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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/Norwegian_Bokm_l_translation_of_The_Debian_Administrator_s_Handbook_complete__proofreading_in_progress.html">Norwegian Bokmål translation of The Debian Administrator's Handbook complete, proofreading in progress</a>
  26       </div>
  27       <div class="date">
  28          3rd March 2017
  29       </div>
  30       <div class="body">
  31         <p>For almost a year now, we have been working on making a Norwegian
  32 Bokmål edition of <a href="https://debian-handbook.info/">The Debian
  33 Administrator's Handbook</a>.  Now, thanks to the tireless effort of
  34 Ole-Erik, Ingrid and Andreas, the initial translation is complete, and
  35 we are working on the proof reading to ensure consistent language and
  36 use of correct computer science terms.  The plan is to make the book
  37 available on paper, as well as in electronic form.  For that to
  38 happen, the proof reading must be completed and all the figures need
  39 to be translated.  If you want to help out, get in touch.</p>
  40
  41 <p><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/debian-handbook/debian-handbook-nb-NO.pdf">A
  42
  43 fresh PDF edition</a> in A4 format (the final book will have smaller
  44 pages) of the book created every morning is available for
  45 proofreading.  If you find any errors, please
  46 <a href="https://hosted.weblate.org/projects/debian-handbook/">visit
  47 Weblate and correct the error</a>.  The
  48 <a href="http://l.github.io/debian-handbook/stat/nb-NO/index.html">state
  49 of the translation including figures</a> is a useful source for those
  50 provide Norwegian bokmål screen shots and figures.</p>
  51
  52       </div>
  53       <div class="tags">
  54
  55
  56         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian-handbook">debian-handbook</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
  57
  58
  59       </div>
  60     </div>
  61     <div class="padding"></div>
  62
  63     <div class="entry">
  64       <div class="title">
  65         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Unlimited_randomness_with_the_ChaosKey_.html">Unlimited randomness with the ChaosKey?</a>
  66       </div>
  67       <div class="date">
  68          1st March 2017
  69       </div>
  70       <div class="body">
  71         <p>A few days ago I ordered a small batch of
  72 <a href="http://altusmetrum.org/ChaosKey/">the ChaosKey</a>, a small
  73 USB dongle for generating entropy created by Bdale Garbee and Keith
  74 Packard.  Yesterday it arrived, and I am very happy to report that it
  75 work great!  According to its designers, to get it to work out of the
  76 box, you need the Linux kernel version 4.1 or later.  I tested on a
  77 Debian Stretch machine (kernel version 4.9), and there it worked just
  78 fine, increasing the available entropy very quickly.  I wrote a small
  79 test oneliner to test.  It first print the current entropy level,
  80 drain /dev/random, and then print the entropy level for five seconds.
  81 Here is the situation without the ChaosKey inserted:</p>
  82
  83 <blockquote><pre>
  84 % cat /proc/sys/kernel/random/entropy_avail; \
  85   dd bs=1M if=/dev/random of=/dev/null count=1; \
  86   for n in $(seq 1 5); do \
  87      cat /proc/sys/kernel/random/entropy_avail; \
  88      sleep 1; \
  89   done
  90 300
  91 0+1 oppføringer inn
  92 0+1 oppføringer ut
  93 28 byte kopiert, 0,000264565 s, 106 kB/s
  94 4
  95 8
  96 12
  97 17
  98 21
  99 %
 100 </pre></blockquote>
 101
 102 <p>The entropy level increases by 3-4 every second.  In such case any
 103 application requiring random bits (like a HTTPS enabled web server)
 104 will halt and wait for more entrpy.  And here is the situation with
 105 the ChaosKey inserted:</p>
 106
 107 <blockquote><pre>
 108 % cat /proc/sys/kernel/random/entropy_avail; \
 109   dd bs=1M if=/dev/random of=/dev/null count=1; \
 110   for n in $(seq 1 5); do \
 111      cat /proc/sys/kernel/random/entropy_avail; \
 112      sleep 1; \
 113   done
 114 1079
 115 0+1 oppføringer inn
 116 0+1 oppføringer ut
 117 104 byte kopiert, 0,000487647 s, 213 kB/s
 118 433
 119 1028
 120 1031
 121 1035
 122 1038
 123 %
 124 </pre></blockquote>
 125
 126 <p>Quite the difference. :) I bought a few more than I need, in case
 127 someone want to buy one here in Norway. :)</p>
 128
 129 <p>Update: The dongle was presented at Debconf last year.  You might
 130 find <a href="https://debconf16.debconf.org/talks/94/">the talk
 131 recording illuminating</a>.  It explains exactly what the source of
 132 randomness is, if you are unable to spot it from the schema drawing
 133 available from the ChaosKey web site linked at the start of this blog
 134 post.</p>
 135
 136       </div>
 137       <div class="tags">
 138
 139
 140         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>.
 141
 142
 143       </div>
 144     </div>
 145     <div class="padding"></div>
 146
 147     <div class="entry">
 148       <div class="title">
 149         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Where_did_that_package_go___mdash__geolocated_IP_traceroute.html">Where did that package go? &mdash; geolocated IP traceroute</a>
 150       </div>
 151       <div class="date">
 152          9th January 2017
 153       </div>
 154       <div class="body">
 155         <p>Did you ever wonder where the web trafic really flow to reach the
 156 web servers, and who own the network equipment it is flowing through?
 157 It is possible to get a glimpse of this from using traceroute, but it
 158 is hard to find all the details.  Many years ago, I wrote a system to
 159 map the Norwegian Internet (trying to figure out if our plans for a
 160 network game service would get low enough latency, and who we needed
 161 to talk to about setting up game servers close to the users.  Back
 162 then I used traceroute output from many locations (I asked my friends
 163 to run a script and send me their traceroute output) to create the
 164 graph and the map.  The output from traceroute typically look like
 165 this:
 166
 167 <p><pre>
 168 traceroute to www.stortinget.no (85.88.67.10), 30 hops max, 60 byte packets
 169  1  uio-gw10.uio.no (129.240.202.1)  0.447 ms  0.486 ms  0.621 ms
 170  2  uio-gw8.uio.no (129.240.24.229)  0.467 ms  0.578 ms  0.675 ms
 171  3  oslo-gw1.uninett.no (128.39.65.17)  0.385 ms  0.373 ms  0.358 ms
 172  4  te3-1-2.br1.fn3.as2116.net (193.156.90.3)  1.174 ms  1.172 ms  1.153 ms
 173  5  he16-1-1.cr1.san110.as2116.net (195.0.244.234)  2.627 ms he16-1-1.cr2.oslosda310.as2116.net (195.0.244.48)  3.172 ms he16-1-1.cr1.san110.as2116.net (195.0.244.234)  2.857 ms
 174  6  ae1.ar8.oslosda310.as2116.net (195.0.242.39)  0.662 ms  0.637 ms ae0.ar8.oslosda310.as2116.net (195.0.242.23)  0.622 ms
 175  7  89.191.10.146 (89.191.10.146)  0.931 ms  0.917 ms  0.955 ms
 176  8  * * *
 177  9  * * *
 178 [...]
 179 </pre></p>
 180
 181 <p>This show the DNS names and IP addresses of (at least some of the)
 182 network equipment involved in getting the data traffic from me to the
 183 www.stortinget.no server, and how long it took in milliseconds for a
 184 package to reach the equipment and return to me.  Three packages are
 185 sent, and some times the packages do not follow the same path.  This
 186 is shown for hop 5, where three different IP addresses replied to the
 187 traceroute request.</p>
 188
 189 <p>There are many ways to measure trace routes.  Other good traceroute
 190 implementations I use are traceroute (using ICMP packages) mtr (can do
 191 both ICMP, UDP and TCP) and scapy (python library with ICMP, UDP, TCP
 192 traceroute and a lot of other capabilities).  All of them are easily
 193 available in <a href="https://www.debian.org/">Debian</a>.</p>
 194
 195 <p>This time around, I wanted to know the geographic location of
 196 different route points, to visualize how visiting a web page spread
 197 information about the visit to a lot of servers around the globe.  The
 198 background is that a web site today often will ask the browser to get
 199 from many servers the parts (for example HTML, JSON, fonts,
 200 JavaScript, CSS, video) required to display the content.  This will
 201 leak information about the visit to those controlling these servers
 202 and anyone able to peek at the data traffic passing by (like your ISP,
 203 the ISPs backbone provider, FRA, GCHQ, NSA and others).</p>
 204
 205 <p>Lets pick an example, the Norwegian parliament web site
 206 www.stortinget.no.  It is read daily by all members of parliament and
 207 their staff, as well as political journalists, activits and many other
 208 citizens of Norway.  A visit to the www.stortinget.no web site will
 209 ask your browser to contact 8 other servers: ajax.googleapis.com,
 210 insights.hotjar.com, script.hotjar.com, static.hotjar.com,
 211 stats.g.doubleclick.net, www.google-analytics.com,
 212 www.googletagmanager.com and www.netigate.se.  I extracted this by
 213 asking <a href="http://phantomjs.org/">PhantomJS</a> to visit the
 214 Stortinget web page and tell me all the URLs PhantomJS downloaded to
 215 render the page (in HAR format using
 216 <a href="https://github.com/ariya/phantomjs/blob/master/examples/netsniff.js">their
 217 netsniff example</a>.  I am very grateful to Gorm for showing me how
 218 to do this).  My goal is to visualize network traces to all IP
 219 addresses behind these DNS names, do show where visitors personal
 220 information is spread when visiting the page.</p>
 221
 222 <p align="center"><a href="www.stortinget.no-geoip.kml"><img
 223 src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2017-01-09-www.stortinget.no-geoip-small.png" alt="map of combined traces for URLs used by www.stortinget.no using GeoIP"/></a></p>
 224
 225 <p>When I had a look around for options, I could not find any good
 226 free software tools to do this, and decided I needed my own traceroute
 227 wrapper outputting KML based on locations looked up using GeoIP.  KML
 228 is easy to work with and easy to generate, and understood by several
 229 of the GIS tools I have available.  I got good help from by NUUG
 230 colleague Anders Einar with this, and the result can be seen in
 231 <a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/kmltraceroute">my
 232 kmltraceroute git repository</a>.  Unfortunately, the quality of the
 233 free GeoIP databases I could find (and the for-pay databases my
 234 friends had access to) is not up to the task.  The IP addresses of
 235 central Internet infrastructure would typically be placed near the
 236 controlling companies main office, and not where the router is really
 237 located, as you can see from <a href="www.stortinget.no-geoip.kml">the
 238 KML file I created</a> using the GeoLite City dataset from MaxMind.
 239
 240 <p align="center"><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2017-01-09-www.stortinget.no-scapy.svg"><img
 241 src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2017-01-09-www.stortinget.no-scapy-small.png" alt="scapy traceroute graph for URLs used by www.stortinget.no"/></a></p>
 242
 243 <p>I also had a look at the visual traceroute graph created by
 244 <a href="http://www.secdev.org/projects/scapy/">the scrapy project</a>,
 245 showing IP network ownership (aka AS owner) for the IP address in
 246 question.
 247 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2017-01-09-www.stortinget.no-scapy.svg">The
 248 graph display a lot of useful information about the traceroute in SVG
 249 format</a>, and give a good indication on who control the network
 250 equipment involved, but it do not include geolocation.  This graph
 251 make it possible to see the information is made available at least for
 252 UNINETT, Catchcom, Stortinget, Nordunet, Google, Amazon, Telia, Level
 253 3 Communications and NetDNA.</p>
 254
 255 <p align="center"><a href="https://geotraceroute.com/index.php?node=4&host=www.stortinget.no"><img
 256 src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2017-01-09-www.stortinget.no-geotraceroute-small.png" alt="example geotraceroute view for www.stortinget.no"/></a></p>
 257
 258 <p>In the process, I came across the
 259 <a href="https://geotraceroute.com/">web service GeoTraceroute</a> by
 260 Salim Gasmi.  Its methology of combining guesses based on DNS names,
 261 various location databases and finally use latecy times to rule out
 262 candidate locations seemed to do a very good job of guessing correct
 263 geolocation.  But it could only do one trace at the time, did not have
 264 a sensor in Norway and did not make the geolocations easily available
 265 for postprocessing.  So I contacted the developer and asked if he
 266 would be willing to share the code (he refused until he had time to
 267 clean it up), but he was interested in providing the geolocations in a
 268 machine readable format, and willing to set up a sensor in Norway.  So
 269 since yesterday, it is possible to run traces from Norway in this
 270 service thanks to a sensor node set up by
 271 <a href="https://www.nuug.no/">the NUUG assosiation</a>, and get the
 272 trace in KML format for further processing.</p>
 273
 274 <p align="center"><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2017-01-09-www.stortinget.no-geotraceroute-kml-join.kml"><img
 275 src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2017-01-09-www.stortinget.no-geotraceroute-kml-join.png" alt="map of combined traces for URLs used by www.stortinget.no using geotraceroute"/></a></p>
 276
 277 <p>Here we can see a lot of trafic passes Sweden on its way to
 278 Denmark, Germany, Holland and Ireland.  Plenty of places where the
 279 Snowden confirmations verified the traffic is read by various actors
 280 without your best interest as their top priority.</p>
 281
 282 <p>Combining KML files is trivial using a text editor, so I could loop
 283 over all the hosts behind the urls imported by www.stortinget.no and
 284 ask for the KML file from GeoTraceroute, and create a combined KML
 285 file with all the traces (unfortunately only one of the IP addresses
 286 behind the DNS name is traced this time.  To get them all, one would
 287 have to request traces using IP number instead of DNS names from
 288 GeoTraceroute).  That might be the next step in this project.</p>
 289
 290 <p>Armed with these tools, I find it a lot easier to figure out where
 291 the IP traffic moves and who control the boxes involved in moving it.
 292 And every time the link crosses for example the Swedish border, we can
 293 be sure Swedish Signal Intelligence (FRA) is listening, as GCHQ do in
 294 Britain and NSA in USA and cables around the globe.  (Hm, what should
 295 we tell them? :) Keep that in mind if you ever send anything
 296 unencrypted over the Internet.</p>
 297
 298 <p>PS: KML files are drawn using
 299 <a href="http://ivanrublev.me/kml/">the KML viewer from Ivan
 300 Rublev<a/>, as it was less cluttered than the local Linux application
 301 Marble.  There are heaps of other options too.</p>
 302
 303 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
 304 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
 305 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b&label=PetterReinholdtsenBlog">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
 306
 307       </div>
 308       <div class="tags">
 309
 310
 311         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/kart">kart</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/personvern">personvern</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/stortinget">stortinget</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/web">web</a>.
 312
 313
 314       </div>
 315     </div>
 316     <div class="padding"></div>
 317
 318     <div class="entry">
 319       <div class="title">
 320         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Appstream_just_learned_how_to_map_hardware_to_packages_too_.html">Appstream just learned how to map hardware to packages too!</a>
 321       </div>
 322       <div class="date">
 323         23rd December 2016
 324       </div>
 325       <div class="body">
 326         <p>I received a very nice Christmas present today.  As my regular
 327 readers probably know, I have been working on the
 328 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/isenkram">the Isenkram
 329 system</a> for many years.  The goal of the Isenkram system is to make
 330 it easier for users to figure out what to install to get a given piece
 331 of hardware to work in Debian, and a key part of this system is a way
 332 to map hardware to packages.  Isenkram have its own mapping database,
 333 and also uses data provided by each package using the AppStream
 334 metadata format.  And today,
 335 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/appstream">AppStream</a> in
 336 Debian learned to look up hardware the same way Isenkram is doing it,
 337 ie using fnmatch():</p>
 338
 339 <p><pre>
 340 % appstreamcli what-provides modalias \
 341   usb:v1130p0202d0100dc00dsc00dp00ic03isc00ip00in00
 342 Identifier: pymissile [generic]
 343 Name: pymissile
 344 Summary: Control original Striker USB Missile Launcher
 345 Package: pymissile
 346 % appstreamcli what-provides modalias usb:v0694p0002d0000
 347 Identifier: libnxt [generic]
 348 Name: libnxt
 349 Summary: utility library for talking to the LEGO Mindstorms NXT brick
 350 Package: libnxt
 351 ---
 352 Identifier: t2n [generic]
 353 Name: t2n
 354 Summary: Simple command-line tool for Lego NXT
 355 Package: t2n
 356 ---
 357 Identifier: python-nxt [generic]
 358 Name: python-nxt
 359 Summary: Python driver/interface/wrapper for the Lego Mindstorms NXT robot
 360 Package: python-nxt
 361 ---
 362 Identifier: nbc [generic]
 363 Name: nbc
 364 Summary: C compiler for LEGO Mindstorms NXT bricks
 365 Package: nbc
 366 %
 367 </pre></p>
 368
 369 <p>A similar query can be done using the combined AppStream and
 370 Isenkram databases using the isenkram-lookup tool:</p>
 371
 372 <p><pre>
 373 % isenkram-lookup usb:v1130p0202d0100dc00dsc00dp00ic03isc00ip00in00
 374 pymissile
 375 % isenkram-lookup usb:v0694p0002d0000
 376 libnxt
 377 nbc
 378 python-nxt
 379 t2n
 380 %
 381 </pre></p>
 382
 383 <p>You can find modalias values relevant for your machine using
 384 <tt>cat $(find /sys/devices/ -name modalias)</tt>.
 385
 386 <p>If you want to make this system a success and help Debian users
 387 make the most of the hardware they have, please
 388 help<a href="https://wiki.debian.org/AppStream/Guidelines">add
 389 AppStream metadata for your package following the guidelines</a>
 390 documented in the wiki.  So far only 11 packages provide such
 391 information, among the several hundred hardware specific packages in
 392 Debian. The Isenkram database on the other hand contain 101 packages,
 393 mostly related to USB dongles.  Most of the packages with hardware
 394 mapping in AppStream are LEGO Mindstorms related, because I have, as
 395 part of my involvement in
 396 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/LegoDesigners">the Debian LEGO
 397 team</a> given priority to making sure LEGO users get proposed the
 398 complete set of packages in Debian for that particular hardware.  The
 399 team also got a nice Christmas present today.  The
 400 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/nxt-firmware">nxt-firmware
 401 package</a> made it into Debian.  With this package in place, it is
 402 now possible to use the LEGO Mindstorms NXT unit with only free
 403 software, as the nxt-firmware package contain the source and firmware
 404 binaries for the NXT brick.</p>
 405
 406 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
 407 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
 408 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b&label=PetterReinholdtsenBlog">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
 409
 410       </div>
 411       <div class="tags">
 412
 413
 414         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>.
 415
 416
 417       </div>
 418     </div>
 419     <div class="padding"></div>
 420
 421     <div class="entry">
 422       <div class="title">
 423         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Isenkram_updated_with_a_lot_more_hardware_package_mappings.html">Isenkram updated with a lot more hardware-package mappings</a>
 424       </div>
 425       <div class="date">
 426         20th December 2016
 427       </div>
 428       <div class="body">
 429         <p><a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/isenkram">The Isenkram
 430 system</a> I wrote two years ago to make it easier in Debian to find
 431 and install packages to get your hardware dongles to work, is still
 432 going strong.  It is a system to look up the hardware present on or
 433 connected to the current system, and map the hardware to Debian
 434 packages.  It can either be done using the tools in isenkram-cli or
 435 using the user space daemon in the isenkram package.  The latter will
 436 notify you, when inserting new hardware, about what packages to
 437 install to get the dongle working.  It will even provide a button to
 438 click on to ask packagekit to install the packages.</p>
 439
 440 <p>Here is an command line example from my Thinkpad laptop:</p>
 441
 442 <p><pre>
 443 % isenkram-lookup
 444 bluez
 445 cheese
 446 ethtool
 447 fprintd
 448 fprintd-demo
 449 gkrellm-thinkbat
 450 hdapsd
 451 libpam-fprintd
 452 pidgin-blinklight
 453 thinkfan
 454 tlp
 455 tp-smapi-dkms
 456 tp-smapi-source
 457 tpb
 458 %
 459 </pre></p>
 460
 461 <p>It can also list the firware package providing firmware requested
 462 by the load kernel modules, which in my case is an empty list because
 463 I have all the firmware my machine need:
 464
 465 <p><pre>
 466 % /usr/sbin/isenkram-autoinstall-firmware -l
 467 info: did not find any firmware files requested by loaded kernel modules.  exiting
 468 %
 469 </pre></p>
 470
 471 <p>The last few days I had a look at several of the around 250
 472 packages in Debian with udev rules.  These seem like good candidates
 473 to install when a given hardware dongle is inserted, and I found
 474 several that should be proposed by isenkram.  I have not had time to
 475 check all of them, but am happy to report that now there are 97
 476 packages packages mapped to hardware by Isenkram.  11 of these
 477 packages provide hardware mapping using AppStream, while the rest are
 478 listed in the modaliases file provided in isenkram.</p>
 479
 480 <p>These are the packages with hardware mappings at the moment.  The
 481 <strong>marked packages</strong> are also announcing their hardware
 482 support using AppStream, for everyone to use:</p>
 483
 484 <p>air-quality-sensor, alsa-firmware-loaders, argyll,
 485 <strong>array-info</strong>, avarice, avrdude, b43-fwcutter,
 486 bit-babbler, bluez, bluez-firmware, <strong>brltty</strong>,
 487 <strong>broadcom-sta-dkms</strong>, calibre, cgminer, cheese, colord,
 488 <strong>colorhug-client</strong>, dahdi-firmware-nonfree, dahdi-linux,
 489 dfu-util, dolphin-emu, ekeyd, ethtool, firmware-ipw2x00, fprintd,
 490 fprintd-demo, <strong>galileo</strong>, gkrellm-thinkbat, gphoto2,
 491 gpsbabel, gpsbabel-gui, gpsman, gpstrans, gqrx-sdr, gr-fcdproplus,
 492 gr-osmosdr, gtkpod, hackrf, hdapsd, hdmi2usb-udev, hpijs-ppds, hplip,
 493 ipw3945-source, ipw3945d, kde-config-tablet, kinect-audio-setup,
 494 <strong>libnxt</strong>, libpam-fprintd, <strong>lomoco</strong>,
 495 madwimax, minidisc-utils, mkgmap, msi-keyboard, mtkbabel,
 496 <strong>nbc</strong>, <strong>nqc</strong>, nut-hal-drivers, ola,
 497 open-vm-toolbox, open-vm-tools, openambit, pcgminer, pcmciautils,
 498 pcscd, pidgin-blinklight, printer-driver-splix,
 499 <strong>pymissile</strong>, python-nxt, qlandkartegt,
 500 qlandkartegt-garmin, rosegarden, rt2x00-source, sispmctl,
 501 soapysdr-module-hackrf, solaar, squeak-plugins-scratch, sunxi-tools,
 502 <strong>t2n</strong>, thinkfan, thinkfinger-tools, tlp, tp-smapi-dkms,
 503 tp-smapi-source, tpb, tucnak, uhd-host, usbmuxd, viking,
 504 virtualbox-ose-guest-x11, w1retap, xawtv, xserver-xorg-input-vmmouse,
 505 xserver-xorg-input-wacom, xserver-xorg-video-qxl,
 506 xserver-xorg-video-vmware, yubikey-personalization and
 507 zd1211-firmware</p>
 508
 509 <p>If you know of other packages, please let me know with a wishlist
 510 bug report against the isenkram-cli package, and ask the package
 511 maintainer to
 512 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/AppStream/Guidelines">add AppStream
 513 metadata according to the guidelines</a> to provide the information
 514 for everyone.  In time, I hope to get rid of the isenkram specific
 515 hardware mapping and depend exclusively on AppStream.</p>
 516
 517 <p>Note, the AppStream metadata for broadcom-sta-dkms is matching too
 518 much hardware, and suggest that the package with with any ethernet
 519 card.  See <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/838735">bug #838735</a> for
 520 the details.  I hope the maintainer find time to address it soon.  In
 521 the mean time I provide an override in isenkram.</p>
 522
 523       </div>
 524       <div class="tags">
 525
 526
 527         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>.
 528
 529
 530       </div>
 531     </div>
 532     <div class="padding"></div>
 533
 534     <div class="entry">
 535       <div class="title">
 536         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Oolite__a_life_in_space_as_vagabond_and_mercenary___nice_free_software.html">Oolite, a life in space as vagabond and mercenary - nice free software</a>
 537       </div>
 538       <div class="date">
 539         11th December 2016
 540       </div>
 541       <div class="body">
 542         <p align="center"><img width="70%" src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2016-12-11-nice-oolite.png"/></p>
 543
 544 <p>In my early years, I played
 545 <a href="http://wiki.alioth.net/index.php/Classic_Elite">the epic game
 546 Elite</a> on my PC.  I spent many months trading and fighting in
 547 space, and reached the 'elite' fighting status before I moved on.  The
 548 original Elite game was available on Commodore 64 and the IBM PC
 549 edition I played had a 64 KB executable.  I am still impressed today
 550 that the authors managed to squeeze both a 3D engine and details about
 551 more than 2000 planet systems across 7 galaxies into a binary so
 552 small.</p>
 553
 554 <p>I have known about <a href="http://www.oolite.org/">the free
 555 software game Oolite inspired by Elite</a> for a while, but did not
 556 really have time to test it properly until a few days ago.  It was
 557 great to discover that my old knowledge about trading routes were
 558 still valid.  But my fighting and flying abilities were gone, so I had
 559 to retrain to be able to dock on a space station.  And I am still not
 560 able to make much resistance when I am attacked by pirates, so I
 561 bougth and mounted the most powerful laser in the rear to be able to
 562 put up at least some resistance while fleeing for my life. :)</p>
 563
 564 <p>When playing Elite in the late eighties, I had to discover
 565 everything on my own, and I had long lists of prices seen on different
 566 planets to be able to decide where to trade what.  This time I had the
 567 advantages of the
 568 <a href="http://wiki.alioth.net/index.php/Main_Page">Elite wiki</a>,
 569 where information about each planet is easily available with common
 570 price ranges and suggested trading routes.  This improved my ability
 571 to earn money and I have been able to earn enough to buy a lot of
 572 useful equipent in a few days.  I believe I originally played for
 573 months before I could get a docking computer, while now I could get it
 574 after less then a week.</p>
 575
 576 <p>If you like science fiction and dreamed of a life as a vagabond in
 577 space, you should try out Oolite.  It is available for Linux, MacOSX
 578 and Windows, and is included in Debian and derivatives since 2011.</p>
 579
 580 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
 581 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
 582 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b&label=PetterReinholdtsenBlog">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
 583
 584       </div>
 585       <div class="tags">
 586
 587
 588         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>.
 589
 590
 591       </div>
 592     </div>
 593     <div class="padding"></div>
 594
 595     <div class="entry">
 596       <div class="title">
 597         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Quicker_Debian_installations_using_eatmydata.html">Quicker Debian installations using eatmydata</a>
 598       </div>
 599       <div class="date">
 600         25th November 2016
 601       </div>
 602       <div class="body">
 603         <p>Two years ago, I did some experiments with eatmydata and the Debian
 604 installation system, observing how using
 605 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Speeding_up_the_Debian_installer_using_eatmydata_and_dpkg_divert.html">eatmydata
 606 could speed up the installation</a> quite a bit.  My testing measured
 607 speedup around 20-40 percent for Debian Edu, where we install around
 608 1000 packages from within the installer.  The eatmydata package
 609 provide a way to disable/delay file system flushing.  This is a bit
 610 risky in the general case, as files that should be stored on disk will
 611 stay only in memory a bit longer than expected, causing problems if a
 612 machine crashes at an inconvenient time.  But for an installation, if
 613 the machine crashes during installation the process is normally
 614 restarted, and avoiding disk operations as much as possible to speed
 615 up the process make perfect sense.
 616
 617 <p>I added code in the Debian Edu specific installation code to enable
 618 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/libeatmydata">eatmydata</a>,
 619 but did not have time to push it any further.  But a few months ago I
 620 picked it up again and worked with the libeatmydata package maintainer
 621 Mattia Rizzolo to make it easier for everyone to get this installation
 622 speedup in Debian.  Thanks to our cooperation There is now an
 623 eatmydata-udeb package in Debian testing and unstable, and simply
 624 enabling/installing it in debian-installer (d-i) is enough to get the
 625 quicker installations.  It can be enabled using preseeding.  The
 626 following untested kernel argument should do the trick:</p>
 627
 628 <blockquote><pre>
 629 preseed/early_command="anna-install eatmydata-udeb"
 630 </pre></blockquote>
 631
 632 <p>This should ask d-i to install the package inside the d-i
 633 environment early in the installation sequence.  Having it installed
 634 in d-i in turn will make sure the relevant scripts are called just
 635 after debootstrap filled /target/ with the freshly installed Debian
 636 system to configure apt to run dpkg with eatmydata.  This is enough to
 637 speed up the installation process.  There is a proposal to
 638 <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/841153">extend the idea a bit further
 639 by using /etc/ld.so.preload instead of apt.conf</a>, but I have not
 640 tested its impact.</p>
 641
 642
 643       </div>
 644       <div class="tags">
 645
 646
 647         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>.
 648
 649
 650       </div>
 651     </div>
 652     <div class="padding"></div>
 653
 654     <div class="entry">
 655       <div class="title">
 656         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Oversette_bokm_l_til_nynorsk__enklere_enn_du_tror_takket_v_re_Apertium.html">Oversette bokmål til nynorsk, enklere enn du tror takket være Apertium</a>
 657       </div>
 658       <div class="date">
 659         24th November 2016
 660       </div>
 661       <div class="body">
 662         <p>I Norge er det mange som trenger å skrive både bokmål og nynorsk.
 663 Eksamensoppgaver, offentlige brev og nyheter er eksempler på tekster
 664 der det er krav om skriftspråk.  I tillegg til alle skoleoppgavene som
 665 elever over det ganske land skal levere inn hvert år.  Det mange ikke
 666 vet er at selv om de kommersielle alternativene
 667 <a href="https://translate.google.com/">Google Translate</a> og
 668 <a href="https://www.bing.com/translator/">Bing Translator</a> ikke kan
 669 bidra med å oversette mellom bokmål og nynorsk, så finnes det et
 670 utmerket fri programvarealternativ som kan.  Oversetterverktøyet
 671 Apertium har støtte for en rekke språkkombinasjoner, og takket være
 672 den utrettelige innsatsen til blant annet Kevin Brubeck Unhammer, kan
 673 en bruke webtjenesten til å fylle inn en tekst på bokmål eller
 674 nynorsk, og få den automatoversatt til det andre skriftspråket.
 675 Resultatet er ikke perfekt, men et svært godt utgangspunkt.  Av og til
 676 er resultatet så bra at det kan benyttes uten endringer.  Jeg vet
 677 f.eks. at store deler av Joomla ble oversatt til nynorsk ved hjelp
 678 Apertium.  Høres det ut som noe du kan ha bruk for?  Besøk i så fall
 679 <a href="https://www.apertium.org/">Apertium.org</a> og fyll inn
 680 teksten din i webskjemaet der.
 681
 682 <p>Hvis du trenger maskinell tilgang til den bakenforliggende
 683 teknologien kan du enten installere pakken
 684 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/apertium-nno-nob">apertium-nno-nob</a>
 685 på en Debian-maskin eller bruke web-API-et tilgjengelig fra
 686 api.apertium.org.  Se
 687 <a href="http://wiki.apertium.org/wiki/Apertium-apy">API-dokumentasjonen</a>
 688 for detaljer om web-API-et.  Her kan du se hvordan resultatet blir for
 689 denne teksten som ble skrevet på bokmål over maskinoversatt til
 690 nynorsk.</p>
 691
 692 <hr/>
 693
 694 <p>I Noreg er det mange som treng å skriva både bokmål og nynorsk.
 695 Eksamensoppgåver, offentlege brev og nyhende er døme på tekster der
 696 det er krav om skriftspråk.  I tillegg til alle skuleoppgåvene som
 697 elevar over det ganske land skal levera inn kvart år.  Det mange ikkje
 698 veit er at sjølv om dei kommersielle alternativa
 699 <a href="https://translate.google.com/">Google *Translate</a> og
 700 <a href="https://www.bing.com/translator/">Bing *Translator</a> ikkje
 701 kan bidra med å omsetja mellom bokmål og nynorsk, så finst det eit
 702 utmerka fri programvarealternativ som kan.  Omsetjarverktøyet
 703 *Apertium har støtte for ei rekkje språkkombinasjonar, og takka vera
 704 den utrøyttelege innsatsen til blant anna Kevin Brubeck Unhammer, kan
 705 ein bruka *webtjenesten til å fylla inn ei tekst på bokmål eller
 706 nynorsk, og få den *automatoversatt til det andre skriftspråket.
 707 Resultatet er ikkje perfekt, men eit svært godt utgangspunkt.  Av og
 708 til er resultatet så bra at det kan nyttast utan endringar.  Eg veit
 709 t.d. at store delar av *Joomla vart omsett til nynorsk ved hjelp
 710 *Apertium.  Høyrast det ut som noko du kan ha bruk for?  Besøk i så
 711 fall <a href="https://www.apertium.org/">*Apertium.org</a> og fyll inn
 712 teksta di i *webskjemaet der.
 713
 714 <p>Viss du treng *maskinell tilgjenge til den *bakenforliggende
 715 teknologien kan du anten installera pakken
 716 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/apertium-nno-nob">*apertium-*nno-*nob</a>
 717 på ein *Debian-maskin eller bruka *web-*API-eit tilgjengeleg frå
 718 *api.*apertium.org.  Sjå
 719 <a href="http://wiki.apertium.org/wiki/Apertium-apy">*API-dokumentasjonen</a>
 720 for detaljar om *web-*API-eit.  Her kan du sjå korleis resultatet vert
 721 for denne teksta som vart skreva på bokmål over *maskinoversatt til
 722 nynorsk.</p>
 723
 724       </div>
 725       <div class="tags">
 726
 727
 728         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/norsk">norsk</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/stavekontroll">stavekontroll</a>.
 729
 730
 731       </div>
 732     </div>
 733     <div class="padding"></div>
 734
 735     <div class="entry">
 736       <div class="title">
 737         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Coz_profiler_for_multi_threaded_software_is_now_in_Debian.html">Coz profiler for multi-threaded software is now in Debian</a>
 738       </div>
 739       <div class="date">
 740         13th November 2016
 741       </div>
 742       <div class="body">
 743         <p><a href="http://coz-profiler.org/">The Coz profiler</a>, a nice
 744 profiler able to run benchmarking experiments on the instrumented
 745 multi-threaded program, finally
 746 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/coz-profiler">made it into
 747 Debian unstable yesterday</A>.  Lluís Vilanova and I have spent many
 748 months since
 749 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Coz_can_help_you_find_bottlenecks_in_multi_threaded_software___nice_free_software.html">I
 750 blogged about the coz tool</a> in August working with upstream to make
 751 it suitable for Debian.  There are still issues with clang
 752 compatibility, inline assembly only working x86 and minimized
 753 JavaScript libraries.</p>
 754
 755 <p>To test it, install 'coz-profiler' using apt and run it like this:</p>
 756
 757 <p><blockquote>
 758 <tt>coz run --- /path/to/binary-with-debug-info</tt>
 759 </blockquote></p>
 760
 761 <p>This will produce a profile.coz file in the current working
 762 directory with the profiling information.  This is then given to a
 763 JavaScript application provided in the package and available from
 764 <a href="http://plasma-umass.github.io/coz/">a project web page</a>.
 765 To start the local copy, invoke it in a browser like this:</p>
 766
 767 <p><blockquote>
 768 <tt>sensible-browser /usr/share/coz-profiler/viewer/index.htm</tt>
 769 </blockquote></p>
 770
 771 <p>See the project home page and the
 772 <a href="https://www.usenix.org/publications/login/summer2016/curtsinger">USENIX
 773 ;login: article on Coz</a> for more information on how it is
 774 working.</p>
 775
 776       </div>
 777       <div class="tags">
 778
 779
 780         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
 781
 782
 783       </div>
 784     </div>
 785     <div class="padding"></div>
 786
 787     <div class="entry">
 788       <div class="title">
 789         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/My_own_self_balancing_Lego_Segway.html">My own self balancing Lego Segway</a>
 790       </div>
 791       <div class="date">
 792          4th November 2016
 793       </div>
 794       <div class="body">
 795         <p>A while back I received a Gyro sensor for the NXT
 796 <a href="mindstorms.lego.com">Mindstorms</a> controller as a birthday
 797 present.  It had been on my wishlist for a while, because I wanted to
 798 build a Segway like balancing lego robot.  I had already built
 799 <a href="http://www.nxtprograms.com/NXT2/segway/">a simple balancing
 800 robot</a> with the kids, using the light/color sensor included in the
 801 NXT kit as the balance sensor, but it was not working very well.  It
 802 could balance for a while, but was very sensitive to the light
 803 condition in the room and the reflective properties of the surface and
 804 would fall over after a short while.  I wanted something more robust,
 805 and had
 806 <a href="https://www.hitechnic.com/cgi-bin/commerce.cgi?preadd=action&key=NGY1044">the
 807 gyro sensor from HiTechnic</a> I believed would solve it on my
 808 wishlist for some years before it suddenly showed up as a gift from my
 809 loved ones. :)</p>
 810
 811 <p>Unfortunately I have not had time to sit down and play with it
 812 since then.  But that changed some days ago, when I was searching for
 813 lego segway information and came across a recipe from HiTechnic for
 814 building
 815 <a href="http://www.hitechnic.com/blog/gyro-sensor/htway/">the
 816 HTWay</a>, a segway like balancing robot.  Build instructions and
 817 <a href="https://www.hitechnic.com/upload/786-HTWayC.nxc">source
 818 code</a> was included, so it was just a question of putting it all
 819 together.  And thanks to the great work of many Debian developers, the
 820 compiler needed to build the source for the NXT is already included in
 821 Debian, so I was read to go in less than an hour.  The resulting robot
 822 do not look very impressive in its simplicity:</p>
 823
 824 <p align="center"><img width="70%" src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2016-11-04-lego-htway-robot.jpeg"></p>
 825
 826 <p>Because I lack the infrared sensor used to control the robot in the
 827 design from HiTechnic, I had to comment out the last task
 828 (taskControl).  I simply placed /* and */ around it get the program
 829 working without that sensor present.  Now it balances just fine until
 830 the battery status run low:</p>
 831
 832 <p align="center"><video width="70%" controls="true">
 833    <source src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2016-11-04-lego-htway-balancing.ogv" type="video/ogg">
 834 </video></p>
 835
 836 <p>Now we would like to teach it how to follow a line and take remote
 837 control instructions using the included Bluetooth receiver in the NXT.</p>
 838
 839 <p>If you, like me, love LEGO and want to make sure we find the tools
 840 they need to work with LEGO in Debian and all our derivative
 841 distributions like Ubuntu, check out
 842 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/LegoDesigners">the LEGO designers
 843 project page</a> and join the Debian LEGO team.  Personally I own a
 844 RCX and NXT controller (no EV3), and would like to make sure the
 845 Debian tools needed to program the systems I own work as they
 846 should.</p>
 847
 848       </div>
 849       <div class="tags">
 850
 851
 852         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>.
 853
 854
 855       </div>
 856     </div>
 857     <div class="padding"></div>
 858
 859     <div class="entry">
 860       <div class="title">
 861         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Experience_and_updated_recipe_for_using_the_Signal_app_without_a_mobile_phone.html">Experience and updated recipe for using the Signal app without a mobile phone</a>
 862       </div>
 863       <div class="date">
 864         10th October 2016
 865       </div>
 866       <div class="body">
 867         <p>In July
 868 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_use_the_Signal_app_if_you_only_have_a_land_line__ie_no_mobile_phone_.html">I
 869 wrote how to get the Signal Chrome/Chromium app working</a> without
 870 the ability to receive SMS messages (aka without a cell phone).  It is
 871 time to share some experiences and provide an updated setup.</p>
 872
 873 <p>The Signal app have worked fine for several months now, and I use
 874 it regularly to chat with my loved ones.  I had a major snag at the
 875 end of my summer vacation, when the the app completely forgot my
 876 setup, identity and keys.  The reason behind this major mess was
 877 running out of disk space.  To avoid that ever happening again I have
 878 started storing everything in <tt>userdata/</tt> in git, to be able to
 879 roll back to an earlier version if the files are wiped by mistake.  I
 880 had to use it once after introducing the git backup.  When rolling
 881 back to an earlier version, one need to use the 'reset session' option
 882 in Signal to get going, and notify the people you talk with about the
 883 problem.  I assume there is some sequence number tracking in the
 884 protocol to detect rollback attacks.  The git repository is rather big
 885 (674 MiB so far), but I have not tried to figure out if some of the
 886 content can be added to a .gitignore file due to lack of spare
 887 time.</p>
 888
 889 <p>I've also hit the 90 days timeout blocking, and noticed that this
 890 make it impossible to send messages using Signal.  I could still
 891 receive them, but had to patch the code with a new timestamp to send.
 892 I believe the timeout is added by the developers to force people to
 893 upgrade to the latest version of the app, even when there is no
 894 protocol changes, to reduce the version skew among the user base and
 895 thus try to keep the number of support requests down.</p>
 896
 897 <p>Since my original recipe, the Signal source code changed slightly,
 898 making the old patch fail to apply cleanly.  Below is an updated
 899 patch, including the shell wrapper I use to start Signal.  The
 900 original version required a new user to locate the JavaScript console
 901 and call a function from there.  I got help from a friend with more
 902 JavaScript knowledge than me to modify the code to provide a GUI
 903 button instead.  This mean that to get started you just need to run
 904 the wrapper and click the 'Register without mobile phone' to get going
 905 now.  I've also modified the timeout code to always set it to 90 days
 906 in the future, to avoid having to patch the code regularly.</p>
 907
 908 <p>So, the updated recipe for Debian Jessie:</p>
 909
 910 <ol>
 911
 912 <li>First, install required packages to get the source code and the
 913 browser you need.  Signal only work with Chrome/Chromium, as far as I
 914 know, so you need to install it.
 915
 916 <pre>
 917 apt install git tor chromium
 918 git clone https://github.com/WhisperSystems/Signal-Desktop.git
 919 </pre></li>
 920
 921 <li>Modify the source code using command listed in the the patch
 922 block below.</li>
 923
 924 <li>Start Signal using the run-signal-app wrapper (for example using
 925 <tt>`pwd`/run-signal-app</tt>).
 926
 927 <li>Click on the 'Register without mobile phone', will in a phone
 928 number you can receive calls to the next minute, receive the
 929 verification code and enter it into the form field and press
 930 'Register'.  Note, the phone number you use will be user Signal
 931 username, ie the way others can find you on Signal.</li>
 932
 933 <li>You can now use Signal to contact others.  Note, new contacts do
 934 not show up in the contact list until you restart Signal, and there is
 935 no way to assign names to Contacts.  There is also no way to create or
 936 update chat groups.  I suspect this is because the web app do not have
 937 a associated contact database.</li>
 938
 939 </ol>
 940
 941 <p>I am still a bit uneasy about using Signal, because of the way its
 942 main author moxie0 reject federation and accept dependencies to major
 943 corporations like Google (part of the code is fetched from Google) and
 944 Amazon (the central coordination point is owned by Amazon).  See for
 945 example
 946 <a href="https://github.com/LibreSignal/LibreSignal/issues/37">the
 947 LibreSignal issue tracker</a> for a thread documenting the authors
 948 view on these issues.  But the network effect is strong in this case,
 949 and several of the people I want to communicate with already use
 950 Signal.  Perhaps we can all move to <a href="https://ring.cx/">Ring</a>
 951 once it <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/830265">work on my
 952 laptop</a>?  It already work on Windows and Android, and is included
 953 in <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/ring">Debian</a> and
 954 <a href="https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/ring">Ubuntu</a>, but not
 955 working on Debian Stable.</p>
 956
 957 <p>Anyway, this is the patch I apply to the Signal code to get it
 958 working.  It switch to the production servers, disable to timeout,
 959 make registration easier and add the shell wrapper:</p>
 960
 961 <pre>
 962 cd Signal-Desktop; cat &lt;&lt;EOF | patch -p1
 963 diff --git a/js/background.js b/js/background.js
 964 index 24b4c1d..579345f 100644
 965 --- a/js/background.js
 966 +++ b/js/background.js
 967 @@ -33,9 +33,9 @@
 968          });
 969      });
 970
 971 -    var SERVER_URL = 'https://textsecure-service-staging.whispersystems.org';
 972 +    var SERVER_URL = 'https://textsecure-service-ca.whispersystems.org';
 973      var SERVER_PORTS = [80, 4433, 8443];
 974 -    var ATTACHMENT_SERVER_URL = 'https://whispersystems-textsecure-attachments-staging.s3.amazonaws.com';
 975 +    var ATTACHMENT_SERVER_URL = 'https://whispersystems-textsecure-attachments.s3.amazonaws.com';
 976      var messageReceiver;
 977      window.getSocketStatus = function() {
 978          if (messageReceiver) {
 979 diff --git a/js/expire.js b/js/expire.js
 980 index 639aeae..beb91c3 100644
 981 --- a/js/expire.js
 982 +++ b/js/expire.js
 983 @@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 984  ;(function() {
 985      'use strict';
 986 -    var BUILD_EXPIRATION = 0;
 987 +    var BUILD_EXPIRATION = Date.now() + (90 * 24 * 60 * 60 * 1000);
 988
 989      window.extension = window.extension || {};
 990
 991 diff --git a/js/views/install_view.js b/js/views/install_view.js
 992 index 7816f4f..1d6233b 100644
 993 --- a/js/views/install_view.js
 994 +++ b/js/views/install_view.js
 995 @@ -38,7 +38,8 @@
 996              return {
 997                  'click .step1': this.selectStep.bind(this, 1),
 998                  'click .step2': this.selectStep.bind(this, 2),
 999 -                'click .step3': this.selectStep.bind(this, 3)
1000 +                'click .step3': this.selectStep.bind(this, 3),
1001 +                'click .callreg': function() { extension.install('standalone') },
1002              };
1003          },
1004          clearQR: function() {
1005 diff --git a/options.html b/options.html
1006 index dc0f28e..8d709f6 100644
1007 --- a/options.html
1008 +++ b/options.html
1009 @@ -14,7 +14,10 @@
1010          &lt;div class='nav'>
1011            &lt;h1>{{ installWelcome }}&lt;/h1>
1012            &lt;p>{{ installTagline }}&lt;/p>
1013 -          &lt;div> &lt;a class='button step2'>{{ installGetStartedButton }}&lt;/a> &lt;/div>
1014 +          &lt;div> &lt;a class='button step2'>{{ installGetStartedButton }}&lt;/a>
1015 +           &lt;br> &lt;a class="button callreg">Register without mobile phone&lt;/a>
1016 +
1017 +         &lt;/div>
1018            &lt;span class='dot step1 selected'>&lt;/span>
1019            &lt;span class='dot step2'>&lt;/span>
1020            &lt;span class='dot step3'>&lt;/span>
1021 --- /dev/null   2016-10-07 09:55:13.730181472 +0200
1022 +++ b/run-signal-app   2016-10-10 08:54:09.434172391 +0200
1023 @@ -0,0 +1,12 @@
1024 +#!/bin/sh
1025 +set -e
1026 +cd $(dirname $0)
1027 +mkdir -p userdata
1028 +userdata="`pwd`/userdata"
1029 +if [ -d "$userdata" ] && [ ! -d "$userdata/.git" ] ; then
1030 +    (cd $userdata && git init)
1031 +fi
1032 +(cd $userdata && git add . && git commit -m "Current status." || true)
1033 +exec chromium \
1034 +  --proxy-server="socks://localhost:9050" \
1035 +  --user-data-dir=$userdata --load-and-launch-app=`pwd`
1036 EOF
1037 chmod a+rx run-signal-app
1038 </pre>
1039
1040 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
1041 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
1042 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b&label=PetterReinholdtsenBlog">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
1043
1044       </div>
1045       <div class="tags">
1046
1047
1048         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance</a>.
1049
1050
1051       </div>
1052     </div>
1053     <div class="padding"></div>
1054
1055     <div class="entry">
1056       <div class="title">
1057         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Isenkram__Appstream_and_udev_make_life_as_a_LEGO_builder_easier.html">Isenkram, Appstream and udev make life as a LEGO builder easier</a>
1058       </div>
1059       <div class="date">
1060          7th October 2016
1061       </div>
1062       <div class="body">
1063         <p><a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/isenkram">The Isenkram
1064 system</a> provide a practical and easy way to figure out which
1065 packages support the hardware in a given machine.  The command line
1066 tool <tt>isenkram-lookup</tt> and the tasksel options provide a
1067 convenient way to list and install packages relevant for the current
1068 hardware during system installation, both user space packages and
1069 firmware packages. The GUI background daemon on the other hand provide
1070 a pop-up proposing to install packages when a new dongle is inserted
1071 while using the computer.  For example, if you plug in a smart card
1072 reader, the system will ask if you want to install <tt>pcscd</tt> if
1073 that package isn't already installed, and if you plug in a USB video
1074 camera the system will ask if you want to install <tt>cheese</tt> if
1075 cheese is currently missing.  This already work just fine.</p>
1076
1077 <p>But Isenkram depend on a database mapping from hardware IDs to
1078 package names.  When I started no such database existed in Debian, so
1079 I made my own data set and included it with the isenkram package and
1080 made isenkram fetch the latest version of this database from git using
1081 http.  This way the isenkram users would get updated package proposals
1082 as soon as I learned more about hardware related packages.</p>
1083
1084 <p>The hardware is identified using modalias strings.  The modalias
1085 design is from the Linux kernel where most hardware descriptors are
1086 made available as a strings that can be matched using filename style
1087 globbing.  It handle USB, PCI, DMI and a lot of other hardware related
1088 identifiers.</p>
1089
1090 <p>The downside to the Isenkram specific database is that there is no
1091 information about relevant distribution / Debian version, making
1092 isenkram propose obsolete packages too.  But along came AppStream, a
1093 cross distribution mechanism to store and collect metadata about
1094 software packages.  When I heard about the proposal, I contacted the
1095 people involved and suggested to add a hardware matching rule using
1096 modalias strings in the specification, to be able to use AppStream for
1097 mapping hardware to packages.  This idea was accepted and AppStream is
1098 now a great way for a package to announce the hardware it support in a
1099 distribution neutral way.  I wrote
1100 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Using_appstream_with_isenkram_to_install_hardware_related_packages_in_Debian.html">a
1101 recipe on how to add such meta-information</a> in a blog post last
1102 December.  If you have a hardware related package in Debian, please
1103 announce the relevant hardware IDs using AppStream.</p>
1104
1105 <p>In Debian, almost all packages that can talk to a LEGO Mindestorms
1106 RCX or NXT unit, announce this support using AppStream.  The effect is
1107 that when you insert such LEGO robot controller into your Debian
1108 machine, Isenkram will propose to install the packages needed to get
1109 it working.  The intention is that this should allow the local user to
1110 start programming his robot controller right away without having to
1111 guess what packages to use or which permissions to fix.</p>
1112
1113 <p>But when I sat down with my son the other day to program our NXT
1114 unit using his Debian Stretch computer, I discovered something
1115 annoying.  The local console user (ie my son) did not get access to
1116 the USB device for programming the unit.  This used to work, but no
1117 longer in Jessie and Stretch.  After some investigation and asking
1118 around on #debian-devel, I discovered that this was because udev had
1119 changed the mechanism used to grant access to local devices.  The
1120 ConsoleKit mechanism from <tt>/lib/udev/rules.d/70-udev-acl.rules</tt>
1121 no longer applied, because LDAP users no longer was added to the
1122 plugdev group during login.  Michael Biebl told me that this method
1123 was obsolete and the new method used ACLs instead.  This was good
1124 news, as the plugdev mechanism is a mess when using a remote user
1125 directory like LDAP.  Using ACLs would make sure a user lost device
1126 access when she logged out, even if the user left behind a background
1127 process which would retain the plugdev membership with the ConsoleKit
1128 setup.  Armed with this knowledge I moved on to fix the access problem
1129 for the LEGO Mindstorms related packages.</p>
1130
1131 <p>The new system uses a udev tag, 'uaccess'.  It can either be
1132 applied directly for a device, or is applied in
1133 /lib/udev/rules.d/70-uaccess.rules for classes of devices.  As the
1134 LEGO Mindstorms udev rules did not have a class, I decided to add the
1135 tag directly in the udev rules files included in the packages.  Here
1136 is one example.  For the nqc C compiler for the RCX, the
1137 <tt>/lib/udev/rules.d/60-nqc.rules</tt> file now look like this:
1138
1139 <p><pre>
1140 SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ACTION=="add", ATTR{idVendor}=="0694", ATTR{idProduct}=="0001", \
1141     SYMLINK+="rcx-%k", TAG+="uaccess"
1142 </pre></p>
1143
1144 <p>The key part is the 'TAG+="uaccess"' at the end.  I suspect all
1145 packages using plugdev in their /lib/udev/rules.d/ files should be
1146 changed to use this tag (either directly or indirectly via
1147 <tt>70-uaccess.rules</tt>).  Perhaps a lintian check should be created
1148 to detect this?</p>
1149
1150 <p>I've been unable to find good documentation on the uaccess feature.
1151 It is unclear to me if the uaccess tag is an internal implementation
1152 detail like the udev-acl tag used by
1153 <tt>/lib/udev/rules.d/70-udev-acl.rules</tt>.  If it is, I guess the
1154 indirect method is the preferred way.  Michael
1155 <a href="https://github.com/systemd/systemd/issues/4288">asked for more
1156 documentation from the systemd project</a> and I hope it will make
1157 this clearer.  For now I use the generic classes when they exist and
1158 is already handled by <tt>70-uaccess.rules</tt>, and add the tag
1159 directly if no such class exist.</p>
1160
1161 <p>To learn more about the isenkram system, please check out
1162 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram/">my
1163 blog posts tagged isenkram</a>.</p>
1164
1165 <p>To help out making life for LEGO constructors in Debian easier,
1166 please join us on our IRC channel
1167 <a href="irc://irc.debian.org/%23debian-lego">#debian-lego</a> and join
1168 the <a href="https://alioth.debian.org/projects/debian-lego/">Debian
1169 LEGO team</a> in the Alioth project we created yesterday.  A mailing
1170 list is not yet created, but we are working on it. :)</p>
1171
1172 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
1173 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
1174 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b&label=PetterReinholdtsenBlog">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
1175
1176       </div>
1177       <div class="tags">
1178
1179
1180         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>.
1181
1182
1183       </div>
1184     </div>
1185     <div class="padding"></div>
1186
1187     <div class="entry">
1188       <div class="title">
1189         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/First_draft_Norwegian_Bokm_l_edition_of_The_Debian_Administrator_s_Handbook_now_public.html">First draft Norwegian Bokmål edition of The Debian Administrator's Handbook now public</a>
1190       </div>
1191       <div class="date">
1192         30th August 2016
1193       </div>
1194       <div class="body">
1195         <p>In April we
1196 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lets_make_a_Norwegian_Bokm_l_edition_of_The_Debian_Administrator_s_Handbook.html">started
1197 to work</a> on a Norwegian Bokmål edition of the "open access" book on
1198 how to set up and administrate a Debian system.  Today I am happy to
1199 report that the first draft is now publicly available.  You can find
1200 it on <a href="https://debian-handbook.info/get/">get the Debian
1201 Administrator's Handbook page</a> (under Other languages).  The first
1202 eight chapters have a first draft translation, and we are working on
1203 proofreading the content.  If you want to help out, please start
1204 contributing using
1205 <a href="https://hosted.weblate.org/projects/debian-handbook/">the
1206 hosted weblate project page</a>, and get in touch using
1207 <a href="http://lists.alioth.debian.org/mailman/listinfo/debian-handbook-translators">the
1208 translators mailing list</a>.  Please also check out
1209 <a href="https://debian-handbook.info/contribute/">the instructions for
1210 contributors</a>.  A good way to contribute is to proofread the text
1211 and update weblate if you find errors.</p>
1212
1213 <p>Our goal is still to make the Norwegian book available on paper as well as
1214 electronic form.</p>
1215
1216       </div>
1217       <div class="tags">
1218
1219
1220         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian-handbook">debian-handbook</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
1221
1222
1223       </div>
1224     </div>
1225     <div class="padding"></div>
1226
1227     <div class="entry">
1228       <div class="title">
1229         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Coz_can_help_you_find_bottlenecks_in_multi_threaded_software___nice_free_software.html">Coz can help you find bottlenecks in multi-threaded software - nice free software</a>
1230       </div>
1231       <div class="date">
1232         11th August 2016
1233       </div>
1234       <div class="body">
1235         <p>This summer, I read a great article
1236 "<a href="https://www.usenix.org/publications/login/summer2016/curtsinger">coz:
1237 This Is the Profiler You're Looking For</a>" in USENIX ;login: about
1238 how to profile multi-threaded programs.  It presented a system for
1239 profiling software by running experiences in the running program,
1240 testing how run time performance is affected by "speeding up" parts of
1241 the code to various degrees compared to a normal run.  It does this by
1242 slowing down parallel threads while the "faster up" code is running
1243 and measure how this affect processing time.  The processing time is
1244 measured using probes inserted into the code, either using progress
1245 counters (COZ_PROGRESS) or as latency meters (COZ_BEGIN/COZ_END).  It
1246 can also measure unmodified code by measuring complete the program
1247 runtime and running the program several times instead.</p>
1248
1249 <p>The project and presentation was so inspiring that I would like to
1250 get the system into Debian.  I
1251 <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=830708">created
1252 a WNPP request for it</a> and contacted upstream to try to make the
1253 system ready for Debian by sending patches.  The build process need to
1254 be changed a bit to avoid running 'git clone' to get dependencies, and
1255 to include the JavaScript web page used to visualize the collected
1256 profiling information included in the source package.
1257 But I expect that should work out fairly soon.</p>
1258
1259 <p>The way the system work is fairly simple.  To run an coz experiment
1260 on a binary with debug symbols available, start the program like this:
1261
1262 <p><blockquote><pre>
1263 coz run --- program-to-run
1264 </pre></blockquote></p>
1265
1266 <p>This will create a text file profile.coz with the instrumentation
1267 information.  To show what part of the code affect the performance
1268 most, use a web browser and either point it to
1269 <a href="http://plasma-umass.github.io/coz/">http://plasma-umass.github.io/coz/</a>
1270 or use the copy from git (in the gh-pages branch).  Check out this web
1271 site to have a look at several example profiling runs and get an idea what the end result from the profile runs look like.  To make the
1272 profiling more useful you include &lt;coz.h&gt; and insert the
1273 COZ_PROGRESS or COZ_BEGIN and COZ_END at appropriate places in the
1274 code, rebuild and run the profiler.  This allow coz to do more
1275 targeted experiments.</p>
1276
1277 <p>A video published by ACM
1278 <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jE0V-p1odPg">presenting the
1279 Coz profiler</a> is available from Youtube.  There is also a paper
1280 from the 25th Symposium on Operating Systems Principles available
1281 titled
1282 <a href="https://www.usenix.org/conference/atc16/technical-sessions/presentation/curtsinger">Coz:
1283 finding code that counts with causal profiling</a>.</p>
1284
1285 <p><a href="https://github.com/plasma-umass/coz">The source code</a>
1286 for Coz is available from github.  It will only build with clang
1287 because it uses a
1288 <a href="https://gcc.gnu.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=55606">C++
1289 feature missing in GCC</a>, but I've submitted
1290 <a href="https://github.com/plasma-umass/coz/pull/67">a patch to solve
1291 it</a> and hope it will be included in the upstream source soon.</p>
1292
1293 <p>Please get in touch if you, like me, would like to see this piece
1294 of software in Debian.  I would very much like some help with the
1295 packaging effort, as I lack the in depth knowledge on how to package
1296 C++ libraries.</p>
1297
1298       </div>
1299       <div class="tags">
1300
1301
1302         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>.
1303
1304
1305       </div>
1306     </div>
1307     <div class="padding"></div>
1308
1309     <div class="entry">
1310       <div class="title">
1311         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Unlocking_HTC_Desire_HD_on_Linux_using_unruu_and_fastboot.html">Unlocking HTC Desire HD on Linux using unruu and fastboot</a>
1312       </div>
1313       <div class="date">
1314          7th July 2016
1315       </div>
1316       <div class="body">
1317         <p>Yesterday, I tried to unlock a HTC Desire HD phone, and it proved
1318 to be a slight challenge.  Here is the recipe if I ever need to do it
1319 again.  It all started by me wanting to try the recipe to set up
1320 <a href="https://blog.torproject.org/blog/mission-impossible-hardening-android-security-and-privacy">an
1321 hardened Android installation</a> from the Tor project blog on a
1322 device I had access to.  It is a old mobile phone with a broken
1323 microphone The initial idea had been to just
1324 <a href="http://wiki.cyanogenmod.org/w/Install_CM_for_ace">install
1325 CyanogenMod on it</a>, but did not quite find time to start on it
1326 until a few days ago.</p>
1327
1328 <p>The unlock process is supposed to be simple: (1) Boot into the boot
1329 loader (press volume down and power at the same time), (2) select
1330 'fastboot' before (3) connecting the device via USB to a Linux
1331 machine, (4) request the device identifier token by running 'fastboot
1332 oem get_identifier_token', (5) request the device unlocking key using
1333 the <a href="http://www.htcdev.com/bootloader/">HTC developer web
1334 site</a> and unlock the phone using the key file emailed to you.</p>
1335
1336 <p>Unfortunately, this only work fi you have hboot version 2.00.0029
1337 or newer, and the device I was working on had 2.00.0027.  This
1338 apparently can be easily fixed by downloading a Windows program and
1339 running it on your Windows machine, if you accept the terms Microsoft
1340 require you to accept to use Windows - which I do not.  So I had to
1341 come up with a different approach.  I got a lot of help from AndyCap
1342 on #nuug, and would not have been able to get this working without
1343 him.</p>
1344
1345 <p>First I needed to extract the hboot firmware from
1346 <a href="http://www.htcdev.com/ruu/PD9810000_Ace_Sense30_S_hboot_2.00.0029.exe">the
1347 windows binary for HTC Desire HD</a> downloaded as 'the RUU' from HTC.
1348 For this there is is <a href="https://github.com/kmdm/unruu/">a github
1349 project named unruu</a> using libunshield.  The unshield tool did not
1350 recognise the file format, but unruu worked and extracted rom.zip,
1351 containing the new hboot firmware and a text file describing which
1352 devices it would work for.</p>
1353
1354 <p>Next, I needed to get the new firmware into the device.  For this I
1355 followed some instructions
1356 <a href="http://www.htc1guru.com/2013/09/new-ruu-zips-posted/">available
1357 from HTC1Guru.com</a>, and ran these commands as root on a Linux
1358 machine with Debian testing:</p>
1359
1360 <p><pre>
1361 adb reboot-bootloader
1362 fastboot oem rebootRUU
1363 fastboot flash zip rom.zip
1364 fastboot flash zip rom.zip
1365 fastboot reboot
1366 </pre></p>
1367
1368 <p>The flash command apparently need to be done twice to take effect,
1369 as the first is just preparations and the second one do the flashing.
1370 The adb command is just to get to the boot loader menu, so turning the
1371 device on while holding volume down and the power button should work
1372 too.</p>
1373
1374 <p>With the new hboot version in place I could start following the
1375 instructions on the HTC developer web site.  I got the device token
1376 like this:</p>
1377
1378 <p><pre>
1379 fastboot oem get_identifier_token 2>&1 | sed 's/(bootloader) //'
1380 </pre>
1381
1382 <p>And once I got the unlock code via email, I could use it like
1383 this:</p>
1384
1385 <p><pre>
1386 fastboot flash unlocktoken Unlock_code.bin
1387 </pre></p>
1388
1389 <p>And with that final step in place, the phone was unlocked and I
1390 could start stuffing the software of my own choosing into the device.
1391 So far I only inserted a replacement recovery image to wipe the phone
1392 before I start.  We will see what happen next.  Perhaps I should
1393 install <a href="https://www.debian.org/">Debian</a> on it. :)</p>
1394
1395       </div>
1396       <div class="tags">
1397
1398
1399         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bootsystem">bootsystem</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/opphavsrett">opphavsrett</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet</a>.
1400
1401
1402       </div>
1403     </div>
1404     <div class="padding"></div>
1405
1406     <div class="entry">
1407       <div class="title">
1408         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_use_the_Signal_app_if_you_only_have_a_land_line__ie_no_mobile_phone_.html">How to use the Signal app if you only have a land line (ie no mobile phone)</a>
1409       </div>
1410       <div class="date">
1411          3rd July 2016
1412       </div>
1413       <div class="body">
1414         <p>For a while now, I have wanted to test
1415 <a href="https://whispersystems.org/">the Signal app</a>, as it is
1416 said to provide end to end encrypted communication and several of my
1417 friends and family are already using it.  As I by choice do not own a
1418 mobile phone, this proved to be harder than expected.  And I wanted to
1419 have the source of the client and know that it was the code used on my
1420 machine.  But yesterday I managed to get it working.  I used the
1421 Github source, compared it to the source in
1422 <a href="https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/signal-private-messenger/bikioccmkafdpakkkcpdbppfkghcmihk?hl=en-US">the
1423 Signal Chrome app</a> available from the Chrome web store, applied
1424 patches to use the production Signal servers, started the app and
1425 asked for the hidden "register without a smart phone" form.  Here is
1426 the recipe how I did it.</p>
1427
1428 <p>First, I fetched the Signal desktop source from Github, using
1429
1430 <pre>
1431 git clone https://github.com/WhisperSystems/Signal-Desktop.git
1432 </pre>
1433
1434 <p>Next, I patched the source to use the production servers, to be
1435 able to talk to other Signal users:</p>
1436
1437 <pre>
1438 cat &lt;&lt;EOF | patch -p0
1439 diff -ur ./js/background.js userdata/Default/Extensions/bikioccmkafdpakkkcpdbppfkghcmihk/0.15.0_0/js/background.js
1440 --- ./js/background.js  2016-06-29 13:43:15.630344628 +0200
1441 +++ userdata/Default/Extensions/bikioccmkafdpakkkcpdbppfkghcmihk/0.15.0_0/js/background.js    2016-06-29 14:06:29.530300934 +0200
1442 @@ -47,8 +47,8 @@
1443          });
1444      });
1445
1446 -    var SERVER_URL = 'https://textsecure-service-staging.whispersystems.org';
1447 -    var ATTACHMENT_SERVER_URL = 'https://whispersystems-textsecure-attachments-staging.s3.amazonaws.com';
1448 +    var SERVER_URL = 'https://textsecure-service-ca.whispersystems.org:4433';
1449 +    var ATTACHMENT_SERVER_URL = 'https://whispersystems-textsecure-attachments.s3.amazonaws.com';
1450      var messageReceiver;
1451      window.getSocketStatus = function() {
1452          if (messageReceiver) {
1453 diff -ur ./js/expire.js userdata/Default/Extensions/bikioccmkafdpakkkcpdbppfkghcmihk/0.15.0_0/js/expire.js
1454 --- ./js/expire.js      2016-06-29 13:43:15.630344628 +0200
1455 +++ userdata/Default/Extensions/bikioccmkafdpakkkcpdbppfkghcmihk/0.15.0_0/js/expire.js2016-06-29 14:06:29.530300934 +0200
1456 @@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
1457  ;(function() {
1458      'use strict';
1459 -    var BUILD_EXPIRATION = 0;
1460 +    var BUILD_EXPIRATION = 1474492690000;
1461
1462      window.extension = window.extension || {};
1463
1464 EOF
1465 </pre>
1466
1467 <p>The first part is changing the servers, and the second is updating
1468 an expiration timestamp.  This timestamp need to be updated regularly.
1469 It is set 90 days in the future by the build process (Gruntfile.js).
1470 The value is seconds since 1970 times 1000, as far as I can tell.</p>
1471
1472 <p>Based on a tip and good help from the #nuug IRC channel, I wrote a
1473 script to launch Signal in Chromium.</p>
1474
1475 <pre>
1476 #!/bin/sh
1477 cd $(dirname $0)
1478 mkdir -p userdata
1479 exec chromium \
1480   --proxy-server="socks://localhost:9050" \
1481   --user-data-dir=`pwd`/userdata --load-and-launch-app=`pwd`
1482 </pre>
1483
1484 <p> The script start the app and configure Chromium to use the Tor
1485 SOCKS5 proxy to make sure those controlling the Signal servers (today
1486 Amazon and Whisper Systems) as well as those listening on the lines
1487 will have a harder time location my laptop based on the Signal
1488 connections if they use source IP address.</p>
1489
1490 <p>When the script starts, one need to follow the instructions under
1491 "Standalone Registration" in the CONTRIBUTING.md file in the git
1492 repository.  I right clicked on the Signal window to get up the
1493 Chromium debugging tool, visited the 'Console' tab and wrote
1494 'extension.install("standalone")' on the console prompt to get the
1495 registration form.  Then I entered by land line phone number and
1496 pressed 'Call'.  5 seconds later the phone rang and a robot voice
1497 repeated the verification code three times.  After entering the number
1498 into the verification code field in the form, I could start using
1499 Signal from my laptop.
1500
1501 <p>As far as I can tell, The Signal app will leak who is talking to
1502 whom and thus who know who to those controlling the central server,
1503 but such leakage is hard to avoid with a centrally controlled server
1504 setup.  It is something to keep in mind when using Signal - the
1505 content of your chats are harder to intercept, but the meta data
1506 exposing your contact network is available to people you do not know.
1507 So better than many options, but not great.  And sadly the usage is
1508 connected to my land line, thus allowing those controlling the server
1509 to associate it to my home and person.  I would prefer it if only
1510 those I knew could tell who I was on Signal.  There are options
1511 avoiding such information leakage, but most of my friends are not
1512 using them, so I am stuck with Signal for now.</p>
1513
1514 <p><strong>Update 2017-01-10</strong>: There is an updated blog post
1515 on this topic in
1516 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Experience_and_updated_recipe_for_using_the_Signal_app_without_a_mobile_phone.html">Experience
1517 and updated recipe for using the Signal app without a mobile
1518 phone</a>.</p>
1519
1520       </div>
1521       <div class="tags">
1522
1523
1524         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance</a>.
1525
1526
1527       </div>
1528     </div>
1529     <div class="padding"></div>
1530
1531     <div class="entry">
1532       <div class="title">
1533         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_new__best__multimedia_player_in_Debian_.html">The new "best" multimedia player in Debian?</a>
1534       </div>
1535       <div class="date">
1536          6th June 2016
1537       </div>
1538       <div class="body">
1539         <p>When I set out a few weeks ago to figure out
1540 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/What_is_the_best_multimedia_player_in_Debian_.html">which
1541 multimedia player in Debian claimed to support most file formats /
1542 MIME types</a>, I was a bit surprised how varied the sets of MIME types
1543 the various players claimed support for.  The range was from 55 to 130
1544 MIME types.  I suspect most media formats are supported by all
1545 players, but this is not really reflected in the MimeTypes values in
1546 their desktop files.  There are probably also some bogus MIME types
1547 listed, but it is hard to identify which one this is.</p>
1548
1549 <p>Anyway, in the mean time I got in touch with upstream for some of
1550 the players suggesting to add more MIME types to their desktop files,
1551 and decided to spend some time myself improving the situation for my
1552 favorite media player VLC.  The fixes for VLC entered Debian unstable
1553 yesterday. The complete list of MIME types can be seen on the
1554 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/DebianMultimedia/PlayerSupport">Multimedia
1555 player MIME type support status</a> Debian wiki page.</p>
1556
1557 <p>The new "best" multimedia player in Debian?  It is VLC, followed by
1558 totem, parole, kplayer, gnome-mpv, mpv, smplayer, mplayer-gui and
1559 kmplayer.  I am sure some of the other players desktop files support
1560 several of the formats currently listed as working only with vlc,
1561 toten and parole.</p>
1562
1563 <p>A sad observation is that only 14 MIME types are listed as
1564 supported by all the tested multimedia players in Debian in their
1565 desktop files: audio/mpeg, audio/vnd.rn-realaudio, audio/x-mpegurl,
1566 audio/x-ms-wma, audio/x-scpls, audio/x-wav, video/mp4, video/mpeg,
1567 video/quicktime, video/vnd.rn-realvideo, video/x-matroska,
1568 video/x-ms-asf, video/x-ms-wmv and video/x-msvideo.  Personally I find
1569 it sad that video/ogg and video/webm is not supported by all the media
1570 players in Debian.  As far as I can tell, all of them can handle both
1571 formats.</p>
1572
1573       </div>
1574       <div class="tags">
1575
1576
1577         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>.
1578
1579
1580       </div>
1581     </div>
1582     <div class="padding"></div>
1583
1584     <div class="entry">
1585       <div class="title">
1586         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/A_program_should_be_able_to_open_its_own_files_on_Linux.html">A program should be able to open its own files on Linux</a>
1587       </div>
1588       <div class="date">
1589          5th June 2016
1590       </div>
1591       <div class="body">
1592         <p>Many years ago, when koffice was fresh and with few users, I
1593 decided to test its presentation tool when making the slides for a
1594 talk I was giving for NUUG on Japhar, a free Java virtual machine.  I
1595 wrote the first draft of the slides, saved the result and went to bed
1596 the day before I would give the talk.  The next day I took a plane to
1597 the location where the meeting should take place, and on the plane I
1598 started up koffice again to polish the talk a bit, only to discover
1599 that kpresenter refused to load its own data file.  I cursed a bit and
1600 started making the slides again from memory, to have something to
1601 present when I arrived.  I tested that the saved files could be
1602 loaded, and the day seemed to be rescued.  I continued to polish the
1603 slides until I suddenly discovered that the saved file could no longer
1604 be loaded into kpresenter.  In the end I had to rewrite the slides
1605 three times, condensing the content until the talk became shorter and
1606 shorter.  After the talk I was able to pinpoint the problem &ndash;
1607 kpresenter wrote inline images in a way itself could not understand.
1608 Eventually that bug was fixed and kpresenter ended up being a great
1609 program to make slides.  The point I'm trying to make is that we
1610 expect a program to be able to load its own data files, and it is
1611 embarrassing to its developers if it can't.</p>
1612
1613 <p>Did you ever experience a program failing to load its own data
1614 files from the desktop file browser?  It is not a uncommon problem.  A
1615 while back I discovered that the screencast recorder
1616 gtk-recordmydesktop would save an Ogg Theora video file the KDE file
1617 browser would refuse to open.  No video player claimed to understand
1618 such file.  I tracked down the cause being <tt>file --mime-type</tt>
1619 returning the application/ogg MIME type, which no video player I had
1620 installed listed as a MIME type they would understand.  I asked for
1621 <a href="http://bugs.gw.com/view.php?id=382">file to change its
1622 behavour</a> and use the MIME type video/ogg instead.  I also asked
1623 several video players to add video/ogg to their desktop files, to give
1624 the file browser an idea what to do about Ogg Theora files.  After a
1625 while, the desktop file browsers in Debian started to handle the
1626 output from gtk-recordmydesktop properly.</p>
1627
1628 <p>But history repeats itself.  A few days ago I tested the music
1629 system Rosegarden again, and I discovered that the KDE and xfce file
1630 browsers did not know what to do with the Rosegarden project files
1631 (*.rg).  I've reported <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/825993">the
1632 rosegarden problem to BTS</a> and a fix is commited to git and will be
1633 included in the next upload.  To increase the chance of me remembering
1634 how to fix the problem next time some program fail to load its files
1635 from the file browser, here are some notes on how to fix it.</p>
1636
1637 <p>The file browsers in Debian in general operates on MIME types.
1638 There are two sources for the MIME type of a given file.  The output from
1639 <tt>file --mime-type</tt> mentioned above, and the content of the
1640 shared MIME type registry (under /usr/share/mime/).  The file MIME
1641 type is mapped to programs supporting the MIME type, and this
1642 information is collected from
1643 <a href="https://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Specifications/desktop-entry-spec/">the
1644 desktop files</a> available in /usr/share/applications/.  If there is
1645 one desktop file claiming support for the MIME type of the file, it is
1646 activated when asking to open a given file.  If there are more, one
1647 can normally select which one to use by right-clicking on the file and
1648 selecting the wanted one using 'Open with' or similar.  In general
1649 this work well.  But it depend on each program picking a good MIME
1650 type (preferably
1651 <a href="http://www.iana.org/assignments/media-types/media-types.xhtml">a
1652 MIME type registered with IANA</a>), file and/or the shared MIME
1653 registry recognizing the file and the desktop file to list the MIME
1654 type in its list of supported MIME types.</p>
1655
1656 <p>The <tt>/usr/share/mime/packages/rosegarden.xml</tt> entry for
1657 <a href="http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Specifications/shared-mime-info-spec">the
1658 Shared MIME database</a> look like this:</p>
1659
1660 <p><blockquote><pre>
1661 &lt;?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?&gt;
1662 &lt;mime-info xmlns="http://www.freedesktop.org/standards/shared-mime-info"&gt;
1663   &lt;mime-type type="audio/x-rosegarden"&gt;
1664     &lt;sub-class-of type="application/x-gzip"/&gt;
1665     &lt;comment&gt;Rosegarden project file&lt;/comment&gt;
1666     &lt;glob pattern="*.rg"/&gt;
1667   &lt;/mime-type&gt;
1668 &lt;/mime-info&gt;
1669 </pre></blockquote></p>
1670
1671 <p>This states that audio/x-rosegarden is a kind of application/x-gzip
1672 (it is a gzipped XML file).  Note, it is much better to use an
1673 official MIME type registered with IANA than it is to make up ones own
1674 unofficial ones like the x-rosegarden type used by rosegarden.</p>
1675
1676 <p>The desktop file of the rosegarden program failed to list
1677 audio/x-rosegarden in its list of supported MIME types, causing the
1678 file browsers to have no idea what to do with *.rg files:</p>
1679
1680 <p><blockquote><pre>
1681 % grep Mime /usr/share/applications/rosegarden.desktop
1682 MimeType=audio/x-rosegarden-composition;audio/x-rosegarden-device;audio/x-rosegarden-project;audio/x-rosegarden-template;audio/midi;
1683 X-KDE-NativeMimeType=audio/x-rosegarden-composition
1684 %
1685 </pre></blockquote></p>
1686
1687 <p>The fix was to add "audio/x-rosegarden;" at the end of the
1688 MimeType= line.</p>
1689
1690 <p>If you run into a file which fail to open the correct program when
1691 selected from the file browser, please check out the output from
1692 <tt>file --mime-type</tt> for the file, ensure the file ending and
1693 MIME type is registered somewhere under /usr/share/mime/ and check
1694 that some desktop file under /usr/share/applications/ is claiming
1695 support for this MIME type.  If not, please report a bug to have it
1696 fixed. :)</p>
1697
1698       </div>
1699       <div class="tags">
1700
1701
1702         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>.
1703
1704
1705       </div>
1706     </div>
1707     <div class="padding"></div>
1708
1709     <div class="entry">
1710       <div class="title">
1711         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Isenkram_with_PackageKit_support___new_version_0_23_available_in_Debian_unstable.html">Isenkram with PackageKit support - new version 0.23 available in Debian unstable</a>
1712       </div>
1713       <div class="date">
1714         25th May 2016
1715       </div>
1716       <div class="body">
1717         <p><a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/isenkram">The isenkram
1718 system</a> is a user-focused solution in Debian for handling hardware
1719 related packages.  The idea is to have a database of mappings between
1720 hardware and packages, and pop up a dialog suggesting for the user to
1721 install the packages to use a given hardware dongle.  Some use cases
1722 are when you insert a Yubikey, it proposes to install the software
1723 needed to control it; when you insert a braille reader list it
1724 proposes to install the packages needed to send text to the reader;
1725 and when you insert a ColorHug screen calibrator it suggests to
1726 install the driver for it.  The system work well, and even have a few
1727 command line tools to install firmware packages and packages for the
1728 hardware already in the machine (as opposed to hotpluggable hardware).</p>
1729
1730 <p>The system was initially written using aptdaemon, because I found
1731 good documentation and example code on how to use it.  But aptdaemon
1732 is going away and is generally being replaced by
1733 <a href="http://www.freedesktop.org/software/PackageKit/">PackageKit</a>,
1734 so Isenkram needed a rewrite.  And today, thanks to the great patch
1735 from my college Sunil Mohan Adapa in the FreedomBox project, the
1736 rewrite finally took place.  I've just uploaded a new version of
1737 Isenkram into Debian Unstable with the patch included, and the default
1738 for the background daemon is now to use PackageKit.  To check it out,
1739 install the <tt>isenkram</tt> package and insert some hardware dongle
1740 and see if it is recognised.</p>
1741
1742 <p>If you want to know what kind of packages isenkram would propose for
1743 the machine it is running on, you can check out the isenkram-lookup
1744 program.  This is what it look like on a Thinkpad X230:</p>
1745
1746 <p><blockquote><pre>
1747 % isenkram-lookup
1748 bluez
1749 cheese
1750 fprintd
1751 fprintd-demo
1752 gkrellm-thinkbat
1753 hdapsd
1754 libpam-fprintd
1755 pidgin-blinklight
1756 thinkfan
1757 tleds
1758 tp-smapi-dkms
1759 tp-smapi-source
1760 tpb
1761 %p
1762 </pre></blockquote></p>
1763
1764 <p>The hardware mappings come from several places.  The preferred way
1765 is for packages to announce their hardware support using
1766 <a href="https://www.freedesktop.org/software/appstream/docs/">the
1767 cross distribution appstream system</a>.
1768 See
1769 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram/">previous
1770 blog posts about isenkram</a> to learn how to do that.</p>
1771
1772       </div>
1773       <div class="tags">
1774
1775
1776         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>.
1777
1778
1779       </div>
1780     </div>
1781     <div class="padding"></div>
1782
1783     <div class="entry">
1784       <div class="title">
1785         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Discharge_rate_estimate_in_new_battery_statistics_collector_for_Debian.html">Discharge rate estimate in new battery statistics collector for Debian</a>
1786       </div>
1787       <div class="date">
1788         23rd May 2016
1789       </div>
1790       <div class="body">
1791         <p>Yesterday I updated the
1792 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/battery-stats">battery-stats
1793 package in Debian</a> with a few patches sent to me by skilled and
1794 enterprising users.  There were some nice user and visible changes.
1795 First of all, both desktop menu entries now work.  A design flaw in
1796 one of the script made the history graph fail to show up (its PNG was
1797 dumped in ~/.xsession-errors) if no controlling TTY was available.
1798 The script worked when called from the command line, but not when
1799 called from the desktop menu.  I changed this to look for a DISPLAY
1800 variable or a TTY before deciding where to draw the graph, and now the
1801 graph window pop up as expected.</p>
1802
1803 <p>The next new feature is a discharge rate estimator in one of the
1804 graphs (the one showing the last few hours).  New is also the user of
1805 colours showing charging in blue and discharge in red.  The percentages
1806 of this graph is relative to last full charge, not battery design
1807 capacity.</p>
1808
1809 <p align="center"><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2016-05-23-battery-stats-rate.png"/></p>
1810
1811 <p>The other graph show the entire history of the collected battery
1812 statistics, comparing it to the design capacity of the battery to
1813 visualise how the battery life time get shorter over time.  The red
1814 line in this graph is what the previous graph considers 100 percent:
1815
1816 <p align="center"><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2016-05-23-battery-stats-history.png"/></p>
1817
1818 <p>In this graph you can see that I only charge the battery to 80
1819 percent of last full capacity, and how the capacity of the battery is
1820 shrinking. :(</p>
1821
1822 <p>The last new feature is in the collector, which now will handle
1823 more hardware models.  On some hardware, Linux power supply
1824 information is stored in /sys/class/power_supply/ACAD/, while the
1825 collector previously only looked in /sys/class/power_supply/AC/.  Now
1826 both are checked to figure if there is power connected to the
1827 machine.</p>
1828
1829 <p>If you are interested in how your laptop battery is doing, please
1830 check out the
1831 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/battery-stats">battery-stats</a>
1832 in Debian unstable, or rebuild it on Jessie to get it working on
1833 Debian stable. :) The upstream source is available from <a
1834 href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/battery-stats">github</a>.
1835 Patches are very welcome.</p>
1836
1837 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
1838 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
1839 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
1840
1841       </div>
1842       <div class="tags">
1843
1844
1845         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>.
1846
1847
1848       </div>
1849     </div>
1850     <div class="padding"></div>
1851
1852     <div class="entry">
1853       <div class="title">
1854         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_now_with_ZFS_on_Linux_included.html">Debian now with ZFS on Linux included</a>
1855       </div>
1856       <div class="date">
1857         12th May 2016
1858       </div>
1859       <div class="body">
1860         <p>Today, after many years of hard work from many people,
1861 <a href="http://zfsonlinux.org/">ZFS for Linux</a> finally entered
1862 Debian.  The package status can be seen on
1863 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/zfs-linux">the package tracker
1864 for zfs-linux</a>.  and
1865 <a href="https://qa.debian.org/developer.php?login=pkg-zfsonlinux-devel@lists.alioth.debian.org">the
1866 team status page</a>. If you want to help out, please join us.
1867 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/gitweb/?p=pkg-zfsonlinux/zfs.git">The
1868 source code</a> is available via git on Alioth.  It would also be
1869 great if you could help out with
1870 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/dkms">the dkms package</a>, as
1871 it is an important piece of the puzzle to get ZFS working.</p>
1872
1873       </div>
1874       <div class="tags">
1875
1876
1877         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>.
1878
1879
1880       </div>
1881     </div>
1882     <div class="padding"></div>
1883
1884     <div class="entry">
1885       <div class="title">
1886         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/What_is_the_best_multimedia_player_in_Debian_.html">What is the best multimedia player in Debian?</a>
1887       </div>
1888       <div class="date">
1889          8th May 2016
1890       </div>
1891       <div class="body">
1892         <p><strong>Where I set out to figure out which multimedia player in
1893 Debian claim support for most file formats.</strong></p>
1894
1895 <p>A few years ago, I had a look at the media support for Browser
1896 plugins in Debian, to get an idea which plugins to include in Debian
1897 Edu.  I created a script to extract the set of supported MIME types
1898 for each plugin, and used this to find out which multimedia browser
1899 plugin supported most file formats / media types.
1900 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/BrowserMultimedia">The
1901 result</a> can still be seen on the Debian wiki, even though it have
1902 not been updated for a while.  But browser plugins are less relevant
1903 these days, so I thought it was time to look at standalone
1904 players.</p>
1905
1906 <p>A few days ago I was tired of VLC not being listed as a viable
1907 player when I wanted to play videos from the Norwegian National
1908 Broadcasting Company, and decided to investigate why.  The cause is a
1909 <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/822245">missing MIME type in the VLC
1910 desktop file</a>.  In the process I wrote a script to compare the set
1911 of MIME types announced in the desktop file and the browser plugin,
1912 only to discover that there is quite a large difference between the
1913 two for VLC.  This discovery made me dig up the script I used to
1914 compare browser plugins, and adjust it to compare desktop files
1915 instead, to try to figure out which multimedia player in Debian
1916 support most file formats.</p>
1917
1918 <p>The result can be seen on the Debian Wiki, as
1919 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/DebianMultimedia/PlayerSupport">a
1920 table listing all MIME types supported by one of the packages included
1921 in the table</a>, with the package supporting most MIME types being
1922 listed first in the table.</p>
1923
1924 </p>The best multimedia player in Debian?  It is totem, followed by
1925 parole, kplayer, mpv, vlc, smplayer mplayer-gui gnome-mpv and
1926 kmplayer.  Time for the other players to update their announced MIME
1927 support?</p>
1928
1929       </div>
1930       <div class="tags">
1931
1932
1933         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>.
1934
1935
1936       </div>
1937     </div>
1938     <div class="padding"></div>
1939
1940     <div class="entry">
1941       <div class="title">
1942         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_Pyra___handheld_computer_with_Debian_preinstalled.html">The Pyra - handheld computer with Debian preinstalled</a>
1943       </div>
1944       <div class="date">
1945          4th May 2016
1946       </div>
1947       <div class="body">
1948         A friend of mine made me aware of
1949 <a href="https://pyra-handheld.com/boards/pages/pyra/">The Pyra</a>, a
1950 handheld computer which will be delivered with Debian preinstalled.  I
1951 would love to get one of those for my birthday. :)</p>
1952
1953 <p>The machine is a complete ARM-based PC with micro HDMI, SATA, USB
1954 plugs and many others connectors, and include a full keyboard and a 5"
1955 LCD touch screen.  The 6000mAh battery is claimed to provide a whole
1956 day of battery life time, but I have not seen any independent tests
1957 confirming this.  The vendor is still collecting preorders, and the
1958 last I heard last night was that 22 more orders were needed before
1959 production started.</p>
1960
1961 <p>As far as I know, this is the first handheld preinstalled with
1962 Debian.  Please let me know if you know of any others.  Is it the
1963 first computer being sold with Debian preinstalled?</p>
1964
1965       </div>
1966       <div class="tags">
1967
1968
1969         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>.
1970
1971
1972       </div>
1973     </div>
1974     <div class="padding"></div>
1975
1976     <div class="entry">
1977       <div class="title">
1978         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lets_make_a_Norwegian_Bokm_l_edition_of_The_Debian_Administrator_s_Handbook.html">Lets make a Norwegian Bokmål edition of The Debian Administrator's Handbook</a>
1979       </div>
1980       <div class="date">
1981         10th April 2016
1982       </div>
1983       <div class="body">
1984         <p>During this weekends
1985 <a href="http://www.nuug.no/news/Oslo__Takk_for_feilfiksingsfesten.shtml">bug
1986 squashing party and developer gathering</a>, we decided to do our part
1987 to make sure there are good books about Debian available in Norwegian
1988 Bokmål, and got in touch with the people behind the
1989 <a href="http://debian-handbook.info/">Debian Administrator's Handbook
1990 project</a> to get started.  If you want to help out, please start
1991 contributing using
1992 <a href="https://hosted.weblate.org/projects/debian-handbook/">the
1993 hosted weblate project page</a>, and get in touch using
1994 <a href="http://lists.alioth.debian.org/mailman/listinfo/debian-handbook-translators">the
1995 translators mailing list</a>.  Please also check out
1996 <a href="https://debian-handbook.info/contribute/">the instructions for
1997 contributors</a>.</p>
1998
1999 <p>The book is already available on paper in English, French and
2000 Japanese, and our goal is to get it available on paper in Norwegian
2001 Bokmål too.  In addition to the paper edition, there are also EPUB and
2002 Mobi versions available.  And there are incomplete translations
2003 available for many more languages.</p>
2004
2005       </div>
2006       <div class="tags">
2007
2008
2009         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian-handbook">debian-handbook</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
2010
2011
2012       </div>
2013     </div>
2014     <div class="padding"></div>
2015
2016     <div class="entry">
2017       <div class="title">
2018         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/One_in_two_hundred_Debian_users_using_ZFS_on_Linux_.html">One in two hundred Debian users using ZFS on Linux?</a>
2019       </div>
2020       <div class="date">
2021          7th April 2016
2022       </div>
2023       <div class="body">
2024         <p>Just for fun I had a look at the popcon number of ZFS related
2025 packages in Debian, and was quite surprised with what I found.  I use
2026 ZFS myself at home, but did not really expect many others to do so.
2027 But I might be wrong.</p>
2028
2029 <p>According to
2030 <a href="https://qa.debian.org/popcon.php?package=spl-linux">the popcon
2031 results for spl-linux</a>, there are 1019 Debian installations, or
2032 0.53% of the population, with the package installed.  As far as I know
2033 the only use of the spl-linux package is as a support library for ZFS
2034 on Linux, so I use it here as proxy for measuring the number of ZFS
2035 installation on Linux in Debian.  In the kFreeBSD variant of Debian
2036 the ZFS feature is already available, and there
2037 <a href="https://qa.debian.org/popcon.php?package=zfsutils">the popcon
2038 results for zfsutils</a> show 1625 Debian installations or 0.84% of
2039 the population.  So I guess I am not alone in using ZFS on Debian.</p>
2040
2041 <p>But even though the Debian project leader Lucas Nussbaum
2042 <a href="https://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce/2015/04/msg00006.html">announced
2043 in April 2015</a> that the legal obstacles blocking ZFS on Debian were
2044 cleared, the package is still not in Debian.  The package is again in
2045 the NEW queue.  Several uploads have been rejected so far because the
2046 debian/copyright file was incomplete or wrong, but there is no reason
2047 to give up.  The current status can be seen on
2048 <a href="https://qa.debian.org/developer.php?login=pkg-zfsonlinux-devel@lists.alioth.debian.org">the
2049 team status page</a>, and
2050 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/gitweb/?p=pkg-zfsonlinux/zfs.git">the
2051 source code</a> is available on Alioth.</p>
2052
2053 <p>As I want ZFS to be included in next version of Debian to make sure
2054 my home server can function in the future using only official Debian
2055 packages, and the current blocker is to get the debian/copyright file
2056 accepted by the FTP masters in Debian, I decided a while back to try
2057 to help out the team.  This was the background for my blog post about
2058 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Creating__updating_and_checking_debian_copyright_semi_automatically.html">creating,
2059 updating and checking debian/copyright semi-automatically</a>, and I
2060 used the techniques I explored there to try to find any errors in the
2061 copyright file.  It is not very easy to check every one of the around
2062 2000 files in the source package, but I hope we this time got it
2063 right.  If you want to help out, check out the git source and try to
2064 find missing entries in the debian/copyright file.</p>
2065
2066       </div>
2067       <div class="tags">
2068
2069
2070         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>.
2071
2072
2073       </div>
2074     </div>
2075     <div class="padding"></div>
2076
2077     <div class="entry">
2078       <div class="title">
2079         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Full_battery_stats_collector_is_now_available_in_Debian.html">Full battery stats collector is now available in Debian</a>
2080       </div>
2081       <div class="date">
2082         23rd March 2016
2083       </div>
2084       <div class="body">
2085         <p>Since this morning, the battery-stats package in Debian include an
2086 extended collector that will collect the complete battery history for
2087 later processing and graphing.  The original collector store the
2088 battery level as percentage of last full level, while the new
2089 collector also record battery vendor, model, serial number, design
2090 full level, last full level and current battery level.  This make it
2091 possible to predict the lifetime of the battery as well as visualise
2092 the energy flow when the battery is charging or discharging.</p>
2093
2094 <p>The new tools are available in <tt>/usr/share/battery-stats/</tt>
2095 in the version 0.5.1 package in unstable.  Get the new battery level graph
2096 and lifetime prediction by running:
2097
2098 <p><pre>
2099 /usr/share/battery-stats/battery-stats-graph /var/log/battery-stats.csv
2100 </pre></p>
2101
2102 <p>Or select the 'Battery Level Graph' from your application menu.</p>
2103
2104 <p>The flow in/out of the battery can be seen by running (no menu
2105 entry yet):</p>
2106
2107 <p><pre>
2108 /usr/share/battery-stats/battery-stats-graph-flow
2109 </pre></p>
2110
2111 <p>I'm not quite happy with the way the data is visualised, at least
2112 when there are few data points.  The graphs look a bit better with a
2113 few years of data.</p>
2114
2115 <p>A while back one important feature I use in the battery stats
2116 collector broke in Debian.  The scripts in
2117 <tt>/usr/lib/pm-utils/power.d/</tt> were no longer executed.  I
2118 suspect it happened when Jessie started using systemd, but I do not
2119 know.  The issue is reported as
2120 <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/818649">bug #818649</a> against
2121 pm-utils.  I managed to work around it by adding an udev rule to call
2122 the collector script every time the power connector is connected and
2123 disconnected.  With this fix in place it was finally time to make a
2124 new release of the package, and get it into Debian.</p>
2125
2126 <p>If you are interested in how your laptop battery is doing, please
2127 check out the
2128 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/battery-stats">battery-stats</a>
2129 in Debian unstable, or rebuild it on Jessie to get it working on
2130 Debian stable. :) The upstream source is available from
2131 <a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/battery-stats">github</a>.
2132 As always, patches are very welcome.</p>
2133
2134       </div>
2135       <div class="tags">
2136
2137
2138         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>.
2139
2140
2141       </div>
2142     </div>
2143     <div class="padding"></div>
2144
2145     <div class="entry">
2146       <div class="title">
2147         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Making_battery_measurements_a_little_easier_in_Debian.html">Making battery measurements a little easier in Debian</a>
2148       </div>
2149       <div class="date">
2150         15th March 2016
2151       </div>
2152       <div class="body">
2153         <p>Back in September, I blogged about
2154 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_life_and_death_of_a_laptop_battery.html">the
2155 system I wrote to collect statistics about my laptop battery</a>, and
2156 how it showed the decay and death of this battery (now replaced).  I
2157 created a simple deb package to handle the collection and graphing,
2158 but did not want to upload it to Debian as there were already
2159 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/battery-stats">a battery-stats
2160 package in Debian</a> that should do the same thing, and I did not see
2161 a point of uploading a competing package when battery-stats could be
2162 fixed instead.  I reported a few bugs about its non-function, and
2163 hoped someone would step in and fix it.  But no-one did.</p>
2164
2165 <p>I got tired of waiting a few days ago, and took matters in my own
2166 hands.  The end result is that I am now the new upstream developer of
2167 battery stats (<a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/battery-stats">available from github</a>) and part of the team maintaining
2168 battery-stats in Debian, and the package in Debian unstable is finally
2169 able to collect battery status using the <tt>/sys/class/power_supply/</tt>
2170 information provided by the Linux kernel.  If you install the
2171 battery-stats package from unstable now, you will be able to get a
2172 graph of the current battery fill level, to get some idea about the
2173 status of the battery.  The source package build and work just fine in
2174 Debian testing and stable (and probably oldstable too, but I have not
2175 tested).  The default graph you get for that system look like this:</p>
2176
2177 <p align="center"><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2016-03-15-battery-stats-graph-example.png" width="70%" align="center"></p>
2178
2179 <p>My plans for the future is to merge my old scripts into the
2180 battery-stats package, as my old scripts collected a lot more details
2181 about the battery.  The scripts are merged into the upstream
2182 battery-stats git repository already, but I am not convinced they work
2183 yet, as I changed a lot of paths along the way.  Will have to test a
2184 bit more before I make a new release.</p>
2185
2186 <p>I will also consider changing the file format slightly, as I
2187 suspect the way I combine several values into one field might make it
2188 impossible to know the type of the value when using it for processing
2189 and graphing.</p>
2190
2191 <p>If you would like I would like to keep an close eye on your laptop
2192 battery, check out the battery-stats package in
2193 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/battery-stats">Debian</a> and
2194 on
2195 <a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/battery-stats">github</a>.
2196 I would love some help to improve the system further.</p>
2197
2198       </div>
2199       <div class="tags">
2200
2201
2202         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>.
2203
2204
2205       </div>
2206     </div>
2207     <div class="padding"></div>
2208
2209     <div class="entry">
2210       <div class="title">
2211         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Creating__updating_and_checking_debian_copyright_semi_automatically.html">Creating, updating and checking debian/copyright semi-automatically</a>
2212       </div>
2213       <div class="date">
2214         19th February 2016
2215       </div>
2216       <div class="body">
2217         <p>Making packages for Debian requires quite a lot of attention to
2218 details.  And one of the details is the content of the
2219 debian/copyright file, which should list all relevant licenses used by
2220 the code in the package in question, preferably in
2221 <a href="https://www.debian.org/doc/packaging-manuals/copyright-format/1.0/">machine
2222 readable DEP5 format</a>.</p>
2223
2224 <p>For large packages with lots of contributors it is hard to write
2225 and update this file manually, and if you get some detail wrong, the
2226 package is normally rejected by the ftpmasters.  So getting it right
2227 the first time around get the package into Debian faster, and save
2228 both you and the ftpmasters some work..  Today, while trying to figure
2229 out what was wrong with
2230 <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=686447">the
2231 zfsonlinux copyright file</a>, I decided to spend some time on
2232 figuring out the options for doing this job automatically, or at least
2233 semi-automatically.</p>
2234
2235 <p>Lucikly, there are at least two tools available for generating the
2236 file based on the code in the source package,
2237 <tt><a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/debmake">debmake</a></tt>
2238 and <tt><a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/cme">cme</a></tt>.  I'm
2239 not sure which one of them came first, but both seem to be able to
2240 create a sensible draft file.  As far as I can tell, none of them can
2241 be trusted to get the result just right, so the content need to be
2242 polished a bit before the file is OK to upload.  I found the debmake
2243 option in
2244 <a href="http://goofying-with-debian.blogspot.com/2014/07/debmake-checking-source-against-dep-5.html">a
2245 blog posts from 2014</a>.
2246
2247 <p>To generate using debmake, use the -cc option:
2248
2249 <p><pre>
2250 debmake -cc > debian/copyright
2251 </pre></p>
2252
2253 <p>Note there are some problems with python and non-ASCII names, so
2254 this might not be the best option.</p>
2255
2256 <p>The cme option is based on a config parsing library, and I found
2257 this approach in
2258 <a href="https://ddumont.wordpress.com/2015/04/05/improving-creation-of-debian-copyright-file/">a
2259 blog post from 2015</a>.  To generate using cme, use the 'update
2260 dpkg-copyright' option:
2261
2262 <p><pre>
2263 cme update dpkg-copyright
2264 </pre></p>
2265
2266 <p>This will create or update debian/copyright.  The cme tool seem to
2267 handle UTF-8 names better than debmake.</p>
2268
2269 <p>When the copyright file is created, I would also like some help to
2270 check if the file is correct.  For this I found two good options,
2271 <tt>debmake -k</tt> and <tt>license-reconcile</tt>.  The former seem
2272 to focus on license types and file matching, and is able to detect
2273 ineffective blocks in the copyright file.  The latter reports missing
2274 copyright holders and years, but was confused by inconsistent license
2275 names (like CDDL vs. CDDL-1.0).  I suspect it is good to use both and
2276 fix all issues reported by them before uploading.  But I do not know
2277 if the tools and the ftpmasters agree on what is important to fix in a
2278 copyright file, so the package might still be rejected.</p>
2279
2280 <p>The devscripts tool <tt>licensecheck</tt> deserve mentioning.  It
2281 will read through the source and try to find all copyright statements.
2282 It is not comparing the result to the content of debian/copyright, but
2283 can be useful when verifying the content of the copyright file.</p>
2284
2285 <p>Are you aware of better tools in Debian to create and update
2286 debian/copyright file.  Please let me know, or blog about it on
2287 planet.debian.org.</p>
2288
2289 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
2290 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
2291 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
2292
2293 <p><strong>Update 2016-02-20</strong>: I got a tip from Mike Gabriel
2294 on how to use licensecheck and cdbs to create a draft copyright file
2295
2296 <p><pre>
2297 licensecheck --copyright -r `find * -type f` | \
2298   /usr/lib/cdbs/licensecheck2dep5 > debian/copyright.auto
2299 </pre></p>
2300
2301 <p>He mentioned that he normally check the generated file into the
2302 version control system to make it easier to discover license and
2303 copyright changes in the upstream source.  I will try to do the same
2304 with my packages in the future.</p>
2305
2306 <p><strong>Update 2016-02-21</strong>: The cme author recommended
2307 against using -quiet for new users, so I removed it from the proposed
2308 command line.</p>
2309
2310       </div>
2311       <div class="tags">
2312
2313
2314         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>.
2315
2316
2317       </div>
2318     </div>
2319     <div class="padding"></div>
2320
2321     <div class="entry">
2322       <div class="title">
2323         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Using_appstream_in_Debian_to_locate_packages_with_firmware_and_mime_type_support.html">Using appstream in Debian to locate packages with firmware and mime type support</a>
2324       </div>
2325       <div class="date">
2326          4th February 2016
2327       </div>
2328       <div class="body">
2329         <p>The <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/DEP-11">appstream system</a>
2330 is taking shape in Debian, and one provided feature is a very
2331 convenient way to tell you which package to install to make a given
2332 firmware file available when the kernel is looking for it.  This can
2333 be done using apt-file too, but that is for someone else to blog
2334 about. :)</p>
2335
2336 <p>Here is a small recipe to find the package with a given firmware
2337 file, in this example I am looking for ctfw-3.2.3.0.bin, randomly
2338 picked from the set of firmware announced using appstream in Debian
2339 unstable.  In general you would be looking for the firmware requested
2340 by the kernel during kernel module loading.  To find the package
2341 providing the example file, do like this:</p>
2342
2343 <blockquote><pre>
2344 % apt install appstream
2345 [...]
2346 % apt update
2347 [...]
2348 % appstreamcli what-provides firmware:runtime ctfw-3.2.3.0.bin | \
2349   awk '/Package:/ {print $2}'
2350 firmware-qlogic
2351 %
2352 </pre></blockquote>
2353
2354 <p>See <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/AppStream/Guidelines">the
2355 appstream wiki</a> page to learn how to embed the package metadata in
2356 a way appstream can use.</p>
2357
2358 <p>This same approach can be used to find any package supporting a
2359 given MIME type.  This is very useful when you get a file you do not
2360 know how to handle.  First find the mime type using <tt>file
2361 --mime-type</tt>, and next look up the package providing support for
2362 it.  Lets say you got an SVG file.  Its MIME type is image/svg+xml,
2363 and you can find all packages handling this type like this:</p>
2364
2365 <blockquote><pre>
2366 % apt install appstream
2367 [...]
2368 % apt update
2369 [...]
2370 % appstreamcli what-provides mimetype image/svg+xml | \
2371   awk '/Package:/ {print $2}'
2372 bkchem
2373 phototonic
2374 inkscape
2375 shutter
2376 tetzle
2377 geeqie
2378 xia
2379 pinta
2380 gthumb
2381 karbon
2382 comix
2383 mirage
2384 viewnior
2385 postr
2386 ristretto
2387 kolourpaint4
2388 eog
2389 eom
2390 gimagereader
2391 midori
2392 %
2393 </pre></blockquote>
2394
2395 <p>I believe the MIME types are fetched from the desktop file for
2396 packages providing appstream metadata.</p>
2397
2398       </div>
2399       <div class="tags">
2400
2401
2402         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>.
2403
2404
2405       </div>
2406     </div>
2407     <div class="padding"></div>
2408
2409     <div class="entry">
2410       <div class="title">
2411         <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>
2412       </div>
2413       <div class="date">
2414         24th January 2016
2415       </div>
2416       <div class="body">
2417         <p>Most people seem not to realise that every time they walk around
2418 with the computerised radio beacon known as a mobile phone their
2419 position is tracked by the phone company and often stored for a long
2420 time (like every time a SMS is received or sent).  And if their
2421 computerised radio beacon is capable of running programs (often called
2422 mobile apps) downloaded from the Internet, these programs are often
2423 also capable of tracking their location (if the app requested access
2424 during installation).  And when these programs send out information to
2425 central collection points, the location is often included, unless
2426 extra care is taken to not send the location.  The provided
2427 information is used by several entities, for good and bad (what is
2428 good and bad, depend on your point of view).  What is certain, is that
2429 the private sphere and the right to free movement is challenged and
2430 perhaps even eradicated for those announcing their location this way,
2431 when they share their whereabouts with private and public
2432 entities.</p>
2433
2434 <p align="center"><img width="70%" src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2016-01-24-nice-creepy-desktop-window.png"></p>
2435
2436 <p>The phone company logs provide a register of locations to check out
2437 when one want to figure out what the tracked person was doing.  It is
2438 unavailable for most of us, but provided to selected government
2439 officials, company staff, those illegally buying information from
2440 unfaithful servants and crackers stealing the information.  But the
2441 public information can be collected and analysed, and a free software
2442 tool to do so is called
2443 <a href="http://www.geocreepy.com/">Creepy or Cree.py</a>.  I
2444 discovered it when I read
2445 <a href="http://www.aftenposten.no/kultur/Slik-kan-du-bli-overvaket-pa-Twitter-og-Instagram-uten-a-ane-det-7787884.html">an
2446 article about Creepy</a> in the Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten i
2447 November 2014, and decided to check if it was available in Debian.
2448 The python program was in Debian, but
2449 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/creepy">the version in
2450 Debian</a> was completely broken and practically unmaintained.  I
2451 uploaded a new version which did not work quite right, but did not
2452 have time to fix it then.  This Christmas I decided to finally try to
2453 get Creepy operational in Debian.  Now a fixed version is available in
2454 Debian unstable and testing, and almost all Debian specific patches
2455 are now included
2456 <a href="https://github.com/jkakavas/creepy">upstream</a>.</p>
2457
2458 <p>The Creepy program visualises geolocation information fetched from
2459 Twitter, Instagram, Flickr and Google+, and allow one to get a
2460 complete picture of every social media message posted recently in a
2461 given area, or track the movement of a given individual across all
2462 these services.  Earlier it was possible to use the search API of at
2463 least some of these services without identifying oneself, but these
2464 days it is impossible.  This mean that to use Creepy, you need to
2465 configure it to log in as yourself on these services, and provide
2466 information to them about your search interests.  This should be taken
2467 into account when using Creepy, as it will also share information
2468 about yourself with the services.</p>
2469
2470 <p>The picture above show the twitter messages sent from (or at least
2471 geotagged with a position from) the city centre of Oslo, the capital
2472 of Norway.  One useful way to use Creepy is to first look at
2473 information tagged with an area of interest, and next look at all the
2474 information provided by one or more individuals who was in the area.
2475 I tested it by checking out which celebrity provide their location in
2476 twitter messages by checkout out who sent twitter messages near a
2477 Norwegian TV station, and next could track their position over time,
2478 making it possible to locate their home and work place, among other
2479 things.  A similar technique have been
2480 <a href="http://www.buzzfeed.com/maxseddon/does-this-soldiers-instagram-account-prove-russia-is-covertl">used
2481 to locate Russian soldiers in Ukraine</a>, and it is both a powerful
2482 tool to discover lying governments, and a useful tool to help people
2483 understand the value of the private information they provide to the
2484 public.</p>
2485
2486 <p>The package is not trivial to backport to Debian Stable/Jessie, as
2487 it depend on several python modules currently missing in Jessie (at
2488 least python-instagram, python-flickrapi and
2489 python-requests-toolbelt).</p>
2490
2491 <p>(I have uploaded
2492 <a href="https://screenshots.debian.net/package/creepy">the image to
2493 screenshots.debian.net</a> and licensed it under the same terms as the
2494 Creepy program in Debian.)</p>
2495
2496       </div>
2497       <div class="tags">
2498
2499
2500         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>.
2501
2502
2503       </div>
2504     </div>
2505     <div class="padding"></div>
2506
2507     <div class="entry">
2508       <div class="title">
2509         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Always_download_Debian_packages_using_Tor___the_simple_recipe.html">Always download Debian packages using Tor - the simple recipe</a>
2510       </div>
2511       <div class="date">
2512         15th January 2016
2513       </div>
2514       <div class="body">
2515         <p>During his DebConf15 keynote, Jacob Appelbaum
2516 <a href="https://summit.debconf.org/debconf15/meeting/331/what-is-to-be-done/">observed
2517 that those listening on the Internet lines would have good reason to
2518 believe a computer have a given security hole</a> if it download a
2519 security fix from a Debian mirror.  This is a good reason to always
2520 use encrypted connections to the Debian mirror, to make sure those
2521 listening do not know which IP address to attack.  In August, Richard
2522 Hartmann observed that encryption was not enough, when it was possible
2523 to interfere download size to security patches or the fact that
2524 download took place shortly after a security fix was released, and
2525 <a href="http://richardhartmann.de/blog/posts/2015/08/24-Tor-enabled_Debian_mirror/">proposed
2526 to always use Tor to download packages from the Debian mirror</a>.  He
2527 was not the first to propose this, as the
2528 <tt><a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/apt-transport-tor">apt-transport-tor</a></tt>
2529 package by Tim Retout already existed to make it easy to convince apt
2530 to use <a href="https://www.torproject.org/">Tor</a>, but I was not
2531 aware of that package when I read the blog post from Richard.</p>
2532
2533 <p>Richard discussed the idea with Peter Palfrader, one of the Debian
2534 sysadmins, and he set up a Tor hidden service on one of the central
2535 Debian mirrors using the address vwakviie2ienjx6t.onion, thus making
2536 it possible to download packages directly between two tor nodes,
2537 making sure the network traffic always were encrypted.</p>
2538
2539 <p>Here is a short recipe for enabling this on your machine, by
2540 installing <tt>apt-transport-tor</tt> and replacing http and https
2541 urls with tor+http and tor+https, and using the hidden service instead
2542 of the official Debian mirror site.  I recommend installing
2543 <tt>etckeeper</tt> before you start to have a history of the changes
2544 done in /etc/.</p>
2545
2546 <blockquote><pre>
2547 apt install apt-transport-tor
2548 sed -i 's% http://ftp.debian.org/% tor+http://vwakviie2ienjx6t.onion/%' /etc/apt/sources.list
2549 sed -i 's% http% tor+http%' /etc/apt/sources.list
2550 </pre></blockquote>
2551
2552 <p>If you have more sources listed in /etc/apt/sources.list.d/, run
2553 the sed commands for these too.  The sed command is assuming your are
2554 using the ftp.debian.org Debian mirror.  Adjust the command (or just
2555 edit the file manually) to match your mirror.</p>
2556
2557 <p>This work in Debian Jessie and later.  Note that tools like
2558 <tt>apt-file</tt> only recently started using the apt transport
2559 system, and do not work with these tor+http URLs.  For
2560 <tt>apt-file</tt> you need the version currently in experimental,
2561 which need a recent apt version currently only in unstable.  So if you
2562 need a working <tt>apt-file</tt>, this is not for you.</p>
2563
2564 <p>Another advantage from this change is that your machine will start
2565 using Tor regularly and at fairly random intervals (every time you
2566 update the package lists or upgrade or install a new package), thus
2567 masking other Tor traffic done from the same machine.  Using Tor will
2568 become normal for the machine in question.</p>
2569
2570 <p>On <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/FreedomBox">Freedombox</a>, APT
2571 is set up by default to use <tt>apt-transport-tor</tt> when Tor is
2572 enabled.  It would be great if it was the default on any Debian
2573 system.</p>
2574
2575       </div>
2576       <div class="tags">
2577
2578
2579         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>.
2580
2581
2582       </div>
2583     </div>
2584     <div class="padding"></div>
2585
2586     <div class="entry">
2587       <div class="title">
2588         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/OpenALPR__find_car_license_plates_in_video_streams___nice_free_software.html">OpenALPR, find car license plates in video streams - nice free software</a>
2589       </div>
2590       <div class="date">
2591         23rd December 2015
2592       </div>
2593       <div class="body">
2594         <p>When I was a kid, we used to collect "car numbers", as we used to
2595 call the car license plate numbers in those days.  I would write the
2596 numbers down in my little book and compare notes with the other kids
2597 to see how many region codes we had seen and if we had seen some
2598 exotic or special region codes and numbers.  It was a fun game to pass
2599 time, as we kids have plenty of it.</p>
2600
2601 <p>A few days I came across
2602 <a href="https://github.com/openalpr/openalpr">the OpenALPR
2603 project</a>, a free software project to automatically discover and
2604 report license plates in images and video streams, and provide the
2605 "car numbers" in a machine readable format.  I've been looking for
2606 such system for a while now, because I believe it is a bad idea that the
2607 <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automatic_number_plate_recognition">automatic
2608 number plate recognition</a> tool only is available in the hands of
2609 the powerful, and want it to be available also for the powerless to
2610 even the score when it comes to surveillance and sousveillance.  I
2611 discovered the developer
2612 <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/747509">wanted to get the tool into
2613 Debian</a>, and as I too wanted it to be in Debian, I volunteered to
2614 help him get it into shape to get the package uploaded into the Debian
2615 archive.</p>
2616
2617 <p>Today we finally managed to get the package into shape and uploaded
2618 it into Debian, where it currently
2619 <a href="https://ftp-master.debian.org//new/openalpr_2.2.1-1.html">waits
2620 in the NEW queue</a> for review by the Debian ftpmasters.</p>
2621
2622 <p>I guess you are wondering why on earth such tool would be useful
2623 for the common folks, ie those not running a large government
2624 surveillance system?  Well, I plan to put it in a computer on my bike
2625 and in my car, tracking the cars nearby and allowing me to be notified
2626 when number plates on my watch list are discovered.  Another use case
2627 was suggested by a friend of mine, who wanted to set it up at his home
2628 to open the car port automatically when it discovered the plate on his
2629 car.  When I mentioned it perhaps was a bit foolhardy to allow anyone
2630 capable of placing his license plate number of a piece of cardboard to
2631 open his car port, men replied that it was always unlocked anyway.  I
2632 guess for such use case it make sense.  I am sure there are other use
2633 cases too, for those with imagination and a vision.</p>
2634
2635 <p>If you want to build your own version of the Debian package, check
2636 out the upstream git source and symlink ./distros/debian to ./debian/
2637 before running "debuild" to build the source.  Or wait a bit until the
2638 package show up in unstable.</p>
2639
2640       </div>
2641       <div class="tags">
2642
2643
2644         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>.
2645
2646
2647       </div>
2648     </div>
2649     <div class="padding"></div>
2650
2651     <div class="entry">
2652       <div class="title">
2653         <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>
2654       </div>
2655       <div class="date">
2656         20th December 2015
2657       </div>
2658       <div class="body">
2659         <p>Around three years ago, I created
2660 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/isenkram">the isenkram
2661 system</a> to get a more practical solution in Debian for handing
2662 hardware related packages.  A GUI system in the isenkram package will
2663 present a pop-up dialog when some hardware dongle supported by
2664 relevant packages in Debian is inserted into the machine.  The same
2665 lookup mechanism to detect packages is available as command line
2666 tools in the isenkram-cli package.  In addition to mapping hardware,
2667 it will also map kernel firmware files to packages and make it easy to
2668 install needed firmware packages automatically.  The key for this
2669 system to work is a good way to map hardware to packages, in other
2670 words, allow packages to announce what hardware they will work
2671 with.</p>
2672
2673 <p>I started by providing data files in the isenkram source, and
2674 adding code to download the latest version of these data files at run
2675 time, to ensure every user had the most up to date mapping available.
2676 I also added support for storing the mapping in the Packages file in
2677 the apt repositories, but did not push this approach because while I
2678 was trying to figure out how to best store hardware/package mappings,
2679 <a href="http://www.freedesktop.org/software/appstream/docs/">the
2680 appstream system</a> was announced.  I got in touch and suggested to
2681 add the hardware mapping into that data set to be able to use
2682 appstream as a data source, and this was accepted at least for the
2683 Debian version of appstream.</p>
2684
2685 <p>A few days ago using appstream in Debian for this became possible,
2686 and today I uploaded a new version 0.20 of isenkram adding support for
2687 appstream as a data source for mapping hardware to packages.  The only
2688 package so far using appstream to announce its hardware support is my
2689 pymissile package.  I got help from Matthias Klumpp with figuring out
2690 how do add the required
2691 <a href="https://appstream.debian.org/html/sid/main/metainfo/pymissile.html">metadata
2692 in pymissile</a>.  I added a file debian/pymissile.metainfo.xml with
2693 this content:</p>
2694
2695 <blockquote><pre>
2696 &lt;?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?&gt;
2697 &lt;component&gt;
2698   &lt;id&gt;pymissile&lt;/id&gt;
2699   &lt;metadata_license&gt;MIT&lt;/metadata_license&gt;
2700   &lt;name&gt;pymissile&lt;/name&gt;
2701   &lt;summary&gt;Control original Striker USB Missile Launcher&lt;/summary&gt;
2702   &lt;description&gt;
2703     &lt;p&gt;
2704       Pymissile provides a curses interface to control an original
2705       Marks and Spencer / Striker USB Missile Launcher, as well as a
2706       motion control script to allow a webcamera to control the
2707       launcher.
2708     &lt;/p&gt;
2709   &lt;/description&gt;
2710   &lt;provides&gt;
2711     &lt;modalias&gt;usb:v1130p0202d*&lt;/modalias&gt;
2712   &lt;/provides&gt;
2713 &lt;/component&gt;
2714 </pre></blockquote>
2715
2716 <p>The key for isenkram is the component/provides/modalias value,
2717 which is a glob style match rule for hardware specific strings
2718 (modalias strings) provided by the Linux kernel.  In this case, it
2719 will map to all USB devices with vendor code 1130 and product code
2720 0202.</p>
2721
2722 <p>Note, it is important that the license of all the metadata files
2723 are compatible to have permissions to aggregate them into archive wide
2724 appstream files.  Matthias suggested to use MIT or BSD licenses for
2725 these files.  A challenge is figuring out a good id for the data, as
2726 it is supposed to be globally unique and shared across distributions
2727 (in other words, best to coordinate with upstream what to use).  But
2728 it can be changed later or, so we went with the package name as
2729 upstream for this project is dormant.</p>
2730
2731 <p>To get the metadata file installed in the correct location for the
2732 mirror update scripts to pick it up and include its content the
2733 appstream data source, the file must be installed in the binary
2734 package under /usr/share/appdata/.  I did this by adding the following
2735 line to debian/pymissile.install:</p>
2736
2737 <blockquote><pre>
2738 debian/pymissile.metainfo.xml usr/share/appdata
2739 </pre></blockquote>
2740
2741 <p>With that in place, the command line tool isenkram-lookup will list
2742 all packages useful on the current computer automatically, and the GUI
2743 pop-up handler will propose to install the package not already
2744 installed if a hardware dongle is inserted into the machine in
2745 question.</p>
2746
2747 <p>Details of the modalias field in appstream is available from the
2748 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/DEP-11">DEP-11</a> proposal.</p>
2749
2750 <p>To locate the modalias values of all hardware present in a machine,
2751 try running this command on the command line:</p>
2752
2753 <blockquote><pre>
2754 cat $(find /sys/devices/|grep modalias)
2755 </pre></blockquote>
2756
2757 <p>To learn more about the isenkram system, please check out
2758 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram/">my
2759 blog posts tagged isenkram</a>.</p>
2760
2761       </div>
2762       <div class="tags">
2763
2764
2765         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>.
2766
2767
2768       </div>
2769     </div>
2770     <div class="padding"></div>
2771
2772     <div class="entry">
2773       <div class="title">
2774         <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>
2775       </div>
2776       <div class="date">
2777         30th November 2015
2778       </div>
2779       <div class="body">
2780         <p>A blog post from my fellow Debian developer Paul Wise titled
2781 "<a href="http://bonedaddy.net/pabs3/log/2015/11/27/sfc-supporter/">The
2782 GPL is not magic pixie dust</a>" explain the importance of making sure
2783 the <a href="http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html">GPL</a> is enforced.
2784 I quote the blog post from Paul in full here with his permission:<p>
2785
2786 <blockquote>
2787
2788 <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>
2789
2790 <blockquote>
2791 The GPL is not magic pixie dust. It does not work by itself.<br/>
2792
2793 The first step is to choose a
2794 <a href="https://copyleft.org/">copyleft</a> license for your
2795 code.<br/>
2796
2797 The next step is, when someone fails to follow that copyleft license,
2798 <b>it must be enforced</b><br/>
2799
2800 and its a simple fact of our modern society that such type of
2801 work<br/>
2802
2803 is incredibly expensive to do and incredibly difficult to do.
2804 </blockquote>
2805
2806 <p><small>-- <a href="http://ebb.org/bkuhn/">Bradley Kuhn</a>, in
2807 <a href="http://faif.us/" title="Free as in Freedom">FaiF</a>
2808 <a href="http://faif.us/cast/2015/nov/24/0x57/">episode
2809 0x57</a></small></p>
2810
2811 <p>As the Debian Website
2812 <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/794116">used</a>
2813 <a href="https://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/webwml/webwml/english/intro/free.wml?r1=1.24&amp;r2=1.25">to</a>
2814 imply, public domain and permissively licensed software can lead to
2815 the production of more proprietary software as people discover useful
2816 software, extend it and or incorporate it into their hardware or
2817 software products.  Copyleft licenses such as the GNU GPL were created
2818 to close off this avenue to the production of proprietary software but
2819 such licenses are not enough.  With the ongoing adoption of Free
2820 Software by individuals and groups, inevitably the community's
2821 expectations of license compliance are violated, usually out of
2822 ignorance of the way Free Software works, but not always.  As Karen
2823 and Bradley explained in <a href="http://faif.us/" title="Free as in
2824 Freedom">FaiF</a>
2825 <a href="http://faif.us/cast/2015/nov/24/0x57/">episode 0x57</a>,
2826 copyleft is nothing if no-one is willing and able to stand up in court
2827 to protect it.  The reality of today's world is that legal
2828 representation is expensive, difficult and time consuming.  With
2829 <a href="http://gpl-violations.org/">gpl-violations.org</a> in hiatus
2830 <a href="http://gpl-violations.org/news/20151027-homepage-recovers/">until</a>
2831 some time in 2016, the <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/">Software
2832 Freedom Conservancy</a> (a tax-exempt charity) is the major defender
2833 of the Linux project, Debian and other groups against GPL violations.
2834 In March the SFC supported a
2835 <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/news/2015/mar/05/vmware-lawsuit/">lawsuit
2836 by Christoph Hellwig</a> against VMware for refusing to
2837 <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/linux-compliance/vmware-lawsuit-faq.html">comply
2838 with the GPL</a> in relation to their use of parts of the Linux
2839 kernel.  Since then two of their sponsors pulled corporate funding and
2840 conferences
2841 <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/blog/2015/nov/24/faif-carols-fundraiser/">blocked
2842 or cancelled their talks</a>.  As a result they have decided to rely
2843 less on corporate funding and more on the broad community of
2844 individuals who support Free Software and copyleft.  So the SFC has
2845 <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/news/2015/nov/23/2015fundraiser/">launched</a>
2846 a <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/supporter/">campaign</a> to create
2847 a community of folks who stand up for copyleft and the GPL by
2848 supporting their work on promoting and supporting copyleft and Free
2849 Software.</p>
2850
2851 <p>If you support Free Software,
2852 <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/blog/2015/nov/26/like-what-I-do/">like</a>
2853 what the SFC do, agree with their
2854 <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/linux-compliance/principles.html">compliance
2855 principles</a>, are happy about their
2856 <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/supporter/">successes</a> in 2015,
2857 work on a project that is an SFC
2858 <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/members/current/">member</a> and or
2859 just want to stand up for copyleft, please join
2860 <a href="https://identi.ca/cwebber/image/JQGPA4qbTyyp3-MY8QpvuA">Christopher
2861 Allan Webber</a>,
2862 <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/blog/2015/nov/24/faif-carols-fundraiser/">Carol
2863 Smith</a>,
2864 <a href="http://www.jonobacon.org/2015/11/25/supporting-software-freedom-conservancy/">Jono
2865 Bacon</a>, myself and
2866 <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/sponsors/#supporters">others</a> in
2867 becoming a
2868 <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/supporter/">supporter</a>.  For the
2869 next week your donation will be
2870 <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/news/2015/nov/27/black-friday/">matched</a>
2871 by an anonymous donor.  Please also consider asking your employer to
2872 match your donation or become a sponsor of SFC.  Don't forget to
2873 spread the word about your support for SFC via email, your blog and or
2874 social media accounts.</p>
2875
2876 </blockquote>
2877
2878 <p>I agree with Paul on this topic and just signed up as a Supporter
2879 of Software Freedom Conservancy myself.  Perhaps you should be a
2880 supporter too?</p>
2881
2882       </div>
2883       <div class="tags">
2884
2885
2886         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>.
2887
2888
2889       </div>
2890     </div>
2891     <div class="padding"></div>
2892
2893     <div class="entry">
2894       <div class="title">
2895         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/PGP_key_transition_statement_for_key_EE4E02F9.html">PGP key transition statement for key EE4E02F9</a>
2896       </div>
2897       <div class="date">
2898         17th November 2015
2899       </div>
2900       <div class="body">
2901         <p>I've needed a new OpenPGP key for a while, but have not had time to
2902 set it up properly.  I wanted to generate it offline and have it
2903 available on <a href="http://shop.kernelconcepts.de/#openpgp">a OpenPGP
2904 smart card</a> for daily use, and learning how to do it and finding
2905 time to sit down with an offline machine almost took forever.  But
2906 finally I've been able to complete the process, and have now moved
2907 from my old GPG key to a new GPG key.  See
2908 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2015-11-17-new-gpg-key-transition.txt">the
2909 full transition statement, signed with both my old and new key</a> for
2910 the details.  This is my new key:</p>
2911
2912 <pre>
2913 pub   3936R/<a href="http://pgp.cs.uu.nl/stats/111D6B29EE4E02F9.html">111D6B29EE4E02F9</a> 2015-11-03 [expires: 2019-11-14]
2914       Key fingerprint = 3AC7 B2E3 ACA5 DF87 78F1  D827 111D 6B29 EE4E 02F9
2915 uid                  Petter Reinholdtsen &lt;pere@hungry.com&gt;
2916 uid                  Petter Reinholdtsen &lt;pere@debian.org&gt;
2917 sub   4096R/87BAFB0E 2015-11-03 [expires: 2019-11-02]
2918 sub   4096R/F91E6DE9 2015-11-03 [expires: 2019-11-02]
2919 sub   4096R/A0439BAB 2015-11-03 [expires: 2019-11-02]
2920 </pre>
2921
2922 <p>The key can be downloaded from the OpenPGP key servers, signed by
2923 my old key.</p>
2924
2925 <p>If you signed my old key
2926 (<a href="http://pgp.cs.uu.nl/stats/DB4CCC4B2A30D729.html">DB4CCC4B2A30D729</a>),
2927 I'd very much appreciate a signature on my new key, details and
2928 instructions in the transition statement. I m happy to reciprocate if
2929 you have a similarly signed transition statement to present.</p>
2930
2931       </div>
2932       <div class="tags">
2933
2934
2935         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>.
2936
2937
2938       </div>
2939     </div>
2940     <div class="padding"></div>
2941
2942     <div class="entry">
2943       <div class="title">
2944         <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>
2945       </div>
2946       <div class="date">
2947         24th September 2015
2948       </div>
2949       <div class="body">
2950         <p>When I get a new laptop, the battery life time at the start is OK.
2951 But this do not last.  The last few laptops gave me a feeling that
2952 within a year, the life time is just a fraction of what it used to be,
2953 and it slowly become painful to use the laptop without power connected
2954 all the time.  Because of this, when I got a new Thinkpad X230 laptop
2955 about two years ago, I decided to monitor its battery state to have
2956 more hard facts when the battery started to fail.</p>
2957
2958 <img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2015-09-24-laptop-battery-graph.png"/>
2959
2960 <p>First I tried to find a sensible Debian package to record the
2961 battery status, assuming that this must be a problem already handled
2962 by someone else.  I found
2963 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/battery-stats">battery-stats</a>,
2964 which collects statistics from the battery, but it was completely
2965 broken.  I sent a few suggestions to the maintainer, but decided to
2966 write my own collector as a shell script while I waited for feedback
2967 from him.  Via
2968 <a href="http://www.ifweassume.com/2013/08/the-de-evolution-of-my-laptop-battery.html">a
2969 blog post about the battery development on a MacBook Air</a> I also
2970 discovered
2971 <a href="https://github.com/jradavenport/batlog.git">batlog</a>, not
2972 available in Debian.</p>
2973
2974 <p>I started my collector 2013-07-15, and it has been collecting
2975 battery stats ever since. Now my
2976 /var/log/hjemmenett-battery-status.log file contain around 115,000
2977 measurements, from the time the battery was working great until now,
2978 when it is unable to charge above 7% of original capacity.  My
2979 collector shell script is quite simple and look like this:</p>
2980
2981 <pre>
2982 #!/bin/sh
2983 # Inspired by
2984 # http://www.ifweassume.com/2013/08/the-de-evolution-of-my-laptop-battery.html
2985 # See also
2986 # http://blog.sleeplessbeastie.eu/2013/01/02/debian-how-to-monitor-battery-capacity/
2987 logfile=/var/log/hjemmenett-battery-status.log
2988
2989 files="manufacturer model_name technology serial_number \
2990     energy_full energy_full_design energy_now cycle_count status"
2991
2992 if [ ! -e "$logfile" ] ; then
2993     (
2994         printf "timestamp,"
2995         for f in $files; do
2996             printf "%s," $f
2997         done
2998         echo
2999     ) > "$logfile"
3000 fi
3001
3002 log_battery() {
3003     # Print complete message in one echo call, to avoid race condition
3004     # when several log processes run in parallel.
3005     msg=$(printf "%s," $(date +%s); \
3006         for f in $files; do \
3007             printf "%s," $(cat $f); \
3008         done)
3009     echo "$msg"
3010 }
3011
3012 cd /sys/class/power_supply
3013
3014 for bat in BAT*; do
3015     (cd $bat && log_battery >> "$logfile")
3016 done
3017 </pre>
3018
3019 <p>The script is called when the power management system detect a
3020 change in the power status (power plug in or out), and when going into
3021 and out of hibernation and suspend.  In addition, it collect a value
3022 every 10 minutes.  This make it possible for me know when the battery
3023 is discharging, charging and how the maximum charge change over time.
3024 The code for the Debian package
3025 <a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/battery-status">is now
3026 available on github</a>.</p>
3027
3028 <p>The collected log file look like this:</p>
3029
3030 <pre>
3031 timestamp,manufacturer,model_name,technology,serial_number,energy_full,energy_full_design,energy_now,cycle_count,status,
3032 1376591133,LGC,45N1025,Li-ion,974,62800000,62160000,39050000,0,Discharging,
3033 [...]
3034 1443090528,LGC,45N1025,Li-ion,974,4900000,62160000,4900000,0,Full,
3035 1443090601,LGC,45N1025,Li-ion,974,4900000,62160000,4900000,0,Full,
3036 </pre>
3037
3038 <p>I wrote a small script to create a graph of the charge development
3039 over time.  This graph depicted above show the slow death of my laptop
3040 battery.</p>
3041
3042 <p>But why is this happening?  Why are my laptop batteries always
3043 dying in a year or two, while the batteries of space probes and
3044 satellites keep working year after year.  If we are to believe
3045 <a href="http://batteryuniversity.com/learn/article/how_to_prolong_lithium_based_batteries">Battery
3046 University</a>, the cause is me charging the battery whenever I have a
3047 chance, and the fix is to not charge the Lithium-ion batteries to 100%
3048 all the time, but to stay below 90% of full charge most of the time.
3049 I've been told that the Tesla electric cars
3050 <a href="http://my.teslamotors.com/de_CH/forum/forums/battery-charge-limit">limit
3051 the charge of their batteries to 80%</a>, with the option to charge to
3052 100% when preparing for a longer trip (not that I would want a car
3053 like Tesla where rights to privacy is abandoned, but that is another
3054 story), which I guess is the option we should have for laptops on
3055 Linux too.</p>
3056
3057 <p>Is there a good and generic way with Linux to tell the battery to
3058 stop charging at 80%, unless requested to charge to 100% once in
3059 preparation for a longer trip?  I found
3060 <a href="http://askubuntu.com/questions/34452/how-can-i-limit-battery-charging-to-80-capacity">one
3061 recipe on askubuntu for Ubuntu to limit charging on Thinkpad to
3062 80%</a>, but could not get it to work (kernel module refused to
3063 load).</p>
3064
3065 <p>I wonder why the battery capacity was reported to be more than 100%
3066 at the start.  I also wonder why the "full capacity" increases some
3067 times, and if it is possible to repeat the process to get the battery
3068 back to design capacity.  And I wonder if the discharge and charge
3069 speed change over time, or if this stay the same.  I did not yet try
3070 to write a tool to calculate the derivative values of the battery
3071 level, but suspect some interesting insights might be learned from
3072 those.</p>
3073
3074 <p>Update 2015-09-24: I got a tip to install the packages
3075 acpi-call-dkms and tlp (unfortunately missing in Debian stable)
3076 packages instead of the tp-smapi-dkms package I had tried to use
3077 initially, and use 'tlp setcharge 40 80' to change when charging start
3078 and stop.  I've done so now, but expect my existing battery is toast
3079 and need to be replaced.  The proposal is unfortunately Thinkpad
3080 specific.</p>
3081
3082       </div>
3083       <div class="tags">
3084
3085
3086         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>.
3087
3088
3089       </div>
3090     </div>
3091     <div class="padding"></div>
3092
3093     <div class="entry">
3094       <div class="title">
3095         <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>
3096       </div>
3097       <div class="date">
3098          5th July 2015
3099       </div>
3100       <div class="body">
3101         <p>Several people contacted me after my previous blog post about my
3102 need for a new laptop, and provided very useful feedback.  I wish to
3103 thank every one of these.  Several pointed me to the possibility of
3104 fixing my X230, and I am already in the process of getting Lenovo to
3105 do so thanks to the on site, next day support contract covering the
3106 machine.  But the battery is almost useless (I expect to replace it
3107 with a non-official battery) and I do not expect the machine to live
3108 for many more years, so it is time to plan its replacement.  If I did
3109 not have a support contract, it was suggested to find replacement parts
3110 using <a href="http://www.francecrans.com/">FrancEcrans</a>, but it
3111 might present a language barrier as I do not understand French.</p>
3112
3113 <p>One tip I got was to use the
3114 <a href="https://skinflint.co.uk/?cat=nb">Skinflint</a> web service to
3115 compare laptop models.  It seem to have more models available than
3116 prisjakt.no.  Another tip I got from someone I know have similar
3117 keyboard preferences was that the HP EliteBook 840 keyboard is not
3118 very good, and this matches my experience with earlier EliteBook
3119 keyboards I tested.  Because of this, I will not consider it any further.
3120
3121 <p>When I wrote my blog post, I was not aware of Thinkpad X250, the
3122 newest Thinkpad X model.  The keyboard reintroduces mouse buttons
3123 (which is missing from the X240), and is working fairly well with
3124 Debian Sid/Unstable according to
3125 <a href="http://www.corsac.net/X250/">Corsac.net</a>.  The reports I
3126 got on the keyboard quality are not consistent.  Some say the keyboard
3127 is good, others say it is ok, while others say it is not very good.
3128 Those with experience from X41 and and X60 agree that the X250
3129 keyboard is not as good as those trusty old laptops, and suggest I
3130 keep and fix my X230 instead of upgrading, or get a used X230 to
3131 replace it.  I'm also told that the X250 lack leds for caps lock, disk
3132 activity and battery status, which is very convenient on my X230.  I'm
3133 also told that the CPU fan is running very often, making it a bit
3134 noisy.  In any case, the X250 do not work out of the box with Debian
3135 Stable/Jessie, one of my requirements.</p>
3136
3137 <p>I have also gotten a few vendor proposals, one was
3138 <a href="http://pro-star.com">Pro-Star</a>, another was
3139 <a href="http://shop.gluglug.org.uk/product/libreboot-x200/">Libreboot</a>.
3140 The latter look very attractive to me.</p>
3141
3142 <p>Again, thank you all for the very useful feedback.  It help a lot
3143 as I keep looking for a replacement.</p>
3144
3145 <p>Update 2015-07-06: I was recommended to check out the
3146 <a href="">lapstore.de</a> web shop for used laptops.  They got several
3147 different
3148 <a href="http://www.lapstore.de/f.php/shop/lapstore/f/411/lang/x/kw/Lenovo_ThinkPad_X_Serie/">old
3149 thinkpad X models</a>, and provide one year warranty.</p>
3150
3151       </div>
3152       <div class="tags">
3153
3154
3155         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>.
3156
3157
3158       </div>
3159     </div>
3160     <div class="padding"></div>
3161
3162     <div class="entry">
3163       <div class="title">
3164         <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>
3165       </div>
3166       <div class="date">
3167          3rd July 2015
3168       </div>
3169       <div class="body">
3170         <p>My primary work horse laptop is failing, and will need a
3171 replacement soon.  The left 5 cm of the screen on my Thinkpad X230
3172 started flickering yesterday, and I suspect the cause is a broken
3173 cable, as changing the angle of the screen some times get rid of the
3174 flickering.</p>
3175
3176 <p>My requirements have not really changed since I bought it, and is
3177 still as
3178 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Thank_you_Thinkpad_X41__for_your_long_and_trustworthy_service.html">I
3179 described them in 2013</a>.  The last time I bought a laptop, I had
3180 good help from
3181 <a href="http://www.prisjakt.no/category.php?k=353">prisjakt.no</a>
3182 where I could select at least a few of the requirements (mouse pin,
3183 wifi, weight) and go through the rest manually.  Three button mouse
3184 and a good keyboard is not available as an option, and all the three
3185 laptop models proposed today (Thinkpad X240, HP EliteBook 820 G1 and
3186 G2) lack three mouse buttons).  It is also unclear to me how good the
3187 keyboard on the HP EliteBooks are.  I hope Lenovo have not messed up
3188 the keyboard, even if the quality and robustness in the X series have
3189 deteriorated since X41.</p>
3190
3191 <p>I wonder how I can find a sensible laptop when none of the options
3192 seem sensible to me?  Are there better services around to search the
3193 set of available laptops for features?  Please send me an email if you
3194 have suggestions.</p>
3195
3196 <p>Update 2015-07-23: I got a suggestion to check out the FSF
3197 <a href="http://www.fsf.org/resources/hw/endorsement/respects-your-freedom">list
3198 of endorsed hardware</a>, which is useful background information.</p>
3199
3200       </div>
3201       <div class="tags">
3202
3203
3204         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>.
3205
3206
3207       </div>
3208     </div>
3209     <div class="padding"></div>
3210
3211     <div class="entry">
3212       <div class="title">
3213         <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>
3214       </div>
3215       <div class="date">
3216         22nd November 2014
3217       </div>
3218       <div class="body">
3219         <p>By now, it is well known that Debian Jessie will not be using
3220 sysvinit as its boot system by default.  But how can one keep using
3221 sysvinit in Jessie?  It is fairly easy, and here are a few recipes,
3222 courtesy of
3223 <a href="http://www.vitavonni.de/blog/201410/2014102101-avoiding-systemd.html">Erich
3224 Schubert</a> and
3225 <a href="http://smcv.pseudorandom.co.uk/2014/still_universal/">Simon
3226 McVittie</a>.
3227
3228 <p>If you already are using Wheezy and want to upgrade to Jessie and
3229 keep sysvinit as your boot system, create a file
3230 <tt>/etc/apt/preferences.d/use-sysvinit</tt> with this content before
3231 you upgrade:</p>
3232
3233 <p><blockquote><pre>
3234 Package: systemd-sysv
3235 Pin: release o=Debian
3236 Pin-Priority: -1
3237 </pre></blockquote><p>
3238
3239 <p>This file content will tell apt and aptitude to not consider
3240 installing systemd-sysv as part of any installation and upgrade
3241 solution when resolving dependencies, and thus tell it to avoid
3242 systemd as a default boot system.  The end result should be that the
3243 upgraded system keep using sysvinit.</p>
3244
3245 <p>If you are installing Jessie for the first time, there is no way to
3246 get sysvinit installed by default (debootstrap used by
3247 debian-installer have no option for this), but one can tell the
3248 installer to switch to sysvinit before the first boot.  Either by
3249 using a kernel argument to the installer, or by adding a line to the
3250 preseed file used.  First, the kernel command line argument:
3251
3252 <p><blockquote><pre>
3253 preseed/late_command="in-target apt-get install --purge -y sysvinit-core"
3254 </pre></blockquote><p>
3255
3256 <p>Next, the line to use in a preseed file:</p>
3257
3258 <p><blockquote><pre>
3259 d-i preseed/late_command string in-target apt-get install -y sysvinit-core
3260 </pre></blockquote><p>
3261
3262 <p>One can of course also do this after the first boot by installing
3263 the sysvinit-core package.</p>
3264
3265 <p>I recommend only using sysvinit if you really need it, as the
3266 sysvinit boot sequence in Debian have several hardware specific bugs
3267 on Linux caused by the fact that it is unpredictable when hardware
3268 devices show up during boot.  But on the other hand, the new default
3269 boot system still have a few rough edges I hope will be fixed before
3270 Jessie is released.</p>
3271
3272 <p>Update 2014-11-26: Inspired by
3273 <ahref="https://www.mirbsd.org/permalinks/wlog-10-tg_e20141125-tg.htm#e20141125-tg_wlog-10-tg">a
3274 blog post by Torsten Glaser</a>, added --purge to the preseed
3275 line.</p>
3276
3277       </div>
3278       <div class="tags">
3279
3280
3281         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>.
3282
3283
3284       </div>
3285     </div>
3286     <div class="padding"></div>
3287
3288     <div class="entry">
3289       <div class="title">
3290         <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>
3291       </div>
3292       <div class="date">
3293         10th November 2014
3294       </div>
3295       <div class="body">
3296         <p>The right to communicate with your friends and family in private,
3297 without anyone snooping, is a right every citicen have in a liberal
3298 democracy.  But this right is under serious attack these days.</p>
3299
3300 <p>A while back it occurred to me that one way to make the dragnet
3301 surveillance conducted by NSA, GCHQ, FRA and others (and confirmed by
3302 the whisleblower Snowden) more expensive for Internet email,
3303 is to deliver all email using SMTP via Tor.  Such SMTP option would be
3304 a nice addition to the FreedomBox project if we could send email
3305 between FreedomBox machines without leaking metadata about the emails
3306 to the people peeking on the wire.  I
3307 <a href="http://lists.alioth.debian.org/pipermail/freedombox-discuss/2014-October/006493.html">proposed
3308 this on the FreedomBox project mailing list in October</a> and got a
3309 lot of useful feedback and suggestions.  It also became obvious to me
3310 that this was not a novel idea, as the same idea was tested and
3311 documented by Johannes Berg as early as 2006, and both
3312 <a href="https://github.com/pagekite/Mailpile/wiki/SMTorP">the
3313 Mailpile</a> and <a href="http://dee.su/cables">the Cables</a> systems
3314 propose a similar method / protocol to pass emails between users.</p>
3315
3316 <p>To implement such system one need to set up a Tor hidden service
3317 providing the SMTP protocol on port 25, and use email addresses
3318 looking like username@hidden-service-name.onion.  With such addresses
3319 the connections to port 25 on hidden-service-name.onion using Tor will
3320 go to the correct SMTP server.  To do this, one need to configure the
3321 Tor daemon to provide the hidden service and the mail server to accept
3322 emails for this .onion domain.  To learn more about Exim configuration
3323 in Debian and test the design provided by Johannes Berg in his FAQ, I
3324 set out yesterday to create a Debian package for making it trivial to
3325 set up such SMTP over Tor service based on Debian.  Getting it to work
3326 were fairly easy, and
3327 <a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/exim4-smtorp">the
3328 source code for the Debian package</a> is available from github.  I
3329 plan to move it into Debian if further testing prove this to be a
3330 useful approach.</p>
3331
3332 <p>If you want to test this, set up a blank Debian machine without any
3333 mail system installed (or run <tt>apt-get purge exim4-config</tt> to
3334 get rid of exim4).  Install tor, clone the git repository mentioned
3335 above, build the deb and install it on the machine.  Next, run
3336 <tt>/usr/lib/exim4-smtorp/setup-exim-hidden-service</tt> and follow
3337 the instructions to get the service up and running.  Restart tor and
3338 exim when it is done, and test mail delivery using swaks like
3339 this:</p>
3340
3341 <p><blockquote><pre>
3342 torsocks swaks --server dutlqrrmjhtfa3vp.onion \
3343   --to fbx@dutlqrrmjhtfa3vp.onion
3344 </pre></blockquote></p>
3345
3346 <p>This will test the SMTP delivery using tor.  Replace the email
3347 address with your own address to test your server. :)</p>
3348
3349 <p>The setup procedure is still to complex, and I hope it can be made
3350 easier and more automatic.  Especially the tor setup need more work.
3351 Also, the package include a tor-smtp tool written in C, but its task
3352 should probably be rewritten in some script language to make the deb
3353 architecture independent.  It would probably also make the code easier
3354 to review.  The tor-smtp tool currently need to listen on a socket for
3355 exim to talk to it and is started using xinetd.  It would be better if
3356 no daemon and no socket is needed.  I suspect it is possible to get
3357 exim to run a command line tool for delivery instead of talking to a
3358 socket, and hope to figure out how in a future version of this
3359 system.</p>
3360
3361 <p>Until I wipe my test machine, I can be reached using the
3362 <tt>fbx@dutlqrrmjhtfa3vp.onion</tt> mail address, deliverable over
3363 SMTorP. :)</p>
3364
3365       </div>
3366       <div class="tags">
3367
3368
3369         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>.
3370
3371
3372       </div>
3373     </div>
3374     <div class="padding"></div>
3375
3376     <div class="entry">
3377       <div class="title">
3378         <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>
3379       </div>
3380       <div class="date">
3381         22nd October 2014
3382       </div>
3383       <div class="body">
3384         <p>If you ever had to moderate a mailman list, like the ones on
3385 alioth.debian.org, you know the web interface is fairly slow to
3386 operate.  First you visit one web page, enter the moderation password
3387 and get a new page shown with a list of all the messages to moderate
3388 and various options for each email address.  This take a while for
3389 every list you moderate, and you need to do it regularly to do a good
3390 job as a list moderator.  But there is a quick alternative,
3391 <a href="http://heim.ifi.uio.no/kjetilho/hacks/#listadmin">the
3392 listadmin program</a>.  It allow you to check lists for new messages
3393 to moderate in a fraction of a second.  Here is a test run on two
3394 lists I recently took over:</p>
3395
3396 <p><blockquote><pre>
3397 % time listadmin xiph
3398 fetching data for pkg-xiph-commits@lists.alioth.debian.org ... nothing in queue
3399 fetching data for pkg-xiph-maint@lists.alioth.debian.org ... nothing in queue
3400
3401 real    0m1.709s
3402 user    0m0.232s
3403 sys     0m0.012s
3404 %
3405 </pre></blockquote></p>
3406
3407 <p>In 1.7 seconds I had checked two mailing lists and confirmed that
3408 there are no message in the moderation queue.  Every morning I
3409 currently moderate 68 mailman lists, and it normally take around two
3410 minutes.  When I took over the two pkg-xiph lists above a few days
3411 ago, there were 400 emails waiting in the moderator queue.  It took me
3412 less than 15 minutes to process them all using the listadmin
3413 program.</p>
3414
3415 <p>If you install
3416 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/listadmin">the listadmin
3417 package</a> from Debian and create a file <tt>~/.listadmin.ini</tt>
3418 with content like this, the moderation task is a breeze:</p>
3419
3420 <p><blockquote><pre>
3421 username username@example.org
3422 spamlevel 23
3423 default discard
3424 discard_if_reason "Posting restricted to members only. Remove us from your mail list."
3425
3426 password secret
3427 adminurl https://{domain}/mailman/admindb/{list}
3428 mailman-list@lists.example.com
3429
3430 password hidden
3431 other-list@otherserver.example.org
3432 </pre></blockquote></p>
3433
3434 <p>There are other options to set as well.  Check the manual page to
3435 learn the details.</p>
3436
3437 <p>If you are forced to moderate lists on a mailman installation where
3438 the SSL certificate is self signed or not properly signed by a
3439 generally accepted signing authority, you can set a environment
3440 variable when calling listadmin to disable SSL verification:</p>
3441
3442 <p><blockquote><pre>
3443 PERL_LWP_SSL_VERIFY_HOSTNAME=0 listadmin
3444 </pre></blockquote></p>
3445
3446 <p>If you want to moderate a subset of the lists you take care of, you
3447 can provide an argument to the listadmin script like I do in the
3448 initial screen dump (the xiph argument).  Using an argument, only
3449 lists matching the argument string will be processed.  This make it
3450 quick to accept messages if you notice the moderation request in your
3451 email.</p>
3452
3453 <p>Without the listadmin program, I would never be the moderator of 68
3454 mailing lists, as I simply do not have time to spend on that if the
3455 process was any slower. The listadmin program have saved me hours of
3456 time I could spend elsewhere over the years.  It truly is nice free
3457 software.</p>
3458
3459 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
3460 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
3461 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b&label=PetterReinholdtsenBlog">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
3462
3463 <p>Update 2014-10-27: Added missing 'username' statement in
3464 configuration example.  Also, I've been told that the
3465 PERL_LWP_SSL_VERIFY_HOSTNAME=0 setting do not work for everyone.  Not
3466 sure why.</p>
3467
3468       </div>
3469       <div class="tags">
3470
3471
3472         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>.
3473
3474
3475       </div>
3476     </div>
3477     <div class="padding"></div>
3478
3479     <div class="entry">
3480       <div class="title">
3481         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Jessie__PXE_and_automatic_firmware_installation.html">Debian Jessie, PXE and automatic firmware installation</a>
3482       </div>
3483       <div class="date">
3484         17th October 2014
3485       </div>
3486       <div class="body">
3487         <p>When PXE installing laptops with Debian, I often run into the
3488 problem that the WiFi card require some firmware to work properly.
3489 And it has been a pain to fix this using preseeding in Debian.
3490 Normally something more is needed.  But thanks to
3491 <a href="https://packages.qa.debian.org/i/isenkram.html">my isenkram
3492 package</a> and its recent tasksel extension, it has now become easy
3493 to do this using simple preseeding.</p>
3494
3495 <p>The isenkram-cli package provide tasksel tasks which will install
3496 firmware for the hardware found in the machine (actually, requested by
3497 the kernel modules for the hardware).  (It can also install user space
3498 programs supporting the hardware detected, but that is not the focus
3499 of this story.)</p>
3500
3501 <p>To get this working in the default installation, two preeseding
3502 values are needed.  First, the isenkram-cli package must be installed
3503 into the target chroot (aka the hard drive) before tasksel is executed
3504 in the pkgsel step of the debian-installer system.  This is done by
3505 preseeding the base-installer/includes debconf value to include the
3506 isenkram-cli package.  The package name is next passed to debootstrap
3507 for installation.  With the isenkram-cli package in place, tasksel
3508 will automatically use the isenkram tasks to detect hardware specific
3509 packages for the machine being installed and install them, because
3510 isenkram-cli contain tasksel tasks.</p>
3511
3512 <p>Second, one need to enable the non-free APT repository, because
3513 most firmware unfortunately is non-free.  This is done by preseeding
3514 the apt-mirror-setup step.  This is unfortunate, but for a lot of
3515 hardware it is the only option in Debian.</p>
3516
3517 <p>The end result is two lines needed in your preseeding file to get
3518 firmware installed automatically by the installer:</p>
3519
3520 <p><blockquote><pre>
3521 base-installer base-installer/includes string isenkram-cli
3522 apt-mirror-setup apt-setup/non-free boolean true
3523 </pre></blockquote></p>
3524
3525 <p>The current version of isenkram-cli in testing/jessie will install
3526 both firmware and user space packages when using this method.  It also
3527 do not work well, so use version 0.15 or later.  Installing both
3528 firmware and user space packages might give you a bit more than you
3529 want, so I decided to split the tasksel task in two, one for firmware
3530 and one for user space programs.  The firmware task is enabled by
3531 default, while the one for user space programs is not.  This split is
3532 implemented in the package currently in unstable.</p>
3533
3534 <p>If you decide to give this a go, please let me know (via email) how
3535 this recipe work for you. :)</p>
3536
3537 <p>So, I bet you are wondering, how can this work.  First and
3538 foremost, it work because tasksel is modular, and driven by whatever
3539 files it find in /usr/lib/tasksel/ and /usr/share/tasksel/.  So the
3540 isenkram-cli package place two files for tasksel to find.  First there
3541 is the task description file (/usr/share/tasksel/descs/isenkram.desc):</p>
3542
3543 <p><blockquote><pre>
3544 Task: isenkram-packages
3545 Section: hardware
3546 Description: Hardware specific packages (autodetected by isenkram)
3547  Based on the detected hardware various hardware specific packages are
3548  proposed.
3549 Test-new-install: show show
3550 Relevance: 8
3551 Packages: for-current-hardware
3552
3553 Task: isenkram-firmware
3554 Section: hardware
3555 Description: Hardware specific firmware packages (autodetected by isenkram)
3556  Based on the detected hardware various hardware specific firmware
3557  packages are proposed.
3558 Test-new-install: mark show
3559 Relevance: 8
3560 Packages: for-current-hardware-firmware
3561 </pre></blockquote></p>
3562
3563 <p>The key parts are Test-new-install which indicate how the task
3564 should be handled and the Packages line referencing to a script in
3565 /usr/lib/tasksel/packages/.  The scripts use other scripts to get a
3566 list of packages to install.  The for-current-hardware-firmware script
3567 look like this to list relevant firmware for the machine:
3568
3569 <p><blockquote><pre>
3570 #!/bin/sh
3571 #
3572 PATH=/usr/sbin:$PATH
3573 export PATH
3574 isenkram-autoinstall-firmware -l
3575 </pre></blockquote></p>
3576
3577 <p>With those two pieces in place, the firmware is installed by
3578 tasksel during the normal d-i run. :)</p>
3579
3580 <p>If you want to test what tasksel will install when isenkram-cli is
3581 installed, run <tt>DEBIAN_PRIORITY=critical tasksel --test
3582 --new-install</tt> to get the list of packages that tasksel would
3583 install.</p>
3584
3585 <p><a href="https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/">Debian Edu</a> will be
3586 pilots in testing this feature, as isenkram is used there now to
3587 install firmware, replacing the earlier scripts.</p>
3588
3589       </div>
3590       <div class="tags">
3591
3592
3593         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>.
3594
3595
3596       </div>
3597     </div>
3598     <div class="padding"></div>
3599
3600     <div class="entry">
3601       <div class="title">
3602         <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>
3603       </div>
3604       <div class="date">
3605          4th October 2014
3606       </div>
3607       <div class="body">
3608         <p>Today I came across an unexpected Ubuntu boot screen.  Above the
3609 bread shelf on the ICA shop at Storo in Oslo, the grub menu of Ubuntu
3610 with Linux kernel 3.2.0-23 (ie probably version 12.04 LTS) was stuck
3611 on a screen normally showing the bread types and prizes:</p>
3612
3613 <p align="center"><img width="70%" src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2014-10-04-ubuntu-ica-storo-crop.jpeg"></p>
3614
3615 <p>If it had booted as it was supposed to, I would never had known
3616 about this hidden Linux installation.  It is interesting what
3617 <a href="http://revealingerrors.com/">errors can reveal</a>.</p>
3618
3619       </div>
3620       <div class="tags">
3621
3622
3623         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>.
3624
3625
3626       </div>
3627     </div>
3628     <div class="padding"></div>
3629
3630     <div class="entry">
3631       <div class="title">
3632         <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>
3633       </div>
3634       <div class="date">
3635          4th October 2014
3636       </div>
3637       <div class="body">
3638         <p>The <a href="https://sourceforge.net/p/lsdvd/">lsdvd project</a>
3639 got a new set of developers a few weeks ago, after the original
3640 developer decided to step down and pass the project to fresh blood.
3641 This project is now maintained by Petter Reinholdtsen and Steve
3642 Dibb.</p>
3643
3644 <p>I just wrapped up
3645 <a href="https://sourceforge.net/p/lsdvd/mailman/message/32896061/">a
3646 new lsdvd release</a>, available in git or from
3647 <a href="https://sourceforge.net/projects/lsdvd/files/lsdvd/">the
3648 download page</a>.  This is the changelog dated 2014-10-03 for version
3649 0.17.</p>
3650
3651 <ul>
3652
3653  <li>Ignore 'phantom' audio, subtitle tracks</li>
3654  <li>Check for garbage in the program chains, which indicate that a track is
3655    non-existant, to work around additional copy protection</li>
3656  <li>Fix displaying content type for audio tracks, subtitles</li>
3657  <li>Fix pallete display of first entry</li>
3658  <li>Fix include orders</li>
3659  <li>Ignore read errors in titles that would not be displayed anyway</li>
3660  <li>Fix the chapter count</li>
3661  <li>Make sure the array size and the array limit used when initialising
3662    the palette size is the same.</li>
3663  <li>Fix array printing.</li>
3664  <li>Correct subsecond calculations.</li>
3665  <li>Add sector information to the output format.</li>
3666  <li>Clean up code to be closer to ANSI C and compile without warnings
3667    with more GCC compiler warnings.</li>
3668
3669 </ul>
3670
3671 <p>This change bring together patches for lsdvd in use in various
3672 Linux and Unix distributions, as well as patches submitted to the
3673 project the last nine years.  Please check it out. :)</p>
3674
3675       </div>
3676       <div class="tags">
3677
3678
3679         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>.
3680
3681
3682       </div>
3683     </div>
3684     <div class="padding"></div>
3685
3686     <div class="entry">
3687       <div class="title">
3688         <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>
3689       </div>
3690       <div class="date">
3691         26th September 2014
3692       </div>
3693       <div class="body">
3694         <p>The <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux
3695 project</a> provide a Linux solution for schools, including a
3696 powerful desktop with education software, a central server providing
3697 web pages, user database, user home directories, central login and PXE
3698 boot of both  clients without disk and the installation to install Debian
3699 Edu on machines with disk (and a few other services perhaps to small
3700 to mention here).  We in the Debian Edu team are currently working on
3701 the Jessie based version, trying to get everything in shape before the
3702 freeze, to avoid having to maintain our own package repository in the
3703 future.  The
3704 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Status/Jessie">current
3705 status</a> can be seen on the Debian wiki, and there is still heaps of
3706 work left.  Some fatal problems block testing, breaking the installer,
3707 but it is possible to work around these to get anyway.  Here is a
3708 recipe on how to get the installation limping along.</p>
3709
3710 <p>First, download the test ISO via
3711 <a href="ftp://ftp.skolelinux.no/cd-edu-testing-nolocal-netinst/debian-edu-amd64-i386-NETINST-1.iso">ftp</a>,
3712 <a href="http://ftp.skolelinux.no/cd-edu-testing-nolocal-netinst/debian-edu-amd64-i386-NETINST-1.iso">http</a>
3713 or rsync (use
3714 ftp.skolelinux.org::cd-edu-testing-nolocal-netinst/debian-edu-amd64-i386-NETINST-1.iso).
3715 The ISO build was broken on Tuesday, so we do not get a new ISO every
3716 12 hours or so, but thankfully the ISO we already got we are able to
3717 install with some tweaking.</p>
3718
3719 <p>When you get to the Debian Edu profile question, go to tty2
3720 (use Alt-Ctrl-F2), run</p>
3721
3722 <p><blockquote><pre>
3723 nano /usr/bin/edu-eatmydata-install
3724 </pre></blockquote></p>
3725
3726 <p>and add 'exit 0' as the second line, disabling the eatmydata
3727 optimization.  Return to the installation, select the profile you want
3728 and continue.  Without this change, exim4-config will fail to install
3729 due to a known bug in eatmydata.</p>
3730
3731 <p>When you get the grub question at the end, answer /dev/sda (or if
3732 this do not work, figure out what your correct value would be.  All my
3733 test machines need /dev/sda, so I have no advice if it do not fit
3734 your need.</p>
3735
3736 <p>If you installed a profile including a graphical desktop, log in as
3737 root after the initial boot from hard drive, and install the
3738 education-desktop-XXX metapackage.  XXX can be kde, gnome, lxde, xfce
3739 or mate.  If you want several desktop options, install more than one
3740 metapackage.  Once this is done, reboot and you should have a working
3741 graphical login screen.  This workaround should no longer be needed
3742 once the education-tasks package version 1.801 enter testing in two
3743 days.</p>
3744
3745 <p>I believe the ISO build will start working on two days when the new
3746 tasksel package enter testing and Steve McIntyre get a chance to
3747 update the debian-cd git repository.  The eatmydata, grub and desktop
3748 issues are already fixed in unstable and testing, and should show up
3749 on the ISO as soon as the ISO build start working again.  Well the
3750 eatmydata optimization is really just disabled.  The proper fix
3751 require an upload by the eatmydata maintainer applying the patch
3752 provided in bug <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/702711">#702711</a>.
3753 The rest have proper fixes in unstable.</p>
3754
3755 <p>I hope this get you going with the installation testing, as we are
3756 quickly running out of time trying to get our Jessie based
3757 installation ready before the distribution freeze in a month.</p>
3758
3759       </div>
3760       <div class="tags">
3761
3762
3763         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>.
3764
3765
3766       </div>
3767     </div>
3768     <div class="padding"></div>
3769
3770     <div class="entry">
3771       <div class="title">
3772         <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>
3773       </div>
3774       <div class="date">
3775         25th September 2014
3776       </div>
3777       <div class="body">
3778         <p>I use the <a href="https://sourceforge.net/p/lsdvd/">lsdvd tool</a>
3779 to handle my fairly large DVD collection.  It is a nice command line
3780 tool to get details about a DVD, like title, tracks, track length,
3781 etc, in XML, Perl or human readable format.  But lsdvd have not seen
3782 any new development since 2006 and had a few irritating bugs affecting
3783 its use with some DVDs.  Upstream seemed to be dead, and in January I
3784 sent a small probe asking for a version control repository for the
3785 project, without any reply.  But I use it regularly and would like to
3786 get <a href="https://packages.qa.debian.org/lsdvd">an updated version
3787 into Debian</a>.  So two weeks ago I tried harder to get in touch with
3788 the project admin, and after getting a reply from him explaining that
3789 he was no longer interested in the project, I asked if I could take
3790 over.  And yesterday, I became project admin.</p>
3791
3792 <p>I've been in touch with a Gentoo developer and the Debian
3793 maintainer interested in joining forces to maintain the upstream
3794 project, and I hope we can get a new release out fairly quickly,
3795 collecting the patches spread around on the internet into on place.
3796 I've added the relevant Debian patches to the freshly created git
3797 repository, and expect the Gentoo patches to make it too.  If you got
3798 a DVD collection and care about command line tools, check out
3799 <a href="https://sourceforge.net/p/lsdvd/git/ci/master/tree/">the git source</a> and join
3800 <a href="https://sourceforge.net/p/lsdvd/mailman/">the project mailing
3801 list</a>. :)</p>
3802
3803       </div>
3804       <div class="tags">
3805
3806
3807         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>.
3808
3809
3810       </div>
3811     </div>
3812     <div class="padding"></div>
3813
3814     <div class="entry">
3815       <div class="title">
3816         <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>
3817       </div>
3818       <div class="date">
3819         16th September 2014
3820       </div>
3821       <div class="body">
3822         <p>The <a href="https://www.debian.org/">Debian</a> installer could be
3823 a lot quicker.  When we install more than 2000 packages in
3824 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Skolelinux / Debian Edu</a> using
3825 tasksel in the installer, unpacking the binary packages take forever.
3826 A part of the slow I/O issue was discussed in
3827 <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/613428">bug #613428</a> about too
3828 much file system sync-ing done by dpkg, which is the package
3829 responsible for unpacking the binary packages.  Other parts (like code
3830 executed by postinst scripts) might also sync to disk during
3831 installation.  All this sync-ing to disk do not really make sense to
3832 me.  If the machine crash half-way through, I start over, I do not try
3833 to salvage the half installed system.  So the failure sync-ing is
3834 supposed to protect against, hardware or system crash, is not really
3835 relevant while the installer is running.</p>
3836
3837 <p>A few days ago, I thought of a way to get rid of all the file
3838 system sync()-ing in a fairly non-intrusive way, without the need to
3839 change the code in several packages.  The idea is not new, but I have
3840 not heard anyone propose the approach using dpkg-divert before.  It
3841 depend on the small and clever package
3842 <a href="https://packages.qa.debian.org/eatmydata">eatmydata</a>, which
3843 uses LD_PRELOAD to replace the system functions for syncing data to
3844 disk with functions doing nothing, thus allowing programs to live
3845 dangerous while speeding up disk I/O significantly.  Instead of
3846 modifying the implementation of dpkg, apt and tasksel (which are the
3847 packages responsible for selecting, fetching and installing packages),
3848 it occurred to me that we could just divert the programs away, replace
3849 them with a simple shell wrapper calling
3850 "eatmydata&nbsp;$program&nbsp;$@", to get the same effect.
3851 Two days ago I decided to test the idea, and wrapped up a simple
3852 implementation for the Debian Edu udeb.</p>
3853
3854 <p>The effect was stunning.  In my first test it reduced the running
3855 time of the pkgsel step (installing tasks) from 64 to less than 44
3856 minutes (20 minutes shaved off the installation) on an old Dell
3857 Latitude D505 machine.  I am not quite sure what the optimised time
3858 would have been, as I messed up the testing a bit, causing the debconf
3859 priority to get low enough for two questions to pop up during
3860 installation.  As soon as I saw the questions I moved the installation
3861 along, but do not know how long the question were holding up the
3862 installation.  I did some more measurements using Debian Edu Jessie,
3863 and got these results.  The time measured is the time stamp in
3864 /var/log/syslog between the "pkgsel: starting tasksel" and the
3865 "pkgsel: finishing up" lines, if you want to do the same measurement
3866 yourself.  In Debian Edu, the tasksel dialog do not show up, and the
3867 timing thus do not depend on how quickly the user handle the tasksel
3868 dialog.</p>
3869
3870 <p><table>
3871
3872 <tr>
3873 <th>Machine/setup</th>
3874 <th>Original tasksel</th>
3875 <th>Optimised tasksel</th>
3876 <th>Reduction</th>
3877 </tr>
3878
3879 <tr>
3880 <td>Latitude D505 Main+LTSP LXDE</td>
3881 <td>64 min (07:46-08:50)</td>
3882 <td><44 min (11:27-12:11)</td>
3883 <td>>20 min 18%</td>
3884 </tr>
3885
3886 <tr>
3887 <td>Latitude D505 Roaming LXDE</td>
3888 <td>57 min (08:48-09:45)</td>
3889 <td>34 min (07:43-08:17)</td>
3890 <td>23 min 40%</td>
3891 </tr>
3892
3893 <tr>
3894 <td>Latitude D505 Minimal</td>
3895 <td>22 min (10:37-10:59)</td>
3896 <td>11 min (11:16-11:27)</td>
3897 <td>11 min 50%</td>
3898 </tr>
3899
3900 <tr>
3901 <td>Thinkpad X200 Minimal</td>
3902 <td>6 min (08:19-08:25)</td>
3903 <td>4 min (08:04-08:08)</td>
3904 <td>2 min 33%</td>
3905 </tr>
3906
3907 <tr>
3908 <td>Thinkpad X200 Roaming KDE</td>
3909 <td>19 min (09:21-09:40)</td>
3910 <td>15 min (10:25-10:40)</td>
3911 <td>4 min 21%</td>
3912 </tr>
3913
3914 </table></p>
3915
3916 <p>The test is done using a netinst ISO on a USB stick, so some of the
3917 time is spent downloading packages.  The connection to the Internet
3918 was 100Mbit/s during testing, so downloading should not be a
3919 significant factor in the measurement.  Download typically took a few
3920 seconds to a few minutes, depending on the amount of packages being
3921 installed.</p>
3922
3923 <p>The speedup is implemented by using two hooks in
3924 <a href="https://www.debian.org/devel/debian-installer/">Debian
3925 Installer</a>, the pre-pkgsel.d hook to set up the diverts, and the
3926 finish-install.d hook to remove the divert at the end of the
3927 installation.  I picked the pre-pkgsel.d hook instead of the
3928 post-base-installer.d hook because I test using an ISO without the
3929 eatmydata package included, and the post-base-installer.d hook in
3930 Debian Edu can only operate on packages included in the ISO.  The
3931 negative effect of this is that I am unable to activate this
3932 optimization for the kernel installation step in d-i.  If the code is
3933 moved to the post-base-installer.d hook, the speedup would be larger
3934 for the entire installation.</p>
3935
3936 <p>I've implemented this in the
3937 <a href="https://packages.qa.debian.org/debian-edu-install">debian-edu-install</a>
3938 git repository, and plan to provide the optimization as part of the
3939 Debian Edu installation.  If you want to test this yourself, you can
3940 create two files in the installer (or in an udeb).  One shell script
3941 need do go into /usr/lib/pre-pkgsel.d/, with content like this:</p>
3942
3943 <p><blockquote><pre>
3944 #!/bin/sh
3945 set -e
3946 . /usr/share/debconf/confmodule
3947 info() {
3948     logger -t my-pkgsel "info: $*"
3949 }
3950 error() {
3951     logger -t my-pkgsel "error: $*"
3952 }
3953 override_install() {
3954     apt-install eatmydata || true
3955     if [ -x /target/usr/bin/eatmydata ] ; then
3956         for bin in dpkg apt-get aptitude tasksel ; do
3957             file=/usr/bin/$bin
3958             # Test that the file exist and have not been diverted already.
3959             if [ -f /target$file ] ; then
3960                 info "diverting $file using eatmydata"
3961                 printf "#!/bin/sh\neatmydata $bin.distrib \"\$@\"\n" \
3962                     > /target$file.edu
3963                 chmod 755 /target$file.edu
3964                 in-target dpkg-divert --package debian-edu-config \
3965                     --rename --quiet --add $file
3966                 ln -sf ./$bin.edu /target$file
3967             else
3968                 error "unable to divert $file, as it is missing."
3969             fi
3970         done
3971     else
3972         error "unable to find /usr/bin/eatmydata after installing the eatmydata pacage"
3973     fi
3974 }
3975
3976 override_install
3977 </pre></blockquote></p>
3978
3979 <p>To clean up, another shell script should go into
3980 /usr/lib/finish-install.d/ with code like this:
3981
3982 <p><blockquote><pre>
3983 #! /bin/sh -e
3984 . /usr/share/debconf/confmodule
3985 error() {
3986     logger -t my-finish-install "error: $@"
3987 }
3988 remove_install_override() {
3989     for bin in dpkg apt-get aptitude tasksel ; do
3990         file=/usr/bin/$bin
3991         if [ -x /target$file.edu ] ; then
3992             rm /target$file
3993             in-target dpkg-divert --package debian-edu-config \
3994                 --rename --quiet --remove $file
3995             rm /target$file.edu
3996         else
3997             error "Missing divert for $file."
3998         fi
3999     done
4000     sync # Flush file buffers before continuing
4001 }
4002
4003 remove_install_override
4004 </pre></blockquote></p>
4005
4006 <p>In Debian Edu, I placed both code fragments in a separate script
4007 edu-eatmydata-install and call it from the pre-pkgsel.d and
4008 finish-install.d scripts.</p>
4009
4010 <p>By now you might ask if this change should get into the normal
4011 Debian installer too?  I suspect it should, but am not sure the
4012 current debian-installer coordinators find it useful enough.  It also
4013 depend on the side effects of the change.  I'm not aware of any, but I
4014 guess we will see if the change is safe after some more testing.
4015 Perhaps there is some package in Debian depending on sync() and
4016 fsync() having effect?  Perhaps it should go into its own udeb, to
4017 allow those of us wanting to enable it to do so without affecting
4018 everyone.</p>
4019
4020 <p>Update 2014-09-24: Since a few days ago, enabling this optimization
4021 will break installation of all programs using gnutls because of
4022 <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/702711">bug #702711</a>.  An updated
4023 eatmydata package in Debian will solve it.</p>
4024
4025 <p>Update 2014-10-17: The bug mentioned above is fixed in testing and
4026 the optimization work again.  And I have discovered that the
4027 dpkg-divert trick is not really needed and implemented a slightly
4028 simpler approach as part of the debian-edu-install package.  See
4029 tools/edu-eatmydata-install in the source package.</p>
4030
4031 <p>Update 2014-11-11: Unfortunately, a new
4032 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/765738">bug #765738</a> in eatmydata only
4033 triggering on i386 made it into testing, and broke this installation
4034 optimization again.  If <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/768893">unblock
4035 request 768893</a> is accepted, it should be working again.</p>
4036
4037       </div>
4038       <div class="tags">
4039
4040
4041         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>.
4042
4043
4044       </div>
4045     </div>
4046     <div class="padding"></div>
4047
4048     <div class="entry">
4049       <div class="title">
4050         <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>
4051       </div>
4052       <div class="date">
4053         10th September 2014
4054       </div>
4055       <div class="body">
4056         <p>Yesterday, I had the pleasure of attending a talk with the
4057 <a href="http://www.nuug.no/">Norwegian Unix User Group</a> about
4058 <a href="http://www.nuug.no/aktiviteter/20140909-sks-keyservers/">the
4059 OpenPGP keyserver pool sks-keyservers.net</a>, and was very happy to
4060 learn that there is a large set of publicly available key servers to
4061 use when looking for peoples public key.  So far I have used
4062 subkeys.pgp.net, and some times wwwkeys.nl.pgp.net when the former
4063 were misbehaving, but those days are ended.  The servers I have used
4064 up until yesterday have been slow and some times unavailable.  I hope
4065 those problems are gone now.</p>
4066
4067 <p>Behind the round robin DNS entry of the
4068 <a href="https://sks-keyservers.net/">sks-keyservers.net</a> service
4069 there is a pool of more than 100 keyservers which are checked every
4070 day to ensure they are well connected and up to date.  It must be
4071 better than what I have used so far. :)</p>
4072
4073 <p>Yesterdays speaker told me that the service is the default
4074 keyserver provided by the default configuration in GnuPG, but this do
4075 not seem to be used in Debian.  Perhaps it should?</p>
4076
4077 <p>Anyway, I've updated my ~/.gnupg/options file to now include this
4078 line:</p>
4079
4080 <p><blockquote><pre>
4081 keyserver pool.sks-keyservers.net
4082 </pre></blockquote></p>
4083
4084 <p>With GnuPG version 2 one can also locate the keyserver using SRV
4085 entries in DNS.  Just for fun, I did just that at work, so now every
4086 user of GnuPG at the University of Oslo should find a OpenGPG
4087 keyserver automatically should their need it:</p>
4088
4089 <p><blockquote><pre>
4090 % host -t srv _pgpkey-http._tcp.uio.no
4091 _pgpkey-http._tcp.uio.no has SRV record 0 100 11371 pool.sks-keyservers.net.
4092 %
4093 </pre></blockquote></p>
4094
4095 <p>Now if only
4096 <a href="http://ietfreport.isoc.org/idref/draft-shaw-openpgp-hkp/">the
4097 HKP lookup protocol</a> supported finding signature paths, I would be
4098 very happy.  It can look up a given key or search for a user ID, but I
4099 normally do not want that, but to find a trust path from my key to
4100 another key.  Given a user ID or key ID, I would like to find (and
4101 download) the keys representing a signature path from my key to the
4102 key in question, to be able to get a trust path between the two keys.
4103 This is as far as I can tell not possible today.  Perhaps something
4104 for a future version of the protocol?</p>
4105
4106       </div>
4107       <div class="tags">
4108
4109
4110         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>.
4111
4112
4113       </div>
4114     </div>
4115     <div class="padding"></div>
4116
4117     <div class="entry">
4118       <div class="title">
4119         <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>
4120       </div>
4121       <div class="date">
4122         17th June 2014
4123       </div>
4124       <div class="body">
4125         <p>The <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux
4126 project</a> provide an instruction manual for teachers, system
4127 administrators and other users that contain useful tips for setting up
4128 and maintaining a Debian Edu installation.  This text is about how the
4129 text processing of this manual is handled in the project.</p>
4130
4131 <p>One goal of the project is to provide information in the native
4132 language of its users, and for this we need to handle translations.
4133 But we also want to make sure each language contain the same
4134 information, so for this we need a good way to keep the translations
4135 in sync.  And we want it to be easy for our users to improve the
4136 documentation, avoiding the need to learn special formats or tools to
4137 contribute, and the obvious way to do this is to make it possible to
4138 edit the documentation using a web browser.  We also want it to be
4139 easy for translators to keep the translation up to date, and give them
4140 help in figuring out what need to be translated. Here is the list of
4141 tools and the process we have found trying to reach all these
4142 goals.</p>
4143
4144 <p>We maintain the authoritative source of our manual in the
4145 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Documentation/Wheezy/">Debian
4146 wiki</a>, as several wiki pages written in English.  It consist of one
4147 front page with references to the different chapters, several pages
4148 for each chapter, and finally one "collection page" gluing all the
4149 chapters together into one large web page (aka
4150 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Documentation/Wheezy/AllInOne">the
4151 AllInOne page</a>).  The AllInOne page is the one used for further
4152 processing and translations.  Thanks to the fact that the
4153 <a href="http://moinmo.in/">MoinMoin</a> installation on
4154 wiki.debian.org support exporting pages in
4155 <a href="http://www.docbook.org/">the Docbook format</a>, we can fetch
4156 the list of pages to export using the raw version of the AllInOne
4157 page, loop over each of them to generate a Docbook XML version of the
4158 manual.  This process also download images and transform image
4159 references to use the locally downloaded images.  The generated
4160 Docbook XML files are slightly broken, so some post-processing is done
4161 using the <tt>documentation/scripts/get_manual</tt> program, and the
4162 result is a nice Docbook XML file (debian-edu-wheezy-manual.xml) and
4163 a handfull of images.  The XML file can now be used to generate PDF, HTML
4164 and epub versions of the English manual.  This is the basic step of
4165 our process, making PDF (using dblatex), HTML (using xsltproc) and
4166 epub (using dbtoepub) version from Docbook XML, and the resulting files
4167 are placed in the debian-edu-doc-en binary package.</p>
4168
4169 <p>But English documentation is not enough for us.  We want translated
4170 documentation too, and we want to make it easy for translators to
4171 track the English original.  For this we use the
4172 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/p/poxml.html">poxml</a> package,
4173 which allow us to transform the English Docbook XML file into a
4174 translation file (a .pot file), usable with the normal gettext based
4175 translation tools used by those translating free software.  The pot
4176 file is used to create and maintain translation files (several .po
4177 files), which the translations update with the native language
4178 translations of all titles, paragraphs and blocks of text in the
4179 original.  The next step is combining the original English Docbook XML
4180 and the translation file (say debian-edu-wheezy-manual.nb.po), to
4181 create a translated Docbook XML file (in this case
4182 debian-edu-wheezy-manual.nb.xml).  This translated (or partly
4183 translated, if the translation is not complete) Docbook XML file can
4184 then be used like the original to create a PDF, HTML and epub version
4185 of the documentation.</p>
4186
4187 <p>The translators use different tools to edit the .po files.  We
4188 recommend using
4189 <a href="http://www.kde.org/applications/development/lokalize/">lokalize</a>,
4190 while some use emacs and vi, others can use web based editors like
4191 <a href="http://pootle.translatehouse.org/">Poodle</a> or
4192 <a href="https://www.transifex.com/">Transifex</a>.  All we care about
4193 is where the .po file end up, in our git repository.  Updated
4194 translations can either be committed directly to git, or submitted as
4195 <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/src:debian-edu-doc">bug reports
4196 against the debian-edu-doc package</a>.</p>
4197
4198 <p>One challenge is images, which both might need to be translated (if
4199 they show translated user applications), and are needed in different
4200 formats when creating PDF and HTML versions (epub is a HTML version in
4201 this regard).  For this we transform the original PNG images to the
4202 needed density and format during build, and have a way to provide
4203 translated images by storing translated versions in
4204 images/$LANGUAGECODE/.  I am a bit unsure about the details here.  The
4205 package maintainers know more.</p>
4206
4207 <p>If you wonder what the result look like, we provide
4208 <a href="http://maintainer.skolelinux.org/debian-edu-doc/">the content
4209 of the documentation packages on the web</a>.  See for example the
4210 <a href="http://maintainer.skolelinux.org/debian-edu-doc/it/debian-edu-wheezy-manual.pdf">Italian
4211 PDF version</a> or the
4212 <a href="http://maintainer.skolelinux.org/debian-edu-doc/de/debian-edu-wheezy-manual.html">German
4213 HTML version</a>.  We do not yet build the epub version by default,
4214 but perhaps it will be done in the future.</p>
4215
4216 <p>To learn more, check out
4217 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/d/debian-edu-doc.html">the
4218 debian-edu-doc package</a>,
4219 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Documentation/Wheezy/">the
4220 manual on the wiki</a> and
4221 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Documentation/Wheezy/Translations">the
4222 translation instructions</a> in the manual.</p>
4223
4224       </div>
4225       <div class="tags">
4226
4227
4228         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>.
4229
4230
4231       </div>
4232     </div>
4233     <div class="padding"></div>
4234
4235     <div class="entry">
4236       <div class="title">
4237         <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>
4238       </div>
4239       <div class="date">
4240         23rd April 2014
4241       </div>
4242       <div class="body">
4243         <p>It would be nice if it was easier in Debian to get all the hardware
4244 related packages relevant for the computer installed automatically.
4245 So I implemented one, using
4246 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/isenkram">my Isenkram
4247 package</a>.  To use it, install the tasksel and isenkram packages and
4248 run tasksel as user root.  You should be presented with a new option,
4249 "Hardware specific packages (autodetected by isenkram)".  When you
4250 select it, tasksel will install the packages isenkram claim is fit for
4251 the current hardware, hot pluggable or not.<p>
4252
4253 <p>The implementation is in two files, one is the tasksel menu entry
4254 description, and the other is the script used to extract the list of
4255 packages to install.  The first part is in
4256 <tt>/usr/share/tasksel/descs/isenkram.desc</tt> and look like
4257 this:</p>
4258
4259 <p><blockquote><pre>
4260 Task: isenkram
4261 Section: hardware
4262 Description: Hardware specific packages (autodetected by isenkram)
4263  Based on the detected hardware various hardware specific packages are
4264  proposed.
4265 Test-new-install: mark show
4266 Relevance: 8
4267 Packages: for-current-hardware
4268 </pre></blockquote></p>
4269
4270 <p>The second part is in
4271 <tt>/usr/lib/tasksel/packages/for-current-hardware</tt> and look like
4272 this:</p>
4273
4274 <p><blockquote><pre>
4275 #!/bin/sh
4276 #
4277 (
4278     isenkram-lookup
4279     isenkram-autoinstall-firmware -l
4280 ) | sort -u
4281 </pre></blockquote></p>
4282
4283 <p>All in all, a very short and simple implementation making it
4284 trivial to install the hardware dependent package we all may want to
4285 have installed on our machines.  I've not been able to find a way to
4286 get tasksel to tell you exactly which packages it plan to install
4287 before doing the installation.  So if you are curious or careful,
4288 check the output from the isenkram-* command line tools first.</p>
4289
4290 <p>The information about which packages are handling which hardware is
4291 fetched either from the isenkram package itself in
4292 /usr/share/isenkram/, from git.debian.org or from the APT package
4293 database (using the Modaliases header).  The APT package database
4294 parsing have caused a nasty resource leak in the isenkram daemon (bugs
4295 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/719837">#719837</a> and
4296 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/730704">#730704</a>).  The cause is in
4297 the python-apt code (bug
4298 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/745487">#745487</a>), but using a
4299 workaround I was able to get rid of the file descriptor leak and
4300 reduce the memory leak from ~30 MiB per hardware detection down to
4301 around 2 MiB per hardware detection.  It should make the desktop
4302 daemon a lot more useful.  The fix is in version 0.7 uploaded to
4303 unstable today.</p>
4304
4305 <p>I believe the current way of mapping hardware to packages in
4306 Isenkram is is a good draft, but in the future I expect isenkram to
4307 use the AppStream data source for this.  A proposal for getting proper
4308 AppStream support into Debian is floating around as
4309 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/DEP-11">DEP-11</a>, and
4310 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/SummerOfCode2014/Projects#SummerOfCode2014.2FProjects.2FAppStreamDEP11Implementation.AppStream.2FDEP-11_for_the_Debian_Archive">GSoC
4311 project</a> will take place this summer to improve the situation.  I
4312 look forward to seeing the result, and welcome patches for isenkram to
4313 start using the information when it is ready.</p>
4314
4315 <p>If you want your package to map to some specific hardware, either
4316 add a "Xb-Modaliases" header to your control file like I did in
4317 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/pymissile">the pymissile
4318 package</a> or submit a bug report with the details to the isenkram
4319 package.  See also
4320 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram/">all my
4321 blog posts tagged isenkram</a> for details on the notation.  I expect
4322 the information will be migrated to AppStream eventually, but for the
4323 moment I got no better place to store it.</p>
4324
4325       </div>
4326       <div class="tags">
4327
4328
4329         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>.
4330
4331
4332       </div>
4333     </div>
4334     <div class="padding"></div>
4335
4336     <div class="entry">
4337       <div class="title">
4338         <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>
4339       </div>
4340       <div class="date">
4341         15th April 2014
4342       </div>
4343       <div class="body">
4344         <p>The <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/FreedomBox">Freedombox
4345 project</a> is working on providing the software and hardware to make
4346 it easy for non-technical people to host their data and communication
4347 at home, and being able to communicate with their friends and family
4348 encrypted and away from prying eyes.  It is still going strong, and
4349 today a major mile stone was reached.</p>
4350
4351 <p>Today, the last of the packages currently used by the project to
4352 created the system images were accepted into Debian Unstable.  It was
4353 the freedombox-setup package, which is used to configure the images
4354 during build and on the first boot.  Now all one need to get going is
4355 the build code from the freedom-maker git repository and packages from
4356 Debian.  And once the freedombox-setup package enter testing, we can
4357 build everything directly from Debian. :)</p>
4358
4359 <p>Some key packages used by Freedombox are
4360 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/freedombox-setup">freedombox-setup</a>,
4361 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/plinth">plinth</a>,
4362 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/pagekite">pagekite</a>,
4363 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/tor">tor</a>,
4364 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/privoxy">privoxy</a>,
4365 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/owncloud">owncloud</a> and
4366 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/dnsmasq">dnsmasq</a>.  There
4367 are plans to integrate more packages into the setup.  User
4368 documentation is maintained on the Debian wiki.  Please
4369 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/FreedomBox/Manual/Jessie">check out
4370 the manual</a> and help us improve it.</p>
4371
4372 <p>To test for yourself and create boot images with the FreedomBox
4373 setup, run this on a Debian machine using a user with sudo rights to
4374 become root:</p>
4375
4376 <p><pre>
4377 sudo apt-get install git vmdebootstrap mercurial python-docutils \
4378   mktorrent extlinux virtualbox qemu-user-static binfmt-support \
4379   u-boot-tools
4380 git clone http://anonscm.debian.org/git/freedombox/freedom-maker.git \
4381   freedom-maker
4382 make -C freedom-maker dreamplug-image raspberry-image virtualbox-image
4383 </pre></p>
4384
4385 <p>Root access is needed to run debootstrap and mount loopback
4386 devices.  See the README in the freedom-maker git repo for more
4387 details on the build.  If you do not want all three images, trim the
4388 make line.  Note that the virtualbox-image target is not really
4389 virtualbox specific.  It create a x86 image usable in kvm, qemu,
4390 vmware and any other x86 virtual machine environment.  You might need
4391 the version of vmdebootstrap in Jessie to get the build working, as it
4392 include fixes for a race condition with kpartx.</p>
4393
4394 <p>If you instead want to install using a Debian CD and the preseed
4395 method, boot a Debian Wheezy ISO and use this boot argument to load
4396 the preseed values:</p>
4397
4398 <p><pre>
4399 url=<a href="http://www.reinholdtsen.name/freedombox/preseed-jessie.dat">http://www.reinholdtsen.name/freedombox/preseed-jessie.dat</a>
4400 </pre></p>
4401
4402 <p>I have not tested it myself the last few weeks, so I do not know if
4403 it still work.</p>
4404
4405 <p>If you wonder how to help, one task you could look at is using
4406 systemd as the boot system.  It will become the default for Linux in
4407 Jessie, so we need to make sure it is usable on the Freedombox.  I did
4408 a simple test a few weeks ago, and noticed dnsmasq failed to start
4409 during boot when using systemd.  I suspect there are other problems
4410 too. :) To detect problems, there is a test suite included, which can
4411 be run from the plinth web interface.</p>
4412
4413 <p>Give it a go and let us know how it goes on the mailing list, and help
4414 us get the new release published. :) Please join us on
4415 <a href="irc://irc.debian.org:6667/%23freedombox">IRC (#freedombox on
4416 irc.debian.org)</a> and
4417 <a href="http://lists.alioth.debian.org/mailman/listinfo/freedombox-discuss">the
4418 mailing list</a> if you want to help make this vision come true.</p>
4419
4420       </div>
4421       <div class="tags">
4422
4423
4424         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>.
4425
4426
4427       </div>
4428     </div>
4429     <div class="padding"></div>
4430
4431     <div class="entry">
4432       <div class="title">
4433         <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>
4434       </div>
4435       <div class="date">
4436          9th April 2014
4437       </div>
4438       <div class="body">
4439         <p>For a while now, I have been looking for a sensible offsite backup
4440 solution for use at home.  My requirements are simple, it must be
4441 cheap and locally encrypted (in other words, I keep the encryption
4442 keys, the storage provider do not have access to my private files).
4443 One idea me and my friends had many years ago, before the cloud
4444 storage providers showed up, was to use Google mail as storage,
4445 writing a Linux block device storing blocks as emails in the mail
4446 service provided by Google, and thus get heaps of free space.  On top
4447 of this one can add encryption, RAID and volume management to have
4448 lots of (fairly slow, I admit that) cheap and encrypted storage.  But
4449 I never found time to implement such system.  But the last few weeks I
4450 have looked at a system called
4451 <a href="https://bitbucket.org/nikratio/s3ql/">S3QL</a>, a locally
4452 mounted network backed file system with the features I need.</p>
4453
4454 <p>S3QL is a fuse file system with a local cache and cloud storage,
4455 handling several different storage providers, any with Amazon S3,
4456 Google Drive or OpenStack API.  There are heaps of such storage
4457 providers.  S3QL can also use a local directory as storage, which
4458 combined with sshfs allow for file storage on any ssh server.  S3QL
4459 include support for encryption, compression, de-duplication, snapshots
4460 and immutable file systems, allowing me to mount the remote storage as
4461 a local mount point, look at and use the files as if they were local,
4462 while the content is stored in the cloud as well.  This allow me to
4463 have a backup that should survive fire.  The file system can not be
4464 shared between several machines at the same time, as only one can
4465 mount it at the time, but any machine with the encryption key and
4466 access to the storage service can mount it if it is unmounted.</p>
4467
4468 <p>It is simple to use.  I'm using it on Debian Wheezy, where the
4469 package is included already.  So to get started, run <tt>apt-get
4470 install s3ql</tt>.  Next, pick a storage provider.  I ended up picking
4471 Greenqloud, after reading their nice recipe on
4472 <a href="https://greenqloud.zendesk.com/entries/44611757-How-To-Use-S3QL-to-mount-a-StorageQloud-bucket-on-Debian-Wheezy">how
4473 to use S3QL with their Amazon S3 service</a>, because I trust the laws
4474 in Iceland more than those in USA when it come to keeping my personal
4475 data safe and private, and thus would rather spend money on a company
4476 in Iceland.  Another nice recipe is available from the article
4477 <a href="http://www.admin-magazine.com/HPC/Articles/HPC-Cloud-Storage">S3QL
4478 Filesystem for HPC Storage</a> by Jeff Layton in the HPC section of
4479 Admin magazine.  When the provider is picked, figure out how to get
4480 the API key needed to connect to the storage API.  With Greencloud,
4481 the key did not show up until I had added payment details to my
4482 account.</p>
4483
4484 <p>Armed with the API access details, it is time to create the file
4485 system.  First, create a new bucket in the cloud.  This bucket is the
4486 file system storage area.  I picked a bucket name reflecting the
4487 machine that was going to store data there, but any name will do.
4488 I'll refer to it as <tt>bucket-name</tt> below.  In addition, one need
4489 the API login and password, and a locally created password.  Store it
4490 all in ~root/.s3ql/authinfo2 like this:
4491
4492 <p><blockquote><pre>
4493 [s3c]
4494 storage-url: s3c://s.greenqloud.com:443/bucket-name
4495 backend-login: API-login
4496 backend-password: API-password
4497 fs-passphrase: local-password
4498 </pre></blockquote></p>
4499
4500 <p>I create my local passphrase using <tt>pwget 50</tt> or similar,
4501 but any sensible way to create a fairly random password should do it.
4502 Armed with these details, it is now time to run mkfs, entering the API
4503 details and password to create it:</p>
4504
4505 <p><blockquote><pre>
4506 # mkdir -m 700 /var/lib/s3ql-cache
4507 # mkfs.s3ql --cachedir /var/lib/s3ql-cache --authfile /root/.s3ql/authinfo2 \
4508   --ssl s3c://s.greenqloud.com:443/bucket-name
4509 Enter backend login:
4510 Enter backend password:
4511 Before using S3QL, make sure to read the user's guide, especially
4512 the 'Important Rules to Avoid Loosing Data' section.
4513 Enter encryption password:
4514 Confirm encryption password:
4515 Generating random encryption key...
4516 Creating metadata tables...
4517 Dumping metadata...
4518 ..objects..
4519 ..blocks..
4520 ..inodes..
4521 ..inode_blocks..
4522 ..symlink_targets..
4523 ..names..
4524 ..contents..
4525 ..ext_attributes..
4526 Compressing and uploading metadata...
4527 Wrote 0.00 MB of compressed metadata.
4528 # </pre></blockquote></p>
4529
4530 <p>The next step is mounting the file system to make the storage available.
4531
4532 <p><blockquote><pre>
4533 # mount.s3ql --cachedir /var/lib/s3ql-cache --authfile /root/.s3ql/authinfo2 \
4534   --ssl --allow-root s3c://s.greenqloud.com:443/bucket-name /s3ql
4535 Using 4 upload threads.
4536 Downloading and decompressing metadata...
4537 Reading metadata...
4538 ..objects..
4539 ..blocks..
4540 ..inodes..
4541 ..inode_blocks..
4542 ..symlink_targets..
4543 ..names..
4544 ..contents..
4545 ..ext_attributes..
4546 Mounting filesystem...
4547 # df -h /s3ql
4548 Filesystem                              Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
4549 s3c://s.greenqloud.com:443/bucket-name  1.0T     0  1.0T   0% /s3ql
4550 #
4551 </pre></blockquote></p>
4552
4553 <p>The file system is now ready for use.  I use rsync to store my
4554 backups in it, and as the metadata used by rsync is downloaded at
4555 mount time, no network traffic (and storage cost) is triggered by
4556 running rsync.  To unmount, one should not use the normal umount
4557 command, as this will not flush the cache to the cloud storage, but
4558 instead running the umount.s3ql command like this:
4559
4560 <p><blockquote><pre>
4561 # umount.s3ql /s3ql
4562 #
4563 </pre></blockquote></p>
4564
4565 <p>There is a fsck command available to check the file system and
4566 correct any problems detected.  This can be used if the local server
4567 crashes while the file system is mounted, to reset the "already
4568 mounted" flag.  This is what it look like when processing a working
4569 file system:</p>
4570
4571 <p><blockquote><pre>
4572 # fsck.s3ql --force --ssl s3c://s.greenqloud.com:443/bucket-name
4573 Using cached metadata.
4574 File system seems clean, checking anyway.
4575 Checking DB integrity...
4576 Creating temporary extra indices...
4577 Checking lost+found...
4578 Checking cached objects...
4579 Checking names (refcounts)...
4580 Checking contents (names)...
4581 Checking contents (inodes)...
4582 Checking contents (parent inodes)...
4583 Checking objects (reference counts)...
4584 Checking objects (backend)...
4585 ..processed 5000 objects so far..
4586 ..processed 10000 objects so far..
4587 ..processed 15000 objects so far..
4588 Checking objects (sizes)...
4589 Checking blocks (referenced objects)...
4590 Checking blocks (refcounts)...
4591 Checking inode-block mapping (blocks)...
4592 Checking inode-block mapping (inodes)...
4593 Checking inodes (refcounts)...
4594 Checking inodes (sizes)...
4595 Checking extended attributes (names)...
4596 Checking extended attributes (inodes)...
4597 Checking symlinks (inodes)...
4598 Checking directory reachability...
4599 Checking unix conventions...
4600 Checking referential integrity...
4601 Dropping temporary indices...
4602 Backing up old metadata...
4603 Dumping metadata...
4604 ..objects..
4605 ..blocks..
4606 ..inodes..
4607 ..inode_blocks..
4608 ..symlink_targets..
4609 ..names..
4610 ..contents..
4611 ..ext_attributes..
4612 Compressing and uploading metadata...
4613 Wrote 0.89 MB of compressed metadata.
4614 #
4615 </pre></blockquote></p>
4616
4617 <p>Thanks to the cache, working on files that fit in the cache is very
4618 quick, about the same speed as local file access.  Uploading large
4619 amount of data is to me limited by the bandwidth out of and into my
4620 house.  Uploading 685 MiB with a 100 MiB cache gave me 305 kiB/s,
4621 which is very close to my upload speed, and downloading the same
4622 Debian installation ISO gave me 610 kiB/s, close to my download speed.
4623 Both were measured using <tt>dd</tt>.  So for me, the bottleneck is my
4624 network, not the file system code.  I do not know what a good cache
4625 size would be, but suspect that the cache should e larger than your
4626 working set.</p>
4627
4628 <p>I mentioned that only one machine can mount the file system at the
4629 time.  If another machine try, it is told that the file system is
4630 busy:</p>
4631
4632 <p><blockquote><pre>
4633 # mount.s3ql --cachedir /var/lib/s3ql-cache --authfile /root/.s3ql/authinfo2 \
4634   --ssl --allow-root s3c://s.greenqloud.com:443/bucket-name /s3ql
4635 Using 8 upload threads.
4636 Backend reports that fs is still mounted elsewhere, aborting.
4637 #
4638 </pre></blockquote></p>
4639
4640 <p>The file content is uploaded when the cache is full, while the
4641 metadata is uploaded once every 24 hour by default.  To ensure the
4642 file system content is flushed to the cloud, one can either umount the
4643 file system, or ask S3QL to flush the cache and metadata using
4644 s3qlctrl:
4645
4646 <p><blockquote><pre>
4647 # s3qlctrl upload-meta /s3ql
4648 # s3qlctrl flushcache /s3ql
4649 #
4650 </pre></blockquote></p>
4651
4652 <p>If you are curious about how much space your data uses in the
4653 cloud, and how much compression and deduplication cut down on the
4654 storage usage, you can use s3qlstat on the mounted file system to get
4655 a report:</p>
4656
4657 <p><blockquote><pre>
4658 # s3qlstat /s3ql
4659 Directory entries:    9141
4660 Inodes:               9143
4661 Data blocks:          8851
4662 Total data size:      22049.38 MB
4663 After de-duplication: 21955.46 MB (99.57% of total)
4664 After compression:    21877.28 MB (99.22% of total, 99.64% of de-duplicated)
4665 Database size:        2.39 MB (uncompressed)
4666 (some values do not take into account not-yet-uploaded dirty blocks in cache)
4667 #
4668 </pre></blockquote></p>
4669
4670 <p>I mentioned earlier that there are several possible suppliers of
4671 storage.  I did not try to locate them all, but am aware of at least
4672 <a href="https://www.greenqloud.com/">Greenqloud</a>,
4673 <a href="http://drive.google.com/">Google Drive</a>,
4674 <a href="http://aws.amazon.com/s3/">Amazon S3 web serivces</a>,
4675 <a href="http://www.rackspace.com/">Rackspace</a> and
4676 <a href="http://crowncloud.net/">Crowncloud</A>.  The latter even
4677 accept payment in Bitcoin.  Pick one that suit your need.  Some of
4678 them provide several GiB of free storage, but the prize models are
4679 quite different and you will have to figure out what suits you
4680 best.</p>
4681
4682 <p>While researching this blog post, I had a look at research papers
4683 and posters discussing the S3QL file system.  There are several, which
4684 told me that the file system is getting a critical check by the
4685 science community and increased my confidence in using it.  One nice
4686 poster is titled
4687 "<a href="http://www.lanl.gov/orgs/adtsc/publications/science_highlights_2013/docs/pg68_69.pdf">An
4688 Innovative Parallel Cloud Storage System using OpenStack’s SwiftObject
4689 Store and Transformative Parallel I/O Approach</a>" by Hsing-Bung
4690 Chen, Benjamin McClelland, David Sherrill, Alfred Torrez, Parks Fields
4691 and Pamela Smith.  Please  have a look.</p>
4692
4693 <p>Given my problems with different file systems earlier, I decided to
4694 check out the mounted S3QL file system to see if it would be usable as
4695 a home directory (in other word, that it provided POSIX semantics when
4696 it come to locking and umask handling etc).  Running
4697 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Testing_if_a_file_system_can_be_used_for_home_directories___.html">my
4698 test code to check file system semantics</a>, I was happy to discover that
4699 no error was found.  So the file system can be used for home
4700 directories, if one chooses to do so.</p>
4701
4702 <p>If you do not want a locally file system, and want something that
4703 work without the Linux fuse file system, I would like to mention the
4704 <a href="http://www.tarsnap.com/">Tarsnap service</a>, which also
4705 provide locally encrypted backup using a command line client.  It have
4706 a nicer access control system, where one can split out read and write
4707 access, allowing some systems to write to the backup and others to
4708 only read from it.</p>
4709
4710 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
4711 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
4712 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b&label=PetterReinholdtsenBlog">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
4713
4714       </div>
4715       <div class="tags">
4716
4717
4718         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>.
4719
4720
4721       </div>
4722     </div>
4723     <div class="padding"></div>
4724
4725     <div class="entry">
4726       <div class="title">
4727         <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>
4728       </div>
4729       <div class="date">
4730         14th March 2014
4731       </div>
4732       <div class="body">
4733         <p>The <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/FreedomBox">Freedombox
4734 project</a> is working on providing the software and hardware for
4735 making it easy for non-technical people to host their data and
4736 communication at home, and being able to communicate with their
4737 friends and family encrypted and away from prying eyes.  It has been
4738 going on for a while, and is slowly progressing towards a new test
4739 release (0.2).</p>
4740
4741 <p>And what day could be better than the Pi day to announce that the
4742 new version will provide "hard drive" / SD card / USB stick images for
4743 Dreamplug, Raspberry Pi and VirtualBox (or any other virtualization
4744 system), and can also be installed using a Debian installer preseed
4745 file.  The Debian based Freedombox is now based on Debian Jessie,
4746 where most of the needed packages used are already present.  Only one,
4747 the freedombox-setup package, is missing.  To try to build your own
4748 boot image to test the current status, fetch the freedom-maker scripts
4749 and build using
4750 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/vmdebootstrap">vmdebootstrap</a>
4751 with a user with sudo access to become root:
4752
4753 <pre>
4754 git clone http://anonscm.debian.org/git/freedombox/freedom-maker.git \
4755   freedom-maker
4756 sudo apt-get install git vmdebootstrap mercurial python-docutils \
4757   mktorrent extlinux virtualbox qemu-user-static binfmt-support \
4758   u-boot-tools
4759 make -C freedom-maker dreamplug-image raspberry-image virtualbox-image
4760 </pre>
4761
4762 <p>Root access is needed to run debootstrap and mount loopback
4763 devices.  See the README for more details on the build. If you do not
4764 want all three images, trim the make line.  But note that thanks to <a
4765 href="https://bugs.debian.org/741407">a race condition in
4766 vmdebootstrap</a>, the build might fail without the patch to the
4767 kpartx call.</p>
4768
4769 <p>If you instead want to install using a Debian CD and the preseed
4770 method, boot a Debian Wheezy ISO and use this boot argument to load
4771 the preseed values:</p>
4772
4773 <pre>
4774 url=<a href="http://www.reinholdtsen.name/freedombox/preseed-jessie.dat">http://www.reinholdtsen.name/freedombox/preseed-jessie.dat</a>
4775 </pre>
4776
4777 <p>But note that due to <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/740673">a
4778 recently introduced bug in apt in Jessie</a>, the installer will
4779 currently hang while setting up APT sources.  Killing the
4780 '<tt>apt-cdrom ident</tt>' process when it hang a few times during the
4781 installation will get the installation going.  This affect all
4782 installations in Jessie, and I expect it will be fixed soon.</p>
4783
4784 <p>Give it a go and let us know how it goes on the mailing list, and help
4785 us get the new release published. :) Please join us on
4786 <a href="irc://irc.debian.org:6667/%23freedombox">IRC (#freedombox on
4787 irc.debian.org)</a> and
4788 <a href="http://lists.alioth.debian.org/mailman/listinfo/freedombox-discuss">the
4789 mailing list</a> if you want to help make this vision come true.</p>
4790
4791       </div>
4792       <div class="tags">
4793
4794
4795         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>.
4796
4797
4798       </div>
4799     </div>
4800     <div class="padding"></div>
4801
4802     <div class="entry">
4803       <div class="title">
4804         <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>
4805       </div>
4806       <div class="date">
4807         22nd February 2014
4808       </div>
4809       <div class="body">
4810         <p>Many years ago, I wrote a GPL licensed version of the netgroup and
4811 innetgr tools, because I needed them in
4812 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Skolelinux</a>.  I called the project
4813 ng-utils, and it has served me well.  I placed the project under the
4814 <a href="http://www.hungry.com/">Hungry Programmer</a> umbrella, and it was maintained in our CVS
4815 repository.  But many years ago, the CVS repository was dropped (lost,
4816 not migrated to new hardware, not sure), and the project have lacked a
4817 proper home since then.</p>
4818
4819 <p>Last summer, I had a look at the package and made a new release
4820 fixing a irritating crash bug, but was unable to store the changes in
4821 a proper source control system.  I applied for a project on
4822 <a href="https://alioth.debian.org/">Alioth</a>, but did not have time
4823 to follow up on it.  Until today. :)</p>
4824
4825 <p>After many hours of cleaning and migration, the ng-utils project
4826 now have a new home, and a git repository with the highlight of the
4827 history of the project.  I published all release tarballs and imported
4828 them into the git repository.  As the project is really stable and not
4829 expected to gain new features any time soon, I decided to make a new
4830 release and call it 1.0.  Visit the new project home on
4831 <a href="https://alioth.debian.org/projects/ng-utils/">https://alioth.debian.org/projects/ng-utils/</a>
4832 if you want to check it out.  The new version is also uploaded into
4833 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/n/ng-utils.html">Debian Unstable</a>.</p>
4834
4835       </div>
4836       <div class="tags">
4837
4838
4839         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>.
4840
4841
4842       </div>
4843     </div>
4844     <div class="padding"></div>
4845
4846     <div class="entry">
4847       <div class="title">
4848         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Testing_sysvinit_from_experimental_in_Debian_Hurd.html">Testing sysvinit from experimental in Debian Hurd</a>
4849       </div>
4850       <div class="date">
4851          3rd February 2014
4852       </div>
4853       <div class="body">
4854         <p>A few days ago I decided to try to help the Hurd people to get
4855 their changes into sysvinit, to allow them to use the normal sysvinit
4856 boot system instead of their old one.  This follow up on the
4857 <a href="https://teythoon.cryptobitch.de//categories/gsoc.html">great
4858 Google Summer of Code work</a> done last summer by Justus Winter to
4859 get Debian on Hurd working more like Debian on Linux.  To get started,
4860 I downloaded a prebuilt hard disk image from
4861 <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>,
4862 and started it using virt-manager.</p>
4863
4864 <p>The first think I had to do after logging in (root without any
4865 password) was to get the network operational.  I followed
4866 <a href="https://www.debian.org/ports/hurd/hurd-install">the
4867 instructions on the Debian GNU/Hurd ports page</a> and ran these
4868 commands as root to get the machine to accept a IP address from the
4869 kvm internal DHCP server:</p>
4870
4871 <p><blockquote><pre>
4872 settrans -fgap /dev/netdde /hurd/netdde
4873 kill $(ps -ef|awk '/[p]finet/ { print $2}')
4874 kill $(ps -ef|awk '/[d]evnode/ { print $2}')
4875 dhclient /dev/eth0
4876 </pre></blockquote></p>
4877
4878 <p>After this, the machine had internet connectivity, and I could
4879 upgrade it and install the sysvinit packages from experimental and
4880 enable it as the default boot system in Hurd.</p>
4881
4882 <p>But before I did that, I set a password on the root user, as ssh is
4883 running on the machine it for ssh login to work a password need to be
4884 set.  Also, note that a bug somewhere in openssh on Hurd block
4885 compression from working.  Remember to turn that off on the client
4886 side.</p>
4887
4888 <p>Run these commands as root to upgrade and test the new sysvinit
4889 stuff:</p>
4890
4891 <p><blockquote><pre>
4892 cat > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/experimental.list &lt;&lt;EOF
4893 deb http://http.debian.net/debian/ experimental main
4894 EOF
4895 apt-get update
4896 apt-get dist-upgrade
4897 apt-get install -t experimental initscripts sysv-rc sysvinit \
4898     sysvinit-core sysvinit-utils
4899 update-alternatives --config runsystem
4900 </pre></blockquote></p>
4901
4902 <p>To reboot after switching boot system, you have to use
4903 <tt>reboot-hurd</tt> instead of just <tt>reboot</tt>, as there is not
4904 yet a sysvinit process able to receive the signals from the normal
4905 'reboot' command.  After switching to sysvinit as the boot system,
4906 upgrading every package and rebooting, the network come up with DHCP
4907 after boot as it should, and the settrans/pkill hack mentioned at the
4908 start is no longer needed.  But for some strange reason, there are no
4909 longer any login prompt in the virtual console, so I logged in using
4910 ssh instead.
4911
4912 <p>Note that there are some race conditions in Hurd making the boot
4913 fail some times.  No idea what the cause is, but hope the Hurd porters
4914 figure it out.  At least Justus said on IRC (#debian-hurd on
4915 irc.debian.org) that they are aware of the problem.  A way to reduce
4916 the impact is to upgrade to the Hurd packages built by Justus by
4917 adding this repository to the machine:</p>
4918
4919 <p><blockquote><pre>
4920 cat > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/hurd-ci.list &lt;&lt;EOF
4921 deb http://darnassus.sceen.net/~teythoon/hurd-ci/ sid main
4922 EOF
4923 </pre></blockquote></p>
4924
4925 <p>At the moment the prebuilt virtual machine get some packages from
4926 http://ftp.debian-ports.org/debian, because some of the packages in
4927 unstable do not yet include the required patches that are lingering in
4928 BTS.  This is the completely list of "unofficial" packages installed:</p>
4929
4930 <p><blockquote><pre>
4931 # aptitude search '?narrow(?version(CURRENT),?origin(Debian Ports))'
4932 i   emacs                   - GNU Emacs editor (metapackage)
4933 i   gdb                     - GNU Debugger
4934 i   hurd-recommended        - Miscellaneous translators
4935 i   isc-dhcp-client         - ISC DHCP client
4936 i   isc-dhcp-common         - common files used by all the isc-dhcp* packages
4937 i   libc-bin                - Embedded GNU C Library: Binaries
4938 i   libc-dev-bin            - Embedded GNU C Library: Development binaries
4939 i   libc0.3                 - Embedded GNU C Library: Shared libraries
4940 i A libc0.3-dbg             - Embedded GNU C Library: detached debugging symbols
4941 i   libc0.3-dev             - Embedded GNU C Library: Development Libraries and Hea
4942 i   multiarch-support       - Transitional package to ensure multiarch compatibilit
4943 i A x11-common              - X Window System (X.Org) infrastructure
4944 i   xorg                    - X.Org X Window System
4945 i A xserver-xorg            - X.Org X server
4946 i A xserver-xorg-input-all  - X.Org X server -- input driver metapackage
4947 #
4948 </pre></blockquote></p>
4949
4950 <p>All in all, testing hurd has been an interesting experience. :)
4951 X.org did not work out of the box and I never took the time to follow
4952 the porters instructions to fix it.  This time I was interested in the
4953 command line stuff.<p>
4954
4955       </div>
4956       <div class="tags">
4957
4958
4959         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>.
4960
4961
4962       </div>
4963     </div>
4964     <div class="padding"></div>
4965
4966     <div class="entry">
4967       <div class="title">
4968         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/New_chrpath_release_0_16.html">New chrpath release 0.16</a>
4969       </div>
4970       <div class="date">
4971         14th January 2014
4972       </div>
4973       <div class="body">
4974         <p><a href="http://www.coverity.com/">Coverity</a> is a nice tool to
4975 find problems in C, C++ and Java code using static source code
4976 analysis.  It can detect a lot of different problems, and is very
4977 useful to find memory and locking bugs in the error handling part of
4978 the source.  The company behind it provide
4979 <a href="https://scan.coverity.com/">check of free software projects as
4980 a community service</a>, and many hundred free software projects are
4981 already checked.  A few days ago I decided to have a closer look at
4982 the Coverity system, and discovered that the
4983 <a href="http://www.gnu.org/software/gnash/">gnash</a> and
4984 <a href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/ipmitool/">ipmitool</a>
4985 projects I am involved with was already registered.  But these are
4986 fairly big, and I would also like to have a small and easy project to
4987 check, and decided to <a href="http://scan.coverity.com/projects/1179">request
4988 checking of the chrpath project</a>.  It was
4989 added to the checker and discovered seven potential defects.  Six of
4990 these were real, mostly resource "leak" when the program detected an
4991 error.  Nothing serious, as the resources would be released a fraction
4992 of a second later when the program exited because of the error, but it
4993 is nice to do it right in case the source of the program some time in
4994 the future end up in a library.  Having fixed all defects and added
4995 <a href="https://lists.alioth.debian.org/mailman/listinfo/chrpath-devel">a
4996 mailing list for the chrpath developers</a>, I decided it was time to
4997 publish a new release.  These are the release notes:</p>
4998
4999 <p>New in 0.16 released 2014-01-14:</p>
5000
5001 <ul>
5002
5003   <li>Fixed all minor bugs discovered by Coverity.</li>
5004   <li>Updated config.sub and config.guess from the GNU project.</li>
5005   <li>Mention new project mailing list in the documentation.</li>
5006
5007 </ul>
5008
5009 <p>You can
5010 <a href="https://alioth.debian.org/frs/?group_id=31052">download the
5011 new version 0.16 from alioth</a>.  Please let us know via the Alioth
5012 project if something is wrong with the new release.  The test suite
5013 did not discover any old errors, so if you find a new one, please also
5014 include a test suite check.</p>
5015
5016       </div>
5017       <div class="tags">
5018
5019
5020         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>.
5021
5022
5023       </div>
5024     </div>
5025     <div class="padding"></div>
5026
5027     <div class="entry">
5028       <div class="title">
5029         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/New_chrpath_release_0_15.html">New chrpath release 0.15</a>
5030       </div>
5031       <div class="date">
5032         24th November 2013
5033       </div>
5034       <div class="body">
5035         <p>After many years break from the package and a vain hope that
5036 development would be continued by someone else, I finally pulled my
5037 acts together this morning and wrapped up a new release of chrpath,
5038 the command line tool to modify the rpath and runpath of already
5039 compiled ELF programs.  The update was triggered by the persistence of
5040 Isha Vishnoi at IBM, which needed a new config.guess file to get
5041 support for the ppc64le architecture (powerpc 64-bit Little Endian) he
5042 is working on.  I checked the
5043 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/chrpath">Debian</a>,
5044 <a href="https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/chrpath">Ubuntu</a> and
5045 <a href="https://admin.fedoraproject.org/pkgdb/acls/name/chrpath">Fedora</a>
5046 packages for interesting patches (failed to find the source from
5047 OpenSUSE and Mandriva packages), and found quite a few nice fixes.
5048 These are the release notes:</p>
5049
5050 <p>New in 0.15 released 2013-11-24:</p>
5051
5052 <ul>
5053
5054   <li>Updated config.sub and config.guess from the GNU project to work
5055    with newer architectures.  Thanks to isha vishnoi for the heads
5056    up.</li>
5057
5058   <li>Updated README with current URLs.</li>
5059
5060   <li>Added byteswap fix found in Ubuntu, credited Jeremy Kerr and
5061    Matthias Klose.</li>
5062
5063   <li>Added missing help for -k|--keepgoing option, using patch by
5064    Petr Machata found in Fedora.</li>
5065
5066   <li>Rewrite removal of RPATH/RUNPATH to make sure the entry in
5067    .dynamic is a NULL terminated string.  Based on patch found in
5068    Fedora credited Axel Thimm and Christian Krause.</li>
5069
5070 </ul>
5071
5072 <p>You can
5073 <a href="https://alioth.debian.org/frs/?group_id=31052">download the
5074 new version 0.15 from alioth</a>.  Please let us know via the Alioth
5075 project if something is wrong with the new release.  The test suite
5076 did not discover any old errors, so if you find a new one, please also
5077 include a testsuite check.</p>
5078
5079       </div>
5080       <div class="tags">
5081
5082
5083         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>.
5084
5085
5086       </div>
5087     </div>
5088     <div class="padding"></div>
5089
5090     <div class="entry">
5091       <div class="title">
5092         <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>
5093       </div>
5094       <div class="date">
5095          2nd November 2013
5096       </div>
5097       <div class="body">
5098         <p>If one of the points of switching to a new init system in Debian is
5099 <a href="http://thomas.goirand.fr/blog/?p=147">to get rid of huge
5100 init.d scripts</a>, I doubt we need to switch away from sysvinit and
5101 init.d scripts at all.  Here is an example init.d script, ie a rewrite
5102 of /etc/init.d/rsyslog:</p>
5103
5104 <p><pre>
5105 #!/lib/init/init-d-script
5106 ### BEGIN INIT INFO
5107 # Provides:          rsyslog
5108 # Required-Start:    $remote_fs $time
5109 # Required-Stop:     umountnfs $time
5110 # X-Stop-After:      sendsigs
5111 # Default-Start:     2 3 4 5
5112 # Default-Stop:      0 1 6
5113 # Short-Description: enhanced syslogd
5114 # Description:       Rsyslog is an enhanced multi-threaded syslogd.
5115 #                    It is quite compatible to stock sysklogd and can be
5116 #                    used as a drop-in replacement.
5117 ### END INIT INFO
5118 DESC="enhanced syslogd"
5119 DAEMON=/usr/sbin/rsyslogd
5120 </pre></p>
5121
5122 <p>Pretty minimalistic to me... For the record, the original sysv-rc
5123 script was 137 lines, and the above is just 15 lines, most of it meta
5124 info/comments.</p>
5125
5126 <p>How to do this, you ask?  Well, one create a new script
5127 /lib/init/init-d-script looking something like this:
5128
5129 <p><pre>
5130 #!/bin/sh
5131
5132 # Define LSB log_* functions.
5133 # Depend on lsb-base (>= 3.2-14) to ensure that this file is present
5134 # and status_of_proc is working.
5135 . /lib/lsb/init-functions
5136
5137 #
5138 # Function that starts the daemon/service
5139
5140 #
5141 do_start()
5142 {
5143         # Return
5144         #   0 if daemon has been started
5145         #   1 if daemon was already running
5146         #   2 if daemon could not be started
5147         start-stop-daemon --start --quiet --pidfile $PIDFILE --exec $DAEMON --test > /dev/null \
5148                 || return 1
5149         start-stop-daemon --start --quiet --pidfile $PIDFILE --exec $DAEMON -- \
5150                 $DAEMON_ARGS \
5151                 || return 2
5152         # Add code here, if necessary, that waits for the process to be ready
5153         # to handle requests from services started subsequently which depend
5154         # on this one.  As a last resort, sleep for some time.
5155 }
5156
5157 #
5158 # Function that stops the daemon/service
5159 #
5160 do_stop()
5161 {
5162         # Return
5163         #   0 if daemon has been stopped
5164         #   1 if daemon was already stopped
5165         #   2 if daemon could not be stopped
5166         #   other if a failure occurred
5167         start-stop-daemon --stop --quiet --retry=TERM/30/KILL/5 --pidfile $PIDFILE --name $NAME
5168         RETVAL="$?"
5169         [ "$RETVAL" = 2 ] && return 2
5170         # Wait for children to finish too if this is a daemon that forks
5171         # and if the daemon is only ever run from this initscript.
5172         # If the above conditions are not satisfied then add some other code
5173         # that waits for the process to drop all resources that could be
5174         # needed by services started subsequently.  A last resort is to
5175         # sleep for some time.
5176         start-stop-daemon --stop --quiet --oknodo --retry=0/30/KILL/5 --exec $DAEMON
5177         [ "$?" = 2 ] && return 2
5178         # Many daemons don't delete their pidfiles when they exit.
5179         rm -f $PIDFILE
5180         return "$RETVAL"
5181 }
5182
5183 #
5184 # Function that sends a SIGHUP to the daemon/service
5185 #
5186 do_reload() {
5187         #
5188         # If the daemon can reload its configuration without
5189         # restarting (for example, when it is sent a SIGHUP),
5190         # then implement that here.
5191         #
5192         start-stop-daemon --stop --signal 1 --quiet --pidfile $PIDFILE --name $NAME
5193         return 0
5194 }
5195
5196 SCRIPTNAME=$1
5197 scriptbasename="$(basename $1)"
5198 echo "SN: $scriptbasename"
5199 if [ "$scriptbasename" != "init-d-library" ] ; then
5200     script="$1"
5201     shift
5202     . $script
5203 else
5204     exit 0
5205 fi
5206
5207 NAME=$(basename $DAEMON)
5208 PIDFILE=/var/run/$NAME.pid
5209
5210 # Exit if the package is not installed
5211 #[ -x "$DAEMON" ] || exit 0
5212
5213 # Read configuration variable file if it is present
5214 [ -r /etc/default/$NAME ] && . /etc/default/$NAME
5215
5216 # Load the VERBOSE setting and other rcS variables
5217 . /lib/init/vars.sh
5218
5219 case "$1" in
5220   start)
5221         [ "$VERBOSE" != no ] && log_daemon_msg "Starting $DESC" "$NAME"
5222         do_start
5223         case "$?" in
5224                 0|1) [ "$VERBOSE" != no ] && log_end_msg 0 ;;
5225                 2) [ "$VERBOSE" != no ] && log_end_msg 1 ;;
5226         esac
5227         ;;
5228   stop)
5229         [ "$VERBOSE" != no ] && log_daemon_msg "Stopping $DESC" "$NAME"
5230         do_stop
5231         case "$?" in
5232                 0|1) [ "$VERBOSE" != no ] && log_end_msg 0 ;;
5233                 2) [ "$VERBOSE" != no ] && log_end_msg 1 ;;
5234         esac
5235         ;;
5236   status)
5237         status_of_proc "$DAEMON" "$NAME" && exit 0 || exit $?
5238         ;;
5239   #reload|force-reload)
5240         #
5241         # If do_reload() is not implemented then leave this commented out
5242         # and leave 'force-reload' as an alias for 'restart'.
5243         #
5244         #log_daemon_msg "Reloading $DESC" "$NAME"
5245         #do_reload
5246         #log_end_msg $?
5247         #;;
5248   restart|force-reload)
5249         #
5250         # If the "reload" option is implemented then remove the
5251         # 'force-reload' alias
5252         #
5253         log_daemon_msg "Restarting $DESC" "$NAME"
5254         do_stop
5255         case "$?" in
5256           0|1)
5257                 do_start
5258                 case "$?" in
5259                         0) log_end_msg 0 ;;
5260                         1) log_end_msg 1 ;; # Old process is still running
5261                         *) log_end_msg 1 ;; # Failed to start
5262                 esac
5263                 ;;
5264           *)
5265                 # Failed to stop
5266                 log_end_msg 1
5267                 ;;
5268         esac
5269         ;;
5270   *)
5271         echo "Usage: $SCRIPTNAME {start|stop|status|restart|force-reload}" >&2
5272         exit 3
5273         ;;
5274 esac
5275
5276 :
5277 </pre></p>
5278
5279 <p>It is based on /etc/init.d/skeleton, and could be improved quite a
5280 lot.  I did not really polish the approach, so it might not always
5281 work out of the box, but you get the idea.  I did not try very hard to
5282 optimize it nor make it more robust either.</p>
5283
5284 <p>A better argument for switching init system in Debian than reducing
5285 the size of init scripts (which is a good thing to do anyway), is to
5286 get boot system that is able to handle the kernel events sensibly and
5287 robustly, and do not depend on the boot to run sequentially.  The boot
5288 and the kernel have not behaved sequentially in years.</p>
5289
5290       </div>
5291       <div class="tags">
5292
5293
5294         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>.
5295
5296
5297       </div>
5298     </div>
5299     <div class="padding"></div>
5300
5301     <div class="entry">
5302       <div class="title">
5303         <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>
5304       </div>
5305       <div class="date">
5306          1st November 2013
5307       </div>
5308       <div class="body">
5309         <p><a href="http://www.spice-space.org/">The SPICE protocol</a> for
5310 remote display access is the preferred solution with oVirt and RedHat
5311 Enterprise Virtualization, and I was sad to discover the other day
5312 that the browser plugin needed to use these systems seamlessly was
5313 missing in Debian.  The <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/668284">request
5314 for a package</a> was from 2012-04-10 with no progress since
5315 2013-04-01, so I decided to wrap up a package based on the great work
5316 from Cajus Pollmeier and put it in a collab-maint maintained git
5317 repository to get a package I could use.  I would very much like
5318 others to help me maintain the package (or just take over, I do not
5319 mind), but as no-one had volunteered so far, I just uploaded it to
5320 NEW.  I hope it will be available in Debian in a few days.</p>
5321
5322 <p>The source is now available from
5323 <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>
5324
5325       </div>
5326       <div class="tags">
5327
5328
5329         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>.
5330
5331
5332       </div>
5333     </div>
5334     <div class="padding"></div>
5335
5336     <div class="entry">
5337       <div class="title">
5338         <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>
5339       </div>
5340       <div class="date">
5341         27th October 2013
5342       </div>
5343       <div class="body">
5344         <p>The
5345 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/v/vmdebootstrap.html">vmdebootstrap</a>
5346 program is a a very nice system to create virtual machine images.  It
5347 create a image file, add a partition table, mount it and run
5348 debootstrap in the mounted directory to create a Debian system on a
5349 stick.  Yesterday, I decided to try to teach it how to make images for
5350 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/RaspberryPi">Raspberry Pi</a>, as part
5351 of a plan to simplify the build system for
5352 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/FreedomBox">the FreedomBox
5353 project</a>.  The FreedomBox project already uses vmdebootstrap for
5354 the virtualbox images, but its current build system made multistrap
5355 based system for Dreamplug images, and it is lacking support for
5356 Raspberry Pi.</p>
5357
5358 <p>Armed with the knowledge on how to build "foreign" (aka non-native
5359 architecture) chroots for Raspberry Pi, I dived into the vmdebootstrap
5360 code and adjusted it to be able to build armel images on my amd64
5361 Debian laptop.  I ended up giving vmdebootstrap five new options,
5362 allowing me to replicate the image creation process I use to make
5363 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/A_Raspberry_Pi_based_batman_adv_Mesh_network_node.html">Debian
5364 Jessie based mesh node images for the Raspberry Pi</a>.  First, the
5365 <tt>--foreign /path/to/binfm_handler</tt> option tell vmdebootstrap to
5366 call debootstrap with --foreign and to copy the handler into the
5367 generated chroot before running the second stage.  This allow
5368 vmdebootstrap to create armel images on an amd64 host.  Next I added
5369 two new options <tt>--bootsize size</tt> and <tt>--boottype
5370 fstype</tt> to teach it to create a separate /boot/ partition with the
5371 given file system type, allowing me to create an image with a vfat
5372 partition for the /boot/ stuff.  I also added a <tt>--variant
5373 variant</tt> option to allow me to create smaller images without the
5374 Debian base system packages installed.  Finally, I added an option
5375 <tt>--no-extlinux</tt> to tell vmdebootstrap to not install extlinux
5376 as a boot loader.  It is not needed on the Raspberry Pi and probably
5377 most other non-x86 architectures.  The changes were accepted by the
5378 upstream author of vmdebootstrap yesterday and today, and is now
5379 available from
5380 <a href="http://git.liw.fi/cgi-bin/cgit/cgit.cgi/vmdebootstrap/">the
5381 upstream project page</a>.</p>
5382
5383 <p>To use it to build a Raspberry Pi image using Debian Jessie, first
5384 create a small script (the customize script) to add the non-free
5385 binary blob needed to boot the Raspberry Pi and the APT source
5386 list:</p>
5387
5388 <p><pre>
5389 #!/bin/sh
5390 set -e # Exit on first error
5391 rootdir="$1"
5392 cd "$rootdir"
5393 cat &lt;&lt;EOF > etc/apt/sources.list
5394 deb http://http.debian.net/debian/ jessie main contrib non-free
5395 EOF
5396 # Install non-free binary blob needed to boot Raspberry Pi.  This
5397 # install a kernel somewhere too.
5398 wget https://raw.github.com/Hexxeh/rpi-update/master/rpi-update \
5399     -O $rootdir/usr/bin/rpi-update
5400 chmod a+x $rootdir/usr/bin/rpi-update
5401 mkdir -p $rootdir/lib/modules
5402 touch $rootdir/boot/start.elf
5403 chroot $rootdir rpi-update
5404 </pre></p>
5405
5406 <p>Next, fetch the latest vmdebootstrap script and call it like this
5407 to build the image:</p>
5408
5409 <pre>
5410 sudo ./vmdebootstrap \
5411     --variant minbase \
5412     --arch armel \
5413     --distribution jessie \
5414     --mirror http://http.debian.net/debian \
5415     --image test.img \
5416     --size 600M \
5417     --bootsize 64M \
5418     --boottype vfat \
5419     --log-level debug \
5420     --verbose \
5421     --no-kernel \
5422     --no-extlinux \
5423     --root-password raspberry \
5424     --hostname raspberrypi \
5425     --foreign /usr/bin/qemu-arm-static \
5426     --customize `pwd`/customize \
5427     --package netbase \
5428     --package git-core \
5429     --package binutils \
5430     --package ca-certificates \
5431     --package wget \
5432     --package kmod
5433 </pre></p>
5434
5435 <p>The list of packages being installed are the ones needed by
5436 rpi-update to make the image bootable on the Raspberry Pi, with the
5437 exception of netbase, which is needed by debootstrap to find
5438 /etc/hosts with the minbase variant.  I really wish there was a way to
5439 set up an Raspberry Pi using only packages in the Debian archive, but
5440 that is not possible as far as I know, because it boots from the GPU
5441 using a non-free binary blob.</p>
5442
5443 <p>The build host need debootstrap, kpartx and qemu-user-static and
5444 probably a few others installed.  I have not checked the complete
5445 build dependency list.</p>
5446
5447 <p>The resulting image will not use the hardware floating point unit
5448 on the Raspberry PI, because the armel architecture in Debian is not
5449 optimized for that use.  So the images created will be a bit slower
5450 than <a href="http://www.raspbian.org/">Raspbian</a> based images.</p>
5451
5452       </div>
5453       <div class="tags">
5454
5455
5456         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>.
5457
5458
5459       </div>
5460     </div>
5461     <div class="padding"></div>
5462
5463     <div class="entry">
5464       <div class="title">
5465         <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>
5466       </div>
5467       <div class="date">
5468         15th October 2013
5469       </div>
5470       <div class="body">
5471         <p>The last few days I came across a few good causes that should get
5472 wider attention.  I recommend signing and donating to each one of
5473 these. :)</p>
5474
5475 <p>Via <a href="http://www.debian.org/News/weekly/2013/18/">Debian
5476 Project News for 2013-10-14</a> I came across the Outreach Program for
5477 Women program which is a Google Summer of Code like initiative to get
5478 more women involved in free software.  One debian sponsor has offered
5479 to match <a href="http://debian.ch/opw2013">any donation done to Debian
5480 earmarked</a> for this initiative.  I donated a few minutes ago, and
5481 hope you will to. :)</p>
5482
5483 <p>And the Electronic Frontier Foundation just announced plans to
5484 create <a href="https://supporters.eff.org/donate/nsa-videos">video
5485 documentaries about the excessive spying</a> on every Internet user that
5486 take place these days, and their need to fund the work.  I've already
5487 donated.  Are you next?</p>
5488
5489 <p>For my Norwegian audience, the organisation Studentenes og
5490 Akademikernes Internasjonale Hjelpefond is collecting signatures for a
5491 statement under the heading
5492 <a href="http://saih.no/Bloggers_United/">Bloggers United for Open
5493 Access</a> for those of us asking for more focus on open access in the
5494 Norwegian government.  So far 499 signatures.  I hope you will sign it
5495 too.</p>
5496
5497       </div>
5498       <div class="tags">
5499
5500
5501         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>.
5502
5503
5504       </div>
5505     </div>
5506     <div class="padding"></div>
5507
5508     <div class="entry">
5509       <div class="title">
5510         <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>
5511       </div>
5512       <div class="date">
5513         27th September 2013
5514       </div>
5515       <div class="body">
5516         <p>The <a href="http://www.freedomboxfoundation.org/">Freedombox
5517 project</a> have been going on for a while, and have presented the
5518 vision, ideas and solution several places.  Here is a little
5519 collection of videos of talks and presentation of the project.</p>
5520
5521 <ul>
5522
5523 <li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ukvUz5taxvA">FreedomBox -
5524 2,5 minute marketing film</a> (Youtube)</li>
5525
5526 <li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SzW25QTVWsE">Eben Moglen
5527 discusses the Freedombox on CBS news 2011</a> (Youtube)</li>
5528
5529 <li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ae8SZbxfE0g">Eben Moglen -
5530 Freedom in the Cloud - Software Freedom, Privacy and and Security for
5531 Web 2.0 and Cloud computing at ISOC-NY Public Meeting 2010</a>
5532 (Youtube)</li>
5533
5534 <li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNaIji_3xBE">Fosdem 2011
5535 Keynote by Eben Moglen presenting the Freedombox</a> (Youtube)</li>
5536
5537 <li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bDDUyJSQ9s">Presentation of
5538 the Freedombox by James Vasile at Elevate in Gratz 2011</a> (Youtube)</li>
5539
5540 <li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQTmnk27g9s"> Freedombox -
5541 Discovery, Identity, and Trust by Nick Daly at Freedombox Hackfest New
5542 York City in 2012</a> (Youtube)</li>
5543
5544 <li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tkbSB4Ba7Ck">Introduction
5545 to the Freedombox at Freedombox Hackfest New York City in 2012</a>
5546 (Youtube)</li>
5547
5548 <li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-P2Jaeg0aQ">Freedom, Out
5549 of the Box! by Bdale Garbee at linux.conf.au Ballarat, 2012</a> (Youtube) </li>
5550
5551 <li><a href="https://archive.fosdem.org/2013/schedule/event/freedombox/">Freedombox
5552 1.0 by Eben Moglen and Bdale Garbee at Fosdem 2013</a> (FOSDEM) </li>
5553
5554 <li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e1LpYX2zVYg">What is the
5555 FreedomBox today by Bdale Garbee at Debconf13 in Vaumarcus
5556 2013</a> (Youtube)</li>
5557
5558 </ul>
5559
5560 <p>A larger list is available from
5561 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/FreedomBox/TalksAndPresentations">the
5562 Freedombox Wiki</a>.</p>
5563
5564 <p>On other news, I am happy to report that Freedombox based on Debian
5565 Jessie is coming along quite well, and soon both Owncloud and using
5566 Tor should be available for testers of the Freedombox solution. :) In
5567 a few weeks I hope everything needed to test it is included in Debian.
5568 The withsqlite package is already in Debian, and the plinth package is
5569 pending in NEW.  The third and vital part of that puzzle is the
5570 metapackage/setup framework, which is still pending an upload.  Join
5571 us on <a href="irc://irc.debian.org:6667/%23freedombox">IRC
5572 (#freedombox on irc.debian.org)</a> and
5573 <a href="http://lists.alioth.debian.org/mailman/listinfo/freedombox-discuss">the
5574 mailing list</a> if you want to help make this vision come true.</p>
5575
5576       </div>
5577       <div class="tags">
5578
5579
5580         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>.
5581
5582
5583       </div>
5584     </div>
5585     <div class="padding"></div>
5586
5587     <div class="entry">
5588       <div class="title">
5589         <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>
5590       </div>
5591       <div class="date">
5592         10th September 2013
5593       </div>
5594       <div class="body">
5595         <p>I was introduced to the
5596 <a href="http://www.freedomboxfoundation.org/">Freedombox project</a>
5597 in 2010, when Eben Moglen presented his vision about serving the need
5598 of non-technical people to keep their personal information private and
5599 within the legal protection of their own homes.  The idea is to give
5600 people back the power over their network and machines, and return
5601 Internet back to its intended peer-to-peer architecture.  Instead of
5602 depending on a central service, the Freedombox will give everyone
5603 control over their own basic infrastructure.</p>
5604
5605 <p>I've intended to join the effort since then, but other tasks have
5606 taken priority.  But this summers nasty news about the misuse of trust
5607 and privilege exercised by the "western" intelligence gathering
5608 communities increased my eagerness to contribute to a point where I
5609 actually started working on the project a while back.</p>
5610
5611 <p>The <a href="https://alioth.debian.org/projects/freedombox/">initial
5612 Debian initiative</a> based on the vision from Eben Moglen, is to
5613 create a simple and cheap Debian based appliance that anyone can hook
5614 up in their home and get access to secure and private services and
5615 communication.  The initial deployment platform have been the
5616 <a href="http://www.globalscaletechnologies.com/t-dreamplugdetails.aspx">Dreamplug</a>,
5617 which is a piece of hardware I do not own.  So to be able to test what
5618 the current Freedombox setup look like, I had to come up with a way to install
5619 it on some hardware I do have access to.  I have rewritten the
5620 <a href="https://github.com/NickDaly/freedom-maker">freedom-maker</a>
5621 image build framework to use .deb packages instead of only copying
5622 setup into the boot images, and thanks to this rewrite I am able to
5623 set up any machine supported by Debian Wheezy as a Freedombox, using
5624 the previously mentioned deb (and a few support debs for packages
5625 missing in Debian).</p>
5626
5627 <p>The current Freedombox setup consist of a set of bootstrapping
5628 scripts
5629 (<a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/freedombox-setup">freedombox-setup</a>),
5630 and a administrative web interface
5631 (<a href="https://github.com/NickDaly/Plinth">plinth</a> + exmachina +
5632 withsqlite), as well as a privacy enhancing proxy based on
5633 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/privoxy">privoxy</a>
5634 (freedombox-privoxy).  There is also a web/javascript based XMPP
5635 client (<a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/jwchat">jwchat</a>)
5636 trying (unsuccessfully so far) to talk to the XMPP server
5637 (<a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/ejabberd">ejabberd</a>).  The
5638 web interface is pluggable, and the goal is to use it to enable OpenID
5639 services, mesh network connectivity, use of TOR, etc, etc.  Not much of
5640 this is really working yet, see
5641 <a href="https://github.com/NickDaly/freedombox-todos/blob/master/TODO">the
5642 project TODO</a> for links to GIT repositories.  Most of the code is
5643 on github at the moment.  The HTTP proxy is operational out of the
5644 box, and the admin web interface can be used to add/remove plinth
5645 users.  I've not been able to do anything else with it so far, but
5646 know there are several branches spread around github and other places
5647 with lots of half baked features.</p>
5648
5649 <p>Anyway, if you want to have a look at the current state, the
5650 following recipes should work to give you a test machine to poke
5651 at.</p>
5652
5653 <p><strong>Debian Wheezy amd64</strong></p>
5654
5655 <ol>
5656
5657 <li>Fetch normal Debian Wheezy installation ISO.</li>
5658 <li>Boot from it, either as CD or USB stick.</li>
5659 <li><p>Press [tab] on the boot prompt and add this as a boot argument
5660 to the Debian installer:<p>
5661 <pre>url=<a href="http://www.reinholdtsen.name/freedombox/preseed-wheezy.dat">http://www.reinholdtsen.name/freedombox/preseed-wheezy.dat</a></pre></li>
5662
5663 <li>Answer the few language/region/password questions and pick disk to
5664 install on.</li>
5665
5666 <li>When the installation is finished and the machine have rebooted a
5667 few times, your Freedombox is ready for testing.</li>
5668
5669 </ol>
5670
5671 <p><strong>Raspberry Pi Raspbian</strong></p>
5672
5673 <ol>
5674
5675 <li>Fetch a Raspbian SD card image, create SD card.</li>
5676 <li>Boot from SD card, extend file system to fill the card completely.</li>
5677 <li><p>Log in and add this to /etc/sources.list:</p>
5678 <pre>
5679 deb <a href="http://www.reinholdtsen.name/freedombox/">http://www.reinholdtsen.name/freedombox</a> wheezy main
5680 </pre></li>
5681 <li><p>Run this as root:</p>
5682 <pre>
5683 wget -O - http://www.reinholdtsen.name/freedombox/BE1A583D.asc | \
5684    apt-key add -
5685 apt-get update
5686 apt-get install freedombox-setup
5687 /usr/lib/freedombox/setup
5688 </pre></li>
5689 <li>Reboot into your freshly created Freedombox.</li>
5690
5691 </ol>
5692
5693 <p>You can test it on other architectures too, but because the
5694 freedombox-privoxy package is binary, it will only work as intended on
5695 the architectures where I have had time to build the binary and put it
5696 in my APT repository.  But do not let this stop you.  It is only a
5697 short "<tt>apt-get source -b freedombox-privoxy</tt>" away. :)</p>
5698
5699 <p>Note that by default Freedombox is a DHCP server on the
5700 192.168.1.0/24 subnet, so if this is your subnet be careful and turn
5701 off the DHCP server by running "<tt>update-rc.d isc-dhcp-server
5702 disable</tt>" as root.</p>
5703
5704 <p>Please let me know if this works for you, or if you have any
5705 problems.  We gather on the IRC channel
5706 <a href="irc://irc.debian.org:6667/%23freedombox">#freedombox</a> on
5707 irc.debian.org and the
5708 <a href="http://lists.alioth.debian.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/freedombox-discuss">project
5709 mailing list</a>.</p>
5710
5711 <p>Once you get your freedombox operational, you can visit
5712 <tt>http://your-host-name:8001/</tt> to see the state of the plint
5713 welcome screen (dead end - do not be surprised if you are unable to
5714 get past it), and next visit <tt>http://your-host-name:8001/help/</tt>
5715 to look at the rest of plinth.  The default user is 'admin' and the
5716 default password is 'secret'.</p>
5717
5718       </div>
5719       <div class="tags">
5720
5721
5722         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>.
5723
5724
5725       </div>
5726     </div>
5727     <div class="padding"></div>
5728
5729     <div class="entry">
5730       <div class="title">
5731         <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>
5732       </div>
5733       <div class="date">
5734         18th August 2013
5735       </div>
5736       <div class="body">
5737         <p>Earlier, I reported about
5738 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_fix_a_Thinkpad_X230_with_a_broken_180_GB_SSD_disk.html">my
5739 problems using an Intel SSD 520 Series 180 GB disk</a>.  Friday I was
5740 told by IBM that the original disk should be thrown away.  And as
5741 there no longer was a problem if I bricked the firmware, I decided
5742 today to try to install Intel firmware to replace the Lenovo firmware
5743 currently on the disk.</p>
5744
5745 <p>I searched the Intel site for firmware, and found
5746 <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>
5747 (aka Intel SATA Solid-State Drive Firmware Update Tool) which
5748 according to the site should contain the latest firmware for SSD
5749 disks.  I inserted the broken disk in one of my spare laptops and
5750 booted the ISO from a USB stick.  The disk was recognized, but the
5751 program claimed the newest firmware already were installed and refused
5752 to insert any Intel firmware.  So no change, and the disk is still
5753 unable to handle write load. :( I guess the only way to get them
5754 working would be if Lenovo releases new firmware.  No idea how likely
5755 that is.  Anyway, just blogging about this test for completeness.  I
5756 got a working Samsung disk, and see no point in spending more time on
5757 the broken disks.</p>
5758
5759       </div>
5760       <div class="tags">
5761
5762
5763         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>.
5764
5765
5766       </div>
5767     </div>
5768     <div class="padding"></div>
5769
5770     <div class="entry">
5771       <div class="title">
5772         <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>
5773       </div>
5774       <div class="date">
5775         17th July 2013
5776       </div>
5777       <div class="body">
5778         <p>Today I switched to
5779 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_Thinkpad_is_dead__long_live_the_Thinkpad_X230_.html">my
5780 new laptop</a>.  I've previously written about the problems I had with
5781 my new Thinkpad X230, which was delivered with an
5782 <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
5783 GB Intel SSD disk with Lenovo firmware</a> that did not handle
5784 sustained writes.  My hardware supplier have been very forthcoming in
5785 trying to find a solution, and after first trying with another
5786 identical 180 GB disks they decided to send me a 256 GB Samsung SSD
5787 disk instead to fix it once and for all.  The Samsung disk survived
5788 the installation of Debian with encrypted disks (filling the disk with
5789 random data during installation killed the first two), and I thus
5790 decided to trust it with my data.  I have installed it as a Debian Edu
5791 Wheezy roaming workstation hooked up with my Debian Edu Squeeze main
5792 server at home using Kerberos and LDAP, and will use it as my work
5793 station from now on.</p>
5794
5795 <p>As this is a solid state disk with no moving parts, I believe the
5796 Debian Wheezy default installation need to be tuned a bit to increase
5797 performance and increase life time of the disk.  The Linux kernel and
5798 user space applications do not yet adjust automatically to such
5799 environment.  To make it easier for my self, I created a draft Debian
5800 package <tt>ssd-setup</tt> to handle this tuning.  The
5801 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/gitweb/?p=collab-maint/ssd-setup.git">source
5802 for the ssd-setup package</a> is available from collab-maint, and it
5803 is set up to adjust the setup of the machine by just installing the
5804 package.  If there is any non-SSD disk in the machine, the package
5805 will refuse to install, as I did not try to write any logic to sort
5806 file systems in SSD and non-SSD file systems.</p>
5807
5808 <p>I consider the package a draft, as I am a bit unsure how to best
5809 set up Debian Wheezy with an SSD.  It is adjusted to my use case,
5810 where I set up the machine with one large encrypted partition (in
5811 addition to /boot), put LVM on top of this and set up partitions on
5812 top of this again.  See the README file in the package source for the
5813 references I used to pick the settings.  At the moment these
5814 parameters are tuned:</p>
5815
5816 <ul>
5817
5818 <li>Set up cryptsetup to pass TRIM commands to the physical disk
5819     (adding discard to /etc/crypttab)</li>
5820
5821 <li>Set up LVM to pass on TRIM commands to the underlying device (in
5822     this case a cryptsetup partition) by changing issue_discards from
5823     0 to 1 in /etc/lvm/lvm.conf.</li>
5824
5825 <li>Set relatime as a file system option for ext3 and ext4 file
5826     systems.</li>
5827
5828 <li>Tell swap to use TRIM commands by adding 'discard' to
5829     /etc/fstab.</li>
5830
5831 <li>Change I/O scheduler from cfq to deadline using a udev rule.</li>
5832
5833 <li>Run fstrim on every ext3 and ext4 file system every night (from
5834     cron.daily).</li>
5835
5836 <li>Adjust sysctl values vm.swappiness to 1 and vm.vfs_cache_pressure
5837     to 50 to reduce the kernel eagerness to swap out processes.</li>
5838
5839 </ul>
5840
5841 <p>During installation, I cancelled the part where the installer fill
5842 the disk with random data, as this would kill the SSD performance for
5843 little gain.  My goal with the encrypted file system is to ensure
5844 those stealing my laptop end up with a brick and not a working
5845 computer.  I have no hope in keeping the really resourceful people
5846 from getting the data on the disk (see
5847 <a href="http://xkcd.com/538/">XKCD #538</a> for an explanation why).
5848 Thus I concluded that adding the discard option to crypttab is the
5849 right thing to do.</p>
5850
5851 <p>I considered using the noop I/O scheduler, as several recommended
5852 it for SSD, but others recommended deadline and a benchmark I found
5853 indicated that deadline might be better for interactive use.</p>
5854
5855 <p>I also considered using the 'discard' file system option for ext3
5856 and ext4, but read that it would give a performance hit ever time a
5857 file is removed, and thought it best to that that slowdown once a day
5858 instead of during my work.</p>
5859
5860 <p>My package do not set up tmpfs on /var/run, /var/lock and /tmp, as
5861 this is already done by Debian Edu.</p>
5862
5863 <p>I have not yet started on the user space tuning.  I expect
5864 iceweasel need some tuning, and perhaps other applications too, but
5865 have not yet had time to investigate those parts.</p>
5866
5867 <p>The package should work on Ubuntu too, but I have not yet tested it
5868 there.</p>
5869
5870 <p>As for the answer to the question in the title of this blog post,
5871 as far as I know, the only solution I know about is to replace the
5872 disk.  It might be possible to flash it with Intel firmware instead of
5873 the Lenovo firmware.  But I have not tried and did not want to do so
5874 without approval from Lenovo as I wanted to keep the warranty on the
5875 disk until a solution was found and they wanted the broken disks
5876 back.</p>
5877
5878       </div>
5879       <div class="tags">
5880
5881
5882         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>.
5883
5884
5885       </div>
5886     </div>
5887     <div class="padding"></div>
5888
5889     <div class="entry">
5890       <div class="title">
5891         <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>
5892       </div>
5893       <div class="date">
5894         10th July 2013
5895       </div>
5896       <div class="body">
5897         <p>A few days ago, I wrote about
5898 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_Thinkpad_is_dead__long_live_the_Thinkpad_X230_.html">the
5899 problems I experienced with my new X230 and its SSD disk</a>, which
5900 was dying during installation because it is unable to cope with
5901 sustained write.  My supplier is in contact with
5902 <a href="http://www.lenovo.com/">Lenovo</a>, and they wanted to send a
5903 replacement disk to try to fix the problem.  They decided to send an
5904 identical model, so my hopes for a permanent fix was slim.</p>
5905
5906 <p>Anyway, today I got the replacement disk and tried to install
5907 Debian Edu Wheezy with encrypted disk on it.  The new disk have the
5908 same firmware version as the original.  This time my hope raised
5909 slightly as the installation progressed, as the original disk used to
5910 die after 4-7% of the disk was written to, while this time it kept
5911 going past 10%, 20%, 40% and even past 50%.  But around 60%, the disk
5912 died again and I was back on square one.  I still do not have a new
5913 laptop with a disk I can trust.  I can not live with a disk that might
5914 lock up when I download a new
5915 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux</a> ISO or
5916 other large files.  I look forward to hearing from my supplier with
5917 the next proposal from Lenovo.</p>
5918
5919 <p>The original disk is marked Intel SSD 520 Series 180 GB,
5920 11S0C38722Z1ZNME35X1TR, ISN: CVCV321407HB180EGN, SA: G57560302, FW:
5921 LF1i, 29MAY2013, PBA: G39779-300, LBA 351,651,888, LI P/N: 0C38722,
5922 Pb-free 2LI, LC P/N: 16-200366, WWN: 55CD2E40002756C4, Model:
5923 SSDSC2BW180A3L 2.5" 6Gb/s SATA SSD 180G 5V 1A, ASM P/N 0C38732, FRU
5924 P/N 45N8295, P0C38732.</p>
5925
5926 <p>The replacement disk is marked Intel SSD 520 Series 180 GB,
5927 11S0C38722Z1ZNDE34N0L0, ISN: CVCV315306RK180EGN, SA: G57560-302, FW:
5928 LF1i, 22APR2013, PBA: G39779-300, LBA 351,651,888, LI P/N: 0C38722,
5929 Pb-free 2LI, LC P/N: 16-200366, WWN: 55CD2E40000AB69E, Model:
5930 SSDSC2BW180A3L 2.5" 6Gb/s SATA SSD 180G 5V 1A, ASM P/N 0C38732, FRU
5931 P/N 45N8295, P0C38732.</p>
5932
5933 <p>The only difference is in the first number (serial number?), ISN,
5934 SA, date and WNPP values.  Mentioning all the details here in case
5935 someone is able to use the information to find a way to identify the
5936 failing disk among working ones (if any such working disk actually
5937 exist).</p>
5938
5939       </div>
5940       <div class="tags">
5941
5942
5943         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>.
5944
5945
5946       </div>
5947     </div>
5948     <div class="padding"></div>
5949
5950     <div class="entry">
5951       <div class="title">
5952         <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>
5953       </div>
5954       <div class="date">
5955          9th July 2013
5956       </div>
5957       <div class="body">
5958         <p>The upcoming Saturday, 2013-07-13, we are organising a combined
5959 Debian Edu developer gathering and Debian and Ubuntu bug squashing
5960 party in Oslo.  It is organised by <a href="http://www.nuug.no/">the
5961 member assosiation NUUG</a> and
5962 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">the Debian Edu / Skolelinux
5963 project</a> together with <a href="http://bitraf.no/">the hack space
5964 Bitraf</a>.</p>
5965
5966 <p>It starts 10:00 and continue until late evening.  Everyone is
5967 welcome, and there is no fee to participate.  There is on the other
5968 hand limited space, and only room for 30 people.  Please put your name
5969 on <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/BSP/2013/07/13/no/Oslo">the event
5970 wiki page</a> if you plan to join us.</p>
5971
5972       </div>
5973       <div class="tags">
5974
5975
5976         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>.
5977
5978
5979       </div>
5980     </div>
5981     <div class="padding"></div>
5982
5983     <div class="entry">
5984       <div class="title">
5985         <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>
5986       </div>
5987       <div class="date">
5988          5th July 2013
5989       </div>
5990       <div class="body">
5991         <p>Half a year ago, I reported that I had to find a
5992 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Thank_you_Thinkpad_X41__for_your_long_and_trustworthy_service.html">replacement
5993 for my trusty old Thinkpad X41</a>.  Unfortunately I did not have much
5994 time to spend on it, and it took a while to find a model I believe
5995 will do the job, but two days ago the replacement finally arrived.  I
5996 ended up picking a
5997 <a href="http://www.linlap.com/lenovo_thinkpad_x230">Thinkpad X230</a>
5998 with SSD disk (NZDAJMN).  I first test installed Debian Edu Wheezy as
5999 a roaming workstation, and it seemed to work flawlessly.  But my
6000 second installation with encrypted disk was not as successful.  More
6001 on that below.</p>
6002
6003 <p>I had a hard time trying to track down a good laptop, as my most
6004 important requirements (robust and with a good keyboard) are never
6005 listed in the feature list.  But I did get good help from the search
6006 feature at <a href="http://www.prisjakt.no/">Prisjakt</a>, which
6007 allowed me to limit the list of interesting laptops based on my other
6008 requirements.  A bit surprising that SSD disk are not disks according
6009 to that search interface, so I had to drop specifying the number of
6010 disks from my search parameters.  I also asked around among friends to
6011 get their impression on keyboards and robustness.</p>
6012
6013 <p>So the new laptop arrived, and it is quite a lot wider than the
6014 X41.  I am not quite convinced about the keyboard, as it is
6015 significantly wider than my old keyboard, and I have to stretch my
6016 hand a lot more to reach the edges.  But the key response is fairly
6017 good and the individual key shape is fairly easy to handle, so I hope
6018 I will get used to it.  My old X40 was starting to fail, and I really
6019 needed a new laptop now. :)</p>
6020
6021 <p>Turning off the touch pad was simple.  All it took was a quick
6022 visit to the BIOS during boot it disable it.</p>
6023
6024 <p>But there is a fatal problem with the laptop.  The 180 GB SSD disk
6025 lock up during load.  And this happen when installing Debian Wheezy
6026 with encrypted disk, while the disk is being filled with random data.
6027 I also tested to install Ubuntu Raring, and it happen there too if I
6028 reenable the code to fill the disk with random data (it is disabled by
6029 default in Ubuntu).  And the bug with is already known.  It was
6030 reported to Debian as <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/691427">BTS
6031 report #691427 2012-10-25</a> (journal commit I/O error on brand-new
6032 Thinkpad T430s ext4 on lvm on SSD).  It is also reported to the Linux
6033 kernel developers as
6034 <a href="https://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=51861">Kernel bugzilla
6035 report #51861 2012-12-20</a> (Intel SSD 520 stops working under load
6036 (SSDSC2BW180A3L in Lenovo ThinkPad T430s)). It is also reported on the
6037 Lenovo forums, both for
6038 <a href="http://forums.lenovo.com/t5/T400-T500-and-newer-T-series/T430s-Intel-SSD-520-180GB-issue/m-p/1070549">T430
6039 2012-11-10</a> and for
6040 <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
6041 03-20-2013</a>.  The problem do not only affect installation.  The
6042 reports state that the disk lock up during use if many writes are done
6043 on the disk, so it is much no use to work around the installation
6044 problem and end up with a computer that can lock up at any moment.
6045 There is even a
6046 <a href="https://git.efficios.com/?p=test-ssd.git">small C program
6047 available</a> that will lock up the hard drive after running a few
6048 minutes by writing to a file.</p>
6049
6050 <p>I've contacted my supplier and asked how to handle this, and after
6051 contacting PCHELP Norway (request 01D1FDP) which handle support
6052 requests for Lenovo, his first suggestion was to upgrade the disk
6053 firmware.  Unfortunately there is no newer firmware available from
6054 Lenovo, as my disk already have the most recent one (version LF1i).  I
6055 hope to hear more from him today and hope the problem can be
6056 fixed. :)</p>
6057
6058       </div>
6059       <div class="tags">
6060
6061
6062         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>.
6063
6064
6065       </div>
6066     </div>
6067     <div class="padding"></div>
6068
6069     <div class="entry">
6070       <div class="title">
6071         <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>
6072       </div>
6073       <div class="date">
6074          4th July 2013
6075       </div>
6076       <div class="body">
6077         <p>Half a year ago, I reported that I had to find a replacement for my
6078 trusty old Thinkpad X41.  Unfortunately I did not have much time to
6079 spend on it, but today the replacement finally arrived.  I ended up
6080 picking a <a href="http://www.linlap.com/lenovo_thinkpad_x230">Thinkpad
6081 X230</a> with SSD disk (NZDAJMN).  I first test installed Debian Edu
6082 Wheezy as a roaming workstation, and it worked flawlessly.  As I write
6083 this, it is installing what I hope will be a more final installation,
6084 with a encrypted hard drive to ensure any dope head stealing it end up
6085 with an expencive door stop.</p>
6086
6087 <p>I had a hard time trying to track down a good laptop, as my most
6088 important requirements (robust and with a good keyboard) are never
6089 listed in the feature list.  But I did get good help from the search
6090 feature at <ahref="http://www.prisjakt.no/">Prisjakt</a>, which
6091 allowed me to limit the list of interesting laptops based on my other
6092 requirements.  A bit surprising that SSD disk are not disks, so I had
6093 to drop number of disks from my search parameters.</p>
6094
6095 <p>I am not quite convinced about the keyboard, as it is significantly
6096 wider than my old keyboard, and I have to stretch my hand a lot more
6097 to reach the edges.  But the key response is fairly good and the
6098 individual key shape is fairly easy to handle, so I hope I will get
6099 used to it.  My old X40 was starting to fail, and I really needed a
6100 new laptop now. :)</p>
6101
6102 <p>I look forward to figuring out how to turn off the touch pad.</p>
6103
6104       </div>
6105       <div class="tags">
6106
6107
6108         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>.
6109
6110
6111       </div>
6112     </div>
6113     <div class="padding"></div>
6114
6115     <div class="entry">
6116       <div class="title">
6117         <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>
6118       </div>
6119       <div class="date">
6120         25th June 2013
6121       </div>
6122       <div class="body">
6123         <p>It annoys me when the computer fail to do automatically what it is
6124 perfectly capable of, and I have to do it manually to get things
6125 working.  One such task is to find out what firmware packages are
6126 needed to get the hardware on my computer working.  Most often this
6127 affect the wifi card, but some times it even affect the RAID
6128 controller or the ethernet card.  Today I pushed version 0.4 of the
6129 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/isenkram">Isenkram package</a>
6130 including a new script isenkram-autoinstall-firmware handling the
6131 process of asking all the loaded kernel modules what firmware files
6132 they want, find debian packages providing these files and install the
6133 debian packages.  Here is a test run on my laptop:</p>
6134
6135 <p><pre>
6136 # isenkram-autoinstall-firmware
6137 info: kernel drivers requested extra firmware: ipw2200-bss.fw ipw2200-ibss.fw ipw2200-sniffer.fw
6138 info: fetching http://http.debian.net/debian/dists/squeeze/Contents-i386.gz
6139 info: locating packages with the requested firmware files
6140 info: Updating APT sources after adding non-free APT source
6141 info: trying to install firmware-ipw2x00
6142 firmware-ipw2x00
6143 firmware-ipw2x00
6144 Preconfiguring packages ...
6145 Selecting previously deselected package firmware-ipw2x00.
6146 (Reading database ... 259727 files and directories currently installed.)
6147 Unpacking firmware-ipw2x00 (from .../firmware-ipw2x00_0.28+squeeze1_all.deb) ...
6148 Setting up firmware-ipw2x00 (0.28+squeeze1) ...
6149 #
6150 </pre></p>
6151
6152 <p>When all the requested firmware is present, a simple message is
6153 printed instead:</p>
6154
6155 <p><pre>
6156 # isenkram-autoinstall-firmware
6157 info: did not find any firmware files requested by loaded kernel modules.  exiting
6158 #
6159 </pre></p>
6160
6161 <p>It could use some polish, but it is already working well and saving
6162 me some time when setting up new machines. :)</p>
6163
6164 <p>So, how does it work?  It look at the set of currently loaded
6165 kernel modules, and look up each one of them using modinfo, to find
6166 the firmware files listed in the module meta-information.  Next, it
6167 download the Contents file from a nearby APT mirror, and search for
6168 the firmware files in this file to locate the package with the
6169 requested firmware file.  If the package is in the non-free section, a
6170 non-free APT source is added and the package is installed using
6171 <tt>apt-get install</tt>.  The end result is a slightly better working
6172 machine.</p>
6173
6174 <p>I hope someone find time to implement a more polished version of
6175 this script as part of the hw-detect debian-installer module, to
6176 finally fix <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/655507">BTS report
6177 #655507</a>.  There really is no need to insert USB sticks with
6178 firmware during a PXE install when the packages already are available
6179 from the nearby Debian mirror.</p>
6180
6181       </div>
6182       <div class="tags">
6183
6184
6185         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>.
6186
6187
6188       </div>
6189     </div>
6190     <div class="padding"></div>
6191
6192     <div class="entry">
6193       <div class="title">
6194         <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>
6195       </div>
6196       <div class="date">
6197         11th June 2013
6198       </div>
6199       <div class="body">
6200         <p>When installing RedHat, Fedora, Debian and Ubuntu on some machines,
6201 the screen just turn black when Linux boot, either during installation
6202 or on first boot from the hard disk.  I've seen it once in a while the
6203 last few years, but only recently understood the cause.  I've seen it
6204 on HP laptops, and on my latest acquaintance the Packard Bell laptop.
6205 The reason seem to be in the wiring of some laptops.  The system to
6206 control the screen background light is inverted, so when Linux try to
6207 turn the brightness fully on, it end up turning it off instead.  I do
6208 not know which Linux drivers are affected, but this post is about the
6209 i915 driver used by the
6210 <a href="http://www.linlap.com/packard_bell_easynote_lv">Packard Bell
6211 EasyNote LV</a>, Thinkpad X40 and many other laptops.</p>
6212
6213 <p>The problem can be worked around two ways.  Either by adding
6214 i915.invert_brightness=1 as a kernel option, or by adding a file in
6215 /etc/modprobe.d/ to tell modprobe to add the invert_brightness=1
6216 option when it load the i915 kernel module.  On Debian and Ubuntu, it
6217 can be done by running these commands as root:</p>
6218
6219 <pre>
6220 echo options i915 invert_brightness=1 | tee /etc/modprobe.d/i915.conf
6221 update-initramfs -u -k all
6222 </pre>
6223
6224 <p>Since March 2012 there is
6225 <a href="http://git.kernel.org/cgit/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/commit/?id=4dca20efb1a9c2efefc28ad2867e5d6c3f5e1955">a
6226 mechanism in the Linux kernel</a> to tell the i915 driver which
6227 hardware have this problem, and get the driver to invert the
6228 brightness setting automatically.  To use it, one need to add a row in
6229 <a href="http://git.kernel.org/cgit/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/tree/drivers/gpu/drm/i915/intel_display.c">the
6230 intel_quirks array</a> in the driver source
6231 <tt>drivers/gpu/drm/i915/intel_display.c</tt> (look for "<tt>static
6232 struct intel_quirk intel_quirks</tt>"), specifying the PCI device
6233 number (vendor number 8086 is assumed) and subdevice vendor and device
6234 number.</p>
6235
6236 <p>My Packard Bell EasyNote LV got this output from <tt>lspci
6237 -vvnn</tt> for the video card in question:</p>
6238
6239 <p><pre>
6240 00:02.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: Intel Corporation \
6241     3rd Gen Core processor Graphics Controller [8086:0156] \
6242     (rev 09) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
6243  Subsystem: Acer Incorporated [ALI] Device [1025:0688]
6244  Control: I/O+ Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- \
6245     ParErr- Stepping- SE RR- FastB2B- DisINTx+
6246  Status: Cap+ 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B+ ParErr- DEVSEL=fast >TAbort- \
6247     <TAbort- <MAbort->SERR- <PERR- INTx-
6248  Latency: 0
6249  Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 42
6250  Region 0: Memory at c2000000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=4M]
6251  Region 2: Memory at b0000000 (64-bit, prefetchable) [size=256M]
6252  Region 4: I/O ports at 4000 [size=64]
6253  Expansion ROM at <unassigned> [disabled]
6254  Capabilities: <access denied>
6255  Kernel driver in use: i915
6256 </pre></p>
6257
6258 <p>The resulting intel_quirks entry would then look like this:</p>
6259
6260 <p><pre>
6261 struct intel_quirk intel_quirks[] = {
6262        ...
6263         /* Packard Bell EasyNote LV11HC needs invert brightness quirk */
6264         { 0x0156, 0x1025, 0x0688, quirk_invert_brightness },
6265        ...
6266 }
6267 </pre></p>
6268
6269 <p>According to the kernel module instructions (as seen using
6270 <tt>modinfo i915</tt>), information about hardware needing the
6271 invert_brightness flag should be sent to the
6272 <a href="http://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/dri-devel">dri-devel
6273 (at) lists.freedesktop.org</a> mailing list to reach the kernel
6274 developers.  But my email about the laptop sent 2013-06-03 have not
6275 yet shown up in
6276 <a href="http://lists.freedesktop.org/archives/dri-devel/2013-June/thread.html">the
6277 web archive for the mailing list</a>, so I suspect they do not accept
6278 emails from non-subscribers.  Because of this, I sent my patch also to
6279 the Debian bug tracking system instead as
6280 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/710938">BTS report #710938</a>, to make
6281 sure the patch is not lost.</p>
6282
6283 <p>Unfortunately, it is not enough to fix the kernel to get Laptops
6284 with this problem working properly with Linux.  If you use Gnome, your
6285 worries should be over at this point.  But if you use KDE, there is
6286 something in KDE ignoring the invert_brightness setting and turning on
6287 the screen during login.  I've reported it to Debian as
6288 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/711237">BTS report #711237</a>, and
6289 have no idea yet how to figure out exactly what subsystem is doing
6290 this.  Perhaps you can help?  Perhaps you know what the Gnome
6291 developers did to handle this, and this can give a clue to the KDE
6292 developers?  Or you know where in KDE the screen brightness is changed
6293 during login?  If so, please update the BTS report (or get in touch if
6294 you do not know how to update BTS).</p>
6295
6296 <p>Update 2013-07-19: The correct fix for this machine seem to be
6297 acpi_backlight=vendor, to disable ACPI backlight support completely,
6298 as the ACPI information on the machine is trash and it is better to
6299 leave it to the intel video driver to control the screen
6300 backlight.</p>
6301
6302       </div>
6303       <div class="tags">
6304
6305
6306         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>.
6307
6308
6309       </div>
6310     </div>
6311     <div class="padding"></div>
6312
6313     <div class="entry">
6314       <div class="title">
6315         <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>
6316       </div>
6317       <div class="date">
6318         27th May 2013
6319       </div>
6320       <div class="body">
6321         <p>Two days ago, I asked
6322 <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
6323 I could install Linux on a Packard Bell EasyNote LV computer
6324 preinstalled with Windows 8</a>.  I found a solution, but am horrified
6325 with the obstacles put in the way of Linux users on a laptop with UEFI
6326 and Windows 8.</p>
6327
6328 <p>I never found out if the cause of my problems were the use of UEFI
6329 secure booting or fast boot.  I suspect fast boot was the problem,
6330 causing the firmware to boot directly from HD without considering any
6331 key presses and alternative devices, but do not know UEFI settings
6332 enough to tell.</p>
6333
6334 <p>There is no way to install Linux on the machine in question without
6335 opening the box and disconnecting the hard drive!  This is as far as I
6336 can tell, the only way to get access to the firmware setup menu
6337 without accepting the Windows 8 license agreement.  I am told (and
6338 found description on how to) that it is possible to configure the
6339 firmware setup once booted into Windows 8.  But as I believe the terms
6340 of that agreement are completely unacceptable, accepting the license
6341 was never an alternative.  I do not enter agreements I do not intend
6342 to follow.</p>
6343
6344 <p>I feared I had to return the laptops and ask for a refund, and
6345 waste many hours on this, but luckily there was a way to get it to
6346 work.  But I would not recommend it to anyone planning to run Linux on
6347 it, and I have become sceptical to Windows 8 certified laptops.  Is
6348 this the way Linux will be forced out of the market place, by making
6349 it close to impossible for "normal" users to install Linux without
6350 accepting the Microsoft Windows license terms?  Or at least not
6351 without risking to loose the warranty?</p>
6352
6353 <p>I've updated the
6354 <a href="http://www.linlap.com/packard_bell_easynote_lv">Linux Laptop
6355 wiki page for Packard Bell EasyNote LV</a>, to ensure the next person
6356 do not have to struggle as much as I did to get Linux into the
6357 machine.</p>
6358
6359 <p>Thanks to Bob Rosbag, Florian Weimer, Philipp Kern, Ben Hutching,
6360 Michael Tokarev and others for feedback and ideas.</p>
6361
6362       </div>
6363       <div class="tags">
6364
6365
6366         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>.
6367
6368
6369       </div>
6370     </div>
6371     <div class="padding"></div>
6372
6373     <div class="entry">
6374       <div class="title">
6375         <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>
6376       </div>
6377       <div class="date">
6378         25th May 2013
6379       </div>
6380       <div class="body">
6381         <p>I've run into quite a problem the last few days.  I bought three
6382 new laptops for my parents and a few others.  I bought Packard Bell
6383 Easynote LV to run Kubuntu on and use as their home computer.  But I
6384 am completely unable to figure out how to install Linux on it.  The
6385 computer is preinstalled with Windows 8, and I suspect it uses UEFI
6386 instead of a BIOS to boot.</p>
6387
6388 <p>The problem is that I am unable to get it to PXE boot, and unable
6389 to get it to boot the Linux installer from my USB stick.  I have yet
6390 to try the DVD install, and still hope it will work.  when I turn on
6391 the computer, there is no information on what buttons to press to get
6392 the normal boot menu.  I expect to get some boot menu to select PXE or
6393 USB stick booting.  When booting, it first ask for the language to
6394 use, then for some regional settings, and finally if I will accept the
6395 Windows 8 terms of use.  As these terms are completely unacceptable to
6396 me, I have no other choice but to turn off the computer and try again
6397 to get it to boot the Linux installer.</p>
6398
6399 <p>I have gathered my findings so far on a Linlap page about the
6400 <a href="http://www.linlap.com/packard_bell_easynote_lv">Packard Bell
6401 EasyNote LV</a> model.  If you have any idea how to get Linux
6402 installed on this machine, please get in touch or update that wiki
6403 page.  If I can't find a way to install Linux, I will have to return
6404 the laptop to the seller and find another machine for my parents.</p>
6405
6406 <p>I wonder, is this the way Linux will be forced out of the market
6407 using UEFI and "secure boot" by making it impossible to install Linux
6408 on new Laptops?</p>
6409
6410       </div>
6411       <div class="tags">
6412
6413
6414         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>.
6415
6416
6417       </div>
6418     </div>
6419     <div class="padding"></div>
6420
6421     <div class="entry">
6422       <div class="title">
6423         <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>
6424       </div>
6425       <div class="date">
6426         17th May 2013
6427       </div>
6428       <div class="body">
6429         <p><a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux</a> is
6430 an operating system based on Debian intended for use in schools.  It
6431 contain a turn-key solution for the computer network provided to
6432 pupils in the primary schools.  It provide both the central server,
6433 network boot servers and desktop environments with heaps of
6434 educational software.  The project was founded almost 12 years ago,
6435 2001-07-02.  If you want to support the project, which is in need for
6436 cash to fund developer gatherings and other project related activity,
6437 <a href="http://www.linuxiskolen.no/slxdebianlabs/donations.html">please
6438 donate some money</a>.
6439
6440 <p>A topic that come up again and again on the Debian Edu mailing
6441 lists and elsewhere, is the question on how to transform a Debian or
6442 Ubuntu installation into a Debian Edu installation.  It isn't very
6443 hard, and last week I wrote a script to replicate the steps done by
6444 the Debian Edu installer.</p>
6445
6446 <p>The script,
6447 <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/>
6448 in the debian-edu-config package, will go through these six steps and
6449 transform an existing Debian Wheezy or Ubuntu (untested) installation
6450 into a Debian Edu Workstation:</p>
6451
6452 <ol>
6453
6454 <li>Add skolelinux related APT sources.</li>
6455 <li>Create /etc/debian-edu/config with the wanted configuration.</li>
6456 <li>Install debian-edu-install to load preseeding values and pull in
6457     our configuration.</li>
6458 <li>Preseed debconf database with profile setup in
6459     /etc/debian-edu/config, and run tasksel to install packages
6460     according to the profile specified in the config above,
6461     overriding some of the Debian automation machinery.</li>
6462 <li>Run debian-edu-cfengine-D installation to configure everything
6463     that could not be done using preseeding.</li>
6464 <li>Ask for a reboot to enable all the configuration changes.</li>
6465
6466 </ol>
6467
6468 <p>There are some steps in the Debian Edu installation that can not be
6469 replicated like this.  Disk partitioning and LVM setup, for example.
6470 So this script just assume there is enough disk space to install all
6471 the needed packages.</p>
6472
6473 <p>The script was created to help a Debian Edu student working on
6474 setting up <a href="http://www.raspberrypi.org">Raspberry Pi</a> as a
6475 Debian Edu client, and using it he can take the existing
6476 <a href="http://www.raspbian.org/FrontPage‎">Raspbian</a> installation and
6477 transform it into a fully functioning Debian Edu Workstation (or
6478 Roaming Workstation, or whatever :).</p>
6479
6480 <p>The default setting in the script is to create a KDE Workstation.
6481 If a LXDE based Roaming workstation is wanted instead, modify the
6482 PROFILE and DESKTOP values at the top to look like this instead:</p>
6483
6484 <p><pre>
6485 PROFILE="Roaming-Workstation"
6486 DESKTOP="lxde"
6487 </pre></p>
6488
6489 <p>The script could even become useful to set up Debian Edu servers in
6490 the cloud, by starting with a virtual Debian installation at some
6491 virtual hosting service and setting up all the services on first
6492 boot.</p>
6493
6494       </div>
6495       <div class="tags">
6496
6497
6498         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>.
6499
6500
6501       </div>
6502     </div>
6503     <div class="padding"></div>
6504
6505     <div class="entry">
6506       <div class="title">
6507         <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>
6508       </div>
6509       <div class="date">
6510         11th May 2013
6511       </div>
6512       <div class="body">
6513         <P>In January,
6514 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/New_IRC_channel_for_LEGO_designers_using_Debian.html">I
6515 announced a</a> new <a href="irc://irc.debian.org/%23debian-lego">IRC
6516 channel #debian-lego</a>, for those of us in the Debian and Linux
6517 community interested in <a href="http://www.lego.com/">LEGO</a>, the
6518 marvellous construction system from Denmark.  We also created
6519 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/LegoDesigners">a wiki page</a> to have
6520 a place to take notes and write down our plans and hopes.  And several
6521 people showed up to help.  I was very happy to see the effect of my
6522 call.  Since the small start, we have a debtags tag
6523 <a href="http://debtags.debian.net/search/bytag?wl=hardware::hobby:lego">hardware::hobby:lego</a>
6524 tag for LEGO related packages, and now count 10 packages related to
6525 LEGO and <a href="http://mindstorms.lego.com/">Mindstorms</a>:</p>
6526
6527 <p><table>
6528 <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>
6529 <tr><td><a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/leocad">leocad</a></td><td>virtual brick CAD software</td></tr>
6530 <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>
6531 <tr><td><a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/lnpd">lnpd</a></td><td>daemon for LNP communication with BrickOS</td></tr>
6532 <tr><td><a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/nbc">nbc</a></td><td>compiler for LEGO Mindstorms NXT bricks</td></tr>
6533 <tr><td><a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/nqc">nqc</a></td><td>Not Quite C compiler for LEGO Mindstorms RCX</td></tr>
6534 <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>
6535 <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>
6536 <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>
6537 <tr><td><a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/t2n">t2n</a></td><td>simple command-line tool for Lego NXT</td></tr>
6538 </table></p>
6539
6540 <p>Some of these are available in Wheezy, and all but one are
6541 currently available in Jessie/testing.  leocad is so far only
6542 available in experimental.</p>
6543
6544 <p>If you care about LEGO in Debian, please join us on IRC and help
6545 adding the rest of the great free software tools available on Linux
6546 for LEGO designers.</p>
6547
6548       </div>
6549       <div class="tags">
6550
6551
6552         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>.
6553
6554
6555       </div>
6556     </div>
6557     <div class="padding"></div>
6558
6559     <div class="entry">
6560       <div class="title">
6561         <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>
6562       </div>
6563       <div class="date">
6564          5th May 2013
6565       </div>
6566       <div class="body">
6567         <p>When I woke up this morning, I was very happy to see that the
6568 <a href="http://www.debian.org/News/2013/20130504">release announcement
6569 for Debian Wheezy</a> was waiting in my mail box.  This is a great
6570 Debian release, and I expect to move my machines at home over to it fairly
6571 soon.</p>
6572
6573 <p>The new debian release contain heaps of new stuff, and one program
6574 in particular make me very happy to see included.  The
6575 <a href="http://scratch.mit.edu/">Scratch</a> program, made famous by
6576 the <a href="http://www.code.org/">Teach kids code</a> movement, is
6577 included for the first time.  Alongside similar programs like
6578 <a href="http://edu.kde.org/kturtle/">kturtle</a> and
6579 <a href="http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Activities/Turtle_Art">turtleart</a>,
6580 it allow for visual programming where syntax errors can not happen,
6581 and a friendly programming environment for learning to control the
6582 computer.  Scratch will also be included in the next release of Debian
6583 Edu.</a>
6584
6585 <p>And now that Wheezy is wrapped up, we can wrap up the next Debian
6586 Edu/Skolelinux release too.  The
6587 <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-edu/2013/04/msg00132.html">first
6588 alpha release</a> went out last week, and the next should soon
6589 follow.<p>
6590
6591       </div>
6592       <div class="tags">
6593
6594
6595         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>.
6596
6597
6598       </div>
6599     </div>
6600     <div class="padding"></div>
6601
6602     <div class="entry">
6603       <div class="title">
6604         <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>
6605       </div>
6606       <div class="date">
6607          3rd April 2013
6608       </div>
6609       <div class="body">
6610         <p>Today the <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/isenkram">Isenkram
6611 package</a> finally made it into the archive, after lingering in NEW
6612 for many months.  I uploaded it to the Debian experimental suite
6613 2013-01-27, and today it was accepted into the archive.</p>
6614
6615 <p>Isenkram is a system for suggesting to users what packages to
6616 install to work with a pluggable hardware device.  The suggestion pop
6617 up when the device is plugged in.  For example if a Lego Mindstorm NXT
6618 is inserted, it will suggest to install the program needed to program
6619 the NXT controller.  Give it a go, and report bugs and suggestions to
6620 BTS. :)</p>
6621
6622       </div>
6623       <div class="tags">
6624
6625
6626         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>.
6627
6628
6629       </div>
6630     </div>
6631     <div class="padding"></div>
6632
6633     <div class="entry">
6634       <div class="title">
6635         <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>
6636       </div>
6637       <div class="date">
6638          2nd February 2013
6639       </div>
6640       <div class="body">
6641         <p>My
6642 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_backport_bitcoin_qt_version_0_7_2_2_to_Debian_Squeeze.html">last
6643 bitcoin related blog post</a> mentioned that the new
6644 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/bitcoin">bitcoin package</a> for
6645 Debian was waiting in NEW.  It was accepted by the Debian ftp-masters
6646 2013-01-19, and have been available in unstable since then.  It was
6647 automatically copied to Ubuntu, and is available in their Raring
6648 version too.</p>
6649
6650 <p>But there is a strange problem with the build that block this new
6651 version from being available on the i386 and kfreebsd-i386
6652 architectures.  For some strange reason, the autobuilders in Debian
6653 for these architectures fail to run the test suite on these
6654 architectures (<a href="http://bugs.debian.org/672524">BTS #672524</a>).
6655 We are so far unable to reproduce it when building it manually, and
6656 no-one have been able to propose a fix.  If you got an idea what is
6657 failing, please let us know via the BTS.</p>
6658
6659 <p>One feature that is annoying me with of the bitcoin client, because
6660 I often run low on disk space, is the fact that the client will exit
6661 if it run short on space (<a href="http://bugs.debian.org/696715">BTS
6662 #696715</a>).  So make sure you have enough disk space when you run
6663 it. :)</p>
6664
6665 <p>As usual, if you use bitcoin and want to show your support of my
6666 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
6667 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b&label=PetterReinholdtsenBlog">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
6668
6669       </div>
6670       <div class="tags">
6671
6672
6673         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>.
6674
6675
6676       </div>
6677     </div>
6678     <div class="padding"></div>
6679
6680     <div class="entry">
6681       <div class="title">
6682         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Welcome_to_the_world__Isenkram_.html">Welcome to the world, Isenkram!</a>
6683       </div>
6684       <div class="date">
6685         22nd January 2013
6686       </div>
6687       <div class="body">
6688         <p>Yesterday, I
6689 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/First_prototype_ready_making_hardware_easier_to_use_in_Debian.html">asked
6690 for testers</a> for my prototype for making Debian better at handling
6691 pluggable hardware devices, which I
6692 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lets_make_hardware_dongles_easier_to_use_in_Debian.html">set
6693 out to create</a> earlier this month.  Several valuable testers showed
6694 up, and caused me to really want to to open up the development to more
6695 people.  But before I did this, I want to come up with a sensible name
6696 for this project.  Today I finally decided on a new name, and I have
6697 renamed the project from hw-support-handler to this new name.  In the
6698 process, I moved the source to git and made it available as a
6699 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/gitweb/?p=collab-maint/isenkram.git">collab-maint</a>
6700 repository in Debian.  The new name?  It is <strong>Isenkram</strong>.
6701 To fetch and build the latest version of the source, use</p>
6702
6703 <pre>
6704 git clone http://anonscm.debian.org/git/collab-maint/isenkram.git
6705 cd isenkram && git-buildpackage -us -uc
6706 </pre>
6707
6708 <p>I have not yet adjusted all files to use the new name yet.  If you
6709 want to hack on the source or improve the package, please go ahead.
6710 But please talk to me first on IRC or via email before you do major
6711 changes, to make sure we do not step on each others toes. :)</p>
6712
6713 <p>If you wonder what 'isenkram' is, it is a Norwegian word for iron
6714 stuff, typically meaning tools, nails, screws, etc.  Typical hardware
6715 stuff, in other words.  I've been told it is the Norwegian variant of
6716 the German word eisenkram, for those that are familiar with that
6717 word.</p>
6718
6719 <p><strong>Update 2013-01-26</strong>: Added -us -us to build
6720 instructions, to avoid confusing people with an error from the signing
6721 process.</p>
6722
6723 <p><strong>Update 2013-01-27</strong>: Switch to HTTP URL for the git
6724 clone argument to avoid the need for authentication.</p>
6725
6726       </div>
6727       <div class="tags">
6728
6729
6730         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>.
6731
6732
6733       </div>
6734     </div>
6735     <div class="padding"></div>
6736
6737     <div class="entry">
6738       <div class="title">
6739         <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>
6740       </div>
6741       <div class="date">
6742         21st January 2013
6743       </div>
6744       <div class="body">
6745         <p>Early this month I set out to try to
6746 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lets_make_hardware_dongles_easier_to_use_in_Debian.html">improve
6747 the Debian support for pluggable hardware devices</a>.  Now my
6748 prototype is working, and it is ready for a larger audience.  To test
6749 it, fetch the
6750 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/">source
6751 from the Debian Edu subversion repository</a>, build and install the
6752 package.  You might have to log out and in again activate the
6753 autostart script.</p>
6754
6755 <p>The design is simple:</p>
6756
6757 <ul>
6758
6759 <li>Add desktop entry in /usr/share/autostart/ causing a program
6760 hw-support-handlerd to start when the user log in.</li>
6761
6762 <li>This program listen for kernel events about new hardware (directly
6763 from the kernel like udev does), not using HAL dbus events as I
6764 initially did.</li>
6765
6766 <li>When new hardware is inserted, look up the hardware modalias in
6767 the APT database, a database
6768 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/modaliases?view=markup">available
6769 via HTTP</a> and a database available as part of the package.</li>
6770
6771 <li>If a package is mapped to the hardware in question, the package
6772 isn't installed yet and this is the first time the hardware was
6773 plugged in, show a desktop notification suggesting to install the
6774 package or packages.</li>
6775
6776 <li>If the user click on the 'install package now' button, ask
6777 aptdaemon via the PackageKit API to install the requrired package.</li>
6778
6779 <li>aptdaemon ask for root password or sudo password, and install the
6780 package while showing progress information in a window.</li>
6781
6782 </ul>
6783
6784 <p>I still need to come up with a better name for the system.  Here
6785 are some screen shots showing the prototype in action.  First the
6786 notification, then the password request, and finally the request to
6787 approve all the dependencies.  Sorry for the Norwegian Bokmål GUI.</p>
6788
6789 <p><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-01-21-hw-support-1-notification.png">
6790 <br><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-01-21-hw-support-2-password.png">
6791 <br><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-01-21-hw-support-3-dependencies.png">
6792 <br><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-01-21-hw-support-4-installing.png">
6793 <br><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-01-21-hw-support-5-installing-details.png" width="70%"></p>
6794
6795 <p>The prototype still need to be improved with longer timeouts, but
6796 is already useful.  The database of hardware to package mappings also
6797 need more work.  It is currently compatible with the Ubuntu way of
6798 storing such information in the package control file, but could be
6799 changed to use other formats instead or in addition to the current
6800 method.  I've dropped the use of discover for this mapping, as the
6801 modalias approach is more flexible and easier to use on Linux as long
6802 as the Linux kernel expose its modalias strings directly.</p>
6803
6804 <p><strong>Update 2013-01-21 16:50</strong>: Due to popular demand,
6805 here is the command required to check out and build the source: Use
6806 '<tt>svn checkout
6807 svn://svn.debian.org/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/; cd
6808 hw-support-handler; debuild</tt>'.  If you lack debuild, install the
6809 devscripts package.</p>
6810
6811 <p><strong>Update 2013-01-23 12:00</strong>: The project is now
6812 renamed to Isenkram and the source moved from the Debian Edu
6813 subversion repository to a Debian collab-maint git repository.  See
6814 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Welcome_to_the_world__Isenkram_.html">build
6815 instructions</a> for details.</p>
6816
6817       </div>
6818       <div class="tags">
6819
6820
6821         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>.
6822
6823
6824       </div>
6825     </div>
6826     <div class="padding"></div>
6827
6828     <div class="entry">
6829       <div class="title">
6830         <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>
6831       </div>
6832       <div class="date">
6833         19th January 2013
6834       </div>
6835       <div class="body">
6836         <p>This Christmas my trusty old laptop died.  It died quietly and
6837 suddenly in bed.  With a quiet whimper, it went completely quiet and
6838 black.  The power button was no longer able to turn it on.  It was a
6839 IBM Thinkpad X41, and the best laptop I ever had.  Better than both
6840 Thinkpads X30, X31, X40, X60, X61 and X61S.  Far better than the
6841 Compaq I had before that.  Now I need to find a replacement.  To keep
6842 going during Christmas, I moved the one year old SSD disk to my old
6843 X40 where it fitted (only one I had left that could use it), but it is
6844 not a durable solution.
6845
6846 <p>My laptop needs are fairly modest.  This is my wishlist from when I
6847 got a new one more than 10 years ago.  It still holds true.:)</p>
6848
6849 <ul>
6850
6851 <li>Lightweight (around 1 kg) and small volume (preferably smaller
6852   than A4).</li>
6853 <li>Robust, it will be in my backpack every day.</li>
6854 <li>Three button mouse and a mouse pin instead of touch pad.</li>
6855 <li>Long battery life time.  Preferable a week.</li>
6856 <li>Internal WIFI network card.</li>
6857 <li>Internal Twisted Pair network card.</li>
6858 <li>Some USB slots (2-3 is plenty)</li>
6859 <li>Good keyboard - similar to the Thinkpad.</li>
6860 <li>Video resolution at least 1024x768, with size around 12" (A4 paper
6861 size).</li>
6862 <li>Hardware supported by Debian Stable, ie the default kernel and
6863   X.org packages.</li>
6864 <li>Quiet, preferably fan free (or at least not using the fan most of
6865   the time).
6866
6867 </ul>
6868
6869 <p>You will notice that there are no RAM and CPU requirements in the
6870 list.  The reason is simply that the specifications on laptops the
6871 last 10-15 years have been sufficient for my needs, and I have to look
6872 at other features to choose my laptop.  But are there still made as
6873 robust laptops as my X41?  The Thinkpad X60/X61 proved to be less
6874 robust, and Thinkpads seem to be heading in the wrong direction since
6875 Lenovo took over.  But I've been told that X220 and X1 Carbon might
6876 still be useful.</p>
6877
6878 <p>Perhaps I should rethink my needs, and look for a pad with an
6879 external keyboard?  I'll have to check the
6880 <a href="http://www.linux-laptop.net/">Linux Laptops site</a> for
6881 well-supported laptops, or perhaps just buy one preinstalled from one
6882 of the vendors listed on the <a href="http://linuxpreloaded.com/">Linux
6883 Pre-loaded site</a>.</p>
6884
6885       </div>
6886       <div class="tags">
6887
6888
6889         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>.
6890
6891
6892       </div>
6893     </div>
6894     <div class="padding"></div>
6895
6896     <div class="entry">
6897       <div class="title">
6898         <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>
6899       </div>
6900       <div class="date">
6901         18th January 2013
6902       </div>
6903       <div class="body">
6904         <p>Some times I try to figure out which Iceweasel browser plugin to
6905 install to get support for a given MIME type.  Thanks to
6906 <a href="https://wiki.ubuntu.com/MozillaTeam/Plugins">specifications
6907 done by Ubuntu</a> and Mozilla, it is possible to do this in Debian.
6908 Unfortunately, not very many packages provide the needed meta
6909 information, Anyway, here is a small script to look up all browser
6910 plugin packages announcing ther MIME support using this specification:</p>
6911
6912 <pre>
6913 #!/usr/bin/python
6914 import sys
6915 import apt
6916 def pkgs_handling_mimetype(mimetype):
6917     cache = apt.Cache()
6918     cache.open(None)
6919     thepkgs = []
6920     for pkg in cache:
6921         version = pkg.candidate
6922         if version is None:
6923             version = pkg.installed
6924         if version is None:
6925             continue
6926         record = version.record
6927         if not record.has_key('Npp-MimeType'):
6928             continue
6929         mime_types = record['Npp-MimeType'].split(',')
6930         for t in mime_types:
6931             t = t.rstrip().strip()
6932             if t == mimetype:
6933                 thepkgs.append(pkg.name)
6934     return thepkgs
6935 mimetype = "audio/ogg"
6936 if 1 < len(sys.argv):
6937     mimetype = sys.argv[1]
6938 print "Browser plugin packages supporting %s:" % mimetype
6939 for pkg in pkgs_handling_mimetype(mimetype):
6940     print "  %s" %pkg
6941 </pre>
6942
6943 <p>It can be used like this to look up a given MIME type:</p>
6944
6945 <pre>
6946 % ./apt-find-browserplug-for-mimetype
6947 Browser plugin packages supporting audio/ogg:
6948   gecko-mediaplayer
6949 % ./apt-find-browserplug-for-mimetype application/x-shockwave-flash
6950 Browser plugin packages supporting application/x-shockwave-flash:
6951   browser-plugin-gnash
6952 %
6953 </pre>
6954
6955 <p>In Ubuntu this mechanism is combined with support in the browser
6956 itself to query for plugins and propose to install the needed
6957 packages.  It would be great if Debian supported such feature too.  Is
6958 anyone working on adding it?</p>
6959
6960 <p><strong>Update 2013-01-18 14:20</strong>: The Debian BTS
6961 request for icweasel support for this feature is
6962 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/484010">#484010</a> from 2008 (and
6963 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/698426">#698426</a> from today).  Lack
6964 of manpower and wish for a different design is the reason thus feature
6965 is not yet in iceweasel from Debian.</p>
6966
6967       </div>
6968       <div class="tags">
6969
6970
6971         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>.
6972
6973
6974       </div>
6975     </div>
6976     <div class="padding"></div>
6977
6978     <div class="entry">
6979       <div class="title">
6980         <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>
6981       </div>
6982       <div class="date">
6983         16th January 2013
6984       </div>
6985       <div class="body">
6986         <p>The <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/AppStreamDebianProposal">DEP-11
6987 proposal to add AppStream information to the Debian archive</a>, is a
6988 proposal to make it possible for a Desktop application to propose to
6989 the user some package to install to gain support for a given MIME
6990 type, font, library etc. that is currently missing.  With such
6991 mechanism in place, it would be possible for the desktop to
6992 automatically propose and install leocad if some LDraw file is
6993 downloaded by the browser.</p>
6994
6995 <p>To get some idea about the current content of the archive, I decided
6996 to write a simple program to extract all .desktop files from the
6997 Debian archive and look up the claimed MIME support there.  The result
6998 can be found on the
6999 <a href="http://ftp.skolelinux.org/pub/AppStreamTest">Skolelinux FTP
7000 site</a>.  Using the collected information, it become possible to
7001 answer the question in the title.  Here are the 20 most supported MIME
7002 types in Debian stable (Squeeze), testing (Wheezy) and unstable (Sid).
7003 The complete list is available from the link above.</p>
7004
7005 <p><strong>Debian Stable:</strong></p>
7006
7007 <pre>
7008   count MIME type
7009   ----- -----------------------
7010      32 text/plain
7011      30 audio/mpeg
7012      29 image/png
7013      28 image/jpeg
7014      27 application/ogg
7015      26 audio/x-mp3
7016      25 image/tiff
7017      25 image/gif
7018      22 image/bmp
7019      22 audio/x-wav
7020      20 audio/x-flac
7021      19 audio/x-mpegurl
7022      18 video/x-ms-asf
7023      18 audio/x-musepack
7024      18 audio/x-mpeg
7025      18 application/x-ogg
7026      17 video/mpeg
7027      17 audio/x-scpls
7028      17 audio/ogg
7029      16 video/x-ms-wmv
7030 </pre>
7031
7032 <p><strong>Debian Testing:</strong></p>
7033
7034 <pre>
7035   count MIME type
7036   ----- -----------------------
7037      33 text/plain
7038      32 image/png
7039      32 image/jpeg
7040      29 audio/mpeg
7041      27 image/gif
7042      26 image/tiff
7043      26 application/ogg
7044      25 audio/x-mp3
7045      22 image/bmp
7046      21 audio/x-wav
7047      19 audio/x-mpegurl
7048      19 audio/x-mpeg
7049      18 video/mpeg
7050      18 audio/x-scpls
7051      18 audio/x-flac
7052      18 application/x-ogg
7053      17 video/x-ms-asf
7054      17 text/html
7055      17 audio/x-musepack
7056      16 image/x-xbitmap
7057 </pre>
7058
7059 <p><strong>Debian Unstable:</strong></p>
7060
7061 <pre>
7062   count MIME type
7063   ----- -----------------------
7064      31 text/plain
7065      31 image/png
7066      31 image/jpeg
7067      29 audio/mpeg
7068      28 application/ogg
7069      27 image/gif
7070      26 image/tiff
7071      26 audio/x-mp3
7072      23 audio/x-wav
7073      22 image/bmp
7074      21 audio/x-flac
7075      20 audio/x-mpegurl
7076      19 audio/x-mpeg
7077      18 video/x-ms-asf
7078      18 video/mpeg
7079      18 audio/x-scpls
7080      18 application/x-ogg
7081      17 audio/x-musepack
7082      16 video/x-ms-wmv
7083      16 video/x-msvideo
7084 </pre>
7085
7086 <p>I am told that PackageKit can provide an API to access the kind of
7087 information mentioned in DEP-11.  I have not yet had time to look at
7088 it, but hope the PackageKit people in Debian are on top of these
7089 issues.</p>
7090
7091 <p><strong>Update 2013-01-16 13:35</strong>: Updated numbers after
7092 discovering a typo in my script.</p>
7093
7094       </div>
7095       <div class="tags">
7096
7097
7098         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>.
7099
7100
7101       </div>
7102     </div>
7103     <div class="padding"></div>
7104
7105     <div class="entry">
7106       <div class="title">
7107         <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>
7108       </div>
7109       <div class="date">
7110         15th January 2013
7111       </div>
7112       <div class="body">
7113         <p>Yesterday, I wrote about the
7114 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Modalias_strings___a_practical_way_to_map__stuff__to_hardware.html">modalias
7115 values provided by the Linux kernel</a> following my hope for
7116 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lets_make_hardware_dongles_easier_to_use_in_Debian.html">better
7117 dongle support in Debian</a>.  Using this knowledge, I have tested how
7118 modalias values attached to package names can be used to map packages
7119 to hardware.  This allow the system to look up and suggest relevant
7120 packages when I plug in some new hardware into my machine, and replace
7121 discover and discover-data as the database used to map hardware to
7122 packages.</p>
7123
7124 <p>I create a modaliases file with entries like the following,
7125 containing package name, kernel module name (if relevant, otherwise
7126 the package name) and globs matching the relevant hardware
7127 modalias.</p>
7128
7129 <p><blockquote>
7130 Package: package-name
7131 <br>Modaliases: module(modaliasglob, modaliasglob, modaliasglob)</p>
7132 </blockquote></p>
7133
7134 <p>It is fairly trivial to write code to find the relevant packages
7135 for a given modalias value using this file.</p>
7136
7137 <p>An entry like this would suggest the video and picture application
7138 cheese for many USB web cameras (interface bus class 0E01):</p>
7139
7140 <p><blockquote>
7141 Package: cheese
7142 <br>Modaliases: cheese(usb:v*p*d*dc*dsc*dp*ic0Eisc01ip*)</p>
7143 </blockquote></p>
7144
7145 <p>An entry like this would suggest the pcmciautils package when a
7146 CardBus bridge (bus class 0607) PCI device is present:</p>
7147
7148 <p><blockquote>
7149 Package: pcmciautils
7150 <br>Modaliases: pcmciautils(pci:v*d*sv*sd*bc06sc07i*)
7151 </blockquote></p>
7152
7153 <p>An entry like this would suggest the package colorhug-client when
7154 plugging in a ColorHug with USB IDs 04D8:F8DA:</p>
7155
7156 <p><blockquote>
7157 Package: colorhug-client
7158 <br>Modaliases: colorhug-client(usb:v04D8pF8DAd*)</p>
7159 </blockquote></p>
7160
7161 <p>I believe the format is compatible with the format of the Packages
7162 file in the Debian archive.  Ubuntu already uses their Packages file
7163 to store their mappings from packages to hardware.</p>
7164
7165 <p>By adding a XB-Modaliases: header in debian/control, any .deb can
7166 announce the hardware it support in a way my prototype understand.
7167 This allow those publishing packages in an APT source outside the
7168 Debian archive as well as those backporting packages to make sure the
7169 hardware mapping are included in the package meta information.  I've
7170 tested such header in the pymissile package, and its modalias mapping
7171 is working as it should with my prototype.  It even made it to Ubuntu
7172 Raring.</p>
7173
7174 <p>To test if it was possible to look up supported hardware using only
7175 the shell tools available in the Debian installer, I wrote a shell
7176 implementation of the lookup code.  The idea is to create files for
7177 each modalias and let the shell do the matching.  Please check out and
7178 try the
7179 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/hw-support-lookup?view=co">hw-support-lookup</a>
7180 shell script.  It run without any extra dependencies and fetch the
7181 hardware mappings from the Debian archive and the subversion
7182 repository where I currently work on my prototype.</p>
7183
7184 <p>When I use it on a machine with a yubikey inserted, it suggest to
7185 install yubikey-personalization:</p>
7186
7187 <p><blockquote>
7188 % ./hw-support-lookup
7189 <br>yubikey-personalization
7190 <br>%
7191 </blockquote></p>
7192
7193 <p>When I run it on my Thinkpad X40 with a PCMCIA/CardBus slot, it
7194 propose to install the pcmciautils package:</p>
7195
7196 <p><blockquote>
7197 % ./hw-support-lookup
7198 <br>pcmciautils
7199 <br>%
7200 </blockquote></p>
7201
7202 <p>If you know of any hardware-package mapping that should be added to
7203 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/modaliases?view=co">my
7204 database</a>, please tell me about it.</p>
7205
7206 <p>It could be possible to generate several of the mappings between
7207 packages and hardware.  One source would be to look at packages with
7208 kernel modules, ie packages with *.ko files in /lib/modules/, and
7209 extract their modalias information.  Another would be to look at
7210 packages with udev rules, ie packages with files in
7211 /lib/udev/rules.d/, and extract their vendor/model information to
7212 generate a modalias matching rule.  I have not tested any of these to
7213 see if it work.</p>
7214
7215 <p>If you want to help implementing a system to let us propose what
7216 packages to install when new hardware is plugged into a Debian
7217 machine, please send me an email or talk to me on
7218 <a href="irc://irc.debian.org/%23debian-devel">#debian-devel</a>.</p>
7219
7220       </div>
7221       <div class="tags">
7222
7223
7224         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>.
7225
7226
7227       </div>
7228     </div>
7229     <div class="padding"></div>
7230
7231     <div class="entry">
7232       <div class="title">
7233         <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>
7234       </div>
7235       <div class="date">
7236         14th January 2013
7237       </div>
7238       <div class="body">
7239         <p>While looking into how to look up Debian packages based on hardware
7240 information, to find the packages that support a given piece of
7241 hardware, I refreshed my memory regarding modalias values, and decided
7242 to document the details.  Here are my findings so far, also available
7243 in
7244 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/">the
7245 Debian Edu subversion repository</a>:
7246
7247 <p><strong>Modalias decoded</strong></p>
7248
7249 <p>This document try to explain what the different types of modalias
7250 values stands for.  It is in part based on information from
7251 &lt;URL: <a href="https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Modalias">https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Modalias</a> &gt;,
7252 &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;,
7253 &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
7254 &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;.
7255
7256 <p>The modalias entries for a given Linux machine can be found using
7257 this shell script:</p>
7258
7259 <pre>
7260 find /sys -name modalias -print0 | xargs -0 cat | sort -u
7261 </pre>
7262
7263 <p>The supported modalias globs for a given kernel module can be found
7264 using modinfo:</p>
7265
7266 <pre>
7267 % /sbin/modinfo psmouse | grep alias:
7268 alias:          serio:ty05pr*id*ex*
7269 alias:          serio:ty01pr*id*ex*
7270 %
7271 </pre>
7272
7273 <p><strong>PCI subtype</strong></p>
7274
7275 <p>A typical PCI entry can look like this.  This is an Intel Host
7276 Bridge memory controller:</p>
7277
7278 <p><blockquote>
7279 pci:v00008086d00002770sv00001028sd000001ADbc06sc00i00
7280 </blockquote></p>
7281
7282 <p>This represent these values:</p>
7283
7284 <pre>
7285  v   00008086  (vendor)
7286  d   00002770  (device)
7287  sv  00001028  (subvendor)
7288  sd  000001AD  (subdevice)
7289  bc  06        (bus class)
7290  sc  00        (bus subclass)
7291  i   00        (interface)
7292 </pre>
7293
7294 <p>The vendor/device values are the same values outputted from 'lspci
7295 -n' as 8086:2770.  The bus class/subclass is also shown by lspci as
7296 0600.  The 0600 class is a host bridge.  Other useful bus values are
7297 0300 (VGA compatible card) and 0200 (Ethernet controller).</p>
7298
7299 <p>Not sure how to figure out the interface value, nor what it
7300 means.</p>
7301
7302 <p><strong>USB subtype</strong></p>
7303
7304 <p>Some typical USB entries can look like this.  This is an internal
7305 USB hub in a laptop:</p>
7306
7307 <p><blockquote>
7308 usb:v1D6Bp0001d0206dc09dsc00dp00ic09isc00ip00
7309 </blockquote></p>
7310
7311 <p>Here is the values included in this alias:</p>
7312
7313 <pre>
7314  v    1D6B  (device vendor)
7315  p    0001  (device product)
7316  d    0206  (bcddevice)
7317  dc     09  (device class)
7318  dsc    00  (device subclass)
7319  dp     00  (device protocol)
7320  ic     09  (interface class)
7321  isc    00  (interface subclass)
7322  ip     00  (interface protocol)
7323 </pre>
7324
7325 <p>The 0900 device class/subclass means hub.  Some times the relevant
7326 class is in the interface class section.  For a simple USB web camera,
7327 these alias entries show up:</p>
7328
7329 <p><blockquote>
7330 usb:v0AC8p3420d5000dcEFdsc02dp01ic01isc01ip00
7331 <br>usb:v0AC8p3420d5000dcEFdsc02dp01ic01isc02ip00
7332 <br>usb:v0AC8p3420d5000dcEFdsc02dp01ic0Eisc01ip00
7333 <br>usb:v0AC8p3420d5000dcEFdsc02dp01ic0Eisc02ip00
7334 </blockquote></p>
7335
7336 <p>Interface class 0E01 is video control, 0E02 is video streaming (aka
7337 camera), 0101 is audio control device and 0102 is audio streaming (aka
7338 microphone).  Thus this is a camera with microphone included.</p>
7339
7340 <p><strong>ACPI subtype</strong></p>
7341
7342 <p>The ACPI type is used for several non-PCI/USB stuff.  This is an IR
7343 receiver in a Thinkpad X40:</p>
7344
7345 <p><blockquote>
7346 acpi:IBM0071:PNP0511:
7347 </blockquote></p>
7348
7349 <p>The values between the colons are IDs.</p>
7350
7351 <p><strong>DMI subtype</strong></p>
7352
7353 <p>The DMI table contain lots of information about the computer case
7354 and model.  This is an entry for a IBM Thinkpad X40, fetched from
7355 /sys/devices/virtual/dmi/id/modalias:</p>
7356
7357 <p><blockquote>
7358 dmi:bvnIBM:bvr1UETB6WW(1.66):bd06/15/2005:svnIBM:pn2371H4G:pvrThinkPadX40:rvnIBM:rn2371H4G:rvrNotAvailable:cvnIBM:ct10:cvrNotAvailable:
7359 </blockquote></p>
7360
7361 <p>The values present are</p>
7362
7363 <pre>
7364  bvn  IBM            (BIOS vendor)
7365  bvr  1UETB6WW(1.66) (BIOS version)
7366  bd   06/15/2005     (BIOS date)
7367  svn  IBM            (system vendor)
7368  pn   2371H4G        (product name)
7369  pvr  ThinkPadX40    (product version)
7370  rvn  IBM            (board vendor)
7371  rn   2371H4G        (board name)
7372  rvr  NotAvailable   (board version)
7373  cvn  IBM            (chassis vendor)
7374  ct   10             (chassis type)
7375  cvr  NotAvailable   (chassis version)
7376 </pre>
7377
7378 <p>The chassis type 10 is Notebook.  Other interesting values can be
7379 found in the dmidecode source:</p>
7380
7381 <pre>
7382   3 Desktop
7383   4 Low Profile Desktop
7384   5 Pizza Box
7385   6 Mini Tower
7386   7 Tower
7387   8 Portable
7388   9 Laptop
7389  10 Notebook
7390  11 Hand Held
7391  12 Docking Station
7392  13 All In One
7393  14 Sub Notebook
7394  15 Space-saving
7395  16 Lunch Box
7396  17 Main Server Chassis
7397  18 Expansion Chassis
7398  19 Sub Chassis
7399  20 Bus Expansion Chassis
7400  21 Peripheral Chassis
7401  22 RAID Chassis
7402  23 Rack Mount Chassis
7403  24 Sealed-case PC
7404  25 Multi-system
7405  26 CompactPCI
7406  27 AdvancedTCA
7407  28 Blade
7408  29 Blade Enclosing
7409 </pre>
7410
7411 <p>The chassis type values are not always accurately set in the DMI
7412 table.  For example my home server is a tower, but the DMI modalias
7413 claim it is a desktop.</p>
7414
7415 <p><strong>SerIO subtype</strong></p>
7416
7417 <p>This type is used for PS/2 mouse plugs.  One example is from my
7418 test machine:</p>
7419
7420 <p><blockquote>
7421 serio:ty01pr00id00ex00
7422 </blockquote></p>
7423
7424 <p>The values present are</p>
7425
7426 <pre>
7427   ty  01  (type)
7428   pr  00  (prototype)
7429   id  00  (id)
7430   ex  00  (extra)
7431 </pre>
7432
7433 <p>This type is supported by the psmouse driver.  I am not sure what
7434 the valid values are.</p>
7435
7436 <p><strong>Other subtypes</strong></p>
7437
7438 <p>There are heaps of other modalias subtypes according to
7439 file2alias.c.  There is the rest of the list from that source: amba,
7440 ap, bcma, ccw, css, eisa, hid, i2c, ieee1394, input, ipack, isapnp,
7441 mdio, of, parisc, pcmcia, platform, scsi, sdio, spi, ssb, vio, virtio,
7442 vmbus, x86cpu and zorro.  I did not spend time documenting all of
7443 these, as they do not seem relevant for my intended use with mapping
7444 hardware to packages when new stuff is inserted during run time.</p>
7445
7446 <p><strong>Looking up kernel modules using modalias values</strong></p>
7447
7448 <p>To check which kernel modules provide support for a given modalias,
7449 one can use the following shell script:</p>
7450
7451 <pre>
7452   for id in $(find /sys -name modalias -print0 | xargs -0 cat | sort -u); do \
7453     echo "$id" ; \
7454     /sbin/modprobe --show-depends "$id"|sed 's/^/  /' ; \
7455   done
7456 </pre>
7457
7458 <p>The output can look like this (only the first few entries as the
7459 list is very long on my test machine):</p>
7460
7461 <pre>
7462   acpi:ACPI0003:
7463     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/drivers/acpi/ac.ko
7464   acpi:device:
7465   FATAL: Module acpi:device: not found.
7466   acpi:IBM0068:
7467     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/drivers/char/nvram.ko
7468     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/drivers/leds/led-class.ko
7469     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/net/rfkill/rfkill.ko
7470     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/drivers/platform/x86/thinkpad_acpi.ko
7471   acpi:IBM0071:PNP0511:
7472     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/lib/crc-ccitt.ko
7473     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/net/irda/irda.ko
7474     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/drivers/net/irda/nsc-ircc.ko
7475   [...]
7476 </pre>
7477
7478 <p>If you want to help implementing a system to let us propose what
7479 packages to install when new hardware is plugged into a Debian
7480 machine, please send me an email or talk to me on
7481 <a href="irc://irc.debian.org/%23debian-devel">#debian-devel</a>.</p>
7482
7483 <p><strong>Update 2013-01-15:</strong> Rewrite "cat $(find ...)" to
7484 "find ... -print0 | xargs -0 cat" to make sure it handle directories
7485 in /sys/ with space in them.</p>
7486
7487       </div>
7488       <div class="tags">
7489
7490
7491         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>.
7492
7493
7494       </div>
7495     </div>
7496     <div class="padding"></div>
7497
7498     <div class="entry">
7499       <div class="title">
7500         <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>
7501       </div>
7502       <div class="date">
7503         10th January 2013
7504       </div>
7505       <div class="body">
7506         <p>As part of my investigation on how to improve the support in Debian
7507 for hardware dongles, I dug up my old Mark and Spencer USB Rocket
7508 Launcher and updated the Debian package
7509 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/pymissile">pymissile</a> to make
7510 sure udev will fix the device permissions when it is plugged in.  I
7511 also added a "Modaliases" header to test it in the Debian archive and
7512 hopefully make the package be proposed by jockey in Ubuntu when a user
7513 plug in his rocket launcher.  In the process I moved the source to a
7514 git repository under collab-maint, to make it easier for any DD to
7515 contribute.  <a href="http://code.google.com/p/pymissile/">Upstream</a>
7516 is not very active, but the software still work for me even after five
7517 years of relative silence.  The new git repository is not listed in
7518 the uploaded package yet, because I want to test the other changes a
7519 bit more before I upload the new version.  If you want to check out
7520 the new version with a .desktop file included, visit the
7521 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/gitweb/?p=collab-maint/pymissile.git">gitweb
7522 view</a> or use "<tt>git clone
7523 git://anonscm.debian.org/collab-maint/pymissile.git</tt>".</p>
7524
7525       </div>
7526       <div class="tags">
7527
7528
7529         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>.
7530
7531
7532       </div>
7533     </div>
7534     <div class="padding"></div>
7535
7536     <div class="entry">
7537       <div class="title">
7538         <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>
7539       </div>
7540       <div class="date">
7541          9th January 2013
7542       </div>
7543       <div class="body">
7544         <p>One thing that annoys me with Debian and Linux distributions in
7545 general, is that there is a great package management system with the
7546 ability to automatically install software packages by downloading them
7547 from the distribution mirrors, but no way to get it to automatically
7548 install the packages I need to use the hardware I plug into my
7549 machine.  Even if the package to use it is easily available from the
7550 Linux distribution.  When I plug in a LEGO Mindstorms NXT, it could
7551 suggest to automatically install the python-nxt, nbc and t2n packages
7552 I need to talk to it.  When I plug in a Yubikey, it could propose the
7553 yubikey-personalization package.  The information required to do this
7554 is available, but no-one have pulled all the pieces together.</p>
7555
7556 <p>Some years ago, I proposed to
7557 <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2010/05/msg01206.html">use
7558 the discover subsystem to implement this</a>.  The idea is fairly
7559 simple:
7560
7561 <ul>
7562
7563 <li>Add a desktop entry in /usr/share/autostart/ pointing to a program
7564   starting when a user log in.</li>
7565
7566 <li>Set this program up to listen for kernel events emitted when new
7567   hardware is inserted into the computer.</li>
7568
7569 <li>When new hardware is inserted, look up the hardware ID in a
7570   database mapping to packages, and take note of any non-installed
7571   packages.</li>
7572
7573 <li>Show a message to the user proposing to install the discovered
7574   package, and make it easy to install it.</li>
7575
7576 </ul>
7577
7578 <p>I am not sure what the best way to implement this is, but my
7579 initial idea was to use dbus events to discover new hardware, the
7580 discover database to find packages and
7581 <a href="http://www.packagekit.org/">PackageKit</a> to install
7582 packages.</p>
7583
7584 <p>Yesterday, I found time to try to implement this idea, and the
7585 draft package is now checked into
7586 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/">the
7587 Debian Edu subversion repository</a>.  In the process, I updated the
7588 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/d/discover-data.html">discover-data</a>
7589 package to map the USB ids of LEGO Mindstorms and Yubikey devices to
7590 the relevant packages in Debian, and uploaded a new version
7591 2.2013.01.09 to unstable.  I also discovered that the current
7592 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/d/discover.html">discover</a>
7593 package in Debian no longer discovered any USB devices, because
7594 /proc/bus/usb/devices is no longer present.  I ported it to use
7595 libusb as a fall back option to get it working.  The fixed package
7596 version 2.1.2-6 is now in experimental (didn't upload it to unstable
7597 because of the freeze).</p>
7598
7599 <p>With this prototype in place, I can insert my Yubikey, and get this
7600 desktop notification to show up (only once, the first time it is
7601 inserted):</p>
7602
7603 <p align="center"><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-01-09-hw-autoinstall.png"></p>
7604
7605 <p>For this prototype to be really useful, some way to automatically
7606 install the proposed packages by pressing the "Please install
7607 program(s)" button should to be implemented.</p>
7608
7609 <p>If this idea seem useful to you, and you want to help make it
7610 happen, please help me update the discover-data database with mappings
7611 from hardware to Debian packages.  Check if 'discover-pkginstall -l'
7612 list the package you would like to have installed when a given
7613 hardware device is inserted into your computer, and report bugs using
7614 reportbug if it isn't.  Or, if you know of a better way to provide
7615 such mapping, please let me know.</p>
7616
7617 <p>This prototype need more work, and there are several questions that
7618 should be considered before it is ready for production use.  Is dbus
7619 the correct way to detect new hardware?  At the moment I look for HAL
7620 dbus events on the system bus, because that is the events I could see
7621 on my Debian Squeeze KDE desktop.  Are there better events to use?
7622 How should the user be notified?  Is the desktop notification
7623 mechanism the best option, or should the background daemon raise a
7624 popup instead?  How should packages be installed?  When should they
7625 not be installed?</p>
7626
7627 <p>If you want to help getting such feature implemented in Debian,
7628 please send me an email. :)</p>
7629
7630       </div>
7631       <div class="tags">
7632
7633
7634         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>.
7635
7636
7637       </div>
7638     </div>
7639     <div class="padding"></div>
7640
7641     <div class="entry">
7642       <div class="title">
7643         <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>
7644       </div>
7645       <div class="date">
7646          2nd January 2013
7647       </div>
7648       <div class="body">
7649         <p>During Christmas, I have worked a bit on the Debian support for
7650 <a href="http://mindstorms.lego.com/en-us/Default.aspx">LEGO Mindstorm
7651 NXT</a>.  My son and I have played a bit with my NXT set, and I
7652 discovered I had to build all the tools myself because none were
7653 already in Debian Squeeze.  If Debian support for LEGO is something
7654 you care about, please join me on the IRC channel
7655 <a href="irc://irc.debian.org/%23debian-lego">#debian-lego</a> (server
7656 irc.debian.org).  There is a lot that could be done to improve the
7657 Debian support for LEGO designers.  For example both CAD software
7658 and Mindstorm compilers are missing. :)</p>
7659
7660 <p>Update 2012-01-03: A
7661 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/LegoDesigners">project page</a>
7662 including links to Lego related packages is now available.</p>
7663
7664       </div>
7665       <div class="tags">
7666
7667
7668         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>.
7669
7670
7671       </div>
7672     </div>
7673     <div class="padding"></div>
7674
7675     <div class="entry">
7676       <div class="title">
7677         <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>
7678       </div>
7679       <div class="date">
7680         25th December 2012
7681       </div>
7682       <div class="body">
7683         <p>Let me start by wishing you all marry Christmas and a happy new
7684 year!  I hope next year will prove to be a good year.</p>
7685
7686 <p><a href="http://www.bitcoin.org/">Bitcoin</a>, the digital
7687 decentralised "currency" that allow people to transfer bitcoins
7688 between each other with minimal overhead, is a very interesting
7689 experiment.  And as I wrote a few days ago, the bitcoin situation in
7690 <a href="http://www.debian.org/">Debian</a> is about to improve a bit.
7691 The <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/bitcoin">new debian source
7692 package</a> (version 0.7.2-2) was uploaded yesterday, and is waiting
7693 in <a href="http://ftp-master.debian.org/new.html">the NEW queue</A>
7694 for one of the ftpmasters to approve the new bitcoin-qt package
7695 name.</p>
7696
7697 <p>And thanks to the great work of Jonas and the rest of the bitcoin
7698 team in Debian, you can easily test the package in Debian Squeeze
7699 using the following steps to get a set of working packages:</p>
7700
7701 <blockquote><pre>
7702 git clone git://git.debian.org/git/collab-maint/bitcoin
7703 cd bitcoin
7704 DEB_MAINTAINER_MODE=1 DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS=noupnp fakeroot debian/rules clean
7705 DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS=noupnp git-buildpackage --git-ignore-new
7706 </pre></blockquote>
7707
7708 <p>You might have to install some build dependencies as well.  The
7709 list of commands should give you two packages, bitcoind and
7710 bitcoin-qt, ready for use in a Squeeze environment.  Note that the
7711 client will download the complete set of bitcoin "blocks", which need
7712 around 5.6 GiB of data on my machine at the moment.  Make sure your
7713 ~/.bitcoin/ directory have lots of spare room if you want to download
7714 all the blocks.  The client will warn if the disk is getting full, so
7715 there is not really a problem if you got too little room, but you will
7716 not be able to get all the features out of the client.</p>
7717
7718 <p>As usual, if you use bitcoin and want to show your support of my
7719 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
7720 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b&label=PetterReinholdtsenBlog">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
7721
7722       </div>
7723       <div class="tags">
7724
7725
7726         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>.
7727
7728
7729       </div>
7730     </div>
7731     <div class="padding"></div>
7732
7733     <div class="entry">
7734       <div class="title">
7735         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/A_word_on_bitcoin_support_in_Debian.html">A word on bitcoin support in Debian</a>
7736       </div>
7737       <div class="date">
7738         21st December 2012
7739       </div>
7740       <div class="body">
7741         <p>It has been a while since I wrote about
7742 <a href="http://www.bitcoin.org/">bitcoin</a>, the decentralised
7743 peer-to-peer based crypto-currency, and the reason is simply that I
7744 have been busy elsewhere.  But two days ago, I started looking at the
7745 state of <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/bitcoin">bitcoin in
7746 Debian</a> again to try to recover my old bitcoin wallet.  The package
7747 is now maintained by a
7748 <a href="https://alioth.debian.org/projects/pkg-bitcoin/">team of
7749 people</a>, and the grunt work had already been done by this team.  We
7750 owe a huge thank you to all these team members. :)
7751 But I was sad to discover that the bitcoin client is missing in
7752 Wheezy.  It is only available in Sid (and an outdated client from
7753 backports).  The client had several RC bugs registered in BTS blocking
7754 it from entering testing.  To try to help the team and improve the
7755 situation, I spent some time providing patches and triaging the bug
7756 reports.  I also had a look at the bitcoin package available from Matt
7757 Corallo in a
7758 <a href="https://launchpad.net/~bitcoin/+archive/bitcoin">PPA for
7759 Ubuntu</a>, and moved the useful pieces from that version into the
7760 Debian package.</p>
7761
7762 <p>After checking with the main package maintainer Jonas Smedegaard on
7763 IRC, I pushed several patches into the collab-maint git repository to
7764 improve the package.  It now contains fixes for the RC issues (not from
7765 me, but fixed by Scott Howard), build rules for a Qt GUI client
7766 package, konqueror support for the bitcoin: URI and bash completion
7767 setup.  As I work on Debian Squeeze, I also created
7768 <a href="http://lists.alioth.debian.org/pipermail/pkg-bitcoin-devel/Week-of-Mon-20121217/000041.html">a
7769 patch to backport</a> the latest version.  Jonas is going to look at
7770 it and try to integrate it into the git repository before uploading a
7771 new version to unstable.
7772
7773 <p>I would very much like bitcoin to succeed, to get rid of the
7774 centralized control currently exercised in the monetary system.  I
7775 find it completely unacceptable that the USA government is collecting
7776 transaction data for almost all international money transfers (most are done in USD and transaction logs shipped to the spooks), and
7777 that the major credit card companies can block legal money
7778 transactions to Wikileaks.  But for bitcoin to succeed, more people
7779 need to use bitcoins, and more people need to accept bitcoins when
7780 they sell products and services.  Improving the bitcoin support in
7781 Debian is a small step in the right direction, but not enough.
7782 Unfortunately the user experience when browsing the web and wanting to
7783 pay with bitcoin is still not very good.  The bitcoin: URI is a step
7784 in the right direction, but need to work in most or every browser in
7785 use.  Also the bitcoin-qt client is too heavy to fire up to do a
7786 quick transaction.  I believe there are other clients available, but
7787 have not tested them.</p>
7788
7789 <p>My
7790 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Now_accepting_bitcoins___anonymous_and_distributed_p2p_crypto_money.html">experiment
7791 with bitcoins</a> showed that at least some of my readers use bitcoin.
7792 I received 20.15 BTC so far on the address I provided in my blog two
7793 years ago, as can be
7794 <a href="http://blockexplorer.com/address/15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">seen
7795 on the blockexplorer service</a>.  Thank you everyone for your
7796 donation.  The blockexplorer service demonstrates quite well that
7797 bitcoin is not quite anonymous and untracked. :) I wonder if the
7798 number of users have gone up since then.  If you use bitcoin and want
7799 to show your support of my activity, please send Bitcoin donations to
7800 the same address as last time,
7801 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b&label=PetterReinholdtsenBlog">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
7802
7803       </div>
7804       <div class="tags">
7805
7806
7807         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>.
7808
7809
7810       </div>
7811     </div>
7812     <div class="padding"></div>
7813
7814     <div class="entry">
7815       <div class="title">
7816         <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>
7817       </div>
7818       <div class="date">
7819          7th September 2012
7820       </div>
7821       <div class="body">
7822         <p>As I
7823 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Song_book_for_Computer_Scientists.html">mentioned
7824 this summer</a>, I have created a Computer Science song book a few
7825 years ago, and today I finally found time to create a public
7826 <a href="https://gitorious.org/pere-cs-songbook/pere-cs-songbook">Gitorious
7827 repository for the project</a>.</p>
7828
7829 <p>If you want to help out, please clone the source and submit patches
7830 to the HTML version.  To generate the PDF and PostScript version,
7831 please use prince XML, or let me know about a useful free software
7832 processor capable of creating a good looking PDF from the HTML.</p>
7833
7834 <p>Want to sing?  You can still find the song book in HTML, PDF and
7835 PostScript formats at
7836 <a href="http://www.hungry.com/~pere/cs-songbook/">Petter's Computer
7837 Science Songbook</a>.</p>
7838
7839       </div>
7840       <div class="tags">
7841
7842
7843         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>.
7844
7845
7846       </div>
7847     </div>
7848     <div class="padding"></div>
7849
7850     <div class="entry">
7851       <div class="title">
7852         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Gratulerer_med_19__rsdagen__Debian_.html">Gratulerer med 19-årsdagen, Debian!</a>
7853       </div>
7854       <div class="date">
7855         16th August 2012
7856       </div>
7857       <div class="body">
7858         <p>I dag fyller
7859 <a href="http://www.debian.org/News/2012/20120813">Debian-prosjektet 19
7860 år</a>.  Jeg har fulgt det de siste 12 årene, og er veldig glad for å kunne
7861 si gratulerer med dagen, Debian!</p>
7862
7863       </div>
7864       <div class="tags">
7865
7866
7867         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>.
7868
7869
7870       </div>
7871     </div>
7872     <div class="padding"></div>
7873
7874     <div class="entry">
7875       <div class="title">
7876         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Song_book_for_Computer_Scientists.html">Song book for Computer Scientists</a>
7877       </div>
7878       <div class="date">
7879         24th June 2012
7880       </div>
7881       <div class="body">
7882         <p>Many years ago, while studying Computer Science at the
7883 <a href="http://www.uit.no/">University of Tromsø</a>, I started
7884 collecting computer related songs for use at parties.  The original
7885 version was written in LaTeX, but a few years ago I got help from
7886 Håkon W. Lie, one of the inventors of W3C CSS, to convert it to HTML
7887 while keeping the ability to create a nice book in PDF format.  I have
7888 not had time to maintain the book for a while now, and guess I should
7889 put it up on some public version control repository where others can
7890 help me extend and update the book.  If anyone is volunteering to help
7891 me with this, send me an email.  Also let me know if there are songs
7892 missing in my book.</p>
7893
7894 <p>I have not mentioned the book on my blog so far, and it occured to
7895 me today that I really should let all my readers share the joys of
7896 singing out load about programming, computers and computer networks.
7897 Especially now that <a href="http://debconf12.debconf.org/">Debconf
7898 12</a> is about to start (and I am not going).  Want to sing?  Check
7899 out <a href="http://www.hungry.com/~pere/cs-songbook/">Petter's
7900 Computer Science Songbook</a>.
7901
7902       </div>
7903       <div class="tags">
7904
7905
7906         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>.
7907
7908
7909       </div>
7910     </div>
7911     <div class="padding"></div>
7912
7913     <div class="entry">
7914       <div class="title">
7915         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Automatically_upgrading_server_firmware_on_Dell_PowerEdge.html">Automatically upgrading server firmware on Dell PowerEdge</a>
7916       </div>
7917       <div class="date">
7918         21st November 2011
7919       </div>
7920       <div class="body">
7921         <p>At work we have heaps of servers.  I believe the total count is
7922 around 1000 at the moment.  To be able to get help from the vendors
7923 when something go wrong, we want to keep the firmware on the servers
7924 up to date.  If the firmware isn't the latest and greatest, the
7925 vendors typically refuse to start debugging any problems until the
7926 firmware is upgraded.  So before every reboot, we want to upgrade the
7927 firmware, and we would really like everyone handling servers at the
7928 university to do this themselves when they plan to reboot a machine.
7929 For that to happen we at the unix server admin group need to provide
7930 the tools to do so.</p>
7931
7932 <p>To make firmware upgrading easier, I am working on a script to
7933 fetch and install the latest firmware for the servers we got.  Most of
7934 our hardware are from Dell and HP, so I have focused on these servers
7935 so far.  This blog post is about the Dell part.</P>
7936
7937 <p>On the Dell FTP site I was lucky enough to find
7938 <a href="ftp://ftp.us.dell.com/catalog/Catalog.xml.gz">an XML file</a>
7939 with firmware information for all 11th generation servers, listing
7940 which firmware should be used on a given model and where on the FTP
7941 site I can find it.  Using a simple perl XML parser I can then
7942 download the shell scripts Dell provides to do firmware upgrades from
7943 within Linux and reboot when all the firmware is primed and ready to
7944 be activated on the first reboot.</p>
7945
7946 <p>This is the Dell related fragment of the perl code I am working on.
7947 Are there anyone working on similar tools for firmware upgrading all
7948 servers at a site?  Please get in touch and lets share resources.</p>
7949
7950 <p><pre>
7951 #!/usr/bin/perl
7952 use strict;
7953 use warnings;
7954 use File::Temp qw(tempdir);
7955 BEGIN {
7956     # Install needed RHEL packages if missing
7957     my %rhelmodules = (
7958         'XML::Simple' => 'perl-XML-Simple',
7959         );
7960     for my $module (keys %rhelmodules) {
7961         eval "use $module;";
7962         if ($@) {
7963             my $pkg = $rhelmodules{$module};
7964             system("yum install -y $pkg");
7965             eval "use $module;";
7966         }
7967     }
7968 }
7969 my $errorsto = 'pere@hungry.com';
7970
7971 upgrade_dell();
7972
7973 exit 0;
7974
7975 sub run_firmware_script {
7976     my ($opts, $script) = @_;
7977     unless ($script) {
7978         print STDERR "fail: missing script name\n";
7979         exit 1
7980     }
7981     print STDERR "Running $script\n\n";
7982
7983     if (0 == system("sh $script $opts")) { # FIXME correct exit code handling
7984         print STDERR "success: firmware script ran succcessfully\n";
7985     } else {
7986         print STDERR "fail: firmware script returned error\n";
7987     }
7988 }
7989
7990 sub run_firmware_scripts {
7991     my ($opts, @dirs) = @_;
7992     # Run firmware packages
7993     for my $dir (@dirs) {
7994         print STDERR "info: Running scripts in $dir\n";
7995         opendir(my $dh, $dir) or die "Unable to open directory $dir: $!";
7996         while (my $s = readdir $dh) {
7997             next if $s =~ m/^\.\.?/;
7998             run_firmware_script($opts, "$dir/$s");
7999         }
8000         closedir $dh;
8001     }
8002 }
8003
8004 sub download {
8005     my $url = shift;
8006     print STDERR "info: Downloading $url\n";
8007     system("wget --quiet \"$url\"");
8008 }
8009
8010 sub upgrade_dell {
8011     my @dirs;
8012     my $product = `dmidecode -s system-product-name`;
8013     chomp $product;
8014
8015     if ($product =~ m/PowerEdge/) {
8016
8017         # on RHEL, these pacakges are needed by the firwmare upgrade scripts
8018         system('yum install -y compat-libstdc++-33.i686 libstdc++.i686 libxml2.i686 procmail');
8019
8020         my $tmpdir = tempdir(
8021             CLEANUP => 1
8022             );
8023         chdir($tmpdir);
8024         fetch_dell_fw('catalog/Catalog.xml.gz');
8025         system('gunzip Catalog.xml.gz');
8026         my @paths = fetch_dell_fw_list('Catalog.xml');
8027         # -q is quiet, disabling interactivity and reducing console output
8028         my $fwopts = "-q";
8029         if (@paths) {
8030             for my $url (@paths) {
8031                 fetch_dell_fw($url);
8032             }
8033             run_firmware_scripts($fwopts, $tmpdir);
8034         } else {
8035             print STDERR "error: Unsupported Dell model '$product'.\n";
8036             print STDERR "error: Please report to $errorsto.\n";
8037         }
8038         chdir('/');
8039     } else {
8040         print STDERR "error: Unsupported Dell model '$product'.\n";
8041         print STDERR "error: Please report to $errorsto.\n";
8042     }
8043 }
8044
8045 sub fetch_dell_fw {
8046     my $path = shift;
8047     my $url = "ftp://ftp.us.dell.com/$path";
8048     download($url);
8049 }
8050
8051 # Using ftp://ftp.us.dell.com/catalog/Catalog.xml.gz, figure out which
8052 # firmware packages to download from Dell.  Only work for Linux
8053 # machines and 11th generation Dell servers.
8054 sub fetch_dell_fw_list {
8055     my $filename = shift;
8056
8057     my $product = `dmidecode -s system-product-name`;
8058     chomp $product;
8059     my ($mybrand, $mymodel) = split(/\s+/, $product);
8060
8061     print STDERR "Finding firmware bundles for $mybrand $mymodel\n";
8062
8063     my $xml = XMLin($filename);
8064     my @paths;
8065     for my $bundle (@{$xml->{SoftwareBundle}}) {
8066         my $brand = $bundle->{TargetSystems}->{Brand}->{Display}->{content};
8067         my $model = $bundle->{TargetSystems}->{Brand}->{Model}->{Display}->{content};
8068         my $oscode;
8069         if ("ARRAY" eq ref $bundle->{TargetOSes}->{OperatingSystem}) {
8070             $oscode = $bundle->{TargetOSes}->{OperatingSystem}[0]->{osCode};
8071         } else {
8072             $oscode = $bundle->{TargetOSes}->{OperatingSystem}->{osCode};
8073         }
8074         if ($mybrand eq $brand && $mymodel eq $model && "LIN" eq $oscode)
8075         {
8076             @paths = map { $_->{path} } @{$bundle->{Contents}->{Package}};
8077         }
8078     }
8079     for my $component (@{$xml->{SoftwareComponent}}) {
8080         my $componenttype = $component->{ComponentType}->{value};
8081
8082         # Drop application packages, only firmware and BIOS
8083         next if 'APAC' eq $componenttype;
8084
8085         my $cpath = $component->{path};
8086         for my $path (@paths) {
8087             if ($cpath =~ m%/$path$%) {
8088                 push(@paths, $cpath);
8089             }
8090         }
8091     }
8092     return @paths;
8093 }
8094 </pre>
8095
8096 <p>The code is only tested on RedHat Enterprise Linux, but I suspect
8097 it could work on other platforms with some tweaking.  Anyone know a
8098 index like Catalog.xml is available from HP for HP servers?  At the
8099 moment I maintain a similar list manually and it is quickly getting
8100 outdated.</p>
8101
8102       </div>
8103       <div class="tags">
8104
8105
8106         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>.
8107
8108
8109       </div>
8110     </div>
8111     <div class="padding"></div>
8112
8113     <div class="entry">
8114       <div class="title">
8115         <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>
8116       </div>
8117       <div class="date">
8118          4th August 2011
8119       </div>
8120       <div class="body">
8121         <p>Wouter Verhelst have some
8122 <a href="http://grep.be/blog/en/retorts/pere_kubuntu_boot">interesting
8123 comments and opinions</a> on my blog post on
8124 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/What_should_start_from__etc_rcS_d__in_Debian____almost_nothing.html">the
8125 need to clean up /etc/rcS.d/ in Debian</a> and my blog post about
8126 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/What_is_missing_in_the_Debian_desktop__or_why_my_parents_use_Kubuntu.html">the
8127 default KDE desktop in Debian</a>.  I only have time to address one
8128 small piece of his comment now, and though it best to address the
8129 misunderstanding he bring forward:</p>
8130
8131 <p><blockquote>
8132 Currently, a system admin has four options: [...] boot to a
8133 single-user system (by adding 'single' to the kernel command line;
8134 this runs rcS and rc1 scripts)
8135 </blockquote></p>
8136
8137 <p>This make me believe Wouter believe booting into single user mode
8138 and booting into runlevel 1 is the same.  I am not surprised he
8139 believe this, because it would make sense and is a quite sensible
8140 thing to believe.  But because the boot in Debian is slightly broken,
8141 runlevel 1 do not work properly and it isn't the same as single user
8142 mode.  I'll try to explain what is actually happing, but it is a bit
8143 hard to explain.</p>
8144
8145 <p>Single user mode is defined like this in /etc/inittab:
8146 "<tt>~~:S:wait:/sbin/sulogin</tt>".  This means the only thing that is
8147 executed in single user mode is sulogin.  Single user mode is a boot
8148 state "between" the runlevels, and when booting into single user mode,
8149 only the scripts in /etc/rcS.d/ are executed before the init process
8150 enters the single user state.  When switching to runlevel 1, the state
8151 is in fact not ending in runlevel 1, but it passes through runlevel 1
8152 and end up in the single user mode (see /etc/rc1.d/S03single, which
8153 runs "init -t1 S" to switch to single user mode at the end of runlevel
8154 1.  It is confusing that the 'S' (single user) init mode is not the
8155 mode enabled by /etc/rcS.d/ (which is more like the initial boot
8156 mode).</p>
8157
8158 <p>This summary might make it clearer.  When booting for the first
8159 time into single user mode, the following commands are executed:
8160 "<tt>/etc/init.d/rc S; /sbin/sulogin</tt>".  When booting into
8161 runlevel 1, the following commands are executed: "<tt>/etc/init.d/rc
8162 S; /etc/init.d/rc 1; /sbin/sulogin</tt>".  A problem show up when
8163 trying to continue after visiting single user mode.  Not all services
8164 are started again as they should, causing the machine to end up in an
8165 unpredicatble state.  This is why Debian admins recommend rebooting
8166 after visiting single user mode.</p>
8167
8168 <p>A similar problem with runlevel 1 is caused by the amount of
8169 scripts executed from /etc/rcS.d/.  When switching from say runlevel 2
8170 to runlevel 1, the services started from /etc/rcS.d/ are not properly
8171 stopped when passing through the scripts in /etc/rc1.d/, and not
8172 started again when switching away from runlevel 1 to the runlevels
8173 2-5.  I believe the problem is best fixed by moving all the scripts
8174 out of /etc/rcS.d/ that are not <strong>required</strong> to get a
8175 functioning single user mode during boot.</p>
8176
8177 <p>I have spent several years investigating the Debian boot system,
8178 and discovered this problem a few years ago.  I suspect it originates
8179 from when sysvinit was introduced into Debian, a long time ago.</p>
8180
8181       </div>
8182       <div class="tags">
8183
8184
8185         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>.
8186
8187
8188       </div>
8189     </div>
8190     <div class="padding"></div>
8191
8192     <div class="entry">
8193       <div class="title">
8194         <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>
8195       </div>
8196       <div class="date">
8197         30th July 2011
8198       </div>
8199       <div class="body">
8200         <p>In the Debian boot system, several packages include scripts that
8201 are started from /etc/rcS.d/.  In fact, there is a bite more of them
8202 than make sense, and this causes a few problems.  What kind of
8203 problems, you might ask.  There are at least two problems.  The first
8204 is that it is not possible to recover a machine after switching to
8205 runlevel 1.  One need to actually reboot to get the machine back to
8206 the expected state.  The other is that single user boot will sometimes
8207 run into problems because some of the subsystems are activated before
8208 the root login is presented, causing problems when trying to recover a
8209 machine from a problem in that subsystem.  A minor additional point is
8210 that moving more scripts out of rcS.d/ and into the other rc#.d/
8211 directories will increase the amount of scripts that can run in
8212 parallel during boot, and thus decrease the boot time.</p>
8213
8214 <p>So, which scripts should start from rcS.d/.  In short, only the
8215 scripts that _have_ to execute before the root login prompt is
8216 presented during a single user boot should go there.  Everything else
8217 should go into the numeric runlevels.  This means things like
8218 lm-sensors, fuse and x11-common should not run from rcS.d, but from
8219 the numeric runlevels.  Today in Debian, there are around 115 init.d
8220 scripts that are started from rcS.d/, and most of them should be moved
8221 out.  Do your package have one of them?  Please help us make single
8222 user and runlevel 1 better by moving it.</p>
8223
8224 <p>Scripts setting up the screen, keyboard, system partitions
8225 etc. should still be started from rcS.d/, but there is for example no
8226 need to have the network enabled before the single user login prompt
8227 is presented.</p>
8228
8229 <p>As always, things are not so easy to fix as they sound.  To keep
8230 Debian systems working while scripts migrate and during upgrades, the
8231 scripts need to be moved from rcS.d/ to rc2.d/ in reverse dependency
8232 order, ie the scripts that nothing in rcS.d/ depend on can be moved,
8233 and the next ones can only be moved when their dependencies have been
8234 moved first.  This migration must be done sequentially while we ensure
8235 that the package system upgrade packages in the right order to keep
8236 the system state correct.  This will require some coordination when it
8237 comes to network related packages, but most of the packages with
8238 scripts that should migrate do not have anything in rcS.d/ depending
8239 on them.  Some packages have already been updated, like the sudo
8240 package, while others are still left to do.  I wish I had time to work
8241 on this myself, but real live constrains make it unlikely that I will
8242 find time to push this forward.</p>
8243
8244       </div>
8245       <div class="tags">
8246
8247
8248         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>.
8249
8250
8251       </div>
8252     </div>
8253     <div class="padding"></div>
8254
8255     <div class="entry">
8256       <div class="title">
8257         <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>
8258       </div>
8259       <div class="date">
8260         29th July 2011
8261       </div>
8262       <div class="body">
8263         <p>While at Debconf11, I have several times during discussions
8264 mentioned the issues I believe should be improved in Debian for its
8265 desktop to be useful for more people.  The use case for this is my
8266 parents, which are currently running Kubuntu which solve the
8267 issues.</p>
8268
8269 <p>I suspect these four missing features are not very hard to
8270 implement.  After all, they are present in Ubuntu, so if we wanted to
8271 do this in Debian we would have a source.</p>
8272
8273 <ol>
8274
8275 <li><strong>Simple GUI based upgrade of packages.</strong> When there
8276 are new packages available for upgrades, a icon in the KDE status bar
8277 indicate this, and clicking on it will activate the simple upgrade
8278 tool to handle it.  I have no problem guiding both of my parents
8279 through the process over the phone.  If a kernel reboot is required,
8280 this too is indicated by the status bars and the upgrade tool.  Last
8281 time I checked, nothing with the same features was working in KDE in
8282 Debian.</li>
8283
8284 <li><strong>Simple handling of missing Firefox browser
8285 plugins.</strong> When the browser encounter a MIME type it do not
8286 currently have a handler for, it will ask the user if the system
8287 should search for a package that would add support for this MIME type,
8288 and if the user say yes, the APT sources will be searched for packages
8289 advertising the MIME type in their control file (visible in the
8290 Packages file in the APT archive).  If one or more packages are found,
8291 it is a simple click of the mouse to add support for the missing mime
8292 type.  If the package require the user to accept some non-free
8293 license, this is explained to the user.  The entire process make it
8294 more clear to the user why something do not work in the browser, and
8295 make the chances higher for the user to blame the web page authors and
8296 not the browser for any missing features.</li>
8297
8298 <li><strong>Simple handling of missing multimedia codec/format
8299 handlers.</strong> When the media players encounter a format or codec
8300 it is not supporting, a dialog pop up asking the user if the system
8301 should search for a package that would add support for it.  This
8302 happen with things like MP3, Windows Media or H.264.  The selection
8303 and installation procedure is very similar to the Firefox browser
8304 plugin handling.  This is as far as I know implemented using a
8305 gstreamer hook.  The end result is that the user easily get access to
8306 the codecs that are present from the APT archives available, while
8307 explaining more on why a given format is unsupported by Ubuntu.</li>
8308
8309 <li><strong>Better browser handling of some MIME types.</strong> When
8310 displaying a text/plain file in my Debian browser, it will propose to
8311 start emacs to show it.  If I remember correctly, when doing the same
8312 in Kunbutu it show the file as a text file in the browser.  At least I
8313 know Opera will show text files within the browser.  I much prefer the
8314 latter behaviour.</li>
8315
8316 </ol>
8317
8318 <p>There are other nice features as well, like the simplified suite
8319 upgrader, but given that I am the one mostly doing the dist-upgrade,
8320 it do not matter much.</p>
8321
8322 <p>I really hope we could get these features in place for the next
8323 Debian release.  It would require the coordinated effort of several
8324 maintainers, but would make the end user experience a lot better.</p>
8325
8326       </div>
8327       <div class="tags">
8328
8329
8330         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>.
8331
8332
8333       </div>
8334     </div>
8335     <div class="padding"></div>
8336
8337     <div class="entry">
8338       <div class="title">
8339         <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>
8340       </div>
8341       <div class="date">
8342         26th July 2011
8343       </div>
8344       <div class="body">
8345         <p>The Norwegian <a href="http://www.fiksgatami.no/">FiksGataMi</A>
8346 site is build on Debian/Squeeze, and this platform was chosen because
8347 I am most familiar with Debian (being a Debian Developer for around 10
8348 years) because it is the latest stable Debian release which should get
8349 security support for a few years.</p>
8350
8351 <p>The web service is written in Perl, and depend on some perl modules
8352 that are missing in Debian at the moment.  It would be great if these
8353 modules were added to the Debian archive, allowing anyone to set up
8354 their own <a href="http://www.fixmystreet.com">FixMyStreet</a> clone
8355 in their own country using only Debian packages.  The list of modules
8356 missing in Debian/Squeeze isn't very long, and I hope the perl group
8357 will find time to package the 12 modules Catalyst::Plugin::SmartURI,
8358 Catalyst::Plugin::Unicode::Encoding, Catalyst::View::TT, Devel::Hide,
8359 Sort::Key, Statistics::Distributions, Template::Plugin::Comma,
8360 Template::Plugin::DateTime::Format, Term::Size::Any, Term::Size::Perl,
8361 URI::SmartURI and Web::Scraper to make the maintenance of FixMyStreet
8362 easier in the future.</p>
8363
8364 <p>Thanks to the great tools in Debian, getting the missing modules
8365 installed on my server was a simple call to 'cpan2deb Module::Name'
8366 and 'dpkg -i' to install the resulting package.  But this leave me
8367 with the responsibility of tracking security problems, which I really
8368 do not have time for.</p>
8369
8370       </div>
8371       <div class="tags">
8372
8373
8374         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>.
8375
8376
8377       </div>
8378     </div>
8379     <div class="padding"></div>
8380
8381     <div class="entry">
8382       <div class="title">
8383         <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>
8384       </div>
8385       <div class="date">
8386          3rd April 2011
8387       </div>
8388       <div class="body">
8389         <p>Here is a small update for my English readers.  Most of my blog
8390 posts have been in Norwegian the last few weeks, so here is a short
8391 update in English.</p>
8392
8393 <p>The kids still keep me too busy to get much free software work
8394 done, but I did manage to organise a project to get a Norwegian port
8395 of the British service
8396 <a href="http://www.fixmystreet.com/">FixMyStreet</a> up and running,
8397 and it has been running for a month now.  The entire project has been
8398 organised by me and two others.  Around Christmas we gathered sponsors
8399 to fund the development work.  In January I drafted a contract with
8400 <a href="http://www.mysociety.org/">mySociety</a> on what to develop,
8401 and in February the development took place.  Most of it involved
8402 converting the source to use GPS coordinates instead of British
8403 easting/northing, and the resulting code should be a lot easier to get
8404 running in any country by now.  The Norwegian
8405 <a href="http://www.fiksgatami.no/">FiksGataMi</a> is using
8406 <a href="http://www.openstreetmap.org/">OpenStreetmap</a> as the map
8407 source and the source for administrative borders in Norway, and
8408 support for this had to be added/fixed.</p>
8409
8410 <p>The Norwegian version went live March 3th, and we spent the weekend
8411 polishing the system before we announced it March 7th.  The system is
8412 running on a KVM instance of Debian/Squeeze, and has seen almost 3000
8413 problem reports in a few weeks.  Soon we hope to announce the Android
8414 and iPhone versions making it even easier to report problems with the
8415 public infrastructure.</p>
8416
8417 <p>Perhaps something to consider for those of you in countries without
8418 such service?</p>
8419
8420       </div>
8421       <div class="tags">
8422
8423
8424         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>.
8425
8426
8427       </div>
8428     </div>
8429     <div class="padding"></div>
8430
8431     <div class="entry">
8432       <div class="title">
8433         <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>
8434       </div>
8435       <div class="date">
8436         28th January 2011
8437       </div>
8438       <div class="body">
8439         <p>The last few days I have looked at ways to track open security
8440 issues here at my work with the University of Oslo.  My idea is that
8441 it should be possible to use the information about security issues
8442 available on the Internet, and check our locally
8443 maintained/distributed software against this information.  It should
8444 allow us to verify that no known security issues are forgotten.  The
8445 CVE database listing vulnerabilities seem like a great central point,
8446 and by using the package lists from Debian mapped to CVEs provided by
8447 the testing security team, I believed it should be possible to figure
8448 out which security holes were present in our free software
8449 collection.</p>
8450
8451 <p>After reading up on the topic, it became obvious that the first
8452 building block is to be able to name software packages in a unique and
8453 consistent way across data sources.  I considered several ways to do
8454 this, for example coming up with my own naming scheme like using URLs
8455 to project home pages or URLs to the Freshmeat entries, or using some
8456 existing naming scheme.  And it seem like I am not the first one to
8457 come across this problem, as MITRE already proposed and implemented a
8458 solution.  Enter the <a href="http://cpe.mitre.org/index.html">Common
8459 Platform Enumeration</a> dictionary, a vocabulary for referring to
8460 software, hardware and other platform components.  The CPE ids are
8461 mapped to CVEs in the <a href="http://web.nvd.nist.gov/">National
8462 Vulnerability Database</a>, allowing me to look up know security
8463 issues for any CPE name.  With this in place, all I need to do is to
8464 locate the CPE id for the software packages we use at the university.
8465 This is fairly trivial (I google for 'cve cpe $package' and check the
8466 NVD entry if a CVE for the package exist).</p>
8467
8468 <p>To give you an example.  The GNU gzip source package have the CPE
8469 name cpe:/a:gnu:gzip.  If the old version 1.3.3 was the package to
8470 check out, one could look up
8471 <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
8472 in NVD</a> and get a list of 6 security holes with public CVE entries.
8473 The most recent one is
8474 <a href="http://web.nvd.nist.gov/view/vuln/detail?vulnId=CVE-2010-0001">CVE-2010-0001</a>,
8475 and at the bottom of the NVD page for this vulnerability the complete
8476 list of affected versions is provided.</p>
8477
8478 <p>The NVD database of CVEs is also available as a XML dump, allowing
8479 for offline processing of issues.  Using this dump, I've written a
8480 small script taking a list of CPEs as input and list all CVEs
8481 affecting the packages represented by these CPEs.  One give it CPEs
8482 with version numbers as specified above and get a list of open
8483 security issues out.</p>
8484
8485 <p>Of course for this approach to be useful, the quality of the NVD
8486 information need to be high.  For that to happen, I believe as many as
8487 possible need to use and contribute to the NVD database.  I notice
8488 RHEL is providing
8489 <a href="https://www.redhat.com/security/data/metrics/rhsamapcpe.txt">a
8490 map from CVE to CPE</a>, indicating that they are using the CPE
8491 information.  I'm not aware of Debian and Ubuntu doing the same.</p>
8492
8493 <p>To get an idea about the quality for free software, I spent some
8494 time making it possible to compare the CVE database from Debian with
8495 the CVE database in NVD.  The result look fairly good, but there are
8496 some inconsistencies in NVD (same software package having several
8497 CPEs), and some inaccuracies (NVD not mentioning buggy packages that
8498 Debian believe are affected by a CVE).  Hope to find time to improve
8499 the quality of NVD, but that require being able to get in touch with
8500 someone maintaining it.  So far my three emails with questions and
8501 corrections have not seen any reply, but I hope contact can be
8502 established soon.</p>
8503
8504 <p>An interesting application for CPEs is cross platform package
8505 mapping.  It would be useful to know which packages in for example
8506 RHEL, OpenSuSe and Mandriva are missing from Debian and Ubuntu, and
8507 this would be trivial if all linux distributions provided CPE entries
8508 for their packages.</p>
8509
8510       </div>
8511       <div class="tags">
8512
8513
8514         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>.
8515
8516
8517       </div>
8518     </div>
8519     <div class="padding"></div>
8520
8521     <div class="entry">
8522       <div class="title">
8523         <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>
8524       </div>
8525       <div class="date">
8526         23rd January 2011
8527       </div>
8528       <div class="body">
8529         <p>In the
8530 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/discover-data">discover-data</a>
8531 package in Debian, there is a script to report useful information
8532 about the running hardware for use when people report missing
8533 information.  One part of this script that I find very useful when
8534 debugging hardware problems, is the part mapping loaded kernel module
8535 to the PCI device it claims.  It allow me to quickly see if the kernel
8536 module I expect is driving the hardware I am struggling with.  To see
8537 the output, make sure discover-data is installed and run
8538 <tt>/usr/share/bug/discover-data 3>&1</tt>.  The relevant output on
8539 one of my machines like this:</p>
8540
8541 <pre>
8542 loaded modules:
8543 10de:03eb i2c_nforce2
8544 10de:03f1 ohci_hcd
8545 10de:03f2 ehci_hcd
8546 10de:03f0 snd_hda_intel
8547 10de:03ec pata_amd
8548 10de:03f6 sata_nv
8549 1022:1103 k8temp
8550 109e:036e bttv
8551 109e:0878 snd_bt87x
8552 11ab:4364 sky2
8553 </pre>
8554
8555 <p>The code in question look like this, slightly modified for
8556 readability and to drop the output to file descriptor 3:</p>
8557
8558 <pre>
8559 if [ -d /sys/bus/pci/devices/ ] ; then
8560     echo loaded pci modules:
8561     (
8562         cd /sys/bus/pci/devices/
8563         for address in * ; do
8564             if [ -d "$address/driver/module" ] ; then
8565                 module=`cd $address/driver/module ; pwd -P | xargs basename`
8566                 if grep -q "^$module " /proc/modules ; then
8567                     address=$(echo $address |sed s/0000://)
8568                     id=`lspci -n -s $address | tail -n 1 | awk '{print $3}'`
8569                     echo "$id $module"
8570                 fi
8571             fi
8572         done
8573     )
8574     echo
8575 fi
8576 </pre>
8577
8578 <p>Similar code could be used to extract USB device module
8579 mappings:</p>
8580
8581 <pre>
8582 if [ -d /sys/bus/usb/devices/ ] ; then
8583     echo loaded usb modules:
8584     (
8585         cd /sys/bus/usb/devices/
8586         for address in * ; do
8587             if [ -d "$address/driver/module" ] ; then
8588                 module=`cd $address/driver/module ; pwd -P | xargs basename`
8589                 if grep -q "^$module " /proc/modules ; then
8590                     address=$(echo $address |sed s/0000://)
8591                     id=$(lsusb -s $address | tail -n 1 | awk '{print $6}')
8592                     if [ "$id" ] ; then
8593                         echo "$id $module"
8594                     fi
8595                 fi
8596             fi
8597         done
8598     )
8599     echo
8600 fi
8601 </pre>
8602
8603 <p>This might perhaps be something to include in other tools as
8604 well.</p>
8605
8606       </div>
8607       <div class="tags">
8608
8609
8610         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>.
8611
8612
8613       </div>
8614     </div>
8615     <div class="padding"></div>
8616
8617     <div class="entry">
8618       <div class="title">
8619         <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>
8620       </div>
8621       <div class="date">
8622         22nd December 2010
8623       </div>
8624       <div class="body">
8625         <p>The last few days I have spent at work here at the <a
8626 href="http://www.uio.no/">University of Oslo</a> testing if the new
8627 batch of computers will work with Linux.  Every year for the last few
8628 years the university have organised shared bid of a few thousand
8629 computers, and this year HP won the bid.  Two different desktops and
8630 five different laptops are on the list this year.  We in the UNIX
8631 group want to know which one of these computers work well with RHEL
8632 and Ubuntu, the two Linux distributions we currently handle at the
8633 university.</p>
8634
8635 <p>My test method is simple, and I share it here to get feedback and
8636 perhaps inspire others to test hardware as well.  To test, I PXE
8637 install the OS version of choice, and log in as my normal user and run
8638 a few applications and plug in selected pieces of hardware.  When
8639 something fail, I make a note about this in the test matrix and move
8640 on.  If I have some spare time I try to report the bug to the OS
8641 vendor, but as I only have the machines for a short time, I rarely
8642 have the time to do this for all the problems I find.</p>
8643
8644 <p>Anyway, to get to the point of this post.  Here is the simple tests
8645 I perform on a new model.</p>
8646
8647 <ul>
8648
8649 <li>Is PXE installation working?  I'm testing with RHEL6, Ubuntu Lucid
8650 and Ubuntu Maverik at the moment.  If I feel like it, I also test with
8651 RHEL5 and Debian Edu/Squeeze.</li>
8652
8653 <li>Is X.org working?  If the graphical login screen show up after
8654 installation, X.org is working.</li>
8655
8656 <li>Is hardware accelerated OpenGL working?  Running glxgears (in
8657 package mesa-utils on Ubuntu) and writing down the frames per second
8658 reported by the program.</li>
8659
8660 <li>Is sound working?  With Gnome and KDE, a sound is played when
8661 logging in, and if I can hear this the test is successful.  If there
8662 are several audio exits on the machine, I try them all and check if
8663 the Gnome/KDE audio mixer can control where to send the sound.  I
8664 normally test this by playing
8665 <a href="http://www.nuug.no/aktiviteter/20101012-chef/ ">a HTML5
8666 video</a> in Firefox/Iceweasel.</li>
8667
8668 <li>Is the USB subsystem working?  I test this by plugging in a USB
8669 memory stick and see if Gnome/KDE notices this.</li>
8670
8671 <li>Is the CD/DVD player working?  I test this by inserting any CD/DVD
8672 I have lying around, and see if Gnome/KDE notices this.</li>
8673
8674 <li>Is any built in camera working?  Test using cheese, and see if a
8675 picture from the v4l device show up.</li>
8676
8677 <li>Is bluetooth working?  Use the Gnome/KDE browsing tool to see if
8678 any bluetooth devices are discovered.  In my office, I normally see a
8679 few.</li>
8680
8681 <li>For laptops, is the SD or Compaq Flash reader working.  I have
8682 memory modules lying around, and stick them in and see if Gnome/KDE
8683 notice this.</li>
8684
8685 <li>For laptops, is suspend/hibernate working?  I'm testing if the
8686 special button work, and if the laptop continue to work after
8687 resume.</li>
8688
8689 <li>For laptops, is the extra buttons working, like audio level,
8690 adjusting background light, switching on/off external video output,
8691 switching on/off wifi, bluetooth, etc?  The set of buttons differ from
8692 laptop to laptop, so I just write down which are working and which are
8693 not.</li>
8694
8695 <li>Some laptops have smart card readers, finger print readers,
8696 acceleration sensors etc.  I rarely test these, as I do not know how
8697 to quickly test if they are working or not, so I only document their
8698 existence.</li>
8699
8700 </ul>
8701
8702 <p>By now I suspect you are really curious what the test results are
8703 for the HP machines I am testing.  I'm not done yet, so I will report
8704 the test results later.  For now I can report that HP 8100 Elite work
8705 fine, and hibernation fail with HP EliteBook 8440p on Ubuntu Lucid,
8706 and audio fail on RHEL6.  Ubuntu Maverik worked with 8440p.  As you
8707 can see, I have most machines left to test.  One interesting
8708 observation is that Ubuntu Lucid has almost twice the frame rate than
8709 RHEL6 with glxgears.  No idea why.</p>
8710
8711       </div>
8712       <div class="tags">
8713
8714
8715         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>.
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/Some_thoughts_on_BitCoins.html">Some thoughts on BitCoins</a>
8725       </div>
8726       <div class="date">
8727         11th December 2010
8728       </div>
8729       <div class="body">
8730         <p>As I continue to explore
8731 <a href="http://www.bitcoin.org/">BitCoin</a>, I've starting to wonder
8732 what properties the system have, and how it will be affected by laws
8733 and regulations here in Norway.  Here are some random notes.</p>
8734
8735 <p>One interesting thing to note is that since the transactions are
8736 verified using a peer to peer network, all details about a transaction
8737 is known to everyone.  This means that if a BitCoin address has been
8738 published like I did with mine in my initial post about BitCoin, it is
8739 possible for everyone to see how many BitCoins have been transfered to
8740 that address.  There is even a web service to look at the details for
8741 all transactions.  There I can see that my address
8742 <a href="http://blockexplorer.com/address/15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a>
8743 have received 16.06 Bitcoin, the
8744 <a href="http://blockexplorer.com/address/1LfdGnGuWkpSJgbQySxxCWhv8MHqvwst3">1LfdGnGuWkpSJgbQySxxCWhv8MHqvwst3</a>
8745 address of Simon Phipps have received 181.97 BitCoin and the address
8746 <a href="http://blockexplorer.com/address/1MCwBbhNGp5hRm5rC1Aims2YFRe2SXPYKt">1MCwBbhNGp5hRm5rC1Aims2YFRe2SXPYKt</A>
8747 of EFF have received 2447.38 BitCoins so far.  Thank you to each and
8748 every one of you that donated bitcoins to support my activity. The
8749 fact that anyone can see how much money was transfered to a given
8750 address make it more obvious why the BitCoin community recommend to
8751 generate and hand out a new address for each transaction.  I'm told
8752 there is no way to track which addresses belong to a given person or
8753 organisation without the person or organisation revealing it
8754 themselves, as Simon, EFF and I have done.</p>
8755
8756 <p>In Norway, and in most other countries, there are laws and
8757 regulations limiting how much money one can transfer across the border
8758 without declaring it.  There are money laundering, tax and accounting
8759 laws and regulations I would expect to apply to the use of BitCoin.
8760 If the Skolelinux foundation
8761 (<a href="http://linuxiskolen.no/slxdebianlabs/donations.html">SLX
8762 Debian Labs</a>) were to accept donations in BitCoin in addition to
8763 normal bank transfers like EFF is doing, how should this be accounted?
8764 Given that it is impossible to know if money can cross the border or
8765 not, should everything or nothing be declared?  What exchange rate
8766 should be used when calculating taxes?  Would receivers have to pay
8767 income tax if the foundation were to pay Skolelinux contributors in
8768 BitCoin?  I have no idea, but it would be interesting to know.</p>
8769
8770 <p>For a currency to be useful and successful, it must be trusted and
8771 accepted by a lot of users.  It must be possible to get easy access to
8772 the currency (as a wage or using currency exchanges), and it must be
8773 easy to spend it.  At the moment BitCoin seem fairly easy to get
8774 access to, but there are very few places to spend it.  I am not really
8775 a regular user of any of the vendor types currently accepting BitCoin,
8776 so I wonder when my kind of shop would start accepting BitCoins.  I
8777 would like to buy electronics, travels and subway tickets, not herbs
8778 and books. :) The currency is young, and this will improve over time
8779 if it become popular, but I suspect regular banks will start to lobby
8780 to get BitCoin declared illegal if it become popular.  I'm sure they
8781 will claim it is helping fund terrorism and money laundering (which
8782 probably would be true, as is any currency in existence), but I
8783 believe the problems should be solved elsewhere and not by blaming
8784 currencies.</p>
8785
8786 <p>The process of creating new BitCoins is called mining, and it is
8787 CPU intensive process that depend on a bit of luck as well (as one is
8788 competing against all the other miners currently spending CPU cycles
8789 to see which one get the next lump of cash).  The "winner" get 50
8790 BitCoin when this happen.  Yesterday I came across the obvious way to
8791 join forces to increase ones changes of getting at least some coins,
8792 by coordinating the work on mining BitCoins across several machines
8793 and people, and sharing the result if one is lucky and get the 50
8794 BitCoins.  Check out
8795 <a href="http://www.bluishcoder.co.nz/bitcoin-pool/">BitCoin Pool</a>
8796 if this sounds interesting.  I have not had time to try to set up a
8797 machine to participate there yet, but have seen that running on ones
8798 own for a few days have not yield any BitCoins througth mining
8799 yet.</p>
8800
8801 <p>Update 2010-12-15: Found an <a
8802 href="http://inertia.posterous.com/reply-to-the-underground-economist-why-bitcoi">interesting
8803 criticism</a> of bitcoin.  Not quite sure how valid it is, but thought
8804 it was interesting to read.  The arguments presented seem to be
8805 equally valid for gold, which was used as a currency for many years.</p>
8806
8807       </div>
8808       <div class="tags">
8809
8810
8811         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>.
8812
8813
8814       </div>
8815     </div>
8816     <div class="padding"></div>
8817
8818     <div class="entry">
8819       <div class="title">
8820         <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>
8821       </div>
8822       <div class="date">
8823         10th December 2010
8824       </div>
8825       <div class="body">
8826         <p>With this weeks lawless
8827 <a href="http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2010/12/06/wikileaks/index.html">governmental
8828 attacks</a> on Wikileak and
8829 <a href="http://www.salon.com/technology/dan_gillmor/2010/12/06/war_on_speech">free
8830 speech</a>, it has become obvious that PayPal, visa and mastercard can
8831 not be trusted to handle money transactions.
8832 A blog post from
8833 <a href="http://webmink.com/2010/12/06/now-accepting-bitcoin/">Simon
8834 Phipps on bitcoin</a> reminded me about a project that a friend of
8835 mine mentioned earlier.  I decided to follow Simon's example, and get
8836 involved with <a href="http://www.bitcoin.org/">BitCoin</a>.  I got
8837 some help from my friend to get it all running, and he even handed me
8838 some bitcoins to get started.  I even donated a few bitcoins to Simon
8839 for helping me remember BitCoin.</p>
8840
8841 <p>So, what is bitcoins, you probably wonder?  It is a digital
8842 crypto-currency, decentralised and handled using peer-to-peer
8843 networks.  It allows anonymous transactions and prohibits central
8844 control over the transactions, making it impossible for governments
8845 and companies alike to block donations and other transactions.  The
8846 source is free software, and while the key dependency wxWidgets 2.9
8847 for the graphical user interface is missing in Debian, the command
8848 line client builds just fine.  Hopefully Jonas
8849 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/578157">will get the package into
8850 Debian</a> soon.</p>
8851
8852 <p>Bitcoins can be converted to other currencies, like USD and EUR.
8853 There are <a href="http://www.bitcoin.org/trade">companies accepting
8854 bitcoins</a> when selling services and goods, and there are even
8855 currency "stock" markets where the exchange rate is decided.  There
8856 are not many users so far, but the concept seems promising.  If you
8857 want to get started and lack a friend with any bitcoins to spare,
8858 you can even get
8859 <a href="https://freebitcoins.appspot.com/">some for free</a> (0.05
8860 bitcoin at the time of writing).  Use
8861 <a href="http://www.bitcoinwatch.com/">BitcoinWatch</a> to keep an eye
8862 on the current exchange rates.</p>
8863
8864 <p>As an experiment, I have decided to set up bitcoind on one of my
8865 machines.  If you want to support my activity, please send Bitcoin
8866 donations to the address
8867 <b>15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</b>.  Thank you!</p>
8868
8869       </div>
8870       <div class="tags">
8871
8872
8873         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>.
8874
8875
8876       </div>
8877     </div>
8878     <div class="padding"></div>
8879
8880     <div class="entry">
8881       <div class="title">
8882         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Why_isn_t_Debian_Edu_using_VLC_.html">Why isn't Debian Edu using VLC?</a>
8883       </div>
8884       <div class="date">
8885         27th November 2010
8886       </div>
8887       <div class="body">
8888         <p>In the latest issue of Linux Journal, the readers choices were
8889 presented, and the winner among the multimedia player were VLC.
8890 Personally, I like VLC, and it is my player of choice when I first try
8891 to play a video file or stream.  Only if VLC fail will I drag out
8892 gmplayer to see if it can do better.  The reason is mostly the failure
8893 model and trust.  When VLC fail, it normally pop up a error message
8894 reporting the problem.  When mplayer fail, it normally segfault or
8895 just hangs.  The latter failure mode drain my trust in the program.<p>
8896
8897 <p>But even if VLC is my player of choice, we have choosen to use
8898 mplayer in <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian
8899 Edu/Skolelinux</a>.  The reason is simple.  We need a good browser
8900 plugin to play web videos seamlessly, and the VLC browser plugin is
8901 not very good.  For example, it lack in-line control buttons, so there
8902 is no way for the user to pause the video.  Also, when I
8903 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/BrowserMultimedia">last
8904 tested the browser plugins</a> available in Debian, the VLC plugin
8905 failed on several video pages where mplayer based plugins worked.  If
8906 the browser plugin for VLC was as good as the gecko-mediaplayer
8907 package (which uses mplayer), we would switch.</P>
8908
8909 <p>While VLC is a good player, its user interface is slightly
8910 annoying.  The most annoying feature is its inconsistent use of
8911 keyboard shortcuts.  When the player is in full screen mode, its
8912 shortcuts are different from when it is playing the video in a window.
8913 For example, space only work as pause when in full screen mode.  I
8914 wish it had consisten shortcuts and that space also would work when in
8915 window mode.  Another nice shortcut in gmplayer is [enter] to restart
8916 the current video.  It is very nice when playing short videos from the
8917 web and want to restart it when new people arrive to have a look at
8918 what is going on.</p>
8919
8920       </div>
8921       <div class="tags">
8922
8923
8924         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>.
8925
8926
8927       </div>
8928     </div>
8929     <div class="padding"></div>
8930
8931     <div class="entry">
8932       <div class="title">
8933         <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>
8934       </div>
8935       <div class="date">
8936         22nd November 2010
8937       </div>
8938       <div class="body">
8939         <p>Michael Biebl suggested to me on IRC, that I changed my automated
8940 upgrade testing of the
8941 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/~pere/debian-upgrade-testing/">Lenny
8942 Gnome and KDE Desktop</a> to do <tt>apt-get autoremove</tt> when using apt-get.
8943 This seem like a very good idea, so I adjusted by test scripts and
8944 can now present the updated result from today:</p>
8945
8946 <p>This is for Gnome:</p>
8947
8948 <p>Installed using apt-get, missing with aptitude</p>
8949
8950 <blockquote><p>
8951   apache2.2-bin
8952   aptdaemon
8953   baobab
8954   binfmt-support
8955   browser-plugin-gnash
8956   cheese-common
8957   cli-common
8958   cups-pk-helper
8959   dmz-cursor-theme
8960   empathy
8961   empathy-common
8962   freedesktop-sound-theme
8963   freeglut3
8964   gconf-defaults-service
8965   gdm-themes
8966   gedit-plugins
8967   geoclue
8968   geoclue-hostip
8969   geoclue-localnet
8970   geoclue-manual
8971   geoclue-yahoo
8972   gnash
8973   gnash-common
8974   gnome
8975   gnome-backgrounds
8976   gnome-cards-data
8977   gnome-codec-install
8978   gnome-core
8979   gnome-desktop-environment
8980   gnome-disk-utility
8981   gnome-screenshot
8982   gnome-search-tool
8983   gnome-session-canberra
8984   gnome-system-log
8985   gnome-themes-extras
8986   gnome-themes-more
8987   gnome-user-share
8988   gstreamer0.10-fluendo-mp3
8989   gstreamer0.10-tools
8990   gtk2-engines
8991   gtk2-engines-pixbuf
8992   gtk2-engines-smooth
8993   hamster-applet
8994   libapache2-mod-dnssd
8995   libapr1
8996   libaprutil1
8997   libaprutil1-dbd-sqlite3
8998   libaprutil1-ldap
8999   libart2.0-cil
9000   libboost-date-time1.42.0
9001   libboost-python1.42.0
9002   libboost-thread1.42.0
9003   libchamplain-0.4-0
9004   libchamplain-gtk-0.4-0
9005   libcheese-gtk18
9006   libclutter-gtk-0.10-0
9007   libcryptui0
9008   libdiscid0
9009   libelf1
9010   libepc-1.0-2
9011   libepc-common
9012   libepc-ui-1.0-2
9013   libfreerdp-plugins-standard
9014   libfreerdp0
9015   libgconf2.0-cil
9016   libgdata-common
9017   libgdata7
9018   libgdu-gtk0
9019   libgee2
9020   libgeoclue0
9021   libgexiv2-0
9022   libgif4
9023   libglade2.0-cil
9024   libglib2.0-cil
9025   libgmime2.4-cil
9026   libgnome-vfs2.0-cil
9027   libgnome2.24-cil
9028   libgnomepanel2.24-cil
9029   libgpod-common
9030   libgpod4
9031   libgtk2.0-cil
9032   libgtkglext1
9033   libgtksourceview2.0-common
9034   libmono-addins-gui0.2-cil
9035   libmono-addins0.2-cil
9036   libmono-cairo2.0-cil
9037   libmono-corlib2.0-cil
9038   libmono-i18n-west2.0-cil
9039   libmono-posix2.0-cil
9040   libmono-security2.0-cil
9041   libmono-sharpzip2.84-cil
9042   libmono-system2.0-cil
9043   libmtp8
9044   libmusicbrainz3-6
9045   libndesk-dbus-glib1.0-cil
9046   libndesk-dbus1.0-cil
9047   libopal3.6.8
9048   libpolkit-gtk-1-0
9049   libpt2.6.7
9050   libpython2.6
9051   librpm1
9052   librpmio1
9053   libsdl1.2debian
9054   libsrtp0
9055   libssh-4
9056   libtelepathy-farsight0
9057   libtelepathy-glib0
9058   libtidy-0.99-0
9059   media-player-info
9060   mesa-utils
9061   mono-2.0-gac
9062   mono-gac
9063   mono-runtime
9064   nautilus-sendto
9065   nautilus-sendto-empathy
9066   p7zip-full
9067   pkg-config
9068   python-aptdaemon
9069   python-aptdaemon-gtk
9070   python-axiom
9071   python-beautifulsoup
9072   python-bugbuddy
9073   python-clientform
9074   python-coherence
9075   python-configobj
9076   python-crypto
9077   python-cupshelpers
9078   python-elementtree
9079   python-epsilon
9080   python-evolution
9081   python-feedparser
9082   python-gdata
9083   python-gdbm
9084   python-gst0.10
9085   python-gtkglext1
9086   python-gtksourceview2
9087   python-httplib2
9088   python-louie
9089   python-mako
9090   python-markupsafe
9091   python-mechanize
9092   python-nevow
9093   python-notify
9094   python-opengl
9095   python-openssl
9096   python-pam
9097   python-pkg-resources
9098   python-pyasn1
9099   python-pysqlite2
9100   python-rdflib
9101   python-serial
9102   python-tagpy
9103   python-twisted-bin
9104   python-twisted-conch
9105   python-twisted-core
9106   python-twisted-web
9107   python-utidylib
9108   python-webkit
9109   python-xdg
9110   python-zope.interface
9111   remmina
9112   remmina-plugin-data
9113   remmina-plugin-rdp
9114   remmina-plugin-vnc
9115   rhythmbox-plugin-cdrecorder
9116   rhythmbox-plugins
9117   rpm-common
9118   rpm2cpio
9119   seahorse-plugins
9120   shotwell
9121   software-center
9122   system-config-printer-udev
9123   telepathy-gabble
9124   telepathy-mission-control-5
9125   telepathy-salut
9126   tomboy
9127   totem
9128   totem-coherence
9129   totem-mozilla
9130   totem-plugins
9131   transmission-common
9132   xdg-user-dirs
9133   xdg-user-dirs-gtk
9134   xserver-xephyr
9135 </p></blockquote>
9136
9137 <p>Installed using apt-get, removed with aptitude</p>
9138
9139 <blockquote><p>
9140   cheese
9141   ekiga
9142   eog
9143   epiphany-extensions
9144   evolution-exchange
9145   fast-user-switch-applet
9146   file-roller
9147   gcalctool
9148   gconf-editor
9149   gdm
9150   gedit
9151   gedit-common
9152   gnome-games
9153   gnome-games-data
9154   gnome-nettool
9155   gnome-system-tools
9156   gnome-themes
9157   gnuchess
9158   gucharmap
9159   guile-1.8-libs
9160   libavahi-ui0
9161   libdmx1
9162   libgalago3
9163   libgtk-vnc-1.0-0
9164   libgtksourceview2.0-0
9165   liblircclient0
9166   libsdl1.2debian-alsa
9167   libspeexdsp1
9168   libsvga1
9169   rhythmbox
9170   seahorse
9171   sound-juicer
9172   system-config-printer
9173   totem-common
9174   transmission-gtk
9175   vinagre
9176   vino
9177 </p></blockquote>
9178
9179 <p>Installed using aptitude, missing with apt-get</p>
9180
9181 <blockquote><p>
9182   gstreamer0.10-gnomevfs
9183 </p></blockquote>
9184
9185 <p>Installed using aptitude, removed with apt-get</p>
9186
9187 <blockquote><p>
9188 [nothing]
9189 </p></blockquote>
9190
9191 <p>This is for KDE:</p>
9192
9193 <p>Installed using apt-get, missing with aptitude</p>
9194
9195 <blockquote><p>
9196   ksmserver
9197 </p></blockquote>
9198
9199 <p>Installed using apt-get, removed with aptitude</p>
9200
9201 <blockquote><p>
9202   kwin
9203   network-manager-kde
9204 </p></blockquote>
9205
9206 <p>Installed using aptitude, missing with apt-get</p>
9207
9208 <blockquote><p>
9209   arts
9210   dolphin
9211   freespacenotifier
9212   google-gadgets-gst
9213   google-gadgets-xul
9214   kappfinder
9215   kcalc
9216   kcharselect
9217   kde-core
9218   kde-plasma-desktop
9219   kde-standard
9220   kde-window-manager
9221   kdeartwork
9222   kdeartwork-emoticons
9223   kdeartwork-style
9224   kdeartwork-theme-icon
9225   kdebase
9226   kdebase-apps
9227   kdebase-workspace
9228   kdebase-workspace-bin
9229   kdebase-workspace-data
9230   kdeeject
9231   kdelibs
9232   kdeplasma-addons
9233   kdeutils
9234   kdewallpapers
9235   kdf
9236   kfloppy
9237   kgpg
9238   khelpcenter4
9239   kinfocenter
9240   konq-plugins-l10n
9241   konqueror-nsplugins
9242   kscreensaver
9243   kscreensaver-xsavers
9244   ktimer
9245   kwrite
9246   libgle3
9247   libkde4-ruby1.8
9248   libkonq5
9249   libkonq5-templates
9250   libnetpbm10
9251   libplasma-ruby
9252   libplasma-ruby1.8
9253   libqt4-ruby1.8
9254   marble-data
9255   marble-plugins
9256   netpbm
9257   nuvola-icon-theme
9258   plasma-dataengines-workspace
9259   plasma-desktop
9260   plasma-desktopthemes-artwork
9261   plasma-runners-addons
9262   plasma-scriptengine-googlegadgets
9263   plasma-scriptengine-python
9264   plasma-scriptengine-qedje
9265   plasma-scriptengine-ruby
9266   plasma-scriptengine-webkit
9267   plasma-scriptengines
9268   plasma-wallpapers-addons
9269   plasma-widget-folderview
9270   plasma-widget-networkmanagement
9271   ruby
9272   sweeper
9273   update-notifier-kde
9274   xscreensaver-data-extra
9275   xscreensaver-gl
9276   xscreensaver-gl-extra
9277   xscreensaver-screensaver-bsod
9278 </p></blockquote>
9279
9280 <p>Installed using aptitude, removed with apt-get</p>
9281
9282 <blockquote><p>
9283   ark
9284   google-gadgets-common
9285   google-gadgets-qt
9286   htdig
9287   kate
9288   kdebase-bin
9289   kdebase-data
9290   kdepasswd
9291   kfind
9292   klipper
9293   konq-plugins
9294   konqueror
9295   ksysguard
9296   ksysguardd
9297   libarchive1
9298   libcln6
9299   libeet1
9300   libeina-svn-06
9301   libggadget-1.0-0b
9302   libggadget-qt-1.0-0b
9303   libgps19
9304   libkdecorations4
9305   libkephal4
9306   libkonq4
9307   libkonqsidebarplugin4a
9308   libkscreensaver5
9309   libksgrd4
9310   libksignalplotter4
9311   libkunitconversion4
9312   libkwineffects1a
9313   libmarblewidget4
9314   libntrack-qt4-1
9315   libntrack0
9316   libplasma-geolocation-interface4
9317   libplasmaclock4a
9318   libplasmagenericshell4
9319   libprocesscore4a
9320   libprocessui4a
9321   libqalculate5
9322   libqedje0a
9323   libqtruby4shared2
9324   libqzion0a
9325   libruby1.8
9326   libscim8c2a
9327   libsmokekdecore4-3
9328   libsmokekdeui4-3
9329   libsmokekfile3
9330   libsmokekhtml3
9331   libsmokekio3
9332   libsmokeknewstuff2-3
9333   libsmokeknewstuff3-3
9334   libsmokekparts3
9335   libsmokektexteditor3
9336   libsmokekutils3
9337   libsmokenepomuk3
9338   libsmokephonon3
9339   libsmokeplasma3
9340   libsmokeqtcore4-3
9341   libsmokeqtdbus4-3
9342   libsmokeqtgui4-3
9343   libsmokeqtnetwork4-3
9344   libsmokeqtopengl4-3
9345   libsmokeqtscript4-3
9346   libsmokeqtsql4-3
9347   libsmokeqtsvg4-3
9348   libsmokeqttest4-3
9349   libsmokeqtuitools4-3
9350   libsmokeqtwebkit4-3
9351   libsmokeqtxml4-3
9352   libsmokesolid3
9353   libsmokesoprano3
9354   libtaskmanager4a
9355   libtidy-0.99-0
9356   libweather-ion4a
9357   libxklavier16
9358   libxxf86misc1
9359   okteta
9360   oxygencursors
9361   plasma-dataengines-addons
9362   plasma-scriptengine-superkaramba
9363   plasma-widget-lancelot
9364   plasma-widgets-addons
9365   plasma-widgets-workspace
9366   polkit-kde-1
9367   ruby1.8
9368   systemsettings
9369   update-notifier-common
9370 </p></blockquote>
9371
9372 <p>Running apt-get autoremove made the results using apt-get and
9373 aptitude a bit more similar, but there are still quite a lott of
9374 differences.  I have no idea what packages should be installed after
9375 the upgrade, but hope those that do can have a look.</p>
9376
9377       </div>
9378       <div class="tags">
9379
9380
9381         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>.
9382
9383
9384       </div>
9385     </div>
9386     <div class="padding"></div>
9387
9388     <div class="entry">
9389       <div class="title">
9390         <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>
9391       </div>
9392       <div class="date">
9393         22nd November 2010
9394       </div>
9395       <div class="body">
9396         <p>Most of the computers in use by the
9397 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu/Skolelinux project</a>
9398 are virtual machines.  And they have been Xen machines running on a
9399 fairly old IBM eserver xseries 345 machine, and we wanted to migrate
9400 them to KVM on a newer Dell PowerEdge 2950 host machine.  This was a
9401 bit harder that it could have been, because we set up the Xen virtual
9402 machines to get the virtual partitions from LVM, which as far as I
9403 know is not supported by KVM.  So to migrate, we had to convert
9404 several LVM logical volumes to partitions on a virtual disk file.</p>
9405
9406 <p>I found
9407 <a href="http://searchnetworking.techtarget.com.au/articles/35011-Six-steps-for-migrating-Xen-virtual-machines-to-KVM">a
9408 nice recipe</a> to do this, and wrote the following script to do the
9409 migration.  It uses qemu-img from the qemu package to make the disk
9410 image, parted to partition it, losetup and kpartx to present the disk
9411 image partions as devices, and dd to copy the data.  I NFS mounted the
9412 new servers storage area on the old server to do the migration.</p>
9413
9414 <pre>
9415 #!/bin/sh
9416
9417 # Based on
9418 # http://searchnetworking.techtarget.com.au/articles/35011-Six-steps-for-migrating-Xen-virtual-machines-to-KVM
9419
9420 set -e
9421 set -x
9422
9423 if [ -z "$1" ] ; then
9424     echo "Usage: $0 &lt;hostname&gt;"
9425     exit 1
9426 else
9427     host="$1"
9428 fi
9429
9430 if [ ! -e /dev/vg_data/$host-disk ] ; then
9431     echo "error: unable to find LVM volume for $host"
9432     exit 1
9433 fi
9434
9435 # Partitions need to be a bit bigger than the LVM LVs.  not sure why.
9436 disksize=$( lvs --units m | grep $host-disk | awk '{sum = sum + $4} END { print int(sum * 1.05) }')
9437 swapsize=$( lvs --units m | grep $host-swap | awk '{sum = sum + $4} END { print int(sum * 1.05) }')
9438 totalsize=$(( ( $disksize + $swapsize ) ))
9439
9440 img=$host.img
9441 #dd if=/dev/zero of=$img bs=1M count=$(( $disksize + $swapsize ))
9442 qemu-img create $img ${totalsize}MMaking room on the Debian Edu/Sqeeze DVD
9443
9444 parted $img mklabel msdos
9445 parted $img mkpart primary linux-swap 0 $disksize
9446 parted $img mkpart primary ext2 $disksize $totalsize
9447 parted $img set 1 boot on
9448
9449 modprobe dm-mod
9450 losetup /dev/loop0 $img
9451 kpartx -a /dev/loop0
9452
9453 dd if=/dev/vg_data/$host-disk of=/dev/mapper/loop0p1 bs=1M
9454 fsck.ext3 -f /dev/mapper/loop0p1 || true
9455 mkswap /dev/mapper/loop0p2
9456
9457 kpartx -d /dev/loop0
9458 losetup -d /dev/loop0
9459 </pre>
9460
9461 <p>The script is perhaps so simple that it is not copyrightable, but
9462 if it is, it is licenced using GPL v2 or later at your discretion.</p>
9463
9464 <p>After doing this, I booted a Debian CD in rescue mode in KVM with
9465 the new disk image attached, installed grub-pc and linux-image-686 and
9466 set up grub to boot from the disk image.  After this, the KVM machines
9467 seem to work just fine.</p>
9468
9469       </div>
9470       <div class="tags">
9471
9472
9473         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>.
9474
9475
9476       </div>
9477     </div>
9478     <div class="padding"></div>
9479
9480     <div class="entry">
9481       <div class="title">
9482         <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>
9483       </div>
9484       <div class="date">
9485         20th November 2010
9486       </div>
9487       <div class="body">
9488         <p>I'm still running upgrade testing of the
9489 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/~pere/debian-upgrade-testing/">Lenny
9490 Gnome and KDE Desktop</a>, but have not had time to spend on reporting the
9491 status.  Here is a short update based on a test I ran 20101118.</p>
9492
9493 <p>I still do not know what a correct migration should look like, so I
9494 report any differences between apt and aptitude and hope someone else
9495 can see if anything should be changed.</p>
9496
9497 <p>This is for Gnome:</p>
9498
9499 <p>Installed using apt-get, missing with aptitude</p>
9500
9501 <blockquote><p>
9502   apache2.2-bin aptdaemon at-spi baobab binfmt-support
9503   browser-plugin-gnash cheese-common cli-common cpp-4.3 cups-pk-helper
9504   dmz-cursor-theme empathy empathy-common finger
9505   freedesktop-sound-theme freeglut3 gconf-defaults-service gdm-themes
9506   gedit-plugins geoclue geoclue-hostip geoclue-localnet geoclue-manual
9507   geoclue-yahoo gnash gnash-common gnome gnome-backgrounds
9508   gnome-cards-data gnome-codec-install gnome-core
9509   gnome-desktop-environment gnome-disk-utility gnome-screenshot
9510   gnome-search-tool gnome-session-canberra gnome-spell
9511   gnome-system-log gnome-themes-extras gnome-themes-more
9512   gnome-user-share gs-common gstreamer0.10-fluendo-mp3
9513   gstreamer0.10-tools gtk2-engines gtk2-engines-pixbuf
9514   gtk2-engines-smooth hal-info hamster-applet libapache2-mod-dnssd
9515   libapr1 libaprutil1 libaprutil1-dbd-sqlite3 libaprutil1-ldap
9516   libart2.0-cil libatspi1.0-0 libboost-date-time1.42.0
9517   libboost-python1.42.0 libboost-thread1.42.0 libchamplain-0.4-0
9518   libchamplain-gtk-0.4-0 libcheese-gtk18 libclutter-gtk-0.10-0
9519   libcryptui0 libcupsys2 libdiscid0 libeel2-data libelf1 libepc-1.0-2
9520   libepc-common libepc-ui-1.0-2 libfreerdp-plugins-standard
9521   libfreerdp0 libgail-common libgconf2.0-cil libgdata-common libgdata7
9522   libgdl-1-common libgdu-gtk0 libgee2 libgeoclue0 libgexiv2-0 libgif4
9523   libglade2.0-cil libglib2.0-cil libgmime2.4-cil libgnome-vfs2.0-cil
9524   libgnome2.24-cil libgnomepanel2.24-cil libgnomeprint2.2-data
9525   libgnomeprintui2.2-common libgnomevfs2-bin libgpod-common libgpod4
9526   libgtk2.0-cil libgtkglext1 libgtksourceview-common
9527   libgtksourceview2.0-common libmono-addins-gui0.2-cil
9528   libmono-addins0.2-cil libmono-cairo2.0-cil libmono-corlib2.0-cil
9529   libmono-i18n-west2.0-cil libmono-posix2.0-cil
9530   libmono-security2.0-cil libmono-sharpzip2.84-cil
9531   libmono-system2.0-cil libmtp8 libmusicbrainz3-6
9532   libndesk-dbus-glib1.0-cil libndesk-dbus1.0-cil libopal3.6.8
9533   libpolkit-gtk-1-0 libpt-1.10.10-plugins-alsa
9534   libpt-1.10.10-plugins-v4l libpt2.6.7 libpython2.6 librpm1 librpmio1
9535   libsdl1.2debian libservlet2.4-java libsrtp0 libssh-4
9536   libtelepathy-farsight0 libtelepathy-glib0 libtidy-0.99-0
9537   libxalan2-java libxerces2-java media-player-info mesa-utils
9538   mono-2.0-gac mono-gac mono-runtime nautilus-sendto
9539   nautilus-sendto-empathy openoffice.org-writer2latex
9540   openssl-blacklist p7zip p7zip-full pkg-config python-4suite-xml
9541   python-aptdaemon python-aptdaemon-gtk python-axiom
9542   python-beautifulsoup python-bugbuddy python-clientform
9543   python-coherence python-configobj python-crypto python-cupshelpers
9544   python-cupsutils python-eggtrayicon python-elementtree
9545   python-epsilon python-evolution python-feedparser python-gdata
9546   python-gdbm python-gst0.10 python-gtkglext1 python-gtkmozembed
9547   python-gtksourceview2 python-httplib2 python-louie python-mako
9548   python-markupsafe python-mechanize python-nevow python-notify
9549   python-opengl python-openssl python-pam python-pkg-resources
9550   python-pyasn1 python-pysqlite2 python-rdflib python-serial
9551   python-tagpy python-twisted-bin python-twisted-conch
9552   python-twisted-core python-twisted-web python-utidylib python-webkit
9553   python-xdg python-zope.interface remmina remmina-plugin-data
9554   remmina-plugin-rdp remmina-plugin-vnc rhythmbox-plugin-cdrecorder
9555   rhythmbox-plugins rpm-common rpm2cpio seahorse-plugins shotwell
9556   software-center svgalibg1 system-config-printer-udev
9557   telepathy-gabble telepathy-mission-control-5 telepathy-salut tomboy
9558   totem totem-coherence totem-mozilla totem-plugins
9559   transmission-common xdg-user-dirs xdg-user-dirs-gtk xserver-xephyr
9560   zip
9561 </p></blockquote>
9562
9563 Installed using apt-get, removed with aptitude
9564
9565 <blockquote><p>
9566   arj bluez-utils cheese dhcdbd djvulibre-desktop ekiga eog
9567   epiphany-extensions epiphany-gecko evolution-exchange
9568   fast-user-switch-applet file-roller gcalctool gconf-editor gdm gedit
9569   gedit-common gnome-app-install gnome-games gnome-games-data
9570   gnome-nettool gnome-system-tools gnome-themes gnome-utils
9571   gnome-vfs-obexftp gnome-volume-manager gnuchess gucharmap
9572   guile-1.8-libs hal libavahi-compat-libdnssd1 libavahi-core5
9573   libavahi-ui0 libbind9-50 libbluetooth2 libcamel1.2-11 libcdio7
9574   libcucul0 libcurl3 libdirectfb-1.0-0 libdmx1 libdvdread3
9575   libedata-cal1.2-6 libedataserver1.2-9 libeel2-2.20 libepc-1.0-1
9576   libepc-ui-1.0-1 libexchange-storage1.2-3 libfaad0 libgadu3
9577   libgalago3 libgd2-noxpm libgda3-3 libgda3-common libggz2 libggzcore9
9578   libggzmod4 libgksu1.2-0 libgksuui1.0-1 libgmyth0 libgnome-desktop-2
9579   libgnome-pilot2 libgnomecups1.0-1 libgnomeprint2.2-0
9580   libgnomeprintui2.2-0 libgpod3 libgraphviz4 libgtk-vnc-1.0-0
9581   libgtkhtml2-0 libgtksourceview1.0-0 libgtksourceview2.0-0
9582   libgucharmap6 libhesiod0 libicu38 libisccc50 libisccfg50 libiw29
9583   libjaxp1.3-java-gcj libkpathsea4 liblircclient0 libltdl3 liblwres50
9584   libmagick++10 libmagick10 libmalaga7 libmozjs1d libmpfr1ldbl libmtp7
9585   libmysqlclient15off libnautilus-burn4 libneon27 libnm-glib0
9586   libnm-util0 libopal-2.2 libosp5 libparted1.8-10 libpisock9
9587   libpisync1 libpoppler-glib3 libpoppler3 libpt-1.10.10 libraw1394-8
9588   libsdl1.2debian-alsa libsensors3 libsexy2 libsmbios2 libsoup2.2-8
9589   libspeexdsp1 libssh2-1 libsuitesparse-3.1.0 libsvga1
9590   libswfdec-0.6-90 libtalloc1 libtotem-plparser10 libtrackerclient0
9591   libvoikko1 libxalan2-java-gcj libxerces2-java-gcj libxklavier12
9592   libxtrap6 libxxf86misc1 libzephyr3 mysql-common rhythmbox seahorse
9593   sound-juicer swfdec-gnome system-config-printer totem-common
9594   totem-gstreamer transmission-gtk vinagre vino w3c-dtd-xhtml wodim
9595 </p></blockquote>
9596
9597 <p>Installed using aptitude, missing with apt-get</p>
9598
9599 <blockquote><p>
9600   gstreamer0.10-gnomevfs
9601 </p></blockquote>
9602
9603 <p>Installed using aptitude, removed with apt-get</p>
9604
9605 <blockquote><p>
9606 [nothing]
9607 </p></blockquote>
9608
9609 <p>This is for KDE:</p>
9610
9611 <p>Installed using apt-get, missing with aptitude</p>
9612
9613 <blockquote><p>
9614   autopoint bomber bovo cantor cantor-backend-kalgebra cpp-4.3 dcoprss
9615   edict espeak espeak-data eyesapplet fifteenapplet finger gettext
9616   ghostscript-x git gnome-audio gnugo granatier gs-common
9617   gstreamer0.10-pulseaudio indi kaddressbook-plugins kalgebra
9618   kalzium-data kanjidic kapman kate-plugins kblocks kbreakout kbstate
9619   kde-icons-mono kdeaccessibility kdeaddons-kfile-plugins
9620   kdeadmin-kfile-plugins kdeartwork-misc kdeartwork-theme-window
9621   kdeedu kdeedu-data kdeedu-kvtml-data kdegames kdegames-card-data
9622   kdegames-mahjongg-data kdegraphics-kfile-plugins kdelirc
9623   kdemultimedia-kfile-plugins kdenetwork-kfile-plugins
9624   kdepim-kfile-plugins kdepim-kio-plugins kdessh kdetoys kdewebdev
9625   kdiamond kdnssd kfilereplace kfourinline kgeography-data kigo
9626   killbots kiriki klettres-data kmoon kmrml knewsticker-scripts
9627   kollision kpf krosspython ksirk ksmserver ksquares kstars-data
9628   ksudoku kubrick kweather libasound2-plugins libboost-python1.42.0
9629   libcfitsio3 libconvert-binhex-perl libcrypt-ssleay-perl libdb4.6++
9630   libdjvulibre-text libdotconf1.0 liberror-perl libespeak1
9631   libfinance-quote-perl libgail-common libgsl0ldbl libhtml-parser-perl
9632   libhtml-tableextract-perl libhtml-tagset-perl libhtml-tree-perl
9633   libio-stringy-perl libkdeedu4 libkdegames5 libkiten4 libkpathsea5
9634   libkrossui4 libmailtools-perl libmime-tools-perl
9635   libnews-nntpclient-perl libopenbabel3 libportaudio2 libpulse-browse0
9636   libservlet2.4-java libspeechd2 libtiff-tools libtimedate-perl
9637   libunistring0 liburi-perl libwww-perl libxalan2-java libxerces2-java
9638   lirc luatex marble networkstatus noatun-plugins
9639   openoffice.org-writer2latex palapeli palapeli-data parley
9640   parley-data poster psutils pulseaudio pulseaudio-esound-compat
9641   pulseaudio-module-x11 pulseaudio-utils quanta-data rocs rsync
9642   speech-dispatcher step svgalibg1 texlive-binaries texlive-luatex
9643   ttf-sazanami-gothic
9644 </p></blockquote>
9645
9646 <p>Installed using apt-get, removed with aptitude</p>
9647
9648 <blockquote><p>
9649   amor artsbuilder atlantik atlantikdesigner blinken bluez-utils cvs
9650   dhcdbd djvulibre-desktop imlib-base imlib11 kalzium kanagram kandy
9651   kasteroids katomic kbackgammon kbattleship kblackbox kbounce kbruch
9652   kcron kdat kdemultimedia-kappfinder-data kdeprint kdict kdvi kedit
9653   keduca kenolaba kfax kfaxview kfouleggs kgeography kghostview
9654   kgoldrunner khangman khexedit kiconedit kig kimagemapeditor
9655   kitchensync kiten kjumpingcube klatin klettres klickety klines
9656   klinkstatus kmag kmahjongg kmailcvt kmenuedit kmid kmilo kmines
9657   kmousetool kmouth kmplot knetwalk kodo kolf kommander konquest kooka
9658   kpager kpat kpdf kpercentage kpilot kpoker kpovmodeler krec
9659   kregexpeditor kreversi ksame ksayit kshisen ksig ksim ksirc ksirtet
9660   ksmiletris ksnake ksokoban kspaceduel kstars ksvg ksysv kteatime
9661   ktip ktnef ktouch ktron kttsd ktuberling kturtle ktux kuickshow
9662   kverbos kview kviewshell kvoctrain kwifimanager kwin kwin4 kwordquiz
9663   kworldclock kxsldbg libakode2 libarts1-akode libarts1-audiofile
9664   libarts1-mpeglib libarts1-xine libavahi-compat-libdnssd1
9665   libavahi-core5 libavc1394-0 libbind9-50 libbluetooth2
9666   libboost-python1.34.1 libcucul0 libcurl3 libcvsservice0
9667   libdirectfb-1.0-0 libdjvulibre21 libdvdread3 libfaad0 libfreebob0
9668   libgd2-noxpm libgraphviz4 libgsmme1c2a libgtkhtml2-0 libicu38
9669   libiec61883-0 libindex0 libisccc50 libisccfg50 libiw29
9670   libjaxp1.3-java-gcj libk3b3 libkcal2b libkcddb1 libkdeedu3
9671   libkdegames1 libkdepim1a libkgantt0 libkleopatra1 libkmime2
9672   libkpathsea4 libkpimexchange1 libkpimidentities1 libkscan1
9673   libksieve0 libktnef1 liblockdev1 libltdl3 liblwres50 libmagick10
9674   libmimelib1c2a libmodplug0c2 libmozjs1d libmpcdec3 libmpfr1ldbl
9675   libneon27 libnm-util0 libopensync0 libpisock9 libpoppler-glib3
9676   libpoppler-qt2 libpoppler3 libraw1394-8 librss1 libsensors3
9677   libsmbios2 libssh2-1 libsuitesparse-3.1.0 libswfdec-0.6-90
9678   libtalloc1 libxalan2-java-gcj libxerces2-java-gcj libxtrap6 lskat
9679   mpeglib network-manager-kde noatun pmount tex-common texlive-base
9680   texlive-common texlive-doc-base texlive-fonts-recommended tidy
9681   ttf-dustin ttf-kochi-gothic ttf-sjfonts
9682 </p></blockquote>
9683
9684 <p>Installed using aptitude, missing with apt-get</p>
9685
9686 <blockquote><p>
9687   dolphin kde-core kde-plasma-desktop kde-standard kde-window-manager
9688   kdeartwork kdebase kdebase-apps kdebase-workspace
9689   kdebase-workspace-bin kdebase-workspace-data kdeutils kscreensaver
9690   kscreensaver-xsavers libgle3 libkonq5 libkonq5-templates libnetpbm10
9691   netpbm plasma-widget-folderview plasma-widget-networkmanagement
9692   xscreensaver-data-extra xscreensaver-gl xscreensaver-gl-extra
9693   xscreensaver-screensaver-bsod
9694 </p></blockquote>
9695
9696 <p>Installed using aptitude, removed with apt-get</p>
9697
9698 <blockquote><p>
9699   kdebase-bin konq-plugins konqueror
9700 </p></blockquote>
9701
9702       </div>
9703       <div class="tags">
9704
9705
9706         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>.
9707
9708
9709       </div>
9710     </div>
9711     <div class="padding"></div>
9712
9713     <div class="entry">
9714       <div class="title">
9715         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Gnash_buildbot_slave_and_Debian_kfreebsd.html">Gnash buildbot slave and Debian kfreebsd</a>
9716       </div>
9717       <div class="date">
9718         20th November 2010
9719       </div>
9720       <div class="body">
9721         <p>Answering
9722 <a href="http://www.listware.net/201011/gnash-dev/67431-gnash-dev-buildbot-looking-for-slaves.html">the
9723 call from the Gnash project</a> for
9724 <a href="http://www.gnashdev.org:8010">buildbot</a> slaves to test the
9725 current source, I have set up a virtual KVM machine on the Debian
9726 Edu/Skolelinux virtualization host to test the git source on
9727 Debian/Squeeze.  I hope this can help the developers in getting new
9728 releases out more often.</p>
9729
9730 <p>As the developers want less main-stream build platforms tested to,
9731 I have considered setting up a <a
9732 href="http://www.debian.org/ports/kfreebsd-gnu/">Debian/kfreebsd</a>
9733 machine as well.  I have also considered using the kfreebsd
9734 architecture in Debian as a file server in NUUG to get access to the 5
9735 TB zfs volume we currently use to store DV video.  Because of this, I
9736 finally got around to do a test installation of Debian/Squeeze with
9737 kfreebsd.  Installation went fairly smooth, thought I noticed some
9738 visual glitches in the cdebconf dialogs (black cursor left on the
9739 screen at random locations).  Have not gotten very far with the
9740 testing.  Noticed cfdisk did not work, but fdisk did so it was not a
9741 fatal problem.  Have to spend some more time on it to see if it is
9742 useful as a file server for NUUG.  Will try to find time to set up a
9743 gnash buildbot slave on the Debian Edu/Skolelinux this weekend.</p>
9744
9745       </div>
9746       <div class="tags">
9747
9748
9749         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>.
9750
9751
9752       </div>
9753     </div>
9754     <div class="padding"></div>
9755
9756     <div class="entry">
9757       <div class="title">
9758         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_in_3D.html">Debian in 3D</a>
9759       </div>
9760       <div class="date">
9761          9th November 2010
9762       </div>
9763       <div class="body">
9764         <p><img src="http://thingiverse-production.s3.amazonaws.com/renders/23/e0/c4/f9/2b/debswagtdose_preview_medium.jpg"></p>
9765
9766 <p>3D printing is just great.  I just came across this Debian logo in
9767 3D linked in from
9768 <a href="http://blog.thingiverse.com/2010/11/09/participatory-branding/">the
9769 thingiverse blog</a>.</p>
9770
9771       </div>
9772       <div class="tags">
9773
9774
9775         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>.
9776
9777
9778       </div>
9779     </div>
9780     <div class="padding"></div>
9781
9782     <div class="entry">
9783       <div class="title">
9784         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Software_updates_2010_10_24.html">Software updates 2010-10-24</a>
9785       </div>
9786       <div class="date">
9787         24th October 2010
9788       </div>
9789       <div class="body">
9790         <p>Some updates.</p>
9791
9792 <p>My <a href="http://pledgebank.com/gnash-avm2">gnash pledge</a> to
9793 raise money for the project is going well.  The lower limit of 10
9794 signers was reached in 24 hours, and so far 13 people have signed it.
9795 More signers and more funding is most welcome, and I am really curious
9796 how far we can get before the time limit of December 24 is reached.
9797 :)</p>
9798
9799 <p>On the #gnash IRC channel on irc.freenode.net, I was just tipped
9800 about what appear to be a great code coverage tool capable of
9801 generating code coverage stats without any changes to the source code.
9802 It is called
9803 <a href="http://simonkagstrom.github.com/kcov/index.html">kcov</a>,
9804 and can be used using <tt>kcov &lt;directory&gt; &lt;binary&gt;</tt>.
9805 It is missing in Debian, but the git source built just fine in Squeeze
9806 after I installed libelf-dev, libdwarf-dev, pkg-config and
9807 libglib2.0-dev.  Failed to build in Lenny, but suspect that is
9808 solvable.  I hope kcov make it into Debian soon.</p>
9809
9810 <p>Finally found time to wrap up the release notes for <a
9811 href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-edu-announce/2010/10/msg00002.html">a
9812 new alpha release of Debian Edu</a>, and just published the second
9813 alpha test release of the Squeeze based Debian Edu /
9814 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Skolelinux</a>
9815 release.  Give it a try if you need a complete linux solution for your
9816 school, including central infrastructure server, workstations, thin
9817 client servers and diskless workstations.  A nice touch added
9818 yesterday is RDP support on the thin client servers, for windows
9819 clients to get a Linux desktop on request.</p>
9820
9821       </div>
9822       <div class="tags">
9823
9824
9825         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>.
9826
9827
9828       </div>
9829     </div>
9830     <div class="padding"></div>
9831
9832     <div class="entry">
9833       <div class="title">
9834         <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>
9835       </div>
9836       <div class="date">
9837          4th September 2010
9838       </div>
9839       <div class="body">
9840         <p>In the <a href="http://popcon.debian.org/unknown/by_vote">Debian
9841 popularity-contest numbers</a>, the adobe-flashplugin package the
9842 second most popular used package that is missing in Debian.  The sixth
9843 most popular is flashplayer-mozilla.  This is a clear indication that
9844 working flash is important for Debian users.  Around 10 percent of the
9845 users submitting data to popcon.debian.org have this package
9846 installed.</p>
9847
9848 <p>In the report written by Lars Risan in August 2008
9849 («<a href="http://wiki.skolelinux.no/Dokumentasjon/Rapporter?action=AttachFile&do=view&target=Skolelinux_i_bruk_rapport_1.0.pdf">Skolelinux
9850 i bruk – Rapport for Hurum kommune, Universitetet i Agder og
9851 stiftelsen SLX Debian Labs</a>»), one of the most important problems
9852 schools experienced with <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian
9853 Edu/Skolelinux</a> was the lack of working Flash.  A lot of educational
9854 web sites require Flash to work, and lacking working Flash support in
9855 the web browser and the problems with installing it was perceived as a
9856 good reason to stay with Windows.</p>
9857
9858 <p>I once saw a funny and sad comment in a web forum, where Linux was
9859 said to be the retarded cousin that did not really understand
9860 everything you told him but could work fairly well.  This was a
9861 comment regarding the problems Linux have with proprietary formats and
9862 non-standard web pages, and is sad because it exposes a fairly common
9863 understanding of whose fault it is if web pages that only work in for
9864 example Internet Explorer 6 fail to work on Firefox, and funny because
9865 it explain very well how annoying it is for users when Linux
9866 distributions do not work with the documents they receive or the web
9867 pages they want to visit.</p>
9868
9869 <p>This is part of the reason why I believe it is important for Debian
9870 and Debian Edu to have a well working Flash implementation in the
9871 distribution, to get at least popular sites as Youtube and Google
9872 Video to working out of the box.  For Squeeze, Debian have the chance
9873 to include the latest version of Gnash that will make this happen, as
9874 the new release 0.8.8 was published a few weeks ago and is resting in
9875 unstable.  The new version work with more sites that version 0.8.7.
9876 The Gnash maintainers have asked for a freeze exception, but the
9877 release team have not had time to reply to it yet.  I hope they agree
9878 with me that Flash is important for the Debian desktop users, and thus
9879 accept the new package into Squeeze.</p>
9880
9881       </div>
9882       <div class="tags">
9883
9884
9885         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>.
9886
9887
9888       </div>
9889     </div>
9890     <div class="padding"></div>
9891
9892     <div class="entry">
9893       <div class="title">
9894         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Circular_package_dependencies_harms_apt_recovery.html">Circular package dependencies harms apt recovery</a>
9895       </div>
9896       <div class="date">
9897         27th July 2010
9898       </div>
9899       <div class="body">
9900         <p>I discovered this while doing
9901 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Automatic_upgrade_testing_from_Lenny_to_Squeeze.html">automated
9902 testing of upgrades from Debian Lenny to Squeeze</a>.  A few packages
9903 in Debian still got circular dependencies, and it is often claimed
9904 that apt and aptitude should be able to handle this just fine, but
9905 some times these dependency loops causes apt to fail.</p>
9906
9907 <p>An example is from todays
9908 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/~pere/debian-upgrade-testing//test-20100727-lenny-squeeze-kde-aptitude.txt">upgrade
9909 of KDE using aptitude</a>.  In it, a bug in kdebase-workspace-data
9910 causes perl-modules to fail to upgrade.  The cause is simple.  If a
9911 package fail to unpack, then only part of packages with the circular
9912 dependency might end up being unpacked when unpacking aborts, and the
9913 ones already unpacked will fail to configure in the recovery phase
9914 because its dependencies are unavailable.</p>
9915
9916 <p>In this log, the problem manifest itself with this error:</p>
9917
9918 <blockquote><pre>
9919 dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of perl-modules:
9920  perl-modules depends on perl (>= 5.10.1-1); however:
9921   Version of perl on system is 5.10.0-19lenny2.
9922 dpkg: error processing perl-modules (--configure):
9923  dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
9924 </pre></blockquote>
9925
9926 <p>The perl/perl-modules circular dependency is already
9927 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/527917">reported as a bug</a>, and will
9928 hopefully be solved as soon as possible, but it is not the only one,
9929 and each one of these loops in the dependency tree can cause similar
9930 failures.  Of course, they only occur when there are bugs in other
9931 packages causing the unpacking to fail, but it is rather nasty when
9932 the failure of one package causes the problem to become worse because
9933 of dependency loops.</p>
9934
9935 <p>Thanks to
9936 <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2010/06/msg00116.html">the
9937 tireless effort by Bill Allombert</a>, the number of circular
9938 dependencies
9939 <a href="http://debian.semistable.com/debgraph.out.html">left in Debian
9940 is dropping</a>, and perhaps it will reach zero one day. :)</p>
9941
9942 <p>Todays testing also exposed a bug in
9943 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/590605">update-notifier</a> and
9944 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/590604">different behaviour</a> between
9945 apt-get and aptitude, the latter possibly caused by some circular
9946 dependency.  Reported both to BTS to try to get someone to look at
9947 it.</p>
9948
9949       </div>
9950       <div class="tags">
9951
9952
9953         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>.
9954
9955
9956       </div>
9957     </div>
9958     <div class="padding"></div>
9959
9960     <div class="entry">
9961       <div class="title">
9962         <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>
9963       </div>
9964       <div class="date">
9965         17th July 2010
9966       </div>
9967       <div class="body">
9968         <p>This is a
9969 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Time_for_new__LDAP_schemas_replacing_RFC_2307_.html">followup</a>
9970 on my
9971 <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
9972 work</a> on
9973 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Combining_PowerDNS_and_ISC_DHCP_LDAP_objects.html">merging
9974 all</a> the computer related LDAP objects in Debian Edu.</p>
9975
9976 <p>As a step to try to see if it possible to merge the DNS and DHCP
9977 LDAP objects, I have had a look at how the packages pdns-backend-ldap
9978 and dhcp3-server-ldap in Debian use the LDAP server.  The two
9979 implementations are quite different in how they use LDAP.</p>
9980
9981 To get this information, I started slapd with debugging enabled and
9982 dumped the debug output to a file to get the LDAP searches performed
9983 on a Debian Edu main-server.  Here is a summary.
9984
9985 <p><strong>powerdns</strong></p>
9986
9987 <a href="http://www.linuxnetworks.de/doc/index.php/PowerDNS_LDAP_Backend">Clues
9988 on how to</a> set up PowerDNS to use a LDAP backend is available on
9989 the web.
9990
9991 <p>PowerDNS have two modes of operation using LDAP as its backend.
9992 One "strict" mode where the forward and reverse DNS lookups are done
9993 using the same LDAP objects, and a "tree" mode where the forward and
9994 reverse entries are in two different subtrees in LDAP with a structure
9995 based on the DNS names, as in tjener.intern and
9996 2.2.0.10.in-addr.arpa.</p>
9997
9998 <p>In tree mode, the server is set up to use a LDAP subtree as its
9999 base, and uses a "base" scoped search for the DNS name by adding
10000 "dc=tjener,dc=intern," to the base with a filter for
10001 "(associateddomain=tjener.intern)" for the forward entry and
10002 "dc=2,dc=2,dc=0,dc=10,dc=in-addr,dc=arpa," with a filter for
10003 "(associateddomain=2.2.0.10.in-addr.arpa)" for the reverse entry.  For
10004 forward entries, it is looking for attributes named dnsttl, arecord,
10005 nsrecord, cnamerecord, soarecord, ptrrecord, hinforecord, mxrecord,
10006 txtrecord, rprecord, afsdbrecord, keyrecord, aaaarecord, locrecord,
10007 srvrecord, naptrrecord, kxrecord, certrecord, dsrecord, sshfprecord,
10008 ipseckeyrecord, rrsigrecord, nsecrecord, dnskeyrecord, dhcidrecord,
10009 spfrecord and modifytimestamp.  For reverse entries it is looking for
10010 the attributes dnsttl, arecord, nsrecord, cnamerecord, soarecord,
10011 ptrrecord, hinforecord, mxrecord, txtrecord, rprecord, aaaarecord,
10012 locrecord, srvrecord, naptrrecord and modifytimestamp.  The equivalent
10013 ldapsearch commands could look like this:</p>
10014
10015 <blockquote><pre>
10016 ldapsearch -h ldap \
10017   -b dc=tjener,dc=intern,ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no \
10018   -s base -x '(associateddomain=tjener.intern)' dNSTTL aRecord nSRecord \
10019   cNAMERecord sOARecord pTRRecord hInfoRecord mXRecord tXTRecord \
10020   rPRecord aFSDBRecord KeyRecord aAAARecord lOCRecord sRVRecord \
10021   nAPTRRecord kXRecord certRecord dSRecord sSHFPRecord iPSecKeyRecord \
10022   rRSIGRecord nSECRecord dNSKeyRecord dHCIDRecord sPFRecord modifyTimestamp
10023
10024 ldapsearch -h ldap \
10025   -b dc=2,dc=2,dc=0,dc=10,dc=in-addr,dc=arpa,ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no \
10026   -s base -x '(associateddomain=2.2.0.10.in-addr.arpa)'
10027   dnsttl, arecord, nsrecord, cnamerecord soarecord ptrrecord \
10028   hinforecord mxrecord txtrecord rprecord aaaarecord locrecord \
10029   srvrecord naptrrecord modifytimestamp
10030 </pre></blockquote>
10031
10032 <p>In Debian Edu/Lenny, the PowerDNS tree mode is used with
10033 ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no as the base, and these are two
10034 example LDAP objects used there.  In addition to these objects, the
10035 parent objects all th way up to ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
10036 also exist.</p>
10037
10038 <blockquote><pre>
10039 dn: dc=tjener,dc=intern,ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
10040 objectclass: top
10041 objectclass: dnsdomain
10042 objectclass: domainrelatedobject
10043 dc: tjener
10044 arecord: 10.0.2.2
10045 associateddomain: tjener.intern
10046
10047 dn: dc=2,dc=2,dc=0,dc=10,dc=in-addr,dc=arpa,ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
10048 objectclass: top
10049 objectclass: dnsdomain2
10050 objectclass: domainrelatedobject
10051 dc: 2
10052 ptrrecord: tjener.intern
10053 associateddomain: 2.2.0.10.in-addr.arpa
10054 </pre></blockquote>
10055
10056 <p>In strict mode, the server behaves differently.  When looking for
10057 forward DNS entries, it is doing a "subtree" scoped search with the
10058 same base as in the tree mode for a object with filter
10059 "(associateddomain=tjener.intern)" and requests the attributes dnsttl,
10060 arecord, nsrecord, cnamerecord, soarecord, ptrrecord, hinforecord,
10061 mxrecord, txtrecord, rprecord, aaaarecord, locrecord, srvrecord,
10062 naptrrecord and modifytimestamp.  For reverse entires it also do a
10063 subtree scoped search but this time the filter is "(arecord=10.0.2.2)"
10064 and the requested attributes are associateddomain, dnsttl and
10065 modifytimestamp.  In short, in strict mode the objects with ptrrecord
10066 go away, and the arecord attribute in the forward object is used
10067 instead.</p>
10068
10069 <p>The forward and reverse searches can be simulated using ldapsearch
10070 like this:</p>
10071
10072 <blockquote><pre>
10073 ldapsearch -h ldap -b ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no -s sub -x \
10074   '(associateddomain=tjener.intern)' dNSTTL aRecord nSRecord \
10075   cNAMERecord sOARecord pTRRecord hInfoRecord mXRecord tXTRecord \
10076   rPRecord aFSDBRecord KeyRecord aAAARecord lOCRecord sRVRecord \
10077   nAPTRRecord kXRecord certRecord dSRecord sSHFPRecord iPSecKeyRecord \
10078   rRSIGRecord nSECRecord dNSKeyRecord dHCIDRecord sPFRecord modifyTimestamp
10079
10080 ldapsearch -h ldap -b ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no -s sub -x \
10081   '(arecord=10.0.2.2)' associateddomain dnsttl modifytimestamp
10082 </pre></blockquote>
10083
10084 <p>In addition to the forward and reverse searches , there is also a
10085 search for SOA records, which behave similar to the forward and
10086 reverse lookups.</p>
10087
10088 <p>A thing to note with the PowerDNS behaviour is that it do not
10089 specify any objectclass names, and instead look for the attributes it
10090 need to generate a DNS reply.  This make it able to work with any
10091 objectclass that provide the needed attributes.</p>
10092
10093 <p>The attributes are normally provided in the cosine (RFC 1274) and
10094 dnsdomain2 schemas.  The latter is used for reverse entries like
10095 ptrrecord and recent DNS additions like aaaarecord and srvrecord.</p>
10096
10097 <p>In Debian Edu, we have created DNS objects using the object classes
10098 dcobject (for dc), dnsdomain or dnsdomain2 (structural, for the DNS
10099 attributes) and domainrelatedobject (for associatedDomain).  The use
10100 of structural object classes make it impossible to combine these
10101 classes with the object classes used by DHCP.</p>
10102
10103 <p>There are other schemas that could be used too, for example the
10104 dnszone structural object class used by Gosa and bind-sdb for the DNS
10105 attributes combined with the domainrelatedobject object class, but in
10106 this case some unused attributes would have to be included as well
10107 (zonename and relativedomainname).</p>
10108
10109 <p>My proposal for Debian Edu would be to switch PowerDNS to strict
10110 mode and not use any of the existing objectclasses (dnsdomain,
10111 dnsdomain2 and dnszone) when one want to combine the DNS information
10112 with DHCP information, and instead create a auxiliary object class
10113 defined something like this (using the attributes defined for
10114 dnsdomain and dnsdomain2 or dnszone):</p>
10115
10116 <blockquote><pre>
10117 objectclass ( some-oid NAME 'dnsDomainAux'
10118     SUP top
10119     AUXILIARY
10120     MAY ( ARecord $ MDRecord $ MXRecord $ NSRecord $ SOARecord $ CNAMERecord $
10121           DNSTTL $ DNSClass $ PTRRecord $ HINFORecord $ MINFORecord $
10122           TXTRecord $ SIGRecord $ KEYRecord $ AAAARecord $ LOCRecord $
10123           NXTRecord $ SRVRecord $ NAPTRRecord $ KXRecord $ CERTRecord $
10124           A6Record $ DNAMERecord
10125     ))
10126 </pre></blockquote>
10127
10128 <p>This will allow any object to become a DNS entry when combined with
10129 the domainrelatedobject object class, and allow any entity to include
10130 all the attributes PowerDNS wants.  I've sent an email to the PowerDNS
10131 developers asking for their view on this schema and if they are
10132 interested in providing such schema with PowerDNS, and I hope my
10133 message will be accepted into their mailing list soon.</p>
10134
10135 <p><strong>ISC dhcp</strong></p>
10136
10137 <p>The DHCP server searches for specific objectclass and requests all
10138 the object attributes, and then uses the attributes it want.  This
10139 make it harder to figure out exactly what attributes are used, but
10140 thanks to the working example in Debian Edu I can at least get an idea
10141 what is needed without having to read the source code.</p>
10142
10143 <p>In the DHCP server configuration, the LDAP base to use and the
10144 search filter to use to locate the correct dhcpServer entity is
10145 stored.  These are the relevant entries from
10146 /etc/dhcp3/dhcpd.conf:</p>
10147
10148 <blockquote><pre>
10149 ldap-base-dn "dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no";
10150 ldap-dhcp-server-cn "dhcp";
10151 </pre></blockquote>
10152
10153 <p>The DHCP server uses this information to nest all the DHCP
10154 configuration it need.  The cn "dhcp" is located using the given LDAP
10155 base and the filter "(&(objectClass=dhcpServer)(cn=dhcp))".  The
10156 search result is this entry:</p>
10157
10158 <blockquote><pre>
10159 dn: cn=dhcp,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
10160 cn: dhcp
10161 objectClass: top
10162 objectClass: dhcpServer
10163 dhcpServiceDN: cn=DHCP Config,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
10164 </pre></blockquote>
10165
10166 <p>The content of the dhcpServiceDN attribute is next used to locate the
10167 subtree with DHCP configuration.  The DHCP configuration subtree base
10168 is located using a base scope search with base "cn=DHCP
10169 Config,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no" and filter
10170 "(&(objectClass=dhcpService)(|(dhcpPrimaryDN=cn=dhcp,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no)(dhcpSecondaryDN=cn=dhcp,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no)))".
10171 The search result is this entry:</p>
10172
10173 <blockquote><pre>
10174 dn: cn=DHCP Config,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
10175 cn: DHCP Config
10176 objectClass: top
10177 objectClass: dhcpService
10178 objectClass: dhcpOptions
10179 dhcpPrimaryDN: cn=dhcp, dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
10180 dhcpStatements: ddns-update-style none
10181 dhcpStatements: authoritative
10182 dhcpOption: smtp-server code 69 = array of ip-address
10183 dhcpOption: www-server code 72 = array of ip-address
10184 dhcpOption: wpad-url code 252 = text
10185 </pre></blockquote>
10186
10187 <p>Next, the entire subtree is processed, one level at the time.  When
10188 all the DHCP configuration is loaded, it is ready to receive requests.
10189 The subtree in Debian Edu contain objects with object classes
10190 top/dhcpService/dhcpOptions, top/dhcpSharedNetwork/dhcpOptions,
10191 top/dhcpSubnet, top/dhcpGroup and top/dhcpHost.  These provide options
10192 and information about netmasks, dynamic range etc.  Leaving out the
10193 details here because it is not relevant for the focus of my
10194 investigation, which is to see if it is possible to merge dns and dhcp
10195 related computer objects.</p>
10196
10197 <p>When a DHCP request come in, LDAP is searched for the MAC address
10198 of the client (00:00:00:00:00:00 in this example), using a subtree
10199 scoped search with "cn=DHCP Config,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no" as
10200 the base and "(&(objectClass=dhcpHost)(dhcpHWAddress=ethernet
10201 00:00:00:00:00:00))" as the filter.  This is what a host object look
10202 like:</p>
10203
10204 <blockquote><pre>
10205 dn: cn=hostname,cn=group1,cn=THINCLIENTS,cn=DHCP Config,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
10206 cn: hostname
10207 objectClass: top
10208 objectClass: dhcpHost
10209 dhcpHWAddress: ethernet 00:00:00:00:00:00
10210 dhcpStatements: fixed-address hostname
10211 </pre></blockquote>
10212
10213 <p>There is less flexiblity in the way LDAP searches are done here.
10214 The object classes need to have fixed names, and the configuration
10215 need to be stored in a fairly specific LDAP structure.  On the
10216 positive side, the invidiual dhcpHost entires can be anywhere without
10217 the DN pointed to by the dhcpServer entries.  The latter should make
10218 it possible to group all host entries in a subtree next to the
10219 configuration entries, and this subtree can also be shared with the
10220 DNS server if the schema proposed above is combined with the dhcpHost
10221 structural object class.
10222
10223 <p><strong>Conclusion</strong></p>
10224
10225 <p>The PowerDNS implementation seem to be very flexible when it come
10226 to which LDAP schemas to use.  While its "tree" mode is rigid when it
10227 come to the the LDAP structure, the "strict" mode is very flexible,
10228 allowing DNS objects to be stored anywhere under the base cn specified
10229 in the configuration.</p>
10230
10231 <p>The DHCP implementation on the other hand is very inflexible, both
10232 regarding which LDAP schemas to use and which LDAP structure to use.
10233 I guess one could implement ones own schema, as long as the
10234 objectclasses and attributes have the names used, but this do not
10235 really help when the DHCP subtree need to have a fairly fixed
10236 structure.</p>
10237
10238 <p>Based on the observed behaviour, I suspect a LDAP structure like
10239 this might work for Debian Edu:</p>
10240
10241 <blockquote><pre>
10242 ou=services
10243   cn=machine-info (dhcpService) - dhcpServiceDN points here
10244     cn=dhcp (dhcpServer)
10245     cn=dhcp-internal (dhcpSharedNetwork/dhcpOptions)
10246       cn=10.0.2.0 (dhcpSubnet)
10247         cn=group1 (dhcpGroup/dhcpOptions)
10248     cn=dhcp-thinclients (dhcpSharedNetwork/dhcpOptions)
10249       cn=192.168.0.0 (dhcpSubnet)
10250         cn=group1 (dhcpGroup/dhcpOptions)
10251     ou=machines - PowerDNS base points here
10252       cn=hostname (dhcpHost/domainrelatedobject/dnsDomainAux)
10253 </pre></blockquote>
10254
10255 <P>This is not tested yet.  If the DHCP server require the dhcpHost
10256 entries to be in the dhcpGroup subtrees, the entries can be stored
10257 there instead of a common machines subtree, and the PowerDNS base
10258 would have to be moved one level up to the machine-info subtree.</p>
10259
10260 <p>The combined object under the machines subtree would look something
10261 like this:</p>
10262
10263 <blockquote><pre>
10264 dn: dc=hostname,ou=machines,cn=machine-info,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
10265 dc: hostname
10266 objectClass: top
10267 objectClass: dhcpHost
10268 objectclass: domainrelatedobject
10269 objectclass: dnsDomainAux
10270 associateddomain: hostname.intern
10271 arecord: 10.11.12.13
10272 dhcpHWAddress: ethernet 00:00:00:00:00:00
10273 dhcpStatements: fixed-address hostname.intern
10274 </pre></blockquote>
10275
10276 </p>One could even add the LTSP configuration associated with a given
10277 machine, as long as the required attributes are available in a
10278 auxiliary object class.</p>
10279
10280       </div>
10281       <div class="tags">
10282
10283
10284         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>.
10285
10286
10287       </div>
10288     </div>
10289     <div class="padding"></div>
10290
10291     <div class="entry">
10292       <div class="title">
10293         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Combining_PowerDNS_and_ISC_DHCP_LDAP_objects.html">Combining PowerDNS and ISC DHCP LDAP objects</a>
10294       </div>
10295       <div class="date">
10296         14th July 2010
10297       </div>
10298       <div class="body">
10299         <p>For a while now, I have wanted to find a way to change the DNS and
10300 DHCP services in Debian Edu to use the same LDAP objects for a given
10301 computer, to avoid the possibility of having a inconsistent state for
10302 a computer in LDAP (as in DHCP but no DNS entry or the other way
10303 around) and make it easier to add computers to LDAP.</p>
10304
10305 <p>I've looked at how powerdns and dhcpd is using LDAP, and using this
10306 information finally found a solution that seem to work.</p>
10307
10308 <p>The old setup required three LDAP objects for a given computer.
10309 One forward DNS entry, one reverse DNS entry and one DHCP entry.  If
10310 we switch powerdns to use its strict LDAP method (ldap-method=strict
10311 in pdns-debian-edu.conf), the forward and reverse DNS entries are
10312 merged into one while making it impossible to transfer the reverse map
10313 to a slave DNS server.</p>
10314
10315 <p>If we also replace the object class used to get the DNS related
10316 attributes to one allowing these attributes to be combined with the
10317 dhcphost object class, we can merge the DNS and DHCP entries into one.
10318 I've written such object class in the dnsdomainaux.schema file (need
10319 proper OIDs, but that is a minor issue), and tested the setup.  It
10320 seem to work.</p>
10321
10322 <p>With this test setup in place, we can get away with one LDAP object
10323 for both DNS and DHCP, and even the LTSP configuration I suggested in
10324 an earlier email.  The combined LDAP object will look something like
10325 this:</p>
10326
10327 <blockquote><pre>
10328   dn: cn=hostname,cn=group1,cn=THINCLIENTS,cn=DHCP Config,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
10329   cn: hostname
10330   objectClass: dhcphost
10331   objectclass: domainrelatedobject
10332   objectclass: dnsdomainaux
10333   associateddomain: hostname.intern
10334   arecord: 10.11.12.13
10335   dhcphwaddress: ethernet 00:00:00:00:00:00
10336   dhcpstatements: fixed-address hostname
10337   ldapconfigsound: Y
10338 </pre></blockquote>
10339
10340 <p>The DNS server uses the associateddomain and arecord entries, while
10341 the DHCP server uses the dhcphwaddress and dhcpstatements entries
10342 before asking DNS to resolve the fixed-adddress.  LTSP will use
10343 dhcphwaddress or associateddomain and the ldapconfig* attributes.</p>
10344
10345 <p>I am not yet sure if I can get the DHCP server to look for its
10346 dhcphost in a different location, to allow us to put the objects
10347 outside the "DHCP Config" subtree, but hope to figure out a way to do
10348 that.  If I can't figure out a way to do that, we can still get rid of
10349 the hosts subtree and move all its content into the DHCP Config tree
10350 (which probably should be renamed to be more related to the new
10351 content.  I suspect cn=dnsdhcp,ou=services or something like that
10352 might be a good place to put it.</p>
10353
10354 <p>If you want to help out with implementing this for Debian Edu,
10355 please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.</p>
10356
10357       </div>
10358       <div class="tags">
10359
10360
10361         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>.
10362
10363
10364       </div>
10365     </div>
10366     <div class="padding"></div>
10367
10368     <div class="entry">
10369       <div class="title">
10370         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Idea_for_storing_LTSP_configuration_in_LDAP.html">Idea for storing LTSP configuration in LDAP</a>
10371       </div>
10372       <div class="date">
10373         11th July 2010
10374       </div>
10375       <div class="body">
10376         <p>Vagrant mentioned on IRC today that ltsp_config now support
10377 sourcing files from /usr/share/ltsp/ltsp_config.d/ on the thin
10378 clients, and that this can be used to fetch configuration from LDAP if
10379 Debian Edu choose to store configuration there.</p>
10380
10381 <p>Armed with this information, I got inspired and wrote a test module
10382 to get configuration from LDAP.  The idea is to look up the MAC
10383 address of the client in LDAP, and look for attributes on the form
10384 ltspconfigsetting=value, and use this to export SETTING=value to the
10385 LTSP clients.</p>
10386
10387 <p>The goal is to be able to store the LTSP configuration attributes
10388 in a "computer" LDAP object used by both DNS and DHCP, and thus
10389 allowing us to store all information about a computer in one place.</p>
10390
10391 <p>This is a untested draft implementation, and I welcome feedback on
10392 this approach.  A real LDAP schema for the ltspClientAux objectclass
10393 need to be written.  Comments, suggestions, etc?</p>
10394
10395 <blockquote><pre>
10396 # Store in /opt/ltsp/$arch/usr/share/ltsp/ltsp_config.d/ldap-config
10397 #
10398 # Fetch LTSP client settings from LDAP based on MAC address
10399 #
10400 # Uses ethernet address as stored in the dhcpHost objectclass using
10401 # the dhcpHWAddress attribute or ethernet address stored in the
10402 # ieee802Device objectclass with the macAddress attribute.
10403 #
10404 # This module is written to be schema agnostic, and only depend on the
10405 # existence of attribute names.
10406 #
10407 # The LTSP configuration variables are saved directly using a
10408 # ltspConfig prefix and uppercasing the rest of the attribute name.
10409 # To set the SERVER variable, set the ltspConfigServer attribute.
10410 #
10411 # Some LDAP schema should be created with all the relevant
10412 # configuration settings.  Something like this should work:
10413 #
10414 # objectclass ( 1.1.2.2 NAME 'ltspClientAux'
10415 #     SUP top
10416 #     AUXILIARY
10417 #     MAY ( ltspConfigServer $ ltsConfigSound $ ... )
10418
10419 LDAPSERVER=$(debian-edu-ldapserver)
10420 if [ "$LDAPSERVER" ] ; then
10421     LDAPBASE=$(debian-edu-ldapserver -b)
10422     for MAC in $(LANG=C ifconfig |grep -i hwaddr| awk '{print $5}'|sort -u) ; do
10423         filter="(|(dhcpHWAddress=ethernet $MAC)(macAddress=$MAC))"
10424         ldapsearch -h "$LDAPSERVER" -b "$LDAPBASE" -v -x "$filter" | \
10425             grep '^ltspConfig' | while read attr value ; do
10426             # Remove prefix and convert to upper case
10427             attr=$(echo $attr | sed 's/^ltspConfig//i' | tr a-z A-Z)
10428             # bass value on to clients
10429             eval "$attr=$value; export $attr"
10430         done
10431     done
10432 fi
10433 </pre></blockquote>
10434
10435 <p>I'm not sure this shell construction will work, because I suspect
10436 the while block might end up in a subshell causing the variables set
10437 there to not show up in ltsp-config, but if that is the case I am sure
10438 the code can be restructured to make sure the variables are passed on.
10439 I expect that can be solved with some testing. :)</p>
10440
10441 <p>If you want to help out with implementing this for Debian Edu,
10442 please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.</p>
10443
10444 <p>Update 2010-07-17: I am aware of another effort to store LTSP
10445 configuration in LDAP that was created around year 2000 by
10446 <a href="http://www.pcxperience.com/thinclient/documentation/ldap.html">PC
10447 Xperience, Inc., 2000</a>.  I found its
10448 <a href="http://people.redhat.com/alikins/ltsp/ldap/">files</a> on a
10449 personal home page over at redhat.com.</p>
10450
10451       </div>
10452       <div class="tags">
10453
10454
10455         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>.
10456
10457
10458       </div>
10459     </div>
10460     <div class="padding"></div>
10461
10462     <div class="entry">
10463       <div class="title">
10464         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/jXplorer__a_very_nice_LDAP_GUI.html">jXplorer, a very nice LDAP GUI</a>
10465       </div>
10466       <div class="date">
10467          9th July 2010
10468       </div>
10469       <div class="body">
10470         <p>Since
10471 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/LUMA__a_very_nice_LDAP_GUI.html">my
10472 last post</a> about available LDAP tools in Debian, I was told about a
10473 LDAP GUI that is even better than luma.  The java application
10474 <a href="http://jxplorer.org/">jXplorer</a> is claimed to be capable of
10475 moving LDAP objects and subtrees using drag-and-drop, and can
10476 authenticate using Kerberos.  I have only tested the Kerberos
10477 authentication, but do not have a LDAP setup allowing me to rewrite
10478 LDAP with my test user yet.  It is
10479 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/j/jxplorer.html">available in
10480 Debian</a> testing and unstable at the moment.  The only problem I
10481 have with it is how it handle errors.  If something go wrong, its
10482 non-intuitive behaviour require me to go through some query work list
10483 and remove the failing query.  Nothing big, but very annoying.</p>
10484
10485       </div>
10486       <div class="tags">
10487
10488
10489         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>.
10490
10491
10492       </div>
10493     </div>
10494     <div class="padding"></div>
10495
10496     <div class="entry">
10497       <div class="title">
10498         <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>
10499       </div>
10500       <div class="date">
10501          3rd July 2010
10502       </div>
10503       <div class="body">
10504         <p>Here is a short update on my <a
10505 href="http://people.skolelinux.org/~pere/debian-upgrade-testing/">my
10506 Debian Lenny->Squeeze upgrade testing</a>.  Here is a summary of the
10507 difference for Gnome when it is upgraded by apt-get and aptitude.  I'm
10508 not reporting the status for KDE, because the upgrade crashes when
10509 aptitude try because of missing conflicts
10510 (<a href="http://bugs.debian.org/584861">#584861</a> and
10511 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/585716">#585716</a>).</p>
10512
10513 <p>At the end of the upgrade test script, dpkg -l is executed to get a
10514 complete list of the installed packages.  Based on this I see these
10515 differences when I did a test run today.  As usual, I do not really
10516 know what the correct set of packages would be, but thought it best to
10517 publish the difference.</p>
10518
10519 <p>Installed using apt-get, missing with aptitude</p>
10520
10521 <blockquote><p>
10522   at-spi cpp-4.3 finger gnome-spell gstreamer0.10-gnomevfs
10523   libatspi1.0-0 libcupsys2 libeel2-data libgail-common libgdl-1-common
10524   libgnomeprint2.2-data libgnomeprintui2.2-common libgnomevfs2-bin
10525   libgtksourceview-common libpt-1.10.10-plugins-alsa
10526   libpt-1.10.10-plugins-v4l libservlet2.4-java libxalan2-java
10527   libxerces2-java openoffice.org-writer2latex openssl-blacklist p7zip
10528   python-4suite-xml python-eggtrayicon python-gtkhtml2
10529   python-gtkmozembed svgalibg1 xserver-xephyr zip
10530 </p></blockquote>
10531
10532 <p>Installed using apt-get, removed with aptitude</p>
10533
10534 <blockquote><p>
10535   bluez-utils dhcdbd djvulibre-desktop epiphany-gecko
10536   gnome-app-install gnome-mount gnome-vfs-obexftp gnome-volume-manager
10537   libao2 libavahi-compat-libdnssd1 libavahi-core5 libbind9-50
10538   libbluetooth2 libcamel1.2-11 libcdio7 libcucul0 libcurl3
10539   libdirectfb-1.0-0 libdvdread3 libedata-cal1.2-6 libedataserver1.2-9
10540   libeel2-2.20 libepc-1.0-1 libepc-ui-1.0-1 libexchange-storage1.2-3
10541   libfaad0 libgd2-noxpm libgda3-3 libgda3-common libggz2 libggzcore9
10542   libggzmod4 libgksu1.2-0 libgksuui1.0-1 libgmyth0 libgnome-desktop-2
10543   libgnome-pilot2 libgnomecups1.0-1 libgnomeprint2.2-0
10544   libgnomeprintui2.2-0 libgpod3 libgraphviz4 libgtkhtml2-0
10545   libgtksourceview1.0-0 libgucharmap6 libhesiod0 libicu38 libisccc50
10546   libisccfg50 libiw29 libkpathsea4 libltdl3 liblwres50 libmagick++10
10547   libmagick10 libmalaga7 libmtp7 libmysqlclient15off libnautilus-burn4
10548   libneon27 libnm-glib0 libnm-util0 libopal-2.2 libosp5
10549   libparted1.8-10 libpisock9 libpisync1 libpoppler-glib3 libpoppler3
10550   libpt-1.10.10 libraw1394-8 libsensors3 libsmbios2 libsoup2.2-8
10551   libssh2-1 libsuitesparse-3.1.0 libswfdec-0.6-90 libtalloc1
10552   libtotem-plparser10 libtrackerclient0 libvoikko1 libxalan2-java-gcj
10553   libxerces2-java-gcj libxklavier12 libxtrap6 libxxf86misc1 libzephyr3
10554   mysql-common swfdec-gnome totem-gstreamer wodim
10555 </p></blockquote>
10556
10557 <p>Installed using aptitude, missing with apt-get</p>
10558
10559 <blockquote><p>
10560   gnome gnome-desktop-environment hamster-applet python-gnomeapplet
10561   python-gnomekeyring python-wnck rhythmbox-plugins xorg
10562   xserver-xorg-input-all xserver-xorg-input-evdev
10563   xserver-xorg-input-kbd xserver-xorg-input-mouse
10564   xserver-xorg-input-synaptics xserver-xorg-video-all
10565   xserver-xorg-video-apm xserver-xorg-video-ark xserver-xorg-video-ati
10566   xserver-xorg-video-chips xserver-xorg-video-cirrus
10567   xserver-xorg-video-dummy xserver-xorg-video-fbdev
10568   xserver-xorg-video-glint xserver-xorg-video-i128
10569   xserver-xorg-video-i740 xserver-xorg-video-mach64
10570   xserver-xorg-video-mga xserver-xorg-video-neomagic
10571   xserver-xorg-video-nouveau xserver-xorg-video-nv
10572   xserver-xorg-video-r128 xserver-xorg-video-radeon
10573   xserver-xorg-video-radeonhd xserver-xorg-video-rendition
10574   xserver-xorg-video-s3 xserver-xorg-video-s3virge
10575   xserver-xorg-video-savage xserver-xorg-video-siliconmotion
10576   xserver-xorg-video-sis xserver-xorg-video-sisusb
10577   xserver-xorg-video-tdfx xserver-xorg-video-tga
10578   xserver-xorg-video-trident xserver-xorg-video-tseng
10579   xserver-xorg-video-vesa xserver-xorg-video-vmware
10580   xserver-xorg-video-voodoo
10581 </p></blockquote>
10582
10583 <p>Installed using aptitude, removed with apt-get</p>
10584
10585 <blockquote><p>
10586   deskbar-applet xserver-xorg xserver-xorg-core
10587   xserver-xorg-input-wacom xserver-xorg-video-intel
10588   xserver-xorg-video-openchrome
10589 </p></blockquote>
10590
10591 <p>I was told on IRC that the xorg-xserver package was
10592 <a href="http://git.debian.org/?p=pkg-xorg/xserver/xorg-server.git;a=commit;h=9c8080d06c457932d3bfec021c69ac000aa60120">changed
10593 in git</a> today to try to get apt-get to not remove xorg completely.
10594 No idea when it hits Squeeze, but when it does I hope it will reduce
10595 the difference somewhat.
10596
10597       </div>
10598       <div class="tags">
10599
10600
10601         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>.
10602
10603
10604       </div>
10605     </div>
10606     <div class="padding"></div>
10607
10608     <div class="entry">
10609       <div class="title">
10610         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/LUMA__a_very_nice_LDAP_GUI.html">LUMA, a very nice LDAP GUI</a>
10611       </div>
10612       <div class="date">
10613         28th June 2010
10614       </div>
10615       <div class="body">
10616         <p>The last few days I have been looking into the status of the LDAP
10617 directory in Debian Edu, and in the process I started to miss a GUI
10618 tool to browse the LDAP tree.  The only one I was able to find in
10619 Debian/Squeeze and Lenny is
10620 <a href="http://luma.sourceforge.net/">LUMA</a>, which has proved to
10621 be a great tool to get a overview of the current LDAP directory
10622 populated by default in Skolelinux.  Thanks to it, I have been able to
10623 find empty and obsolete subtrees, misplaced objects and duplicate
10624 objects.  It will be installed by default in Debian/Squeeze.  If you
10625 are working with LDAP, give it a go. :)</p>
10626
10627 <p>I did notice one problem with it I have not had time to report to
10628 the BTS yet.  There is no .desktop file in the package, so the tool do
10629 not show up in the Gnome and KDE menus, but only deep down in in the
10630 Debian submenu in KDE.  I hope that can be fixed before Squeeze is
10631 released.</p>
10632
10633 <p>I have not yet been able to get it to modify the tree yet.  I would
10634 like to move objects and remove subtrees directly in the GUI, but have
10635 not found a way to do that with LUMA yet.  So in the mean time, I use
10636 <a href="http://www.lichteblau.com/ldapvi/">ldapvi</a> for that.</p>
10637
10638 <p>If you have tips on other GUI tools for LDAP that might be useful
10639 in Debian Edu, please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.</p>
10640
10641 <p>Update 2010-06-29: Ross Reedstrom tipped us about the
10642 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/g/gq.html">gq</a> package as a
10643 useful GUI alternative.  It seem like a good tool, but is unmaintained
10644 in Debian and got a RC bug keeping it out of Squeeze.  Unless that
10645 changes, it will not be an option for Debian Edu based on Squeeze.</p>
10646
10647       </div>
10648       <div class="tags">
10649
10650
10651         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>.
10652
10653
10654       </div>
10655     </div>
10656     <div class="padding"></div>
10657
10658     <div class="entry">
10659       <div class="title">
10660         <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>
10661       </div>
10662       <div class="date">
10663         24th June 2010
10664       </div>
10665       <div class="body">
10666         <p>A while back, I
10667 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Time_for_new__LDAP_schemas_replacing_RFC_2307_.html">complained
10668 about the fact</a> that it is not possible with the provided schemas
10669 for storing DNS and DHCP information in LDAP to combine the two sets
10670 of information into one LDAP object representing a computer.</p>
10671
10672 <p>In the mean time, I discovered that a simple fix would be to make
10673 the dhcpHost object class auxiliary, to allow it to be combined with
10674 the dNSDomain object class, and thus forming one object for one
10675 computer when storing both DHCP and DNS information in LDAP.</p>
10676
10677 <p>If I understand this correctly, it is not safe to do this change
10678 without also changing the assigned number for the object class, and I
10679 do not know enough about LDAP schema design to do that properly for
10680 Debian Edu.</p>
10681
10682 <p>Anyway, for future reference, this is how I believe we could change
10683 the
10684 <a href="http://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-ietf-dhc-ldap-schema-00">DHCP
10685 schema</a> to solve at least part of the problem with the LDAP schemas
10686 available today from IETF.</p>
10687
10688 <pre>
10689 --- dhcp.schema    (revision 65192)
10690 +++ dhcp.schema    (working copy)
10691 @@ -376,7 +376,7 @@
10692  objectclass ( 2.16.840.1.113719.1.203.6.6
10693         NAME 'dhcpHost'
10694         DESC 'This represents information about a particular client'
10695 -       SUP top
10696 +       SUP top AUXILIARY
10697         MUST cn
10698         MAY  (dhcpLeaseDN $ dhcpHWAddress $ dhcpOptionsDN $ dhcpStatements $ dhcpComments $ dhcpOption)
10699         X-NDS_CONTAINMENT ('dhcpService' 'dhcpSubnet' 'dhcpGroup') )
10700 </pre>
10701
10702 <p>I very much welcome clues on how to do this properly for Debian
10703 Edu/Squeeze.  We provide the DHCP schema in our debian-edu-config
10704 package, and should thus be free to rewrite it as we see fit.</p>
10705
10706 <p>If you want to help out with implementing this for Debian Edu,
10707 please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.</p>
10708
10709       </div>
10710       <div class="tags">
10711
10712
10713         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>.
10714
10715
10716       </div>
10717     </div>
10718     <div class="padding"></div>
10719
10720     <div class="entry">
10721       <div class="title">
10722         <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>
10723       </div>
10724       <div class="date">
10725         16th June 2010
10726       </div>
10727       <div class="body">
10728         <p>A few times I have had the need to simulate the way tasksel
10729 installs packages during the normal debian-installer run.  Until now,
10730 I have ended up letting tasksel do the work, with the annoying problem
10731 of not getting any feedback at all when something fails (like a
10732 conffile question from dpkg or a download that fails), using code like
10733 this:
10734
10735 <blockquote><pre>
10736 export DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive
10737 tasksel --new-install
10738 </pre></blockquote>
10739
10740 This would invoke tasksel, let its automatic task selection pick the
10741 tasks to install, and continue to install the requested tasks without
10742 any output what so ever.
10743
10744 Recently I revisited this problem while working on the automatic
10745 package upgrade testing, because tasksel would some times hang without
10746 any useful feedback, and I want to see what is going on when it
10747 happen.  Then it occured to me, I can parse the output from tasksel
10748 when asked to run in test mode, and use that aptitude command line
10749 printed by tasksel then to simulate the tasksel run.  I ended up using
10750 code like this:
10751
10752 <blockquote><pre>
10753 export DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive
10754 cmd="$(in_target tasksel -t --new-install | sed 's/debconf-apt-progress -- //')"
10755 $cmd
10756 </pre></blockquote>
10757
10758 <p>The content of $cmd is typically something like "<tt>aptitude -q
10759 --without-recommends -o APT::Install-Recommends=no -y install
10760 ~t^desktop$ ~t^gnome-desktop$ ~t^laptop$ ~pstandard ~prequired
10761 ~pimportant</tt>", which will install the gnome desktop task, the
10762 laptop task and all packages with priority standard , required and
10763 important, just like tasksel would have done it during
10764 installation.</p>
10765
10766 <p>A better approach is probably to extend tasksel to be able to
10767 install packages without using debconf-apt-progress, for use cases
10768 like this.</p>
10769
10770       </div>
10771       <div class="tags">
10772
10773
10774         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>.
10775
10776
10777       </div>
10778     </div>
10779     <div class="padding"></div>
10780
10781     <div class="entry">
10782       <div class="title">
10783         <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>
10784       </div>
10785       <div class="date">
10786         13th June 2010
10787       </div>
10788       <div class="body">
10789         <p>My
10790 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Automatic_upgrade_testing_from_Lenny_to_Squeeze.html">testing
10791 of Debian upgrades</a> from Lenny to Squeeze continues, and I've
10792 finally made the upgrade logs available from
10793 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/debian-upgrade-testing/">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/debian-upgrade-testing/</a>.
10794 I am now testing dist-upgrade of Gnome and KDE in a chroot using both
10795 apt and aptitude, and found their differences interesting.  This time
10796 I will only focus on their removal plans.</p>
10797
10798 <p>After installing a Gnome desktop and the laptop task, apt-get wants
10799 to remove 72 packages when dist-upgrading from Lenny to Squeeze.  The
10800 surprising part is that it want to remove xorg and all
10801 xserver-xorg-video* drivers.  Clearly not a good choice, but I am not
10802 sure why.  When asking aptitude to do the same, it want to remove 129
10803 packages, but most of them are library packages I suspect are no
10804 longer needed.  Both of them want to remove bluetooth packages, which
10805 I do not know.  Perhaps these bluetooth packages are obsolete?</p>
10806
10807 <p>For KDE, apt-get want to remove 82 packages, among them kdebase
10808 which seem like a bad idea and xorg the same way as with Gnome. Asking
10809 aptitude for the same, it wants to remove 192 packages, none which are
10810 too surprising.</p>
10811
10812 <p>I guess the removal of xorg during upgrades should be investigated
10813 and avoided, and perhaps others as well.  Here are the complete list
10814 of planned removals.  The complete logs is available from the URL
10815 above.  Note if you want to repeat these tests, that the upgrade test
10816 for kde+apt-get hung in the tasksel setup because of dpkg asking
10817 conffile questions.  No idea why.  I worked around it by using
10818 '<tt>echo >> /proc/<em>pidofdpkg</em>/fd/0</tt>' to tell dpkg to
10819 continue.</p>
10820
10821 <p><b>apt-get gnome 72</b>
10822 <br>bluez-gnome cupsddk-drivers deskbar-applet gnome
10823   gnome-desktop-environment gnome-network-admin gtkhtml3.14
10824   iceweasel-gnome-support libavcodec51 libdatrie0 libgdl-1-0
10825   libgnomekbd2 libgnomekbdui2 libmetacity0 libslab0 libxcb-xlib0
10826   nautilus-cd-burner python-gnome2-desktop python-gnome2-extras
10827   serpentine swfdec-mozilla update-manager xorg xserver-xorg
10828   xserver-xorg-core xserver-xorg-input-all xserver-xorg-input-evdev
10829   xserver-xorg-input-kbd xserver-xorg-input-mouse
10830   xserver-xorg-input-synaptics xserver-xorg-input-wacom
10831   xserver-xorg-video-all xserver-xorg-video-apm xserver-xorg-video-ark
10832   xserver-xorg-video-ati xserver-xorg-video-chips
10833   xserver-xorg-video-cirrus xserver-xorg-video-cyrix
10834   xserver-xorg-video-dummy xserver-xorg-video-fbdev
10835   xserver-xorg-video-glint xserver-xorg-video-i128
10836   xserver-xorg-video-i740 xserver-xorg-video-imstt
10837   xserver-xorg-video-intel xserver-xorg-video-mach64
10838   xserver-xorg-video-mga xserver-xorg-video-neomagic
10839   xserver-xorg-video-nsc xserver-xorg-video-nv
10840   xserver-xorg-video-openchrome xserver-xorg-video-r128
10841   xserver-xorg-video-radeon xserver-xorg-video-radeonhd
10842   xserver-xorg-video-rendition xserver-xorg-video-s3
10843   xserver-xorg-video-s3virge xserver-xorg-video-savage
10844   xserver-xorg-video-siliconmotion xserver-xorg-video-sis
10845   xserver-xorg-video-sisusb xserver-xorg-video-tdfx
10846   xserver-xorg-video-tga xserver-xorg-video-trident
10847   xserver-xorg-video-tseng xserver-xorg-video-v4l
10848   xserver-xorg-video-vesa xserver-xorg-video-vga
10849   xserver-xorg-video-vmware xserver-xorg-video-voodoo xulrunner-1.9
10850   xulrunner-1.9-gnome-support</p>
10851
10852 <p><b>aptitude gnome 129</b>
10853
10854 <br>bluez-gnome bluez-utils cpp-4.3 cupsddk-drivers dhcdbd
10855   djvulibre-desktop finger gnome-app-install gnome-mount
10856   gnome-network-admin gnome-spell gnome-vfs-obexftp
10857   gnome-volume-manager gstreamer0.10-gnomevfs gtkhtml3.14 libao2
10858   libavahi-compat-libdnssd1 libavahi-core5 libavcodec51 libbluetooth2
10859   libcamel1.2-11 libcdio7 libcucul0 libcupsys2 libcurl3 libdatrie0
10860   libdirectfb-1.0-0 libdvdread3 libedataserver1.2-9 libeel2-2.20
10861   libeel2-data libepc-1.0-1 libepc-ui-1.0-1 libfaad0 libgail-common
10862   libgd2-noxpm libgda3-3 libgda3-common libgdl-1-0 libgdl-1-common
10863   libggz2 libggzcore9 libggzmod4 libgksu1.2-0 libgksuui1.0-1 libgmyth0
10864   libgnomecups1.0-1 libgnomekbd2 libgnomekbdui2 libgnomeprint2.2-0
10865   libgnomeprint2.2-data libgnomeprintui2.2-0 libgnomeprintui2.2-common
10866   libgnomevfs2-bin libgpod3 libgraphviz4 libgtkhtml2-0
10867   libgtksourceview-common libgtksourceview1.0-0 libgucharmap6
10868   libhesiod0 libicu38 libiw29 libkpathsea4 libltdl3 libmagick++10
10869   libmagick10 libmalaga7 libmetacity0 libmtp7 libmysqlclient15off
10870   libnautilus-burn4 libneon27 libnm-glib0 libnm-util0 libopal-2.2
10871   libosp5 libparted1.8-10 libpoppler-glib3 libpoppler3 libpt-1.10.10
10872   libpt-1.10.10-plugins-alsa libpt-1.10.10-plugins-v4l libraw1394-8
10873   libsensors3 libslab0 libsmbios2 libsoup2.2-8 libssh2-1
10874   libsuitesparse-3.1.0 libswfdec-0.6-90 libtalloc1 libtotem-plparser10
10875   libtrackerclient0 libxalan2-java libxalan2-java-gcj libxcb-xlib0
10876   libxerces2-java libxerces2-java-gcj libxklavier12 libxtrap6
10877   libxxf86misc1 libzephyr3 mysql-common nautilus-cd-burner
10878   openoffice.org-writer2latex openssl-blacklist p7zip
10879   python-4suite-xml python-eggtrayicon python-gnome2-desktop
10880   python-gnome2-extras python-gtkhtml2 python-gtkmozembed
10881   python-numeric python-sexy serpentine svgalibg1 swfdec-gnome
10882   swfdec-mozilla totem-gstreamer update-manager wodim
10883   xserver-xorg-video-cyrix xserver-xorg-video-imstt
10884   xserver-xorg-video-nsc xserver-xorg-video-v4l xserver-xorg-video-vga
10885   zip</p>
10886
10887 <p><b>apt-get kde 82</b>
10888
10889 <br>cupsddk-drivers karm kaudiocreator kcoloredit kcontrol kde kde-core
10890   kdeaddons kdeartwork kdebase kdebase-bin kdebase-bin-kde3
10891   kdebase-kio-plugins kdesktop kdeutils khelpcenter kicker
10892   kicker-applets knewsticker kolourpaint konq-plugins konqueror korn
10893   kpersonalizer kscreensaver ksplash libavcodec51 libdatrie0 libkiten1
10894   libxcb-xlib0 quanta superkaramba texlive-base-bin xorg xserver-xorg
10895   xserver-xorg-core xserver-xorg-input-all xserver-xorg-input-evdev
10896   xserver-xorg-input-kbd xserver-xorg-input-mouse
10897   xserver-xorg-input-synaptics xserver-xorg-input-wacom
10898   xserver-xorg-video-all xserver-xorg-video-apm xserver-xorg-video-ark
10899   xserver-xorg-video-ati xserver-xorg-video-chips
10900   xserver-xorg-video-cirrus xserver-xorg-video-cyrix
10901   xserver-xorg-video-dummy xserver-xorg-video-fbdev
10902   xserver-xorg-video-glint xserver-xorg-video-i128
10903   xserver-xorg-video-i740 xserver-xorg-video-imstt
10904   xserver-xorg-video-intel xserver-xorg-video-mach64
10905   xserver-xorg-video-mga xserver-xorg-video-neomagic
10906   xserver-xorg-video-nsc xserver-xorg-video-nv
10907   xserver-xorg-video-openchrome xserver-xorg-video-r128
10908   xserver-xorg-video-radeon xserver-xorg-video-radeonhd
10909   xserver-xorg-video-rendition xserver-xorg-video-s3
10910   xserver-xorg-video-s3virge xserver-xorg-video-savage
10911   xserver-xorg-video-siliconmotion xserver-xorg-video-sis
10912   xserver-xorg-video-sisusb xserver-xorg-video-tdfx
10913   xserver-xorg-video-tga xserver-xorg-video-trident
10914   xserver-xorg-video-tseng xserver-xorg-video-v4l
10915   xserver-xorg-video-vesa xserver-xorg-video-vga
10916   xserver-xorg-video-vmware xserver-xorg-video-voodoo xulrunner-1.9</p>
10917
10918 <p><b>aptitude kde 192</b>
10919 <br>bluez-utils cpp-4.3 cupsddk-drivers cvs dcoprss dhcdbd
10920   djvulibre-desktop dosfstools eyesapplet fifteenapplet finger gettext
10921   ghostscript-x imlib-base imlib11 indi kandy karm kasteroids
10922   kaudiocreator kbackgammon kbstate kcoloredit kcontrol kcron kdat
10923   kdeadmin-kfile-plugins kdeartwork-misc kdeartwork-theme-window
10924   kdebase-bin-kde3 kdebase-kio-plugins kdeedu-data
10925   kdegraphics-kfile-plugins kdelirc kdemultimedia-kappfinder-data
10926   kdemultimedia-kfile-plugins kdenetwork-kfile-plugins
10927   kdepim-kfile-plugins kdepim-kio-plugins kdeprint kdesktop kdessh
10928   kdict kdnssd kdvi kedit keduca kenolaba kfax kfaxview kfouleggs
10929   kghostview khelpcenter khexedit kiconedit kitchensync klatin
10930   klickety kmailcvt kmenuedit kmid kmilo kmoon kmrml kodo kolourpaint
10931   kooka korn kpager kpdf kpercentage kpf kpilot kpoker kpovmodeler
10932   krec kregexpeditor ksayit ksim ksirc ksirtet ksmiletris ksmserver
10933   ksnake ksokoban ksplash ksvg ksysv ktip ktnef kuickshow kverbos
10934   kview kviewshell kvoctrain kwifimanager kwin kwin4 kworldclock
10935   kxsldbg libakode2 libao2 libarts1-akode libarts1-audiofile
10936   libarts1-mpeglib libarts1-xine libavahi-compat-libdnssd1
10937   libavahi-core5 libavc1394-0 libavcodec51 libbluetooth2
10938   libboost-python1.34.1 libcucul0 libcurl3 libcvsservice0 libdatrie0
10939   libdirectfb-1.0-0 libdjvulibre21 libdvdread3 libfaad0 libfreebob0
10940   libgail-common libgd2-noxpm libgraphviz4 libgsmme1c2a libgtkhtml2-0
10941   libicu38 libiec61883-0 libindex0 libiw29 libk3b3 libkcal2b libkcddb1
10942   libkdeedu3 libkdepim1a libkgantt0 libkiten1 libkleopatra1 libkmime2
10943   libkpathsea4 libkpimexchange1 libkpimidentities1 libkscan1
10944   libksieve0 libktnef1 liblockdev1 libltdl3 libmagick10 libmimelib1c2a
10945   libmozjs1d libmpcdec3 libneon27 libnm-util0 libopensync0 libpisock9
10946   libpoppler-glib3 libpoppler-qt2 libpoppler3 libraw1394-8 libsmbios2
10947   libssh2-1 libsuitesparse-3.1.0 libtalloc1 libtiff-tools
10948   libxalan2-java libxalan2-java-gcj libxcb-xlib0 libxerces2-java
10949   libxerces2-java-gcj libxtrap6 mpeglib networkstatus
10950   openoffice.org-writer2latex pmount poster psutils quanta quanta-data
10951   superkaramba svgalibg1 tex-common texlive-base texlive-base-bin
10952   texlive-common texlive-doc-base texlive-fonts-recommended
10953   xserver-xorg-video-cyrix xserver-xorg-video-imstt
10954   xserver-xorg-video-nsc xserver-xorg-video-v4l xserver-xorg-video-vga
10955   xulrunner-1.9</p>
10956
10957
10958       </div>
10959       <div class="tags">
10960
10961
10962         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>.
10963
10964
10965       </div>
10966     </div>
10967     <div class="padding"></div>
10968
10969     <div class="entry">
10970       <div class="title">
10971         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Automatic_upgrade_testing_from_Lenny_to_Squeeze.html">Automatic upgrade testing from Lenny to Squeeze</a>
10972       </div>
10973       <div class="date">
10974         11th June 2010
10975       </div>
10976       <div class="body">
10977         <p>The last few days I have done some upgrade testing in Debian, to
10978 see if the upgrade from Lenny to Squeeze will go smoothly.  A few bugs
10979 have been discovered and reported in the process
10980 (<a href="http://bugs.debian.org/585410">#585410</a> in nagios3-cgi,
10981 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/584879">#584879</a> already fixed in
10982 enscript and <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/584861">#584861</a> in
10983 kdebase-workspace-data), and to get a more regular testing going on, I
10984 am working on a script to automate the test.</p>
10985
10986 <p>The idea is to create a Lenny chroot and use tasksel to install a
10987 Gnome or KDE desktop installation inside the chroot before upgrading
10988 it.  To ensure no services are started in the chroot, a policy-rc.d
10989 script is inserted.  To make sure tasksel believe it is to install a
10990 desktop on a laptop, the tasksel tests are replaced in the chroot
10991 (only acceptable because this is a throw-away chroot).</p>
10992
10993 <p>A naive upgrade from Lenny to Squeeze using aptitude dist-upgrade
10994 currently always fail because udev refuses to upgrade with the kernel
10995 in Lenny, so to avoid that problem the file /etc/udev/kernel-upgrade
10996 is created.  The bug report
10997 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/566000">#566000</a> make me suspect
10998 this problem do not trigger in a chroot, but I touch the file anyway
10999 to make sure the upgrade go well.  Testing on virtual and real
11000 hardware have failed me because of udev so far, and creating this file
11001 do the trick in such settings anyway.  This is a
11002 <a href="http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/debian-26/failed-dist-upgrade-due-to-udev-config_sysfs_deprecated-nonsense-804130/">known
11003 issue</a> and the current udev behaviour is intended by the udev
11004 maintainer because he lack the resources to rewrite udev to keep
11005 working with old kernels or something like that.  I really wish the
11006 udev upstream would keep udev backwards compatible, to avoid such
11007 upgrade problem, but given that they fail to do so, I guess
11008 documenting the way out of this mess is the best option we got for
11009 Debian Squeeze.</p>
11010
11011 <p>Anyway, back to the task at hand, testing upgrades.  This test
11012 script, which I call <tt>upgrade-test</tt> for now, is doing the
11013 trick:</p>
11014
11015 <blockquote><pre>
11016 #!/bin/sh
11017 set -ex
11018
11019 if [ "$1" ] ; then
11020     desktop=$1
11021 else
11022     desktop=gnome
11023 fi
11024
11025 from=lenny
11026 to=squeeze
11027
11028 exec &lt; /dev/null
11029 unset LANG
11030 mirror=http://ftp.skolelinux.org/debian
11031 tmpdir=chroot-$from-upgrade-$to-$desktop
11032 fuser -mv .
11033 debootstrap $from $tmpdir $mirror
11034 chroot $tmpdir aptitude update
11035 cat > $tmpdir/usr/sbin/policy-rc.d &lt;&lt;EOF
11036 #!/bin/sh
11037 exit 101
11038 EOF
11039 chmod a+rx $tmpdir/usr/sbin/policy-rc.d
11040 exit_cleanup() {
11041     umount $tmpdir/proc
11042 }
11043 mount -t proc proc $tmpdir/proc
11044 # Make sure proc is unmounted also on failure
11045 trap exit_cleanup EXIT INT
11046
11047 chroot $tmpdir aptitude -y install debconf-utils
11048
11049 # Make sure tasksel autoselection trigger.  It need the test scripts
11050 # to return the correct answers.
11051 echo tasksel tasksel/desktop multiselect $desktop | \
11052     chroot $tmpdir debconf-set-selections
11053
11054 # Include the desktop and laptop task
11055 for test in desktop laptop ; do
11056     echo > $tmpdir/usr/lib/tasksel/tests/$test &lt;&lt;EOF
11057 #!/bin/sh
11058 exit 2
11059 EOF
11060     chmod a+rx $tmpdir/usr/lib/tasksel/tests/$test
11061 done
11062
11063 DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive
11064 DEBIAN_PRIORITY=critical
11065 export DEBIAN_FRONTEND DEBIAN_PRIORITY
11066 chroot $tmpdir tasksel --new-install
11067
11068 echo deb $mirror $to main > $tmpdir/etc/apt/sources.list
11069 chroot $tmpdir aptitude update
11070 touch $tmpdir/etc/udev/kernel-upgrade
11071 chroot $tmpdir aptitude -y dist-upgrade
11072 fuser -mv
11073 </pre></blockquote>
11074
11075 <p>I suspect it would be useful to test upgrades with both apt-get and
11076 with aptitude, but I have not had time to look at how they behave
11077 differently so far.  I hope to get a cron job running to do the test
11078 regularly and post the result on the web.  The Gnome upgrade currently
11079 work, while the KDE upgrade fail because of the bug in
11080 kdebase-workspace-data</p>
11081
11082 <p>I am not quite sure what kind of extract from the huge upgrade logs
11083 (KDE 167 KiB, Gnome 516 KiB) it make sense to include in this blog
11084 post, so I will refrain from trying.  I can report that for Gnome,
11085 aptitude report 760 packages upgraded, 448 newly installed, 129 to
11086 remove and 1 not upgraded and 1024MB need to be downloaded while for
11087 KDE the same numbers are 702 packages upgraded, 507 newly installed,
11088 193 to remove and 0 not upgraded and 1117MB need to be downloaded</p>
11089
11090 <p>I am very happy to notice that the Gnome desktop + laptop upgrade
11091 is able to migrate to dependency based boot sequencing and parallel
11092 booting without a hitch.  Was unsure if there were still bugs with
11093 packages failing to clean up their obsolete init.d script during
11094 upgrades, and no such problem seem to affect the Gnome desktop+laptop
11095 packages.</p>
11096
11097       </div>
11098       <div class="tags">
11099
11100
11101         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>.
11102
11103
11104       </div>
11105     </div>
11106     <div class="padding"></div>
11107
11108     <div class="entry">
11109       <div class="title">
11110         <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>
11111       </div>
11112       <div class="date">
11113          6th June 2010
11114       </div>
11115       <div class="body">
11116         <p>If Debian is to migrate to upstart on Linux, I expect some init.d
11117 scripts to migrate (some of) their operations to upstart job while
11118 keeping the init.d for hurd and kfreebsd.  The packages with such
11119 needs will need a way to get their init.d scripts to behave
11120 differently when used with sysvinit and with upstart.  Because of
11121 this, I had a look at the environment variables set when a init.d
11122 script is running under upstart, and when it is not.</p>
11123
11124 <p>With upstart, I notice these environment variables are set when a
11125 script is started from rcS.d/ (ignoring some irrelevant ones like
11126 COLUMNS):</p>
11127
11128 <blockquote><pre>
11129 DEFAULT_RUNLEVEL=2
11130 previous=N
11131 PREVLEVEL=
11132 RUNLEVEL=
11133 runlevel=S
11134 UPSTART_EVENTS=startup
11135 UPSTART_INSTANCE=
11136 UPSTART_JOB=rc-sysinit
11137 </pre></blockquote>
11138
11139 <p>With sysvinit, these environment variables are set for the same
11140 script.</p>
11141
11142 <blockquote><pre>
11143 INIT_VERSION=sysvinit-2.88
11144 previous=N
11145 PREVLEVEL=N
11146 RUNLEVEL=S
11147 runlevel=S
11148 </pre></blockquote>
11149
11150 <p>The RUNLEVEL and PREVLEVEL environment variables passed on from
11151 sysvinit are not set by upstart.  Not sure if it is intentional or not
11152 to not be compatible with sysvinit in this regard.</p>
11153
11154 <p>For scripts needing to behave differently when upstart is used,
11155 looking for the UPSTART_JOB environment variable seem to be a good
11156 choice.</p>
11157
11158       </div>
11159       <div class="tags">
11160
11161
11162         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>.
11163
11164
11165       </div>
11166     </div>
11167     <div class="padding"></div>
11168
11169     <div class="entry">
11170       <div class="title">
11171         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/A_manual_for_standards_wars___.html">A manual for standards wars...</a>
11172       </div>
11173       <div class="date">
11174          6th June 2010
11175       </div>
11176       <div class="body">
11177         <p>Via the
11178 <a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/robweir/antic-atom/~3/QzU4RgoAGMg/weekly-links-10.html">blog
11179 of Rob Weir</a> I came across the very interesting essay named
11180 <a href="http://faculty.haas.berkeley.edu/shapiro/wars.pdf">The Art of
11181 Standards Wars</a> (PDF 25 pages).  I recommend it for everyone
11182 following the standards wars of today.</p>
11183
11184       </div>
11185       <div class="tags">
11186
11187
11188         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>.
11189
11190
11191       </div>
11192     </div>
11193     <div class="padding"></div>
11194
11195     <div class="entry">
11196       <div class="title">
11197         <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>
11198       </div>
11199       <div class="date">
11200          3rd June 2010
11201       </div>
11202       <div class="body">
11203         <p>When using sitesummary at a site to track machines, it is possible
11204 to get a list of the machine types in use thanks to the DMI
11205 information extracted from each machine.  The script to do so is
11206 included in the sitesummary package, and here is example output from
11207 the Skolelinux build servers:</p>
11208
11209 <blockquote><pre>
11210 maintainer:~# /usr/lib/sitesummary/hardware-model-summary
11211   vendor                    count
11212   Dell Computer Corporation     1
11213     PowerEdge 1750              1
11214   IBM                           1
11215     eserver xSeries 345 -[8670M1X]-     1
11216   Intel                         2
11217   [no-dmi-info]                 3
11218 maintainer:~#
11219 </pre></blockquote>
11220
11221 <p>The quality of the report depend on the quality of the DMI tables
11222 provided in each machine.  Here there are Intel machines without model
11223 information listed with Intel as vendor and no model, and virtual Xen
11224 machines listed as [no-dmi-info].  One can add -l as a command line
11225 option to list the individual machines.</p>
11226
11227 <p>A larger list is
11228 <a href="http://narvikskolen.no/sitesummary/">available from the the
11229 city of Narvik</a>, which uses Skolelinux on all their shools and also
11230 provide the basic sitesummary report publicly.  In their report there
11231 are ~1400 machines. I know they use both Ubuntu and Skolelinux on
11232 their machines, and as sitesummary is available in both distributions,
11233 it is trivial to get all of them to report to the same central
11234 collector.</p>
11235
11236       </div>
11237       <div class="tags">
11238
11239
11240         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>.
11241
11242
11243       </div>
11244     </div>
11245     <div class="padding"></div>
11246
11247     <div class="entry">
11248       <div class="title">
11249         <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>
11250       </div>
11251       <div class="date">
11252          1st June 2010
11253       </div>
11254       <div class="body">
11255         <p>It is strange to watch how a bug in Debian causing KDM to fail to
11256 start at boot when an NVidia video card is used is handled.  The
11257 problem seem to be that the nvidia X.org driver uses a long time to
11258 initialize, and this duration is longer than kdm is configured to
11259 wait.</p>
11260
11261 <p>I came across two bugs related to this issue,
11262 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/583312">#583312</a> initially filed
11263 against initscripts and passed on to nvidia-glx when it became obvious
11264 that the nvidia drivers were involved, and
11265 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/524751">#524751</a> initially filed against
11266 kdm and passed on to src:nvidia-graphics-drivers for unknown reasons.</p>
11267
11268 <p>To me, it seem that no-one is interested in actually solving the
11269 problem nvidia video card owners experience and make sure the Debian
11270 distribution work out of the box for these users.  The nvidia driver
11271 maintainers expect kdm to be set up to wait longer, while kdm expect
11272 the nvidia driver maintainers to fix the driver to start faster, and
11273 while they wait for each other I guess the users end up switching to a
11274 distribution that work for them.  I have no idea what the solution is,
11275 but I am pretty sure that waiting for each other is not it.</p>
11276
11277 <p>I wonder why we end up handling bugs this way.</p>
11278
11279       </div>
11280       <div class="tags">
11281
11282
11283         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>.
11284
11285
11286       </div>
11287     </div>
11288     <div class="padding"></div>
11289
11290     <div class="entry">
11291       <div class="title">
11292         <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>
11293       </div>
11294       <div class="date">
11295         27th May 2010
11296       </div>
11297       <div class="body">
11298         <p>A few days ago, parallel booting was enabled in Debian/testing.
11299 The feature seem to hold up pretty well, but three fairly serious
11300 issues are known and should be solved:
11301
11302 <p><ul>
11303
11304 <li>The wicd package seen to
11305 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/508289">break NFS mounting</a> and
11306 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/581586">network setup</a> when
11307 parallel booting is enabled.  No idea why, but the wicd maintainer
11308 seem to be on the case.</li>
11309
11310 <li>The nvidia X driver seem to
11311 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/583312">have a race condition</a>
11312 triggered more easily when parallel booting is in effect.  The
11313 maintainer is on the case.</li>
11314
11315 <li>The sysv-rc package fail to properly enable dependency based boot
11316 sequencing (the shutdown is broken) when old file-rc users
11317 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/575080">try to switch back</a> to
11318 sysv-rc.  One way to solve it would be for file-rc to create
11319 /etc/init.d/.legacy-bootordering, and another is to try to make
11320 sysv-rc more robust.  Will investigate some more and probably upload a
11321 workaround in sysv-rc to help those trying to move from file-rc to
11322 sysv-rc get a working shutdown.</li>
11323
11324 </ul></p>
11325
11326 <p>All in all not many surprising issues, and all of them seem
11327 solvable before Squeeze is released.  In addition to these there are
11328 some packages with bugs in their dependencies and run level settings,
11329 which I expect will be fixed in a reasonable time span.</p>
11330
11331 <p>If you report any problems with dependencies in init.d scripts to
11332 the BTS, please usertag the report to get it to show up at
11333 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/pkgreport.cgi?users=initscripts-ng-devel@lists.alioth.debian.org">the
11334 list of usertagged bugs related to this</a>.</p>
11335
11336 <p>Update: Correct bug number to file-rc issue.</p>
11337
11338       </div>
11339       <div class="tags">
11340
11341
11342         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>.
11343
11344
11345       </div>
11346     </div>
11347     <div class="padding"></div>
11348
11349     <div class="entry">
11350       <div class="title">
11351         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/More_flexible_firmware_handling_in_debian_installer.html">More flexible firmware handling in debian-installer</a>
11352       </div>
11353       <div class="date">
11354         22nd May 2010
11355       </div>
11356       <div class="body">
11357         <p>After a long break from debian-installer development, I finally
11358 found time today to return to the project.  Having to spend less time
11359 working dependency based boot in debian, as it is almost complete now,
11360 definitely helped freeing some time.</p>
11361
11362 <p>A while back, I ran into a problem while working on Debian Edu.  We
11363 include some firmware packages on the Debian Edu CDs, those needed to
11364 get disk and network controllers working.  Without having these
11365 firmware packages available during installation, it is impossible to
11366 install Debian Edu on the given machine, and because our target group
11367 are non-technical people, asking them to provide firmware packages on
11368 an external medium is a support pain.  Initially, I expected it to be
11369 enough to include the firmware packages on the CD to get
11370 debian-installer to find and use them.  This proved to be wrong.
11371 Next, I hoped it was enough to symlink the relevant firmware packages
11372 to some useful location on the CD (tried /cdrom/ and
11373 /cdrom/firmware/).  This also proved to not work, and at this point I
11374 found time to look at the debian-installer code to figure out what was
11375 going to work.</p>
11376
11377 <p>The firmware loading code is in the hw-detect package, and a closer
11378 look revealed that it would only look for firmware packages outside
11379 the installation media, so the CD was never checked for firmware
11380 packages.  It would only check USB sticks, floppies and other
11381 "external" media devices.  Today I changed it to also look in the
11382 /cdrom/firmware/ directory on the mounted CD or DVD, which should
11383 solve the problem I ran into with Debian edu.  I also changed it to
11384 look in /firmware/, to make sure the installer also find firmware
11385 provided in the initrd when booting the installer via PXE, to allow us
11386 to provide the same feature in the PXE setup included in Debian
11387 Edu.</p>
11388
11389 <p>To make sure firmware deb packages with a license questions are not
11390 activated without asking if the license is accepted, I extended
11391 hw-detect to look for preinst scripts in the firmware packages, and
11392 run these before activating the firmware during installation.  The
11393 license question is asked using debconf in the preinst, so this should
11394 solve the issue for the firmware packages I have looked at so far.</p>
11395
11396 <p>If you want to discuss the details of these features, please
11397 contact us on debian-boot@lists.debian.org.</p>
11398
11399       </div>
11400       <div class="tags">
11401
11402
11403         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>.
11404
11405
11406       </div>
11407     </div>
11408     <div class="padding"></div>
11409
11410     <div class="entry">
11411       <div class="title">
11412         <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>
11413       </div>
11414       <div class="date">
11415         14th May 2010
11416       </div>
11417       <div class="body">
11418         <p>Since this evening, parallel booting is the default in
11419 Debian/unstable for machines using dependency based boot sequencing.
11420 Apparently the testing of concurrent booting has been wider than
11421 expected, if I am to believe the
11422 <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2010/05/msg00122.html">input
11423 on debian-devel@</a>, and I concluded a few days ago to move forward
11424 with the feature this weekend, to give us some time to detect any
11425 remaining problems before Squeeze is frozen.  If serious problems are
11426 detected, it is simple to change the default back to sequential boot.
11427 The upload of the new sysvinit package also activate a new upstream
11428 version.</p>
11429
11430 More information about
11431 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/LSBInitScripts/DependencyBasedBoot">dependency
11432 based boot sequencing</a> is available from the Debian wiki.  It is
11433 currently possible to disable parallel booting when one run into
11434 problems caused by it, by adding this line to /etc/default/rcS:</p>
11435
11436 <blockquote><pre>
11437 CONCURRENCY=none
11438 </pre></blockquote>
11439
11440 <p>If you report any problems with dependencies in init.d scripts to
11441 the BTS, please usertag the report to get it to show up at
11442 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/pkgreport.cgi?users=initscripts-ng-devel@lists.alioth.debian.org">the
11443 list of usertagged bugs related to this</a>.</p>
11444
11445       </div>
11446       <div class="tags">
11447
11448
11449         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>.
11450
11451
11452       </div>
11453     </div>
11454     <div class="padding"></div>
11455
11456     <div class="entry">
11457       <div class="title">
11458         <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>
11459       </div>
11460       <div class="date">
11461         14th May 2010
11462       </div>
11463       <div class="body">
11464         <p>In the recent Debian Edu versions, the
11465 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/HowTo/SiteSummary">sitesummary
11466 system</a> is used to keep track of the machines in the school
11467 network.  Each machine will automatically report its status to the
11468 central server after boot and once per night.  The network setup is
11469 also reported, and using this information it is possible to get the
11470 MAC address of all network interfaces in the machines.  This is useful
11471 to update the DHCP configuration.</p>
11472
11473 <p>To give some idea how to use sitesummary, here is a one-liner to
11474 ist all MAC addresses of all machines reporting to sitesummary.  Run
11475 this on the collector host:</p>
11476
11477 <blockquote><pre>
11478 perl -MSiteSummary -e 'for_all_hosts(sub { print join(" ", get_macaddresses(shift)), "\n"; });'
11479 </pre></blockquote>
11480
11481 <p>This will list all MAC addresses assosiated with all machine, one
11482 line per machine and with space between the MAC addresses.</p>
11483
11484 <p>To allow system administrators easier job at adding static DHCP
11485 addresses for hosts, it would be possible to extend this to fetch
11486 machine information from sitesummary and update the DHCP and DNS
11487 tables in LDAP using this information.  Such tool is unfortunately not
11488 written yet.</p>
11489
11490       </div>
11491       <div class="tags">
11492
11493
11494         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>.
11495
11496
11497       </div>
11498     </div>
11499     <div class="padding"></div>
11500
11501     <div class="entry">
11502       <div class="title">
11503         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/systemd__an_interesting_alternative_to_upstart.html">systemd, an interesting alternative to upstart</a>
11504       </div>
11505       <div class="date">
11506         13th May 2010
11507       </div>
11508       <div class="body">
11509         <p>The last few days a new boot system called
11510 <a href="http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/systemd">systemd</a>
11511 has been
11512 <a href="http://0pointer.de/blog/projects/systemd.html">introduced</a>
11513
11514 to the free software world.  I have not yet had time to play around
11515 with it, but it seem to be a very interesting alternative to
11516 <a href="http://upstart.ubuntu.com/">upstart</a>, and might prove to be
11517 a good alternative for Debian when we are able to switch to an event
11518 based boot system.  Tollef is
11519 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/580814">in the process</a> of getting
11520 systemd into Debian, and I look forward to seeing how well it work.  I
11521 like the fact that systemd handles init.d scripts with dependency
11522 information natively, allowing them to run in parallel where upstart
11523 at the moment do not.</p>
11524
11525 <p>Unfortunately do systemd have the same problem as upstart regarding
11526 platform support.  It only work on recent Linux kernels, and also need
11527 some new kernel features enabled to function properly.  This means
11528 kFreeBSD and Hurd ports of Debian will need a port or a different boot
11529 system.  Not sure how that will be handled if systemd proves to be the
11530 way forward.</p>
11531
11532 <p>In the mean time, based on the
11533 <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2010/05/msg00122.html">input
11534 on debian-devel@</a> regarding parallel booting in Debian, I have
11535 decided to enable full parallel booting as the default in Debian as
11536 soon as possible (probably this weekend or early next week), to see if
11537 there are any remaining serious bugs in the init.d dependencies.  A
11538 new version of the sysvinit package implementing this change is
11539 already in experimental.  If all go well, Squeeze will be released
11540 with parallel booting enabled by default.</p>
11541
11542       </div>
11543       <div class="tags">
11544
11545
11546         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>.
11547
11548
11549       </div>
11550     </div>
11551     <div class="padding"></div>
11552
11553     <div class="entry">
11554       <div class="title">
11555         <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>
11556       </div>
11557       <div class="date">
11558          6th May 2010
11559       </div>
11560       <div class="body">
11561         <p>These days, the init.d script dependencies in Squeeze are quite
11562 complete, so complete that it is actually possible to run all the
11563 init.d scripts in parallell based on these dependencies.  If you want
11564 to test your Squeeze system, make sure
11565 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/LSBInitScripts/DependencyBasedBoot">dependency
11566 based boot sequencing</a> is enabled, and add this line to
11567 /etc/default/rcS:</p>
11568
11569 <blockquote><pre>
11570 CONCURRENCY=makefile
11571 </pre></blockquote>
11572
11573 <p>That is it.  It will cause sysv-rc to use the startpar tool to run
11574 scripts in parallel using the dependency information stored in
11575 /etc/init.d/.depend.boot, /etc/init.d/.depend.start and
11576 /etc/init.d/.depend.stop to order the scripts.  Startpar is configured
11577 to try to start the kdm and gdm scripts as early as possible, and will
11578 start the facilities required by kdm or gdm as early as possible to
11579 make this happen.</p>
11580
11581 <p>Give it a try, and see if you like the result.  If some services
11582 fail to start properly, it is most likely because they have incomplete
11583 init.d script dependencies in their startup script (or some of their
11584 dependent scripts have incomplete dependencies).  Report bugs and get
11585 the package maintainers to fix it. :)</p>
11586
11587 <p>Running scripts in parallel could be the default in Debian when we
11588 manage to get the init.d script dependencies complete and correct.  I
11589 expect we will get there in Squeeze+1, if we get manage to test and
11590 fix the remaining issues.</p>
11591
11592 <p>If you report any problems with dependencies in init.d scripts to
11593 the BTS, please usertag the report to get it to show up at
11594 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/pkgreport.cgi?users=initscripts-ng-devel@lists.alioth.debian.org">the
11595 list of usertagged bugs related to this</a>.</p>
11596
11597       </div>
11598       <div class="tags">
11599
11600
11601         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>.
11602
11603
11604       </div>
11605     </div>
11606     <div class="padding"></div>
11607
11608     <div class="entry">
11609       <div class="title">
11610         <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>
11611       </div>
11612       <div class="date">
11613         27th July 2009
11614       </div>
11615       <div class="body">
11616         <p>Since this evening, with the upload of sysvinit version 2.87dsf-2,
11617 and the upload of insserv version 1.12.0-10 yesterday, Debian unstable
11618 have been migrated to using dependency based boot sequencing.  This
11619 conclude work me and others have been doing for the last three days.
11620 It feels great to see this finally part of the default Debian
11621 installation.  Now we just need to weed out the last few problems that
11622 are bound to show up, to get everything ready for Squeeze.</p>
11623
11624 <p>The next step is migrating /sbin/init from sysvinit to upstart, and
11625 fixing the more fundamental problem of handing the event based
11626 non-predictable kernel in the early boot.</p>
11627
11628       </div>
11629       <div class="tags">
11630
11631
11632         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>.
11633
11634
11635       </div>
11636     </div>
11637     <div class="padding"></div>
11638
11639     <div class="entry">
11640       <div class="title">
11641         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Taking_over_sysvinit_development.html">Taking over sysvinit development</a>
11642       </div>
11643       <div class="date">
11644         22nd July 2009
11645       </div>
11646       <div class="body">
11647         <p>After several years of frustration with the lack of activity from
11648 the existing sysvinit upstream developer, I decided a few weeks ago to
11649 take over the package and become the new upstream.  The number of
11650 patches to track for the Debian package was becoming a burden, and the
11651 lack of synchronization between the distribution made it hard to keep
11652 the package up to date.</p>
11653
11654 <p>On the new sysvinit team is the SuSe maintainer Dr. Werner Fink,
11655 and my Debian co-maintainer Kel Modderman.  About 10 days ago, I made
11656 a new upstream tarball with version number 2.87dsf (for Debian, SuSe
11657 and Fedora), based on the patches currently in use in these
11658 distributions.  We Debian maintainers plan to move to this tarball as
11659 the new upstream as soon as we find time to do the merge.  Since the
11660 new tarball was created, we agreed with Werner at SuSe to make a new
11661 upstream project at <a href="http://savannah.nongnu.org/">Savannah</a>, and continue
11662 development there.  The project is registered and currently waiting
11663 for approval by the Savannah administrators, and as soon as it is
11664 approved, we will import the old versions from svn and continue
11665 working on the future release.</p>
11666
11667 <p>It is a bit ironic that this is done now, when some of the involved
11668 distributions are moving to upstart as a syvinit replacement.</p>
11669
11670       </div>
11671       <div class="tags">
11672
11673
11674         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>.
11675
11676
11677       </div>
11678     </div>
11679     <div class="padding"></div>
11680
11681     <div class="entry">
11682       <div class="title">
11683         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_boots_quicker_and_quicker.html">Debian boots quicker and quicker</a>
11684       </div>
11685       <div class="date">
11686         24th June 2009
11687       </div>
11688       <div class="body">
11689         <p>I spent Monday and tuesday this week in London with a lot of the
11690 people involved in the boot system on Debian and Ubuntu, to see if we
11691 could find more ways to speed up the boot system.  This was an Ubuntu
11692 funded
11693 <a href="https://wiki.ubuntu.com/FoundationsTeam/BootPerformance/DebianUbuntuSprint">developer
11694 gathering</a>. It was quite productive.  We also discussed the future
11695 of boot systems, and ways to handle the increasing number of boot
11696 issues introduced by the Linux kernel becoming more and more
11697 asynchronous and event base.  The Ubuntu approach using udev and
11698 upstart might be a good way forward.  Time will show.</p>
11699
11700 <p>Anyway, there are a few ways at the moment to speed up the boot
11701 process in Debian.  All of these should be applied to get a quick
11702 boot:</p>
11703
11704 <ul>
11705
11706 <li>Use dash as /bin/sh.</li>
11707
11708 <li>Disable the init.d/hwclock*.sh scripts and make sure the hardware
11709    clock is in UTC.</li>
11710
11711 <li>Install and activate the insserv package to enable
11712    <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/LSBInitScripts/DependencyBasedBoot">dependency
11713    based boot sequencing</a>, and enable concurrent booting.</li>
11714
11715 </ul>
11716
11717 These points are based on the Google summer of code work done by
11718 <a href="http://initscripts-ng.alioth.debian.org/soc2006-bootsystem/">Carlos
11719 Villegas</a>.
11720
11721 <p>Support for makefile-style concurrency during boot was uploaded to
11722 unstable yesterday.  When we tested it, we were able to cut 6 seconds
11723 from the boot sequence.  It depend on very correct dependency
11724 declaration in all init.d scripts, so I expect us to find edge cases
11725 where the dependences in some scripts are slightly wrong when we start
11726 using this.</p>
11727
11728 <p>On our IRC channel for this effort, #pkg-sysvinit, a new idea was
11729 introduced by Raphael Geissert today, one that could affect the
11730 startup speed as well.  Instead of starting some scripts concurrently
11731 from rcS.d/ and another set of scripts from rc2.d/, it would be
11732 possible to run a of them in the same process.  A quick way to test
11733 this would be to enable insserv and run 'mv /etc/rc2.d/S* /etc/rcS.d/;
11734 insserv'.  Will need to test if that work. :)</p>
11735
11736       </div>
11737       <div class="tags">
11738
11739
11740         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>.
11741
11742
11743       </div>
11744     </div>
11745     <div class="padding"></div>
11746
11747     <div class="entry">
11748       <div class="title">
11749         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/BSAs_p_stander_om_piratkopiering_m_ter_motstand.html">BSAs påstander om piratkopiering møter motstand</a>
11750       </div>
11751       <div class="date">
11752         17th May 2009
11753       </div>
11754       <div class="body">
11755         <p>Hvert år de siste årene har BSA, lobbyfronten til de store
11756 programvareselskapene som Microsoft og Apple, publisert en rapport der
11757 de gjetter på hvor mye piratkopiering påfører i tapte inntekter i
11758 ulike land rundt om i verden.  Resultatene er tendensiøse.  For noen
11759 dager siden kom
11760 <a href="http://global.bsa.org/globalpiracy2008/studies/globalpiracy2008.pdf">siste
11761 rapport</a>, og det er flere kritiske kommentarer publisert de siste
11762 dagene.  Et spesielt interessant kommentar fra Sverige,
11763 <a href="http://www.idg.se/2.1085/1.229795/bsa-hoftade-sverigesiffror">BSA
11764 höftade Sverigesiffror</a>, oppsummeres slik:</p>
11765
11766 <blockquote>
11767 I sin senaste rapport slår BSA fast att 25 procent av all mjukvara i
11768 Sverige är piratkopierad. Det utan att ha pratat med ett enda svenskt
11769 företag. "Man bör nog kanske inte se de här siffrorna som helt
11770 exakta", säger BSAs Sverigechef John Hugosson.
11771 </blockquote>
11772
11773 <p>Mon tro om de er like metodiske når de gjetter på andelen piratkopiering i Norge?  To andre kommentarer er <a
11774 href="http://www.vnunet.com/vnunet/comment/2242134/bsa-piracy-figures-shot-reality">BSA
11775 piracy figures need a shot of reality</a> og <a
11776 href="http://www.michaelgeist.ca/content/view/3958/125/">Does The WIPO
11777 Copyright Treaty Work?</a></p>
11778
11779 <p>Fant lenkene via <a
11780 href="http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/05/17/1632242">oppslag
11781 på Slashdot</a>.</p>
11782
11783       </div>
11784       <div class="tags">
11785
11786
11787         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>.
11788
11789
11790       </div>
11791     </div>
11792     <div class="padding"></div>
11793
11794     <div class="entry">
11795       <div class="title">
11796         <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>
11797       </div>
11798       <div class="date">
11799          7th May 2009
11800       </div>
11801       <div class="body">
11802         <p>Kom over
11803 <a href="http://news.cnet.com/8301-13505_3-10216873-16.html">interessante
11804 tall</a> fra IDG om utviklingen av linuxservermarkedet.  Fikk meg til
11805 å tenke på antall tjenermaskiner ved Universitetet i Oslo der jeg
11806 jobber til daglig.  En rask opptelling forteller meg at vi har 490
11807 (61%) fysiske unix-tjener (mest linux men også noen solaris) og 196
11808 (25%) windowstjenere, samt 112 (14%) virtuelle unix-tjenere.  Med den
11809 bakgrunnskunnskapen kan jeg godt tro at IDG er inne på noe.</p>
11810
11811       </div>
11812       <div class="tags">
11813
11814
11815         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>.
11816
11817
11818       </div>
11819     </div>
11820     <div class="padding"></div>
11821
11822     <div class="entry">
11823       <div class="title">
11824         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Kryptert_harddisk___naturligvis.html">Kryptert harddisk - naturligvis</a>
11825       </div>
11826       <div class="date">
11827          2nd May 2009
11828       </div>
11829       <div class="body">
11830         <p><a href="http://www.dagensit.no/trender/article1658676.ece">Dagens
11831 IT melder</a> at Intel hevder at det er dyrt å miste en datamaskin,
11832 når en tar tap av arbeidstid, fortrolige dokumenter,
11833 personopplysninger og alt annet det innebærer.  Det er ingen tvil om
11834 at det er en kostbar affære å miste sin datamaskin, og det er årsaken
11835 til at jeg har kryptert harddisken på både kontormaskinen og min
11836 bærbare.  Begge inneholder personopplysninger jeg ikke ønsker skal
11837 komme på avveie, den første informasjon relatert til jobben min ved
11838 Universitetet i Oslo, og den andre relatert til blant annet
11839 foreningsarbeide.  Kryptering av diskene gjør at det er lite
11840 sannsynlig at dophoder som kan finne på å rappe maskinene får noe ut
11841 av dem.  Maskinene låses automatisk etter noen minutter uten bruk,
11842 og en reboot vil gjøre at de ber om passord før de vil starte opp.
11843 Jeg bruker Debian på begge maskinene, og installasjonssystemet der
11844 gjør det trivielt å sette opp krypterte disker.  Jeg har LVM på toppen
11845 av krypterte partisjoner, slik at alt av datapartisjoner er kryptert.
11846 Jeg anbefaler alle å kryptere diskene på sine bærbare.  Kostnaden når
11847 det er gjort slik jeg gjør det er minimale, og gevinstene er
11848 betydelige.  En bør dog passe på passordet.  Hvis det går tapt, må
11849 maskinen reinstalleres og alt er tapt.</p>
11850
11851 <p>Krypteringen vil ikke stoppe kompetente angripere som f.eks. kjøler
11852 ned minnebrikkene før maskinen rebootes med programvare for å hente ut
11853 krypteringsnøklene.  Kostnaden med å forsvare seg mot slike angripere
11854 er for min del høyere enn gevinsten.  Jeg tror oddsene for at
11855 f.eks. etteretningsorganisasjoner har glede av å titte på mine
11856 maskiner er minimale, og ulempene jeg ville oppnå ved å forsøke å
11857 gjøre det vanskeligere for angripere med kompetanse og ressurser er
11858 betydelige.</p>
11859
11860       </div>
11861       <div class="tags">
11862
11863
11864         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>.
11865
11866
11867       </div>
11868     </div>
11869     <div class="padding"></div>
11870
11871     <div class="entry">
11872       <div class="title">
11873         <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>
11874       </div>
11875       <div class="date">
11876          2nd May 2009
11877       </div>
11878       <div class="body">
11879         <p>There are two software projects that have had huge influence on the
11880 quality of free software, and I wanted to mention both in case someone
11881 do not yet know them.</p>
11882
11883 <p>The first one is <a href="http://valgrind.org/">valgrind</a>, a
11884 tool to detect and expose errors in the memory handling of programs.
11885 It is easy to use, all one need to do is to run 'valgrind program',
11886 and it will report any problems on stdout.  It is even better if the
11887 program include debug information.  With debug information, it is able
11888 to report the source file name and line number where the problem
11889 occurs.  It can report things like 'reading past memory block in file
11890 X line N, the memory block was allocated in file Y, line M', and
11891 'using uninitialised value in control logic'.  This tool has made it
11892 trivial to investigate reproducible crash bugs in programs, and have
11893 reduced the number of this kind of bugs in free software a lot.
11894
11895 <p>The second one is
11896 <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coverity">Coverity</a> which is
11897 a source code checker.  It is able to process the source of a program
11898 and find problems in the logic without running the program.  It
11899 started out as the Stanford Checker and became well known when it was
11900 used to find bugs in the Linux kernel.  It is now a commercial tool
11901 and the company behind it is running
11902 <a href="http://www.scan.coverity.com/">a community service</a> for the
11903 free software community, where a lot of free software projects get
11904 their source checked for free.  Several thousand defects have been
11905 found and fixed so far.  It can find errors like 'lock L taken in file
11906 X line N is never released if exiting in line M', or 'the code in file
11907 Y lines O to P can never be executed'.  The projects included in the
11908 community service project have managed to get rid of a lot of
11909 reliability problems thanks to Coverity.</p>
11910
11911 <p>I believe tools like this, that are able to automatically find
11912 errors in the source, are vital to improve the quality of software and
11913 make sure we can get rid of the crashing and failing software we are
11914 surrounded by today.</p>
11915
11916       </div>
11917       <div class="tags">
11918
11919
11920         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>.
11921
11922
11923       </div>
11924     </div>
11925     <div class="padding"></div>
11926
11927     <div class="entry">
11928       <div class="title">
11929         <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>
11930       </div>
11931       <div class="date">
11932         28th April 2009
11933       </div>
11934       <div class="body">
11935         <p>Julien Blache
11936 <a href="http://blog.technologeek.org/2009/04/12/214">claim that no
11937 patch is better than a useless patch</a>.  I completely disagree, as a
11938 patch allow one to discuss a concrete and proposed solution, and also
11939 prove that the issue at hand is important enough for someone to spent
11940 time on fixing it.  No patch do not provide any of these positive
11941 properties.</p>
11942
11943       </div>
11944       <div class="tags">
11945
11946
11947         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>.
11948
11949
11950       </div>
11951     </div>
11952     <div class="padding"></div>
11953
11954     <div class="entry">
11955       <div class="title">
11956         <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>
11957       </div>
11958       <div class="date">
11959         30th March 2009
11960       </div>
11961       <div class="body">
11962         <p>Where I work at the University of Oslo, one decision stand out as a
11963 very good one to form a long lived computer infrastructure.  It is the
11964 simple one, lost by many in todays computer industry: Standardize on
11965 open network protocols and open exchange/storage formats, not applications.
11966 Applications come and go, while protocols and files tend to stay, and
11967 thus one want to make it easy to change application and vendor, while
11968 avoiding conversion costs and locking users to a specific platform or
11969 application.</p>
11970
11971 <p>This approach make it possible to replace the client applications
11972 independently of the server applications.  One can even allow users to
11973 use several different applications as long as they handle the selected
11974 protocol and format.  In the normal case, only one client application
11975 is recommended and users only get help if they choose to use this
11976 application, but those that want to deviate from the easy path are not
11977 blocked from doing so.</p>
11978
11979 <p>It also allow us to replace the server side without forcing the
11980 users to replace their applications, and thus allow us to select the
11981 best server implementation at any moment, when scale and resouce
11982 requirements change.</p>
11983
11984 <p>I strongly recommend standardizing - on open network protocols and
11985 open formats, but I would never recommend standardizing on a single
11986 application that do not use open network protocol or open formats.</p>
11987
11988       </div>
11989       <div class="tags">
11990
11991
11992         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>.
11993
11994
11995       </div>
11996     </div>
11997     <div class="padding"></div>
11998
11999     <div class="entry">
12000       <div class="title">
12001         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Returning_from_Skolelinux_developer_gathering.html">Returning from Skolelinux developer gathering</a>
12002       </div>
12003       <div class="date">
12004         29th March 2009
12005       </div>
12006       <div class="body">
12007         <p>I'm sitting on the train going home from this weekends Debian
12008 Edu/Skolelinux development gathering.  I got a bit done tuning the
12009 desktop, and looked into the dynamic service location protocol
12010 implementation avahi.  It look like it could be useful for us.  Almost
12011 30 people participated, and I believe it was a great environment to
12012 get to know the Skolelinux system.  Walter Bender, involved in the
12013 development of the Sugar educational platform, presented his stuff and
12014 also helped me improve my OLPC installation.  He also showed me that
12015 his Turtle Art application can be used in standalone mode, and we
12016 agreed that I would help getting it packaged for Debian.  As a
12017 standalone application it would be great for Debian Edu.  We also
12018 tried to get the video conferencing working with two OLPCs, but that
12019 proved to be too hard for us.  The application seem to need more work
12020 before it is ready for me.  I look forward to getting home and relax
12021 now. :)</p>
12022
12023       </div>
12024       <div class="tags">
12025
12026
12027         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>.
12028
12029
12030       </div>
12031     </div>
12032     <div class="padding"></div>
12033
12034     <div class="entry">
12035       <div class="title">
12036         <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>
12037       </div>
12038       <div class="date">
12039         29th March 2009
12040       </div>
12041       <div class="body">
12042         <p>The state of standardized LDAP schemas on Linux is far from
12043 optimal.  There is RFC 2307 documenting one way to store NIS maps in
12044 LDAP, and a modified version of this normally called RFC 2307bis, with
12045 some modifications to be compatible with Active Directory.  The RFC
12046 specification handle the content of a lot of system databases, but do
12047 not handle DNS zones and DHCP configuration.</p>
12048
12049 <p>In <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu/Skolelinux</a>,
12050 we would like to store information about users, SMB clients/hosts,
12051 filegroups, netgroups (users and hosts), DHCP and DNS configuration,
12052 and LTSP configuration in LDAP.  These objects have a lot in common,
12053 but with the current LDAP schemas it is not possible to have one
12054 object per entity.  For example, one need to have at least three LDAP
12055 objects for a given computer, one with the SMB related stuff, one with
12056 DNS information and another with DHCP information.  The schemas
12057 provided for DNS and DHCP are impossible to combine into one LDAP
12058 object.  In addition, it is impossible to implement quick queries for
12059 netgroup membership, because of the way NIS triples are implemented.
12060 It just do not scale.  I believe it is time for a few RFC
12061 specifications to cleam up this mess.</p>
12062
12063 <p>I would like to have one LDAP object representing each computer in
12064 the network, and this object can then keep the SMB (ie host key), DHCP
12065 (mac address/name) and DNS (name/IP address) settings in one place.
12066 It need to be efficently stored to make sure it scale well.</p>
12067
12068 <p>I would also like to have a quick way to map from a user or
12069 computer and to the net group this user or computer is a member.</p>
12070
12071 <p>Active Directory have done a better job than unix heads like myself
12072 in this regard, and the unix side need to catch up.  Time to start a
12073 new IETF work group?</p>
12074
12075       </div>
12076       <div class="tags">
12077
12078
12079         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>.
12080
12081
12082       </div>
12083     </div>
12084     <div class="padding"></div>
12085
12086     <div class="entry">
12087       <div class="title">
12088         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Endelig_er_Debian_Lenny_gitt_ut.html">Endelig er Debian Lenny gitt ut</a>
12089       </div>
12090       <div class="date">
12091         15th February 2009
12092       </div>
12093       <div class="body">
12094         <p>Endelig er <a href="http://www.debian.org/">Debian</a>
12095 <a href="http://www.debian.org/News/2009/20090214">Lenny</a> gitt ut.
12096 Et langt steg videre for Debian-prosjektet, og en rekke nye
12097 programpakker blir nå tilgjengelig for de av oss som bruker den
12098 stabile utgaven av Debian.  Neste steg er nå å få
12099 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Skolelinux</a> /
12100 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/">Debian Edu</a> ferdig
12101 oppdatert for den nye utgaven, slik at en oppdatert versjon kan
12102 slippes løs på skolene.  Takk til alle debian-utviklerne som har
12103 gjort dette mulig.  Endelig er f.eks. fungerende avhengighetsstyrt
12104 bootsekvens tilgjengelig i stabil utgave, vha pakken
12105 <tt>insserv</tt>.</p>
12106
12107       </div>
12108       <div class="tags">
12109
12110
12111         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>.
12112
12113
12114       </div>
12115     </div>
12116     <div class="padding"></div>
12117
12118     <div class="entry">
12119       <div class="title">
12120         <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>
12121       </div>
12122       <div class="date">
12123          7th December 2008
12124       </div>
12125       <div class="body">
12126         <p>This weekend we had a small developer gathering for Debian Edu in
12127 Oslo.  Most of Saturday was used for the general assemly for the
12128 member organization, but the rest of the weekend I used to tune the
12129 LTSP installation.  LTSP now work out of the box on the 10-network.
12130 Acer Aspire One proved to be a very nice thin client, with both
12131 screen, mouse and keybard in a small box.  Was working on getting the
12132 diskless workstation setup configured out of the box, but did not
12133 finish it before the weekend was up.</p>
12134
12135 <p>Did not find time to look at the 4 VGA cards in one box we got from
12136 the Brazilian group, so that will have to wait for the next
12137 development gathering.  Would love to have the Debian Edu installer
12138 automatically detect and configure a multiseat setup when it find one
12139 of these cards.</p>
12140
12141       </div>
12142       <div class="tags">
12143
12144
12145         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>.
12146
12147
12148       </div>
12149     </div>
12150     <div class="padding"></div>
12151
12152     <div class="entry">
12153       <div class="title">
12154         <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>
12155       </div>
12156       <div class="date">
12157         25th November 2008
12158       </div>
12159       <div class="body">
12160         <p>Recently I have spent some time evaluating the multimedia browser
12161 plugins available in Debian Lenny, to see which one we should use by
12162 default in Debian Edu.  We need an embedded video playing plugin with
12163 control buttons to pause or stop the video, and capable of streaming
12164 all the multimedia content available on the web.  The test results and
12165 notes are available on
12166 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/BrowserMultimedia">the
12167 Debian wiki</a>.  I was surprised how few of the plugins are able to
12168 fill this need.  My personal video player favorite, VLC, has a really
12169 bad plugin which fail on a lot of the test pages.  A lot of the MIME
12170 types I would expect to work with any free software player (like
12171 video/ogg), just do not work.  And simple formats like the
12172 audio/x-mplegurl format (m3u playlists), just isn't supported by the
12173 totem and vlc plugins.  I hope the situation will improve soon.  No
12174 wonder sites use the proprietary Adobe flash to play video.</p>
12175
12176 <p>For Lenny, we seem to end up with the mplayer plugin.  It seem to
12177 be the only one fitting our needs. :/</p>
12178
12179       </div>
12180       <div class="tags">
12181
12182
12183         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>.
12184
12185
12186       </div>
12187     </div>
12188     <div class="padding"></div>
12189
12190     <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>
12191     <div id="sidebar">
12192
12193
12194
12195 <h2>Archive</h2>
12196 <ul>
12197
12198 <li>2017
12199 <ul>
12200
12201 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2017/01/">January (4)</a></li>
12202
12203 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2017/02/">February (3)</a></li>
12204
12205 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2017/03/">March (2)</a></li>
12206
12207 </ul></li>
12208
12209 <li>2016
12210 <ul>
12211
12212 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2016/01/">January (3)</a></li>
12213
12214 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2016/02/">February (2)</a></li>
12215
12216 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2016/03/">March (3)</a></li>
12217
12218 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2016/04/">April (8)</a></li>
12219
12220 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2016/05/">May (8)</a></li>
12221
12222 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2016/06/">June (2)</a></li>
12223
12224 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2016/07/">July (2)</a></li>
12225
12226 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2016/08/">August (5)</a></li>
12227
12228 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2016/09/">September (2)</a></li>
12229
12230 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2016/10/">October (3)</a></li>
12231
12232 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2016/11/">November (8)</a></li>
12233
12234 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2016/12/">December (5)</a></li>
12235
12236 </ul></li>
12237
12238 <li>2015
12239 <ul>
12240
12241 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/01/">January (7)</a></li>
12242
12243 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/02/">February (6)</a></li>
12244
12245 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/03/">March (1)</a></li>
12246
12247 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/04/">April (4)</a></li>
12248
12249 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/05/">May (3)</a></li>
12250
12251 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/06/">June (4)</a></li>
12252
12253 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/07/">July (6)</a></li>
12254
12255 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/08/">August (2)</a></li>
12256
12257 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/09/">September (2)</a></li>
12258
12259 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/10/">October (9)</a></li>
12260
12261 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/11/">November (6)</a></li>
12262
12263 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/12/">December (3)</a></li>
12264
12265 </ul></li>
12266
12267 <li>2014
12268 <ul>
12269
12270 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/01/">January (2)</a></li>
12271
12272 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/02/">February (3)</a></li>
12273
12274 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/03/">March (8)</a></li>
12275
12276 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/04/">April (7)</a></li>
12277
12278 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/05/">May (1)</a></li>
12279
12280 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/06/">June (2)</a></li>
12281
12282 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/07/">July (2)</a></li>
12283
12284 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/08/">August (2)</a></li>
12285
12286 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/09/">September (5)</a></li>
12287
12288 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/10/">October (6)</a></li>
12289
12290 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/11/">November (3)</a></li>
12291
12292 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/12/">December (5)</a></li>
12293
12294 </ul></li>
12295
12296 <li>2013
12297 <ul>
12298
12299 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/01/">January (11)</a></li>
12300
12301 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/02/">February (9)</a></li>
12302
12303 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/03/">March (9)</a></li>
12304
12305 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/04/">April (6)</a></li>
12306
12307 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/05/">May (9)</a></li>
12308
12309 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/06/">June (10)</a></li>
12310
12311 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/07/">July (7)</a></li>
12312
12313 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/08/">August (3)</a></li>
12314
12315 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/09/">September (5)</a></li>
12316
12317 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/10/">October (7)</a></li>
12318
12319 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/11/">November (9)</a></li>
12320
12321 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/12/">December (3)</a></li>
12322
12323 </ul></li>
12324
12325 <li>2012
12326 <ul>
12327
12328 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/01/">January (7)</a></li>
12329
12330 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/02/">February (10)</a></li>
12331
12332 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/03/">March (17)</a></li>
12333
12334 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/04/">April (12)</a></li>
12335
12336 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/05/">May (12)</a></li>
12337
12338 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/06/">June (20)</a></li>
12339
12340 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/07/">July (17)</a></li>
12341
12342 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/08/">August (6)</a></li>
12343
12344 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/09/">September (9)</a></li>
12345
12346 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/10/">October (17)</a></li>
12347
12348 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/11/">November (10)</a></li>
12349
12350 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/12/">December (7)</a></li>
12351
12352 </ul></li>
12353
12354 <li>2011
12355 <ul>
12356
12357 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/01/">January (16)</a></li>
12358
12359 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/02/">February (6)</a></li>
12360
12361 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/03/">March (6)</a></li>
12362
12363 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/04/">April (7)</a></li>
12364
12365 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/05/">May (3)</a></li>
12366
12367 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/06/">June (2)</a></li>
12368
12369 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/07/">July (7)</a></li>
12370
12371 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/08/">August (6)</a></li>
12372
12373 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/09/">September (4)</a></li>
12374
12375 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/10/">October (2)</a></li>
12376
12377 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/11/">November (3)</a></li>
12378
12379 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/12/">December (1)</a></li>
12380
12381 </ul></li>
12382
12383 <li>2010
12384 <ul>
12385
12386 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/01/">January (2)</a></li>
12387
12388 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/02/">February (1)</a></li>
12389
12390 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/03/">March (3)</a></li>
12391
12392 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/04/">April (3)</a></li>
12393
12394 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/05/">May (9)</a></li>
12395
12396 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/06/">June (14)</a></li>
12397
12398 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/07/">July (12)</a></li>
12399
12400 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/08/">August (13)</a></li>
12401
12402 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/09/">September (7)</a></li>
12403
12404 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/10/">October (9)</a></li>
12405
12406 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/11/">November (13)</a></li>
12407
12408 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/12/">December (12)</a></li>
12409
12410 </ul></li>
12411
12412 <li>2009
12413 <ul>
12414
12415 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/01/">January (8)</a></li>
12416
12417 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/02/">February (8)</a></li>
12418
12419 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/03/">March (12)</a></li>
12420
12421 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/04/">April (10)</a></li>
12422
12423 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/05/">May (9)</a></li>
12424
12425 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/06/">June (3)</a></li>
12426
12427 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/07/">July (4)</a></li>
12428
12429 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/08/">August (3)</a></li>
12430
12431 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/09/">September (1)</a></li>
12432
12433 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/10/">October (2)</a></li>
12434
12435 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/11/">November (3)</a></li>
12436
12437 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/12/">December (3)</a></li>
12438
12439 </ul></li>
12440
12441 <li>2008
12442 <ul>
12443
12444 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2008/11/">November (5)</a></li>
12445
12446 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2008/12/">December (7)</a></li>
12447
12448 </ul></li>
12449
12450 </ul>
12451
12452
12453
12454 <h2>Tags</h2>
12455 <ul>
12456
12457  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/3d-printer">3d-printer (13)</a></li>
12458
12459  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/amiga">amiga (1)</a></li>
12460
12461  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/aros">aros (1)</a></li>
12462
12463  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bankid">bankid (4)</a></li>
12464
12465  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bitcoin">bitcoin (9)</a></li>
12466
12467  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bootsystem">bootsystem (16)</a></li>
12468
12469  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bsa">bsa (2)</a></li>
12470
12471  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/chrpath">chrpath (2)</a></li>
12472
12473  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian (147)</a></li>
12474
12475  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu (158)</a></li>
12476
12477  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian-handbook">debian-handbook (3)</a></li>
12478
12479  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/digistan">digistan (10)</a></li>
12480
12481  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/dld">dld (16)</a></li>
12482
12483  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/docbook">docbook (23)</a></li>
12484
12485  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/drivstoffpriser">drivstoffpriser (4)</a></li>
12486
12487  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english (343)</a></li>
12488
12489  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/fiksgatami">fiksgatami (23)</a></li>
12490
12491  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/fildeling">fildeling (12)</a></li>
12492
12493  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freeculture">freeculture (29)</a></li>
12494
12495  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freedombox">freedombox (9)</a></li>
12496
12497  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/frikanalen">frikanalen (18)</a></li>
12498
12499  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/h264">h264 (20)</a></li>
12500
12501  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/intervju">intervju (42)</a></li>
12502
12503  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram">isenkram (15)</a></li>
12504
12505  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/kart">kart (20)</a></li>
12506
12507  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ldap">ldap (9)</a></li>
12508
12509  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/lenker">lenker (8)</a></li>
12510
12511  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/lsdvd">lsdvd (2)</a></li>
12512
12513  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ltsp">ltsp (1)</a></li>
12514
12515  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/mesh network">mesh network (8)</a></li>
12516
12517  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/multimedia">multimedia (39)</a></li>
12518
12519  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nice free software">nice free software (9)</a></li>
12520
12521  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/norsk">norsk (287)</a></li>
12522
12523  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug (187)</a></li>
12524
12525  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/offentlig innsyn">offentlig innsyn (28)</a></li>
12526
12527  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/open311">open311 (2)</a></li>
12528
12529  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/opphavsrett">opphavsrett (64)</a></li>
12530
12531  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/personvern">personvern (99)</a></li>
12532
12533  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/raid">raid (1)</a></li>
12534
12535  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/reactos">reactos (1)</a></li>
12536
12537  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/reprap">reprap (11)</a></li>
12538
12539  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/rfid">rfid (3)</a></li>
12540
12541  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/robot">robot (10)</a></li>
12542
12543  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/rss">rss (1)</a></li>
12544
12545  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ruter">ruter (5)</a></li>
12546
12547  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/scraperwiki">scraperwiki (2)</a></li>
12548
12549  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet (52)</a></li>
12550
12551  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sitesummary">sitesummary (4)</a></li>
12552
12553  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/skepsis">skepsis (5)</a></li>
12554
12555  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/standard">standard (51)</a></li>
12556
12557  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/stavekontroll">stavekontroll (5)</a></li>
12558
12559  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/stortinget">stortinget (11)</a></li>
12560
12561  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance (47)</a></li>
12562
12563  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sysadmin">sysadmin (2)</a></li>
12564
12565  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/usenix">usenix (2)</a></li>
12566
12567  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/valg">valg (8)</a></li>
12568
12569  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/video">video (59)</a></li>
12570
12571  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/vitenskap">vitenskap (4)</a></li>
12572
12573  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/web">web (40)</a></li>
12574
12575 </ul>
12576
12577
12578     </div>
12579     <p style="text-align: right">
12580  Created by <a href="http://steve.org.uk/Software/chronicle">Chronicle v4.6</a>
12581 </p>
12582
12583   </body>
12584 </html>