mostly designed to
12746 handle stationary computers, and less suited for computers that come
12749 <p>Now I finally believe I have an sensible idea on how to adjust
12750 Debian Edu for laptops, by introducing a new profile for them, for
12751 example called Roaming Workstations. Here are my thought on this.
12752 The setup would consist of the following:
</p>
12756 <li>During installation, the user name of the owner / primary user of
12757 the laptop is requested and a local home directory is set up for
12758 the user, with uid and gid information fetched from the LDAP
12759 server. This allow the user to work also when offline. The
12760 central home directory can be available in a subdirectory on
12761 request, for example mounted via CIFS. It could be mounted
12762 automatically when a user log in while on the Debian Edu network,
12763 and unmounted when the machine is taken away (network down,
12764 hibernate, etc), it can be set up to do automatic mounting on
12765 request (using autofs), or perhaps some GUI button on the desktop
12766 can be used to access it when needed. Perhaps it is enough to use
12767 the fish protocol in KDE?
</li>
12769 <li>Password checking is set up to use LDAP or Kerberos
12770 authentication when the machine is on the Debian Edu network, and
12771 to cache the password for offline checking when the machine unable
12772 to reach the LDAP or Kerberos server. This can be done using
12773 <a href=
"http://www.padl.com/OSS/pam_ccreds.html">libpam-ccreds
</a>
12774 or the Fedora developed
12775 <a href=
"https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Features/SSSD">System
12776 Security Services Daemon
</a> packages.
</li>
12778 <li>File synchronisation with the central home directory is set up
12779 using a shared directory in both the local and the central home
12780 directory, using unison.
</li>
12782 <li>Printing should be set up to print to all printers broadcasting
12783 their existence on the local network, and should then work out of
12784 the box with CUPS. For sites needing accurate printer quotas, some
12785 system with Kerberos authentication or printing via ssh could be
12788 <li>For users that should have local root access to their laptop,
12789 sudo should be used to allow this to the local user.
</li>
12791 <li>It would be nice if user and group information from LDAP is
12792 cached on the client, but given that there are entries for the
12793 local user and primary group in /etc/, it should not be needed.
</li>
12797 <p>I believe all the pieces to implement this are in Debian/testing at
12798 the moment. If we work quickly, we should be able to get this ready
12799 in time for the Squeeze release to freeze. Some of the pieces need
12800 tweaking, like libpam-ccreds should get support for pam-auth-update
12801 (
<a href=
"http://bugs.debian.org/566718">#
566718</a>) and nslcd (or
12802 perhaps debian-edu-config) should get some integration code to stop
12803 its daemon when the LDAP server is unavailable to avoid long timeouts
12804 when disconnected from the net. If we get Kerberos enabled, we need
12805 to make sure we avoid long timeouts there too.
</p>
12807 <p>If you want to help out with implementing this for Debian Edu,
12808 please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.
</p>
12814 Tags:
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu
</a>,
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english
</a>,
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug
</a>.
12819 <div class=
"padding"></div>
12821 <div class=
"entry">
12822 <div class=
"title">
12823 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Great_book___Content__Selected_Essays_on_Technology__Creativity__Copyright__and_the_Future_of_the_Future_.html">Great book: "Content: Selected Essays on Technology, Creativity, Copyright, and the Future of the Future"
</a>
12829 <p>The last few weeks i have had the pleasure of reading a
12830 thought-provoking collection of essays by Cory Doctorow, on topics
12831 touching copyright, virtual worlds, the future of man when the
12832 conscience mind can be duplicated into a computer and many more. The
12833 book titled "Content: Selected Essays on Technology, Creativity,
12834 Copyright, and the Future of the Future" is available with few
12835 restrictions on the web, for example from
12836 <a href=
"http://craphound.com/content/">his own site
</a>. I read the
12838 <a href=
"http://www.feedbooks.com/book/2883">feedbooks
</a> using
12839 <a href=
"http://www.fbreader.org/">fbreader
</a> and my N810. I
12840 strongly recommend this book.
</p>
12846 Tags:
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english
</a>,
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/fildeling">fildeling
</a>,
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug
</a>,
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/opphavsrett">opphavsrett
</a>,
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/personvern">personvern
</a>,
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet
</a>,
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/web">web
</a>.
12851 <div class=
"padding"></div>
12853 <div class=
"entry">
12854 <div class=
"title">
12855 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Kerberos_for_Debian_Edu_Squeeze_.html">Kerberos for Debian Edu/Squeeze?
</a>
12861 <p><a href=
"http://www.nuug.no/aktiviteter/20100413-kerberos/">Yesterdays
12862 NUUG presentation
</a> about Kerberos was inspiring, and reminded me
12863 about the need to start using Kerberos in Skolelinux. Setting up a
12864 Kerberos server seem to be straight forward, and if we get this in
12865 place a long time before the Squeeze version of Debian freezes, we
12866 have a chance to migrate Skolelinux away from NFSv3 for the home
12867 directories, and over to an architecture where the infrastructure do
12868 not have to trust IP addresses and machines, and instead can trust
12869 users and cryptographic keys instead.
</p>
12871 <p>A challenge will be integration and administration. Is there a
12872 Kerberos implementation for Debian where one can control the
12873 administration access in Kerberos using LDAP groups? With it, the
12874 school administration will have to maintain access control using flat
12875 files on the main server, which give a huge potential for errors.
</p>
12877 <p>A related question I would like to know is how well Kerberos and
12878 pam-ccreds (offline password check) work together. Anyone know?
</p>
12880 <p>Next step will be to use Kerberos for access control in Lwat and
12881 Nagios. I have no idea how much work that will be to implement. We
12882 would also need to document how to integrate with Windows AD, as such
12883 shared network will require two Kerberos realms that need to cooperate
12884 to work properly.
</p>
12886 <p>I believe a good start would be to start using Kerberos on the
12887 skolelinux.no machines, and this way get ourselves experience with
12888 configuration and integration. A natural starting point would be
12889 setting up ldap.skolelinux.no as the Kerberos server, and migrate the
12890 rest of the machines from PAM via LDAP to PAM via Kerberos one at the
12893 <p>If you would like to contribute to get this working in Skolelinux,
12894 I recommend you to see the video recording from yesterdays NUUG
12895 presentation, and start using Kerberos at home. The video show show
12896 up in a few days.
</p>
12902 Tags:
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu
</a>,
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english
</a>,
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug
</a>.
12907 <div class=
"padding"></div>
12909 <div class=
"entry">
12910 <div class=
"title">
12911 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/After_6_years_of_waiting__the_Xreset_d_feature_is_implemented.html">After
6 years of waiting, the Xreset.d feature is implemented
</a>
12917 <p>6 years ago, as part of the Debian Edu development I am involved
12918 in, I asked for a hook in the kdm and gdm setup to run scripts as root
12919 when the user log out. A bug was submitted against the xfree86-common
12920 package in
2004 (
<a href=
"http://bugs.debian.org/230422">#
230422</a>),
12921 and revisited every time Debian Edu was working on a new release.
12922 Today, this finally paid off.
</p>
12924 <p>The framework for this feature was today commited to the git
12925 repositry for the xorg package, and the git repository for xdm has
12926 been updated to use this framework. Next on my agenda is to make sure
12927 kdm and gdm also add code to use this framework.
</p>
12929 <p>In Debian Edu, we want to ability to run commands as root when the
12930 user log out, to get rid of runaway processes and do general cleanup
12931 after a user. With this framework in place, we finally can do that in
12932 a generic way that work with all display managers using this
12933 framework. My goal is to get all display managers in Debian use it,
12934 similar to how they use the Xsession.d framework today.
<p>
12940 Tags:
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu
</a>,
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english
</a>,
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug
</a>.
12945 <div class=
"padding"></div>
12947 <div class=
"entry">
12948 <div class=
"title">
12949 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu___Skolelinux_based_on_Lenny_released__work_continues.html">Debian Edu / Skolelinux based on Lenny released, work continues
</a>
12955 <p>On Tuesday, the Debian/Lenny based version of
12956 <a href=
"http://www.skolelinux.org/">Skolelinux
</a> was finally
12957 shipped. This was a major leap forward for the project, and I am very
12958 pleased that we finally got the release wrapped up. Work on the first
12959 point release starts imediately, as we plan to get that one out a
12960 month after the major release, to include all fixes for bugs we found
12961 and fixed too late in the release process to include last Tuesday.
</p>
12963 <p>Perhaps it even is time for some partying?
</p>
12965 <p>After this first point release, my plan is to focus again on the
12966 next major release, based on Squeeze. We will try to get as many of
12967 the fixes we need into the official Debian packages before the freeze,
12968 and have just a few weeks or months to make it happen.
</p>
12974 Tags:
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu
</a>,
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english
</a>,
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug
</a>.
12979 <div class=
"padding"></div>
12981 <div class=
"entry">
12982 <div class=
"title">
12983 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Automatic_Munin_and_Nagios_configuration.html">Automatic Munin and Nagios configuration
</a>
12989 <p>One of the new features in the next Debian/Lenny based release of
12990 Debian Edu/Skolelinux, which is scheduled for release in the next few
12991 days, is automatic configuration of the service monitoring system
12992 Nagios. The previous release had automatic configuration of trend
12993 analysis using Munin, and this Lenny based release take that a step
12996 <p>When installing a Debian Edu Main-server, it is automatically
12997 configured as a Munin and Nagios server. In addition, it is
12998 configured to be a server for the
12999 <a href=
"http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/HowTo/SiteSummary">SiteSummary
13000 system
</a> I have written for use in Debian Edu. The SiteSummary
13001 system is inspired by a system used by the University of Oslo where I
13002 work. In short, the system provide a centralised collector of
13003 information about the computers on the network, and a client on each
13004 computer submitting information to this collector. This allow for
13005 automatic information on which packages are installed on each machine,
13006 which kernel the machines are using, what kind of configuration the
13007 packages got etc. This also allow us to automatically generate Munin
13008 and Nagios configuration.
</p>
13010 <p>All computers reporting to the sitesummary collector with the
13011 munin-node package installed is automatically enabled as a Munin
13012 client and graphs from the statistics collected from that machine show
13013 up automatically on http://www/munin/ on the Main-server.
</p>
13015 <p>All non-laptop computers reporting to the sitesummary collector are
13016 automatically monitored for network presence (ping and any network
13017 services detected). In addition, all computers (also laptops) with
13018 the nagios-nrpe-server package installed and configured the way
13019 sitesummary would configure it, are monitored for full disks, software
13020 raid status, swap free and other checks that need to run locally on
13023 <p>The result is that the administrator on a school using Debian Edu
13024 based on Lenny will be able to check the health of his installation
13025 with one look at the Nagios settings, without having to spend any time
13026 keeping the Nagios configuration up-to-date.
</p>
13028 <p>The only configuration one need to do to get Nagios up and running
13029 is to set the password used to get access via HTTP. The system
13030 administrator need to run "
<tt>htpasswd /etc/nagios3/htpasswd.users
13031 nagiosadmin
</tt>" to create a nagiosadmin user and set a password for
13032 it to be able to log into the Nagios web pages. After that,
13033 everything is taken care of.</p>
13039 Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu
">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english
">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug
">nuug</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sitesummary
">sitesummary</a>.
13044 <div class="padding
"></div>
13046 <div class="entry
">
13047 <div class="title
">
13048 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Relative_popularity_of_document_formats__MS_Office_vs__ODF_.html
">Relative popularity of document formats (MS Office vs. ODF)</a>
13054 <p>Just for fun, I did a search right now on Google for a few file ODF
13055 and MS Office based formats (not to be mistaken for ISO or ECMA
13056 OOXML), to get an idea of their relative usage. I searched using
13057 'filetype:odt' and equvalent terms, and got these results:</P>
13060 <tr><th>Type</th><th>ODF</th><th>MS Office</th></tr>
13061 <tr><td>Tekst</td> <td>odt:282000</td> <td>docx:308000</td></tr>
13062 <tr><td>Presentasjon</td> <td>odp:75600</td> <td>pptx:183000</td></tr>
13063 <tr><td>Regneark</td> <td>ods:26500 </td> <td>xlsx:145000</td></tr>
13066 <p>Next, I added a 'site:no' limit to get the numbers for Norway, and
13067 got these numbers:</p>
13070 <tr><th>Type</th><th>ODF</th><th>MS Office</th></tr>
13071 <tr><td>Tekst</td> <td>odt:2480 </td> <td>docx:4460</td></tr>
13072 <tr><td>Presentasjon</td> <td>odp:299 </td> <td>pptx:741</td></tr>
13073 <tr><td>Regneark</td> <td>ods:187 </td> <td>xlsx:372</td></tr>
13076 <p>I wonder how these numbers change over time.</p>
13078 <p>I am aware of Google returning different results and numbers based
13079 on where the search is done, so I guess these numbers will differ if
13080 they are conduced in another country. Because of this, I did the same
13081 search from a machine in California, USA, a few minutes after the
13082 search done from a machine here in Norway.</p>
13086 <tr><th>Type</th><th>ODF</th><th>MS Office</th></tr>
13087 <tr><td>Tekst</td> <td>odt:129000</td> <td>docx:308000</td></tr>
13088 <tr><td>Presentasjon</td> <td>odp:44200</td> <td>pptx:93900</td></tr>
13089 <tr><td>Regneark</td> <td>ods:26500 </td> <td>xlsx:82400</td></tr>
13092 <p>And with 'site:no':
13095 <tr><th>Type</th><th>ODF</th><th>MS Office</th></tr>
13096 <tr><td>Tekst</td> <td>odt:2480</td> <td>docx:3410</td></tr>
13097 <tr><td>Presentasjon</td> <td>odp:175</td> <td>pptx:604</td></tr>
13098 <tr><td>Regneark</td> <td>ods:186 </td> <td>xlsx:296</td></tr>
13101 <p>Interesting difference, not sure what to conclude from these
13108 Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english
">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug
">nuug</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/standard
">standard</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/web
">web</a>.
13113 <div class="padding
"></div>
13115 <div class="entry
">
13116 <div class="title
">
13117 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/ISO_still_hope_to_fix_OOXML.html
">ISO still hope to fix OOXML</a>
13124 href="http://twerner.blogspot.com/
2009/
08/defects-of-office-open-xml.html
">a
13125 blog post from Torsten Werner</a>, the current defect report for ISO
13126 29500 (ISO OOXML) is 809 pages. His interesting point is that the
13127 defect report is 71 pages more than the full ODF 1.1 specification.
13128 Personally I find it more interesting that ISO still believe ISO OOXML
13129 can be fixed in ISO. Personally, I believe it is broken beyon repair,
13130 and I completely lack any trust in ISO for being able to get anywhere
13131 close to solving the problems. I was part of the Norwegian committee
13132 involved in the OOXML fast track process, and was not impressed with
13133 Standard Norway and ISO in how they handled it.</p>
13135 <p>These days I focus on ODF instead, which seem like a specification
13136 with the future ahead of it. We are working in NUUG to organise a ODF
13137 seminar this autumn.</p>
13143 Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english
">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug
">nuug</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/standard
">standard</a>.
13148 <div class="padding
"></div>
13150 <div class="entry
">
13151 <div class="title
">
13152 <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>
13158 <p>Since this evening, with the upload of sysvinit version 2.87dsf-2,
13159 and the upload of insserv version 1.12.0-10 yesterday, Debian unstable
13160 have been migrated to using dependency based boot sequencing. This
13161 conclude work me and others have been doing for the last three days.
13162 It feels great to see this finally part of the default Debian
13163 installation. Now we just need to weed out the last few problems that
13164 are bound to show up, to get everything ready for Squeeze.</p>
13166 <p>The next step is migrating /sbin/init from sysvinit to upstart, and
13167 fixing the more fundamental problem of handing the event based
13168 non-predictable kernel in the early boot.</p>
13174 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>.
13179 <div class="padding
"></div>
13181 <div class="entry
">
13182 <div class="title
">
13183 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Taking_over_sysvinit_development.html
">Taking over sysvinit development</a>
13189 <p>After several years of frustration with the lack of activity from
13190 the existing sysvinit upstream developer, I decided a few weeks ago to
13191 take over the package and become the new upstream. The number of
13192 patches to track for the Debian package was becoming a burden, and the
13193 lack of synchronization between the distribution made it hard to keep
13194 the package up to date.</p>
13196 <p>On the new sysvinit team is the SuSe maintainer Dr. Werner Fink,
13197 and my Debian co-maintainer Kel Modderman. About 10 days ago, I made
13198 a new upstream tarball with version number 2.87dsf (for Debian, SuSe
13199 and Fedora), based on the patches currently in use in these
13200 distributions. We Debian maintainers plan to move to this tarball as
13201 the new upstream as soon as we find time to do the merge. Since the
13202 new tarball was created, we agreed with Werner at SuSe to make a new
13203 upstream project at <a href="http://savannah.nongnu.org/
">Savannah</a>, and continue
13204 development there. The project is registered and currently waiting
13205 for approval by the Savannah administrators, and as soon as it is
13206 approved, we will import the old versions from svn and continue
13207 working on the future release.</p>
13209 <p>It is a bit ironic that this is done now, when some of the involved
13210 distributions are moving to upstart as a syvinit replacement.</p>
13216 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>.
13221 <div class="padding
"></div>
13223 <div class="entry
">
13224 <div class="title
">
13225 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_boots_quicker_and_quicker.html
">Debian boots quicker and quicker</a>
13231 <p>I spent Monday and tuesday this week in London with a lot of the
13232 people involved in the boot system on Debian and Ubuntu, to see if we
13233 could find more ways to speed up the boot system. This was an Ubuntu
13235 <a href="https://wiki.ubuntu.com/FoundationsTeam/BootPerformance/DebianUbuntuSprint
">developer
13236 gathering</a>. It was quite productive. We also discussed the future
13237 of boot systems, and ways to handle the increasing number of boot
13238 issues introduced by the Linux kernel becoming more and more
13239 asynchronous and event base. The Ubuntu approach using udev and
13240 upstart might be a good way forward. Time will show.</p>
13242 <p>Anyway, there are a few ways at the moment to speed up the boot
13243 process in Debian. All of these should be applied to get a quick
13248 <li>Use dash as /bin/sh.</li>
13250 <li>Disable the init.d/hwclock*.sh scripts and make sure the hardware
13251 clock is in UTC.</li>
13253 <li>Install and activate the insserv package to enable
13254 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/LSBInitScripts/DependencyBasedBoot
">dependency
13255 based boot sequencing</a>, and enable concurrent booting.</li>
13259 These points are based on the Google summer of code work done by
13260 <a href="http://initscripts-ng.alioth.debian.org/soc2006-bootsystem/
">Carlos
13263 <p>Support for makefile-style concurrency during boot was uploaded to
13264 unstable yesterday. When we tested it, we were able to cut 6 seconds
13265 from the boot sequence. It depend on very correct dependency
13266 declaration in all init.d scripts, so I expect us to find edge cases
13267 where the dependences in some scripts are slightly wrong when we start
13270 <p>On our IRC channel for this effort, #pkg-sysvinit, a new idea was
13271 introduced by Raphael Geissert today, one that could affect the
13272 startup speed as well. Instead of starting some scripts concurrently
13273 from rcS.d/ and another set of scripts from rc2.d/, it would be
13274 possible to run a of them in the same process. A quick way to test
13275 this would be to enable insserv and run 'mv /etc/rc2.d/S* /etc/rcS.d/;
13276 insserv'. Will need to test if that work. :)</p>
13282 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>.
13287 <div class="padding
"></div>
13289 <div class="entry
">
13290 <div class="title
">
13291 <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>
13297 <p>There are two software projects that have had huge influence on the
13298 quality of free software, and I wanted to mention both in case someone
13299 do not yet know them.</p>
13301 <p>The first one is <a href="http://valgrind.org/
">valgrind</a>, a
13302 tool to detect and expose errors in the memory handling of programs.
13303 It is easy to use, all one need to do is to run 'valgrind program',
13304 and it will report any problems on stdout. It is even better if the
13305 program include debug information. With debug information, it is able
13306 to report the source file name and line number where the problem
13307 occurs. It can report things like 'reading past memory block in file
13308 X line N, the memory block was allocated in file Y, line M', and
13309 'using uninitialised value in control logic'. This tool has made it
13310 trivial to investigate reproducible crash bugs in programs, and have
13311 reduced the number of this kind of bugs in free software a lot.
13313 <p>The second one is
13314 <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coverity
">Coverity</a> which is
13315 a source code checker. It is able to process the source of a program
13316 and find problems in the logic without running the program. It
13317 started out as the Stanford Checker and became well known when it was
13318 used to find bugs in the Linux kernel. It is now a commercial tool
13319 and the company behind it is running
13320 <a href="http://www.scan.coverity.com/
">a community service</a> for the
13321 free software community, where a lot of free software projects get
13322 their source checked for free. Several thousand defects have been
13323 found and fixed so far. It can find errors like 'lock L taken in file
13324 X line N is never released if exiting in line M', or 'the code in file
13325 Y lines O to P can never be executed'. The projects included in the
13326 community service project have managed to get rid of a lot of
13327 reliability problems thanks to Coverity.</p>
13329 <p>I believe tools like this, that are able to automatically find
13330 errors in the source, are vital to improve the quality of software and
13331 make sure we can get rid of the crashing and failing software we are
13332 surrounded by today.</p>
13338 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>.
13343 <div class="padding
"></div>
13345 <div class="entry
">
13346 <div class="title
">
13347 <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>
13354 <a href="http://blog.technologeek.org/
2009/
04/
12/
214">claim that no
13355 patch is better than a useless patch</a>. I completely disagree, as a
13356 patch allow one to discuss a concrete and proposed solution, and also
13357 prove that the issue at hand is important enough for someone to spent
13358 time on fixing it. No patch do not provide any of these positive
13365 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>.
13370 <div class="padding
"></div>
13372 <div class="entry
">
13373 <div class="title
">
13374 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Recording_video_from_cron_using_VLC.html
">Recording video from cron using VLC</a>
13380 <p>One think I have wanted to figure out for a along time is how to
13381 run vlc from cron to do recording of video streams on the net. The
13382 task is trivial with mplayer, but I do not really trust the security
13383 of mplayer (it crashes too often on strange input), and thus prefer
13384 vlc. I finally found a way to do it today. I spent an hour or so
13385 searching the web for recipes and reading the documentation. The
13386 hardest part was to get rid of the GUI window, but after finding the
13387 dummy interface, the command line finally presented itself:</p>
13389 <blockquote><pre>URL=http://www.ping.uio.no/video/rms-oslo_2009.ogg
13391 DISPLAY= vlc -q $URL \
13392 --sout="#duplicate{dst=std{access=file,url='$SAVEFILE'},dst=nodisplay}" \
13393 --intf=dummy
</pre></blockquote>
13395 <p>The command stream the URL and store it in the SAVEFILE by
13396 duplicating the output stream to "nodisplay" and the file, using the
13397 dummy interface. The dummy interface and the nodisplay output make
13398 sure no X interface is needed.
</p>
13400 <p>The cron job then need to start this job with the appropriate URL
13401 and file name to save, sleep for the duration wanted, and then kill
13402 the vlc process with SIGTERM. Here is a complete script
13403 <tt>vlc-record
</tt> to use from
<tt>at
</tt> or
<tt>cron
</tt>:
</p>
13405 <blockquote><pre>#!/bin/sh
13410 DISPLAY= vlc -q "$URL" \
13411 --sout="#duplicate{dst=std{access=file,url='$SAVEFILE'},dst=nodisplay}" \
13412 --intf=dummy < /dev/null
> /dev/null
2>&
1 &
13416 wait $pid
</pre></blockquote>
13422 Tags:
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english
</a>,
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug
</a>,
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/video">video
</a>.
13427 <div class=
"padding"></div>
13429 <div class=
"entry">
13430 <div class=
"title">
13431 <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>
13437 <p>Where I work at the University of Oslo, one decision stand out as a
13438 very good one to form a long lived computer infrastructure. It is the
13439 simple one, lost by many in todays computer industry: Standardize on
13440 open network protocols and open exchange/storage formats, not applications.
13441 Applications come and go, while protocols and files tend to stay, and
13442 thus one want to make it easy to change application and vendor, while
13443 avoiding conversion costs and locking users to a specific platform or
13446 <p>This approach make it possible to replace the client applications
13447 independently of the server applications. One can even allow users to
13448 use several different applications as long as they handle the selected
13449 protocol and format. In the normal case, only one client application
13450 is recommended and users only get help if they choose to use this
13451 application, but those that want to deviate from the easy path are not
13452 blocked from doing so.
</p>
13454 <p>It also allow us to replace the server side without forcing the
13455 users to replace their applications, and thus allow us to select the
13456 best server implementation at any moment, when scale and resouce
13457 requirements change.
</p>
13459 <p>I strongly recommend standardizing - on open network protocols and
13460 open formats, but I would never recommend standardizing on a single
13461 application that do not use open network protocol or open formats.
</p>
13467 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>.
13472 <div class=
"padding"></div>
13474 <div class=
"entry">
13475 <div class=
"title">
13476 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Returning_from_Skolelinux_developer_gathering.html">Returning from Skolelinux developer gathering
</a>
13482 <p>I'm sitting on the train going home from this weekends Debian
13483 Edu/Skolelinux development gathering. I got a bit done tuning the
13484 desktop, and looked into the dynamic service location protocol
13485 implementation avahi. It look like it could be useful for us. Almost
13486 30 people participated, and I believe it was a great environment to
13487 get to know the Skolelinux system. Walter Bender, involved in the
13488 development of the Sugar educational platform, presented his stuff and
13489 also helped me improve my OLPC installation. He also showed me that
13490 his Turtle Art application can be used in standalone mode, and we
13491 agreed that I would help getting it packaged for Debian. As a
13492 standalone application it would be great for Debian Edu. We also
13493 tried to get the video conferencing working with two OLPCs, but that
13494 proved to be too hard for us. The application seem to need more work
13495 before it is ready for me. I look forward to getting home and relax
13502 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>.
13507 <div class=
"padding"></div>
13509 <div class=
"entry">
13510 <div class=
"title">
13511 <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>
13517 <p>The state of standardized LDAP schemas on Linux is far from
13518 optimal. There is RFC
2307 documenting one way to store NIS maps in
13519 LDAP, and a modified version of this normally called RFC
2307bis, with
13520 some modifications to be compatible with Active Directory. The RFC
13521 specification handle the content of a lot of system databases, but do
13522 not handle DNS zones and DHCP configuration.
</p>
13524 <p>In
<a href=
"http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu/Skolelinux
</a>,
13525 we would like to store information about users, SMB clients/hosts,
13526 filegroups, netgroups (users and hosts), DHCP and DNS configuration,
13527 and LTSP configuration in LDAP. These objects have a lot in common,
13528 but with the current LDAP schemas it is not possible to have one
13529 object per entity. For example, one need to have at least three LDAP
13530 objects for a given computer, one with the SMB related stuff, one with
13531 DNS information and another with DHCP information. The schemas
13532 provided for DNS and DHCP are impossible to combine into one LDAP
13533 object. In addition, it is impossible to implement quick queries for
13534 netgroup membership, because of the way NIS triples are implemented.
13535 It just do not scale. I believe it is time for a few RFC
13536 specifications to cleam up this mess.
</p>
13538 <p>I would like to have one LDAP object representing each computer in
13539 the network, and this object can then keep the SMB (ie host key), DHCP
13540 (mac address/name) and DNS (name/IP address) settings in one place.
13541 It need to be efficently stored to make sure it scale well.
</p>
13543 <p>I would also like to have a quick way to map from a user or
13544 computer and to the net group this user or computer is a member.
</p>
13546 <p>Active Directory have done a better job than unix heads like myself
13547 in this regard, and the unix side need to catch up. Time to start a
13548 new IETF work group?
</p>
13554 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>.
13559 <div class=
"padding"></div>
13561 <div class=
"entry">
13562 <div class=
"title">
13563 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Checking_server_hardware_support_status_for_Dell__HP_and_IBM_servers.html">Checking server hardware support status for Dell, HP and IBM servers
</a>
13569 <p>At work, we have a few hundred Linux servers, and with that amount
13570 of hardware it is important to keep track of when the hardware support
13571 contract expire for each server. We have a machine (and service)
13572 register, which until recently did not contain much useful besides the
13573 machine room location and contact information for the system owner for
13574 each machine. To make it easier for us to track support contract
13575 status, I've recently spent time on extending the machine register to
13576 include information about when the support contract expire, and to tag
13577 machines with expired contracts to make it easy to get a list of such
13578 machines. I extended a perl script already being used to import
13579 information about machines into the register, to also do some screen
13580 scraping off the sites of Dell, HP and IBM (our majority of machines
13581 are from these vendors), and automatically check the support status
13582 for the relevant machines. This make the support status information
13583 easily available and I hope it will make it easier for the computer
13584 owner to know when to get new hardware or renew the support contract.
13585 The result of this work documented that
27% of the machines in the
13586 registry is without a support contract, and made it very easy to find
13587 them.
27% might seem like a lot, but I see it more as the case of us
13588 using machines a bit longer than the
3 years a normal support contract
13589 last, to have test machines and a platform for less important
13590 services. After all, the machines without a contract are working fine
13591 at the moment and the lack of contract is only a problem if any of
13592 them break down. When that happen, we can either fix it using spare
13593 parts from other machines or move the service to another old
13596 <p>I believe the code for screen scraping the Dell site was originally
13597 written by Trond Hasle Amundsen, and later adjusted by me and Morten
13598 Werner Forsbring. The HP scraping was written by me after reading a
13599 nice article in ;login: about how to use WWW::Mechanize, and the IBM
13600 scraping was written by me based on the Dell code. I know the HTML
13601 parsing could be done using nice libraries, but did not want to
13602 introduce more dependencies. This is the current incarnation:
</p>
13607 use WWW::Mechanize;
13610 sub get_support_info {
13611 my ($machine, $model, $serial, $productnumber) = @_;
13614 if ( $model =~ m/^Dell / ) {
13615 # fetch website from Dell support
13616 my $url = "http://support.euro.dell.com/support/topics/topic.aspx/emea/shared/support/my_systems_info/no/details?c=no
&cs=nodhs1
&l=no
&s=dhs
&ServiceTag=$serial";
13617 my $webpage = get($url);
13618 return undef unless ($webpage);
13621 my @lines = split(/\n/, $webpage);
13622 foreach my $line (@lines) {
13623 next unless ($line =~ m/Beskrivelse/);
13624 $line =~ s/
<[^
>]+
?>/;/gm;
13625 $line =~ s/^.+?;(Beskrivelse;)/$
1/;
13627 my @f = split(/\;/, $line);
13628 @f = @f[
13 .. $#f];
13630 while ($f[
3] eq "DELL") {
13631 my ($type, $startstr, $endstr, $days) = @f[
0,
5,
7,
10];
13633 my $start = POSIX::strftime("%Y-%m-%d",
13634 localtime(str2time($startstr)));
13635 my $end = POSIX::strftime("%Y-%m-%d",
13636 localtime(str2time($endstr)));
13637 $str .= "$type $start -
> $end ";
13638 @f = @f[
14 .. $#f];
13639 $lastend = $end if ($end gt $lastend);
13641 my $today = POSIX::strftime("%Y-%m-%d", localtime(time));
13642 tag_machine_unsupported($machine)
13643 if ($lastend lt $today);
13645 } elsif ( $model =~ m/^HP / ) {
13646 my $mech = WWW::Mechanize-
>new();
13648 'http://www1.itrc.hp.com/service/ewarranty/warrantyInput.do';
13651 'BODServiceID' =
> 'NA',
13652 'RegisteredPurchaseDate' =
> '',
13654 'productNumber' =
> $productnumber,
13655 'serialNumber1' =
> $serial,
13657 $mech-
>submit_form( form_number =
> 2,
13658 fields =
> $fields );
13659 # Next step is screen scraping
13660 my $content = $mech-
>content();
13662 $content =~ s/
<[^
>]+
?>/;/gm;
13663 $content =~ s/\s+/ /gm;
13664 $content =~ s/;\s*;/;;/gm;
13665 $content =~ s/;[\s;]+/;/gm;
13667 my $today = POSIX::strftime("%Y-%m-%d", localtime(time));
13669 while ($content =~ m/;Warranty Type;/) {
13670 my ($type, $status, $startstr, $stopstr) = $content =~
13671 m/;Warranty Type;([^;]+);.+?;Status;(\w+);Start Date;([^;]+);End Date;([^;]+);/;
13672 $content =~ s/^.+?;Warranty Type;//;
13673 my $start = POSIX::strftime("%Y-%m-%d",
13674 localtime(str2time($startstr)));
13675 my $end = POSIX::strftime("%Y-%m-%d",
13676 localtime(str2time($stopstr)));
13678 $str .= "$type ($status) $start -
> $end ";
13680 tag_machine_unsupported($machine)
13681 if ($end lt $today);
13683 } elsif ( $model =~ m/^IBM / ) {
13684 # This code ignore extended support contracts.
13685 my ($producttype) = $model =~ m/.*-\[(.{
4}).+\]-/;
13686 if ($producttype
&& $serial) {
13688 get("http://www-
947.ibm.com/systems/support/supportsite.wss/warranty?action=warranty
&brandind=
5000008&Submit=Submit
&type=$producttype
&serial=$serial");
13690 $content =~ s/
<[^
>]+
?>/;/gm;
13691 $content =~ s/\s+/ /gm;
13692 $content =~ s/;\s*;/;;/gm;
13693 $content =~ s/;[\s;]+/;/gm;
13695 $content =~ s/^.+?;Warranty status;//;
13696 my ($status, $end) = $content =~ m/;Warranty status;([^;]+)\s*;Expiration date;(\S+) ;/;
13698 $str .= "($status) -
> $end ";
13700 my $today = POSIX::strftime("%Y-%m-%d", localtime(time));
13701 tag_machine_unsupported($machine)
13702 if ($end lt $today);
13710 <p>Here are some examples on how to use the function, using fake
13711 serial numbers. The information passed in as arguments are fetched
13712 from dmidecode.
</p>
13715 print get_support_info("hp.host", "HP ProLiant BL460c G1", "
1234567890"
13717 print get_support_info("dell.host", "Dell Inc. PowerEdge
2950", "
1234567");
13718 print get_support_info("ibm.host", "IBM eserver xSeries
345 -[
867061X]-",
13722 <p>I would recommend this approach for tracking support contracts for
13723 everyone with more than a few computers to administer. :)
</p>
13725 <p>Update
2009-
03-
06: The IBM page do not include extended support
13726 contracts, so it is useless in that case. The original Dell code do
13727 not handle extended support contracts either, but has been updated to
13734 Tags:
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english
</a>,
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug
</a>.
13739 <div class=
"padding"></div>
13741 <div class=
"entry">
13742 <div class=
"title">
13743 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Using_bar_codes_at_a_computing_center.html">Using bar codes at a computing center
</a>
13749 <p>At work with the University of Oslo, we have several hundred computers
13750 in our computing center. This give us a challenge in tracking the
13751 location and cabling of the computers, when they are added, moved and
13752 removed. Some times the location register is not updated when a
13753 computer is inserted or moved and we then have to search the room for
13754 the "missing" computer.
</p>
13756 <p>In the last issue of Linux Journal, I came across a project
13757 <a href=
"http://www.libdmtx.org/">libdmtx
</a> to write and read bar
13758 code blocks as defined in the
13759 <a href=
"http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_Matrix">The Data Matrix
13760 Standard
</a>. This is bar codes that can be read with a normal
13761 digital camera, for example that on a cell phone, and several such bar
13762 codes can be read by libdmtx from one picture. The bar code standard
13763 allow up to
2 KiB to be written in the tag. There is another project
13764 with
<a href=
"http://www.terryburton.co.uk/barcodewriter/">a bar code
13765 writer written in postscript
</a> capable of creating such bar codes,
13766 but this was the first time I found a tool to read these bar
13769 <p>It occurred to me that this could be used to tag and track the
13770 machines in our computing center. If both racks and computers are
13771 tagged this way, we can use a picture of the rack and all its
13772 computers to detect the rack location of any computer in that rack.
13773 If we do this regularly for the entire room, we will find all
13774 locations, and can detect movements and removals.
</p>
13776 <p>I decided to test if this would work in practice, and picked a
13777 random rack and tagged all the machines with their names. Next, I
13778 took pictures with my digital camera, and gave the dmtxread program
13779 these JPEG pictures to see how many tags it could read. This worked
13780 fairly well. If the pictures was well focused and not taken from the
13781 side, all tags in the image could be read. Because of limited space
13782 between the racks, I was unable to get a good picture of the entire
13783 rack, but could without problem read all tags from a picture covering
13784 about half the rack. I had to limit the search time used by dmtxread
13785 to
60000 ms to make sure it terminated in a reasonable time frame.
</p>
13787 <p>My conclusion is that this could work, and we should probably look
13788 at adjusting our computer tagging procedures to use bar codes for
13789 easier automatic tracking of computers.
</p>
13795 Tags:
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english
</a>,
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug
</a>.
13800 <div class=
"padding"></div>
13802 <div class=
"entry">
13803 <div class=
"title">
13804 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/When_web_browser_developers_make_a_video_player___.html">When web browser developers make a video player...
</a>
13810 <p>As part of the work we do in
<a href=
"http://www.nuug.no">NUUG
</a>
13811 to publish video recordings of our monthly presentations, we provide a
13812 page with embedded video for easy access to the recording. Putting a
13813 good set of HTML tags together to get working embedded video in all
13814 browsers and across all operating systems is not easy. I hope this
13815 will become easier when the
<video
> tag is implemented in all
13816 browsers, but I am not sure. We provide the recordings in several
13817 formats, MPEG1, Ogg Theora, H
.264 and Quicktime, and want the
13818 browser/media plugin to pick one it support and use it to play the
13819 recording, using whatever embed mechanism the browser understand.
13820 There is at least four different tags to use for this, the new HTML5
13821 <video
> tag, the
<object
> tag, the
<embed
> tag and
13822 the
<applet
> tag. All of these take a lot of options, and
13823 finding the best options is a major challenge.
</p>
13825 <p>I just tested the experimental Opera browser available from
<a
13826 href=
"http://labs.opera.com">labs.opera.com
</a>, to see how it handled
13827 a
<video
> tag with a few video sources and no extra attributes.
13828 I was not very impressed. The browser start by fetching a picture
13829 from the video stream. Not sure if it is the first frame, but it is
13830 definitely very early in the recording. So far, so good. Next,
13831 instead of streaming the
76 MiB video file, it start to download all
13832 of it, but do not start to play the video. This mean I have to wait
13833 for several minutes for the downloading to finish. When the download
13834 is done, the playing of the video do not start! Waiting for the
13835 download, but I do not get to see the video? Some testing later, I
13836 discover that I have to add the
controls="true" attribute to be able
13837 to get a play button to pres to start the video. Adding
13838 autoplay="true" did not help. I sure hope this is a misfeature of the
13839 test version of Opera, and that future implementations of the
13840 <video
> tag will stream recordings by default, or at least start
13841 playing when the download is done.
</p>
13843 <p>The test page I used (since changed to add more attributes) is
13844 <a href=
"http://www.nuug.no/aktiviteter/20090113-foredrag-om-foredrag/">available
13845 from the nuug site
</a>. Will have to test it with the new Firefox
13848 <p>In the test process, I discovered a missing feature. I was unable
13849 to find a way to get the URL of the playing video out of Opera, so I
13850 am not quite sure it picked the Ogg Theora version of the video. I
13851 sure hope it was using the announced Ogg Theora support. :)
</p>
13857 Tags:
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english
</a>,
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/multimedia">multimedia
</a>,
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug
</a>,
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/video">video
</a>,
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/web">web
</a>.
13862 <div class=
"padding"></div>
13864 <div class=
"entry">
13865 <div class=
"title">
13866 <a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Software_video_mixer_on_a_USB_stick.html">Software video mixer on a USB stick
</a>
13872 <p>The
<a href=
"http://www.nuug.no/">Norwegian Unix User Group
</a> is
13873 recording our montly presentation on video, and recently we have
13874 worked on improving the quality of the recordings by mixing the slides
13875 directly with the video stream. For this, we use the
13876 <a href=
"http://dvswitch.alioth.debian.org/">dvswitch
</a> package from
13877 the Debian video team. As this require quite one computer per video
13878 source, and NUUG do not have enough laptops available, we need to
13879 borrow laptops. And to avoid having to install extra software on
13880 these borrwed laptops, I have wrapped up all the programs needed on a
13881 bootable USB stick. The software required is dvswitch with assosiated
13882 source, sink and mixer applications and
13883 <a href=
"http://www.kinodv.org/">dvgrab
</a>. To allow this setup to
13884 work without any configuration, I've patched dvswitch to use
13885 <a href=
"http://www.avahi.org/">avahi
</a> to connect the various parts
13886 together. And to allow us to use laptops without firewire plugs, I
13887 upgraded dvgrab to the one from Debian/unstable to get one that work
13888 with USB sources. We have not yet tested this setup in a production
13889 setup, but I hope it will work properly, and allow us to set up a
13890 video mixer in a very short time frame. We will need it for
13891 <a href=
"http://www.goopen.no/">Go Open
2009</a>.
</p>
13893 <p><a href=
"http://www.nuug.no/pub/video/bin/usbstick-dvswitch.img.gz">The
13894 USB image
</a> is for a
1 GB memory stick, but can be used on any
13895 larger stick as well.
</p>
13901 Tags:
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english
</a>,
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug
</a>,
<a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/video">video
</a>.
13906 <div class=
"padding"></div>
13908 <div class=
"entry">
13909 <div class=
"title">
13910 <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>
13916 <p>This weekend we had a small developer gathering for Debian Edu in
13917 Oslo. Most of Saturday was used for the general assemly for the
13918 member organization, but the rest of the weekend I used to tune the
13919 LTSP installation. LTSP now work out of the box on the
10-network.
13920 Acer Aspire One proved to be a very nice thin client, with both
13921 screen, mouse and keybard in a small box. Was working on getting the
13922 diskless workstation setup configured out of the box, but did not
13923 finish it before the weekend was up.
</p>
13925 <p>Did not find time to look at the
4 VGA cards in one box we got from
13926 the Brazilian group, so that will have to wait for the next
13927 development gathering. Would love to have the Debian Edu installer
13928 automatically detect and configure a multiseat setup when it find one
13929 of these cards.
</p>
13935 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>.
13940 <div class=
"padding"></div>
13942 <div class=
"entry">
13943 <div class=
"title">
13944 <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>
13950 <p>Recently I have spent some time evaluating the multimedia browser
13951 plugins available in Debian Lenny, to see which one we should use by
13952 default in Debian Edu. We need an embedded video playing plugin with
13953 control buttons to pause or stop the video, and capable of streaming
13954 all the multimedia content available on the web. The test results and
13955 notes are available on
13956 <a href=
"http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/BrowserMultimedia">the
13957 Debian wiki
</a>. I was surprised how few of the plugins are able to
13958 fill this need. My personal video player favorite, VLC, has a really
13959 bad plugin which fail on a lot of the test pages. A lot of the MIME
13960 types I would expect to work with any free software player (like
13961 video/ogg), just do not work. And simple formats like the
13962 audio/x-mplegurl format (m3u playlists), just isn't supported by the
13963 totem and vlc plugins. I hope the situation will improve soon. No
13964 wonder sites use the proprietary Adobe flash to play video.
</p>
13966 <p>For Lenny, we seem to end up with the mplayer plugin. It seem to
13967 be the only one fitting our needs. :/
</p>
13973 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>.
13978 <div class=
"padding"></div>
13980 <p style=
"text-align: right;"><a href=
"english.rss"><img src=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/xml.gif" alt=
"RSS Feed" width=
"36" height=
"14" /></a></p>
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11)
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</a></li>
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</a></li>
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"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/09/">September (
7)
</a></li>
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"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/10/">October (
9)
</a></li>
14080 <li><a href=
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13)
</a></li>
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</a></li>
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</a></li>
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</a></li>
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</a></li>
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5)
</a></li>
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"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2008/12/">December (
7)
</a></li>
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</a></li>
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"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug (
151)
</a></li>
14183 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/offentlig innsyn">offentlig innsyn (
7)
</a></li>
14185 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/open311">open311 (
2)
</a></li>
14187 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/opphavsrett">opphavsrett (
42)
</a></li>
14189 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/personvern">personvern (
65)
</a></li>
14191 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/raid">raid (
1)
</a></li>
14193 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/reprap">reprap (
11)
</a></li>
14195 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/rfid">rfid (
2)
</a></li>
14197 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/robot">robot (
6)
</a></li>
14199 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/rss">rss (
1)
</a></li>
14201 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ruter">ruter (
4)
</a></li>
14203 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/scraperwiki">scraperwiki (
2)
</a></li>
14205 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet (
29)
</a></li>
14207 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sitesummary">sitesummary (
4)
</a></li>
14209 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/skepsis">skepsis (
4)
</a></li>
14211 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/standard">standard (
40)
</a></li>
14213 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/stavekontroll">stavekontroll (
3)
</a></li>
14215 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/stortinget">stortinget (
6)
</a></li>
14217 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance (
15)
</a></li>
14219 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sysadmin">sysadmin (
1)
</a></li>
14221 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/valg">valg (
7)
</a></li>
14223 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/video">video (
37)
</a></li>
14225 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/vitenskap">vitenskap (
4)
</a></li>
14227 <li><a href=
"http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/web">web (
26)
</a></li>
14233 <p style=
"text-align: right">
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