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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/Creepy__visualise_geotagged_social_media_information___nice_free_software.html">Creepy, visualise geotagged social media information - nice free software</a>
  26       </div>
  27       <div class="date">
  28         24th January 2016
  29       </div>
  30       <div class="body">
  31         <p>Most people seem not to realise that every time they walk around
  32 with the computerised radio beacon known as a mobile phone their
  33 position is tracked by the phone company and often stored for a long
  34 time (like every time a SMS is received or sent).  And if their
  35 computerised radio beacon is capable of running programs (often called
  36 mobile apps) downloaded from the Internet, these programs are often
  37 also capable of tracking their location (if the app requested access
  38 during installation).  And when these programs send out information to
  39 central collection points, the location is often included, unless
  40 extra care is taken to not send the location.  The provided
  41 information is used by several entities, for good and bad (what is
  42 good and bad, depend on your point of view).  What is certain, is that
  43 the private sphere and the right to free movement is challenged and
  44 perhaps even eradicated for those announcing their location this way,
  45 when they share their whereabouts with private and public
  46 entities.</p>
  47
  48 <p align="center"><img width="70%" src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2016-01-24-nice-creepy-desktop-window.png"></p>
  49
  50 <p>The phone company logs provide a register of locations to check out
  51 when one want to figure out what the tracked person was doing.  It is
  52 unavailable for most of us, but provided to selected government
  53 officials, company staff, those illegally buying information from
  54 unfaithful servants and crackers stealing the information.  But the
  55 public information can be collected and analysed, and a free software
  56 tool to do so is called
  57 <a href="http://www.geocreepy.com/">Creepy or Cree.py</a>.  I
  58 discovered it when I read
  59 <a href="http://www.aftenposten.no/kultur/Slik-kan-du-bli-overvaket-pa-Twitter-og-Instagram-uten-a-ane-det-7787884.html">an
  60 article about Creepy</a> in the Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten i
  61 November 2014, and decided to check if it was available in Debian.
  62 The python program was in Debian, but
  63 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/creepy">the version in
  64 Debian</a> was completely broken and practically unmaintained.  I
  65 uploaded a new version which did not work quite right, but did not
  66 have time to fix it then.  This Christmas I decided to finally try to
  67 get Creepy operational in Debian.  Now a fixed version is available in
  68 Debian unstable and testing, and almost all Debian specific patches
  69 are now included
  70 <a href="https://github.com/jkakavas/creepy">upstream</a>.</p>
  71
  72 <p>The Creepy program visualises geolocation information fetched from
  73 Twitter, Instagram, Flickr and Google+, and allow one to get a
  74 complete picture of every social media message posted recently in a
  75 given area, or track the movement of a given individual across all
  76 these services.  Earlier it was possible to use the search API of at
  77 least some of these services without identifying oneself, but these
  78 days it is impossible.  This mean that to use Creepy, you need to
  79 configure it to log in as yourself on these services, and provide
  80 information to them about your search interests.  This should be taken
  81 into account when using Creepy, as it will also share information
  82 about yourself with the services.</p>
  83
  84 <p>The picture above show the twitter messages sent from (or at least
  85 geotagged with a position from) the city centre of Oslo, the capital
  86 of Norway.  One useful way to use Creepy is to first look at
  87 information tagged with an area of interest, and next look at all the
  88 information provided by one or more individuals who was in the area.
  89 I tested it by checking out which celebrity provide their location in
  90 twitter messages by checkout out who sent twitter messages near a
  91 Norwegian TV station, and next could track their position over time,
  92 making it possible to locate their home and work place, among other
  93 things.  A similar technique have been
  94 <a href="http://www.buzzfeed.com/maxseddon/does-this-soldiers-instagram-account-prove-russia-is-covertl">used
  95 to locate Russian soldiers in Ukraine</a>, and it is both a powerful
  96 tool to discover lying governments, and a useful tool to help people
  97 understand the value of the private information they provide to the
  98 public.</p>
  99
 100 <p>The package is not trivial to backport to Debian Stable/Jessie, as
 101 it depend on several python modules currently missing in Jessie (at
 102 least python-instagram, python-flickrapi and
 103 python-requests-toolbelt).</p>
 104
 105 <p>(I have uploaded
 106 <a href="https://screenshots.debian.net/package/creepy">the image to
 107 screenshots.debian.net</a> and licensed it under the same terms as the
 108 Creepy program in Debian.)</p>
 109
 110       </div>
 111       <div class="tags">
 112
 113
 114         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>.
 115
 116
 117       </div>
 118     </div>
 119     <div class="padding"></div>
 120
 121     <div class="entry">
 122       <div class="title">
 123         <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>
 124       </div>
 125       <div class="date">
 126         15th January 2016
 127       </div>
 128       <div class="body">
 129         <p>During his DebConf15 keynote, Jacob Appelbaum
 130 <a href="https://summit.debconf.org/debconf15/meeting/331/what-is-to-be-done/">observed
 131 that those listening on the Internet lines would have good reason to
 132 believe a computer have a given security hole</a> if it download a
 133 security fix from a Debian mirror.  This is a good reason to always
 134 use encrypted connections to the Debian mirror, to make sure those
 135 listening do not know which IP address to attack.  In August, Richard
 136 Hartmann observed that encryption was not enough, when it was possible
 137 to interfere download size to security patches or the fact that
 138 download took place shortly after a security fix was released, and
 139 <a href="http://richardhartmann.de/blog/posts/2015/08/24-Tor-enabled_Debian_mirror/">proposed
 140 to always use Tor to download packages from the Debian mirror</a>.  He
 141 was not the first to propose this, as the
 142 <tt><a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/apt-transport-tor">apt-transport-tor</a></tt>
 143 package by Tim Retout already existed to make it easy to convince apt
 144 to use <a href="https://www.torproject.org/">Tor</a>, but I was not
 145 aware of that package when I read the blog post from Richard.</p>
 146
 147 <p>Richard discussed the idea with Peter Palfrader, one of the Debian
 148 sysadmins, and he set up a Tor hidden service on one of the central
 149 Debian mirrors using the address vwakviie2ienjx6t.onion, thus making
 150 it possible to download packages directly between two tor nodes,
 151 making sure the network traffic always were encrypted.</p>
 152
 153 <p>Here is a short recipe for enabling this on your machine, by
 154 installing <tt>apt-transport-tor</tt> and replacing http and https
 155 urls with tor+http and tor+https, and using the hidden service instead
 156 of the official Debian mirror site.  I recommend installing
 157 <tt>etckeeper</tt> before you start to have a history of the changes
 158 done in /etc/.</p>
 159
 160 <blockquote><pre>
 161 apt install apt-transport-tor
 162 sed -i 's% http://ftp.debian.org/%tor+http://vwakviie2ienjx6t.onion/%' /etc/apt/sources.list
 163 sed -i 's% http% tor+http%' /etc/apt/sources.list
 164 </pre></blockquote>
 165
 166 <p>If you have more sources listed in /etc/apt/sources.list.d/, run
 167 the sed commands for these too.  The sed command is assuming your are
 168 using the ftp.debian.org Debian mirror.  Adjust the command (or just
 169 edit the file manually) to match your mirror.</p>
 170
 171 <p>This work in Debian Jessie and later.  Note that tools like
 172 <tt>apt-file</tt> only recently started using the apt transport
 173 system, and do not work with these tor+http URLs.  For
 174 <tt>apt-file</tt> you need the version currently in experimental,
 175 which need a recent apt version currently only in unstable.  So if you
 176 need a working <tt>apt-file</tt>, this is not for you.</p>
 177
 178 <p>Another advantage from this change is that your machine will start
 179 using Tor regularly and at fairly random intervals (every time you
 180 update the package lists or upgrade or install a new package), thus
 181 masking other Tor traffic done from the same machine.  Using Tor will
 182 become normal for the machine in question.</p>
 183
 184 <p>On <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/FreedomBox">Freedombox</a>, APT
 185 is set up by default to use <tt>apt-transport-tor</tt> when Tor is
 186 enabled.  It would be great if it was the default on any Debian
 187 system.</p>
 188
 189       </div>
 190       <div class="tags">
 191
 192
 193         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>.
 194
 195
 196       </div>
 197     </div>
 198     <div class="padding"></div>
 199
 200     <div class="entry">
 201       <div class="title">
 202         <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>
 203       </div>
 204       <div class="date">
 205         23rd December 2015
 206       </div>
 207       <div class="body">
 208         <p>When I was a kid, we used to collect "car numbers", as we used to
 209 call the car license plate numbers in those days.  I would write the
 210 numbers down in my little book and compare notes with the other kids
 211 to see how many region codes we had seen and if we had seen some
 212 exotic or special region codes and numbers.  It was a fun game to pass
 213 time, as we kids have plenty of it.</p>
 214
 215 <p>A few days I came across
 216 <a href="https://github.com/openalpr/openalpr">the OpenALPR
 217 project</a>, a free software project to automatically discover and
 218 report license plates in images and video streams, and provide the
 219 "car numbers" in a machine readable format.  I've been looking for
 220 such system for a while now, because I believe it is a bad idea that the
 221 <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automatic_number_plate_recognition">automatic
 222 number plate recognition</a> tool only is available in the hands of
 223 the powerful, and want it to be available also for the powerless to
 224 even the score when it comes to surveillance and sousveillance.  I
 225 discovered the developer
 226 <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/747509">wanted to get the tool into
 227 Debian</a>, and as I too wanted it to be in Debian, I volunteered to
 228 help him get it into shape to get the package uploaded into the Debian
 229 archive.</p>
 230
 231 <p>Today we finally managed to get the package into shape and uploaded
 232 it into Debian, where it currently
 233 <a href="https://ftp-master.debian.org//new/openalpr_2.2.1-1.html">waits
 234 in the NEW queue</a> for review by the Debian ftpmasters.</p>
 235
 236 <p>I guess you are wondering why on earth such tool would be useful
 237 for the common folks, ie those not running a large government
 238 surveillance system?  Well, I plan to put it in a computer on my bike
 239 and in my car, tracking the cars nearby and allowing me to be notified
 240 when number plates on my watch list are discovered.  Another use case
 241 was suggested by a friend of mine, who wanted to set it up at his home
 242 to open the car port automatically when it discovered the plate on his
 243 car.  When I mentioned it perhaps was a bit foolhardy to allow anyone
 244 capable of placing his license plate number of a piece of cardboard to
 245 open his car port, men replied that it was always unlocked anyway.  I
 246 guess for such use case it make sense.  I am sure there are other use
 247 cases too, for those with imagination and a vision.</p>
 248
 249 <p>If you want to build your own version of the Debian package, check
 250 out the upstream git source and symlink ./distros/debian to ./debian/
 251 before running "debuild" to build the source.  Or wait a bit until the
 252 package show up in unstable.</p>
 253
 254       </div>
 255       <div class="tags">
 256
 257
 258         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>.
 259
 260
 261       </div>
 262     </div>
 263     <div class="padding"></div>
 264
 265     <div class="entry">
 266       <div class="title">
 267         <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>
 268       </div>
 269       <div class="date">
 270         20th December 2015
 271       </div>
 272       <div class="body">
 273         <p>Around three years ago, I created
 274 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/isenkram">the isenkram
 275 system</a> to get a more practical solution in Debian for handing
 276 hardware related packages.  A GUI system in the isenkram package will
 277 present a pop-up dialog when some hardware dongle supported by
 278 relevant packages in Debian is inserted into the machine.  The same
 279 lookup mechanism to detect packages is available as command line
 280 tools in the isenkram-cli package.  In addition to mapping hardware,
 281 it will also map kernel firmware files to packages and make it easy to
 282 install needed firmware packages automatically.  The key for this
 283 system to work is a good way to map hardware to packages, in other
 284 words, allow packages to announce what hardware they will work
 285 with.</p>
 286
 287 <p>I started by providing data files in the isenkram source, and
 288 adding code to download the latest version of these data files at run
 289 time, to ensure every user had the most up to date mapping available.
 290 I also added support for storing the mapping in the Packages file in
 291 the apt repositories, but did not push this approach because while I
 292 was trying to figure out how to best store hardware/package mappings,
 293 <a href="http://www.freedesktop.org/software/appstream/docs/">the
 294 appstream system</a> was announced.  I got in touch and suggested to
 295 add the hardware mapping into that data set to be able to use
 296 appstream as a data source, and this was accepted at least for the
 297 Debian version of appstream.</p>
 298
 299 <p>A few days ago using appstream in Debian for this became possible,
 300 and today I uploaded a new version 0.20 of isenkram adding support for
 301 appstream as a data source for mapping hardware to packages.  The only
 302 package so far using appstream to announce its hardware support is my
 303 pymissile package.  I got help from Matthias Klumpp with figuring out
 304 how do add the required
 305 <a href="https://appstream.debian.org/html/sid/main/metainfo/pymissile.html">metadata
 306 in pymissile</a>.  I added a file debian/pymissile.metainfo.xml with
 307 this content:</p>
 308
 309 <blockquote><pre>
 310 &lt;?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?&gt;
 311 &lt;component&gt;
 312   &lt;id&gt;pymissile&lt;/id&gt;
 313   &lt;metadata_license&gt;MIT&lt;/metadata_license&gt;
 314   &lt;name&gt;pymissile&lt;/name&gt;
 315   &lt;summary&gt;Control original Striker USB Missile Launcher&lt;/summary&gt;
 316   &lt;description&gt;
 317     &lt;p&gt;
 318       Pymissile provides a curses interface to control an original
 319       Marks and Spencer / Striker USB Missile Launcher, as well as a
 320       motion control script to allow a webcamera to control the
 321       launcher.
 322     &lt;/p&gt;
 323   &lt;/description&gt;
 324   &lt;provides&gt;
 325     &lt;modalias&gt;usb:v1130p0202d*&lt;/modalias&gt;
 326   &lt;/provides&gt;
 327 &lt;/component&gt;
 328 </pre></blockquote>
 329
 330 <p>The key for isenkram is the component/provides/modalias value,
 331 which is a glob style match rule for hardware specific strings
 332 (modalias strings) provided by the Linux kernel.  In this case, it
 333 will map to all USB devices with vendor code 1130 and product code
 334 0202.</p>
 335
 336 <p>Note, it is important that the license of all the metadata files
 337 are compatible to have permissions to aggregate them into archive wide
 338 appstream files.  Matthias suggested to use MIT or BSD licenses for
 339 these files.  A challenge is figuring out a good id for the data, as
 340 it is supposed to be globally unique and shared across distributions
 341 (in other words, best to coordinate with upstream what to use).  But
 342 it can be changed later or, so we went with the package name as
 343 upstream for this project is dormant.</p>
 344
 345 <p>To get the metadata file installed in the correct location for the
 346 mirror update scripts to pick it up and include its content the
 347 appstream data source, the file must be installed in the binary
 348 package under /usr/share/appdata/.  I did this by adding the following
 349 line to debian/pymissile.install:</p>
 350
 351 <blockquote><pre>
 352 debian/pymissile.metainfo.xml usr/share/appdata
 353 </pre></blockquote>
 354
 355 <p>With that in place, the command line tool isenkram-lookup will list
 356 all packages useful on the current computer automatically, and the GUI
 357 pop-up handler will propose to install the package not already
 358 installed if a hardware dongle is inserted into the machine in
 359 question.</p>
 360
 361 <p>Details of the modalias field in appstream is available from the
 362 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/DEP-11">DEP-11</a> proposal.</p>
 363
 364 <p>To locate the modalias values of all hardware present in a machine,
 365 try running this command on the command line:</p>
 366
 367 <blockquote><pre>
 368 cat $(find /sys/devices/|grep modalias)
 369 </pre></blockquote>
 370
 371 <p>To learn more about the isenkram system, please check out
 372 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram/">my
 373 blog posts tagged isenkram</a>.</p>
 374
 375       </div>
 376       <div class="tags">
 377
 378
 379         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>.
 380
 381
 382       </div>
 383     </div>
 384     <div class="padding"></div>
 385
 386     <div class="entry">
 387       <div class="title">
 388         <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>
 389       </div>
 390       <div class="date">
 391         30th November 2015
 392       </div>
 393       <div class="body">
 394         <p>A blog post from my fellow Debian developer Paul Wise titled
 395 "<a href="http://bonedaddy.net/pabs3/log/2015/11/27/sfc-supporter/">The
 396 GPL is not magic pixie dust</a>" explain the importance of making sure
 397 the <a href="http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html">GPL</a> is enforced.
 398 I quote the blog post from Paul in full here with his permission:<p>
 399
 400 <blockquote>
 401
 402 <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>
 403
 404 <blockquote>
 405 The GPL is not magic pixie dust. It does not work by itself.<br/>
 406
 407 The first step is to choose a
 408 <a href="https://copyleft.org/">copyleft</a> license for your
 409 code.<br/>
 410
 411 The next step is, when someone fails to follow that copyleft license,
 412 <b>it must be enforced</b><br/>
 413
 414 and its a simple fact of our modern society that such type of
 415 work<br/>
 416
 417 is incredibly expensive to do and incredibly difficult to do.
 418 </blockquote>
 419
 420 <p><small>-- <a href="http://ebb.org/bkuhn/">Bradley Kuhn</a>, in
 421 <a href="http://faif.us/" title="Free as in Freedom">FaiF</a>
 422 <a href="http://faif.us/cast/2015/nov/24/0x57/">episode
 423 0x57</a></small></p>
 424
 425 <p>As the Debian Website
 426 <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/794116">used</a>
 427 <a href="https://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/webwml/webwml/english/intro/free.wml?r1=1.24&amp;r2=1.25">to</a>
 428 imply, public domain and permissively licensed software can lead to
 429 the production of more proprietary software as people discover useful
 430 software, extend it and or incorporate it into their hardware or
 431 software products.  Copyleft licenses such as the GNU GPL were created
 432 to close off this avenue to the production of proprietary software but
 433 such licenses are not enough.  With the ongoing adoption of Free
 434 Software by individuals and groups, inevitably the community's
 435 expectations of license compliance are violated, usually out of
 436 ignorance of the way Free Software works, but not always.  As Karen
 437 and Bradley explained in <a href="http://faif.us/" title="Free as in
 438 Freedom">FaiF</a>
 439 <a href="http://faif.us/cast/2015/nov/24/0x57/">episode 0x57</a>,
 440 copyleft is nothing if no-one is willing and able to stand up in court
 441 to protect it.  The reality of today's world is that legal
 442 representation is expensive, difficult and time consuming.  With
 443 <a href="http://gpl-violations.org/">gpl-violations.org</a> in hiatus
 444 <a href="http://gpl-violations.org/news/20151027-homepage-recovers/">until</a>
 445 some time in 2016, the <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/">Software
 446 Freedom Conservancy</a> (a tax-exempt charity) is the major defender
 447 of the Linux project, Debian and other groups against GPL violations.
 448 In March the SFC supported a
 449 <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/news/2015/mar/05/vmware-lawsuit/">lawsuit
 450 by Christoph Hellwig</a> against VMware for refusing to
 451 <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/linux-compliance/vmware-lawsuit-faq.html">comply
 452 with the GPL</a> in relation to their use of parts of the Linux
 453 kernel.  Since then two of their sponsors pulled corporate funding and
 454 conferences
 455 <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/blog/2015/nov/24/faif-carols-fundraiser/">blocked
 456 or cancelled their talks</a>.  As a result they have decided to rely
 457 less on corporate funding and more on the broad community of
 458 individuals who support Free Software and copyleft.  So the SFC has
 459 <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/news/2015/nov/23/2015fundraiser/">launched</a>
 460 a <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/supporter/">campaign</a> to create
 461 a community of folks who stand up for copyleft and the GPL by
 462 supporting their work on promoting and supporting copyleft and Free
 463 Software.</p>
 464
 465 <p>If you support Free Software,
 466 <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/blog/2015/nov/26/like-what-I-do/">like</a>
 467 what the SFC do, agree with their
 468 <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/linux-compliance/principles.html">compliance
 469 principles</a>, are happy about their
 470 <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/supporter/">successes</a> in 2015,
 471 work on a project that is an SFC
 472 <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/members/current/">member</a> and or
 473 just want to stand up for copyleft, please join
 474 <a href="https://identi.ca/cwebber/image/JQGPA4qbTyyp3-MY8QpvuA">Christopher
 475 Allan Webber</a>,
 476 <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/blog/2015/nov/24/faif-carols-fundraiser/">Carol
 477 Smith</a>,
 478 <a href="http://www.jonobacon.org/2015/11/25/supporting-software-freedom-conservancy/">Jono
 479 Bacon</a>, myself and
 480 <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/sponsors/#supporters">others</a> in
 481 becoming a
 482 <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/supporter/">supporter</a>.  For the
 483 next week your donation will be
 484 <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/news/2015/nov/27/black-friday/">matched</a>
 485 by an anonymous donor.  Please also consider asking your employer to
 486 match your donation or become a sponsor of SFC.  Don't forget to
 487 spread the word about your support for SFC via email, your blog and or
 488 social media accounts.</p>
 489
 490 </blockquote>
 491
 492 <p>I agree with Paul on this topic and just signed up as a Supporter
 493 of Software Freedom Conservancy myself.  Perhaps you should be a
 494 supporter too?</p>
 495
 496       </div>
 497       <div class="tags">
 498
 499
 500         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>.
 501
 502
 503       </div>
 504     </div>
 505     <div class="padding"></div>
 506
 507     <div class="entry">
 508       <div class="title">
 509         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/PGP_key_transition_statement_for_key_EE4E02F9.html">PGP key transition statement for key EE4E02F9</a>
 510       </div>
 511       <div class="date">
 512         17th November 2015
 513       </div>
 514       <div class="body">
 515         <p>I've needed a new OpenPGP key for a while, but have not had time to
 516 set it up properly.  I wanted to generate it offline and have it
 517 available on <a href="http://shop.kernelconcepts.de/#openpgp">a OpenPGP
 518 smart card</a> for daily use, and learning how to do it and finding
 519 time to sit down with an offline machine almost took forever.  But
 520 finally I've been able to complete the process, and have now moved
 521 from my old GPG key to a new GPG key.  See
 522 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2015-11-17-new-gpg-key-transition.txt">the
 523 full transition statement, signed with both my old and new key</a> for
 524 the details.  This is my new key:</p>
 525
 526 <pre>
 527 pub   3936R/<a href="http://pgp.cs.uu.nl/stats/111D6B29EE4E02F9.html">111D6B29EE4E02F9</a> 2015-11-03 [expires: 2019-11-14]
 528       Key fingerprint = 3AC7 B2E3 ACA5 DF87 78F1  D827 111D 6B29 EE4E 02F9
 529 uid                  Petter Reinholdtsen &lt;pere@hungry.com&gt;
 530 uid                  Petter Reinholdtsen &lt;pere@debian.org&gt;
 531 sub   4096R/87BAFB0E 2015-11-03 [expires: 2019-11-02]
 532 sub   4096R/F91E6DE9 2015-11-03 [expires: 2019-11-02]
 533 sub   4096R/A0439BAB 2015-11-03 [expires: 2019-11-02]
 534 </pre>
 535
 536 <p>The key can be downloaded from the OpenPGP key servers, signed by
 537 my old key.</p>
 538
 539 <p>If you signed my old key
 540 (<a href="http://pgp.cs.uu.nl/stats/DB4CCC4B2A30D729.html">DB4CCC4B2A30D729</a>),
 541 I'd very much appreciate a signature on my new key, details and
 542 instructions in the transition statement. I m happy to reciprocate if
 543 you have a similarly signed transition statement to present.</p>
 544
 545       </div>
 546       <div class="tags">
 547
 548
 549         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>.
 550
 551
 552       </div>
 553     </div>
 554     <div class="padding"></div>
 555
 556     <div class="entry">
 557       <div class="title">
 558         <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>
 559       </div>
 560       <div class="date">
 561         24th September 2015
 562       </div>
 563       <div class="body">
 564         <p>When I get a new laptop, the battery life time at the start is OK.
 565 But this do not last.  The last few laptops gave me a feeling that
 566 within a year, the life time is just a fraction of what it used to be,
 567 and it slowly become painful to use the laptop without power connected
 568 all the time.  Because of this, when I got a new Thinkpad X230 laptop
 569 about two years ago, I decided to monitor its battery state to have
 570 more hard facts when the battery started to fail.</p>
 571
 572 <img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2015-09-24-laptop-battery-graph.png"/>
 573
 574 <p>First I tried to find a sensible Debian package to record the
 575 battery status, assuming that this must be a problem already handled
 576 by someone else.  I found
 577 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/battery-stats">battery-stats</a>,
 578 which collects statistics from the battery, but it was completely
 579 broken.  I sent a few suggestions to the maintainer, but decided to
 580 write my own collector as a shell script while I waited for feedback
 581 from him.  Via
 582 <a href="http://www.ifweassume.com/2013/08/the-de-evolution-of-my-laptop-battery.html">a
 583 blog post about the battery development on a MacBook Air</a> I also
 584 discovered
 585 <a href="https://github.com/jradavenport/batlog.git">batlog</a>, not
 586 available in Debian.</p>
 587
 588 <p>I started my collector 2013-07-15, and it has been collecting
 589 battery stats ever since. Now my
 590 /var/log/hjemmenett-battery-status.log file contain around 115,000
 591 measurements, from the time the battery was working great until now,
 592 when it is unable to charge above 7% of original capacity.  My
 593 collector shell script is quite simple and look like this:</p>
 594
 595 <pre>
 596 #!/bin/sh
 597 # Inspired by
 598 # http://www.ifweassume.com/2013/08/the-de-evolution-of-my-laptop-battery.html
 599 # See also
 600 # http://blog.sleeplessbeastie.eu/2013/01/02/debian-how-to-monitor-battery-capacity/
 601 logfile=/var/log/hjemmenett-battery-status.log
 602
 603 files="manufacturer model_name technology serial_number \
 604     energy_full energy_full_design energy_now cycle_count status"
 605
 606 if [ ! -e "$logfile" ] ; then
 607     (
 608         printf "timestamp,"
 609         for f in $files; do
 610             printf "%s," $f
 611         done
 612         echo
 613     ) > "$logfile"
 614 fi
 615
 616 log_battery() {
 617     # Print complete message in one echo call, to avoid race condition
 618     # when several log processes run in parallel.
 619     msg=$(printf "%s," $(date +%s); \
 620         for f in $files; do \
 621             printf "%s," $(cat $f); \
 622         done)
 623     echo "$msg"
 624 }
 625
 626 cd /sys/class/power_supply
 627
 628 for bat in BAT*; do
 629     (cd $bat && log_battery >> "$logfile")
 630 done
 631 </pre>
 632
 633 <p>The script is called when the power management system detect a
 634 change in the power status (power plug in or out), and when going into
 635 and out of hibernation and suspend.  In addition, it collect a value
 636 every 10 minutes.  This make it possible for me know when the battery
 637 is discharging, charging and how the maximum charge change over time.
 638 The code for the Debian package
 639 <a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/battery-status">is now
 640 available on github</a>.</p>
 641
 642 <p>The collected log file look like this:</p>
 643
 644 <pre>
 645 timestamp,manufacturer,model_name,technology,serial_number,energy_full,energy_full_design,energy_now,cycle_count,status,
 646 1376591133,LGC,45N1025,Li-ion,974,62800000,62160000,39050000,0,Discharging,
 647 [...]
 648 1443090528,LGC,45N1025,Li-ion,974,4900000,62160000,4900000,0,Full,
 649 1443090601,LGC,45N1025,Li-ion,974,4900000,62160000,4900000,0,Full,
 650 </pre>
 651
 652 <p>I wrote a small script to create a graph of the charge development
 653 over time.  This graph depicted above show the slow death of my laptop
 654 battery.</p>
 655
 656 <p>But why is this happening?  Why are my laptop batteries always
 657 dying in a year or two, while the batteries of space probes and
 658 satellites keep working year after year.  If we are to believe
 659 <a href="http://batteryuniversity.com/learn/article/how_to_prolong_lithium_based_batteries">Battery
 660 University</a>, the cause is me charging the battery whenever I have a
 661 chance, and the fix is to not charge the Lithium-ion batteries to 100%
 662 all the time, but to stay below 90% of full charge most of the time.
 663 I've been told that the Tesla electric cars
 664 <a href="http://my.teslamotors.com/de_CH/forum/forums/battery-charge-limit">limit
 665 the charge of their batteries to 80%</a>, with the option to charge to
 666 100% when preparing for a longer trip (not that I would want a car
 667 like Tesla where rights to privacy is abandoned, but that is another
 668 story), which I guess is the option we should have for laptops on
 669 Linux too.</p>
 670
 671 <p>Is there a good and generic way with Linux to tell the battery to
 672 stop charging at 80%, unless requested to charge to 100% once in
 673 preparation for a longer trip?  I found
 674 <a href="http://askubuntu.com/questions/34452/how-can-i-limit-battery-charging-to-80-capacity">one
 675 recipe on askubuntu for Ubuntu to limit charging on Thinkpad to
 676 80%</a>, but could not get it to work (kernel module refused to
 677 load).</p>
 678
 679 <p>I wonder why the battery capacity was reported to be more than 100%
 680 at the start.  I also wonder why the "full capacity" increases some
 681 times, and if it is possible to repeat the process to get the battery
 682 back to design capacity.  And I wonder if the discharge and charge
 683 speed change over time, or if this stay the same.  I did not yet try
 684 to write a tool to calculate the derivative values of the battery
 685 level, but suspect some interesting insights might be learned from
 686 those.</p>
 687
 688 <p>Update 2015-09-24: I got a tip to install the packages
 689 acpi-call-dkms and tlp (unfortunately missing in Debian stable)
 690 packages instead of the tp-smapi-dkms package I had tried to use
 691 initially, and use 'tlp setcharge 40 80' to change when charging start
 692 and stop.  I've done so now, but expect my existing battery is toast
 693 and need to be replaced.  The proposal is unfortunately Thinkpad
 694 specific.</p>
 695
 696       </div>
 697       <div class="tags">
 698
 699
 700         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>.
 701
 702
 703       </div>
 704     </div>
 705     <div class="padding"></div>
 706
 707     <div class="entry">
 708       <div class="title">
 709         <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>
 710       </div>
 711       <div class="date">
 712          5th July 2015
 713       </div>
 714       <div class="body">
 715         <p>Several people contacted me after my previous blog post about my
 716 need for a new laptop, and provided very useful feedback.  I wish to
 717 thank every one of these.  Several pointed me to the possibility of
 718 fixing my X230, and I am already in the process of getting Lenovo to
 719 do so thanks to the on site, next day support contract covering the
 720 machine.  But the battery is almost useless (I expect to replace it
 721 with a non-official battery) and I do not expect the machine to live
 722 for many more years, so it is time to plan its replacement.  If I did
 723 not have a support contract, it was suggested to find replacement parts
 724 using <a href="http://www.francecrans.com/">FrancEcrans</a>, but it
 725 might present a language barrier as I do not understand French.</p>
 726
 727 <p>One tip I got was to use the
 728 <a href="https://skinflint.co.uk/?cat=nb">Skinflint</a> web service to
 729 compare laptop models.  It seem to have more models available than
 730 prisjakt.no.  Another tip I got from someone I know have similar
 731 keyboard preferences was that the HP EliteBook 840 keyboard is not
 732 very good, and this matches my experience with earlier EliteBook
 733 keyboards I tested.  Because of this, I will not consider it any further.
 734
 735 <p>When I wrote my blog post, I was not aware of Thinkpad X250, the
 736 newest Thinkpad X model.  The keyboard reintroduces mouse buttons
 737 (which is missing from the X240), and is working fairly well with
 738 Debian Sid/Unstable according to
 739 <a href="http://www.corsac.net/X250/">Corsac.net</a>.  The reports I
 740 got on the keyboard quality are not consistent.  Some say the keyboard
 741 is good, others say it is ok, while others say it is not very good.
 742 Those with experience from X41 and and X60 agree that the X250
 743 keyboard is not as good as those trusty old laptops, and suggest I
 744 keep and fix my X230 instead of upgrading, or get a used X230 to
 745 replace it.  I'm also told that the X250 lack leds for caps lock, disk
 746 activity and battery status, which is very convenient on my X230.  I'm
 747 also told that the CPU fan is running very often, making it a bit
 748 noisy.  In any case, the X250 do not work out of the box with Debian
 749 Stable/Jessie, one of my requirements.</p>
 750
 751 <p>I have also gotten a few vendor proposals, one was
 752 <a href="http://pro-star.com">Pro-Star</a>, another was
 753 <a href="http://shop.gluglug.org.uk/product/libreboot-x200/">Libreboot</a>.
 754 The latter look very attractive to me.</p>
 755
 756 <p>Again, thank you all for the very useful feedback.  It help a lot
 757 as I keep looking for a replacement.</p>
 758
 759 <p>Update 2015-07-06: I was recommended to check out the
 760 <a href="">lapstore.de</a> web shop for used laptops.  They got several
 761 different
 762 <a href="http://www.lapstore.de/f.php/shop/lapstore/f/411/lang/x/kw/Lenovo_ThinkPad_X_Serie/">old
 763 thinkpad X models</a>, and provide one year warranty.</p>
 764
 765       </div>
 766       <div class="tags">
 767
 768
 769         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>.
 770
 771
 772       </div>
 773     </div>
 774     <div class="padding"></div>
 775
 776     <div class="entry">
 777       <div class="title">
 778         <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>
 779       </div>
 780       <div class="date">
 781          3rd July 2015
 782       </div>
 783       <div class="body">
 784         <p>My primary work horse laptop is failing, and will need a
 785 replacement soon.  The left 5 cm of the screen on my Thinkpad X230
 786 started flickering yesterday, and I suspect the cause is a broken
 787 cable, as changing the angle of the screen some times get rid of the
 788 flickering.</p>
 789
 790 <p>My requirements have not really changed since I bought it, and is
 791 still as
 792 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Thank_you_Thinkpad_X41__for_your_long_and_trustworthy_service.html">I
 793 described them in 2013</a>.  The last time I bought a laptop, I had
 794 good help from
 795 <a href="http://www.prisjakt.no/category.php?k=353">prisjakt.no</a>
 796 where I could select at least a few of the requirements (mouse pin,
 797 wifi, weight) and go through the rest manually.  Three button mouse
 798 and a good keyboard is not available as an option, and all the three
 799 laptop models proposed today (Thinkpad X240, HP EliteBook 820 G1 and
 800 G2) lack three mouse buttons).  It is also unclear to me how good the
 801 keyboard on the HP EliteBooks are.  I hope Lenovo have not messed up
 802 the keyboard, even if the quality and robustness in the X series have
 803 deteriorated since X41.</p>
 804
 805 <p>I wonder how I can find a sensible laptop when none of the options
 806 seem sensible to me?  Are there better services around to search the
 807 set of available laptops for features?  Please send me an email if you
 808 have suggestions.</p>
 809
 810 <p>Update 2015-07-23: I got a suggestion to check out the FSF
 811 <a href="http://www.fsf.org/resources/hw/endorsement/respects-your-freedom">list
 812 of endorsed hardware</a>, which is useful background information.</p>
 813
 814       </div>
 815       <div class="tags">
 816
 817
 818         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>.
 819
 820
 821       </div>
 822     </div>
 823     <div class="padding"></div>
 824
 825     <div class="entry">
 826       <div class="title">
 827         <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>
 828       </div>
 829       <div class="date">
 830         22nd November 2014
 831       </div>
 832       <div class="body">
 833         <p>By now, it is well known that Debian Jessie will not be using
 834 sysvinit as its boot system by default.  But how can one keep using
 835 sysvinit in Jessie?  It is fairly easy, and here are a few recipes,
 836 courtesy of
 837 <a href="http://www.vitavonni.de/blog/201410/2014102101-avoiding-systemd.html">Erich
 838 Schubert</a> and
 839 <a href="http://smcv.pseudorandom.co.uk/2014/still_universal/">Simon
 840 McVittie</a>.
 841
 842 <p>If you already are using Wheezy and want to upgrade to Jessie and
 843 keep sysvinit as your boot system, create a file
 844 <tt>/etc/apt/preferences.d/use-sysvinit</tt> with this content before
 845 you upgrade:</p>
 846
 847 <p><blockquote><pre>
 848 Package: systemd-sysv
 849 Pin: release o=Debian
 850 Pin-Priority: -1
 851 </pre></blockquote><p>
 852
 853 <p>This file content will tell apt and aptitude to not consider
 854 installing systemd-sysv as part of any installation and upgrade
 855 solution when resolving dependencies, and thus tell it to avoid
 856 systemd as a default boot system.  The end result should be that the
 857 upgraded system keep using sysvinit.</p>
 858
 859 <p>If you are installing Jessie for the first time, there is no way to
 860 get sysvinit installed by default (debootstrap used by
 861 debian-installer have no option for this), but one can tell the
 862 installer to switch to sysvinit before the first boot.  Either by
 863 using a kernel argument to the installer, or by adding a line to the
 864 preseed file used.  First, the kernel command line argument:
 865
 866 <p><blockquote><pre>
 867 preseed/late_command="in-target apt-get install --purge -y sysvinit-core"
 868 </pre></blockquote><p>
 869
 870 <p>Next, the line to use in a preseed file:</p>
 871
 872 <p><blockquote><pre>
 873 d-i preseed/late_command string in-target apt-get install -y sysvinit-core
 874 </pre></blockquote><p>
 875
 876 <p>One can of course also do this after the first boot by installing
 877 the sysvinit-core package.</p>
 878
 879 <p>I recommend only using sysvinit if you really need it, as the
 880 sysvinit boot sequence in Debian have several hardware specific bugs
 881 on Linux caused by the fact that it is unpredictable when hardware
 882 devices show up during boot.  But on the other hand, the new default
 883 boot system still have a few rough edges I hope will be fixed before
 884 Jessie is released.</p>
 885
 886 <p>Update 2014-11-26: Inspired by
 887 <ahref="https://www.mirbsd.org/permalinks/wlog-10-tg_e20141125-tg.htm#e20141125-tg_wlog-10-tg">a
 888 blog post by Torsten Glaser</a>, added --purge to the preseed
 889 line.</p>
 890
 891       </div>
 892       <div class="tags">
 893
 894
 895         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>.
 896
 897
 898       </div>
 899     </div>
 900     <div class="padding"></div>
 901
 902     <div class="entry">
 903       <div class="title">
 904         <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>
 905       </div>
 906       <div class="date">
 907         10th November 2014
 908       </div>
 909       <div class="body">
 910         <p>The right to communicate with your friends and family in private,
 911 without anyone snooping, is a right every citicen have in a liberal
 912 democracy.  But this right is under serious attack these days.</p>
 913
 914 <p>A while back it occurred to me that one way to make the dragnet
 915 surveillance conducted by NSA, GCHQ, FRA and others (and confirmed by
 916 the whisleblower Snowden) more expensive for Internet email,
 917 is to deliver all email using SMTP via Tor.  Such SMTP option would be
 918 a nice addition to the FreedomBox project if we could send email
 919 between FreedomBox machines without leaking metadata about the emails
 920 to the people peeking on the wire.  I
 921 <a href="http://lists.alioth.debian.org/pipermail/freedombox-discuss/2014-October/006493.html">proposed
 922 this on the FreedomBox project mailing list in October</a> and got a
 923 lot of useful feedback and suggestions.  It also became obvious to me
 924 that this was not a novel idea, as the same idea was tested and
 925 documented by Johannes Berg as early as 2006, and both
 926 <a href="https://github.com/pagekite/Mailpile/wiki/SMTorP">the
 927 Mailpile</a> and <a href="http://dee.su/cables">the Cables</a> systems
 928 propose a similar method / protocol to pass emails between users.</p>
 929
 930 <p>To implement such system one need to set up a Tor hidden service
 931 providing the SMTP protocol on port 25, and use email addresses
 932 looking like username@hidden-service-name.onion.  With such addresses
 933 the connections to port 25 on hidden-service-name.onion using Tor will
 934 go to the correct SMTP server.  To do this, one need to configure the
 935 Tor daemon to provide the hidden service and the mail server to accept
 936 emails for this .onion domain.  To learn more about Exim configuration
 937 in Debian and test the design provided by Johannes Berg in his FAQ, I
 938 set out yesterday to create a Debian package for making it trivial to
 939 set up such SMTP over Tor service based on Debian.  Getting it to work
 940 were fairly easy, and
 941 <a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/exim4-smtorp">the
 942 source code for the Debian package</a> is available from github.  I
 943 plan to move it into Debian if further testing prove this to be a
 944 useful approach.</p>
 945
 946 <p>If you want to test this, set up a blank Debian machine without any
 947 mail system installed (or run <tt>apt-get purge exim4-config</tt> to
 948 get rid of exim4).  Install tor, clone the git repository mentioned
 949 above, build the deb and install it on the machine.  Next, run
 950 <tt>/usr/lib/exim4-smtorp/setup-exim-hidden-service</tt> and follow
 951 the instructions to get the service up and running.  Restart tor and
 952 exim when it is done, and test mail delivery using swaks like
 953 this:</p>
 954
 955 <p><blockquote><pre>
 956 torsocks swaks --server dutlqrrmjhtfa3vp.onion \
 957   --to fbx@dutlqrrmjhtfa3vp.onion
 958 </pre></blockquote></p>
 959
 960 <p>This will test the SMTP delivery using tor.  Replace the email
 961 address with your own address to test your server. :)</p>
 962
 963 <p>The setup procedure is still to complex, and I hope it can be made
 964 easier and more automatic.  Especially the tor setup need more work.
 965 Also, the package include a tor-smtp tool written in C, but its task
 966 should probably be rewritten in some script language to make the deb
 967 architecture independent.  It would probably also make the code easier
 968 to review.  The tor-smtp tool currently need to listen on a socket for
 969 exim to talk to it and is started using xinetd.  It would be better if
 970 no daemon and no socket is needed.  I suspect it is possible to get
 971 exim to run a command line tool for delivery instead of talking to a
 972 socket, and hope to figure out how in a future version of this
 973 system.</p>
 974
 975 <p>Until I wipe my test machine, I can be reached using the
 976 <tt>fbx@dutlqrrmjhtfa3vp.onion</tt> mail address, deliverable over
 977 SMTorP. :)</p>
 978
 979       </div>
 980       <div class="tags">
 981
 982
 983         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>.
 984
 985
 986       </div>
 987     </div>
 988     <div class="padding"></div>
 989
 990     <div class="entry">
 991       <div class="title">
 992         <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>
 993       </div>
 994       <div class="date">
 995         22nd October 2014
 996       </div>
 997       <div class="body">
 998         <p>If you ever had to moderate a mailman list, like the ones on
 999 alioth.debian.org, you know the web interface is fairly slow to
1000 operate.  First you visit one web page, enter the moderation password
1001 and get a new page shown with a list of all the messages to moderate
1002 and various options for each email address.  This take a while for
1003 every list you moderate, and you need to do it regularly to do a good
1004 job as a list moderator.  But there is a quick alternative,
1005 <a href="http://heim.ifi.uio.no/kjetilho/hacks/#listadmin">the
1006 listadmin program</a>.  It allow you to check lists for new messages
1007 to moderate in a fraction of a second.  Here is a test run on two
1008 lists I recently took over:</p>
1009
1010 <p><blockquote><pre>
1011 % time listadmin xiph
1012 fetching data for pkg-xiph-commits@lists.alioth.debian.org ... nothing in queue
1013 fetching data for pkg-xiph-maint@lists.alioth.debian.org ... nothing in queue
1014
1015 real    0m1.709s
1016 user    0m0.232s
1017 sys     0m0.012s
1018 %
1019 </pre></blockquote></p>
1020
1021 <p>In 1.7 seconds I had checked two mailing lists and confirmed that
1022 there are no message in the moderation queue.  Every morning I
1023 currently moderate 68 mailman lists, and it normally take around two
1024 minutes.  When I took over the two pkg-xiph lists above a few days
1025 ago, there were 400 emails waiting in the moderator queue.  It took me
1026 less than 15 minutes to process them all using the listadmin
1027 program.</p>
1028
1029 <p>If you install
1030 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/listadmin">the listadmin
1031 package</a> from Debian and create a file <tt>~/.listadmin.ini</tt>
1032 with content like this, the moderation task is a breeze:</p>
1033
1034 <p><blockquote><pre>
1035 username username@example.org
1036 spamlevel 23
1037 default discard
1038 discard_if_reason "Posting restricted to members only. Remove us from your mail list."
1039
1040 password secret
1041 adminurl https://{domain}/mailman/admindb/{list}
1042 mailman-list@lists.example.com
1043
1044 password hidden
1045 other-list@otherserver.example.org
1046 </pre></blockquote></p>
1047
1048 <p>There are other options to set as well.  Check the manual page to
1049 learn the details.</p>
1050
1051 <p>If you are forced to moderate lists on a mailman installation where
1052 the SSL certificate is self signed or not properly signed by a
1053 generally accepted signing authority, you can set a environment
1054 variable when calling listadmin to disable SSL verification:</p>
1055
1056 <p><blockquote><pre>
1057 PERL_LWP_SSL_VERIFY_HOSTNAME=0 listadmin
1058 </pre></blockquote></p>
1059
1060 <p>If you want to moderate a subset of the lists you take care of, you
1061 can provide an argument to the listadmin script like I do in the
1062 initial screen dump (the xiph argument).  Using an argument, only
1063 lists matching the argument string will be processed.  This make it
1064 quick to accept messages if you notice the moderation request in your
1065 email.</p>
1066
1067 <p>Without the listadmin program, I would never be the moderator of 68
1068 mailing lists, as I simply do not have time to spend on that if the
1069 process was any slower. The listadmin program have saved me hours of
1070 time I could spend elsewhere over the years.  It truly is nice free
1071 software.</p>
1072
1073 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
1074 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
1075 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b&label=PetterReinholdtsenBlog">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
1076
1077 <p>Update 2014-10-27: Added missing 'username' statement in
1078 configuration example.  Also, I've been told that the
1079 PERL_LWP_SSL_VERIFY_HOSTNAME=0 setting do not work for everyone.  Not
1080 sure why.</p>
1081
1082       </div>
1083       <div class="tags">
1084
1085
1086         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>.
1087
1088
1089       </div>
1090     </div>
1091     <div class="padding"></div>
1092
1093     <div class="entry">
1094       <div class="title">
1095         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Jessie__PXE_and_automatic_firmware_installation.html">Debian Jessie, PXE and automatic firmware installation</a>
1096       </div>
1097       <div class="date">
1098         17th October 2014
1099       </div>
1100       <div class="body">
1101         <p>When PXE installing laptops with Debian, I often run into the
1102 problem that the WiFi card require some firmware to work properly.
1103 And it has been a pain to fix this using preseeding in Debian.
1104 Normally something more is needed.  But thanks to
1105 <a href="https://packages.qa.debian.org/i/isenkram.html">my isenkram
1106 package</a> and its recent tasksel extension, it has now become easy
1107 to do this using simple preseeding.</p>
1108
1109 <p>The isenkram-cli package provide tasksel tasks which will install
1110 firmware for the hardware found in the machine (actually, requested by
1111 the kernel modules for the hardware).  (It can also install user space
1112 programs supporting the hardware detected, but that is not the focus
1113 of this story.)</p>
1114
1115 <p>To get this working in the default installation, two preeseding
1116 values are needed.  First, the isenkram-cli package must be installed
1117 into the target chroot (aka the hard drive) before tasksel is executed
1118 in the pkgsel step of the debian-installer system.  This is done by
1119 preseeding the base-installer/includes debconf value to include the
1120 isenkram-cli package.  The package name is next passed to debootstrap
1121 for installation.  With the isenkram-cli package in place, tasksel
1122 will automatically use the isenkram tasks to detect hardware specific
1123 packages for the machine being installed and install them, because
1124 isenkram-cli contain tasksel tasks.</p>
1125
1126 <p>Second, one need to enable the non-free APT repository, because
1127 most firmware unfortunately is non-free.  This is done by preseeding
1128 the apt-mirror-setup step.  This is unfortunate, but for a lot of
1129 hardware it is the only option in Debian.</p>
1130
1131 <p>The end result is two lines needed in your preseeding file to get
1132 firmware installed automatically by the installer:</p>
1133
1134 <p><blockquote><pre>
1135 base-installer base-installer/includes string isenkram-cli
1136 apt-mirror-setup apt-setup/non-free boolean true
1137 </pre></blockquote></p>
1138
1139 <p>The current version of isenkram-cli in testing/jessie will install
1140 both firmware and user space packages when using this method.  It also
1141 do not work well, so use version 0.15 or later.  Installing both
1142 firmware and user space packages might give you a bit more than you
1143 want, so I decided to split the tasksel task in two, one for firmware
1144 and one for user space programs.  The firmware task is enabled by
1145 default, while the one for user space programs is not.  This split is
1146 implemented in the package currently in unstable.</p>
1147
1148 <p>If you decide to give this a go, please let me know (via email) how
1149 this recipe work for you. :)</p>
1150
1151 <p>So, I bet you are wondering, how can this work.  First and
1152 foremost, it work because tasksel is modular, and driven by whatever
1153 files it find in /usr/lib/tasksel/ and /usr/share/tasksel/.  So the
1154 isenkram-cli package place two files for tasksel to find.  First there
1155 is the task description file (/usr/share/tasksel/descs/isenkram.desc):</p>
1156
1157 <p><blockquote><pre>
1158 Task: isenkram-packages
1159 Section: hardware
1160 Description: Hardware specific packages (autodetected by isenkram)
1161  Based on the detected hardware various hardware specific packages are
1162  proposed.
1163 Test-new-install: show show
1164 Relevance: 8
1165 Packages: for-current-hardware
1166
1167 Task: isenkram-firmware
1168 Section: hardware
1169 Description: Hardware specific firmware packages (autodetected by isenkram)
1170  Based on the detected hardware various hardware specific firmware
1171  packages are proposed.
1172 Test-new-install: mark show
1173 Relevance: 8
1174 Packages: for-current-hardware-firmware
1175 </pre></blockquote></p>
1176
1177 <p>The key parts are Test-new-install which indicate how the task
1178 should be handled and the Packages line referencing to a script in
1179 /usr/lib/tasksel/packages/.  The scripts use other scripts to get a
1180 list of packages to install.  The for-current-hardware-firmware script
1181 look like this to list relevant firmware for the machine:
1182
1183 <p><blockquote><pre>
1184 #!/bin/sh
1185 #
1186 PATH=/usr/sbin:$PATH
1187 export PATH
1188 isenkram-autoinstall-firmware -l
1189 </pre></blockquote></p>
1190
1191 <p>With those two pieces in place, the firmware is installed by
1192 tasksel during the normal d-i run. :)</p>
1193
1194 <p>If you want to test what tasksel will install when isenkram-cli is
1195 installed, run <tt>DEBIAN_PRIORITY=critical tasksel --test
1196 --new-install</tt> to get the list of packages that tasksel would
1197 install.</p>
1198
1199 <p><a href="https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/">Debian Edu</a> will be
1200 pilots in testing this feature, as isenkram is used there now to
1201 install firmware, replacing the earlier scripts.</p>
1202
1203       </div>
1204       <div class="tags">
1205
1206
1207         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>.
1208
1209
1210       </div>
1211     </div>
1212     <div class="padding"></div>
1213
1214     <div class="entry">
1215       <div class="title">
1216         <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>
1217       </div>
1218       <div class="date">
1219          4th October 2014
1220       </div>
1221       <div class="body">
1222         <p>Today I came across an unexpected Ubuntu boot screen.  Above the
1223 bread shelf on the ICA shop at Storo in Oslo, the grub menu of Ubuntu
1224 with Linux kernel 3.2.0-23 (ie probably version 12.04 LTS) was stuck
1225 on a screen normally showing the bread types and prizes:</p>
1226
1227 <p align="center"><img width="70%" src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2014-10-04-ubuntu-ica-storo-crop.jpeg"></p>
1228
1229 <p>If it had booted as it was supposed to, I would never had known
1230 about this hidden Linux installation.  It is interesting what
1231 <a href="http://revealingerrors.com/">errors can reveal</a>.</p>
1232
1233       </div>
1234       <div class="tags">
1235
1236
1237         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>.
1238
1239
1240       </div>
1241     </div>
1242     <div class="padding"></div>
1243
1244     <div class="entry">
1245       <div class="title">
1246         <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>
1247       </div>
1248       <div class="date">
1249          4th October 2014
1250       </div>
1251       <div class="body">
1252         <p>The <a href="https://sourceforge.net/p/lsdvd/">lsdvd project</a>
1253 got a new set of developers a few weeks ago, after the original
1254 developer decided to step down and pass the project to fresh blood.
1255 This project is now maintained by Petter Reinholdtsen and Steve
1256 Dibb.</p>
1257
1258 <p>I just wrapped up
1259 <a href="https://sourceforge.net/p/lsdvd/mailman/message/32896061/">a
1260 new lsdvd release</a>, available in git or from
1261 <a href="https://sourceforge.net/projects/lsdvd/files/lsdvd/">the
1262 download page</a>.  This is the changelog dated 2014-10-03 for version
1263 0.17.</p>
1264
1265 <ul>
1266
1267  <li>Ignore 'phantom' audio, subtitle tracks</li>
1268  <li>Check for garbage in the program chains, which indicate that a track is
1269    non-existant, to work around additional copy protection</li>
1270  <li>Fix displaying content type for audio tracks, subtitles</li>
1271  <li>Fix pallete display of first entry</li>
1272  <li>Fix include orders</li>
1273  <li>Ignore read errors in titles that would not be displayed anyway</li>
1274  <li>Fix the chapter count</li>
1275  <li>Make sure the array size and the array limit used when initialising
1276    the palette size is the same.</li>
1277  <li>Fix array printing.</li>
1278  <li>Correct subsecond calculations.</li>
1279  <li>Add sector information to the output format.</li>
1280  <li>Clean up code to be closer to ANSI C and compile without warnings
1281    with more GCC compiler warnings.</li>
1282
1283 </ul>
1284
1285 <p>This change bring together patches for lsdvd in use in various
1286 Linux and Unix distributions, as well as patches submitted to the
1287 project the last nine years.  Please check it out. :)</p>
1288
1289       </div>
1290       <div class="tags">
1291
1292
1293         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>.
1294
1295
1296       </div>
1297     </div>
1298     <div class="padding"></div>
1299
1300     <div class="entry">
1301       <div class="title">
1302         <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>
1303       </div>
1304       <div class="date">
1305         26th September 2014
1306       </div>
1307       <div class="body">
1308         <p>The <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux
1309 project</a> provide a Linux solution for schools, including a
1310 powerful desktop with education software, a central server providing
1311 web pages, user database, user home directories, central login and PXE
1312 boot of both  clients without disk and the installation to install Debian
1313 Edu on machines with disk (and a few other services perhaps to small
1314 to mention here).  We in the Debian Edu team are currently working on
1315 the Jessie based version, trying to get everything in shape before the
1316 freeze, to avoid having to maintain our own package repository in the
1317 future.  The
1318 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Status/Jessie">current
1319 status</a> can be seen on the Debian wiki, and there is still heaps of
1320 work left.  Some fatal problems block testing, breaking the installer,
1321 but it is possible to work around these to get anyway.  Here is a
1322 recipe on how to get the installation limping along.</p>
1323
1324 <p>First, download the test ISO via
1325 <a href="ftp://ftp.skolelinux.no/cd-edu-testing-nolocal-netinst/debian-edu-amd64-i386-NETINST-1.iso">ftp</a>,
1326 <a href="http://ftp.skolelinux.no/cd-edu-testing-nolocal-netinst/debian-edu-amd64-i386-NETINST-1.iso">http</a>
1327 or rsync (use
1328 ftp.skolelinux.org::cd-edu-testing-nolocal-netinst/debian-edu-amd64-i386-NETINST-1.iso).
1329 The ISO build was broken on Tuesday, so we do not get a new ISO every
1330 12 hours or so, but thankfully the ISO we already got we are able to
1331 install with some tweaking.</p>
1332
1333 <p>When you get to the Debian Edu profile question, go to tty2
1334 (use Alt-Ctrl-F2), run</p>
1335
1336 <p><blockquote><pre>
1337 nano /usr/bin/edu-eatmydata-install
1338 </pre></blockquote></p>
1339
1340 <p>and add 'exit 0' as the second line, disabling the eatmydata
1341 optimization.  Return to the installation, select the profile you want
1342 and continue.  Without this change, exim4-config will fail to install
1343 due to a known bug in eatmydata.</p>
1344
1345 <p>When you get the grub question at the end, answer /dev/sda (or if
1346 this do not work, figure out what your correct value would be.  All my
1347 test machines need /dev/sda, so I have no advice if it do not fit
1348 your need.</p>
1349
1350 <p>If you installed a profile including a graphical desktop, log in as
1351 root after the initial boot from hard drive, and install the
1352 education-desktop-XXX metapackage.  XXX can be kde, gnome, lxde, xfce
1353 or mate.  If you want several desktop options, install more than one
1354 metapackage.  Once this is done, reboot and you should have a working
1355 graphical login screen.  This workaround should no longer be needed
1356 once the education-tasks package version 1.801 enter testing in two
1357 days.</p>
1358
1359 <p>I believe the ISO build will start working on two days when the new
1360 tasksel package enter testing and Steve McIntyre get a chance to
1361 update the debian-cd git repository.  The eatmydata, grub and desktop
1362 issues are already fixed in unstable and testing, and should show up
1363 on the ISO as soon as the ISO build start working again.  Well the
1364 eatmydata optimization is really just disabled.  The proper fix
1365 require an upload by the eatmydata maintainer applying the patch
1366 provided in bug <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/702711">#702711</a>.
1367 The rest have proper fixes in unstable.</p>
1368
1369 <p>I hope this get you going with the installation testing, as we are
1370 quickly running out of time trying to get our Jessie based
1371 installation ready before the distribution freeze in a month.</p>
1372
1373       </div>
1374       <div class="tags">
1375
1376
1377         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>.
1378
1379
1380       </div>
1381     </div>
1382     <div class="padding"></div>
1383
1384     <div class="entry">
1385       <div class="title">
1386         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/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>
1387       </div>
1388       <div class="date">
1389         25th September 2014
1390       </div>
1391       <div class="body">
1392         <p>I use the <a href="https://sourceforge.net/p/lsdvd/">lsdvd tool</a>
1393 to handle my fairly large DVD collection.  It is a nice command line
1394 tool to get details about a DVD, like title, tracks, track length,
1395 etc, in XML, Perl or human readable format.  But lsdvd have not seen
1396 any new development since 2006 and had a few irritating bugs affecting
1397 its use with some DVDs.  Upstream seemed to be dead, and in January I
1398 sent a small probe asking for a version control repository for the
1399 project, without any reply.  But I use it regularly and would like to
1400 get <a href="https://packages.qa.debian.org/lsdvd">an updated version
1401 into Debian</a>.  So two weeks ago I tried harder to get in touch with
1402 the project admin, and after getting a reply from him explaining that
1403 he was no longer interested in the project, I asked if I could take
1404 over.  And yesterday, I became project admin.</p>
1405
1406 <p>I've been in touch with a Gentoo developer and the Debian
1407 maintainer interested in joining forces to maintain the upstream
1408 project, and I hope we can get a new release out fairly quickly,
1409 collecting the patches spread around on the internet into on place.
1410 I've added the relevant Debian patches to the freshly created git
1411 repository, and expect the Gentoo patches to make it too.  If you got
1412 a DVD collection and care about command line tools, check out
1413 <a href="https://sourceforge.net/p/lsdvd/git/ci/master/tree/">the git source</a> and join
1414 <a href="https://sourceforge.net/p/lsdvd/mailman/">the project mailing
1415 list</a>. :)</p>
1416
1417       </div>
1418       <div class="tags">
1419
1420
1421         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>.
1422
1423
1424       </div>
1425     </div>
1426     <div class="padding"></div>
1427
1428     <div class="entry">
1429       <div class="title">
1430         <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>
1431       </div>
1432       <div class="date">
1433         16th September 2014
1434       </div>
1435       <div class="body">
1436         <p>The <a href="https://www.debian.org/">Debian</a> installer could be
1437 a lot quicker.  When we install more than 2000 packages in
1438 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Skolelinux / Debian Edu</a> using
1439 tasksel in the installer, unpacking the binary packages take forever.
1440 A part of the slow I/O issue was discussed in
1441 <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/613428">bug #613428</a> about too
1442 much file system sync-ing done by dpkg, which is the package
1443 responsible for unpacking the binary packages.  Other parts (like code
1444 executed by postinst scripts) might also sync to disk during
1445 installation.  All this sync-ing to disk do not really make sense to
1446 me.  If the machine crash half-way through, I start over, I do not try
1447 to salvage the half installed system.  So the failure sync-ing is
1448 supposed to protect against, hardware or system crash, is not really
1449 relevant while the installer is running.</p>
1450
1451 <p>A few days ago, I thought of a way to get rid of all the file
1452 system sync()-ing in a fairly non-intrusive way, without the need to
1453 change the code in several packages.  The idea is not new, but I have
1454 not heard anyone propose the approach using dpkg-divert before.  It
1455 depend on the small and clever package
1456 <a href="https://packages.qa.debian.org/eatmydata">eatmydata</a>, which
1457 uses LD_PRELOAD to replace the system functions for syncing data to
1458 disk with functions doing nothing, thus allowing programs to live
1459 dangerous while speeding up disk I/O significantly.  Instead of
1460 modifying the implementation of dpkg, apt and tasksel (which are the
1461 packages responsible for selecting, fetching and installing packages),
1462 it occurred to me that we could just divert the programs away, replace
1463 them with a simple shell wrapper calling
1464 "eatmydata&nbsp;$program&nbsp;$@", to get the same effect.
1465 Two days ago I decided to test the idea, and wrapped up a simple
1466 implementation for the Debian Edu udeb.</p>
1467
1468 <p>The effect was stunning.  In my first test it reduced the running
1469 time of the pkgsel step (installing tasks) from 64 to less than 44
1470 minutes (20 minutes shaved off the installation) on an old Dell
1471 Latitude D505 machine.  I am not quite sure what the optimised time
1472 would have been, as I messed up the testing a bit, causing the debconf
1473 priority to get low enough for two questions to pop up during
1474 installation.  As soon as I saw the questions I moved the installation
1475 along, but do not know how long the question were holding up the
1476 installation.  I did some more measurements using Debian Edu Jessie,
1477 and got these results.  The time measured is the time stamp in
1478 /var/log/syslog between the "pkgsel: starting tasksel" and the
1479 "pkgsel: finishing up" lines, if you want to do the same measurement
1480 yourself.  In Debian Edu, the tasksel dialog do not show up, and the
1481 timing thus do not depend on how quickly the user handle the tasksel
1482 dialog.</p>
1483
1484 <p><table>
1485
1486 <tr>
1487 <th>Machine/setup</th>
1488 <th>Original tasksel</th>
1489 <th>Optimised tasksel</th>
1490 <th>Reduction</th>
1491 </tr>
1492
1493 <tr>
1494 <td>Latitude D505 Main+LTSP LXDE</td>
1495 <td>64 min (07:46-08:50)</td>
1496 <td><44 min (11:27-12:11)</td>
1497 <td>>20 min 18%</td>
1498 </tr>
1499
1500 <tr>
1501 <td>Latitude D505 Roaming LXDE</td>
1502 <td>57 min (08:48-09:45)</td>
1503 <td>34 min (07:43-08:17)</td>
1504 <td>23 min 40%</td>
1505 </tr>
1506
1507 <tr>
1508 <td>Latitude D505 Minimal</td>
1509 <td>22 min (10:37-10:59)</td>
1510 <td>11 min (11:16-11:27)</td>
1511 <td>11 min 50%</td>
1512 </tr>
1513
1514 <tr>
1515 <td>Thinkpad X200 Minimal</td>
1516 <td>6 min (08:19-08:25)</td>
1517 <td>4 min (08:04-08:08)</td>
1518 <td>2 min 33%</td>
1519 </tr>
1520
1521 <tr>
1522 <td>Thinkpad X200 Roaming KDE</td>
1523 <td>19 min (09:21-09:40)</td>
1524 <td>15 min (10:25-10:40)</td>
1525 <td>4 min 21%</td>
1526 </tr>
1527
1528 </table></p>
1529
1530 <p>The test is done using a netinst ISO on a USB stick, so some of the
1531 time is spent downloading packages.  The connection to the Internet
1532 was 100Mbit/s during testing, so downloading should not be a
1533 significant factor in the measurement.  Download typically took a few
1534 seconds to a few minutes, depending on the amount of packages being
1535 installed.</p>
1536
1537 <p>The speedup is implemented by using two hooks in
1538 <a href="https://www.debian.org/devel/debian-installer/">Debian
1539 Installer</a>, the pre-pkgsel.d hook to set up the diverts, and the
1540 finish-install.d hook to remove the divert at the end of the
1541 installation.  I picked the pre-pkgsel.d hook instead of the
1542 post-base-installer.d hook because I test using an ISO without the
1543 eatmydata package included, and the post-base-installer.d hook in
1544 Debian Edu can only operate on packages included in the ISO.  The
1545 negative effect of this is that I am unable to activate this
1546 optimization for the kernel installation step in d-i.  If the code is
1547 moved to the post-base-installer.d hook, the speedup would be larger
1548 for the entire installation.</p>
1549
1550 <p>I've implemented this in the
1551 <a href="https://packages.qa.debian.org/debian-edu-install">debian-edu-install</a>
1552 git repository, and plan to provide the optimization as part of the
1553 Debian Edu installation.  If you want to test this yourself, you can
1554 create two files in the installer (or in an udeb).  One shell script
1555 need do go into /usr/lib/pre-pkgsel.d/, with content like this:</p>
1556
1557 <p><blockquote><pre>
1558 #!/bin/sh
1559 set -e
1560 . /usr/share/debconf/confmodule
1561 info() {
1562     logger -t my-pkgsel "info: $*"
1563 }
1564 error() {
1565     logger -t my-pkgsel "error: $*"
1566 }
1567 override_install() {
1568     apt-install eatmydata || true
1569     if [ -x /target/usr/bin/eatmydata ] ; then
1570         for bin in dpkg apt-get aptitude tasksel ; do
1571             file=/usr/bin/$bin
1572             # Test that the file exist and have not been diverted already.
1573             if [ -f /target$file ] ; then
1574                 info "diverting $file using eatmydata"
1575                 printf "#!/bin/sh\neatmydata $bin.distrib \"\$@\"\n" \
1576                     > /target$file.edu
1577                 chmod 755 /target$file.edu
1578                 in-target dpkg-divert --package debian-edu-config \
1579                     --rename --quiet --add $file
1580                 ln -sf ./$bin.edu /target$file
1581             else
1582                 error "unable to divert $file, as it is missing."
1583             fi
1584         done
1585     else
1586         error "unable to find /usr/bin/eatmydata after installing the eatmydata pacage"
1587     fi
1588 }
1589
1590 override_install
1591 </pre></blockquote></p>
1592
1593 <p>To clean up, another shell script should go into
1594 /usr/lib/finish-install.d/ with code like this:
1595
1596 <p><blockquote><pre>
1597 #! /bin/sh -e
1598 . /usr/share/debconf/confmodule
1599 error() {
1600     logger -t my-finish-install "error: $@"
1601 }
1602 remove_install_override() {
1603     for bin in dpkg apt-get aptitude tasksel ; do
1604         file=/usr/bin/$bin
1605         if [ -x /target$file.edu ] ; then
1606             rm /target$file
1607             in-target dpkg-divert --package debian-edu-config \
1608                 --rename --quiet --remove $file
1609             rm /target$file.edu
1610         else
1611             error "Missing divert for $file."
1612         fi
1613     done
1614     sync # Flush file buffers before continuing
1615 }
1616
1617 remove_install_override
1618 </pre></blockquote></p>
1619
1620 <p>In Debian Edu, I placed both code fragments in a separate script
1621 edu-eatmydata-install and call it from the pre-pkgsel.d and
1622 finish-install.d scripts.</p>
1623
1624 <p>By now you might ask if this change should get into the normal
1625 Debian installer too?  I suspect it should, but am not sure the
1626 current debian-installer coordinators find it useful enough.  It also
1627 depend on the side effects of the change.  I'm not aware of any, but I
1628 guess we will see if the change is safe after some more testing.
1629 Perhaps there is some package in Debian depending on sync() and
1630 fsync() having effect?  Perhaps it should go into its own udeb, to
1631 allow those of us wanting to enable it to do so without affecting
1632 everyone.</p>
1633
1634 <p>Update 2014-09-24: Since a few days ago, enabling this optimization
1635 will break installation of all programs using gnutls because of
1636 <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/702711">bug #702711</a>.  An updated
1637 eatmydata package in Debian will solve it.</p>
1638
1639 <p>Update 2014-10-17: The bug mentioned above is fixed in testing and
1640 the optimization work again.  And I have discovered that the
1641 dpkg-divert trick is not really needed and implemented a slightly
1642 simpler approach as part of the debian-edu-install package.  See
1643 tools/edu-eatmydata-install in the source package.</p>
1644
1645 <p>Update 2014-11-11: Unfortunately, a new
1646 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/765738">bug #765738</a> in eatmydata only
1647 triggering on i386 made it into testing, and broke this installation
1648 optimization again.  If <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/768893">unblock
1649 request 768893</a> is accepted, it should be working again.</p>
1650
1651       </div>
1652       <div class="tags">
1653
1654
1655         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>.
1656
1657
1658       </div>
1659     </div>
1660     <div class="padding"></div>
1661
1662     <div class="entry">
1663       <div class="title">
1664         <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>
1665       </div>
1666       <div class="date">
1667         10th September 2014
1668       </div>
1669       <div class="body">
1670         <p>Yesterday, I had the pleasure of attending a talk with the
1671 <a href="http://www.nuug.no/">Norwegian Unix User Group</a> about
1672 <a href="http://www.nuug.no/aktiviteter/20140909-sks-keyservers/">the
1673 OpenPGP keyserver pool sks-keyservers.net</a>, and was very happy to
1674 learn that there is a large set of publicly available key servers to
1675 use when looking for peoples public key.  So far I have used
1676 subkeys.pgp.net, and some times wwwkeys.nl.pgp.net when the former
1677 were misbehaving, but those days are ended.  The servers I have used
1678 up until yesterday have been slow and some times unavailable.  I hope
1679 those problems are gone now.</p>
1680
1681 <p>Behind the round robin DNS entry of the
1682 <a href="https://sks-keyservers.net/">sks-keyservers.net</a> service
1683 there is a pool of more than 100 keyservers which are checked every
1684 day to ensure they are well connected and up to date.  It must be
1685 better than what I have used so far. :)</p>
1686
1687 <p>Yesterdays speaker told me that the service is the default
1688 keyserver provided by the default configuration in GnuPG, but this do
1689 not seem to be used in Debian.  Perhaps it should?</p>
1690
1691 <p>Anyway, I've updated my ~/.gnupg/options file to now include this
1692 line:</p>
1693
1694 <p><blockquote><pre>
1695 keyserver pool.sks-keyservers.net
1696 </pre></blockquote></p>
1697
1698 <p>With GnuPG version 2 one can also locate the keyserver using SRV
1699 entries in DNS.  Just for fun, I did just that at work, so now every
1700 user of GnuPG at the University of Oslo should find a OpenGPG
1701 keyserver automatically should their need it:</p>
1702
1703 <p><blockquote><pre>
1704 % host -t srv _pgpkey-http._tcp.uio.no
1705 _pgpkey-http._tcp.uio.no has SRV record 0 100 11371 pool.sks-keyservers.net.
1706 %
1707 </pre></blockquote></p>
1708
1709 <p>Now if only
1710 <a href="http://ietfreport.isoc.org/idref/draft-shaw-openpgp-hkp/">the
1711 HKP lookup protocol</a> supported finding signature paths, I would be
1712 very happy.  It can look up a given key or search for a user ID, but I
1713 normally do not want that, but to find a trust path from my key to
1714 another key.  Given a user ID or key ID, I would like to find (and
1715 download) the keys representing a signature path from my key to the
1716 key in question, to be able to get a trust path between the two keys.
1717 This is as far as I can tell not possible today.  Perhaps something
1718 for a future version of the protocol?</p>
1719
1720       </div>
1721       <div class="tags">
1722
1723
1724         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>.
1725
1726
1727       </div>
1728     </div>
1729     <div class="padding"></div>
1730
1731     <div class="entry">
1732       <div class="title">
1733         <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>
1734       </div>
1735       <div class="date">
1736         17th June 2014
1737       </div>
1738       <div class="body">
1739         <p>The <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux
1740 project</a> provide an instruction manual for teachers, system
1741 administrators and other users that contain useful tips for setting up
1742 and maintaining a Debian Edu installation.  This text is about how the
1743 text processing of this manual is handled in the project.</p>
1744
1745 <p>One goal of the project is to provide information in the native
1746 language of its users, and for this we need to handle translations.
1747 But we also want to make sure each language contain the same
1748 information, so for this we need a good way to keep the translations
1749 in sync.  And we want it to be easy for our users to improve the
1750 documentation, avoiding the need to learn special formats or tools to
1751 contribute, and the obvious way to do this is to make it possible to
1752 edit the documentation using a web browser.  We also want it to be
1753 easy for translators to keep the translation up to date, and give them
1754 help in figuring out what need to be translated. Here is the list of
1755 tools and the process we have found trying to reach all these
1756 goals.</p>
1757
1758 <p>We maintain the authoritative source of our manual in the
1759 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Documentation/Wheezy/">Debian
1760 wiki</a>, as several wiki pages written in English.  It consist of one
1761 front page with references to the different chapters, several pages
1762 for each chapter, and finally one "collection page" gluing all the
1763 chapters together into one large web page (aka
1764 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Documentation/Wheezy/AllInOne">the
1765 AllInOne page</a>).  The AllInOne page is the one used for further
1766 processing and translations.  Thanks to the fact that the
1767 <a href="http://moinmo.in/">MoinMoin</a> installation on
1768 wiki.debian.org support exporting pages in
1769 <a href="http://www.docbook.org/">the Docbook format</a>, we can fetch
1770 the list of pages to export using the raw version of the AllInOne
1771 page, loop over each of them to generate a Docbook XML version of the
1772 manual.  This process also download images and transform image
1773 references to use the locally downloaded images.  The generated
1774 Docbook XML files are slightly broken, so some post-processing is done
1775 using the <tt>documentation/scripts/get_manual</tt> program, and the
1776 result is a nice Docbook XML file (debian-edu-wheezy-manual.xml) and
1777 a handfull of images.  The XML file can now be used to generate PDF, HTML
1778 and epub versions of the English manual.  This is the basic step of
1779 our process, making PDF (using dblatex), HTML (using xsltproc) and
1780 epub (using dbtoepub) version from Docbook XML, and the resulting files
1781 are placed in the debian-edu-doc-en binary package.</p>
1782
1783 <p>But English documentation is not enough for us.  We want translated
1784 documentation too, and we want to make it easy for translators to
1785 track the English original.  For this we use the
1786 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/p/poxml.html">poxml</a> package,
1787 which allow us to transform the English Docbook XML file into a
1788 translation file (a .pot file), usable with the normal gettext based
1789 translation tools used by those translating free software.  The pot
1790 file is used to create and maintain translation files (several .po
1791 files), which the translations update with the native language
1792 translations of all titles, paragraphs and blocks of text in the
1793 original.  The next step is combining the original English Docbook XML
1794 and the translation file (say debian-edu-wheezy-manual.nb.po), to
1795 create a translated Docbook XML file (in this case
1796 debian-edu-wheezy-manual.nb.xml).  This translated (or partly
1797 translated, if the translation is not complete) Docbook XML file can
1798 then be used like the original to create a PDF, HTML and epub version
1799 of the documentation.</p>
1800
1801 <p>The translators use different tools to edit the .po files.  We
1802 recommend using
1803 <a href="http://www.kde.org/applications/development/lokalize/">lokalize</a>,
1804 while some use emacs and vi, others can use web based editors like
1805 <a href="http://pootle.translatehouse.org/">Poodle</a> or
1806 <a href="https://www.transifex.com/">Transifex</a>.  All we care about
1807 is where the .po file end up, in our git repository.  Updated
1808 translations can either be committed directly to git, or submitted as
1809 <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/src:debian-edu-doc">bug reports
1810 against the debian-edu-doc package</a>.</p>
1811
1812 <p>One challenge is images, which both might need to be translated (if
1813 they show translated user applications), and are needed in different
1814 formats when creating PDF and HTML versions (epub is a HTML version in
1815 this regard).  For this we transform the original PNG images to the
1816 needed density and format during build, and have a way to provide
1817 translated images by storing translated versions in
1818 images/$LANGUAGECODE/.  I am a bit unsure about the details here.  The
1819 package maintainers know more.</p>
1820
1821 <p>If you wonder what the result look like, we provide
1822 <a href="http://maintainer.skolelinux.org/debian-edu-doc/">the content
1823 of the documentation packages on the web</a>.  See for example the
1824 <a href="http://maintainer.skolelinux.org/debian-edu-doc/it/debian-edu-wheezy-manual.pdf">Italian
1825 PDF version</a> or the
1826 <a href="http://maintainer.skolelinux.org/debian-edu-doc/de/debian-edu-wheezy-manual.html">German
1827 HTML version</a>.  We do not yet build the epub version by default,
1828 but perhaps it will be done in the future.</p>
1829
1830 <p>To learn more, check out
1831 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/d/debian-edu-doc.html">the
1832 debian-edu-doc package</a>,
1833 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Documentation/Wheezy/">the
1834 manual on the wiki</a> and
1835 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Documentation/Wheezy/Translations">the
1836 translation instructions</a> in the manual.</p>
1837
1838       </div>
1839       <div class="tags">
1840
1841
1842         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>.
1843
1844
1845       </div>
1846     </div>
1847     <div class="padding"></div>
1848
1849     <div class="entry">
1850       <div class="title">
1851         <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>
1852       </div>
1853       <div class="date">
1854         23rd April 2014
1855       </div>
1856       <div class="body">
1857         <p>It would be nice if it was easier in Debian to get all the hardware
1858 related packages relevant for the computer installed automatically.
1859 So I implemented one, using
1860 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/isenkram">my Isenkram
1861 package</a>.  To use it, install the tasksel and isenkram packages and
1862 run tasksel as user root.  You should be presented with a new option,
1863 "Hardware specific packages (autodetected by isenkram)".  When you
1864 select it, tasksel will install the packages isenkram claim is fit for
1865 the current hardware, hot pluggable or not.<p>
1866
1867 <p>The implementation is in two files, one is the tasksel menu entry
1868 description, and the other is the script used to extract the list of
1869 packages to install.  The first part is in
1870 <tt>/usr/share/tasksel/descs/isenkram.desc</tt> and look like
1871 this:</p>
1872
1873 <p><blockquote><pre>
1874 Task: isenkram
1875 Section: hardware
1876 Description: Hardware specific packages (autodetected by isenkram)
1877  Based on the detected hardware various hardware specific packages are
1878  proposed.
1879 Test-new-install: mark show
1880 Relevance: 8
1881 Packages: for-current-hardware
1882 </pre></blockquote></p>
1883
1884 <p>The second part is in
1885 <tt>/usr/lib/tasksel/packages/for-current-hardware</tt> and look like
1886 this:</p>
1887
1888 <p><blockquote><pre>
1889 #!/bin/sh
1890 #
1891 (
1892     isenkram-lookup
1893     isenkram-autoinstall-firmware -l
1894 ) | sort -u
1895 </pre></blockquote></p>
1896
1897 <p>All in all, a very short and simple implementation making it
1898 trivial to install the hardware dependent package we all may want to
1899 have installed on our machines.  I've not been able to find a way to
1900 get tasksel to tell you exactly which packages it plan to install
1901 before doing the installation.  So if you are curious or careful,
1902 check the output from the isenkram-* command line tools first.</p>
1903
1904 <p>The information about which packages are handling which hardware is
1905 fetched either from the isenkram package itself in
1906 /usr/share/isenkram/, from git.debian.org or from the APT package
1907 database (using the Modaliases header).  The APT package database
1908 parsing have caused a nasty resource leak in the isenkram daemon (bugs
1909 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/719837">#719837</a> and
1910 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/730704">#730704</a>).  The cause is in
1911 the python-apt code (bug
1912 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/745487">#745487</a>), but using a
1913 workaround I was able to get rid of the file descriptor leak and
1914 reduce the memory leak from ~30 MiB per hardware detection down to
1915 around 2 MiB per hardware detection.  It should make the desktop
1916 daemon a lot more useful.  The fix is in version 0.7 uploaded to
1917 unstable today.</p>
1918
1919 <p>I believe the current way of mapping hardware to packages in
1920 Isenkram is is a good draft, but in the future I expect isenkram to
1921 use the AppStream data source for this.  A proposal for getting proper
1922 AppStream support into Debian is floating around as
1923 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/DEP-11">DEP-11</a>, and
1924 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/SummerOfCode2014/Projects#SummerOfCode2014.2FProjects.2FAppStreamDEP11Implementation.AppStream.2FDEP-11_for_the_Debian_Archive">GSoC
1925 project</a> will take place this summer to improve the situation.  I
1926 look forward to seeing the result, and welcome patches for isenkram to
1927 start using the information when it is ready.</p>
1928
1929 <p>If you want your package to map to some specific hardware, either
1930 add a "Xb-Modaliases" header to your control file like I did in
1931 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/pymissile">the pymissile
1932 package</a> or submit a bug report with the details to the isenkram
1933 package.  See also
1934 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram/">all my
1935 blog posts tagged isenkram</a> for details on the notation.  I expect
1936 the information will be migrated to AppStream eventually, but for the
1937 moment I got no better place to store it.</p>
1938
1939       </div>
1940       <div class="tags">
1941
1942
1943         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>.
1944
1945
1946       </div>
1947     </div>
1948     <div class="padding"></div>
1949
1950     <div class="entry">
1951       <div class="title">
1952         <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>
1953       </div>
1954       <div class="date">
1955         15th April 2014
1956       </div>
1957       <div class="body">
1958         <p>The <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/FreedomBox">Freedombox
1959 project</a> is working on providing the software and hardware to make
1960 it easy for non-technical people to host their data and communication
1961 at home, and being able to communicate with their friends and family
1962 encrypted and away from prying eyes.  It is still going strong, and
1963 today a major mile stone was reached.</p>
1964
1965 <p>Today, the last of the packages currently used by the project to
1966 created the system images were accepted into Debian Unstable.  It was
1967 the freedombox-setup package, which is used to configure the images
1968 during build and on the first boot.  Now all one need to get going is
1969 the build code from the freedom-maker git repository and packages from
1970 Debian.  And once the freedombox-setup package enter testing, we can
1971 build everything directly from Debian. :)</p>
1972
1973 <p>Some key packages used by Freedombox are
1974 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/freedombox-setup">freedombox-setup</a>,
1975 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/plinth">plinth</a>,
1976 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/pagekite">pagekite</a>,
1977 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/tor">tor</a>,
1978 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/privoxy">privoxy</a>,
1979 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/owncloud">owncloud</a> and
1980 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/dnsmasq">dnsmasq</a>.  There
1981 are plans to integrate more packages into the setup.  User
1982 documentation is maintained on the Debian wiki.  Please
1983 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/FreedomBox/Manual/Jessie">check out
1984 the manual</a> and help us improve it.</p>
1985
1986 <p>To test for yourself and create boot images with the FreedomBox
1987 setup, run this on a Debian machine using a user with sudo rights to
1988 become root:</p>
1989
1990 <p><pre>
1991 sudo apt-get install git vmdebootstrap mercurial python-docutils \
1992   mktorrent extlinux virtualbox qemu-user-static binfmt-support \
1993   u-boot-tools
1994 git clone http://anonscm.debian.org/git/freedombox/freedom-maker.git \
1995   freedom-maker
1996 make -C freedom-maker dreamplug-image raspberry-image virtualbox-image
1997 </pre></p>
1998
1999 <p>Root access is needed to run debootstrap and mount loopback
2000 devices.  See the README in the freedom-maker git repo for more
2001 details on the build.  If you do not want all three images, trim the
2002 make line.  Note that the virtualbox-image target is not really
2003 virtualbox specific.  It create a x86 image usable in kvm, qemu,
2004 vmware and any other x86 virtual machine environment.  You might need
2005 the version of vmdebootstrap in Jessie to get the build working, as it
2006 include fixes for a race condition with kpartx.</p>
2007
2008 <p>If you instead want to install using a Debian CD and the preseed
2009 method, boot a Debian Wheezy ISO and use this boot argument to load
2010 the preseed values:</p>
2011
2012 <p><pre>
2013 url=<a href="http://www.reinholdtsen.name/freedombox/preseed-jessie.dat">http://www.reinholdtsen.name/freedombox/preseed-jessie.dat</a>
2014 </pre></p>
2015
2016 <p>I have not tested it myself the last few weeks, so I do not know if
2017 it still work.</p>
2018
2019 <p>If you wonder how to help, one task you could look at is using
2020 systemd as the boot system.  It will become the default for Linux in
2021 Jessie, so we need to make sure it is usable on the Freedombox.  I did
2022 a simple test a few weeks ago, and noticed dnsmasq failed to start
2023 during boot when using systemd.  I suspect there are other problems
2024 too. :) To detect problems, there is a test suite included, which can
2025 be run from the plinth web interface.</p>
2026
2027 <p>Give it a go and let us know how it goes on the mailing list, and help
2028 us get the new release published. :) Please join us on
2029 <a href="irc://irc.debian.org:6667/%23freedombox">IRC (#freedombox on
2030 irc.debian.org)</a> and
2031 <a href="http://lists.alioth.debian.org/mailman/listinfo/freedombox-discuss">the
2032 mailing list</a> if you want to help make this vision come true.</p>
2033
2034       </div>
2035       <div class="tags">
2036
2037
2038         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>.
2039
2040
2041       </div>
2042     </div>
2043     <div class="padding"></div>
2044
2045     <div class="entry">
2046       <div class="title">
2047         <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>
2048       </div>
2049       <div class="date">
2050          9th April 2014
2051       </div>
2052       <div class="body">
2053         <p>For a while now, I have been looking for a sensible offsite backup
2054 solution for use at home.  My requirements are simple, it must be
2055 cheap and locally encrypted (in other words, I keep the encryption
2056 keys, the storage provider do not have access to my private files).
2057 One idea me and my friends had many years ago, before the cloud
2058 storage providers showed up, was to use Google mail as storage,
2059 writing a Linux block device storing blocks as emails in the mail
2060 service provided by Google, and thus get heaps of free space.  On top
2061 of this one can add encryption, RAID and volume management to have
2062 lots of (fairly slow, I admit that) cheap and encrypted storage.  But
2063 I never found time to implement such system.  But the last few weeks I
2064 have looked at a system called
2065 <a href="https://bitbucket.org/nikratio/s3ql/">S3QL</a>, a locally
2066 mounted network backed file system with the features I need.</p>
2067
2068 <p>S3QL is a fuse file system with a local cache and cloud storage,
2069 handling several different storage providers, any with Amazon S3,
2070 Google Drive or OpenStack API.  There are heaps of such storage
2071 providers.  S3QL can also use a local directory as storage, which
2072 combined with sshfs allow for file storage on any ssh server.  S3QL
2073 include support for encryption, compression, de-duplication, snapshots
2074 and immutable file systems, allowing me to mount the remote storage as
2075 a local mount point, look at and use the files as if they were local,
2076 while the content is stored in the cloud as well.  This allow me to
2077 have a backup that should survive fire.  The file system can not be
2078 shared between several machines at the same time, as only one can
2079 mount it at the time, but any machine with the encryption key and
2080 access to the storage service can mount it if it is unmounted.</p>
2081
2082 <p>It is simple to use.  I'm using it on Debian Wheezy, where the
2083 package is included already.  So to get started, run <tt>apt-get
2084 install s3ql</tt>.  Next, pick a storage provider.  I ended up picking
2085 Greenqloud, after reading their nice recipe on
2086 <a href="https://greenqloud.zendesk.com/entries/44611757-How-To-Use-S3QL-to-mount-a-StorageQloud-bucket-on-Debian-Wheezy">how
2087 to use S3QL with their Amazon S3 service</a>, because I trust the laws
2088 in Iceland more than those in USA when it come to keeping my personal
2089 data safe and private, and thus would rather spend money on a company
2090 in Iceland.  Another nice recipe is available from the article
2091 <a href="http://www.admin-magazine.com/HPC/Articles/HPC-Cloud-Storage">S3QL
2092 Filesystem for HPC Storage</a> by Jeff Layton in the HPC section of
2093 Admin magazine.  When the provider is picked, figure out how to get
2094 the API key needed to connect to the storage API.  With Greencloud,
2095 the key did not show up until I had added payment details to my
2096 account.</p>
2097
2098 <p>Armed with the API access details, it is time to create the file
2099 system.  First, create a new bucket in the cloud.  This bucket is the
2100 file system storage area.  I picked a bucket name reflecting the
2101 machine that was going to store data there, but any name will do.
2102 I'll refer to it as <tt>bucket-name</tt> below.  In addition, one need
2103 the API login and password, and a locally created password.  Store it
2104 all in ~root/.s3ql/authinfo2 like this:
2105
2106 <p><blockquote><pre>
2107 [s3c]
2108 storage-url: s3c://s.greenqloud.com:443/bucket-name
2109 backend-login: API-login
2110 backend-password: API-password
2111 fs-passphrase: local-password
2112 </pre></blockquote></p>
2113
2114 <p>I create my local passphrase using <tt>pwget 50</tt> or similar,
2115 but any sensible way to create a fairly random password should do it.
2116 Armed with these details, it is now time to run mkfs, entering the API
2117 details and password to create it:</p>
2118
2119 <p><blockquote><pre>
2120 # mkdir -m 700 /var/lib/s3ql-cache
2121 # mkfs.s3ql --cachedir /var/lib/s3ql-cache --authfile /root/.s3ql/authinfo2 \
2122   --ssl s3c://s.greenqloud.com:443/bucket-name
2123 Enter backend login:
2124 Enter backend password:
2125 Before using S3QL, make sure to read the user's guide, especially
2126 the 'Important Rules to Avoid Loosing Data' section.
2127 Enter encryption password:
2128 Confirm encryption password:
2129 Generating random encryption key...
2130 Creating metadata tables...
2131 Dumping metadata...
2132 ..objects..
2133 ..blocks..
2134 ..inodes..
2135 ..inode_blocks..
2136 ..symlink_targets..
2137 ..names..
2138 ..contents..
2139 ..ext_attributes..
2140 Compressing and uploading metadata...
2141 Wrote 0.00 MB of compressed metadata.
2142 # </pre></blockquote></p>
2143
2144 <p>The next step is mounting the file system to make the storage available.
2145
2146 <p><blockquote><pre>
2147 # mount.s3ql --cachedir /var/lib/s3ql-cache --authfile /root/.s3ql/authinfo2 \
2148   --ssl --allow-root s3c://s.greenqloud.com:443/bucket-name /s3ql
2149 Using 4 upload threads.
2150 Downloading and decompressing metadata...
2151 Reading metadata...
2152 ..objects..
2153 ..blocks..
2154 ..inodes..
2155 ..inode_blocks..
2156 ..symlink_targets..
2157 ..names..
2158 ..contents..
2159 ..ext_attributes..
2160 Mounting filesystem...
2161 # df -h /s3ql
2162 Filesystem                              Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
2163 s3c://s.greenqloud.com:443/bucket-name  1.0T     0  1.0T   0% /s3ql
2164 #
2165 </pre></blockquote></p>
2166
2167 <p>The file system is now ready for use.  I use rsync to store my
2168 backups in it, and as the metadata used by rsync is downloaded at
2169 mount time, no network traffic (and storage cost) is triggered by
2170 running rsync.  To unmount, one should not use the normal umount
2171 command, as this will not flush the cache to the cloud storage, but
2172 instead running the umount.s3ql command like this:
2173
2174 <p><blockquote><pre>
2175 # umount.s3ql /s3ql
2176 #
2177 </pre></blockquote></p>
2178
2179 <p>There is a fsck command available to check the file system and
2180 correct any problems detected.  This can be used if the local server
2181 crashes while the file system is mounted, to reset the "already
2182 mounted" flag.  This is what it look like when processing a working
2183 file system:</p>
2184
2185 <p><blockquote><pre>
2186 # fsck.s3ql --force --ssl s3c://s.greenqloud.com:443/bucket-name
2187 Using cached metadata.
2188 File system seems clean, checking anyway.
2189 Checking DB integrity...
2190 Creating temporary extra indices...
2191 Checking lost+found...
2192 Checking cached objects...
2193 Checking names (refcounts)...
2194 Checking contents (names)...
2195 Checking contents (inodes)...
2196 Checking contents (parent inodes)...
2197 Checking objects (reference counts)...
2198 Checking objects (backend)...
2199 ..processed 5000 objects so far..
2200 ..processed 10000 objects so far..
2201 ..processed 15000 objects so far..
2202 Checking objects (sizes)...
2203 Checking blocks (referenced objects)...
2204 Checking blocks (refcounts)...
2205 Checking inode-block mapping (blocks)...
2206 Checking inode-block mapping (inodes)...
2207 Checking inodes (refcounts)...
2208 Checking inodes (sizes)...
2209 Checking extended attributes (names)...
2210 Checking extended attributes (inodes)...
2211 Checking symlinks (inodes)...
2212 Checking directory reachability...
2213 Checking unix conventions...
2214 Checking referential integrity...
2215 Dropping temporary indices...
2216 Backing up old metadata...
2217 Dumping metadata...
2218 ..objects..
2219 ..blocks..
2220 ..inodes..
2221 ..inode_blocks..
2222 ..symlink_targets..
2223 ..names..
2224 ..contents..
2225 ..ext_attributes..
2226 Compressing and uploading metadata...
2227 Wrote 0.89 MB of compressed metadata.
2228 #
2229 </pre></blockquote></p>
2230
2231 <p>Thanks to the cache, working on files that fit in the cache is very
2232 quick, about the same speed as local file access.  Uploading large
2233 amount of data is to me limited by the bandwidth out of and into my
2234 house.  Uploading 685 MiB with a 100 MiB cache gave me 305 kiB/s,
2235 which is very close to my upload speed, and downloading the same
2236 Debian installation ISO gave me 610 kiB/s, close to my download speed.
2237 Both were measured using <tt>dd</tt>.  So for me, the bottleneck is my
2238 network, not the file system code.  I do not know what a good cache
2239 size would be, but suspect that the cache should e larger than your
2240 working set.</p>
2241
2242 <p>I mentioned that only one machine can mount the file system at the
2243 time.  If another machine try, it is told that the file system is
2244 busy:</p>
2245
2246 <p><blockquote><pre>
2247 # mount.s3ql --cachedir /var/lib/s3ql-cache --authfile /root/.s3ql/authinfo2 \
2248   --ssl --allow-root s3c://s.greenqloud.com:443/bucket-name /s3ql
2249 Using 8 upload threads.
2250 Backend reports that fs is still mounted elsewhere, aborting.
2251 #
2252 </pre></blockquote></p>
2253
2254 <p>The file content is uploaded when the cache is full, while the
2255 metadata is uploaded once every 24 hour by default.  To ensure the
2256 file system content is flushed to the cloud, one can either umount the
2257 file system, or ask S3QL to flush the cache and metadata using
2258 s3qlctrl:
2259
2260 <p><blockquote><pre>
2261 # s3qlctrl upload-meta /s3ql
2262 # s3qlctrl flushcache /s3ql
2263 #
2264 </pre></blockquote></p>
2265
2266 <p>If you are curious about how much space your data uses in the
2267 cloud, and how much compression and deduplication cut down on the
2268 storage usage, you can use s3qlstat on the mounted file system to get
2269 a report:</p>
2270
2271 <p><blockquote><pre>
2272 # s3qlstat /s3ql
2273 Directory entries:    9141
2274 Inodes:               9143
2275 Data blocks:          8851
2276 Total data size:      22049.38 MB
2277 After de-duplication: 21955.46 MB (99.57% of total)
2278 After compression:    21877.28 MB (99.22% of total, 99.64% of de-duplicated)
2279 Database size:        2.39 MB (uncompressed)
2280 (some values do not take into account not-yet-uploaded dirty blocks in cache)
2281 #
2282 </pre></blockquote></p>
2283
2284 <p>I mentioned earlier that there are several possible suppliers of
2285 storage.  I did not try to locate them all, but am aware of at least
2286 <a href="https://www.greenqloud.com/">Greenqloud</a>,
2287 <a href="http://drive.google.com/">Google Drive</a>,
2288 <a href="http://aws.amazon.com/s3/">Amazon S3 web serivces</a>,
2289 <a href="http://www.rackspace.com/">Rackspace</a> and
2290 <a href="http://crowncloud.net/">Crowncloud</A>.  The latter even
2291 accept payment in Bitcoin.  Pick one that suit your need.  Some of
2292 them provide several GiB of free storage, but the prize models are
2293 quite different and you will have to figure out what suits you
2294 best.</p>
2295
2296 <p>While researching this blog post, I had a look at research papers
2297 and posters discussing the S3QL file system.  There are several, which
2298 told me that the file system is getting a critical check by the
2299 science community and increased my confidence in using it.  One nice
2300 poster is titled
2301 "<a href="http://www.lanl.gov/orgs/adtsc/publications/science_highlights_2013/docs/pg68_69.pdf">An
2302 Innovative Parallel Cloud Storage System using OpenStack’s SwiftObject
2303 Store and Transformative Parallel I/O Approach</a>" by Hsing-Bung
2304 Chen, Benjamin McClelland, David Sherrill, Alfred Torrez, Parks Fields
2305 and Pamela Smith.  Please  have a look.</p>
2306
2307 <p>Given my problems with different file systems earlier, I decided to
2308 check out the mounted S3QL file system to see if it would be usable as
2309 a home directory (in other word, that it provided POSIX semantics when
2310 it come to locking and umask handling etc).  Running
2311 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Testing_if_a_file_system_can_be_used_for_home_directories___.html">my
2312 test code to check file system semantics</a>, I was happy to discover that
2313 no error was found.  So the file system can be used for home
2314 directories, if one chooses to do so.</p>
2315
2316 <p>If you do not want a locally file system, and want something that
2317 work without the Linux fuse file system, I would like to mention the
2318 <a href="http://www.tarsnap.com/">Tarsnap service</a>, which also
2319 provide locally encrypted backup using a command line client.  It have
2320 a nicer access control system, where one can split out read and write
2321 access, allowing some systems to write to the backup and others to
2322 only read from it.</p>
2323
2324 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
2325 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
2326 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b&label=PetterReinholdtsenBlog">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
2327
2328       </div>
2329       <div class="tags">
2330
2331
2332         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>.
2333
2334
2335       </div>
2336     </div>
2337     <div class="padding"></div>
2338
2339     <div class="entry">
2340       <div class="title">
2341         <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>
2342       </div>
2343       <div class="date">
2344         14th March 2014
2345       </div>
2346       <div class="body">
2347         <p>The <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/FreedomBox">Freedombox
2348 project</a> is working on providing the software and hardware for
2349 making it easy for non-technical people to host their data and
2350 communication at home, and being able to communicate with their
2351 friends and family encrypted and away from prying eyes.  It has been
2352 going on for a while, and is slowly progressing towards a new test
2353 release (0.2).</p>
2354
2355 <p>And what day could be better than the Pi day to announce that the
2356 new version will provide "hard drive" / SD card / USB stick images for
2357 Dreamplug, Raspberry Pi and VirtualBox (or any other virtualization
2358 system), and can also be installed using a Debian installer preseed
2359 file.  The Debian based Freedombox is now based on Debian Jessie,
2360 where most of the needed packages used are already present.  Only one,
2361 the freedombox-setup package, is missing.  To try to build your own
2362 boot image to test the current status, fetch the freedom-maker scripts
2363 and build using
2364 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/vmdebootstrap">vmdebootstrap</a>
2365 with a user with sudo access to become root:
2366
2367 <pre>
2368 git clone http://anonscm.debian.org/git/freedombox/freedom-maker.git \
2369   freedom-maker
2370 sudo apt-get install git vmdebootstrap mercurial python-docutils \
2371   mktorrent extlinux virtualbox qemu-user-static binfmt-support \
2372   u-boot-tools
2373 make -C freedom-maker dreamplug-image raspberry-image virtualbox-image
2374 </pre>
2375
2376 <p>Root access is needed to run debootstrap and mount loopback
2377 devices.  See the README for more details on the build. If you do not
2378 want all three images, trim the make line.  But note that thanks to <a
2379 href="https://bugs.debian.org/741407">a race condition in
2380 vmdebootstrap</a>, the build might fail without the patch to the
2381 kpartx call.</p>
2382
2383 <p>If you instead want to install using a Debian CD and the preseed
2384 method, boot a Debian Wheezy ISO and use this boot argument to load
2385 the preseed values:</p>
2386
2387 <pre>
2388 url=<a href="http://www.reinholdtsen.name/freedombox/preseed-jessie.dat">http://www.reinholdtsen.name/freedombox/preseed-jessie.dat</a>
2389 </pre>
2390
2391 <p>But note that due to <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/740673">a
2392 recently introduced bug in apt in Jessie</a>, the installer will
2393 currently hang while setting up APT sources.  Killing the
2394 '<tt>apt-cdrom ident</tt>' process when it hang a few times during the
2395 installation will get the installation going.  This affect all
2396 installations in Jessie, and I expect it will be fixed soon.</p>
2397
2398 <p>Give it a go and let us know how it goes on the mailing list, and help
2399 us get the new release published. :) Please join us on
2400 <a href="irc://irc.debian.org:6667/%23freedombox">IRC (#freedombox on
2401 irc.debian.org)</a> and
2402 <a href="http://lists.alioth.debian.org/mailman/listinfo/freedombox-discuss">the
2403 mailing list</a> if you want to help make this vision come true.</p>
2404
2405       </div>
2406       <div class="tags">
2407
2408
2409         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>.
2410
2411
2412       </div>
2413     </div>
2414     <div class="padding"></div>
2415
2416     <div class="entry">
2417       <div class="title">
2418         <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>
2419       </div>
2420       <div class="date">
2421         22nd February 2014
2422       </div>
2423       <div class="body">
2424         <p>Many years ago, I wrote a GPL licensed version of the netgroup and
2425 innetgr tools, because I needed them in
2426 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Skolelinux</a>.  I called the project
2427 ng-utils, and it has served me well.  I placed the project under the
2428 <a href="http://www.hungry.com/">Hungry Programmer</a> umbrella, and it was maintained in our CVS
2429 repository.  But many years ago, the CVS repository was dropped (lost,
2430 not migrated to new hardware, not sure), and the project have lacked a
2431 proper home since then.</p>
2432
2433 <p>Last summer, I had a look at the package and made a new release
2434 fixing a irritating crash bug, but was unable to store the changes in
2435 a proper source control system.  I applied for a project on
2436 <a href="https://alioth.debian.org/">Alioth</a>, but did not have time
2437 to follow up on it.  Until today. :)</p>
2438
2439 <p>After many hours of cleaning and migration, the ng-utils project
2440 now have a new home, and a git repository with the highlight of the
2441 history of the project.  I published all release tarballs and imported
2442 them into the git repository.  As the project is really stable and not
2443 expected to gain new features any time soon, I decided to make a new
2444 release and call it 1.0.  Visit the new project home on
2445 <a href="https://alioth.debian.org/projects/ng-utils/">https://alioth.debian.org/projects/ng-utils/</a>
2446 if you want to check it out.  The new version is also uploaded into
2447 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/n/ng-utils.html">Debian Unstable</a>.</p>
2448
2449       </div>
2450       <div class="tags">
2451
2452
2453         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>.
2454
2455
2456       </div>
2457     </div>
2458     <div class="padding"></div>
2459
2460     <div class="entry">
2461       <div class="title">
2462         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Testing_sysvinit_from_experimental_in_Debian_Hurd.html">Testing sysvinit from experimental in Debian Hurd</a>
2463       </div>
2464       <div class="date">
2465          3rd February 2014
2466       </div>
2467       <div class="body">
2468         <p>A few days ago I decided to try to help the Hurd people to get
2469 their changes into sysvinit, to allow them to use the normal sysvinit
2470 boot system instead of their old one.  This follow up on the
2471 <a href="https://teythoon.cryptobitch.de//categories/gsoc.html">great
2472 Google Summer of Code work</a> done last summer by Justus Winter to
2473 get Debian on Hurd working more like Debian on Linux.  To get started,
2474 I downloaded a prebuilt hard disk image from
2475 <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>,
2476 and started it using virt-manager.</p>
2477
2478 <p>The first think I had to do after logging in (root without any
2479 password) was to get the network operational.  I followed
2480 <a href="https://www.debian.org/ports/hurd/hurd-install">the
2481 instructions on the Debian GNU/Hurd ports page</a> and ran these
2482 commands as root to get the machine to accept a IP address from the
2483 kvm internal DHCP server:</p>
2484
2485 <p><blockquote><pre>
2486 settrans -fgap /dev/netdde /hurd/netdde
2487 kill $(ps -ef|awk '/[p]finet/ { print $2}')
2488 kill $(ps -ef|awk '/[d]evnode/ { print $2}')
2489 dhclient /dev/eth0
2490 </pre></blockquote></p>
2491
2492 <p>After this, the machine had internet connectivity, and I could
2493 upgrade it and install the sysvinit packages from experimental and
2494 enable it as the default boot system in Hurd.</p>
2495
2496 <p>But before I did that, I set a password on the root user, as ssh is
2497 running on the machine it for ssh login to work a password need to be
2498 set.  Also, note that a bug somewhere in openssh on Hurd block
2499 compression from working.  Remember to turn that off on the client
2500 side.</p>
2501
2502 <p>Run these commands as root to upgrade and test the new sysvinit
2503 stuff:</p>
2504
2505 <p><blockquote><pre>
2506 cat > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/experimental.list &lt;&lt;EOF
2507 deb http://http.debian.net/debian/ experimental main
2508 EOF
2509 apt-get update
2510 apt-get dist-upgrade
2511 apt-get install -t experimental initscripts sysv-rc sysvinit \
2512     sysvinit-core sysvinit-utils
2513 update-alternatives --config runsystem
2514 </pre></blockquote></p>
2515
2516 <p>To reboot after switching boot system, you have to use
2517 <tt>reboot-hurd</tt> instead of just <tt>reboot</tt>, as there is not
2518 yet a sysvinit process able to receive the signals from the normal
2519 'reboot' command.  After switching to sysvinit as the boot system,
2520 upgrading every package and rebooting, the network come up with DHCP
2521 after boot as it should, and the settrans/pkill hack mentioned at the
2522 start is no longer needed.  But for some strange reason, there are no
2523 longer any login prompt in the virtual console, so I logged in using
2524 ssh instead.
2525
2526 <p>Note that there are some race conditions in Hurd making the boot
2527 fail some times.  No idea what the cause is, but hope the Hurd porters
2528 figure it out.  At least Justus said on IRC (#debian-hurd on
2529 irc.debian.org) that they are aware of the problem.  A way to reduce
2530 the impact is to upgrade to the Hurd packages built by Justus by
2531 adding this repository to the machine:</p>
2532
2533 <p><blockquote><pre>
2534 cat > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/hurd-ci.list &lt;&lt;EOF
2535 deb http://darnassus.sceen.net/~teythoon/hurd-ci/ sid main
2536 EOF
2537 </pre></blockquote></p>
2538
2539 <p>At the moment the prebuilt virtual machine get some packages from
2540 http://ftp.debian-ports.org/debian, because some of the packages in
2541 unstable do not yet include the required patches that are lingering in
2542 BTS.  This is the completely list of "unofficial" packages installed:</p>
2543
2544 <p><blockquote><pre>
2545 # aptitude search '?narrow(?version(CURRENT),?origin(Debian Ports))'
2546 i   emacs                   - GNU Emacs editor (metapackage)
2547 i   gdb                     - GNU Debugger
2548 i   hurd-recommended        - Miscellaneous translators
2549 i   isc-dhcp-client         - ISC DHCP client
2550 i   isc-dhcp-common         - common files used by all the isc-dhcp* packages
2551 i   libc-bin                - Embedded GNU C Library: Binaries
2552 i   libc-dev-bin            - Embedded GNU C Library: Development binaries
2553 i   libc0.3                 - Embedded GNU C Library: Shared libraries
2554 i A libc0.3-dbg             - Embedded GNU C Library: detached debugging symbols
2555 i   libc0.3-dev             - Embedded GNU C Library: Development Libraries and Hea
2556 i   multiarch-support       - Transitional package to ensure multiarch compatibilit
2557 i A x11-common              - X Window System (X.Org) infrastructure
2558 i   xorg                    - X.Org X Window System
2559 i A xserver-xorg            - X.Org X server
2560 i A xserver-xorg-input-all  - X.Org X server -- input driver metapackage
2561 #
2562 </pre></blockquote></p>
2563
2564 <p>All in all, testing hurd has been an interesting experience. :)
2565 X.org did not work out of the box and I never took the time to follow
2566 the porters instructions to fix it.  This time I was interested in the
2567 command line stuff.<p>
2568
2569       </div>
2570       <div class="tags">
2571
2572
2573         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>.
2574
2575
2576       </div>
2577     </div>
2578     <div class="padding"></div>
2579
2580     <div class="entry">
2581       <div class="title">
2582         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/New_chrpath_release_0_16.html">New chrpath release 0.16</a>
2583       </div>
2584       <div class="date">
2585         14th January 2014
2586       </div>
2587       <div class="body">
2588         <p><a href="http://www.coverity.com/">Coverity</a> is a nice tool to
2589 find problems in C, C++ and Java code using static source code
2590 analysis.  It can detect a lot of different problems, and is very
2591 useful to find memory and locking bugs in the error handling part of
2592 the source.  The company behind it provide
2593 <a href="https://scan.coverity.com/">check of free software projects as
2594 a community service</a>, and many hundred free software projects are
2595 already checked.  A few days ago I decided to have a closer look at
2596 the Coverity system, and discovered that the
2597 <a href="http://www.gnu.org/software/gnash/">gnash</a> and
2598 <a href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/ipmitool/">ipmitool</a>
2599 projects I am involved with was already registered.  But these are
2600 fairly big, and I would also like to have a small and easy project to
2601 check, and decided to <a href="http://scan.coverity.com/projects/1179">request
2602 checking of the chrpath project</a>.  It was
2603 added to the checker and discovered seven potential defects.  Six of
2604 these were real, mostly resource "leak" when the program detected an
2605 error.  Nothing serious, as the resources would be released a fraction
2606 of a second later when the program exited because of the error, but it
2607 is nice to do it right in case the source of the program some time in
2608 the future end up in a library.  Having fixed all defects and added
2609 <a href="https://lists.alioth.debian.org/mailman/listinfo/chrpath-devel">a
2610 mailing list for the chrpath developers</a>, I decided it was time to
2611 publish a new release.  These are the release notes:</p>
2612
2613 <p>New in 0.16 released 2014-01-14:</p>
2614
2615 <ul>
2616
2617   <li>Fixed all minor bugs discovered by Coverity.</li>
2618   <li>Updated config.sub and config.guess from the GNU project.</li>
2619   <li>Mention new project mailing list in the documentation.</li>
2620
2621 </ul>
2622
2623 <p>You can
2624 <a href="https://alioth.debian.org/frs/?group_id=31052">download the
2625 new version 0.16 from alioth</a>.  Please let us know via the Alioth
2626 project if something is wrong with the new release.  The test suite
2627 did not discover any old errors, so if you find a new one, please also
2628 include a test suite check.</p>
2629
2630       </div>
2631       <div class="tags">
2632
2633
2634         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>.
2635
2636
2637       </div>
2638     </div>
2639     <div class="padding"></div>
2640
2641     <div class="entry">
2642       <div class="title">
2643         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/New_chrpath_release_0_15.html">New chrpath release 0.15</a>
2644       </div>
2645       <div class="date">
2646         24th November 2013
2647       </div>
2648       <div class="body">
2649         <p>After many years break from the package and a vain hope that
2650 development would be continued by someone else, I finally pulled my
2651 acts together this morning and wrapped up a new release of chrpath,
2652 the command line tool to modify the rpath and runpath of already
2653 compiled ELF programs.  The update was triggered by the persistence of
2654 Isha Vishnoi at IBM, which needed a new config.guess file to get
2655 support for the ppc64le architecture (powerpc 64-bit Little Endian) he
2656 is working on.  I checked the
2657 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/chrpath">Debian</a>,
2658 <a href="https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/chrpath">Ubuntu</a> and
2659 <a href="https://admin.fedoraproject.org/pkgdb/acls/name/chrpath">Fedora</a>
2660 packages for interesting patches (failed to find the source from
2661 OpenSUSE and Mandriva packages), and found quite a few nice fixes.
2662 These are the release notes:</p>
2663
2664 <p>New in 0.15 released 2013-11-24:</p>
2665
2666 <ul>
2667
2668   <li>Updated config.sub and config.guess from the GNU project to work
2669    with newer architectures.  Thanks to isha vishnoi for the heads
2670    up.</li>
2671
2672   <li>Updated README with current URLs.</li>
2673
2674   <li>Added byteswap fix found in Ubuntu, credited Jeremy Kerr and
2675    Matthias Klose.</li>
2676
2677   <li>Added missing help for -k|--keepgoing option, using patch by
2678    Petr Machata found in Fedora.</li>
2679
2680   <li>Rewrite removal of RPATH/RUNPATH to make sure the entry in
2681    .dynamic is a NULL terminated string.  Based on patch found in
2682    Fedora credited Axel Thimm and Christian Krause.</li>
2683
2684 </ul>
2685
2686 <p>You can
2687 <a href="https://alioth.debian.org/frs/?group_id=31052">download the
2688 new version 0.15 from alioth</a>.  Please let us know via the Alioth
2689 project if something is wrong with the new release.  The test suite
2690 did not discover any old errors, so if you find a new one, please also
2691 include a testsuite check.</p>
2692
2693       </div>
2694       <div class="tags">
2695
2696
2697         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>.
2698
2699
2700       </div>
2701     </div>
2702     <div class="padding"></div>
2703
2704     <div class="entry">
2705       <div class="title">
2706         <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>
2707       </div>
2708       <div class="date">
2709          2nd November 2013
2710       </div>
2711       <div class="body">
2712         <p>If one of the points of switching to a new init system in Debian is
2713 <a href="http://thomas.goirand.fr/blog/?p=147">to get rid of huge
2714 init.d scripts</a>, I doubt we need to switch away from sysvinit and
2715 init.d scripts at all.  Here is an example init.d script, ie a rewrite
2716 of /etc/init.d/rsyslog:</p>
2717
2718 <p><pre>
2719 #!/lib/init/init-d-script
2720 ### BEGIN INIT INFO
2721 # Provides:          rsyslog
2722 # Required-Start:    $remote_fs $time
2723 # Required-Stop:     umountnfs $time
2724 # X-Stop-After:      sendsigs
2725 # Default-Start:     2 3 4 5
2726 # Default-Stop:      0 1 6
2727 # Short-Description: enhanced syslogd
2728 # Description:       Rsyslog is an enhanced multi-threaded syslogd.
2729 #                    It is quite compatible to stock sysklogd and can be
2730 #                    used as a drop-in replacement.
2731 ### END INIT INFO
2732 DESC="enhanced syslogd"
2733 DAEMON=/usr/sbin/rsyslogd
2734 </pre></p>
2735
2736 <p>Pretty minimalistic to me... For the record, the original sysv-rc
2737 script was 137 lines, and the above is just 15 lines, most of it meta
2738 info/comments.</p>
2739
2740 <p>How to do this, you ask?  Well, one create a new script
2741 /lib/init/init-d-script looking something like this:
2742
2743 <p><pre>
2744 #!/bin/sh
2745
2746 # Define LSB log_* functions.
2747 # Depend on lsb-base (>= 3.2-14) to ensure that this file is present
2748 # and status_of_proc is working.
2749 . /lib/lsb/init-functions
2750
2751 #
2752 # Function that starts the daemon/service
2753
2754 #
2755 do_start()
2756 {
2757         # Return
2758         #   0 if daemon has been started
2759         #   1 if daemon was already running
2760         #   2 if daemon could not be started
2761         start-stop-daemon --start --quiet --pidfile $PIDFILE --exec $DAEMON --test > /dev/null \
2762                 || return 1
2763         start-stop-daemon --start --quiet --pidfile $PIDFILE --exec $DAEMON -- \
2764                 $DAEMON_ARGS \
2765                 || return 2
2766         # Add code here, if necessary, that waits for the process to be ready
2767         # to handle requests from services started subsequently which depend
2768         # on this one.  As a last resort, sleep for some time.
2769 }
2770
2771 #
2772 # Function that stops the daemon/service
2773 #
2774 do_stop()
2775 {
2776         # Return
2777         #   0 if daemon has been stopped
2778         #   1 if daemon was already stopped
2779         #   2 if daemon could not be stopped
2780         #   other if a failure occurred
2781         start-stop-daemon --stop --quiet --retry=TERM/30/KILL/5 --pidfile $PIDFILE --name $NAME
2782         RETVAL="$?"
2783         [ "$RETVAL" = 2 ] && return 2
2784         # Wait for children to finish too if this is a daemon that forks
2785         # and if the daemon is only ever run from this initscript.
2786         # If the above conditions are not satisfied then add some other code
2787         # that waits for the process to drop all resources that could be
2788         # needed by services started subsequently.  A last resort is to
2789         # sleep for some time.
2790         start-stop-daemon --stop --quiet --oknodo --retry=0/30/KILL/5 --exec $DAEMON
2791         [ "$?" = 2 ] && return 2
2792         # Many daemons don't delete their pidfiles when they exit.
2793         rm -f $PIDFILE
2794         return "$RETVAL"
2795 }
2796
2797 #
2798 # Function that sends a SIGHUP to the daemon/service
2799 #
2800 do_reload() {
2801         #
2802         # If the daemon can reload its configuration without
2803         # restarting (for example, when it is sent a SIGHUP),
2804         # then implement that here.
2805         #
2806         start-stop-daemon --stop --signal 1 --quiet --pidfile $PIDFILE --name $NAME
2807         return 0
2808 }
2809
2810 SCRIPTNAME=$1
2811 scriptbasename="$(basename $1)"
2812 echo "SN: $scriptbasename"
2813 if [ "$scriptbasename" != "init-d-library" ] ; then
2814     script="$1"
2815     shift
2816     . $script
2817 else
2818     exit 0
2819 fi
2820
2821 NAME=$(basename $DAEMON)
2822 PIDFILE=/var/run/$NAME.pid
2823
2824 # Exit if the package is not installed
2825 #[ -x "$DAEMON" ] || exit 0
2826
2827 # Read configuration variable file if it is present
2828 [ -r /etc/default/$NAME ] && . /etc/default/$NAME
2829
2830 # Load the VERBOSE setting and other rcS variables
2831 . /lib/init/vars.sh
2832
2833 case "$1" in
2834   start)
2835         [ "$VERBOSE" != no ] && log_daemon_msg "Starting $DESC" "$NAME"
2836         do_start
2837         case "$?" in
2838                 0|1) [ "$VERBOSE" != no ] && log_end_msg 0 ;;
2839                 2) [ "$VERBOSE" != no ] && log_end_msg 1 ;;
2840         esac
2841         ;;
2842   stop)
2843         [ "$VERBOSE" != no ] && log_daemon_msg "Stopping $DESC" "$NAME"
2844         do_stop
2845         case "$?" in
2846                 0|1) [ "$VERBOSE" != no ] && log_end_msg 0 ;;
2847                 2) [ "$VERBOSE" != no ] && log_end_msg 1 ;;
2848         esac
2849         ;;
2850   status)
2851         status_of_proc "$DAEMON" "$NAME" && exit 0 || exit $?
2852         ;;
2853   #reload|force-reload)
2854         #
2855         # If do_reload() is not implemented then leave this commented out
2856         # and leave 'force-reload' as an alias for 'restart'.
2857         #
2858         #log_daemon_msg "Reloading $DESC" "$NAME"
2859         #do_reload
2860         #log_end_msg $?
2861         #;;
2862   restart|force-reload)
2863         #
2864         # If the "reload" option is implemented then remove the
2865         # 'force-reload' alias
2866         #
2867         log_daemon_msg "Restarting $DESC" "$NAME"
2868         do_stop
2869         case "$?" in
2870           0|1)
2871                 do_start
2872                 case "$?" in
2873                         0) log_end_msg 0 ;;
2874                         1) log_end_msg 1 ;; # Old process is still running
2875                         *) log_end_msg 1 ;; # Failed to start
2876                 esac
2877                 ;;
2878           *)
2879                 # Failed to stop
2880                 log_end_msg 1
2881                 ;;
2882         esac
2883         ;;
2884   *)
2885         echo "Usage: $SCRIPTNAME {start|stop|status|restart|force-reload}" >&2
2886         exit 3
2887         ;;
2888 esac
2889
2890 :
2891 </pre></p>
2892
2893 <p>It is based on /etc/init.d/skeleton, and could be improved quite a
2894 lot.  I did not really polish the approach, so it might not always
2895 work out of the box, but you get the idea.  I did not try very hard to
2896 optimize it nor make it more robust either.</p>
2897
2898 <p>A better argument for switching init system in Debian than reducing
2899 the size of init scripts (which is a good thing to do anyway), is to
2900 get boot system that is able to handle the kernel events sensibly and
2901 robustly, and do not depend on the boot to run sequentially.  The boot
2902 and the kernel have not behaved sequentially in years.</p>
2903
2904       </div>
2905       <div class="tags">
2906
2907
2908         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>.
2909
2910
2911       </div>
2912     </div>
2913     <div class="padding"></div>
2914
2915     <div class="entry">
2916       <div class="title">
2917         <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>
2918       </div>
2919       <div class="date">
2920          1st November 2013
2921       </div>
2922       <div class="body">
2923         <p><a href="http://www.spice-space.org/">The SPICE protocol</a> for
2924 remote display access is the preferred solution with oVirt and RedHat
2925 Enterprise Virtualization, and I was sad to discover the other day
2926 that the browser plugin needed to use these systems seamlessly was
2927 missing in Debian.  The <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/668284">request
2928 for a package</a> was from 2012-04-10 with no progress since
2929 2013-04-01, so I decided to wrap up a package based on the great work
2930 from Cajus Pollmeier and put it in a collab-maint maintained git
2931 repository to get a package I could use.  I would very much like
2932 others to help me maintain the package (or just take over, I do not
2933 mind), but as no-one had volunteered so far, I just uploaded it to
2934 NEW.  I hope it will be available in Debian in a few days.</p>
2935
2936 <p>The source is now available from
2937 <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>
2938
2939       </div>
2940       <div class="tags">
2941
2942
2943         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>.
2944
2945
2946       </div>
2947     </div>
2948     <div class="padding"></div>
2949
2950     <div class="entry">
2951       <div class="title">
2952         <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>
2953       </div>
2954       <div class="date">
2955         27th October 2013
2956       </div>
2957       <div class="body">
2958         <p>The
2959 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/v/vmdebootstrap.html">vmdebootstrap</a>
2960 program is a a very nice system to create virtual machine images.  It
2961 create a image file, add a partition table, mount it and run
2962 debootstrap in the mounted directory to create a Debian system on a
2963 stick.  Yesterday, I decided to try to teach it how to make images for
2964 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/RaspberryPi">Raspberry Pi</a>, as part
2965 of a plan to simplify the build system for
2966 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/FreedomBox">the FreedomBox
2967 project</a>.  The FreedomBox project already uses vmdebootstrap for
2968 the virtualbox images, but its current build system made multistrap
2969 based system for Dreamplug images, and it is lacking support for
2970 Raspberry Pi.</p>
2971
2972 <p>Armed with the knowledge on how to build "foreign" (aka non-native
2973 architecture) chroots for Raspberry Pi, I dived into the vmdebootstrap
2974 code and adjusted it to be able to build armel images on my amd64
2975 Debian laptop.  I ended up giving vmdebootstrap five new options,
2976 allowing me to replicate the image creation process I use to make
2977 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/A_Raspberry_Pi_based_batman_adv_Mesh_network_node.html">Debian
2978 Jessie based mesh node images for the Raspberry Pi</a>.  First, the
2979 <tt>--foreign /path/to/binfm_handler</tt> option tell vmdebootstrap to
2980 call debootstrap with --foreign and to copy the handler into the
2981 generated chroot before running the second stage.  This allow
2982 vmdebootstrap to create armel images on an amd64 host.  Next I added
2983 two new options <tt>--bootsize size</tt> and <tt>--boottype
2984 fstype</tt> to teach it to create a separate /boot/ partition with the
2985 given file system type, allowing me to create an image with a vfat
2986 partition for the /boot/ stuff.  I also added a <tt>--variant
2987 variant</tt> option to allow me to create smaller images without the
2988 Debian base system packages installed.  Finally, I added an option
2989 <tt>--no-extlinux</tt> to tell vmdebootstrap to not install extlinux
2990 as a boot loader.  It is not needed on the Raspberry Pi and probably
2991 most other non-x86 architectures.  The changes were accepted by the
2992 upstream author of vmdebootstrap yesterday and today, and is now
2993 available from
2994 <a href="http://git.liw.fi/cgi-bin/cgit/cgit.cgi/vmdebootstrap/">the
2995 upstream project page</a>.</p>
2996
2997 <p>To use it to build a Raspberry Pi image using Debian Jessie, first
2998 create a small script (the customize script) to add the non-free
2999 binary blob needed to boot the Raspberry Pi and the APT source
3000 list:</p>
3001
3002 <p><pre>
3003 #!/bin/sh
3004 set -e # Exit on first error
3005 rootdir="$1"
3006 cd "$rootdir"
3007 cat &lt;&lt;EOF > etc/apt/sources.list
3008 deb http://http.debian.net/debian/ jessie main contrib non-free
3009 EOF
3010 # Install non-free binary blob needed to boot Raspberry Pi.  This
3011 # install a kernel somewhere too.
3012 wget https://raw.github.com/Hexxeh/rpi-update/master/rpi-update \
3013     -O $rootdir/usr/bin/rpi-update
3014 chmod a+x $rootdir/usr/bin/rpi-update
3015 mkdir -p $rootdir/lib/modules
3016 touch $rootdir/boot/start.elf
3017 chroot $rootdir rpi-update
3018 </pre></p>
3019
3020 <p>Next, fetch the latest vmdebootstrap script and call it like this
3021 to build the image:</p>
3022
3023 <pre>
3024 sudo ./vmdebootstrap \
3025     --variant minbase \
3026     --arch armel \
3027     --distribution jessie \
3028     --mirror http://http.debian.net/debian \
3029     --image test.img \
3030     --size 600M \
3031     --bootsize 64M \
3032     --boottype vfat \
3033     --log-level debug \
3034     --verbose \
3035     --no-kernel \
3036     --no-extlinux \
3037     --root-password raspberry \
3038     --hostname raspberrypi \
3039     --foreign /usr/bin/qemu-arm-static \
3040     --customize `pwd`/customize \
3041     --package netbase \
3042     --package git-core \
3043     --package binutils \
3044     --package ca-certificates \
3045     --package wget \
3046     --package kmod
3047 </pre></p>
3048
3049 <p>The list of packages being installed are the ones needed by
3050 rpi-update to make the image bootable on the Raspberry Pi, with the
3051 exception of netbase, which is needed by debootstrap to find
3052 /etc/hosts with the minbase variant.  I really wish there was a way to
3053 set up an Raspberry Pi using only packages in the Debian archive, but
3054 that is not possible as far as I know, because it boots from the GPU
3055 using a non-free binary blob.</p>
3056
3057 <p>The build host need debootstrap, kpartx and qemu-user-static and
3058 probably a few others installed.  I have not checked the complete
3059 build dependency list.</p>
3060
3061 <p>The resulting image will not use the hardware floating point unit
3062 on the Raspberry PI, because the armel architecture in Debian is not
3063 optimized for that use.  So the images created will be a bit slower
3064 than <a href="http://www.raspbian.org/">Raspbian</a> based images.</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>, <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>.
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/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>
3080       </div>
3081       <div class="date">
3082         15th October 2013
3083       </div>
3084       <div class="body">
3085         <p>The last few days I came across a few good causes that should get
3086 wider attention.  I recommend signing and donating to each one of
3087 these. :)</p>
3088
3089 <p>Via <a href="http://www.debian.org/News/weekly/2013/18/">Debian
3090 Project News for 2013-10-14</a> I came across the Outreach Program for
3091 Women program which is a Google Summer of Code like initiative to get
3092 more women involved in free software.  One debian sponsor has offered
3093 to match <a href="http://debian.ch/opw2013">any donation done to Debian
3094 earmarked</a> for this initiative.  I donated a few minutes ago, and
3095 hope you will to. :)</p>
3096
3097 <p>And the Electronic Frontier Foundation just announced plans to
3098 create <a href="https://supporters.eff.org/donate/nsa-videos">video
3099 documentaries about the excessive spying</a> on every Internet user that
3100 take place these days, and their need to fund the work.  I've already
3101 donated.  Are you next?</p>
3102
3103 <p>For my Norwegian audience, the organisation Studentenes og
3104 Akademikernes Internasjonale Hjelpefond is collecting signatures for a
3105 statement under the heading
3106 <a href="http://saih.no/Bloggers_United/">Bloggers United for Open
3107 Access</a> for those of us asking for more focus on open access in the
3108 Norwegian government.  So far 499 signatures.  I hope you will sign it
3109 too.</p>
3110
3111       </div>
3112       <div class="tags">
3113
3114
3115         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>.
3116
3117
3118       </div>
3119     </div>
3120     <div class="padding"></div>
3121
3122     <div class="entry">
3123       <div class="title">
3124         <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>
3125       </div>
3126       <div class="date">
3127         27th September 2013
3128       </div>
3129       <div class="body">
3130         <p>The <a href="http://www.freedomboxfoundation.org/">Freedombox
3131 project</a> have been going on for a while, and have presented the
3132 vision, ideas and solution several places.  Here is a little
3133 collection of videos of talks and presentation of the project.</p>
3134
3135 <ul>
3136
3137 <li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ukvUz5taxvA">FreedomBox -
3138 2,5 minute marketing film</a> (Youtube)</li>
3139
3140 <li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SzW25QTVWsE">Eben Moglen
3141 discusses the Freedombox on CBS news 2011</a> (Youtube)</li>
3142
3143 <li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ae8SZbxfE0g">Eben Moglen -
3144 Freedom in the Cloud - Software Freedom, Privacy and and Security for
3145 Web 2.0 and Cloud computing at ISOC-NY Public Meeting 2010</a>
3146 (Youtube)</li>
3147
3148 <li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNaIji_3xBE">Fosdem 2011
3149 Keynote by Eben Moglen presenting the Freedombox</a> (Youtube)</li>
3150
3151 <li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bDDUyJSQ9s">Presentation of
3152 the Freedombox by James Vasile at Elevate in Gratz 2011</a> (Youtube)</li>
3153
3154 <li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQTmnk27g9s"> Freedombox -
3155 Discovery, Identity, and Trust by Nick Daly at Freedombox Hackfest New
3156 York City in 2012</a> (Youtube)</li>
3157
3158 <li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tkbSB4Ba7Ck">Introduction
3159 to the Freedombox at Freedombox Hackfest New York City in 2012</a>
3160 (Youtube)</li>
3161
3162 <li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-P2Jaeg0aQ">Freedom, Out
3163 of the Box! by Bdale Garbee at linux.conf.au Ballarat, 2012</a> (Youtube) </li>
3164
3165 <li><a href="https://archive.fosdem.org/2013/schedule/event/freedombox/">Freedombox
3166 1.0 by Eben Moglen and Bdale Garbee at Fosdem 2013</a> (FOSDEM) </li>
3167
3168 <li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e1LpYX2zVYg">What is the
3169 FreedomBox today by Bdale Garbee at Debconf13 in Vaumarcus
3170 2013</a> (Youtube)</li>
3171
3172 </ul>
3173
3174 <p>A larger list is available from
3175 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/FreedomBox/TalksAndPresentations">the
3176 Freedombox Wiki</a>.</p>
3177
3178 <p>On other news, I am happy to report that Freedombox based on Debian
3179 Jessie is coming along quite well, and soon both Owncloud and using
3180 Tor should be available for testers of the Freedombox solution. :) In
3181 a few weeks I hope everything needed to test it is included in Debian.
3182 The withsqlite package is already in Debian, and the plinth package is
3183 pending in NEW.  The third and vital part of that puzzle is the
3184 metapackage/setup framework, which is still pending an upload.  Join
3185 us on <a href="irc://irc.debian.org:6667/%23freedombox">IRC
3186 (#freedombox on irc.debian.org)</a> and
3187 <a href="http://lists.alioth.debian.org/mailman/listinfo/freedombox-discuss">the
3188 mailing list</a> if you want to help make this vision come true.</p>
3189
3190       </div>
3191       <div class="tags">
3192
3193
3194         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>.
3195
3196
3197       </div>
3198     </div>
3199     <div class="padding"></div>
3200
3201     <div class="entry">
3202       <div class="title">
3203         <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>
3204       </div>
3205       <div class="date">
3206         10th September 2013
3207       </div>
3208       <div class="body">
3209         <p>I was introduced to the
3210 <a href="http://www.freedomboxfoundation.org/">Freedombox project</a>
3211 in 2010, when Eben Moglen presented his vision about serving the need
3212 of non-technical people to keep their personal information private and
3213 within the legal protection of their own homes.  The idea is to give
3214 people back the power over their network and machines, and return
3215 Internet back to its intended peer-to-peer architecture.  Instead of
3216 depending on a central service, the Freedombox will give everyone
3217 control over their own basic infrastructure.</p>
3218
3219 <p>I've intended to join the effort since then, but other tasks have
3220 taken priority.  But this summers nasty news about the misuse of trust
3221 and privilege exercised by the "western" intelligence gathering
3222 communities increased my eagerness to contribute to a point where I
3223 actually started working on the project a while back.</p>
3224
3225 <p>The <a href="https://alioth.debian.org/projects/freedombox/">initial
3226 Debian initiative</a> based on the vision from Eben Moglen, is to
3227 create a simple and cheap Debian based appliance that anyone can hook
3228 up in their home and get access to secure and private services and
3229 communication.  The initial deployment platform have been the
3230 <a href="http://www.globalscaletechnologies.com/t-dreamplugdetails.aspx">Dreamplug</a>,
3231 which is a piece of hardware I do not own.  So to be able to test what
3232 the current Freedombox setup look like, I had to come up with a way to install
3233 it on some hardware I do have access to.  I have rewritten the
3234 <a href="https://github.com/NickDaly/freedom-maker">freedom-maker</a>
3235 image build framework to use .deb packages instead of only copying
3236 setup into the boot images, and thanks to this rewrite I am able to
3237 set up any machine supported by Debian Wheezy as a Freedombox, using
3238 the previously mentioned deb (and a few support debs for packages
3239 missing in Debian).</p>
3240
3241 <p>The current Freedombox setup consist of a set of bootstrapping
3242 scripts
3243 (<a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/freedombox-setup">freedombox-setup</a>),
3244 and a administrative web interface
3245 (<a href="https://github.com/NickDaly/Plinth">plinth</a> + exmachina +
3246 withsqlite), as well as a privacy enhancing proxy based on
3247 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/privoxy">privoxy</a>
3248 (freedombox-privoxy).  There is also a web/javascript based XMPP
3249 client (<a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/jwchat">jwchat</a>)
3250 trying (unsuccessfully so far) to talk to the XMPP server
3251 (<a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/ejabberd">ejabberd</a>).  The
3252 web interface is pluggable, and the goal is to use it to enable OpenID
3253 services, mesh network connectivity, use of TOR, etc, etc.  Not much of
3254 this is really working yet, see
3255 <a href="https://github.com/NickDaly/freedombox-todos/blob/master/TODO">the
3256 project TODO</a> for links to GIT repositories.  Most of the code is
3257 on github at the moment.  The HTTP proxy is operational out of the
3258 box, and the admin web interface can be used to add/remove plinth
3259 users.  I've not been able to do anything else with it so far, but
3260 know there are several branches spread around github and other places
3261 with lots of half baked features.</p>
3262
3263 <p>Anyway, if you want to have a look at the current state, the
3264 following recipes should work to give you a test machine to poke
3265 at.</p>
3266
3267 <p><strong>Debian Wheezy amd64</strong></p>
3268
3269 <ol>
3270
3271 <li>Fetch normal Debian Wheezy installation ISO.</li>
3272 <li>Boot from it, either as CD or USB stick.</li>
3273 <li><p>Press [tab] on the boot prompt and add this as a boot argument
3274 to the Debian installer:<p>
3275 <pre>url=<a href="http://www.reinholdtsen.name/freedombox/preseed-wheezy.dat">http://www.reinholdtsen.name/freedombox/preseed-wheezy.dat</a></pre></li>
3276
3277 <li>Answer the few language/region/password questions and pick disk to
3278 install on.</li>
3279
3280 <li>When the installation is finished and the machine have rebooted a
3281 few times, your Freedombox is ready for testing.</li>
3282
3283 </ol>
3284
3285 <p><strong>Raspberry Pi Raspbian</strong></p>
3286
3287 <ol>
3288
3289 <li>Fetch a Raspbian SD card image, create SD card.</li>
3290 <li>Boot from SD card, extend file system to fill the card completely.</li>
3291 <li><p>Log in and add this to /etc/sources.list:</p>
3292 <pre>
3293 deb <a href="http://www.reinholdtsen.name/freedombox/">http://www.reinholdtsen.name/freedombox</a> wheezy main
3294 </pre></li>
3295 <li><p>Run this as root:</p>
3296 <pre>
3297 wget -O - http://www.reinholdtsen.name/freedombox/BE1A583D.asc | \
3298    apt-key add -
3299 apt-get update
3300 apt-get install freedombox-setup
3301 /usr/lib/freedombox/setup
3302 </pre></li>
3303 <li>Reboot into your freshly created Freedombox.</li>
3304
3305 </ol>
3306
3307 <p>You can test it on other architectures too, but because the
3308 freedombox-privoxy package is binary, it will only work as intended on
3309 the architectures where I have had time to build the binary and put it
3310 in my APT repository.  But do not let this stop you.  It is only a
3311 short "<tt>apt-get source -b freedombox-privoxy</tt>" away. :)</p>
3312
3313 <p>Note that by default Freedombox is a DHCP server on the
3314 192.168.1.0/24 subnet, so if this is your subnet be careful and turn
3315 off the DHCP server by running "<tt>update-rc.d isc-dhcp-server
3316 disable</tt>" as root.</p>
3317
3318 <p>Please let me know if this works for you, or if you have any
3319 problems.  We gather on the IRC channel
3320 <a href="irc://irc.debian.org:6667/%23freedombox">#freedombox</a> on
3321 irc.debian.org and the
3322 <a href="http://lists.alioth.debian.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/freedombox-discuss">project
3323 mailing list</a>.</p>
3324
3325 <p>Once you get your freedombox operational, you can visit
3326 <tt>http://your-host-name:8001/</tt> to see the state of the plint
3327 welcome screen (dead end - do not be surprised if you are unable to
3328 get past it), and next visit <tt>http://your-host-name:8001/help/</tt>
3329 to look at the rest of plinth.  The default user is 'admin' and the
3330 default password is 'secret'.</p>
3331
3332       </div>
3333       <div class="tags">
3334
3335
3336         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>.
3337
3338
3339       </div>
3340     </div>
3341     <div class="padding"></div>
3342
3343     <div class="entry">
3344       <div class="title">
3345         <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>
3346       </div>
3347       <div class="date">
3348         18th August 2013
3349       </div>
3350       <div class="body">
3351         <p>Earlier, I reported about
3352 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_fix_a_Thinkpad_X230_with_a_broken_180_GB_SSD_disk.html">my
3353 problems using an Intel SSD 520 Series 180 GB disk</a>.  Friday I was
3354 told by IBM that the original disk should be thrown away.  And as
3355 there no longer was a problem if I bricked the firmware, I decided
3356 today to try to install Intel firmware to replace the Lenovo firmware
3357 currently on the disk.</p>
3358
3359 <p>I searched the Intel site for firmware, and found
3360 <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>
3361 (aka Intel SATA Solid-State Drive Firmware Update Tool) which
3362 according to the site should contain the latest firmware for SSD
3363 disks.  I inserted the broken disk in one of my spare laptops and
3364 booted the ISO from a USB stick.  The disk was recognized, but the
3365 program claimed the newest firmware already were installed and refused
3366 to insert any Intel firmware.  So no change, and the disk is still
3367 unable to handle write load. :( I guess the only way to get them
3368 working would be if Lenovo releases new firmware.  No idea how likely
3369 that is.  Anyway, just blogging about this test for completeness.  I
3370 got a working Samsung disk, and see no point in spending more time on
3371 the broken disks.</p>
3372
3373       </div>
3374       <div class="tags">
3375
3376
3377         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>.
3378
3379
3380       </div>
3381     </div>
3382     <div class="padding"></div>
3383
3384     <div class="entry">
3385       <div class="title">
3386         <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>
3387       </div>
3388       <div class="date">
3389         17th July 2013
3390       </div>
3391       <div class="body">
3392         <p>Today I switched to
3393 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_Thinkpad_is_dead__long_live_the_Thinkpad_X230_.html">my
3394 new laptop</a>.  I've previously written about the problems I had with
3395 my new Thinkpad X230, which was delivered with an
3396 <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
3397 GB Intel SSD disk with Lenovo firmware</a> that did not handle
3398 sustained writes.  My hardware supplier have been very forthcoming in
3399 trying to find a solution, and after first trying with another
3400 identical 180 GB disks they decided to send me a 256 GB Samsung SSD
3401 disk instead to fix it once and for all.  The Samsung disk survived
3402 the installation of Debian with encrypted disks (filling the disk with
3403 random data during installation killed the first two), and I thus
3404 decided to trust it with my data.  I have installed it as a Debian Edu
3405 Wheezy roaming workstation hooked up with my Debian Edu Squeeze main
3406 server at home using Kerberos and LDAP, and will use it as my work
3407 station from now on.</p>
3408
3409 <p>As this is a solid state disk with no moving parts, I believe the
3410 Debian Wheezy default installation need to be tuned a bit to increase
3411 performance and increase life time of the disk.  The Linux kernel and
3412 user space applications do not yet adjust automatically to such
3413 environment.  To make it easier for my self, I created a draft Debian
3414 package <tt>ssd-setup</tt> to handle this tuning.  The
3415 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/gitweb/?p=collab-maint/ssd-setup.git">source
3416 for the ssd-setup package</a> is available from collab-maint, and it
3417 is set up to adjust the setup of the machine by just installing the
3418 package.  If there is any non-SSD disk in the machine, the package
3419 will refuse to install, as I did not try to write any logic to sort
3420 file systems in SSD and non-SSD file systems.</p>
3421
3422 <p>I consider the package a draft, as I am a bit unsure how to best
3423 set up Debian Wheezy with an SSD.  It is adjusted to my use case,
3424 where I set up the machine with one large encrypted partition (in
3425 addition to /boot), put LVM on top of this and set up partitions on
3426 top of this again.  See the README file in the package source for the
3427 references I used to pick the settings.  At the moment these
3428 parameters are tuned:</p>
3429
3430 <ul>
3431
3432 <li>Set up cryptsetup to pass TRIM commands to the physical disk
3433     (adding discard to /etc/crypttab)</li>
3434
3435 <li>Set up LVM to pass on TRIM commands to the underlying device (in
3436     this case a cryptsetup partition) by changing issue_discards from
3437     0 to 1 in /etc/lvm/lvm.conf.</li>
3438
3439 <li>Set relatime as a file system option for ext3 and ext4 file
3440     systems.</li>
3441
3442 <li>Tell swap to use TRIM commands by adding 'discard' to
3443     /etc/fstab.</li>
3444
3445 <li>Change I/O scheduler from cfq to deadline using a udev rule.</li>
3446
3447 <li>Run fstrim on every ext3 and ext4 file system every night (from
3448     cron.daily).</li>
3449
3450 <li>Adjust sysctl values vm.swappiness to 1 and vm.vfs_cache_pressure
3451     to 50 to reduce the kernel eagerness to swap out processes.</li>
3452
3453 </ul>
3454
3455 <p>During installation, I cancelled the part where the installer fill
3456 the disk with random data, as this would kill the SSD performance for
3457 little gain.  My goal with the encrypted file system is to ensure
3458 those stealing my laptop end up with a brick and not a working
3459 computer.  I have no hope in keeping the really resourceful people
3460 from getting the data on the disk (see
3461 <a href="http://xkcd.com/538/">XKCD #538</a> for an explanation why).
3462 Thus I concluded that adding the discard option to crypttab is the
3463 right thing to do.</p>
3464
3465 <p>I considered using the noop I/O scheduler, as several recommended
3466 it for SSD, but others recommended deadline and a benchmark I found
3467 indicated that deadline might be better for interactive use.</p>
3468
3469 <p>I also considered using the 'discard' file system option for ext3
3470 and ext4, but read that it would give a performance hit ever time a
3471 file is removed, and thought it best to that that slowdown once a day
3472 instead of during my work.</p>
3473
3474 <p>My package do not set up tmpfs on /var/run, /var/lock and /tmp, as
3475 this is already done by Debian Edu.</p>
3476
3477 <p>I have not yet started on the user space tuning.  I expect
3478 iceweasel need some tuning, and perhaps other applications too, but
3479 have not yet had time to investigate those parts.</p>
3480
3481 <p>The package should work on Ubuntu too, but I have not yet tested it
3482 there.</p>
3483
3484 <p>As for the answer to the question in the title of this blog post,
3485 as far as I know, the only solution I know about is to replace the
3486 disk.  It might be possible to flash it with Intel firmware instead of
3487 the Lenovo firmware.  But I have not tried and did not want to do so
3488 without approval from Lenovo as I wanted to keep the warranty on the
3489 disk until a solution was found and they wanted the broken disks
3490 back.</p>
3491
3492       </div>
3493       <div class="tags">
3494
3495
3496         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>.
3497
3498
3499       </div>
3500     </div>
3501     <div class="padding"></div>
3502
3503     <div class="entry">
3504       <div class="title">
3505         <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>
3506       </div>
3507       <div class="date">
3508         10th July 2013
3509       </div>
3510       <div class="body">
3511         <p>A few days ago, I wrote about
3512 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_Thinkpad_is_dead__long_live_the_Thinkpad_X230_.html">the
3513 problems I experienced with my new X230 and its SSD disk</a>, which
3514 was dying during installation because it is unable to cope with
3515 sustained write.  My supplier is in contact with
3516 <a href="http://www.lenovo.com/">Lenovo</a>, and they wanted to send a
3517 replacement disk to try to fix the problem.  They decided to send an
3518 identical model, so my hopes for a permanent fix was slim.</p>
3519
3520 <p>Anyway, today I got the replacement disk and tried to install
3521 Debian Edu Wheezy with encrypted disk on it.  The new disk have the
3522 same firmware version as the original.  This time my hope raised
3523 slightly as the installation progressed, as the original disk used to
3524 die after 4-7% of the disk was written to, while this time it kept
3525 going past 10%, 20%, 40% and even past 50%.  But around 60%, the disk
3526 died again and I was back on square one.  I still do not have a new
3527 laptop with a disk I can trust.  I can not live with a disk that might
3528 lock up when I download a new
3529 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux</a> ISO or
3530 other large files.  I look forward to hearing from my supplier with
3531 the next proposal from Lenovo.</p>
3532
3533 <p>The original disk is marked Intel SSD 520 Series 180 GB,
3534 11S0C38722Z1ZNME35X1TR, ISN: CVCV321407HB180EGN, SA: G57560302, FW:
3535 LF1i, 29MAY2013, PBA: G39779-300, LBA 351,651,888, LI P/N: 0C38722,
3536 Pb-free 2LI, LC P/N: 16-200366, WWN: 55CD2E40002756C4, Model:
3537 SSDSC2BW180A3L 2.5" 6Gb/s SATA SSD 180G 5V 1A, ASM P/N 0C38732, FRU
3538 P/N 45N8295, P0C38732.</p>
3539
3540 <p>The replacement disk is marked Intel SSD 520 Series 180 GB,
3541 11S0C38722Z1ZNDE34N0L0, ISN: CVCV315306RK180EGN, SA: G57560-302, FW:
3542 LF1i, 22APR2013, PBA: G39779-300, LBA 351,651,888, LI P/N: 0C38722,
3543 Pb-free 2LI, LC P/N: 16-200366, WWN: 55CD2E40000AB69E, Model:
3544 SSDSC2BW180A3L 2.5" 6Gb/s SATA SSD 180G 5V 1A, ASM P/N 0C38732, FRU
3545 P/N 45N8295, P0C38732.</p>
3546
3547 <p>The only difference is in the first number (serial number?), ISN,
3548 SA, date and WNPP values.  Mentioning all the details here in case
3549 someone is able to use the information to find a way to identify the
3550 failing disk among working ones (if any such working disk actually
3551 exist).</p>
3552
3553       </div>
3554       <div class="tags">
3555
3556
3557         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>.
3558
3559
3560       </div>
3561     </div>
3562     <div class="padding"></div>
3563
3564     <div class="entry">
3565       <div class="title">
3566         <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>
3567       </div>
3568       <div class="date">
3569          9th July 2013
3570       </div>
3571       <div class="body">
3572         <p>The upcoming Saturday, 2013-07-13, we are organising a combined
3573 Debian Edu developer gathering and Debian and Ubuntu bug squashing
3574 party in Oslo.  It is organised by <a href="http://www.nuug.no/">the
3575 member assosiation NUUG</a> and
3576 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">the Debian Edu / Skolelinux
3577 project</a> together with <a href="http://bitraf.no/">the hack space
3578 Bitraf</a>.</p>
3579
3580 <p>It starts 10:00 and continue until late evening.  Everyone is
3581 welcome, and there is no fee to participate.  There is on the other
3582 hand limited space, and only room for 30 people.  Please put your name
3583 on <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/BSP/2013/07/13/no/Oslo">the event
3584 wiki page</a> if you plan to join us.</p>
3585
3586       </div>
3587       <div class="tags">
3588
3589
3590         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>.
3591
3592
3593       </div>
3594     </div>
3595     <div class="padding"></div>
3596
3597     <div class="entry">
3598       <div class="title">
3599         <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>
3600       </div>
3601       <div class="date">
3602          5th July 2013
3603       </div>
3604       <div class="body">
3605         <p>Half a year ago, I reported that I had to find a
3606 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Thank_you_Thinkpad_X41__for_your_long_and_trustworthy_service.html">replacement
3607 for my trusty old Thinkpad X41</a>.  Unfortunately I did not have much
3608 time to spend on it, and it took a while to find a model I believe
3609 will do the job, but two days ago the replacement finally arrived.  I
3610 ended up picking a
3611 <a href="http://www.linlap.com/lenovo_thinkpad_x230">Thinkpad X230</a>
3612 with SSD disk (NZDAJMN).  I first test installed Debian Edu Wheezy as
3613 a roaming workstation, and it seemed to work flawlessly.  But my
3614 second installation with encrypted disk was not as successful.  More
3615 on that below.</p>
3616
3617 <p>I had a hard time trying to track down a good laptop, as my most
3618 important requirements (robust and with a good keyboard) are never
3619 listed in the feature list.  But I did get good help from the search
3620 feature at <a href="http://www.prisjakt.no/">Prisjakt</a>, which
3621 allowed me to limit the list of interesting laptops based on my other
3622 requirements.  A bit surprising that SSD disk are not disks according
3623 to that search interface, so I had to drop specifying the number of
3624 disks from my search parameters.  I also asked around among friends to
3625 get their impression on keyboards and robustness.</p>
3626
3627 <p>So the new laptop arrived, and it is quite a lot wider than the
3628 X41.  I am not quite convinced about the keyboard, as it is
3629 significantly wider than my old keyboard, and I have to stretch my
3630 hand a lot more to reach the edges.  But the key response is fairly
3631 good and the individual key shape is fairly easy to handle, so I hope
3632 I will get used to it.  My old X40 was starting to fail, and I really
3633 needed a new laptop now. :)</p>
3634
3635 <p>Turning off the touch pad was simple.  All it took was a quick
3636 visit to the BIOS during boot it disable it.</p>
3637
3638 <p>But there is a fatal problem with the laptop.  The 180 GB SSD disk
3639 lock up during load.  And this happen when installing Debian Wheezy
3640 with encrypted disk, while the disk is being filled with random data.
3641 I also tested to install Ubuntu Raring, and it happen there too if I
3642 reenable the code to fill the disk with random data (it is disabled by
3643 default in Ubuntu).  And the bug with is already known.  It was
3644 reported to Debian as <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/691427">BTS
3645 report #691427 2012-10-25</a> (journal commit I/O error on brand-new
3646 Thinkpad T430s ext4 on lvm on SSD).  It is also reported to the Linux
3647 kernel developers as
3648 <a href="https://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=51861">Kernel bugzilla
3649 report #51861 2012-12-20</a> (Intel SSD 520 stops working under load
3650 (SSDSC2BW180A3L in Lenovo ThinkPad T430s)). It is also reported on the
3651 Lenovo forums, both for
3652 <a href="http://forums.lenovo.com/t5/T400-T500-and-newer-T-series/T430s-Intel-SSD-520-180GB-issue/m-p/1070549">T430
3653 2012-11-10</a> and for
3654 <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
3655 03-20-2013</a>.  The problem do not only affect installation.  The
3656 reports state that the disk lock up during use if many writes are done
3657 on the disk, so it is much no use to work around the installation
3658 problem and end up with a computer that can lock up at any moment.
3659 There is even a
3660 <a href="https://git.efficios.com/?p=test-ssd.git">small C program
3661 available</a> that will lock up the hard drive after running a few
3662 minutes by writing to a file.</p>
3663
3664 <p>I've contacted my supplier and asked how to handle this, and after
3665 contacting PCHELP Norway (request 01D1FDP) which handle support
3666 requests for Lenovo, his first suggestion was to upgrade the disk
3667 firmware.  Unfortunately there is no newer firmware available from
3668 Lenovo, as my disk already have the most recent one (version LF1i).  I
3669 hope to hear more from him today and hope the problem can be
3670 fixed. :)</p>
3671
3672       </div>
3673       <div class="tags">
3674
3675
3676         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>.
3677
3678
3679       </div>
3680     </div>
3681     <div class="padding"></div>
3682
3683     <div class="entry">
3684       <div class="title">
3685         <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>
3686       </div>
3687       <div class="date">
3688          4th July 2013
3689       </div>
3690       <div class="body">
3691         <p>Half a year ago, I reported that I had to find a replacement for my
3692 trusty old Thinkpad X41.  Unfortunately I did not have much time to
3693 spend on it, but today the replacement finally arrived.  I ended up
3694 picking a <a href="http://www.linlap.com/lenovo_thinkpad_x230">Thinkpad
3695 X230</a> with SSD disk (NZDAJMN).  I first test installed Debian Edu
3696 Wheezy as a roaming workstation, and it worked flawlessly.  As I write
3697 this, it is installing what I hope will be a more final installation,
3698 with a encrypted hard drive to ensure any dope head stealing it end up
3699 with an expencive door stop.</p>
3700
3701 <p>I had a hard time trying to track down a good laptop, as my most
3702 important requirements (robust and with a good keyboard) are never
3703 listed in the feature list.  But I did get good help from the search
3704 feature at <ahref="http://www.prisjakt.no/">Prisjakt</a>, which
3705 allowed me to limit the list of interesting laptops based on my other
3706 requirements.  A bit surprising that SSD disk are not disks, so I had
3707 to drop number of disks from my search parameters.</p>
3708
3709 <p>I am not quite convinced about the keyboard, as it is significantly
3710 wider than my old keyboard, and I have to stretch my hand a lot more
3711 to reach the edges.  But the key response is fairly good and the
3712 individual key shape is fairly easy to handle, so I hope I will get
3713 used to it.  My old X40 was starting to fail, and I really needed a
3714 new laptop now. :)</p>
3715
3716 <p>I look forward to figuring out how to turn off the touch pad.</p>
3717
3718       </div>
3719       <div class="tags">
3720
3721
3722         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>.
3723
3724
3725       </div>
3726     </div>
3727     <div class="padding"></div>
3728
3729     <div class="entry">
3730       <div class="title">
3731         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/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>
3732       </div>
3733       <div class="date">
3734         25th June 2013
3735       </div>
3736       <div class="body">
3737         <p>It annoys me when the computer fail to do automatically what it is
3738 perfectly capable of, and I have to do it manually to get things
3739 working.  One such task is to find out what firmware packages are
3740 needed to get the hardware on my computer working.  Most often this
3741 affect the wifi card, but some times it even affect the RAID
3742 controller or the ethernet card.  Today I pushed version 0.4 of the
3743 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/isenkram">Isenkram package</a>
3744 including a new script isenkram-autoinstall-firmware handling the
3745 process of asking all the loaded kernel modules what firmware files
3746 they want, find debian packages providing these files and install the
3747 debian packages.  Here is a test run on my laptop:</p>
3748
3749 <p><pre>
3750 # isenkram-autoinstall-firmware
3751 info: kernel drivers requested extra firmware: ipw2200-bss.fw ipw2200-ibss.fw ipw2200-sniffer.fw
3752 info: fetching http://http.debian.net/debian/dists/squeeze/Contents-i386.gz
3753 info: locating packages with the requested firmware files
3754 info: Updating APT sources after adding non-free APT source
3755 info: trying to install firmware-ipw2x00
3756 firmware-ipw2x00
3757 firmware-ipw2x00
3758 Preconfiguring packages ...
3759 Selecting previously deselected package firmware-ipw2x00.
3760 (Reading database ... 259727 files and directories currently installed.)
3761 Unpacking firmware-ipw2x00 (from .../firmware-ipw2x00_0.28+squeeze1_all.deb) ...
3762 Setting up firmware-ipw2x00 (0.28+squeeze1) ...
3763 #
3764 </pre></p>
3765
3766 <p>When all the requested firmware is present, a simple message is
3767 printed instead:</p>
3768
3769 <p><pre>
3770 # isenkram-autoinstall-firmware
3771 info: did not find any firmware files requested by loaded kernel modules.  exiting
3772 #
3773 </pre></p>
3774
3775 <p>It could use some polish, but it is already working well and saving
3776 me some time when setting up new machines. :)</p>
3777
3778 <p>So, how does it work?  It look at the set of currently loaded
3779 kernel modules, and look up each one of them using modinfo, to find
3780 the firmware files listed in the module meta-information.  Next, it
3781 download the Contents file from a nearby APT mirror, and search for
3782 the firmware files in this file to locate the package with the
3783 requested firmware file.  If the package is in the non-free section, a
3784 non-free APT source is added and the package is installed using
3785 <tt>apt-get install</tt>.  The end result is a slightly better working
3786 machine.</p>
3787
3788 <p>I hope someone find time to implement a more polished version of
3789 this script as part of the hw-detect debian-installer module, to
3790 finally fix <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/655507">BTS report
3791 #655507</a>.  There really is no need to insert USB sticks with
3792 firmware during a PXE install when the packages already are available
3793 from the nearby Debian mirror.</p>
3794
3795       </div>
3796       <div class="tags">
3797
3798
3799         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>.
3800
3801
3802       </div>
3803     </div>
3804     <div class="padding"></div>
3805
3806     <div class="entry">
3807       <div class="title">
3808         <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>
3809       </div>
3810       <div class="date">
3811         11th June 2013
3812       </div>
3813       <div class="body">
3814         <p>When installing RedHat, Fedora, Debian and Ubuntu on some machines,
3815 the screen just turn black when Linux boot, either during installation
3816 or on first boot from the hard disk.  I've seen it once in a while the
3817 last few years, but only recently understood the cause.  I've seen it
3818 on HP laptops, and on my latest acquaintance the Packard Bell laptop.
3819 The reason seem to be in the wiring of some laptops.  The system to
3820 control the screen background light is inverted, so when Linux try to
3821 turn the brightness fully on, it end up turning it off instead.  I do
3822 not know which Linux drivers are affected, but this post is about the
3823 i915 driver used by the
3824 <a href="http://www.linlap.com/packard_bell_easynote_lv">Packard Bell
3825 EasyNote LV</a>, Thinkpad X40 and many other laptops.</p>
3826
3827 <p>The problem can be worked around two ways.  Either by adding
3828 i915.invert_brightness=1 as a kernel option, or by adding a file in
3829 /etc/modprobe.d/ to tell modprobe to add the invert_brightness=1
3830 option when it load the i915 kernel module.  On Debian and Ubuntu, it
3831 can be done by running these commands as root:</p>
3832
3833 <pre>
3834 echo options i915 invert_brightness=1 | tee /etc/modprobe.d/i915.conf
3835 update-initramfs -u -k all
3836 </pre>
3837
3838 <p>Since March 2012 there is
3839 <a href="http://git.kernel.org/cgit/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/commit/?id=4dca20efb1a9c2efefc28ad2867e5d6c3f5e1955">a
3840 mechanism in the Linux kernel</a> to tell the i915 driver which
3841 hardware have this problem, and get the driver to invert the
3842 brightness setting automatically.  To use it, one need to add a row in
3843 <a href="http://git.kernel.org/cgit/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/tree/drivers/gpu/drm/i915/intel_display.c">the
3844 intel_quirks array</a> in the driver source
3845 <tt>drivers/gpu/drm/i915/intel_display.c</tt> (look for "<tt>static
3846 struct intel_quirk intel_quirks</tt>"), specifying the PCI device
3847 number (vendor number 8086 is assumed) and subdevice vendor and device
3848 number.</p>
3849
3850 <p>My Packard Bell EasyNote LV got this output from <tt>lspci
3851 -vvnn</tt> for the video card in question:</p>
3852
3853 <p><pre>
3854 00:02.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: Intel Corporation \
3855     3rd Gen Core processor Graphics Controller [8086:0156] \
3856     (rev 09) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
3857  Subsystem: Acer Incorporated [ALI] Device [1025:0688]
3858  Control: I/O+ Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- \
3859     ParErr- Stepping- SE RR- FastB2B- DisINTx+
3860  Status: Cap+ 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B+ ParErr- DEVSEL=fast >TAbort- \
3861     <TAbort- <MAbort->SERR- <PERR- INTx-
3862  Latency: 0
3863  Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 42
3864  Region 0: Memory at c2000000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=4M]
3865  Region 2: Memory at b0000000 (64-bit, prefetchable) [size=256M]
3866  Region 4: I/O ports at 4000 [size=64]
3867  Expansion ROM at <unassigned> [disabled]
3868  Capabilities: <access denied>
3869  Kernel driver in use: i915
3870 </pre></p>
3871
3872 <p>The resulting intel_quirks entry would then look like this:</p>
3873
3874 <p><pre>
3875 struct intel_quirk intel_quirks[] = {
3876        ...
3877         /* Packard Bell EasyNote LV11HC needs invert brightness quirk */
3878         { 0x0156, 0x1025, 0x0688, quirk_invert_brightness },
3879        ...
3880 }
3881 </pre></p>
3882
3883 <p>According to the kernel module instructions (as seen using
3884 <tt>modinfo i915</tt>), information about hardware needing the
3885 invert_brightness flag should be sent to the
3886 <a href="http://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/dri-devel">dri-devel
3887 (at) lists.freedesktop.org</a> mailing list to reach the kernel
3888 developers.  But my email about the laptop sent 2013-06-03 have not
3889 yet shown up in
3890 <a href="http://lists.freedesktop.org/archives/dri-devel/2013-June/thread.html">the
3891 web archive for the mailing list</a>, so I suspect they do not accept
3892 emails from non-subscribers.  Because of this, I sent my patch also to
3893 the Debian bug tracking system instead as
3894 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/710938">BTS report #710938</a>, to make
3895 sure the patch is not lost.</p>
3896
3897 <p>Unfortunately, it is not enough to fix the kernel to get Laptops
3898 with this problem working properly with Linux.  If you use Gnome, your
3899 worries should be over at this point.  But if you use KDE, there is
3900 something in KDE ignoring the invert_brightness setting and turning on
3901 the screen during login.  I've reported it to Debian as
3902 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/711237">BTS report #711237</a>, and
3903 have no idea yet how to figure out exactly what subsystem is doing
3904 this.  Perhaps you can help?  Perhaps you know what the Gnome
3905 developers did to handle this, and this can give a clue to the KDE
3906 developers?  Or you know where in KDE the screen brightness is changed
3907 during login?  If so, please update the BTS report (or get in touch if
3908 you do not know how to update BTS).</p>
3909
3910 <p>Update 2013-07-19: The correct fix for this machine seem to be
3911 acpi_backlight=vendor, to disable ACPI backlight support completely,
3912 as the ACPI information on the machine is trash and it is better to
3913 leave it to the intel video driver to control the screen
3914 backlight.</p>
3915
3916       </div>
3917       <div class="tags">
3918
3919
3920         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>.
3921
3922
3923       </div>
3924     </div>
3925     <div class="padding"></div>
3926
3927     <div class="entry">
3928       <div class="title">
3929         <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>
3930       </div>
3931       <div class="date">
3932         27th May 2013
3933       </div>
3934       <div class="body">
3935         <p>Two days ago, I asked
3936 <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
3937 I could install Linux on a Packard Bell EasyNote LV computer
3938 preinstalled with Windows 8</a>.  I found a solution, but am horrified
3939 with the obstacles put in the way of Linux users on a laptop with UEFI
3940 and Windows 8.</p>
3941
3942 <p>I never found out if the cause of my problems were the use of UEFI
3943 secure booting or fast boot.  I suspect fast boot was the problem,
3944 causing the firmware to boot directly from HD without considering any
3945 key presses and alternative devices, but do not know UEFI settings
3946 enough to tell.</p>
3947
3948 <p>There is no way to install Linux on the machine in question without
3949 opening the box and disconnecting the hard drive!  This is as far as I
3950 can tell, the only way to get access to the firmware setup menu
3951 without accepting the Windows 8 license agreement.  I am told (and
3952 found description on how to) that it is possible to configure the
3953 firmware setup once booted into Windows 8.  But as I believe the terms
3954 of that agreement are completely unacceptable, accepting the license
3955 was never an alternative.  I do not enter agreements I do not intend
3956 to follow.</p>
3957
3958 <p>I feared I had to return the laptops and ask for a refund, and
3959 waste many hours on this, but luckily there was a way to get it to
3960 work.  But I would not recommend it to anyone planning to run Linux on
3961 it, and I have become sceptical to Windows 8 certified laptops.  Is
3962 this the way Linux will be forced out of the market place, by making
3963 it close to impossible for "normal" users to install Linux without
3964 accepting the Microsoft Windows license terms?  Or at least not
3965 without risking to loose the warranty?</p>
3966
3967 <p>I've updated the
3968 <a href="http://www.linlap.com/packard_bell_easynote_lv">Linux Laptop
3969 wiki page for Packard Bell EasyNote LV</a>, to ensure the next person
3970 do not have to struggle as much as I did to get Linux into the
3971 machine.</p>
3972
3973 <p>Thanks to Bob Rosbag, Florian Weimer, Philipp Kern, Ben Hutching,
3974 Michael Tokarev and others for feedback and ideas.</p>
3975
3976       </div>
3977       <div class="tags">
3978
3979
3980         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>.
3981
3982
3983       </div>
3984     </div>
3985     <div class="padding"></div>
3986
3987     <div class="entry">
3988       <div class="title">
3989         <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>
3990       </div>
3991       <div class="date">
3992         25th May 2013
3993       </div>
3994       <div class="body">
3995         <p>I've run into quite a problem the last few days.  I bought three
3996 new laptops for my parents and a few others.  I bought Packard Bell
3997 Easynote LV to run Kubuntu on and use as their home computer.  But I
3998 am completely unable to figure out how to install Linux on it.  The
3999 computer is preinstalled with Windows 8, and I suspect it uses UEFI
4000 instead of a BIOS to boot.</p>
4001
4002 <p>The problem is that I am unable to get it to PXE boot, and unable
4003 to get it to boot the Linux installer from my USB stick.  I have yet
4004 to try the DVD install, and still hope it will work.  when I turn on
4005 the computer, there is no information on what buttons to press to get
4006 the normal boot menu.  I expect to get some boot menu to select PXE or
4007 USB stick booting.  When booting, it first ask for the language to
4008 use, then for some regional settings, and finally if I will accept the
4009 Windows 8 terms of use.  As these terms are completely unacceptable to
4010 me, I have no other choice but to turn off the computer and try again
4011 to get it to boot the Linux installer.</p>
4012
4013 <p>I have gathered my findings so far on a Linlap page about the
4014 <a href="http://www.linlap.com/packard_bell_easynote_lv">Packard Bell
4015 EasyNote LV</a> model.  If you have any idea how to get Linux
4016 installed on this machine, please get in touch or update that wiki
4017 page.  If I can't find a way to install Linux, I will have to return
4018 the laptop to the seller and find another machine for my parents.</p>
4019
4020 <p>I wonder, is this the way Linux will be forced out of the market
4021 using UEFI and "secure boot" by making it impossible to install Linux
4022 on new Laptops?</p>
4023
4024       </div>
4025       <div class="tags">
4026
4027
4028         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>.
4029
4030
4031       </div>
4032     </div>
4033     <div class="padding"></div>
4034
4035     <div class="entry">
4036       <div class="title">
4037         <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>
4038       </div>
4039       <div class="date">
4040         17th May 2013
4041       </div>
4042       <div class="body">
4043         <p><a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux</a> is
4044 an operating system based on Debian intended for use in schools.  It
4045 contain a turn-key solution for the computer network provided to
4046 pupils in the primary schools.  It provide both the central server,
4047 network boot servers and desktop environments with heaps of
4048 educational software.  The project was founded almost 12 years ago,
4049 2001-07-02.  If you want to support the project, which is in need for
4050 cash to fund developer gatherings and other project related activity,
4051 <a href="http://www.linuxiskolen.no/slxdebianlabs/donations.html">please
4052 donate some money</a>.
4053
4054 <p>A topic that come up again and again on the Debian Edu mailing
4055 lists and elsewhere, is the question on how to transform a Debian or
4056 Ubuntu installation into a Debian Edu installation.  It isn't very
4057 hard, and last week I wrote a script to replicate the steps done by
4058 the Debian Edu installer.</p>
4059
4060 <p>The script,
4061 <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/>
4062 in the debian-edu-config package, will go through these six steps and
4063 transform an existing Debian Wheezy or Ubuntu (untested) installation
4064 into a Debian Edu Workstation:</p>
4065
4066 <ol>
4067
4068 <li>Add skolelinux related APT sources.</li>
4069 <li>Create /etc/debian-edu/config with the wanted configuration.</li>
4070 <li>Install debian-edu-install to load preseeding values and pull in
4071     our configuration.</li>
4072 <li>Preseed debconf database with profile setup in
4073     /etc/debian-edu/config, and run tasksel to install packages
4074     according to the profile specified in the config above,
4075     overriding some of the Debian automation machinery.</li>
4076 <li>Run debian-edu-cfengine-D installation to configure everything
4077     that could not be done using preseeding.</li>
4078 <li>Ask for a reboot to enable all the configuration changes.</li>
4079
4080 </ol>
4081
4082 <p>There are some steps in the Debian Edu installation that can not be
4083 replicated like this.  Disk partitioning and LVM setup, for example.
4084 So this script just assume there is enough disk space to install all
4085 the needed packages.</p>
4086
4087 <p>The script was created to help a Debian Edu student working on
4088 setting up <a href="http://www.raspberrypi.org">Raspberry Pi</a> as a
4089 Debian Edu client, and using it he can take the existing
4090 <a href="http://www.raspbian.org/FrontPage‎">Raspbian</a> installation and
4091 transform it into a fully functioning Debian Edu Workstation (or
4092 Roaming Workstation, or whatever :).</p>
4093
4094 <p>The default setting in the script is to create a KDE Workstation.
4095 If a LXDE based Roaming workstation is wanted instead, modify the
4096 PROFILE and DESKTOP values at the top to look like this instead:</p>
4097
4098 <p><pre>
4099 PROFILE="Roaming-Workstation"
4100 DESKTOP="lxde"
4101 </pre></p>
4102
4103 <p>The script could even become useful to set up Debian Edu servers in
4104 the cloud, by starting with a virtual Debian installation at some
4105 virtual hosting service and setting up all the services on first
4106 boot.</p>
4107
4108       </div>
4109       <div class="tags">
4110
4111
4112         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>.
4113
4114
4115       </div>
4116     </div>
4117     <div class="padding"></div>
4118
4119     <div class="entry">
4120       <div class="title">
4121         <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>
4122       </div>
4123       <div class="date">
4124         11th May 2013
4125       </div>
4126       <div class="body">
4127         <P>In January,
4128 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/New_IRC_channel_for_LEGO_designers_using_Debian.html">I
4129 announced a</a> new <a href="irc://irc.debian.org/%23debian-lego">IRC
4130 channel #debian-lego</a>, for those of us in the Debian and Linux
4131 community interested in <a href="http://www.lego.com/">LEGO</a>, the
4132 marvellous construction system from Denmark.  We also created
4133 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/LegoDesigners">a wiki page</a> to have
4134 a place to take notes and write down our plans and hopes.  And several
4135 people showed up to help.  I was very happy to see the effect of my
4136 call.  Since the small start, we have a debtags tag
4137 <a href="http://debtags.debian.net/search/bytag?wl=hardware::hobby:lego">hardware::hobby:lego</a>
4138 tag for LEGO related packages, and now count 10 packages related to
4139 LEGO and <a href="http://mindstorms.lego.com/">Mindstorms</a>:</p>
4140
4141 <p><table>
4142 <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>
4143 <tr><td><a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/leocad">leocad</a></td><td>virtual brick CAD software</td></tr>
4144 <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>
4145 <tr><td><a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/lnpd">lnpd</a></td><td>daemon for LNP communication with BrickOS</td></tr>
4146 <tr><td><a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/nbc">nbc</a></td><td>compiler for LEGO Mindstorms NXT bricks</td></tr>
4147 <tr><td><a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/nqc">nqc</a></td><td>Not Quite C compiler for LEGO Mindstorms RCX</td></tr>
4148 <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>
4149 <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>
4150 <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>
4151 <tr><td><a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/t2n">t2n</a></td><td>simple command-line tool for Lego NXT</td></tr>
4152 </table></p>
4153
4154 <p>Some of these are available in Wheezy, and all but one are
4155 currently available in Jessie/testing.  leocad is so far only
4156 available in experimental.</p>
4157
4158 <p>If you care about LEGO in Debian, please join us on IRC and help
4159 adding the rest of the great free software tools available on Linux
4160 for LEGO designers.</p>
4161
4162       </div>
4163       <div class="tags">
4164
4165
4166         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>.
4167
4168
4169       </div>
4170     </div>
4171     <div class="padding"></div>
4172
4173     <div class="entry">
4174       <div class="title">
4175         <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>
4176       </div>
4177       <div class="date">
4178          5th May 2013
4179       </div>
4180       <div class="body">
4181         <p>When I woke up this morning, I was very happy to see that the
4182 <a href="http://www.debian.org/News/2013/20130504">release announcement
4183 for Debian Wheezy</a> was waiting in my mail box.  This is a great
4184 Debian release, and I expect to move my machines at home over to it fairly
4185 soon.</p>
4186
4187 <p>The new debian release contain heaps of new stuff, and one program
4188 in particular make me very happy to see included.  The
4189 <a href="http://scratch.mit.edu/">Scratch</a> program, made famous by
4190 the <a href="http://www.code.org/">Teach kids code</a> movement, is
4191 included for the first time.  Alongside similar programs like
4192 <a href="http://edu.kde.org/kturtle/">kturtle</a> and
4193 <a href="http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Activities/Turtle_Art">turtleart</a>,
4194 it allow for visual programming where syntax errors can not happen,
4195 and a friendly programming environment for learning to control the
4196 computer.  Scratch will also be included in the next release of Debian
4197 Edu.</a>
4198
4199 <p>And now that Wheezy is wrapped up, we can wrap up the next Debian
4200 Edu/Skolelinux release too.  The
4201 <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-edu/2013/04/msg00132.html">first
4202 alpha release</a> went out last week, and the next should soon
4203 follow.<p>
4204
4205       </div>
4206       <div class="tags">
4207
4208
4209         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>.
4210
4211
4212       </div>
4213     </div>
4214     <div class="padding"></div>
4215
4216     <div class="entry">
4217       <div class="title">
4218         <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>
4219       </div>
4220       <div class="date">
4221          3rd April 2013
4222       </div>
4223       <div class="body">
4224         <p>Today the <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/isenkram">Isenkram
4225 package</a> finally made it into the archive, after lingering in NEW
4226 for many months.  I uploaded it to the Debian experimental suite
4227 2013-01-27, and today it was accepted into the archive.</p>
4228
4229 <p>Isenkram is a system for suggesting to users what packages to
4230 install to work with a pluggable hardware device.  The suggestion pop
4231 up when the device is plugged in.  For example if a Lego Mindstorm NXT
4232 is inserted, it will suggest to install the program needed to program
4233 the NXT controller.  Give it a go, and report bugs and suggestions to
4234 BTS. :)</p>
4235
4236       </div>
4237       <div class="tags">
4238
4239
4240         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>.
4241
4242
4243       </div>
4244     </div>
4245     <div class="padding"></div>
4246
4247     <div class="entry">
4248       <div class="title">
4249         <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>
4250       </div>
4251       <div class="date">
4252          2nd February 2013
4253       </div>
4254       <div class="body">
4255         <p>My
4256 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_backport_bitcoin_qt_version_0_7_2_2_to_Debian_Squeeze.html">last
4257 bitcoin related blog post</a> mentioned that the new
4258 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/bitcoin">bitcoin package</a> for
4259 Debian was waiting in NEW.  It was accepted by the Debian ftp-masters
4260 2013-01-19, and have been available in unstable since then.  It was
4261 automatically copied to Ubuntu, and is available in their Raring
4262 version too.</p>
4263
4264 <p>But there is a strange problem with the build that block this new
4265 version from being available on the i386 and kfreebsd-i386
4266 architectures.  For some strange reason, the autobuilders in Debian
4267 for these architectures fail to run the test suite on these
4268 architectures (<a href="http://bugs.debian.org/672524">BTS #672524</a>).
4269 We are so far unable to reproduce it when building it manually, and
4270 no-one have been able to propose a fix.  If you got an idea what is
4271 failing, please let us know via the BTS.</p>
4272
4273 <p>One feature that is annoying me with of the bitcoin client, because
4274 I often run low on disk space, is the fact that the client will exit
4275 if it run short on space (<a href="http://bugs.debian.org/696715">BTS
4276 #696715</a>).  So make sure you have enough disk space when you run
4277 it. :)</p>
4278
4279 <p>As usual, if you use bitcoin and want to show your support of my
4280 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
4281 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b&label=PetterReinholdtsenBlog">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
4282
4283       </div>
4284       <div class="tags">
4285
4286
4287         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>.
4288
4289
4290       </div>
4291     </div>
4292     <div class="padding"></div>
4293
4294     <div class="entry">
4295       <div class="title">
4296         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Welcome_to_the_world__Isenkram_.html">Welcome to the world, Isenkram!</a>
4297       </div>
4298       <div class="date">
4299         22nd January 2013
4300       </div>
4301       <div class="body">
4302         <p>Yesterday, I
4303 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/First_prototype_ready_making_hardware_easier_to_use_in_Debian.html">asked
4304 for testers</a> for my prototype for making Debian better at handling
4305 pluggable hardware devices, which I
4306 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lets_make_hardware_dongles_easier_to_use_in_Debian.html">set
4307 out to create</a> earlier this month.  Several valuable testers showed
4308 up, and caused me to really want to to open up the development to more
4309 people.  But before I did this, I want to come up with a sensible name
4310 for this project.  Today I finally decided on a new name, and I have
4311 renamed the project from hw-support-handler to this new name.  In the
4312 process, I moved the source to git and made it available as a
4313 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/gitweb/?p=collab-maint/isenkram.git">collab-maint</a>
4314 repository in Debian.  The new name?  It is <strong>Isenkram</strong>.
4315 To fetch and build the latest version of the source, use</p>
4316
4317 <pre>
4318 git clone http://anonscm.debian.org/git/collab-maint/isenkram.git
4319 cd isenkram && git-buildpackage -us -uc
4320 </pre>
4321
4322 <p>I have not yet adjusted all files to use the new name yet.  If you
4323 want to hack on the source or improve the package, please go ahead.
4324 But please talk to me first on IRC or via email before you do major
4325 changes, to make sure we do not step on each others toes. :)</p>
4326
4327 <p>If you wonder what 'isenkram' is, it is a Norwegian word for iron
4328 stuff, typically meaning tools, nails, screws, etc.  Typical hardware
4329 stuff, in other words.  I've been told it is the Norwegian variant of
4330 the German word eisenkram, for those that are familiar with that
4331 word.</p>
4332
4333 <p><strong>Update 2013-01-26</strong>: Added -us -us to build
4334 instructions, to avoid confusing people with an error from the signing
4335 process.</p>
4336
4337 <p><strong>Update 2013-01-27</strong>: Switch to HTTP URL for the git
4338 clone argument to avoid the need for authentication.</p>
4339
4340       </div>
4341       <div class="tags">
4342
4343
4344         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>.
4345
4346
4347       </div>
4348     </div>
4349     <div class="padding"></div>
4350
4351     <div class="entry">
4352       <div class="title">
4353         <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>
4354       </div>
4355       <div class="date">
4356         21st January 2013
4357       </div>
4358       <div class="body">
4359         <p>Early this month I set out to try to
4360 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lets_make_hardware_dongles_easier_to_use_in_Debian.html">improve
4361 the Debian support for pluggable hardware devices</a>.  Now my
4362 prototype is working, and it is ready for a larger audience.  To test
4363 it, fetch the
4364 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/">source
4365 from the Debian Edu subversion repository</a>, build and install the
4366 package.  You might have to log out and in again activate the
4367 autostart script.</p>
4368
4369 <p>The design is simple:</p>
4370
4371 <ul>
4372
4373 <li>Add desktop entry in /usr/share/autostart/ causing a program
4374 hw-support-handlerd to start when the user log in.</li>
4375
4376 <li>This program listen for kernel events about new hardware (directly
4377 from the kernel like udev does), not using HAL dbus events as I
4378 initially did.</li>
4379
4380 <li>When new hardware is inserted, look up the hardware modalias in
4381 the APT database, a database
4382 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/modaliases?view=markup">available
4383 via HTTP</a> and a database available as part of the package.</li>
4384
4385 <li>If a package is mapped to the hardware in question, the package
4386 isn't installed yet and this is the first time the hardware was
4387 plugged in, show a desktop notification suggesting to install the
4388 package or packages.</li>
4389
4390 <li>If the user click on the 'install package now' button, ask
4391 aptdaemon via the PackageKit API to install the requrired package.</li>
4392
4393 <li>aptdaemon ask for root password or sudo password, and install the
4394 package while showing progress information in a window.</li>
4395
4396 </ul>
4397
4398 <p>I still need to come up with a better name for the system.  Here
4399 are some screen shots showing the prototype in action.  First the
4400 notification, then the password request, and finally the request to
4401 approve all the dependencies.  Sorry for the Norwegian Bokmål GUI.</p>
4402
4403 <p><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-01-21-hw-support-1-notification.png">
4404 <br><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-01-21-hw-support-2-password.png">
4405 <br><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-01-21-hw-support-3-dependencies.png">
4406 <br><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-01-21-hw-support-4-installing.png">
4407 <br><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-01-21-hw-support-5-installing-details.png" width="70%"></p>
4408
4409 <p>The prototype still need to be improved with longer timeouts, but
4410 is already useful.  The database of hardware to package mappings also
4411 need more work.  It is currently compatible with the Ubuntu way of
4412 storing such information in the package control file, but could be
4413 changed to use other formats instead or in addition to the current
4414 method.  I've dropped the use of discover for this mapping, as the
4415 modalias approach is more flexible and easier to use on Linux as long
4416 as the Linux kernel expose its modalias strings directly.</p>
4417
4418 <p><strong>Update 2013-01-21 16:50</strong>: Due to popular demand,
4419 here is the command required to check out and build the source: Use
4420 '<tt>svn checkout
4421 svn://svn.debian.org/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/; cd
4422 hw-support-handler; debuild</tt>'.  If you lack debuild, install the
4423 devscripts package.</p>
4424
4425 <p><strong>Update 2013-01-23 12:00</strong>: The project is now
4426 renamed to Isenkram and the source moved from the Debian Edu
4427 subversion repository to a Debian collab-maint git repository.  See
4428 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Welcome_to_the_world__Isenkram_.html">build
4429 instructions</a> for details.</p>
4430
4431       </div>
4432       <div class="tags">
4433
4434
4435         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>.
4436
4437
4438       </div>
4439     </div>
4440     <div class="padding"></div>
4441
4442     <div class="entry">
4443       <div class="title">
4444         <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>
4445       </div>
4446       <div class="date">
4447         19th January 2013
4448       </div>
4449       <div class="body">
4450         <p>This Christmas my trusty old laptop died.  It died quietly and
4451 suddenly in bed.  With a quiet whimper, it went completely quiet and
4452 black.  The power button was no longer able to turn it on.  It was a
4453 IBM Thinkpad X41, and the best laptop I ever had.  Better than both
4454 Thinkpads X30, X31, X40, X60, X61 and X61S.  Far better than the
4455 Compaq I had before that.  Now I need to find a replacement.  To keep
4456 going during Christmas, I moved the one year old SSD disk to my old
4457 X40 where it fitted (only one I had left that could use it), but it is
4458 not a durable solution.
4459
4460 <p>My laptop needs are fairly modest.  This is my wishlist from when I
4461 got a new one more than 10 years ago.  It still holds true.:)</p>
4462
4463 <ul>
4464
4465 <li>Lightweight (around 1 kg) and small volume (preferably smaller
4466   than A4).</li>
4467 <li>Robust, it will be in my backpack every day.</li>
4468 <li>Three button mouse and a mouse pin instead of touch pad.</li>
4469 <li>Long battery life time.  Preferable a week.</li>
4470 <li>Internal WIFI network card.</li>
4471 <li>Internal Twisted Pair network card.</li>
4472 <li>Some USB slots (2-3 is plenty)</li>
4473 <li>Good keyboard - similar to the Thinkpad.</li>
4474 <li>Video resolution at least 1024x768, with size around 12" (A4 paper
4475 size).</li>
4476 <li>Hardware supported by Debian Stable, ie the default kernel and
4477   X.org packages.</li>
4478 <li>Quiet, preferably fan free (or at least not using the fan most of
4479   the time).
4480
4481 </ul>
4482
4483 <p>You will notice that there are no RAM and CPU requirements in the
4484 list.  The reason is simply that the specifications on laptops the
4485 last 10-15 years have been sufficient for my needs, and I have to look
4486 at other features to choose my laptop.  But are there still made as
4487 robust laptops as my X41?  The Thinkpad X60/X61 proved to be less
4488 robust, and Thinkpads seem to be heading in the wrong direction since
4489 Lenovo took over.  But I've been told that X220 and X1 Carbon might
4490 still be useful.</p>
4491
4492 <p>Perhaps I should rethink my needs, and look for a pad with an
4493 external keyboard?  I'll have to check the
4494 <a href="http://www.linux-laptop.net/">Linux Laptops site</a> for
4495 well-supported laptops, or perhaps just buy one preinstalled from one
4496 of the vendors listed on the <a href="http://linuxpreloaded.com/">Linux
4497 Pre-loaded site</a>.</p>
4498
4499       </div>
4500       <div class="tags">
4501
4502
4503         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>.
4504
4505
4506       </div>
4507     </div>
4508     <div class="padding"></div>
4509
4510     <div class="entry">
4511       <div class="title">
4512         <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>
4513       </div>
4514       <div class="date">
4515         18th January 2013
4516       </div>
4517       <div class="body">
4518         <p>Some times I try to figure out which Iceweasel browser plugin to
4519 install to get support for a given MIME type.  Thanks to
4520 <a href="https://wiki.ubuntu.com/MozillaTeam/Plugins">specifications
4521 done by Ubuntu</a> and Mozilla, it is possible to do this in Debian.
4522 Unfortunately, not very many packages provide the needed meta
4523 information, Anyway, here is a small script to look up all browser
4524 plugin packages announcing ther MIME support using this specification:</p>
4525
4526 <pre>
4527 #!/usr/bin/python
4528 import sys
4529 import apt
4530 def pkgs_handling_mimetype(mimetype):
4531     cache = apt.Cache()
4532     cache.open(None)
4533     thepkgs = []
4534     for pkg in cache:
4535         version = pkg.candidate
4536         if version is None:
4537             version = pkg.installed
4538         if version is None:
4539             continue
4540         record = version.record
4541         if not record.has_key('Npp-MimeType'):
4542             continue
4543         mime_types = record['Npp-MimeType'].split(',')
4544         for t in mime_types:
4545             t = t.rstrip().strip()
4546             if t == mimetype:
4547                 thepkgs.append(pkg.name)
4548     return thepkgs
4549 mimetype = "audio/ogg"
4550 if 1 < len(sys.argv):
4551     mimetype = sys.argv[1]
4552 print "Browser plugin packages supporting %s:" % mimetype
4553 for pkg in pkgs_handling_mimetype(mimetype):
4554     print "  %s" %pkg
4555 </pre>
4556
4557 <p>It can be used like this to look up a given MIME type:</p>
4558
4559 <pre>
4560 % ./apt-find-browserplug-for-mimetype
4561 Browser plugin packages supporting audio/ogg:
4562   gecko-mediaplayer
4563 % ./apt-find-browserplug-for-mimetype application/x-shockwave-flash
4564 Browser plugin packages supporting application/x-shockwave-flash:
4565   browser-plugin-gnash
4566 %
4567 </pre>
4568
4569 <p>In Ubuntu this mechanism is combined with support in the browser
4570 itself to query for plugins and propose to install the needed
4571 packages.  It would be great if Debian supported such feature too.  Is
4572 anyone working on adding it?</p>
4573
4574 <p><strong>Update 2013-01-18 14:20</strong>: The Debian BTS
4575 request for icweasel support for this feature is
4576 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/484010">#484010</a> from 2008 (and
4577 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/698426">#698426</a> from today).  Lack
4578 of manpower and wish for a different design is the reason thus feature
4579 is not yet in iceweasel from Debian.</p>
4580
4581       </div>
4582       <div class="tags">
4583
4584
4585         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>.
4586
4587
4588       </div>
4589     </div>
4590     <div class="padding"></div>
4591
4592     <div class="entry">
4593       <div class="title">
4594         <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>
4595       </div>
4596       <div class="date">
4597         16th January 2013
4598       </div>
4599       <div class="body">
4600         <p>The <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/AppStreamDebianProposal">DEP-11
4601 proposal to add AppStream information to the Debian archive</a>, is a
4602 proposal to make it possible for a Desktop application to propose to
4603 the user some package to install to gain support for a given MIME
4604 type, font, library etc. that is currently missing.  With such
4605 mechanism in place, it would be possible for the desktop to
4606 automatically propose and install leocad if some LDraw file is
4607 downloaded by the browser.</p>
4608
4609 <p>To get some idea about the current content of the archive, I decided
4610 to write a simple program to extract all .desktop files from the
4611 Debian archive and look up the claimed MIME support there.  The result
4612 can be found on the
4613 <a href="http://ftp.skolelinux.org/pub/AppStreamTest">Skolelinux FTP
4614 site</a>.  Using the collected information, it become possible to
4615 answer the question in the title.  Here are the 20 most supported MIME
4616 types in Debian stable (Squeeze), testing (Wheezy) and unstable (Sid).
4617 The complete list is available from the link above.</p>
4618
4619 <p><strong>Debian Stable:</strong></p>
4620
4621 <pre>
4622   count MIME type
4623   ----- -----------------------
4624      32 text/plain
4625      30 audio/mpeg
4626      29 image/png
4627      28 image/jpeg
4628      27 application/ogg
4629      26 audio/x-mp3
4630      25 image/tiff
4631      25 image/gif
4632      22 image/bmp
4633      22 audio/x-wav
4634      20 audio/x-flac
4635      19 audio/x-mpegurl
4636      18 video/x-ms-asf
4637      18 audio/x-musepack
4638      18 audio/x-mpeg
4639      18 application/x-ogg
4640      17 video/mpeg
4641      17 audio/x-scpls
4642      17 audio/ogg
4643      16 video/x-ms-wmv
4644 </pre>
4645
4646 <p><strong>Debian Testing:</strong></p>
4647
4648 <pre>
4649   count MIME type
4650   ----- -----------------------
4651      33 text/plain
4652      32 image/png
4653      32 image/jpeg
4654      29 audio/mpeg
4655      27 image/gif
4656      26 image/tiff
4657      26 application/ogg
4658      25 audio/x-mp3
4659      22 image/bmp
4660      21 audio/x-wav
4661      19 audio/x-mpegurl
4662      19 audio/x-mpeg
4663      18 video/mpeg
4664      18 audio/x-scpls
4665      18 audio/x-flac
4666      18 application/x-ogg
4667      17 video/x-ms-asf
4668      17 text/html
4669      17 audio/x-musepack
4670      16 image/x-xbitmap
4671 </pre>
4672
4673 <p><strong>Debian Unstable:</strong></p>
4674
4675 <pre>
4676   count MIME type
4677   ----- -----------------------
4678      31 text/plain
4679      31 image/png
4680      31 image/jpeg
4681      29 audio/mpeg
4682      28 application/ogg
4683      27 image/gif
4684      26 image/tiff
4685      26 audio/x-mp3
4686      23 audio/x-wav
4687      22 image/bmp
4688      21 audio/x-flac
4689      20 audio/x-mpegurl
4690      19 audio/x-mpeg
4691      18 video/x-ms-asf
4692      18 video/mpeg
4693      18 audio/x-scpls
4694      18 application/x-ogg
4695      17 audio/x-musepack
4696      16 video/x-ms-wmv
4697      16 video/x-msvideo
4698 </pre>
4699
4700 <p>I am told that PackageKit can provide an API to access the kind of
4701 information mentioned in DEP-11.  I have not yet had time to look at
4702 it, but hope the PackageKit people in Debian are on top of these
4703 issues.</p>
4704
4705 <p><strong>Update 2013-01-16 13:35</strong>: Updated numbers after
4706 discovering a typo in my script.</p>
4707
4708       </div>
4709       <div class="tags">
4710
4711
4712         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>.
4713
4714
4715       </div>
4716     </div>
4717     <div class="padding"></div>
4718
4719     <div class="entry">
4720       <div class="title">
4721         <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>
4722       </div>
4723       <div class="date">
4724         15th January 2013
4725       </div>
4726       <div class="body">
4727         <p>Yesterday, I wrote about the
4728 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Modalias_strings___a_practical_way_to_map__stuff__to_hardware.html">modalias
4729 values provided by the Linux kernel</a> following my hope for
4730 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lets_make_hardware_dongles_easier_to_use_in_Debian.html">better
4731 dongle support in Debian</a>.  Using this knowledge, I have tested how
4732 modalias values attached to package names can be used to map packages
4733 to hardware.  This allow the system to look up and suggest relevant
4734 packages when I plug in some new hardware into my machine, and replace
4735 discover and discover-data as the database used to map hardware to
4736 packages.</p>
4737
4738 <p>I create a modaliases file with entries like the following,
4739 containing package name, kernel module name (if relevant, otherwise
4740 the package name) and globs matching the relevant hardware
4741 modalias.</p>
4742
4743 <p><blockquote>
4744 Package: package-name
4745 <br>Modaliases: module(modaliasglob, modaliasglob, modaliasglob)</p>
4746 </blockquote></p>
4747
4748 <p>It is fairly trivial to write code to find the relevant packages
4749 for a given modalias value using this file.</p>
4750
4751 <p>An entry like this would suggest the video and picture application
4752 cheese for many USB web cameras (interface bus class 0E01):</p>
4753
4754 <p><blockquote>
4755 Package: cheese
4756 <br>Modaliases: cheese(usb:v*p*d*dc*dsc*dp*ic0Eisc01ip*)</p>
4757 </blockquote></p>
4758
4759 <p>An entry like this would suggest the pcmciautils package when a
4760 CardBus bridge (bus class 0607) PCI device is present:</p>
4761
4762 <p><blockquote>
4763 Package: pcmciautils
4764 <br>Modaliases: pcmciautils(pci:v*d*sv*sd*bc06sc07i*)
4765 </blockquote></p>
4766
4767 <p>An entry like this would suggest the package colorhug-client when
4768 plugging in a ColorHug with USB IDs 04D8:F8DA:</p>
4769
4770 <p><blockquote>
4771 Package: colorhug-client
4772 <br>Modaliases: colorhug-client(usb:v04D8pF8DAd*)</p>
4773 </blockquote></p>
4774
4775 <p>I believe the format is compatible with the format of the Packages
4776 file in the Debian archive.  Ubuntu already uses their Packages file
4777 to store their mappings from packages to hardware.</p>
4778
4779 <p>By adding a XB-Modaliases: header in debian/control, any .deb can
4780 announce the hardware it support in a way my prototype understand.
4781 This allow those publishing packages in an APT source outside the
4782 Debian archive as well as those backporting packages to make sure the
4783 hardware mapping are included in the package meta information.  I've
4784 tested such header in the pymissile package, and its modalias mapping
4785 is working as it should with my prototype.  It even made it to Ubuntu
4786 Raring.</p>
4787
4788 <p>To test if it was possible to look up supported hardware using only
4789 the shell tools available in the Debian installer, I wrote a shell
4790 implementation of the lookup code.  The idea is to create files for
4791 each modalias and let the shell do the matching.  Please check out and
4792 try the
4793 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/hw-support-lookup?view=co">hw-support-lookup</a>
4794 shell script.  It run without any extra dependencies and fetch the
4795 hardware mappings from the Debian archive and the subversion
4796 repository where I currently work on my prototype.</p>
4797
4798 <p>When I use it on a machine with a yubikey inserted, it suggest to
4799 install yubikey-personalization:</p>
4800
4801 <p><blockquote>
4802 % ./hw-support-lookup
4803 <br>yubikey-personalization
4804 <br>%
4805 </blockquote></p>
4806
4807 <p>When I run it on my Thinkpad X40 with a PCMCIA/CardBus slot, it
4808 propose to install the pcmciautils package:</p>
4809
4810 <p><blockquote>
4811 % ./hw-support-lookup
4812 <br>pcmciautils
4813 <br>%
4814 </blockquote></p>
4815
4816 <p>If you know of any hardware-package mapping that should be added to
4817 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/modaliases?view=co">my
4818 database</a>, please tell me about it.</p>
4819
4820 <p>It could be possible to generate several of the mappings between
4821 packages and hardware.  One source would be to look at packages with
4822 kernel modules, ie packages with *.ko files in /lib/modules/, and
4823 extract their modalias information.  Another would be to look at
4824 packages with udev rules, ie packages with files in
4825 /lib/udev/rules.d/, and extract their vendor/model information to
4826 generate a modalias matching rule.  I have not tested any of these to
4827 see if it work.</p>
4828
4829 <p>If you want to help implementing a system to let us propose what
4830 packages to install when new hardware is plugged into a Debian
4831 machine, please send me an email or talk to me on
4832 <a href="irc://irc.debian.org/%23debian-devel">#debian-devel</a>.</p>
4833
4834       </div>
4835       <div class="tags">
4836
4837
4838         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>.
4839
4840
4841       </div>
4842     </div>
4843     <div class="padding"></div>
4844
4845     <div class="entry">
4846       <div class="title">
4847         <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>
4848       </div>
4849       <div class="date">
4850         14th January 2013
4851       </div>
4852       <div class="body">
4853         <p>While looking into how to look up Debian packages based on hardware
4854 information, to find the packages that support a given piece of
4855 hardware, I refreshed my memory regarding modalias values, and decided
4856 to document the details.  Here are my findings so far, also available
4857 in
4858 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/">the
4859 Debian Edu subversion repository</a>:
4860
4861 <p><strong>Modalias decoded</strong></p>
4862
4863 <p>This document try to explain what the different types of modalias
4864 values stands for.  It is in part based on information from
4865 &lt;URL: <a href="https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Modalias">https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Modalias</a> &gt;,
4866 &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;,
4867 &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
4868 &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;.
4869
4870 <p>The modalias entries for a given Linux machine can be found using
4871 this shell script:</p>
4872
4873 <pre>
4874 find /sys -name modalias -print0 | xargs -0 cat | sort -u
4875 </pre>
4876
4877 <p>The supported modalias globs for a given kernel module can be found
4878 using modinfo:</p>
4879
4880 <pre>
4881 % /sbin/modinfo psmouse | grep alias:
4882 alias:          serio:ty05pr*id*ex*
4883 alias:          serio:ty01pr*id*ex*
4884 %
4885 </pre>
4886
4887 <p><strong>PCI subtype</strong></p>
4888
4889 <p>A typical PCI entry can look like this.  This is an Intel Host
4890 Bridge memory controller:</p>
4891
4892 <p><blockquote>
4893 pci:v00008086d00002770sv00001028sd000001ADbc06sc00i00
4894 </blockquote></p>
4895
4896 <p>This represent these values:</p>
4897
4898 <pre>
4899  v   00008086  (vendor)
4900  d   00002770  (device)
4901  sv  00001028  (subvendor)
4902  sd  000001AD  (subdevice)
4903  bc  06        (bus class)
4904  sc  00        (bus subclass)
4905  i   00        (interface)
4906 </pre>
4907
4908 <p>The vendor/device values are the same values outputted from 'lspci
4909 -n' as 8086:2770.  The bus class/subclass is also shown by lspci as
4910 0600.  The 0600 class is a host bridge.  Other useful bus values are
4911 0300 (VGA compatible card) and 0200 (Ethernet controller).</p>
4912
4913 <p>Not sure how to figure out the interface value, nor what it
4914 means.</p>
4915
4916 <p><strong>USB subtype</strong></p>
4917
4918 <p>Some typical USB entries can look like this.  This is an internal
4919 USB hub in a laptop:</p>
4920
4921 <p><blockquote>
4922 usb:v1D6Bp0001d0206dc09dsc00dp00ic09isc00ip00
4923 </blockquote></p>
4924
4925 <p>Here is the values included in this alias:</p>
4926
4927 <pre>
4928  v    1D6B  (device vendor)
4929  p    0001  (device product)
4930  d    0206  (bcddevice)
4931  dc     09  (device class)
4932  dsc    00  (device subclass)
4933  dp     00  (device protocol)
4934  ic     09  (interface class)
4935  isc    00  (interface subclass)
4936  ip     00  (interface protocol)
4937 </pre>
4938
4939 <p>The 0900 device class/subclass means hub.  Some times the relevant
4940 class is in the interface class section.  For a simple USB web camera,
4941 these alias entries show up:</p>
4942
4943 <p><blockquote>
4944 usb:v0AC8p3420d5000dcEFdsc02dp01ic01isc01ip00
4945 <br>usb:v0AC8p3420d5000dcEFdsc02dp01ic01isc02ip00
4946 <br>usb:v0AC8p3420d5000dcEFdsc02dp01ic0Eisc01ip00
4947 <br>usb:v0AC8p3420d5000dcEFdsc02dp01ic0Eisc02ip00
4948 </blockquote></p>
4949
4950 <p>Interface class 0E01 is video control, 0E02 is video streaming (aka
4951 camera), 0101 is audio control device and 0102 is audio streaming (aka
4952 microphone).  Thus this is a camera with microphone included.</p>
4953
4954 <p><strong>ACPI subtype</strong></p>
4955
4956 <p>The ACPI type is used for several non-PCI/USB stuff.  This is an IR
4957 receiver in a Thinkpad X40:</p>
4958
4959 <p><blockquote>
4960 acpi:IBM0071:PNP0511:
4961 </blockquote></p>
4962
4963 <p>The values between the colons are IDs.</p>
4964
4965 <p><strong>DMI subtype</strong></p>
4966
4967 <p>The DMI table contain lots of information about the computer case
4968 and model.  This is an entry for a IBM Thinkpad X40, fetched from
4969 /sys/devices/virtual/dmi/id/modalias:</p>
4970
4971 <p><blockquote>
4972 dmi:bvnIBM:bvr1UETB6WW(1.66):bd06/15/2005:svnIBM:pn2371H4G:pvrThinkPadX40:rvnIBM:rn2371H4G:rvrNotAvailable:cvnIBM:ct10:cvrNotAvailable:
4973 </blockquote></p>
4974
4975 <p>The values present are</p>
4976
4977 <pre>
4978  bvn  IBM            (BIOS vendor)
4979  bvr  1UETB6WW(1.66) (BIOS version)
4980  bd   06/15/2005     (BIOS date)
4981  svn  IBM            (system vendor)
4982  pn   2371H4G        (product name)
4983  pvr  ThinkPadX40    (product version)
4984  rvn  IBM            (board vendor)
4985  rn   2371H4G        (board name)
4986  rvr  NotAvailable   (board version)
4987  cvn  IBM            (chassis vendor)
4988  ct   10             (chassis type)
4989  cvr  NotAvailable   (chassis version)
4990 </pre>
4991
4992 <p>The chassis type 10 is Notebook.  Other interesting values can be
4993 found in the dmidecode source:</p>
4994
4995 <pre>
4996   3 Desktop
4997   4 Low Profile Desktop
4998   5 Pizza Box
4999   6 Mini Tower
5000   7 Tower
5001   8 Portable
5002   9 Laptop
5003  10 Notebook
5004  11 Hand Held
5005  12 Docking Station
5006  13 All In One
5007  14 Sub Notebook
5008  15 Space-saving
5009  16 Lunch Box
5010  17 Main Server Chassis
5011  18 Expansion Chassis
5012  19 Sub Chassis
5013  20 Bus Expansion Chassis
5014  21 Peripheral Chassis
5015  22 RAID Chassis
5016  23 Rack Mount Chassis
5017  24 Sealed-case PC
5018  25 Multi-system
5019  26 CompactPCI
5020  27 AdvancedTCA
5021  28 Blade
5022  29 Blade Enclosing
5023 </pre>
5024
5025 <p>The chassis type values are not always accurately set in the DMI
5026 table.  For example my home server is a tower, but the DMI modalias
5027 claim it is a desktop.</p>
5028
5029 <p><strong>SerIO subtype</strong></p>
5030
5031 <p>This type is used for PS/2 mouse plugs.  One example is from my
5032 test machine:</p>
5033
5034 <p><blockquote>
5035 serio:ty01pr00id00ex00
5036 </blockquote></p>
5037
5038 <p>The values present are</p>
5039
5040 <pre>
5041   ty  01  (type)
5042   pr  00  (prototype)
5043   id  00  (id)
5044   ex  00  (extra)
5045 </pre>
5046
5047 <p>This type is supported by the psmouse driver.  I am not sure what
5048 the valid values are.</p>
5049
5050 <p><strong>Other subtypes</strong></p>
5051
5052 <p>There are heaps of other modalias subtypes according to
5053 file2alias.c.  There is the rest of the list from that source: amba,
5054 ap, bcma, ccw, css, eisa, hid, i2c, ieee1394, input, ipack, isapnp,
5055 mdio, of, parisc, pcmcia, platform, scsi, sdio, spi, ssb, vio, virtio,
5056 vmbus, x86cpu and zorro.  I did not spend time documenting all of
5057 these, as they do not seem relevant for my intended use with mapping
5058 hardware to packages when new stuff is inserted during run time.</p>
5059
5060 <p><strong>Looking up kernel modules using modalias values</strong></p>
5061
5062 <p>To check which kernel modules provide support for a given modalias,
5063 one can use the following shell script:</p>
5064
5065 <pre>
5066   for id in $(find /sys -name modalias -print0 | xargs -0 cat | sort -u); do \
5067     echo "$id" ; \
5068     /sbin/modprobe --show-depends "$id"|sed 's/^/  /' ; \
5069   done
5070 </pre>
5071
5072 <p>The output can look like this (only the first few entries as the
5073 list is very long on my test machine):</p>
5074
5075 <pre>
5076   acpi:ACPI0003:
5077     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/drivers/acpi/ac.ko
5078   acpi:device:
5079   FATAL: Module acpi:device: not found.
5080   acpi:IBM0068:
5081     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/drivers/char/nvram.ko
5082     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/drivers/leds/led-class.ko
5083     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/net/rfkill/rfkill.ko
5084     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/drivers/platform/x86/thinkpad_acpi.ko
5085   acpi:IBM0071:PNP0511:
5086     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/lib/crc-ccitt.ko
5087     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/net/irda/irda.ko
5088     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/drivers/net/irda/nsc-ircc.ko
5089   [...]
5090 </pre>
5091
5092 <p>If you want to help implementing a system to let us propose what
5093 packages to install when new hardware is plugged into a Debian
5094 machine, please send me an email or talk to me on
5095 <a href="irc://irc.debian.org/%23debian-devel">#debian-devel</a>.</p>
5096
5097 <p><strong>Update 2013-01-15:</strong> Rewrite "cat $(find ...)" to
5098 "find ... -print0 | xargs -0 cat" to make sure it handle directories
5099 in /sys/ with space in them.</p>
5100
5101       </div>
5102       <div class="tags">
5103
5104
5105         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>.
5106
5107
5108       </div>
5109     </div>
5110     <div class="padding"></div>
5111
5112     <div class="entry">
5113       <div class="title">
5114         <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>
5115       </div>
5116       <div class="date">
5117         10th January 2013
5118       </div>
5119       <div class="body">
5120         <p>As part of my investigation on how to improve the support in Debian
5121 for hardware dongles, I dug up my old Mark and Spencer USB Rocket
5122 Launcher and updated the Debian package
5123 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/pymissile">pymissile</a> to make
5124 sure udev will fix the device permissions when it is plugged in.  I
5125 also added a "Modaliases" header to test it in the Debian archive and
5126 hopefully make the package be proposed by jockey in Ubuntu when a user
5127 plug in his rocket launcher.  In the process I moved the source to a
5128 git repository under collab-maint, to make it easier for any DD to
5129 contribute.  <a href="http://code.google.com/p/pymissile/">Upstream</a>
5130 is not very active, but the software still work for me even after five
5131 years of relative silence.  The new git repository is not listed in
5132 the uploaded package yet, because I want to test the other changes a
5133 bit more before I upload the new version.  If you want to check out
5134 the new version with a .desktop file included, visit the
5135 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/gitweb/?p=collab-maint/pymissile.git">gitweb
5136 view</a> or use "<tt>git clone
5137 git://anonscm.debian.org/collab-maint/pymissile.git</tt>".</p>
5138
5139       </div>
5140       <div class="tags">
5141
5142
5143         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>.
5144
5145
5146       </div>
5147     </div>
5148     <div class="padding"></div>
5149
5150     <div class="entry">
5151       <div class="title">
5152         <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>
5153       </div>
5154       <div class="date">
5155          9th January 2013
5156       </div>
5157       <div class="body">
5158         <p>One thing that annoys me with Debian and Linux distributions in
5159 general, is that there is a great package management system with the
5160 ability to automatically install software packages by downloading them
5161 from the distribution mirrors, but no way to get it to automatically
5162 install the packages I need to use the hardware I plug into my
5163 machine.  Even if the package to use it is easily available from the
5164 Linux distribution.  When I plug in a LEGO Mindstorms NXT, it could
5165 suggest to automatically install the python-nxt, nbc and t2n packages
5166 I need to talk to it.  When I plug in a Yubikey, it could propose the
5167 yubikey-personalization package.  The information required to do this
5168 is available, but no-one have pulled all the pieces together.</p>
5169
5170 <p>Some years ago, I proposed to
5171 <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2010/05/msg01206.html">use
5172 the discover subsystem to implement this</a>.  The idea is fairly
5173 simple:
5174
5175 <ul>
5176
5177 <li>Add a desktop entry in /usr/share/autostart/ pointing to a program
5178   starting when a user log in.</li>
5179
5180 <li>Set this program up to listen for kernel events emitted when new
5181   hardware is inserted into the computer.</li>
5182
5183 <li>When new hardware is inserted, look up the hardware ID in a
5184   database mapping to packages, and take note of any non-installed
5185   packages.</li>
5186
5187 <li>Show a message to the user proposing to install the discovered
5188   package, and make it easy to install it.</li>
5189
5190 </ul>
5191
5192 <p>I am not sure what the best way to implement this is, but my
5193 initial idea was to use dbus events to discover new hardware, the
5194 discover database to find packages and
5195 <a href="http://www.packagekit.org/">PackageKit</a> to install
5196 packages.</p>
5197
5198 <p>Yesterday, I found time to try to implement this idea, and the
5199 draft package is now checked into
5200 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/">the
5201 Debian Edu subversion repository</a>.  In the process, I updated the
5202 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/d/discover-data.html">discover-data</a>
5203 package to map the USB ids of LEGO Mindstorms and Yubikey devices to
5204 the relevant packages in Debian, and uploaded a new version
5205 2.2013.01.09 to unstable.  I also discovered that the current
5206 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/d/discover.html">discover</a>
5207 package in Debian no longer discovered any USB devices, because
5208 /proc/bus/usb/devices is no longer present.  I ported it to use
5209 libusb as a fall back option to get it working.  The fixed package
5210 version 2.1.2-6 is now in experimental (didn't upload it to unstable
5211 because of the freeze).</p>
5212
5213 <p>With this prototype in place, I can insert my Yubikey, and get this
5214 desktop notification to show up (only once, the first time it is
5215 inserted):</p>
5216
5217 <p align="center"><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-01-09-hw-autoinstall.png"></p>
5218
5219 <p>For this prototype to be really useful, some way to automatically
5220 install the proposed packages by pressing the "Please install
5221 program(s)" button should to be implemented.</p>
5222
5223 <p>If this idea seem useful to you, and you want to help make it
5224 happen, please help me update the discover-data database with mappings
5225 from hardware to Debian packages.  Check if 'discover-pkginstall -l'
5226 list the package you would like to have installed when a given
5227 hardware device is inserted into your computer, and report bugs using
5228 reportbug if it isn't.  Or, if you know of a better way to provide
5229 such mapping, please let me know.</p>
5230
5231 <p>This prototype need more work, and there are several questions that
5232 should be considered before it is ready for production use.  Is dbus
5233 the correct way to detect new hardware?  At the moment I look for HAL
5234 dbus events on the system bus, because that is the events I could see
5235 on my Debian Squeeze KDE desktop.  Are there better events to use?
5236 How should the user be notified?  Is the desktop notification
5237 mechanism the best option, or should the background daemon raise a
5238 popup instead?  How should packages be installed?  When should they
5239 not be installed?</p>
5240
5241 <p>If you want to help getting such feature implemented in Debian,
5242 please send me an email. :)</p>
5243
5244       </div>
5245       <div class="tags">
5246
5247
5248         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>.
5249
5250
5251       </div>
5252     </div>
5253     <div class="padding"></div>
5254
5255     <div class="entry">
5256       <div class="title">
5257         <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>
5258       </div>
5259       <div class="date">
5260          2nd January 2013
5261       </div>
5262       <div class="body">
5263         <p>During Christmas, I have worked a bit on the Debian support for
5264 <a href="http://mindstorms.lego.com/en-us/Default.aspx">LEGO Mindstorm
5265 NXT</a>.  My son and I have played a bit with my NXT set, and I
5266 discovered I had to build all the tools myself because none were
5267 already in Debian Squeeze.  If Debian support for LEGO is something
5268 you care about, please join me on the IRC channel
5269 <a href="irc://irc.debian.org/%23debian-lego">#debian-lego</a> (server
5270 irc.debian.org).  There is a lot that could be done to improve the
5271 Debian support for LEGO designers.  For example both CAD software
5272 and Mindstorm compilers are missing. :)</p>
5273
5274 <p>Update 2012-01-03: A
5275 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/LegoDesigners">project page</a>
5276 including links to Lego related packages is now available.</p>
5277
5278       </div>
5279       <div class="tags">
5280
5281
5282         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>.
5283
5284
5285       </div>
5286     </div>
5287     <div class="padding"></div>
5288
5289     <div class="entry">
5290       <div class="title">
5291         <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>
5292       </div>
5293       <div class="date">
5294         25th December 2012
5295       </div>
5296       <div class="body">
5297         <p>Let me start by wishing you all marry Christmas and a happy new
5298 year!  I hope next year will prove to be a good year.</p>
5299
5300 <p><a href="http://www.bitcoin.org/">Bitcoin</a>, the digital
5301 decentralised "currency" that allow people to transfer bitcoins
5302 between each other with minimal overhead, is a very interesting
5303 experiment.  And as I wrote a few days ago, the bitcoin situation in
5304 <a href="http://www.debian.org/">Debian</a> is about to improve a bit.
5305 The <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/bitcoin">new debian source
5306 package</a> (version 0.7.2-2) was uploaded yesterday, and is waiting
5307 in <a href="http://ftp-master.debian.org/new.html">the NEW queue</A>
5308 for one of the ftpmasters to approve the new bitcoin-qt package
5309 name.</p>
5310
5311 <p>And thanks to the great work of Jonas and the rest of the bitcoin
5312 team in Debian, you can easily test the package in Debian Squeeze
5313 using the following steps to get a set of working packages:</p>
5314
5315 <blockquote><pre>
5316 git clone git://git.debian.org/git/collab-maint/bitcoin
5317 cd bitcoin
5318 DEB_MAINTAINER_MODE=1 DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS=noupnp fakeroot debian/rules clean
5319 DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS=noupnp git-buildpackage --git-ignore-new
5320 </pre></blockquote>
5321
5322 <p>You might have to install some build dependencies as well.  The
5323 list of commands should give you two packages, bitcoind and
5324 bitcoin-qt, ready for use in a Squeeze environment.  Note that the
5325 client will download the complete set of bitcoin "blocks", which need
5326 around 5.6 GiB of data on my machine at the moment.  Make sure your
5327 ~/.bitcoin/ directory have lots of spare room if you want to download
5328 all the blocks.  The client will warn if the disk is getting full, so
5329 there is not really a problem if you got too little room, but you will
5330 not be able to get all the features out of the client.</p>
5331
5332 <p>As usual, if you use bitcoin and want to show your support of my
5333 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
5334 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b&label=PetterReinholdtsenBlog">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
5335
5336       </div>
5337       <div class="tags">
5338
5339
5340         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>.
5341
5342
5343       </div>
5344     </div>
5345     <div class="padding"></div>
5346
5347     <div class="entry">
5348       <div class="title">
5349         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/A_word_on_bitcoin_support_in_Debian.html">A word on bitcoin support in Debian</a>
5350       </div>
5351       <div class="date">
5352         21st December 2012
5353       </div>
5354       <div class="body">
5355         <p>It has been a while since I wrote about
5356 <a href="http://www.bitcoin.org/">bitcoin</a>, the decentralised
5357 peer-to-peer based crypto-currency, and the reason is simply that I
5358 have been busy elsewhere.  But two days ago, I started looking at the
5359 state of <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/bitcoin">bitcoin in
5360 Debian</a> again to try to recover my old bitcoin wallet.  The package
5361 is now maintained by a
5362 <a href="https://alioth.debian.org/projects/pkg-bitcoin/">team of
5363 people</a>, and the grunt work had already been done by this team.  We
5364 owe a huge thank you to all these team members. :)
5365 But I was sad to discover that the bitcoin client is missing in
5366 Wheezy.  It is only available in Sid (and an outdated client from
5367 backports).  The client had several RC bugs registered in BTS blocking
5368 it from entering testing.  To try to help the team and improve the
5369 situation, I spent some time providing patches and triaging the bug
5370 reports.  I also had a look at the bitcoin package available from Matt
5371 Corallo in a
5372 <a href="https://launchpad.net/~bitcoin/+archive/bitcoin">PPA for
5373 Ubuntu</a>, and moved the useful pieces from that version into the
5374 Debian package.</p>
5375
5376 <p>After checking with the main package maintainer Jonas Smedegaard on
5377 IRC, I pushed several patches into the collab-maint git repository to
5378 improve the package.  It now contains fixes for the RC issues (not from
5379 me, but fixed by Scott Howard), build rules for a Qt GUI client
5380 package, konqueror support for the bitcoin: URI and bash completion
5381 setup.  As I work on Debian Squeeze, I also created
5382 <a href="http://lists.alioth.debian.org/pipermail/pkg-bitcoin-devel/Week-of-Mon-20121217/000041.html">a
5383 patch to backport</a> the latest version.  Jonas is going to look at
5384 it and try to integrate it into the git repository before uploading a
5385 new version to unstable.
5386
5387 <p>I would very much like bitcoin to succeed, to get rid of the
5388 centralized control currently exercised in the monetary system.  I
5389 find it completely unacceptable that the USA government is collecting
5390 transaction data for almost all international money transfers (most are done in USD and transaction logs shipped to the spooks), and
5391 that the major credit card companies can block legal money
5392 transactions to Wikileaks.  But for bitcoin to succeed, more people
5393 need to use bitcoins, and more people need to accept bitcoins when
5394 they sell products and services.  Improving the bitcoin support in
5395 Debian is a small step in the right direction, but not enough.
5396 Unfortunately the user experience when browsing the web and wanting to
5397 pay with bitcoin is still not very good.  The bitcoin: URI is a step
5398 in the right direction, but need to work in most or every browser in
5399 use.  Also the bitcoin-qt client is too heavy to fire up to do a
5400 quick transaction.  I believe there are other clients available, but
5401 have not tested them.</p>
5402
5403 <p>My
5404 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Now_accepting_bitcoins___anonymous_and_distributed_p2p_crypto_money.html">experiment
5405 with bitcoins</a> showed that at least some of my readers use bitcoin.
5406 I received 20.15 BTC so far on the address I provided in my blog two
5407 years ago, as can be
5408 <a href="http://blockexplorer.com/address/15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">seen
5409 on the blockexplorer service</a>.  Thank you everyone for your
5410 donation.  The blockexplorer service demonstrates quite well that
5411 bitcoin is not quite anonymous and untracked. :) I wonder if the
5412 number of users have gone up since then.  If you use bitcoin and want
5413 to show your support of my activity, please send Bitcoin donations to
5414 the same address as last time,
5415 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b&label=PetterReinholdtsenBlog">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
5416
5417       </div>
5418       <div class="tags">
5419
5420
5421         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>.
5422
5423
5424       </div>
5425     </div>
5426     <div class="padding"></div>
5427
5428     <div class="entry">
5429       <div class="title">
5430         <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>
5431       </div>
5432       <div class="date">
5433          7th September 2012
5434       </div>
5435       <div class="body">
5436         <p>As I
5437 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Song_book_for_Computer_Scientists.html">mentioned
5438 this summer</a>, I have created a Computer Science song book a few
5439 years ago, and today I finally found time to create a public
5440 <a href="https://gitorious.org/pere-cs-songbook/pere-cs-songbook">Gitorious
5441 repository for the project</a>.</p>
5442
5443 <p>If you want to help out, please clone the source and submit patches
5444 to the HTML version.  To generate the PDF and PostScript version,
5445 please use prince XML, or let me know about a useful free software
5446 processor capable of creating a good looking PDF from the HTML.</p>
5447
5448 <p>Want to sing?  You can still find the song book in HTML, PDF and
5449 PostScript formats at
5450 <a href="http://www.hungry.com/~pere/cs-songbook/">Petter's Computer
5451 Science Songbook</a>.</p>
5452
5453       </div>
5454       <div class="tags">
5455
5456
5457         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>.
5458
5459
5460       </div>
5461     </div>
5462     <div class="padding"></div>
5463
5464     <div class="entry">
5465       <div class="title">
5466         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Gratulerer_med_19__rsdagen__Debian_.html">Gratulerer med 19-årsdagen, Debian!</a>
5467       </div>
5468       <div class="date">
5469         16th August 2012
5470       </div>
5471       <div class="body">
5472         <p>I dag fyller
5473 <a href="http://www.debian.org/News/2012/20120813">Debian-prosjektet 19
5474 år</a>.  Jeg har fulgt det de siste 12 årene, og er veldig glad for å kunne
5475 si gratulerer med dagen, Debian!</p>
5476
5477       </div>
5478       <div class="tags">
5479
5480
5481         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>.
5482
5483
5484       </div>
5485     </div>
5486     <div class="padding"></div>
5487
5488     <div class="entry">
5489       <div class="title">
5490         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Song_book_for_Computer_Scientists.html">Song book for Computer Scientists</a>
5491       </div>
5492       <div class="date">
5493         24th June 2012
5494       </div>
5495       <div class="body">
5496         <p>Many years ago, while studying Computer Science at the
5497 <a href="http://www.uit.no/">University of Tromsø</a>, I started
5498 collecting computer related songs for use at parties.  The original
5499 version was written in LaTeX, but a few years ago I got help from
5500 Håkon W. Lie, one of the inventors of W3C CSS, to convert it to HTML
5501 while keeping the ability to create a nice book in PDF format.  I have
5502 not had time to maintain the book for a while now, and guess I should
5503 put it up on some public version control repository where others can
5504 help me extend and update the book.  If anyone is volunteering to help
5505 me with this, send me an email.  Also let me know if there are songs
5506 missing in my book.</p>
5507
5508 <p>I have not mentioned the book on my blog so far, and it occured to
5509 me today that I really should let all my readers share the joys of
5510 singing out load about programming, computers and computer networks.
5511 Especially now that <a href="http://debconf12.debconf.org/">Debconf
5512 12</a> is about to start (and I am not going).  Want to sing?  Check
5513 out <a href="http://www.hungry.com/~pere/cs-songbook/">Petter's
5514 Computer Science Songbook</a>.
5515
5516       </div>
5517       <div class="tags">
5518
5519
5520         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>.
5521
5522
5523       </div>
5524     </div>
5525     <div class="padding"></div>
5526
5527     <div class="entry">
5528       <div class="title">
5529         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Automatically_upgrading_server_firmware_on_Dell_PowerEdge.html">Automatically upgrading server firmware on Dell PowerEdge</a>
5530       </div>
5531       <div class="date">
5532         21st November 2011
5533       </div>
5534       <div class="body">
5535         <p>At work we have heaps of servers.  I believe the total count is
5536 around 1000 at the moment.  To be able to get help from the vendors
5537 when something go wrong, we want to keep the firmware on the servers
5538 up to date.  If the firmware isn't the latest and greatest, the
5539 vendors typically refuse to start debugging any problems until the
5540 firmware is upgraded.  So before every reboot, we want to upgrade the
5541 firmware, and we would really like everyone handling servers at the
5542 university to do this themselves when they plan to reboot a machine.
5543 For that to happen we at the unix server admin group need to provide
5544 the tools to do so.</p>
5545
5546 <p>To make firmware upgrading easier, I am working on a script to
5547 fetch and install the latest firmware for the servers we got.  Most of
5548 our hardware are from Dell and HP, so I have focused on these servers
5549 so far.  This blog post is about the Dell part.</P>
5550
5551 <p>On the Dell FTP site I was lucky enough to find
5552 <a href="ftp://ftp.us.dell.com/catalog/Catalog.xml.gz">an XML file</a>
5553 with firmware information for all 11th generation servers, listing
5554 which firmware should be used on a given model and where on the FTP
5555 site I can find it.  Using a simple perl XML parser I can then
5556 download the shell scripts Dell provides to do firmware upgrades from
5557 within Linux and reboot when all the firmware is primed and ready to
5558 be activated on the first reboot.</p>
5559
5560 <p>This is the Dell related fragment of the perl code I am working on.
5561 Are there anyone working on similar tools for firmware upgrading all
5562 servers at a site?  Please get in touch and lets share resources.</p>
5563
5564 <p><pre>
5565 #!/usr/bin/perl
5566 use strict;
5567 use warnings;
5568 use File::Temp qw(tempdir);
5569 BEGIN {
5570     # Install needed RHEL packages if missing
5571     my %rhelmodules = (
5572         'XML::Simple' => 'perl-XML-Simple',
5573         );
5574     for my $module (keys %rhelmodules) {
5575         eval "use $module;";
5576         if ($@) {
5577             my $pkg = $rhelmodules{$module};
5578             system("yum install -y $pkg");
5579             eval "use $module;";
5580         }
5581     }
5582 }
5583 my $errorsto = 'pere@hungry.com';
5584
5585 upgrade_dell();
5586
5587 exit 0;
5588
5589 sub run_firmware_script {
5590     my ($opts, $script) = @_;
5591     unless ($script) {
5592         print STDERR "fail: missing script name\n";
5593         exit 1
5594     }
5595     print STDERR "Running $script\n\n";
5596
5597     if (0 == system("sh $script $opts")) { # FIXME correct exit code handling
5598         print STDERR "success: firmware script ran succcessfully\n";
5599     } else {
5600         print STDERR "fail: firmware script returned error\n";
5601     }
5602 }
5603
5604 sub run_firmware_scripts {
5605     my ($opts, @dirs) = @_;
5606     # Run firmware packages
5607     for my $dir (@dirs) {
5608         print STDERR "info: Running scripts in $dir\n";
5609         opendir(my $dh, $dir) or die "Unable to open directory $dir: $!";
5610         while (my $s = readdir $dh) {
5611             next if $s =~ m/^\.\.?/;
5612             run_firmware_script($opts, "$dir/$s");
5613         }
5614         closedir $dh;
5615     }
5616 }
5617
5618 sub download {
5619     my $url = shift;
5620     print STDERR "info: Downloading $url\n";
5621     system("wget --quiet \"$url\"");
5622 }
5623
5624 sub upgrade_dell {
5625     my @dirs;
5626     my $product = `dmidecode -s system-product-name`;
5627     chomp $product;
5628
5629     if ($product =~ m/PowerEdge/) {
5630
5631         # on RHEL, these pacakges are needed by the firwmare upgrade scripts
5632         system('yum install -y compat-libstdc++-33.i686 libstdc++.i686 libxml2.i686 procmail');
5633
5634         my $tmpdir = tempdir(
5635             CLEANUP => 1
5636             );
5637         chdir($tmpdir);
5638         fetch_dell_fw('catalog/Catalog.xml.gz');
5639         system('gunzip Catalog.xml.gz');
5640         my @paths = fetch_dell_fw_list('Catalog.xml');
5641         # -q is quiet, disabling interactivity and reducing console output
5642         my $fwopts = "-q";
5643         if (@paths) {
5644             for my $url (@paths) {
5645                 fetch_dell_fw($url);
5646             }
5647             run_firmware_scripts($fwopts, $tmpdir);
5648         } else {
5649             print STDERR "error: Unsupported Dell model '$product'.\n";
5650             print STDERR "error: Please report to $errorsto.\n";
5651         }
5652         chdir('/');
5653     } else {
5654         print STDERR "error: Unsupported Dell model '$product'.\n";
5655         print STDERR "error: Please report to $errorsto.\n";
5656     }
5657 }
5658
5659 sub fetch_dell_fw {
5660     my $path = shift;
5661     my $url = "ftp://ftp.us.dell.com/$path";
5662     download($url);
5663 }
5664
5665 # Using ftp://ftp.us.dell.com/catalog/Catalog.xml.gz, figure out which
5666 # firmware packages to download from Dell.  Only work for Linux
5667 # machines and 11th generation Dell servers.
5668 sub fetch_dell_fw_list {
5669     my $filename = shift;
5670
5671     my $product = `dmidecode -s system-product-name`;
5672     chomp $product;
5673     my ($mybrand, $mymodel) = split(/\s+/, $product);
5674
5675     print STDERR "Finding firmware bundles for $mybrand $mymodel\n";
5676
5677     my $xml = XMLin($filename);
5678     my @paths;
5679     for my $bundle (@{$xml->{SoftwareBundle}}) {
5680         my $brand = $bundle->{TargetSystems}->{Brand}->{Display}->{content};
5681         my $model = $bundle->{TargetSystems}->{Brand}->{Model}->{Display}->{content};
5682         my $oscode;
5683         if ("ARRAY" eq ref $bundle->{TargetOSes}->{OperatingSystem}) {
5684             $oscode = $bundle->{TargetOSes}->{OperatingSystem}[0]->{osCode};
5685         } else {
5686             $oscode = $bundle->{TargetOSes}->{OperatingSystem}->{osCode};
5687         }
5688         if ($mybrand eq $brand && $mymodel eq $model && "LIN" eq $oscode)
5689         {
5690             @paths = map { $_->{path} } @{$bundle->{Contents}->{Package}};
5691         }
5692     }
5693     for my $component (@{$xml->{SoftwareComponent}}) {
5694         my $componenttype = $component->{ComponentType}->{value};
5695
5696         # Drop application packages, only firmware and BIOS
5697         next if 'APAC' eq $componenttype;
5698
5699         my $cpath = $component->{path};
5700         for my $path (@paths) {
5701             if ($cpath =~ m%/$path$%) {
5702                 push(@paths, $cpath);
5703             }
5704         }
5705     }
5706     return @paths;
5707 }
5708 </pre>
5709
5710 <p>The code is only tested on RedHat Enterprise Linux, but I suspect
5711 it could work on other platforms with some tweaking.  Anyone know a
5712 index like Catalog.xml is available from HP for HP servers?  At the
5713 moment I maintain a similar list manually and it is quickly getting
5714 outdated.</p>
5715
5716       </div>
5717       <div class="tags">
5718
5719
5720         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>.
5721
5722
5723       </div>
5724     </div>
5725     <div class="padding"></div>
5726
5727     <div class="entry">
5728       <div class="title">
5729         <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>
5730       </div>
5731       <div class="date">
5732          4th August 2011
5733       </div>
5734       <div class="body">
5735         <p>Wouter Verhelst have some
5736 <a href="http://grep.be/blog/en/retorts/pere_kubuntu_boot">interesting
5737 comments and opinions</a> on my blog post on
5738 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/What_should_start_from__etc_rcS_d__in_Debian____almost_nothing.html">the
5739 need to clean up /etc/rcS.d/ in Debian</a> and my blog post about
5740 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/What_is_missing_in_the_Debian_desktop__or_why_my_parents_use_Kubuntu.html">the
5741 default KDE desktop in Debian</a>.  I only have time to address one
5742 small piece of his comment now, and though it best to address the
5743 misunderstanding he bring forward:</p>
5744
5745 <p><blockquote>
5746 Currently, a system admin has four options: [...] boot to a
5747 single-user system (by adding 'single' to the kernel command line;
5748 this runs rcS and rc1 scripts)
5749 </blockquote></p>
5750
5751 <p>This make me believe Wouter believe booting into single user mode
5752 and booting into runlevel 1 is the same.  I am not surprised he
5753 believe this, because it would make sense and is a quite sensible
5754 thing to believe.  But because the boot in Debian is slightly broken,
5755 runlevel 1 do not work properly and it isn't the same as single user
5756 mode.  I'll try to explain what is actually happing, but it is a bit
5757 hard to explain.</p>
5758
5759 <p>Single user mode is defined like this in /etc/inittab:
5760 "<tt>~~:S:wait:/sbin/sulogin</tt>".  This means the only thing that is
5761 executed in single user mode is sulogin.  Single user mode is a boot
5762 state "between" the runlevels, and when booting into single user mode,
5763 only the scripts in /etc/rcS.d/ are executed before the init process
5764 enters the single user state.  When switching to runlevel 1, the state
5765 is in fact not ending in runlevel 1, but it passes through runlevel 1
5766 and end up in the single user mode (see /etc/rc1.d/S03single, which
5767 runs "init -t1 S" to switch to single user mode at the end of runlevel
5768 1.  It is confusing that the 'S' (single user) init mode is not the
5769 mode enabled by /etc/rcS.d/ (which is more like the initial boot
5770 mode).</p>
5771
5772 <p>This summary might make it clearer.  When booting for the first
5773 time into single user mode, the following commands are executed:
5774 "<tt>/etc/init.d/rc S; /sbin/sulogin</tt>".  When booting into
5775 runlevel 1, the following commands are executed: "<tt>/etc/init.d/rc
5776 S; /etc/init.d/rc 1; /sbin/sulogin</tt>".  A problem show up when
5777 trying to continue after visiting single user mode.  Not all services
5778 are started again as they should, causing the machine to end up in an
5779 unpredicatble state.  This is why Debian admins recommend rebooting
5780 after visiting single user mode.</p>
5781
5782 <p>A similar problem with runlevel 1 is caused by the amount of
5783 scripts executed from /etc/rcS.d/.  When switching from say runlevel 2
5784 to runlevel 1, the services started from /etc/rcS.d/ are not properly
5785 stopped when passing through the scripts in /etc/rc1.d/, and not
5786 started again when switching away from runlevel 1 to the runlevels
5787 2-5.  I believe the problem is best fixed by moving all the scripts
5788 out of /etc/rcS.d/ that are not <strong>required</strong> to get a
5789 functioning single user mode during boot.</p>
5790
5791 <p>I have spent several years investigating the Debian boot system,
5792 and discovered this problem a few years ago.  I suspect it originates
5793 from when sysvinit was introduced into Debian, a long time ago.</p>
5794
5795       </div>
5796       <div class="tags">
5797
5798
5799         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>.
5800
5801
5802       </div>
5803     </div>
5804     <div class="padding"></div>
5805
5806     <div class="entry">
5807       <div class="title">
5808         <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>
5809       </div>
5810       <div class="date">
5811         30th July 2011
5812       </div>
5813       <div class="body">
5814         <p>In the Debian boot system, several packages include scripts that
5815 are started from /etc/rcS.d/.  In fact, there is a bite more of them
5816 than make sense, and this causes a few problems.  What kind of
5817 problems, you might ask.  There are at least two problems.  The first
5818 is that it is not possible to recover a machine after switching to
5819 runlevel 1.  One need to actually reboot to get the machine back to
5820 the expected state.  The other is that single user boot will sometimes
5821 run into problems because some of the subsystems are activated before
5822 the root login is presented, causing problems when trying to recover a
5823 machine from a problem in that subsystem.  A minor additional point is
5824 that moving more scripts out of rcS.d/ and into the other rc#.d/
5825 directories will increase the amount of scripts that can run in
5826 parallel during boot, and thus decrease the boot time.</p>
5827
5828 <p>So, which scripts should start from rcS.d/.  In short, only the
5829 scripts that _have_ to execute before the root login prompt is
5830 presented during a single user boot should go there.  Everything else
5831 should go into the numeric runlevels.  This means things like
5832 lm-sensors, fuse and x11-common should not run from rcS.d, but from
5833 the numeric runlevels.  Today in Debian, there are around 115 init.d
5834 scripts that are started from rcS.d/, and most of them should be moved
5835 out.  Do your package have one of them?  Please help us make single
5836 user and runlevel 1 better by moving it.</p>
5837
5838 <p>Scripts setting up the screen, keyboard, system partitions
5839 etc. should still be started from rcS.d/, but there is for example no
5840 need to have the network enabled before the single user login prompt
5841 is presented.</p>
5842
5843 <p>As always, things are not so easy to fix as they sound.  To keep
5844 Debian systems working while scripts migrate and during upgrades, the
5845 scripts need to be moved from rcS.d/ to rc2.d/ in reverse dependency
5846 order, ie the scripts that nothing in rcS.d/ depend on can be moved,
5847 and the next ones can only be moved when their dependencies have been
5848 moved first.  This migration must be done sequentially while we ensure
5849 that the package system upgrade packages in the right order to keep
5850 the system state correct.  This will require some coordination when it
5851 comes to network related packages, but most of the packages with
5852 scripts that should migrate do not have anything in rcS.d/ depending
5853 on them.  Some packages have already been updated, like the sudo
5854 package, while others are still left to do.  I wish I had time to work
5855 on this myself, but real live constrains make it unlikely that I will
5856 find time to push this forward.</p>
5857
5858       </div>
5859       <div class="tags">
5860
5861
5862         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>.
5863
5864
5865       </div>
5866     </div>
5867     <div class="padding"></div>
5868
5869     <div class="entry">
5870       <div class="title">
5871         <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>
5872       </div>
5873       <div class="date">
5874         29th July 2011
5875       </div>
5876       <div class="body">
5877         <p>While at Debconf11, I have several times during discussions
5878 mentioned the issues I believe should be improved in Debian for its
5879 desktop to be useful for more people.  The use case for this is my
5880 parents, which are currently running Kubuntu which solve the
5881 issues.</p>
5882
5883 <p>I suspect these four missing features are not very hard to
5884 implement.  After all, they are present in Ubuntu, so if we wanted to
5885 do this in Debian we would have a source.</p>
5886
5887 <ol>
5888
5889 <li><strong>Simple GUI based upgrade of packages.</strong> When there
5890 are new packages available for upgrades, a icon in the KDE status bar
5891 indicate this, and clicking on it will activate the simple upgrade
5892 tool to handle it.  I have no problem guiding both of my parents
5893 through the process over the phone.  If a kernel reboot is required,
5894 this too is indicated by the status bars and the upgrade tool.  Last
5895 time I checked, nothing with the same features was working in KDE in
5896 Debian.</li>
5897
5898 <li><strong>Simple handling of missing Firefox browser
5899 plugins.</strong> When the browser encounter a MIME type it do not
5900 currently have a handler for, it will ask the user if the system
5901 should search for a package that would add support for this MIME type,
5902 and if the user say yes, the APT sources will be searched for packages
5903 advertising the MIME type in their control file (visible in the
5904 Packages file in the APT archive).  If one or more packages are found,
5905 it is a simple click of the mouse to add support for the missing mime
5906 type.  If the package require the user to accept some non-free
5907 license, this is explained to the user.  The entire process make it
5908 more clear to the user why something do not work in the browser, and
5909 make the chances higher for the user to blame the web page authors and
5910 not the browser for any missing features.</li>
5911
5912 <li><strong>Simple handling of missing multimedia codec/format
5913 handlers.</strong> When the media players encounter a format or codec
5914 it is not supporting, a dialog pop up asking the user if the system
5915 should search for a package that would add support for it.  This
5916 happen with things like MP3, Windows Media or H.264.  The selection
5917 and installation procedure is very similar to the Firefox browser
5918 plugin handling.  This is as far as I know implemented using a
5919 gstreamer hook.  The end result is that the user easily get access to
5920 the codecs that are present from the APT archives available, while
5921 explaining more on why a given format is unsupported by Ubuntu.</li>
5922
5923 <li><strong>Better browser handling of some MIME types.</strong> When
5924 displaying a text/plain file in my Debian browser, it will propose to
5925 start emacs to show it.  If I remember correctly, when doing the same
5926 in Kunbutu it show the file as a text file in the browser.  At least I
5927 know Opera will show text files within the browser.  I much prefer the
5928 latter behaviour.</li>
5929
5930 </ol>
5931
5932 <p>There are other nice features as well, like the simplified suite
5933 upgrader, but given that I am the one mostly doing the dist-upgrade,
5934 it do not matter much.</p>
5935
5936 <p>I really hope we could get these features in place for the next
5937 Debian release.  It would require the coordinated effort of several
5938 maintainers, but would make the end user experience a lot better.</p>
5939
5940       </div>
5941       <div class="tags">
5942
5943
5944         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>.
5945
5946
5947       </div>
5948     </div>
5949     <div class="padding"></div>
5950
5951     <div class="entry">
5952       <div class="title">
5953         <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>
5954       </div>
5955       <div class="date">
5956         26th July 2011
5957       </div>
5958       <div class="body">
5959         <p>The Norwegian <a href="http://www.fiksgatami.no/">FiksGataMi</A>
5960 site is build on Debian/Squeeze, and this platform was chosen because
5961 I am most familiar with Debian (being a Debian Developer for around 10
5962 years) because it is the latest stable Debian release which should get
5963 security support for a few years.</p>
5964
5965 <p>The web service is written in Perl, and depend on some perl modules
5966 that are missing in Debian at the moment.  It would be great if these
5967 modules were added to the Debian archive, allowing anyone to set up
5968 their own <a href="http://www.fixmystreet.com">FixMyStreet</a> clone
5969 in their own country using only Debian packages.  The list of modules
5970 missing in Debian/Squeeze isn't very long, and I hope the perl group
5971 will find time to package the 12 modules Catalyst::Plugin::SmartURI,
5972 Catalyst::Plugin::Unicode::Encoding, Catalyst::View::TT, Devel::Hide,
5973 Sort::Key, Statistics::Distributions, Template::Plugin::Comma,
5974 Template::Plugin::DateTime::Format, Term::Size::Any, Term::Size::Perl,
5975 URI::SmartURI and Web::Scraper to make the maintenance of FixMyStreet
5976 easier in the future.</p>
5977
5978 <p>Thanks to the great tools in Debian, getting the missing modules
5979 installed on my server was a simple call to 'cpan2deb Module::Name'
5980 and 'dpkg -i' to install the resulting package.  But this leave me
5981 with the responsibility of tracking security problems, which I really
5982 do not have time for.</p>
5983
5984       </div>
5985       <div class="tags">
5986
5987
5988         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>.
5989
5990
5991       </div>
5992     </div>
5993     <div class="padding"></div>
5994
5995     <div class="entry">
5996       <div class="title">
5997         <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>
5998       </div>
5999       <div class="date">
6000          3rd April 2011
6001       </div>
6002       <div class="body">
6003         <p>Here is a small update for my English readers.  Most of my blog
6004 posts have been in Norwegian the last few weeks, so here is a short
6005 update in English.</p>
6006
6007 <p>The kids still keep me too busy to get much free software work
6008 done, but I did manage to organise a project to get a Norwegian port
6009 of the British service
6010 <a href="http://www.fixmystreet.com/">FixMyStreet</a> up and running,
6011 and it has been running for a month now.  The entire project has been
6012 organised by me and two others.  Around Christmas we gathered sponsors
6013 to fund the development work.  In January I drafted a contract with
6014 <a href="http://www.mysociety.org/">mySociety</a> on what to develop,
6015 and in February the development took place.  Most of it involved
6016 converting the source to use GPS coordinates instead of British
6017 easting/northing, and the resulting code should be a lot easier to get
6018 running in any country by now.  The Norwegian
6019 <a href="http://www.fiksgatami.no/">FiksGataMi</a> is using
6020 <a href="http://www.openstreetmap.org/">OpenStreetmap</a> as the map
6021 source and the source for administrative borders in Norway, and
6022 support for this had to be added/fixed.</p>
6023
6024 <p>The Norwegian version went live March 3th, and we spent the weekend
6025 polishing the system before we announced it March 7th.  The system is
6026 running on a KVM instance of Debian/Squeeze, and has seen almost 3000
6027 problem reports in a few weeks.  Soon we hope to announce the Android
6028 and iPhone versions making it even easier to report problems with the
6029 public infrastructure.</p>
6030
6031 <p>Perhaps something to consider for those of you in countries without
6032 such service?</p>
6033
6034       </div>
6035       <div class="tags">
6036
6037
6038         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>.
6039
6040
6041       </div>
6042     </div>
6043     <div class="padding"></div>
6044
6045     <div class="entry">
6046       <div class="title">
6047         <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>
6048       </div>
6049       <div class="date">
6050         28th January 2011
6051       </div>
6052       <div class="body">
6053         <p>The last few days I have looked at ways to track open security
6054 issues here at my work with the University of Oslo.  My idea is that
6055 it should be possible to use the information about security issues
6056 available on the Internet, and check our locally
6057 maintained/distributed software against this information.  It should
6058 allow us to verify that no known security issues are forgotten.  The
6059 CVE database listing vulnerabilities seem like a great central point,
6060 and by using the package lists from Debian mapped to CVEs provided by
6061 the testing security team, I believed it should be possible to figure
6062 out which security holes were present in our free software
6063 collection.</p>
6064
6065 <p>After reading up on the topic, it became obvious that the first
6066 building block is to be able to name software packages in a unique and
6067 consistent way across data sources.  I considered several ways to do
6068 this, for example coming up with my own naming scheme like using URLs
6069 to project home pages or URLs to the Freshmeat entries, or using some
6070 existing naming scheme.  And it seem like I am not the first one to
6071 come across this problem, as MITRE already proposed and implemented a
6072 solution.  Enter the <a href="http://cpe.mitre.org/index.html">Common
6073 Platform Enumeration</a> dictionary, a vocabulary for referring to
6074 software, hardware and other platform components.  The CPE ids are
6075 mapped to CVEs in the <a href="http://web.nvd.nist.gov/">National
6076 Vulnerability Database</a>, allowing me to look up know security
6077 issues for any CPE name.  With this in place, all I need to do is to
6078 locate the CPE id for the software packages we use at the university.
6079 This is fairly trivial (I google for 'cve cpe $package' and check the
6080 NVD entry if a CVE for the package exist).</p>
6081
6082 <p>To give you an example.  The GNU gzip source package have the CPE
6083 name cpe:/a:gnu:gzip.  If the old version 1.3.3 was the package to
6084 check out, one could look up
6085 <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
6086 in NVD</a> and get a list of 6 security holes with public CVE entries.
6087 The most recent one is
6088 <a href="http://web.nvd.nist.gov/view/vuln/detail?vulnId=CVE-2010-0001">CVE-2010-0001</a>,
6089 and at the bottom of the NVD page for this vulnerability the complete
6090 list of affected versions is provided.</p>
6091
6092 <p>The NVD database of CVEs is also available as a XML dump, allowing
6093 for offline processing of issues.  Using this dump, I've written a
6094 small script taking a list of CPEs as input and list all CVEs
6095 affecting the packages represented by these CPEs.  One give it CPEs
6096 with version numbers as specified above and get a list of open
6097 security issues out.</p>
6098
6099 <p>Of course for this approach to be useful, the quality of the NVD
6100 information need to be high.  For that to happen, I believe as many as
6101 possible need to use and contribute to the NVD database.  I notice
6102 RHEL is providing
6103 <a href="https://www.redhat.com/security/data/metrics/rhsamapcpe.txt">a
6104 map from CVE to CPE</a>, indicating that they are using the CPE
6105 information.  I'm not aware of Debian and Ubuntu doing the same.</p>
6106
6107 <p>To get an idea about the quality for free software, I spent some
6108 time making it possible to compare the CVE database from Debian with
6109 the CVE database in NVD.  The result look fairly good, but there are
6110 some inconsistencies in NVD (same software package having several
6111 CPEs), and some inaccuracies (NVD not mentioning buggy packages that
6112 Debian believe are affected by a CVE).  Hope to find time to improve
6113 the quality of NVD, but that require being able to get in touch with
6114 someone maintaining it.  So far my three emails with questions and
6115 corrections have not seen any reply, but I hope contact can be
6116 established soon.</p>
6117
6118 <p>An interesting application for CPEs is cross platform package
6119 mapping.  It would be useful to know which packages in for example
6120 RHEL, OpenSuSe and Mandriva are missing from Debian and Ubuntu, and
6121 this would be trivial if all linux distributions provided CPE entries
6122 for their packages.</p>
6123
6124       </div>
6125       <div class="tags">
6126
6127
6128         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>.
6129
6130
6131       </div>
6132     </div>
6133     <div class="padding"></div>
6134
6135     <div class="entry">
6136       <div class="title">
6137         <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>
6138       </div>
6139       <div class="date">
6140         23rd January 2011
6141       </div>
6142       <div class="body">
6143         <p>In the
6144 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/discover-data">discover-data</a>
6145 package in Debian, there is a script to report useful information
6146 about the running hardware for use when people report missing
6147 information.  One part of this script that I find very useful when
6148 debugging hardware problems, is the part mapping loaded kernel module
6149 to the PCI device it claims.  It allow me to quickly see if the kernel
6150 module I expect is driving the hardware I am struggling with.  To see
6151 the output, make sure discover-data is installed and run
6152 <tt>/usr/share/bug/discover-data 3>&1</tt>.  The relevant output on
6153 one of my machines like this:</p>
6154
6155 <pre>
6156 loaded modules:
6157 10de:03eb i2c_nforce2
6158 10de:03f1 ohci_hcd
6159 10de:03f2 ehci_hcd
6160 10de:03f0 snd_hda_intel
6161 10de:03ec pata_amd
6162 10de:03f6 sata_nv
6163 1022:1103 k8temp
6164 109e:036e bttv
6165 109e:0878 snd_bt87x
6166 11ab:4364 sky2
6167 </pre>
6168
6169 <p>The code in question look like this, slightly modified for
6170 readability and to drop the output to file descriptor 3:</p>
6171
6172 <pre>
6173 if [ -d /sys/bus/pci/devices/ ] ; then
6174     echo loaded pci modules:
6175     (
6176         cd /sys/bus/pci/devices/
6177         for address in * ; do
6178             if [ -d "$address/driver/module" ] ; then
6179                 module=`cd $address/driver/module ; pwd -P | xargs basename`
6180                 if grep -q "^$module " /proc/modules ; then
6181                     address=$(echo $address |sed s/0000://)
6182                     id=`lspci -n -s $address | tail -n 1 | awk '{print $3}'`
6183                     echo "$id $module"
6184                 fi
6185             fi
6186         done
6187     )
6188     echo
6189 fi
6190 </pre>
6191
6192 <p>Similar code could be used to extract USB device module
6193 mappings:</p>
6194
6195 <pre>
6196 if [ -d /sys/bus/usb/devices/ ] ; then
6197     echo loaded usb modules:
6198     (
6199         cd /sys/bus/usb/devices/
6200         for address in * ; do
6201             if [ -d "$address/driver/module" ] ; then
6202                 module=`cd $address/driver/module ; pwd -P | xargs basename`
6203                 if grep -q "^$module " /proc/modules ; then
6204                     address=$(echo $address |sed s/0000://)
6205                     id=$(lsusb -s $address | tail -n 1 | awk '{print $6}')
6206                     if [ "$id" ] ; then
6207                         echo "$id $module"
6208                     fi
6209                 fi
6210             fi
6211         done
6212     )
6213     echo
6214 fi
6215 </pre>
6216
6217 <p>This might perhaps be something to include in other tools as
6218 well.</p>
6219
6220       </div>
6221       <div class="tags">
6222
6223
6224         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>.
6225
6226
6227       </div>
6228     </div>
6229     <div class="padding"></div>
6230
6231     <div class="entry">
6232       <div class="title">
6233         <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>
6234       </div>
6235       <div class="date">
6236         22nd December 2010
6237       </div>
6238       <div class="body">
6239         <p>The last few days I have spent at work here at the <a
6240 href="http://www.uio.no/">University of Oslo</a> testing if the new
6241 batch of computers will work with Linux.  Every year for the last few
6242 years the university have organised shared bid of a few thousand
6243 computers, and this year HP won the bid.  Two different desktops and
6244 five different laptops are on the list this year.  We in the UNIX
6245 group want to know which one of these computers work well with RHEL
6246 and Ubuntu, the two Linux distributions we currently handle at the
6247 university.</p>
6248
6249 <p>My test method is simple, and I share it here to get feedback and
6250 perhaps inspire others to test hardware as well.  To test, I PXE
6251 install the OS version of choice, and log in as my normal user and run
6252 a few applications and plug in selected pieces of hardware.  When
6253 something fail, I make a note about this in the test matrix and move
6254 on.  If I have some spare time I try to report the bug to the OS
6255 vendor, but as I only have the machines for a short time, I rarely
6256 have the time to do this for all the problems I find.</p>
6257
6258 <p>Anyway, to get to the point of this post.  Here is the simple tests
6259 I perform on a new model.</p>
6260
6261 <ul>
6262
6263 <li>Is PXE installation working?  I'm testing with RHEL6, Ubuntu Lucid
6264 and Ubuntu Maverik at the moment.  If I feel like it, I also test with
6265 RHEL5 and Debian Edu/Squeeze.</li>
6266
6267 <li>Is X.org working?  If the graphical login screen show up after
6268 installation, X.org is working.</li>
6269
6270 <li>Is hardware accelerated OpenGL working?  Running glxgears (in
6271 package mesa-utils on Ubuntu) and writing down the frames per second
6272 reported by the program.</li>
6273
6274 <li>Is sound working?  With Gnome and KDE, a sound is played when
6275 logging in, and if I can hear this the test is successful.  If there
6276 are several audio exits on the machine, I try them all and check if
6277 the Gnome/KDE audio mixer can control where to send the sound.  I
6278 normally test this by playing
6279 <a href="http://www.nuug.no/aktiviteter/20101012-chef/ ">a HTML5
6280 video</a> in Firefox/Iceweasel.</li>
6281
6282 <li>Is the USB subsystem working?  I test this by plugging in a USB
6283 memory stick and see if Gnome/KDE notices this.</li>
6284
6285 <li>Is the CD/DVD player working?  I test this by inserting any CD/DVD
6286 I have lying around, and see if Gnome/KDE notices this.</li>
6287
6288 <li>Is any built in camera working?  Test using cheese, and see if a
6289 picture from the v4l device show up.</li>
6290
6291 <li>Is bluetooth working?  Use the Gnome/KDE browsing tool to see if
6292 any bluetooth devices are discovered.  In my office, I normally see a
6293 few.</li>
6294
6295 <li>For laptops, is the SD or Compaq Flash reader working.  I have
6296 memory modules lying around, and stick them in and see if Gnome/KDE
6297 notice this.</li>
6298
6299 <li>For laptops, is suspend/hibernate working?  I'm testing if the
6300 special button work, and if the laptop continue to work after
6301 resume.</li>
6302
6303 <li>For laptops, is the extra buttons working, like audio level,
6304 adjusting background light, switching on/off external video output,
6305 switching on/off wifi, bluetooth, etc?  The set of buttons differ from
6306 laptop to laptop, so I just write down which are working and which are
6307 not.</li>
6308
6309 <li>Some laptops have smart card readers, finger print readers,
6310 acceleration sensors etc.  I rarely test these, as I do not know how
6311 to quickly test if they are working or not, so I only document their
6312 existence.</li>
6313
6314 </ul>
6315
6316 <p>By now I suspect you are really curious what the test results are
6317 for the HP machines I am testing.  I'm not done yet, so I will report
6318 the test results later.  For now I can report that HP 8100 Elite work
6319 fine, and hibernation fail with HP EliteBook 8440p on Ubuntu Lucid,
6320 and audio fail on RHEL6.  Ubuntu Maverik worked with 8440p.  As you
6321 can see, I have most machines left to test.  One interesting
6322 observation is that Ubuntu Lucid has almost twice the frame rate than
6323 RHEL6 with glxgears.  No idea why.</p>
6324
6325       </div>
6326       <div class="tags">
6327
6328
6329         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>.
6330
6331
6332       </div>
6333     </div>
6334     <div class="padding"></div>
6335
6336     <div class="entry">
6337       <div class="title">
6338         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Some_thoughts_on_BitCoins.html">Some thoughts on BitCoins</a>
6339       </div>
6340       <div class="date">
6341         11th December 2010
6342       </div>
6343       <div class="body">
6344         <p>As I continue to explore
6345 <a href="http://www.bitcoin.org/">BitCoin</a>, I've starting to wonder
6346 what properties the system have, and how it will be affected by laws
6347 and regulations here in Norway.  Here are some random notes.</p>
6348
6349 <p>One interesting thing to note is that since the transactions are
6350 verified using a peer to peer network, all details about a transaction
6351 is known to everyone.  This means that if a BitCoin address has been
6352 published like I did with mine in my initial post about BitCoin, it is
6353 possible for everyone to see how many BitCoins have been transfered to
6354 that address.  There is even a web service to look at the details for
6355 all transactions.  There I can see that my address
6356 <a href="http://blockexplorer.com/address/15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a>
6357 have received 16.06 Bitcoin, the
6358 <a href="http://blockexplorer.com/address/1LfdGnGuWkpSJgbQySxxCWhv8MHqvwst3">1LfdGnGuWkpSJgbQySxxCWhv8MHqvwst3</a>
6359 address of Simon Phipps have received 181.97 BitCoin and the address
6360 <a href="http://blockexplorer.com/address/1MCwBbhNGp5hRm5rC1Aims2YFRe2SXPYKt">1MCwBbhNGp5hRm5rC1Aims2YFRe2SXPYKt</A>
6361 of EFF have received 2447.38 BitCoins so far.  Thank you to each and
6362 every one of you that donated bitcoins to support my activity. The
6363 fact that anyone can see how much money was transfered to a given
6364 address make it more obvious why the BitCoin community recommend to
6365 generate and hand out a new address for each transaction.  I'm told
6366 there is no way to track which addresses belong to a given person or
6367 organisation without the person or organisation revealing it
6368 themselves, as Simon, EFF and I have done.</p>
6369
6370 <p>In Norway, and in most other countries, there are laws and
6371 regulations limiting how much money one can transfer across the border
6372 without declaring it.  There are money laundering, tax and accounting
6373 laws and regulations I would expect to apply to the use of BitCoin.
6374 If the Skolelinux foundation
6375 (<a href="http://linuxiskolen.no/slxdebianlabs/donations.html">SLX
6376 Debian Labs</a>) were to accept donations in BitCoin in addition to
6377 normal bank transfers like EFF is doing, how should this be accounted?
6378 Given that it is impossible to know if money can cross the border or
6379 not, should everything or nothing be declared?  What exchange rate
6380 should be used when calculating taxes?  Would receivers have to pay
6381 income tax if the foundation were to pay Skolelinux contributors in
6382 BitCoin?  I have no idea, but it would be interesting to know.</p>
6383
6384 <p>For a currency to be useful and successful, it must be trusted and
6385 accepted by a lot of users.  It must be possible to get easy access to
6386 the currency (as a wage or using currency exchanges), and it must be
6387 easy to spend it.  At the moment BitCoin seem fairly easy to get
6388 access to, but there are very few places to spend it.  I am not really
6389 a regular user of any of the vendor types currently accepting BitCoin,
6390 so I wonder when my kind of shop would start accepting BitCoins.  I
6391 would like to buy electronics, travels and subway tickets, not herbs
6392 and books. :) The currency is young, and this will improve over time
6393 if it become popular, but I suspect regular banks will start to lobby
6394 to get BitCoin declared illegal if it become popular.  I'm sure they
6395 will claim it is helping fund terrorism and money laundering (which
6396 probably would be true, as is any currency in existence), but I
6397 believe the problems should be solved elsewhere and not by blaming
6398 currencies.</p>
6399
6400 <p>The process of creating new BitCoins is called mining, and it is
6401 CPU intensive process that depend on a bit of luck as well (as one is
6402 competing against all the other miners currently spending CPU cycles
6403 to see which one get the next lump of cash).  The "winner" get 50
6404 BitCoin when this happen.  Yesterday I came across the obvious way to
6405 join forces to increase ones changes of getting at least some coins,
6406 by coordinating the work on mining BitCoins across several machines
6407 and people, and sharing the result if one is lucky and get the 50
6408 BitCoins.  Check out
6409 <a href="http://www.bluishcoder.co.nz/bitcoin-pool/">BitCoin Pool</a>
6410 if this sounds interesting.  I have not had time to try to set up a
6411 machine to participate there yet, but have seen that running on ones
6412 own for a few days have not yield any BitCoins througth mining
6413 yet.</p>
6414
6415 <p>Update 2010-12-15: Found an <a
6416 href="http://inertia.posterous.com/reply-to-the-underground-economist-why-bitcoi">interesting
6417 criticism</a> of bitcoin.  Not quite sure how valid it is, but thought
6418 it was interesting to read.  The arguments presented seem to be
6419 equally valid for gold, which was used as a currency for many years.</p>
6420
6421       </div>
6422       <div class="tags">
6423
6424
6425         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>.
6426
6427
6428       </div>
6429     </div>
6430     <div class="padding"></div>
6431
6432     <div class="entry">
6433       <div class="title">
6434         <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>
6435       </div>
6436       <div class="date">
6437         10th December 2010
6438       </div>
6439       <div class="body">
6440         <p>With this weeks lawless
6441 <a href="http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2010/12/06/wikileaks/index.html">governmental
6442 attacks</a> on Wikileak and
6443 <a href="http://www.salon.com/technology/dan_gillmor/2010/12/06/war_on_speech">free
6444 speech</a>, it has become obvious that PayPal, visa and mastercard can
6445 not be trusted to handle money transactions.
6446 A blog post from
6447 <a href="http://webmink.com/2010/12/06/now-accepting-bitcoin/">Simon
6448 Phipps on bitcoin</a> reminded me about a project that a friend of
6449 mine mentioned earlier.  I decided to follow Simon's example, and get
6450 involved with <a href="http://www.bitcoin.org/">BitCoin</a>.  I got
6451 some help from my friend to get it all running, and he even handed me
6452 some bitcoins to get started.  I even donated a few bitcoins to Simon
6453 for helping me remember BitCoin.</p>
6454
6455 <p>So, what is bitcoins, you probably wonder?  It is a digital
6456 crypto-currency, decentralised and handled using peer-to-peer
6457 networks.  It allows anonymous transactions and prohibits central
6458 control over the transactions, making it impossible for governments
6459 and companies alike to block donations and other transactions.  The
6460 source is free software, and while the key dependency wxWidgets 2.9
6461 for the graphical user interface is missing in Debian, the command
6462 line client builds just fine.  Hopefully Jonas
6463 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/578157">will get the package into
6464 Debian</a> soon.</p>
6465
6466 <p>Bitcoins can be converted to other currencies, like USD and EUR.
6467 There are <a href="http://www.bitcoin.org/trade">companies accepting
6468 bitcoins</a> when selling services and goods, and there are even
6469 currency "stock" markets where the exchange rate is decided.  There
6470 are not many users so far, but the concept seems promising.  If you
6471 want to get started and lack a friend with any bitcoins to spare,
6472 you can even get
6473 <a href="https://freebitcoins.appspot.com/">some for free</a> (0.05
6474 bitcoin at the time of writing).  Use
6475 <a href="http://www.bitcoinwatch.com/">BitcoinWatch</a> to keep an eye
6476 on the current exchange rates.</p>
6477
6478 <p>As an experiment, I have decided to set up bitcoind on one of my
6479 machines.  If you want to support my activity, please send Bitcoin
6480 donations to the address
6481 <b>15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</b>.  Thank you!</p>
6482
6483       </div>
6484       <div class="tags">
6485
6486
6487         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>.
6488
6489
6490       </div>
6491     </div>
6492     <div class="padding"></div>
6493
6494     <div class="entry">
6495       <div class="title">
6496         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Why_isn_t_Debian_Edu_using_VLC_.html">Why isn't Debian Edu using VLC?</a>
6497       </div>
6498       <div class="date">
6499         27th November 2010
6500       </div>
6501       <div class="body">
6502         <p>In the latest issue of Linux Journal, the readers choices were
6503 presented, and the winner among the multimedia player were VLC.
6504 Personally, I like VLC, and it is my player of choice when I first try
6505 to play a video file or stream.  Only if VLC fail will I drag out
6506 gmplayer to see if it can do better.  The reason is mostly the failure
6507 model and trust.  When VLC fail, it normally pop up a error message
6508 reporting the problem.  When mplayer fail, it normally segfault or
6509 just hangs.  The latter failure mode drain my trust in the program.<p>
6510
6511 <p>But even if VLC is my player of choice, we have choosen to use
6512 mplayer in <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian
6513 Edu/Skolelinux</a>.  The reason is simple.  We need a good browser
6514 plugin to play web videos seamlessly, and the VLC browser plugin is
6515 not very good.  For example, it lack in-line control buttons, so there
6516 is no way for the user to pause the video.  Also, when I
6517 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/BrowserMultimedia">last
6518 tested the browser plugins</a> available in Debian, the VLC plugin
6519 failed on several video pages where mplayer based plugins worked.  If
6520 the browser plugin for VLC was as good as the gecko-mediaplayer
6521 package (which uses mplayer), we would switch.</P>
6522
6523 <p>While VLC is a good player, its user interface is slightly
6524 annoying.  The most annoying feature is its inconsistent use of
6525 keyboard shortcuts.  When the player is in full screen mode, its
6526 shortcuts are different from when it is playing the video in a window.
6527 For example, space only work as pause when in full screen mode.  I
6528 wish it had consisten shortcuts and that space also would work when in
6529 window mode.  Another nice shortcut in gmplayer is [enter] to restart
6530 the current video.  It is very nice when playing short videos from the
6531 web and want to restart it when new people arrive to have a look at
6532 what is going on.</p>
6533
6534       </div>
6535       <div class="tags">
6536
6537
6538         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <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>.
6539
6540
6541       </div>
6542     </div>
6543     <div class="padding"></div>
6544
6545     <div class="entry">
6546       <div class="title">
6547         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/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>
6548       </div>
6549       <div class="date">
6550         22nd November 2010
6551       </div>
6552       <div class="body">
6553         <p>Michael Biebl suggested to me on IRC, that I changed my automated
6554 upgrade testing of the
6555 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/~pere/debian-upgrade-testing/">Lenny
6556 Gnome and KDE Desktop</a> to do <tt>apt-get autoremove</tt> when using apt-get.
6557 This seem like a very good idea, so I adjusted by test scripts and
6558 can now present the updated result from today:</p>
6559
6560 <p>This is for Gnome:</p>
6561
6562 <p>Installed using apt-get, missing with aptitude</p>
6563
6564 <blockquote><p>
6565   apache2.2-bin
6566   aptdaemon
6567   baobab
6568   binfmt-support
6569   browser-plugin-gnash
6570   cheese-common
6571   cli-common
6572   cups-pk-helper
6573   dmz-cursor-theme
6574   empathy
6575   empathy-common
6576   freedesktop-sound-theme
6577   freeglut3
6578   gconf-defaults-service
6579   gdm-themes
6580   gedit-plugins
6581   geoclue
6582   geoclue-hostip
6583   geoclue-localnet
6584   geoclue-manual
6585   geoclue-yahoo
6586   gnash
6587   gnash-common
6588   gnome
6589   gnome-backgrounds
6590   gnome-cards-data
6591   gnome-codec-install
6592   gnome-core
6593   gnome-desktop-environment
6594   gnome-disk-utility
6595   gnome-screenshot
6596   gnome-search-tool
6597   gnome-session-canberra
6598   gnome-system-log
6599   gnome-themes-extras
6600   gnome-themes-more
6601   gnome-user-share
6602   gstreamer0.10-fluendo-mp3
6603   gstreamer0.10-tools
6604   gtk2-engines
6605   gtk2-engines-pixbuf
6606   gtk2-engines-smooth
6607   hamster-applet
6608   libapache2-mod-dnssd
6609   libapr1
6610   libaprutil1
6611   libaprutil1-dbd-sqlite3
6612   libaprutil1-ldap
6613   libart2.0-cil
6614   libboost-date-time1.42.0
6615   libboost-python1.42.0
6616   libboost-thread1.42.0
6617   libchamplain-0.4-0
6618   libchamplain-gtk-0.4-0
6619   libcheese-gtk18
6620   libclutter-gtk-0.10-0
6621   libcryptui0
6622   libdiscid0
6623   libelf1
6624   libepc-1.0-2
6625   libepc-common
6626   libepc-ui-1.0-2
6627   libfreerdp-plugins-standard
6628   libfreerdp0
6629   libgconf2.0-cil
6630   libgdata-common
6631   libgdata7
6632   libgdu-gtk0
6633   libgee2
6634   libgeoclue0
6635   libgexiv2-0
6636   libgif4
6637   libglade2.0-cil
6638   libglib2.0-cil
6639   libgmime2.4-cil
6640   libgnome-vfs2.0-cil
6641   libgnome2.24-cil
6642   libgnomepanel2.24-cil
6643   libgpod-common
6644   libgpod4
6645   libgtk2.0-cil
6646   libgtkglext1
6647   libgtksourceview2.0-common
6648   libmono-addins-gui0.2-cil
6649   libmono-addins0.2-cil
6650   libmono-cairo2.0-cil
6651   libmono-corlib2.0-cil
6652   libmono-i18n-west2.0-cil
6653   libmono-posix2.0-cil
6654   libmono-security2.0-cil
6655   libmono-sharpzip2.84-cil
6656   libmono-system2.0-cil
6657   libmtp8
6658   libmusicbrainz3-6
6659   libndesk-dbus-glib1.0-cil
6660   libndesk-dbus1.0-cil
6661   libopal3.6.8
6662   libpolkit-gtk-1-0
6663   libpt2.6.7
6664   libpython2.6
6665   librpm1
6666   librpmio1
6667   libsdl1.2debian
6668   libsrtp0
6669   libssh-4
6670   libtelepathy-farsight0
6671   libtelepathy-glib0
6672   libtidy-0.99-0
6673   media-player-info
6674   mesa-utils
6675   mono-2.0-gac
6676   mono-gac
6677   mono-runtime
6678   nautilus-sendto
6679   nautilus-sendto-empathy
6680   p7zip-full
6681   pkg-config
6682   python-aptdaemon
6683   python-aptdaemon-gtk
6684   python-axiom
6685   python-beautifulsoup
6686   python-bugbuddy
6687   python-clientform
6688   python-coherence
6689   python-configobj
6690   python-crypto
6691   python-cupshelpers
6692   python-elementtree
6693   python-epsilon
6694   python-evolution
6695   python-feedparser
6696   python-gdata
6697   python-gdbm
6698   python-gst0.10
6699   python-gtkglext1
6700   python-gtksourceview2
6701   python-httplib2
6702   python-louie
6703   python-mako
6704   python-markupsafe
6705   python-mechanize
6706   python-nevow
6707   python-notify
6708   python-opengl
6709   python-openssl
6710   python-pam
6711   python-pkg-resources
6712   python-pyasn1
6713   python-pysqlite2
6714   python-rdflib
6715   python-serial
6716   python-tagpy
6717   python-twisted-bin
6718   python-twisted-conch
6719   python-twisted-core
6720   python-twisted-web
6721   python-utidylib
6722   python-webkit
6723   python-xdg
6724   python-zope.interface
6725   remmina
6726   remmina-plugin-data
6727   remmina-plugin-rdp
6728   remmina-plugin-vnc
6729   rhythmbox-plugin-cdrecorder
6730   rhythmbox-plugins
6731   rpm-common
6732   rpm2cpio
6733   seahorse-plugins
6734   shotwell
6735   software-center
6736   system-config-printer-udev
6737   telepathy-gabble
6738   telepathy-mission-control-5
6739   telepathy-salut
6740   tomboy
6741   totem
6742   totem-coherence
6743   totem-mozilla
6744   totem-plugins
6745   transmission-common
6746   xdg-user-dirs
6747   xdg-user-dirs-gtk
6748   xserver-xephyr
6749 </p></blockquote>
6750
6751 <p>Installed using apt-get, removed with aptitude</p>
6752
6753 <blockquote><p>
6754   cheese
6755   ekiga
6756   eog
6757   epiphany-extensions
6758   evolution-exchange
6759   fast-user-switch-applet
6760   file-roller
6761   gcalctool
6762   gconf-editor
6763   gdm
6764   gedit
6765   gedit-common
6766   gnome-games
6767   gnome-games-data
6768   gnome-nettool
6769   gnome-system-tools
6770   gnome-themes
6771   gnuchess
6772   gucharmap
6773   guile-1.8-libs
6774   libavahi-ui0
6775   libdmx1
6776   libgalago3
6777   libgtk-vnc-1.0-0
6778   libgtksourceview2.0-0
6779   liblircclient0
6780   libsdl1.2debian-alsa
6781   libspeexdsp1
6782   libsvga1
6783   rhythmbox
6784   seahorse
6785   sound-juicer
6786   system-config-printer
6787   totem-common
6788   transmission-gtk
6789   vinagre
6790   vino
6791 </p></blockquote>
6792
6793 <p>Installed using aptitude, missing with apt-get</p>
6794
6795 <blockquote><p>
6796   gstreamer0.10-gnomevfs
6797 </p></blockquote>
6798
6799 <p>Installed using aptitude, removed with apt-get</p>
6800
6801 <blockquote><p>
6802 [nothing]
6803 </p></blockquote>
6804
6805 <p>This is for KDE:</p>
6806
6807 <p>Installed using apt-get, missing with aptitude</p>
6808
6809 <blockquote><p>
6810   ksmserver
6811 </p></blockquote>
6812
6813 <p>Installed using apt-get, removed with aptitude</p>
6814
6815 <blockquote><p>
6816   kwin
6817   network-manager-kde
6818 </p></blockquote>
6819
6820 <p>Installed using aptitude, missing with apt-get</p>
6821
6822 <blockquote><p>
6823   arts
6824   dolphin
6825   freespacenotifier
6826   google-gadgets-gst
6827   google-gadgets-xul
6828   kappfinder
6829   kcalc
6830   kcharselect
6831   kde-core
6832   kde-plasma-desktop
6833   kde-standard
6834   kde-window-manager
6835   kdeartwork
6836   kdeartwork-emoticons
6837   kdeartwork-style
6838   kdeartwork-theme-icon
6839   kdebase
6840   kdebase-apps
6841   kdebase-workspace
6842   kdebase-workspace-bin
6843   kdebase-workspace-data
6844   kdeeject
6845   kdelibs
6846   kdeplasma-addons
6847   kdeutils
6848   kdewallpapers
6849   kdf
6850   kfloppy
6851   kgpg
6852   khelpcenter4
6853   kinfocenter
6854   konq-plugins-l10n
6855   konqueror-nsplugins
6856   kscreensaver
6857   kscreensaver-xsavers
6858   ktimer
6859   kwrite
6860   libgle3
6861   libkde4-ruby1.8
6862   libkonq5
6863   libkonq5-templates
6864   libnetpbm10
6865   libplasma-ruby
6866   libplasma-ruby1.8
6867   libqt4-ruby1.8
6868   marble-data
6869   marble-plugins
6870   netpbm
6871   nuvola-icon-theme
6872   plasma-dataengines-workspace
6873   plasma-desktop
6874   plasma-desktopthemes-artwork
6875   plasma-runners-addons
6876   plasma-scriptengine-googlegadgets
6877   plasma-scriptengine-python
6878   plasma-scriptengine-qedje
6879   plasma-scriptengine-ruby
6880   plasma-scriptengine-webkit
6881   plasma-scriptengines
6882   plasma-wallpapers-addons
6883   plasma-widget-folderview
6884   plasma-widget-networkmanagement
6885   ruby
6886   sweeper
6887   update-notifier-kde
6888   xscreensaver-data-extra
6889   xscreensaver-gl
6890   xscreensaver-gl-extra
6891   xscreensaver-screensaver-bsod
6892 </p></blockquote>
6893
6894 <p>Installed using aptitude, removed with apt-get</p>
6895
6896 <blockquote><p>
6897   ark
6898   google-gadgets-common
6899   google-gadgets-qt
6900   htdig
6901   kate
6902   kdebase-bin
6903   kdebase-data
6904   kdepasswd
6905   kfind
6906   klipper
6907   konq-plugins
6908   konqueror
6909   ksysguard
6910   ksysguardd
6911   libarchive1
6912   libcln6
6913   libeet1
6914   libeina-svn-06
6915   libggadget-1.0-0b
6916   libggadget-qt-1.0-0b
6917   libgps19
6918   libkdecorations4
6919   libkephal4
6920   libkonq4
6921   libkonqsidebarplugin4a
6922   libkscreensaver5
6923   libksgrd4
6924   libksignalplotter4
6925   libkunitconversion4
6926   libkwineffects1a
6927   libmarblewidget4
6928   libntrack-qt4-1
6929   libntrack0
6930   libplasma-geolocation-interface4
6931   libplasmaclock4a
6932   libplasmagenericshell4
6933   libprocesscore4a
6934   libprocessui4a
6935   libqalculate5
6936   libqedje0a
6937   libqtruby4shared2
6938   libqzion0a
6939   libruby1.8
6940   libscim8c2a
6941   libsmokekdecore4-3
6942   libsmokekdeui4-3
6943   libsmokekfile3
6944   libsmokekhtml3
6945   libsmokekio3
6946   libsmokeknewstuff2-3
6947   libsmokeknewstuff3-3
6948   libsmokekparts3
6949   libsmokektexteditor3
6950   libsmokekutils3
6951   libsmokenepomuk3
6952   libsmokephonon3
6953   libsmokeplasma3
6954   libsmokeqtcore4-3
6955   libsmokeqtdbus4-3
6956   libsmokeqtgui4-3
6957   libsmokeqtnetwork4-3
6958   libsmokeqtopengl4-3
6959   libsmokeqtscript4-3
6960   libsmokeqtsql4-3
6961   libsmokeqtsvg4-3
6962   libsmokeqttest4-3
6963   libsmokeqtuitools4-3
6964   libsmokeqtwebkit4-3
6965   libsmokeqtxml4-3
6966   libsmokesolid3
6967   libsmokesoprano3
6968   libtaskmanager4a
6969   libtidy-0.99-0
6970   libweather-ion4a
6971   libxklavier16
6972   libxxf86misc1
6973   okteta
6974   oxygencursors
6975   plasma-dataengines-addons
6976   plasma-scriptengine-superkaramba
6977   plasma-widget-lancelot
6978   plasma-widgets-addons
6979   plasma-widgets-workspace
6980   polkit-kde-1
6981   ruby1.8
6982   systemsettings
6983   update-notifier-common
6984 </p></blockquote>
6985
6986 <p>Running apt-get autoremove made the results using apt-get and
6987 aptitude a bit more similar, but there are still quite a lott of
6988 differences.  I have no idea what packages should be installed after
6989 the upgrade, but hope those that do can have a look.</p>
6990
6991       </div>
6992       <div class="tags">
6993
6994
6995         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>.
6996
6997
6998       </div>
6999     </div>
7000     <div class="padding"></div>
7001
7002     <div class="entry">
7003       <div class="title">
7004         <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>
7005       </div>
7006       <div class="date">
7007         22nd November 2010
7008       </div>
7009       <div class="body">
7010         <p>Most of the computers in use by the
7011 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu/Skolelinux project</a>
7012 are virtual machines.  And they have been Xen machines running on a
7013 fairly old IBM eserver xseries 345 machine, and we wanted to migrate
7014 them to KVM on a newer Dell PowerEdge 2950 host machine.  This was a
7015 bit harder that it could have been, because we set up the Xen virtual
7016 machines to get the virtual partitions from LVM, which as far as I
7017 know is not supported by KVM.  So to migrate, we had to convert
7018 several LVM logical volumes to partitions on a virtual disk file.</p>
7019
7020 <p>I found
7021 <a href="http://searchnetworking.techtarget.com.au/articles/35011-Six-steps-for-migrating-Xen-virtual-machines-to-KVM">a
7022 nice recipe</a> to do this, and wrote the following script to do the
7023 migration.  It uses qemu-img from the qemu package to make the disk
7024 image, parted to partition it, losetup and kpartx to present the disk
7025 image partions as devices, and dd to copy the data.  I NFS mounted the
7026 new servers storage area on the old server to do the migration.</p>
7027
7028 <pre>
7029 #!/bin/sh
7030
7031 # Based on
7032 # http://searchnetworking.techtarget.com.au/articles/35011-Six-steps-for-migrating-Xen-virtual-machines-to-KVM
7033
7034 set -e
7035 set -x
7036
7037 if [ -z "$1" ] ; then
7038     echo "Usage: $0 &lt;hostname&gt;"
7039     exit 1
7040 else
7041     host="$1"
7042 fi
7043
7044 if [ ! -e /dev/vg_data/$host-disk ] ; then
7045     echo "error: unable to find LVM volume for $host"
7046     exit 1
7047 fi
7048
7049 # Partitions need to be a bit bigger than the LVM LVs.  not sure why.
7050 disksize=$( lvs --units m | grep $host-disk | awk '{sum = sum + $4} END { print int(sum * 1.05) }')
7051 swapsize=$( lvs --units m | grep $host-swap | awk '{sum = sum + $4} END { print int(sum * 1.05) }')
7052 totalsize=$(( ( $disksize + $swapsize ) ))
7053
7054 img=$host.img
7055 #dd if=/dev/zero of=$img bs=1M count=$(( $disksize + $swapsize ))
7056 qemu-img create $img ${totalsize}MMaking room on the Debian Edu/Sqeeze DVD
7057
7058 parted $img mklabel msdos
7059 parted $img mkpart primary linux-swap 0 $disksize
7060 parted $img mkpart primary ext2 $disksize $totalsize
7061 parted $img set 1 boot on
7062
7063 modprobe dm-mod
7064 losetup /dev/loop0 $img
7065 kpartx -a /dev/loop0
7066
7067 dd if=/dev/vg_data/$host-disk of=/dev/mapper/loop0p1 bs=1M
7068 fsck.ext3 -f /dev/mapper/loop0p1 || true
7069 mkswap /dev/mapper/loop0p2
7070
7071 kpartx -d /dev/loop0
7072 losetup -d /dev/loop0
7073 </pre>
7074
7075 <p>The script is perhaps so simple that it is not copyrightable, but
7076 if it is, it is licenced using GPL v2 or later at your discretion.</p>
7077
7078 <p>After doing this, I booted a Debian CD in rescue mode in KVM with
7079 the new disk image attached, installed grub-pc and linux-image-686 and
7080 set up grub to boot from the disk image.  After this, the KVM machines
7081 seem to work just fine.</p>
7082
7083       </div>
7084       <div class="tags">
7085
7086
7087         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>.
7088
7089
7090       </div>
7091     </div>
7092     <div class="padding"></div>
7093
7094     <div class="entry">
7095       <div class="title">
7096         <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>
7097       </div>
7098       <div class="date">
7099         20th November 2010
7100       </div>
7101       <div class="body">
7102         <p>I'm still running upgrade testing of the
7103 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/~pere/debian-upgrade-testing/">Lenny
7104 Gnome and KDE Desktop</a>, but have not had time to spend on reporting the
7105 status.  Here is a short update based on a test I ran 20101118.</p>
7106
7107 <p>I still do not know what a correct migration should look like, so I
7108 report any differences between apt and aptitude and hope someone else
7109 can see if anything should be changed.</p>
7110
7111 <p>This is for Gnome:</p>
7112
7113 <p>Installed using apt-get, missing with aptitude</p>
7114
7115 <blockquote><p>
7116   apache2.2-bin aptdaemon at-spi baobab binfmt-support
7117   browser-plugin-gnash cheese-common cli-common cpp-4.3 cups-pk-helper
7118   dmz-cursor-theme empathy empathy-common finger
7119   freedesktop-sound-theme freeglut3 gconf-defaults-service gdm-themes
7120   gedit-plugins geoclue geoclue-hostip geoclue-localnet geoclue-manual
7121   geoclue-yahoo gnash gnash-common gnome gnome-backgrounds
7122   gnome-cards-data gnome-codec-install gnome-core
7123   gnome-desktop-environment gnome-disk-utility gnome-screenshot
7124   gnome-search-tool gnome-session-canberra gnome-spell
7125   gnome-system-log gnome-themes-extras gnome-themes-more
7126   gnome-user-share gs-common gstreamer0.10-fluendo-mp3
7127   gstreamer0.10-tools gtk2-engines gtk2-engines-pixbuf
7128   gtk2-engines-smooth hal-info hamster-applet libapache2-mod-dnssd
7129   libapr1 libaprutil1 libaprutil1-dbd-sqlite3 libaprutil1-ldap
7130   libart2.0-cil libatspi1.0-0 libboost-date-time1.42.0
7131   libboost-python1.42.0 libboost-thread1.42.0 libchamplain-0.4-0
7132   libchamplain-gtk-0.4-0 libcheese-gtk18 libclutter-gtk-0.10-0
7133   libcryptui0 libcupsys2 libdiscid0 libeel2-data libelf1 libepc-1.0-2
7134   libepc-common libepc-ui-1.0-2 libfreerdp-plugins-standard
7135   libfreerdp0 libgail-common libgconf2.0-cil libgdata-common libgdata7
7136   libgdl-1-common libgdu-gtk0 libgee2 libgeoclue0 libgexiv2-0 libgif4
7137   libglade2.0-cil libglib2.0-cil libgmime2.4-cil libgnome-vfs2.0-cil
7138   libgnome2.24-cil libgnomepanel2.24-cil libgnomeprint2.2-data
7139   libgnomeprintui2.2-common libgnomevfs2-bin libgpod-common libgpod4
7140   libgtk2.0-cil libgtkglext1 libgtksourceview-common
7141   libgtksourceview2.0-common libmono-addins-gui0.2-cil
7142   libmono-addins0.2-cil libmono-cairo2.0-cil libmono-corlib2.0-cil
7143   libmono-i18n-west2.0-cil libmono-posix2.0-cil
7144   libmono-security2.0-cil libmono-sharpzip2.84-cil
7145   libmono-system2.0-cil libmtp8 libmusicbrainz3-6
7146   libndesk-dbus-glib1.0-cil libndesk-dbus1.0-cil libopal3.6.8
7147   libpolkit-gtk-1-0 libpt-1.10.10-plugins-alsa
7148   libpt-1.10.10-plugins-v4l libpt2.6.7 libpython2.6 librpm1 librpmio1
7149   libsdl1.2debian libservlet2.4-java libsrtp0 libssh-4
7150   libtelepathy-farsight0 libtelepathy-glib0 libtidy-0.99-0
7151   libxalan2-java libxerces2-java media-player-info mesa-utils
7152   mono-2.0-gac mono-gac mono-runtime nautilus-sendto
7153   nautilus-sendto-empathy openoffice.org-writer2latex
7154   openssl-blacklist p7zip p7zip-full pkg-config python-4suite-xml
7155   python-aptdaemon python-aptdaemon-gtk python-axiom
7156   python-beautifulsoup python-bugbuddy python-clientform
7157   python-coherence python-configobj python-crypto python-cupshelpers
7158   python-cupsutils python-eggtrayicon python-elementtree
7159   python-epsilon python-evolution python-feedparser python-gdata
7160   python-gdbm python-gst0.10 python-gtkglext1 python-gtkmozembed
7161   python-gtksourceview2 python-httplib2 python-louie python-mako
7162   python-markupsafe python-mechanize python-nevow python-notify
7163   python-opengl python-openssl python-pam python-pkg-resources
7164   python-pyasn1 python-pysqlite2 python-rdflib python-serial
7165   python-tagpy python-twisted-bin python-twisted-conch
7166   python-twisted-core python-twisted-web python-utidylib python-webkit
7167   python-xdg python-zope.interface remmina remmina-plugin-data
7168   remmina-plugin-rdp remmina-plugin-vnc rhythmbox-plugin-cdrecorder
7169   rhythmbox-plugins rpm-common rpm2cpio seahorse-plugins shotwell
7170   software-center svgalibg1 system-config-printer-udev
7171   telepathy-gabble telepathy-mission-control-5 telepathy-salut tomboy
7172   totem totem-coherence totem-mozilla totem-plugins
7173   transmission-common xdg-user-dirs xdg-user-dirs-gtk xserver-xephyr
7174   zip
7175 </p></blockquote>
7176
7177 Installed using apt-get, removed with aptitude
7178
7179 <blockquote><p>
7180   arj bluez-utils cheese dhcdbd djvulibre-desktop ekiga eog
7181   epiphany-extensions epiphany-gecko evolution-exchange
7182   fast-user-switch-applet file-roller gcalctool gconf-editor gdm gedit
7183   gedit-common gnome-app-install gnome-games gnome-games-data
7184   gnome-nettool gnome-system-tools gnome-themes gnome-utils
7185   gnome-vfs-obexftp gnome-volume-manager gnuchess gucharmap
7186   guile-1.8-libs hal libavahi-compat-libdnssd1 libavahi-core5
7187   libavahi-ui0 libbind9-50 libbluetooth2 libcamel1.2-11 libcdio7
7188   libcucul0 libcurl3 libdirectfb-1.0-0 libdmx1 libdvdread3
7189   libedata-cal1.2-6 libedataserver1.2-9 libeel2-2.20 libepc-1.0-1
7190   libepc-ui-1.0-1 libexchange-storage1.2-3 libfaad0 libgadu3
7191   libgalago3 libgd2-noxpm libgda3-3 libgda3-common libggz2 libggzcore9
7192   libggzmod4 libgksu1.2-0 libgksuui1.0-1 libgmyth0 libgnome-desktop-2
7193   libgnome-pilot2 libgnomecups1.0-1 libgnomeprint2.2-0
7194   libgnomeprintui2.2-0 libgpod3 libgraphviz4 libgtk-vnc-1.0-0
7195   libgtkhtml2-0 libgtksourceview1.0-0 libgtksourceview2.0-0
7196   libgucharmap6 libhesiod0 libicu38 libisccc50 libisccfg50 libiw29
7197   libjaxp1.3-java-gcj libkpathsea4 liblircclient0 libltdl3 liblwres50
7198   libmagick++10 libmagick10 libmalaga7 libmozjs1d libmpfr1ldbl libmtp7
7199   libmysqlclient15off libnautilus-burn4 libneon27 libnm-glib0
7200   libnm-util0 libopal-2.2 libosp5 libparted1.8-10 libpisock9
7201   libpisync1 libpoppler-glib3 libpoppler3 libpt-1.10.10 libraw1394-8
7202   libsdl1.2debian-alsa libsensors3 libsexy2 libsmbios2 libsoup2.2-8
7203   libspeexdsp1 libssh2-1 libsuitesparse-3.1.0 libsvga1
7204   libswfdec-0.6-90 libtalloc1 libtotem-plparser10 libtrackerclient0
7205   libvoikko1 libxalan2-java-gcj libxerces2-java-gcj libxklavier12
7206   libxtrap6 libxxf86misc1 libzephyr3 mysql-common rhythmbox seahorse
7207   sound-juicer swfdec-gnome system-config-printer totem-common
7208   totem-gstreamer transmission-gtk vinagre vino w3c-dtd-xhtml wodim
7209 </p></blockquote>
7210
7211 <p>Installed using aptitude, missing with apt-get</p>
7212
7213 <blockquote><p>
7214   gstreamer0.10-gnomevfs
7215 </p></blockquote>
7216
7217 <p>Installed using aptitude, removed with apt-get</p>
7218
7219 <blockquote><p>
7220 [nothing]
7221 </p></blockquote>
7222
7223 <p>This is for KDE:</p>
7224
7225 <p>Installed using apt-get, missing with aptitude</p>
7226
7227 <blockquote><p>
7228   autopoint bomber bovo cantor cantor-backend-kalgebra cpp-4.3 dcoprss
7229   edict espeak espeak-data eyesapplet fifteenapplet finger gettext
7230   ghostscript-x git gnome-audio gnugo granatier gs-common
7231   gstreamer0.10-pulseaudio indi kaddressbook-plugins kalgebra
7232   kalzium-data kanjidic kapman kate-plugins kblocks kbreakout kbstate
7233   kde-icons-mono kdeaccessibility kdeaddons-kfile-plugins
7234   kdeadmin-kfile-plugins kdeartwork-misc kdeartwork-theme-window
7235   kdeedu kdeedu-data kdeedu-kvtml-data kdegames kdegames-card-data
7236   kdegames-mahjongg-data kdegraphics-kfile-plugins kdelirc
7237   kdemultimedia-kfile-plugins kdenetwork-kfile-plugins
7238   kdepim-kfile-plugins kdepim-kio-plugins kdessh kdetoys kdewebdev
7239   kdiamond kdnssd kfilereplace kfourinline kgeography-data kigo
7240   killbots kiriki klettres-data kmoon kmrml knewsticker-scripts
7241   kollision kpf krosspython ksirk ksmserver ksquares kstars-data
7242   ksudoku kubrick kweather libasound2-plugins libboost-python1.42.0
7243   libcfitsio3 libconvert-binhex-perl libcrypt-ssleay-perl libdb4.6++
7244   libdjvulibre-text libdotconf1.0 liberror-perl libespeak1
7245   libfinance-quote-perl libgail-common libgsl0ldbl libhtml-parser-perl
7246   libhtml-tableextract-perl libhtml-tagset-perl libhtml-tree-perl
7247   libio-stringy-perl libkdeedu4 libkdegames5 libkiten4 libkpathsea5
7248   libkrossui4 libmailtools-perl libmime-tools-perl
7249   libnews-nntpclient-perl libopenbabel3 libportaudio2 libpulse-browse0
7250   libservlet2.4-java libspeechd2 libtiff-tools libtimedate-perl
7251   libunistring0 liburi-perl libwww-perl libxalan2-java libxerces2-java
7252   lirc luatex marble networkstatus noatun-plugins
7253   openoffice.org-writer2latex palapeli palapeli-data parley
7254   parley-data poster psutils pulseaudio pulseaudio-esound-compat
7255   pulseaudio-module-x11 pulseaudio-utils quanta-data rocs rsync
7256   speech-dispatcher step svgalibg1 texlive-binaries texlive-luatex
7257   ttf-sazanami-gothic
7258 </p></blockquote>
7259
7260 <p>Installed using apt-get, removed with aptitude</p>
7261
7262 <blockquote><p>
7263   amor artsbuilder atlantik atlantikdesigner blinken bluez-utils cvs
7264   dhcdbd djvulibre-desktop imlib-base imlib11 kalzium kanagram kandy
7265   kasteroids katomic kbackgammon kbattleship kblackbox kbounce kbruch
7266   kcron kdat kdemultimedia-kappfinder-data kdeprint kdict kdvi kedit
7267   keduca kenolaba kfax kfaxview kfouleggs kgeography kghostview
7268   kgoldrunner khangman khexedit kiconedit kig kimagemapeditor
7269   kitchensync kiten kjumpingcube klatin klettres klickety klines
7270   klinkstatus kmag kmahjongg kmailcvt kmenuedit kmid kmilo kmines
7271   kmousetool kmouth kmplot knetwalk kodo kolf kommander konquest kooka
7272   kpager kpat kpdf kpercentage kpilot kpoker kpovmodeler krec
7273   kregexpeditor kreversi ksame ksayit kshisen ksig ksim ksirc ksirtet
7274   ksmiletris ksnake ksokoban kspaceduel kstars ksvg ksysv kteatime
7275   ktip ktnef ktouch ktron kttsd ktuberling kturtle ktux kuickshow
7276   kverbos kview kviewshell kvoctrain kwifimanager kwin kwin4 kwordquiz
7277   kworldclock kxsldbg libakode2 libarts1-akode libarts1-audiofile
7278   libarts1-mpeglib libarts1-xine libavahi-compat-libdnssd1
7279   libavahi-core5 libavc1394-0 libbind9-50 libbluetooth2
7280   libboost-python1.34.1 libcucul0 libcurl3 libcvsservice0
7281   libdirectfb-1.0-0 libdjvulibre21 libdvdread3 libfaad0 libfreebob0
7282   libgd2-noxpm libgraphviz4 libgsmme1c2a libgtkhtml2-0 libicu38
7283   libiec61883-0 libindex0 libisccc50 libisccfg50 libiw29
7284   libjaxp1.3-java-gcj libk3b3 libkcal2b libkcddb1 libkdeedu3
7285   libkdegames1 libkdepim1a libkgantt0 libkleopatra1 libkmime2
7286   libkpathsea4 libkpimexchange1 libkpimidentities1 libkscan1
7287   libksieve0 libktnef1 liblockdev1 libltdl3 liblwres50 libmagick10
7288   libmimelib1c2a libmodplug0c2 libmozjs1d libmpcdec3 libmpfr1ldbl
7289   libneon27 libnm-util0 libopensync0 libpisock9 libpoppler-glib3
7290   libpoppler-qt2 libpoppler3 libraw1394-8 librss1 libsensors3
7291   libsmbios2 libssh2-1 libsuitesparse-3.1.0 libswfdec-0.6-90
7292   libtalloc1 libxalan2-java-gcj libxerces2-java-gcj libxtrap6 lskat
7293   mpeglib network-manager-kde noatun pmount tex-common texlive-base
7294   texlive-common texlive-doc-base texlive-fonts-recommended tidy
7295   ttf-dustin ttf-kochi-gothic ttf-sjfonts
7296 </p></blockquote>
7297
7298 <p>Installed using aptitude, missing with apt-get</p>
7299
7300 <blockquote><p>
7301   dolphin kde-core kde-plasma-desktop kde-standard kde-window-manager
7302   kdeartwork kdebase kdebase-apps kdebase-workspace
7303   kdebase-workspace-bin kdebase-workspace-data kdeutils kscreensaver
7304   kscreensaver-xsavers libgle3 libkonq5 libkonq5-templates libnetpbm10
7305   netpbm plasma-widget-folderview plasma-widget-networkmanagement
7306   xscreensaver-data-extra xscreensaver-gl xscreensaver-gl-extra
7307   xscreensaver-screensaver-bsod
7308 </p></blockquote>
7309
7310 <p>Installed using aptitude, removed with apt-get</p>
7311
7312 <blockquote><p>
7313   kdebase-bin konq-plugins konqueror
7314 </p></blockquote>
7315
7316       </div>
7317       <div class="tags">
7318
7319
7320         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>.
7321
7322
7323       </div>
7324     </div>
7325     <div class="padding"></div>
7326
7327     <div class="entry">
7328       <div class="title">
7329         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Gnash_buildbot_slave_and_Debian_kfreebsd.html">Gnash buildbot slave and Debian kfreebsd</a>
7330       </div>
7331       <div class="date">
7332         20th November 2010
7333       </div>
7334       <div class="body">
7335         <p>Answering
7336 <a href="http://www.listware.net/201011/gnash-dev/67431-gnash-dev-buildbot-looking-for-slaves.html">the
7337 call from the Gnash project</a> for
7338 <a href="http://www.gnashdev.org:8010">buildbot</a> slaves to test the
7339 current source, I have set up a virtual KVM machine on the Debian
7340 Edu/Skolelinux virtualization host to test the git source on
7341 Debian/Squeeze.  I hope this can help the developers in getting new
7342 releases out more often.</p>
7343
7344 <p>As the developers want less main-stream build platforms tested to,
7345 I have considered setting up a <a
7346 href="http://www.debian.org/ports/kfreebsd-gnu/">Debian/kfreebsd</a>
7347 machine as well.  I have also considered using the kfreebsd
7348 architecture in Debian as a file server in NUUG to get access to the 5
7349 TB zfs volume we currently use to store DV video.  Because of this, I
7350 finally got around to do a test installation of Debian/Squeeze with
7351 kfreebsd.  Installation went fairly smooth, thought I noticed some
7352 visual glitches in the cdebconf dialogs (black cursor left on the
7353 screen at random locations).  Have not gotten very far with the
7354 testing.  Noticed cfdisk did not work, but fdisk did so it was not a
7355 fatal problem.  Have to spend some more time on it to see if it is
7356 useful as a file server for NUUG.  Will try to find time to set up a
7357 gnash buildbot slave on the Debian Edu/Skolelinux this weekend.</p>
7358
7359       </div>
7360       <div class="tags">
7361
7362
7363         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>.
7364
7365
7366       </div>
7367     </div>
7368     <div class="padding"></div>
7369
7370     <div class="entry">
7371       <div class="title">
7372         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_in_3D.html">Debian in 3D</a>
7373       </div>
7374       <div class="date">
7375          9th November 2010
7376       </div>
7377       <div class="body">
7378         <p><img src="http://thingiverse-production.s3.amazonaws.com/renders/23/e0/c4/f9/2b/debswagtdose_preview_medium.jpg"></p>
7379
7380 <p>3D printing is just great.  I just came across this Debian logo in
7381 3D linked in from
7382 <a href="http://blog.thingiverse.com/2010/11/09/participatory-branding/">the
7383 thingiverse blog</a>.</p>
7384
7385       </div>
7386       <div class="tags">
7387
7388
7389         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>.
7390
7391
7392       </div>
7393     </div>
7394     <div class="padding"></div>
7395
7396     <div class="entry">
7397       <div class="title">
7398         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Software_updates_2010_10_24.html">Software updates 2010-10-24</a>
7399       </div>
7400       <div class="date">
7401         24th October 2010
7402       </div>
7403       <div class="body">
7404         <p>Some updates.</p>
7405
7406 <p>My <a href="http://pledgebank.com/gnash-avm2">gnash pledge</a> to
7407 raise money for the project is going well.  The lower limit of 10
7408 signers was reached in 24 hours, and so far 13 people have signed it.
7409 More signers and more funding is most welcome, and I am really curious
7410 how far we can get before the time limit of December 24 is reached.
7411 :)</p>
7412
7413 <p>On the #gnash IRC channel on irc.freenode.net, I was just tipped
7414 about what appear to be a great code coverage tool capable of
7415 generating code coverage stats without any changes to the source code.
7416 It is called
7417 <a href="http://simonkagstrom.github.com/kcov/index.html">kcov</a>,
7418 and can be used using <tt>kcov &lt;directory&gt; &lt;binary&gt;</tt>.
7419 It is missing in Debian, but the git source built just fine in Squeeze
7420 after I installed libelf-dev, libdwarf-dev, pkg-config and
7421 libglib2.0-dev.  Failed to build in Lenny, but suspect that is
7422 solvable.  I hope kcov make it into Debian soon.</p>
7423
7424 <p>Finally found time to wrap up the release notes for <a
7425 href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-edu-announce/2010/10/msg00002.html">a
7426 new alpha release of Debian Edu</a>, and just published the second
7427 alpha test release of the Squeeze based Debian Edu /
7428 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Skolelinux</a>
7429 release.  Give it a try if you need a complete linux solution for your
7430 school, including central infrastructure server, workstations, thin
7431 client servers and diskless workstations.  A nice touch added
7432 yesterday is RDP support on the thin client servers, for windows
7433 clients to get a Linux desktop on request.</p>
7434
7435       </div>
7436       <div class="tags">
7437
7438
7439         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>.
7440
7441
7442       </div>
7443     </div>
7444     <div class="padding"></div>
7445
7446     <div class="entry">
7447       <div class="title">
7448         <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>
7449       </div>
7450       <div class="date">
7451          4th September 2010
7452       </div>
7453       <div class="body">
7454         <p>In the <a href="http://popcon.debian.org/unknown/by_vote">Debian
7455 popularity-contest numbers</a>, the adobe-flashplugin package the
7456 second most popular used package that is missing in Debian.  The sixth
7457 most popular is flashplayer-mozilla.  This is a clear indication that
7458 working flash is important for Debian users.  Around 10 percent of the
7459 users submitting data to popcon.debian.org have this package
7460 installed.</p>
7461
7462 <p>In the report written by Lars Risan in August 2008
7463 («<a href="http://wiki.skolelinux.no/Dokumentasjon/Rapporter?action=AttachFile&do=view&target=Skolelinux_i_bruk_rapport_1.0.pdf">Skolelinux
7464 i bruk – Rapport for Hurum kommune, Universitetet i Agder og
7465 stiftelsen SLX Debian Labs</a>»), one of the most important problems
7466 schools experienced with <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian
7467 Edu/Skolelinux</a> was the lack of working Flash.  A lot of educational
7468 web sites require Flash to work, and lacking working Flash support in
7469 the web browser and the problems with installing it was perceived as a
7470 good reason to stay with Windows.</p>
7471
7472 <p>I once saw a funny and sad comment in a web forum, where Linux was
7473 said to be the retarded cousin that did not really understand
7474 everything you told him but could work fairly well.  This was a
7475 comment regarding the problems Linux have with proprietary formats and
7476 non-standard web pages, and is sad because it exposes a fairly common
7477 understanding of whose fault it is if web pages that only work in for
7478 example Internet Explorer 6 fail to work on Firefox, and funny because
7479 it explain very well how annoying it is for users when Linux
7480 distributions do not work with the documents they receive or the web
7481 pages they want to visit.</p>
7482
7483 <p>This is part of the reason why I believe it is important for Debian
7484 and Debian Edu to have a well working Flash implementation in the
7485 distribution, to get at least popular sites as Youtube and Google
7486 Video to working out of the box.  For Squeeze, Debian have the chance
7487 to include the latest version of Gnash that will make this happen, as
7488 the new release 0.8.8 was published a few weeks ago and is resting in
7489 unstable.  The new version work with more sites that version 0.8.7.
7490 The Gnash maintainers have asked for a freeze exception, but the
7491 release team have not had time to reply to it yet.  I hope they agree
7492 with me that Flash is important for the Debian desktop users, and thus
7493 accept the new package into Squeeze.</p>
7494
7495       </div>
7496       <div class="tags">
7497
7498
7499         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>.
7500
7501
7502       </div>
7503     </div>
7504     <div class="padding"></div>
7505
7506     <div class="entry">
7507       <div class="title">
7508         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Circular_package_dependencies_harms_apt_recovery.html">Circular package dependencies harms apt recovery</a>
7509       </div>
7510       <div class="date">
7511         27th July 2010
7512       </div>
7513       <div class="body">
7514         <p>I discovered this while doing
7515 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Automatic_upgrade_testing_from_Lenny_to_Squeeze.html">automated
7516 testing of upgrades from Debian Lenny to Squeeze</a>.  A few packages
7517 in Debian still got circular dependencies, and it is often claimed
7518 that apt and aptitude should be able to handle this just fine, but
7519 some times these dependency loops causes apt to fail.</p>
7520
7521 <p>An example is from todays
7522 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/~pere/debian-upgrade-testing//test-20100727-lenny-squeeze-kde-aptitude.txt">upgrade
7523 of KDE using aptitude</a>.  In it, a bug in kdebase-workspace-data
7524 causes perl-modules to fail to upgrade.  The cause is simple.  If a
7525 package fail to unpack, then only part of packages with the circular
7526 dependency might end up being unpacked when unpacking aborts, and the
7527 ones already unpacked will fail to configure in the recovery phase
7528 because its dependencies are unavailable.</p>
7529
7530 <p>In this log, the problem manifest itself with this error:</p>
7531
7532 <blockquote><pre>
7533 dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of perl-modules:
7534  perl-modules depends on perl (>= 5.10.1-1); however:
7535   Version of perl on system is 5.10.0-19lenny2.
7536 dpkg: error processing perl-modules (--configure):
7537  dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
7538 </pre></blockquote>
7539
7540 <p>The perl/perl-modules circular dependency is already
7541 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/527917">reported as a bug</a>, and will
7542 hopefully be solved as soon as possible, but it is not the only one,
7543 and each one of these loops in the dependency tree can cause similar
7544 failures.  Of course, they only occur when there are bugs in other
7545 packages causing the unpacking to fail, but it is rather nasty when
7546 the failure of one package causes the problem to become worse because
7547 of dependency loops.</p>
7548
7549 <p>Thanks to
7550 <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2010/06/msg00116.html">the
7551 tireless effort by Bill Allombert</a>, the number of circular
7552 dependencies
7553 <a href="http://debian.semistable.com/debgraph.out.html">left in Debian
7554 is dropping</a>, and perhaps it will reach zero one day. :)</p>
7555
7556 <p>Todays testing also exposed a bug in
7557 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/590605">update-notifier</a> and
7558 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/590604">different behaviour</a> between
7559 apt-get and aptitude, the latter possibly caused by some circular
7560 dependency.  Reported both to BTS to try to get someone to look at
7561 it.</p>
7562
7563       </div>
7564       <div class="tags">
7565
7566
7567         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>.
7568
7569
7570       </div>
7571     </div>
7572     <div class="padding"></div>
7573
7574     <div class="entry">
7575       <div class="title">
7576         <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>
7577       </div>
7578       <div class="date">
7579         17th July 2010
7580       </div>
7581       <div class="body">
7582         <p>This is a
7583 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Time_for_new__LDAP_schemas_replacing_RFC_2307_.html">followup</a>
7584 on my
7585 <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
7586 work</a> on
7587 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Combining_PowerDNS_and_ISC_DHCP_LDAP_objects.html">merging
7588 all</a> the computer related LDAP objects in Debian Edu.</p>
7589
7590 <p>As a step to try to see if it possible to merge the DNS and DHCP
7591 LDAP objects, I have had a look at how the packages pdns-backend-ldap
7592 and dhcp3-server-ldap in Debian use the LDAP server.  The two
7593 implementations are quite different in how they use LDAP.</p>
7594
7595 To get this information, I started slapd with debugging enabled and
7596 dumped the debug output to a file to get the LDAP searches performed
7597 on a Debian Edu main-server.  Here is a summary.
7598
7599 <p><strong>powerdns</strong></p>
7600
7601 <a href="http://www.linuxnetworks.de/doc/index.php/PowerDNS_LDAP_Backend">Clues
7602 on how to</a> set up PowerDNS to use a LDAP backend is available on
7603 the web.
7604
7605 <p>PowerDNS have two modes of operation using LDAP as its backend.
7606 One "strict" mode where the forward and reverse DNS lookups are done
7607 using the same LDAP objects, and a "tree" mode where the forward and
7608 reverse entries are in two different subtrees in LDAP with a structure
7609 based on the DNS names, as in tjener.intern and
7610 2.2.0.10.in-addr.arpa.</p>
7611
7612 <p>In tree mode, the server is set up to use a LDAP subtree as its
7613 base, and uses a "base" scoped search for the DNS name by adding
7614 "dc=tjener,dc=intern," to the base with a filter for
7615 "(associateddomain=tjener.intern)" for the forward entry and
7616 "dc=2,dc=2,dc=0,dc=10,dc=in-addr,dc=arpa," with a filter for
7617 "(associateddomain=2.2.0.10.in-addr.arpa)" for the reverse entry.  For
7618 forward entries, it is looking for attributes named dnsttl, arecord,
7619 nsrecord, cnamerecord, soarecord, ptrrecord, hinforecord, mxrecord,
7620 txtrecord, rprecord, afsdbrecord, keyrecord, aaaarecord, locrecord,
7621 srvrecord, naptrrecord, kxrecord, certrecord, dsrecord, sshfprecord,
7622 ipseckeyrecord, rrsigrecord, nsecrecord, dnskeyrecord, dhcidrecord,
7623 spfrecord and modifytimestamp.  For reverse entries it is looking for
7624 the attributes dnsttl, arecord, nsrecord, cnamerecord, soarecord,
7625 ptrrecord, hinforecord, mxrecord, txtrecord, rprecord, aaaarecord,
7626 locrecord, srvrecord, naptrrecord and modifytimestamp.  The equivalent
7627 ldapsearch commands could look like this:</p>
7628
7629 <blockquote><pre>
7630 ldapsearch -h ldap \
7631   -b dc=tjener,dc=intern,ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no \
7632   -s base -x '(associateddomain=tjener.intern)' dNSTTL aRecord nSRecord \
7633   cNAMERecord sOARecord pTRRecord hInfoRecord mXRecord tXTRecord \
7634   rPRecord aFSDBRecord KeyRecord aAAARecord lOCRecord sRVRecord \
7635   nAPTRRecord kXRecord certRecord dSRecord sSHFPRecord iPSecKeyRecord \
7636   rRSIGRecord nSECRecord dNSKeyRecord dHCIDRecord sPFRecord modifyTimestamp
7637
7638 ldapsearch -h ldap \
7639   -b dc=2,dc=2,dc=0,dc=10,dc=in-addr,dc=arpa,ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no \
7640   -s base -x '(associateddomain=2.2.0.10.in-addr.arpa)'
7641   dnsttl, arecord, nsrecord, cnamerecord soarecord ptrrecord \
7642   hinforecord mxrecord txtrecord rprecord aaaarecord locrecord \
7643   srvrecord naptrrecord modifytimestamp
7644 </pre></blockquote>
7645
7646 <p>In Debian Edu/Lenny, the PowerDNS tree mode is used with
7647 ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no as the base, and these are two
7648 example LDAP objects used there.  In addition to these objects, the
7649 parent objects all th way up to ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
7650 also exist.</p>
7651
7652 <blockquote><pre>
7653 dn: dc=tjener,dc=intern,ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
7654 objectclass: top
7655 objectclass: dnsdomain
7656 objectclass: domainrelatedobject
7657 dc: tjener
7658 arecord: 10.0.2.2
7659 associateddomain: tjener.intern
7660
7661 dn: dc=2,dc=2,dc=0,dc=10,dc=in-addr,dc=arpa,ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
7662 objectclass: top
7663 objectclass: dnsdomain2
7664 objectclass: domainrelatedobject
7665 dc: 2
7666 ptrrecord: tjener.intern
7667 associateddomain: 2.2.0.10.in-addr.arpa
7668 </pre></blockquote>
7669
7670 <p>In strict mode, the server behaves differently.  When looking for
7671 forward DNS entries, it is doing a "subtree" scoped search with the
7672 same base as in the tree mode for a object with filter
7673 "(associateddomain=tjener.intern)" and requests the attributes dnsttl,
7674 arecord, nsrecord, cnamerecord, soarecord, ptrrecord, hinforecord,
7675 mxrecord, txtrecord, rprecord, aaaarecord, locrecord, srvrecord,
7676 naptrrecord and modifytimestamp.  For reverse entires it also do a
7677 subtree scoped search but this time the filter is "(arecord=10.0.2.2)"
7678 and the requested attributes are associateddomain, dnsttl and
7679 modifytimestamp.  In short, in strict mode the objects with ptrrecord
7680 go away, and the arecord attribute in the forward object is used
7681 instead.</p>
7682
7683 <p>The forward and reverse searches can be simulated using ldapsearch
7684 like this:</p>
7685
7686 <blockquote><pre>
7687 ldapsearch -h ldap -b ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no -s sub -x \
7688   '(associateddomain=tjener.intern)' dNSTTL aRecord nSRecord \
7689   cNAMERecord sOARecord pTRRecord hInfoRecord mXRecord tXTRecord \
7690   rPRecord aFSDBRecord KeyRecord aAAARecord lOCRecord sRVRecord \
7691   nAPTRRecord kXRecord certRecord dSRecord sSHFPRecord iPSecKeyRecord \
7692   rRSIGRecord nSECRecord dNSKeyRecord dHCIDRecord sPFRecord modifyTimestamp
7693
7694 ldapsearch -h ldap -b ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no -s sub -x \
7695   '(arecord=10.0.2.2)' associateddomain dnsttl modifytimestamp
7696 </pre></blockquote>
7697
7698 <p>In addition to the forward and reverse searches , there is also a
7699 search for SOA records, which behave similar to the forward and
7700 reverse lookups.</p>
7701
7702 <p>A thing to note with the PowerDNS behaviour is that it do not
7703 specify any objectclass names, and instead look for the attributes it
7704 need to generate a DNS reply.  This make it able to work with any
7705 objectclass that provide the needed attributes.</p>
7706
7707 <p>The attributes are normally provided in the cosine (RFC 1274) and
7708 dnsdomain2 schemas.  The latter is used for reverse entries like
7709 ptrrecord and recent DNS additions like aaaarecord and srvrecord.</p>
7710
7711 <p>In Debian Edu, we have created DNS objects using the object classes
7712 dcobject (for dc), dnsdomain or dnsdomain2 (structural, for the DNS
7713 attributes) and domainrelatedobject (for associatedDomain).  The use
7714 of structural object classes make it impossible to combine these
7715 classes with the object classes used by DHCP.</p>
7716
7717 <p>There are other schemas that could be used too, for example the
7718 dnszone structural object class used by Gosa and bind-sdb for the DNS
7719 attributes combined with the domainrelatedobject object class, but in
7720 this case some unused attributes would have to be included as well
7721 (zonename and relativedomainname).</p>
7722
7723 <p>My proposal for Debian Edu would be to switch PowerDNS to strict
7724 mode and not use any of the existing objectclasses (dnsdomain,
7725 dnsdomain2 and dnszone) when one want to combine the DNS information
7726 with DHCP information, and instead create a auxiliary object class
7727 defined something like this (using the attributes defined for
7728 dnsdomain and dnsdomain2 or dnszone):</p>
7729
7730 <blockquote><pre>
7731 objectclass ( some-oid NAME 'dnsDomainAux'
7732     SUP top
7733     AUXILIARY
7734     MAY ( ARecord $ MDRecord $ MXRecord $ NSRecord $ SOARecord $ CNAMERecord $
7735           DNSTTL $ DNSClass $ PTRRecord $ HINFORecord $ MINFORecord $
7736           TXTRecord $ SIGRecord $ KEYRecord $ AAAARecord $ LOCRecord $
7737           NXTRecord $ SRVRecord $ NAPTRRecord $ KXRecord $ CERTRecord $
7738           A6Record $ DNAMERecord
7739     ))
7740 </pre></blockquote>
7741
7742 <p>This will allow any object to become a DNS entry when combined with
7743 the domainrelatedobject object class, and allow any entity to include
7744 all the attributes PowerDNS wants.  I've sent an email to the PowerDNS
7745 developers asking for their view on this schema and if they are
7746 interested in providing such schema with PowerDNS, and I hope my
7747 message will be accepted into their mailing list soon.</p>
7748
7749 <p><strong>ISC dhcp</strong></p>
7750
7751 <p>The DHCP server searches for specific objectclass and requests all
7752 the object attributes, and then uses the attributes it want.  This
7753 make it harder to figure out exactly what attributes are used, but
7754 thanks to the working example in Debian Edu I can at least get an idea
7755 what is needed without having to read the source code.</p>
7756
7757 <p>In the DHCP server configuration, the LDAP base to use and the
7758 search filter to use to locate the correct dhcpServer entity is
7759 stored.  These are the relevant entries from
7760 /etc/dhcp3/dhcpd.conf:</p>
7761
7762 <blockquote><pre>
7763 ldap-base-dn "dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no";
7764 ldap-dhcp-server-cn "dhcp";
7765 </pre></blockquote>
7766
7767 <p>The DHCP server uses this information to nest all the DHCP
7768 configuration it need.  The cn "dhcp" is located using the given LDAP
7769 base and the filter "(&(objectClass=dhcpServer)(cn=dhcp))".  The
7770 search result is this entry:</p>
7771
7772 <blockquote><pre>
7773 dn: cn=dhcp,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
7774 cn: dhcp
7775 objectClass: top
7776 objectClass: dhcpServer
7777 dhcpServiceDN: cn=DHCP Config,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
7778 </pre></blockquote>
7779
7780 <p>The content of the dhcpServiceDN attribute is next used to locate the
7781 subtree with DHCP configuration.  The DHCP configuration subtree base
7782 is located using a base scope search with base "cn=DHCP
7783 Config,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no" and filter
7784 "(&(objectClass=dhcpService)(|(dhcpPrimaryDN=cn=dhcp,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no)(dhcpSecondaryDN=cn=dhcp,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no)))".
7785 The search result is this entry:</p>
7786
7787 <blockquote><pre>
7788 dn: cn=DHCP Config,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
7789 cn: DHCP Config
7790 objectClass: top
7791 objectClass: dhcpService
7792 objectClass: dhcpOptions
7793 dhcpPrimaryDN: cn=dhcp, dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
7794 dhcpStatements: ddns-update-style none
7795 dhcpStatements: authoritative
7796 dhcpOption: smtp-server code 69 = array of ip-address
7797 dhcpOption: www-server code 72 = array of ip-address
7798 dhcpOption: wpad-url code 252 = text
7799 </pre></blockquote>
7800
7801 <p>Next, the entire subtree is processed, one level at the time.  When
7802 all the DHCP configuration is loaded, it is ready to receive requests.
7803 The subtree in Debian Edu contain objects with object classes
7804 top/dhcpService/dhcpOptions, top/dhcpSharedNetwork/dhcpOptions,
7805 top/dhcpSubnet, top/dhcpGroup and top/dhcpHost.  These provide options
7806 and information about netmasks, dynamic range etc.  Leaving out the
7807 details here because it is not relevant for the focus of my
7808 investigation, which is to see if it is possible to merge dns and dhcp
7809 related computer objects.</p>
7810
7811 <p>When a DHCP request come in, LDAP is searched for the MAC address
7812 of the client (00:00:00:00:00:00 in this example), using a subtree
7813 scoped search with "cn=DHCP Config,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no" as
7814 the base and "(&(objectClass=dhcpHost)(dhcpHWAddress=ethernet
7815 00:00:00:00:00:00))" as the filter.  This is what a host object look
7816 like:</p>
7817
7818 <blockquote><pre>
7819 dn: cn=hostname,cn=group1,cn=THINCLIENTS,cn=DHCP Config,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
7820 cn: hostname
7821 objectClass: top
7822 objectClass: dhcpHost
7823 dhcpHWAddress: ethernet 00:00:00:00:00:00
7824 dhcpStatements: fixed-address hostname
7825 </pre></blockquote>
7826
7827 <p>There is less flexiblity in the way LDAP searches are done here.
7828 The object classes need to have fixed names, and the configuration
7829 need to be stored in a fairly specific LDAP structure.  On the
7830 positive side, the invidiual dhcpHost entires can be anywhere without
7831 the DN pointed to by the dhcpServer entries.  The latter should make
7832 it possible to group all host entries in a subtree next to the
7833 configuration entries, and this subtree can also be shared with the
7834 DNS server if the schema proposed above is combined with the dhcpHost
7835 structural object class.
7836
7837 <p><strong>Conclusion</strong></p>
7838
7839 <p>The PowerDNS implementation seem to be very flexible when it come
7840 to which LDAP schemas to use.  While its "tree" mode is rigid when it
7841 come to the the LDAP structure, the "strict" mode is very flexible,
7842 allowing DNS objects to be stored anywhere under the base cn specified
7843 in the configuration.</p>
7844
7845 <p>The DHCP implementation on the other hand is very inflexible, both
7846 regarding which LDAP schemas to use and which LDAP structure to use.
7847 I guess one could implement ones own schema, as long as the
7848 objectclasses and attributes have the names used, but this do not
7849 really help when the DHCP subtree need to have a fairly fixed
7850 structure.</p>
7851
7852 <p>Based on the observed behaviour, I suspect a LDAP structure like
7853 this might work for Debian Edu:</p>
7854
7855 <blockquote><pre>
7856 ou=services
7857   cn=machine-info (dhcpService) - dhcpServiceDN points here
7858     cn=dhcp (dhcpServer)
7859     cn=dhcp-internal (dhcpSharedNetwork/dhcpOptions)
7860       cn=10.0.2.0 (dhcpSubnet)
7861         cn=group1 (dhcpGroup/dhcpOptions)
7862     cn=dhcp-thinclients (dhcpSharedNetwork/dhcpOptions)
7863       cn=192.168.0.0 (dhcpSubnet)
7864         cn=group1 (dhcpGroup/dhcpOptions)
7865     ou=machines - PowerDNS base points here
7866       cn=hostname (dhcpHost/domainrelatedobject/dnsDomainAux)
7867 </pre></blockquote>
7868
7869 <P>This is not tested yet.  If the DHCP server require the dhcpHost
7870 entries to be in the dhcpGroup subtrees, the entries can be stored
7871 there instead of a common machines subtree, and the PowerDNS base
7872 would have to be moved one level up to the machine-info subtree.</p>
7873
7874 <p>The combined object under the machines subtree would look something
7875 like this:</p>
7876
7877 <blockquote><pre>
7878 dn: dc=hostname,ou=machines,cn=machine-info,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
7879 dc: hostname
7880 objectClass: top
7881 objectClass: dhcpHost
7882 objectclass: domainrelatedobject
7883 objectclass: dnsDomainAux
7884 associateddomain: hostname.intern
7885 arecord: 10.11.12.13
7886 dhcpHWAddress: ethernet 00:00:00:00:00:00
7887 dhcpStatements: fixed-address hostname.intern
7888 </pre></blockquote>
7889
7890 </p>One could even add the LTSP configuration associated with a given
7891 machine, as long as the required attributes are available in a
7892 auxiliary object class.</p>
7893
7894       </div>
7895       <div class="tags">
7896
7897
7898         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/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>.
7899
7900
7901       </div>
7902     </div>
7903     <div class="padding"></div>
7904
7905     <div class="entry">
7906       <div class="title">
7907         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Combining_PowerDNS_and_ISC_DHCP_LDAP_objects.html">Combining PowerDNS and ISC DHCP LDAP objects</a>
7908       </div>
7909       <div class="date">
7910         14th July 2010
7911       </div>
7912       <div class="body">
7913         <p>For a while now, I have wanted to find a way to change the DNS and
7914 DHCP services in Debian Edu to use the same LDAP objects for a given
7915 computer, to avoid the possibility of having a inconsistent state for
7916 a computer in LDAP (as in DHCP but no DNS entry or the other way
7917 around) and make it easier to add computers to LDAP.</p>
7918
7919 <p>I've looked at how powerdns and dhcpd is using LDAP, and using this
7920 information finally found a solution that seem to work.</p>
7921
7922 <p>The old setup required three LDAP objects for a given computer.
7923 One forward DNS entry, one reverse DNS entry and one DHCP entry.  If
7924 we switch powerdns to use its strict LDAP method (ldap-method=strict
7925 in pdns-debian-edu.conf), the forward and reverse DNS entries are
7926 merged into one while making it impossible to transfer the reverse map
7927 to a slave DNS server.</p>
7928
7929 <p>If we also replace the object class used to get the DNS related
7930 attributes to one allowing these attributes to be combined with the
7931 dhcphost object class, we can merge the DNS and DHCP entries into one.
7932 I've written such object class in the dnsdomainaux.schema file (need
7933 proper OIDs, but that is a minor issue), and tested the setup.  It
7934 seem to work.</p>
7935
7936 <p>With this test setup in place, we can get away with one LDAP object
7937 for both DNS and DHCP, and even the LTSP configuration I suggested in
7938 an earlier email.  The combined LDAP object will look something like
7939 this:</p>
7940
7941 <blockquote><pre>
7942   dn: cn=hostname,cn=group1,cn=THINCLIENTS,cn=DHCP Config,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
7943   cn: hostname
7944   objectClass: dhcphost
7945   objectclass: domainrelatedobject
7946   objectclass: dnsdomainaux
7947   associateddomain: hostname.intern
7948   arecord: 10.11.12.13
7949   dhcphwaddress: ethernet 00:00:00:00:00:00
7950   dhcpstatements: fixed-address hostname
7951   ldapconfigsound: Y
7952 </pre></blockquote>
7953
7954 <p>The DNS server uses the associateddomain and arecord entries, while
7955 the DHCP server uses the dhcphwaddress and dhcpstatements entries
7956 before asking DNS to resolve the fixed-adddress.  LTSP will use
7957 dhcphwaddress or associateddomain and the ldapconfig* attributes.</p>
7958
7959 <p>I am not yet sure if I can get the DHCP server to look for its
7960 dhcphost in a different location, to allow us to put the objects
7961 outside the "DHCP Config" subtree, but hope to figure out a way to do
7962 that.  If I can't figure out a way to do that, we can still get rid of
7963 the hosts subtree and move all its content into the DHCP Config tree
7964 (which probably should be renamed to be more related to the new
7965 content.  I suspect cn=dnsdhcp,ou=services or something like that
7966 might be a good place to put it.</p>
7967
7968 <p>If you want to help out with implementing this for Debian Edu,
7969 please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.</p>
7970
7971       </div>
7972       <div class="tags">
7973
7974
7975         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>.
7976
7977
7978       </div>
7979     </div>
7980     <div class="padding"></div>
7981
7982     <div class="entry">
7983       <div class="title">
7984         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Idea_for_storing_LTSP_configuration_in_LDAP.html">Idea for storing LTSP configuration in LDAP</a>
7985       </div>
7986       <div class="date">
7987         11th July 2010
7988       </div>
7989       <div class="body">
7990         <p>Vagrant mentioned on IRC today that ltsp_config now support
7991 sourcing files from /usr/share/ltsp/ltsp_config.d/ on the thin
7992 clients, and that this can be used to fetch configuration from LDAP if
7993 Debian Edu choose to store configuration there.</p>
7994
7995 <p>Armed with this information, I got inspired and wrote a test module
7996 to get configuration from LDAP.  The idea is to look up the MAC
7997 address of the client in LDAP, and look for attributes on the form
7998 ltspconfigsetting=value, and use this to export SETTING=value to the
7999 LTSP clients.</p>
8000
8001 <p>The goal is to be able to store the LTSP configuration attributes
8002 in a "computer" LDAP object used by both DNS and DHCP, and thus
8003 allowing us to store all information about a computer in one place.</p>
8004
8005 <p>This is a untested draft implementation, and I welcome feedback on
8006 this approach.  A real LDAP schema for the ltspClientAux objectclass
8007 need to be written.  Comments, suggestions, etc?</p>
8008
8009 <blockquote><pre>
8010 # Store in /opt/ltsp/$arch/usr/share/ltsp/ltsp_config.d/ldap-config
8011 #
8012 # Fetch LTSP client settings from LDAP based on MAC address
8013 #
8014 # Uses ethernet address as stored in the dhcpHost objectclass using
8015 # the dhcpHWAddress attribute or ethernet address stored in the
8016 # ieee802Device objectclass with the macAddress attribute.
8017 #
8018 # This module is written to be schema agnostic, and only depend on the
8019 # existence of attribute names.
8020 #
8021 # The LTSP configuration variables are saved directly using a
8022 # ltspConfig prefix and uppercasing the rest of the attribute name.
8023 # To set the SERVER variable, set the ltspConfigServer attribute.
8024 #
8025 # Some LDAP schema should be created with all the relevant
8026 # configuration settings.  Something like this should work:
8027 #
8028 # objectclass ( 1.1.2.2 NAME 'ltspClientAux'
8029 #     SUP top
8030 #     AUXILIARY
8031 #     MAY ( ltspConfigServer $ ltsConfigSound $ ... )
8032
8033 LDAPSERVER=$(debian-edu-ldapserver)
8034 if [ "$LDAPSERVER" ] ; then
8035     LDAPBASE=$(debian-edu-ldapserver -b)
8036     for MAC in $(LANG=C ifconfig |grep -i hwaddr| awk '{print $5}'|sort -u) ; do
8037         filter="(|(dhcpHWAddress=ethernet $MAC)(macAddress=$MAC))"
8038         ldapsearch -h "$LDAPSERVER" -b "$LDAPBASE" -v -x "$filter" | \
8039             grep '^ltspConfig' | while read attr value ; do
8040             # Remove prefix and convert to upper case
8041             attr=$(echo $attr | sed 's/^ltspConfig//i' | tr a-z A-Z)
8042             # bass value on to clients
8043             eval "$attr=$value; export $attr"
8044         done
8045     done
8046 fi
8047 </pre></blockquote>
8048
8049 <p>I'm not sure this shell construction will work, because I suspect
8050 the while block might end up in a subshell causing the variables set
8051 there to not show up in ltsp-config, but if that is the case I am sure
8052 the code can be restructured to make sure the variables are passed on.
8053 I expect that can be solved with some testing. :)</p>
8054
8055 <p>If you want to help out with implementing this for Debian Edu,
8056 please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.</p>
8057
8058 <p>Update 2010-07-17: I am aware of another effort to store LTSP
8059 configuration in LDAP that was created around year 2000 by
8060 <a href="http://www.pcxperience.com/thinclient/documentation/ldap.html">PC
8061 Xperience, Inc., 2000</a>.  I found its
8062 <a href="http://people.redhat.com/alikins/ltsp/ldap/">files</a> on a
8063 personal home page over at redhat.com.</p>
8064
8065       </div>
8066       <div class="tags">
8067
8068
8069         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>.
8070
8071
8072       </div>
8073     </div>
8074     <div class="padding"></div>
8075
8076     <div class="entry">
8077       <div class="title">
8078         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/jXplorer__a_very_nice_LDAP_GUI.html">jXplorer, a very nice LDAP GUI</a>
8079       </div>
8080       <div class="date">
8081          9th July 2010
8082       </div>
8083       <div class="body">
8084         <p>Since
8085 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/LUMA__a_very_nice_LDAP_GUI.html">my
8086 last post</a> about available LDAP tools in Debian, I was told about a
8087 LDAP GUI that is even better than luma.  The java application
8088 <a href="http://jxplorer.org/">jXplorer</a> is claimed to be capable of
8089 moving LDAP objects and subtrees using drag-and-drop, and can
8090 authenticate using Kerberos.  I have only tested the Kerberos
8091 authentication, but do not have a LDAP setup allowing me to rewrite
8092 LDAP with my test user yet.  It is
8093 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/j/jxplorer.html">available in
8094 Debian</a> testing and unstable at the moment.  The only problem I
8095 have with it is how it handle errors.  If something go wrong, its
8096 non-intuitive behaviour require me to go through some query work list
8097 and remove the failing query.  Nothing big, but very annoying.</p>
8098
8099       </div>
8100       <div class="tags">
8101
8102
8103         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>.
8104
8105
8106       </div>
8107     </div>
8108     <div class="padding"></div>
8109
8110     <div class="entry">
8111       <div class="title">
8112         <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>
8113       </div>
8114       <div class="date">
8115          3rd July 2010
8116       </div>
8117       <div class="body">
8118         <p>Here is a short update on my <a
8119 href="http://people.skolelinux.org/~pere/debian-upgrade-testing/">my
8120 Debian Lenny->Squeeze upgrade testing</a>.  Here is a summary of the
8121 difference for Gnome when it is upgraded by apt-get and aptitude.  I'm
8122 not reporting the status for KDE, because the upgrade crashes when
8123 aptitude try because of missing conflicts
8124 (<a href="http://bugs.debian.org/584861">#584861</a> and
8125 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/585716">#585716</a>).</p>
8126
8127 <p>At the end of the upgrade test script, dpkg -l is executed to get a
8128 complete list of the installed packages.  Based on this I see these
8129 differences when I did a test run today.  As usual, I do not really
8130 know what the correct set of packages would be, but thought it best to
8131 publish the difference.</p>
8132
8133 <p>Installed using apt-get, missing with aptitude</p>
8134
8135 <blockquote><p>
8136   at-spi cpp-4.3 finger gnome-spell gstreamer0.10-gnomevfs
8137   libatspi1.0-0 libcupsys2 libeel2-data libgail-common libgdl-1-common
8138   libgnomeprint2.2-data libgnomeprintui2.2-common libgnomevfs2-bin
8139   libgtksourceview-common libpt-1.10.10-plugins-alsa
8140   libpt-1.10.10-plugins-v4l libservlet2.4-java libxalan2-java
8141   libxerces2-java openoffice.org-writer2latex openssl-blacklist p7zip
8142   python-4suite-xml python-eggtrayicon python-gtkhtml2
8143   python-gtkmozembed svgalibg1 xserver-xephyr zip
8144 </p></blockquote>
8145
8146 <p>Installed using apt-get, removed with aptitude</p>
8147
8148 <blockquote><p>
8149   bluez-utils dhcdbd djvulibre-desktop epiphany-gecko
8150   gnome-app-install gnome-mount gnome-vfs-obexftp gnome-volume-manager
8151   libao2 libavahi-compat-libdnssd1 libavahi-core5 libbind9-50
8152   libbluetooth2 libcamel1.2-11 libcdio7 libcucul0 libcurl3
8153   libdirectfb-1.0-0 libdvdread3 libedata-cal1.2-6 libedataserver1.2-9
8154   libeel2-2.20 libepc-1.0-1 libepc-ui-1.0-1 libexchange-storage1.2-3
8155   libfaad0 libgd2-noxpm libgda3-3 libgda3-common libggz2 libggzcore9
8156   libggzmod4 libgksu1.2-0 libgksuui1.0-1 libgmyth0 libgnome-desktop-2
8157   libgnome-pilot2 libgnomecups1.0-1 libgnomeprint2.2-0
8158   libgnomeprintui2.2-0 libgpod3 libgraphviz4 libgtkhtml2-0
8159   libgtksourceview1.0-0 libgucharmap6 libhesiod0 libicu38 libisccc50
8160   libisccfg50 libiw29 libkpathsea4 libltdl3 liblwres50 libmagick++10
8161   libmagick10 libmalaga7 libmtp7 libmysqlclient15off libnautilus-burn4
8162   libneon27 libnm-glib0 libnm-util0 libopal-2.2 libosp5
8163   libparted1.8-10 libpisock9 libpisync1 libpoppler-glib3 libpoppler3
8164   libpt-1.10.10 libraw1394-8 libsensors3 libsmbios2 libsoup2.2-8
8165   libssh2-1 libsuitesparse-3.1.0 libswfdec-0.6-90 libtalloc1
8166   libtotem-plparser10 libtrackerclient0 libvoikko1 libxalan2-java-gcj
8167   libxerces2-java-gcj libxklavier12 libxtrap6 libxxf86misc1 libzephyr3
8168   mysql-common swfdec-gnome totem-gstreamer wodim
8169 </p></blockquote>
8170
8171 <p>Installed using aptitude, missing with apt-get</p>
8172
8173 <blockquote><p>
8174   gnome gnome-desktop-environment hamster-applet python-gnomeapplet
8175   python-gnomekeyring python-wnck rhythmbox-plugins xorg
8176   xserver-xorg-input-all xserver-xorg-input-evdev
8177   xserver-xorg-input-kbd xserver-xorg-input-mouse
8178   xserver-xorg-input-synaptics xserver-xorg-video-all
8179   xserver-xorg-video-apm xserver-xorg-video-ark xserver-xorg-video-ati
8180   xserver-xorg-video-chips xserver-xorg-video-cirrus
8181   xserver-xorg-video-dummy xserver-xorg-video-fbdev
8182   xserver-xorg-video-glint xserver-xorg-video-i128
8183   xserver-xorg-video-i740 xserver-xorg-video-mach64
8184   xserver-xorg-video-mga xserver-xorg-video-neomagic
8185   xserver-xorg-video-nouveau xserver-xorg-video-nv
8186   xserver-xorg-video-r128 xserver-xorg-video-radeon
8187   xserver-xorg-video-radeonhd xserver-xorg-video-rendition
8188   xserver-xorg-video-s3 xserver-xorg-video-s3virge
8189   xserver-xorg-video-savage xserver-xorg-video-siliconmotion
8190   xserver-xorg-video-sis xserver-xorg-video-sisusb
8191   xserver-xorg-video-tdfx xserver-xorg-video-tga
8192   xserver-xorg-video-trident xserver-xorg-video-tseng
8193   xserver-xorg-video-vesa xserver-xorg-video-vmware
8194   xserver-xorg-video-voodoo
8195 </p></blockquote>
8196
8197 <p>Installed using aptitude, removed with apt-get</p>
8198
8199 <blockquote><p>
8200   deskbar-applet xserver-xorg xserver-xorg-core
8201   xserver-xorg-input-wacom xserver-xorg-video-intel
8202   xserver-xorg-video-openchrome
8203 </p></blockquote>
8204
8205 <p>I was told on IRC that the xorg-xserver package was
8206 <a href="http://git.debian.org/?p=pkg-xorg/xserver/xorg-server.git;a=commit;h=9c8080d06c457932d3bfec021c69ac000aa60120">changed
8207 in git</a> today to try to get apt-get to not remove xorg completely.
8208 No idea when it hits Squeeze, but when it does I hope it will reduce
8209 the difference somewhat.
8210
8211       </div>
8212       <div class="tags">
8213
8214
8215         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>.
8216
8217
8218       </div>
8219     </div>
8220     <div class="padding"></div>
8221
8222     <div class="entry">
8223       <div class="title">
8224         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/LUMA__a_very_nice_LDAP_GUI.html">LUMA, a very nice LDAP GUI</a>
8225       </div>
8226       <div class="date">
8227         28th June 2010
8228       </div>
8229       <div class="body">
8230         <p>The last few days I have been looking into the status of the LDAP
8231 directory in Debian Edu, and in the process I started to miss a GUI
8232 tool to browse the LDAP tree.  The only one I was able to find in
8233 Debian/Squeeze and Lenny is
8234 <a href="http://luma.sourceforge.net/">LUMA</a>, which has proved to
8235 be a great tool to get a overview of the current LDAP directory
8236 populated by default in Skolelinux.  Thanks to it, I have been able to
8237 find empty and obsolete subtrees, misplaced objects and duplicate
8238 objects.  It will be installed by default in Debian/Squeeze.  If you
8239 are working with LDAP, give it a go. :)</p>
8240
8241 <p>I did notice one problem with it I have not had time to report to
8242 the BTS yet.  There is no .desktop file in the package, so the tool do
8243 not show up in the Gnome and KDE menus, but only deep down in in the
8244 Debian submenu in KDE.  I hope that can be fixed before Squeeze is
8245 released.</p>
8246
8247 <p>I have not yet been able to get it to modify the tree yet.  I would
8248 like to move objects and remove subtrees directly in the GUI, but have
8249 not found a way to do that with LUMA yet.  So in the mean time, I use
8250 <a href="http://www.lichteblau.com/ldapvi/">ldapvi</a> for that.</p>
8251
8252 <p>If you have tips on other GUI tools for LDAP that might be useful
8253 in Debian Edu, please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.</p>
8254
8255 <p>Update 2010-06-29: Ross Reedstrom tipped us about the
8256 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/g/gq.html">gq</a> package as a
8257 useful GUI alternative.  It seem like a good tool, but is unmaintained
8258 in Debian and got a RC bug keeping it out of Squeeze.  Unless that
8259 changes, it will not be an option for Debian Edu based on Squeeze.</p>
8260
8261       </div>
8262       <div class="tags">
8263
8264
8265         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>.
8266
8267
8268       </div>
8269     </div>
8270     <div class="padding"></div>
8271
8272     <div class="entry">
8273       <div class="title">
8274         <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>
8275       </div>
8276       <div class="date">
8277         24th June 2010
8278       </div>
8279       <div class="body">
8280         <p>A while back, I
8281 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Time_for_new__LDAP_schemas_replacing_RFC_2307_.html">complained
8282 about the fact</a> that it is not possible with the provided schemas
8283 for storing DNS and DHCP information in LDAP to combine the two sets
8284 of information into one LDAP object representing a computer.</p>
8285
8286 <p>In the mean time, I discovered that a simple fix would be to make
8287 the dhcpHost object class auxiliary, to allow it to be combined with
8288 the dNSDomain object class, and thus forming one object for one
8289 computer when storing both DHCP and DNS information in LDAP.</p>
8290
8291 <p>If I understand this correctly, it is not safe to do this change
8292 without also changing the assigned number for the object class, and I
8293 do not know enough about LDAP schema design to do that properly for
8294 Debian Edu.</p>
8295
8296 <p>Anyway, for future reference, this is how I believe we could change
8297 the
8298 <a href="http://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-ietf-dhc-ldap-schema-00">DHCP
8299 schema</a> to solve at least part of the problem with the LDAP schemas
8300 available today from IETF.</p>
8301
8302 <pre>
8303 --- dhcp.schema    (revision 65192)
8304 +++ dhcp.schema    (working copy)
8305 @@ -376,7 +376,7 @@
8306  objectclass ( 2.16.840.1.113719.1.203.6.6
8307         NAME 'dhcpHost'
8308         DESC 'This represents information about a particular client'
8309 -       SUP top
8310 +       SUP top AUXILIARY
8311         MUST cn
8312         MAY  (dhcpLeaseDN $ dhcpHWAddress $ dhcpOptionsDN $ dhcpStatements $ dhcpComments $ dhcpOption)
8313         X-NDS_CONTAINMENT ('dhcpService' 'dhcpSubnet' 'dhcpGroup') )
8314 </pre>
8315
8316 <p>I very much welcome clues on how to do this properly for Debian
8317 Edu/Squeeze.  We provide the DHCP schema in our debian-edu-config
8318 package, and should thus be free to rewrite it as we see fit.</p>
8319
8320 <p>If you want to help out with implementing this for Debian Edu,
8321 please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.</p>
8322
8323       </div>
8324       <div class="tags">
8325
8326
8327         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>.
8328
8329
8330       </div>
8331     </div>
8332     <div class="padding"></div>
8333
8334     <div class="entry">
8335       <div class="title">
8336         <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>
8337       </div>
8338       <div class="date">
8339         16th June 2010
8340       </div>
8341       <div class="body">
8342         <p>A few times I have had the need to simulate the way tasksel
8343 installs packages during the normal debian-installer run.  Until now,
8344 I have ended up letting tasksel do the work, with the annoying problem
8345 of not getting any feedback at all when something fails (like a
8346 conffile question from dpkg or a download that fails), using code like
8347 this:
8348
8349 <blockquote><pre>
8350 export DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive
8351 tasksel --new-install
8352 </pre></blockquote>
8353
8354 This would invoke tasksel, let its automatic task selection pick the
8355 tasks to install, and continue to install the requested tasks without
8356 any output what so ever.
8357
8358 Recently I revisited this problem while working on the automatic
8359 package upgrade testing, because tasksel would some times hang without
8360 any useful feedback, and I want to see what is going on when it
8361 happen.  Then it occured to me, I can parse the output from tasksel
8362 when asked to run in test mode, and use that aptitude command line
8363 printed by tasksel then to simulate the tasksel run.  I ended up using
8364 code like this:
8365
8366 <blockquote><pre>
8367 export DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive
8368 cmd="$(in_target tasksel -t --new-install | sed 's/debconf-apt-progress -- //')"
8369 $cmd
8370 </pre></blockquote>
8371
8372 <p>The content of $cmd is typically something like "<tt>aptitude -q
8373 --without-recommends -o APT::Install-Recommends=no -y install
8374 ~t^desktop$ ~t^gnome-desktop$ ~t^laptop$ ~pstandard ~prequired
8375 ~pimportant</tt>", which will install the gnome desktop task, the
8376 laptop task and all packages with priority standard , required and
8377 important, just like tasksel would have done it during
8378 installation.</p>
8379
8380 <p>A better approach is probably to extend tasksel to be able to
8381 install packages without using debconf-apt-progress, for use cases
8382 like this.</p>
8383
8384       </div>
8385       <div class="tags">
8386
8387
8388         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>.
8389
8390
8391       </div>
8392     </div>
8393     <div class="padding"></div>
8394
8395     <div class="entry">
8396       <div class="title">
8397         <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>
8398       </div>
8399       <div class="date">
8400         13th June 2010
8401       </div>
8402       <div class="body">
8403         <p>My
8404 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Automatic_upgrade_testing_from_Lenny_to_Squeeze.html">testing
8405 of Debian upgrades</a> from Lenny to Squeeze continues, and I've
8406 finally made the upgrade logs available from
8407 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/debian-upgrade-testing/">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/debian-upgrade-testing/</a>.
8408 I am now testing dist-upgrade of Gnome and KDE in a chroot using both
8409 apt and aptitude, and found their differences interesting.  This time
8410 I will only focus on their removal plans.</p>
8411
8412 <p>After installing a Gnome desktop and the laptop task, apt-get wants
8413 to remove 72 packages when dist-upgrading from Lenny to Squeeze.  The
8414 surprising part is that it want to remove xorg and all
8415 xserver-xorg-video* drivers.  Clearly not a good choice, but I am not
8416 sure why.  When asking aptitude to do the same, it want to remove 129
8417 packages, but most of them are library packages I suspect are no
8418 longer needed.  Both of them want to remove bluetooth packages, which
8419 I do not know.  Perhaps these bluetooth packages are obsolete?</p>
8420
8421 <p>For KDE, apt-get want to remove 82 packages, among them kdebase
8422 which seem like a bad idea and xorg the same way as with Gnome. Asking
8423 aptitude for the same, it wants to remove 192 packages, none which are
8424 too surprising.</p>
8425
8426 <p>I guess the removal of xorg during upgrades should be investigated
8427 and avoided, and perhaps others as well.  Here are the complete list
8428 of planned removals.  The complete logs is available from the URL
8429 above.  Note if you want to repeat these tests, that the upgrade test
8430 for kde+apt-get hung in the tasksel setup because of dpkg asking
8431 conffile questions.  No idea why.  I worked around it by using
8432 '<tt>echo >> /proc/<em>pidofdpkg</em>/fd/0</tt>' to tell dpkg to
8433 continue.</p>
8434
8435 <p><b>apt-get gnome 72</b>
8436 <br>bluez-gnome cupsddk-drivers deskbar-applet gnome
8437   gnome-desktop-environment gnome-network-admin gtkhtml3.14
8438   iceweasel-gnome-support libavcodec51 libdatrie0 libgdl-1-0
8439   libgnomekbd2 libgnomekbdui2 libmetacity0 libslab0 libxcb-xlib0
8440   nautilus-cd-burner python-gnome2-desktop python-gnome2-extras
8441   serpentine swfdec-mozilla update-manager xorg xserver-xorg
8442   xserver-xorg-core xserver-xorg-input-all xserver-xorg-input-evdev
8443   xserver-xorg-input-kbd xserver-xorg-input-mouse
8444   xserver-xorg-input-synaptics xserver-xorg-input-wacom
8445   xserver-xorg-video-all xserver-xorg-video-apm xserver-xorg-video-ark
8446   xserver-xorg-video-ati xserver-xorg-video-chips
8447   xserver-xorg-video-cirrus xserver-xorg-video-cyrix
8448   xserver-xorg-video-dummy xserver-xorg-video-fbdev
8449   xserver-xorg-video-glint xserver-xorg-video-i128
8450   xserver-xorg-video-i740 xserver-xorg-video-imstt
8451   xserver-xorg-video-intel xserver-xorg-video-mach64
8452   xserver-xorg-video-mga xserver-xorg-video-neomagic
8453   xserver-xorg-video-nsc xserver-xorg-video-nv
8454   xserver-xorg-video-openchrome xserver-xorg-video-r128
8455   xserver-xorg-video-radeon xserver-xorg-video-radeonhd
8456   xserver-xorg-video-rendition xserver-xorg-video-s3
8457   xserver-xorg-video-s3virge xserver-xorg-video-savage
8458   xserver-xorg-video-siliconmotion xserver-xorg-video-sis
8459   xserver-xorg-video-sisusb xserver-xorg-video-tdfx
8460   xserver-xorg-video-tga xserver-xorg-video-trident
8461   xserver-xorg-video-tseng xserver-xorg-video-v4l
8462   xserver-xorg-video-vesa xserver-xorg-video-vga
8463   xserver-xorg-video-vmware xserver-xorg-video-voodoo xulrunner-1.9
8464   xulrunner-1.9-gnome-support</p>
8465
8466 <p><b>aptitude gnome 129</b>
8467
8468 <br>bluez-gnome bluez-utils cpp-4.3 cupsddk-drivers dhcdbd
8469   djvulibre-desktop finger gnome-app-install gnome-mount
8470   gnome-network-admin gnome-spell gnome-vfs-obexftp
8471   gnome-volume-manager gstreamer0.10-gnomevfs gtkhtml3.14 libao2
8472   libavahi-compat-libdnssd1 libavahi-core5 libavcodec51 libbluetooth2
8473   libcamel1.2-11 libcdio7 libcucul0 libcupsys2 libcurl3 libdatrie0
8474   libdirectfb-1.0-0 libdvdread3 libedataserver1.2-9 libeel2-2.20
8475   libeel2-data libepc-1.0-1 libepc-ui-1.0-1 libfaad0 libgail-common
8476   libgd2-noxpm libgda3-3 libgda3-common libgdl-1-0 libgdl-1-common
8477   libggz2 libggzcore9 libggzmod4 libgksu1.2-0 libgksuui1.0-1 libgmyth0
8478   libgnomecups1.0-1 libgnomekbd2 libgnomekbdui2 libgnomeprint2.2-0
8479   libgnomeprint2.2-data libgnomeprintui2.2-0 libgnomeprintui2.2-common
8480   libgnomevfs2-bin libgpod3 libgraphviz4 libgtkhtml2-0
8481   libgtksourceview-common libgtksourceview1.0-0 libgucharmap6
8482   libhesiod0 libicu38 libiw29 libkpathsea4 libltdl3 libmagick++10
8483   libmagick10 libmalaga7 libmetacity0 libmtp7 libmysqlclient15off
8484   libnautilus-burn4 libneon27 libnm-glib0 libnm-util0 libopal-2.2
8485   libosp5 libparted1.8-10 libpoppler-glib3 libpoppler3 libpt-1.10.10
8486   libpt-1.10.10-plugins-alsa libpt-1.10.10-plugins-v4l libraw1394-8
8487   libsensors3 libslab0 libsmbios2 libsoup2.2-8 libssh2-1
8488   libsuitesparse-3.1.0 libswfdec-0.6-90 libtalloc1 libtotem-plparser10
8489   libtrackerclient0 libxalan2-java libxalan2-java-gcj libxcb-xlib0
8490   libxerces2-java libxerces2-java-gcj libxklavier12 libxtrap6
8491   libxxf86misc1 libzephyr3 mysql-common nautilus-cd-burner
8492   openoffice.org-writer2latex openssl-blacklist p7zip
8493   python-4suite-xml python-eggtrayicon python-gnome2-desktop
8494   python-gnome2-extras python-gtkhtml2 python-gtkmozembed
8495   python-numeric python-sexy serpentine svgalibg1 swfdec-gnome
8496   swfdec-mozilla totem-gstreamer update-manager wodim
8497   xserver-xorg-video-cyrix xserver-xorg-video-imstt
8498   xserver-xorg-video-nsc xserver-xorg-video-v4l xserver-xorg-video-vga
8499   zip</p>
8500
8501 <p><b>apt-get kde 82</b>
8502
8503 <br>cupsddk-drivers karm kaudiocreator kcoloredit kcontrol kde kde-core
8504   kdeaddons kdeartwork kdebase kdebase-bin kdebase-bin-kde3
8505   kdebase-kio-plugins kdesktop kdeutils khelpcenter kicker
8506   kicker-applets knewsticker kolourpaint konq-plugins konqueror korn
8507   kpersonalizer kscreensaver ksplash libavcodec51 libdatrie0 libkiten1
8508   libxcb-xlib0 quanta superkaramba texlive-base-bin xorg xserver-xorg
8509   xserver-xorg-core xserver-xorg-input-all xserver-xorg-input-evdev
8510   xserver-xorg-input-kbd xserver-xorg-input-mouse
8511   xserver-xorg-input-synaptics xserver-xorg-input-wacom
8512   xserver-xorg-video-all xserver-xorg-video-apm xserver-xorg-video-ark
8513   xserver-xorg-video-ati xserver-xorg-video-chips
8514   xserver-xorg-video-cirrus xserver-xorg-video-cyrix
8515   xserver-xorg-video-dummy xserver-xorg-video-fbdev
8516   xserver-xorg-video-glint xserver-xorg-video-i128
8517   xserver-xorg-video-i740 xserver-xorg-video-imstt
8518   xserver-xorg-video-intel xserver-xorg-video-mach64
8519   xserver-xorg-video-mga xserver-xorg-video-neomagic
8520   xserver-xorg-video-nsc xserver-xorg-video-nv
8521   xserver-xorg-video-openchrome xserver-xorg-video-r128
8522   xserver-xorg-video-radeon xserver-xorg-video-radeonhd
8523   xserver-xorg-video-rendition xserver-xorg-video-s3
8524   xserver-xorg-video-s3virge xserver-xorg-video-savage
8525   xserver-xorg-video-siliconmotion xserver-xorg-video-sis
8526   xserver-xorg-video-sisusb xserver-xorg-video-tdfx
8527   xserver-xorg-video-tga xserver-xorg-video-trident
8528   xserver-xorg-video-tseng xserver-xorg-video-v4l
8529   xserver-xorg-video-vesa xserver-xorg-video-vga
8530   xserver-xorg-video-vmware xserver-xorg-video-voodoo xulrunner-1.9</p>
8531
8532 <p><b>aptitude kde 192</b>
8533 <br>bluez-utils cpp-4.3 cupsddk-drivers cvs dcoprss dhcdbd
8534   djvulibre-desktop dosfstools eyesapplet fifteenapplet finger gettext
8535   ghostscript-x imlib-base imlib11 indi kandy karm kasteroids
8536   kaudiocreator kbackgammon kbstate kcoloredit kcontrol kcron kdat
8537   kdeadmin-kfile-plugins kdeartwork-misc kdeartwork-theme-window
8538   kdebase-bin-kde3 kdebase-kio-plugins kdeedu-data
8539   kdegraphics-kfile-plugins kdelirc kdemultimedia-kappfinder-data
8540   kdemultimedia-kfile-plugins kdenetwork-kfile-plugins
8541   kdepim-kfile-plugins kdepim-kio-plugins kdeprint kdesktop kdessh
8542   kdict kdnssd kdvi kedit keduca kenolaba kfax kfaxview kfouleggs
8543   kghostview khelpcenter khexedit kiconedit kitchensync klatin
8544   klickety kmailcvt kmenuedit kmid kmilo kmoon kmrml kodo kolourpaint
8545   kooka korn kpager kpdf kpercentage kpf kpilot kpoker kpovmodeler
8546   krec kregexpeditor ksayit ksim ksirc ksirtet ksmiletris ksmserver
8547   ksnake ksokoban ksplash ksvg ksysv ktip ktnef kuickshow kverbos
8548   kview kviewshell kvoctrain kwifimanager kwin kwin4 kworldclock
8549   kxsldbg libakode2 libao2 libarts1-akode libarts1-audiofile
8550   libarts1-mpeglib libarts1-xine libavahi-compat-libdnssd1
8551   libavahi-core5 libavc1394-0 libavcodec51 libbluetooth2
8552   libboost-python1.34.1 libcucul0 libcurl3 libcvsservice0 libdatrie0
8553   libdirectfb-1.0-0 libdjvulibre21 libdvdread3 libfaad0 libfreebob0
8554   libgail-common libgd2-noxpm libgraphviz4 libgsmme1c2a libgtkhtml2-0
8555   libicu38 libiec61883-0 libindex0 libiw29 libk3b3 libkcal2b libkcddb1
8556   libkdeedu3 libkdepim1a libkgantt0 libkiten1 libkleopatra1 libkmime2
8557   libkpathsea4 libkpimexchange1 libkpimidentities1 libkscan1
8558   libksieve0 libktnef1 liblockdev1 libltdl3 libmagick10 libmimelib1c2a
8559   libmozjs1d libmpcdec3 libneon27 libnm-util0 libopensync0 libpisock9
8560   libpoppler-glib3 libpoppler-qt2 libpoppler3 libraw1394-8 libsmbios2
8561   libssh2-1 libsuitesparse-3.1.0 libtalloc1 libtiff-tools
8562   libxalan2-java libxalan2-java-gcj libxcb-xlib0 libxerces2-java
8563   libxerces2-java-gcj libxtrap6 mpeglib networkstatus
8564   openoffice.org-writer2latex pmount poster psutils quanta quanta-data
8565   superkaramba svgalibg1 tex-common texlive-base texlive-base-bin
8566   texlive-common texlive-doc-base texlive-fonts-recommended
8567   xserver-xorg-video-cyrix xserver-xorg-video-imstt
8568   xserver-xorg-video-nsc xserver-xorg-video-v4l xserver-xorg-video-vga
8569   xulrunner-1.9</p>
8570
8571
8572       </div>
8573       <div class="tags">
8574
8575
8576         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>.
8577
8578
8579       </div>
8580     </div>
8581     <div class="padding"></div>
8582
8583     <div class="entry">
8584       <div class="title">
8585         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Automatic_upgrade_testing_from_Lenny_to_Squeeze.html">Automatic upgrade testing from Lenny to Squeeze</a>
8586       </div>
8587       <div class="date">
8588         11th June 2010
8589       </div>
8590       <div class="body">
8591         <p>The last few days I have done some upgrade testing in Debian, to
8592 see if the upgrade from Lenny to Squeeze will go smoothly.  A few bugs
8593 have been discovered and reported in the process
8594 (<a href="http://bugs.debian.org/585410">#585410</a> in nagios3-cgi,
8595 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/584879">#584879</a> already fixed in
8596 enscript and <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/584861">#584861</a> in
8597 kdebase-workspace-data), and to get a more regular testing going on, I
8598 am working on a script to automate the test.</p>
8599
8600 <p>The idea is to create a Lenny chroot and use tasksel to install a
8601 Gnome or KDE desktop installation inside the chroot before upgrading
8602 it.  To ensure no services are started in the chroot, a policy-rc.d
8603 script is inserted.  To make sure tasksel believe it is to install a
8604 desktop on a laptop, the tasksel tests are replaced in the chroot
8605 (only acceptable because this is a throw-away chroot).</p>
8606
8607 <p>A naive upgrade from Lenny to Squeeze using aptitude dist-upgrade
8608 currently always fail because udev refuses to upgrade with the kernel
8609 in Lenny, so to avoid that problem the file /etc/udev/kernel-upgrade
8610 is created.  The bug report
8611 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/566000">#566000</a> make me suspect
8612 this problem do not trigger in a chroot, but I touch the file anyway
8613 to make sure the upgrade go well.  Testing on virtual and real
8614 hardware have failed me because of udev so far, and creating this file
8615 do the trick in such settings anyway.  This is a
8616 <a href="http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/debian-26/failed-dist-upgrade-due-to-udev-config_sysfs_deprecated-nonsense-804130/">known
8617 issue</a> and the current udev behaviour is intended by the udev
8618 maintainer because he lack the resources to rewrite udev to keep
8619 working with old kernels or something like that.  I really wish the
8620 udev upstream would keep udev backwards compatible, to avoid such
8621 upgrade problem, but given that they fail to do so, I guess
8622 documenting the way out of this mess is the best option we got for
8623 Debian Squeeze.</p>
8624
8625 <p>Anyway, back to the task at hand, testing upgrades.  This test
8626 script, which I call <tt>upgrade-test</tt> for now, is doing the
8627 trick:</p>
8628
8629 <blockquote><pre>
8630 #!/bin/sh
8631 set -ex
8632
8633 if [ "$1" ] ; then
8634     desktop=$1
8635 else
8636     desktop=gnome
8637 fi
8638
8639 from=lenny
8640 to=squeeze
8641
8642 exec &lt; /dev/null
8643 unset LANG
8644 mirror=http://ftp.skolelinux.org/debian
8645 tmpdir=chroot-$from-upgrade-$to-$desktop
8646 fuser -mv .
8647 debootstrap $from $tmpdir $mirror
8648 chroot $tmpdir aptitude update
8649 cat > $tmpdir/usr/sbin/policy-rc.d &lt;&lt;EOF
8650 #!/bin/sh
8651 exit 101
8652 EOF
8653 chmod a+rx $tmpdir/usr/sbin/policy-rc.d
8654 exit_cleanup() {
8655     umount $tmpdir/proc
8656 }
8657 mount -t proc proc $tmpdir/proc
8658 # Make sure proc is unmounted also on failure
8659 trap exit_cleanup EXIT INT
8660
8661 chroot $tmpdir aptitude -y install debconf-utils
8662
8663 # Make sure tasksel autoselection trigger.  It need the test scripts
8664 # to return the correct answers.
8665 echo tasksel tasksel/desktop multiselect $desktop | \
8666     chroot $tmpdir debconf-set-selections
8667
8668 # Include the desktop and laptop task
8669 for test in desktop laptop ; do
8670     echo > $tmpdir/usr/lib/tasksel/tests/$test &lt;&lt;EOF
8671 #!/bin/sh
8672 exit 2
8673 EOF
8674     chmod a+rx $tmpdir/usr/lib/tasksel/tests/$test
8675 done
8676
8677 DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive
8678 DEBIAN_PRIORITY=critical
8679 export DEBIAN_FRONTEND DEBIAN_PRIORITY
8680 chroot $tmpdir tasksel --new-install
8681
8682 echo deb $mirror $to main > $tmpdir/etc/apt/sources.list
8683 chroot $tmpdir aptitude update
8684 touch $tmpdir/etc/udev/kernel-upgrade
8685 chroot $tmpdir aptitude -y dist-upgrade
8686 fuser -mv
8687 </pre></blockquote>
8688
8689 <p>I suspect it would be useful to test upgrades with both apt-get and
8690 with aptitude, but I have not had time to look at how they behave
8691 differently so far.  I hope to get a cron job running to do the test
8692 regularly and post the result on the web.  The Gnome upgrade currently
8693 work, while the KDE upgrade fail because of the bug in
8694 kdebase-workspace-data</p>
8695
8696 <p>I am not quite sure what kind of extract from the huge upgrade logs
8697 (KDE 167 KiB, Gnome 516 KiB) it make sense to include in this blog
8698 post, so I will refrain from trying.  I can report that for Gnome,
8699 aptitude report 760 packages upgraded, 448 newly installed, 129 to
8700 remove and 1 not upgraded and 1024MB need to be downloaded while for
8701 KDE the same numbers are 702 packages upgraded, 507 newly installed,
8702 193 to remove and 0 not upgraded and 1117MB need to be downloaded</p>
8703
8704 <p>I am very happy to notice that the Gnome desktop + laptop upgrade
8705 is able to migrate to dependency based boot sequencing and parallel
8706 booting without a hitch.  Was unsure if there were still bugs with
8707 packages failing to clean up their obsolete init.d script during
8708 upgrades, and no such problem seem to affect the Gnome desktop+laptop
8709 packages.</p>
8710
8711       </div>
8712       <div class="tags">
8713
8714
8715         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>.
8716
8717
8718       </div>
8719     </div>
8720     <div class="padding"></div>
8721
8722     <div class="entry">
8723       <div class="title">
8724         <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>
8725       </div>
8726       <div class="date">
8727          6th June 2010
8728       </div>
8729       <div class="body">
8730         <p>If Debian is to migrate to upstart on Linux, I expect some init.d
8731 scripts to migrate (some of) their operations to upstart job while
8732 keeping the init.d for hurd and kfreebsd.  The packages with such
8733 needs will need a way to get their init.d scripts to behave
8734 differently when used with sysvinit and with upstart.  Because of
8735 this, I had a look at the environment variables set when a init.d
8736 script is running under upstart, and when it is not.</p>
8737
8738 <p>With upstart, I notice these environment variables are set when a
8739 script is started from rcS.d/ (ignoring some irrelevant ones like
8740 COLUMNS):</p>
8741
8742 <blockquote><pre>
8743 DEFAULT_RUNLEVEL=2
8744 previous=N
8745 PREVLEVEL=
8746 RUNLEVEL=
8747 runlevel=S
8748 UPSTART_EVENTS=startup
8749 UPSTART_INSTANCE=
8750 UPSTART_JOB=rc-sysinit
8751 </pre></blockquote>
8752
8753 <p>With sysvinit, these environment variables are set for the same
8754 script.</p>
8755
8756 <blockquote><pre>
8757 INIT_VERSION=sysvinit-2.88
8758 previous=N
8759 PREVLEVEL=N
8760 RUNLEVEL=S
8761 runlevel=S
8762 </pre></blockquote>
8763
8764 <p>The RUNLEVEL and PREVLEVEL environment variables passed on from
8765 sysvinit are not set by upstart.  Not sure if it is intentional or not
8766 to not be compatible with sysvinit in this regard.</p>
8767
8768 <p>For scripts needing to behave differently when upstart is used,
8769 looking for the UPSTART_JOB environment variable seem to be a good
8770 choice.</p>
8771
8772       </div>
8773       <div class="tags">
8774
8775
8776         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>.
8777
8778
8779       </div>
8780     </div>
8781     <div class="padding"></div>
8782
8783     <div class="entry">
8784       <div class="title">
8785         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/A_manual_for_standards_wars___.html">A manual for standards wars...</a>
8786       </div>
8787       <div class="date">
8788          6th June 2010
8789       </div>
8790       <div class="body">
8791         <p>Via the
8792 <a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/robweir/antic-atom/~3/QzU4RgoAGMg/weekly-links-10.html">blog
8793 of Rob Weir</a> I came across the very interesting essay named
8794 <a href="http://faculty.haas.berkeley.edu/shapiro/wars.pdf">The Art of
8795 Standards Wars</a> (PDF 25 pages).  I recommend it for everyone
8796 following the standards wars of today.</p>
8797
8798       </div>
8799       <div class="tags">
8800
8801
8802         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>.
8803
8804
8805       </div>
8806     </div>
8807     <div class="padding"></div>
8808
8809     <div class="entry">
8810       <div class="title">
8811         <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>
8812       </div>
8813       <div class="date">
8814          3rd June 2010
8815       </div>
8816       <div class="body">
8817         <p>When using sitesummary at a site to track machines, it is possible
8818 to get a list of the machine types in use thanks to the DMI
8819 information extracted from each machine.  The script to do so is
8820 included in the sitesummary package, and here is example output from
8821 the Skolelinux build servers:</p>
8822
8823 <blockquote><pre>
8824 maintainer:~# /usr/lib/sitesummary/hardware-model-summary
8825   vendor                    count
8826   Dell Computer Corporation     1
8827     PowerEdge 1750              1
8828   IBM                           1
8829     eserver xSeries 345 -[8670M1X]-     1
8830   Intel                         2
8831   [no-dmi-info]                 3
8832 maintainer:~#
8833 </pre></blockquote>
8834
8835 <p>The quality of the report depend on the quality of the DMI tables
8836 provided in each machine.  Here there are Intel machines without model
8837 information listed with Intel as vendor and no model, and virtual Xen
8838 machines listed as [no-dmi-info].  One can add -l as a command line
8839 option to list the individual machines.</p>
8840
8841 <p>A larger list is
8842 <a href="http://narvikskolen.no/sitesummary/">available from the the
8843 city of Narvik</a>, which uses Skolelinux on all their shools and also
8844 provide the basic sitesummary report publicly.  In their report there
8845 are ~1400 machines. I know they use both Ubuntu and Skolelinux on
8846 their machines, and as sitesummary is available in both distributions,
8847 it is trivial to get all of them to report to the same central
8848 collector.</p>
8849
8850       </div>
8851       <div class="tags">
8852
8853
8854         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>.
8855
8856
8857       </div>
8858     </div>
8859     <div class="padding"></div>
8860
8861     <div class="entry">
8862       <div class="title">
8863         <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>
8864       </div>
8865       <div class="date">
8866          1st June 2010
8867       </div>
8868       <div class="body">
8869         <p>It is strange to watch how a bug in Debian causing KDM to fail to
8870 start at boot when an NVidia video card is used is handled.  The
8871 problem seem to be that the nvidia X.org driver uses a long time to
8872 initialize, and this duration is longer than kdm is configured to
8873 wait.</p>
8874
8875 <p>I came across two bugs related to this issue,
8876 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/583312">#583312</a> initially filed
8877 against initscripts and passed on to nvidia-glx when it became obvious
8878 that the nvidia drivers were involved, and
8879 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/524751">#524751</a> initially filed against
8880 kdm and passed on to src:nvidia-graphics-drivers for unknown reasons.</p>
8881
8882 <p>To me, it seem that no-one is interested in actually solving the
8883 problem nvidia video card owners experience and make sure the Debian
8884 distribution work out of the box for these users.  The nvidia driver
8885 maintainers expect kdm to be set up to wait longer, while kdm expect
8886 the nvidia driver maintainers to fix the driver to start faster, and
8887 while they wait for each other I guess the users end up switching to a
8888 distribution that work for them.  I have no idea what the solution is,
8889 but I am pretty sure that waiting for each other is not it.</p>
8890
8891 <p>I wonder why we end up handling bugs this way.</p>
8892
8893       </div>
8894       <div class="tags">
8895
8896
8897         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>.
8898
8899
8900       </div>
8901     </div>
8902     <div class="padding"></div>
8903
8904     <div class="entry">
8905       <div class="title">
8906         <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>
8907       </div>
8908       <div class="date">
8909         27th May 2010
8910       </div>
8911       <div class="body">
8912         <p>A few days ago, parallel booting was enabled in Debian/testing.
8913 The feature seem to hold up pretty well, but three fairly serious
8914 issues are known and should be solved:
8915
8916 <p><ul>
8917
8918 <li>The wicd package seen to
8919 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/508289">break NFS mounting</a> and
8920 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/581586">network setup</a> when
8921 parallel booting is enabled.  No idea why, but the wicd maintainer
8922 seem to be on the case.</li>
8923
8924 <li>The nvidia X driver seem to
8925 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/583312">have a race condition</a>
8926 triggered more easily when parallel booting is in effect.  The
8927 maintainer is on the case.</li>
8928
8929 <li>The sysv-rc package fail to properly enable dependency based boot
8930 sequencing (the shutdown is broken) when old file-rc users
8931 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/575080">try to switch back</a> to
8932 sysv-rc.  One way to solve it would be for file-rc to create
8933 /etc/init.d/.legacy-bootordering, and another is to try to make
8934 sysv-rc more robust.  Will investigate some more and probably upload a
8935 workaround in sysv-rc to help those trying to move from file-rc to
8936 sysv-rc get a working shutdown.</li>
8937
8938 </ul></p>
8939
8940 <p>All in all not many surprising issues, and all of them seem
8941 solvable before Squeeze is released.  In addition to these there are
8942 some packages with bugs in their dependencies and run level settings,
8943 which I expect will be fixed in a reasonable time span.</p>
8944
8945 <p>If you report any problems with dependencies in init.d scripts to
8946 the BTS, please usertag the report to get it to show up at
8947 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/pkgreport.cgi?users=initscripts-ng-devel@lists.alioth.debian.org">the
8948 list of usertagged bugs related to this</a>.</p>
8949
8950 <p>Update: Correct bug number to file-rc issue.</p>
8951
8952       </div>
8953       <div class="tags">
8954
8955
8956         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>.
8957
8958
8959       </div>
8960     </div>
8961     <div class="padding"></div>
8962
8963     <div class="entry">
8964       <div class="title">
8965         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/More_flexible_firmware_handling_in_debian_installer.html">More flexible firmware handling in debian-installer</a>
8966       </div>
8967       <div class="date">
8968         22nd May 2010
8969       </div>
8970       <div class="body">
8971         <p>After a long break from debian-installer development, I finally
8972 found time today to return to the project.  Having to spend less time
8973 working dependency based boot in debian, as it is almost complete now,
8974 definitely helped freeing some time.</p>
8975
8976 <p>A while back, I ran into a problem while working on Debian Edu.  We
8977 include some firmware packages on the Debian Edu CDs, those needed to
8978 get disk and network controllers working.  Without having these
8979 firmware packages available during installation, it is impossible to
8980 install Debian Edu on the given machine, and because our target group
8981 are non-technical people, asking them to provide firmware packages on
8982 an external medium is a support pain.  Initially, I expected it to be
8983 enough to include the firmware packages on the CD to get
8984 debian-installer to find and use them.  This proved to be wrong.
8985 Next, I hoped it was enough to symlink the relevant firmware packages
8986 to some useful location on the CD (tried /cdrom/ and
8987 /cdrom/firmware/).  This also proved to not work, and at this point I
8988 found time to look at the debian-installer code to figure out what was
8989 going to work.</p>
8990
8991 <p>The firmware loading code is in the hw-detect package, and a closer
8992 look revealed that it would only look for firmware packages outside
8993 the installation media, so the CD was never checked for firmware
8994 packages.  It would only check USB sticks, floppies and other
8995 "external" media devices.  Today I changed it to also look in the
8996 /cdrom/firmware/ directory on the mounted CD or DVD, which should
8997 solve the problem I ran into with Debian edu.  I also changed it to
8998 look in /firmware/, to make sure the installer also find firmware
8999 provided in the initrd when booting the installer via PXE, to allow us
9000 to provide the same feature in the PXE setup included in Debian
9001 Edu.</p>
9002
9003 <p>To make sure firmware deb packages with a license questions are not
9004 activated without asking if the license is accepted, I extended
9005 hw-detect to look for preinst scripts in the firmware packages, and
9006 run these before activating the firmware during installation.  The
9007 license question is asked using debconf in the preinst, so this should
9008 solve the issue for the firmware packages I have looked at so far.</p>
9009
9010 <p>If you want to discuss the details of these features, please
9011 contact us on debian-boot@lists.debian.org.</p>
9012
9013       </div>
9014       <div class="tags">
9015
9016
9017         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>.
9018
9019
9020       </div>
9021     </div>
9022     <div class="padding"></div>
9023
9024     <div class="entry">
9025       <div class="title">
9026         <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>
9027       </div>
9028       <div class="date">
9029         14th May 2010
9030       </div>
9031       <div class="body">
9032         <p>Since this evening, parallel booting is the default in
9033 Debian/unstable for machines using dependency based boot sequencing.
9034 Apparently the testing of concurrent booting has been wider than
9035 expected, if I am to believe the
9036 <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2010/05/msg00122.html">input
9037 on debian-devel@</a>, and I concluded a few days ago to move forward
9038 with the feature this weekend, to give us some time to detect any
9039 remaining problems before Squeeze is frozen.  If serious problems are
9040 detected, it is simple to change the default back to sequential boot.
9041 The upload of the new sysvinit package also activate a new upstream
9042 version.</p>
9043
9044 More information about
9045 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/LSBInitScripts/DependencyBasedBoot">dependency
9046 based boot sequencing</a> is available from the Debian wiki.  It is
9047 currently possible to disable parallel booting when one run into
9048 problems caused by it, by adding this line to /etc/default/rcS:</p>
9049
9050 <blockquote><pre>
9051 CONCURRENCY=none
9052 </pre></blockquote>
9053
9054 <p>If you report any problems with dependencies in init.d scripts to
9055 the BTS, please usertag the report to get it to show up at
9056 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/pkgreport.cgi?users=initscripts-ng-devel@lists.alioth.debian.org">the
9057 list of usertagged bugs related to this</a>.</p>
9058
9059       </div>
9060       <div class="tags">
9061
9062
9063         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>.
9064
9065
9066       </div>
9067     </div>
9068     <div class="padding"></div>
9069
9070     <div class="entry">
9071       <div class="title">
9072         <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>
9073       </div>
9074       <div class="date">
9075         14th May 2010
9076       </div>
9077       <div class="body">
9078         <p>In the recent Debian Edu versions, the
9079 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/HowTo/SiteSummary">sitesummary
9080 system</a> is used to keep track of the machines in the school
9081 network.  Each machine will automatically report its status to the
9082 central server after boot and once per night.  The network setup is
9083 also reported, and using this information it is possible to get the
9084 MAC address of all network interfaces in the machines.  This is useful
9085 to update the DHCP configuration.</p>
9086
9087 <p>To give some idea how to use sitesummary, here is a one-liner to
9088 ist all MAC addresses of all machines reporting to sitesummary.  Run
9089 this on the collector host:</p>
9090
9091 <blockquote><pre>
9092 perl -MSiteSummary -e 'for_all_hosts(sub { print join(" ", get_macaddresses(shift)), "\n"; });'
9093 </pre></blockquote>
9094
9095 <p>This will list all MAC addresses assosiated with all machine, one
9096 line per machine and with space between the MAC addresses.</p>
9097
9098 <p>To allow system administrators easier job at adding static DHCP
9099 addresses for hosts, it would be possible to extend this to fetch
9100 machine information from sitesummary and update the DHCP and DNS
9101 tables in LDAP using this information.  Such tool is unfortunately not
9102 written yet.</p>
9103
9104       </div>
9105       <div class="tags">
9106
9107
9108         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>.
9109
9110
9111       </div>
9112     </div>
9113     <div class="padding"></div>
9114
9115     <div class="entry">
9116       <div class="title">
9117         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/systemd__an_interesting_alternative_to_upstart.html">systemd, an interesting alternative to upstart</a>
9118       </div>
9119       <div class="date">
9120         13th May 2010
9121       </div>
9122       <div class="body">
9123         <p>The last few days a new boot system called
9124 <a href="http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/systemd">systemd</a>
9125 has been
9126 <a href="http://0pointer.de/blog/projects/systemd.html">introduced</a>
9127
9128 to the free software world.  I have not yet had time to play around
9129 with it, but it seem to be a very interesting alternative to
9130 <a href="http://upstart.ubuntu.com/">upstart</a>, and might prove to be
9131 a good alternative for Debian when we are able to switch to an event
9132 based boot system.  Tollef is
9133 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/580814">in the process</a> of getting
9134 systemd into Debian, and I look forward to seeing how well it work.  I
9135 like the fact that systemd handles init.d scripts with dependency
9136 information natively, allowing them to run in parallel where upstart
9137 at the moment do not.</p>
9138
9139 <p>Unfortunately do systemd have the same problem as upstart regarding
9140 platform support.  It only work on recent Linux kernels, and also need
9141 some new kernel features enabled to function properly.  This means
9142 kFreeBSD and Hurd ports of Debian will need a port or a different boot
9143 system.  Not sure how that will be handled if systemd proves to be the
9144 way forward.</p>
9145
9146 <p>In the mean time, based on the
9147 <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2010/05/msg00122.html">input
9148 on debian-devel@</a> regarding parallel booting in Debian, I have
9149 decided to enable full parallel booting as the default in Debian as
9150 soon as possible (probably this weekend or early next week), to see if
9151 there are any remaining serious bugs in the init.d dependencies.  A
9152 new version of the sysvinit package implementing this change is
9153 already in experimental.  If all go well, Squeeze will be released
9154 with parallel booting enabled by default.</p>
9155
9156       </div>
9157       <div class="tags">
9158
9159
9160         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>.
9161
9162
9163       </div>
9164     </div>
9165     <div class="padding"></div>
9166
9167     <div class="entry">
9168       <div class="title">
9169         <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>
9170       </div>
9171       <div class="date">
9172          6th May 2010
9173       </div>
9174       <div class="body">
9175         <p>These days, the init.d script dependencies in Squeeze are quite
9176 complete, so complete that it is actually possible to run all the
9177 init.d scripts in parallell based on these dependencies.  If you want
9178 to test your Squeeze system, make sure
9179 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/LSBInitScripts/DependencyBasedBoot">dependency
9180 based boot sequencing</a> is enabled, and add this line to
9181 /etc/default/rcS:</p>
9182
9183 <blockquote><pre>
9184 CONCURRENCY=makefile
9185 </pre></blockquote>
9186
9187 <p>That is it.  It will cause sysv-rc to use the startpar tool to run
9188 scripts in parallel using the dependency information stored in
9189 /etc/init.d/.depend.boot, /etc/init.d/.depend.start and
9190 /etc/init.d/.depend.stop to order the scripts.  Startpar is configured
9191 to try to start the kdm and gdm scripts as early as possible, and will
9192 start the facilities required by kdm or gdm as early as possible to
9193 make this happen.</p>
9194
9195 <p>Give it a try, and see if you like the result.  If some services
9196 fail to start properly, it is most likely because they have incomplete
9197 init.d script dependencies in their startup script (or some of their
9198 dependent scripts have incomplete dependencies).  Report bugs and get
9199 the package maintainers to fix it. :)</p>
9200
9201 <p>Running scripts in parallel could be the default in Debian when we
9202 manage to get the init.d script dependencies complete and correct.  I
9203 expect we will get there in Squeeze+1, if we get manage to test and
9204 fix the remaining issues.</p>
9205
9206 <p>If you report any problems with dependencies in init.d scripts to
9207 the BTS, please usertag the report to get it to show up at
9208 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/pkgreport.cgi?users=initscripts-ng-devel@lists.alioth.debian.org">the
9209 list of usertagged bugs related to this</a>.</p>
9210
9211       </div>
9212       <div class="tags">
9213
9214
9215         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>.
9216
9217
9218       </div>
9219     </div>
9220     <div class="padding"></div>
9221
9222     <div class="entry">
9223       <div class="title">
9224         <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>
9225       </div>
9226       <div class="date">
9227         27th July 2009
9228       </div>
9229       <div class="body">
9230         <p>Since this evening, with the upload of sysvinit version 2.87dsf-2,
9231 and the upload of insserv version 1.12.0-10 yesterday, Debian unstable
9232 have been migrated to using dependency based boot sequencing.  This
9233 conclude work me and others have been doing for the last three days.
9234 It feels great to see this finally part of the default Debian
9235 installation.  Now we just need to weed out the last few problems that
9236 are bound to show up, to get everything ready for Squeeze.</p>
9237
9238 <p>The next step is migrating /sbin/init from sysvinit to upstart, and
9239 fixing the more fundamental problem of handing the event based
9240 non-predictable kernel in the early boot.</p>
9241
9242       </div>
9243       <div class="tags">
9244
9245
9246         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>.
9247
9248
9249       </div>
9250     </div>
9251     <div class="padding"></div>
9252
9253     <div class="entry">
9254       <div class="title">
9255         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Taking_over_sysvinit_development.html">Taking over sysvinit development</a>
9256       </div>
9257       <div class="date">
9258         22nd July 2009
9259       </div>
9260       <div class="body">
9261         <p>After several years of frustration with the lack of activity from
9262 the existing sysvinit upstream developer, I decided a few weeks ago to
9263 take over the package and become the new upstream.  The number of
9264 patches to track for the Debian package was becoming a burden, and the
9265 lack of synchronization between the distribution made it hard to keep
9266 the package up to date.</p>
9267
9268 <p>On the new sysvinit team is the SuSe maintainer Dr. Werner Fink,
9269 and my Debian co-maintainer Kel Modderman.  About 10 days ago, I made
9270 a new upstream tarball with version number 2.87dsf (for Debian, SuSe
9271 and Fedora), based on the patches currently in use in these
9272 distributions.  We Debian maintainers plan to move to this tarball as
9273 the new upstream as soon as we find time to do the merge.  Since the
9274 new tarball was created, we agreed with Werner at SuSe to make a new
9275 upstream project at <a href="http://savannah.nongnu.org/">Savannah</a>, and continue
9276 development there.  The project is registered and currently waiting
9277 for approval by the Savannah administrators, and as soon as it is
9278 approved, we will import the old versions from svn and continue
9279 working on the future release.</p>
9280
9281 <p>It is a bit ironic that this is done now, when some of the involved
9282 distributions are moving to upstart as a syvinit replacement.</p>
9283
9284       </div>
9285       <div class="tags">
9286
9287
9288         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>.
9289
9290
9291       </div>
9292     </div>
9293     <div class="padding"></div>
9294
9295     <div class="entry">
9296       <div class="title">
9297         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_boots_quicker_and_quicker.html">Debian boots quicker and quicker</a>
9298       </div>
9299       <div class="date">
9300         24th June 2009
9301       </div>
9302       <div class="body">
9303         <p>I spent Monday and tuesday this week in London with a lot of the
9304 people involved in the boot system on Debian and Ubuntu, to see if we
9305 could find more ways to speed up the boot system.  This was an Ubuntu
9306 funded
9307 <a href="https://wiki.ubuntu.com/FoundationsTeam/BootPerformance/DebianUbuntuSprint">developer
9308 gathering</a>. It was quite productive.  We also discussed the future
9309 of boot systems, and ways to handle the increasing number of boot
9310 issues introduced by the Linux kernel becoming more and more
9311 asynchronous and event base.  The Ubuntu approach using udev and
9312 upstart might be a good way forward.  Time will show.</p>
9313
9314 <p>Anyway, there are a few ways at the moment to speed up the boot
9315 process in Debian.  All of these should be applied to get a quick
9316 boot:</p>
9317
9318 <ul>
9319
9320 <li>Use dash as /bin/sh.</li>
9321
9322 <li>Disable the init.d/hwclock*.sh scripts and make sure the hardware
9323    clock is in UTC.</li>
9324
9325 <li>Install and activate the insserv package to enable
9326    <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/LSBInitScripts/DependencyBasedBoot">dependency
9327    based boot sequencing</a>, and enable concurrent booting.</li>
9328
9329 </ul>
9330
9331 These points are based on the Google summer of code work done by
9332 <a href="http://initscripts-ng.alioth.debian.org/soc2006-bootsystem/">Carlos
9333 Villegas</a>.
9334
9335 <p>Support for makefile-style concurrency during boot was uploaded to
9336 unstable yesterday.  When we tested it, we were able to cut 6 seconds
9337 from the boot sequence.  It depend on very correct dependency
9338 declaration in all init.d scripts, so I expect us to find edge cases
9339 where the dependences in some scripts are slightly wrong when we start
9340 using this.</p>
9341
9342 <p>On our IRC channel for this effort, #pkg-sysvinit, a new idea was
9343 introduced by Raphael Geissert today, one that could affect the
9344 startup speed as well.  Instead of starting some scripts concurrently
9345 from rcS.d/ and another set of scripts from rc2.d/, it would be
9346 possible to run a of them in the same process.  A quick way to test
9347 this would be to enable insserv and run 'mv /etc/rc2.d/S* /etc/rcS.d/;
9348 insserv'.  Will need to test if that work. :)</p>
9349
9350       </div>
9351       <div class="tags">
9352
9353
9354         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>.
9355
9356
9357       </div>
9358     </div>
9359     <div class="padding"></div>
9360
9361     <div class="entry">
9362       <div class="title">
9363         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/BSAs_p_stander_om_piratkopiering_m_ter_motstand.html">BSAs påstander om piratkopiering møter motstand</a>
9364       </div>
9365       <div class="date">
9366         17th May 2009
9367       </div>
9368       <div class="body">
9369         <p>Hvert år de siste årene har BSA, lobbyfronten til de store
9370 programvareselskapene som Microsoft og Apple, publisert en rapport der
9371 de gjetter på hvor mye piratkopiering påfører i tapte inntekter i
9372 ulike land rundt om i verden.  Resultatene er tendensiøse.  For noen
9373 dager siden kom
9374 <a href="http://global.bsa.org/globalpiracy2008/studies/globalpiracy2008.pdf">siste
9375 rapport</a>, og det er flere kritiske kommentarer publisert de siste
9376 dagene.  Et spesielt interessant kommentar fra Sverige,
9377 <a href="http://www.idg.se/2.1085/1.229795/bsa-hoftade-sverigesiffror">BSA
9378 höftade Sverigesiffror</a>, oppsummeres slik:</p>
9379
9380 <blockquote>
9381 I sin senaste rapport slår BSA fast att 25 procent av all mjukvara i
9382 Sverige är piratkopierad. Det utan att ha pratat med ett enda svenskt
9383 företag. "Man bör nog kanske inte se de här siffrorna som helt
9384 exakta", säger BSAs Sverigechef John Hugosson.
9385 </blockquote>
9386
9387 <p>Mon tro om de er like metodiske når de gjetter på andelen piratkopiering i Norge?  To andre kommentarer er <a
9388 href="http://www.vnunet.com/vnunet/comment/2242134/bsa-piracy-figures-shot-reality">BSA
9389 piracy figures need a shot of reality</a> og <a
9390 href="http://www.michaelgeist.ca/content/view/3958/125/">Does The WIPO
9391 Copyright Treaty Work?</a></p>
9392
9393 <p>Fant lenkene via <a
9394 href="http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/05/17/1632242">oppslag
9395 på Slashdot</a>.</p>
9396
9397       </div>
9398       <div class="tags">
9399
9400
9401         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>.
9402
9403
9404       </div>
9405     </div>
9406     <div class="padding"></div>
9407
9408     <div class="entry">
9409       <div class="title">
9410         <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>
9411       </div>
9412       <div class="date">
9413          7th May 2009
9414       </div>
9415       <div class="body">
9416         <p>Kom over
9417 <a href="http://news.cnet.com/8301-13505_3-10216873-16.html">interessante
9418 tall</a> fra IDG om utviklingen av linuxservermarkedet.  Fikk meg til
9419 å tenke på antall tjenermaskiner ved Universitetet i Oslo der jeg
9420 jobber til daglig.  En rask opptelling forteller meg at vi har 490
9421 (61%) fysiske unix-tjener (mest linux men også noen solaris) og 196
9422 (25%) windowstjenere, samt 112 (14%) virtuelle unix-tjenere.  Med den
9423 bakgrunnskunnskapen kan jeg godt tro at IDG er inne på noe.</p>
9424
9425       </div>
9426       <div class="tags">
9427
9428
9429         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>.
9430
9431
9432       </div>
9433     </div>
9434     <div class="padding"></div>
9435
9436     <div class="entry">
9437       <div class="title">
9438         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Kryptert_harddisk___naturligvis.html">Kryptert harddisk - naturligvis</a>
9439       </div>
9440       <div class="date">
9441          2nd May 2009
9442       </div>
9443       <div class="body">
9444         <p><a href="http://www.dagensit.no/trender/article1658676.ece">Dagens
9445 IT melder</a> at Intel hevder at det er dyrt å miste en datamaskin,
9446 når en tar tap av arbeidstid, fortrolige dokumenter,
9447 personopplysninger og alt annet det innebærer.  Det er ingen tvil om
9448 at det er en kostbar affære å miste sin datamaskin, og det er årsaken
9449 til at jeg har kryptert harddisken på både kontormaskinen og min
9450 bærbare.  Begge inneholder personopplysninger jeg ikke ønsker skal
9451 komme på avveie, den første informasjon relatert til jobben min ved
9452 Universitetet i Oslo, og den andre relatert til blant annet
9453 foreningsarbeide.  Kryptering av diskene gjør at det er lite
9454 sannsynlig at dophoder som kan finne på å rappe maskinene får noe ut
9455 av dem.  Maskinene låses automatisk etter noen minutter uten bruk,
9456 og en reboot vil gjøre at de ber om passord før de vil starte opp.
9457 Jeg bruker Debian på begge maskinene, og installasjonssystemet der
9458 gjør det trivielt å sette opp krypterte disker.  Jeg har LVM på toppen
9459 av krypterte partisjoner, slik at alt av datapartisjoner er kryptert.
9460 Jeg anbefaler alle å kryptere diskene på sine bærbare.  Kostnaden når
9461 det er gjort slik jeg gjør det er minimale, og gevinstene er
9462 betydelige.  En bør dog passe på passordet.  Hvis det går tapt, må
9463 maskinen reinstalleres og alt er tapt.</p>
9464
9465 <p>Krypteringen vil ikke stoppe kompetente angripere som f.eks. kjøler
9466 ned minnebrikkene før maskinen rebootes med programvare for å hente ut
9467 krypteringsnøklene.  Kostnaden med å forsvare seg mot slike angripere
9468 er for min del høyere enn gevinsten.  Jeg tror oddsene for at
9469 f.eks. etteretningsorganisasjoner har glede av å titte på mine
9470 maskiner er minimale, og ulempene jeg ville oppnå ved å forsøke å
9471 gjøre det vanskeligere for angripere med kompetanse og ressurser er
9472 betydelige.</p>
9473
9474       </div>
9475       <div class="tags">
9476
9477
9478         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>.
9479
9480
9481       </div>
9482     </div>
9483     <div class="padding"></div>
9484
9485     <div class="entry">
9486       <div class="title">
9487         <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>
9488       </div>
9489       <div class="date">
9490          2nd May 2009
9491       </div>
9492       <div class="body">
9493         <p>There are two software projects that have had huge influence on the
9494 quality of free software, and I wanted to mention both in case someone
9495 do not yet know them.</p>
9496
9497 <p>The first one is <a href="http://valgrind.org/">valgrind</a>, a
9498 tool to detect and expose errors in the memory handling of programs.
9499 It is easy to use, all one need to do is to run 'valgrind program',
9500 and it will report any problems on stdout.  It is even better if the
9501 program include debug information.  With debug information, it is able
9502 to report the source file name and line number where the problem
9503 occurs.  It can report things like 'reading past memory block in file
9504 X line N, the memory block was allocated in file Y, line M', and
9505 'using uninitialised value in control logic'.  This tool has made it
9506 trivial to investigate reproducible crash bugs in programs, and have
9507 reduced the number of this kind of bugs in free software a lot.
9508
9509 <p>The second one is
9510 <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coverity">Coverity</a> which is
9511 a source code checker.  It is able to process the source of a program
9512 and find problems in the logic without running the program.  It
9513 started out as the Stanford Checker and became well known when it was
9514 used to find bugs in the Linux kernel.  It is now a commercial tool
9515 and the company behind it is running
9516 <a href="http://www.scan.coverity.com/">a community service</a> for the
9517 free software community, where a lot of free software projects get
9518 their source checked for free.  Several thousand defects have been
9519 found and fixed so far.  It can find errors like 'lock L taken in file
9520 X line N is never released if exiting in line M', or 'the code in file
9521 Y lines O to P can never be executed'.  The projects included in the
9522 community service project have managed to get rid of a lot of
9523 reliability problems thanks to Coverity.</p>
9524
9525 <p>I believe tools like this, that are able to automatically find
9526 errors in the source, are vital to improve the quality of software and
9527 make sure we can get rid of the crashing and failing software we are
9528 surrounded by today.</p>
9529
9530       </div>
9531       <div class="tags">
9532
9533
9534         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>.
9535
9536
9537       </div>
9538     </div>
9539     <div class="padding"></div>
9540
9541     <div class="entry">
9542       <div class="title">
9543         <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>
9544       </div>
9545       <div class="date">
9546         28th April 2009
9547       </div>
9548       <div class="body">
9549         <p>Julien Blache
9550 <a href="http://blog.technologeek.org/2009/04/12/214">claim that no
9551 patch is better than a useless patch</a>.  I completely disagree, as a
9552 patch allow one to discuss a concrete and proposed solution, and also
9553 prove that the issue at hand is important enough for someone to spent
9554 time on fixing it.  No patch do not provide any of these positive
9555 properties.</p>
9556
9557       </div>
9558       <div class="tags">
9559
9560
9561         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>.
9562
9563
9564       </div>
9565     </div>
9566     <div class="padding"></div>
9567
9568     <div class="entry">
9569       <div class="title">
9570         <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>
9571       </div>
9572       <div class="date">
9573         30th March 2009
9574       </div>
9575       <div class="body">
9576         <p>Where I work at the University of Oslo, one decision stand out as a
9577 very good one to form a long lived computer infrastructure.  It is the
9578 simple one, lost by many in todays computer industry: Standardize on
9579 open network protocols and open exchange/storage formats, not applications.
9580 Applications come and go, while protocols and files tend to stay, and
9581 thus one want to make it easy to change application and vendor, while
9582 avoiding conversion costs and locking users to a specific platform or
9583 application.</p>
9584
9585 <p>This approach make it possible to replace the client applications
9586 independently of the server applications.  One can even allow users to
9587 use several different applications as long as they handle the selected
9588 protocol and format.  In the normal case, only one client application
9589 is recommended and users only get help if they choose to use this
9590 application, but those that want to deviate from the easy path are not
9591 blocked from doing so.</p>
9592
9593 <p>It also allow us to replace the server side without forcing the
9594 users to replace their applications, and thus allow us to select the
9595 best server implementation at any moment, when scale and resouce
9596 requirements change.</p>
9597
9598 <p>I strongly recommend standardizing - on open network protocols and
9599 open formats, but I would never recommend standardizing on a single
9600 application that do not use open network protocol or open formats.</p>
9601
9602       </div>
9603       <div class="tags">
9604
9605
9606         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>.
9607
9608
9609       </div>
9610     </div>
9611     <div class="padding"></div>
9612
9613     <div class="entry">
9614       <div class="title">
9615         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Returning_from_Skolelinux_developer_gathering.html">Returning from Skolelinux developer gathering</a>
9616       </div>
9617       <div class="date">
9618         29th March 2009
9619       </div>
9620       <div class="body">
9621         <p>I'm sitting on the train going home from this weekends Debian
9622 Edu/Skolelinux development gathering.  I got a bit done tuning the
9623 desktop, and looked into the dynamic service location protocol
9624 implementation avahi.  It look like it could be useful for us.  Almost
9625 30 people participated, and I believe it was a great environment to
9626 get to know the Skolelinux system.  Walter Bender, involved in the
9627 development of the Sugar educational platform, presented his stuff and
9628 also helped me improve my OLPC installation.  He also showed me that
9629 his Turtle Art application can be used in standalone mode, and we
9630 agreed that I would help getting it packaged for Debian.  As a
9631 standalone application it would be great for Debian Edu.  We also
9632 tried to get the video conferencing working with two OLPCs, but that
9633 proved to be too hard for us.  The application seem to need more work
9634 before it is ready for me.  I look forward to getting home and relax
9635 now. :)</p>
9636
9637       </div>
9638       <div class="tags">
9639
9640
9641         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>.
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/Time_for_new__LDAP_schemas_replacing_RFC_2307_.html">Time for new  LDAP schemas replacing RFC 2307?</a>
9651       </div>
9652       <div class="date">
9653         29th March 2009
9654       </div>
9655       <div class="body">
9656         <p>The state of standardized LDAP schemas on Linux is far from
9657 optimal.  There is RFC 2307 documenting one way to store NIS maps in
9658 LDAP, and a modified version of this normally called RFC 2307bis, with
9659 some modifications to be compatible with Active Directory.  The RFC
9660 specification handle the content of a lot of system databases, but do
9661 not handle DNS zones and DHCP configuration.</p>
9662
9663 <p>In <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu/Skolelinux</a>,
9664 we would like to store information about users, SMB clients/hosts,
9665 filegroups, netgroups (users and hosts), DHCP and DNS configuration,
9666 and LTSP configuration in LDAP.  These objects have a lot in common,
9667 but with the current LDAP schemas it is not possible to have one
9668 object per entity.  For example, one need to have at least three LDAP
9669 objects for a given computer, one with the SMB related stuff, one with
9670 DNS information and another with DHCP information.  The schemas
9671 provided for DNS and DHCP are impossible to combine into one LDAP
9672 object.  In addition, it is impossible to implement quick queries for
9673 netgroup membership, because of the way NIS triples are implemented.
9674 It just do not scale.  I believe it is time for a few RFC
9675 specifications to cleam up this mess.</p>
9676
9677 <p>I would like to have one LDAP object representing each computer in
9678 the network, and this object can then keep the SMB (ie host key), DHCP
9679 (mac address/name) and DNS (name/IP address) settings in one place.
9680 It need to be efficently stored to make sure it scale well.</p>
9681
9682 <p>I would also like to have a quick way to map from a user or
9683 computer and to the net group this user or computer is a member.</p>
9684
9685 <p>Active Directory have done a better job than unix heads like myself
9686 in this regard, and the unix side need to catch up.  Time to start a
9687 new IETF work group?</p>
9688
9689       </div>
9690       <div class="tags">
9691
9692
9693         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>.
9694
9695
9696       </div>
9697     </div>
9698     <div class="padding"></div>
9699
9700     <div class="entry">
9701       <div class="title">
9702         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Endelig_er_Debian_Lenny_gitt_ut.html">Endelig er Debian Lenny gitt ut</a>
9703       </div>
9704       <div class="date">
9705         15th February 2009
9706       </div>
9707       <div class="body">
9708         <p>Endelig er <a href="http://www.debian.org/">Debian</a>
9709 <a href="http://www.debian.org/News/2009/20090214">Lenny</a> gitt ut.
9710 Et langt steg videre for Debian-prosjektet, og en rekke nye
9711 programpakker blir nå tilgjengelig for de av oss som bruker den
9712 stabile utgaven av Debian.  Neste steg er nå å få
9713 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Skolelinux</a> /
9714 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/">Debian Edu</a> ferdig
9715 oppdatert for den nye utgaven, slik at en oppdatert versjon kan
9716 slippes løs på skolene.  Takk til alle debian-utviklerne som har
9717 gjort dette mulig.  Endelig er f.eks. fungerende avhengighetsstyrt
9718 bootsekvens tilgjengelig i stabil utgave, vha pakken
9719 <tt>insserv</tt>.</p>
9720
9721       </div>
9722       <div class="tags">
9723
9724
9725         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>.
9726
9727
9728       </div>
9729     </div>
9730     <div class="padding"></div>
9731
9732     <div class="entry">
9733       <div class="title">
9734         <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>
9735       </div>
9736       <div class="date">
9737          7th December 2008
9738       </div>
9739       <div class="body">
9740         <p>This weekend we had a small developer gathering for Debian Edu in
9741 Oslo.  Most of Saturday was used for the general assemly for the
9742 member organization, but the rest of the weekend I used to tune the
9743 LTSP installation.  LTSP now work out of the box on the 10-network.
9744 Acer Aspire One proved to be a very nice thin client, with both
9745 screen, mouse and keybard in a small box.  Was working on getting the
9746 diskless workstation setup configured out of the box, but did not
9747 finish it before the weekend was up.</p>
9748
9749 <p>Did not find time to look at the 4 VGA cards in one box we got from
9750 the Brazilian group, so that will have to wait for the next
9751 development gathering.  Would love to have the Debian Edu installer
9752 automatically detect and configure a multiseat setup when it find one
9753 of these cards.</p>
9754
9755       </div>
9756       <div class="tags">
9757
9758
9759         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>.
9760
9761
9762       </div>
9763     </div>
9764     <div class="padding"></div>
9765
9766     <div class="entry">
9767       <div class="title">
9768         <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>
9769       </div>
9770       <div class="date">
9771         25th November 2008
9772       </div>
9773       <div class="body">
9774         <p>Recently I have spent some time evaluating the multimedia browser
9775 plugins available in Debian Lenny, to see which one we should use by
9776 default in Debian Edu.  We need an embedded video playing plugin with
9777 control buttons to pause or stop the video, and capable of streaming
9778 all the multimedia content available on the web.  The test results and
9779 notes are available on
9780 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/BrowserMultimedia">the
9781 Debian wiki</a>.  I was surprised how few of the plugins are able to
9782 fill this need.  My personal video player favorite, VLC, has a really
9783 bad plugin which fail on a lot of the test pages.  A lot of the MIME
9784 types I would expect to work with any free software player (like
9785 video/ogg), just do not work.  And simple formats like the
9786 audio/x-mplegurl format (m3u playlists), just isn't supported by the
9787 totem and vlc plugins.  I hope the situation will improve soon.  No
9788 wonder sites use the proprietary Adobe flash to play video.</p>
9789
9790 <p>For Lenny, we seem to end up with the mplayer plugin.  It seem to
9791 be the only one fitting our needs. :/</p>
9792
9793       </div>
9794       <div class="tags">
9795
9796
9797         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>.
9798
9799
9800       </div>
9801     </div>
9802     <div class="padding"></div>
9803
9804     <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>
9805     <div id="sidebar">
9806
9807
9808
9809 <h2>Archive</h2>
9810 <ul>
9811
9812 <li>2016
9813 <ul>
9814
9815 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2016/01/">January (3)</a></li>
9816
9817 </ul></li>
9818
9819 <li>2015
9820 <ul>
9821
9822 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/01/">January (7)</a></li>
9823
9824 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/02/">February (6)</a></li>
9825
9826 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/03/">March (1)</a></li>
9827
9828 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/04/">April (4)</a></li>
9829
9830 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/05/">May (3)</a></li>
9831
9832 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/06/">June (4)</a></li>
9833
9834 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/07/">July (6)</a></li>
9835
9836 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/08/">August (2)</a></li>
9837
9838 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/09/">September (2)</a></li>
9839
9840 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/10/">October (9)</a></li>
9841
9842 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/11/">November (6)</a></li>
9843
9844 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/12/">December (3)</a></li>
9845
9846 </ul></li>
9847
9848 <li>2014
9849 <ul>
9850
9851 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/01/">January (2)</a></li>
9852
9853 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/02/">February (3)</a></li>
9854
9855 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/03/">March (8)</a></li>
9856
9857 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/04/">April (7)</a></li>
9858
9859 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/05/">May (1)</a></li>
9860
9861 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/06/">June (2)</a></li>
9862
9863 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/07/">July (2)</a></li>
9864
9865 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/08/">August (2)</a></li>
9866
9867 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/09/">September (5)</a></li>
9868
9869 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/10/">October (6)</a></li>
9870
9871 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/11/">November (3)</a></li>
9872
9873 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/12/">December (5)</a></li>
9874
9875 </ul></li>
9876
9877 <li>2013
9878 <ul>
9879
9880 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/01/">January (11)</a></li>
9881
9882 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/02/">February (9)</a></li>
9883
9884 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/03/">March (9)</a></li>
9885
9886 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/04/">April (6)</a></li>
9887
9888 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/05/">May (9)</a></li>
9889
9890 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/06/">June (10)</a></li>
9891
9892 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/07/">July (7)</a></li>
9893
9894 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/08/">August (3)</a></li>
9895
9896 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/09/">September (5)</a></li>
9897
9898 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/10/">October (7)</a></li>
9899
9900 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/11/">November (9)</a></li>
9901
9902 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/12/">December (3)</a></li>
9903
9904 </ul></li>
9905
9906 <li>2012
9907 <ul>
9908
9909 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/01/">January (7)</a></li>
9910
9911 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/02/">February (10)</a></li>
9912
9913 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/03/">March (17)</a></li>
9914
9915 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/04/">April (12)</a></li>
9916
9917 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/05/">May (12)</a></li>
9918
9919 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/06/">June (20)</a></li>
9920
9921 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/07/">July (17)</a></li>
9922
9923 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/08/">August (6)</a></li>
9924
9925 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/09/">September (9)</a></li>
9926
9927 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/10/">October (17)</a></li>
9928
9929 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/11/">November (10)</a></li>
9930
9931 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/12/">December (7)</a></li>
9932
9933 </ul></li>
9934
9935 <li>2011
9936 <ul>
9937
9938 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/01/">January (16)</a></li>
9939
9940 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/02/">February (6)</a></li>
9941
9942 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/03/">March (6)</a></li>
9943
9944 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/04/">April (7)</a></li>
9945
9946 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/05/">May (3)</a></li>
9947
9948 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/06/">June (2)</a></li>
9949
9950 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/07/">July (7)</a></li>
9951
9952 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/08/">August (6)</a></li>
9953
9954 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/09/">September (4)</a></li>
9955
9956 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/10/">October (2)</a></li>
9957
9958 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/11/">November (3)</a></li>
9959
9960 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/12/">December (1)</a></li>
9961
9962 </ul></li>
9963
9964 <li>2010
9965 <ul>
9966
9967 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/01/">January (2)</a></li>
9968
9969 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/02/">February (1)</a></li>
9970
9971 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/03/">March (3)</a></li>
9972
9973 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/04/">April (3)</a></li>
9974
9975 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/05/">May (9)</a></li>
9976
9977 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/06/">June (14)</a></li>
9978
9979 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/07/">July (12)</a></li>
9980
9981 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/08/">August (13)</a></li>
9982
9983 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/09/">September (7)</a></li>
9984
9985 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/10/">October (9)</a></li>
9986
9987 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/11/">November (13)</a></li>
9988
9989 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/12/">December (12)</a></li>
9990
9991 </ul></li>
9992
9993 <li>2009
9994 <ul>
9995
9996 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/01/">January (8)</a></li>
9997
9998 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/02/">February (8)</a></li>
9999
10000 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/03/">March (12)</a></li>
10001
10002 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/04/">April (10)</a></li>
10003
10004 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/05/">May (9)</a></li>
10005
10006 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/06/">June (3)</a></li>
10007
10008 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/07/">July (4)</a></li>
10009
10010 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/08/">August (3)</a></li>
10011
10012 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/09/">September (1)</a></li>
10013
10014 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/10/">October (2)</a></li>
10015
10016 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/11/">November (3)</a></li>
10017
10018 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/12/">December (3)</a></li>
10019
10020 </ul></li>
10021
10022 <li>2008
10023 <ul>
10024
10025 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2008/11/">November (5)</a></li>
10026
10027 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2008/12/">December (7)</a></li>
10028
10029 </ul></li>
10030
10031 </ul>
10032
10033
10034
10035 <h2>Tags</h2>
10036 <ul>
10037
10038  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/3d-printer">3d-printer (13)</a></li>
10039
10040  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/amiga">amiga (1)</a></li>
10041
10042  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/aros">aros (1)</a></li>
10043
10044  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bankid">bankid (4)</a></li>
10045
10046  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bitcoin">bitcoin (9)</a></li>
10047
10048  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bootsystem">bootsystem (15)</a></li>
10049
10050  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bsa">bsa (2)</a></li>
10051
10052  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/chrpath">chrpath (2)</a></li>
10053
10054  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian (118)</a></li>
10055
10056  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu (154)</a></li>
10057
10058  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/digistan">digistan (10)</a></li>
10059
10060  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/dld">dld (15)</a></li>
10061
10062  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/docbook">docbook (20)</a></li>
10063
10064  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/drivstoffpriser">drivstoffpriser (4)</a></li>
10065
10066  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english (300)</a></li>
10067
10068  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/fiksgatami">fiksgatami (23)</a></li>
10069
10070  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/fildeling">fildeling (12)</a></li>
10071
10072  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freeculture">freeculture (25)</a></li>
10073
10074  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freedombox">freedombox (9)</a></li>
10075
10076  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/frikanalen">frikanalen (16)</a></li>
10077
10078  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/h264">h264 (20)</a></li>
10079
10080  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/intervju">intervju (42)</a></li>
10081
10082  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram">isenkram (11)</a></li>
10083
10084  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/kart">kart (19)</a></li>
10085
10086  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ldap">ldap (9)</a></li>
10087
10088  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/lenker">lenker (8)</a></li>
10089
10090  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/lsdvd">lsdvd (2)</a></li>
10091
10092  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ltsp">ltsp (1)</a></li>
10093
10094  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/mesh network">mesh network (8)</a></li>
10095
10096  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/multimedia">multimedia (37)</a></li>
10097
10098  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nice free software">nice free software (7)</a></li>
10099
10100  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/norsk">norsk (273)</a></li>
10101
10102  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug (177)</a></li>
10103
10104  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/offentlig innsyn">offentlig innsyn (22)</a></li>
10105
10106  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/open311">open311 (2)</a></li>
10107
10108  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/opphavsrett">opphavsrett (58)</a></li>
10109
10110  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/personvern">personvern (92)</a></li>
10111
10112  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/raid">raid (1)</a></li>
10113
10114  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/reactos">reactos (1)</a></li>
10115
10116  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/reprap">reprap (11)</a></li>
10117
10118  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/rfid">rfid (3)</a></li>
10119
10120  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/robot">robot (9)</a></li>
10121
10122  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/rss">rss (1)</a></li>
10123
10124  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ruter">ruter (4)</a></li>
10125
10126  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/scraperwiki">scraperwiki (2)</a></li>
10127
10128  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet (45)</a></li>
10129
10130  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sitesummary">sitesummary (4)</a></li>
10131
10132  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/skepsis">skepsis (4)</a></li>
10133
10134  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/standard">standard (48)</a></li>
10135
10136  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/stavekontroll">stavekontroll (3)</a></li>
10137
10138  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/stortinget">stortinget (10)</a></li>
10139
10140  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance (36)</a></li>
10141
10142  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sysadmin">sysadmin (2)</a></li>
10143
10144  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/usenix">usenix (2)</a></li>
10145
10146  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/valg">valg (8)</a></li>
10147
10148  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/video">video (55)</a></li>
10149
10150  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/vitenskap">vitenskap (4)</a></li>
10151
10152  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/web">web (38)</a></li>
10153
10154 </ul>
10155
10156
10157     </div>
10158     <p style="text-align: right">
10159  Created by <a href="http://steve.org.uk/Software/chronicle">Chronicle v4.6</a>
10160 </p>
10161
10162   </body>
10163 </html>