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  13  <h1>
  14      <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/">Petter Reinholdtsen</a>
  15
  16  </h1>
  17
  18 </div>
  19
  20
  21     <h3>Entries tagged "debian".</h3>
  22
  23     <div class="entry">
  24       <div class="title">
  25         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Where_did_that_package_go___mdash__geolocated_IP_traceroute.html">Where did that package go? &mdash; geolocated IP traceroute</a>
  26       </div>
  27       <div class="date">
  28          9th January 2017
  29       </div>
  30       <div class="body">
  31         <p>Did you ever wonder where the web trafic really flow to reach the
  32 web servers, and who own the network equipment it is flowing through?
  33 It is possible to get a glimpse of this from using traceroute, but it
  34 is hard to find all the details.  Many years ago, I wrote a system to
  35 map the Norwegian Internet (trying to figure out if our plans for a
  36 network game service would get low enough latency, and who we needed
  37 to talk to about setting up game servers close to the users.  Back
  38 then I used traceroute output from many locations (I asked my friends
  39 to run a script and send me their traceroute output) to create the
  40 graph and the map.  The output from traceroute typically look like
  41 this:
  42
  43 <p><pre>
  44 traceroute to www.stortinget.no (85.88.67.10), 30 hops max, 60 byte packets
  45  1  uio-gw10.uio.no (129.240.202.1)  0.447 ms  0.486 ms  0.621 ms
  46  2  uio-gw8.uio.no (129.240.24.229)  0.467 ms  0.578 ms  0.675 ms
  47  3  oslo-gw1.uninett.no (128.39.65.17)  0.385 ms  0.373 ms  0.358 ms
  48  4  te3-1-2.br1.fn3.as2116.net (193.156.90.3)  1.174 ms  1.172 ms  1.153 ms
  49  5  he16-1-1.cr1.san110.as2116.net (195.0.244.234)  2.627 ms he16-1-1.cr2.oslosda310.as2116.net (195.0.244.48)  3.172 ms he16-1-1.cr1.san110.as2116.net (195.0.244.234)  2.857 ms
  50  6  ae1.ar8.oslosda310.as2116.net (195.0.242.39)  0.662 ms  0.637 ms ae0.ar8.oslosda310.as2116.net (195.0.242.23)  0.622 ms
  51  7  89.191.10.146 (89.191.10.146)  0.931 ms  0.917 ms  0.955 ms
  52  8  * * *
  53  9  * * *
  54 [...]
  55 </pre></p>
  56
  57 <p>This show the DNS names and IP addresses of (at least some of the)
  58 network equipment involved in getting the data traffic from me to the
  59 www.stortinget.no server, and how long it took in milliseconds for a
  60 package to reach the equipment and return to me.  Three packages are
  61 sent, and some times the packages do not follow the same path.  This
  62 is shown for hop 5, where three different IP addresses replied to the
  63 traceroute request.</p>
  64
  65 <p>There are many ways to measure trace routes.  Other good traceroute
  66 implementations I use are traceroute (using ICMP packages) mtr (can do
  67 both ICMP, UDP and TCP) and scapy (python library with ICMP, UDP, TCP
  68 traceroute and a lot of other capabilities).  All of them are easily
  69 available in <a href="https://www.debian.org/">Debian</a>.</p>
  70
  71 <p>This time around, I wanted to know the geographic location of
  72 different route points, to visualize how visiting a web page spread
  73 information about the visit to a lot of servers around the globe.  The
  74 background is that a web site today often will ask the browser to get
  75 from many servers the parts (for example HTML, JSON, fonts,
  76 JavaScript, CSS, video) required to display the content.  This will
  77 leak information about the visit to those controlling these servers
  78 and anyone able to peek at the data traffic passing by (like your ISP,
  79 the ISPs backbone provider, FRA, GCHQ, NSA and others).</p>
  80
  81 <p>Lets pick an example, the Norwegian parliament web site
  82 www.stortinget.no.  It is read daily by all members of parliament and
  83 their staff, as well as political journalists, activits and many other
  84 citizens of Norway.  A visit to the www.stortinget.no web site will
  85 ask your browser to contact 8 other servers: ajax.googleapis.com,
  86 insights.hotjar.com, script.hotjar.com, static.hotjar.com,
  87 stats.g.doubleclick.net, www.google-analytics.com,
  88 www.googletagmanager.com and www.netigate.se.  I extracted this by
  89 asking <a href="http://phantomjs.org/">PhantomJS</a> to visit the
  90 Stortinget web page and tell me all the URLs PhantomJS downloaded to
  91 render the page (in HAR format using
  92 <a href="https://github.com/ariya/phantomjs/blob/master/examples/netsniff.js">their
  93 netsniff example</a>.  I am very grateful to Gorm for showing me how
  94 to do this).  My goal is to visualize network traces to all IP
  95 addresses behind these DNS names, do show where visitors personal
  96 information is spread when visiting the page.</p>
  97
  98 <p align="center"><a href="www.stortinget.no-geoip.kml"><img
  99 src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2017-01-09-www.stortinget.no-geoip-small.png" alt="map of combined traces for URLs used by www.stortinget.no using GeoIP"/></a></p>
 100
 101 <p>When I had a look around for options, I could not find any good
 102 free software tools to do this, and decided I needed my own traceroute
 103 wrapper outputting KML based on locations looked up using GeoIP.  KML
 104 is easy to work with and easy to generate, and understood by several
 105 of the GIS tools I have available.  I got good help from by NUUG
 106 colleague Anders Einar with this, and the result can be seen in
 107 <a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/kmltraceroute">my
 108 kmltraceroute git repository</a>.  Unfortunately, the quality of the
 109 free GeoIP databases I could find (and the for-pay databases my
 110 friends had access to) is not up to the task.  The IP addresses of
 111 central Internet infrastructure would typically be placed near the
 112 controlling companies main office, and not where the router is really
 113 located, as you can see from <a href="www.stortinget.no-geoip.kml">the
 114 KML file I created</a> using the GeoLite City dataset from MaxMind.
 115
 116 <p align="center"><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2017-01-09-www.stortinget.no-scapy.svg"><img
 117 src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2017-01-09-www.stortinget.no-scapy-small.png" alt="scapy traceroute graph for URLs used by www.stortinget.no"/></a></p>
 118
 119 <p>I also had a look at the visual traceroute graph created by
 120 <a href="http://www.secdev.org/projects/scapy/">the scrapy project</a>,
 121 showing IP network ownership (aka AS owner) for the IP address in
 122 question.
 123 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2017-01-09-www.stortinget.no-scapy.svg">The
 124 graph display a lot of useful information about the traceroute in SVG
 125 format</a>, and give a good indication on who control the network
 126 equipment involved, but it do not include geolocation.  This graph
 127 make it possible to see the information is made available at least for
 128 UNINETT, Catchcom, Stortinget, Nordunet, Google, Amazon, Telia, Level
 129 3 Communications and NetDNA.</p>
 130
 131 <p align="center"><a href="https://geotraceroute.com/index.php?node=4&host=www.stortinget.no"><img
 132 src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2017-01-09-www.stortinget.no-geotraceroute-small.png" alt="example geotraceroute view for www.stortinget.no"/></a></p>
 133
 134 <p>In the process, I came across the
 135 <a href="https://geotraceroute.com/">web service GeoTraceRoute</a> by
 136 Salim Gasmi.  Its methology of combining guesses based on DNS names,
 137 various location databases and finally use latecy times to rule out
 138 candidate locations seemed to do a very good job of guessing correct
 139 geolocation.  But it could only do one trace at the time, did not have
 140 a sensor in Norway and did not make the geolocations easily available
 141 for postprocessing.  So I contacted the developer and asked if he
 142 would be willing to share the code (he refused until he had time to
 143 clean it up), but he was interested in providing the geolocations in a
 144 machine readable format, and willing to set up a sensor in Norway.  So
 145 since yesterday, it is possible to run traces from Norway in this
 146 service thanks to a sensor node set up by
 147 <a href="https://www.nuug.no/">the NUUG assosiation</a>, and get the
 148 trace in KML format for further processing.</p>
 149
 150 <p align="center"><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2017-01-09-www.stortinget.no-geotraceroute-kml-join.kml"><img
 151 src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2017-01-09-www.stortinget.no-geotraceroute-kml-join.png" alt="map of combined traces for URLs used by www.stortinget.no using geotraceroute"/></a></p>
 152
 153 <p>Here we can see a lot of trafic passes Sweden on its way to
 154 Denmark, Germany, Holland and Ireland.  Plenty of places where the
 155 Snowden confirmations verified the traffic is read by various actors
 156 without your best interest as their top priority.</p>
 157
 158 <p>Combining KML files is trivial using a text editor, so I could loop
 159 over all the hosts behind the urls imported by www.stortinget.no and
 160 ask for the KML file from geotraceroute, and create a combined KML
 161 file with all the traces (unfortunately only one of the IP addresses
 162 behind the DNS name is traced this time.  To get them all, one would
 163 have to request traces using IP number instead of DNS names from
 164 geotraceroute).  That might be the next step in this project.</p>
 165
 166 <p>Armed with these tools, I find it a lot easier to figure out where
 167 the IP traffic moves and who control the boxes involved in moving it.
 168 And every time the link crosses for example the Swedish border, we can
 169 be sure Swedish Signal Intelligence (FRA) is listening, as GCHQ do in
 170 Britain and NSA in USA and cables around the globe.  (Hm, what should
 171 we tell them? :) Keep that in mind if you ever send anything
 172 unencrypted over the Internet.</p>
 173
 174 <p>PS: KML files are drawn using
 175 <a href="http://ivanrublev.me/kml/">the KML viewer from Ivan
 176 Rublev<a/>, as it was less cluttered than the local Linux application
 177 Marble.  There are heaps of other options too.</p>
 178
 179       </div>
 180       <div class="tags">
 181
 182
 183         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/kart">kart</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/stortinget">stortinget</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/web">web</a>.
 184
 185
 186       </div>
 187     </div>
 188     <div class="padding"></div>
 189
 190     <div class="entry">
 191       <div class="title">
 192         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Appstream_just_learned_how_to_map_hardware_to_packages_too_.html">Appstream just learned how to map hardware to packages too!</a>
 193       </div>
 194       <div class="date">
 195         23rd December 2016
 196       </div>
 197       <div class="body">
 198         <p>I received a very nice Christmas present today.  As my regular
 199 readers probably know, I have been working on the
 200 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/isenkram">the Isenkram
 201 system</a> for many years.  The goal of the Isenkram system is to make
 202 it easier for users to figure out what to install to get a given piece
 203 of hardware to work in Debian, and a key part of this system is a way
 204 to map hardware to packages.  Isenkram have its own mapping database,
 205 and also uses data provided by each package using the AppStream
 206 metadata format.  And today,
 207 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/appstream">AppStream</a> in
 208 Debian learned to look up hardware the same way Isenkram is doing it,
 209 ie using fnmatch():</p>
 210
 211 <p><pre>
 212 % appstreamcli what-provides modalias \
 213   usb:v1130p0202d0100dc00dsc00dp00ic03isc00ip00in00
 214 Identifier: pymissile [generic]
 215 Name: pymissile
 216 Summary: Control original Striker USB Missile Launcher
 217 Package: pymissile
 218 % appstreamcli what-provides modalias usb:v0694p0002d0000
 219 Identifier: libnxt [generic]
 220 Name: libnxt
 221 Summary: utility library for talking to the LEGO Mindstorms NXT brick
 222 Package: libnxt
 223 ---
 224 Identifier: t2n [generic]
 225 Name: t2n
 226 Summary: Simple command-line tool for Lego NXT
 227 Package: t2n
 228 ---
 229 Identifier: python-nxt [generic]
 230 Name: python-nxt
 231 Summary: Python driver/interface/wrapper for the Lego Mindstorms NXT robot
 232 Package: python-nxt
 233 ---
 234 Identifier: nbc [generic]
 235 Name: nbc
 236 Summary: C compiler for LEGO Mindstorms NXT bricks
 237 Package: nbc
 238 %
 239 </pre></p>
 240
 241 <p>A similar query can be done using the combined AppStream and
 242 Isenkram databases using the isenkram-lookup tool:</p>
 243
 244 <p><pre>
 245 % isenkram-lookup usb:v1130p0202d0100dc00dsc00dp00ic03isc00ip00in00
 246 pymissile
 247 % isenkram-lookup usb:v0694p0002d0000
 248 libnxt
 249 nbc
 250 python-nxt
 251 t2n
 252 %
 253 </pre></p>
 254
 255 <p>You can find modalias values relevant for your machine using
 256 <tt>cat $(find /sys/devices/ -name modalias)</tt>.
 257
 258 <p>If you want to make this system a success and help Debian users
 259 make the most of the hardware they have, please
 260 help<a href="https://wiki.debian.org/AppStream/Guidelines">add
 261 AppStream metadata for your package following the guidelines</a>
 262 documented in the wiki.  So far only 11 packages provide such
 263 information, among the several hundred hardware specific packages in
 264 Debian. The Isenkram database on the other hand contain 101 packages,
 265 mostly related to USB dongles.  Most of the packages with hardware
 266 mapping in AppStream are LEGO Mindstorms related, because I have, as
 267 part of my involvement in
 268 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/LegoDesigners">the Debian LEGO
 269 team</a> given priority to making sure LEGO users get proposed the
 270 complete set of packages in Debian for that particular hardware.  The
 271 team also got a nice Christmas present today.  The
 272 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/nxt-firmware">nxt-firmware
 273 package</a> made it into Debian.  With this package in place, it is
 274 now possible to use the LEGO Mindstorms NXT unit with only free
 275 software, as the nxt-firmware package contain the source and firmware
 276 binaries for the NXT brick.</p>
 277
 278 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
 279 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
 280 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b&label=PetterReinholdtsenBlog">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
 281
 282       </div>
 283       <div class="tags">
 284
 285
 286         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>.
 287
 288
 289       </div>
 290     </div>
 291     <div class="padding"></div>
 292
 293     <div class="entry">
 294       <div class="title">
 295         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Isenkram_updated_with_a_lot_more_hardware_package_mappings.html">Isenkram updated with a lot more hardware-package mappings</a>
 296       </div>
 297       <div class="date">
 298         20th December 2016
 299       </div>
 300       <div class="body">
 301         <p><a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/isenkram">The Isenkram
 302 system</a> I wrote two years ago to make it easier in Debian to find
 303 and install packages to get your hardware dongles to work, is still
 304 going strong.  It is a system to look up the hardware present on or
 305 connected to the current system, and map the hardware to Debian
 306 packages.  It can either be done using the tools in isenkram-cli or
 307 using the user space daemon in the isenkram package.  The latter will
 308 notify you, when inserting new hardware, about what packages to
 309 install to get the dongle working.  It will even provide a button to
 310 click on to ask packagekit to install the packages.</p>
 311
 312 <p>Here is an command line example from my Thinkpad laptop:</p>
 313
 314 <p><pre>
 315 % isenkram-lookup
 316 bluez
 317 cheese
 318 ethtool
 319 fprintd
 320 fprintd-demo
 321 gkrellm-thinkbat
 322 hdapsd
 323 libpam-fprintd
 324 pidgin-blinklight
 325 thinkfan
 326 tlp
 327 tp-smapi-dkms
 328 tp-smapi-source
 329 tpb
 330 %
 331 </pre></p>
 332
 333 <p>It can also list the firware package providing firmware requested
 334 by the load kernel modules, which in my case is an empty list because
 335 I have all the firmware my machine need:
 336
 337 <p><pre>
 338 % /usr/sbin/isenkram-autoinstall-firmware -l
 339 info: did not find any firmware files requested by loaded kernel modules.  exiting
 340 %
 341 </pre></p>
 342
 343 <p>The last few days I had a look at several of the around 250
 344 packages in Debian with udev rules.  These seem like good candidates
 345 to install when a given hardware dongle is inserted, and I found
 346 several that should be proposed by isenkram.  I have not had time to
 347 check all of them, but am happy to report that now there are 97
 348 packages packages mapped to hardware by Isenkram.  11 of these
 349 packages provide hardware mapping using AppStream, while the rest are
 350 listed in the modaliases file provided in isenkram.</p>
 351
 352 <p>These are the packages with hardware mappings at the moment.  The
 353 <strong>marked packages</strong> are also announcing their hardware
 354 support using AppStream, for everyone to use:</p>
 355
 356 <p>air-quality-sensor, alsa-firmware-loaders, argyll,
 357 <strong>array-info</strong>, avarice, avrdude, b43-fwcutter,
 358 bit-babbler, bluez, bluez-firmware, <strong>brltty</strong>,
 359 <strong>broadcom-sta-dkms</strong>, calibre, cgminer, cheese, colord,
 360 <strong>colorhug-client</strong>, dahdi-firmware-nonfree, dahdi-linux,
 361 dfu-util, dolphin-emu, ekeyd, ethtool, firmware-ipw2x00, fprintd,
 362 fprintd-demo, <strong>galileo</strong>, gkrellm-thinkbat, gphoto2,
 363 gpsbabel, gpsbabel-gui, gpsman, gpstrans, gqrx-sdr, gr-fcdproplus,
 364 gr-osmosdr, gtkpod, hackrf, hdapsd, hdmi2usb-udev, hpijs-ppds, hplip,
 365 ipw3945-source, ipw3945d, kde-config-tablet, kinect-audio-setup,
 366 <strong>libnxt</strong>, libpam-fprintd, <strong>lomoco</strong>,
 367 madwimax, minidisc-utils, mkgmap, msi-keyboard, mtkbabel,
 368 <strong>nbc</strong>, <strong>nqc</strong>, nut-hal-drivers, ola,
 369 open-vm-toolbox, open-vm-tools, openambit, pcgminer, pcmciautils,
 370 pcscd, pidgin-blinklight, printer-driver-splix,
 371 <strong>pymissile</strong>, python-nxt, qlandkartegt,
 372 qlandkartegt-garmin, rosegarden, rt2x00-source, sispmctl,
 373 soapysdr-module-hackrf, solaar, squeak-plugins-scratch, sunxi-tools,
 374 <strong>t2n</strong>, thinkfan, thinkfinger-tools, tlp, tp-smapi-dkms,
 375 tp-smapi-source, tpb, tucnak, uhd-host, usbmuxd, viking,
 376 virtualbox-ose-guest-x11, w1retap, xawtv, xserver-xorg-input-vmmouse,
 377 xserver-xorg-input-wacom, xserver-xorg-video-qxl,
 378 xserver-xorg-video-vmware, yubikey-personalization and
 379 zd1211-firmware</p>
 380
 381 <p>If you know of other packages, please let me know with a wishlist
 382 bug report against the isenkram-cli package, and ask the package
 383 maintainer to
 384 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/AppStream/Guidelines">add AppStream
 385 metadata according to the guidelines</a> to provide the information
 386 for everyone.  In time, I hope to get rid of the isenkram specific
 387 hardware mapping and depend exclusively on AppStream.</p>
 388
 389 <p>Note, the AppStream metadata for broadcom-sta-dkms is matching too
 390 much hardware, and suggest that the package with with any ethernet
 391 card.  See <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/838735">bug #838735</a> for
 392 the details.  I hope the maintainer find time to address it soon.  In
 393 the mean time I provide an override in isenkram.</p>
 394
 395       </div>
 396       <div class="tags">
 397
 398
 399         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>.
 400
 401
 402       </div>
 403     </div>
 404     <div class="padding"></div>
 405
 406     <div class="entry">
 407       <div class="title">
 408         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Oolite__a_life_in_space_as_vagabond_and_mercenary___nice_free_software.html">Oolite, a life in space as vagabond and mercenary - nice free software</a>
 409       </div>
 410       <div class="date">
 411         11th December 2016
 412       </div>
 413       <div class="body">
 414         <p align="center"><img width="70%" src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2016-12-11-nice-oolite.png"/></p>
 415
 416 <p>In my early years, I played
 417 <a href="http://wiki.alioth.net/index.php/Classic_Elite">the epic game
 418 Elite</a> on my PC.  I spent many months trading and fighting in
 419 space, and reached the 'elite' fighting status before I moved on.  The
 420 original Elite game was available on Commodore 64 and the IBM PC
 421 edition I played had a 64 KB executable.  I am still impressed today
 422 that the authors managed to squeeze both a 3D engine and details about
 423 more than 2000 planet systems across 7 galaxies into a binary so
 424 small.</p>
 425
 426 <p>I have known about <a href="http://www.oolite.org/">the free
 427 software game Oolite inspired by Elite</a> for a while, but did not
 428 really have time to test it properly until a few days ago.  It was
 429 great to discover that my old knowledge about trading routes were
 430 still valid.  But my fighting and flying abilities were gone, so I had
 431 to retrain to be able to dock on a space station.  And I am still not
 432 able to make much resistance when I am attacked by pirates, so I
 433 bougth and mounted the most powerful laser in the rear to be able to
 434 put up at least some resistance while fleeing for my life. :)</p>
 435
 436 <p>When playing Elite in the late eighties, I had to discover
 437 everything on my own, and I had long lists of prices seen on different
 438 planets to be able to decide where to trade what.  This time I had the
 439 advantages of the
 440 <a href="http://wiki.alioth.net/index.php/Main_Page">Elite wiki</a>,
 441 where information about each planet is easily available with common
 442 price ranges and suggested trading routes.  This improved my ability
 443 to earn money and I have been able to earn enough to buy a lot of
 444 useful equipent in a few days.  I believe I originally played for
 445 months before I could get a docking computer, while now I could get it
 446 after less then a week.</p>
 447
 448 <p>If you like science fiction and dreamed of a life as a vagabond in
 449 space, you should try out Oolite.  It is available for Linux, MacOSX
 450 and Windows, and is included in Debian and derivatives since 2011.</p>
 451
 452 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
 453 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
 454 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b&label=PetterReinholdtsenBlog">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
 455
 456       </div>
 457       <div class="tags">
 458
 459
 460         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nice free software">nice free software</a>.
 461
 462
 463       </div>
 464     </div>
 465     <div class="padding"></div>
 466
 467     <div class="entry">
 468       <div class="title">
 469         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Quicker_Debian_installations_using_eatmydata.html">Quicker Debian installations using eatmydata</a>
 470       </div>
 471       <div class="date">
 472         25th November 2016
 473       </div>
 474       <div class="body">
 475         <p>Two years ago, I did some experiments with eatmydata and the Debian
 476 installation system, observing how using
 477 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Speeding_up_the_Debian_installer_using_eatmydata_and_dpkg_divert.html">eatmydata
 478 could speed up the installation</a> quite a bit.  My testing measured
 479 speedup around 20-40 percent for Debian Edu, where we install around
 480 1000 packages from within the installer.  The eatmydata package
 481 provide a way to disable/delay file system flushing.  This is a bit
 482 risky in the general case, as files that should be stored on disk will
 483 stay only in memory a bit longer than expected, causing problems if a
 484 machine crashes at an inconvenient time.  But for an installation, if
 485 the machine crashes during installation the process is normally
 486 restarted, and avoiding disk operations as much as possible to speed
 487 up the process make perfect sense.
 488
 489 <p>I added code in the Debian Edu specific installation code to enable
 490 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/libeatmydata">eatmydata</a>,
 491 but did not have time to push it any further.  But a few months ago I
 492 picked it up again and worked with the libeatmydata package maintainer
 493 Mattia Rizzolo to make it easier for everyone to get this installation
 494 speedup in Debian.  Thanks to our cooperation There is now an
 495 eatmydata-udeb package in Debian testing and unstable, and simply
 496 enabling/installing it in debian-installer (d-i) is enough to get the
 497 quicker installations.  It can be enabled using preseeding.  The
 498 following untested kernel argument should do the trick:</p>
 499
 500 <blockquote><pre>
 501 preseed/early_command="anna-install eatmydata-udeb"
 502 </pre></blockquote>
 503
 504 <p>This should ask d-i to install the package inside the d-i
 505 environment early in the installation sequence.  Having it installed
 506 in d-i in turn will make sure the relevant scripts are called just
 507 after debootstrap filled /target/ with the freshly installed Debian
 508 system to configure apt to run dpkg with eatmydata.  This is enough to
 509 speed up the installation process.  There is a proposal to
 510 <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/841153">extend the idea a bit further
 511 by using /etc/ld.so.preload instead of apt.conf</a>, but I have not
 512 tested its impact.</p>
 513
 514
 515       </div>
 516       <div class="tags">
 517
 518
 519         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>.
 520
 521
 522       </div>
 523     </div>
 524     <div class="padding"></div>
 525
 526     <div class="entry">
 527       <div class="title">
 528         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Oversette_bokm_l_til_nynorsk__enklere_enn_du_tror_takket_v_re_Apertium.html">Oversette bokmål til nynorsk, enklere enn du tror takket være Apertium</a>
 529       </div>
 530       <div class="date">
 531         24th November 2016
 532       </div>
 533       <div class="body">
 534         <p>I Norge er det mange som trenger å skrive både bokmål og nynorsk.
 535 Eksamensoppgaver, offentlige brev og nyheter er eksempler på tekster
 536 der det er krav om skriftspråk.  I tillegg til alle skoleoppgavene som
 537 elever over det ganske land skal levere inn hvert år.  Det mange ikke
 538 vet er at selv om de kommersielle alternativene
 539 <a href="https://translate.google.com/">Google Translate</a> og
 540 <a href="https://www.bing.com/translator/">Bing Translator</a> ikke kan
 541 bidra med å oversette mellom bokmål og nynorsk, så finnes det et
 542 utmerket fri programvarealternativ som kan.  Oversetterverktøyet
 543 Apertium har støtte for en rekke språkkombinasjoner, og takket være
 544 den utrettelige innsatsen til blant annet Kevin Brubeck Unhammer, kan
 545 en bruke webtjenesten til å fylle inn en tekst på bokmål eller
 546 nynorsk, og få den automatoversatt til det andre skriftspråket.
 547 Resultatet er ikke perfekt, men et svært godt utgangspunkt.  Av og til
 548 er resultatet så bra at det kan benyttes uten endringer.  Jeg vet
 549 f.eks. at store deler av Joomla ble oversatt til nynorsk ved hjelp
 550 Apertium.  Høres det ut som noe du kan ha bruk for?  Besøk i så fall
 551 <a href="https://www.apertium.org/">Apertium.org</a> og fyll inn
 552 teksten din i webskjemaet der.
 553
 554 <p>Hvis du trenger maskinell tilgang til den bakenforliggende
 555 teknologien kan du enten installere pakken
 556 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/apertium-nno-nob">apertium-nno-nob</a>
 557 på en Debian-maskin eller bruke web-API-et tilgjengelig fra
 558 api.apertium.org.  Se
 559 <a href="http://wiki.apertium.org/wiki/Apertium-apy">API-dokumentasjonen</a>
 560 for detaljer om web-API-et.  Her kan du se hvordan resultatet blir for
 561 denne teksten som ble skrevet på bokmål over maskinoversatt til
 562 nynorsk.</p>
 563
 564 <hr/>
 565
 566 <p>I Noreg er det mange som treng å skriva både bokmål og nynorsk.
 567 Eksamensoppgåver, offentlege brev og nyhende er døme på tekster der
 568 det er krav om skriftspråk.  I tillegg til alle skuleoppgåvene som
 569 elevar over det ganske land skal levera inn kvart år.  Det mange ikkje
 570 veit er at sjølv om dei kommersielle alternativa
 571 <a href="https://translate.google.com/">Google *Translate</a> og
 572 <a href="https://www.bing.com/translator/">Bing *Translator</a> ikkje
 573 kan bidra med å omsetja mellom bokmål og nynorsk, så finst det eit
 574 utmerka fri programvarealternativ som kan.  Omsetjarverktøyet
 575 *Apertium har støtte for ei rekkje språkkombinasjonar, og takka vera
 576 den utrøyttelege innsatsen til blant anna Kevin Brubeck Unhammer, kan
 577 ein bruka *webtjenesten til å fylla inn ei tekst på bokmål eller
 578 nynorsk, og få den *automatoversatt til det andre skriftspråket.
 579 Resultatet er ikkje perfekt, men eit svært godt utgangspunkt.  Av og
 580 til er resultatet så bra at det kan nyttast utan endringar.  Eg veit
 581 t.d. at store delar av *Joomla vart omsett til nynorsk ved hjelp
 582 *Apertium.  Høyrast det ut som noko du kan ha bruk for?  Besøk i så
 583 fall <a href="https://www.apertium.org/">*Apertium.org</a> og fyll inn
 584 teksta di i *webskjemaet der.
 585
 586 <p>Viss du treng *maskinell tilgjenge til den *bakenforliggende
 587 teknologien kan du anten installera pakken
 588 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/apertium-nno-nob">*apertium-*nno-*nob</a>
 589 på ein *Debian-maskin eller bruka *web-*API-eit tilgjengeleg frå
 590 *api.*apertium.org.  Sjå
 591 <a href="http://wiki.apertium.org/wiki/Apertium-apy">*API-dokumentasjonen</a>
 592 for detaljar om *web-*API-eit.  Her kan du sjå korleis resultatet vert
 593 for denne teksta som vart skreva på bokmål over *maskinoversatt til
 594 nynorsk.</p>
 595
 596       </div>
 597       <div class="tags">
 598
 599
 600         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/norsk">norsk</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/stavekontroll">stavekontroll</a>.
 601
 602
 603       </div>
 604     </div>
 605     <div class="padding"></div>
 606
 607     <div class="entry">
 608       <div class="title">
 609         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Coz_profiler_for_multi_threaded_software_is_now_in_Debian.html">Coz profiler for multi-threaded software is now in Debian</a>
 610       </div>
 611       <div class="date">
 612         13th November 2016
 613       </div>
 614       <div class="body">
 615         <p><a href="http://coz-profiler.org/">The Coz profiler</a>, a nice
 616 profiler able to run benchmarking experiments on the instrumented
 617 multi-threaded program, finally
 618 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/coz-profiler">made it into
 619 Debian unstable yesterday</A>.  Lluís Vilanova and I have spent many
 620 months since
 621 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Coz_can_help_you_find_bottlenecks_in_multi_threaded_software___nice_free_software.html">I
 622 blogged about the coz tool</a> in August working with upstream to make
 623 it suitable for Debian.  There are still issues with clang
 624 compatibility, inline assembly only working x86 and minimized
 625 JavaScript libraries.</p>
 626
 627 <p>To test it, install 'coz-profiler' using apt and run it like this:</p>
 628
 629 <p><blockquote>
 630 <tt>coz run --- /path/to/binary-with-debug-info</tt>
 631 </blockquote></p>
 632
 633 <p>This will produce a profile.coz file in the current working
 634 directory with the profiling information.  This is then given to a
 635 JavaScript application provided in the package and available from
 636 <a href="http://plasma-umass.github.io/coz/">a project web page</a>.
 637 To start the local copy, invoke it in a browser like this:</p>
 638
 639 <p><blockquote>
 640 <tt>sensible-browser /usr/share/coz-profiler/viewer/index.htm</tt>
 641 </blockquote></p>
 642
 643 <p>See the project home page and the
 644 <a href="https://www.usenix.org/publications/login/summer2016/curtsinger">USENIX
 645 ;login: article on Coz</a> for more information on how it is
 646 working.</p>
 647
 648       </div>
 649       <div class="tags">
 650
 651
 652         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>.
 653
 654
 655       </div>
 656     </div>
 657     <div class="padding"></div>
 658
 659     <div class="entry">
 660       <div class="title">
 661         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/My_own_self_balancing_Lego_Segway.html">My own self balancing Lego Segway</a>
 662       </div>
 663       <div class="date">
 664          4th November 2016
 665       </div>
 666       <div class="body">
 667         <p>A while back I received a Gyro sensor for the NXT
 668 <a href="mindstorms.lego.com">Mindstorms</a> controller as a birthday
 669 present.  It had been on my wishlist for a while, because I wanted to
 670 build a Segway like balancing lego robot.  I had already built
 671 <a href="http://www.nxtprograms.com/NXT2/segway/">a simple balancing
 672 robot</a> with the kids, using the light/color sensor included in the
 673 NXT kit as the balance sensor, but it was not working very well.  It
 674 could balance for a while, but was very sensitive to the light
 675 condition in the room and the reflective properties of the surface and
 676 would fall over after a short while.  I wanted something more robust,
 677 and had
 678 <a href="https://www.hitechnic.com/cgi-bin/commerce.cgi?preadd=action&key=NGY1044">the
 679 gyro sensor from HiTechnic</a> I believed would solve it on my
 680 wishlist for some years before it suddenly showed up as a gift from my
 681 loved ones. :)</p>
 682
 683 <p>Unfortunately I have not had time to sit down and play with it
 684 since then.  But that changed some days ago, when I was searching for
 685 lego segway information and came across a recipe from HiTechnic for
 686 building
 687 <a href="http://www.hitechnic.com/blog/gyro-sensor/htway/">the
 688 HTWay</a>, a segway like balancing robot.  Build instructions and
 689 <a href="https://www.hitechnic.com/upload/786-HTWayC.nxc">source
 690 code</a> was included, so it was just a question of putting it all
 691 together.  And thanks to the great work of many Debian developers, the
 692 compiler needed to build the source for the NXT is already included in
 693 Debian, so I was read to go in less than an hour.  The resulting robot
 694 do not look very impressive in its simplicity:</p>
 695
 696 <p align="center"><img width="70%" src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2016-11-04-lego-htway-robot.jpeg"></p>
 697
 698 <p>Because I lack the infrared sensor used to control the robot in the
 699 design from HiTechnic, I had to comment out the last task
 700 (taskControl).  I simply placed /* and */ around it get the program
 701 working without that sensor present.  Now it balances just fine until
 702 the battery status run low:</p>
 703
 704 <p align="center"><video width="70%" controls="true">
 705    <source src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2016-11-04-lego-htway-balancing.ogv" type="video/ogg">
 706 </video></p>
 707
 708 <p>Now we would like to teach it how to follow a line and take remote
 709 control instructions using the included Bluetooth receiver in the NXT.</p>
 710
 711 <p>If you, like me, love LEGO and want to make sure we find the tools
 712 they need to work with LEGO in Debian and all our derivative
 713 distributions like Ubuntu, check out
 714 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/LegoDesigners">the LEGO designers
 715 project page</a> and join the Debian LEGO team.  Personally I own a
 716 RCX and NXT controller (no EV3), and would like to make sure the
 717 Debian tools needed to program the systems I own work as they
 718 should.</p>
 719
 720       </div>
 721       <div class="tags">
 722
 723
 724         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>.
 725
 726
 727       </div>
 728     </div>
 729     <div class="padding"></div>
 730
 731     <div class="entry">
 732       <div class="title">
 733         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Experience_and_updated_recipe_for_using_the_Signal_app_without_a_mobile_phone.html">Experience and updated recipe for using the Signal app without a mobile phone</a>
 734       </div>
 735       <div class="date">
 736         10th October 2016
 737       </div>
 738       <div class="body">
 739         <p>In July
 740 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_use_the_Signal_app_if_you_only_have_a_land_line__ie_no_mobile_phone_.html">I
 741 wrote how to get the Signal Chrome/Chromium app working</a> without
 742 the ability to receive SMS messages (aka without a cell phone).  It is
 743 time to share some experiences and provide an updated setup.</p>
 744
 745 <p>The Signal app have worked fine for several months now, and I use
 746 it regularly to chat with my loved ones.  I had a major snag at the
 747 end of my summer vacation, when the the app completely forgot my
 748 setup, identity and keys.  The reason behind this major mess was
 749 running out of disk space.  To avoid that ever happening again I have
 750 started storing everything in <tt>userdata/</tt> in git, to be able to
 751 roll back to an earlier version if the files are wiped by mistake.  I
 752 had to use it once after introducing the git backup.  When rolling
 753 back to an earlier version, one need to use the 'reset session' option
 754 in Signal to get going, and notify the people you talk with about the
 755 problem.  I assume there is some sequence number tracking in the
 756 protocol to detect rollback attacks.  The git repository is rather big
 757 (674 MiB so far), but I have not tried to figure out if some of the
 758 content can be added to a .gitignore file due to lack of spare
 759 time.</p>
 760
 761 <p>I've also hit the 90 days timeout blocking, and noticed that this
 762 make it impossible to send messages using Signal.  I could still
 763 receive them, but had to patch the code with a new timestamp to send.
 764 I believe the timeout is added by the developers to force people to
 765 upgrade to the latest version of the app, even when there is no
 766 protocol changes, to reduce the version skew among the user base and
 767 thus try to keep the number of support requests down.</p>
 768
 769 <p>Since my original recipe, the Signal source code changed slightly,
 770 making the old patch fail to apply cleanly.  Below is an updated
 771 patch, including the shell wrapper I use to start Signal.  The
 772 original version required a new user to locate the JavaScript console
 773 and call a function from there.  I got help from a friend with more
 774 JavaScript knowledge than me to modify the code to provide a GUI
 775 button instead.  This mean that to get started you just need to run
 776 the wrapper and click the 'Register without mobile phone' to get going
 777 now.  I've also modified the timeout code to always set it to 90 days
 778 in the future, to avoid having to patch the code regularly.</p>
 779
 780 <p>So, the updated recipe for Debian Jessie:</p>
 781
 782 <ol>
 783
 784 <li>First, install required packages to get the source code and the
 785 browser you need.  Signal only work with Chrome/Chromium, as far as I
 786 know, so you need to install it.
 787
 788 <pre>
 789 apt install git tor chromium
 790 git clone https://github.com/WhisperSystems/Signal-Desktop.git
 791 </pre></li>
 792
 793 <li>Modify the source code using command listed in the the patch
 794 block below.</li>
 795
 796 <li>Start Signal using the run-signal-app wrapper (for example using
 797 <tt>`pwd`/run-signal-app</tt>).
 798
 799 <li>Click on the 'Register without mobile phone', will in a phone
 800 number you can receive calls to the next minute, receive the
 801 verification code and enter it into the form field and press
 802 'Register'.  Note, the phone number you use will be user Signal
 803 username, ie the way others can find you on Signal.</li>
 804
 805 <li>You can now use Signal to contact others.  Note, new contacts do
 806 not show up in the contact list until you restart Signal, and there is
 807 no way to assign names to Contacts.  There is also no way to create or
 808 update chat groups.  I suspect this is because the web app do not have
 809 a associated contact database.</li>
 810
 811 </ol>
 812
 813 <p>I am still a bit uneasy about using Signal, because of the way its
 814 main author moxie0 reject federation and accept dependencies to major
 815 corporations like Google (part of the code is fetched from Google) and
 816 Amazon (the central coordination point is owned by Amazon).  See for
 817 example
 818 <a href="https://github.com/LibreSignal/LibreSignal/issues/37">the
 819 LibreSignal issue tracker</a> for a thread documenting the authors
 820 view on these issues.  But the network effect is strong in this case,
 821 and several of the people I want to communicate with already use
 822 Signal.  Perhaps we can all move to <a href="https://ring.cx/">Ring</a>
 823 once it <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/830265">work on my
 824 laptop</a>?  It already work on Windows and Android, and is included
 825 in <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/ring">Debian</a> and
 826 <a href="https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/ring">Ubuntu</a>, but not
 827 working on Debian Stable.</p>
 828
 829 <p>Anyway, this is the patch I apply to the Signal code to get it
 830 working.  It switch to the production servers, disable to timeout,
 831 make registration easier and add the shell wrapper:</p>
 832
 833 <pre>
 834 cd Signal-Desktop; cat &lt;&lt;EOF | patch -p1
 835 diff --git a/js/background.js b/js/background.js
 836 index 24b4c1d..579345f 100644
 837 --- a/js/background.js
 838 +++ b/js/background.js
 839 @@ -33,9 +33,9 @@
 840          });
 841      });
 842
 843 -    var SERVER_URL = 'https://textsecure-service-staging.whispersystems.org';
 844 +    var SERVER_URL = 'https://textsecure-service-ca.whispersystems.org';
 845      var SERVER_PORTS = [80, 4433, 8443];
 846 -    var ATTACHMENT_SERVER_URL = 'https://whispersystems-textsecure-attachments-staging.s3.amazonaws.com';
 847 +    var ATTACHMENT_SERVER_URL = 'https://whispersystems-textsecure-attachments.s3.amazonaws.com';
 848      var messageReceiver;
 849      window.getSocketStatus = function() {
 850          if (messageReceiver) {
 851 diff --git a/js/expire.js b/js/expire.js
 852 index 639aeae..beb91c3 100644
 853 --- a/js/expire.js
 854 +++ b/js/expire.js
 855 @@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 856  ;(function() {
 857      'use strict';
 858 -    var BUILD_EXPIRATION = 0;
 859 +    var BUILD_EXPIRATION = Date.now() + (90 * 24 * 60 * 60 * 1000);
 860
 861      window.extension = window.extension || {};
 862
 863 diff --git a/js/views/install_view.js b/js/views/install_view.js
 864 index 7816f4f..1d6233b 100644
 865 --- a/js/views/install_view.js
 866 +++ b/js/views/install_view.js
 867 @@ -38,7 +38,8 @@
 868              return {
 869                  'click .step1': this.selectStep.bind(this, 1),
 870                  'click .step2': this.selectStep.bind(this, 2),
 871 -                'click .step3': this.selectStep.bind(this, 3)
 872 +                'click .step3': this.selectStep.bind(this, 3),
 873 +                'click .callreg': function() { extension.install('standalone') },
 874              };
 875          },
 876          clearQR: function() {
 877 diff --git a/options.html b/options.html
 878 index dc0f28e..8d709f6 100644
 879 --- a/options.html
 880 +++ b/options.html
 881 @@ -14,7 +14,10 @@
 882          &lt;div class='nav'>
 883            &lt;h1>{{ installWelcome }}&lt;/h1>
 884            &lt;p>{{ installTagline }}&lt;/p>
 885 -          &lt;div> &lt;a class='button step2'>{{ installGetStartedButton }}&lt;/a> &lt;/div>
 886 +          &lt;div> &lt;a class='button step2'>{{ installGetStartedButton }}&lt;/a>
 887 +           &lt;br> &lt;a class="button callreg">Register without mobile phone&lt;/a>
 888 +
 889 +         &lt;/div>
 890            &lt;span class='dot step1 selected'>&lt;/span>
 891            &lt;span class='dot step2'>&lt;/span>
 892            &lt;span class='dot step3'>&lt;/span>
 893 --- /dev/null   2016-10-07 09:55:13.730181472 +0200
 894 +++ b/run-signal-app   2016-10-10 08:54:09.434172391 +0200
 895 @@ -0,0 +1,12 @@
 896 +#!/bin/sh
 897 +set -e
 898 +cd $(dirname $0)
 899 +mkdir -p userdata
 900 +userdata="`pwd`/userdata"
 901 +if [ -d "$userdata" ] && [ ! -d "$userdata/.git" ] ; then
 902 +    (cd $userdata && git init)
 903 +fi
 904 +(cd $userdata && git add . && git commit -m "Current status." || true)
 905 +exec chromium \
 906 +  --proxy-server="socks://localhost:9050" \
 907 +  --user-data-dir=$userdata --load-and-launch-app=`pwd`
 908 EOF
 909 chmod a+rx run-signal-app
 910 </pre>
 911
 912 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
 913 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
 914 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b&label=PetterReinholdtsenBlog">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
 915
 916       </div>
 917       <div class="tags">
 918
 919
 920         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>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance</a>.
 921
 922
 923       </div>
 924     </div>
 925     <div class="padding"></div>
 926
 927     <div class="entry">
 928       <div class="title">
 929         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Isenkram__Appstream_and_udev_make_life_as_a_LEGO_builder_easier.html">Isenkram, Appstream and udev make life as a LEGO builder easier</a>
 930       </div>
 931       <div class="date">
 932          7th October 2016
 933       </div>
 934       <div class="body">
 935         <p><a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/isenkram">The Isenkram
 936 system</a> provide a practical and easy way to figure out which
 937 packages support the hardware in a given machine.  The command line
 938 tool <tt>isenkram-lookup</tt> and the tasksel options provide a
 939 convenient way to list and install packages relevant for the current
 940 hardware during system installation, both user space packages and
 941 firmware packages. The GUI background daemon on the other hand provide
 942 a pop-up proposing to install packages when a new dongle is inserted
 943 while using the computer.  For example, if you plug in a smart card
 944 reader, the system will ask if you want to install <tt>pcscd</tt> if
 945 that package isn't already installed, and if you plug in a USB video
 946 camera the system will ask if you want to install <tt>cheese</tt> if
 947 cheese is currently missing.  This already work just fine.</p>
 948
 949 <p>But Isenkram depend on a database mapping from hardware IDs to
 950 package names.  When I started no such database existed in Debian, so
 951 I made my own data set and included it with the isenkram package and
 952 made isenkram fetch the latest version of this database from git using
 953 http.  This way the isenkram users would get updated package proposals
 954 as soon as I learned more about hardware related packages.</p>
 955
 956 <p>The hardware is identified using modalias strings.  The modalias
 957 design is from the Linux kernel where most hardware descriptors are
 958 made available as a strings that can be matched using filename style
 959 globbing.  It handle USB, PCI, DMI and a lot of other hardware related
 960 identifiers.</p>
 961
 962 <p>The downside to the Isenkram specific database is that there is no
 963 information about relevant distribution / Debian version, making
 964 isenkram propose obsolete packages too.  But along came AppStream, a
 965 cross distribution mechanism to store and collect metadata about
 966 software packages.  When I heard about the proposal, I contacted the
 967 people involved and suggested to add a hardware matching rule using
 968 modalias strings in the specification, to be able to use AppStream for
 969 mapping hardware to packages.  This idea was accepted and AppStream is
 970 now a great way for a package to announce the hardware it support in a
 971 distribution neutral way.  I wrote
 972 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Using_appstream_with_isenkram_to_install_hardware_related_packages_in_Debian.html">a
 973 recipe on how to add such meta-information</a> in a blog post last
 974 December.  If you have a hardware related package in Debian, please
 975 announce the relevant hardware IDs using AppStream.</p>
 976
 977 <p>In Debian, almost all packages that can talk to a LEGO Mindestorms
 978 RCX or NXT unit, announce this support using AppStream.  The effect is
 979 that when you insert such LEGO robot controller into your Debian
 980 machine, Isenkram will propose to install the packages needed to get
 981 it working.  The intention is that this should allow the local user to
 982 start programming his robot controller right away without having to
 983 guess what packages to use or which permissions to fix.</p>
 984
 985 <p>But when I sat down with my son the other day to program our NXT
 986 unit using his Debian Stretch computer, I discovered something
 987 annoying.  The local console user (ie my son) did not get access to
 988 the USB device for programming the unit.  This used to work, but no
 989 longer in Jessie and Stretch.  After some investigation and asking
 990 around on #debian-devel, I discovered that this was because udev had
 991 changed the mechanism used to grant access to local devices.  The
 992 ConsoleKit mechanism from <tt>/lib/udev/rules.d/70-udev-acl.rules</tt>
 993 no longer applied, because LDAP users no longer was added to the
 994 plugdev group during login.  Michael Biebl told me that this method
 995 was obsolete and the new method used ACLs instead.  This was good
 996 news, as the plugdev mechanism is a mess when using a remote user
 997 directory like LDAP.  Using ACLs would make sure a user lost device
 998 access when she logged out, even if the user left behind a background
 999 process which would retain the plugdev membership with the ConsoleKit
1000 setup.  Armed with this knowledge I moved on to fix the access problem
1001 for the LEGO Mindstorms related packages.</p>
1002
1003 <p>The new system uses a udev tag, 'uaccess'.  It can either be
1004 applied directly for a device, or is applied in
1005 /lib/udev/rules.d/70-uaccess.rules for classes of devices.  As the
1006 LEGO Mindstorms udev rules did not have a class, I decided to add the
1007 tag directly in the udev rules files included in the packages.  Here
1008 is one example.  For the nqc C compiler for the RCX, the
1009 <tt>/lib/udev/rules.d/60-nqc.rules</tt> file now look like this:
1010
1011 <p><pre>
1012 SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ACTION=="add", ATTR{idVendor}=="0694", ATTR{idProduct}=="0001", \
1013     SYMLINK+="rcx-%k", TAG+="uaccess"
1014 </pre></p>
1015
1016 <p>The key part is the 'TAG+="uaccess"' at the end.  I suspect all
1017 packages using plugdev in their /lib/udev/rules.d/ files should be
1018 changed to use this tag (either directly or indirectly via
1019 <tt>70-uaccess.rules</tt>).  Perhaps a lintian check should be created
1020 to detect this?</p>
1021
1022 <p>I've been unable to find good documentation on the uaccess feature.
1023 It is unclear to me if the uaccess tag is an internal implementation
1024 detail like the udev-acl tag used by
1025 <tt>/lib/udev/rules.d/70-udev-acl.rules</tt>.  If it is, I guess the
1026 indirect method is the preferred way.  Michael
1027 <a href="https://github.com/systemd/systemd/issues/4288">asked for more
1028 documentation from the systemd project</a> and I hope it will make
1029 this clearer.  For now I use the generic classes when they exist and
1030 is already handled by <tt>70-uaccess.rules</tt>, and add the tag
1031 directly if no such class exist.</p>
1032
1033 <p>To learn more about the isenkram system, please check out
1034 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram/">my
1035 blog posts tagged isenkram</a>.</p>
1036
1037 <p>To help out making life for LEGO constructors in Debian easier,
1038 please join us on our IRC channel
1039 <a href="irc://irc.debian.org/%23debian-lego">#debian-lego</a> and join
1040 the <a href="https://alioth.debian.org/projects/debian-lego/">Debian
1041 LEGO team</a> in the Alioth project we created yesterday.  A mailing
1042 list is not yet created, but we are working on it. :)</p>
1043
1044 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
1045 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
1046 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b&label=PetterReinholdtsenBlog">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
1047
1048       </div>
1049       <div class="tags">
1050
1051
1052         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>.
1053
1054
1055       </div>
1056     </div>
1057     <div class="padding"></div>
1058
1059     <div class="entry">
1060       <div class="title">
1061         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/First_draft_Norwegian_Bokm_l_edition_of_The_Debian_Administrator_s_Handbook_now_public.html">First draft Norwegian Bokmål edition of The Debian Administrator's Handbook now public</a>
1062       </div>
1063       <div class="date">
1064         30th August 2016
1065       </div>
1066       <div class="body">
1067         <p>In April we
1068 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lets_make_a_Norwegian_Bokm_l_edition_of_The_Debian_Administrator_s_Handbook.html">started
1069 to work</a> on a Norwegian Bokmål edition of the "open access" book on
1070 how to set up and administrate a Debian system.  Today I am happy to
1071 report that the first draft is now publicly available.  You can find
1072 it on <a href="https://debian-handbook.info/get/">get the Debian
1073 Administrator's Handbook page</a> (under Other languages).  The first
1074 eight chapters have a first draft translation, and we are working on
1075 proofreading the content.  If you want to help out, please start
1076 contributing using
1077 <a href="https://hosted.weblate.org/projects/debian-handbook/">the
1078 hosted weblate project page</a>, and get in touch using
1079 <a href="http://lists.alioth.debian.org/mailman/listinfo/debian-handbook-translators">the
1080 translators mailing list</a>.  Please also check out
1081 <a href="https://debian-handbook.info/contribute/">the instructions for
1082 contributors</a>.  A good way to contribute is to proofread the text
1083 and update weblate if you find errors.</p>
1084
1085 <p>Our goal is still to make the Norwegian book available on paper as well as
1086 electronic form.</p>
1087
1088       </div>
1089       <div class="tags">
1090
1091
1092         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>.
1093
1094
1095       </div>
1096     </div>
1097     <div class="padding"></div>
1098
1099     <div class="entry">
1100       <div class="title">
1101         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Coz_can_help_you_find_bottlenecks_in_multi_threaded_software___nice_free_software.html">Coz can help you find bottlenecks in multi-threaded software - nice free software</a>
1102       </div>
1103       <div class="date">
1104         11th August 2016
1105       </div>
1106       <div class="body">
1107         <p>This summer, I read a great article
1108 "<a href="https://www.usenix.org/publications/login/summer2016/curtsinger">coz:
1109 This Is the Profiler You're Looking For</a>" in USENIX ;login: about
1110 how to profile multi-threaded programs.  It presented a system for
1111 profiling software by running experiences in the running program,
1112 testing how run time performance is affected by "speeding up" parts of
1113 the code to various degrees compared to a normal run.  It does this by
1114 slowing down parallel threads while the "faster up" code is running
1115 and measure how this affect processing time.  The processing time is
1116 measured using probes inserted into the code, either using progress
1117 counters (COZ_PROGRESS) or as latency meters (COZ_BEGIN/COZ_END).  It
1118 can also measure unmodified code by measuring complete the program
1119 runtime and running the program several times instead.</p>
1120
1121 <p>The project and presentation was so inspiring that I would like to
1122 get the system into Debian.  I
1123 <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=830708">created
1124 a WNPP request for it</a> and contacted upstream to try to make the
1125 system ready for Debian by sending patches.  The build process need to
1126 be changed a bit to avoid running 'git clone' to get dependencies, and
1127 to include the JavaScript web page used to visualize the collected
1128 profiling information included in the source package.
1129 But I expect that should work out fairly soon.</p>
1130
1131 <p>The way the system work is fairly simple.  To run an coz experiment
1132 on a binary with debug symbols available, start the program like this:
1133
1134 <p><blockquote><pre>
1135 coz run --- program-to-run
1136 </pre></blockquote></p>
1137
1138 <p>This will create a text file profile.coz with the instrumentation
1139 information.  To show what part of the code affect the performance
1140 most, use a web browser and either point it to
1141 <a href="http://plasma-umass.github.io/coz/">http://plasma-umass.github.io/coz/</a>
1142 or use the copy from git (in the gh-pages branch).  Check out this web
1143 site to have a look at several example profiling runs and get an idea what the end result from the profile runs look like.  To make the
1144 profiling more useful you include &lt;coz.h&gt; and insert the
1145 COZ_PROGRESS or COZ_BEGIN and COZ_END at appropriate places in the
1146 code, rebuild and run the profiler.  This allow coz to do more
1147 targeted experiments.</p>
1148
1149 <p>A video published by ACM
1150 <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jE0V-p1odPg">presenting the
1151 Coz profiler</a> is available from Youtube.  There is also a paper
1152 from the 25th Symposium on Operating Systems Principles available
1153 titled
1154 <a href="https://www.usenix.org/conference/atc16/technical-sessions/presentation/curtsinger">Coz:
1155 finding code that counts with causal profiling</a>.</p>
1156
1157 <p><a href="https://github.com/plasma-umass/coz">The source code</a>
1158 for Coz is available from github.  It will only build with clang
1159 because it uses a
1160 <a href="https://gcc.gnu.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=55606">C++
1161 feature missing in GCC</a>, but I've submitted
1162 <a href="https://github.com/plasma-umass/coz/pull/67">a patch to solve
1163 it</a> and hope it will be included in the upstream source soon.</p>
1164
1165 <p>Please get in touch if you, like me, would like to see this piece
1166 of software in Debian.  I would very much like some help with the
1167 packaging effort, as I lack the in depth knowledge on how to package
1168 C++ libraries.</p>
1169
1170       </div>
1171       <div class="tags">
1172
1173
1174         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nice free software">nice free software</a>.
1175
1176
1177       </div>
1178     </div>
1179     <div class="padding"></div>
1180
1181     <div class="entry">
1182       <div class="title">
1183         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Unlocking_HTC_Desire_HD_on_Linux_using_unruu_and_fastboot.html">Unlocking HTC Desire HD on Linux using unruu and fastboot</a>
1184       </div>
1185       <div class="date">
1186          7th July 2016
1187       </div>
1188       <div class="body">
1189         <p>Yesterday, I tried to unlock a HTC Desire HD phone, and it proved
1190 to be a slight challenge.  Here is the recipe if I ever need to do it
1191 again.  It all started by me wanting to try the recipe to set up
1192 <a href="https://blog.torproject.org/blog/mission-impossible-hardening-android-security-and-privacy">an
1193 hardened Android installation</a> from the Tor project blog on a
1194 device I had access to.  It is a old mobile phone with a broken
1195 microphone The initial idea had been to just
1196 <a href="http://wiki.cyanogenmod.org/w/Install_CM_for_ace">install
1197 CyanogenMod on it</a>, but did not quite find time to start on it
1198 until a few days ago.</p>
1199
1200 <p>The unlock process is supposed to be simple: (1) Boot into the boot
1201 loader (press volume down and power at the same time), (2) select
1202 'fastboot' before (3) connecting the device via USB to a Linux
1203 machine, (4) request the device identifier token by running 'fastboot
1204 oem get_identifier_token', (5) request the device unlocking key using
1205 the <a href="http://www.htcdev.com/bootloader/">HTC developer web
1206 site</a> and unlock the phone using the key file emailed to you.</p>
1207
1208 <p>Unfortunately, this only work fi you have hboot version 2.00.0029
1209 or newer, and the device I was working on had 2.00.0027.  This
1210 apparently can be easily fixed by downloading a Windows program and
1211 running it on your Windows machine, if you accept the terms Microsoft
1212 require you to accept to use Windows - which I do not.  So I had to
1213 come up with a different approach.  I got a lot of help from AndyCap
1214 on #nuug, and would not have been able to get this working without
1215 him.</p>
1216
1217 <p>First I needed to extract the hboot firmware from
1218 <a href="http://www.htcdev.com/ruu/PD9810000_Ace_Sense30_S_hboot_2.00.0029.exe">the
1219 windows binary for HTC Desire HD</a> downloaded as 'the RUU' from HTC.
1220 For this there is is <a href="https://github.com/kmdm/unruu/">a github
1221 project named unruu</a> using libunshield.  The unshield tool did not
1222 recognise the file format, but unruu worked and extracted rom.zip,
1223 containing the new hboot firmware and a text file describing which
1224 devices it would work for.</p>
1225
1226 <p>Next, I needed to get the new firmware into the device.  For this I
1227 followed some instructions
1228 <a href="http://www.htc1guru.com/2013/09/new-ruu-zips-posted/">available
1229 from HTC1Guru.com</a>, and ran these commands as root on a Linux
1230 machine with Debian testing:</p>
1231
1232 <p><pre>
1233 adb reboot-bootloader
1234 fastboot oem rebootRUU
1235 fastboot flash zip rom.zip
1236 fastboot flash zip rom.zip
1237 fastboot reboot
1238 </pre></p>
1239
1240 <p>The flash command apparently need to be done twice to take effect,
1241 as the first is just preparations and the second one do the flashing.
1242 The adb command is just to get to the boot loader menu, so turning the
1243 device on while holding volume down and the power button should work
1244 too.</p>
1245
1246 <p>With the new hboot version in place I could start following the
1247 instructions on the HTC developer web site.  I got the device token
1248 like this:</p>
1249
1250 <p><pre>
1251 fastboot oem get_identifier_token 2>&1 | sed 's/(bootloader) //'
1252 </pre>
1253
1254 <p>And once I got the unlock code via email, I could use it like
1255 this:</p>
1256
1257 <p><pre>
1258 fastboot flash unlocktoken Unlock_code.bin
1259 </pre></p>
1260
1261 <p>And with that final step in place, the phone was unlocked and I
1262 could start stuffing the software of my own choosing into the device.
1263 So far I only inserted a replacement recovery image to wipe the phone
1264 before I start.  We will see what happen next.  Perhaps I should
1265 install <a href="https://www.debian.org/">Debian</a> on it. :)</p>
1266
1267       </div>
1268       <div class="tags">
1269
1270
1271         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/opphavsrett">opphavsrett</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet</a>.
1272
1273
1274       </div>
1275     </div>
1276     <div class="padding"></div>
1277
1278     <div class="entry">
1279       <div class="title">
1280         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_use_the_Signal_app_if_you_only_have_a_land_line__ie_no_mobile_phone_.html">How to use the Signal app if you only have a land line (ie no mobile phone)</a>
1281       </div>
1282       <div class="date">
1283          3rd July 2016
1284       </div>
1285       <div class="body">
1286         <p>For a while now, I have wanted to test
1287 <a href="https://whispersystems.org/">the Signal app</a>, as it is
1288 said to provide end to end encrypted communication and several of my
1289 friends and family are already using it.  As I by choice do not own a
1290 mobile phone, this proved to be harder than expected.  And I wanted to
1291 have the source of the client and know that it was the code used on my
1292 machine.  But yesterday I managed to get it working.  I used the
1293 Github source, compared it to the source in
1294 <a href="https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/signal-private-messenger/bikioccmkafdpakkkcpdbppfkghcmihk?hl=en-US">the
1295 Signal Chrome app</a> available from the Chrome web store, applied
1296 patches to use the production Signal servers, started the app and
1297 asked for the hidden "register without a smart phone" form.  Here is
1298 the recipe how I did it.</p>
1299
1300 <p>First, I fetched the Signal desktop source from Github, using
1301
1302 <pre>
1303 git clone https://github.com/WhisperSystems/Signal-Desktop.git
1304 </pre>
1305
1306 <p>Next, I patched the source to use the production servers, to be
1307 able to talk to other Signal users:</p>
1308
1309 <pre>
1310 cat &lt;&lt;EOF | patch -p0
1311 diff -ur ./js/background.js userdata/Default/Extensions/bikioccmkafdpakkkcpdbppfkghcmihk/0.15.0_0/js/background.js
1312 --- ./js/background.js  2016-06-29 13:43:15.630344628 +0200
1313 +++ userdata/Default/Extensions/bikioccmkafdpakkkcpdbppfkghcmihk/0.15.0_0/js/background.js    2016-06-29 14:06:29.530300934 +0200
1314 @@ -47,8 +47,8 @@
1315          });
1316      });
1317
1318 -    var SERVER_URL = 'https://textsecure-service-staging.whispersystems.org';
1319 -    var ATTACHMENT_SERVER_URL = 'https://whispersystems-textsecure-attachments-staging.s3.amazonaws.com';
1320 +    var SERVER_URL = 'https://textsecure-service-ca.whispersystems.org:4433';
1321 +    var ATTACHMENT_SERVER_URL = 'https://whispersystems-textsecure-attachments.s3.amazonaws.com';
1322      var messageReceiver;
1323      window.getSocketStatus = function() {
1324          if (messageReceiver) {
1325 diff -ur ./js/expire.js userdata/Default/Extensions/bikioccmkafdpakkkcpdbppfkghcmihk/0.15.0_0/js/expire.js
1326 --- ./js/expire.js      2016-06-29 13:43:15.630344628 +0200
1327 +++ userdata/Default/Extensions/bikioccmkafdpakkkcpdbppfkghcmihk/0.15.0_0/js/expire.js2016-06-29 14:06:29.530300934 +0200
1328 @@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
1329  ;(function() {
1330      'use strict';
1331 -    var BUILD_EXPIRATION = 0;
1332 +    var BUILD_EXPIRATION = 1474492690000;
1333
1334      window.extension = window.extension || {};
1335
1336 EOF
1337 </pre>
1338
1339 <p>The first part is changing the servers, and the second is updating
1340 an expiration timestamp.  This timestamp need to be updated regularly.
1341 It is set 90 days in the future by the build process (Gruntfile.js).
1342 The value is seconds since 1970 times 1000, as far as I can tell.</p>
1343
1344 <p>Based on a tip and good help from the #nuug IRC channel, I wrote a
1345 script to launch Signal in Chromium.</p>
1346
1347 <pre>
1348 #!/bin/sh
1349 cd $(dirname $0)
1350 mkdir -p userdata
1351 exec chromium \
1352   --proxy-server="socks://localhost:9050" \
1353   --user-data-dir=`pwd`/userdata --load-and-launch-app=`pwd`
1354 </pre>
1355
1356 <p> The script start the app and configure Chromium to use the Tor
1357 SOCKS5 proxy to make sure those controlling the Signal servers (today
1358 Amazon and Whisper Systems) as well as those listening on the lines
1359 will have a harder time location my laptop based on the Signal
1360 connections if they use source IP address.</p>
1361
1362 <p>When the script starts, one need to follow the instructions under
1363 "Standalone Registration" in the CONTRIBUTING.md file in the git
1364 repository.  I right clicked on the Signal window to get up the
1365 Chromium debugging tool, visited the 'Console' tab and wrote
1366 'extension.install("standalone")' on the console prompt to get the
1367 registration form.  Then I entered by land line phone number and
1368 pressed 'Call'.  5 seconds later the phone rang and a robot voice
1369 repeated the verification code three times.  After entering the number
1370 into the verification code field in the form, I could start using
1371 Signal from my laptop.
1372
1373 <p>As far as I can tell, The Signal app will leak who is talking to
1374 whom and thus who know who to those controlling the central server,
1375 but such leakage is hard to avoid with a centrally controlled server
1376 setup.  It is something to keep in mind when using Signal - the
1377 content of your chats are harder to intercept, but the meta data
1378 exposing your contact network is available to people you do not know.
1379 So better than many options, but not great.  And sadly the usage is
1380 connected to my land line, thus allowing those controlling the server
1381 to associate it to my home and person.  I would prefer it if only
1382 those I knew could tell who I was on Signal.  There are options
1383 avoiding such information leakage, but most of my friends are not
1384 using them, so I am stuck with Signal for now.</p>
1385
1386       </div>
1387       <div class="tags">
1388
1389
1390         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>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance</a>.
1391
1392
1393       </div>
1394     </div>
1395     <div class="padding"></div>
1396
1397     <div class="entry">
1398       <div class="title">
1399         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_new__best__multimedia_player_in_Debian_.html">The new "best" multimedia player in Debian?</a>
1400       </div>
1401       <div class="date">
1402          6th June 2016
1403       </div>
1404       <div class="body">
1405         <p>When I set out a few weeks ago to figure out
1406 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/What_is_the_best_multimedia_player_in_Debian_.html">which
1407 multimedia player in Debian claimed to support most file formats /
1408 MIME types</a>, I was a bit surprised how varied the sets of MIME types
1409 the various players claimed support for.  The range was from 55 to 130
1410 MIME types.  I suspect most media formats are supported by all
1411 players, but this is not really reflected in the MimeTypes values in
1412 their desktop files.  There are probably also some bogus MIME types
1413 listed, but it is hard to identify which one this is.</p>
1414
1415 <p>Anyway, in the mean time I got in touch with upstream for some of
1416 the players suggesting to add more MIME types to their desktop files,
1417 and decided to spend some time myself improving the situation for my
1418 favorite media player VLC.  The fixes for VLC entered Debian unstable
1419 yesterday. The complete list of MIME types can be seen on the
1420 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/DebianMultimedia/PlayerSupport">Multimedia
1421 player MIME type support status</a> Debian wiki page.</p>
1422
1423 <p>The new "best" multimedia player in Debian?  It is VLC, followed by
1424 totem, parole, kplayer, gnome-mpv, mpv, smplayer, mplayer-gui and
1425 kmplayer.  I am sure some of the other players desktop files support
1426 several of the formats currently listed as working only with vlc,
1427 toten and parole.</p>
1428
1429 <p>A sad observation is that only 14 MIME types are listed as
1430 supported by all the tested multimedia players in Debian in their
1431 desktop files: audio/mpeg, audio/vnd.rn-realaudio, audio/x-mpegurl,
1432 audio/x-ms-wma, audio/x-scpls, audio/x-wav, video/mp4, video/mpeg,
1433 video/quicktime, video/vnd.rn-realvideo, video/x-matroska,
1434 video/x-ms-asf, video/x-ms-wmv and video/x-msvideo.  Personally I find
1435 it sad that video/ogg and video/webm is not supported by all the media
1436 players in Debian.  As far as I can tell, all of them can handle both
1437 formats.</p>
1438
1439       </div>
1440       <div class="tags">
1441
1442
1443         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>.
1444
1445
1446       </div>
1447     </div>
1448     <div class="padding"></div>
1449
1450     <div class="entry">
1451       <div class="title">
1452         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/A_program_should_be_able_to_open_its_own_files_on_Linux.html">A program should be able to open its own files on Linux</a>
1453       </div>
1454       <div class="date">
1455          5th June 2016
1456       </div>
1457       <div class="body">
1458         <p>Many years ago, when koffice was fresh and with few users, I
1459 decided to test its presentation tool when making the slides for a
1460 talk I was giving for NUUG on Japhar, a free Java virtual machine.  I
1461 wrote the first draft of the slides, saved the result and went to bed
1462 the day before I would give the talk.  The next day I took a plane to
1463 the location where the meeting should take place, and on the plane I
1464 started up koffice again to polish the talk a bit, only to discover
1465 that kpresenter refused to load its own data file.  I cursed a bit and
1466 started making the slides again from memory, to have something to
1467 present when I arrived.  I tested that the saved files could be
1468 loaded, and the day seemed to be rescued.  I continued to polish the
1469 slides until I suddenly discovered that the saved file could no longer
1470 be loaded into kpresenter.  In the end I had to rewrite the slides
1471 three times, condensing the content until the talk became shorter and
1472 shorter.  After the talk I was able to pinpoint the problem &ndash;
1473 kpresenter wrote inline images in a way itself could not understand.
1474 Eventually that bug was fixed and kpresenter ended up being a great
1475 program to make slides.  The point I'm trying to make is that we
1476 expect a program to be able to load its own data files, and it is
1477 embarrassing to its developers if it can't.</p>
1478
1479 <p>Did you ever experience a program failing to load its own data
1480 files from the desktop file browser?  It is not a uncommon problem.  A
1481 while back I discovered that the screencast recorder
1482 gtk-recordmydesktop would save an Ogg Theora video file the KDE file
1483 browser would refuse to open.  No video player claimed to understand
1484 such file.  I tracked down the cause being <tt>file --mime-type</tt>
1485 returning the application/ogg MIME type, which no video player I had
1486 installed listed as a MIME type they would understand.  I asked for
1487 <a href="http://bugs.gw.com/view.php?id=382">file to change its
1488 behavour</a> and use the MIME type video/ogg instead.  I also asked
1489 several video players to add video/ogg to their desktop files, to give
1490 the file browser an idea what to do about Ogg Theora files.  After a
1491 while, the desktop file browsers in Debian started to handle the
1492 output from gtk-recordmydesktop properly.</p>
1493
1494 <p>But history repeats itself.  A few days ago I tested the music
1495 system Rosegarden again, and I discovered that the KDE and xfce file
1496 browsers did not know what to do with the Rosegarden project files
1497 (*.rg).  I've reported <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/825993">the
1498 rosegarden problem to BTS</a> and a fix is commited to git and will be
1499 included in the next upload.  To increase the chance of me remembering
1500 how to fix the problem next time some program fail to load its files
1501 from the file browser, here are some notes on how to fix it.</p>
1502
1503 <p>The file browsers in Debian in general operates on MIME types.
1504 There are two sources for the MIME type of a given file.  The output from
1505 <tt>file --mime-type</tt> mentioned above, and the content of the
1506 shared MIME type registry (under /usr/share/mime/).  The file MIME
1507 type is mapped to programs supporting the MIME type, and this
1508 information is collected from
1509 <a href="https://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Specifications/desktop-entry-spec/">the
1510 desktop files</a> available in /usr/share/applications/.  If there is
1511 one desktop file claiming support for the MIME type of the file, it is
1512 activated when asking to open a given file.  If there are more, one
1513 can normally select which one to use by right-clicking on the file and
1514 selecting the wanted one using 'Open with' or similar.  In general
1515 this work well.  But it depend on each program picking a good MIME
1516 type (preferably
1517 <a href="http://www.iana.org/assignments/media-types/media-types.xhtml">a
1518 MIME type registered with IANA</a>), file and/or the shared MIME
1519 registry recognizing the file and the desktop file to list the MIME
1520 type in its list of supported MIME types.</p>
1521
1522 <p>The <tt>/usr/share/mime/packages/rosegarden.xml</tt> entry for
1523 <a href="http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Specifications/shared-mime-info-spec">the
1524 Shared MIME database</a> look like this:</p>
1525
1526 <p><blockquote><pre>
1527 &lt;?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?&gt;
1528 &lt;mime-info xmlns="http://www.freedesktop.org/standards/shared-mime-info"&gt;
1529   &lt;mime-type type="audio/x-rosegarden"&gt;
1530     &lt;sub-class-of type="application/x-gzip"/&gt;
1531     &lt;comment&gt;Rosegarden project file&lt;/comment&gt;
1532     &lt;glob pattern="*.rg"/&gt;
1533   &lt;/mime-type&gt;
1534 &lt;/mime-info&gt;
1535 </pre></blockquote></p>
1536
1537 <p>This states that audio/x-rosegarden is a kind of application/x-gzip
1538 (it is a gzipped XML file).  Note, it is much better to use an
1539 official MIME type registered with IANA than it is to make up ones own
1540 unofficial ones like the x-rosegarden type used by rosegarden.</p>
1541
1542 <p>The desktop file of the rosegarden program failed to list
1543 audio/x-rosegarden in its list of supported MIME types, causing the
1544 file browsers to have no idea what to do with *.rg files:</p>
1545
1546 <p><blockquote><pre>
1547 % grep Mime /usr/share/applications/rosegarden.desktop
1548 MimeType=audio/x-rosegarden-composition;audio/x-rosegarden-device;audio/x-rosegarden-project;audio/x-rosegarden-template;audio/midi;
1549 X-KDE-NativeMimeType=audio/x-rosegarden-composition
1550 %
1551 </pre></blockquote></p>
1552
1553 <p>The fix was to add "audio/x-rosegarden;" at the end of the
1554 MimeType= line.</p>
1555
1556 <p>If you run into a file which fail to open the correct program when
1557 selected from the file browser, please check out the output from
1558 <tt>file --mime-type</tt> for the file, ensure the file ending and
1559 MIME type is registered somewhere under /usr/share/mime/ and check
1560 that some desktop file under /usr/share/applications/ is claiming
1561 support for this MIME type.  If not, please report a bug to have it
1562 fixed. :)</p>
1563
1564       </div>
1565       <div class="tags">
1566
1567
1568         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>.
1569
1570
1571       </div>
1572     </div>
1573     <div class="padding"></div>
1574
1575     <div class="entry">
1576       <div class="title">
1577         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Isenkram_with_PackageKit_support___new_version_0_23_available_in_Debian_unstable.html">Isenkram with PackageKit support - new version 0.23 available in Debian unstable</a>
1578       </div>
1579       <div class="date">
1580         25th May 2016
1581       </div>
1582       <div class="body">
1583         <p><a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/isenkram">The isenkram
1584 system</a> is a user-focused solution in Debian for handling hardware
1585 related packages.  The idea is to have a database of mappings between
1586 hardware and packages, and pop up a dialog suggesting for the user to
1587 install the packages to use a given hardware dongle.  Some use cases
1588 are when you insert a Yubikey, it proposes to install the software
1589 needed to control it; when you insert a braille reader list it
1590 proposes to install the packages needed to send text to the reader;
1591 and when you insert a ColorHug screen calibrator it suggests to
1592 install the driver for it.  The system work well, and even have a few
1593 command line tools to install firmware packages and packages for the
1594 hardware already in the machine (as opposed to hotpluggable hardware).</p>
1595
1596 <p>The system was initially written using aptdaemon, because I found
1597 good documentation and example code on how to use it.  But aptdaemon
1598 is going away and is generally being replaced by
1599 <a href="http://www.freedesktop.org/software/PackageKit/">PackageKit</a>,
1600 so Isenkram needed a rewrite.  And today, thanks to the great patch
1601 from my college Sunil Mohan Adapa in the FreedomBox project, the
1602 rewrite finally took place.  I've just uploaded a new version of
1603 Isenkram into Debian Unstable with the patch included, and the default
1604 for the background daemon is now to use PackageKit.  To check it out,
1605 install the <tt>isenkram</tt> package and insert some hardware dongle
1606 and see if it is recognised.</p>
1607
1608 <p>If you want to know what kind of packages isenkram would propose for
1609 the machine it is running on, you can check out the isenkram-lookup
1610 program.  This is what it look like on a Thinkpad X230:</p>
1611
1612 <p><blockquote><pre>
1613 % isenkram-lookup
1614 bluez
1615 cheese
1616 fprintd
1617 fprintd-demo
1618 gkrellm-thinkbat
1619 hdapsd
1620 libpam-fprintd
1621 pidgin-blinklight
1622 thinkfan
1623 tleds
1624 tp-smapi-dkms
1625 tp-smapi-source
1626 tpb
1627 %p
1628 </pre></blockquote></p>
1629
1630 <p>The hardware mappings come from several places.  The preferred way
1631 is for packages to announce their hardware support using
1632 <a href="https://www.freedesktop.org/software/appstream/docs/">the
1633 cross distribution appstream system</a>.
1634 See
1635 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram/">previous
1636 blog posts about isenkram</a> to learn how to do that.</p>
1637
1638       </div>
1639       <div class="tags">
1640
1641
1642         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>.
1643
1644
1645       </div>
1646     </div>
1647     <div class="padding"></div>
1648
1649     <div class="entry">
1650       <div class="title">
1651         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Discharge_rate_estimate_in_new_battery_statistics_collector_for_Debian.html">Discharge rate estimate in new battery statistics collector for Debian</a>
1652       </div>
1653       <div class="date">
1654         23rd May 2016
1655       </div>
1656       <div class="body">
1657         <p>Yesterday I updated the
1658 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/battery-stats">battery-stats
1659 package in Debian</a> with a few patches sent to me by skilled and
1660 enterprising users.  There were some nice user and visible changes.
1661 First of all, both desktop menu entries now work.  A design flaw in
1662 one of the script made the history graph fail to show up (its PNG was
1663 dumped in ~/.xsession-errors) if no controlling TTY was available.
1664 The script worked when called from the command line, but not when
1665 called from the desktop menu.  I changed this to look for a DISPLAY
1666 variable or a TTY before deciding where to draw the graph, and now the
1667 graph window pop up as expected.</p>
1668
1669 <p>The next new feature is a discharge rate estimator in one of the
1670 graphs (the one showing the last few hours).  New is also the user of
1671 colours showing charging in blue and discharge in red.  The percentages
1672 of this graph is relative to last full charge, not battery design
1673 capacity.</p>
1674
1675 <p align="center"><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2016-05-23-battery-stats-rate.png"/></p>
1676
1677 <p>The other graph show the entire history of the collected battery
1678 statistics, comparing it to the design capacity of the battery to
1679 visualise how the battery life time get shorter over time.  The red
1680 line in this graph is what the previous graph considers 100 percent:
1681
1682 <p align="center"><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2016-05-23-battery-stats-history.png"/></p>
1683
1684 <p>In this graph you can see that I only charge the battery to 80
1685 percent of last full capacity, and how the capacity of the battery is
1686 shrinking. :(</p>
1687
1688 <p>The last new feature is in the collector, which now will handle
1689 more hardware models.  On some hardware, Linux power supply
1690 information is stored in /sys/class/power_supply/ACAD/, while the
1691 collector previously only looked in /sys/class/power_supply/AC/.  Now
1692 both are checked to figure if there is power connected to the
1693 machine.</p>
1694
1695 <p>If you are interested in how your laptop battery is doing, please
1696 check out the
1697 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/battery-stats">battery-stats</a>
1698 in Debian unstable, or rebuild it on Jessie to get it working on
1699 Debian stable. :) The upstream source is available from <a
1700 href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/battery-stats">github</a>.
1701 Patches are very welcome.</p>
1702
1703 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
1704 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
1705 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
1706
1707       </div>
1708       <div class="tags">
1709
1710
1711         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>.
1712
1713
1714       </div>
1715     </div>
1716     <div class="padding"></div>
1717
1718     <div class="entry">
1719       <div class="title">
1720         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_now_with_ZFS_on_Linux_included.html">Debian now with ZFS on Linux included</a>
1721       </div>
1722       <div class="date">
1723         12th May 2016
1724       </div>
1725       <div class="body">
1726         <p>Today, after many years of hard work from many people,
1727 <a href="http://zfsonlinux.org/">ZFS for Linux</a> finally entered
1728 Debian.  The package status can be seen on
1729 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/zfs-linux">the package tracker
1730 for zfs-linux</a>.  and
1731 <a href="https://qa.debian.org/developer.php?login=pkg-zfsonlinux-devel@lists.alioth.debian.org">the
1732 team status page</a>. If you want to help out, please join us.
1733 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/gitweb/?p=pkg-zfsonlinux/zfs.git">The
1734 source code</a> is available via git on Alioth.  It would also be
1735 great if you could help out with
1736 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/dkms">the dkms package</a>, as
1737 it is an important piece of the puzzle to get ZFS working.</p>
1738
1739       </div>
1740       <div class="tags">
1741
1742
1743         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>.
1744
1745
1746       </div>
1747     </div>
1748     <div class="padding"></div>
1749
1750     <div class="entry">
1751       <div class="title">
1752         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/What_is_the_best_multimedia_player_in_Debian_.html">What is the best multimedia player in Debian?</a>
1753       </div>
1754       <div class="date">
1755          8th May 2016
1756       </div>
1757       <div class="body">
1758         <p><strong>Where I set out to figure out which multimedia player in
1759 Debian claim support for most file formats.</strong></p>
1760
1761 <p>A few years ago, I had a look at the media support for Browser
1762 plugins in Debian, to get an idea which plugins to include in Debian
1763 Edu.  I created a script to extract the set of supported MIME types
1764 for each plugin, and used this to find out which multimedia browser
1765 plugin supported most file formats / media types.
1766 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/BrowserMultimedia">The
1767 result</a> can still be seen on the Debian wiki, even though it have
1768 not been updated for a while.  But browser plugins are less relevant
1769 these days, so I thought it was time to look at standalone
1770 players.</p>
1771
1772 <p>A few days ago I was tired of VLC not being listed as a viable
1773 player when I wanted to play videos from the Norwegian National
1774 Broadcasting Company, and decided to investigate why.  The cause is a
1775 <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/822245">missing MIME type in the VLC
1776 desktop file</a>.  In the process I wrote a script to compare the set
1777 of MIME types announced in the desktop file and the browser plugin,
1778 only to discover that there is quite a large difference between the
1779 two for VLC.  This discovery made me dig up the script I used to
1780 compare browser plugins, and adjust it to compare desktop files
1781 instead, to try to figure out which multimedia player in Debian
1782 support most file formats.</p>
1783
1784 <p>The result can be seen on the Debian Wiki, as
1785 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/DebianMultimedia/PlayerSupport">a
1786 table listing all MIME types supported by one of the packages included
1787 in the table</a>, with the package supporting most MIME types being
1788 listed first in the table.</p>
1789
1790 </p>The best multimedia player in Debian?  It is totem, followed by
1791 parole, kplayer, mpv, vlc, smplayer mplayer-gui gnome-mpv and
1792 kmplayer.  Time for the other players to update their announced MIME
1793 support?</p>
1794
1795       </div>
1796       <div class="tags">
1797
1798
1799         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>.
1800
1801
1802       </div>
1803     </div>
1804     <div class="padding"></div>
1805
1806     <div class="entry">
1807       <div class="title">
1808         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_Pyra___handheld_computer_with_Debian_preinstalled.html">The Pyra - handheld computer with Debian preinstalled</a>
1809       </div>
1810       <div class="date">
1811          4th May 2016
1812       </div>
1813       <div class="body">
1814         A friend of mine made me aware of
1815 <a href="https://pyra-handheld.com/boards/pages/pyra/">The Pyra</a>, a
1816 handheld computer which will be delivered with Debian preinstalled.  I
1817 would love to get one of those for my birthday. :)</p>
1818
1819 <p>The machine is a complete ARM-based PC with micro HDMI, SATA, USB
1820 plugs and many others connectors, and include a full keyboard and a 5"
1821 LCD touch screen.  The 6000mAh battery is claimed to provide a whole
1822 day of battery life time, but I have not seen any independent tests
1823 confirming this.  The vendor is still collecting preorders, and the
1824 last I heard last night was that 22 more orders were needed before
1825 production started.</p>
1826
1827 <p>As far as I know, this is the first handheld preinstalled with
1828 Debian.  Please let me know if you know of any others.  Is it the
1829 first computer being sold with Debian preinstalled?</p>
1830
1831       </div>
1832       <div class="tags">
1833
1834
1835         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>.
1836
1837
1838       </div>
1839     </div>
1840     <div class="padding"></div>
1841
1842     <div class="entry">
1843       <div class="title">
1844         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lets_make_a_Norwegian_Bokm_l_edition_of_The_Debian_Administrator_s_Handbook.html">Lets make a Norwegian Bokmål edition of The Debian Administrator's Handbook</a>
1845       </div>
1846       <div class="date">
1847         10th April 2016
1848       </div>
1849       <div class="body">
1850         <p>During this weekends
1851 <a href="http://www.nuug.no/news/Oslo__Takk_for_feilfiksingsfesten.shtml">bug
1852 squashing party and developer gathering</a>, we decided to do our part
1853 to make sure there are good books about Debian available in Norwegian
1854 Bokmål, and got in touch with the people behind the
1855 <a href="http://debian-handbook.info/">Debian Administrator's Handbook
1856 project</a> to get started.  If you want to help out, please start
1857 contributing using
1858 <a href="https://hosted.weblate.org/projects/debian-handbook/">the
1859 hosted weblate project page</a>, and get in touch using
1860 <a href="http://lists.alioth.debian.org/mailman/listinfo/debian-handbook-translators">the
1861 translators mailing list</a>.  Please also check out
1862 <a href="https://debian-handbook.info/contribute/">the instructions for
1863 contributors</a>.</p>
1864
1865 <p>The book is already available on paper in English, French and
1866 Japanese, and our goal is to get it available on paper in Norwegian
1867 Bokmål too.  In addition to the paper edition, there are also EPUB and
1868 Mobi versions available.  And there are incomplete translations
1869 available for many more languages.</p>
1870
1871       </div>
1872       <div class="tags">
1873
1874
1875         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>.
1876
1877
1878       </div>
1879     </div>
1880     <div class="padding"></div>
1881
1882     <div class="entry">
1883       <div class="title">
1884         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/One_in_two_hundred_Debian_users_using_ZFS_on_Linux_.html">One in two hundred Debian users using ZFS on Linux?</a>
1885       </div>
1886       <div class="date">
1887          7th April 2016
1888       </div>
1889       <div class="body">
1890         <p>Just for fun I had a look at the popcon number of ZFS related
1891 packages in Debian, and was quite surprised with what I found.  I use
1892 ZFS myself at home, but did not really expect many others to do so.
1893 But I might be wrong.</p>
1894
1895 <p>According to
1896 <a href="https://qa.debian.org/popcon.php?package=spl-linux">the popcon
1897 results for spl-linux</a>, there are 1019 Debian installations, or
1898 0.53% of the population, with the package installed.  As far as I know
1899 the only use of the spl-linux package is as a support library for ZFS
1900 on Linux, so I use it here as proxy for measuring the number of ZFS
1901 installation on Linux in Debian.  In the kFreeBSD variant of Debian
1902 the ZFS feature is already available, and there
1903 <a href="https://qa.debian.org/popcon.php?package=zfsutils">the popcon
1904 results for zfsutils</a> show 1625 Debian installations or 0.84% of
1905 the population.  So I guess I am not alone in using ZFS on Debian.</p>
1906
1907 <p>But even though the Debian project leader Lucas Nussbaum
1908 <a href="https://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce/2015/04/msg00006.html">announced
1909 in April 2015</a> that the legal obstacles blocking ZFS on Debian were
1910 cleared, the package is still not in Debian.  The package is again in
1911 the NEW queue.  Several uploads have been rejected so far because the
1912 debian/copyright file was incomplete or wrong, but there is no reason
1913 to give up.  The current status can be seen on
1914 <a href="https://qa.debian.org/developer.php?login=pkg-zfsonlinux-devel@lists.alioth.debian.org">the
1915 team status page</a>, and
1916 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/gitweb/?p=pkg-zfsonlinux/zfs.git">the
1917 source code</a> is available on Alioth.</p>
1918
1919 <p>As I want ZFS to be included in next version of Debian to make sure
1920 my home server can function in the future using only official Debian
1921 packages, and the current blocker is to get the debian/copyright file
1922 accepted by the FTP masters in Debian, I decided a while back to try
1923 to help out the team.  This was the background for my blog post about
1924 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Creating__updating_and_checking_debian_copyright_semi_automatically.html">creating,
1925 updating and checking debian/copyright semi-automatically</a>, and I
1926 used the techniques I explored there to try to find any errors in the
1927 copyright file.  It is not very easy to check every one of the around
1928 2000 files in the source package, but I hope we this time got it
1929 right.  If you want to help out, check out the git source and try to
1930 find missing entries in the debian/copyright file.</p>
1931
1932       </div>
1933       <div class="tags">
1934
1935
1936         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>.
1937
1938
1939       </div>
1940     </div>
1941     <div class="padding"></div>
1942
1943     <div class="entry">
1944       <div class="title">
1945         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Full_battery_stats_collector_is_now_available_in_Debian.html">Full battery stats collector is now available in Debian</a>
1946       </div>
1947       <div class="date">
1948         23rd March 2016
1949       </div>
1950       <div class="body">
1951         <p>Since this morning, the battery-stats package in Debian include an
1952 extended collector that will collect the complete battery history for
1953 later processing and graphing.  The original collector store the
1954 battery level as percentage of last full level, while the new
1955 collector also record battery vendor, model, serial number, design
1956 full level, last full level and current battery level.  This make it
1957 possible to predict the lifetime of the battery as well as visualise
1958 the energy flow when the battery is charging or discharging.</p>
1959
1960 <p>The new tools are available in <tt>/usr/share/battery-stats/</tt>
1961 in the version 0.5.1 package in unstable.  Get the new battery level graph
1962 and lifetime prediction by running:
1963
1964 <p><pre>
1965 /usr/share/battery-stats/battery-stats-graph /var/log/battery-stats.csv
1966 </pre></p>
1967
1968 <p>Or select the 'Battery Level Graph' from your application menu.</p>
1969
1970 <p>The flow in/out of the battery can be seen by running (no menu
1971 entry yet):</p>
1972
1973 <p><pre>
1974 /usr/share/battery-stats/battery-stats-graph-flow
1975 </pre></p>
1976
1977 <p>I'm not quite happy with the way the data is visualised, at least
1978 when there are few data points.  The graphs look a bit better with a
1979 few years of data.</p>
1980
1981 <p>A while back one important feature I use in the battery stats
1982 collector broke in Debian.  The scripts in
1983 <tt>/usr/lib/pm-utils/power.d/</tt> were no longer executed.  I
1984 suspect it happened when Jessie started using systemd, but I do not
1985 know.  The issue is reported as
1986 <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/818649">bug #818649</a> against
1987 pm-utils.  I managed to work around it by adding an udev rule to call
1988 the collector script every time the power connector is connected and
1989 disconnected.  With this fix in place it was finally time to make a
1990 new release of the package, and get it into Debian.</p>
1991
1992 <p>If you are interested in how your laptop battery is doing, please
1993 check out the
1994 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/battery-stats">battery-stats</a>
1995 in Debian unstable, or rebuild it on Jessie to get it working on
1996 Debian stable. :) The upstream source is available from
1997 <a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/battery-stats">github</a>.
1998 As always, patches are very welcome.</p>
1999
2000       </div>
2001       <div class="tags">
2002
2003
2004         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>.
2005
2006
2007       </div>
2008     </div>
2009     <div class="padding"></div>
2010
2011     <div class="entry">
2012       <div class="title">
2013         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Making_battery_measurements_a_little_easier_in_Debian.html">Making battery measurements a little easier in Debian</a>
2014       </div>
2015       <div class="date">
2016         15th March 2016
2017       </div>
2018       <div class="body">
2019         <p>Back in September, I blogged about
2020 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_life_and_death_of_a_laptop_battery.html">the
2021 system I wrote to collect statistics about my laptop battery</a>, and
2022 how it showed the decay and death of this battery (now replaced).  I
2023 created a simple deb package to handle the collection and graphing,
2024 but did not want to upload it to Debian as there were already
2025 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/battery-stats">a battery-stats
2026 package in Debian</a> that should do the same thing, and I did not see
2027 a point of uploading a competing package when battery-stats could be
2028 fixed instead.  I reported a few bugs about its non-function, and
2029 hoped someone would step in and fix it.  But no-one did.</p>
2030
2031 <p>I got tired of waiting a few days ago, and took matters in my own
2032 hands.  The end result is that I am now the new upstream developer of
2033 battery stats (<a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/battery-stats">available from github</a>) and part of the team maintaining
2034 battery-stats in Debian, and the package in Debian unstable is finally
2035 able to collect battery status using the <tt>/sys/class/power_supply/</tt>
2036 information provided by the Linux kernel.  If you install the
2037 battery-stats package from unstable now, you will be able to get a
2038 graph of the current battery fill level, to get some idea about the
2039 status of the battery.  The source package build and work just fine in
2040 Debian testing and stable (and probably oldstable too, but I have not
2041 tested).  The default graph you get for that system look like this:</p>
2042
2043 <p align="center"><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2016-03-15-battery-stats-graph-example.png" width="70%" align="center"></p>
2044
2045 <p>My plans for the future is to merge my old scripts into the
2046 battery-stats package, as my old scripts collected a lot more details
2047 about the battery.  The scripts are merged into the upstream
2048 battery-stats git repository already, but I am not convinced they work
2049 yet, as I changed a lot of paths along the way.  Will have to test a
2050 bit more before I make a new release.</p>
2051
2052 <p>I will also consider changing the file format slightly, as I
2053 suspect the way I combine several values into one field might make it
2054 impossible to know the type of the value when using it for processing
2055 and graphing.</p>
2056
2057 <p>If you would like I would like to keep an close eye on your laptop
2058 battery, check out the battery-stats package in
2059 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/battery-stats">Debian</a> and
2060 on
2061 <a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/battery-stats">github</a>.
2062 I would love some help to improve the system further.</p>
2063
2064       </div>
2065       <div class="tags">
2066
2067
2068         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>.
2069
2070
2071       </div>
2072     </div>
2073     <div class="padding"></div>
2074
2075     <div class="entry">
2076       <div class="title">
2077         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Creating__updating_and_checking_debian_copyright_semi_automatically.html">Creating, updating and checking debian/copyright semi-automatically</a>
2078       </div>
2079       <div class="date">
2080         19th February 2016
2081       </div>
2082       <div class="body">
2083         <p>Making packages for Debian requires quite a lot of attention to
2084 details.  And one of the details is the content of the
2085 debian/copyright file, which should list all relevant licenses used by
2086 the code in the package in question, preferably in
2087 <a href="https://www.debian.org/doc/packaging-manuals/copyright-format/1.0/">machine
2088 readable DEP5 format</a>.</p>
2089
2090 <p>For large packages with lots of contributors it is hard to write
2091 and update this file manually, and if you get some detail wrong, the
2092 package is normally rejected by the ftpmasters.  So getting it right
2093 the first time around get the package into Debian faster, and save
2094 both you and the ftpmasters some work..  Today, while trying to figure
2095 out what was wrong with
2096 <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=686447">the
2097 zfsonlinux copyright file</a>, I decided to spend some time on
2098 figuring out the options for doing this job automatically, or at least
2099 semi-automatically.</p>
2100
2101 <p>Lucikly, there are at least two tools available for generating the
2102 file based on the code in the source package,
2103 <tt><a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/debmake">debmake</a></tt>
2104 and <tt><a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/cme">cme</a></tt>.  I'm
2105 not sure which one of them came first, but both seem to be able to
2106 create a sensible draft file.  As far as I can tell, none of them can
2107 be trusted to get the result just right, so the content need to be
2108 polished a bit before the file is OK to upload.  I found the debmake
2109 option in
2110 <a href="http://goofying-with-debian.blogspot.com/2014/07/debmake-checking-source-against-dep-5.html">a
2111 blog posts from 2014</a>.
2112
2113 <p>To generate using debmake, use the -cc option:
2114
2115 <p><pre>
2116 debmake -cc > debian/copyright
2117 </pre></p>
2118
2119 <p>Note there are some problems with python and non-ASCII names, so
2120 this might not be the best option.</p>
2121
2122 <p>The cme option is based on a config parsing library, and I found
2123 this approach in
2124 <a href="https://ddumont.wordpress.com/2015/04/05/improving-creation-of-debian-copyright-file/">a
2125 blog post from 2015</a>.  To generate using cme, use the 'update
2126 dpkg-copyright' option:
2127
2128 <p><pre>
2129 cme update dpkg-copyright
2130 </pre></p>
2131
2132 <p>This will create or update debian/copyright.  The cme tool seem to
2133 handle UTF-8 names better than debmake.</p>
2134
2135 <p>When the copyright file is created, I would also like some help to
2136 check if the file is correct.  For this I found two good options,
2137 <tt>debmake -k</tt> and <tt>license-reconcile</tt>.  The former seem
2138 to focus on license types and file matching, and is able to detect
2139 ineffective blocks in the copyright file.  The latter reports missing
2140 copyright holders and years, but was confused by inconsistent license
2141 names (like CDDL vs. CDDL-1.0).  I suspect it is good to use both and
2142 fix all issues reported by them before uploading.  But I do not know
2143 if the tools and the ftpmasters agree on what is important to fix in a
2144 copyright file, so the package might still be rejected.</p>
2145
2146 <p>The devscripts tool <tt>licensecheck</tt> deserve mentioning.  It
2147 will read through the source and try to find all copyright statements.
2148 It is not comparing the result to the content of debian/copyright, but
2149 can be useful when verifying the content of the copyright file.</p>
2150
2151 <p>Are you aware of better tools in Debian to create and update
2152 debian/copyright file.  Please let me know, or blog about it on
2153 planet.debian.org.</p>
2154
2155 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
2156 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
2157 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
2158
2159 <p><strong>Update 2016-02-20</strong>: I got a tip from Mike Gabriel
2160 on how to use licensecheck and cdbs to create a draft copyright file
2161
2162 <p><pre>
2163 licensecheck --copyright -r `find * -type f` | \
2164   /usr/lib/cdbs/licensecheck2dep5 > debian/copyright.auto
2165 </pre></p>
2166
2167 <p>He mentioned that he normally check the generated file into the
2168 version control system to make it easier to discover license and
2169 copyright changes in the upstream source.  I will try to do the same
2170 with my packages in the future.</p>
2171
2172 <p><strong>Update 2016-02-21</strong>: The cme author recommended
2173 against using -quiet for new users, so I removed it from the proposed
2174 command line.</p>
2175
2176       </div>
2177       <div class="tags">
2178
2179
2180         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>.
2181
2182
2183       </div>
2184     </div>
2185     <div class="padding"></div>
2186
2187     <div class="entry">
2188       <div class="title">
2189         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Using_appstream_in_Debian_to_locate_packages_with_firmware_and_mime_type_support.html">Using appstream in Debian to locate packages with firmware and mime type support</a>
2190       </div>
2191       <div class="date">
2192          4th February 2016
2193       </div>
2194       <div class="body">
2195         <p>The <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/DEP-11">appstream system</a>
2196 is taking shape in Debian, and one provided feature is a very
2197 convenient way to tell you which package to install to make a given
2198 firmware file available when the kernel is looking for it.  This can
2199 be done using apt-file too, but that is for someone else to blog
2200 about. :)</p>
2201
2202 <p>Here is a small recipe to find the package with a given firmware
2203 file, in this example I am looking for ctfw-3.2.3.0.bin, randomly
2204 picked from the set of firmware announced using appstream in Debian
2205 unstable.  In general you would be looking for the firmware requested
2206 by the kernel during kernel module loading.  To find the package
2207 providing the example file, do like this:</p>
2208
2209 <blockquote><pre>
2210 % apt install appstream
2211 [...]
2212 % apt update
2213 [...]
2214 % appstreamcli what-provides firmware:runtime ctfw-3.2.3.0.bin | \
2215   awk '/Package:/ {print $2}'
2216 firmware-qlogic
2217 %
2218 </pre></blockquote>
2219
2220 <p>See <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/AppStream/Guidelines">the
2221 appstream wiki</a> page to learn how to embed the package metadata in
2222 a way appstream can use.</p>
2223
2224 <p>This same approach can be used to find any package supporting a
2225 given MIME type.  This is very useful when you get a file you do not
2226 know how to handle.  First find the mime type using <tt>file
2227 --mime-type</tt>, and next look up the package providing support for
2228 it.  Lets say you got an SVG file.  Its MIME type is image/svg+xml,
2229 and you can find all packages handling this type like this:</p>
2230
2231 <blockquote><pre>
2232 % apt install appstream
2233 [...]
2234 % apt update
2235 [...]
2236 % appstreamcli what-provides mimetype image/svg+xml | \
2237   awk '/Package:/ {print $2}'
2238 bkchem
2239 phototonic
2240 inkscape
2241 shutter
2242 tetzle
2243 geeqie
2244 xia
2245 pinta
2246 gthumb
2247 karbon
2248 comix
2249 mirage
2250 viewnior
2251 postr
2252 ristretto
2253 kolourpaint4
2254 eog
2255 eom
2256 gimagereader
2257 midori
2258 %
2259 </pre></blockquote>
2260
2261 <p>I believe the MIME types are fetched from the desktop file for
2262 packages providing appstream metadata.</p>
2263
2264       </div>
2265       <div class="tags">
2266
2267
2268         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>.
2269
2270
2271       </div>
2272     </div>
2273     <div class="padding"></div>
2274
2275     <div class="entry">
2276       <div class="title">
2277         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Creepy__visualise_geotagged_social_media_information___nice_free_software.html">Creepy, visualise geotagged social media information - nice free software</a>
2278       </div>
2279       <div class="date">
2280         24th January 2016
2281       </div>
2282       <div class="body">
2283         <p>Most people seem not to realise that every time they walk around
2284 with the computerised radio beacon known as a mobile phone their
2285 position is tracked by the phone company and often stored for a long
2286 time (like every time a SMS is received or sent).  And if their
2287 computerised radio beacon is capable of running programs (often called
2288 mobile apps) downloaded from the Internet, these programs are often
2289 also capable of tracking their location (if the app requested access
2290 during installation).  And when these programs send out information to
2291 central collection points, the location is often included, unless
2292 extra care is taken to not send the location.  The provided
2293 information is used by several entities, for good and bad (what is
2294 good and bad, depend on your point of view).  What is certain, is that
2295 the private sphere and the right to free movement is challenged and
2296 perhaps even eradicated for those announcing their location this way,
2297 when they share their whereabouts with private and public
2298 entities.</p>
2299
2300 <p align="center"><img width="70%" src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2016-01-24-nice-creepy-desktop-window.png"></p>
2301
2302 <p>The phone company logs provide a register of locations to check out
2303 when one want to figure out what the tracked person was doing.  It is
2304 unavailable for most of us, but provided to selected government
2305 officials, company staff, those illegally buying information from
2306 unfaithful servants and crackers stealing the information.  But the
2307 public information can be collected and analysed, and a free software
2308 tool to do so is called
2309 <a href="http://www.geocreepy.com/">Creepy or Cree.py</a>.  I
2310 discovered it when I read
2311 <a href="http://www.aftenposten.no/kultur/Slik-kan-du-bli-overvaket-pa-Twitter-og-Instagram-uten-a-ane-det-7787884.html">an
2312 article about Creepy</a> in the Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten i
2313 November 2014, and decided to check if it was available in Debian.
2314 The python program was in Debian, but
2315 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/creepy">the version in
2316 Debian</a> was completely broken and practically unmaintained.  I
2317 uploaded a new version which did not work quite right, but did not
2318 have time to fix it then.  This Christmas I decided to finally try to
2319 get Creepy operational in Debian.  Now a fixed version is available in
2320 Debian unstable and testing, and almost all Debian specific patches
2321 are now included
2322 <a href="https://github.com/jkakavas/creepy">upstream</a>.</p>
2323
2324 <p>The Creepy program visualises geolocation information fetched from
2325 Twitter, Instagram, Flickr and Google+, and allow one to get a
2326 complete picture of every social media message posted recently in a
2327 given area, or track the movement of a given individual across all
2328 these services.  Earlier it was possible to use the search API of at
2329 least some of these services without identifying oneself, but these
2330 days it is impossible.  This mean that to use Creepy, you need to
2331 configure it to log in as yourself on these services, and provide
2332 information to them about your search interests.  This should be taken
2333 into account when using Creepy, as it will also share information
2334 about yourself with the services.</p>
2335
2336 <p>The picture above show the twitter messages sent from (or at least
2337 geotagged with a position from) the city centre of Oslo, the capital
2338 of Norway.  One useful way to use Creepy is to first look at
2339 information tagged with an area of interest, and next look at all the
2340 information provided by one or more individuals who was in the area.
2341 I tested it by checking out which celebrity provide their location in
2342 twitter messages by checkout out who sent twitter messages near a
2343 Norwegian TV station, and next could track their position over time,
2344 making it possible to locate their home and work place, among other
2345 things.  A similar technique have been
2346 <a href="http://www.buzzfeed.com/maxseddon/does-this-soldiers-instagram-account-prove-russia-is-covertl">used
2347 to locate Russian soldiers in Ukraine</a>, and it is both a powerful
2348 tool to discover lying governments, and a useful tool to help people
2349 understand the value of the private information they provide to the
2350 public.</p>
2351
2352 <p>The package is not trivial to backport to Debian Stable/Jessie, as
2353 it depend on several python modules currently missing in Jessie (at
2354 least python-instagram, python-flickrapi and
2355 python-requests-toolbelt).</p>
2356
2357 <p>(I have uploaded
2358 <a href="https://screenshots.debian.net/package/creepy">the image to
2359 screenshots.debian.net</a> and licensed it under the same terms as the
2360 Creepy program in Debian.)</p>
2361
2362       </div>
2363       <div class="tags">
2364
2365
2366         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nice free software">nice free software</a>.
2367
2368
2369       </div>
2370     </div>
2371     <div class="padding"></div>
2372
2373     <div class="entry">
2374       <div class="title">
2375         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Always_download_Debian_packages_using_Tor___the_simple_recipe.html">Always download Debian packages using Tor - the simple recipe</a>
2376       </div>
2377       <div class="date">
2378         15th January 2016
2379       </div>
2380       <div class="body">
2381         <p>During his DebConf15 keynote, Jacob Appelbaum
2382 <a href="https://summit.debconf.org/debconf15/meeting/331/what-is-to-be-done/">observed
2383 that those listening on the Internet lines would have good reason to
2384 believe a computer have a given security hole</a> if it download a
2385 security fix from a Debian mirror.  This is a good reason to always
2386 use encrypted connections to the Debian mirror, to make sure those
2387 listening do not know which IP address to attack.  In August, Richard
2388 Hartmann observed that encryption was not enough, when it was possible
2389 to interfere download size to security patches or the fact that
2390 download took place shortly after a security fix was released, and
2391 <a href="http://richardhartmann.de/blog/posts/2015/08/24-Tor-enabled_Debian_mirror/">proposed
2392 to always use Tor to download packages from the Debian mirror</a>.  He
2393 was not the first to propose this, as the
2394 <tt><a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/apt-transport-tor">apt-transport-tor</a></tt>
2395 package by Tim Retout already existed to make it easy to convince apt
2396 to use <a href="https://www.torproject.org/">Tor</a>, but I was not
2397 aware of that package when I read the blog post from Richard.</p>
2398
2399 <p>Richard discussed the idea with Peter Palfrader, one of the Debian
2400 sysadmins, and he set up a Tor hidden service on one of the central
2401 Debian mirrors using the address vwakviie2ienjx6t.onion, thus making
2402 it possible to download packages directly between two tor nodes,
2403 making sure the network traffic always were encrypted.</p>
2404
2405 <p>Here is a short recipe for enabling this on your machine, by
2406 installing <tt>apt-transport-tor</tt> and replacing http and https
2407 urls with tor+http and tor+https, and using the hidden service instead
2408 of the official Debian mirror site.  I recommend installing
2409 <tt>etckeeper</tt> before you start to have a history of the changes
2410 done in /etc/.</p>
2411
2412 <blockquote><pre>
2413 apt install apt-transport-tor
2414 sed -i 's% http://ftp.debian.org/% tor+http://vwakviie2ienjx6t.onion/%' /etc/apt/sources.list
2415 sed -i 's% http% tor+http%' /etc/apt/sources.list
2416 </pre></blockquote>
2417
2418 <p>If you have more sources listed in /etc/apt/sources.list.d/, run
2419 the sed commands for these too.  The sed command is assuming your are
2420 using the ftp.debian.org Debian mirror.  Adjust the command (or just
2421 edit the file manually) to match your mirror.</p>
2422
2423 <p>This work in Debian Jessie and later.  Note that tools like
2424 <tt>apt-file</tt> only recently started using the apt transport
2425 system, and do not work with these tor+http URLs.  For
2426 <tt>apt-file</tt> you need the version currently in experimental,
2427 which need a recent apt version currently only in unstable.  So if you
2428 need a working <tt>apt-file</tt>, this is not for you.</p>
2429
2430 <p>Another advantage from this change is that your machine will start
2431 using Tor regularly and at fairly random intervals (every time you
2432 update the package lists or upgrade or install a new package), thus
2433 masking other Tor traffic done from the same machine.  Using Tor will
2434 become normal for the machine in question.</p>
2435
2436 <p>On <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/FreedomBox">Freedombox</a>, APT
2437 is set up by default to use <tt>apt-transport-tor</tt> when Tor is
2438 enabled.  It would be great if it was the default on any Debian
2439 system.</p>
2440
2441       </div>
2442       <div class="tags">
2443
2444
2445         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>.
2446
2447
2448       </div>
2449     </div>
2450     <div class="padding"></div>
2451
2452     <div class="entry">
2453       <div class="title">
2454         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/OpenALPR__find_car_license_plates_in_video_streams___nice_free_software.html">OpenALPR, find car license plates in video streams - nice free software</a>
2455       </div>
2456       <div class="date">
2457         23rd December 2015
2458       </div>
2459       <div class="body">
2460         <p>When I was a kid, we used to collect "car numbers", as we used to
2461 call the car license plate numbers in those days.  I would write the
2462 numbers down in my little book and compare notes with the other kids
2463 to see how many region codes we had seen and if we had seen some
2464 exotic or special region codes and numbers.  It was a fun game to pass
2465 time, as we kids have plenty of it.</p>
2466
2467 <p>A few days I came across
2468 <a href="https://github.com/openalpr/openalpr">the OpenALPR
2469 project</a>, a free software project to automatically discover and
2470 report license plates in images and video streams, and provide the
2471 "car numbers" in a machine readable format.  I've been looking for
2472 such system for a while now, because I believe it is a bad idea that the
2473 <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automatic_number_plate_recognition">automatic
2474 number plate recognition</a> tool only is available in the hands of
2475 the powerful, and want it to be available also for the powerless to
2476 even the score when it comes to surveillance and sousveillance.  I
2477 discovered the developer
2478 <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/747509">wanted to get the tool into
2479 Debian</a>, and as I too wanted it to be in Debian, I volunteered to
2480 help him get it into shape to get the package uploaded into the Debian
2481 archive.</p>
2482
2483 <p>Today we finally managed to get the package into shape and uploaded
2484 it into Debian, where it currently
2485 <a href="https://ftp-master.debian.org//new/openalpr_2.2.1-1.html">waits
2486 in the NEW queue</a> for review by the Debian ftpmasters.</p>
2487
2488 <p>I guess you are wondering why on earth such tool would be useful
2489 for the common folks, ie those not running a large government
2490 surveillance system?  Well, I plan to put it in a computer on my bike
2491 and in my car, tracking the cars nearby and allowing me to be notified
2492 when number plates on my watch list are discovered.  Another use case
2493 was suggested by a friend of mine, who wanted to set it up at his home
2494 to open the car port automatically when it discovered the plate on his
2495 car.  When I mentioned it perhaps was a bit foolhardy to allow anyone
2496 capable of placing his license plate number of a piece of cardboard to
2497 open his car port, men replied that it was always unlocked anyway.  I
2498 guess for such use case it make sense.  I am sure there are other use
2499 cases too, for those with imagination and a vision.</p>
2500
2501 <p>If you want to build your own version of the Debian package, check
2502 out the upstream git source and symlink ./distros/debian to ./debian/
2503 before running "debuild" to build the source.  Or wait a bit until the
2504 package show up in unstable.</p>
2505
2506       </div>
2507       <div class="tags">
2508
2509
2510         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nice free software">nice free software</a>.
2511
2512
2513       </div>
2514     </div>
2515     <div class="padding"></div>
2516
2517     <div class="entry">
2518       <div class="title">
2519         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Using_appstream_with_isenkram_to_install_hardware_related_packages_in_Debian.html">Using appstream with isenkram to install hardware related packages in Debian</a>
2520       </div>
2521       <div class="date">
2522         20th December 2015
2523       </div>
2524       <div class="body">
2525         <p>Around three years ago, I created
2526 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/isenkram">the isenkram
2527 system</a> to get a more practical solution in Debian for handing
2528 hardware related packages.  A GUI system in the isenkram package will
2529 present a pop-up dialog when some hardware dongle supported by
2530 relevant packages in Debian is inserted into the machine.  The same
2531 lookup mechanism to detect packages is available as command line
2532 tools in the isenkram-cli package.  In addition to mapping hardware,
2533 it will also map kernel firmware files to packages and make it easy to
2534 install needed firmware packages automatically.  The key for this
2535 system to work is a good way to map hardware to packages, in other
2536 words, allow packages to announce what hardware they will work
2537 with.</p>
2538
2539 <p>I started by providing data files in the isenkram source, and
2540 adding code to download the latest version of these data files at run
2541 time, to ensure every user had the most up to date mapping available.
2542 I also added support for storing the mapping in the Packages file in
2543 the apt repositories, but did not push this approach because while I
2544 was trying to figure out how to best store hardware/package mappings,
2545 <a href="http://www.freedesktop.org/software/appstream/docs/">the
2546 appstream system</a> was announced.  I got in touch and suggested to
2547 add the hardware mapping into that data set to be able to use
2548 appstream as a data source, and this was accepted at least for the
2549 Debian version of appstream.</p>
2550
2551 <p>A few days ago using appstream in Debian for this became possible,
2552 and today I uploaded a new version 0.20 of isenkram adding support for
2553 appstream as a data source for mapping hardware to packages.  The only
2554 package so far using appstream to announce its hardware support is my
2555 pymissile package.  I got help from Matthias Klumpp with figuring out
2556 how do add the required
2557 <a href="https://appstream.debian.org/html/sid/main/metainfo/pymissile.html">metadata
2558 in pymissile</a>.  I added a file debian/pymissile.metainfo.xml with
2559 this content:</p>
2560
2561 <blockquote><pre>
2562 &lt;?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?&gt;
2563 &lt;component&gt;
2564   &lt;id&gt;pymissile&lt;/id&gt;
2565   &lt;metadata_license&gt;MIT&lt;/metadata_license&gt;
2566   &lt;name&gt;pymissile&lt;/name&gt;
2567   &lt;summary&gt;Control original Striker USB Missile Launcher&lt;/summary&gt;
2568   &lt;description&gt;
2569     &lt;p&gt;
2570       Pymissile provides a curses interface to control an original
2571       Marks and Spencer / Striker USB Missile Launcher, as well as a
2572       motion control script to allow a webcamera to control the
2573       launcher.
2574     &lt;/p&gt;
2575   &lt;/description&gt;
2576   &lt;provides&gt;
2577     &lt;modalias&gt;usb:v1130p0202d*&lt;/modalias&gt;
2578   &lt;/provides&gt;
2579 &lt;/component&gt;
2580 </pre></blockquote>
2581
2582 <p>The key for isenkram is the component/provides/modalias value,
2583 which is a glob style match rule for hardware specific strings
2584 (modalias strings) provided by the Linux kernel.  In this case, it
2585 will map to all USB devices with vendor code 1130 and product code
2586 0202.</p>
2587
2588 <p>Note, it is important that the license of all the metadata files
2589 are compatible to have permissions to aggregate them into archive wide
2590 appstream files.  Matthias suggested to use MIT or BSD licenses for
2591 these files.  A challenge is figuring out a good id for the data, as
2592 it is supposed to be globally unique and shared across distributions
2593 (in other words, best to coordinate with upstream what to use).  But
2594 it can be changed later or, so we went with the package name as
2595 upstream for this project is dormant.</p>
2596
2597 <p>To get the metadata file installed in the correct location for the
2598 mirror update scripts to pick it up and include its content the
2599 appstream data source, the file must be installed in the binary
2600 package under /usr/share/appdata/.  I did this by adding the following
2601 line to debian/pymissile.install:</p>
2602
2603 <blockquote><pre>
2604 debian/pymissile.metainfo.xml usr/share/appdata
2605 </pre></blockquote>
2606
2607 <p>With that in place, the command line tool isenkram-lookup will list
2608 all packages useful on the current computer automatically, and the GUI
2609 pop-up handler will propose to install the package not already
2610 installed if a hardware dongle is inserted into the machine in
2611 question.</p>
2612
2613 <p>Details of the modalias field in appstream is available from the
2614 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/DEP-11">DEP-11</a> proposal.</p>
2615
2616 <p>To locate the modalias values of all hardware present in a machine,
2617 try running this command on the command line:</p>
2618
2619 <blockquote><pre>
2620 cat $(find /sys/devices/|grep modalias)
2621 </pre></blockquote>
2622
2623 <p>To learn more about the isenkram system, please check out
2624 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram/">my
2625 blog posts tagged isenkram</a>.</p>
2626
2627       </div>
2628       <div class="tags">
2629
2630
2631         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>.
2632
2633
2634       </div>
2635     </div>
2636     <div class="padding"></div>
2637
2638     <div class="entry">
2639       <div class="title">
2640         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_GNU_General_Public_License_is_not_magic_pixie_dust.html">The GNU General Public License is not magic pixie dust</a>
2641       </div>
2642       <div class="date">
2643         30th November 2015
2644       </div>
2645       <div class="body">
2646         <p>A blog post from my fellow Debian developer Paul Wise titled
2647 "<a href="http://bonedaddy.net/pabs3/log/2015/11/27/sfc-supporter/">The
2648 GPL is not magic pixie dust</a>" explain the importance of making sure
2649 the <a href="http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html">GPL</a> is enforced.
2650 I quote the blog post from Paul in full here with his permission:<p>
2651
2652 <blockquote>
2653
2654 <p><a href="https://sfconservancy.org/supporter/"><img src="https://sfconservancy.org/img/supporter-badge.png" width="194" height="90" alt="Become a Software Freedom Conservancy Supporter!" align="right" border="0" /></a></p>
2655
2656 <blockquote>
2657 The GPL is not magic pixie dust. It does not work by itself.<br/>
2658
2659 The first step is to choose a
2660 <a href="https://copyleft.org/">copyleft</a> license for your
2661 code.<br/>
2662
2663 The next step is, when someone fails to follow that copyleft license,
2664 <b>it must be enforced</b><br/>
2665
2666 and its a simple fact of our modern society that such type of
2667 work<br/>
2668
2669 is incredibly expensive to do and incredibly difficult to do.
2670 </blockquote>
2671
2672 <p><small>-- <a href="http://ebb.org/bkuhn/">Bradley Kuhn</a>, in
2673 <a href="http://faif.us/" title="Free as in Freedom">FaiF</a>
2674 <a href="http://faif.us/cast/2015/nov/24/0x57/">episode
2675 0x57</a></small></p>
2676
2677 <p>As the Debian Website
2678 <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/794116">used</a>
2679 <a href="https://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/webwml/webwml/english/intro/free.wml?r1=1.24&amp;r2=1.25">to</a>
2680 imply, public domain and permissively licensed software can lead to
2681 the production of more proprietary software as people discover useful
2682 software, extend it and or incorporate it into their hardware or
2683 software products.  Copyleft licenses such as the GNU GPL were created
2684 to close off this avenue to the production of proprietary software but
2685 such licenses are not enough.  With the ongoing adoption of Free
2686 Software by individuals and groups, inevitably the community's
2687 expectations of license compliance are violated, usually out of
2688 ignorance of the way Free Software works, but not always.  As Karen
2689 and Bradley explained in <a href="http://faif.us/" title="Free as in
2690 Freedom">FaiF</a>
2691 <a href="http://faif.us/cast/2015/nov/24/0x57/">episode 0x57</a>,
2692 copyleft is nothing if no-one is willing and able to stand up in court
2693 to protect it.  The reality of today's world is that legal
2694 representation is expensive, difficult and time consuming.  With
2695 <a href="http://gpl-violations.org/">gpl-violations.org</a> in hiatus
2696 <a href="http://gpl-violations.org/news/20151027-homepage-recovers/">until</a>
2697 some time in 2016, the <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/">Software
2698 Freedom Conservancy</a> (a tax-exempt charity) is the major defender
2699 of the Linux project, Debian and other groups against GPL violations.
2700 In March the SFC supported a
2701 <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/news/2015/mar/05/vmware-lawsuit/">lawsuit
2702 by Christoph Hellwig</a> against VMware for refusing to
2703 <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/linux-compliance/vmware-lawsuit-faq.html">comply
2704 with the GPL</a> in relation to their use of parts of the Linux
2705 kernel.  Since then two of their sponsors pulled corporate funding and
2706 conferences
2707 <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/blog/2015/nov/24/faif-carols-fundraiser/">blocked
2708 or cancelled their talks</a>.  As a result they have decided to rely
2709 less on corporate funding and more on the broad community of
2710 individuals who support Free Software and copyleft.  So the SFC has
2711 <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/news/2015/nov/23/2015fundraiser/">launched</a>
2712 a <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/supporter/">campaign</a> to create
2713 a community of folks who stand up for copyleft and the GPL by
2714 supporting their work on promoting and supporting copyleft and Free
2715 Software.</p>
2716
2717 <p>If you support Free Software,
2718 <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/blog/2015/nov/26/like-what-I-do/">like</a>
2719 what the SFC do, agree with their
2720 <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/linux-compliance/principles.html">compliance
2721 principles</a>, are happy about their
2722 <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/supporter/">successes</a> in 2015,
2723 work on a project that is an SFC
2724 <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/members/current/">member</a> and or
2725 just want to stand up for copyleft, please join
2726 <a href="https://identi.ca/cwebber/image/JQGPA4qbTyyp3-MY8QpvuA">Christopher
2727 Allan Webber</a>,
2728 <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/blog/2015/nov/24/faif-carols-fundraiser/">Carol
2729 Smith</a>,
2730 <a href="http://www.jonobacon.org/2015/11/25/supporting-software-freedom-conservancy/">Jono
2731 Bacon</a>, myself and
2732 <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/sponsors/#supporters">others</a> in
2733 becoming a
2734 <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/supporter/">supporter</a>.  For the
2735 next week your donation will be
2736 <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/news/2015/nov/27/black-friday/">matched</a>
2737 by an anonymous donor.  Please also consider asking your employer to
2738 match your donation or become a sponsor of SFC.  Don't forget to
2739 spread the word about your support for SFC via email, your blog and or
2740 social media accounts.</p>
2741
2742 </blockquote>
2743
2744 <p>I agree with Paul on this topic and just signed up as a Supporter
2745 of Software Freedom Conservancy myself.  Perhaps you should be a
2746 supporter too?</p>
2747
2748       </div>
2749       <div class="tags">
2750
2751
2752         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/opphavsrett">opphavsrett</a>.
2753
2754
2755       </div>
2756     </div>
2757     <div class="padding"></div>
2758
2759     <div class="entry">
2760       <div class="title">
2761         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/PGP_key_transition_statement_for_key_EE4E02F9.html">PGP key transition statement for key EE4E02F9</a>
2762       </div>
2763       <div class="date">
2764         17th November 2015
2765       </div>
2766       <div class="body">
2767         <p>I've needed a new OpenPGP key for a while, but have not had time to
2768 set it up properly.  I wanted to generate it offline and have it
2769 available on <a href="http://shop.kernelconcepts.de/#openpgp">a OpenPGP
2770 smart card</a> for daily use, and learning how to do it and finding
2771 time to sit down with an offline machine almost took forever.  But
2772 finally I've been able to complete the process, and have now moved
2773 from my old GPG key to a new GPG key.  See
2774 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2015-11-17-new-gpg-key-transition.txt">the
2775 full transition statement, signed with both my old and new key</a> for
2776 the details.  This is my new key:</p>
2777
2778 <pre>
2779 pub   3936R/<a href="http://pgp.cs.uu.nl/stats/111D6B29EE4E02F9.html">111D6B29EE4E02F9</a> 2015-11-03 [expires: 2019-11-14]
2780       Key fingerprint = 3AC7 B2E3 ACA5 DF87 78F1  D827 111D 6B29 EE4E 02F9
2781 uid                  Petter Reinholdtsen &lt;pere@hungry.com&gt;
2782 uid                  Petter Reinholdtsen &lt;pere@debian.org&gt;
2783 sub   4096R/87BAFB0E 2015-11-03 [expires: 2019-11-02]
2784 sub   4096R/F91E6DE9 2015-11-03 [expires: 2019-11-02]
2785 sub   4096R/A0439BAB 2015-11-03 [expires: 2019-11-02]
2786 </pre>
2787
2788 <p>The key can be downloaded from the OpenPGP key servers, signed by
2789 my old key.</p>
2790
2791 <p>If you signed my old key
2792 (<a href="http://pgp.cs.uu.nl/stats/DB4CCC4B2A30D729.html">DB4CCC4B2A30D729</a>),
2793 I'd very much appreciate a signature on my new key, details and
2794 instructions in the transition statement. I m happy to reciprocate if
2795 you have a similarly signed transition statement to present.</p>
2796
2797       </div>
2798       <div class="tags">
2799
2800
2801         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>.
2802
2803
2804       </div>
2805     </div>
2806     <div class="padding"></div>
2807
2808     <div class="entry">
2809       <div class="title">
2810         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_life_and_death_of_a_laptop_battery.html">The life and death of a laptop battery</a>
2811       </div>
2812       <div class="date">
2813         24th September 2015
2814       </div>
2815       <div class="body">
2816         <p>When I get a new laptop, the battery life time at the start is OK.
2817 But this do not last.  The last few laptops gave me a feeling that
2818 within a year, the life time is just a fraction of what it used to be,
2819 and it slowly become painful to use the laptop without power connected
2820 all the time.  Because of this, when I got a new Thinkpad X230 laptop
2821 about two years ago, I decided to monitor its battery state to have
2822 more hard facts when the battery started to fail.</p>
2823
2824 <img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2015-09-24-laptop-battery-graph.png"/>
2825
2826 <p>First I tried to find a sensible Debian package to record the
2827 battery status, assuming that this must be a problem already handled
2828 by someone else.  I found
2829 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/battery-stats">battery-stats</a>,
2830 which collects statistics from the battery, but it was completely
2831 broken.  I sent a few suggestions to the maintainer, but decided to
2832 write my own collector as a shell script while I waited for feedback
2833 from him.  Via
2834 <a href="http://www.ifweassume.com/2013/08/the-de-evolution-of-my-laptop-battery.html">a
2835 blog post about the battery development on a MacBook Air</a> I also
2836 discovered
2837 <a href="https://github.com/jradavenport/batlog.git">batlog</a>, not
2838 available in Debian.</p>
2839
2840 <p>I started my collector 2013-07-15, and it has been collecting
2841 battery stats ever since. Now my
2842 /var/log/hjemmenett-battery-status.log file contain around 115,000
2843 measurements, from the time the battery was working great until now,
2844 when it is unable to charge above 7% of original capacity.  My
2845 collector shell script is quite simple and look like this:</p>
2846
2847 <pre>
2848 #!/bin/sh
2849 # Inspired by
2850 # http://www.ifweassume.com/2013/08/the-de-evolution-of-my-laptop-battery.html
2851 # See also
2852 # http://blog.sleeplessbeastie.eu/2013/01/02/debian-how-to-monitor-battery-capacity/
2853 logfile=/var/log/hjemmenett-battery-status.log
2854
2855 files="manufacturer model_name technology serial_number \
2856     energy_full energy_full_design energy_now cycle_count status"
2857
2858 if [ ! -e "$logfile" ] ; then
2859     (
2860         printf "timestamp,"
2861         for f in $files; do
2862             printf "%s," $f
2863         done
2864         echo
2865     ) > "$logfile"
2866 fi
2867
2868 log_battery() {
2869     # Print complete message in one echo call, to avoid race condition
2870     # when several log processes run in parallel.
2871     msg=$(printf "%s," $(date +%s); \
2872         for f in $files; do \
2873             printf "%s," $(cat $f); \
2874         done)
2875     echo "$msg"
2876 }
2877
2878 cd /sys/class/power_supply
2879
2880 for bat in BAT*; do
2881     (cd $bat && log_battery >> "$logfile")
2882 done
2883 </pre>
2884
2885 <p>The script is called when the power management system detect a
2886 change in the power status (power plug in or out), and when going into
2887 and out of hibernation and suspend.  In addition, it collect a value
2888 every 10 minutes.  This make it possible for me know when the battery
2889 is discharging, charging and how the maximum charge change over time.
2890 The code for the Debian package
2891 <a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/battery-status">is now
2892 available on github</a>.</p>
2893
2894 <p>The collected log file look like this:</p>
2895
2896 <pre>
2897 timestamp,manufacturer,model_name,technology,serial_number,energy_full,energy_full_design,energy_now,cycle_count,status,
2898 1376591133,LGC,45N1025,Li-ion,974,62800000,62160000,39050000,0,Discharging,
2899 [...]
2900 1443090528,LGC,45N1025,Li-ion,974,4900000,62160000,4900000,0,Full,
2901 1443090601,LGC,45N1025,Li-ion,974,4900000,62160000,4900000,0,Full,
2902 </pre>
2903
2904 <p>I wrote a small script to create a graph of the charge development
2905 over time.  This graph depicted above show the slow death of my laptop
2906 battery.</p>
2907
2908 <p>But why is this happening?  Why are my laptop batteries always
2909 dying in a year or two, while the batteries of space probes and
2910 satellites keep working year after year.  If we are to believe
2911 <a href="http://batteryuniversity.com/learn/article/how_to_prolong_lithium_based_batteries">Battery
2912 University</a>, the cause is me charging the battery whenever I have a
2913 chance, and the fix is to not charge the Lithium-ion batteries to 100%
2914 all the time, but to stay below 90% of full charge most of the time.
2915 I've been told that the Tesla electric cars
2916 <a href="http://my.teslamotors.com/de_CH/forum/forums/battery-charge-limit">limit
2917 the charge of their batteries to 80%</a>, with the option to charge to
2918 100% when preparing for a longer trip (not that I would want a car
2919 like Tesla where rights to privacy is abandoned, but that is another
2920 story), which I guess is the option we should have for laptops on
2921 Linux too.</p>
2922
2923 <p>Is there a good and generic way with Linux to tell the battery to
2924 stop charging at 80%, unless requested to charge to 100% once in
2925 preparation for a longer trip?  I found
2926 <a href="http://askubuntu.com/questions/34452/how-can-i-limit-battery-charging-to-80-capacity">one
2927 recipe on askubuntu for Ubuntu to limit charging on Thinkpad to
2928 80%</a>, but could not get it to work (kernel module refused to
2929 load).</p>
2930
2931 <p>I wonder why the battery capacity was reported to be more than 100%
2932 at the start.  I also wonder why the "full capacity" increases some
2933 times, and if it is possible to repeat the process to get the battery
2934 back to design capacity.  And I wonder if the discharge and charge
2935 speed change over time, or if this stay the same.  I did not yet try
2936 to write a tool to calculate the derivative values of the battery
2937 level, but suspect some interesting insights might be learned from
2938 those.</p>
2939
2940 <p>Update 2015-09-24: I got a tip to install the packages
2941 acpi-call-dkms and tlp (unfortunately missing in Debian stable)
2942 packages instead of the tp-smapi-dkms package I had tried to use
2943 initially, and use 'tlp setcharge 40 80' to change when charging start
2944 and stop.  I've done so now, but expect my existing battery is toast
2945 and need to be replaced.  The proposal is unfortunately Thinkpad
2946 specific.</p>
2947
2948       </div>
2949       <div class="tags">
2950
2951
2952         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>.
2953
2954
2955       </div>
2956     </div>
2957     <div class="padding"></div>
2958
2959     <div class="entry">
2960       <div class="title">
2961         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/New_laptop___some_more_clues_and_ideas_based_on_feedback.html">New laptop - some more clues and ideas based on feedback</a>
2962       </div>
2963       <div class="date">
2964          5th July 2015
2965       </div>
2966       <div class="body">
2967         <p>Several people contacted me after my previous blog post about my
2968 need for a new laptop, and provided very useful feedback.  I wish to
2969 thank every one of these.  Several pointed me to the possibility of
2970 fixing my X230, and I am already in the process of getting Lenovo to
2971 do so thanks to the on site, next day support contract covering the
2972 machine.  But the battery is almost useless (I expect to replace it
2973 with a non-official battery) and I do not expect the machine to live
2974 for many more years, so it is time to plan its replacement.  If I did
2975 not have a support contract, it was suggested to find replacement parts
2976 using <a href="http://www.francecrans.com/">FrancEcrans</a>, but it
2977 might present a language barrier as I do not understand French.</p>
2978
2979 <p>One tip I got was to use the
2980 <a href="https://skinflint.co.uk/?cat=nb">Skinflint</a> web service to
2981 compare laptop models.  It seem to have more models available than
2982 prisjakt.no.  Another tip I got from someone I know have similar
2983 keyboard preferences was that the HP EliteBook 840 keyboard is not
2984 very good, and this matches my experience with earlier EliteBook
2985 keyboards I tested.  Because of this, I will not consider it any further.
2986
2987 <p>When I wrote my blog post, I was not aware of Thinkpad X250, the
2988 newest Thinkpad X model.  The keyboard reintroduces mouse buttons
2989 (which is missing from the X240), and is working fairly well with
2990 Debian Sid/Unstable according to
2991 <a href="http://www.corsac.net/X250/">Corsac.net</a>.  The reports I
2992 got on the keyboard quality are not consistent.  Some say the keyboard
2993 is good, others say it is ok, while others say it is not very good.
2994 Those with experience from X41 and and X60 agree that the X250
2995 keyboard is not as good as those trusty old laptops, and suggest I
2996 keep and fix my X230 instead of upgrading, or get a used X230 to
2997 replace it.  I'm also told that the X250 lack leds for caps lock, disk
2998 activity and battery status, which is very convenient on my X230.  I'm
2999 also told that the CPU fan is running very often, making it a bit
3000 noisy.  In any case, the X250 do not work out of the box with Debian
3001 Stable/Jessie, one of my requirements.</p>
3002
3003 <p>I have also gotten a few vendor proposals, one was
3004 <a href="http://pro-star.com">Pro-Star</a>, another was
3005 <a href="http://shop.gluglug.org.uk/product/libreboot-x200/">Libreboot</a>.
3006 The latter look very attractive to me.</p>
3007
3008 <p>Again, thank you all for the very useful feedback.  It help a lot
3009 as I keep looking for a replacement.</p>
3010
3011 <p>Update 2015-07-06: I was recommended to check out the
3012 <a href="">lapstore.de</a> web shop for used laptops.  They got several
3013 different
3014 <a href="http://www.lapstore.de/f.php/shop/lapstore/f/411/lang/x/kw/Lenovo_ThinkPad_X_Serie/">old
3015 thinkpad X models</a>, and provide one year warranty.</p>
3016
3017       </div>
3018       <div class="tags">
3019
3020
3021         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>.
3022
3023
3024       </div>
3025     </div>
3026     <div class="padding"></div>
3027
3028     <div class="entry">
3029       <div class="title">
3030         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Time_to_find_a_new_laptop__as_the_old_one_is_broken_after_only_two_years.html">Time to find a new laptop, as the old one is broken after only two years</a>
3031       </div>
3032       <div class="date">
3033          3rd July 2015
3034       </div>
3035       <div class="body">
3036         <p>My primary work horse laptop is failing, and will need a
3037 replacement soon.  The left 5 cm of the screen on my Thinkpad X230
3038 started flickering yesterday, and I suspect the cause is a broken
3039 cable, as changing the angle of the screen some times get rid of the
3040 flickering.</p>
3041
3042 <p>My requirements have not really changed since I bought it, and is
3043 still as
3044 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Thank_you_Thinkpad_X41__for_your_long_and_trustworthy_service.html">I
3045 described them in 2013</a>.  The last time I bought a laptop, I had
3046 good help from
3047 <a href="http://www.prisjakt.no/category.php?k=353">prisjakt.no</a>
3048 where I could select at least a few of the requirements (mouse pin,
3049 wifi, weight) and go through the rest manually.  Three button mouse
3050 and a good keyboard is not available as an option, and all the three
3051 laptop models proposed today (Thinkpad X240, HP EliteBook 820 G1 and
3052 G2) lack three mouse buttons).  It is also unclear to me how good the
3053 keyboard on the HP EliteBooks are.  I hope Lenovo have not messed up
3054 the keyboard, even if the quality and robustness in the X series have
3055 deteriorated since X41.</p>
3056
3057 <p>I wonder how I can find a sensible laptop when none of the options
3058 seem sensible to me?  Are there better services around to search the
3059 set of available laptops for features?  Please send me an email if you
3060 have suggestions.</p>
3061
3062 <p>Update 2015-07-23: I got a suggestion to check out the FSF
3063 <a href="http://www.fsf.org/resources/hw/endorsement/respects-your-freedom">list
3064 of endorsed hardware</a>, which is useful background information.</p>
3065
3066       </div>
3067       <div class="tags">
3068
3069
3070         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>.
3071
3072
3073       </div>
3074     </div>
3075     <div class="padding"></div>
3076
3077     <div class="entry">
3078       <div class="title">
3079         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_stay_with_sysvinit_in_Debian_Jessie.html">How to stay with sysvinit in Debian Jessie</a>
3080       </div>
3081       <div class="date">
3082         22nd November 2014
3083       </div>
3084       <div class="body">
3085         <p>By now, it is well known that Debian Jessie will not be using
3086 sysvinit as its boot system by default.  But how can one keep using
3087 sysvinit in Jessie?  It is fairly easy, and here are a few recipes,
3088 courtesy of
3089 <a href="http://www.vitavonni.de/blog/201410/2014102101-avoiding-systemd.html">Erich
3090 Schubert</a> and
3091 <a href="http://smcv.pseudorandom.co.uk/2014/still_universal/">Simon
3092 McVittie</a>.
3093
3094 <p>If you already are using Wheezy and want to upgrade to Jessie and
3095 keep sysvinit as your boot system, create a file
3096 <tt>/etc/apt/preferences.d/use-sysvinit</tt> with this content before
3097 you upgrade:</p>
3098
3099 <p><blockquote><pre>
3100 Package: systemd-sysv
3101 Pin: release o=Debian
3102 Pin-Priority: -1
3103 </pre></blockquote><p>
3104
3105 <p>This file content will tell apt and aptitude to not consider
3106 installing systemd-sysv as part of any installation and upgrade
3107 solution when resolving dependencies, and thus tell it to avoid
3108 systemd as a default boot system.  The end result should be that the
3109 upgraded system keep using sysvinit.</p>
3110
3111 <p>If you are installing Jessie for the first time, there is no way to
3112 get sysvinit installed by default (debootstrap used by
3113 debian-installer have no option for this), but one can tell the
3114 installer to switch to sysvinit before the first boot.  Either by
3115 using a kernel argument to the installer, or by adding a line to the
3116 preseed file used.  First, the kernel command line argument:
3117
3118 <p><blockquote><pre>
3119 preseed/late_command="in-target apt-get install --purge -y sysvinit-core"
3120 </pre></blockquote><p>
3121
3122 <p>Next, the line to use in a preseed file:</p>
3123
3124 <p><blockquote><pre>
3125 d-i preseed/late_command string in-target apt-get install -y sysvinit-core
3126 </pre></blockquote><p>
3127
3128 <p>One can of course also do this after the first boot by installing
3129 the sysvinit-core package.</p>
3130
3131 <p>I recommend only using sysvinit if you really need it, as the
3132 sysvinit boot sequence in Debian have several hardware specific bugs
3133 on Linux caused by the fact that it is unpredictable when hardware
3134 devices show up during boot.  But on the other hand, the new default
3135 boot system still have a few rough edges I hope will be fixed before
3136 Jessie is released.</p>
3137
3138 <p>Update 2014-11-26: Inspired by
3139 <ahref="https://www.mirbsd.org/permalinks/wlog-10-tg_e20141125-tg.htm#e20141125-tg_wlog-10-tg">a
3140 blog post by Torsten Glaser</a>, added --purge to the preseed
3141 line.</p>
3142
3143       </div>
3144       <div class="tags">
3145
3146
3147         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>.
3148
3149
3150       </div>
3151     </div>
3152     <div class="padding"></div>
3153
3154     <div class="entry">
3155       <div class="title">
3156         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/A_Debian_package_for_SMTP_via_Tor__aka_SMTorP__using_exim4.html">A Debian package for SMTP via Tor (aka SMTorP) using exim4</a>
3157       </div>
3158       <div class="date">
3159         10th November 2014
3160       </div>
3161       <div class="body">
3162         <p>The right to communicate with your friends and family in private,
3163 without anyone snooping, is a right every citicen have in a liberal
3164 democracy.  But this right is under serious attack these days.</p>
3165
3166 <p>A while back it occurred to me that one way to make the dragnet
3167 surveillance conducted by NSA, GCHQ, FRA and others (and confirmed by
3168 the whisleblower Snowden) more expensive for Internet email,
3169 is to deliver all email using SMTP via Tor.  Such SMTP option would be
3170 a nice addition to the FreedomBox project if we could send email
3171 between FreedomBox machines without leaking metadata about the emails
3172 to the people peeking on the wire.  I
3173 <a href="http://lists.alioth.debian.org/pipermail/freedombox-discuss/2014-October/006493.html">proposed
3174 this on the FreedomBox project mailing list in October</a> and got a
3175 lot of useful feedback and suggestions.  It also became obvious to me
3176 that this was not a novel idea, as the same idea was tested and
3177 documented by Johannes Berg as early as 2006, and both
3178 <a href="https://github.com/pagekite/Mailpile/wiki/SMTorP">the
3179 Mailpile</a> and <a href="http://dee.su/cables">the Cables</a> systems
3180 propose a similar method / protocol to pass emails between users.</p>
3181
3182 <p>To implement such system one need to set up a Tor hidden service
3183 providing the SMTP protocol on port 25, and use email addresses
3184 looking like username@hidden-service-name.onion.  With such addresses
3185 the connections to port 25 on hidden-service-name.onion using Tor will
3186 go to the correct SMTP server.  To do this, one need to configure the
3187 Tor daemon to provide the hidden service and the mail server to accept
3188 emails for this .onion domain.  To learn more about Exim configuration
3189 in Debian and test the design provided by Johannes Berg in his FAQ, I
3190 set out yesterday to create a Debian package for making it trivial to
3191 set up such SMTP over Tor service based on Debian.  Getting it to work
3192 were fairly easy, and
3193 <a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/exim4-smtorp">the
3194 source code for the Debian package</a> is available from github.  I
3195 plan to move it into Debian if further testing prove this to be a
3196 useful approach.</p>
3197
3198 <p>If you want to test this, set up a blank Debian machine without any
3199 mail system installed (or run <tt>apt-get purge exim4-config</tt> to
3200 get rid of exim4).  Install tor, clone the git repository mentioned
3201 above, build the deb and install it on the machine.  Next, run
3202 <tt>/usr/lib/exim4-smtorp/setup-exim-hidden-service</tt> and follow
3203 the instructions to get the service up and running.  Restart tor and
3204 exim when it is done, and test mail delivery using swaks like
3205 this:</p>
3206
3207 <p><blockquote><pre>
3208 torsocks swaks --server dutlqrrmjhtfa3vp.onion \
3209   --to fbx@dutlqrrmjhtfa3vp.onion
3210 </pre></blockquote></p>
3211
3212 <p>This will test the SMTP delivery using tor.  Replace the email
3213 address with your own address to test your server. :)</p>
3214
3215 <p>The setup procedure is still to complex, and I hope it can be made
3216 easier and more automatic.  Especially the tor setup need more work.
3217 Also, the package include a tor-smtp tool written in C, but its task
3218 should probably be rewritten in some script language to make the deb
3219 architecture independent.  It would probably also make the code easier
3220 to review.  The tor-smtp tool currently need to listen on a socket for
3221 exim to talk to it and is started using xinetd.  It would be better if
3222 no daemon and no socket is needed.  I suspect it is possible to get
3223 exim to run a command line tool for delivery instead of talking to a
3224 socket, and hope to figure out how in a future version of this
3225 system.</p>
3226
3227 <p>Until I wipe my test machine, I can be reached using the
3228 <tt>fbx@dutlqrrmjhtfa3vp.onion</tt> mail address, deliverable over
3229 SMTorP. :)</p>
3230
3231       </div>
3232       <div class="tags">
3233
3234
3235         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freedombox">freedombox</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/personvern">personvern</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance</a>.
3236
3237
3238       </div>
3239     </div>
3240     <div class="padding"></div>
3241
3242     <div class="entry">
3243       <div class="title">
3244         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/listadmin__the_quick_way_to_moderate_mailman_lists___nice_free_software.html">listadmin, the quick way to moderate mailman lists - nice free software</a>
3245       </div>
3246       <div class="date">
3247         22nd October 2014
3248       </div>
3249       <div class="body">
3250         <p>If you ever had to moderate a mailman list, like the ones on
3251 alioth.debian.org, you know the web interface is fairly slow to
3252 operate.  First you visit one web page, enter the moderation password
3253 and get a new page shown with a list of all the messages to moderate
3254 and various options for each email address.  This take a while for
3255 every list you moderate, and you need to do it regularly to do a good
3256 job as a list moderator.  But there is a quick alternative,
3257 <a href="http://heim.ifi.uio.no/kjetilho/hacks/#listadmin">the
3258 listadmin program</a>.  It allow you to check lists for new messages
3259 to moderate in a fraction of a second.  Here is a test run on two
3260 lists I recently took over:</p>
3261
3262 <p><blockquote><pre>
3263 % time listadmin xiph
3264 fetching data for pkg-xiph-commits@lists.alioth.debian.org ... nothing in queue
3265 fetching data for pkg-xiph-maint@lists.alioth.debian.org ... nothing in queue
3266
3267 real    0m1.709s
3268 user    0m0.232s
3269 sys     0m0.012s
3270 %
3271 </pre></blockquote></p>
3272
3273 <p>In 1.7 seconds I had checked two mailing lists and confirmed that
3274 there are no message in the moderation queue.  Every morning I
3275 currently moderate 68 mailman lists, and it normally take around two
3276 minutes.  When I took over the two pkg-xiph lists above a few days
3277 ago, there were 400 emails waiting in the moderator queue.  It took me
3278 less than 15 minutes to process them all using the listadmin
3279 program.</p>
3280
3281 <p>If you install
3282 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/listadmin">the listadmin
3283 package</a> from Debian and create a file <tt>~/.listadmin.ini</tt>
3284 with content like this, the moderation task is a breeze:</p>
3285
3286 <p><blockquote><pre>
3287 username username@example.org
3288 spamlevel 23
3289 default discard
3290 discard_if_reason "Posting restricted to members only. Remove us from your mail list."
3291
3292 password secret
3293 adminurl https://{domain}/mailman/admindb/{list}
3294 mailman-list@lists.example.com
3295
3296 password hidden
3297 other-list@otherserver.example.org
3298 </pre></blockquote></p>
3299
3300 <p>There are other options to set as well.  Check the manual page to
3301 learn the details.</p>
3302
3303 <p>If you are forced to moderate lists on a mailman installation where
3304 the SSL certificate is self signed or not properly signed by a
3305 generally accepted signing authority, you can set a environment
3306 variable when calling listadmin to disable SSL verification:</p>
3307
3308 <p><blockquote><pre>
3309 PERL_LWP_SSL_VERIFY_HOSTNAME=0 listadmin
3310 </pre></blockquote></p>
3311
3312 <p>If you want to moderate a subset of the lists you take care of, you
3313 can provide an argument to the listadmin script like I do in the
3314 initial screen dump (the xiph argument).  Using an argument, only
3315 lists matching the argument string will be processed.  This make it
3316 quick to accept messages if you notice the moderation request in your
3317 email.</p>
3318
3319 <p>Without the listadmin program, I would never be the moderator of 68
3320 mailing lists, as I simply do not have time to spend on that if the
3321 process was any slower. The listadmin program have saved me hours of
3322 time I could spend elsewhere over the years.  It truly is nice free
3323 software.</p>
3324
3325 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
3326 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
3327 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b&label=PetterReinholdtsenBlog">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
3328
3329 <p>Update 2014-10-27: Added missing 'username' statement in
3330 configuration example.  Also, I've been told that the
3331 PERL_LWP_SSL_VERIFY_HOSTNAME=0 setting do not work for everyone.  Not
3332 sure why.</p>
3333
3334       </div>
3335       <div class="tags">
3336
3337
3338         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nice free software">nice free software</a>.
3339
3340
3341       </div>
3342     </div>
3343     <div class="padding"></div>
3344
3345     <div class="entry">
3346       <div class="title">
3347         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Jessie__PXE_and_automatic_firmware_installation.html">Debian Jessie, PXE and automatic firmware installation</a>
3348       </div>
3349       <div class="date">
3350         17th October 2014
3351       </div>
3352       <div class="body">
3353         <p>When PXE installing laptops with Debian, I often run into the
3354 problem that the WiFi card require some firmware to work properly.
3355 And it has been a pain to fix this using preseeding in Debian.
3356 Normally something more is needed.  But thanks to
3357 <a href="https://packages.qa.debian.org/i/isenkram.html">my isenkram
3358 package</a> and its recent tasksel extension, it has now become easy
3359 to do this using simple preseeding.</p>
3360
3361 <p>The isenkram-cli package provide tasksel tasks which will install
3362 firmware for the hardware found in the machine (actually, requested by
3363 the kernel modules for the hardware).  (It can also install user space
3364 programs supporting the hardware detected, but that is not the focus
3365 of this story.)</p>
3366
3367 <p>To get this working in the default installation, two preeseding
3368 values are needed.  First, the isenkram-cli package must be installed
3369 into the target chroot (aka the hard drive) before tasksel is executed
3370 in the pkgsel step of the debian-installer system.  This is done by
3371 preseeding the base-installer/includes debconf value to include the
3372 isenkram-cli package.  The package name is next passed to debootstrap
3373 for installation.  With the isenkram-cli package in place, tasksel
3374 will automatically use the isenkram tasks to detect hardware specific
3375 packages for the machine being installed and install them, because
3376 isenkram-cli contain tasksel tasks.</p>
3377
3378 <p>Second, one need to enable the non-free APT repository, because
3379 most firmware unfortunately is non-free.  This is done by preseeding
3380 the apt-mirror-setup step.  This is unfortunate, but for a lot of
3381 hardware it is the only option in Debian.</p>
3382
3383 <p>The end result is two lines needed in your preseeding file to get
3384 firmware installed automatically by the installer:</p>
3385
3386 <p><blockquote><pre>
3387 base-installer base-installer/includes string isenkram-cli
3388 apt-mirror-setup apt-setup/non-free boolean true
3389 </pre></blockquote></p>
3390
3391 <p>The current version of isenkram-cli in testing/jessie will install
3392 both firmware and user space packages when using this method.  It also
3393 do not work well, so use version 0.15 or later.  Installing both
3394 firmware and user space packages might give you a bit more than you
3395 want, so I decided to split the tasksel task in two, one for firmware
3396 and one for user space programs.  The firmware task is enabled by
3397 default, while the one for user space programs is not.  This split is
3398 implemented in the package currently in unstable.</p>
3399
3400 <p>If you decide to give this a go, please let me know (via email) how
3401 this recipe work for you. :)</p>
3402
3403 <p>So, I bet you are wondering, how can this work.  First and
3404 foremost, it work because tasksel is modular, and driven by whatever
3405 files it find in /usr/lib/tasksel/ and /usr/share/tasksel/.  So the
3406 isenkram-cli package place two files for tasksel to find.  First there
3407 is the task description file (/usr/share/tasksel/descs/isenkram.desc):</p>
3408
3409 <p><blockquote><pre>
3410 Task: isenkram-packages
3411 Section: hardware
3412 Description: Hardware specific packages (autodetected by isenkram)
3413  Based on the detected hardware various hardware specific packages are
3414  proposed.
3415 Test-new-install: show show
3416 Relevance: 8
3417 Packages: for-current-hardware
3418
3419 Task: isenkram-firmware
3420 Section: hardware
3421 Description: Hardware specific firmware packages (autodetected by isenkram)
3422  Based on the detected hardware various hardware specific firmware
3423  packages are proposed.
3424 Test-new-install: mark show
3425 Relevance: 8
3426 Packages: for-current-hardware-firmware
3427 </pre></blockquote></p>
3428
3429 <p>The key parts are Test-new-install which indicate how the task
3430 should be handled and the Packages line referencing to a script in
3431 /usr/lib/tasksel/packages/.  The scripts use other scripts to get a
3432 list of packages to install.  The for-current-hardware-firmware script
3433 look like this to list relevant firmware for the machine:
3434
3435 <p><blockquote><pre>
3436 #!/bin/sh
3437 #
3438 PATH=/usr/sbin:$PATH
3439 export PATH
3440 isenkram-autoinstall-firmware -l
3441 </pre></blockquote></p>
3442
3443 <p>With those two pieces in place, the firmware is installed by
3444 tasksel during the normal d-i run. :)</p>
3445
3446 <p>If you want to test what tasksel will install when isenkram-cli is
3447 installed, run <tt>DEBIAN_PRIORITY=critical tasksel --test
3448 --new-install</tt> to get the list of packages that tasksel would
3449 install.</p>
3450
3451 <p><a href="https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/">Debian Edu</a> will be
3452 pilots in testing this feature, as isenkram is used there now to
3453 install firmware, replacing the earlier scripts.</p>
3454
3455       </div>
3456       <div class="tags">
3457
3458
3459         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram">isenkram</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sysadmin">sysadmin</a>.
3460
3461
3462       </div>
3463     </div>
3464     <div class="padding"></div>
3465
3466     <div class="entry">
3467       <div class="title">
3468         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Ubuntu_used_to_show_the_bread_prizes_at_ICA_Storo.html">Ubuntu used to show the bread prizes at ICA Storo</a>
3469       </div>
3470       <div class="date">
3471          4th October 2014
3472       </div>
3473       <div class="body">
3474         <p>Today I came across an unexpected Ubuntu boot screen.  Above the
3475 bread shelf on the ICA shop at Storo in Oslo, the grub menu of Ubuntu
3476 with Linux kernel 3.2.0-23 (ie probably version 12.04 LTS) was stuck
3477 on a screen normally showing the bread types and prizes:</p>
3478
3479 <p align="center"><img width="70%" src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2014-10-04-ubuntu-ica-storo-crop.jpeg"></p>
3480
3481 <p>If it had booted as it was supposed to, I would never had known
3482 about this hidden Linux installation.  It is interesting what
3483 <a href="http://revealingerrors.com/">errors can reveal</a>.</p>
3484
3485       </div>
3486       <div class="tags">
3487
3488
3489         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>.
3490
3491
3492       </div>
3493     </div>
3494     <div class="padding"></div>
3495
3496     <div class="entry">
3497       <div class="title">
3498         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/New_lsdvd_release_version_0_17_is_ready.html">New lsdvd release version 0.17 is ready</a>
3499       </div>
3500       <div class="date">
3501          4th October 2014
3502       </div>
3503       <div class="body">
3504         <p>The <a href="https://sourceforge.net/p/lsdvd/">lsdvd project</a>
3505 got a new set of developers a few weeks ago, after the original
3506 developer decided to step down and pass the project to fresh blood.
3507 This project is now maintained by Petter Reinholdtsen and Steve
3508 Dibb.</p>
3509
3510 <p>I just wrapped up
3511 <a href="https://sourceforge.net/p/lsdvd/mailman/message/32896061/">a
3512 new lsdvd release</a>, available in git or from
3513 <a href="https://sourceforge.net/projects/lsdvd/files/lsdvd/">the
3514 download page</a>.  This is the changelog dated 2014-10-03 for version
3515 0.17.</p>
3516
3517 <ul>
3518
3519  <li>Ignore 'phantom' audio, subtitle tracks</li>
3520  <li>Check for garbage in the program chains, which indicate that a track is
3521    non-existant, to work around additional copy protection</li>
3522  <li>Fix displaying content type for audio tracks, subtitles</li>
3523  <li>Fix pallete display of first entry</li>
3524  <li>Fix include orders</li>
3525  <li>Ignore read errors in titles that would not be displayed anyway</li>
3526  <li>Fix the chapter count</li>
3527  <li>Make sure the array size and the array limit used when initialising
3528    the palette size is the same.</li>
3529  <li>Fix array printing.</li>
3530  <li>Correct subsecond calculations.</li>
3531  <li>Add sector information to the output format.</li>
3532  <li>Clean up code to be closer to ANSI C and compile without warnings
3533    with more GCC compiler warnings.</li>
3534
3535 </ul>
3536
3537 <p>This change bring together patches for lsdvd in use in various
3538 Linux and Unix distributions, as well as patches submitted to the
3539 project the last nine years.  Please check it out. :)</p>
3540
3541       </div>
3542       <div class="tags">
3543
3544
3545         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/lsdvd">lsdvd</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/multimedia">multimedia</a>.
3546
3547
3548       </div>
3549     </div>
3550     <div class="padding"></div>
3551
3552     <div class="entry">
3553       <div class="title">
3554         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_test_Debian_Edu_Jessie_despite_some_fatal_problems_with_the_installer.html">How to test Debian Edu Jessie despite some fatal problems with the installer</a>
3555       </div>
3556       <div class="date">
3557         26th September 2014
3558       </div>
3559       <div class="body">
3560         <p>The <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux
3561 project</a> provide a Linux solution for schools, including a
3562 powerful desktop with education software, a central server providing
3563 web pages, user database, user home directories, central login and PXE
3564 boot of both  clients without disk and the installation to install Debian
3565 Edu on machines with disk (and a few other services perhaps to small
3566 to mention here).  We in the Debian Edu team are currently working on
3567 the Jessie based version, trying to get everything in shape before the
3568 freeze, to avoid having to maintain our own package repository in the
3569 future.  The
3570 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Status/Jessie">current
3571 status</a> can be seen on the Debian wiki, and there is still heaps of
3572 work left.  Some fatal problems block testing, breaking the installer,
3573 but it is possible to work around these to get anyway.  Here is a
3574 recipe on how to get the installation limping along.</p>
3575
3576 <p>First, download the test ISO via
3577 <a href="ftp://ftp.skolelinux.no/cd-edu-testing-nolocal-netinst/debian-edu-amd64-i386-NETINST-1.iso">ftp</a>,
3578 <a href="http://ftp.skolelinux.no/cd-edu-testing-nolocal-netinst/debian-edu-amd64-i386-NETINST-1.iso">http</a>
3579 or rsync (use
3580 ftp.skolelinux.org::cd-edu-testing-nolocal-netinst/debian-edu-amd64-i386-NETINST-1.iso).
3581 The ISO build was broken on Tuesday, so we do not get a new ISO every
3582 12 hours or so, but thankfully the ISO we already got we are able to
3583 install with some tweaking.</p>
3584
3585 <p>When you get to the Debian Edu profile question, go to tty2
3586 (use Alt-Ctrl-F2), run</p>
3587
3588 <p><blockquote><pre>
3589 nano /usr/bin/edu-eatmydata-install
3590 </pre></blockquote></p>
3591
3592 <p>and add 'exit 0' as the second line, disabling the eatmydata
3593 optimization.  Return to the installation, select the profile you want
3594 and continue.  Without this change, exim4-config will fail to install
3595 due to a known bug in eatmydata.</p>
3596
3597 <p>When you get the grub question at the end, answer /dev/sda (or if
3598 this do not work, figure out what your correct value would be.  All my
3599 test machines need /dev/sda, so I have no advice if it do not fit
3600 your need.</p>
3601
3602 <p>If you installed a profile including a graphical desktop, log in as
3603 root after the initial boot from hard drive, and install the
3604 education-desktop-XXX metapackage.  XXX can be kde, gnome, lxde, xfce
3605 or mate.  If you want several desktop options, install more than one
3606 metapackage.  Once this is done, reboot and you should have a working
3607 graphical login screen.  This workaround should no longer be needed
3608 once the education-tasks package version 1.801 enter testing in two
3609 days.</p>
3610
3611 <p>I believe the ISO build will start working on two days when the new
3612 tasksel package enter testing and Steve McIntyre get a chance to
3613 update the debian-cd git repository.  The eatmydata, grub and desktop
3614 issues are already fixed in unstable and testing, and should show up
3615 on the ISO as soon as the ISO build start working again.  Well the
3616 eatmydata optimization is really just disabled.  The proper fix
3617 require an upload by the eatmydata maintainer applying the patch
3618 provided in bug <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/702711">#702711</a>.
3619 The rest have proper fixes in unstable.</p>
3620
3621 <p>I hope this get you going with the installation testing, as we are
3622 quickly running out of time trying to get our Jessie based
3623 installation ready before the distribution freeze in a month.</p>
3624
3625       </div>
3626       <div class="tags">
3627
3628
3629         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>.
3630
3631
3632       </div>
3633     </div>
3634     <div class="padding"></div>
3635
3636     <div class="entry">
3637       <div class="title">
3638         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Suddenly_I_am_the_new_upstream_of_the_lsdvd_command_line_tool.html">Suddenly I am the new upstream of the lsdvd command line tool</a>
3639       </div>
3640       <div class="date">
3641         25th September 2014
3642       </div>
3643       <div class="body">
3644         <p>I use the <a href="https://sourceforge.net/p/lsdvd/">lsdvd tool</a>
3645 to handle my fairly large DVD collection.  It is a nice command line
3646 tool to get details about a DVD, like title, tracks, track length,
3647 etc, in XML, Perl or human readable format.  But lsdvd have not seen
3648 any new development since 2006 and had a few irritating bugs affecting
3649 its use with some DVDs.  Upstream seemed to be dead, and in January I
3650 sent a small probe asking for a version control repository for the
3651 project, without any reply.  But I use it regularly and would like to
3652 get <a href="https://packages.qa.debian.org/lsdvd">an updated version
3653 into Debian</a>.  So two weeks ago I tried harder to get in touch with
3654 the project admin, and after getting a reply from him explaining that
3655 he was no longer interested in the project, I asked if I could take
3656 over.  And yesterday, I became project admin.</p>
3657
3658 <p>I've been in touch with a Gentoo developer and the Debian
3659 maintainer interested in joining forces to maintain the upstream
3660 project, and I hope we can get a new release out fairly quickly,
3661 collecting the patches spread around on the internet into on place.
3662 I've added the relevant Debian patches to the freshly created git
3663 repository, and expect the Gentoo patches to make it too.  If you got
3664 a DVD collection and care about command line tools, check out
3665 <a href="https://sourceforge.net/p/lsdvd/git/ci/master/tree/">the git source</a> and join
3666 <a href="https://sourceforge.net/p/lsdvd/mailman/">the project mailing
3667 list</a>. :)</p>
3668
3669       </div>
3670       <div class="tags">
3671
3672
3673         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/lsdvd">lsdvd</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/multimedia">multimedia</a>.
3674
3675
3676       </div>
3677     </div>
3678     <div class="padding"></div>
3679
3680     <div class="entry">
3681       <div class="title">
3682         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Speeding_up_the_Debian_installer_using_eatmydata_and_dpkg_divert.html">Speeding up the Debian installer using eatmydata and dpkg-divert</a>
3683       </div>
3684       <div class="date">
3685         16th September 2014
3686       </div>
3687       <div class="body">
3688         <p>The <a href="https://www.debian.org/">Debian</a> installer could be
3689 a lot quicker.  When we install more than 2000 packages in
3690 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Skolelinux / Debian Edu</a> using
3691 tasksel in the installer, unpacking the binary packages take forever.
3692 A part of the slow I/O issue was discussed in
3693 <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/613428">bug #613428</a> about too
3694 much file system sync-ing done by dpkg, which is the package
3695 responsible for unpacking the binary packages.  Other parts (like code
3696 executed by postinst scripts) might also sync to disk during
3697 installation.  All this sync-ing to disk do not really make sense to
3698 me.  If the machine crash half-way through, I start over, I do not try
3699 to salvage the half installed system.  So the failure sync-ing is
3700 supposed to protect against, hardware or system crash, is not really
3701 relevant while the installer is running.</p>
3702
3703 <p>A few days ago, I thought of a way to get rid of all the file
3704 system sync()-ing in a fairly non-intrusive way, without the need to
3705 change the code in several packages.  The idea is not new, but I have
3706 not heard anyone propose the approach using dpkg-divert before.  It
3707 depend on the small and clever package
3708 <a href="https://packages.qa.debian.org/eatmydata">eatmydata</a>, which
3709 uses LD_PRELOAD to replace the system functions for syncing data to
3710 disk with functions doing nothing, thus allowing programs to live
3711 dangerous while speeding up disk I/O significantly.  Instead of
3712 modifying the implementation of dpkg, apt and tasksel (which are the
3713 packages responsible for selecting, fetching and installing packages),
3714 it occurred to me that we could just divert the programs away, replace
3715 them with a simple shell wrapper calling
3716 "eatmydata&nbsp;$program&nbsp;$@", to get the same effect.
3717 Two days ago I decided to test the idea, and wrapped up a simple
3718 implementation for the Debian Edu udeb.</p>
3719
3720 <p>The effect was stunning.  In my first test it reduced the running
3721 time of the pkgsel step (installing tasks) from 64 to less than 44
3722 minutes (20 minutes shaved off the installation) on an old Dell
3723 Latitude D505 machine.  I am not quite sure what the optimised time
3724 would have been, as I messed up the testing a bit, causing the debconf
3725 priority to get low enough for two questions to pop up during
3726 installation.  As soon as I saw the questions I moved the installation
3727 along, but do not know how long the question were holding up the
3728 installation.  I did some more measurements using Debian Edu Jessie,
3729 and got these results.  The time measured is the time stamp in
3730 /var/log/syslog between the "pkgsel: starting tasksel" and the
3731 "pkgsel: finishing up" lines, if you want to do the same measurement
3732 yourself.  In Debian Edu, the tasksel dialog do not show up, and the
3733 timing thus do not depend on how quickly the user handle the tasksel
3734 dialog.</p>
3735
3736 <p><table>
3737
3738 <tr>
3739 <th>Machine/setup</th>
3740 <th>Original tasksel</th>
3741 <th>Optimised tasksel</th>
3742 <th>Reduction</th>
3743 </tr>
3744
3745 <tr>
3746 <td>Latitude D505 Main+LTSP LXDE</td>
3747 <td>64 min (07:46-08:50)</td>
3748 <td><44 min (11:27-12:11)</td>
3749 <td>>20 min 18%</td>
3750 </tr>
3751
3752 <tr>
3753 <td>Latitude D505 Roaming LXDE</td>
3754 <td>57 min (08:48-09:45)</td>
3755 <td>34 min (07:43-08:17)</td>
3756 <td>23 min 40%</td>
3757 </tr>
3758
3759 <tr>
3760 <td>Latitude D505 Minimal</td>
3761 <td>22 min (10:37-10:59)</td>
3762 <td>11 min (11:16-11:27)</td>
3763 <td>11 min 50%</td>
3764 </tr>
3765
3766 <tr>
3767 <td>Thinkpad X200 Minimal</td>
3768 <td>6 min (08:19-08:25)</td>
3769 <td>4 min (08:04-08:08)</td>
3770 <td>2 min 33%</td>
3771 </tr>
3772
3773 <tr>
3774 <td>Thinkpad X200 Roaming KDE</td>
3775 <td>19 min (09:21-09:40)</td>
3776 <td>15 min (10:25-10:40)</td>
3777 <td>4 min 21%</td>
3778 </tr>
3779
3780 </table></p>
3781
3782 <p>The test is done using a netinst ISO on a USB stick, so some of the
3783 time is spent downloading packages.  The connection to the Internet
3784 was 100Mbit/s during testing, so downloading should not be a
3785 significant factor in the measurement.  Download typically took a few
3786 seconds to a few minutes, depending on the amount of packages being
3787 installed.</p>
3788
3789 <p>The speedup is implemented by using two hooks in
3790 <a href="https://www.debian.org/devel/debian-installer/">Debian
3791 Installer</a>, the pre-pkgsel.d hook to set up the diverts, and the
3792 finish-install.d hook to remove the divert at the end of the
3793 installation.  I picked the pre-pkgsel.d hook instead of the
3794 post-base-installer.d hook because I test using an ISO without the
3795 eatmydata package included, and the post-base-installer.d hook in
3796 Debian Edu can only operate on packages included in the ISO.  The
3797 negative effect of this is that I am unable to activate this
3798 optimization for the kernel installation step in d-i.  If the code is
3799 moved to the post-base-installer.d hook, the speedup would be larger
3800 for the entire installation.</p>
3801
3802 <p>I've implemented this in the
3803 <a href="https://packages.qa.debian.org/debian-edu-install">debian-edu-install</a>
3804 git repository, and plan to provide the optimization as part of the
3805 Debian Edu installation.  If you want to test this yourself, you can
3806 create two files in the installer (or in an udeb).  One shell script
3807 need do go into /usr/lib/pre-pkgsel.d/, with content like this:</p>
3808
3809 <p><blockquote><pre>
3810 #!/bin/sh
3811 set -e
3812 . /usr/share/debconf/confmodule
3813 info() {
3814     logger -t my-pkgsel "info: $*"
3815 }
3816 error() {
3817     logger -t my-pkgsel "error: $*"
3818 }
3819 override_install() {
3820     apt-install eatmydata || true
3821     if [ -x /target/usr/bin/eatmydata ] ; then
3822         for bin in dpkg apt-get aptitude tasksel ; do
3823             file=/usr/bin/$bin
3824             # Test that the file exist and have not been diverted already.
3825             if [ -f /target$file ] ; then
3826                 info "diverting $file using eatmydata"
3827                 printf "#!/bin/sh\neatmydata $bin.distrib \"\$@\"\n" \
3828                     > /target$file.edu
3829                 chmod 755 /target$file.edu
3830                 in-target dpkg-divert --package debian-edu-config \
3831                     --rename --quiet --add $file
3832                 ln -sf ./$bin.edu /target$file
3833             else
3834                 error "unable to divert $file, as it is missing."
3835             fi
3836         done
3837     else
3838         error "unable to find /usr/bin/eatmydata after installing the eatmydata pacage"
3839     fi
3840 }
3841
3842 override_install
3843 </pre></blockquote></p>
3844
3845 <p>To clean up, another shell script should go into
3846 /usr/lib/finish-install.d/ with code like this:
3847
3848 <p><blockquote><pre>
3849 #! /bin/sh -e
3850 . /usr/share/debconf/confmodule
3851 error() {
3852     logger -t my-finish-install "error: $@"
3853 }
3854 remove_install_override() {
3855     for bin in dpkg apt-get aptitude tasksel ; do
3856         file=/usr/bin/$bin
3857         if [ -x /target$file.edu ] ; then
3858             rm /target$file
3859             in-target dpkg-divert --package debian-edu-config \
3860                 --rename --quiet --remove $file
3861             rm /target$file.edu
3862         else
3863             error "Missing divert for $file."
3864         fi
3865     done
3866     sync # Flush file buffers before continuing
3867 }
3868
3869 remove_install_override
3870 </pre></blockquote></p>
3871
3872 <p>In Debian Edu, I placed both code fragments in a separate script
3873 edu-eatmydata-install and call it from the pre-pkgsel.d and
3874 finish-install.d scripts.</p>
3875
3876 <p>By now you might ask if this change should get into the normal
3877 Debian installer too?  I suspect it should, but am not sure the
3878 current debian-installer coordinators find it useful enough.  It also
3879 depend on the side effects of the change.  I'm not aware of any, but I
3880 guess we will see if the change is safe after some more testing.
3881 Perhaps there is some package in Debian depending on sync() and
3882 fsync() having effect?  Perhaps it should go into its own udeb, to
3883 allow those of us wanting to enable it to do so without affecting
3884 everyone.</p>
3885
3886 <p>Update 2014-09-24: Since a few days ago, enabling this optimization
3887 will break installation of all programs using gnutls because of
3888 <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/702711">bug #702711</a>.  An updated
3889 eatmydata package in Debian will solve it.</p>
3890
3891 <p>Update 2014-10-17: The bug mentioned above is fixed in testing and
3892 the optimization work again.  And I have discovered that the
3893 dpkg-divert trick is not really needed and implemented a slightly
3894 simpler approach as part of the debian-edu-install package.  See
3895 tools/edu-eatmydata-install in the source package.</p>
3896
3897 <p>Update 2014-11-11: Unfortunately, a new
3898 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/765738">bug #765738</a> in eatmydata only
3899 triggering on i386 made it into testing, and broke this installation
3900 optimization again.  If <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/768893">unblock
3901 request 768893</a> is accepted, it should be working again.</p>
3902
3903       </div>
3904       <div class="tags">
3905
3906
3907         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>.
3908
3909
3910       </div>
3911     </div>
3912     <div class="padding"></div>
3913
3914     <div class="entry">
3915       <div class="title">
3916         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Good_bye_subkeys_pgp_net__welcome_pool_sks_keyservers_net.html">Good bye subkeys.pgp.net, welcome pool.sks-keyservers.net</a>
3917       </div>
3918       <div class="date">
3919         10th September 2014
3920       </div>
3921       <div class="body">
3922         <p>Yesterday, I had the pleasure of attending a talk with the
3923 <a href="http://www.nuug.no/">Norwegian Unix User Group</a> about
3924 <a href="http://www.nuug.no/aktiviteter/20140909-sks-keyservers/">the
3925 OpenPGP keyserver pool sks-keyservers.net</a>, and was very happy to
3926 learn that there is a large set of publicly available key servers to
3927 use when looking for peoples public key.  So far I have used
3928 subkeys.pgp.net, and some times wwwkeys.nl.pgp.net when the former
3929 were misbehaving, but those days are ended.  The servers I have used
3930 up until yesterday have been slow and some times unavailable.  I hope
3931 those problems are gone now.</p>
3932
3933 <p>Behind the round robin DNS entry of the
3934 <a href="https://sks-keyservers.net/">sks-keyservers.net</a> service
3935 there is a pool of more than 100 keyservers which are checked every
3936 day to ensure they are well connected and up to date.  It must be
3937 better than what I have used so far. :)</p>
3938
3939 <p>Yesterdays speaker told me that the service is the default
3940 keyserver provided by the default configuration in GnuPG, but this do
3941 not seem to be used in Debian.  Perhaps it should?</p>
3942
3943 <p>Anyway, I've updated my ~/.gnupg/options file to now include this
3944 line:</p>
3945
3946 <p><blockquote><pre>
3947 keyserver pool.sks-keyservers.net
3948 </pre></blockquote></p>
3949
3950 <p>With GnuPG version 2 one can also locate the keyserver using SRV
3951 entries in DNS.  Just for fun, I did just that at work, so now every
3952 user of GnuPG at the University of Oslo should find a OpenGPG
3953 keyserver automatically should their need it:</p>
3954
3955 <p><blockquote><pre>
3956 % host -t srv _pgpkey-http._tcp.uio.no
3957 _pgpkey-http._tcp.uio.no has SRV record 0 100 11371 pool.sks-keyservers.net.
3958 %
3959 </pre></blockquote></p>
3960
3961 <p>Now if only
3962 <a href="http://ietfreport.isoc.org/idref/draft-shaw-openpgp-hkp/">the
3963 HKP lookup protocol</a> supported finding signature paths, I would be
3964 very happy.  It can look up a given key or search for a user ID, but I
3965 normally do not want that, but to find a trust path from my key to
3966 another key.  Given a user ID or key ID, I would like to find (and
3967 download) the keys representing a signature path from my key to the
3968 key in question, to be able to get a trust path between the two keys.
3969 This is as far as I can tell not possible today.  Perhaps something
3970 for a future version of the protocol?</p>
3971
3972       </div>
3973       <div class="tags">
3974
3975
3976         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/personvern">personvern</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet</a>.
3977
3978
3979       </div>
3980     </div>
3981     <div class="padding"></div>
3982
3983     <div class="entry">
3984       <div class="title">
3985         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/From_English_wiki_to_translated_PDF_and_epub_via_Docbook.html">From English wiki to translated PDF and epub via Docbook</a>
3986       </div>
3987       <div class="date">
3988         17th June 2014
3989       </div>
3990       <div class="body">
3991         <p>The <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux
3992 project</a> provide an instruction manual for teachers, system
3993 administrators and other users that contain useful tips for setting up
3994 and maintaining a Debian Edu installation.  This text is about how the
3995 text processing of this manual is handled in the project.</p>
3996
3997 <p>One goal of the project is to provide information in the native
3998 language of its users, and for this we need to handle translations.
3999 But we also want to make sure each language contain the same
4000 information, so for this we need a good way to keep the translations
4001 in sync.  And we want it to be easy for our users to improve the
4002 documentation, avoiding the need to learn special formats or tools to
4003 contribute, and the obvious way to do this is to make it possible to
4004 edit the documentation using a web browser.  We also want it to be
4005 easy for translators to keep the translation up to date, and give them
4006 help in figuring out what need to be translated. Here is the list of
4007 tools and the process we have found trying to reach all these
4008 goals.</p>
4009
4010 <p>We maintain the authoritative source of our manual in the
4011 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Documentation/Wheezy/">Debian
4012 wiki</a>, as several wiki pages written in English.  It consist of one
4013 front page with references to the different chapters, several pages
4014 for each chapter, and finally one "collection page" gluing all the
4015 chapters together into one large web page (aka
4016 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Documentation/Wheezy/AllInOne">the
4017 AllInOne page</a>).  The AllInOne page is the one used for further
4018 processing and translations.  Thanks to the fact that the
4019 <a href="http://moinmo.in/">MoinMoin</a> installation on
4020 wiki.debian.org support exporting pages in
4021 <a href="http://www.docbook.org/">the Docbook format</a>, we can fetch
4022 the list of pages to export using the raw version of the AllInOne
4023 page, loop over each of them to generate a Docbook XML version of the
4024 manual.  This process also download images and transform image
4025 references to use the locally downloaded images.  The generated
4026 Docbook XML files are slightly broken, so some post-processing is done
4027 using the <tt>documentation/scripts/get_manual</tt> program, and the
4028 result is a nice Docbook XML file (debian-edu-wheezy-manual.xml) and
4029 a handfull of images.  The XML file can now be used to generate PDF, HTML
4030 and epub versions of the English manual.  This is the basic step of
4031 our process, making PDF (using dblatex), HTML (using xsltproc) and
4032 epub (using dbtoepub) version from Docbook XML, and the resulting files
4033 are placed in the debian-edu-doc-en binary package.</p>
4034
4035 <p>But English documentation is not enough for us.  We want translated
4036 documentation too, and we want to make it easy for translators to
4037 track the English original.  For this we use the
4038 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/p/poxml.html">poxml</a> package,
4039 which allow us to transform the English Docbook XML file into a
4040 translation file (a .pot file), usable with the normal gettext based
4041 translation tools used by those translating free software.  The pot
4042 file is used to create and maintain translation files (several .po
4043 files), which the translations update with the native language
4044 translations of all titles, paragraphs and blocks of text in the
4045 original.  The next step is combining the original English Docbook XML
4046 and the translation file (say debian-edu-wheezy-manual.nb.po), to
4047 create a translated Docbook XML file (in this case
4048 debian-edu-wheezy-manual.nb.xml).  This translated (or partly
4049 translated, if the translation is not complete) Docbook XML file can
4050 then be used like the original to create a PDF, HTML and epub version
4051 of the documentation.</p>
4052
4053 <p>The translators use different tools to edit the .po files.  We
4054 recommend using
4055 <a href="http://www.kde.org/applications/development/lokalize/">lokalize</a>,
4056 while some use emacs and vi, others can use web based editors like
4057 <a href="http://pootle.translatehouse.org/">Poodle</a> or
4058 <a href="https://www.transifex.com/">Transifex</a>.  All we care about
4059 is where the .po file end up, in our git repository.  Updated
4060 translations can either be committed directly to git, or submitted as
4061 <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/src:debian-edu-doc">bug reports
4062 against the debian-edu-doc package</a>.</p>
4063
4064 <p>One challenge is images, which both might need to be translated (if
4065 they show translated user applications), and are needed in different
4066 formats when creating PDF and HTML versions (epub is a HTML version in
4067 this regard).  For this we transform the original PNG images to the
4068 needed density and format during build, and have a way to provide
4069 translated images by storing translated versions in
4070 images/$LANGUAGECODE/.  I am a bit unsure about the details here.  The
4071 package maintainers know more.</p>
4072
4073 <p>If you wonder what the result look like, we provide
4074 <a href="http://maintainer.skolelinux.org/debian-edu-doc/">the content
4075 of the documentation packages on the web</a>.  See for example the
4076 <a href="http://maintainer.skolelinux.org/debian-edu-doc/it/debian-edu-wheezy-manual.pdf">Italian
4077 PDF version</a> or the
4078 <a href="http://maintainer.skolelinux.org/debian-edu-doc/de/debian-edu-wheezy-manual.html">German
4079 HTML version</a>.  We do not yet build the epub version by default,
4080 but perhaps it will be done in the future.</p>
4081
4082 <p>To learn more, check out
4083 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/d/debian-edu-doc.html">the
4084 debian-edu-doc package</a>,
4085 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Documentation/Wheezy/">the
4086 manual on the wiki</a> and
4087 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Documentation/Wheezy/Translations">the
4088 translation instructions</a> in the manual.</p>
4089
4090       </div>
4091       <div class="tags">
4092
4093
4094         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/docbook">docbook</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
4095
4096
4097       </div>
4098     </div>
4099     <div class="padding"></div>
4100
4101     <div class="entry">
4102       <div class="title">
4103         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Install_hardware_dependent_packages_using_tasksel__Isenkram_0_7_.html">Install hardware dependent packages using tasksel (Isenkram 0.7)</a>
4104       </div>
4105       <div class="date">
4106         23rd April 2014
4107       </div>
4108       <div class="body">
4109         <p>It would be nice if it was easier in Debian to get all the hardware
4110 related packages relevant for the computer installed automatically.
4111 So I implemented one, using
4112 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/isenkram">my Isenkram
4113 package</a>.  To use it, install the tasksel and isenkram packages and
4114 run tasksel as user root.  You should be presented with a new option,
4115 "Hardware specific packages (autodetected by isenkram)".  When you
4116 select it, tasksel will install the packages isenkram claim is fit for
4117 the current hardware, hot pluggable or not.<p>
4118
4119 <p>The implementation is in two files, one is the tasksel menu entry
4120 description, and the other is the script used to extract the list of
4121 packages to install.  The first part is in
4122 <tt>/usr/share/tasksel/descs/isenkram.desc</tt> and look like
4123 this:</p>
4124
4125 <p><blockquote><pre>
4126 Task: isenkram
4127 Section: hardware
4128 Description: Hardware specific packages (autodetected by isenkram)
4129  Based on the detected hardware various hardware specific packages are
4130  proposed.
4131 Test-new-install: mark show
4132 Relevance: 8
4133 Packages: for-current-hardware
4134 </pre></blockquote></p>
4135
4136 <p>The second part is in
4137 <tt>/usr/lib/tasksel/packages/for-current-hardware</tt> and look like
4138 this:</p>
4139
4140 <p><blockquote><pre>
4141 #!/bin/sh
4142 #
4143 (
4144     isenkram-lookup
4145     isenkram-autoinstall-firmware -l
4146 ) | sort -u
4147 </pre></blockquote></p>
4148
4149 <p>All in all, a very short and simple implementation making it
4150 trivial to install the hardware dependent package we all may want to
4151 have installed on our machines.  I've not been able to find a way to
4152 get tasksel to tell you exactly which packages it plan to install
4153 before doing the installation.  So if you are curious or careful,
4154 check the output from the isenkram-* command line tools first.</p>
4155
4156 <p>The information about which packages are handling which hardware is
4157 fetched either from the isenkram package itself in
4158 /usr/share/isenkram/, from git.debian.org or from the APT package
4159 database (using the Modaliases header).  The APT package database
4160 parsing have caused a nasty resource leak in the isenkram daemon (bugs
4161 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/719837">#719837</a> and
4162 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/730704">#730704</a>).  The cause is in
4163 the python-apt code (bug
4164 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/745487">#745487</a>), but using a
4165 workaround I was able to get rid of the file descriptor leak and
4166 reduce the memory leak from ~30 MiB per hardware detection down to
4167 around 2 MiB per hardware detection.  It should make the desktop
4168 daemon a lot more useful.  The fix is in version 0.7 uploaded to
4169 unstable today.</p>
4170
4171 <p>I believe the current way of mapping hardware to packages in
4172 Isenkram is is a good draft, but in the future I expect isenkram to
4173 use the AppStream data source for this.  A proposal for getting proper
4174 AppStream support into Debian is floating around as
4175 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/DEP-11">DEP-11</a>, and
4176 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/SummerOfCode2014/Projects#SummerOfCode2014.2FProjects.2FAppStreamDEP11Implementation.AppStream.2FDEP-11_for_the_Debian_Archive">GSoC
4177 project</a> will take place this summer to improve the situation.  I
4178 look forward to seeing the result, and welcome patches for isenkram to
4179 start using the information when it is ready.</p>
4180
4181 <p>If you want your package to map to some specific hardware, either
4182 add a "Xb-Modaliases" header to your control file like I did in
4183 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/pymissile">the pymissile
4184 package</a> or submit a bug report with the details to the isenkram
4185 package.  See also
4186 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram/">all my
4187 blog posts tagged isenkram</a> for details on the notation.  I expect
4188 the information will be migrated to AppStream eventually, but for the
4189 moment I got no better place to store it.</p>
4190
4191       </div>
4192       <div class="tags">
4193
4194
4195         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>.
4196
4197
4198       </div>
4199     </div>
4200     <div class="padding"></div>
4201
4202     <div class="entry">
4203       <div class="title">
4204         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/FreedomBox_milestone___all_packages_now_in_Debian_Sid.html">FreedomBox milestone - all packages now in Debian Sid</a>
4205       </div>
4206       <div class="date">
4207         15th April 2014
4208       </div>
4209       <div class="body">
4210         <p>The <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/FreedomBox">Freedombox
4211 project</a> is working on providing the software and hardware to make
4212 it easy for non-technical people to host their data and communication
4213 at home, and being able to communicate with their friends and family
4214 encrypted and away from prying eyes.  It is still going strong, and
4215 today a major mile stone was reached.</p>
4216
4217 <p>Today, the last of the packages currently used by the project to
4218 created the system images were accepted into Debian Unstable.  It was
4219 the freedombox-setup package, which is used to configure the images
4220 during build and on the first boot.  Now all one need to get going is
4221 the build code from the freedom-maker git repository and packages from
4222 Debian.  And once the freedombox-setup package enter testing, we can
4223 build everything directly from Debian. :)</p>
4224
4225 <p>Some key packages used by Freedombox are
4226 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/freedombox-setup">freedombox-setup</a>,
4227 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/plinth">plinth</a>,
4228 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/pagekite">pagekite</a>,
4229 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/tor">tor</a>,
4230 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/privoxy">privoxy</a>,
4231 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/owncloud">owncloud</a> and
4232 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/dnsmasq">dnsmasq</a>.  There
4233 are plans to integrate more packages into the setup.  User
4234 documentation is maintained on the Debian wiki.  Please
4235 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/FreedomBox/Manual/Jessie">check out
4236 the manual</a> and help us improve it.</p>
4237
4238 <p>To test for yourself and create boot images with the FreedomBox
4239 setup, run this on a Debian machine using a user with sudo rights to
4240 become root:</p>
4241
4242 <p><pre>
4243 sudo apt-get install git vmdebootstrap mercurial python-docutils \
4244   mktorrent extlinux virtualbox qemu-user-static binfmt-support \
4245   u-boot-tools
4246 git clone http://anonscm.debian.org/git/freedombox/freedom-maker.git \
4247   freedom-maker
4248 make -C freedom-maker dreamplug-image raspberry-image virtualbox-image
4249 </pre></p>
4250
4251 <p>Root access is needed to run debootstrap and mount loopback
4252 devices.  See the README in the freedom-maker git repo for more
4253 details on the build.  If you do not want all three images, trim the
4254 make line.  Note that the virtualbox-image target is not really
4255 virtualbox specific.  It create a x86 image usable in kvm, qemu,
4256 vmware and any other x86 virtual machine environment.  You might need
4257 the version of vmdebootstrap in Jessie to get the build working, as it
4258 include fixes for a race condition with kpartx.</p>
4259
4260 <p>If you instead want to install using a Debian CD and the preseed
4261 method, boot a Debian Wheezy ISO and use this boot argument to load
4262 the preseed values:</p>
4263
4264 <p><pre>
4265 url=<a href="http://www.reinholdtsen.name/freedombox/preseed-jessie.dat">http://www.reinholdtsen.name/freedombox/preseed-jessie.dat</a>
4266 </pre></p>
4267
4268 <p>I have not tested it myself the last few weeks, so I do not know if
4269 it still work.</p>
4270
4271 <p>If you wonder how to help, one task you could look at is using
4272 systemd as the boot system.  It will become the default for Linux in
4273 Jessie, so we need to make sure it is usable on the Freedombox.  I did
4274 a simple test a few weeks ago, and noticed dnsmasq failed to start
4275 during boot when using systemd.  I suspect there are other problems
4276 too. :) To detect problems, there is a test suite included, which can
4277 be run from the plinth web interface.</p>
4278
4279 <p>Give it a go and let us know how it goes on the mailing list, and help
4280 us get the new release published. :) Please join us on
4281 <a href="irc://irc.debian.org:6667/%23freedombox">IRC (#freedombox on
4282 irc.debian.org)</a> and
4283 <a href="http://lists.alioth.debian.org/mailman/listinfo/freedombox-discuss">the
4284 mailing list</a> if you want to help make this vision come true.</p>
4285
4286       </div>
4287       <div class="tags">
4288
4289
4290         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freedombox">freedombox</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/web">web</a>.
4291
4292
4293       </div>
4294     </div>
4295     <div class="padding"></div>
4296
4297     <div class="entry">
4298       <div class="title">
4299         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/S3QL__a_locally_mounted_cloud_file_system___nice_free_software.html">S3QL, a locally mounted cloud file system - nice free software</a>
4300       </div>
4301       <div class="date">
4302          9th April 2014
4303       </div>
4304       <div class="body">
4305         <p>For a while now, I have been looking for a sensible offsite backup
4306 solution for use at home.  My requirements are simple, it must be
4307 cheap and locally encrypted (in other words, I keep the encryption
4308 keys, the storage provider do not have access to my private files).
4309 One idea me and my friends had many years ago, before the cloud
4310 storage providers showed up, was to use Google mail as storage,
4311 writing a Linux block device storing blocks as emails in the mail
4312 service provided by Google, and thus get heaps of free space.  On top
4313 of this one can add encryption, RAID and volume management to have
4314 lots of (fairly slow, I admit that) cheap and encrypted storage.  But
4315 I never found time to implement such system.  But the last few weeks I
4316 have looked at a system called
4317 <a href="https://bitbucket.org/nikratio/s3ql/">S3QL</a>, a locally
4318 mounted network backed file system with the features I need.</p>
4319
4320 <p>S3QL is a fuse file system with a local cache and cloud storage,
4321 handling several different storage providers, any with Amazon S3,
4322 Google Drive or OpenStack API.  There are heaps of such storage
4323 providers.  S3QL can also use a local directory as storage, which
4324 combined with sshfs allow for file storage on any ssh server.  S3QL
4325 include support for encryption, compression, de-duplication, snapshots
4326 and immutable file systems, allowing me to mount the remote storage as
4327 a local mount point, look at and use the files as if they were local,
4328 while the content is stored in the cloud as well.  This allow me to
4329 have a backup that should survive fire.  The file system can not be
4330 shared between several machines at the same time, as only one can
4331 mount it at the time, but any machine with the encryption key and
4332 access to the storage service can mount it if it is unmounted.</p>
4333
4334 <p>It is simple to use.  I'm using it on Debian Wheezy, where the
4335 package is included already.  So to get started, run <tt>apt-get
4336 install s3ql</tt>.  Next, pick a storage provider.  I ended up picking
4337 Greenqloud, after reading their nice recipe on
4338 <a href="https://greenqloud.zendesk.com/entries/44611757-How-To-Use-S3QL-to-mount-a-StorageQloud-bucket-on-Debian-Wheezy">how
4339 to use S3QL with their Amazon S3 service</a>, because I trust the laws
4340 in Iceland more than those in USA when it come to keeping my personal
4341 data safe and private, and thus would rather spend money on a company
4342 in Iceland.  Another nice recipe is available from the article
4343 <a href="http://www.admin-magazine.com/HPC/Articles/HPC-Cloud-Storage">S3QL
4344 Filesystem for HPC Storage</a> by Jeff Layton in the HPC section of
4345 Admin magazine.  When the provider is picked, figure out how to get
4346 the API key needed to connect to the storage API.  With Greencloud,
4347 the key did not show up until I had added payment details to my
4348 account.</p>
4349
4350 <p>Armed with the API access details, it is time to create the file
4351 system.  First, create a new bucket in the cloud.  This bucket is the
4352 file system storage area.  I picked a bucket name reflecting the
4353 machine that was going to store data there, but any name will do.
4354 I'll refer to it as <tt>bucket-name</tt> below.  In addition, one need
4355 the API login and password, and a locally created password.  Store it
4356 all in ~root/.s3ql/authinfo2 like this:
4357
4358 <p><blockquote><pre>
4359 [s3c]
4360 storage-url: s3c://s.greenqloud.com:443/bucket-name
4361 backend-login: API-login
4362 backend-password: API-password
4363 fs-passphrase: local-password
4364 </pre></blockquote></p>
4365
4366 <p>I create my local passphrase using <tt>pwget 50</tt> or similar,
4367 but any sensible way to create a fairly random password should do it.
4368 Armed with these details, it is now time to run mkfs, entering the API
4369 details and password to create it:</p>
4370
4371 <p><blockquote><pre>
4372 # mkdir -m 700 /var/lib/s3ql-cache
4373 # mkfs.s3ql --cachedir /var/lib/s3ql-cache --authfile /root/.s3ql/authinfo2 \
4374   --ssl s3c://s.greenqloud.com:443/bucket-name
4375 Enter backend login:
4376 Enter backend password:
4377 Before using S3QL, make sure to read the user's guide, especially
4378 the 'Important Rules to Avoid Loosing Data' section.
4379 Enter encryption password:
4380 Confirm encryption password:
4381 Generating random encryption key...
4382 Creating metadata tables...
4383 Dumping metadata...
4384 ..objects..
4385 ..blocks..
4386 ..inodes..
4387 ..inode_blocks..
4388 ..symlink_targets..
4389 ..names..
4390 ..contents..
4391 ..ext_attributes..
4392 Compressing and uploading metadata...
4393 Wrote 0.00 MB of compressed metadata.
4394 # </pre></blockquote></p>
4395
4396 <p>The next step is mounting the file system to make the storage available.
4397
4398 <p><blockquote><pre>
4399 # mount.s3ql --cachedir /var/lib/s3ql-cache --authfile /root/.s3ql/authinfo2 \
4400   --ssl --allow-root s3c://s.greenqloud.com:443/bucket-name /s3ql
4401 Using 4 upload threads.
4402 Downloading and decompressing metadata...
4403 Reading metadata...
4404 ..objects..
4405 ..blocks..
4406 ..inodes..
4407 ..inode_blocks..
4408 ..symlink_targets..
4409 ..names..
4410 ..contents..
4411 ..ext_attributes..
4412 Mounting filesystem...
4413 # df -h /s3ql
4414 Filesystem                              Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
4415 s3c://s.greenqloud.com:443/bucket-name  1.0T     0  1.0T   0% /s3ql
4416 #
4417 </pre></blockquote></p>
4418
4419 <p>The file system is now ready for use.  I use rsync to store my
4420 backups in it, and as the metadata used by rsync is downloaded at
4421 mount time, no network traffic (and storage cost) is triggered by
4422 running rsync.  To unmount, one should not use the normal umount
4423 command, as this will not flush the cache to the cloud storage, but
4424 instead running the umount.s3ql command like this:
4425
4426 <p><blockquote><pre>
4427 # umount.s3ql /s3ql
4428 #
4429 </pre></blockquote></p>
4430
4431 <p>There is a fsck command available to check the file system and
4432 correct any problems detected.  This can be used if the local server
4433 crashes while the file system is mounted, to reset the "already
4434 mounted" flag.  This is what it look like when processing a working
4435 file system:</p>
4436
4437 <p><blockquote><pre>
4438 # fsck.s3ql --force --ssl s3c://s.greenqloud.com:443/bucket-name
4439 Using cached metadata.
4440 File system seems clean, checking anyway.
4441 Checking DB integrity...
4442 Creating temporary extra indices...
4443 Checking lost+found...
4444 Checking cached objects...
4445 Checking names (refcounts)...
4446 Checking contents (names)...
4447 Checking contents (inodes)...
4448 Checking contents (parent inodes)...
4449 Checking objects (reference counts)...
4450 Checking objects (backend)...
4451 ..processed 5000 objects so far..
4452 ..processed 10000 objects so far..
4453 ..processed 15000 objects so far..
4454 Checking objects (sizes)...
4455 Checking blocks (referenced objects)...
4456 Checking blocks (refcounts)...
4457 Checking inode-block mapping (blocks)...
4458 Checking inode-block mapping (inodes)...
4459 Checking inodes (refcounts)...
4460 Checking inodes (sizes)...
4461 Checking extended attributes (names)...
4462 Checking extended attributes (inodes)...
4463 Checking symlinks (inodes)...
4464 Checking directory reachability...
4465 Checking unix conventions...
4466 Checking referential integrity...
4467 Dropping temporary indices...
4468 Backing up old metadata...
4469 Dumping metadata...
4470 ..objects..
4471 ..blocks..
4472 ..inodes..
4473 ..inode_blocks..
4474 ..symlink_targets..
4475 ..names..
4476 ..contents..
4477 ..ext_attributes..
4478 Compressing and uploading metadata...
4479 Wrote 0.89 MB of compressed metadata.
4480 #
4481 </pre></blockquote></p>
4482
4483 <p>Thanks to the cache, working on files that fit in the cache is very
4484 quick, about the same speed as local file access.  Uploading large
4485 amount of data is to me limited by the bandwidth out of and into my
4486 house.  Uploading 685 MiB with a 100 MiB cache gave me 305 kiB/s,
4487 which is very close to my upload speed, and downloading the same
4488 Debian installation ISO gave me 610 kiB/s, close to my download speed.
4489 Both were measured using <tt>dd</tt>.  So for me, the bottleneck is my
4490 network, not the file system code.  I do not know what a good cache
4491 size would be, but suspect that the cache should e larger than your
4492 working set.</p>
4493
4494 <p>I mentioned that only one machine can mount the file system at the
4495 time.  If another machine try, it is told that the file system is
4496 busy:</p>
4497
4498 <p><blockquote><pre>
4499 # mount.s3ql --cachedir /var/lib/s3ql-cache --authfile /root/.s3ql/authinfo2 \
4500   --ssl --allow-root s3c://s.greenqloud.com:443/bucket-name /s3ql
4501 Using 8 upload threads.
4502 Backend reports that fs is still mounted elsewhere, aborting.
4503 #
4504 </pre></blockquote></p>
4505
4506 <p>The file content is uploaded when the cache is full, while the
4507 metadata is uploaded once every 24 hour by default.  To ensure the
4508 file system content is flushed to the cloud, one can either umount the
4509 file system, or ask S3QL to flush the cache and metadata using
4510 s3qlctrl:
4511
4512 <p><blockquote><pre>
4513 # s3qlctrl upload-meta /s3ql
4514 # s3qlctrl flushcache /s3ql
4515 #
4516 </pre></blockquote></p>
4517
4518 <p>If you are curious about how much space your data uses in the
4519 cloud, and how much compression and deduplication cut down on the
4520 storage usage, you can use s3qlstat on the mounted file system to get
4521 a report:</p>
4522
4523 <p><blockquote><pre>
4524 # s3qlstat /s3ql
4525 Directory entries:    9141
4526 Inodes:               9143
4527 Data blocks:          8851
4528 Total data size:      22049.38 MB
4529 After de-duplication: 21955.46 MB (99.57% of total)
4530 After compression:    21877.28 MB (99.22% of total, 99.64% of de-duplicated)
4531 Database size:        2.39 MB (uncompressed)
4532 (some values do not take into account not-yet-uploaded dirty blocks in cache)
4533 #
4534 </pre></blockquote></p>
4535
4536 <p>I mentioned earlier that there are several possible suppliers of
4537 storage.  I did not try to locate them all, but am aware of at least
4538 <a href="https://www.greenqloud.com/">Greenqloud</a>,
4539 <a href="http://drive.google.com/">Google Drive</a>,
4540 <a href="http://aws.amazon.com/s3/">Amazon S3 web serivces</a>,
4541 <a href="http://www.rackspace.com/">Rackspace</a> and
4542 <a href="http://crowncloud.net/">Crowncloud</A>.  The latter even
4543 accept payment in Bitcoin.  Pick one that suit your need.  Some of
4544 them provide several GiB of free storage, but the prize models are
4545 quite different and you will have to figure out what suits you
4546 best.</p>
4547
4548 <p>While researching this blog post, I had a look at research papers
4549 and posters discussing the S3QL file system.  There are several, which
4550 told me that the file system is getting a critical check by the
4551 science community and increased my confidence in using it.  One nice
4552 poster is titled
4553 "<a href="http://www.lanl.gov/orgs/adtsc/publications/science_highlights_2013/docs/pg68_69.pdf">An
4554 Innovative Parallel Cloud Storage System using OpenStack’s SwiftObject
4555 Store and Transformative Parallel I/O Approach</a>" by Hsing-Bung
4556 Chen, Benjamin McClelland, David Sherrill, Alfred Torrez, Parks Fields
4557 and Pamela Smith.  Please  have a look.</p>
4558
4559 <p>Given my problems with different file systems earlier, I decided to
4560 check out the mounted S3QL file system to see if it would be usable as
4561 a home directory (in other word, that it provided POSIX semantics when
4562 it come to locking and umask handling etc).  Running
4563 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Testing_if_a_file_system_can_be_used_for_home_directories___.html">my
4564 test code to check file system semantics</a>, I was happy to discover that
4565 no error was found.  So the file system can be used for home
4566 directories, if one chooses to do so.</p>
4567
4568 <p>If you do not want a locally file system, and want something that
4569 work without the Linux fuse file system, I would like to mention the
4570 <a href="http://www.tarsnap.com/">Tarsnap service</a>, which also
4571 provide locally encrypted backup using a command line client.  It have
4572 a nicer access control system, where one can split out read and write
4573 access, allowing some systems to write to the backup and others to
4574 only read from it.</p>
4575
4576 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
4577 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
4578 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b&label=PetterReinholdtsenBlog">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
4579
4580       </div>
4581       <div class="tags">
4582
4583
4584         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nice free software">nice free software</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/personvern">personvern</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet</a>.
4585
4586
4587       </div>
4588     </div>
4589     <div class="padding"></div>
4590
4591     <div class="entry">
4592       <div class="title">
4593         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Freedombox_on_Dreamplug__Raspberry_Pi_and_virtual_x86_machine.html">Freedombox on Dreamplug, Raspberry Pi and virtual x86 machine</a>
4594       </div>
4595       <div class="date">
4596         14th March 2014
4597       </div>
4598       <div class="body">
4599         <p>The <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/FreedomBox">Freedombox
4600 project</a> is working on providing the software and hardware for
4601 making it easy for non-technical people to host their data and
4602 communication at home, and being able to communicate with their
4603 friends and family encrypted and away from prying eyes.  It has been
4604 going on for a while, and is slowly progressing towards a new test
4605 release (0.2).</p>
4606
4607 <p>And what day could be better than the Pi day to announce that the
4608 new version will provide "hard drive" / SD card / USB stick images for
4609 Dreamplug, Raspberry Pi and VirtualBox (or any other virtualization
4610 system), and can also be installed using a Debian installer preseed
4611 file.  The Debian based Freedombox is now based on Debian Jessie,
4612 where most of the needed packages used are already present.  Only one,
4613 the freedombox-setup package, is missing.  To try to build your own
4614 boot image to test the current status, fetch the freedom-maker scripts
4615 and build using
4616 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/vmdebootstrap">vmdebootstrap</a>
4617 with a user with sudo access to become root:
4618
4619 <pre>
4620 git clone http://anonscm.debian.org/git/freedombox/freedom-maker.git \
4621   freedom-maker
4622 sudo apt-get install git vmdebootstrap mercurial python-docutils \
4623   mktorrent extlinux virtualbox qemu-user-static binfmt-support \
4624   u-boot-tools
4625 make -C freedom-maker dreamplug-image raspberry-image virtualbox-image
4626 </pre>
4627
4628 <p>Root access is needed to run debootstrap and mount loopback
4629 devices.  See the README for more details on the build. If you do not
4630 want all three images, trim the make line.  But note that thanks to <a
4631 href="https://bugs.debian.org/741407">a race condition in
4632 vmdebootstrap</a>, the build might fail without the patch to the
4633 kpartx call.</p>
4634
4635 <p>If you instead want to install using a Debian CD and the preseed
4636 method, boot a Debian Wheezy ISO and use this boot argument to load
4637 the preseed values:</p>
4638
4639 <pre>
4640 url=<a href="http://www.reinholdtsen.name/freedombox/preseed-jessie.dat">http://www.reinholdtsen.name/freedombox/preseed-jessie.dat</a>
4641 </pre>
4642
4643 <p>But note that due to <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/740673">a
4644 recently introduced bug in apt in Jessie</a>, the installer will
4645 currently hang while setting up APT sources.  Killing the
4646 '<tt>apt-cdrom ident</tt>' process when it hang a few times during the
4647 installation will get the installation going.  This affect all
4648 installations in Jessie, and I expect it will be fixed soon.</p>
4649
4650 <p>Give it a go and let us know how it goes on the mailing list, and help
4651 us get the new release published. :) Please join us on
4652 <a href="irc://irc.debian.org:6667/%23freedombox">IRC (#freedombox on
4653 irc.debian.org)</a> and
4654 <a href="http://lists.alioth.debian.org/mailman/listinfo/freedombox-discuss">the
4655 mailing list</a> if you want to help make this vision come true.</p>
4656
4657       </div>
4658       <div class="tags">
4659
4660
4661         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freedombox">freedombox</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/web">web</a>.
4662
4663
4664       </div>
4665     </div>
4666     <div class="padding"></div>
4667
4668     <div class="entry">
4669       <div class="title">
4670         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/New_home_and_release_1_0_for_netgroup_and_innetgr__aka_ng_utils_.html">New home and release 1.0 for netgroup and innetgr (aka ng-utils)</a>
4671       </div>
4672       <div class="date">
4673         22nd February 2014
4674       </div>
4675       <div class="body">
4676         <p>Many years ago, I wrote a GPL licensed version of the netgroup and
4677 innetgr tools, because I needed them in
4678 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Skolelinux</a>.  I called the project
4679 ng-utils, and it has served me well.  I placed the project under the
4680 <a href="http://www.hungry.com/">Hungry Programmer</a> umbrella, and it was maintained in our CVS
4681 repository.  But many years ago, the CVS repository was dropped (lost,
4682 not migrated to new hardware, not sure), and the project have lacked a
4683 proper home since then.</p>
4684
4685 <p>Last summer, I had a look at the package and made a new release
4686 fixing a irritating crash bug, but was unable to store the changes in
4687 a proper source control system.  I applied for a project on
4688 <a href="https://alioth.debian.org/">Alioth</a>, but did not have time
4689 to follow up on it.  Until today. :)</p>
4690
4691 <p>After many hours of cleaning and migration, the ng-utils project
4692 now have a new home, and a git repository with the highlight of the
4693 history of the project.  I published all release tarballs and imported
4694 them into the git repository.  As the project is really stable and not
4695 expected to gain new features any time soon, I decided to make a new
4696 release and call it 1.0.  Visit the new project home on
4697 <a href="https://alioth.debian.org/projects/ng-utils/">https://alioth.debian.org/projects/ng-utils/</a>
4698 if you want to check it out.  The new version is also uploaded into
4699 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/n/ng-utils.html">Debian Unstable</a>.</p>
4700
4701       </div>
4702       <div class="tags">
4703
4704
4705         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>.
4706
4707
4708       </div>
4709     </div>
4710     <div class="padding"></div>
4711
4712     <div class="entry">
4713       <div class="title">
4714         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Testing_sysvinit_from_experimental_in_Debian_Hurd.html">Testing sysvinit from experimental in Debian Hurd</a>
4715       </div>
4716       <div class="date">
4717          3rd February 2014
4718       </div>
4719       <div class="body">
4720         <p>A few days ago I decided to try to help the Hurd people to get
4721 their changes into sysvinit, to allow them to use the normal sysvinit
4722 boot system instead of their old one.  This follow up on the
4723 <a href="https://teythoon.cryptobitch.de//categories/gsoc.html">great
4724 Google Summer of Code work</a> done last summer by Justus Winter to
4725 get Debian on Hurd working more like Debian on Linux.  To get started,
4726 I downloaded a prebuilt hard disk image from
4727 <a href="http://ftp.debian-ports.org/debian-cd/hurd-i386/current/debian-hurd.img.tar.gz">http://ftp.debian-ports.org/debian-cd/hurd-i386/current/debian-hurd.img.tar.gz</a>,
4728 and started it using virt-manager.</p>
4729
4730 <p>The first think I had to do after logging in (root without any
4731 password) was to get the network operational.  I followed
4732 <a href="https://www.debian.org/ports/hurd/hurd-install">the
4733 instructions on the Debian GNU/Hurd ports page</a> and ran these
4734 commands as root to get the machine to accept a IP address from the
4735 kvm internal DHCP server:</p>
4736
4737 <p><blockquote><pre>
4738 settrans -fgap /dev/netdde /hurd/netdde
4739 kill $(ps -ef|awk '/[p]finet/ { print $2}')
4740 kill $(ps -ef|awk '/[d]evnode/ { print $2}')
4741 dhclient /dev/eth0
4742 </pre></blockquote></p>
4743
4744 <p>After this, the machine had internet connectivity, and I could
4745 upgrade it and install the sysvinit packages from experimental and
4746 enable it as the default boot system in Hurd.</p>
4747
4748 <p>But before I did that, I set a password on the root user, as ssh is
4749 running on the machine it for ssh login to work a password need to be
4750 set.  Also, note that a bug somewhere in openssh on Hurd block
4751 compression from working.  Remember to turn that off on the client
4752 side.</p>
4753
4754 <p>Run these commands as root to upgrade and test the new sysvinit
4755 stuff:</p>
4756
4757 <p><blockquote><pre>
4758 cat > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/experimental.list &lt;&lt;EOF
4759 deb http://http.debian.net/debian/ experimental main
4760 EOF
4761 apt-get update
4762 apt-get dist-upgrade
4763 apt-get install -t experimental initscripts sysv-rc sysvinit \
4764     sysvinit-core sysvinit-utils
4765 update-alternatives --config runsystem
4766 </pre></blockquote></p>
4767
4768 <p>To reboot after switching boot system, you have to use
4769 <tt>reboot-hurd</tt> instead of just <tt>reboot</tt>, as there is not
4770 yet a sysvinit process able to receive the signals from the normal
4771 'reboot' command.  After switching to sysvinit as the boot system,
4772 upgrading every package and rebooting, the network come up with DHCP
4773 after boot as it should, and the settrans/pkill hack mentioned at the
4774 start is no longer needed.  But for some strange reason, there are no
4775 longer any login prompt in the virtual console, so I logged in using
4776 ssh instead.
4777
4778 <p>Note that there are some race conditions in Hurd making the boot
4779 fail some times.  No idea what the cause is, but hope the Hurd porters
4780 figure it out.  At least Justus said on IRC (#debian-hurd on
4781 irc.debian.org) that they are aware of the problem.  A way to reduce
4782 the impact is to upgrade to the Hurd packages built by Justus by
4783 adding this repository to the machine:</p>
4784
4785 <p><blockquote><pre>
4786 cat > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/hurd-ci.list &lt;&lt;EOF
4787 deb http://darnassus.sceen.net/~teythoon/hurd-ci/ sid main
4788 EOF
4789 </pre></blockquote></p>
4790
4791 <p>At the moment the prebuilt virtual machine get some packages from
4792 http://ftp.debian-ports.org/debian, because some of the packages in
4793 unstable do not yet include the required patches that are lingering in
4794 BTS.  This is the completely list of "unofficial" packages installed:</p>
4795
4796 <p><blockquote><pre>
4797 # aptitude search '?narrow(?version(CURRENT),?origin(Debian Ports))'
4798 i   emacs                   - GNU Emacs editor (metapackage)
4799 i   gdb                     - GNU Debugger
4800 i   hurd-recommended        - Miscellaneous translators
4801 i   isc-dhcp-client         - ISC DHCP client
4802 i   isc-dhcp-common         - common files used by all the isc-dhcp* packages
4803 i   libc-bin                - Embedded GNU C Library: Binaries
4804 i   libc-dev-bin            - Embedded GNU C Library: Development binaries
4805 i   libc0.3                 - Embedded GNU C Library: Shared libraries
4806 i A libc0.3-dbg             - Embedded GNU C Library: detached debugging symbols
4807 i   libc0.3-dev             - Embedded GNU C Library: Development Libraries and Hea
4808 i   multiarch-support       - Transitional package to ensure multiarch compatibilit
4809 i A x11-common              - X Window System (X.Org) infrastructure
4810 i   xorg                    - X.Org X Window System
4811 i A xserver-xorg            - X.Org X server
4812 i A xserver-xorg-input-all  - X.Org X server -- input driver metapackage
4813 #
4814 </pre></blockquote></p>
4815
4816 <p>All in all, testing hurd has been an interesting experience. :)
4817 X.org did not work out of the box and I never took the time to follow
4818 the porters instructions to fix it.  This time I was interested in the
4819 command line stuff.<p>
4820
4821       </div>
4822       <div class="tags">
4823
4824
4825         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>.
4826
4827
4828       </div>
4829     </div>
4830     <div class="padding"></div>
4831
4832     <div class="entry">
4833       <div class="title">
4834         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/New_chrpath_release_0_16.html">New chrpath release 0.16</a>
4835       </div>
4836       <div class="date">
4837         14th January 2014
4838       </div>
4839       <div class="body">
4840         <p><a href="http://www.coverity.com/">Coverity</a> is a nice tool to
4841 find problems in C, C++ and Java code using static source code
4842 analysis.  It can detect a lot of different problems, and is very
4843 useful to find memory and locking bugs in the error handling part of
4844 the source.  The company behind it provide
4845 <a href="https://scan.coverity.com/">check of free software projects as
4846 a community service</a>, and many hundred free software projects are
4847 already checked.  A few days ago I decided to have a closer look at
4848 the Coverity system, and discovered that the
4849 <a href="http://www.gnu.org/software/gnash/">gnash</a> and
4850 <a href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/ipmitool/">ipmitool</a>
4851 projects I am involved with was already registered.  But these are
4852 fairly big, and I would also like to have a small and easy project to
4853 check, and decided to <a href="http://scan.coverity.com/projects/1179">request
4854 checking of the chrpath project</a>.  It was
4855 added to the checker and discovered seven potential defects.  Six of
4856 these were real, mostly resource "leak" when the program detected an
4857 error.  Nothing serious, as the resources would be released a fraction
4858 of a second later when the program exited because of the error, but it
4859 is nice to do it right in case the source of the program some time in
4860 the future end up in a library.  Having fixed all defects and added
4861 <a href="https://lists.alioth.debian.org/mailman/listinfo/chrpath-devel">a
4862 mailing list for the chrpath developers</a>, I decided it was time to
4863 publish a new release.  These are the release notes:</p>
4864
4865 <p>New in 0.16 released 2014-01-14:</p>
4866
4867 <ul>
4868
4869   <li>Fixed all minor bugs discovered by Coverity.</li>
4870   <li>Updated config.sub and config.guess from the GNU project.</li>
4871   <li>Mention new project mailing list in the documentation.</li>
4872
4873 </ul>
4874
4875 <p>You can
4876 <a href="https://alioth.debian.org/frs/?group_id=31052">download the
4877 new version 0.16 from alioth</a>.  Please let us know via the Alioth
4878 project if something is wrong with the new release.  The test suite
4879 did not discover any old errors, so if you find a new one, please also
4880 include a test suite check.</p>
4881
4882       </div>
4883       <div class="tags">
4884
4885
4886         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/chrpath">chrpath</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
4887
4888
4889       </div>
4890     </div>
4891     <div class="padding"></div>
4892
4893     <div class="entry">
4894       <div class="title">
4895         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/New_chrpath_release_0_15.html">New chrpath release 0.15</a>
4896       </div>
4897       <div class="date">
4898         24th November 2013
4899       </div>
4900       <div class="body">
4901         <p>After many years break from the package and a vain hope that
4902 development would be continued by someone else, I finally pulled my
4903 acts together this morning and wrapped up a new release of chrpath,
4904 the command line tool to modify the rpath and runpath of already
4905 compiled ELF programs.  The update was triggered by the persistence of
4906 Isha Vishnoi at IBM, which needed a new config.guess file to get
4907 support for the ppc64le architecture (powerpc 64-bit Little Endian) he
4908 is working on.  I checked the
4909 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/chrpath">Debian</a>,
4910 <a href="https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/chrpath">Ubuntu</a> and
4911 <a href="https://admin.fedoraproject.org/pkgdb/acls/name/chrpath">Fedora</a>
4912 packages for interesting patches (failed to find the source from
4913 OpenSUSE and Mandriva packages), and found quite a few nice fixes.
4914 These are the release notes:</p>
4915
4916 <p>New in 0.15 released 2013-11-24:</p>
4917
4918 <ul>
4919
4920   <li>Updated config.sub and config.guess from the GNU project to work
4921    with newer architectures.  Thanks to isha vishnoi for the heads
4922    up.</li>
4923
4924   <li>Updated README with current URLs.</li>
4925
4926   <li>Added byteswap fix found in Ubuntu, credited Jeremy Kerr and
4927    Matthias Klose.</li>
4928
4929   <li>Added missing help for -k|--keepgoing option, using patch by
4930    Petr Machata found in Fedora.</li>
4931
4932   <li>Rewrite removal of RPATH/RUNPATH to make sure the entry in
4933    .dynamic is a NULL terminated string.  Based on patch found in
4934    Fedora credited Axel Thimm and Christian Krause.</li>
4935
4936 </ul>
4937
4938 <p>You can
4939 <a href="https://alioth.debian.org/frs/?group_id=31052">download the
4940 new version 0.15 from alioth</a>.  Please let us know via the Alioth
4941 project if something is wrong with the new release.  The test suite
4942 did not discover any old errors, so if you find a new one, please also
4943 include a testsuite check.</p>
4944
4945       </div>
4946       <div class="tags">
4947
4948
4949         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/chrpath">chrpath</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
4950
4951
4952       </div>
4953     </div>
4954     <div class="padding"></div>
4955
4956     <div class="entry">
4957       <div class="title">
4958         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_init_d_boot_script_example_for_rsyslog.html">Debian init.d boot script example for rsyslog</a>
4959       </div>
4960       <div class="date">
4961          2nd November 2013
4962       </div>
4963       <div class="body">
4964         <p>If one of the points of switching to a new init system in Debian is
4965 <a href="http://thomas.goirand.fr/blog/?p=147">to get rid of huge
4966 init.d scripts</a>, I doubt we need to switch away from sysvinit and
4967 init.d scripts at all.  Here is an example init.d script, ie a rewrite
4968 of /etc/init.d/rsyslog:</p>
4969
4970 <p><pre>
4971 #!/lib/init/init-d-script
4972 ### BEGIN INIT INFO
4973 # Provides:          rsyslog
4974 # Required-Start:    $remote_fs $time
4975 # Required-Stop:     umountnfs $time
4976 # X-Stop-After:      sendsigs
4977 # Default-Start:     2 3 4 5
4978 # Default-Stop:      0 1 6
4979 # Short-Description: enhanced syslogd
4980 # Description:       Rsyslog is an enhanced multi-threaded syslogd.
4981 #                    It is quite compatible to stock sysklogd and can be
4982 #                    used as a drop-in replacement.
4983 ### END INIT INFO
4984 DESC="enhanced syslogd"
4985 DAEMON=/usr/sbin/rsyslogd
4986 </pre></p>
4987
4988 <p>Pretty minimalistic to me... For the record, the original sysv-rc
4989 script was 137 lines, and the above is just 15 lines, most of it meta
4990 info/comments.</p>
4991
4992 <p>How to do this, you ask?  Well, one create a new script
4993 /lib/init/init-d-script looking something like this:
4994
4995 <p><pre>
4996 #!/bin/sh
4997
4998 # Define LSB log_* functions.
4999 # Depend on lsb-base (>= 3.2-14) to ensure that this file is present
5000 # and status_of_proc is working.
5001 . /lib/lsb/init-functions
5002
5003 #
5004 # Function that starts the daemon/service
5005
5006 #
5007 do_start()
5008 {
5009         # Return
5010         #   0 if daemon has been started
5011         #   1 if daemon was already running
5012         #   2 if daemon could not be started
5013         start-stop-daemon --start --quiet --pidfile $PIDFILE --exec $DAEMON --test > /dev/null \
5014                 || return 1
5015         start-stop-daemon --start --quiet --pidfile $PIDFILE --exec $DAEMON -- \
5016                 $DAEMON_ARGS \
5017                 || return 2
5018         # Add code here, if necessary, that waits for the process to be ready
5019         # to handle requests from services started subsequently which depend
5020         # on this one.  As a last resort, sleep for some time.
5021 }
5022
5023 #
5024 # Function that stops the daemon/service
5025 #
5026 do_stop()
5027 {
5028         # Return
5029         #   0 if daemon has been stopped
5030         #   1 if daemon was already stopped
5031         #   2 if daemon could not be stopped
5032         #   other if a failure occurred
5033         start-stop-daemon --stop --quiet --retry=TERM/30/KILL/5 --pidfile $PIDFILE --name $NAME
5034         RETVAL="$?"
5035         [ "$RETVAL" = 2 ] && return 2
5036         # Wait for children to finish too if this is a daemon that forks
5037         # and if the daemon is only ever run from this initscript.
5038         # If the above conditions are not satisfied then add some other code
5039         # that waits for the process to drop all resources that could be
5040         # needed by services started subsequently.  A last resort is to
5041         # sleep for some time.
5042         start-stop-daemon --stop --quiet --oknodo --retry=0/30/KILL/5 --exec $DAEMON
5043         [ "$?" = 2 ] && return 2
5044         # Many daemons don't delete their pidfiles when they exit.
5045         rm -f $PIDFILE
5046         return "$RETVAL"
5047 }
5048
5049 #
5050 # Function that sends a SIGHUP to the daemon/service
5051 #
5052 do_reload() {
5053         #
5054         # If the daemon can reload its configuration without
5055         # restarting (for example, when it is sent a SIGHUP),
5056         # then implement that here.
5057         #
5058         start-stop-daemon --stop --signal 1 --quiet --pidfile $PIDFILE --name $NAME
5059         return 0
5060 }
5061
5062 SCRIPTNAME=$1
5063 scriptbasename="$(basename $1)"
5064 echo "SN: $scriptbasename"
5065 if [ "$scriptbasename" != "init-d-library" ] ; then
5066     script="$1"
5067     shift
5068     . $script
5069 else
5070     exit 0
5071 fi
5072
5073 NAME=$(basename $DAEMON)
5074 PIDFILE=/var/run/$NAME.pid
5075
5076 # Exit if the package is not installed
5077 #[ -x "$DAEMON" ] || exit 0
5078
5079 # Read configuration variable file if it is present
5080 [ -r /etc/default/$NAME ] && . /etc/default/$NAME
5081
5082 # Load the VERBOSE setting and other rcS variables
5083 . /lib/init/vars.sh
5084
5085 case "$1" in
5086   start)
5087         [ "$VERBOSE" != no ] && log_daemon_msg "Starting $DESC" "$NAME"
5088         do_start
5089         case "$?" in
5090                 0|1) [ "$VERBOSE" != no ] && log_end_msg 0 ;;
5091                 2) [ "$VERBOSE" != no ] && log_end_msg 1 ;;
5092         esac
5093         ;;
5094   stop)
5095         [ "$VERBOSE" != no ] && log_daemon_msg "Stopping $DESC" "$NAME"
5096         do_stop
5097         case "$?" in
5098                 0|1) [ "$VERBOSE" != no ] && log_end_msg 0 ;;
5099                 2) [ "$VERBOSE" != no ] && log_end_msg 1 ;;
5100         esac
5101         ;;
5102   status)
5103         status_of_proc "$DAEMON" "$NAME" && exit 0 || exit $?
5104         ;;
5105   #reload|force-reload)
5106         #
5107         # If do_reload() is not implemented then leave this commented out
5108         # and leave 'force-reload' as an alias for 'restart'.
5109         #
5110         #log_daemon_msg "Reloading $DESC" "$NAME"
5111         #do_reload
5112         #log_end_msg $?
5113         #;;
5114   restart|force-reload)
5115         #
5116         # If the "reload" option is implemented then remove the
5117         # 'force-reload' alias
5118         #
5119         log_daemon_msg "Restarting $DESC" "$NAME"
5120         do_stop
5121         case "$?" in
5122           0|1)
5123                 do_start
5124                 case "$?" in
5125                         0) log_end_msg 0 ;;
5126                         1) log_end_msg 1 ;; # Old process is still running
5127                         *) log_end_msg 1 ;; # Failed to start
5128                 esac
5129                 ;;
5130           *)
5131                 # Failed to stop
5132                 log_end_msg 1
5133                 ;;
5134         esac
5135         ;;
5136   *)
5137         echo "Usage: $SCRIPTNAME {start|stop|status|restart|force-reload}" >&2
5138         exit 3
5139         ;;
5140 esac
5141
5142 :
5143 </pre></p>
5144
5145 <p>It is based on /etc/init.d/skeleton, and could be improved quite a
5146 lot.  I did not really polish the approach, so it might not always
5147 work out of the box, but you get the idea.  I did not try very hard to
5148 optimize it nor make it more robust either.</p>
5149
5150 <p>A better argument for switching init system in Debian than reducing
5151 the size of init scripts (which is a good thing to do anyway), is to
5152 get boot system that is able to handle the kernel events sensibly and
5153 robustly, and do not depend on the boot to run sequentially.  The boot
5154 and the kernel have not behaved sequentially in years.</p>
5155
5156       </div>
5157       <div class="tags">
5158
5159
5160         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>.
5161
5162
5163       </div>
5164     </div>
5165     <div class="padding"></div>
5166
5167     <div class="entry">
5168       <div class="title">
5169         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Browser_plugin_for_SPICE__spice_xpi__uploaded_to_Debian.html">Browser plugin for SPICE (spice-xpi) uploaded to Debian</a>
5170       </div>
5171       <div class="date">
5172          1st November 2013
5173       </div>
5174       <div class="body">
5175         <p><a href="http://www.spice-space.org/">The SPICE protocol</a> for
5176 remote display access is the preferred solution with oVirt and RedHat
5177 Enterprise Virtualization, and I was sad to discover the other day
5178 that the browser plugin needed to use these systems seamlessly was
5179 missing in Debian.  The <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/668284">request
5180 for a package</a> was from 2012-04-10 with no progress since
5181 2013-04-01, so I decided to wrap up a package based on the great work
5182 from Cajus Pollmeier and put it in a collab-maint maintained git
5183 repository to get a package I could use.  I would very much like
5184 others to help me maintain the package (or just take over, I do not
5185 mind), but as no-one had volunteered so far, I just uploaded it to
5186 NEW.  I hope it will be available in Debian in a few days.</p>
5187
5188 <p>The source is now available from
5189 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/gitweb/?p=collab-maint/spice-xpi.git;a=summary">http://anonscm.debian.org/gitweb/?p=collab-maint/spice-xpi.git;a=summary</a>.</p>
5190
5191       </div>
5192       <div class="tags">
5193
5194
5195         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>.
5196
5197
5198       </div>
5199     </div>
5200     <div class="padding"></div>
5201
5202     <div class="entry">
5203       <div class="title">
5204         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Teaching_vmdebootstrap_to_create_Raspberry_Pi_SD_card_images.html">Teaching vmdebootstrap to create Raspberry Pi SD card images</a>
5205       </div>
5206       <div class="date">
5207         27th October 2013
5208       </div>
5209       <div class="body">
5210         <p>The
5211 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/v/vmdebootstrap.html">vmdebootstrap</a>
5212 program is a a very nice system to create virtual machine images.  It
5213 create a image file, add a partition table, mount it and run
5214 debootstrap in the mounted directory to create a Debian system on a
5215 stick.  Yesterday, I decided to try to teach it how to make images for
5216 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/RaspberryPi">Raspberry Pi</a>, as part
5217 of a plan to simplify the build system for
5218 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/FreedomBox">the FreedomBox
5219 project</a>.  The FreedomBox project already uses vmdebootstrap for
5220 the virtualbox images, but its current build system made multistrap
5221 based system for Dreamplug images, and it is lacking support for
5222 Raspberry Pi.</p>
5223
5224 <p>Armed with the knowledge on how to build "foreign" (aka non-native
5225 architecture) chroots for Raspberry Pi, I dived into the vmdebootstrap
5226 code and adjusted it to be able to build armel images on my amd64
5227 Debian laptop.  I ended up giving vmdebootstrap five new options,
5228 allowing me to replicate the image creation process I use to make
5229 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/A_Raspberry_Pi_based_batman_adv_Mesh_network_node.html">Debian
5230 Jessie based mesh node images for the Raspberry Pi</a>.  First, the
5231 <tt>--foreign /path/to/binfm_handler</tt> option tell vmdebootstrap to
5232 call debootstrap with --foreign and to copy the handler into the
5233 generated chroot before running the second stage.  This allow
5234 vmdebootstrap to create armel images on an amd64 host.  Next I added
5235 two new options <tt>--bootsize size</tt> and <tt>--boottype
5236 fstype</tt> to teach it to create a separate /boot/ partition with the
5237 given file system type, allowing me to create an image with a vfat
5238 partition for the /boot/ stuff.  I also added a <tt>--variant
5239 variant</tt> option to allow me to create smaller images without the
5240 Debian base system packages installed.  Finally, I added an option
5241 <tt>--no-extlinux</tt> to tell vmdebootstrap to not install extlinux
5242 as a boot loader.  It is not needed on the Raspberry Pi and probably
5243 most other non-x86 architectures.  The changes were accepted by the
5244 upstream author of vmdebootstrap yesterday and today, and is now
5245 available from
5246 <a href="http://git.liw.fi/cgi-bin/cgit/cgit.cgi/vmdebootstrap/">the
5247 upstream project page</a>.</p>
5248
5249 <p>To use it to build a Raspberry Pi image using Debian Jessie, first
5250 create a small script (the customize script) to add the non-free
5251 binary blob needed to boot the Raspberry Pi and the APT source
5252 list:</p>
5253
5254 <p><pre>
5255 #!/bin/sh
5256 set -e # Exit on first error
5257 rootdir="$1"
5258 cd "$rootdir"
5259 cat &lt;&lt;EOF > etc/apt/sources.list
5260 deb http://http.debian.net/debian/ jessie main contrib non-free
5261 EOF
5262 # Install non-free binary blob needed to boot Raspberry Pi.  This
5263 # install a kernel somewhere too.
5264 wget https://raw.github.com/Hexxeh/rpi-update/master/rpi-update \
5265     -O $rootdir/usr/bin/rpi-update
5266 chmod a+x $rootdir/usr/bin/rpi-update
5267 mkdir -p $rootdir/lib/modules
5268 touch $rootdir/boot/start.elf
5269 chroot $rootdir rpi-update
5270 </pre></p>
5271
5272 <p>Next, fetch the latest vmdebootstrap script and call it like this
5273 to build the image:</p>
5274
5275 <pre>
5276 sudo ./vmdebootstrap \
5277     --variant minbase \
5278     --arch armel \
5279     --distribution jessie \
5280     --mirror http://http.debian.net/debian \
5281     --image test.img \
5282     --size 600M \
5283     --bootsize 64M \
5284     --boottype vfat \
5285     --log-level debug \
5286     --verbose \
5287     --no-kernel \
5288     --no-extlinux \
5289     --root-password raspberry \
5290     --hostname raspberrypi \
5291     --foreign /usr/bin/qemu-arm-static \
5292     --customize `pwd`/customize \
5293     --package netbase \
5294     --package git-core \
5295     --package binutils \
5296     --package ca-certificates \
5297     --package wget \
5298     --package kmod
5299 </pre></p>
5300
5301 <p>The list of packages being installed are the ones needed by
5302 rpi-update to make the image bootable on the Raspberry Pi, with the
5303 exception of netbase, which is needed by debootstrap to find
5304 /etc/hosts with the minbase variant.  I really wish there was a way to
5305 set up an Raspberry Pi using only packages in the Debian archive, but
5306 that is not possible as far as I know, because it boots from the GPU
5307 using a non-free binary blob.</p>
5308
5309 <p>The build host need debootstrap, kpartx and qemu-user-static and
5310 probably a few others installed.  I have not checked the complete
5311 build dependency list.</p>
5312
5313 <p>The resulting image will not use the hardware floating point unit
5314 on the Raspberry PI, because the armel architecture in Debian is not
5315 optimized for that use.  So the images created will be a bit slower
5316 than <a href="http://www.raspbian.org/">Raspbian</a> based images.</p>
5317
5318       </div>
5319       <div class="tags">
5320
5321
5322         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freedombox">freedombox</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/mesh network">mesh network</a>.
5323
5324
5325       </div>
5326     </div>
5327     <div class="padding"></div>
5328
5329     <div class="entry">
5330       <div class="title">
5331         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Good_causes__Debian_Outreach_Program_for_Women__EFF_documenting_the_spying_and_Open_access_in_Norway.html">Good causes: Debian Outreach Program for Women, EFF documenting the spying and Open access in Norway</a>
5332       </div>
5333       <div class="date">
5334         15th October 2013
5335       </div>
5336       <div class="body">
5337         <p>The last few days I came across a few good causes that should get
5338 wider attention.  I recommend signing and donating to each one of
5339 these. :)</p>
5340
5341 <p>Via <a href="http://www.debian.org/News/weekly/2013/18/">Debian
5342 Project News for 2013-10-14</a> I came across the Outreach Program for
5343 Women program which is a Google Summer of Code like initiative to get
5344 more women involved in free software.  One debian sponsor has offered
5345 to match <a href="http://debian.ch/opw2013">any donation done to Debian
5346 earmarked</a> for this initiative.  I donated a few minutes ago, and
5347 hope you will to. :)</p>
5348
5349 <p>And the Electronic Frontier Foundation just announced plans to
5350 create <a href="https://supporters.eff.org/donate/nsa-videos">video
5351 documentaries about the excessive spying</a> on every Internet user that
5352 take place these days, and their need to fund the work.  I've already
5353 donated.  Are you next?</p>
5354
5355 <p>For my Norwegian audience, the organisation Studentenes og
5356 Akademikernes Internasjonale Hjelpefond is collecting signatures for a
5357 statement under the heading
5358 <a href="http://saih.no/Bloggers_United/">Bloggers United for Open
5359 Access</a> for those of us asking for more focus on open access in the
5360 Norwegian government.  So far 499 signatures.  I hope you will sign it
5361 too.</p>
5362
5363       </div>
5364       <div class="tags">
5365
5366
5367         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/opphavsrett">opphavsrett</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance</a>.
5368
5369
5370       </div>
5371     </div>
5372     <div class="padding"></div>
5373
5374     <div class="entry">
5375       <div class="title">
5376         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Videos_about_the_Freedombox_project___for_inspiration_and_learning.html">Videos about the Freedombox project - for inspiration and learning</a>
5377       </div>
5378       <div class="date">
5379         27th September 2013
5380       </div>
5381       <div class="body">
5382         <p>The <a href="http://www.freedomboxfoundation.org/">Freedombox
5383 project</a> have been going on for a while, and have presented the
5384 vision, ideas and solution several places.  Here is a little
5385 collection of videos of talks and presentation of the project.</p>
5386
5387 <ul>
5388
5389 <li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ukvUz5taxvA">FreedomBox -
5390 2,5 minute marketing film</a> (Youtube)</li>
5391
5392 <li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SzW25QTVWsE">Eben Moglen
5393 discusses the Freedombox on CBS news 2011</a> (Youtube)</li>
5394
5395 <li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ae8SZbxfE0g">Eben Moglen -
5396 Freedom in the Cloud - Software Freedom, Privacy and and Security for
5397 Web 2.0 and Cloud computing at ISOC-NY Public Meeting 2010</a>
5398 (Youtube)</li>
5399
5400 <li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNaIji_3xBE">Fosdem 2011
5401 Keynote by Eben Moglen presenting the Freedombox</a> (Youtube)</li>
5402
5403 <li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bDDUyJSQ9s">Presentation of
5404 the Freedombox by James Vasile at Elevate in Gratz 2011</a> (Youtube)</li>
5405
5406 <li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQTmnk27g9s"> Freedombox -
5407 Discovery, Identity, and Trust by Nick Daly at Freedombox Hackfest New
5408 York City in 2012</a> (Youtube)</li>
5409
5410 <li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tkbSB4Ba7Ck">Introduction
5411 to the Freedombox at Freedombox Hackfest New York City in 2012</a>
5412 (Youtube)</li>
5413
5414 <li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-P2Jaeg0aQ">Freedom, Out
5415 of the Box! by Bdale Garbee at linux.conf.au Ballarat, 2012</a> (Youtube) </li>
5416
5417 <li><a href="https://archive.fosdem.org/2013/schedule/event/freedombox/">Freedombox
5418 1.0 by Eben Moglen and Bdale Garbee at Fosdem 2013</a> (FOSDEM) </li>
5419
5420 <li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e1LpYX2zVYg">What is the
5421 FreedomBox today by Bdale Garbee at Debconf13 in Vaumarcus
5422 2013</a> (Youtube)</li>
5423
5424 </ul>
5425
5426 <p>A larger list is available from
5427 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/FreedomBox/TalksAndPresentations">the
5428 Freedombox Wiki</a>.</p>
5429
5430 <p>On other news, I am happy to report that Freedombox based on Debian
5431 Jessie is coming along quite well, and soon both Owncloud and using
5432 Tor should be available for testers of the Freedombox solution. :) In
5433 a few weeks I hope everything needed to test it is included in Debian.
5434 The withsqlite package is already in Debian, and the plinth package is
5435 pending in NEW.  The third and vital part of that puzzle is the
5436 metapackage/setup framework, which is still pending an upload.  Join
5437 us on <a href="irc://irc.debian.org:6667/%23freedombox">IRC
5438 (#freedombox on irc.debian.org)</a> and
5439 <a href="http://lists.alioth.debian.org/mailman/listinfo/freedombox-discuss">the
5440 mailing list</a> if you want to help make this vision come true.</p>
5441
5442       </div>
5443       <div class="tags">
5444
5445
5446         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freedombox">freedombox</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/web">web</a>.
5447
5448
5449       </div>
5450     </div>
5451     <div class="padding"></div>
5452
5453     <div class="entry">
5454       <div class="title">
5455         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Recipe_to_test_the_Freedombox_project_on_amd64_or_Raspberry_Pi.html">Recipe to test the Freedombox project on amd64 or Raspberry Pi</a>
5456       </div>
5457       <div class="date">
5458         10th September 2013
5459       </div>
5460       <div class="body">
5461         <p>I was introduced to the
5462 <a href="http://www.freedomboxfoundation.org/">Freedombox project</a>
5463 in 2010, when Eben Moglen presented his vision about serving the need
5464 of non-technical people to keep their personal information private and
5465 within the legal protection of their own homes.  The idea is to give
5466 people back the power over their network and machines, and return
5467 Internet back to its intended peer-to-peer architecture.  Instead of
5468 depending on a central service, the Freedombox will give everyone
5469 control over their own basic infrastructure.</p>
5470
5471 <p>I've intended to join the effort since then, but other tasks have
5472 taken priority.  But this summers nasty news about the misuse of trust
5473 and privilege exercised by the "western" intelligence gathering
5474 communities increased my eagerness to contribute to a point where I
5475 actually started working on the project a while back.</p>
5476
5477 <p>The <a href="https://alioth.debian.org/projects/freedombox/">initial
5478 Debian initiative</a> based on the vision from Eben Moglen, is to
5479 create a simple and cheap Debian based appliance that anyone can hook
5480 up in their home and get access to secure and private services and
5481 communication.  The initial deployment platform have been the
5482 <a href="http://www.globalscaletechnologies.com/t-dreamplugdetails.aspx">Dreamplug</a>,
5483 which is a piece of hardware I do not own.  So to be able to test what
5484 the current Freedombox setup look like, I had to come up with a way to install
5485 it on some hardware I do have access to.  I have rewritten the
5486 <a href="https://github.com/NickDaly/freedom-maker">freedom-maker</a>
5487 image build framework to use .deb packages instead of only copying
5488 setup into the boot images, and thanks to this rewrite I am able to
5489 set up any machine supported by Debian Wheezy as a Freedombox, using
5490 the previously mentioned deb (and a few support debs for packages
5491 missing in Debian).</p>
5492
5493 <p>The current Freedombox setup consist of a set of bootstrapping
5494 scripts
5495 (<a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/freedombox-setup">freedombox-setup</a>),
5496 and a administrative web interface
5497 (<a href="https://github.com/NickDaly/Plinth">plinth</a> + exmachina +
5498 withsqlite), as well as a privacy enhancing proxy based on
5499 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/privoxy">privoxy</a>
5500 (freedombox-privoxy).  There is also a web/javascript based XMPP
5501 client (<a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/jwchat">jwchat</a>)
5502 trying (unsuccessfully so far) to talk to the XMPP server
5503 (<a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/ejabberd">ejabberd</a>).  The
5504 web interface is pluggable, and the goal is to use it to enable OpenID
5505 services, mesh network connectivity, use of TOR, etc, etc.  Not much of
5506 this is really working yet, see
5507 <a href="https://github.com/NickDaly/freedombox-todos/blob/master/TODO">the
5508 project TODO</a> for links to GIT repositories.  Most of the code is
5509 on github at the moment.  The HTTP proxy is operational out of the
5510 box, and the admin web interface can be used to add/remove plinth
5511 users.  I've not been able to do anything else with it so far, but
5512 know there are several branches spread around github and other places
5513 with lots of half baked features.</p>
5514
5515 <p>Anyway, if you want to have a look at the current state, the
5516 following recipes should work to give you a test machine to poke
5517 at.</p>
5518
5519 <p><strong>Debian Wheezy amd64</strong></p>
5520
5521 <ol>
5522
5523 <li>Fetch normal Debian Wheezy installation ISO.</li>
5524 <li>Boot from it, either as CD or USB stick.</li>
5525 <li><p>Press [tab] on the boot prompt and add this as a boot argument
5526 to the Debian installer:<p>
5527 <pre>url=<a href="http://www.reinholdtsen.name/freedombox/preseed-wheezy.dat">http://www.reinholdtsen.name/freedombox/preseed-wheezy.dat</a></pre></li>
5528
5529 <li>Answer the few language/region/password questions and pick disk to
5530 install on.</li>
5531
5532 <li>When the installation is finished and the machine have rebooted a
5533 few times, your Freedombox is ready for testing.</li>
5534
5535 </ol>
5536
5537 <p><strong>Raspberry Pi Raspbian</strong></p>
5538
5539 <ol>
5540
5541 <li>Fetch a Raspbian SD card image, create SD card.</li>
5542 <li>Boot from SD card, extend file system to fill the card completely.</li>
5543 <li><p>Log in and add this to /etc/sources.list:</p>
5544 <pre>
5545 deb <a href="http://www.reinholdtsen.name/freedombox/">http://www.reinholdtsen.name/freedombox</a> wheezy main
5546 </pre></li>
5547 <li><p>Run this as root:</p>
5548 <pre>
5549 wget -O - http://www.reinholdtsen.name/freedombox/BE1A583D.asc | \
5550    apt-key add -
5551 apt-get update
5552 apt-get install freedombox-setup
5553 /usr/lib/freedombox/setup
5554 </pre></li>
5555 <li>Reboot into your freshly created Freedombox.</li>
5556
5557 </ol>
5558
5559 <p>You can test it on other architectures too, but because the
5560 freedombox-privoxy package is binary, it will only work as intended on
5561 the architectures where I have had time to build the binary and put it
5562 in my APT repository.  But do not let this stop you.  It is only a
5563 short "<tt>apt-get source -b freedombox-privoxy</tt>" away. :)</p>
5564
5565 <p>Note that by default Freedombox is a DHCP server on the
5566 192.168.1.0/24 subnet, so if this is your subnet be careful and turn
5567 off the DHCP server by running "<tt>update-rc.d isc-dhcp-server
5568 disable</tt>" as root.</p>
5569
5570 <p>Please let me know if this works for you, or if you have any
5571 problems.  We gather on the IRC channel
5572 <a href="irc://irc.debian.org:6667/%23freedombox">#freedombox</a> on
5573 irc.debian.org and the
5574 <a href="http://lists.alioth.debian.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/freedombox-discuss">project
5575 mailing list</a>.</p>
5576
5577 <p>Once you get your freedombox operational, you can visit
5578 <tt>http://your-host-name:8001/</tt> to see the state of the plint
5579 welcome screen (dead end - do not be surprised if you are unable to
5580 get past it), and next visit <tt>http://your-host-name:8001/help/</tt>
5581 to look at the rest of plinth.  The default user is 'admin' and the
5582 default password is 'secret'.</p>
5583
5584       </div>
5585       <div class="tags">
5586
5587
5588         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freedombox">freedombox</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/web">web</a>.
5589
5590
5591       </div>
5592     </div>
5593     <div class="padding"></div>
5594
5595     <div class="entry">
5596       <div class="title">
5597         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Intel_180_SSD_disk_with_Lenovo_firmware_can_not_use_Intel_firmware.html">Intel 180 SSD disk with Lenovo firmware can not use Intel firmware</a>
5598       </div>
5599       <div class="date">
5600         18th August 2013
5601       </div>
5602       <div class="body">
5603         <p>Earlier, I reported about
5604 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_fix_a_Thinkpad_X230_with_a_broken_180_GB_SSD_disk.html">my
5605 problems using an Intel SSD 520 Series 180 GB disk</a>.  Friday I was
5606 told by IBM that the original disk should be thrown away.  And as
5607 there no longer was a problem if I bricked the firmware, I decided
5608 today to try to install Intel firmware to replace the Lenovo firmware
5609 currently on the disk.</p>
5610
5611 <p>I searched the Intel site for firmware, and found
5612 <a href="https://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_Desc.aspx?agr=Y&ProdId=3472&DwnldID=18363&ProductFamily=Solid-State+Drives+and+Caching&ProductLine=Intel%c2%ae+High+Performance+Solid-State+Drive&ProductProduct=Intel%c2%ae+SSD+520+Series+(180GB%2c+2.5in+SATA+6Gb%2fs%2c+25nm%2c+MLC)&lang=eng">issdfut_2.0.4.iso</a>
5613 (aka Intel SATA Solid-State Drive Firmware Update Tool) which
5614 according to the site should contain the latest firmware for SSD
5615 disks.  I inserted the broken disk in one of my spare laptops and
5616 booted the ISO from a USB stick.  The disk was recognized, but the
5617 program claimed the newest firmware already were installed and refused
5618 to insert any Intel firmware.  So no change, and the disk is still
5619 unable to handle write load. :( I guess the only way to get them
5620 working would be if Lenovo releases new firmware.  No idea how likely
5621 that is.  Anyway, just blogging about this test for completeness.  I
5622 got a working Samsung disk, and see no point in spending more time on
5623 the broken disks.</p>
5624
5625       </div>
5626       <div class="tags">
5627
5628
5629         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>.
5630
5631
5632       </div>
5633     </div>
5634     <div class="padding"></div>
5635
5636     <div class="entry">
5637       <div class="title">
5638         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_fix_a_Thinkpad_X230_with_a_broken_180_GB_SSD_disk.html">How to fix a Thinkpad X230 with a broken 180 GB SSD disk</a>
5639       </div>
5640       <div class="date">
5641         17th July 2013
5642       </div>
5643       <div class="body">
5644         <p>Today I switched to
5645 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_Thinkpad_is_dead__long_live_the_Thinkpad_X230_.html">my
5646 new laptop</a>.  I've previously written about the problems I had with
5647 my new Thinkpad X230, which was delivered with an
5648 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Intel_SSD_520_Series_180_GB_with_Lenovo_firmware_still_lock_up_from_sustained_writes.html">180
5649 GB Intel SSD disk with Lenovo firmware</a> that did not handle
5650 sustained writes.  My hardware supplier have been very forthcoming in
5651 trying to find a solution, and after first trying with another
5652 identical 180 GB disks they decided to send me a 256 GB Samsung SSD
5653 disk instead to fix it once and for all.  The Samsung disk survived
5654 the installation of Debian with encrypted disks (filling the disk with
5655 random data during installation killed the first two), and I thus
5656 decided to trust it with my data.  I have installed it as a Debian Edu
5657 Wheezy roaming workstation hooked up with my Debian Edu Squeeze main
5658 server at home using Kerberos and LDAP, and will use it as my work
5659 station from now on.</p>
5660
5661 <p>As this is a solid state disk with no moving parts, I believe the
5662 Debian Wheezy default installation need to be tuned a bit to increase
5663 performance and increase life time of the disk.  The Linux kernel and
5664 user space applications do not yet adjust automatically to such
5665 environment.  To make it easier for my self, I created a draft Debian
5666 package <tt>ssd-setup</tt> to handle this tuning.  The
5667 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/gitweb/?p=collab-maint/ssd-setup.git">source
5668 for the ssd-setup package</a> is available from collab-maint, and it
5669 is set up to adjust the setup of the machine by just installing the
5670 package.  If there is any non-SSD disk in the machine, the package
5671 will refuse to install, as I did not try to write any logic to sort
5672 file systems in SSD and non-SSD file systems.</p>
5673
5674 <p>I consider the package a draft, as I am a bit unsure how to best
5675 set up Debian Wheezy with an SSD.  It is adjusted to my use case,
5676 where I set up the machine with one large encrypted partition (in
5677 addition to /boot), put LVM on top of this and set up partitions on
5678 top of this again.  See the README file in the package source for the
5679 references I used to pick the settings.  At the moment these
5680 parameters are tuned:</p>
5681
5682 <ul>
5683
5684 <li>Set up cryptsetup to pass TRIM commands to the physical disk
5685     (adding discard to /etc/crypttab)</li>
5686
5687 <li>Set up LVM to pass on TRIM commands to the underlying device (in
5688     this case a cryptsetup partition) by changing issue_discards from
5689     0 to 1 in /etc/lvm/lvm.conf.</li>
5690
5691 <li>Set relatime as a file system option for ext3 and ext4 file
5692     systems.</li>
5693
5694 <li>Tell swap to use TRIM commands by adding 'discard' to
5695     /etc/fstab.</li>
5696
5697 <li>Change I/O scheduler from cfq to deadline using a udev rule.</li>
5698
5699 <li>Run fstrim on every ext3 and ext4 file system every night (from
5700     cron.daily).</li>
5701
5702 <li>Adjust sysctl values vm.swappiness to 1 and vm.vfs_cache_pressure
5703     to 50 to reduce the kernel eagerness to swap out processes.</li>
5704
5705 </ul>
5706
5707 <p>During installation, I cancelled the part where the installer fill
5708 the disk with random data, as this would kill the SSD performance for
5709 little gain.  My goal with the encrypted file system is to ensure
5710 those stealing my laptop end up with a brick and not a working
5711 computer.  I have no hope in keeping the really resourceful people
5712 from getting the data on the disk (see
5713 <a href="http://xkcd.com/538/">XKCD #538</a> for an explanation why).
5714 Thus I concluded that adding the discard option to crypttab is the
5715 right thing to do.</p>
5716
5717 <p>I considered using the noop I/O scheduler, as several recommended
5718 it for SSD, but others recommended deadline and a benchmark I found
5719 indicated that deadline might be better for interactive use.</p>
5720
5721 <p>I also considered using the 'discard' file system option for ext3
5722 and ext4, but read that it would give a performance hit ever time a
5723 file is removed, and thought it best to that that slowdown once a day
5724 instead of during my work.</p>
5725
5726 <p>My package do not set up tmpfs on /var/run, /var/lock and /tmp, as
5727 this is already done by Debian Edu.</p>
5728
5729 <p>I have not yet started on the user space tuning.  I expect
5730 iceweasel need some tuning, and perhaps other applications too, but
5731 have not yet had time to investigate those parts.</p>
5732
5733 <p>The package should work on Ubuntu too, but I have not yet tested it
5734 there.</p>
5735
5736 <p>As for the answer to the question in the title of this blog post,
5737 as far as I know, the only solution I know about is to replace the
5738 disk.  It might be possible to flash it with Intel firmware instead of
5739 the Lenovo firmware.  But I have not tried and did not want to do so
5740 without approval from Lenovo as I wanted to keep the warranty on the
5741 disk until a solution was found and they wanted the broken disks
5742 back.</p>
5743
5744       </div>
5745       <div class="tags">
5746
5747
5748         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>.
5749
5750
5751       </div>
5752     </div>
5753     <div class="padding"></div>
5754
5755     <div class="entry">
5756       <div class="title">
5757         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Intel_SSD_520_Series_180_GB_with_Lenovo_firmware_still_lock_up_from_sustained_writes.html">Intel SSD 520 Series 180 GB with Lenovo firmware still lock up from sustained writes</a>
5758       </div>
5759       <div class="date">
5760         10th July 2013
5761       </div>
5762       <div class="body">
5763         <p>A few days ago, I wrote about
5764 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_Thinkpad_is_dead__long_live_the_Thinkpad_X230_.html">the
5765 problems I experienced with my new X230 and its SSD disk</a>, which
5766 was dying during installation because it is unable to cope with
5767 sustained write.  My supplier is in contact with
5768 <a href="http://www.lenovo.com/">Lenovo</a>, and they wanted to send a
5769 replacement disk to try to fix the problem.  They decided to send an
5770 identical model, so my hopes for a permanent fix was slim.</p>
5771
5772 <p>Anyway, today I got the replacement disk and tried to install
5773 Debian Edu Wheezy with encrypted disk on it.  The new disk have the
5774 same firmware version as the original.  This time my hope raised
5775 slightly as the installation progressed, as the original disk used to
5776 die after 4-7% of the disk was written to, while this time it kept
5777 going past 10%, 20%, 40% and even past 50%.  But around 60%, the disk
5778 died again and I was back on square one.  I still do not have a new
5779 laptop with a disk I can trust.  I can not live with a disk that might
5780 lock up when I download a new
5781 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux</a> ISO or
5782 other large files.  I look forward to hearing from my supplier with
5783 the next proposal from Lenovo.</p>
5784
5785 <p>The original disk is marked Intel SSD 520 Series 180 GB,
5786 11S0C38722Z1ZNME35X1TR, ISN: CVCV321407HB180EGN, SA: G57560302, FW:
5787 LF1i, 29MAY2013, PBA: G39779-300, LBA 351,651,888, LI P/N: 0C38722,
5788 Pb-free 2LI, LC P/N: 16-200366, WWN: 55CD2E40002756C4, Model:
5789 SSDSC2BW180A3L 2.5" 6Gb/s SATA SSD 180G 5V 1A, ASM P/N 0C38732, FRU
5790 P/N 45N8295, P0C38732.</p>
5791
5792 <p>The replacement disk is marked Intel SSD 520 Series 180 GB,
5793 11S0C38722Z1ZNDE34N0L0, ISN: CVCV315306RK180EGN, SA: G57560-302, FW:
5794 LF1i, 22APR2013, PBA: G39779-300, LBA 351,651,888, LI P/N: 0C38722,
5795 Pb-free 2LI, LC P/N: 16-200366, WWN: 55CD2E40000AB69E, Model:
5796 SSDSC2BW180A3L 2.5" 6Gb/s SATA SSD 180G 5V 1A, ASM P/N 0C38732, FRU
5797 P/N 45N8295, P0C38732.</p>
5798
5799 <p>The only difference is in the first number (serial number?), ISN,
5800 SA, date and WNPP values.  Mentioning all the details here in case
5801 someone is able to use the information to find a way to identify the
5802 failing disk among working ones (if any such working disk actually
5803 exist).</p>
5804
5805       </div>
5806       <div class="tags">
5807
5808
5809         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>.
5810
5811
5812       </div>
5813     </div>
5814     <div class="padding"></div>
5815
5816     <div class="entry">
5817       <div class="title">
5818         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/July_13th__Debian_Ubuntu_BSP_and_Skolelinux_Debian_Edu_developer_gathering_in_Oslo.html">July 13th: Debian/Ubuntu BSP and Skolelinux/Debian Edu developer gathering in Oslo</a>
5819       </div>
5820       <div class="date">
5821          9th July 2013
5822       </div>
5823       <div class="body">
5824         <p>The upcoming Saturday, 2013-07-13, we are organising a combined
5825 Debian Edu developer gathering and Debian and Ubuntu bug squashing
5826 party in Oslo.  It is organised by <a href="http://www.nuug.no/">the
5827 member assosiation NUUG</a> and
5828 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">the Debian Edu / Skolelinux
5829 project</a> together with <a href="http://bitraf.no/">the hack space
5830 Bitraf</a>.</p>
5831
5832 <p>It starts 10:00 and continue until late evening.  Everyone is
5833 welcome, and there is no fee to participate.  There is on the other
5834 hand limited space, and only room for 30 people.  Please put your name
5835 on <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/BSP/2013/07/13/no/Oslo">the event
5836 wiki page</a> if you plan to join us.</p>
5837
5838       </div>
5839       <div class="tags">
5840
5841
5842         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>.
5843
5844
5845       </div>
5846     </div>
5847     <div class="padding"></div>
5848
5849     <div class="entry">
5850       <div class="title">
5851         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_Thinkpad_is_dead__long_live_the_Thinkpad_X230_.html">The Thinkpad is dead, long live the Thinkpad X230?</a>
5852       </div>
5853       <div class="date">
5854          5th July 2013
5855       </div>
5856       <div class="body">
5857         <p>Half a year ago, I reported that I had to find a
5858 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Thank_you_Thinkpad_X41__for_your_long_and_trustworthy_service.html">replacement
5859 for my trusty old Thinkpad X41</a>.  Unfortunately I did not have much
5860 time to spend on it, and it took a while to find a model I believe
5861 will do the job, but two days ago the replacement finally arrived.  I
5862 ended up picking a
5863 <a href="http://www.linlap.com/lenovo_thinkpad_x230">Thinkpad X230</a>
5864 with SSD disk (NZDAJMN).  I first test installed Debian Edu Wheezy as
5865 a roaming workstation, and it seemed to work flawlessly.  But my
5866 second installation with encrypted disk was not as successful.  More
5867 on that below.</p>
5868
5869 <p>I had a hard time trying to track down a good laptop, as my most
5870 important requirements (robust and with a good keyboard) are never
5871 listed in the feature list.  But I did get good help from the search
5872 feature at <a href="http://www.prisjakt.no/">Prisjakt</a>, which
5873 allowed me to limit the list of interesting laptops based on my other
5874 requirements.  A bit surprising that SSD disk are not disks according
5875 to that search interface, so I had to drop specifying the number of
5876 disks from my search parameters.  I also asked around among friends to
5877 get their impression on keyboards and robustness.</p>
5878
5879 <p>So the new laptop arrived, and it is quite a lot wider than the
5880 X41.  I am not quite convinced about the keyboard, as it is
5881 significantly wider than my old keyboard, and I have to stretch my
5882 hand a lot more to reach the edges.  But the key response is fairly
5883 good and the individual key shape is fairly easy to handle, so I hope
5884 I will get used to it.  My old X40 was starting to fail, and I really
5885 needed a new laptop now. :)</p>
5886
5887 <p>Turning off the touch pad was simple.  All it took was a quick
5888 visit to the BIOS during boot it disable it.</p>
5889
5890 <p>But there is a fatal problem with the laptop.  The 180 GB SSD disk
5891 lock up during load.  And this happen when installing Debian Wheezy
5892 with encrypted disk, while the disk is being filled with random data.
5893 I also tested to install Ubuntu Raring, and it happen there too if I
5894 reenable the code to fill the disk with random data (it is disabled by
5895 default in Ubuntu).  And the bug with is already known.  It was
5896 reported to Debian as <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/691427">BTS
5897 report #691427 2012-10-25</a> (journal commit I/O error on brand-new
5898 Thinkpad T430s ext4 on lvm on SSD).  It is also reported to the Linux
5899 kernel developers as
5900 <a href="https://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=51861">Kernel bugzilla
5901 report #51861 2012-12-20</a> (Intel SSD 520 stops working under load
5902 (SSDSC2BW180A3L in Lenovo ThinkPad T430s)). It is also reported on the
5903 Lenovo forums, both for
5904 <a href="http://forums.lenovo.com/t5/T400-T500-and-newer-T-series/T430s-Intel-SSD-520-180GB-issue/m-p/1070549">T430
5905 2012-11-10</a> and for
5906 <a href="http://forums.lenovo.com/t5/X-Series-ThinkPad-Laptops/x230-SATA-errors-with-180GB-Intel-520-SSD-under-heavy-write-load/m-p/1068147">X230
5907 03-20-2013</a>.  The problem do not only affect installation.  The
5908 reports state that the disk lock up during use if many writes are done
5909 on the disk, so it is much no use to work around the installation
5910 problem and end up with a computer that can lock up at any moment.
5911 There is even a
5912 <a href="https://git.efficios.com/?p=test-ssd.git">small C program
5913 available</a> that will lock up the hard drive after running a few
5914 minutes by writing to a file.</p>
5915
5916 <p>I've contacted my supplier and asked how to handle this, and after
5917 contacting PCHELP Norway (request 01D1FDP) which handle support
5918 requests for Lenovo, his first suggestion was to upgrade the disk
5919 firmware.  Unfortunately there is no newer firmware available from
5920 Lenovo, as my disk already have the most recent one (version LF1i).  I
5921 hope to hear more from him today and hope the problem can be
5922 fixed. :)</p>
5923
5924       </div>
5925       <div class="tags">
5926
5927
5928         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>.
5929
5930
5931       </div>
5932     </div>
5933     <div class="padding"></div>
5934
5935     <div class="entry">
5936       <div class="title">
5937         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_Thinkpad_is_dead__long_live_the_Thinkpad_X230.html">The Thinkpad is dead, long live the Thinkpad X230</a>
5938       </div>
5939       <div class="date">
5940          4th July 2013
5941       </div>
5942       <div class="body">
5943         <p>Half a year ago, I reported that I had to find a replacement for my
5944 trusty old Thinkpad X41.  Unfortunately I did not have much time to
5945 spend on it, but today the replacement finally arrived.  I ended up
5946 picking a <a href="http://www.linlap.com/lenovo_thinkpad_x230">Thinkpad
5947 X230</a> with SSD disk (NZDAJMN).  I first test installed Debian Edu
5948 Wheezy as a roaming workstation, and it worked flawlessly.  As I write
5949 this, it is installing what I hope will be a more final installation,
5950 with a encrypted hard drive to ensure any dope head stealing it end up
5951 with an expencive door stop.</p>
5952
5953 <p>I had a hard time trying to track down a good laptop, as my most
5954 important requirements (robust and with a good keyboard) are never
5955 listed in the feature list.  But I did get good help from the search
5956 feature at <ahref="http://www.prisjakt.no/">Prisjakt</a>, which
5957 allowed me to limit the list of interesting laptops based on my other
5958 requirements.  A bit surprising that SSD disk are not disks, so I had
5959 to drop number of disks from my search parameters.</p>
5960
5961 <p>I am not quite convinced about the keyboard, as it is significantly
5962 wider than my old keyboard, and I have to stretch my hand a lot more
5963 to reach the edges.  But the key response is fairly good and the
5964 individual key shape is fairly easy to handle, so I hope I will get
5965 used to it.  My old X40 was starting to fail, and I really needed a
5966 new laptop now. :)</p>
5967
5968 <p>I look forward to figuring out how to turn off the touch pad.</p>
5969
5970       </div>
5971       <div class="tags">
5972
5973
5974         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>.
5975
5976
5977       </div>
5978     </div>
5979     <div class="padding"></div>
5980
5981     <div class="entry">
5982       <div class="title">
5983         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Automatically_locate_and_install_required_firmware_packages_on_Debian__Isenkram_0_4_.html">Automatically locate and install required firmware packages on Debian (Isenkram 0.4)</a>
5984       </div>
5985       <div class="date">
5986         25th June 2013
5987       </div>
5988       <div class="body">
5989         <p>It annoys me when the computer fail to do automatically what it is
5990 perfectly capable of, and I have to do it manually to get things
5991 working.  One such task is to find out what firmware packages are
5992 needed to get the hardware on my computer working.  Most often this
5993 affect the wifi card, but some times it even affect the RAID
5994 controller or the ethernet card.  Today I pushed version 0.4 of the
5995 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/isenkram">Isenkram package</a>
5996 including a new script isenkram-autoinstall-firmware handling the
5997 process of asking all the loaded kernel modules what firmware files
5998 they want, find debian packages providing these files and install the
5999 debian packages.  Here is a test run on my laptop:</p>
6000
6001 <p><pre>
6002 # isenkram-autoinstall-firmware
6003 info: kernel drivers requested extra firmware: ipw2200-bss.fw ipw2200-ibss.fw ipw2200-sniffer.fw
6004 info: fetching http://http.debian.net/debian/dists/squeeze/Contents-i386.gz
6005 info: locating packages with the requested firmware files
6006 info: Updating APT sources after adding non-free APT source
6007 info: trying to install firmware-ipw2x00
6008 firmware-ipw2x00
6009 firmware-ipw2x00
6010 Preconfiguring packages ...
6011 Selecting previously deselected package firmware-ipw2x00.
6012 (Reading database ... 259727 files and directories currently installed.)
6013 Unpacking firmware-ipw2x00 (from .../firmware-ipw2x00_0.28+squeeze1_all.deb) ...
6014 Setting up firmware-ipw2x00 (0.28+squeeze1) ...
6015 #
6016 </pre></p>
6017
6018 <p>When all the requested firmware is present, a simple message is
6019 printed instead:</p>
6020
6021 <p><pre>
6022 # isenkram-autoinstall-firmware
6023 info: did not find any firmware files requested by loaded kernel modules.  exiting
6024 #
6025 </pre></p>
6026
6027 <p>It could use some polish, but it is already working well and saving
6028 me some time when setting up new machines. :)</p>
6029
6030 <p>So, how does it work?  It look at the set of currently loaded
6031 kernel modules, and look up each one of them using modinfo, to find
6032 the firmware files listed in the module meta-information.  Next, it
6033 download the Contents file from a nearby APT mirror, and search for
6034 the firmware files in this file to locate the package with the
6035 requested firmware file.  If the package is in the non-free section, a
6036 non-free APT source is added and the package is installed using
6037 <tt>apt-get install</tt>.  The end result is a slightly better working
6038 machine.</p>
6039
6040 <p>I hope someone find time to implement a more polished version of
6041 this script as part of the hw-detect debian-installer module, to
6042 finally fix <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/655507">BTS report
6043 #655507</a>.  There really is no need to insert USB sticks with
6044 firmware during a PXE install when the packages already are available
6045 from the nearby Debian mirror.</p>
6046
6047       </div>
6048       <div class="tags">
6049
6050
6051         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>.
6052
6053
6054       </div>
6055     </div>
6056     <div class="padding"></div>
6057
6058     <div class="entry">
6059       <div class="title">
6060         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Fixing_the_Linux_black_screen_of_death_on_machines_with_Intel_HD_video.html">Fixing the Linux black screen of death on machines with Intel HD video</a>
6061       </div>
6062       <div class="date">
6063         11th June 2013
6064       </div>
6065       <div class="body">
6066         <p>When installing RedHat, Fedora, Debian and Ubuntu on some machines,
6067 the screen just turn black when Linux boot, either during installation
6068 or on first boot from the hard disk.  I've seen it once in a while the
6069 last few years, but only recently understood the cause.  I've seen it
6070 on HP laptops, and on my latest acquaintance the Packard Bell laptop.
6071 The reason seem to be in the wiring of some laptops.  The system to
6072 control the screen background light is inverted, so when Linux try to
6073 turn the brightness fully on, it end up turning it off instead.  I do
6074 not know which Linux drivers are affected, but this post is about the
6075 i915 driver used by the
6076 <a href="http://www.linlap.com/packard_bell_easynote_lv">Packard Bell
6077 EasyNote LV</a>, Thinkpad X40 and many other laptops.</p>
6078
6079 <p>The problem can be worked around two ways.  Either by adding
6080 i915.invert_brightness=1 as a kernel option, or by adding a file in
6081 /etc/modprobe.d/ to tell modprobe to add the invert_brightness=1
6082 option when it load the i915 kernel module.  On Debian and Ubuntu, it
6083 can be done by running these commands as root:</p>
6084
6085 <pre>
6086 echo options i915 invert_brightness=1 | tee /etc/modprobe.d/i915.conf
6087 update-initramfs -u -k all
6088 </pre>
6089
6090 <p>Since March 2012 there is
6091 <a href="http://git.kernel.org/cgit/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/commit/?id=4dca20efb1a9c2efefc28ad2867e5d6c3f5e1955">a
6092 mechanism in the Linux kernel</a> to tell the i915 driver which
6093 hardware have this problem, and get the driver to invert the
6094 brightness setting automatically.  To use it, one need to add a row in
6095 <a href="http://git.kernel.org/cgit/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/tree/drivers/gpu/drm/i915/intel_display.c">the
6096 intel_quirks array</a> in the driver source
6097 <tt>drivers/gpu/drm/i915/intel_display.c</tt> (look for "<tt>static
6098 struct intel_quirk intel_quirks</tt>"), specifying the PCI device
6099 number (vendor number 8086 is assumed) and subdevice vendor and device
6100 number.</p>
6101
6102 <p>My Packard Bell EasyNote LV got this output from <tt>lspci
6103 -vvnn</tt> for the video card in question:</p>
6104
6105 <p><pre>
6106 00:02.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: Intel Corporation \
6107     3rd Gen Core processor Graphics Controller [8086:0156] \
6108     (rev 09) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
6109  Subsystem: Acer Incorporated [ALI] Device [1025:0688]
6110  Control: I/O+ Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- \
6111     ParErr- Stepping- SE RR- FastB2B- DisINTx+
6112  Status: Cap+ 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B+ ParErr- DEVSEL=fast >TAbort- \
6113     <TAbort- <MAbort->SERR- <PERR- INTx-
6114  Latency: 0
6115  Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 42
6116  Region 0: Memory at c2000000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=4M]
6117  Region 2: Memory at b0000000 (64-bit, prefetchable) [size=256M]
6118  Region 4: I/O ports at 4000 [size=64]
6119  Expansion ROM at <unassigned> [disabled]
6120  Capabilities: <access denied>
6121  Kernel driver in use: i915
6122 </pre></p>
6123
6124 <p>The resulting intel_quirks entry would then look like this:</p>
6125
6126 <p><pre>
6127 struct intel_quirk intel_quirks[] = {
6128        ...
6129         /* Packard Bell EasyNote LV11HC needs invert brightness quirk */
6130         { 0x0156, 0x1025, 0x0688, quirk_invert_brightness },
6131        ...
6132 }
6133 </pre></p>
6134
6135 <p>According to the kernel module instructions (as seen using
6136 <tt>modinfo i915</tt>), information about hardware needing the
6137 invert_brightness flag should be sent to the
6138 <a href="http://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/dri-devel">dri-devel
6139 (at) lists.freedesktop.org</a> mailing list to reach the kernel
6140 developers.  But my email about the laptop sent 2013-06-03 have not
6141 yet shown up in
6142 <a href="http://lists.freedesktop.org/archives/dri-devel/2013-June/thread.html">the
6143 web archive for the mailing list</a>, so I suspect they do not accept
6144 emails from non-subscribers.  Because of this, I sent my patch also to
6145 the Debian bug tracking system instead as
6146 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/710938">BTS report #710938</a>, to make
6147 sure the patch is not lost.</p>
6148
6149 <p>Unfortunately, it is not enough to fix the kernel to get Laptops
6150 with this problem working properly with Linux.  If you use Gnome, your
6151 worries should be over at this point.  But if you use KDE, there is
6152 something in KDE ignoring the invert_brightness setting and turning on
6153 the screen during login.  I've reported it to Debian as
6154 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/711237">BTS report #711237</a>, and
6155 have no idea yet how to figure out exactly what subsystem is doing
6156 this.  Perhaps you can help?  Perhaps you know what the Gnome
6157 developers did to handle this, and this can give a clue to the KDE
6158 developers?  Or you know where in KDE the screen brightness is changed
6159 during login?  If so, please update the BTS report (or get in touch if
6160 you do not know how to update BTS).</p>
6161
6162 <p>Update 2013-07-19: The correct fix for this machine seem to be
6163 acpi_backlight=vendor, to disable ACPI backlight support completely,
6164 as the ACPI information on the machine is trash and it is better to
6165 leave it to the intel video driver to control the screen
6166 backlight.</p>
6167
6168       </div>
6169       <div class="tags">
6170
6171
6172         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>.
6173
6174
6175       </div>
6176     </div>
6177     <div class="padding"></div>
6178
6179     <div class="entry">
6180       <div class="title">
6181         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_install_Linux_on_a_Packard_Bell_Easynote_LV_preinstalled_with_Windows_8.html">How to install Linux on a Packard Bell Easynote LV preinstalled with Windows 8</a>
6182       </div>
6183       <div class="date">
6184         27th May 2013
6185       </div>
6186       <div class="body">
6187         <p>Two days ago, I asked
6188 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_can_I_install_Linux_on_a_Packard_Bell_Easynote_LV_preinstalled_with_Windows_8_.html">how
6189 I could install Linux on a Packard Bell EasyNote LV computer
6190 preinstalled with Windows 8</a>.  I found a solution, but am horrified
6191 with the obstacles put in the way of Linux users on a laptop with UEFI
6192 and Windows 8.</p>
6193
6194 <p>I never found out if the cause of my problems were the use of UEFI
6195 secure booting or fast boot.  I suspect fast boot was the problem,
6196 causing the firmware to boot directly from HD without considering any
6197 key presses and alternative devices, but do not know UEFI settings
6198 enough to tell.</p>
6199
6200 <p>There is no way to install Linux on the machine in question without
6201 opening the box and disconnecting the hard drive!  This is as far as I
6202 can tell, the only way to get access to the firmware setup menu
6203 without accepting the Windows 8 license agreement.  I am told (and
6204 found description on how to) that it is possible to configure the
6205 firmware setup once booted into Windows 8.  But as I believe the terms
6206 of that agreement are completely unacceptable, accepting the license
6207 was never an alternative.  I do not enter agreements I do not intend
6208 to follow.</p>
6209
6210 <p>I feared I had to return the laptops and ask for a refund, and
6211 waste many hours on this, but luckily there was a way to get it to
6212 work.  But I would not recommend it to anyone planning to run Linux on
6213 it, and I have become sceptical to Windows 8 certified laptops.  Is
6214 this the way Linux will be forced out of the market place, by making
6215 it close to impossible for "normal" users to install Linux without
6216 accepting the Microsoft Windows license terms?  Or at least not
6217 without risking to loose the warranty?</p>
6218
6219 <p>I've updated the
6220 <a href="http://www.linlap.com/packard_bell_easynote_lv">Linux Laptop
6221 wiki page for Packard Bell EasyNote LV</a>, to ensure the next person
6222 do not have to struggle as much as I did to get Linux into the
6223 machine.</p>
6224
6225 <p>Thanks to Bob Rosbag, Florian Weimer, Philipp Kern, Ben Hutching,
6226 Michael Tokarev and others for feedback and ideas.</p>
6227
6228       </div>
6229       <div class="tags">
6230
6231
6232         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>.
6233
6234
6235       </div>
6236     </div>
6237     <div class="padding"></div>
6238
6239     <div class="entry">
6240       <div class="title">
6241         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_can_I_install_Linux_on_a_Packard_Bell_Easynote_LV_preinstalled_with_Windows_8_.html">How can I install Linux on a Packard Bell Easynote LV preinstalled with Windows 8?</a>
6242       </div>
6243       <div class="date">
6244         25th May 2013
6245       </div>
6246       <div class="body">
6247         <p>I've run into quite a problem the last few days.  I bought three
6248 new laptops for my parents and a few others.  I bought Packard Bell
6249 Easynote LV to run Kubuntu on and use as their home computer.  But I
6250 am completely unable to figure out how to install Linux on it.  The
6251 computer is preinstalled with Windows 8, and I suspect it uses UEFI
6252 instead of a BIOS to boot.</p>
6253
6254 <p>The problem is that I am unable to get it to PXE boot, and unable
6255 to get it to boot the Linux installer from my USB stick.  I have yet
6256 to try the DVD install, and still hope it will work.  when I turn on
6257 the computer, there is no information on what buttons to press to get
6258 the normal boot menu.  I expect to get some boot menu to select PXE or
6259 USB stick booting.  When booting, it first ask for the language to
6260 use, then for some regional settings, and finally if I will accept the
6261 Windows 8 terms of use.  As these terms are completely unacceptable to
6262 me, I have no other choice but to turn off the computer and try again
6263 to get it to boot the Linux installer.</p>
6264
6265 <p>I have gathered my findings so far on a Linlap page about the
6266 <a href="http://www.linlap.com/packard_bell_easynote_lv">Packard Bell
6267 EasyNote LV</a> model.  If you have any idea how to get Linux
6268 installed on this machine, please get in touch or update that wiki
6269 page.  If I can't find a way to install Linux, I will have to return
6270 the laptop to the seller and find another machine for my parents.</p>
6271
6272 <p>I wonder, is this the way Linux will be forced out of the market
6273 using UEFI and "secure boot" by making it impossible to install Linux
6274 on new Laptops?</p>
6275
6276       </div>
6277       <div class="tags">
6278
6279
6280         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>.
6281
6282
6283       </div>
6284     </div>
6285     <div class="padding"></div>
6286
6287     <div class="entry">
6288       <div class="title">
6289         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_transform_a_Debian_based_system_to_a_Debian_Edu_installation.html">How to transform a Debian based system to a Debian Edu installation</a>
6290       </div>
6291       <div class="date">
6292         17th May 2013
6293       </div>
6294       <div class="body">
6295         <p><a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux</a> is
6296 an operating system based on Debian intended for use in schools.  It
6297 contain a turn-key solution for the computer network provided to
6298 pupils in the primary schools.  It provide both the central server,
6299 network boot servers and desktop environments with heaps of
6300 educational software.  The project was founded almost 12 years ago,
6301 2001-07-02.  If you want to support the project, which is in need for
6302 cash to fund developer gatherings and other project related activity,
6303 <a href="http://www.linuxiskolen.no/slxdebianlabs/donations.html">please
6304 donate some money</a>.
6305
6306 <p>A topic that come up again and again on the Debian Edu mailing
6307 lists and elsewhere, is the question on how to transform a Debian or
6308 Ubuntu installation into a Debian Edu installation.  It isn't very
6309 hard, and last week I wrote a script to replicate the steps done by
6310 the Debian Edu installer.</p>
6311
6312 <p>The script,
6313 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/branches/wheezy/debian-edu-config/share/debian-edu-config/tools/debian-edu-bless?view=markup">debian-edu-bless<a/>
6314 in the debian-edu-config package, will go through these six steps and
6315 transform an existing Debian Wheezy or Ubuntu (untested) installation
6316 into a Debian Edu Workstation:</p>
6317
6318 <ol>
6319
6320 <li>Add skolelinux related APT sources.</li>
6321 <li>Create /etc/debian-edu/config with the wanted configuration.</li>
6322 <li>Install debian-edu-install to load preseeding values and pull in
6323     our configuration.</li>
6324 <li>Preseed debconf database with profile setup in
6325     /etc/debian-edu/config, and run tasksel to install packages
6326     according to the profile specified in the config above,
6327     overriding some of the Debian automation machinery.</li>
6328 <li>Run debian-edu-cfengine-D installation to configure everything
6329     that could not be done using preseeding.</li>
6330 <li>Ask for a reboot to enable all the configuration changes.</li>
6331
6332 </ol>
6333
6334 <p>There are some steps in the Debian Edu installation that can not be
6335 replicated like this.  Disk partitioning and LVM setup, for example.
6336 So this script just assume there is enough disk space to install all
6337 the needed packages.</p>
6338
6339 <p>The script was created to help a Debian Edu student working on
6340 setting up <a href="http://www.raspberrypi.org">Raspberry Pi</a> as a
6341 Debian Edu client, and using it he can take the existing
6342 <a href="http://www.raspbian.org/FrontPage‎">Raspbian</a> installation and
6343 transform it into a fully functioning Debian Edu Workstation (or
6344 Roaming Workstation, or whatever :).</p>
6345
6346 <p>The default setting in the script is to create a KDE Workstation.
6347 If a LXDE based Roaming workstation is wanted instead, modify the
6348 PROFILE and DESKTOP values at the top to look like this instead:</p>
6349
6350 <p><pre>
6351 PROFILE="Roaming-Workstation"
6352 DESKTOP="lxde"
6353 </pre></p>
6354
6355 <p>The script could even become useful to set up Debian Edu servers in
6356 the cloud, by starting with a virtual Debian installation at some
6357 virtual hosting service and setting up all the services on first
6358 boot.</p>
6359
6360       </div>
6361       <div class="tags">
6362
6363
6364         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>.
6365
6366
6367       </div>
6368     </div>
6369     <div class="padding"></div>
6370
6371     <div class="entry">
6372       <div class="title">
6373         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian__the_Linux_distribution_of_choice_for_LEGO_designers_.html">Debian, the Linux distribution of choice for LEGO designers?</a>
6374       </div>
6375       <div class="date">
6376         11th May 2013
6377       </div>
6378       <div class="body">
6379         <P>In January,
6380 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/New_IRC_channel_for_LEGO_designers_using_Debian.html">I
6381 announced a</a> new <a href="irc://irc.debian.org/%23debian-lego">IRC
6382 channel #debian-lego</a>, for those of us in the Debian and Linux
6383 community interested in <a href="http://www.lego.com/">LEGO</a>, the
6384 marvellous construction system from Denmark.  We also created
6385 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/LegoDesigners">a wiki page</a> to have
6386 a place to take notes and write down our plans and hopes.  And several
6387 people showed up to help.  I was very happy to see the effect of my
6388 call.  Since the small start, we have a debtags tag
6389 <a href="http://debtags.debian.net/search/bytag?wl=hardware::hobby:lego">hardware::hobby:lego</a>
6390 tag for LEGO related packages, and now count 10 packages related to
6391 LEGO and <a href="http://mindstorms.lego.com/">Mindstorms</a>:</p>
6392
6393 <p><table>
6394 <tr><td><a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/brickos">brickos</a></td><td>alternative OS for LEGO Mindstorms RCX. Supports development in C/C++</td></tr>
6395 <tr><td><a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/leocad">leocad</a></td><td>virtual brick CAD software</td></tr>
6396 <tr><td><a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/libnxt">libnxt</a></td><td>utility library for talking to the LEGO Mindstorms NX</td></tr>
6397 <tr><td><a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/lnpd">lnpd</a></td><td>daemon for LNP communication with BrickOS</td></tr>
6398 <tr><td><a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/nbc">nbc</a></td><td>compiler for LEGO Mindstorms NXT bricks</td></tr>
6399 <tr><td><a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/nqc">nqc</a></td><td>Not Quite C compiler for LEGO Mindstorms RCX</td></tr>
6400 <tr><td><a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/python-nxt">python-nxt</a></td><td>python driver/interface/wrapper for the Lego Mindstorms NXT robot</td></tr>
6401 <tr><td><a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/python-nxt-filer">python-nxt-filer</a></td><td>simple GUI to manage files on a LEGO Mindstorms NXT</td></tr>
6402 <tr><td><a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/scratch">scratch</a></td><td>easy to use programming environment for ages 8 and up</td></tr>
6403 <tr><td><a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/t2n">t2n</a></td><td>simple command-line tool for Lego NXT</td></tr>
6404 </table></p>
6405
6406 <p>Some of these are available in Wheezy, and all but one are
6407 currently available in Jessie/testing.  leocad is so far only
6408 available in experimental.</p>
6409
6410 <p>If you care about LEGO in Debian, please join us on IRC and help
6411 adding the rest of the great free software tools available on Linux
6412 for LEGO designers.</p>
6413
6414       </div>
6415       <div class="tags">
6416
6417
6418         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>.
6419
6420
6421       </div>
6422     </div>
6423     <div class="padding"></div>
6424
6425     <div class="entry">
6426       <div class="title">
6427         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Wheezy_is_out___and_Debian_Edu___Skolelinux_should_soon_follow___newinwheezy.html">Debian Wheezy is out - and Debian Edu / Skolelinux should soon follow! #newinwheezy</a>
6428       </div>
6429       <div class="date">
6430          5th May 2013
6431       </div>
6432       <div class="body">
6433         <p>When I woke up this morning, I was very happy to see that the
6434 <a href="http://www.debian.org/News/2013/20130504">release announcement
6435 for Debian Wheezy</a> was waiting in my mail box.  This is a great
6436 Debian release, and I expect to move my machines at home over to it fairly
6437 soon.</p>
6438
6439 <p>The new debian release contain heaps of new stuff, and one program
6440 in particular make me very happy to see included.  The
6441 <a href="http://scratch.mit.edu/">Scratch</a> program, made famous by
6442 the <a href="http://www.code.org/">Teach kids code</a> movement, is
6443 included for the first time.  Alongside similar programs like
6444 <a href="http://edu.kde.org/kturtle/">kturtle</a> and
6445 <a href="http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Activities/Turtle_Art">turtleart</a>,
6446 it allow for visual programming where syntax errors can not happen,
6447 and a friendly programming environment for learning to control the
6448 computer.  Scratch will also be included in the next release of Debian
6449 Edu.</a>
6450
6451 <p>And now that Wheezy is wrapped up, we can wrap up the next Debian
6452 Edu/Skolelinux release too.  The
6453 <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-edu/2013/04/msg00132.html">first
6454 alpha release</a> went out last week, and the next should soon
6455 follow.<p>
6456
6457       </div>
6458       <div class="tags">
6459
6460
6461         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>.
6462
6463
6464       </div>
6465     </div>
6466     <div class="padding"></div>
6467
6468     <div class="entry">
6469       <div class="title">
6470         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Isenkram_0_2_finally_in_the_Debian_archive.html">Isenkram 0.2 finally in the Debian archive</a>
6471       </div>
6472       <div class="date">
6473          3rd April 2013
6474       </div>
6475       <div class="body">
6476         <p>Today the <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/isenkram">Isenkram
6477 package</a> finally made it into the archive, after lingering in NEW
6478 for many months.  I uploaded it to the Debian experimental suite
6479 2013-01-27, and today it was accepted into the archive.</p>
6480
6481 <p>Isenkram is a system for suggesting to users what packages to
6482 install to work with a pluggable hardware device.  The suggestion pop
6483 up when the device is plugged in.  For example if a Lego Mindstorm NXT
6484 is inserted, it will suggest to install the program needed to program
6485 the NXT controller.  Give it a go, and report bugs and suggestions to
6486 BTS. :)</p>
6487
6488       </div>
6489       <div class="tags">
6490
6491
6492         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>.
6493
6494
6495       </div>
6496     </div>
6497     <div class="padding"></div>
6498
6499     <div class="entry">
6500       <div class="title">
6501         <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>
6502       </div>
6503       <div class="date">
6504          2nd February 2013
6505       </div>
6506       <div class="body">
6507         <p>My
6508 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_backport_bitcoin_qt_version_0_7_2_2_to_Debian_Squeeze.html">last
6509 bitcoin related blog post</a> mentioned that the new
6510 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/bitcoin">bitcoin package</a> for
6511 Debian was waiting in NEW.  It was accepted by the Debian ftp-masters
6512 2013-01-19, and have been available in unstable since then.  It was
6513 automatically copied to Ubuntu, and is available in their Raring
6514 version too.</p>
6515
6516 <p>But there is a strange problem with the build that block this new
6517 version from being available on the i386 and kfreebsd-i386
6518 architectures.  For some strange reason, the autobuilders in Debian
6519 for these architectures fail to run the test suite on these
6520 architectures (<a href="http://bugs.debian.org/672524">BTS #672524</a>).
6521 We are so far unable to reproduce it when building it manually, and
6522 no-one have been able to propose a fix.  If you got an idea what is
6523 failing, please let us know via the BTS.</p>
6524
6525 <p>One feature that is annoying me with of the bitcoin client, because
6526 I often run low on disk space, is the fact that the client will exit
6527 if it run short on space (<a href="http://bugs.debian.org/696715">BTS
6528 #696715</a>).  So make sure you have enough disk space when you run
6529 it. :)</p>
6530
6531 <p>As usual, if you use bitcoin and want to show your support of my
6532 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
6533 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b&label=PetterReinholdtsenBlog">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
6534
6535       </div>
6536       <div class="tags">
6537
6538
6539         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>.
6540
6541
6542       </div>
6543     </div>
6544     <div class="padding"></div>
6545
6546     <div class="entry">
6547       <div class="title">
6548         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Welcome_to_the_world__Isenkram_.html">Welcome to the world, Isenkram!</a>
6549       </div>
6550       <div class="date">
6551         22nd January 2013
6552       </div>
6553       <div class="body">
6554         <p>Yesterday, I
6555 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/First_prototype_ready_making_hardware_easier_to_use_in_Debian.html">asked
6556 for testers</a> for my prototype for making Debian better at handling
6557 pluggable hardware devices, which I
6558 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lets_make_hardware_dongles_easier_to_use_in_Debian.html">set
6559 out to create</a> earlier this month.  Several valuable testers showed
6560 up, and caused me to really want to to open up the development to more
6561 people.  But before I did this, I want to come up with a sensible name
6562 for this project.  Today I finally decided on a new name, and I have
6563 renamed the project from hw-support-handler to this new name.  In the
6564 process, I moved the source to git and made it available as a
6565 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/gitweb/?p=collab-maint/isenkram.git">collab-maint</a>
6566 repository in Debian.  The new name?  It is <strong>Isenkram</strong>.
6567 To fetch and build the latest version of the source, use</p>
6568
6569 <pre>
6570 git clone http://anonscm.debian.org/git/collab-maint/isenkram.git
6571 cd isenkram && git-buildpackage -us -uc
6572 </pre>
6573
6574 <p>I have not yet adjusted all files to use the new name yet.  If you
6575 want to hack on the source or improve the package, please go ahead.
6576 But please talk to me first on IRC or via email before you do major
6577 changes, to make sure we do not step on each others toes. :)</p>
6578
6579 <p>If you wonder what 'isenkram' is, it is a Norwegian word for iron
6580 stuff, typically meaning tools, nails, screws, etc.  Typical hardware
6581 stuff, in other words.  I've been told it is the Norwegian variant of
6582 the German word eisenkram, for those that are familiar with that
6583 word.</p>
6584
6585 <p><strong>Update 2013-01-26</strong>: Added -us -us to build
6586 instructions, to avoid confusing people with an error from the signing
6587 process.</p>
6588
6589 <p><strong>Update 2013-01-27</strong>: Switch to HTTP URL for the git
6590 clone argument to avoid the need for authentication.</p>
6591
6592       </div>
6593       <div class="tags">
6594
6595
6596         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>.
6597
6598
6599       </div>
6600     </div>
6601     <div class="padding"></div>
6602
6603     <div class="entry">
6604       <div class="title">
6605         <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>
6606       </div>
6607       <div class="date">
6608         21st January 2013
6609       </div>
6610       <div class="body">
6611         <p>Early this month I set out to try to
6612 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lets_make_hardware_dongles_easier_to_use_in_Debian.html">improve
6613 the Debian support for pluggable hardware devices</a>.  Now my
6614 prototype is working, and it is ready for a larger audience.  To test
6615 it, fetch the
6616 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/">source
6617 from the Debian Edu subversion repository</a>, build and install the
6618 package.  You might have to log out and in again activate the
6619 autostart script.</p>
6620
6621 <p>The design is simple:</p>
6622
6623 <ul>
6624
6625 <li>Add desktop entry in /usr/share/autostart/ causing a program
6626 hw-support-handlerd to start when the user log in.</li>
6627
6628 <li>This program listen for kernel events about new hardware (directly
6629 from the kernel like udev does), not using HAL dbus events as I
6630 initially did.</li>
6631
6632 <li>When new hardware is inserted, look up the hardware modalias in
6633 the APT database, a database
6634 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/modaliases?view=markup">available
6635 via HTTP</a> and a database available as part of the package.</li>
6636
6637 <li>If a package is mapped to the hardware in question, the package
6638 isn't installed yet and this is the first time the hardware was
6639 plugged in, show a desktop notification suggesting to install the
6640 package or packages.</li>
6641
6642 <li>If the user click on the 'install package now' button, ask
6643 aptdaemon via the PackageKit API to install the requrired package.</li>
6644
6645 <li>aptdaemon ask for root password or sudo password, and install the
6646 package while showing progress information in a window.</li>
6647
6648 </ul>
6649
6650 <p>I still need to come up with a better name for the system.  Here
6651 are some screen shots showing the prototype in action.  First the
6652 notification, then the password request, and finally the request to
6653 approve all the dependencies.  Sorry for the Norwegian Bokmål GUI.</p>
6654
6655 <p><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-01-21-hw-support-1-notification.png">
6656 <br><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-01-21-hw-support-2-password.png">
6657 <br><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-01-21-hw-support-3-dependencies.png">
6658 <br><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-01-21-hw-support-4-installing.png">
6659 <br><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-01-21-hw-support-5-installing-details.png" width="70%"></p>
6660
6661 <p>The prototype still need to be improved with longer timeouts, but
6662 is already useful.  The database of hardware to package mappings also
6663 need more work.  It is currently compatible with the Ubuntu way of
6664 storing such information in the package control file, but could be
6665 changed to use other formats instead or in addition to the current
6666 method.  I've dropped the use of discover for this mapping, as the
6667 modalias approach is more flexible and easier to use on Linux as long
6668 as the Linux kernel expose its modalias strings directly.</p>
6669
6670 <p><strong>Update 2013-01-21 16:50</strong>: Due to popular demand,
6671 here is the command required to check out and build the source: Use
6672 '<tt>svn checkout
6673 svn://svn.debian.org/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/; cd
6674 hw-support-handler; debuild</tt>'.  If you lack debuild, install the
6675 devscripts package.</p>
6676
6677 <p><strong>Update 2013-01-23 12:00</strong>: The project is now
6678 renamed to Isenkram and the source moved from the Debian Edu
6679 subversion repository to a Debian collab-maint git repository.  See
6680 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Welcome_to_the_world__Isenkram_.html">build
6681 instructions</a> for details.</p>
6682
6683       </div>
6684       <div class="tags">
6685
6686
6687         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>.
6688
6689
6690       </div>
6691     </div>
6692     <div class="padding"></div>
6693
6694     <div class="entry">
6695       <div class="title">
6696         <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>
6697       </div>
6698       <div class="date">
6699         19th January 2013
6700       </div>
6701       <div class="body">
6702         <p>This Christmas my trusty old laptop died.  It died quietly and
6703 suddenly in bed.  With a quiet whimper, it went completely quiet and
6704 black.  The power button was no longer able to turn it on.  It was a
6705 IBM Thinkpad X41, and the best laptop I ever had.  Better than both
6706 Thinkpads X30, X31, X40, X60, X61 and X61S.  Far better than the
6707 Compaq I had before that.  Now I need to find a replacement.  To keep
6708 going during Christmas, I moved the one year old SSD disk to my old
6709 X40 where it fitted (only one I had left that could use it), but it is
6710 not a durable solution.
6711
6712 <p>My laptop needs are fairly modest.  This is my wishlist from when I
6713 got a new one more than 10 years ago.  It still holds true.:)</p>
6714
6715 <ul>
6716
6717 <li>Lightweight (around 1 kg) and small volume (preferably smaller
6718   than A4).</li>
6719 <li>Robust, it will be in my backpack every day.</li>
6720 <li>Three button mouse and a mouse pin instead of touch pad.</li>
6721 <li>Long battery life time.  Preferable a week.</li>
6722 <li>Internal WIFI network card.</li>
6723 <li>Internal Twisted Pair network card.</li>
6724 <li>Some USB slots (2-3 is plenty)</li>
6725 <li>Good keyboard - similar to the Thinkpad.</li>
6726 <li>Video resolution at least 1024x768, with size around 12" (A4 paper
6727 size).</li>
6728 <li>Hardware supported by Debian Stable, ie the default kernel and
6729   X.org packages.</li>
6730 <li>Quiet, preferably fan free (or at least not using the fan most of
6731   the time).
6732
6733 </ul>
6734
6735 <p>You will notice that there are no RAM and CPU requirements in the
6736 list.  The reason is simply that the specifications on laptops the
6737 last 10-15 years have been sufficient for my needs, and I have to look
6738 at other features to choose my laptop.  But are there still made as
6739 robust laptops as my X41?  The Thinkpad X60/X61 proved to be less
6740 robust, and Thinkpads seem to be heading in the wrong direction since
6741 Lenovo took over.  But I've been told that X220 and X1 Carbon might
6742 still be useful.</p>
6743
6744 <p>Perhaps I should rethink my needs, and look for a pad with an
6745 external keyboard?  I'll have to check the
6746 <a href="http://www.linux-laptop.net/">Linux Laptops site</a> for
6747 well-supported laptops, or perhaps just buy one preinstalled from one
6748 of the vendors listed on the <a href="http://linuxpreloaded.com/">Linux
6749 Pre-loaded site</a>.</p>
6750
6751       </div>
6752       <div class="tags">
6753
6754
6755         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>.
6756
6757
6758       </div>
6759     </div>
6760     <div class="padding"></div>
6761
6762     <div class="entry">
6763       <div class="title">
6764         <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>
6765       </div>
6766       <div class="date">
6767         18th January 2013
6768       </div>
6769       <div class="body">
6770         <p>Some times I try to figure out which Iceweasel browser plugin to
6771 install to get support for a given MIME type.  Thanks to
6772 <a href="https://wiki.ubuntu.com/MozillaTeam/Plugins">specifications
6773 done by Ubuntu</a> and Mozilla, it is possible to do this in Debian.
6774 Unfortunately, not very many packages provide the needed meta
6775 information, Anyway, here is a small script to look up all browser
6776 plugin packages announcing ther MIME support using this specification:</p>
6777
6778 <pre>
6779 #!/usr/bin/python
6780 import sys
6781 import apt
6782 def pkgs_handling_mimetype(mimetype):
6783     cache = apt.Cache()
6784     cache.open(None)
6785     thepkgs = []
6786     for pkg in cache:
6787         version = pkg.candidate
6788         if version is None:
6789             version = pkg.installed
6790         if version is None:
6791             continue
6792         record = version.record
6793         if not record.has_key('Npp-MimeType'):
6794             continue
6795         mime_types = record['Npp-MimeType'].split(',')
6796         for t in mime_types:
6797             t = t.rstrip().strip()
6798             if t == mimetype:
6799                 thepkgs.append(pkg.name)
6800     return thepkgs
6801 mimetype = "audio/ogg"
6802 if 1 < len(sys.argv):
6803     mimetype = sys.argv[1]
6804 print "Browser plugin packages supporting %s:" % mimetype
6805 for pkg in pkgs_handling_mimetype(mimetype):
6806     print "  %s" %pkg
6807 </pre>
6808
6809 <p>It can be used like this to look up a given MIME type:</p>
6810
6811 <pre>
6812 % ./apt-find-browserplug-for-mimetype
6813 Browser plugin packages supporting audio/ogg:
6814   gecko-mediaplayer
6815 % ./apt-find-browserplug-for-mimetype application/x-shockwave-flash
6816 Browser plugin packages supporting application/x-shockwave-flash:
6817   browser-plugin-gnash
6818 %
6819 </pre>
6820
6821 <p>In Ubuntu this mechanism is combined with support in the browser
6822 itself to query for plugins and propose to install the needed
6823 packages.  It would be great if Debian supported such feature too.  Is
6824 anyone working on adding it?</p>
6825
6826 <p><strong>Update 2013-01-18 14:20</strong>: The Debian BTS
6827 request for icweasel support for this feature is
6828 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/484010">#484010</a> from 2008 (and
6829 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/698426">#698426</a> from today).  Lack
6830 of manpower and wish for a different design is the reason thus feature
6831 is not yet in iceweasel from Debian.</p>
6832
6833       </div>
6834       <div class="tags">
6835
6836
6837         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>.
6838
6839
6840       </div>
6841     </div>
6842     <div class="padding"></div>
6843
6844     <div class="entry">
6845       <div class="title">
6846         <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>
6847       </div>
6848       <div class="date">
6849         16th January 2013
6850       </div>
6851       <div class="body">
6852         <p>The <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/AppStreamDebianProposal">DEP-11
6853 proposal to add AppStream information to the Debian archive</a>, is a
6854 proposal to make it possible for a Desktop application to propose to
6855 the user some package to install to gain support for a given MIME
6856 type, font, library etc. that is currently missing.  With such
6857 mechanism in place, it would be possible for the desktop to
6858 automatically propose and install leocad if some LDraw file is
6859 downloaded by the browser.</p>
6860
6861 <p>To get some idea about the current content of the archive, I decided
6862 to write a simple program to extract all .desktop files from the
6863 Debian archive and look up the claimed MIME support there.  The result
6864 can be found on the
6865 <a href="http://ftp.skolelinux.org/pub/AppStreamTest">Skolelinux FTP
6866 site</a>.  Using the collected information, it become possible to
6867 answer the question in the title.  Here are the 20 most supported MIME
6868 types in Debian stable (Squeeze), testing (Wheezy) and unstable (Sid).
6869 The complete list is available from the link above.</p>
6870
6871 <p><strong>Debian Stable:</strong></p>
6872
6873 <pre>
6874   count MIME type
6875   ----- -----------------------
6876      32 text/plain
6877      30 audio/mpeg
6878      29 image/png
6879      28 image/jpeg
6880      27 application/ogg
6881      26 audio/x-mp3
6882      25 image/tiff
6883      25 image/gif
6884      22 image/bmp
6885      22 audio/x-wav
6886      20 audio/x-flac
6887      19 audio/x-mpegurl
6888      18 video/x-ms-asf
6889      18 audio/x-musepack
6890      18 audio/x-mpeg
6891      18 application/x-ogg
6892      17 video/mpeg
6893      17 audio/x-scpls
6894      17 audio/ogg
6895      16 video/x-ms-wmv
6896 </pre>
6897
6898 <p><strong>Debian Testing:</strong></p>
6899
6900 <pre>
6901   count MIME type
6902   ----- -----------------------
6903      33 text/plain
6904      32 image/png
6905      32 image/jpeg
6906      29 audio/mpeg
6907      27 image/gif
6908      26 image/tiff
6909      26 application/ogg
6910      25 audio/x-mp3
6911      22 image/bmp
6912      21 audio/x-wav
6913      19 audio/x-mpegurl
6914      19 audio/x-mpeg
6915      18 video/mpeg
6916      18 audio/x-scpls
6917      18 audio/x-flac
6918      18 application/x-ogg
6919      17 video/x-ms-asf
6920      17 text/html
6921      17 audio/x-musepack
6922      16 image/x-xbitmap
6923 </pre>
6924
6925 <p><strong>Debian Unstable:</strong></p>
6926
6927 <pre>
6928   count MIME type
6929   ----- -----------------------
6930      31 text/plain
6931      31 image/png
6932      31 image/jpeg
6933      29 audio/mpeg
6934      28 application/ogg
6935      27 image/gif
6936      26 image/tiff
6937      26 audio/x-mp3
6938      23 audio/x-wav
6939      22 image/bmp
6940      21 audio/x-flac
6941      20 audio/x-mpegurl
6942      19 audio/x-mpeg
6943      18 video/x-ms-asf
6944      18 video/mpeg
6945      18 audio/x-scpls
6946      18 application/x-ogg
6947      17 audio/x-musepack
6948      16 video/x-ms-wmv
6949      16 video/x-msvideo
6950 </pre>
6951
6952 <p>I am told that PackageKit can provide an API to access the kind of
6953 information mentioned in DEP-11.  I have not yet had time to look at
6954 it, but hope the PackageKit people in Debian are on top of these
6955 issues.</p>
6956
6957 <p><strong>Update 2013-01-16 13:35</strong>: Updated numbers after
6958 discovering a typo in my script.</p>
6959
6960       </div>
6961       <div class="tags">
6962
6963
6964         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>.
6965
6966
6967       </div>
6968     </div>
6969     <div class="padding"></div>
6970
6971     <div class="entry">
6972       <div class="title">
6973         <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>
6974       </div>
6975       <div class="date">
6976         15th January 2013
6977       </div>
6978       <div class="body">
6979         <p>Yesterday, I wrote about the
6980 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Modalias_strings___a_practical_way_to_map__stuff__to_hardware.html">modalias
6981 values provided by the Linux kernel</a> following my hope for
6982 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lets_make_hardware_dongles_easier_to_use_in_Debian.html">better
6983 dongle support in Debian</a>.  Using this knowledge, I have tested how
6984 modalias values attached to package names can be used to map packages
6985 to hardware.  This allow the system to look up and suggest relevant
6986 packages when I plug in some new hardware into my machine, and replace
6987 discover and discover-data as the database used to map hardware to
6988 packages.</p>
6989
6990 <p>I create a modaliases file with entries like the following,
6991 containing package name, kernel module name (if relevant, otherwise
6992 the package name) and globs matching the relevant hardware
6993 modalias.</p>
6994
6995 <p><blockquote>
6996 Package: package-name
6997 <br>Modaliases: module(modaliasglob, modaliasglob, modaliasglob)</p>
6998 </blockquote></p>
6999
7000 <p>It is fairly trivial to write code to find the relevant packages
7001 for a given modalias value using this file.</p>
7002
7003 <p>An entry like this would suggest the video and picture application
7004 cheese for many USB web cameras (interface bus class 0E01):</p>
7005
7006 <p><blockquote>
7007 Package: cheese
7008 <br>Modaliases: cheese(usb:v*p*d*dc*dsc*dp*ic0Eisc01ip*)</p>
7009 </blockquote></p>
7010
7011 <p>An entry like this would suggest the pcmciautils package when a
7012 CardBus bridge (bus class 0607) PCI device is present:</p>
7013
7014 <p><blockquote>
7015 Package: pcmciautils
7016 <br>Modaliases: pcmciautils(pci:v*d*sv*sd*bc06sc07i*)
7017 </blockquote></p>
7018
7019 <p>An entry like this would suggest the package colorhug-client when
7020 plugging in a ColorHug with USB IDs 04D8:F8DA:</p>
7021
7022 <p><blockquote>
7023 Package: colorhug-client
7024 <br>Modaliases: colorhug-client(usb:v04D8pF8DAd*)</p>
7025 </blockquote></p>
7026
7027 <p>I believe the format is compatible with the format of the Packages
7028 file in the Debian archive.  Ubuntu already uses their Packages file
7029 to store their mappings from packages to hardware.</p>
7030
7031 <p>By adding a XB-Modaliases: header in debian/control, any .deb can
7032 announce the hardware it support in a way my prototype understand.
7033 This allow those publishing packages in an APT source outside the
7034 Debian archive as well as those backporting packages to make sure the
7035 hardware mapping are included in the package meta information.  I've
7036 tested such header in the pymissile package, and its modalias mapping
7037 is working as it should with my prototype.  It even made it to Ubuntu
7038 Raring.</p>
7039
7040 <p>To test if it was possible to look up supported hardware using only
7041 the shell tools available in the Debian installer, I wrote a shell
7042 implementation of the lookup code.  The idea is to create files for
7043 each modalias and let the shell do the matching.  Please check out and
7044 try the
7045 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/hw-support-lookup?view=co">hw-support-lookup</a>
7046 shell script.  It run without any extra dependencies and fetch the
7047 hardware mappings from the Debian archive and the subversion
7048 repository where I currently work on my prototype.</p>
7049
7050 <p>When I use it on a machine with a yubikey inserted, it suggest to
7051 install yubikey-personalization:</p>
7052
7053 <p><blockquote>
7054 % ./hw-support-lookup
7055 <br>yubikey-personalization
7056 <br>%
7057 </blockquote></p>
7058
7059 <p>When I run it on my Thinkpad X40 with a PCMCIA/CardBus slot, it
7060 propose to install the pcmciautils package:</p>
7061
7062 <p><blockquote>
7063 % ./hw-support-lookup
7064 <br>pcmciautils
7065 <br>%
7066 </blockquote></p>
7067
7068 <p>If you know of any hardware-package mapping that should be added to
7069 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/modaliases?view=co">my
7070 database</a>, please tell me about it.</p>
7071
7072 <p>It could be possible to generate several of the mappings between
7073 packages and hardware.  One source would be to look at packages with
7074 kernel modules, ie packages with *.ko files in /lib/modules/, and
7075 extract their modalias information.  Another would be to look at
7076 packages with udev rules, ie packages with files in
7077 /lib/udev/rules.d/, and extract their vendor/model information to
7078 generate a modalias matching rule.  I have not tested any of these to
7079 see if it work.</p>
7080
7081 <p>If you want to help implementing a system to let us propose what
7082 packages to install when new hardware is plugged into a Debian
7083 machine, please send me an email or talk to me on
7084 <a href="irc://irc.debian.org/%23debian-devel">#debian-devel</a>.</p>
7085
7086       </div>
7087       <div class="tags">
7088
7089
7090         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>.
7091
7092
7093       </div>
7094     </div>
7095     <div class="padding"></div>
7096
7097     <div class="entry">
7098       <div class="title">
7099         <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>
7100       </div>
7101       <div class="date">
7102         14th January 2013
7103       </div>
7104       <div class="body">
7105         <p>While looking into how to look up Debian packages based on hardware
7106 information, to find the packages that support a given piece of
7107 hardware, I refreshed my memory regarding modalias values, and decided
7108 to document the details.  Here are my findings so far, also available
7109 in
7110 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/">the
7111 Debian Edu subversion repository</a>:
7112
7113 <p><strong>Modalias decoded</strong></p>
7114
7115 <p>This document try to explain what the different types of modalias
7116 values stands for.  It is in part based on information from
7117 &lt;URL: <a href="https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Modalias">https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Modalias</a> &gt;,
7118 &lt;URL: <a href="http://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/26132/how-to-assign-usb-driver-to-device">http://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/26132/how-to-assign-usb-driver-to-device</a> &gt;,
7119 &lt;URL: <a href="http://code.metager.de/source/history/linux/stable/scripts/mod/file2alias.c">http://code.metager.de/source/history/linux/stable/scripts/mod/file2alias.c</a> &gt; and
7120 &lt;URL: <a href="http://cvs.savannah.gnu.org/viewvc/dmidecode/dmidecode.c?root=dmidecode&view=markup">http://cvs.savannah.gnu.org/viewvc/dmidecode/dmidecode.c?root=dmidecode&view=markup</a> &gt;.
7121
7122 <p>The modalias entries for a given Linux machine can be found using
7123 this shell script:</p>
7124
7125 <pre>
7126 find /sys -name modalias -print0 | xargs -0 cat | sort -u
7127 </pre>
7128
7129 <p>The supported modalias globs for a given kernel module can be found
7130 using modinfo:</p>
7131
7132 <pre>
7133 % /sbin/modinfo psmouse | grep alias:
7134 alias:          serio:ty05pr*id*ex*
7135 alias:          serio:ty01pr*id*ex*
7136 %
7137 </pre>
7138
7139 <p><strong>PCI subtype</strong></p>
7140
7141 <p>A typical PCI entry can look like this.  This is an Intel Host
7142 Bridge memory controller:</p>
7143
7144 <p><blockquote>
7145 pci:v00008086d00002770sv00001028sd000001ADbc06sc00i00
7146 </blockquote></p>
7147
7148 <p>This represent these values:</p>
7149
7150 <pre>
7151  v   00008086  (vendor)
7152  d   00002770  (device)
7153  sv  00001028  (subvendor)
7154  sd  000001AD  (subdevice)
7155  bc  06        (bus class)
7156  sc  00        (bus subclass)
7157  i   00        (interface)
7158 </pre>
7159
7160 <p>The vendor/device values are the same values outputted from 'lspci
7161 -n' as 8086:2770.  The bus class/subclass is also shown by lspci as
7162 0600.  The 0600 class is a host bridge.  Other useful bus values are
7163 0300 (VGA compatible card) and 0200 (Ethernet controller).</p>
7164
7165 <p>Not sure how to figure out the interface value, nor what it
7166 means.</p>
7167
7168 <p><strong>USB subtype</strong></p>
7169
7170 <p>Some typical USB entries can look like this.  This is an internal
7171 USB hub in a laptop:</p>
7172
7173 <p><blockquote>
7174 usb:v1D6Bp0001d0206dc09dsc00dp00ic09isc00ip00
7175 </blockquote></p>
7176
7177 <p>Here is the values included in this alias:</p>
7178
7179 <pre>
7180  v    1D6B  (device vendor)
7181  p    0001  (device product)
7182  d    0206  (bcddevice)
7183  dc     09  (device class)
7184  dsc    00  (device subclass)
7185  dp     00  (device protocol)
7186  ic     09  (interface class)
7187  isc    00  (interface subclass)
7188  ip     00  (interface protocol)
7189 </pre>
7190
7191 <p>The 0900 device class/subclass means hub.  Some times the relevant
7192 class is in the interface class section.  For a simple USB web camera,
7193 these alias entries show up:</p>
7194
7195 <p><blockquote>
7196 usb:v0AC8p3420d5000dcEFdsc02dp01ic01isc01ip00
7197 <br>usb:v0AC8p3420d5000dcEFdsc02dp01ic01isc02ip00
7198 <br>usb:v0AC8p3420d5000dcEFdsc02dp01ic0Eisc01ip00
7199 <br>usb:v0AC8p3420d5000dcEFdsc02dp01ic0Eisc02ip00
7200 </blockquote></p>
7201
7202 <p>Interface class 0E01 is video control, 0E02 is video streaming (aka
7203 camera), 0101 is audio control device and 0102 is audio streaming (aka
7204 microphone).  Thus this is a camera with microphone included.</p>
7205
7206 <p><strong>ACPI subtype</strong></p>
7207
7208 <p>The ACPI type is used for several non-PCI/USB stuff.  This is an IR
7209 receiver in a Thinkpad X40:</p>
7210
7211 <p><blockquote>
7212 acpi:IBM0071:PNP0511:
7213 </blockquote></p>
7214
7215 <p>The values between the colons are IDs.</p>
7216
7217 <p><strong>DMI subtype</strong></p>
7218
7219 <p>The DMI table contain lots of information about the computer case
7220 and model.  This is an entry for a IBM Thinkpad X40, fetched from
7221 /sys/devices/virtual/dmi/id/modalias:</p>
7222
7223 <p><blockquote>
7224 dmi:bvnIBM:bvr1UETB6WW(1.66):bd06/15/2005:svnIBM:pn2371H4G:pvrThinkPadX40:rvnIBM:rn2371H4G:rvrNotAvailable:cvnIBM:ct10:cvrNotAvailable:
7225 </blockquote></p>
7226
7227 <p>The values present are</p>
7228
7229 <pre>
7230  bvn  IBM            (BIOS vendor)
7231  bvr  1UETB6WW(1.66) (BIOS version)
7232  bd   06/15/2005     (BIOS date)
7233  svn  IBM            (system vendor)
7234  pn   2371H4G        (product name)
7235  pvr  ThinkPadX40    (product version)
7236  rvn  IBM            (board vendor)
7237  rn   2371H4G        (board name)
7238  rvr  NotAvailable   (board version)
7239  cvn  IBM            (chassis vendor)
7240  ct   10             (chassis type)
7241  cvr  NotAvailable   (chassis version)
7242 </pre>
7243
7244 <p>The chassis type 10 is Notebook.  Other interesting values can be
7245 found in the dmidecode source:</p>
7246
7247 <pre>
7248   3 Desktop
7249   4 Low Profile Desktop
7250   5 Pizza Box
7251   6 Mini Tower
7252   7 Tower
7253   8 Portable
7254   9 Laptop
7255  10 Notebook
7256  11 Hand Held
7257  12 Docking Station
7258  13 All In One
7259  14 Sub Notebook
7260  15 Space-saving
7261  16 Lunch Box
7262  17 Main Server Chassis
7263  18 Expansion Chassis
7264  19 Sub Chassis
7265  20 Bus Expansion Chassis
7266  21 Peripheral Chassis
7267  22 RAID Chassis
7268  23 Rack Mount Chassis
7269  24 Sealed-case PC
7270  25 Multi-system
7271  26 CompactPCI
7272  27 AdvancedTCA
7273  28 Blade
7274  29 Blade Enclosing
7275 </pre>
7276
7277 <p>The chassis type values are not always accurately set in the DMI
7278 table.  For example my home server is a tower, but the DMI modalias
7279 claim it is a desktop.</p>
7280
7281 <p><strong>SerIO subtype</strong></p>
7282
7283 <p>This type is used for PS/2 mouse plugs.  One example is from my
7284 test machine:</p>
7285
7286 <p><blockquote>
7287 serio:ty01pr00id00ex00
7288 </blockquote></p>
7289
7290 <p>The values present are</p>
7291
7292 <pre>
7293   ty  01  (type)
7294   pr  00  (prototype)
7295   id  00  (id)
7296   ex  00  (extra)
7297 </pre>
7298
7299 <p>This type is supported by the psmouse driver.  I am not sure what
7300 the valid values are.</p>
7301
7302 <p><strong>Other subtypes</strong></p>
7303
7304 <p>There are heaps of other modalias subtypes according to
7305 file2alias.c.  There is the rest of the list from that source: amba,
7306 ap, bcma, ccw, css, eisa, hid, i2c, ieee1394, input, ipack, isapnp,
7307 mdio, of, parisc, pcmcia, platform, scsi, sdio, spi, ssb, vio, virtio,
7308 vmbus, x86cpu and zorro.  I did not spend time documenting all of
7309 these, as they do not seem relevant for my intended use with mapping
7310 hardware to packages when new stuff is inserted during run time.</p>
7311
7312 <p><strong>Looking up kernel modules using modalias values</strong></p>
7313
7314 <p>To check which kernel modules provide support for a given modalias,
7315 one can use the following shell script:</p>
7316
7317 <pre>
7318   for id in $(find /sys -name modalias -print0 | xargs -0 cat | sort -u); do \
7319     echo "$id" ; \
7320     /sbin/modprobe --show-depends "$id"|sed 's/^/  /' ; \
7321   done
7322 </pre>
7323
7324 <p>The output can look like this (only the first few entries as the
7325 list is very long on my test machine):</p>
7326
7327 <pre>
7328   acpi:ACPI0003:
7329     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/drivers/acpi/ac.ko
7330   acpi:device:
7331   FATAL: Module acpi:device: not found.
7332   acpi:IBM0068:
7333     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/drivers/char/nvram.ko
7334     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/drivers/leds/led-class.ko
7335     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/net/rfkill/rfkill.ko
7336     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/drivers/platform/x86/thinkpad_acpi.ko
7337   acpi:IBM0071:PNP0511:
7338     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/lib/crc-ccitt.ko
7339     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/net/irda/irda.ko
7340     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/drivers/net/irda/nsc-ircc.ko
7341   [...]
7342 </pre>
7343
7344 <p>If you want to help implementing a system to let us propose what
7345 packages to install when new hardware is plugged into a Debian
7346 machine, please send me an email or talk to me on
7347 <a href="irc://irc.debian.org/%23debian-devel">#debian-devel</a>.</p>
7348
7349 <p><strong>Update 2013-01-15:</strong> Rewrite "cat $(find ...)" to
7350 "find ... -print0 | xargs -0 cat" to make sure it handle directories
7351 in /sys/ with space in them.</p>
7352
7353       </div>
7354       <div class="tags">
7355
7356
7357         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>.
7358
7359
7360       </div>
7361     </div>
7362     <div class="padding"></div>
7363
7364     <div class="entry">
7365       <div class="title">
7366         <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>
7367       </div>
7368       <div class="date">
7369         10th January 2013
7370       </div>
7371       <div class="body">
7372         <p>As part of my investigation on how to improve the support in Debian
7373 for hardware dongles, I dug up my old Mark and Spencer USB Rocket
7374 Launcher and updated the Debian package
7375 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/pymissile">pymissile</a> to make
7376 sure udev will fix the device permissions when it is plugged in.  I
7377 also added a "Modaliases" header to test it in the Debian archive and
7378 hopefully make the package be proposed by jockey in Ubuntu when a user
7379 plug in his rocket launcher.  In the process I moved the source to a
7380 git repository under collab-maint, to make it easier for any DD to
7381 contribute.  <a href="http://code.google.com/p/pymissile/">Upstream</a>
7382 is not very active, but the software still work for me even after five
7383 years of relative silence.  The new git repository is not listed in
7384 the uploaded package yet, because I want to test the other changes a
7385 bit more before I upload the new version.  If you want to check out
7386 the new version with a .desktop file included, visit the
7387 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/gitweb/?p=collab-maint/pymissile.git">gitweb
7388 view</a> or use "<tt>git clone
7389 git://anonscm.debian.org/collab-maint/pymissile.git</tt>".</p>
7390
7391       </div>
7392       <div class="tags">
7393
7394
7395         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram">isenkram</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/robot">robot</a>.
7396
7397
7398       </div>
7399     </div>
7400     <div class="padding"></div>
7401
7402     <div class="entry">
7403       <div class="title">
7404         <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>
7405       </div>
7406       <div class="date">
7407          9th January 2013
7408       </div>
7409       <div class="body">
7410         <p>One thing that annoys me with Debian and Linux distributions in
7411 general, is that there is a great package management system with the
7412 ability to automatically install software packages by downloading them
7413 from the distribution mirrors, but no way to get it to automatically
7414 install the packages I need to use the hardware I plug into my
7415 machine.  Even if the package to use it is easily available from the
7416 Linux distribution.  When I plug in a LEGO Mindstorms NXT, it could
7417 suggest to automatically install the python-nxt, nbc and t2n packages
7418 I need to talk to it.  When I plug in a Yubikey, it could propose the
7419 yubikey-personalization package.  The information required to do this
7420 is available, but no-one have pulled all the pieces together.</p>
7421
7422 <p>Some years ago, I proposed to
7423 <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2010/05/msg01206.html">use
7424 the discover subsystem to implement this</a>.  The idea is fairly
7425 simple:
7426
7427 <ul>
7428
7429 <li>Add a desktop entry in /usr/share/autostart/ pointing to a program
7430   starting when a user log in.</li>
7431
7432 <li>Set this program up to listen for kernel events emitted when new
7433   hardware is inserted into the computer.</li>
7434
7435 <li>When new hardware is inserted, look up the hardware ID in a
7436   database mapping to packages, and take note of any non-installed
7437   packages.</li>
7438
7439 <li>Show a message to the user proposing to install the discovered
7440   package, and make it easy to install it.</li>
7441
7442 </ul>
7443
7444 <p>I am not sure what the best way to implement this is, but my
7445 initial idea was to use dbus events to discover new hardware, the
7446 discover database to find packages and
7447 <a href="http://www.packagekit.org/">PackageKit</a> to install
7448 packages.</p>
7449
7450 <p>Yesterday, I found time to try to implement this idea, and the
7451 draft package is now checked into
7452 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/">the
7453 Debian Edu subversion repository</a>.  In the process, I updated the
7454 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/d/discover-data.html">discover-data</a>
7455 package to map the USB ids of LEGO Mindstorms and Yubikey devices to
7456 the relevant packages in Debian, and uploaded a new version
7457 2.2013.01.09 to unstable.  I also discovered that the current
7458 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/d/discover.html">discover</a>
7459 package in Debian no longer discovered any USB devices, because
7460 /proc/bus/usb/devices is no longer present.  I ported it to use
7461 libusb as a fall back option to get it working.  The fixed package
7462 version 2.1.2-6 is now in experimental (didn't upload it to unstable
7463 because of the freeze).</p>
7464
7465 <p>With this prototype in place, I can insert my Yubikey, and get this
7466 desktop notification to show up (only once, the first time it is
7467 inserted):</p>
7468
7469 <p align="center"><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-01-09-hw-autoinstall.png"></p>
7470
7471 <p>For this prototype to be really useful, some way to automatically
7472 install the proposed packages by pressing the "Please install
7473 program(s)" button should to be implemented.</p>
7474
7475 <p>If this idea seem useful to you, and you want to help make it
7476 happen, please help me update the discover-data database with mappings
7477 from hardware to Debian packages.  Check if 'discover-pkginstall -l'
7478 list the package you would like to have installed when a given
7479 hardware device is inserted into your computer, and report bugs using
7480 reportbug if it isn't.  Or, if you know of a better way to provide
7481 such mapping, please let me know.</p>
7482
7483 <p>This prototype need more work, and there are several questions that
7484 should be considered before it is ready for production use.  Is dbus
7485 the correct way to detect new hardware?  At the moment I look for HAL
7486 dbus events on the system bus, because that is the events I could see
7487 on my Debian Squeeze KDE desktop.  Are there better events to use?
7488 How should the user be notified?  Is the desktop notification
7489 mechanism the best option, or should the background daemon raise a
7490 popup instead?  How should packages be installed?  When should they
7491 not be installed?</p>
7492
7493 <p>If you want to help getting such feature implemented in Debian,
7494 please send me an email. :)</p>
7495
7496       </div>
7497       <div class="tags">
7498
7499
7500         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>.
7501
7502
7503       </div>
7504     </div>
7505     <div class="padding"></div>
7506
7507     <div class="entry">
7508       <div class="title">
7509         <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>
7510       </div>
7511       <div class="date">
7512          2nd January 2013
7513       </div>
7514       <div class="body">
7515         <p>During Christmas, I have worked a bit on the Debian support for
7516 <a href="http://mindstorms.lego.com/en-us/Default.aspx">LEGO Mindstorm
7517 NXT</a>.  My son and I have played a bit with my NXT set, and I
7518 discovered I had to build all the tools myself because none were
7519 already in Debian Squeeze.  If Debian support for LEGO is something
7520 you care about, please join me on the IRC channel
7521 <a href="irc://irc.debian.org/%23debian-lego">#debian-lego</a> (server
7522 irc.debian.org).  There is a lot that could be done to improve the
7523 Debian support for LEGO designers.  For example both CAD software
7524 and Mindstorm compilers are missing. :)</p>
7525
7526 <p>Update 2012-01-03: A
7527 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/LegoDesigners">project page</a>
7528 including links to Lego related packages is now available.</p>
7529
7530       </div>
7531       <div class="tags">
7532
7533
7534         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>.
7535
7536
7537       </div>
7538     </div>
7539     <div class="padding"></div>
7540
7541     <div class="entry">
7542       <div class="title">
7543         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/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>
7544       </div>
7545       <div class="date">
7546         25th December 2012
7547       </div>
7548       <div class="body">
7549         <p>Let me start by wishing you all marry Christmas and a happy new
7550 year!  I hope next year will prove to be a good year.</p>
7551
7552 <p><a href="http://www.bitcoin.org/">Bitcoin</a>, the digital
7553 decentralised "currency" that allow people to transfer bitcoins
7554 between each other with minimal overhead, is a very interesting
7555 experiment.  And as I wrote a few days ago, the bitcoin situation in
7556 <a href="http://www.debian.org/">Debian</a> is about to improve a bit.
7557 The <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/bitcoin">new debian source
7558 package</a> (version 0.7.2-2) was uploaded yesterday, and is waiting
7559 in <a href="http://ftp-master.debian.org/new.html">the NEW queue</A>
7560 for one of the ftpmasters to approve the new bitcoin-qt package
7561 name.</p>
7562
7563 <p>And thanks to the great work of Jonas and the rest of the bitcoin
7564 team in Debian, you can easily test the package in Debian Squeeze
7565 using the following steps to get a set of working packages:</p>
7566
7567 <blockquote><pre>
7568 git clone git://git.debian.org/git/collab-maint/bitcoin
7569 cd bitcoin
7570 DEB_MAINTAINER_MODE=1 DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS=noupnp fakeroot debian/rules clean
7571 DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS=noupnp git-buildpackage --git-ignore-new
7572 </pre></blockquote>
7573
7574 <p>You might have to install some build dependencies as well.  The
7575 list of commands should give you two packages, bitcoind and
7576 bitcoin-qt, ready for use in a Squeeze environment.  Note that the
7577 client will download the complete set of bitcoin "blocks", which need
7578 around 5.6 GiB of data on my machine at the moment.  Make sure your
7579 ~/.bitcoin/ directory have lots of spare room if you want to download
7580 all the blocks.  The client will warn if the disk is getting full, so
7581 there is not really a problem if you got too little room, but you will
7582 not be able to get all the features out of the client.</p>
7583
7584 <p>As usual, if you use bitcoin and want to show your support of my
7585 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
7586 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b&label=PetterReinholdtsenBlog">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
7587
7588       </div>
7589       <div class="tags">
7590
7591
7592         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>.
7593
7594
7595       </div>
7596     </div>
7597     <div class="padding"></div>
7598
7599     <div class="entry">
7600       <div class="title">
7601         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/A_word_on_bitcoin_support_in_Debian.html">A word on bitcoin support in Debian</a>
7602       </div>
7603       <div class="date">
7604         21st December 2012
7605       </div>
7606       <div class="body">
7607         <p>It has been a while since I wrote about
7608 <a href="http://www.bitcoin.org/">bitcoin</a>, the decentralised
7609 peer-to-peer based crypto-currency, and the reason is simply that I
7610 have been busy elsewhere.  But two days ago, I started looking at the
7611 state of <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/bitcoin">bitcoin in
7612 Debian</a> again to try to recover my old bitcoin wallet.  The package
7613 is now maintained by a
7614 <a href="https://alioth.debian.org/projects/pkg-bitcoin/">team of
7615 people</a>, and the grunt work had already been done by this team.  We
7616 owe a huge thank you to all these team members. :)
7617 But I was sad to discover that the bitcoin client is missing in
7618 Wheezy.  It is only available in Sid (and an outdated client from
7619 backports).  The client had several RC bugs registered in BTS blocking
7620 it from entering testing.  To try to help the team and improve the
7621 situation, I spent some time providing patches and triaging the bug
7622 reports.  I also had a look at the bitcoin package available from Matt
7623 Corallo in a
7624 <a href="https://launchpad.net/~bitcoin/+archive/bitcoin">PPA for
7625 Ubuntu</a>, and moved the useful pieces from that version into the
7626 Debian package.</p>
7627
7628 <p>After checking with the main package maintainer Jonas Smedegaard on
7629 IRC, I pushed several patches into the collab-maint git repository to
7630 improve the package.  It now contains fixes for the RC issues (not from
7631 me, but fixed by Scott Howard), build rules for a Qt GUI client
7632 package, konqueror support for the bitcoin: URI and bash completion
7633 setup.  As I work on Debian Squeeze, I also created
7634 <a href="http://lists.alioth.debian.org/pipermail/pkg-bitcoin-devel/Week-of-Mon-20121217/000041.html">a
7635 patch to backport</a> the latest version.  Jonas is going to look at
7636 it and try to integrate it into the git repository before uploading a
7637 new version to unstable.
7638
7639 <p>I would very much like bitcoin to succeed, to get rid of the
7640 centralized control currently exercised in the monetary system.  I
7641 find it completely unacceptable that the USA government is collecting
7642 transaction data for almost all international money transfers (most are done in USD and transaction logs shipped to the spooks), and
7643 that the major credit card companies can block legal money
7644 transactions to Wikileaks.  But for bitcoin to succeed, more people
7645 need to use bitcoins, and more people need to accept bitcoins when
7646 they sell products and services.  Improving the bitcoin support in
7647 Debian is a small step in the right direction, but not enough.
7648 Unfortunately the user experience when browsing the web and wanting to
7649 pay with bitcoin is still not very good.  The bitcoin: URI is a step
7650 in the right direction, but need to work in most or every browser in
7651 use.  Also the bitcoin-qt client is too heavy to fire up to do a
7652 quick transaction.  I believe there are other clients available, but
7653 have not tested them.</p>
7654
7655 <p>My
7656 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Now_accepting_bitcoins___anonymous_and_distributed_p2p_crypto_money.html">experiment
7657 with bitcoins</a> showed that at least some of my readers use bitcoin.
7658 I received 20.15 BTC so far on the address I provided in my blog two
7659 years ago, as can be
7660 <a href="http://blockexplorer.com/address/15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">seen
7661 on the blockexplorer service</a>.  Thank you everyone for your
7662 donation.  The blockexplorer service demonstrates quite well that
7663 bitcoin is not quite anonymous and untracked. :) I wonder if the
7664 number of users have gone up since then.  If you use bitcoin and want
7665 to show your support of my activity, please send Bitcoin donations to
7666 the same address as last time,
7667 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b&label=PetterReinholdtsenBlog">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
7668
7669       </div>
7670       <div class="tags">
7671
7672
7673         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>.
7674
7675
7676       </div>
7677     </div>
7678     <div class="padding"></div>
7679
7680     <div class="entry">
7681       <div class="title">
7682         <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>
7683       </div>
7684       <div class="date">
7685          7th September 2012
7686       </div>
7687       <div class="body">
7688         <p>As I
7689 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Song_book_for_Computer_Scientists.html">mentioned
7690 this summer</a>, I have created a Computer Science song book a few
7691 years ago, and today I finally found time to create a public
7692 <a href="https://gitorious.org/pere-cs-songbook/pere-cs-songbook">Gitorious
7693 repository for the project</a>.</p>
7694
7695 <p>If you want to help out, please clone the source and submit patches
7696 to the HTML version.  To generate the PDF and PostScript version,
7697 please use prince XML, or let me know about a useful free software
7698 processor capable of creating a good looking PDF from the HTML.</p>
7699
7700 <p>Want to sing?  You can still find the song book in HTML, PDF and
7701 PostScript formats at
7702 <a href="http://www.hungry.com/~pere/cs-songbook/">Petter's Computer
7703 Science Songbook</a>.</p>
7704
7705       </div>
7706       <div class="tags">
7707
7708
7709         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>.
7710
7711
7712       </div>
7713     </div>
7714     <div class="padding"></div>
7715
7716     <div class="entry">
7717       <div class="title">
7718         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Gratulerer_med_19__rsdagen__Debian_.html">Gratulerer med 19-årsdagen, Debian!</a>
7719       </div>
7720       <div class="date">
7721         16th August 2012
7722       </div>
7723       <div class="body">
7724         <p>I dag fyller
7725 <a href="http://www.debian.org/News/2012/20120813">Debian-prosjektet 19
7726 år</a>.  Jeg har fulgt det de siste 12 årene, og er veldig glad for å kunne
7727 si gratulerer med dagen, Debian!</p>
7728
7729       </div>
7730       <div class="tags">
7731
7732
7733         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/norsk">norsk</a>.
7734
7735
7736       </div>
7737     </div>
7738     <div class="padding"></div>
7739
7740     <div class="entry">
7741       <div class="title">
7742         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Song_book_for_Computer_Scientists.html">Song book for Computer Scientists</a>
7743       </div>
7744       <div class="date">
7745         24th June 2012
7746       </div>
7747       <div class="body">
7748         <p>Many years ago, while studying Computer Science at the
7749 <a href="http://www.uit.no/">University of Tromsø</a>, I started
7750 collecting computer related songs for use at parties.  The original
7751 version was written in LaTeX, but a few years ago I got help from
7752 Håkon W. Lie, one of the inventors of W3C CSS, to convert it to HTML
7753 while keeping the ability to create a nice book in PDF format.  I have
7754 not had time to maintain the book for a while now, and guess I should
7755 put it up on some public version control repository where others can
7756 help me extend and update the book.  If anyone is volunteering to help
7757 me with this, send me an email.  Also let me know if there are songs
7758 missing in my book.</p>
7759
7760 <p>I have not mentioned the book on my blog so far, and it occured to
7761 me today that I really should let all my readers share the joys of
7762 singing out load about programming, computers and computer networks.
7763 Especially now that <a href="http://debconf12.debconf.org/">Debconf
7764 12</a> is about to start (and I am not going).  Want to sing?  Check
7765 out <a href="http://www.hungry.com/~pere/cs-songbook/">Petter's
7766 Computer Science Songbook</a>.
7767
7768       </div>
7769       <div class="tags">
7770
7771
7772         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>.
7773
7774
7775       </div>
7776     </div>
7777     <div class="padding"></div>
7778
7779     <div class="entry">
7780       <div class="title">
7781         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Automatically_upgrading_server_firmware_on_Dell_PowerEdge.html">Automatically upgrading server firmware on Dell PowerEdge</a>
7782       </div>
7783       <div class="date">
7784         21st November 2011
7785       </div>
7786       <div class="body">
7787         <p>At work we have heaps of servers.  I believe the total count is
7788 around 1000 at the moment.  To be able to get help from the vendors
7789 when something go wrong, we want to keep the firmware on the servers
7790 up to date.  If the firmware isn't the latest and greatest, the
7791 vendors typically refuse to start debugging any problems until the
7792 firmware is upgraded.  So before every reboot, we want to upgrade the
7793 firmware, and we would really like everyone handling servers at the
7794 university to do this themselves when they plan to reboot a machine.
7795 For that to happen we at the unix server admin group need to provide
7796 the tools to do so.</p>
7797
7798 <p>To make firmware upgrading easier, I am working on a script to
7799 fetch and install the latest firmware for the servers we got.  Most of
7800 our hardware are from Dell and HP, so I have focused on these servers
7801 so far.  This blog post is about the Dell part.</P>
7802
7803 <p>On the Dell FTP site I was lucky enough to find
7804 <a href="ftp://ftp.us.dell.com/catalog/Catalog.xml.gz">an XML file</a>
7805 with firmware information for all 11th generation servers, listing
7806 which firmware should be used on a given model and where on the FTP
7807 site I can find it.  Using a simple perl XML parser I can then
7808 download the shell scripts Dell provides to do firmware upgrades from
7809 within Linux and reboot when all the firmware is primed and ready to
7810 be activated on the first reboot.</p>
7811
7812 <p>This is the Dell related fragment of the perl code I am working on.
7813 Are there anyone working on similar tools for firmware upgrading all
7814 servers at a site?  Please get in touch and lets share resources.</p>
7815
7816 <p><pre>
7817 #!/usr/bin/perl
7818 use strict;
7819 use warnings;
7820 use File::Temp qw(tempdir);
7821 BEGIN {
7822     # Install needed RHEL packages if missing
7823     my %rhelmodules = (
7824         'XML::Simple' => 'perl-XML-Simple',
7825         );
7826     for my $module (keys %rhelmodules) {
7827         eval "use $module;";
7828         if ($@) {
7829             my $pkg = $rhelmodules{$module};
7830             system("yum install -y $pkg");
7831             eval "use $module;";
7832         }
7833     }
7834 }
7835 my $errorsto = 'pere@hungry.com';
7836
7837 upgrade_dell();
7838
7839 exit 0;
7840
7841 sub run_firmware_script {
7842     my ($opts, $script) = @_;
7843     unless ($script) {
7844         print STDERR "fail: missing script name\n";
7845         exit 1
7846     }
7847     print STDERR "Running $script\n\n";
7848
7849     if (0 == system("sh $script $opts")) { # FIXME correct exit code handling
7850         print STDERR "success: firmware script ran succcessfully\n";
7851     } else {
7852         print STDERR "fail: firmware script returned error\n";
7853     }
7854 }
7855
7856 sub run_firmware_scripts {
7857     my ($opts, @dirs) = @_;
7858     # Run firmware packages
7859     for my $dir (@dirs) {
7860         print STDERR "info: Running scripts in $dir\n";
7861         opendir(my $dh, $dir) or die "Unable to open directory $dir: $!";
7862         while (my $s = readdir $dh) {
7863             next if $s =~ m/^\.\.?/;
7864             run_firmware_script($opts, "$dir/$s");
7865         }
7866         closedir $dh;
7867     }
7868 }
7869
7870 sub download {
7871     my $url = shift;
7872     print STDERR "info: Downloading $url\n";
7873     system("wget --quiet \"$url\"");
7874 }
7875
7876 sub upgrade_dell {
7877     my @dirs;
7878     my $product = `dmidecode -s system-product-name`;
7879     chomp $product;
7880
7881     if ($product =~ m/PowerEdge/) {
7882
7883         # on RHEL, these pacakges are needed by the firwmare upgrade scripts
7884         system('yum install -y compat-libstdc++-33.i686 libstdc++.i686 libxml2.i686 procmail');
7885
7886         my $tmpdir = tempdir(
7887             CLEANUP => 1
7888             );
7889         chdir($tmpdir);
7890         fetch_dell_fw('catalog/Catalog.xml.gz');
7891         system('gunzip Catalog.xml.gz');
7892         my @paths = fetch_dell_fw_list('Catalog.xml');
7893         # -q is quiet, disabling interactivity and reducing console output
7894         my $fwopts = "-q";
7895         if (@paths) {
7896             for my $url (@paths) {
7897                 fetch_dell_fw($url);
7898             }
7899             run_firmware_scripts($fwopts, $tmpdir);
7900         } else {
7901             print STDERR "error: Unsupported Dell model '$product'.\n";
7902             print STDERR "error: Please report to $errorsto.\n";
7903         }
7904         chdir('/');
7905     } else {
7906         print STDERR "error: Unsupported Dell model '$product'.\n";
7907         print STDERR "error: Please report to $errorsto.\n";
7908     }
7909 }
7910
7911 sub fetch_dell_fw {
7912     my $path = shift;
7913     my $url = "ftp://ftp.us.dell.com/$path";
7914     download($url);
7915 }
7916
7917 # Using ftp://ftp.us.dell.com/catalog/Catalog.xml.gz, figure out which
7918 # firmware packages to download from Dell.  Only work for Linux
7919 # machines and 11th generation Dell servers.
7920 sub fetch_dell_fw_list {
7921     my $filename = shift;
7922
7923     my $product = `dmidecode -s system-product-name`;
7924     chomp $product;
7925     my ($mybrand, $mymodel) = split(/\s+/, $product);
7926
7927     print STDERR "Finding firmware bundles for $mybrand $mymodel\n";
7928
7929     my $xml = XMLin($filename);
7930     my @paths;
7931     for my $bundle (@{$xml->{SoftwareBundle}}) {
7932         my $brand = $bundle->{TargetSystems}->{Brand}->{Display}->{content};
7933         my $model = $bundle->{TargetSystems}->{Brand}->{Model}->{Display}->{content};
7934         my $oscode;
7935         if ("ARRAY" eq ref $bundle->{TargetOSes}->{OperatingSystem}) {
7936             $oscode = $bundle->{TargetOSes}->{OperatingSystem}[0]->{osCode};
7937         } else {
7938             $oscode = $bundle->{TargetOSes}->{OperatingSystem}->{osCode};
7939         }
7940         if ($mybrand eq $brand && $mymodel eq $model && "LIN" eq $oscode)
7941         {
7942             @paths = map { $_->{path} } @{$bundle->{Contents}->{Package}};
7943         }
7944     }
7945     for my $component (@{$xml->{SoftwareComponent}}) {
7946         my $componenttype = $component->{ComponentType}->{value};
7947
7948         # Drop application packages, only firmware and BIOS
7949         next if 'APAC' eq $componenttype;
7950
7951         my $cpath = $component->{path};
7952         for my $path (@paths) {
7953             if ($cpath =~ m%/$path$%) {
7954                 push(@paths, $cpath);
7955             }
7956         }
7957     }
7958     return @paths;
7959 }
7960 </pre>
7961
7962 <p>The code is only tested on RedHat Enterprise Linux, but I suspect
7963 it could work on other platforms with some tweaking.  Anyone know a
7964 index like Catalog.xml is available from HP for HP servers?  At the
7965 moment I maintain a similar list manually and it is quickly getting
7966 outdated.</p>
7967
7968       </div>
7969       <div class="tags">
7970
7971
7972         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>.
7973
7974
7975       </div>
7976     </div>
7977     <div class="padding"></div>
7978
7979     <div class="entry">
7980       <div class="title">
7981         <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>
7982       </div>
7983       <div class="date">
7984          4th August 2011
7985       </div>
7986       <div class="body">
7987         <p>Wouter Verhelst have some
7988 <a href="http://grep.be/blog/en/retorts/pere_kubuntu_boot">interesting
7989 comments and opinions</a> on my blog post on
7990 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/What_should_start_from__etc_rcS_d__in_Debian____almost_nothing.html">the
7991 need to clean up /etc/rcS.d/ in Debian</a> and my blog post about
7992 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/What_is_missing_in_the_Debian_desktop__or_why_my_parents_use_Kubuntu.html">the
7993 default KDE desktop in Debian</a>.  I only have time to address one
7994 small piece of his comment now, and though it best to address the
7995 misunderstanding he bring forward:</p>
7996
7997 <p><blockquote>
7998 Currently, a system admin has four options: [...] boot to a
7999 single-user system (by adding 'single' to the kernel command line;
8000 this runs rcS and rc1 scripts)
8001 </blockquote></p>
8002
8003 <p>This make me believe Wouter believe booting into single user mode
8004 and booting into runlevel 1 is the same.  I am not surprised he
8005 believe this, because it would make sense and is a quite sensible
8006 thing to believe.  But because the boot in Debian is slightly broken,
8007 runlevel 1 do not work properly and it isn't the same as single user
8008 mode.  I'll try to explain what is actually happing, but it is a bit
8009 hard to explain.</p>
8010
8011 <p>Single user mode is defined like this in /etc/inittab:
8012 "<tt>~~:S:wait:/sbin/sulogin</tt>".  This means the only thing that is
8013 executed in single user mode is sulogin.  Single user mode is a boot
8014 state "between" the runlevels, and when booting into single user mode,
8015 only the scripts in /etc/rcS.d/ are executed before the init process
8016 enters the single user state.  When switching to runlevel 1, the state
8017 is in fact not ending in runlevel 1, but it passes through runlevel 1
8018 and end up in the single user mode (see /etc/rc1.d/S03single, which
8019 runs "init -t1 S" to switch to single user mode at the end of runlevel
8020 1.  It is confusing that the 'S' (single user) init mode is not the
8021 mode enabled by /etc/rcS.d/ (which is more like the initial boot
8022 mode).</p>
8023
8024 <p>This summary might make it clearer.  When booting for the first
8025 time into single user mode, the following commands are executed:
8026 "<tt>/etc/init.d/rc S; /sbin/sulogin</tt>".  When booting into
8027 runlevel 1, the following commands are executed: "<tt>/etc/init.d/rc
8028 S; /etc/init.d/rc 1; /sbin/sulogin</tt>".  A problem show up when
8029 trying to continue after visiting single user mode.  Not all services
8030 are started again as they should, causing the machine to end up in an
8031 unpredicatble state.  This is why Debian admins recommend rebooting
8032 after visiting single user mode.</p>
8033
8034 <p>A similar problem with runlevel 1 is caused by the amount of
8035 scripts executed from /etc/rcS.d/.  When switching from say runlevel 2
8036 to runlevel 1, the services started from /etc/rcS.d/ are not properly
8037 stopped when passing through the scripts in /etc/rc1.d/, and not
8038 started again when switching away from runlevel 1 to the runlevels
8039 2-5.  I believe the problem is best fixed by moving all the scripts
8040 out of /etc/rcS.d/ that are not <strong>required</strong> to get a
8041 functioning single user mode during boot.</p>
8042
8043 <p>I have spent several years investigating the Debian boot system,
8044 and discovered this problem a few years ago.  I suspect it originates
8045 from when sysvinit was introduced into Debian, a long time ago.</p>
8046
8047       </div>
8048       <div class="tags">
8049
8050
8051         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>.
8052
8053
8054       </div>
8055     </div>
8056     <div class="padding"></div>
8057
8058     <div class="entry">
8059       <div class="title">
8060         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/What_should_start_from__etc_rcS_d__in_Debian____almost_nothing.html">What should start from /etc/rcS.d/ in Debian? - almost nothing</a>
8061       </div>
8062       <div class="date">
8063         30th July 2011
8064       </div>
8065       <div class="body">
8066         <p>In the Debian boot system, several packages include scripts that
8067 are started from /etc/rcS.d/.  In fact, there is a bite more of them
8068 than make sense, and this causes a few problems.  What kind of
8069 problems, you might ask.  There are at least two problems.  The first
8070 is that it is not possible to recover a machine after switching to
8071 runlevel 1.  One need to actually reboot to get the machine back to
8072 the expected state.  The other is that single user boot will sometimes
8073 run into problems because some of the subsystems are activated before
8074 the root login is presented, causing problems when trying to recover a
8075 machine from a problem in that subsystem.  A minor additional point is
8076 that moving more scripts out of rcS.d/ and into the other rc#.d/
8077 directories will increase the amount of scripts that can run in
8078 parallel during boot, and thus decrease the boot time.</p>
8079
8080 <p>So, which scripts should start from rcS.d/.  In short, only the
8081 scripts that _have_ to execute before the root login prompt is
8082 presented during a single user boot should go there.  Everything else
8083 should go into the numeric runlevels.  This means things like
8084 lm-sensors, fuse and x11-common should not run from rcS.d, but from
8085 the numeric runlevels.  Today in Debian, there are around 115 init.d
8086 scripts that are started from rcS.d/, and most of them should be moved
8087 out.  Do your package have one of them?  Please help us make single
8088 user and runlevel 1 better by moving it.</p>
8089
8090 <p>Scripts setting up the screen, keyboard, system partitions
8091 etc. should still be started from rcS.d/, but there is for example no
8092 need to have the network enabled before the single user login prompt
8093 is presented.</p>
8094
8095 <p>As always, things are not so easy to fix as they sound.  To keep
8096 Debian systems working while scripts migrate and during upgrades, the
8097 scripts need to be moved from rcS.d/ to rc2.d/ in reverse dependency
8098 order, ie the scripts that nothing in rcS.d/ depend on can be moved,
8099 and the next ones can only be moved when their dependencies have been
8100 moved first.  This migration must be done sequentially while we ensure
8101 that the package system upgrade packages in the right order to keep
8102 the system state correct.  This will require some coordination when it
8103 comes to network related packages, but most of the packages with
8104 scripts that should migrate do not have anything in rcS.d/ depending
8105 on them.  Some packages have already been updated, like the sudo
8106 package, while others are still left to do.  I wish I had time to work
8107 on this myself, but real live constrains make it unlikely that I will
8108 find time to push this forward.</p>
8109
8110       </div>
8111       <div class="tags">
8112
8113
8114         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>.
8115
8116
8117       </div>
8118     </div>
8119     <div class="padding"></div>
8120
8121     <div class="entry">
8122       <div class="title">
8123         <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>
8124       </div>
8125       <div class="date">
8126         29th July 2011
8127       </div>
8128       <div class="body">
8129         <p>While at Debconf11, I have several times during discussions
8130 mentioned the issues I believe should be improved in Debian for its
8131 desktop to be useful for more people.  The use case for this is my
8132 parents, which are currently running Kubuntu which solve the
8133 issues.</p>
8134
8135 <p>I suspect these four missing features are not very hard to
8136 implement.  After all, they are present in Ubuntu, so if we wanted to
8137 do this in Debian we would have a source.</p>
8138
8139 <ol>
8140
8141 <li><strong>Simple GUI based upgrade of packages.</strong> When there
8142 are new packages available for upgrades, a icon in the KDE status bar
8143 indicate this, and clicking on it will activate the simple upgrade
8144 tool to handle it.  I have no problem guiding both of my parents
8145 through the process over the phone.  If a kernel reboot is required,
8146 this too is indicated by the status bars and the upgrade tool.  Last
8147 time I checked, nothing with the same features was working in KDE in
8148 Debian.</li>
8149
8150 <li><strong>Simple handling of missing Firefox browser
8151 plugins.</strong> When the browser encounter a MIME type it do not
8152 currently have a handler for, it will ask the user if the system
8153 should search for a package that would add support for this MIME type,
8154 and if the user say yes, the APT sources will be searched for packages
8155 advertising the MIME type in their control file (visible in the
8156 Packages file in the APT archive).  If one or more packages are found,
8157 it is a simple click of the mouse to add support for the missing mime
8158 type.  If the package require the user to accept some non-free
8159 license, this is explained to the user.  The entire process make it
8160 more clear to the user why something do not work in the browser, and
8161 make the chances higher for the user to blame the web page authors and
8162 not the browser for any missing features.</li>
8163
8164 <li><strong>Simple handling of missing multimedia codec/format
8165 handlers.</strong> When the media players encounter a format or codec
8166 it is not supporting, a dialog pop up asking the user if the system
8167 should search for a package that would add support for it.  This
8168 happen with things like MP3, Windows Media or H.264.  The selection
8169 and installation procedure is very similar to the Firefox browser
8170 plugin handling.  This is as far as I know implemented using a
8171 gstreamer hook.  The end result is that the user easily get access to
8172 the codecs that are present from the APT archives available, while
8173 explaining more on why a given format is unsupported by Ubuntu.</li>
8174
8175 <li><strong>Better browser handling of some MIME types.</strong> When
8176 displaying a text/plain file in my Debian browser, it will propose to
8177 start emacs to show it.  If I remember correctly, when doing the same
8178 in Kunbutu it show the file as a text file in the browser.  At least I
8179 know Opera will show text files within the browser.  I much prefer the
8180 latter behaviour.</li>
8181
8182 </ol>
8183
8184 <p>There are other nice features as well, like the simplified suite
8185 upgrader, but given that I am the one mostly doing the dist-upgrade,
8186 it do not matter much.</p>
8187
8188 <p>I really hope we could get these features in place for the next
8189 Debian release.  It would require the coordinated effort of several
8190 maintainers, but would make the end user experience a lot better.</p>
8191
8192       </div>
8193       <div class="tags">
8194
8195
8196         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/h264">h264</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/multimedia">multimedia</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/web">web</a>.
8197
8198
8199       </div>
8200     </div>
8201     <div class="padding"></div>
8202
8203     <div class="entry">
8204       <div class="title">
8205         <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>
8206       </div>
8207       <div class="date">
8208         26th July 2011
8209       </div>
8210       <div class="body">
8211         <p>The Norwegian <a href="http://www.fiksgatami.no/">FiksGataMi</A>
8212 site is build on Debian/Squeeze, and this platform was chosen because
8213 I am most familiar with Debian (being a Debian Developer for around 10
8214 years) because it is the latest stable Debian release which should get
8215 security support for a few years.</p>
8216
8217 <p>The web service is written in Perl, and depend on some perl modules
8218 that are missing in Debian at the moment.  It would be great if these
8219 modules were added to the Debian archive, allowing anyone to set up
8220 their own <a href="http://www.fixmystreet.com">FixMyStreet</a> clone
8221 in their own country using only Debian packages.  The list of modules
8222 missing in Debian/Squeeze isn't very long, and I hope the perl group
8223 will find time to package the 12 modules Catalyst::Plugin::SmartURI,
8224 Catalyst::Plugin::Unicode::Encoding, Catalyst::View::TT, Devel::Hide,
8225 Sort::Key, Statistics::Distributions, Template::Plugin::Comma,
8226 Template::Plugin::DateTime::Format, Term::Size::Any, Term::Size::Perl,
8227 URI::SmartURI and Web::Scraper to make the maintenance of FixMyStreet
8228 easier in the future.</p>
8229
8230 <p>Thanks to the great tools in Debian, getting the missing modules
8231 installed on my server was a simple call to 'cpan2deb Module::Name'
8232 and 'dpkg -i' to install the resulting package.  But this leave me
8233 with the responsibility of tracking security problems, which I really
8234 do not have time for.</p>
8235
8236       </div>
8237       <div class="tags">
8238
8239
8240         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>.
8241
8242
8243       </div>
8244     </div>
8245     <div class="padding"></div>
8246
8247     <div class="entry">
8248       <div class="title">
8249         <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>
8250       </div>
8251       <div class="date">
8252          3rd April 2011
8253       </div>
8254       <div class="body">
8255         <p>Here is a small update for my English readers.  Most of my blog
8256 posts have been in Norwegian the last few weeks, so here is a short
8257 update in English.</p>
8258
8259 <p>The kids still keep me too busy to get much free software work
8260 done, but I did manage to organise a project to get a Norwegian port
8261 of the British service
8262 <a href="http://www.fixmystreet.com/">FixMyStreet</a> up and running,
8263 and it has been running for a month now.  The entire project has been
8264 organised by me and two others.  Around Christmas we gathered sponsors
8265 to fund the development work.  In January I drafted a contract with
8266 <a href="http://www.mysociety.org/">mySociety</a> on what to develop,
8267 and in February the development took place.  Most of it involved
8268 converting the source to use GPS coordinates instead of British
8269 easting/northing, and the resulting code should be a lot easier to get
8270 running in any country by now.  The Norwegian
8271 <a href="http://www.fiksgatami.no/">FiksGataMi</a> is using
8272 <a href="http://www.openstreetmap.org/">OpenStreetmap</a> as the map
8273 source and the source for administrative borders in Norway, and
8274 support for this had to be added/fixed.</p>
8275
8276 <p>The Norwegian version went live March 3th, and we spent the weekend
8277 polishing the system before we announced it March 7th.  The system is
8278 running on a KVM instance of Debian/Squeeze, and has seen almost 3000
8279 problem reports in a few weeks.  Soon we hope to announce the Android
8280 and iPhone versions making it even easier to report problems with the
8281 public infrastructure.</p>
8282
8283 <p>Perhaps something to consider for those of you in countries without
8284 such service?</p>
8285
8286       </div>
8287       <div class="tags">
8288
8289
8290         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>.
8291
8292
8293       </div>
8294     </div>
8295     <div class="padding"></div>
8296
8297     <div class="entry">
8298       <div class="title">
8299         <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>
8300       </div>
8301       <div class="date">
8302         28th January 2011
8303       </div>
8304       <div class="body">
8305         <p>The last few days I have looked at ways to track open security
8306 issues here at my work with the University of Oslo.  My idea is that
8307 it should be possible to use the information about security issues
8308 available on the Internet, and check our locally
8309 maintained/distributed software against this information.  It should
8310 allow us to verify that no known security issues are forgotten.  The
8311 CVE database listing vulnerabilities seem like a great central point,
8312 and by using the package lists from Debian mapped to CVEs provided by
8313 the testing security team, I believed it should be possible to figure
8314 out which security holes were present in our free software
8315 collection.</p>
8316
8317 <p>After reading up on the topic, it became obvious that the first
8318 building block is to be able to name software packages in a unique and
8319 consistent way across data sources.  I considered several ways to do
8320 this, for example coming up with my own naming scheme like using URLs
8321 to project home pages or URLs to the Freshmeat entries, or using some
8322 existing naming scheme.  And it seem like I am not the first one to
8323 come across this problem, as MITRE already proposed and implemented a
8324 solution.  Enter the <a href="http://cpe.mitre.org/index.html">Common
8325 Platform Enumeration</a> dictionary, a vocabulary for referring to
8326 software, hardware and other platform components.  The CPE ids are
8327 mapped to CVEs in the <a href="http://web.nvd.nist.gov/">National
8328 Vulnerability Database</a>, allowing me to look up know security
8329 issues for any CPE name.  With this in place, all I need to do is to
8330 locate the CPE id for the software packages we use at the university.
8331 This is fairly trivial (I google for 'cve cpe $package' and check the
8332 NVD entry if a CVE for the package exist).</p>
8333
8334 <p>To give you an example.  The GNU gzip source package have the CPE
8335 name cpe:/a:gnu:gzip.  If the old version 1.3.3 was the package to
8336 check out, one could look up
8337 <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
8338 in NVD</a> and get a list of 6 security holes with public CVE entries.
8339 The most recent one is
8340 <a href="http://web.nvd.nist.gov/view/vuln/detail?vulnId=CVE-2010-0001">CVE-2010-0001</a>,
8341 and at the bottom of the NVD page for this vulnerability the complete
8342 list of affected versions is provided.</p>
8343
8344 <p>The NVD database of CVEs is also available as a XML dump, allowing
8345 for offline processing of issues.  Using this dump, I've written a
8346 small script taking a list of CPEs as input and list all CVEs
8347 affecting the packages represented by these CPEs.  One give it CPEs
8348 with version numbers as specified above and get a list of open
8349 security issues out.</p>
8350
8351 <p>Of course for this approach to be useful, the quality of the NVD
8352 information need to be high.  For that to happen, I believe as many as
8353 possible need to use and contribute to the NVD database.  I notice
8354 RHEL is providing
8355 <a href="https://www.redhat.com/security/data/metrics/rhsamapcpe.txt">a
8356 map from CVE to CPE</a>, indicating that they are using the CPE
8357 information.  I'm not aware of Debian and Ubuntu doing the same.</p>
8358
8359 <p>To get an idea about the quality for free software, I spent some
8360 time making it possible to compare the CVE database from Debian with
8361 the CVE database in NVD.  The result look fairly good, but there are
8362 some inconsistencies in NVD (same software package having several
8363 CPEs), and some inaccuracies (NVD not mentioning buggy packages that
8364 Debian believe are affected by a CVE).  Hope to find time to improve
8365 the quality of NVD, but that require being able to get in touch with
8366 someone maintaining it.  So far my three emails with questions and
8367 corrections have not seen any reply, but I hope contact can be
8368 established soon.</p>
8369
8370 <p>An interesting application for CPEs is cross platform package
8371 mapping.  It would be useful to know which packages in for example
8372 RHEL, OpenSuSe and Mandriva are missing from Debian and Ubuntu, and
8373 this would be trivial if all linux distributions provided CPE entries
8374 for their packages.</p>
8375
8376       </div>
8377       <div class="tags">
8378
8379
8380         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>.
8381
8382
8383       </div>
8384     </div>
8385     <div class="padding"></div>
8386
8387     <div class="entry">
8388       <div class="title">
8389         <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>
8390       </div>
8391       <div class="date">
8392         23rd January 2011
8393       </div>
8394       <div class="body">
8395         <p>In the
8396 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/discover-data">discover-data</a>
8397 package in Debian, there is a script to report useful information
8398 about the running hardware for use when people report missing
8399 information.  One part of this script that I find very useful when
8400 debugging hardware problems, is the part mapping loaded kernel module
8401 to the PCI device it claims.  It allow me to quickly see if the kernel
8402 module I expect is driving the hardware I am struggling with.  To see
8403 the output, make sure discover-data is installed and run
8404 <tt>/usr/share/bug/discover-data 3>&1</tt>.  The relevant output on
8405 one of my machines like this:</p>
8406
8407 <pre>
8408 loaded modules:
8409 10de:03eb i2c_nforce2
8410 10de:03f1 ohci_hcd
8411 10de:03f2 ehci_hcd
8412 10de:03f0 snd_hda_intel
8413 10de:03ec pata_amd
8414 10de:03f6 sata_nv
8415 1022:1103 k8temp
8416 109e:036e bttv
8417 109e:0878 snd_bt87x
8418 11ab:4364 sky2
8419 </pre>
8420
8421 <p>The code in question look like this, slightly modified for
8422 readability and to drop the output to file descriptor 3:</p>
8423
8424 <pre>
8425 if [ -d /sys/bus/pci/devices/ ] ; then
8426     echo loaded pci modules:
8427     (
8428         cd /sys/bus/pci/devices/
8429         for address in * ; do
8430             if [ -d "$address/driver/module" ] ; then
8431                 module=`cd $address/driver/module ; pwd -P | xargs basename`
8432                 if grep -q "^$module " /proc/modules ; then
8433                     address=$(echo $address |sed s/0000://)
8434                     id=`lspci -n -s $address | tail -n 1 | awk '{print $3}'`
8435                     echo "$id $module"
8436                 fi
8437             fi
8438         done
8439     )
8440     echo
8441 fi
8442 </pre>
8443
8444 <p>Similar code could be used to extract USB device module
8445 mappings:</p>
8446
8447 <pre>
8448 if [ -d /sys/bus/usb/devices/ ] ; then
8449     echo loaded usb modules:
8450     (
8451         cd /sys/bus/usb/devices/
8452         for address in * ; do
8453             if [ -d "$address/driver/module" ] ; then
8454                 module=`cd $address/driver/module ; pwd -P | xargs basename`
8455                 if grep -q "^$module " /proc/modules ; then
8456                     address=$(echo $address |sed s/0000://)
8457                     id=$(lsusb -s $address | tail -n 1 | awk '{print $6}')
8458                     if [ "$id" ] ; then
8459                         echo "$id $module"
8460                     fi
8461                 fi
8462             fi
8463         done
8464     )
8465     echo
8466 fi
8467 </pre>
8468
8469 <p>This might perhaps be something to include in other tools as
8470 well.</p>
8471
8472       </div>
8473       <div class="tags">
8474
8475
8476         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>.
8477
8478
8479       </div>
8480     </div>
8481     <div class="padding"></div>
8482
8483     <div class="entry">
8484       <div class="title">
8485         <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>
8486       </div>
8487       <div class="date">
8488         22nd December 2010
8489       </div>
8490       <div class="body">
8491         <p>The last few days I have spent at work here at the <a
8492 href="http://www.uio.no/">University of Oslo</a> testing if the new
8493 batch of computers will work with Linux.  Every year for the last few
8494 years the university have organised shared bid of a few thousand
8495 computers, and this year HP won the bid.  Two different desktops and
8496 five different laptops are on the list this year.  We in the UNIX
8497 group want to know which one of these computers work well with RHEL
8498 and Ubuntu, the two Linux distributions we currently handle at the
8499 university.</p>
8500
8501 <p>My test method is simple, and I share it here to get feedback and
8502 perhaps inspire others to test hardware as well.  To test, I PXE
8503 install the OS version of choice, and log in as my normal user and run
8504 a few applications and plug in selected pieces of hardware.  When
8505 something fail, I make a note about this in the test matrix and move
8506 on.  If I have some spare time I try to report the bug to the OS
8507 vendor, but as I only have the machines for a short time, I rarely
8508 have the time to do this for all the problems I find.</p>
8509
8510 <p>Anyway, to get to the point of this post.  Here is the simple tests
8511 I perform on a new model.</p>
8512
8513 <ul>
8514
8515 <li>Is PXE installation working?  I'm testing with RHEL6, Ubuntu Lucid
8516 and Ubuntu Maverik at the moment.  If I feel like it, I also test with
8517 RHEL5 and Debian Edu/Squeeze.</li>
8518
8519 <li>Is X.org working?  If the graphical login screen show up after
8520 installation, X.org is working.</li>
8521
8522 <li>Is hardware accelerated OpenGL working?  Running glxgears (in
8523 package mesa-utils on Ubuntu) and writing down the frames per second
8524 reported by the program.</li>
8525
8526 <li>Is sound working?  With Gnome and KDE, a sound is played when
8527 logging in, and if I can hear this the test is successful.  If there
8528 are several audio exits on the machine, I try them all and check if
8529 the Gnome/KDE audio mixer can control where to send the sound.  I
8530 normally test this by playing
8531 <a href="http://www.nuug.no/aktiviteter/20101012-chef/ ">a HTML5
8532 video</a> in Firefox/Iceweasel.</li>
8533
8534 <li>Is the USB subsystem working?  I test this by plugging in a USB
8535 memory stick and see if Gnome/KDE notices this.</li>
8536
8537 <li>Is the CD/DVD player working?  I test this by inserting any CD/DVD
8538 I have lying around, and see if Gnome/KDE notices this.</li>
8539
8540 <li>Is any built in camera working?  Test using cheese, and see if a
8541 picture from the v4l device show up.</li>
8542
8543 <li>Is bluetooth working?  Use the Gnome/KDE browsing tool to see if
8544 any bluetooth devices are discovered.  In my office, I normally see a
8545 few.</li>
8546
8547 <li>For laptops, is the SD or Compaq Flash reader working.  I have
8548 memory modules lying around, and stick them in and see if Gnome/KDE
8549 notice this.</li>
8550
8551 <li>For laptops, is suspend/hibernate working?  I'm testing if the
8552 special button work, and if the laptop continue to work after
8553 resume.</li>
8554
8555 <li>For laptops, is the extra buttons working, like audio level,
8556 adjusting background light, switching on/off external video output,
8557 switching on/off wifi, bluetooth, etc?  The set of buttons differ from
8558 laptop to laptop, so I just write down which are working and which are
8559 not.</li>
8560
8561 <li>Some laptops have smart card readers, finger print readers,
8562 acceleration sensors etc.  I rarely test these, as I do not know how
8563 to quickly test if they are working or not, so I only document their
8564 existence.</li>
8565
8566 </ul>
8567
8568 <p>By now I suspect you are really curious what the test results are
8569 for the HP machines I am testing.  I'm not done yet, so I will report
8570 the test results later.  For now I can report that HP 8100 Elite work
8571 fine, and hibernation fail with HP EliteBook 8440p on Ubuntu Lucid,
8572 and audio fail on RHEL6.  Ubuntu Maverik worked with 8440p.  As you
8573 can see, I have most machines left to test.  One interesting
8574 observation is that Ubuntu Lucid has almost twice the frame rate than
8575 RHEL6 with glxgears.  No idea why.</p>
8576
8577       </div>
8578       <div class="tags">
8579
8580
8581         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>.
8582
8583
8584       </div>
8585     </div>
8586     <div class="padding"></div>
8587
8588     <div class="entry">
8589       <div class="title">
8590         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Some_thoughts_on_BitCoins.html">Some thoughts on BitCoins</a>
8591       </div>
8592       <div class="date">
8593         11th December 2010
8594       </div>
8595       <div class="body">
8596         <p>As I continue to explore
8597 <a href="http://www.bitcoin.org/">BitCoin</a>, I've starting to wonder
8598 what properties the system have, and how it will be affected by laws
8599 and regulations here in Norway.  Here are some random notes.</p>
8600
8601 <p>One interesting thing to note is that since the transactions are
8602 verified using a peer to peer network, all details about a transaction
8603 is known to everyone.  This means that if a BitCoin address has been
8604 published like I did with mine in my initial post about BitCoin, it is
8605 possible for everyone to see how many BitCoins have been transfered to
8606 that address.  There is even a web service to look at the details for
8607 all transactions.  There I can see that my address
8608 <a href="http://blockexplorer.com/address/15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a>
8609 have received 16.06 Bitcoin, the
8610 <a href="http://blockexplorer.com/address/1LfdGnGuWkpSJgbQySxxCWhv8MHqvwst3">1LfdGnGuWkpSJgbQySxxCWhv8MHqvwst3</a>
8611 address of Simon Phipps have received 181.97 BitCoin and the address
8612 <a href="http://blockexplorer.com/address/1MCwBbhNGp5hRm5rC1Aims2YFRe2SXPYKt">1MCwBbhNGp5hRm5rC1Aims2YFRe2SXPYKt</A>
8613 of EFF have received 2447.38 BitCoins so far.  Thank you to each and
8614 every one of you that donated bitcoins to support my activity. The
8615 fact that anyone can see how much money was transfered to a given
8616 address make it more obvious why the BitCoin community recommend to
8617 generate and hand out a new address for each transaction.  I'm told
8618 there is no way to track which addresses belong to a given person or
8619 organisation without the person or organisation revealing it
8620 themselves, as Simon, EFF and I have done.</p>
8621
8622 <p>In Norway, and in most other countries, there are laws and
8623 regulations limiting how much money one can transfer across the border
8624 without declaring it.  There are money laundering, tax and accounting
8625 laws and regulations I would expect to apply to the use of BitCoin.
8626 If the Skolelinux foundation
8627 (<a href="http://linuxiskolen.no/slxdebianlabs/donations.html">SLX
8628 Debian Labs</a>) were to accept donations in BitCoin in addition to
8629 normal bank transfers like EFF is doing, how should this be accounted?
8630 Given that it is impossible to know if money can cross the border or
8631 not, should everything or nothing be declared?  What exchange rate
8632 should be used when calculating taxes?  Would receivers have to pay
8633 income tax if the foundation were to pay Skolelinux contributors in
8634 BitCoin?  I have no idea, but it would be interesting to know.</p>
8635
8636 <p>For a currency to be useful and successful, it must be trusted and
8637 accepted by a lot of users.  It must be possible to get easy access to
8638 the currency (as a wage or using currency exchanges), and it must be
8639 easy to spend it.  At the moment BitCoin seem fairly easy to get
8640 access to, but there are very few places to spend it.  I am not really
8641 a regular user of any of the vendor types currently accepting BitCoin,
8642 so I wonder when my kind of shop would start accepting BitCoins.  I
8643 would like to buy electronics, travels and subway tickets, not herbs
8644 and books. :) The currency is young, and this will improve over time
8645 if it become popular, but I suspect regular banks will start to lobby
8646 to get BitCoin declared illegal if it become popular.  I'm sure they
8647 will claim it is helping fund terrorism and money laundering (which
8648 probably would be true, as is any currency in existence), but I
8649 believe the problems should be solved elsewhere and not by blaming
8650 currencies.</p>
8651
8652 <p>The process of creating new BitCoins is called mining, and it is
8653 CPU intensive process that depend on a bit of luck as well (as one is
8654 competing against all the other miners currently spending CPU cycles
8655 to see which one get the next lump of cash).  The "winner" get 50
8656 BitCoin when this happen.  Yesterday I came across the obvious way to
8657 join forces to increase ones changes of getting at least some coins,
8658 by coordinating the work on mining BitCoins across several machines
8659 and people, and sharing the result if one is lucky and get the 50
8660 BitCoins.  Check out
8661 <a href="http://www.bluishcoder.co.nz/bitcoin-pool/">BitCoin Pool</a>
8662 if this sounds interesting.  I have not had time to try to set up a
8663 machine to participate there yet, but have seen that running on ones
8664 own for a few days have not yield any BitCoins througth mining
8665 yet.</p>
8666
8667 <p>Update 2010-12-15: Found an <a
8668 href="http://inertia.posterous.com/reply-to-the-underground-economist-why-bitcoi">interesting
8669 criticism</a> of bitcoin.  Not quite sure how valid it is, but thought
8670 it was interesting to read.  The arguments presented seem to be
8671 equally valid for gold, which was used as a currency for many years.</p>
8672
8673       </div>
8674       <div class="tags">
8675
8676
8677         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>.
8678
8679
8680       </div>
8681     </div>
8682     <div class="padding"></div>
8683
8684     <div class="entry">
8685       <div class="title">
8686         <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>
8687       </div>
8688       <div class="date">
8689         10th December 2010
8690       </div>
8691       <div class="body">
8692         <p>With this weeks lawless
8693 <a href="http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2010/12/06/wikileaks/index.html">governmental
8694 attacks</a> on Wikileak and
8695 <a href="http://www.salon.com/technology/dan_gillmor/2010/12/06/war_on_speech">free
8696 speech</a>, it has become obvious that PayPal, visa and mastercard can
8697 not be trusted to handle money transactions.
8698 A blog post from
8699 <a href="http://webmink.com/2010/12/06/now-accepting-bitcoin/">Simon
8700 Phipps on bitcoin</a> reminded me about a project that a friend of
8701 mine mentioned earlier.  I decided to follow Simon's example, and get
8702 involved with <a href="http://www.bitcoin.org/">BitCoin</a>.  I got
8703 some help from my friend to get it all running, and he even handed me
8704 some bitcoins to get started.  I even donated a few bitcoins to Simon
8705 for helping me remember BitCoin.</p>
8706
8707 <p>So, what is bitcoins, you probably wonder?  It is a digital
8708 crypto-currency, decentralised and handled using peer-to-peer
8709 networks.  It allows anonymous transactions and prohibits central
8710 control over the transactions, making it impossible for governments
8711 and companies alike to block donations and other transactions.  The
8712 source is free software, and while the key dependency wxWidgets 2.9
8713 for the graphical user interface is missing in Debian, the command
8714 line client builds just fine.  Hopefully Jonas
8715 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/578157">will get the package into
8716 Debian</a> soon.</p>
8717
8718 <p>Bitcoins can be converted to other currencies, like USD and EUR.
8719 There are <a href="http://www.bitcoin.org/trade">companies accepting
8720 bitcoins</a> when selling services and goods, and there are even
8721 currency "stock" markets where the exchange rate is decided.  There
8722 are not many users so far, but the concept seems promising.  If you
8723 want to get started and lack a friend with any bitcoins to spare,
8724 you can even get
8725 <a href="https://freebitcoins.appspot.com/">some for free</a> (0.05
8726 bitcoin at the time of writing).  Use
8727 <a href="http://www.bitcoinwatch.com/">BitcoinWatch</a> to keep an eye
8728 on the current exchange rates.</p>
8729
8730 <p>As an experiment, I have decided to set up bitcoind on one of my
8731 machines.  If you want to support my activity, please send Bitcoin
8732 donations to the address
8733 <b>15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</b>.  Thank you!</p>
8734
8735       </div>
8736       <div class="tags">
8737
8738
8739         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>.
8740
8741
8742       </div>
8743     </div>
8744     <div class="padding"></div>
8745
8746     <div class="entry">
8747       <div class="title">
8748         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Why_isn_t_Debian_Edu_using_VLC_.html">Why isn't Debian Edu using VLC?</a>
8749       </div>
8750       <div class="date">
8751         27th November 2010
8752       </div>
8753       <div class="body">
8754         <p>In the latest issue of Linux Journal, the readers choices were
8755 presented, and the winner among the multimedia player were VLC.
8756 Personally, I like VLC, and it is my player of choice when I first try
8757 to play a video file or stream.  Only if VLC fail will I drag out
8758 gmplayer to see if it can do better.  The reason is mostly the failure
8759 model and trust.  When VLC fail, it normally pop up a error message
8760 reporting the problem.  When mplayer fail, it normally segfault or
8761 just hangs.  The latter failure mode drain my trust in the program.<p>
8762
8763 <p>But even if VLC is my player of choice, we have choosen to use
8764 mplayer in <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian
8765 Edu/Skolelinux</a>.  The reason is simple.  We need a good browser
8766 plugin to play web videos seamlessly, and the VLC browser plugin is
8767 not very good.  For example, it lack in-line control buttons, so there
8768 is no way for the user to pause the video.  Also, when I
8769 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/BrowserMultimedia">last
8770 tested the browser plugins</a> available in Debian, the VLC plugin
8771 failed on several video pages where mplayer based plugins worked.  If
8772 the browser plugin for VLC was as good as the gecko-mediaplayer
8773 package (which uses mplayer), we would switch.</P>
8774
8775 <p>While VLC is a good player, its user interface is slightly
8776 annoying.  The most annoying feature is its inconsistent use of
8777 keyboard shortcuts.  When the player is in full screen mode, its
8778 shortcuts are different from when it is playing the video in a window.
8779 For example, space only work as pause when in full screen mode.  I
8780 wish it had consisten shortcuts and that space also would work when in
8781 window mode.  Another nice shortcut in gmplayer is [enter] to restart
8782 the current video.  It is very nice when playing short videos from the
8783 web and want to restart it when new people arrive to have a look at
8784 what is going on.</p>
8785
8786       </div>
8787       <div class="tags">
8788
8789
8790         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>.
8791
8792
8793       </div>
8794     </div>
8795     <div class="padding"></div>
8796
8797     <div class="entry">
8798       <div class="title">
8799         <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>
8800       </div>
8801       <div class="date">
8802         22nd November 2010
8803       </div>
8804       <div class="body">
8805         <p>Michael Biebl suggested to me on IRC, that I changed my automated
8806 upgrade testing of the
8807 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/~pere/debian-upgrade-testing/">Lenny
8808 Gnome and KDE Desktop</a> to do <tt>apt-get autoremove</tt> when using apt-get.
8809 This seem like a very good idea, so I adjusted by test scripts and
8810 can now present the updated result from today:</p>
8811
8812 <p>This is for Gnome:</p>
8813
8814 <p>Installed using apt-get, missing with aptitude</p>
8815
8816 <blockquote><p>
8817   apache2.2-bin
8818   aptdaemon
8819   baobab
8820   binfmt-support
8821   browser-plugin-gnash
8822   cheese-common
8823   cli-common
8824   cups-pk-helper
8825   dmz-cursor-theme
8826   empathy
8827   empathy-common
8828   freedesktop-sound-theme
8829   freeglut3
8830   gconf-defaults-service
8831   gdm-themes
8832   gedit-plugins
8833   geoclue
8834   geoclue-hostip
8835   geoclue-localnet
8836   geoclue-manual
8837   geoclue-yahoo
8838   gnash
8839   gnash-common
8840   gnome
8841   gnome-backgrounds
8842   gnome-cards-data
8843   gnome-codec-install
8844   gnome-core
8845   gnome-desktop-environment
8846   gnome-disk-utility
8847   gnome-screenshot
8848   gnome-search-tool
8849   gnome-session-canberra
8850   gnome-system-log
8851   gnome-themes-extras
8852   gnome-themes-more
8853   gnome-user-share
8854   gstreamer0.10-fluendo-mp3
8855   gstreamer0.10-tools
8856   gtk2-engines
8857   gtk2-engines-pixbuf
8858   gtk2-engines-smooth
8859   hamster-applet
8860   libapache2-mod-dnssd
8861   libapr1
8862   libaprutil1
8863   libaprutil1-dbd-sqlite3
8864   libaprutil1-ldap
8865   libart2.0-cil
8866   libboost-date-time1.42.0
8867   libboost-python1.42.0
8868   libboost-thread1.42.0
8869   libchamplain-0.4-0
8870   libchamplain-gtk-0.4-0
8871   libcheese-gtk18
8872   libclutter-gtk-0.10-0
8873   libcryptui0
8874   libdiscid0
8875   libelf1
8876   libepc-1.0-2
8877   libepc-common
8878   libepc-ui-1.0-2
8879   libfreerdp-plugins-standard
8880   libfreerdp0
8881   libgconf2.0-cil
8882   libgdata-common
8883   libgdata7
8884   libgdu-gtk0
8885   libgee2
8886   libgeoclue0
8887   libgexiv2-0
8888   libgif4
8889   libglade2.0-cil
8890   libglib2.0-cil
8891   libgmime2.4-cil
8892   libgnome-vfs2.0-cil
8893   libgnome2.24-cil
8894   libgnomepanel2.24-cil
8895   libgpod-common
8896   libgpod4
8897   libgtk2.0-cil
8898   libgtkglext1
8899   libgtksourceview2.0-common
8900   libmono-addins-gui0.2-cil
8901   libmono-addins0.2-cil
8902   libmono-cairo2.0-cil
8903   libmono-corlib2.0-cil
8904   libmono-i18n-west2.0-cil
8905   libmono-posix2.0-cil
8906   libmono-security2.0-cil
8907   libmono-sharpzip2.84-cil
8908   libmono-system2.0-cil
8909   libmtp8
8910   libmusicbrainz3-6
8911   libndesk-dbus-glib1.0-cil
8912   libndesk-dbus1.0-cil
8913   libopal3.6.8
8914   libpolkit-gtk-1-0
8915   libpt2.6.7
8916   libpython2.6
8917   librpm1
8918   librpmio1
8919   libsdl1.2debian
8920   libsrtp0
8921   libssh-4
8922   libtelepathy-farsight0
8923   libtelepathy-glib0
8924   libtidy-0.99-0
8925   media-player-info
8926   mesa-utils
8927   mono-2.0-gac
8928   mono-gac
8929   mono-runtime
8930   nautilus-sendto
8931   nautilus-sendto-empathy
8932   p7zip-full
8933   pkg-config
8934   python-aptdaemon
8935   python-aptdaemon-gtk
8936   python-axiom
8937   python-beautifulsoup
8938   python-bugbuddy
8939   python-clientform
8940   python-coherence
8941   python-configobj
8942   python-crypto
8943   python-cupshelpers
8944   python-elementtree
8945   python-epsilon
8946   python-evolution
8947   python-feedparser
8948   python-gdata
8949   python-gdbm
8950   python-gst0.10
8951   python-gtkglext1
8952   python-gtksourceview2
8953   python-httplib2
8954   python-louie
8955   python-mako
8956   python-markupsafe
8957   python-mechanize
8958   python-nevow
8959   python-notify
8960   python-opengl
8961   python-openssl
8962   python-pam
8963   python-pkg-resources
8964   python-pyasn1
8965   python-pysqlite2
8966   python-rdflib
8967   python-serial
8968   python-tagpy
8969   python-twisted-bin
8970   python-twisted-conch
8971   python-twisted-core
8972   python-twisted-web
8973   python-utidylib
8974   python-webkit
8975   python-xdg
8976   python-zope.interface
8977   remmina
8978   remmina-plugin-data
8979   remmina-plugin-rdp
8980   remmina-plugin-vnc
8981   rhythmbox-plugin-cdrecorder
8982   rhythmbox-plugins
8983   rpm-common
8984   rpm2cpio
8985   seahorse-plugins
8986   shotwell
8987   software-center
8988   system-config-printer-udev
8989   telepathy-gabble
8990   telepathy-mission-control-5
8991   telepathy-salut
8992   tomboy
8993   totem
8994   totem-coherence
8995   totem-mozilla
8996   totem-plugins
8997   transmission-common
8998   xdg-user-dirs
8999   xdg-user-dirs-gtk
9000   xserver-xephyr
9001 </p></blockquote>
9002
9003 <p>Installed using apt-get, removed with aptitude</p>
9004
9005 <blockquote><p>
9006   cheese
9007   ekiga
9008   eog
9009   epiphany-extensions
9010   evolution-exchange
9011   fast-user-switch-applet
9012   file-roller
9013   gcalctool
9014   gconf-editor
9015   gdm
9016   gedit
9017   gedit-common
9018   gnome-games
9019   gnome-games-data
9020   gnome-nettool
9021   gnome-system-tools
9022   gnome-themes
9023   gnuchess
9024   gucharmap
9025   guile-1.8-libs
9026   libavahi-ui0
9027   libdmx1
9028   libgalago3
9029   libgtk-vnc-1.0-0
9030   libgtksourceview2.0-0
9031   liblircclient0
9032   libsdl1.2debian-alsa
9033   libspeexdsp1
9034   libsvga1
9035   rhythmbox
9036   seahorse
9037   sound-juicer
9038   system-config-printer
9039   totem-common
9040   transmission-gtk
9041   vinagre
9042   vino
9043 </p></blockquote>
9044
9045 <p>Installed using aptitude, missing with apt-get</p>
9046
9047 <blockquote><p>
9048   gstreamer0.10-gnomevfs
9049 </p></blockquote>
9050
9051 <p>Installed using aptitude, removed with apt-get</p>
9052
9053 <blockquote><p>
9054 [nothing]
9055 </p></blockquote>
9056
9057 <p>This is for KDE:</p>
9058
9059 <p>Installed using apt-get, missing with aptitude</p>
9060
9061 <blockquote><p>
9062   ksmserver
9063 </p></blockquote>
9064
9065 <p>Installed using apt-get, removed with aptitude</p>
9066
9067 <blockquote><p>
9068   kwin
9069   network-manager-kde
9070 </p></blockquote>
9071
9072 <p>Installed using aptitude, missing with apt-get</p>
9073
9074 <blockquote><p>
9075   arts
9076   dolphin
9077   freespacenotifier
9078   google-gadgets-gst
9079   google-gadgets-xul
9080   kappfinder
9081   kcalc
9082   kcharselect
9083   kde-core
9084   kde-plasma-desktop
9085   kde-standard
9086   kde-window-manager
9087   kdeartwork
9088   kdeartwork-emoticons
9089   kdeartwork-style
9090   kdeartwork-theme-icon
9091   kdebase
9092   kdebase-apps
9093   kdebase-workspace
9094   kdebase-workspace-bin
9095   kdebase-workspace-data
9096   kdeeject
9097   kdelibs
9098   kdeplasma-addons
9099   kdeutils
9100   kdewallpapers
9101   kdf
9102   kfloppy
9103   kgpg
9104   khelpcenter4
9105   kinfocenter
9106   konq-plugins-l10n
9107   konqueror-nsplugins
9108   kscreensaver
9109   kscreensaver-xsavers
9110   ktimer
9111   kwrite
9112   libgle3
9113   libkde4-ruby1.8
9114   libkonq5
9115   libkonq5-templates
9116   libnetpbm10
9117   libplasma-ruby
9118   libplasma-ruby1.8
9119   libqt4-ruby1.8
9120   marble-data
9121   marble-plugins
9122   netpbm
9123   nuvola-icon-theme
9124   plasma-dataengines-workspace
9125   plasma-desktop
9126   plasma-desktopthemes-artwork
9127   plasma-runners-addons
9128   plasma-scriptengine-googlegadgets
9129   plasma-scriptengine-python
9130   plasma-scriptengine-qedje
9131   plasma-scriptengine-ruby
9132   plasma-scriptengine-webkit
9133   plasma-scriptengines
9134   plasma-wallpapers-addons
9135   plasma-widget-folderview
9136   plasma-widget-networkmanagement
9137   ruby
9138   sweeper
9139   update-notifier-kde
9140   xscreensaver-data-extra
9141   xscreensaver-gl
9142   xscreensaver-gl-extra
9143   xscreensaver-screensaver-bsod
9144 </p></blockquote>
9145
9146 <p>Installed using aptitude, removed with apt-get</p>
9147
9148 <blockquote><p>
9149   ark
9150   google-gadgets-common
9151   google-gadgets-qt
9152   htdig
9153   kate
9154   kdebase-bin
9155   kdebase-data
9156   kdepasswd
9157   kfind
9158   klipper
9159   konq-plugins
9160   konqueror
9161   ksysguard
9162   ksysguardd
9163   libarchive1
9164   libcln6
9165   libeet1
9166   libeina-svn-06
9167   libggadget-1.0-0b
9168   libggadget-qt-1.0-0b
9169   libgps19
9170   libkdecorations4
9171   libkephal4
9172   libkonq4
9173   libkonqsidebarplugin4a
9174   libkscreensaver5
9175   libksgrd4
9176   libksignalplotter4
9177   libkunitconversion4
9178   libkwineffects1a
9179   libmarblewidget4
9180   libntrack-qt4-1
9181   libntrack0
9182   libplasma-geolocation-interface4
9183   libplasmaclock4a
9184   libplasmagenericshell4
9185   libprocesscore4a
9186   libprocessui4a
9187   libqalculate5
9188   libqedje0a
9189   libqtruby4shared2
9190   libqzion0a
9191   libruby1.8
9192   libscim8c2a
9193   libsmokekdecore4-3
9194   libsmokekdeui4-3
9195   libsmokekfile3
9196   libsmokekhtml3
9197   libsmokekio3
9198   libsmokeknewstuff2-3
9199   libsmokeknewstuff3-3
9200   libsmokekparts3
9201   libsmokektexteditor3
9202   libsmokekutils3
9203   libsmokenepomuk3
9204   libsmokephonon3
9205   libsmokeplasma3
9206   libsmokeqtcore4-3
9207   libsmokeqtdbus4-3
9208   libsmokeqtgui4-3
9209   libsmokeqtnetwork4-3
9210   libsmokeqtopengl4-3
9211   libsmokeqtscript4-3
9212   libsmokeqtsql4-3
9213   libsmokeqtsvg4-3
9214   libsmokeqttest4-3
9215   libsmokeqtuitools4-3
9216   libsmokeqtwebkit4-3
9217   libsmokeqtxml4-3
9218   libsmokesolid3
9219   libsmokesoprano3
9220   libtaskmanager4a
9221   libtidy-0.99-0
9222   libweather-ion4a
9223   libxklavier16
9224   libxxf86misc1
9225   okteta
9226   oxygencursors
9227   plasma-dataengines-addons
9228   plasma-scriptengine-superkaramba
9229   plasma-widget-lancelot
9230   plasma-widgets-addons
9231   plasma-widgets-workspace
9232   polkit-kde-1
9233   ruby1.8
9234   systemsettings
9235   update-notifier-common
9236 </p></blockquote>
9237
9238 <p>Running apt-get autoremove made the results using apt-get and
9239 aptitude a bit more similar, but there are still quite a lott of
9240 differences.  I have no idea what packages should be installed after
9241 the upgrade, but hope those that do can have a look.</p>
9242
9243       </div>
9244       <div class="tags">
9245
9246
9247         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>.
9248
9249
9250       </div>
9251     </div>
9252     <div class="padding"></div>
9253
9254     <div class="entry">
9255       <div class="title">
9256         <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>
9257       </div>
9258       <div class="date">
9259         22nd November 2010
9260       </div>
9261       <div class="body">
9262         <p>Most of the computers in use by the
9263 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu/Skolelinux project</a>
9264 are virtual machines.  And they have been Xen machines running on a
9265 fairly old IBM eserver xseries 345 machine, and we wanted to migrate
9266 them to KVM on a newer Dell PowerEdge 2950 host machine.  This was a
9267 bit harder that it could have been, because we set up the Xen virtual
9268 machines to get the virtual partitions from LVM, which as far as I
9269 know is not supported by KVM.  So to migrate, we had to convert
9270 several LVM logical volumes to partitions on a virtual disk file.</p>
9271
9272 <p>I found
9273 <a href="http://searchnetworking.techtarget.com.au/articles/35011-Six-steps-for-migrating-Xen-virtual-machines-to-KVM">a
9274 nice recipe</a> to do this, and wrote the following script to do the
9275 migration.  It uses qemu-img from the qemu package to make the disk
9276 image, parted to partition it, losetup and kpartx to present the disk
9277 image partions as devices, and dd to copy the data.  I NFS mounted the
9278 new servers storage area on the old server to do the migration.</p>
9279
9280 <pre>
9281 #!/bin/sh
9282
9283 # Based on
9284 # http://searchnetworking.techtarget.com.au/articles/35011-Six-steps-for-migrating-Xen-virtual-machines-to-KVM
9285
9286 set -e
9287 set -x
9288
9289 if [ -z "$1" ] ; then
9290     echo "Usage: $0 &lt;hostname&gt;"
9291     exit 1
9292 else
9293     host="$1"
9294 fi
9295
9296 if [ ! -e /dev/vg_data/$host-disk ] ; then
9297     echo "error: unable to find LVM volume for $host"
9298     exit 1
9299 fi
9300
9301 # Partitions need to be a bit bigger than the LVM LVs.  not sure why.
9302 disksize=$( lvs --units m | grep $host-disk | awk '{sum = sum + $4} END { print int(sum * 1.05) }')
9303 swapsize=$( lvs --units m | grep $host-swap | awk '{sum = sum + $4} END { print int(sum * 1.05) }')
9304 totalsize=$(( ( $disksize + $swapsize ) ))
9305
9306 img=$host.img
9307 #dd if=/dev/zero of=$img bs=1M count=$(( $disksize + $swapsize ))
9308 qemu-img create $img ${totalsize}MMaking room on the Debian Edu/Sqeeze DVD
9309
9310 parted $img mklabel msdos
9311 parted $img mkpart primary linux-swap 0 $disksize
9312 parted $img mkpart primary ext2 $disksize $totalsize
9313 parted $img set 1 boot on
9314
9315 modprobe dm-mod
9316 losetup /dev/loop0 $img
9317 kpartx -a /dev/loop0
9318
9319 dd if=/dev/vg_data/$host-disk of=/dev/mapper/loop0p1 bs=1M
9320 fsck.ext3 -f /dev/mapper/loop0p1 || true
9321 mkswap /dev/mapper/loop0p2
9322
9323 kpartx -d /dev/loop0
9324 losetup -d /dev/loop0
9325 </pre>
9326
9327 <p>The script is perhaps so simple that it is not copyrightable, but
9328 if it is, it is licenced using GPL v2 or later at your discretion.</p>
9329
9330 <p>After doing this, I booted a Debian CD in rescue mode in KVM with
9331 the new disk image attached, installed grub-pc and linux-image-686 and
9332 set up grub to boot from the disk image.  After this, the KVM machines
9333 seem to work just fine.</p>
9334
9335       </div>
9336       <div class="tags">
9337
9338
9339         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>.
9340
9341
9342       </div>
9343     </div>
9344     <div class="padding"></div>
9345
9346     <div class="entry">
9347       <div class="title">
9348         <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>
9349       </div>
9350       <div class="date">
9351         20th November 2010
9352       </div>
9353       <div class="body">
9354         <p>I'm still running upgrade testing of the
9355 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/~pere/debian-upgrade-testing/">Lenny
9356 Gnome and KDE Desktop</a>, but have not had time to spend on reporting the
9357 status.  Here is a short update based on a test I ran 20101118.</p>
9358
9359 <p>I still do not know what a correct migration should look like, so I
9360 report any differences between apt and aptitude and hope someone else
9361 can see if anything should be changed.</p>
9362
9363 <p>This is for Gnome:</p>
9364
9365 <p>Installed using apt-get, missing with aptitude</p>
9366
9367 <blockquote><p>
9368   apache2.2-bin aptdaemon at-spi baobab binfmt-support
9369   browser-plugin-gnash cheese-common cli-common cpp-4.3 cups-pk-helper
9370   dmz-cursor-theme empathy empathy-common finger
9371   freedesktop-sound-theme freeglut3 gconf-defaults-service gdm-themes
9372   gedit-plugins geoclue geoclue-hostip geoclue-localnet geoclue-manual
9373   geoclue-yahoo gnash gnash-common gnome gnome-backgrounds
9374   gnome-cards-data gnome-codec-install gnome-core
9375   gnome-desktop-environment gnome-disk-utility gnome-screenshot
9376   gnome-search-tool gnome-session-canberra gnome-spell
9377   gnome-system-log gnome-themes-extras gnome-themes-more
9378   gnome-user-share gs-common gstreamer0.10-fluendo-mp3
9379   gstreamer0.10-tools gtk2-engines gtk2-engines-pixbuf
9380   gtk2-engines-smooth hal-info hamster-applet libapache2-mod-dnssd
9381   libapr1 libaprutil1 libaprutil1-dbd-sqlite3 libaprutil1-ldap
9382   libart2.0-cil libatspi1.0-0 libboost-date-time1.42.0
9383   libboost-python1.42.0 libboost-thread1.42.0 libchamplain-0.4-0
9384   libchamplain-gtk-0.4-0 libcheese-gtk18 libclutter-gtk-0.10-0
9385   libcryptui0 libcupsys2 libdiscid0 libeel2-data libelf1 libepc-1.0-2
9386   libepc-common libepc-ui-1.0-2 libfreerdp-plugins-standard
9387   libfreerdp0 libgail-common libgconf2.0-cil libgdata-common libgdata7
9388   libgdl-1-common libgdu-gtk0 libgee2 libgeoclue0 libgexiv2-0 libgif4
9389   libglade2.0-cil libglib2.0-cil libgmime2.4-cil libgnome-vfs2.0-cil
9390   libgnome2.24-cil libgnomepanel2.24-cil libgnomeprint2.2-data
9391   libgnomeprintui2.2-common libgnomevfs2-bin libgpod-common libgpod4
9392   libgtk2.0-cil libgtkglext1 libgtksourceview-common
9393   libgtksourceview2.0-common libmono-addins-gui0.2-cil
9394   libmono-addins0.2-cil libmono-cairo2.0-cil libmono-corlib2.0-cil
9395   libmono-i18n-west2.0-cil libmono-posix2.0-cil
9396   libmono-security2.0-cil libmono-sharpzip2.84-cil
9397   libmono-system2.0-cil libmtp8 libmusicbrainz3-6
9398   libndesk-dbus-glib1.0-cil libndesk-dbus1.0-cil libopal3.6.8
9399   libpolkit-gtk-1-0 libpt-1.10.10-plugins-alsa
9400   libpt-1.10.10-plugins-v4l libpt2.6.7 libpython2.6 librpm1 librpmio1
9401   libsdl1.2debian libservlet2.4-java libsrtp0 libssh-4
9402   libtelepathy-farsight0 libtelepathy-glib0 libtidy-0.99-0
9403   libxalan2-java libxerces2-java media-player-info mesa-utils
9404   mono-2.0-gac mono-gac mono-runtime nautilus-sendto
9405   nautilus-sendto-empathy openoffice.org-writer2latex
9406   openssl-blacklist p7zip p7zip-full pkg-config python-4suite-xml
9407   python-aptdaemon python-aptdaemon-gtk python-axiom
9408   python-beautifulsoup python-bugbuddy python-clientform
9409   python-coherence python-configobj python-crypto python-cupshelpers
9410   python-cupsutils python-eggtrayicon python-elementtree
9411   python-epsilon python-evolution python-feedparser python-gdata
9412   python-gdbm python-gst0.10 python-gtkglext1 python-gtkmozembed
9413   python-gtksourceview2 python-httplib2 python-louie python-mako
9414   python-markupsafe python-mechanize python-nevow python-notify
9415   python-opengl python-openssl python-pam python-pkg-resources
9416   python-pyasn1 python-pysqlite2 python-rdflib python-serial
9417   python-tagpy python-twisted-bin python-twisted-conch
9418   python-twisted-core python-twisted-web python-utidylib python-webkit
9419   python-xdg python-zope.interface remmina remmina-plugin-data
9420   remmina-plugin-rdp remmina-plugin-vnc rhythmbox-plugin-cdrecorder
9421   rhythmbox-plugins rpm-common rpm2cpio seahorse-plugins shotwell
9422   software-center svgalibg1 system-config-printer-udev
9423   telepathy-gabble telepathy-mission-control-5 telepathy-salut tomboy
9424   totem totem-coherence totem-mozilla totem-plugins
9425   transmission-common xdg-user-dirs xdg-user-dirs-gtk xserver-xephyr
9426   zip
9427 </p></blockquote>
9428
9429 Installed using apt-get, removed with aptitude
9430
9431 <blockquote><p>
9432   arj bluez-utils cheese dhcdbd djvulibre-desktop ekiga eog
9433   epiphany-extensions epiphany-gecko evolution-exchange
9434   fast-user-switch-applet file-roller gcalctool gconf-editor gdm gedit
9435   gedit-common gnome-app-install gnome-games gnome-games-data
9436   gnome-nettool gnome-system-tools gnome-themes gnome-utils
9437   gnome-vfs-obexftp gnome-volume-manager gnuchess gucharmap
9438   guile-1.8-libs hal libavahi-compat-libdnssd1 libavahi-core5
9439   libavahi-ui0 libbind9-50 libbluetooth2 libcamel1.2-11 libcdio7
9440   libcucul0 libcurl3 libdirectfb-1.0-0 libdmx1 libdvdread3
9441   libedata-cal1.2-6 libedataserver1.2-9 libeel2-2.20 libepc-1.0-1
9442   libepc-ui-1.0-1 libexchange-storage1.2-3 libfaad0 libgadu3
9443   libgalago3 libgd2-noxpm libgda3-3 libgda3-common libggz2 libggzcore9
9444   libggzmod4 libgksu1.2-0 libgksuui1.0-1 libgmyth0 libgnome-desktop-2
9445   libgnome-pilot2 libgnomecups1.0-1 libgnomeprint2.2-0
9446   libgnomeprintui2.2-0 libgpod3 libgraphviz4 libgtk-vnc-1.0-0
9447   libgtkhtml2-0 libgtksourceview1.0-0 libgtksourceview2.0-0
9448   libgucharmap6 libhesiod0 libicu38 libisccc50 libisccfg50 libiw29
9449   libjaxp1.3-java-gcj libkpathsea4 liblircclient0 libltdl3 liblwres50
9450   libmagick++10 libmagick10 libmalaga7 libmozjs1d libmpfr1ldbl libmtp7
9451   libmysqlclient15off libnautilus-burn4 libneon27 libnm-glib0
9452   libnm-util0 libopal-2.2 libosp5 libparted1.8-10 libpisock9
9453   libpisync1 libpoppler-glib3 libpoppler3 libpt-1.10.10 libraw1394-8
9454   libsdl1.2debian-alsa libsensors3 libsexy2 libsmbios2 libsoup2.2-8
9455   libspeexdsp1 libssh2-1 libsuitesparse-3.1.0 libsvga1
9456   libswfdec-0.6-90 libtalloc1 libtotem-plparser10 libtrackerclient0
9457   libvoikko1 libxalan2-java-gcj libxerces2-java-gcj libxklavier12
9458   libxtrap6 libxxf86misc1 libzephyr3 mysql-common rhythmbox seahorse
9459   sound-juicer swfdec-gnome system-config-printer totem-common
9460   totem-gstreamer transmission-gtk vinagre vino w3c-dtd-xhtml wodim
9461 </p></blockquote>
9462
9463 <p>Installed using aptitude, missing with apt-get</p>
9464
9465 <blockquote><p>
9466   gstreamer0.10-gnomevfs
9467 </p></blockquote>
9468
9469 <p>Installed using aptitude, removed with apt-get</p>
9470
9471 <blockquote><p>
9472 [nothing]
9473 </p></blockquote>
9474
9475 <p>This is for KDE:</p>
9476
9477 <p>Installed using apt-get, missing with aptitude</p>
9478
9479 <blockquote><p>
9480   autopoint bomber bovo cantor cantor-backend-kalgebra cpp-4.3 dcoprss
9481   edict espeak espeak-data eyesapplet fifteenapplet finger gettext
9482   ghostscript-x git gnome-audio gnugo granatier gs-common
9483   gstreamer0.10-pulseaudio indi kaddressbook-plugins kalgebra
9484   kalzium-data kanjidic kapman kate-plugins kblocks kbreakout kbstate
9485   kde-icons-mono kdeaccessibility kdeaddons-kfile-plugins
9486   kdeadmin-kfile-plugins kdeartwork-misc kdeartwork-theme-window
9487   kdeedu kdeedu-data kdeedu-kvtml-data kdegames kdegames-card-data
9488   kdegames-mahjongg-data kdegraphics-kfile-plugins kdelirc
9489   kdemultimedia-kfile-plugins kdenetwork-kfile-plugins
9490   kdepim-kfile-plugins kdepim-kio-plugins kdessh kdetoys kdewebdev
9491   kdiamond kdnssd kfilereplace kfourinline kgeography-data kigo
9492   killbots kiriki klettres-data kmoon kmrml knewsticker-scripts
9493   kollision kpf krosspython ksirk ksmserver ksquares kstars-data
9494   ksudoku kubrick kweather libasound2-plugins libboost-python1.42.0
9495   libcfitsio3 libconvert-binhex-perl libcrypt-ssleay-perl libdb4.6++
9496   libdjvulibre-text libdotconf1.0 liberror-perl libespeak1
9497   libfinance-quote-perl libgail-common libgsl0ldbl libhtml-parser-perl
9498   libhtml-tableextract-perl libhtml-tagset-perl libhtml-tree-perl
9499   libio-stringy-perl libkdeedu4 libkdegames5 libkiten4 libkpathsea5
9500   libkrossui4 libmailtools-perl libmime-tools-perl
9501   libnews-nntpclient-perl libopenbabel3 libportaudio2 libpulse-browse0
9502   libservlet2.4-java libspeechd2 libtiff-tools libtimedate-perl
9503   libunistring0 liburi-perl libwww-perl libxalan2-java libxerces2-java
9504   lirc luatex marble networkstatus noatun-plugins
9505   openoffice.org-writer2latex palapeli palapeli-data parley
9506   parley-data poster psutils pulseaudio pulseaudio-esound-compat
9507   pulseaudio-module-x11 pulseaudio-utils quanta-data rocs rsync
9508   speech-dispatcher step svgalibg1 texlive-binaries texlive-luatex
9509   ttf-sazanami-gothic
9510 </p></blockquote>
9511
9512 <p>Installed using apt-get, removed with aptitude</p>
9513
9514 <blockquote><p>
9515   amor artsbuilder atlantik atlantikdesigner blinken bluez-utils cvs
9516   dhcdbd djvulibre-desktop imlib-base imlib11 kalzium kanagram kandy
9517   kasteroids katomic kbackgammon kbattleship kblackbox kbounce kbruch
9518   kcron kdat kdemultimedia-kappfinder-data kdeprint kdict kdvi kedit
9519   keduca kenolaba kfax kfaxview kfouleggs kgeography kghostview
9520   kgoldrunner khangman khexedit kiconedit kig kimagemapeditor
9521   kitchensync kiten kjumpingcube klatin klettres klickety klines
9522   klinkstatus kmag kmahjongg kmailcvt kmenuedit kmid kmilo kmines
9523   kmousetool kmouth kmplot knetwalk kodo kolf kommander konquest kooka
9524   kpager kpat kpdf kpercentage kpilot kpoker kpovmodeler krec
9525   kregexpeditor kreversi ksame ksayit kshisen ksig ksim ksirc ksirtet
9526   ksmiletris ksnake ksokoban kspaceduel kstars ksvg ksysv kteatime
9527   ktip ktnef ktouch ktron kttsd ktuberling kturtle ktux kuickshow
9528   kverbos kview kviewshell kvoctrain kwifimanager kwin kwin4 kwordquiz
9529   kworldclock kxsldbg libakode2 libarts1-akode libarts1-audiofile
9530   libarts1-mpeglib libarts1-xine libavahi-compat-libdnssd1
9531   libavahi-core5 libavc1394-0 libbind9-50 libbluetooth2
9532   libboost-python1.34.1 libcucul0 libcurl3 libcvsservice0
9533   libdirectfb-1.0-0 libdjvulibre21 libdvdread3 libfaad0 libfreebob0
9534   libgd2-noxpm libgraphviz4 libgsmme1c2a libgtkhtml2-0 libicu38
9535   libiec61883-0 libindex0 libisccc50 libisccfg50 libiw29
9536   libjaxp1.3-java-gcj libk3b3 libkcal2b libkcddb1 libkdeedu3
9537   libkdegames1 libkdepim1a libkgantt0 libkleopatra1 libkmime2
9538   libkpathsea4 libkpimexchange1 libkpimidentities1 libkscan1
9539   libksieve0 libktnef1 liblockdev1 libltdl3 liblwres50 libmagick10
9540   libmimelib1c2a libmodplug0c2 libmozjs1d libmpcdec3 libmpfr1ldbl
9541   libneon27 libnm-util0 libopensync0 libpisock9 libpoppler-glib3
9542   libpoppler-qt2 libpoppler3 libraw1394-8 librss1 libsensors3
9543   libsmbios2 libssh2-1 libsuitesparse-3.1.0 libswfdec-0.6-90
9544   libtalloc1 libxalan2-java-gcj libxerces2-java-gcj libxtrap6 lskat
9545   mpeglib network-manager-kde noatun pmount tex-common texlive-base
9546   texlive-common texlive-doc-base texlive-fonts-recommended tidy
9547   ttf-dustin ttf-kochi-gothic ttf-sjfonts
9548 </p></blockquote>
9549
9550 <p>Installed using aptitude, missing with apt-get</p>
9551
9552 <blockquote><p>
9553   dolphin kde-core kde-plasma-desktop kde-standard kde-window-manager
9554   kdeartwork kdebase kdebase-apps kdebase-workspace
9555   kdebase-workspace-bin kdebase-workspace-data kdeutils kscreensaver
9556   kscreensaver-xsavers libgle3 libkonq5 libkonq5-templates libnetpbm10
9557   netpbm plasma-widget-folderview plasma-widget-networkmanagement
9558   xscreensaver-data-extra xscreensaver-gl xscreensaver-gl-extra
9559   xscreensaver-screensaver-bsod
9560 </p></blockquote>
9561
9562 <p>Installed using aptitude, removed with apt-get</p>
9563
9564 <blockquote><p>
9565   kdebase-bin konq-plugins konqueror
9566 </p></blockquote>
9567
9568       </div>
9569       <div class="tags">
9570
9571
9572         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>.
9573
9574
9575       </div>
9576     </div>
9577     <div class="padding"></div>
9578
9579     <div class="entry">
9580       <div class="title">
9581         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Gnash_buildbot_slave_and_Debian_kfreebsd.html">Gnash buildbot slave and Debian kfreebsd</a>
9582       </div>
9583       <div class="date">
9584         20th November 2010
9585       </div>
9586       <div class="body">
9587         <p>Answering
9588 <a href="http://www.listware.net/201011/gnash-dev/67431-gnash-dev-buildbot-looking-for-slaves.html">the
9589 call from the Gnash project</a> for
9590 <a href="http://www.gnashdev.org:8010">buildbot</a> slaves to test the
9591 current source, I have set up a virtual KVM machine on the Debian
9592 Edu/Skolelinux virtualization host to test the git source on
9593 Debian/Squeeze.  I hope this can help the developers in getting new
9594 releases out more often.</p>
9595
9596 <p>As the developers want less main-stream build platforms tested to,
9597 I have considered setting up a <a
9598 href="http://www.debian.org/ports/kfreebsd-gnu/">Debian/kfreebsd</a>
9599 machine as well.  I have also considered using the kfreebsd
9600 architecture in Debian as a file server in NUUG to get access to the 5
9601 TB zfs volume we currently use to store DV video.  Because of this, I
9602 finally got around to do a test installation of Debian/Squeeze with
9603 kfreebsd.  Installation went fairly smooth, thought I noticed some
9604 visual glitches in the cdebconf dialogs (black cursor left on the
9605 screen at random locations).  Have not gotten very far with the
9606 testing.  Noticed cfdisk did not work, but fdisk did so it was not a
9607 fatal problem.  Have to spend some more time on it to see if it is
9608 useful as a file server for NUUG.  Will try to find time to set up a
9609 gnash buildbot slave on the Debian Edu/Skolelinux this weekend.</p>
9610
9611       </div>
9612       <div class="tags">
9613
9614
9615         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>.
9616
9617
9618       </div>
9619     </div>
9620     <div class="padding"></div>
9621
9622     <div class="entry">
9623       <div class="title">
9624         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_in_3D.html">Debian in 3D</a>
9625       </div>
9626       <div class="date">
9627          9th November 2010
9628       </div>
9629       <div class="body">
9630         <p><img src="http://thingiverse-production.s3.amazonaws.com/renders/23/e0/c4/f9/2b/debswagtdose_preview_medium.jpg"></p>
9631
9632 <p>3D printing is just great.  I just came across this Debian logo in
9633 3D linked in from
9634 <a href="http://blog.thingiverse.com/2010/11/09/participatory-branding/">the
9635 thingiverse blog</a>.</p>
9636
9637       </div>
9638       <div class="tags">
9639
9640
9641         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>.
9642
9643
9644       </div>
9645     </div>
9646     <div class="padding"></div>
9647
9648     <div class="entry">
9649       <div class="title">
9650         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Software_updates_2010_10_24.html">Software updates 2010-10-24</a>
9651       </div>
9652       <div class="date">
9653         24th October 2010
9654       </div>
9655       <div class="body">
9656         <p>Some updates.</p>
9657
9658 <p>My <a href="http://pledgebank.com/gnash-avm2">gnash pledge</a> to
9659 raise money for the project is going well.  The lower limit of 10
9660 signers was reached in 24 hours, and so far 13 people have signed it.
9661 More signers and more funding is most welcome, and I am really curious
9662 how far we can get before the time limit of December 24 is reached.
9663 :)</p>
9664
9665 <p>On the #gnash IRC channel on irc.freenode.net, I was just tipped
9666 about what appear to be a great code coverage tool capable of
9667 generating code coverage stats without any changes to the source code.
9668 It is called
9669 <a href="http://simonkagstrom.github.com/kcov/index.html">kcov</a>,
9670 and can be used using <tt>kcov &lt;directory&gt; &lt;binary&gt;</tt>.
9671 It is missing in Debian, but the git source built just fine in Squeeze
9672 after I installed libelf-dev, libdwarf-dev, pkg-config and
9673 libglib2.0-dev.  Failed to build in Lenny, but suspect that is
9674 solvable.  I hope kcov make it into Debian soon.</p>
9675
9676 <p>Finally found time to wrap up the release notes for <a
9677 href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-edu-announce/2010/10/msg00002.html">a
9678 new alpha release of Debian Edu</a>, and just published the second
9679 alpha test release of the Squeeze based Debian Edu /
9680 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Skolelinux</a>
9681 release.  Give it a try if you need a complete linux solution for your
9682 school, including central infrastructure server, workstations, thin
9683 client servers and diskless workstations.  A nice touch added
9684 yesterday is RDP support on the thin client servers, for windows
9685 clients to get a Linux desktop on request.</p>
9686
9687       </div>
9688       <div class="tags">
9689
9690
9691         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>.
9692
9693
9694       </div>
9695     </div>
9696     <div class="padding"></div>
9697
9698     <div class="entry">
9699       <div class="title">
9700         <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>
9701       </div>
9702       <div class="date">
9703          4th September 2010
9704       </div>
9705       <div class="body">
9706         <p>In the <a href="http://popcon.debian.org/unknown/by_vote">Debian
9707 popularity-contest numbers</a>, the adobe-flashplugin package the
9708 second most popular used package that is missing in Debian.  The sixth
9709 most popular is flashplayer-mozilla.  This is a clear indication that
9710 working flash is important for Debian users.  Around 10 percent of the
9711 users submitting data to popcon.debian.org have this package
9712 installed.</p>
9713
9714 <p>In the report written by Lars Risan in August 2008
9715 («<a href="http://wiki.skolelinux.no/Dokumentasjon/Rapporter?action=AttachFile&do=view&target=Skolelinux_i_bruk_rapport_1.0.pdf">Skolelinux
9716 i bruk – Rapport for Hurum kommune, Universitetet i Agder og
9717 stiftelsen SLX Debian Labs</a>»), one of the most important problems
9718 schools experienced with <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian
9719 Edu/Skolelinux</a> was the lack of working Flash.  A lot of educational
9720 web sites require Flash to work, and lacking working Flash support in
9721 the web browser and the problems with installing it was perceived as a
9722 good reason to stay with Windows.</p>
9723
9724 <p>I once saw a funny and sad comment in a web forum, where Linux was
9725 said to be the retarded cousin that did not really understand
9726 everything you told him but could work fairly well.  This was a
9727 comment regarding the problems Linux have with proprietary formats and
9728 non-standard web pages, and is sad because it exposes a fairly common
9729 understanding of whose fault it is if web pages that only work in for
9730 example Internet Explorer 6 fail to work on Firefox, and funny because
9731 it explain very well how annoying it is for users when Linux
9732 distributions do not work with the documents they receive or the web
9733 pages they want to visit.</p>
9734
9735 <p>This is part of the reason why I believe it is important for Debian
9736 and Debian Edu to have a well working Flash implementation in the
9737 distribution, to get at least popular sites as Youtube and Google
9738 Video to working out of the box.  For Squeeze, Debian have the chance
9739 to include the latest version of Gnash that will make this happen, as
9740 the new release 0.8.8 was published a few weeks ago and is resting in
9741 unstable.  The new version work with more sites that version 0.8.7.
9742 The Gnash maintainers have asked for a freeze exception, but the
9743 release team have not had time to reply to it yet.  I hope they agree
9744 with me that Flash is important for the Debian desktop users, and thus
9745 accept the new package into Squeeze.</p>
9746
9747       </div>
9748       <div class="tags">
9749
9750
9751         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>.
9752
9753
9754       </div>
9755     </div>
9756     <div class="padding"></div>
9757
9758     <div class="entry">
9759       <div class="title">
9760         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Circular_package_dependencies_harms_apt_recovery.html">Circular package dependencies harms apt recovery</a>
9761       </div>
9762       <div class="date">
9763         27th July 2010
9764       </div>
9765       <div class="body">
9766         <p>I discovered this while doing
9767 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Automatic_upgrade_testing_from_Lenny_to_Squeeze.html">automated
9768 testing of upgrades from Debian Lenny to Squeeze</a>.  A few packages
9769 in Debian still got circular dependencies, and it is often claimed
9770 that apt and aptitude should be able to handle this just fine, but
9771 some times these dependency loops causes apt to fail.</p>
9772
9773 <p>An example is from todays
9774 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/~pere/debian-upgrade-testing//test-20100727-lenny-squeeze-kde-aptitude.txt">upgrade
9775 of KDE using aptitude</a>.  In it, a bug in kdebase-workspace-data
9776 causes perl-modules to fail to upgrade.  The cause is simple.  If a
9777 package fail to unpack, then only part of packages with the circular
9778 dependency might end up being unpacked when unpacking aborts, and the
9779 ones already unpacked will fail to configure in the recovery phase
9780 because its dependencies are unavailable.</p>
9781
9782 <p>In this log, the problem manifest itself with this error:</p>
9783
9784 <blockquote><pre>
9785 dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of perl-modules:
9786  perl-modules depends on perl (>= 5.10.1-1); however:
9787   Version of perl on system is 5.10.0-19lenny2.
9788 dpkg: error processing perl-modules (--configure):
9789  dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
9790 </pre></blockquote>
9791
9792 <p>The perl/perl-modules circular dependency is already
9793 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/527917">reported as a bug</a>, and will
9794 hopefully be solved as soon as possible, but it is not the only one,
9795 and each one of these loops in the dependency tree can cause similar
9796 failures.  Of course, they only occur when there are bugs in other
9797 packages causing the unpacking to fail, but it is rather nasty when
9798 the failure of one package causes the problem to become worse because
9799 of dependency loops.</p>
9800
9801 <p>Thanks to
9802 <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2010/06/msg00116.html">the
9803 tireless effort by Bill Allombert</a>, the number of circular
9804 dependencies
9805 <a href="http://debian.semistable.com/debgraph.out.html">left in Debian
9806 is dropping</a>, and perhaps it will reach zero one day. :)</p>
9807
9808 <p>Todays testing also exposed a bug in
9809 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/590605">update-notifier</a> and
9810 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/590604">different behaviour</a> between
9811 apt-get and aptitude, the latter possibly caused by some circular
9812 dependency.  Reported both to BTS to try to get someone to look at
9813 it.</p>
9814
9815       </div>
9816       <div class="tags">
9817
9818
9819         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>.
9820
9821
9822       </div>
9823     </div>
9824     <div class="padding"></div>
9825
9826     <div class="entry">
9827       <div class="title">
9828         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/What_are_they_searching_for___PowerDNS_and_ISC_DHCP_in_LDAP.html">What are they searching for - PowerDNS and ISC DHCP in LDAP</a>
9829       </div>
9830       <div class="date">
9831         17th July 2010
9832       </div>
9833       <div class="body">
9834         <p>This is a
9835 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Time_for_new__LDAP_schemas_replacing_RFC_2307_.html">followup</a>
9836 on my
9837 <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
9838 work</a> on
9839 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Combining_PowerDNS_and_ISC_DHCP_LDAP_objects.html">merging
9840 all</a> the computer related LDAP objects in Debian Edu.</p>
9841
9842 <p>As a step to try to see if it possible to merge the DNS and DHCP
9843 LDAP objects, I have had a look at how the packages pdns-backend-ldap
9844 and dhcp3-server-ldap in Debian use the LDAP server.  The two
9845 implementations are quite different in how they use LDAP.</p>
9846
9847 To get this information, I started slapd with debugging enabled and
9848 dumped the debug output to a file to get the LDAP searches performed
9849 on a Debian Edu main-server.  Here is a summary.
9850
9851 <p><strong>powerdns</strong></p>
9852
9853 <a href="http://www.linuxnetworks.de/doc/index.php/PowerDNS_LDAP_Backend">Clues
9854 on how to</a> set up PowerDNS to use a LDAP backend is available on
9855 the web.
9856
9857 <p>PowerDNS have two modes of operation using LDAP as its backend.
9858 One "strict" mode where the forward and reverse DNS lookups are done
9859 using the same LDAP objects, and a "tree" mode where the forward and
9860 reverse entries are in two different subtrees in LDAP with a structure
9861 based on the DNS names, as in tjener.intern and
9862 2.2.0.10.in-addr.arpa.</p>
9863
9864 <p>In tree mode, the server is set up to use a LDAP subtree as its
9865 base, and uses a "base" scoped search for the DNS name by adding
9866 "dc=tjener,dc=intern," to the base with a filter for
9867 "(associateddomain=tjener.intern)" for the forward entry and
9868 "dc=2,dc=2,dc=0,dc=10,dc=in-addr,dc=arpa," with a filter for
9869 "(associateddomain=2.2.0.10.in-addr.arpa)" for the reverse entry.  For
9870 forward entries, it is looking for attributes named dnsttl, arecord,
9871 nsrecord, cnamerecord, soarecord, ptrrecord, hinforecord, mxrecord,
9872 txtrecord, rprecord, afsdbrecord, keyrecord, aaaarecord, locrecord,
9873 srvrecord, naptrrecord, kxrecord, certrecord, dsrecord, sshfprecord,
9874 ipseckeyrecord, rrsigrecord, nsecrecord, dnskeyrecord, dhcidrecord,
9875 spfrecord and modifytimestamp.  For reverse entries it is looking for
9876 the attributes dnsttl, arecord, nsrecord, cnamerecord, soarecord,
9877 ptrrecord, hinforecord, mxrecord, txtrecord, rprecord, aaaarecord,
9878 locrecord, srvrecord, naptrrecord and modifytimestamp.  The equivalent
9879 ldapsearch commands could look like this:</p>
9880
9881 <blockquote><pre>
9882 ldapsearch -h ldap \
9883   -b dc=tjener,dc=intern,ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no \
9884   -s base -x '(associateddomain=tjener.intern)' dNSTTL aRecord nSRecord \
9885   cNAMERecord sOARecord pTRRecord hInfoRecord mXRecord tXTRecord \
9886   rPRecord aFSDBRecord KeyRecord aAAARecord lOCRecord sRVRecord \
9887   nAPTRRecord kXRecord certRecord dSRecord sSHFPRecord iPSecKeyRecord \
9888   rRSIGRecord nSECRecord dNSKeyRecord dHCIDRecord sPFRecord modifyTimestamp
9889
9890 ldapsearch -h ldap \
9891   -b dc=2,dc=2,dc=0,dc=10,dc=in-addr,dc=arpa,ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no \
9892   -s base -x '(associateddomain=2.2.0.10.in-addr.arpa)'
9893   dnsttl, arecord, nsrecord, cnamerecord soarecord ptrrecord \
9894   hinforecord mxrecord txtrecord rprecord aaaarecord locrecord \
9895   srvrecord naptrrecord modifytimestamp
9896 </pre></blockquote>
9897
9898 <p>In Debian Edu/Lenny, the PowerDNS tree mode is used with
9899 ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no as the base, and these are two
9900 example LDAP objects used there.  In addition to these objects, the
9901 parent objects all th way up to ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
9902 also exist.</p>
9903
9904 <blockquote><pre>
9905 dn: dc=tjener,dc=intern,ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
9906 objectclass: top
9907 objectclass: dnsdomain
9908 objectclass: domainrelatedobject
9909 dc: tjener
9910 arecord: 10.0.2.2
9911 associateddomain: tjener.intern
9912
9913 dn: dc=2,dc=2,dc=0,dc=10,dc=in-addr,dc=arpa,ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
9914 objectclass: top
9915 objectclass: dnsdomain2
9916 objectclass: domainrelatedobject
9917 dc: 2
9918 ptrrecord: tjener.intern
9919 associateddomain: 2.2.0.10.in-addr.arpa
9920 </pre></blockquote>
9921
9922 <p>In strict mode, the server behaves differently.  When looking for
9923 forward DNS entries, it is doing a "subtree" scoped search with the
9924 same base as in the tree mode for a object with filter
9925 "(associateddomain=tjener.intern)" and requests the attributes dnsttl,
9926 arecord, nsrecord, cnamerecord, soarecord, ptrrecord, hinforecord,
9927 mxrecord, txtrecord, rprecord, aaaarecord, locrecord, srvrecord,
9928 naptrrecord and modifytimestamp.  For reverse entires it also do a
9929 subtree scoped search but this time the filter is "(arecord=10.0.2.2)"
9930 and the requested attributes are associateddomain, dnsttl and
9931 modifytimestamp.  In short, in strict mode the objects with ptrrecord
9932 go away, and the arecord attribute in the forward object is used
9933 instead.</p>
9934
9935 <p>The forward and reverse searches can be simulated using ldapsearch
9936 like this:</p>
9937
9938 <blockquote><pre>
9939 ldapsearch -h ldap -b ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no -s sub -x \
9940   '(associateddomain=tjener.intern)' dNSTTL aRecord nSRecord \
9941   cNAMERecord sOARecord pTRRecord hInfoRecord mXRecord tXTRecord \
9942   rPRecord aFSDBRecord KeyRecord aAAARecord lOCRecord sRVRecord \
9943   nAPTRRecord kXRecord certRecord dSRecord sSHFPRecord iPSecKeyRecord \
9944   rRSIGRecord nSECRecord dNSKeyRecord dHCIDRecord sPFRecord modifyTimestamp
9945
9946 ldapsearch -h ldap -b ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no -s sub -x \
9947   '(arecord=10.0.2.2)' associateddomain dnsttl modifytimestamp
9948 </pre></blockquote>
9949
9950 <p>In addition to the forward and reverse searches , there is also a
9951 search for SOA records, which behave similar to the forward and
9952 reverse lookups.</p>
9953
9954 <p>A thing to note with the PowerDNS behaviour is that it do not
9955 specify any objectclass names, and instead look for the attributes it
9956 need to generate a DNS reply.  This make it able to work with any
9957 objectclass that provide the needed attributes.</p>
9958
9959 <p>The attributes are normally provided in the cosine (RFC 1274) and
9960 dnsdomain2 schemas.  The latter is used for reverse entries like
9961 ptrrecord and recent DNS additions like aaaarecord and srvrecord.</p>
9962
9963 <p>In Debian Edu, we have created DNS objects using the object classes
9964 dcobject (for dc), dnsdomain or dnsdomain2 (structural, for the DNS
9965 attributes) and domainrelatedobject (for associatedDomain).  The use
9966 of structural object classes make it impossible to combine these
9967 classes with the object classes used by DHCP.</p>
9968
9969 <p>There are other schemas that could be used too, for example the
9970 dnszone structural object class used by Gosa and bind-sdb for the DNS
9971 attributes combined with the domainrelatedobject object class, but in
9972 this case some unused attributes would have to be included as well
9973 (zonename and relativedomainname).</p>
9974
9975 <p>My proposal for Debian Edu would be to switch PowerDNS to strict
9976 mode and not use any of the existing objectclasses (dnsdomain,
9977 dnsdomain2 and dnszone) when one want to combine the DNS information
9978 with DHCP information, and instead create a auxiliary object class
9979 defined something like this (using the attributes defined for
9980 dnsdomain and dnsdomain2 or dnszone):</p>
9981
9982 <blockquote><pre>
9983 objectclass ( some-oid NAME 'dnsDomainAux'
9984     SUP top
9985     AUXILIARY
9986     MAY ( ARecord $ MDRecord $ MXRecord $ NSRecord $ SOARecord $ CNAMERecord $
9987           DNSTTL $ DNSClass $ PTRRecord $ HINFORecord $ MINFORecord $
9988           TXTRecord $ SIGRecord $ KEYRecord $ AAAARecord $ LOCRecord $
9989           NXTRecord $ SRVRecord $ NAPTRRecord $ KXRecord $ CERTRecord $
9990           A6Record $ DNAMERecord
9991     ))
9992 </pre></blockquote>
9993
9994 <p>This will allow any object to become a DNS entry when combined with
9995 the domainrelatedobject object class, and allow any entity to include
9996 all the attributes PowerDNS wants.  I've sent an email to the PowerDNS
9997 developers asking for their view on this schema and if they are
9998 interested in providing such schema with PowerDNS, and I hope my
9999 message will be accepted into their mailing list soon.</p>
10000
10001 <p><strong>ISC dhcp</strong></p>
10002
10003 <p>The DHCP server searches for specific objectclass and requests all
10004 the object attributes, and then uses the attributes it want.  This
10005 make it harder to figure out exactly what attributes are used, but
10006 thanks to the working example in Debian Edu I can at least get an idea
10007 what is needed without having to read the source code.</p>
10008
10009 <p>In the DHCP server configuration, the LDAP base to use and the
10010 search filter to use to locate the correct dhcpServer entity is
10011 stored.  These are the relevant entries from
10012 /etc/dhcp3/dhcpd.conf:</p>
10013
10014 <blockquote><pre>
10015 ldap-base-dn "dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no";
10016 ldap-dhcp-server-cn "dhcp";
10017 </pre></blockquote>
10018
10019 <p>The DHCP server uses this information to nest all the DHCP
10020 configuration it need.  The cn "dhcp" is located using the given LDAP
10021 base and the filter "(&(objectClass=dhcpServer)(cn=dhcp))".  The
10022 search result is this entry:</p>
10023
10024 <blockquote><pre>
10025 dn: cn=dhcp,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
10026 cn: dhcp
10027 objectClass: top
10028 objectClass: dhcpServer
10029 dhcpServiceDN: cn=DHCP Config,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
10030 </pre></blockquote>
10031
10032 <p>The content of the dhcpServiceDN attribute is next used to locate the
10033 subtree with DHCP configuration.  The DHCP configuration subtree base
10034 is located using a base scope search with base "cn=DHCP
10035 Config,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no" and filter
10036 "(&(objectClass=dhcpService)(|(dhcpPrimaryDN=cn=dhcp,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no)(dhcpSecondaryDN=cn=dhcp,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no)))".
10037 The search result is this entry:</p>
10038
10039 <blockquote><pre>
10040 dn: cn=DHCP Config,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
10041 cn: DHCP Config
10042 objectClass: top
10043 objectClass: dhcpService
10044 objectClass: dhcpOptions
10045 dhcpPrimaryDN: cn=dhcp, dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
10046 dhcpStatements: ddns-update-style none
10047 dhcpStatements: authoritative
10048 dhcpOption: smtp-server code 69 = array of ip-address
10049 dhcpOption: www-server code 72 = array of ip-address
10050 dhcpOption: wpad-url code 252 = text
10051 </pre></blockquote>
10052
10053 <p>Next, the entire subtree is processed, one level at the time.  When
10054 all the DHCP configuration is loaded, it is ready to receive requests.
10055 The subtree in Debian Edu contain objects with object classes
10056 top/dhcpService/dhcpOptions, top/dhcpSharedNetwork/dhcpOptions,
10057 top/dhcpSubnet, top/dhcpGroup and top/dhcpHost.  These provide options
10058 and information about netmasks, dynamic range etc.  Leaving out the
10059 details here because it is not relevant for the focus of my
10060 investigation, which is to see if it is possible to merge dns and dhcp
10061 related computer objects.</p>
10062
10063 <p>When a DHCP request come in, LDAP is searched for the MAC address
10064 of the client (00:00:00:00:00:00 in this example), using a subtree
10065 scoped search with "cn=DHCP Config,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no" as
10066 the base and "(&(objectClass=dhcpHost)(dhcpHWAddress=ethernet
10067 00:00:00:00:00:00))" as the filter.  This is what a host object look
10068 like:</p>
10069
10070 <blockquote><pre>
10071 dn: cn=hostname,cn=group1,cn=THINCLIENTS,cn=DHCP Config,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
10072 cn: hostname
10073 objectClass: top
10074 objectClass: dhcpHost
10075 dhcpHWAddress: ethernet 00:00:00:00:00:00
10076 dhcpStatements: fixed-address hostname
10077 </pre></blockquote>
10078
10079 <p>There is less flexiblity in the way LDAP searches are done here.
10080 The object classes need to have fixed names, and the configuration
10081 need to be stored in a fairly specific LDAP structure.  On the
10082 positive side, the invidiual dhcpHost entires can be anywhere without
10083 the DN pointed to by the dhcpServer entries.  The latter should make
10084 it possible to group all host entries in a subtree next to the
10085 configuration entries, and this subtree can also be shared with the
10086 DNS server if the schema proposed above is combined with the dhcpHost
10087 structural object class.
10088
10089 <p><strong>Conclusion</strong></p>
10090
10091 <p>The PowerDNS implementation seem to be very flexible when it come
10092 to which LDAP schemas to use.  While its "tree" mode is rigid when it
10093 come to the the LDAP structure, the "strict" mode is very flexible,
10094 allowing DNS objects to be stored anywhere under the base cn specified
10095 in the configuration.</p>
10096
10097 <p>The DHCP implementation on the other hand is very inflexible, both
10098 regarding which LDAP schemas to use and which LDAP structure to use.
10099 I guess one could implement ones own schema, as long as the
10100 objectclasses and attributes have the names used, but this do not
10101 really help when the DHCP subtree need to have a fairly fixed
10102 structure.</p>
10103
10104 <p>Based on the observed behaviour, I suspect a LDAP structure like
10105 this might work for Debian Edu:</p>
10106
10107 <blockquote><pre>
10108 ou=services
10109   cn=machine-info (dhcpService) - dhcpServiceDN points here
10110     cn=dhcp (dhcpServer)
10111     cn=dhcp-internal (dhcpSharedNetwork/dhcpOptions)
10112       cn=10.0.2.0 (dhcpSubnet)
10113         cn=group1 (dhcpGroup/dhcpOptions)
10114     cn=dhcp-thinclients (dhcpSharedNetwork/dhcpOptions)
10115       cn=192.168.0.0 (dhcpSubnet)
10116         cn=group1 (dhcpGroup/dhcpOptions)
10117     ou=machines - PowerDNS base points here
10118       cn=hostname (dhcpHost/domainrelatedobject/dnsDomainAux)
10119 </pre></blockquote>
10120
10121 <P>This is not tested yet.  If the DHCP server require the dhcpHost
10122 entries to be in the dhcpGroup subtrees, the entries can be stored
10123 there instead of a common machines subtree, and the PowerDNS base
10124 would have to be moved one level up to the machine-info subtree.</p>
10125
10126 <p>The combined object under the machines subtree would look something
10127 like this:</p>
10128
10129 <blockquote><pre>
10130 dn: dc=hostname,ou=machines,cn=machine-info,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
10131 dc: hostname
10132 objectClass: top
10133 objectClass: dhcpHost
10134 objectclass: domainrelatedobject
10135 objectclass: dnsDomainAux
10136 associateddomain: hostname.intern
10137 arecord: 10.11.12.13
10138 dhcpHWAddress: ethernet 00:00:00:00:00:00
10139 dhcpStatements: fixed-address hostname.intern
10140 </pre></blockquote>
10141
10142 </p>One could even add the LTSP configuration associated with a given
10143 machine, as long as the required attributes are available in a
10144 auxiliary object class.</p>
10145
10146       </div>
10147       <div class="tags">
10148
10149
10150         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>.
10151
10152
10153       </div>
10154     </div>
10155     <div class="padding"></div>
10156
10157     <div class="entry">
10158       <div class="title">
10159         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Combining_PowerDNS_and_ISC_DHCP_LDAP_objects.html">Combining PowerDNS and ISC DHCP LDAP objects</a>
10160       </div>
10161       <div class="date">
10162         14th July 2010
10163       </div>
10164       <div class="body">
10165         <p>For a while now, I have wanted to find a way to change the DNS and
10166 DHCP services in Debian Edu to use the same LDAP objects for a given
10167 computer, to avoid the possibility of having a inconsistent state for
10168 a computer in LDAP (as in DHCP but no DNS entry or the other way
10169 around) and make it easier to add computers to LDAP.</p>
10170
10171 <p>I've looked at how powerdns and dhcpd is using LDAP, and using this
10172 information finally found a solution that seem to work.</p>
10173
10174 <p>The old setup required three LDAP objects for a given computer.
10175 One forward DNS entry, one reverse DNS entry and one DHCP entry.  If
10176 we switch powerdns to use its strict LDAP method (ldap-method=strict
10177 in pdns-debian-edu.conf), the forward and reverse DNS entries are
10178 merged into one while making it impossible to transfer the reverse map
10179 to a slave DNS server.</p>
10180
10181 <p>If we also replace the object class used to get the DNS related
10182 attributes to one allowing these attributes to be combined with the
10183 dhcphost object class, we can merge the DNS and DHCP entries into one.
10184 I've written such object class in the dnsdomainaux.schema file (need
10185 proper OIDs, but that is a minor issue), and tested the setup.  It
10186 seem to work.</p>
10187
10188 <p>With this test setup in place, we can get away with one LDAP object
10189 for both DNS and DHCP, and even the LTSP configuration I suggested in
10190 an earlier email.  The combined LDAP object will look something like
10191 this:</p>
10192
10193 <blockquote><pre>
10194   dn: cn=hostname,cn=group1,cn=THINCLIENTS,cn=DHCP Config,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
10195   cn: hostname
10196   objectClass: dhcphost
10197   objectclass: domainrelatedobject
10198   objectclass: dnsdomainaux
10199   associateddomain: hostname.intern
10200   arecord: 10.11.12.13
10201   dhcphwaddress: ethernet 00:00:00:00:00:00
10202   dhcpstatements: fixed-address hostname
10203   ldapconfigsound: Y
10204 </pre></blockquote>
10205
10206 <p>The DNS server uses the associateddomain and arecord entries, while
10207 the DHCP server uses the dhcphwaddress and dhcpstatements entries
10208 before asking DNS to resolve the fixed-adddress.  LTSP will use
10209 dhcphwaddress or associateddomain and the ldapconfig* attributes.</p>
10210
10211 <p>I am not yet sure if I can get the DHCP server to look for its
10212 dhcphost in a different location, to allow us to put the objects
10213 outside the "DHCP Config" subtree, but hope to figure out a way to do
10214 that.  If I can't figure out a way to do that, we can still get rid of
10215 the hosts subtree and move all its content into the DHCP Config tree
10216 (which probably should be renamed to be more related to the new
10217 content.  I suspect cn=dnsdhcp,ou=services or something like that
10218 might be a good place to put it.</p>
10219
10220 <p>If you want to help out with implementing this for Debian Edu,
10221 please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.</p>
10222
10223       </div>
10224       <div class="tags">
10225
10226
10227         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>.
10228
10229
10230       </div>
10231     </div>
10232     <div class="padding"></div>
10233
10234     <div class="entry">
10235       <div class="title">
10236         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Idea_for_storing_LTSP_configuration_in_LDAP.html">Idea for storing LTSP configuration in LDAP</a>
10237       </div>
10238       <div class="date">
10239         11th July 2010
10240       </div>
10241       <div class="body">
10242         <p>Vagrant mentioned on IRC today that ltsp_config now support
10243 sourcing files from /usr/share/ltsp/ltsp_config.d/ on the thin
10244 clients, and that this can be used to fetch configuration from LDAP if
10245 Debian Edu choose to store configuration there.</p>
10246
10247 <p>Armed with this information, I got inspired and wrote a test module
10248 to get configuration from LDAP.  The idea is to look up the MAC
10249 address of the client in LDAP, and look for attributes on the form
10250 ltspconfigsetting=value, and use this to export SETTING=value to the
10251 LTSP clients.</p>
10252
10253 <p>The goal is to be able to store the LTSP configuration attributes
10254 in a "computer" LDAP object used by both DNS and DHCP, and thus
10255 allowing us to store all information about a computer in one place.</p>
10256
10257 <p>This is a untested draft implementation, and I welcome feedback on
10258 this approach.  A real LDAP schema for the ltspClientAux objectclass
10259 need to be written.  Comments, suggestions, etc?</p>
10260
10261 <blockquote><pre>
10262 # Store in /opt/ltsp/$arch/usr/share/ltsp/ltsp_config.d/ldap-config
10263 #
10264 # Fetch LTSP client settings from LDAP based on MAC address
10265 #
10266 # Uses ethernet address as stored in the dhcpHost objectclass using
10267 # the dhcpHWAddress attribute or ethernet address stored in the
10268 # ieee802Device objectclass with the macAddress attribute.
10269 #
10270 # This module is written to be schema agnostic, and only depend on the
10271 # existence of attribute names.
10272 #
10273 # The LTSP configuration variables are saved directly using a
10274 # ltspConfig prefix and uppercasing the rest of the attribute name.
10275 # To set the SERVER variable, set the ltspConfigServer attribute.
10276 #
10277 # Some LDAP schema should be created with all the relevant
10278 # configuration settings.  Something like this should work:
10279 #
10280 # objectclass ( 1.1.2.2 NAME 'ltspClientAux'
10281 #     SUP top
10282 #     AUXILIARY
10283 #     MAY ( ltspConfigServer $ ltsConfigSound $ ... )
10284
10285 LDAPSERVER=$(debian-edu-ldapserver)
10286 if [ "$LDAPSERVER" ] ; then
10287     LDAPBASE=$(debian-edu-ldapserver -b)
10288     for MAC in $(LANG=C ifconfig |grep -i hwaddr| awk '{print $5}'|sort -u) ; do
10289         filter="(|(dhcpHWAddress=ethernet $MAC)(macAddress=$MAC))"
10290         ldapsearch -h "$LDAPSERVER" -b "$LDAPBASE" -v -x "$filter" | \
10291             grep '^ltspConfig' | while read attr value ; do
10292             # Remove prefix and convert to upper case
10293             attr=$(echo $attr | sed 's/^ltspConfig//i' | tr a-z A-Z)
10294             # bass value on to clients
10295             eval "$attr=$value; export $attr"
10296         done
10297     done
10298 fi
10299 </pre></blockquote>
10300
10301 <p>I'm not sure this shell construction will work, because I suspect
10302 the while block might end up in a subshell causing the variables set
10303 there to not show up in ltsp-config, but if that is the case I am sure
10304 the code can be restructured to make sure the variables are passed on.
10305 I expect that can be solved with some testing. :)</p>
10306
10307 <p>If you want to help out with implementing this for Debian Edu,
10308 please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.</p>
10309
10310 <p>Update 2010-07-17: I am aware of another effort to store LTSP
10311 configuration in LDAP that was created around year 2000 by
10312 <a href="http://www.pcxperience.com/thinclient/documentation/ldap.html">PC
10313 Xperience, Inc., 2000</a>.  I found its
10314 <a href="http://people.redhat.com/alikins/ltsp/ldap/">files</a> on a
10315 personal home page over at redhat.com.</p>
10316
10317       </div>
10318       <div class="tags">
10319
10320
10321         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>.
10322
10323
10324       </div>
10325     </div>
10326     <div class="padding"></div>
10327
10328     <div class="entry">
10329       <div class="title">
10330         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/jXplorer__a_very_nice_LDAP_GUI.html">jXplorer, a very nice LDAP GUI</a>
10331       </div>
10332       <div class="date">
10333          9th July 2010
10334       </div>
10335       <div class="body">
10336         <p>Since
10337 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/LUMA__a_very_nice_LDAP_GUI.html">my
10338 last post</a> about available LDAP tools in Debian, I was told about a
10339 LDAP GUI that is even better than luma.  The java application
10340 <a href="http://jxplorer.org/">jXplorer</a> is claimed to be capable of
10341 moving LDAP objects and subtrees using drag-and-drop, and can
10342 authenticate using Kerberos.  I have only tested the Kerberos
10343 authentication, but do not have a LDAP setup allowing me to rewrite
10344 LDAP with my test user yet.  It is
10345 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/j/jxplorer.html">available in
10346 Debian</a> testing and unstable at the moment.  The only problem I
10347 have with it is how it handle errors.  If something go wrong, its
10348 non-intuitive behaviour require me to go through some query work list
10349 and remove the failing query.  Nothing big, but very annoying.</p>
10350
10351       </div>
10352       <div class="tags">
10353
10354
10355         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>.
10356
10357
10358       </div>
10359     </div>
10360     <div class="padding"></div>
10361
10362     <div class="entry">
10363       <div class="title">
10364         <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>
10365       </div>
10366       <div class="date">
10367          3rd July 2010
10368       </div>
10369       <div class="body">
10370         <p>Here is a short update on my <a
10371 href="http://people.skolelinux.org/~pere/debian-upgrade-testing/">my
10372 Debian Lenny->Squeeze upgrade testing</a>.  Here is a summary of the
10373 difference for Gnome when it is upgraded by apt-get and aptitude.  I'm
10374 not reporting the status for KDE, because the upgrade crashes when
10375 aptitude try because of missing conflicts
10376 (<a href="http://bugs.debian.org/584861">#584861</a> and
10377 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/585716">#585716</a>).</p>
10378
10379 <p>At the end of the upgrade test script, dpkg -l is executed to get a
10380 complete list of the installed packages.  Based on this I see these
10381 differences when I did a test run today.  As usual, I do not really
10382 know what the correct set of packages would be, but thought it best to
10383 publish the difference.</p>
10384
10385 <p>Installed using apt-get, missing with aptitude</p>
10386
10387 <blockquote><p>
10388   at-spi cpp-4.3 finger gnome-spell gstreamer0.10-gnomevfs
10389   libatspi1.0-0 libcupsys2 libeel2-data libgail-common libgdl-1-common
10390   libgnomeprint2.2-data libgnomeprintui2.2-common libgnomevfs2-bin
10391   libgtksourceview-common libpt-1.10.10-plugins-alsa
10392   libpt-1.10.10-plugins-v4l libservlet2.4-java libxalan2-java
10393   libxerces2-java openoffice.org-writer2latex openssl-blacklist p7zip
10394   python-4suite-xml python-eggtrayicon python-gtkhtml2
10395   python-gtkmozembed svgalibg1 xserver-xephyr zip
10396 </p></blockquote>
10397
10398 <p>Installed using apt-get, removed with aptitude</p>
10399
10400 <blockquote><p>
10401   bluez-utils dhcdbd djvulibre-desktop epiphany-gecko
10402   gnome-app-install gnome-mount gnome-vfs-obexftp gnome-volume-manager
10403   libao2 libavahi-compat-libdnssd1 libavahi-core5 libbind9-50
10404   libbluetooth2 libcamel1.2-11 libcdio7 libcucul0 libcurl3
10405   libdirectfb-1.0-0 libdvdread3 libedata-cal1.2-6 libedataserver1.2-9
10406   libeel2-2.20 libepc-1.0-1 libepc-ui-1.0-1 libexchange-storage1.2-3
10407   libfaad0 libgd2-noxpm libgda3-3 libgda3-common libggz2 libggzcore9
10408   libggzmod4 libgksu1.2-0 libgksuui1.0-1 libgmyth0 libgnome-desktop-2
10409   libgnome-pilot2 libgnomecups1.0-1 libgnomeprint2.2-0
10410   libgnomeprintui2.2-0 libgpod3 libgraphviz4 libgtkhtml2-0
10411   libgtksourceview1.0-0 libgucharmap6 libhesiod0 libicu38 libisccc50
10412   libisccfg50 libiw29 libkpathsea4 libltdl3 liblwres50 libmagick++10
10413   libmagick10 libmalaga7 libmtp7 libmysqlclient15off libnautilus-burn4
10414   libneon27 libnm-glib0 libnm-util0 libopal-2.2 libosp5
10415   libparted1.8-10 libpisock9 libpisync1 libpoppler-glib3 libpoppler3
10416   libpt-1.10.10 libraw1394-8 libsensors3 libsmbios2 libsoup2.2-8
10417   libssh2-1 libsuitesparse-3.1.0 libswfdec-0.6-90 libtalloc1
10418   libtotem-plparser10 libtrackerclient0 libvoikko1 libxalan2-java-gcj
10419   libxerces2-java-gcj libxklavier12 libxtrap6 libxxf86misc1 libzephyr3
10420   mysql-common swfdec-gnome totem-gstreamer wodim
10421 </p></blockquote>
10422
10423 <p>Installed using aptitude, missing with apt-get</p>
10424
10425 <blockquote><p>
10426   gnome gnome-desktop-environment hamster-applet python-gnomeapplet
10427   python-gnomekeyring python-wnck rhythmbox-plugins xorg
10428   xserver-xorg-input-all xserver-xorg-input-evdev
10429   xserver-xorg-input-kbd xserver-xorg-input-mouse
10430   xserver-xorg-input-synaptics xserver-xorg-video-all
10431   xserver-xorg-video-apm xserver-xorg-video-ark xserver-xorg-video-ati
10432   xserver-xorg-video-chips xserver-xorg-video-cirrus
10433   xserver-xorg-video-dummy xserver-xorg-video-fbdev
10434   xserver-xorg-video-glint xserver-xorg-video-i128
10435   xserver-xorg-video-i740 xserver-xorg-video-mach64
10436   xserver-xorg-video-mga xserver-xorg-video-neomagic
10437   xserver-xorg-video-nouveau xserver-xorg-video-nv
10438   xserver-xorg-video-r128 xserver-xorg-video-radeon
10439   xserver-xorg-video-radeonhd xserver-xorg-video-rendition
10440   xserver-xorg-video-s3 xserver-xorg-video-s3virge
10441   xserver-xorg-video-savage xserver-xorg-video-siliconmotion
10442   xserver-xorg-video-sis xserver-xorg-video-sisusb
10443   xserver-xorg-video-tdfx xserver-xorg-video-tga
10444   xserver-xorg-video-trident xserver-xorg-video-tseng
10445   xserver-xorg-video-vesa xserver-xorg-video-vmware
10446   xserver-xorg-video-voodoo
10447 </p></blockquote>
10448
10449 <p>Installed using aptitude, removed with apt-get</p>
10450
10451 <blockquote><p>
10452   deskbar-applet xserver-xorg xserver-xorg-core
10453   xserver-xorg-input-wacom xserver-xorg-video-intel
10454   xserver-xorg-video-openchrome
10455 </p></blockquote>
10456
10457 <p>I was told on IRC that the xorg-xserver package was
10458 <a href="http://git.debian.org/?p=pkg-xorg/xserver/xorg-server.git;a=commit;h=9c8080d06c457932d3bfec021c69ac000aa60120">changed
10459 in git</a> today to try to get apt-get to not remove xorg completely.
10460 No idea when it hits Squeeze, but when it does I hope it will reduce
10461 the difference somewhat.
10462
10463       </div>
10464       <div class="tags">
10465
10466
10467         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>.
10468
10469
10470       </div>
10471     </div>
10472     <div class="padding"></div>
10473
10474     <div class="entry">
10475       <div class="title">
10476         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/LUMA__a_very_nice_LDAP_GUI.html">LUMA, a very nice LDAP GUI</a>
10477       </div>
10478       <div class="date">
10479         28th June 2010
10480       </div>
10481       <div class="body">
10482         <p>The last few days I have been looking into the status of the LDAP
10483 directory in Debian Edu, and in the process I started to miss a GUI
10484 tool to browse the LDAP tree.  The only one I was able to find in
10485 Debian/Squeeze and Lenny is
10486 <a href="http://luma.sourceforge.net/">LUMA</a>, which has proved to
10487 be a great tool to get a overview of the current LDAP directory
10488 populated by default in Skolelinux.  Thanks to it, I have been able to
10489 find empty and obsolete subtrees, misplaced objects and duplicate
10490 objects.  It will be installed by default in Debian/Squeeze.  If you
10491 are working with LDAP, give it a go. :)</p>
10492
10493 <p>I did notice one problem with it I have not had time to report to
10494 the BTS yet.  There is no .desktop file in the package, so the tool do
10495 not show up in the Gnome and KDE menus, but only deep down in in the
10496 Debian submenu in KDE.  I hope that can be fixed before Squeeze is
10497 released.</p>
10498
10499 <p>I have not yet been able to get it to modify the tree yet.  I would
10500 like to move objects and remove subtrees directly in the GUI, but have
10501 not found a way to do that with LUMA yet.  So in the mean time, I use
10502 <a href="http://www.lichteblau.com/ldapvi/">ldapvi</a> for that.</p>
10503
10504 <p>If you have tips on other GUI tools for LDAP that might be useful
10505 in Debian Edu, please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.</p>
10506
10507 <p>Update 2010-06-29: Ross Reedstrom tipped us about the
10508 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/g/gq.html">gq</a> package as a
10509 useful GUI alternative.  It seem like a good tool, but is unmaintained
10510 in Debian and got a RC bug keeping it out of Squeeze.  Unless that
10511 changes, it will not be an option for Debian Edu based on Squeeze.</p>
10512
10513       </div>
10514       <div class="tags">
10515
10516
10517         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>.
10518
10519
10520       </div>
10521     </div>
10522     <div class="padding"></div>
10523
10524     <div class="entry">
10525       <div class="title">
10526         <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>
10527       </div>
10528       <div class="date">
10529         24th June 2010
10530       </div>
10531       <div class="body">
10532         <p>A while back, I
10533 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Time_for_new__LDAP_schemas_replacing_RFC_2307_.html">complained
10534 about the fact</a> that it is not possible with the provided schemas
10535 for storing DNS and DHCP information in LDAP to combine the two sets
10536 of information into one LDAP object representing a computer.</p>
10537
10538 <p>In the mean time, I discovered that a simple fix would be to make
10539 the dhcpHost object class auxiliary, to allow it to be combined with
10540 the dNSDomain object class, and thus forming one object for one
10541 computer when storing both DHCP and DNS information in LDAP.</p>
10542
10543 <p>If I understand this correctly, it is not safe to do this change
10544 without also changing the assigned number for the object class, and I
10545 do not know enough about LDAP schema design to do that properly for
10546 Debian Edu.</p>
10547
10548 <p>Anyway, for future reference, this is how I believe we could change
10549 the
10550 <a href="http://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-ietf-dhc-ldap-schema-00">DHCP
10551 schema</a> to solve at least part of the problem with the LDAP schemas
10552 available today from IETF.</p>
10553
10554 <pre>
10555 --- dhcp.schema    (revision 65192)
10556 +++ dhcp.schema    (working copy)
10557 @@ -376,7 +376,7 @@
10558  objectclass ( 2.16.840.1.113719.1.203.6.6
10559         NAME 'dhcpHost'
10560         DESC 'This represents information about a particular client'
10561 -       SUP top
10562 +       SUP top AUXILIARY
10563         MUST cn
10564         MAY  (dhcpLeaseDN $ dhcpHWAddress $ dhcpOptionsDN $ dhcpStatements $ dhcpComments $ dhcpOption)
10565         X-NDS_CONTAINMENT ('dhcpService' 'dhcpSubnet' 'dhcpGroup') )
10566 </pre>
10567
10568 <p>I very much welcome clues on how to do this properly for Debian
10569 Edu/Squeeze.  We provide the DHCP schema in our debian-edu-config
10570 package, and should thus be free to rewrite it as we see fit.</p>
10571
10572 <p>If you want to help out with implementing this for Debian Edu,
10573 please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.</p>
10574
10575       </div>
10576       <div class="tags">
10577
10578
10579         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>.
10580
10581
10582       </div>
10583     </div>
10584     <div class="padding"></div>
10585
10586     <div class="entry">
10587       <div class="title">
10588         <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>
10589       </div>
10590       <div class="date">
10591         16th June 2010
10592       </div>
10593       <div class="body">
10594         <p>A few times I have had the need to simulate the way tasksel
10595 installs packages during the normal debian-installer run.  Until now,
10596 I have ended up letting tasksel do the work, with the annoying problem
10597 of not getting any feedback at all when something fails (like a
10598 conffile question from dpkg or a download that fails), using code like
10599 this:
10600
10601 <blockquote><pre>
10602 export DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive
10603 tasksel --new-install
10604 </pre></blockquote>
10605
10606 This would invoke tasksel, let its automatic task selection pick the
10607 tasks to install, and continue to install the requested tasks without
10608 any output what so ever.
10609
10610 Recently I revisited this problem while working on the automatic
10611 package upgrade testing, because tasksel would some times hang without
10612 any useful feedback, and I want to see what is going on when it
10613 happen.  Then it occured to me, I can parse the output from tasksel
10614 when asked to run in test mode, and use that aptitude command line
10615 printed by tasksel then to simulate the tasksel run.  I ended up using
10616 code like this:
10617
10618 <blockquote><pre>
10619 export DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive
10620 cmd="$(in_target tasksel -t --new-install | sed 's/debconf-apt-progress -- //')"
10621 $cmd
10622 </pre></blockquote>
10623
10624 <p>The content of $cmd is typically something like "<tt>aptitude -q
10625 --without-recommends -o APT::Install-Recommends=no -y install
10626 ~t^desktop$ ~t^gnome-desktop$ ~t^laptop$ ~pstandard ~prequired
10627 ~pimportant</tt>", which will install the gnome desktop task, the
10628 laptop task and all packages with priority standard , required and
10629 important, just like tasksel would have done it during
10630 installation.</p>
10631
10632 <p>A better approach is probably to extend tasksel to be able to
10633 install packages without using debconf-apt-progress, for use cases
10634 like this.</p>
10635
10636       </div>
10637       <div class="tags">
10638
10639
10640         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>.
10641
10642
10643       </div>
10644     </div>
10645     <div class="padding"></div>
10646
10647     <div class="entry">
10648       <div class="title">
10649         <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>
10650       </div>
10651       <div class="date">
10652         13th June 2010
10653       </div>
10654       <div class="body">
10655         <p>My
10656 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Automatic_upgrade_testing_from_Lenny_to_Squeeze.html">testing
10657 of Debian upgrades</a> from Lenny to Squeeze continues, and I've
10658 finally made the upgrade logs available from
10659 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/debian-upgrade-testing/">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/debian-upgrade-testing/</a>.
10660 I am now testing dist-upgrade of Gnome and KDE in a chroot using both
10661 apt and aptitude, and found their differences interesting.  This time
10662 I will only focus on their removal plans.</p>
10663
10664 <p>After installing a Gnome desktop and the laptop task, apt-get wants
10665 to remove 72 packages when dist-upgrading from Lenny to Squeeze.  The
10666 surprising part is that it want to remove xorg and all
10667 xserver-xorg-video* drivers.  Clearly not a good choice, but I am not
10668 sure why.  When asking aptitude to do the same, it want to remove 129
10669 packages, but most of them are library packages I suspect are no
10670 longer needed.  Both of them want to remove bluetooth packages, which
10671 I do not know.  Perhaps these bluetooth packages are obsolete?</p>
10672
10673 <p>For KDE, apt-get want to remove 82 packages, among them kdebase
10674 which seem like a bad idea and xorg the same way as with Gnome. Asking
10675 aptitude for the same, it wants to remove 192 packages, none which are
10676 too surprising.</p>
10677
10678 <p>I guess the removal of xorg during upgrades should be investigated
10679 and avoided, and perhaps others as well.  Here are the complete list
10680 of planned removals.  The complete logs is available from the URL
10681 above.  Note if you want to repeat these tests, that the upgrade test
10682 for kde+apt-get hung in the tasksel setup because of dpkg asking
10683 conffile questions.  No idea why.  I worked around it by using
10684 '<tt>echo >> /proc/<em>pidofdpkg</em>/fd/0</tt>' to tell dpkg to
10685 continue.</p>
10686
10687 <p><b>apt-get gnome 72</b>
10688 <br>bluez-gnome cupsddk-drivers deskbar-applet gnome
10689   gnome-desktop-environment gnome-network-admin gtkhtml3.14
10690   iceweasel-gnome-support libavcodec51 libdatrie0 libgdl-1-0
10691   libgnomekbd2 libgnomekbdui2 libmetacity0 libslab0 libxcb-xlib0
10692   nautilus-cd-burner python-gnome2-desktop python-gnome2-extras
10693   serpentine swfdec-mozilla update-manager xorg xserver-xorg
10694   xserver-xorg-core xserver-xorg-input-all xserver-xorg-input-evdev
10695   xserver-xorg-input-kbd xserver-xorg-input-mouse
10696   xserver-xorg-input-synaptics xserver-xorg-input-wacom
10697   xserver-xorg-video-all xserver-xorg-video-apm xserver-xorg-video-ark
10698   xserver-xorg-video-ati xserver-xorg-video-chips
10699   xserver-xorg-video-cirrus xserver-xorg-video-cyrix
10700   xserver-xorg-video-dummy xserver-xorg-video-fbdev
10701   xserver-xorg-video-glint xserver-xorg-video-i128
10702   xserver-xorg-video-i740 xserver-xorg-video-imstt
10703   xserver-xorg-video-intel xserver-xorg-video-mach64
10704   xserver-xorg-video-mga xserver-xorg-video-neomagic
10705   xserver-xorg-video-nsc xserver-xorg-video-nv
10706   xserver-xorg-video-openchrome xserver-xorg-video-r128
10707   xserver-xorg-video-radeon xserver-xorg-video-radeonhd
10708   xserver-xorg-video-rendition xserver-xorg-video-s3
10709   xserver-xorg-video-s3virge xserver-xorg-video-savage
10710   xserver-xorg-video-siliconmotion xserver-xorg-video-sis
10711   xserver-xorg-video-sisusb xserver-xorg-video-tdfx
10712   xserver-xorg-video-tga xserver-xorg-video-trident
10713   xserver-xorg-video-tseng xserver-xorg-video-v4l
10714   xserver-xorg-video-vesa xserver-xorg-video-vga
10715   xserver-xorg-video-vmware xserver-xorg-video-voodoo xulrunner-1.9
10716   xulrunner-1.9-gnome-support</p>
10717
10718 <p><b>aptitude gnome 129</b>
10719
10720 <br>bluez-gnome bluez-utils cpp-4.3 cupsddk-drivers dhcdbd
10721   djvulibre-desktop finger gnome-app-install gnome-mount
10722   gnome-network-admin gnome-spell gnome-vfs-obexftp
10723   gnome-volume-manager gstreamer0.10-gnomevfs gtkhtml3.14 libao2
10724   libavahi-compat-libdnssd1 libavahi-core5 libavcodec51 libbluetooth2
10725   libcamel1.2-11 libcdio7 libcucul0 libcupsys2 libcurl3 libdatrie0
10726   libdirectfb-1.0-0 libdvdread3 libedataserver1.2-9 libeel2-2.20
10727   libeel2-data libepc-1.0-1 libepc-ui-1.0-1 libfaad0 libgail-common
10728   libgd2-noxpm libgda3-3 libgda3-common libgdl-1-0 libgdl-1-common
10729   libggz2 libggzcore9 libggzmod4 libgksu1.2-0 libgksuui1.0-1 libgmyth0
10730   libgnomecups1.0-1 libgnomekbd2 libgnomekbdui2 libgnomeprint2.2-0
10731   libgnomeprint2.2-data libgnomeprintui2.2-0 libgnomeprintui2.2-common
10732   libgnomevfs2-bin libgpod3 libgraphviz4 libgtkhtml2-0
10733   libgtksourceview-common libgtksourceview1.0-0 libgucharmap6
10734   libhesiod0 libicu38 libiw29 libkpathsea4 libltdl3 libmagick++10
10735   libmagick10 libmalaga7 libmetacity0 libmtp7 libmysqlclient15off
10736   libnautilus-burn4 libneon27 libnm-glib0 libnm-util0 libopal-2.2
10737   libosp5 libparted1.8-10 libpoppler-glib3 libpoppler3 libpt-1.10.10
10738   libpt-1.10.10-plugins-alsa libpt-1.10.10-plugins-v4l libraw1394-8
10739   libsensors3 libslab0 libsmbios2 libsoup2.2-8 libssh2-1
10740   libsuitesparse-3.1.0 libswfdec-0.6-90 libtalloc1 libtotem-plparser10
10741   libtrackerclient0 libxalan2-java libxalan2-java-gcj libxcb-xlib0
10742   libxerces2-java libxerces2-java-gcj libxklavier12 libxtrap6
10743   libxxf86misc1 libzephyr3 mysql-common nautilus-cd-burner
10744   openoffice.org-writer2latex openssl-blacklist p7zip
10745   python-4suite-xml python-eggtrayicon python-gnome2-desktop
10746   python-gnome2-extras python-gtkhtml2 python-gtkmozembed
10747   python-numeric python-sexy serpentine svgalibg1 swfdec-gnome
10748   swfdec-mozilla totem-gstreamer update-manager wodim
10749   xserver-xorg-video-cyrix xserver-xorg-video-imstt
10750   xserver-xorg-video-nsc xserver-xorg-video-v4l xserver-xorg-video-vga
10751   zip</p>
10752
10753 <p><b>apt-get kde 82</b>
10754
10755 <br>cupsddk-drivers karm kaudiocreator kcoloredit kcontrol kde kde-core
10756   kdeaddons kdeartwork kdebase kdebase-bin kdebase-bin-kde3
10757   kdebase-kio-plugins kdesktop kdeutils khelpcenter kicker
10758   kicker-applets knewsticker kolourpaint konq-plugins konqueror korn
10759   kpersonalizer kscreensaver ksplash libavcodec51 libdatrie0 libkiten1
10760   libxcb-xlib0 quanta superkaramba texlive-base-bin xorg xserver-xorg
10761   xserver-xorg-core xserver-xorg-input-all xserver-xorg-input-evdev
10762   xserver-xorg-input-kbd xserver-xorg-input-mouse
10763   xserver-xorg-input-synaptics xserver-xorg-input-wacom
10764   xserver-xorg-video-all xserver-xorg-video-apm xserver-xorg-video-ark
10765   xserver-xorg-video-ati xserver-xorg-video-chips
10766   xserver-xorg-video-cirrus xserver-xorg-video-cyrix
10767   xserver-xorg-video-dummy xserver-xorg-video-fbdev
10768   xserver-xorg-video-glint xserver-xorg-video-i128
10769   xserver-xorg-video-i740 xserver-xorg-video-imstt
10770   xserver-xorg-video-intel xserver-xorg-video-mach64
10771   xserver-xorg-video-mga xserver-xorg-video-neomagic
10772   xserver-xorg-video-nsc xserver-xorg-video-nv
10773   xserver-xorg-video-openchrome xserver-xorg-video-r128
10774   xserver-xorg-video-radeon xserver-xorg-video-radeonhd
10775   xserver-xorg-video-rendition xserver-xorg-video-s3
10776   xserver-xorg-video-s3virge xserver-xorg-video-savage
10777   xserver-xorg-video-siliconmotion xserver-xorg-video-sis
10778   xserver-xorg-video-sisusb xserver-xorg-video-tdfx
10779   xserver-xorg-video-tga xserver-xorg-video-trident
10780   xserver-xorg-video-tseng xserver-xorg-video-v4l
10781   xserver-xorg-video-vesa xserver-xorg-video-vga
10782   xserver-xorg-video-vmware xserver-xorg-video-voodoo xulrunner-1.9</p>
10783
10784 <p><b>aptitude kde 192</b>
10785 <br>bluez-utils cpp-4.3 cupsddk-drivers cvs dcoprss dhcdbd
10786   djvulibre-desktop dosfstools eyesapplet fifteenapplet finger gettext
10787   ghostscript-x imlib-base imlib11 indi kandy karm kasteroids
10788   kaudiocreator kbackgammon kbstate kcoloredit kcontrol kcron kdat
10789   kdeadmin-kfile-plugins kdeartwork-misc kdeartwork-theme-window
10790   kdebase-bin-kde3 kdebase-kio-plugins kdeedu-data
10791   kdegraphics-kfile-plugins kdelirc kdemultimedia-kappfinder-data
10792   kdemultimedia-kfile-plugins kdenetwork-kfile-plugins
10793   kdepim-kfile-plugins kdepim-kio-plugins kdeprint kdesktop kdessh
10794   kdict kdnssd kdvi kedit keduca kenolaba kfax kfaxview kfouleggs
10795   kghostview khelpcenter khexedit kiconedit kitchensync klatin
10796   klickety kmailcvt kmenuedit kmid kmilo kmoon kmrml kodo kolourpaint
10797   kooka korn kpager kpdf kpercentage kpf kpilot kpoker kpovmodeler
10798   krec kregexpeditor ksayit ksim ksirc ksirtet ksmiletris ksmserver
10799   ksnake ksokoban ksplash ksvg ksysv ktip ktnef kuickshow kverbos
10800   kview kviewshell kvoctrain kwifimanager kwin kwin4 kworldclock
10801   kxsldbg libakode2 libao2 libarts1-akode libarts1-audiofile
10802   libarts1-mpeglib libarts1-xine libavahi-compat-libdnssd1
10803   libavahi-core5 libavc1394-0 libavcodec51 libbluetooth2
10804   libboost-python1.34.1 libcucul0 libcurl3 libcvsservice0 libdatrie0
10805   libdirectfb-1.0-0 libdjvulibre21 libdvdread3 libfaad0 libfreebob0
10806   libgail-common libgd2-noxpm libgraphviz4 libgsmme1c2a libgtkhtml2-0
10807   libicu38 libiec61883-0 libindex0 libiw29 libk3b3 libkcal2b libkcddb1
10808   libkdeedu3 libkdepim1a libkgantt0 libkiten1 libkleopatra1 libkmime2
10809   libkpathsea4 libkpimexchange1 libkpimidentities1 libkscan1
10810   libksieve0 libktnef1 liblockdev1 libltdl3 libmagick10 libmimelib1c2a
10811   libmozjs1d libmpcdec3 libneon27 libnm-util0 libopensync0 libpisock9
10812   libpoppler-glib3 libpoppler-qt2 libpoppler3 libraw1394-8 libsmbios2
10813   libssh2-1 libsuitesparse-3.1.0 libtalloc1 libtiff-tools
10814   libxalan2-java libxalan2-java-gcj libxcb-xlib0 libxerces2-java
10815   libxerces2-java-gcj libxtrap6 mpeglib networkstatus
10816   openoffice.org-writer2latex pmount poster psutils quanta quanta-data
10817   superkaramba svgalibg1 tex-common texlive-base texlive-base-bin
10818   texlive-common texlive-doc-base texlive-fonts-recommended
10819   xserver-xorg-video-cyrix xserver-xorg-video-imstt
10820   xserver-xorg-video-nsc xserver-xorg-video-v4l xserver-xorg-video-vga
10821   xulrunner-1.9</p>
10822
10823
10824       </div>
10825       <div class="tags">
10826
10827
10828         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>.
10829
10830
10831       </div>
10832     </div>
10833     <div class="padding"></div>
10834
10835     <div class="entry">
10836       <div class="title">
10837         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Automatic_upgrade_testing_from_Lenny_to_Squeeze.html">Automatic upgrade testing from Lenny to Squeeze</a>
10838       </div>
10839       <div class="date">
10840         11th June 2010
10841       </div>
10842       <div class="body">
10843         <p>The last few days I have done some upgrade testing in Debian, to
10844 see if the upgrade from Lenny to Squeeze will go smoothly.  A few bugs
10845 have been discovered and reported in the process
10846 (<a href="http://bugs.debian.org/585410">#585410</a> in nagios3-cgi,
10847 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/584879">#584879</a> already fixed in
10848 enscript and <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/584861">#584861</a> in
10849 kdebase-workspace-data), and to get a more regular testing going on, I
10850 am working on a script to automate the test.</p>
10851
10852 <p>The idea is to create a Lenny chroot and use tasksel to install a
10853 Gnome or KDE desktop installation inside the chroot before upgrading
10854 it.  To ensure no services are started in the chroot, a policy-rc.d
10855 script is inserted.  To make sure tasksel believe it is to install a
10856 desktop on a laptop, the tasksel tests are replaced in the chroot
10857 (only acceptable because this is a throw-away chroot).</p>
10858
10859 <p>A naive upgrade from Lenny to Squeeze using aptitude dist-upgrade
10860 currently always fail because udev refuses to upgrade with the kernel
10861 in Lenny, so to avoid that problem the file /etc/udev/kernel-upgrade
10862 is created.  The bug report
10863 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/566000">#566000</a> make me suspect
10864 this problem do not trigger in a chroot, but I touch the file anyway
10865 to make sure the upgrade go well.  Testing on virtual and real
10866 hardware have failed me because of udev so far, and creating this file
10867 do the trick in such settings anyway.  This is a
10868 <a href="http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/debian-26/failed-dist-upgrade-due-to-udev-config_sysfs_deprecated-nonsense-804130/">known
10869 issue</a> and the current udev behaviour is intended by the udev
10870 maintainer because he lack the resources to rewrite udev to keep
10871 working with old kernels or something like that.  I really wish the
10872 udev upstream would keep udev backwards compatible, to avoid such
10873 upgrade problem, but given that they fail to do so, I guess
10874 documenting the way out of this mess is the best option we got for
10875 Debian Squeeze.</p>
10876
10877 <p>Anyway, back to the task at hand, testing upgrades.  This test
10878 script, which I call <tt>upgrade-test</tt> for now, is doing the
10879 trick:</p>
10880
10881 <blockquote><pre>
10882 #!/bin/sh
10883 set -ex
10884
10885 if [ "$1" ] ; then
10886     desktop=$1
10887 else
10888     desktop=gnome
10889 fi
10890
10891 from=lenny
10892 to=squeeze
10893
10894 exec &lt; /dev/null
10895 unset LANG
10896 mirror=http://ftp.skolelinux.org/debian
10897 tmpdir=chroot-$from-upgrade-$to-$desktop
10898 fuser -mv .
10899 debootstrap $from $tmpdir $mirror
10900 chroot $tmpdir aptitude update
10901 cat > $tmpdir/usr/sbin/policy-rc.d &lt;&lt;EOF
10902 #!/bin/sh
10903 exit 101
10904 EOF
10905 chmod a+rx $tmpdir/usr/sbin/policy-rc.d
10906 exit_cleanup() {
10907     umount $tmpdir/proc
10908 }
10909 mount -t proc proc $tmpdir/proc
10910 # Make sure proc is unmounted also on failure
10911 trap exit_cleanup EXIT INT
10912
10913 chroot $tmpdir aptitude -y install debconf-utils
10914
10915 # Make sure tasksel autoselection trigger.  It need the test scripts
10916 # to return the correct answers.
10917 echo tasksel tasksel/desktop multiselect $desktop | \
10918     chroot $tmpdir debconf-set-selections
10919
10920 # Include the desktop and laptop task
10921 for test in desktop laptop ; do
10922     echo > $tmpdir/usr/lib/tasksel/tests/$test &lt;&lt;EOF
10923 #!/bin/sh
10924 exit 2
10925 EOF
10926     chmod a+rx $tmpdir/usr/lib/tasksel/tests/$test
10927 done
10928
10929 DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive
10930 DEBIAN_PRIORITY=critical
10931 export DEBIAN_FRONTEND DEBIAN_PRIORITY
10932 chroot $tmpdir tasksel --new-install
10933
10934 echo deb $mirror $to main > $tmpdir/etc/apt/sources.list
10935 chroot $tmpdir aptitude update
10936 touch $tmpdir/etc/udev/kernel-upgrade
10937 chroot $tmpdir aptitude -y dist-upgrade
10938 fuser -mv
10939 </pre></blockquote>
10940
10941 <p>I suspect it would be useful to test upgrades with both apt-get and
10942 with aptitude, but I have not had time to look at how they behave
10943 differently so far.  I hope to get a cron job running to do the test
10944 regularly and post the result on the web.  The Gnome upgrade currently
10945 work, while the KDE upgrade fail because of the bug in
10946 kdebase-workspace-data</p>
10947
10948 <p>I am not quite sure what kind of extract from the huge upgrade logs
10949 (KDE 167 KiB, Gnome 516 KiB) it make sense to include in this blog
10950 post, so I will refrain from trying.  I can report that for Gnome,
10951 aptitude report 760 packages upgraded, 448 newly installed, 129 to
10952 remove and 1 not upgraded and 1024MB need to be downloaded while for
10953 KDE the same numbers are 702 packages upgraded, 507 newly installed,
10954 193 to remove and 0 not upgraded and 1117MB need to be downloaded</p>
10955
10956 <p>I am very happy to notice that the Gnome desktop + laptop upgrade
10957 is able to migrate to dependency based boot sequencing and parallel
10958 booting without a hitch.  Was unsure if there were still bugs with
10959 packages failing to clean up their obsolete init.d script during
10960 upgrades, and no such problem seem to affect the Gnome desktop+laptop
10961 packages.</p>
10962
10963       </div>
10964       <div class="tags">
10965
10966
10967         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>.
10968
10969
10970       </div>
10971     </div>
10972     <div class="padding"></div>
10973
10974     <div class="entry">
10975       <div class="title">
10976         <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>
10977       </div>
10978       <div class="date">
10979          6th June 2010
10980       </div>
10981       <div class="body">
10982         <p>If Debian is to migrate to upstart on Linux, I expect some init.d
10983 scripts to migrate (some of) their operations to upstart job while
10984 keeping the init.d for hurd and kfreebsd.  The packages with such
10985 needs will need a way to get their init.d scripts to behave
10986 differently when used with sysvinit and with upstart.  Because of
10987 this, I had a look at the environment variables set when a init.d
10988 script is running under upstart, and when it is not.</p>
10989
10990 <p>With upstart, I notice these environment variables are set when a
10991 script is started from rcS.d/ (ignoring some irrelevant ones like
10992 COLUMNS):</p>
10993
10994 <blockquote><pre>
10995 DEFAULT_RUNLEVEL=2
10996 previous=N
10997 PREVLEVEL=
10998 RUNLEVEL=
10999 runlevel=S
11000 UPSTART_EVENTS=startup
11001 UPSTART_INSTANCE=
11002 UPSTART_JOB=rc-sysinit
11003 </pre></blockquote>
11004
11005 <p>With sysvinit, these environment variables are set for the same
11006 script.</p>
11007
11008 <blockquote><pre>
11009 INIT_VERSION=sysvinit-2.88
11010 previous=N
11011 PREVLEVEL=N
11012 RUNLEVEL=S
11013 runlevel=S
11014 </pre></blockquote>
11015
11016 <p>The RUNLEVEL and PREVLEVEL environment variables passed on from
11017 sysvinit are not set by upstart.  Not sure if it is intentional or not
11018 to not be compatible with sysvinit in this regard.</p>
11019
11020 <p>For scripts needing to behave differently when upstart is used,
11021 looking for the UPSTART_JOB environment variable seem to be a good
11022 choice.</p>
11023
11024       </div>
11025       <div class="tags">
11026
11027
11028         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>.
11029
11030
11031       </div>
11032     </div>
11033     <div class="padding"></div>
11034
11035     <div class="entry">
11036       <div class="title">
11037         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/A_manual_for_standards_wars___.html">A manual for standards wars...</a>
11038       </div>
11039       <div class="date">
11040          6th June 2010
11041       </div>
11042       <div class="body">
11043         <p>Via the
11044 <a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/robweir/antic-atom/~3/QzU4RgoAGMg/weekly-links-10.html">blog
11045 of Rob Weir</a> I came across the very interesting essay named
11046 <a href="http://faculty.haas.berkeley.edu/shapiro/wars.pdf">The Art of
11047 Standards Wars</a> (PDF 25 pages).  I recommend it for everyone
11048 following the standards wars of today.</p>
11049
11050       </div>
11051       <div class="tags">
11052
11053
11054         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>.
11055
11056
11057       </div>
11058     </div>
11059     <div class="padding"></div>
11060
11061     <div class="entry">
11062       <div class="title">
11063         <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>
11064       </div>
11065       <div class="date">
11066          3rd June 2010
11067       </div>
11068       <div class="body">
11069         <p>When using sitesummary at a site to track machines, it is possible
11070 to get a list of the machine types in use thanks to the DMI
11071 information extracted from each machine.  The script to do so is
11072 included in the sitesummary package, and here is example output from
11073 the Skolelinux build servers:</p>
11074
11075 <blockquote><pre>
11076 maintainer:~# /usr/lib/sitesummary/hardware-model-summary
11077   vendor                    count
11078   Dell Computer Corporation     1
11079     PowerEdge 1750              1
11080   IBM                           1
11081     eserver xSeries 345 -[8670M1X]-     1
11082   Intel                         2
11083   [no-dmi-info]                 3
11084 maintainer:~#
11085 </pre></blockquote>
11086
11087 <p>The quality of the report depend on the quality of the DMI tables
11088 provided in each machine.  Here there are Intel machines without model
11089 information listed with Intel as vendor and no model, and virtual Xen
11090 machines listed as [no-dmi-info].  One can add -l as a command line
11091 option to list the individual machines.</p>
11092
11093 <p>A larger list is
11094 <a href="http://narvikskolen.no/sitesummary/">available from the the
11095 city of Narvik</a>, which uses Skolelinux on all their shools and also
11096 provide the basic sitesummary report publicly.  In their report there
11097 are ~1400 machines. I know they use both Ubuntu and Skolelinux on
11098 their machines, and as sitesummary is available in both distributions,
11099 it is trivial to get all of them to report to the same central
11100 collector.</p>
11101
11102       </div>
11103       <div class="tags">
11104
11105
11106         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>.
11107
11108
11109       </div>
11110     </div>
11111     <div class="padding"></div>
11112
11113     <div class="entry">
11114       <div class="title">
11115         <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>
11116       </div>
11117       <div class="date">
11118          1st June 2010
11119       </div>
11120       <div class="body">
11121         <p>It is strange to watch how a bug in Debian causing KDM to fail to
11122 start at boot when an NVidia video card is used is handled.  The
11123 problem seem to be that the nvidia X.org driver uses a long time to
11124 initialize, and this duration is longer than kdm is configured to
11125 wait.</p>
11126
11127 <p>I came across two bugs related to this issue,
11128 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/583312">#583312</a> initially filed
11129 against initscripts and passed on to nvidia-glx when it became obvious
11130 that the nvidia drivers were involved, and
11131 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/524751">#524751</a> initially filed against
11132 kdm and passed on to src:nvidia-graphics-drivers for unknown reasons.</p>
11133
11134 <p>To me, it seem that no-one is interested in actually solving the
11135 problem nvidia video card owners experience and make sure the Debian
11136 distribution work out of the box for these users.  The nvidia driver
11137 maintainers expect kdm to be set up to wait longer, while kdm expect
11138 the nvidia driver maintainers to fix the driver to start faster, and
11139 while they wait for each other I guess the users end up switching to a
11140 distribution that work for them.  I have no idea what the solution is,
11141 but I am pretty sure that waiting for each other is not it.</p>
11142
11143 <p>I wonder why we end up handling bugs this way.</p>
11144
11145       </div>
11146       <div class="tags">
11147
11148
11149         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>.
11150
11151
11152       </div>
11153     </div>
11154     <div class="padding"></div>
11155
11156     <div class="entry">
11157       <div class="title">
11158         <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>
11159       </div>
11160       <div class="date">
11161         27th May 2010
11162       </div>
11163       <div class="body">
11164         <p>A few days ago, parallel booting was enabled in Debian/testing.
11165 The feature seem to hold up pretty well, but three fairly serious
11166 issues are known and should be solved:
11167
11168 <p><ul>
11169
11170 <li>The wicd package seen to
11171 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/508289">break NFS mounting</a> and
11172 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/581586">network setup</a> when
11173 parallel booting is enabled.  No idea why, but the wicd maintainer
11174 seem to be on the case.</li>
11175
11176 <li>The nvidia X driver seem to
11177 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/583312">have a race condition</a>
11178 triggered more easily when parallel booting is in effect.  The
11179 maintainer is on the case.</li>
11180
11181 <li>The sysv-rc package fail to properly enable dependency based boot
11182 sequencing (the shutdown is broken) when old file-rc users
11183 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/575080">try to switch back</a> to
11184 sysv-rc.  One way to solve it would be for file-rc to create
11185 /etc/init.d/.legacy-bootordering, and another is to try to make
11186 sysv-rc more robust.  Will investigate some more and probably upload a
11187 workaround in sysv-rc to help those trying to move from file-rc to
11188 sysv-rc get a working shutdown.</li>
11189
11190 </ul></p>
11191
11192 <p>All in all not many surprising issues, and all of them seem
11193 solvable before Squeeze is released.  In addition to these there are
11194 some packages with bugs in their dependencies and run level settings,
11195 which I expect will be fixed in a reasonable time span.</p>
11196
11197 <p>If you report any problems with dependencies in init.d scripts to
11198 the BTS, please usertag the report to get it to show up at
11199 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/pkgreport.cgi?users=initscripts-ng-devel@lists.alioth.debian.org">the
11200 list of usertagged bugs related to this</a>.</p>
11201
11202 <p>Update: Correct bug number to file-rc issue.</p>
11203
11204       </div>
11205       <div class="tags">
11206
11207
11208         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>.
11209
11210
11211       </div>
11212     </div>
11213     <div class="padding"></div>
11214
11215     <div class="entry">
11216       <div class="title">
11217         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/More_flexible_firmware_handling_in_debian_installer.html">More flexible firmware handling in debian-installer</a>
11218       </div>
11219       <div class="date">
11220         22nd May 2010
11221       </div>
11222       <div class="body">
11223         <p>After a long break from debian-installer development, I finally
11224 found time today to return to the project.  Having to spend less time
11225 working dependency based boot in debian, as it is almost complete now,
11226 definitely helped freeing some time.</p>
11227
11228 <p>A while back, I ran into a problem while working on Debian Edu.  We
11229 include some firmware packages on the Debian Edu CDs, those needed to
11230 get disk and network controllers working.  Without having these
11231 firmware packages available during installation, it is impossible to
11232 install Debian Edu on the given machine, and because our target group
11233 are non-technical people, asking them to provide firmware packages on
11234 an external medium is a support pain.  Initially, I expected it to be
11235 enough to include the firmware packages on the CD to get
11236 debian-installer to find and use them.  This proved to be wrong.
11237 Next, I hoped it was enough to symlink the relevant firmware packages
11238 to some useful location on the CD (tried /cdrom/ and
11239 /cdrom/firmware/).  This also proved to not work, and at this point I
11240 found time to look at the debian-installer code to figure out what was
11241 going to work.</p>
11242
11243 <p>The firmware loading code is in the hw-detect package, and a closer
11244 look revealed that it would only look for firmware packages outside
11245 the installation media, so the CD was never checked for firmware
11246 packages.  It would only check USB sticks, floppies and other
11247 "external" media devices.  Today I changed it to also look in the
11248 /cdrom/firmware/ directory on the mounted CD or DVD, which should
11249 solve the problem I ran into with Debian edu.  I also changed it to
11250 look in /firmware/, to make sure the installer also find firmware
11251 provided in the initrd when booting the installer via PXE, to allow us
11252 to provide the same feature in the PXE setup included in Debian
11253 Edu.</p>
11254
11255 <p>To make sure firmware deb packages with a license questions are not
11256 activated without asking if the license is accepted, I extended
11257 hw-detect to look for preinst scripts in the firmware packages, and
11258 run these before activating the firmware during installation.  The
11259 license question is asked using debconf in the preinst, so this should
11260 solve the issue for the firmware packages I have looked at so far.</p>
11261
11262 <p>If you want to discuss the details of these features, please
11263 contact us on debian-boot@lists.debian.org.</p>
11264
11265       </div>
11266       <div class="tags">
11267
11268
11269         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>.
11270
11271
11272       </div>
11273     </div>
11274     <div class="padding"></div>
11275
11276     <div class="entry">
11277       <div class="title">
11278         <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>
11279       </div>
11280       <div class="date">
11281         14th May 2010
11282       </div>
11283       <div class="body">
11284         <p>Since this evening, parallel booting is the default in
11285 Debian/unstable for machines using dependency based boot sequencing.
11286 Apparently the testing of concurrent booting has been wider than
11287 expected, if I am to believe the
11288 <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2010/05/msg00122.html">input
11289 on debian-devel@</a>, and I concluded a few days ago to move forward
11290 with the feature this weekend, to give us some time to detect any
11291 remaining problems before Squeeze is frozen.  If serious problems are
11292 detected, it is simple to change the default back to sequential boot.
11293 The upload of the new sysvinit package also activate a new upstream
11294 version.</p>
11295
11296 More information about
11297 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/LSBInitScripts/DependencyBasedBoot">dependency
11298 based boot sequencing</a> is available from the Debian wiki.  It is
11299 currently possible to disable parallel booting when one run into
11300 problems caused by it, by adding this line to /etc/default/rcS:</p>
11301
11302 <blockquote><pre>
11303 CONCURRENCY=none
11304 </pre></blockquote>
11305
11306 <p>If you report any problems with dependencies in init.d scripts to
11307 the BTS, please usertag the report to get it to show up at
11308 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/pkgreport.cgi?users=initscripts-ng-devel@lists.alioth.debian.org">the
11309 list of usertagged bugs related to this</a>.</p>
11310
11311       </div>
11312       <div class="tags">
11313
11314
11315         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>.
11316
11317
11318       </div>
11319     </div>
11320     <div class="padding"></div>
11321
11322     <div class="entry">
11323       <div class="title">
11324         <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>
11325       </div>
11326       <div class="date">
11327         14th May 2010
11328       </div>
11329       <div class="body">
11330         <p>In the recent Debian Edu versions, the
11331 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/HowTo/SiteSummary">sitesummary
11332 system</a> is used to keep track of the machines in the school
11333 network.  Each machine will automatically report its status to the
11334 central server after boot and once per night.  The network setup is
11335 also reported, and using this information it is possible to get the
11336 MAC address of all network interfaces in the machines.  This is useful
11337 to update the DHCP configuration.</p>
11338
11339 <p>To give some idea how to use sitesummary, here is a one-liner to
11340 ist all MAC addresses of all machines reporting to sitesummary.  Run
11341 this on the collector host:</p>
11342
11343 <blockquote><pre>
11344 perl -MSiteSummary -e 'for_all_hosts(sub { print join(" ", get_macaddresses(shift)), "\n"; });'
11345 </pre></blockquote>
11346
11347 <p>This will list all MAC addresses assosiated with all machine, one
11348 line per machine and with space between the MAC addresses.</p>
11349
11350 <p>To allow system administrators easier job at adding static DHCP
11351 addresses for hosts, it would be possible to extend this to fetch
11352 machine information from sitesummary and update the DHCP and DNS
11353 tables in LDAP using this information.  Such tool is unfortunately not
11354 written yet.</p>
11355
11356       </div>
11357       <div class="tags">
11358
11359
11360         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>.
11361
11362
11363       </div>
11364     </div>
11365     <div class="padding"></div>
11366
11367     <div class="entry">
11368       <div class="title">
11369         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/systemd__an_interesting_alternative_to_upstart.html">systemd, an interesting alternative to upstart</a>
11370       </div>
11371       <div class="date">
11372         13th May 2010
11373       </div>
11374       <div class="body">
11375         <p>The last few days a new boot system called
11376 <a href="http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/systemd">systemd</a>
11377 has been
11378 <a href="http://0pointer.de/blog/projects/systemd.html">introduced</a>
11379
11380 to the free software world.  I have not yet had time to play around
11381 with it, but it seem to be a very interesting alternative to
11382 <a href="http://upstart.ubuntu.com/">upstart</a>, and might prove to be
11383 a good alternative for Debian when we are able to switch to an event
11384 based boot system.  Tollef is
11385 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/580814">in the process</a> of getting
11386 systemd into Debian, and I look forward to seeing how well it work.  I
11387 like the fact that systemd handles init.d scripts with dependency
11388 information natively, allowing them to run in parallel where upstart
11389 at the moment do not.</p>
11390
11391 <p>Unfortunately do systemd have the same problem as upstart regarding
11392 platform support.  It only work on recent Linux kernels, and also need
11393 some new kernel features enabled to function properly.  This means
11394 kFreeBSD and Hurd ports of Debian will need a port or a different boot
11395 system.  Not sure how that will be handled if systemd proves to be the
11396 way forward.</p>
11397
11398 <p>In the mean time, based on the
11399 <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2010/05/msg00122.html">input
11400 on debian-devel@</a> regarding parallel booting in Debian, I have
11401 decided to enable full parallel booting as the default in Debian as
11402 soon as possible (probably this weekend or early next week), to see if
11403 there are any remaining serious bugs in the init.d dependencies.  A
11404 new version of the sysvinit package implementing this change is
11405 already in experimental.  If all go well, Squeeze will be released
11406 with parallel booting enabled by default.</p>
11407
11408       </div>
11409       <div class="tags">
11410
11411
11412         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>.
11413
11414
11415       </div>
11416     </div>
11417     <div class="padding"></div>
11418
11419     <div class="entry">
11420       <div class="title">
11421         <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>
11422       </div>
11423       <div class="date">
11424          6th May 2010
11425       </div>
11426       <div class="body">
11427         <p>These days, the init.d script dependencies in Squeeze are quite
11428 complete, so complete that it is actually possible to run all the
11429 init.d scripts in parallell based on these dependencies.  If you want
11430 to test your Squeeze system, make sure
11431 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/LSBInitScripts/DependencyBasedBoot">dependency
11432 based boot sequencing</a> is enabled, and add this line to
11433 /etc/default/rcS:</p>
11434
11435 <blockquote><pre>
11436 CONCURRENCY=makefile
11437 </pre></blockquote>
11438
11439 <p>That is it.  It will cause sysv-rc to use the startpar tool to run
11440 scripts in parallel using the dependency information stored in
11441 /etc/init.d/.depend.boot, /etc/init.d/.depend.start and
11442 /etc/init.d/.depend.stop to order the scripts.  Startpar is configured
11443 to try to start the kdm and gdm scripts as early as possible, and will
11444 start the facilities required by kdm or gdm as early as possible to
11445 make this happen.</p>
11446
11447 <p>Give it a try, and see if you like the result.  If some services
11448 fail to start properly, it is most likely because they have incomplete
11449 init.d script dependencies in their startup script (or some of their
11450 dependent scripts have incomplete dependencies).  Report bugs and get
11451 the package maintainers to fix it. :)</p>
11452
11453 <p>Running scripts in parallel could be the default in Debian when we
11454 manage to get the init.d script dependencies complete and correct.  I
11455 expect we will get there in Squeeze+1, if we get manage to test and
11456 fix the remaining issues.</p>
11457
11458 <p>If you report any problems with dependencies in init.d scripts to
11459 the BTS, please usertag the report to get it to show up at
11460 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/pkgreport.cgi?users=initscripts-ng-devel@lists.alioth.debian.org">the
11461 list of usertagged bugs related to this</a>.</p>
11462
11463       </div>
11464       <div class="tags">
11465
11466
11467         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>.
11468
11469
11470       </div>
11471     </div>
11472     <div class="padding"></div>
11473
11474     <div class="entry">
11475       <div class="title">
11476         <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>
11477       </div>
11478       <div class="date">
11479         27th July 2009
11480       </div>
11481       <div class="body">
11482         <p>Since this evening, with the upload of sysvinit version 2.87dsf-2,
11483 and the upload of insserv version 1.12.0-10 yesterday, Debian unstable
11484 have been migrated to using dependency based boot sequencing.  This
11485 conclude work me and others have been doing for the last three days.
11486 It feels great to see this finally part of the default Debian
11487 installation.  Now we just need to weed out the last few problems that
11488 are bound to show up, to get everything ready for Squeeze.</p>
11489
11490 <p>The next step is migrating /sbin/init from sysvinit to upstart, and
11491 fixing the more fundamental problem of handing the event based
11492 non-predictable kernel in the early boot.</p>
11493
11494       </div>
11495       <div class="tags">
11496
11497
11498         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>.
11499
11500
11501       </div>
11502     </div>
11503     <div class="padding"></div>
11504
11505     <div class="entry">
11506       <div class="title">
11507         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Taking_over_sysvinit_development.html">Taking over sysvinit development</a>
11508       </div>
11509       <div class="date">
11510         22nd July 2009
11511       </div>
11512       <div class="body">
11513         <p>After several years of frustration with the lack of activity from
11514 the existing sysvinit upstream developer, I decided a few weeks ago to
11515 take over the package and become the new upstream.  The number of
11516 patches to track for the Debian package was becoming a burden, and the
11517 lack of synchronization between the distribution made it hard to keep
11518 the package up to date.</p>
11519
11520 <p>On the new sysvinit team is the SuSe maintainer Dr. Werner Fink,
11521 and my Debian co-maintainer Kel Modderman.  About 10 days ago, I made
11522 a new upstream tarball with version number 2.87dsf (for Debian, SuSe
11523 and Fedora), based on the patches currently in use in these
11524 distributions.  We Debian maintainers plan to move to this tarball as
11525 the new upstream as soon as we find time to do the merge.  Since the
11526 new tarball was created, we agreed with Werner at SuSe to make a new
11527 upstream project at <a href="http://savannah.nongnu.org/">Savannah</a>, and continue
11528 development there.  The project is registered and currently waiting
11529 for approval by the Savannah administrators, and as soon as it is
11530 approved, we will import the old versions from svn and continue
11531 working on the future release.</p>
11532
11533 <p>It is a bit ironic that this is done now, when some of the involved
11534 distributions are moving to upstart as a syvinit replacement.</p>
11535
11536       </div>
11537       <div class="tags">
11538
11539
11540         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>.
11541
11542
11543       </div>
11544     </div>
11545     <div class="padding"></div>
11546
11547     <div class="entry">
11548       <div class="title">
11549         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_boots_quicker_and_quicker.html">Debian boots quicker and quicker</a>
11550       </div>
11551       <div class="date">
11552         24th June 2009
11553       </div>
11554       <div class="body">
11555         <p>I spent Monday and tuesday this week in London with a lot of the
11556 people involved in the boot system on Debian and Ubuntu, to see if we
11557 could find more ways to speed up the boot system.  This was an Ubuntu
11558 funded
11559 <a href="https://wiki.ubuntu.com/FoundationsTeam/BootPerformance/DebianUbuntuSprint">developer
11560 gathering</a>. It was quite productive.  We also discussed the future
11561 of boot systems, and ways to handle the increasing number of boot
11562 issues introduced by the Linux kernel becoming more and more
11563 asynchronous and event base.  The Ubuntu approach using udev and
11564 upstart might be a good way forward.  Time will show.</p>
11565
11566 <p>Anyway, there are a few ways at the moment to speed up the boot
11567 process in Debian.  All of these should be applied to get a quick
11568 boot:</p>
11569
11570 <ul>
11571
11572 <li>Use dash as /bin/sh.</li>
11573
11574 <li>Disable the init.d/hwclock*.sh scripts and make sure the hardware
11575    clock is in UTC.</li>
11576
11577 <li>Install and activate the insserv package to enable
11578    <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/LSBInitScripts/DependencyBasedBoot">dependency
11579    based boot sequencing</a>, and enable concurrent booting.</li>
11580
11581 </ul>
11582
11583 These points are based on the Google summer of code work done by
11584 <a href="http://initscripts-ng.alioth.debian.org/soc2006-bootsystem/">Carlos
11585 Villegas</a>.
11586
11587 <p>Support for makefile-style concurrency during boot was uploaded to
11588 unstable yesterday.  When we tested it, we were able to cut 6 seconds
11589 from the boot sequence.  It depend on very correct dependency
11590 declaration in all init.d scripts, so I expect us to find edge cases
11591 where the dependences in some scripts are slightly wrong when we start
11592 using this.</p>
11593
11594 <p>On our IRC channel for this effort, #pkg-sysvinit, a new idea was
11595 introduced by Raphael Geissert today, one that could affect the
11596 startup speed as well.  Instead of starting some scripts concurrently
11597 from rcS.d/ and another set of scripts from rc2.d/, it would be
11598 possible to run a of them in the same process.  A quick way to test
11599 this would be to enable insserv and run 'mv /etc/rc2.d/S* /etc/rcS.d/;
11600 insserv'.  Will need to test if that work. :)</p>
11601
11602       </div>
11603       <div class="tags">
11604
11605
11606         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>.
11607
11608
11609       </div>
11610     </div>
11611     <div class="padding"></div>
11612
11613     <div class="entry">
11614       <div class="title">
11615         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/BSAs_p_stander_om_piratkopiering_m_ter_motstand.html">BSAs påstander om piratkopiering møter motstand</a>
11616       </div>
11617       <div class="date">
11618         17th May 2009
11619       </div>
11620       <div class="body">
11621         <p>Hvert år de siste årene har BSA, lobbyfronten til de store
11622 programvareselskapene som Microsoft og Apple, publisert en rapport der
11623 de gjetter på hvor mye piratkopiering påfører i tapte inntekter i
11624 ulike land rundt om i verden.  Resultatene er tendensiøse.  For noen
11625 dager siden kom
11626 <a href="http://global.bsa.org/globalpiracy2008/studies/globalpiracy2008.pdf">siste
11627 rapport</a>, og det er flere kritiske kommentarer publisert de siste
11628 dagene.  Et spesielt interessant kommentar fra Sverige,
11629 <a href="http://www.idg.se/2.1085/1.229795/bsa-hoftade-sverigesiffror">BSA
11630 höftade Sverigesiffror</a>, oppsummeres slik:</p>
11631
11632 <blockquote>
11633 I sin senaste rapport slår BSA fast att 25 procent av all mjukvara i
11634 Sverige är piratkopierad. Det utan att ha pratat med ett enda svenskt
11635 företag. "Man bör nog kanske inte se de här siffrorna som helt
11636 exakta", säger BSAs Sverigechef John Hugosson.
11637 </blockquote>
11638
11639 <p>Mon tro om de er like metodiske når de gjetter på andelen piratkopiering i Norge?  To andre kommentarer er <a
11640 href="http://www.vnunet.com/vnunet/comment/2242134/bsa-piracy-figures-shot-reality">BSA
11641 piracy figures need a shot of reality</a> og <a
11642 href="http://www.michaelgeist.ca/content/view/3958/125/">Does The WIPO
11643 Copyright Treaty Work?</a></p>
11644
11645 <p>Fant lenkene via <a
11646 href="http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/05/17/1632242">oppslag
11647 på Slashdot</a>.</p>
11648
11649       </div>
11650       <div class="tags">
11651
11652
11653         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bsa">bsa</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/fildeling">fildeling</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/norsk">norsk</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/opphavsrett">opphavsrett</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/personvern">personvern</a>.
11654
11655
11656       </div>
11657     </div>
11658     <div class="padding"></div>
11659
11660     <div class="entry">
11661       <div class="title">
11662         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/IDG_mener_linux_i_servermarkedet_vil_vokse_med_21__i_2009.html">IDG mener linux i servermarkedet vil vokse med 21% i 2009</a>
11663       </div>
11664       <div class="date">
11665          7th May 2009
11666       </div>
11667       <div class="body">
11668         <p>Kom over
11669 <a href="http://news.cnet.com/8301-13505_3-10216873-16.html">interessante
11670 tall</a> fra IDG om utviklingen av linuxservermarkedet.  Fikk meg til
11671 å tenke på antall tjenermaskiner ved Universitetet i Oslo der jeg
11672 jobber til daglig.  En rask opptelling forteller meg at vi har 490
11673 (61%) fysiske unix-tjener (mest linux men også noen solaris) og 196
11674 (25%) windowstjenere, samt 112 (14%) virtuelle unix-tjenere.  Med den
11675 bakgrunnskunnskapen kan jeg godt tro at IDG er inne på noe.</p>
11676
11677       </div>
11678       <div class="tags">
11679
11680
11681         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/norsk">norsk</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
11682
11683
11684       </div>
11685     </div>
11686     <div class="padding"></div>
11687
11688     <div class="entry">
11689       <div class="title">
11690         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Kryptert_harddisk___naturligvis.html">Kryptert harddisk - naturligvis</a>
11691       </div>
11692       <div class="date">
11693          2nd May 2009
11694       </div>
11695       <div class="body">
11696         <p><a href="http://www.dagensit.no/trender/article1658676.ece">Dagens
11697 IT melder</a> at Intel hevder at det er dyrt å miste en datamaskin,
11698 når en tar tap av arbeidstid, fortrolige dokumenter,
11699 personopplysninger og alt annet det innebærer.  Det er ingen tvil om
11700 at det er en kostbar affære å miste sin datamaskin, og det er årsaken
11701 til at jeg har kryptert harddisken på både kontormaskinen og min
11702 bærbare.  Begge inneholder personopplysninger jeg ikke ønsker skal
11703 komme på avveie, den første informasjon relatert til jobben min ved
11704 Universitetet i Oslo, og den andre relatert til blant annet
11705 foreningsarbeide.  Kryptering av diskene gjør at det er lite
11706 sannsynlig at dophoder som kan finne på å rappe maskinene får noe ut
11707 av dem.  Maskinene låses automatisk etter noen minutter uten bruk,
11708 og en reboot vil gjøre at de ber om passord før de vil starte opp.
11709 Jeg bruker Debian på begge maskinene, og installasjonssystemet der
11710 gjør det trivielt å sette opp krypterte disker.  Jeg har LVM på toppen
11711 av krypterte partisjoner, slik at alt av datapartisjoner er kryptert.
11712 Jeg anbefaler alle å kryptere diskene på sine bærbare.  Kostnaden når
11713 det er gjort slik jeg gjør det er minimale, og gevinstene er
11714 betydelige.  En bør dog passe på passordet.  Hvis det går tapt, må
11715 maskinen reinstalleres og alt er tapt.</p>
11716
11717 <p>Krypteringen vil ikke stoppe kompetente angripere som f.eks. kjøler
11718 ned minnebrikkene før maskinen rebootes med programvare for å hente ut
11719 krypteringsnøklene.  Kostnaden med å forsvare seg mot slike angripere
11720 er for min del høyere enn gevinsten.  Jeg tror oddsene for at
11721 f.eks. etteretningsorganisasjoner har glede av å titte på mine
11722 maskiner er minimale, og ulempene jeg ville oppnå ved å forsøke å
11723 gjøre det vanskeligere for angripere med kompetanse og ressurser er
11724 betydelige.</p>
11725
11726       </div>
11727       <div class="tags">
11728
11729
11730         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/norsk">norsk</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet</a>.
11731
11732
11733       </div>
11734     </div>
11735     <div class="padding"></div>
11736
11737     <div class="entry">
11738       <div class="title">
11739         <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>
11740       </div>
11741       <div class="date">
11742          2nd May 2009
11743       </div>
11744       <div class="body">
11745         <p>There are two software projects that have had huge influence on the
11746 quality of free software, and I wanted to mention both in case someone
11747 do not yet know them.</p>
11748
11749 <p>The first one is <a href="http://valgrind.org/">valgrind</a>, a
11750 tool to detect and expose errors in the memory handling of programs.
11751 It is easy to use, all one need to do is to run 'valgrind program',
11752 and it will report any problems on stdout.  It is even better if the
11753 program include debug information.  With debug information, it is able
11754 to report the source file name and line number where the problem
11755 occurs.  It can report things like 'reading past memory block in file
11756 X line N, the memory block was allocated in file Y, line M', and
11757 'using uninitialised value in control logic'.  This tool has made it
11758 trivial to investigate reproducible crash bugs in programs, and have
11759 reduced the number of this kind of bugs in free software a lot.
11760
11761 <p>The second one is
11762 <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coverity">Coverity</a> which is
11763 a source code checker.  It is able to process the source of a program
11764 and find problems in the logic without running the program.  It
11765 started out as the Stanford Checker and became well known when it was
11766 used to find bugs in the Linux kernel.  It is now a commercial tool
11767 and the company behind it is running
11768 <a href="http://www.scan.coverity.com/">a community service</a> for the
11769 free software community, where a lot of free software projects get
11770 their source checked for free.  Several thousand defects have been
11771 found and fixed so far.  It can find errors like 'lock L taken in file
11772 X line N is never released if exiting in line M', or 'the code in file
11773 Y lines O to P can never be executed'.  The projects included in the
11774 community service project have managed to get rid of a lot of
11775 reliability problems thanks to Coverity.</p>
11776
11777 <p>I believe tools like this, that are able to automatically find
11778 errors in the source, are vital to improve the quality of software and
11779 make sure we can get rid of the crashing and failing software we are
11780 surrounded by today.</p>
11781
11782       </div>
11783       <div class="tags">
11784
11785
11786         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>.
11787
11788
11789       </div>
11790     </div>
11791     <div class="padding"></div>
11792
11793     <div class="entry">
11794       <div class="title">
11795         <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>
11796       </div>
11797       <div class="date">
11798         28th April 2009
11799       </div>
11800       <div class="body">
11801         <p>Julien Blache
11802 <a href="http://blog.technologeek.org/2009/04/12/214">claim that no
11803 patch is better than a useless patch</a>.  I completely disagree, as a
11804 patch allow one to discuss a concrete and proposed solution, and also
11805 prove that the issue at hand is important enough for someone to spent
11806 time on fixing it.  No patch do not provide any of these positive
11807 properties.</p>
11808
11809       </div>
11810       <div class="tags">
11811
11812
11813         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>.
11814
11815
11816       </div>
11817     </div>
11818     <div class="padding"></div>
11819
11820     <div class="entry">
11821       <div class="title">
11822         <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>
11823       </div>
11824       <div class="date">
11825         30th March 2009
11826       </div>
11827       <div class="body">
11828         <p>Where I work at the University of Oslo, one decision stand out as a
11829 very good one to form a long lived computer infrastructure.  It is the
11830 simple one, lost by many in todays computer industry: Standardize on
11831 open network protocols and open exchange/storage formats, not applications.
11832 Applications come and go, while protocols and files tend to stay, and
11833 thus one want to make it easy to change application and vendor, while
11834 avoiding conversion costs and locking users to a specific platform or
11835 application.</p>
11836
11837 <p>This approach make it possible to replace the client applications
11838 independently of the server applications.  One can even allow users to
11839 use several different applications as long as they handle the selected
11840 protocol and format.  In the normal case, only one client application
11841 is recommended and users only get help if they choose to use this
11842 application, but those that want to deviate from the easy path are not
11843 blocked from doing so.</p>
11844
11845 <p>It also allow us to replace the server side without forcing the
11846 users to replace their applications, and thus allow us to select the
11847 best server implementation at any moment, when scale and resouce
11848 requirements change.</p>
11849
11850 <p>I strongly recommend standardizing - on open network protocols and
11851 open formats, but I would never recommend standardizing on a single
11852 application that do not use open network protocol or open formats.</p>
11853
11854       </div>
11855       <div class="tags">
11856
11857
11858         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>.
11859
11860
11861       </div>
11862     </div>
11863     <div class="padding"></div>
11864
11865     <div class="entry">
11866       <div class="title">
11867         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Returning_from_Skolelinux_developer_gathering.html">Returning from Skolelinux developer gathering</a>
11868       </div>
11869       <div class="date">
11870         29th March 2009
11871       </div>
11872       <div class="body">
11873         <p>I'm sitting on the train going home from this weekends Debian
11874 Edu/Skolelinux development gathering.  I got a bit done tuning the
11875 desktop, and looked into the dynamic service location protocol
11876 implementation avahi.  It look like it could be useful for us.  Almost
11877 30 people participated, and I believe it was a great environment to
11878 get to know the Skolelinux system.  Walter Bender, involved in the
11879 development of the Sugar educational platform, presented his stuff and
11880 also helped me improve my OLPC installation.  He also showed me that
11881 his Turtle Art application can be used in standalone mode, and we
11882 agreed that I would help getting it packaged for Debian.  As a
11883 standalone application it would be great for Debian Edu.  We also
11884 tried to get the video conferencing working with two OLPCs, but that
11885 proved to be too hard for us.  The application seem to need more work
11886 before it is ready for me.  I look forward to getting home and relax
11887 now. :)</p>
11888
11889       </div>
11890       <div class="tags">
11891
11892
11893         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>.
11894
11895
11896       </div>
11897     </div>
11898     <div class="padding"></div>
11899
11900     <div class="entry">
11901       <div class="title">
11902         <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>
11903       </div>
11904       <div class="date">
11905         29th March 2009
11906       </div>
11907       <div class="body">
11908         <p>The state of standardized LDAP schemas on Linux is far from
11909 optimal.  There is RFC 2307 documenting one way to store NIS maps in
11910 LDAP, and a modified version of this normally called RFC 2307bis, with
11911 some modifications to be compatible with Active Directory.  The RFC
11912 specification handle the content of a lot of system databases, but do
11913 not handle DNS zones and DHCP configuration.</p>
11914
11915 <p>In <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu/Skolelinux</a>,
11916 we would like to store information about users, SMB clients/hosts,
11917 filegroups, netgroups (users and hosts), DHCP and DNS configuration,
11918 and LTSP configuration in LDAP.  These objects have a lot in common,
11919 but with the current LDAP schemas it is not possible to have one
11920 object per entity.  For example, one need to have at least three LDAP
11921 objects for a given computer, one with the SMB related stuff, one with
11922 DNS information and another with DHCP information.  The schemas
11923 provided for DNS and DHCP are impossible to combine into one LDAP
11924 object.  In addition, it is impossible to implement quick queries for
11925 netgroup membership, because of the way NIS triples are implemented.
11926 It just do not scale.  I believe it is time for a few RFC
11927 specifications to cleam up this mess.</p>
11928
11929 <p>I would like to have one LDAP object representing each computer in
11930 the network, and this object can then keep the SMB (ie host key), DHCP
11931 (mac address/name) and DNS (name/IP address) settings in one place.
11932 It need to be efficently stored to make sure it scale well.</p>
11933
11934 <p>I would also like to have a quick way to map from a user or
11935 computer and to the net group this user or computer is a member.</p>
11936
11937 <p>Active Directory have done a better job than unix heads like myself
11938 in this regard, and the unix side need to catch up.  Time to start a
11939 new IETF work group?</p>
11940
11941       </div>
11942       <div class="tags">
11943
11944
11945         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>.
11946
11947
11948       </div>
11949     </div>
11950     <div class="padding"></div>
11951
11952     <div class="entry">
11953       <div class="title">
11954         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Endelig_er_Debian_Lenny_gitt_ut.html">Endelig er Debian Lenny gitt ut</a>
11955       </div>
11956       <div class="date">
11957         15th February 2009
11958       </div>
11959       <div class="body">
11960         <p>Endelig er <a href="http://www.debian.org/">Debian</a>
11961 <a href="http://www.debian.org/News/2009/20090214">Lenny</a> gitt ut.
11962 Et langt steg videre for Debian-prosjektet, og en rekke nye
11963 programpakker blir nå tilgjengelig for de av oss som bruker den
11964 stabile utgaven av Debian.  Neste steg er nå å få
11965 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Skolelinux</a> /
11966 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/">Debian Edu</a> ferdig
11967 oppdatert for den nye utgaven, slik at en oppdatert versjon kan
11968 slippes løs på skolene.  Takk til alle debian-utviklerne som har
11969 gjort dette mulig.  Endelig er f.eks. fungerende avhengighetsstyrt
11970 bootsekvens tilgjengelig i stabil utgave, vha pakken
11971 <tt>insserv</tt>.</p>
11972
11973       </div>
11974       <div class="tags">
11975
11976
11977         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/norsk">norsk</a>.
11978
11979
11980       </div>
11981     </div>
11982     <div class="padding"></div>
11983
11984     <div class="entry">
11985       <div class="title">
11986         <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>
11987       </div>
11988       <div class="date">
11989          7th December 2008
11990       </div>
11991       <div class="body">
11992         <p>This weekend we had a small developer gathering for Debian Edu in
11993 Oslo.  Most of Saturday was used for the general assemly for the
11994 member organization, but the rest of the weekend I used to tune the
11995 LTSP installation.  LTSP now work out of the box on the 10-network.
11996 Acer Aspire One proved to be a very nice thin client, with both
11997 screen, mouse and keybard in a small box.  Was working on getting the
11998 diskless workstation setup configured out of the box, but did not
11999 finish it before the weekend was up.</p>
12000
12001 <p>Did not find time to look at the 4 VGA cards in one box we got from
12002 the Brazilian group, so that will have to wait for the next
12003 development gathering.  Would love to have the Debian Edu installer
12004 automatically detect and configure a multiseat setup when it find one
12005 of these cards.</p>
12006
12007       </div>
12008       <div class="tags">
12009
12010
12011         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>.
12012
12013
12014       </div>
12015     </div>
12016     <div class="padding"></div>
12017
12018     <div class="entry">
12019       <div class="title">
12020         <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>
12021       </div>
12022       <div class="date">
12023         25th November 2008
12024       </div>
12025       <div class="body">
12026         <p>Recently I have spent some time evaluating the multimedia browser
12027 plugins available in Debian Lenny, to see which one we should use by
12028 default in Debian Edu.  We need an embedded video playing plugin with
12029 control buttons to pause or stop the video, and capable of streaming
12030 all the multimedia content available on the web.  The test results and
12031 notes are available on
12032 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/BrowserMultimedia">the
12033 Debian wiki</a>.  I was surprised how few of the plugins are able to
12034 fill this need.  My personal video player favorite, VLC, has a really
12035 bad plugin which fail on a lot of the test pages.  A lot of the MIME
12036 types I would expect to work with any free software player (like
12037 video/ogg), just do not work.  And simple formats like the
12038 audio/x-mplegurl format (m3u playlists), just isn't supported by the
12039 totem and vlc plugins.  I hope the situation will improve soon.  No
12040 wonder sites use the proprietary Adobe flash to play video.</p>
12041
12042 <p>For Lenny, we seem to end up with the mplayer plugin.  It seem to
12043 be the only one fitting our needs. :/</p>
12044
12045       </div>
12046       <div class="tags">
12047
12048
12049         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>.
12050
12051
12052       </div>
12053     </div>
12054     <div class="padding"></div>
12055
12056     <p style="text-align: right;"><a href="debian.rss"><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/xml.gif" alt="RSS Feed" width="36" height="14" /></a></p>
12057     <div id="sidebar">
12058
12059
12060
12061 <h2>Archive</h2>
12062 <ul>
12063
12064 <li>2017
12065 <ul>
12066
12067 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2017/01/">January (2)</a></li>
12068
12069 </ul></li>
12070
12071 <li>2016
12072 <ul>
12073
12074 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2016/01/">January (3)</a></li>
12075
12076 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2016/02/">February (2)</a></li>
12077
12078 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2016/03/">March (3)</a></li>
12079
12080 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2016/04/">April (8)</a></li>
12081
12082 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2016/05/">May (8)</a></li>
12083
12084 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2016/06/">June (2)</a></li>
12085
12086 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2016/07/">July (2)</a></li>
12087
12088 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2016/08/">August (5)</a></li>
12089
12090 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2016/09/">September (2)</a></li>
12091
12092 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2016/10/">October (3)</a></li>
12093
12094 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2016/11/">November (8)</a></li>
12095
12096 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2016/12/">December (5)</a></li>
12097
12098 </ul></li>
12099
12100 <li>2015
12101 <ul>
12102
12103 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/01/">January (7)</a></li>
12104
12105 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/02/">February (6)</a></li>
12106
12107 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/03/">March (1)</a></li>
12108
12109 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/04/">April (4)</a></li>
12110
12111 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/05/">May (3)</a></li>
12112
12113 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/06/">June (4)</a></li>
12114
12115 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/07/">July (6)</a></li>
12116
12117 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/08/">August (2)</a></li>
12118
12119 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/09/">September (2)</a></li>
12120
12121 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/10/">October (9)</a></li>
12122
12123 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/11/">November (6)</a></li>
12124
12125 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/12/">December (3)</a></li>
12126
12127 </ul></li>
12128
12129 <li>2014
12130 <ul>
12131
12132 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/01/">January (2)</a></li>
12133
12134 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/02/">February (3)</a></li>
12135
12136 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/03/">March (8)</a></li>
12137
12138 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/04/">April (7)</a></li>
12139
12140 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/05/">May (1)</a></li>
12141
12142 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/06/">June (2)</a></li>
12143
12144 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/07/">July (2)</a></li>
12145
12146 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/08/">August (2)</a></li>
12147
12148 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/09/">September (5)</a></li>
12149
12150 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/10/">October (6)</a></li>
12151
12152 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/11/">November (3)</a></li>
12153
12154 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/12/">December (5)</a></li>
12155
12156 </ul></li>
12157
12158 <li>2013
12159 <ul>
12160
12161 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/01/">January (11)</a></li>
12162
12163 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/02/">February (9)</a></li>
12164
12165 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/03/">March (9)</a></li>
12166
12167 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/04/">April (6)</a></li>
12168
12169 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/05/">May (9)</a></li>
12170
12171 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/06/">June (10)</a></li>
12172
12173 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/07/">July (7)</a></li>
12174
12175 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/08/">August (3)</a></li>
12176
12177 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/09/">September (5)</a></li>
12178
12179 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/10/">October (7)</a></li>
12180
12181 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/11/">November (9)</a></li>
12182
12183 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/12/">December (3)</a></li>
12184
12185 </ul></li>
12186
12187 <li>2012
12188 <ul>
12189
12190 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/01/">January (7)</a></li>
12191
12192 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/02/">February (10)</a></li>
12193
12194 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/03/">March (17)</a></li>
12195
12196 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/04/">April (12)</a></li>
12197
12198 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/05/">May (12)</a></li>
12199
12200 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/06/">June (20)</a></li>
12201
12202 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/07/">July (17)</a></li>
12203
12204 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/08/">August (6)</a></li>
12205
12206 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/09/">September (9)</a></li>
12207
12208 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/10/">October (17)</a></li>
12209
12210 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/11/">November (10)</a></li>
12211
12212 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/12/">December (7)</a></li>
12213
12214 </ul></li>
12215
12216 <li>2011
12217 <ul>
12218
12219 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/01/">January (16)</a></li>
12220
12221 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/02/">February (6)</a></li>
12222
12223 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/03/">March (6)</a></li>
12224
12225 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/04/">April (7)</a></li>
12226
12227 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/05/">May (3)</a></li>
12228
12229 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/06/">June (2)</a></li>
12230
12231 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/07/">July (7)</a></li>
12232
12233 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/08/">August (6)</a></li>
12234
12235 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/09/">September (4)</a></li>
12236
12237 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/10/">October (2)</a></li>
12238
12239 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/11/">November (3)</a></li>
12240
12241 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/12/">December (1)</a></li>
12242
12243 </ul></li>
12244
12245 <li>2010
12246 <ul>
12247
12248 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/01/">January (2)</a></li>
12249
12250 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/02/">February (1)</a></li>
12251
12252 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/03/">March (3)</a></li>
12253
12254 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/04/">April (3)</a></li>
12255
12256 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/05/">May (9)</a></li>
12257
12258 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/06/">June (14)</a></li>
12259
12260 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/07/">July (12)</a></li>
12261
12262 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/08/">August (13)</a></li>
12263
12264 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/09/">September (7)</a></li>
12265
12266 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/10/">October (9)</a></li>
12267
12268 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/11/">November (13)</a></li>
12269
12270 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/12/">December (12)</a></li>
12271
12272 </ul></li>
12273
12274 <li>2009
12275 <ul>
12276
12277 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/01/">January (8)</a></li>
12278
12279 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/02/">February (8)</a></li>
12280
12281 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/03/">March (12)</a></li>
12282
12283 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/04/">April (10)</a></li>
12284
12285 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/05/">May (9)</a></li>
12286
12287 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/06/">June (3)</a></li>
12288
12289 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/07/">July (4)</a></li>
12290
12291 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/08/">August (3)</a></li>
12292
12293 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/09/">September (1)</a></li>
12294
12295 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/10/">October (2)</a></li>
12296
12297 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/11/">November (3)</a></li>
12298
12299 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/12/">December (3)</a></li>
12300
12301 </ul></li>
12302
12303 <li>2008
12304 <ul>
12305
12306 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2008/11/">November (5)</a></li>
12307
12308 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2008/12/">December (7)</a></li>
12309
12310 </ul></li>
12311
12312 </ul>
12313
12314
12315
12316 <h2>Tags</h2>
12317 <ul>
12318
12319  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/3d-printer">3d-printer (13)</a></li>
12320
12321  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/amiga">amiga (1)</a></li>
12322
12323  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/aros">aros (1)</a></li>
12324
12325  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bankid">bankid (4)</a></li>
12326
12327  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bitcoin">bitcoin (9)</a></li>
12328
12329  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bootsystem">bootsystem (16)</a></li>
12330
12331  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bsa">bsa (2)</a></li>
12332
12333  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/chrpath">chrpath (2)</a></li>
12334
12335  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian (145)</a></li>
12336
12337  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu (158)</a></li>
12338
12339  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/digistan">digistan (10)</a></li>
12340
12341  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/dld">dld (16)</a></li>
12342
12343  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/docbook">docbook (23)</a></li>
12344
12345  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/drivstoffpriser">drivstoffpriser (4)</a></li>
12346
12347  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english (337)</a></li>
12348
12349  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/fiksgatami">fiksgatami (23)</a></li>
12350
12351  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/fildeling">fildeling (12)</a></li>
12352
12353  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freeculture">freeculture (29)</a></li>
12354
12355  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freedombox">freedombox (9)</a></li>
12356
12357  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/frikanalen">frikanalen (18)</a></li>
12358
12359  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/h264">h264 (20)</a></li>
12360
12361  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/intervju">intervju (42)</a></li>
12362
12363  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram">isenkram (15)</a></li>
12364
12365  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/kart">kart (20)</a></li>
12366
12367  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ldap">ldap (9)</a></li>
12368
12369  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/lenker">lenker (8)</a></li>
12370
12371  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/lsdvd">lsdvd (2)</a></li>
12372
12373  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ltsp">ltsp (1)</a></li>
12374
12375  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/mesh network">mesh network (8)</a></li>
12376
12377  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/multimedia">multimedia (39)</a></li>
12378
12379  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nice free software">nice free software (9)</a></li>
12380
12381  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/norsk">norsk (285)</a></li>
12382
12383  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug (183)</a></li>
12384
12385  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/offentlig innsyn">offentlig innsyn (26)</a></li>
12386
12387  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/open311">open311 (2)</a></li>
12388
12389  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/opphavsrett">opphavsrett (62)</a></li>
12390
12391  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/personvern">personvern (97)</a></li>
12392
12393  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/raid">raid (1)</a></li>
12394
12395  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/reactos">reactos (1)</a></li>
12396
12397  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/reprap">reprap (11)</a></li>
12398
12399  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/rfid">rfid (3)</a></li>
12400
12401  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/robot">robot (10)</a></li>
12402
12403  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/rss">rss (1)</a></li>
12404
12405  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ruter">ruter (5)</a></li>
12406
12407  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/scraperwiki">scraperwiki (2)</a></li>
12408
12409  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet (52)</a></li>
12410
12411  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sitesummary">sitesummary (4)</a></li>
12412
12413  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/skepsis">skepsis (5)</a></li>
12414
12415  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/standard">standard (50)</a></li>
12416
12417  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/stavekontroll">stavekontroll (5)</a></li>
12418
12419  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/stortinget">stortinget (11)</a></li>
12420
12421  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance (45)</a></li>
12422
12423  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sysadmin">sysadmin (2)</a></li>
12424
12425  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/usenix">usenix (2)</a></li>
12426
12427  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/valg">valg (8)</a></li>
12428
12429  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/video">video (59)</a></li>
12430
12431  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/vitenskap">vitenskap (4)</a></li>
12432
12433  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/web">web (39)</a></li>
12434
12435 </ul>
12436
12437
12438     </div>
12439     <p style="text-align: right">
12440  Created by <a href="http://steve.org.uk/Software/chronicle">Chronicle v4.6</a>
12441 </p>
12442
12443   </body>
12444 </html>