blog/tags/english/english.rss

   1 <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
   2 <rss version='2.0' xmlns:lj='http://www.livejournal.org/rss/lj/1.0/'>
   3         <channel>
   4                 <title>Petter Reinholdtsen - Entries tagged english</title>
   5                 <description>Entries tagged english</description>
   6                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/</link>
   7
   8
   9         <item>
  10                 <title>Change the font, save the world (and save some money in the process)</title>
  11                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Change_the_font__save_the_world__and_save_some_money_in_the_process_.html</link>
  12                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Change_the_font__save_the_world__and_save_some_money_in_the_process_.html</guid>
  13                 <pubDate>Tue, 26 Mar 2013 15:10:00 +0100</pubDate>
  14                 <description>&lt;p&gt;Would you like to help the environment and save money at the same
  15 time, without much sacrifice?  A small step could be to change the
  16 font you use when printing.&lt;/p&gt;
  17
  18 &lt;p&gt;Three years ago,
  19 &lt;a href=&quot;http://arstechnica.com/business/2010/04/last-year-printer-comparison-website/&quot;&gt;Ars
  20 Technica&lt;/a&gt; reported how the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay
  21 changed their default front from
  22 &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arial&quot;&gt;Arial&lt;/a&gt; to
  23 &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Century_Gothic&quot;&gt;Century
  24 Gothic&lt;/a&gt; to save money.  The Century Gothic font uses 30% less toner
  25 than Arial to print the same text.  In other word, you could cut your
  26 toner costs by 30% (or actually, increase your toner supply life time
  27 by more than 30%, by simply changing the default font used in your
  28 prints.&lt;/p&gt;
  29
  30 &lt;p&gt;But it is not quite obvious how much one will safe by switching.
  31 The University of Wisconsin-Green Bay said it used $100,000 per year
  32 on ink and toner cartridges, according to
  33 &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.twincities.com/ci_14833097&quot;&gt;a report from
  34 TwinCities.com&lt;/a&gt;, and expected to save between $5,000 and $10,000
  35 per year by asking staff and students to use a different font.  Not
  36 all PDFs and documents are created internally, and those from external
  37 sources will most likely still use a different font.  Also, the
  38 Century Gothic font is slightly wider than Arial, and thus might use
  39 more sheets of paper to print the same text, so the total saving
  40 depend on the documents printed.&lt;/p&gt;
  41
  42 &lt;p&gt;But it is definitely something to consider, if you want to reduce
  43 the amount of trash, decrease the amount of toner used in the world,
  44 and save some money in the process.&lt;/p&gt;
  45 </description>
  46         </item>
  47
  48         <item>
  49                 <title>Typesetting a short story using docbook for PDF, HTML and EPUB</title>
  50                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Typesetting_a_short_story_using_docbook_for_PDF__HTML_and_EPUB.html</link>
  51                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Typesetting_a_short_story_using_docbook_for_PDF__HTML_and_EPUB.html</guid>
  52                 <pubDate>Sun, 24 Mar 2013 17:30:00 +0100</pubDate>
  53                 <description>&lt;p&gt;A few days ago, during a discussion in
  54 &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.efn.no/&quot;&gt;EFN&lt;/a&gt; about interesting books to read
  55 about copyright and the data retention directive, a suggestion to read
  56 the 1968 short story Kodémus by
  57 &lt;a href=&quot;http://web2.gyldendal.no/toraage/&quot;&gt;Tore Åge Bringsværd&lt;/a&gt;
  58 came up.  The text was only available in old paper books, and thus not
  59 easily available for current and future generations.  Some of the
  60 people participating in the discussion contacted the author, and
  61 reported back 2013-03-19 that the author was OK with releasing the
  62 short story using a &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.creativecommons.org/&quot;&gt;Creative
  63 Commons&lt;/a&gt; license.  The text was quickly scanned and OCR-ed, and we
  64 were ready to start on the editing and typesetting.&lt;/p&gt;
  65
  66 &lt;p&gt;As I already had some experience formatting text in my project to
  67 provide a Norwegian version of the Free Culture book by Lawrence
  68 Lessig, I chipped in and set up a
  69 &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.docbook.org/&quot;&gt;DocBook&lt;/a&gt; processing framework to
  70 generate PDF, HTML and EPUB version of the short story.  The tools to
  71 transform DocBook to different formats are already in my Linux
  72 distribution of choice, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.debian.org/&quot;&gt;Debian&lt;/a&gt;, so
  73 all I had to do was to use the
  74 &lt;a href=&quot;http://dblatex.sourceforge.net/&quot;&gt;dblatex&lt;/a&gt;,
  75 &lt;a href=&quot;http://docbook.sourceforge.net/release/xsl/current/epub/README&quot;&gt;dbtoepub&lt;/a&gt;
  76 and &lt;a href=&quot;https://fedorahosted.org/xmlto/&quot;&gt;xmlto&lt;/a&gt; tools to do the
  77 conversion.  After a few days, we decided to replace dblatex with
  78 xsltproc/fop (aka
  79 &lt;a href=&quot;http://wiki.docbook.org/DocBookXslStylesheets&quot;&gt;docbook-xsl&lt;/a&gt;),
  80 to get the copyright information to show up in the PDF and to get a
  81 nicer &amp;lt;variablelist&amp;gt; typesetting, but that is just a minor
  82 technical detail.&lt;/p&gt;
  83
  84 &lt;p&gt;There were a few challenges, of course.  We want to typeset the
  85 short story to look like the original, and that require fairly good
  86 control over the layout.  The original short story have three
  87 parts/scenes separated by a single horizontally centred star (*), and
  88 the paragraphs do not contain only flowing text, but dialogs and text
  89 that started on a new line in the middle of the paragraph.&lt;/p&gt;
  90
  91 &lt;p&gt;I initially solved the first challenge by using a paragraph with a
  92 single star in it, ie &amp;lt;para&amp;gt;*&amp;lt;/para&amp;gt;, but it made sure a
  93 placeholder indicated where the scene shifted.  This did not look too
  94 good without the centring.  The next approach was to create a new
  95 preprocessor directive &amp;lt;?newscene?&amp;gt;, mapping to &quot;&amp;lt;hr/&amp;gt;&quot;
  96 for HTML and &quot;&amp;lt;fo:block text-align=&quot;center&quot;&amp;gt;&amp;lt;fo:leader
  97 leader-pattern=&quot;rule&quot; rule-thickness=&quot;0.5pt&quot;/&amp;gt;&amp;lt;/fo:block&amp;gt;&quot;
  98 for FO/PDF output (did not try to implement this in dblatex, as we had
  99 switched at this time).  The HTML XSL file looked like this:&lt;/p&gt;
 100
 101 &lt;p&gt;&lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;pre&gt;
 102 &amp;lt;?xml version=&#39;1.0&#39;?&amp;gt;
 103 &amp;lt;xsl:stylesheet xmlns:xsl=&quot;http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform&quot; version=&#39;1.0&#39;&amp;gt;
 104   &amp;lt;xsl:template match=&quot;processing-instruction(&#39;newscene&#39;)&quot;&amp;gt;
 105     &amp;lt;hr/&amp;gt;
 106   &amp;lt;/xsl:template&amp;gt;
 107 &amp;lt;/xsl:stylesheet&amp;gt;
 108 &lt;/pre&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
 109
 110 &lt;p&gt;And the FO/PDF XSL file looked like this:&lt;/p&gt;
 111
 112 &lt;p&gt;&lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;pre&gt;
 113 &amp;lt;?xml version=&#39;1.0&#39;?&amp;gt;
 114 &amp;lt;xsl:stylesheet xmlns:xsl=&quot;http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform&quot; version=&#39;1.0&#39;&amp;gt;
 115   &amp;lt;xsl:template match=&quot;processing-instruction(&#39;newscene&#39;)&quot;&amp;gt;
 116     &amp;lt;fo:block text-align=&quot;center&quot;&amp;gt;
 117       &amp;lt;fo:leader leader-pattern=&quot;rule&quot; rule-thickness=&quot;0.5pt&quot;/&amp;gt;
 118     &amp;lt;/fo:block&amp;gt;
 119   &amp;lt;/xsl:template&amp;gt;
 120 &amp;lt;/xsl:stylesheet&amp;gt;
 121 &lt;/pre&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
 122
 123 &lt;p&gt;Finally, I came across the &amp;lt;bridgehead&amp;gt; tag, which seem to be
 124 a good fit for the task at hand, and I replaced &amp;lt;?newscene?&amp;gt;
 125 with &amp;lt;bridgehead&amp;gt;*&amp;lt;/bridgehead&amp;gt;.  It isn&#39;t centred, but we
 126 can fix it with some XSL rule if the current visual layout isn&#39;t
 127 enough.&lt;/p&gt;
 128
 129 &lt;p&gt;I did not find a good DocBook compliant way to solve the
 130 linebreak/paragraph challenge, so I ended up creating a new processor
 131 directive &amp;lt;?linebreak?&amp;gt;, mapping to &amp;lt;br/&amp;gt; in HTML, and
 132 &amp;lt;fo:block/&amp;gt; in FO/PDF.  I suspect there are better ways to do
 133 this, and welcome ideas and patches on github.  The HTML XSL file now
 134 look like this:&lt;/p&gt;
 135
 136 &lt;p&gt;&lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;pre&gt;
 137 &amp;lt;?xml version=&#39;1.0&#39;?&amp;gt;
 138 &amp;lt;xsl:stylesheet xmlns:xsl=&quot;http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform&quot; version=&#39;1.0&#39;&amp;gt;
 139   &amp;lt;xsl:template match=&quot;processing-instruction(&#39;linebreak)&quot;&amp;gt;
 140     &amp;lt;br/&amp;gt;
 141   &amp;lt;/xsl:template&amp;gt;
 142 &amp;lt;/xsl:stylesheet&amp;gt;
 143 &lt;/pre&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
 144
 145 &lt;p&gt;And the FO/PDF XSL file looked like this:&lt;/p&gt;
 146
 147 &lt;p&gt;&lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;pre&gt;
 148 &amp;lt;?xml version=&#39;1.0&#39;?&amp;gt;
 149 &amp;lt;xsl:stylesheet xmlns:xsl=&quot;http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform&quot; version=&#39;1.0&#39;
 150   xmlns:fo=&quot;http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Format&quot;&amp;gt;
 151   &amp;lt;xsl:template match=&quot;processing-instruction(&#39;linebreak)&quot;&amp;gt;
 152     &amp;lt;fo:block/&amp;gt;
 153   &amp;lt;/xsl:template&amp;gt;
 154 &amp;lt;/xsl:stylesheet&amp;gt;
 155 &lt;/pre&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
 156
 157 &lt;p&gt;One unsolved challenge is our wish to expose different ISBN numbers
 158 per publication format, while keeping all of them in some conditional
 159 structure in the DocBook source.  No idea how to do this, so we ended
 160 up listing all the ISBN numbers next to their format in the colophon
 161 page.&lt;/p&gt;
 162
 163 &lt;p&gt;If you want to check out the finished result, check out the
 164 &lt;a href=&quot;https://github.com/sickel/kodemus&quot;&gt;source repository at
 165 github&lt;/a&gt;
 166 (&lt;a href=&quot;https://github.com/EFN/kodemus&quot;&gt;future/new/official
 167 repository&lt;/a&gt;).  We expect it to be ready and announced in a few
 168 days.&lt;/p&gt;
 169 </description>
 170         </item>
 171
 172         <item>
 173                 <title>Skolelinux 6 got a video review from Pcwizz</title>
 174                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Skolelinux_6_got_a_video_review_from_Pcwizz.html</link>
 175                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Skolelinux_6_got_a_video_review_from_Pcwizz.html</guid>
 176                 <pubDate>Sun, 17 Mar 2013 10:30:00 +0100</pubDate>
 177                 <description>&lt;p&gt;Via
 178 &lt;a href=&quot;https://twitter.com/pcwizz/status/313044373262716930&quot;&gt;twitter&lt;/a&gt;
 179 I just discovered that &lt;a href=&quot;http://pcwizz.net/&quot;&gt;Pcwizz&lt;/a&gt; have
 180 done a &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wPzTZ61Pcuc&quot;&gt;video
 181 review&lt;/a&gt; on Youtube of &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.skolelinux.org/&quot;&gt;Skolelinux
 182 / Debian Edu&lt;/a&gt; version 6.  He installed the standalone profile and
 183 the video show a walk-through of of the menu content, demonstration of
 184 a few programs and his view of our distribution.&lt;/p&gt;
 185
 186 &lt;p&gt;There is also some really nice quotes (transcribed by me, might
 187 have heard wrong).  While looking thought the Graphics menu:&lt;/p&gt;
 188
 189 &lt;blockquote&gt;
 190 &quot;Basically everything you ever need in a school environment.&quot;
 191 &lt;/blockquote&gt;
 192
 193 &lt;p&gt;And as a general evaluation of the entire distribution:&lt;/p&gt;
 194
 195 &lt;blockquote&gt;
 196 &quot;So, yeah, a bit bloated.  It kept all the Debian stuff in there, just
 197 to keep it nice and GNU.  So, I do not want to go on about it, but
 198 lets give it 7 out of 10.  I am not going to use it.  That is because
 199 I am not deploying a school network.  There may be some mythical
 200 feature to help you deploy Skolelinux on a school network.&quot;
 201 &lt;/blockquote&gt;
 202
 203 &lt;p&gt;To bad he did not test the server profile, and discovered the PXE
 204 installation option.  It make it possible to install only the main
 205 server from CD, and the rest of the machines via the net, and might be
 206 considered the mythical feature he talk about. :)&lt;/p&gt;
 207
 208 &lt;p&gt;While looking through the menus, there is also this funny comment
 209 about the part of the K menu generated from the Debian menu subsystem:
 210
 211 &lt;blockquote&gt;
 212 &quot;[The K menu] have a special Debian section for software that no-one
 213 is going to look at, because it contain lots of junky stuff that you
 214 actually don&#39;t need in the education distribution, but have just been
 215 included because it isn&#39;t stripped out for some reason.&quot;
 216 &lt;/blockquote&gt;
 217
 218 &lt;p&gt;I guess it is yet another argument for merging the Debian menu and
 219 Gnome/KDE desktop menu entries into
 220 &lt;a href=&quot;http://wiki.debian.org/Proposals/DebianMenuUsingDesktopEntries&quot;&gt;one
 221 consistent menu system&lt;/a&gt; instead of two incomplete and partly
 222 inconsistent menu systems.&lt;/p&gt;
 223
 224 &lt;p&gt;The entire video is available below for those accepting iframe
 225 embedding:&lt;/p&gt;
 226
 227 &lt;iframe width=&quot;560&quot; height=&quot;315&quot; src=&quot;http://www.youtube.com/embed/wPzTZ61Pcuc&quot; frameborder=&quot;0&quot; allowfullscreen&gt;&lt;/iframe&gt;
 228 </description>
 229         </item>
 230
 231         <item>
 232                 <title>First Skolelinux / Debian Edu Squeeze update released</title>
 233                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/First_Skolelinux___Debian_Edu_Squeeze_update_released.html</link>
 234                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/First_Skolelinux___Debian_Edu_Squeeze_update_released.html</guid>
 235                 <pubDate>Fri, 8 Mar 2013 09:30:00 +0100</pubDate>
 236                 <description>&lt;p&gt;Last Sunday, 2013-03-03,, Holger Levsen announced the first update
 237 of &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.skolelinux.org/&quot;&gt;Skolelinux / Debian Edu&lt;/a&gt;
 238 based on Debian Squeeze.  This is the first update since
 239 &lt;a href=&quot;http://lists.debian.org/debian-edu-announce/2012/03/msg00001.html&quot;&gt;the
 240 initial release 2012-03-11&lt;/a&gt;.  This is the
 241 &lt;a href=&quot;http://lists.debian.org/debian-edu-announce/2013/03/msg00000.html&quot;&gt;release
 242 announcement email from Holger&lt;/a&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;
 243
 244 &lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;p&gt;Hi,&lt;/p&gt;
 245
 246 &lt;p&gt;it&#39;s my pleasure to announce the immediate availability of Debian
 247 Edu 6.0.7+r1 (&quot;Debian Edu Squeeze&quot;).&lt;/p&gt;
 248
 249 &lt;p&gt;Debian Edu 6.0.7+r1 is an incremental update to Debian Edu
 250 6.0.4+r0, containing all the changes between Debian 6.0.4 and 6.0.7 as
 251 well Debian Edu specific bugfixes and enhancements. See below (in this
 252 mail) for the full list of (edu) changes.  Please see
 253 &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.debian.org/News/2012/20120311&quot;&gt;http://www.debian.org/News/2012/20120311&lt;/a&gt;
 254 for more information on &quot;Debian Edu Squeeze&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;
 255
 256 &lt;p&gt;Images are available for download at
 257 &lt;a href=&quot;http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/&quot;&gt;http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
 258
 259 &lt;p&gt;md5sums:
 260 &lt;br&gt;1fe79eb4f0f9ae1c58fc318e26cc1e2e  debian-edu-6.0.7+r1-CD.iso
 261 &lt;br&gt;a6ddd924a8bd9a1b5ca122e8fe1c34ec  debian-edu-6.0.7+r1-DVD.iso
 262 &lt;br&gt;ac6c72cd7925ccec51bfbf58e2a7c69c  debian-edu-6.0.7+r1-source-DVD.iso&lt;/p&gt;
 263
 264 &lt;p&gt;sha1sums:
 265 &lt;br&gt;a4b58233b672a99c7df8dc24fb6de3327654a5c3  debian-edu-6.0.7+r1-CD.iso
 266 &lt;br&gt;9b524915e0ff2aa793f13d93123e5bd2bab2dbaa  debian-edu-6.0.7+r1-DVD.iso
 267 &lt;br&gt;43997614893fc5e9e59ad6ce066b05d07fd836fa  debian-edu-6.0.7+r1-source-DVD.iso&lt;/p&gt;
 268
 269 &lt;p&gt;These images are suitable for amd64+i386.&lt;/p&gt;
 270
 271 &lt;p&gt;Changes for Debian Edu 6.0.7+r1 Codename &quot;Squeeze&quot;, released
 272 2013-03-03:&lt;/p&gt;
 273
 274 &lt;ul&gt;
 275   &lt;li&gt;sitesummary was updated from 0.1.3 to 0.1.8
 276   &lt;ul&gt;
 277         &lt;li&gt;Make Nagios configuration more robust and efficient&lt;/li&gt;
 278         &lt;li&gt;Comply with 3.X kernel&lt;/li&gt;
 279   &lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
 280   &lt;li&gt;debian-edu-doc from 1.4~20120310~6.0.4+r0 to 1.4~20130228~6.0.7+r1
 281   &lt;ul&gt;
 282         &lt;li&gt;Minor updates from the wiki&lt;/li&gt;
 283         &lt;li&gt;Danish translation now complete&lt;/li&gt;
 284   &lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
 285   &lt;li&gt;debian-edu-config from 1.453 to 1.455
 286      &lt;ul&gt;
 287         &lt;li&gt;Fix /etc/hosts for LTSP diskless workstations. Closes: #699880&lt;/li&gt;
 288         &lt;li&gt;Make ltsp_local_mount script work for multiple devices.&lt;/li&gt;
 289         &lt;li&gt;Correct Kerberos user policy: don&#39;t expire password after 2 days.
 290                 Closes: #664596&lt;/li&gt;
 291         &lt;li&gt;Handle &#39;#&#39; characters in the root or first users password.
 292                 Closes: #664976&lt;/li&gt;
 293         &lt;li&gt;Fixes for gosa-sync:
 294            &lt;ul&gt;
 295                 &lt;li&gt;Don&#39;t fail if password contains &quot;&lt;/li&gt;
 296                 &lt;li&gt;Don&#39;t disclose new password string in syslog&lt;/li&gt;
 297            &lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
 298         &lt;li&gt;Fixes for gosa-create:
 299            &lt;ul&gt;
 300                 &lt;li&gt;Invalidate libnss cache before applying changes&lt;/li&gt;
 301                 &lt;li&gt;Multiple failures during mass user import into GOsa²&lt;/li&gt;
 302                 &lt;li&gt;gosa-netgroups plugin: don&#39;t erase entries of attribute type
 303                          &quot;memberNisNetgroup&quot;. Closes: #687256&lt;/li&gt;
 304                 &lt;li&gt;First user now uses the same Kerberos policy as all other users&lt;/li&gt;
 305            &lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
 306         &lt;li&gt;Add Danish web page&lt;/li&gt;
 307     &lt;/ul&gt;
 308   &lt;li&gt;debian-edu-install from 1.528 to 1.530
 309     &lt;ul&gt;
 310         &lt;li&gt;Improve preseeding support and documentation&lt;/li&gt;
 311     &lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
 312 &lt;/ul&gt;
 313
 314 &lt;p&gt;End-user documentation in English is available at
 315 &lt;a href=&quot;http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Documentation/Squeeze/&quot;&gt;http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Documentation/Squeeze/&lt;/a&gt;
 316 - translations to French, Italian, Danish and German are available in
 317 the debian-edu-doc package. (Other languages could use your help!)&lt;/p&gt;
 318
 319 &lt;p&gt;If you want to contribute to Debian Edu, please join our
 320 mailinglist
 321 &lt;a href=&quot;http://lists.debian.org/debian-edu/&quot;&gt;debian-edu@lists.debian.org&lt;/a&gt;!
 322 &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
 323
 324 &lt;p&gt;I am very happy to see the fruits of a year of hard work. :)&lt;/p&gt;
 325 </description>
 326         </item>
 327
 328         <item>
 329                 <title>Frikanalen - Complete TV station organised using the web</title>
 330                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Frikanalen___Complete_TV_station_organised_using_the_web.html</link>
 331                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Frikanalen___Complete_TV_station_organised_using_the_web.html</guid>
 332                 <pubDate>Sun, 3 Mar 2013 07:15:00 +0100</pubDate>
 333                 <description>&lt;p&gt;Do you want to set up your own TV station, schedule videos and
 334 broadcast them on the air?  Using free software?  With video on demand
 335 support using
 336 &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.digistan.org/open-standard:definition&quot;&gt;free and
 337 open standards&lt;/a&gt;?  Included a web based video stream as well?  And
 338 administrate it all in your web browser from anywhere in the world?  A
 339 few years now the Norwegian public access TV-channel
 340 &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.frikanalen.no/&quot;&gt;Frikanalen&lt;/a&gt; have been building a
 341 system to do just this.  The source code for the solution is licensed
 342 using the GNU LGPL, and
 343 &lt;a href=&quot;http://github.com/Frikanalen&quot;&gt;available from github&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
 344
 345 &lt;p&gt;The idea is simple.  You upload a video file over the web, and
 346 attach meta information to the file.  You select a time slot in the
 347 program schedule, and when the time come it is played on the air and
 348 in the web stream.  It is also made available in a video on demand
 349 solution for anyone to see it also outside its scheduled time.  All
 350 you need to run a TV station - using your web browser.&lt;/p&gt;
 351
 352 &lt;p&gt;There are several parts to this web based solution.  I&#39;ll mention
 353 the three most important ones.  The first part is the database of
 354 videos and the schedule.  This is written in Django and include a REST
 355 API.  The current database is SQLite, but the plan is to migrate it to
 356 PostgreSQL.  At the moment this system can be tested on
 357 &lt;a href=&quot;http://beta.frikanalen.tv/&quot;&gt;beta.frikanalen.tv&lt;/a&gt;.  The
 358 second part is the video playout, taking the schedule information from
 359 the database and providing a video stream to broadcast.  This is done
 360 using &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.casparcg.com/&quot;&gt;CasparCG from SVT&lt;/a&gt; and
 361 &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.mltframework.org/&quot;&gt;Media Lovin&#39; Toolkit&lt;/a&gt;.  Video
 362 signal distribution is handled using
 363 &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.ob-encoder.com/&quot;&gt;Open Broadcast Encoder&lt;/a&gt;.  The
 364 third part is the converter, handling the transformation of uploaded
 365 video files to a format useful for broadcasting, streaming and video
 366 on demand.  It is still very much work in progress, so it is not yet
 367 decided what it will end up using.  Note that the source of the latter
 368 two parts are not yet pushed to github.  The lead author want to clean
 369 them up a bit more first.&lt;/p&gt;
 370
 371 &lt;p&gt;The development is coordinated on the
 372 &lt;a href=&quot;irc://irc.freenode.net/%23frikanalen&quot;&gt;#frikanalen IRC
 373 channel&lt;/a&gt; (irc.freenode.net), and discussed on
 374 &lt;a href=&quot;http://lists.nuug.no/mailman/listinfo/frikanalen&quot;&gt;the
 375 frikanalen mailing list&lt;/a&gt;. The lead developer is Benjamin Bruheim
 376 (phed on IRC).  Anyone is welcome to participate in the
 377 development.&lt;/p&gt;
 378 </description>
 379         </item>
 380
 381         <item>
 382                 <title>Dr. Richard Stallman, founder of Free Software Foundation, give a talk in Oslo March 1st 2013</title>
 383                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Dr__Richard_Stallman__founder_of_Free_Software_Foundation__give_a_talk_in_Oslo_March_1st_2013.html</link>
 384                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Dr__Richard_Stallman__founder_of_Free_Software_Foundation__give_a_talk_in_Oslo_March_1st_2013.html</guid>
 385                 <pubDate>Wed, 27 Feb 2013 20:20:00 +0100</pubDate>
 386                 <description>&lt;p&gt;Dr. &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.stallman.org/&quot;&gt;Richard Stallman&lt;/a&gt;,
 387 founder of &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.fsf.org/&quot;&gt;Free Software Foundation&lt;/a&gt;,
 388 is giving &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.nuug.no/aktiviteter/20130301-rms/&quot;&gt;a
 389 talk in Oslo March 1st 2013 17:00 to 19:00&lt;/a&gt;.  The event is public
 390 and organised by &lt;a href=&quot;&quot;&gt;Norwegian Unix Users Group (NUUG)&lt;/a&gt;
 391 (where I am the chair of the board) and
 392 &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.friprog.no/&quot;&gt;The Norwegian Open Source Competence
 393 Center&lt;/a&gt;.  The title of the talk is «The Free Software Movement and
 394 GNU», with this description:
 395
 396 &lt;p&gt;&lt;blockquote&gt;
 397 The Free Software Movement campaigns for computer users&#39; freedom to
 398 cooperate and control their own computing. The Free Software Movement
 399 developed the GNU operating system, typically used together with the
 400 kernel Linux, specifically to make these freedoms possible.
 401 &lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
 402
 403 &lt;p&gt;The meeting is open for everyone.  Due to space limitations, the
 404 doors opens for NUUG members at 16:15, and everyone else at 16:45.  I
 405 am really curious how many will show up.  See
 406 &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.nuug.no/aktiviteter/20130301-rms/&quot;&gt;the event
 407 page&lt;/a&gt; for the location details.&lt;/p&gt;
 408 </description>
 409         </item>
 410
 411         <item>
 412                 <title>Frikart - Free Garmin maps for European countries based on OpenStreetmap</title>
 413                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Frikart___Free_Garmin_maps_for_European_countries_based_on_OpenStreetmap.html</link>
 414                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Frikart___Free_Garmin_maps_for_European_countries_based_on_OpenStreetmap.html</guid>
 415                 <pubDate>Fri, 15 Feb 2013 09:30:00 +0100</pubDate>
 416                 <description>&lt;p&gt;If you, like me, want an updated a map for your Garmin GPS, there is
 417 now a great source of free maps available from
 418 &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.frikart.no/garmin/index.html&quot;&gt;Frikart&lt;/a&gt;.  To
 419 download a map, just click on the country you are interested in, and
 420 download the map type you want.  There are 8 different maps available,
 421 using different colours and data selection.  Pick one of Roadmap, Topo
 422 Summer, Topo Winter, Roadmap II, Topo Summer II, Topo Winter II,
 423 &quot;Trails - overlay map&quot; and &quot;Cross country - overlay map&quot; (see the web
 424 page for descriptions).&lt;/p&gt;
 425
 426 &lt;p&gt;The maps are updated weekly, so if you find something wrong in the
 427 map you can just edit the
 428 &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.openstreetmap.org/&quot;&gt;OpenStreetmap&lt;/a&gt; map source
 429 (anyone can contribute) and fetch a fixed map a week later. :)&lt;/p&gt;
 430 </description>
 431         </item>
 432
 433         <item>
 434                 <title>&quot;Electronic&quot; paper invoices - using vCard in a QR code</title>
 435                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/_Electronic__paper_invoices___using_vCard_in_a_QR_code.html</link>
 436                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/_Electronic__paper_invoices___using_vCard_in_a_QR_code.html</guid>
 437                 <pubDate>Tue, 12 Feb 2013 10:30:00 +0100</pubDate>
 438                 <description>&lt;p&gt;Here in Norway, electronic invoices are spreading, and the
 439 &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.anskaffelser.no/e-handel/faktura&quot;&gt;solution promoted
 440 by the Norwegian government&lt;/a&gt; require that invoices are sent through
 441 one of the approved facilitators, and it is not possible to send
 442 electronic invoices without an agreement with one of these
 443 facilitators.  This seem like a needless limitation to be able to
 444 transfer invoice information between buyers and sellers.  My preferred
 445 solution would be to just transfer the invoice information directly
 446 between seller and buyer, for example using SMTP, or some HTTP based
 447 protocol like REST or SOAP.  But this might also be overkill, as the
 448 &quot;electronic&quot; information can be transferred using paper invoices too,
 449 using a simple bar code.  My bar code encoding of choice would be QR
 450 codes, as this encoding can be read by any smart phone out there.  The
 451 content of the code could be anything, but I would go with
 452 &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VCard&quot;&gt;the vCard format&lt;/a&gt;, as
 453 it too is supported by a lot of computer equipment these days.&lt;/p&gt;
 454
 455 &lt;p&gt;The vCard format support extentions, and the invoice specific
 456 information can be included using such extentions.  For example an
 457 invoice from SLX Debian Labs (picked because we
 458 &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.linuxiskolen.no/slxdebianlabs/donations.html&quot;&gt;ask
 459 for donations to the Debian Edu project&lt;/a&gt; and thus have bank account
 460 information publicly available) for NOK 1000.00 could have these extra
 461 fields:&lt;/p&gt;
 462
 463 &lt;p&gt;&lt;pre&gt;
 464 X-INVOICE-NUMBER:1
 465 X-INVOICE-AMOUNT:NOK1000.00
 466 X-INVOICE-KID:123412341234
 467 X-INVOICE-MSG:Donation to Debian Edu
 468 X-BANK-ACCOUNT-NUMBER:16040884339
 469 X-BANK-IBAN-NUMBER:NO8516040884339
 470 X-BANK-SWIFT-NUMBER:DNBANOKKXXX
 471 &lt;/pre&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
 472
 473 &lt;p&gt;The X-BANK-ACCOUNT-NUMBER field was proposed in a stackoverflow
 474 answer regarding
 475 &lt;a href=&quot;http://stackoverflow.com/questions/10045664/storing-bank-account-in-vcard-file&quot;&gt;how
 476 to put bank account information into a vCard&lt;/a&gt;.  For payments in
 477 Norway, either X-INVOICE-KID (payment ID) or X-INVOICE-MSG could be
 478 used to pass on information to the seller when paying the invoice.&lt;/p&gt;
 479
 480 &lt;p&gt;The complete vCard could look like this:&lt;/p&gt;
 481
 482 &lt;p&gt;&lt;pre&gt;
 483 BEGIN:VCARD
 484 VERSION:2.1
 485 ORG:SLX Debian Labs Foundation
 486 ADR;WORK:;;Gunnar Schjelderups vei 29D;OSLO;;0485;Norway
 487 URL;WORK:http://www.linuxiskolen.no/slxdebianlabs/
 488 EMAIL;PREF;INTERNET:sdl-styret@rt.nuug.no
 489 REV:20130212T095000Z
 490 X-INVOICE-NUMBER:1
 491 X-INVOICE-AMOUNT:NOK1000.00
 492 X-INVOICE-MSG:Donation to Debian Edu
 493 X-BANK-ACCOUNT-NUMBER:16040884339
 494 X-BANK-IBAN-NUMBER:NO8516040884339
 495 X-BANK-SWIFT-NUMBER:DNBANOKKXXX
 496 END:VCARD
 497 &lt;/pre&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
 498
 499 &lt;p&gt;The resulting QR code created using
 500 &lt;a href=&quot;http://fukuchi.org/works/qrencode/&quot;&gt;qrencode&lt;/a&gt; would look
 501 like this, and should be readable (and thus checkable) by any smart
 502 phone, or for example the &lt;a href=&quot;http://zbar.sourceforge.net/&quot;&gt;zbar
 503 bar code reader&lt;/a&gt; and feed right into the approval and accounting
 504 system.&lt;/p&gt;
 505
 506 &lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-02-12-qr-invoice.png&quot;&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
 507
 508 &lt;p&gt;The extension fields will most likely not show up in any normal
 509 vCard reader, so those parts would have to go directly into a system
 510 handling invoices.  I am a bit unsure how vCards without name parts
 511 are handled, but a simple test indicate that this work just fine.&lt;/p&gt;
 512
 513 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Update 2013-02-12 11:30&lt;/strong&gt;: Added KID to the proposal
 514 based on feedback from Sturle Sunde.&lt;/p&gt;
 515 </description>
 516         </item>
 517
 518         <item>
 519                 <title>Sleep until morning - home automation for the kids</title>
 520                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Sleep_until_morning___home_automation_for_the_kids.html</link>
 521                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Sleep_until_morning___home_automation_for_the_kids.html</guid>
 522                 <pubDate>Sun, 10 Feb 2013 12:50:00 +0100</pubDate>
 523                 <description>&lt;p&gt;&lt;img align=&quot;left&quot; style=&quot;margin-right:25px;&quot; src=&quot;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-02-10-morning-light.jpeg&quot;&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
 524
 525 &lt;p&gt;With kids in the house, one challenge is getting them to sleep
 526 during the night and wake up when it is morning.  I mean, when I
 527 believe it is morning, and not two hours earlier.  In our household we
 528 have decided that 07:00 is the turning point, but getting the kids to
 529 sleep until 07:00 is a small challenge every day.  They have adapted
 530 quite well, and rarely wake up at 05:00 any more, but some times wake
 531 up at times like 05:50, 06:15, 06:30 or 06:45, and it is hard to put
 532 the awake one to bed again without disturbing and waking the rest.
 533 And I understand perfectly well that they fail to sleep until 07:00
 534 some times, as there is no way for them to know if it is before or
 535 after the magic moment without coming and asking us parents.&lt;/p&gt;
 536
 537 &lt;p&gt;But yesterday I came up with a method to solve this problem.  It
 538 involve home automation.  A few years ago I bought a
 539 &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.telldus.se/products/tellstick&quot;&gt;Tellstick&lt;/a&gt; and RF
 540 switches at the local &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.clasohlson.com/&quot;&gt;Clas
 541 Ohlson&lt;/a&gt; shop, allowing me to control lights and other electrical
 542 gadgets using my Linux server.  When I moved from the old flat to a
 543 small house, I put away all this equipment as most of the lighting in
 544 the house was not using wall sockets and thus not easy to connect to
 545 the gadgets I had.  But recently I bought a
 546 &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.telldus.se/products/tellstick_net&quot;&gt;Tellstick
 547 Net&lt;/a&gt; to be able to read sensor input as well as control power
 548 sockets.  I want to control ovens in the basement to avoid the pipes
 549 to freeze, and monitor the humidity to detect flooding.  The default
 550 setup for Tellstick Net is to be controlled by the vendor web service,
 551 which to me is a security problem, but it is also possible to build
 552 ones own
 553 &lt;a href=&quot;http://developer.telldus.com/blog/2012/03/02/help-us-develop-local-access-using-tellstick-net-build-your-own-firmware&quot;&gt;firmware
 554 with local access&lt;/A&gt; instead of being controlled by a Swedish
 555 company, thanks to the release of the GPL licensed firmware source
 556 code.  I plan to get that running before I let it control anything
 557 important.  But while working on this, one idea to make it easier for
 558 the kids came to me yesterday.  We can set up a night light controlled
 559 by the computer, and turn it automatically on at 07:00.  The kids can
 560 then check the light in the morning to know if they are supposed to
 561 get up or not.  They joined me in setting everything up, and I
 562 repeated the concept several times before bed times to make sure they
 563 remembered to check the light before getting up in the morning.&lt;/p&gt;
 564
 565 &lt;p&gt;We tested it this morning, and all the kids stayed in bed until
 566 after 07:00, and every one of them commented on the fact that the
 567 &quot;morning light&quot; was turned on and signalled that the morning had
 568 arrived.  So this look like a success, and I am excited to see how
 569 this develops the next few days. :) I really hope this can allow us
 570 all to sleep a bit longer in the morning.&lt;/p&gt;
 571
 572 &lt;p&gt;A nice advantage of this setup is that we can remote control when
 573 to tell the kids to get up.  We do not have to wait until 07:00, and
 574 can also delay it if we want to.&lt;/p&gt;
 575 </description>
 576         </item>
 577
 578         <item>
 579                 <title>Bitcoin GUI now available from Debian/unstable (and Ubuntu/raring)</title>
 580                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Bitcoin_GUI_now_available_from_Debian_unstable__and_Ubuntu_raring_.html</link>
 581                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Bitcoin_GUI_now_available_from_Debian_unstable__and_Ubuntu_raring_.html</guid>
 582                 <pubDate>Sat, 2 Feb 2013 09:00:00 +0100</pubDate>
 583                 <description>&lt;p&gt;My
 584 &lt;a href=&quot;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_backport_bitcoin_qt_version_0_7_2_2_to_Debian_Squeeze.html&quot;&gt;last
 585 bitcoin related blog post&lt;/a&gt; mentioned that the new
 586 &lt;a href=&quot;http://packages.qa.debian.org/bitcoin&quot;&gt;bitcoin package&lt;/a&gt; for
 587 Debian was waiting in NEW.  It was accepted by the Debian ftp-masters
 588 2013-01-19, and have been available in unstable since then.  It was
 589 automatically copied to Ubuntu, and is available in their Raring
 590 version too.&lt;/p&gt;
 591
 592 &lt;p&gt;But there is a strange problem with the build that block this new
 593 version from being available on the i386 and kfreebsd-i386
 594 architectures.  For some strange reason, the autobuilders in Debian
 595 for these architectures fail to run the test suite on these
 596 architectures (&lt;a href=&quot;http://bugs.debian.org/672524&quot;&gt;BTS #672524&lt;/a&gt;).
 597 We are so far unable to reproduce it when building it manually, and
 598 no-one have been able to propose a fix.  If you got an idea what is
 599 failing, please let us know via the BTS.&lt;/p&gt;
 600
 601 &lt;p&gt;One feature that is annoying me with of the bitcoin client, because
 602 I often run low on disk space, is the fact that the client will exit
 603 if it run short on space (&lt;a href=&quot;http://bugs.debian.org/696715&quot;&gt;BTS
 604 #696715&lt;/a&gt;).  So make sure you have enough disk space when you run
 605 it. :)&lt;/p&gt;
 606
 607 &lt;p&gt;As usual, if you use bitcoin and want to show your support of my
 608 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
 609 &lt;b&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b&amp;label=PetterReinholdtsenBlog&quot;&gt;15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/b&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
 610 </description>
 611         </item>
 612
 613         <item>
 614                 <title>Welcome to the world, Isenkram!</title>
 615                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Welcome_to_the_world__Isenkram_.html</link>
 616                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Welcome_to_the_world__Isenkram_.html</guid>
 617                 <pubDate>Tue, 22 Jan 2013 22:00:00 +0100</pubDate>
 618                 <description>&lt;p&gt;Yesterday, I
 619 &lt;a href=&quot;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/First_prototype_ready_making_hardware_easier_to_use_in_Debian.html&quot;&gt;asked
 620 for testers&lt;/a&gt; for my prototype for making Debian better at handling
 621 pluggable hardware devices, which I
 622 &lt;a href=&quot;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lets_make_hardware_dongles_easier_to_use_in_Debian.html&quot;&gt;set
 623 out to create&lt;/a&gt; earlier this month.  Several valuable testers showed
 624 up, and caused me to really want to to open up the development to more
 625 people.  But before I did this, I want to come up with a sensible name
 626 for this project.  Today I finally decided on a new name, and I have
 627 renamed the project from hw-support-handler to this new name.  In the
 628 process, I moved the source to git and made it available as a
 629 &lt;a href=&quot;http://anonscm.debian.org/gitweb/?p=collab-maint/isenkram.git&quot;&gt;collab-maint&lt;/a&gt;
 630 repository in Debian.  The new name?  It is &lt;strong&gt;Isenkram&lt;/strong&gt;.
 631 To fetch and build the latest version of the source, use&lt;/p&gt;
 632
 633 &lt;pre&gt;
 634 git clone http://anonscm.debian.org/git/collab-maint/isenkram.git
 635 cd isenkram &amp;&amp; git-buildpackage -us -uc
 636 &lt;/pre&gt;
 637
 638 &lt;p&gt;I have not yet adjusted all files to use the new name yet.  If you
 639 want to hack on the source or improve the package, please go ahead.
 640 But please talk to me first on IRC or via email before you do major
 641 changes, to make sure we do not step on each others toes. :)&lt;/p&gt;
 642
 643 &lt;p&gt;If you wonder what &#39;isenkram&#39; is, it is a Norwegian word for iron
 644 stuff, typically meaning tools, nails, screws, etc.  Typical hardware
 645 stuff, in other words.  I&#39;ve been told it is the Norwegian variant of
 646 the German word eisenkram, for those that are familiar with that
 647 word.&lt;/p&gt;
 648
 649 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Update 2013-01-26&lt;/strong&gt;: Added -us -us to build
 650 instructions, to avoid confusing people with an error from the signing
 651 process.&lt;/p&gt;
 652
 653 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Update 2013-01-27&lt;/strong&gt;: Switch to HTTP URL for the git
 654 clone argument to avoid the need for authentication.&lt;/p&gt;
 655 </description>
 656         </item>
 657
 658         <item>
 659                 <title>First prototype ready making hardware easier to use in Debian</title>
 660                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/First_prototype_ready_making_hardware_easier_to_use_in_Debian.html</link>
 661                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/First_prototype_ready_making_hardware_easier_to_use_in_Debian.html</guid>
 662                 <pubDate>Mon, 21 Jan 2013 12:00:00 +0100</pubDate>
 663                 <description>&lt;p&gt;Early this month I set out to try to
 664 &lt;a href=&quot;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lets_make_hardware_dongles_easier_to_use_in_Debian.html&quot;&gt;improve
 665 the Debian support for pluggable hardware devices&lt;/a&gt;.  Now my
 666 prototype is working, and it is ready for a larger audience.  To test
 667 it, fetch the
 668 &lt;a href=&quot;http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/&quot;&gt;source
 669 from the Debian Edu subversion repository&lt;/a&gt;, build and install the
 670 package.  You might have to log out and in again activate the
 671 autostart script.&lt;/p&gt;
 672
 673 &lt;p&gt;The design is simple:&lt;/p&gt;
 674
 675 &lt;ul&gt;
 676
 677 &lt;li&gt;Add desktop entry in /usr/share/autostart/ causing a program
 678 hw-support-handlerd to start when the user log in.&lt;/li&gt;
 679
 680 &lt;li&gt;This program listen for kernel events about new hardware (directly
 681 from the kernel like udev does), not using HAL dbus events as I
 682 initially did.&lt;/li&gt;
 683
 684 &lt;li&gt;When new hardware is inserted, look up the hardware modalias in
 685 the APT database, a database
 686 &lt;a href=&quot;http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/modaliases?view=markup&quot;&gt;available
 687 via HTTP&lt;/a&gt; and a database available as part of the package.&lt;/li&gt;
 688
 689 &lt;li&gt;If a package is mapped to the hardware in question, the package
 690 isn&#39;t installed yet and this is the first time the hardware was
 691 plugged in, show a desktop notification suggesting to install the
 692 package or packages.&lt;/li&gt;
 693
 694 &lt;li&gt;If the user click on the &#39;install package now&#39; button, ask
 695 aptdaemon via the PackageKit API to install the requrired package.&lt;/li&gt;
 696
 697 &lt;li&gt;aptdaemon ask for root password or sudo password, and install the
 698 package while showing progress information in a window.&lt;/li&gt;
 699
 700 &lt;/ul&gt;
 701
 702 &lt;p&gt;I still need to come up with a better name for the system.  Here
 703 are some screen shots showing the prototype in action.  First the
 704 notification, then the password request, and finally the request to
 705 approve all the dependencies.  Sorry for the Norwegian Bokmål GUI.&lt;/p&gt;
 706
 707 &lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-01-21-hw-support-1-notification.png&quot;&gt;
 708 &lt;br&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-01-21-hw-support-2-password.png&quot;&gt;
 709 &lt;br&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-01-21-hw-support-3-dependencies.png&quot;&gt;
 710 &lt;br&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-01-21-hw-support-4-installing.png&quot;&gt;
 711 &lt;br&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-01-21-hw-support-5-installing-details.png&quot; width=&quot;70%&quot;&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
 712
 713 &lt;p&gt;The prototype still need to be improved with longer timeouts, but
 714 is already useful.  The database of hardware to package mappings also
 715 need more work.  It is currently compatible with the Ubuntu way of
 716 storing such information in the package control file, but could be
 717 changed to use other formats instead or in addition to the current
 718 method.  I&#39;ve dropped the use of discover for this mapping, as the
 719 modalias approach is more flexible and easier to use on Linux as long
 720 as the Linux kernel expose its modalias strings directly.&lt;/p&gt;
 721
 722 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Update 2013-01-21 16:50&lt;/strong&gt;: Due to popular demand,
 723 here is the command required to check out and build the source: Use
 724 &#39;&lt;tt&gt;svn checkout
 725 svn://svn.debian.org/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/; cd
 726 hw-support-handler; debuild&lt;/tt&gt;&#39;.  If you lack debuild, install the
 727 devscripts package.&lt;/p&gt;
 728
 729 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Update 2013-01-23 12:00&lt;/strong&gt;: The project is now
 730 renamed to Isenkram and the source moved from the Debian Edu
 731 subversion repository to a Debian collab-maint git repository.  See
 732 &lt;a href=&quot;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Welcome_to_the_world__Isenkram_.html&quot;&gt;build
 733 instructions&lt;/a&gt; for details.&lt;/p&gt;
 734 </description>
 735         </item>
 736
 737         <item>
 738                 <title>Thank you Thinkpad X41, for your long and trustworthy service</title>
 739                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Thank_you_Thinkpad_X41__for_your_long_and_trustworthy_service.html</link>
 740                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Thank_you_Thinkpad_X41__for_your_long_and_trustworthy_service.html</guid>
 741                 <pubDate>Sat, 19 Jan 2013 09:20:00 +0100</pubDate>
 742                 <description>&lt;p&gt;This Christmas my trusty old laptop died.  It died quietly and
 743 suddenly in bed.  With a quiet whimper, it went completely quiet and
 744 black.  The power button was no longer able to turn it on.  It was a
 745 IBM Thinkpad X41, and the best laptop I ever had.  Better than both
 746 Thinkpads X30, X31, X40, X60, X61 and X61S.  Far better than the
 747 Compaq I had before that.  Now I need to find a replacement.  To keep
 748 going during Christmas, I moved the one year old SSD disk to my old
 749 X40 where it fitted (only one I had left that could use it), but it is
 750 not a durable solution.
 751
 752 &lt;p&gt;My laptop needs are fairly modest.  This is my wishlist from when I
 753 got a new one more than 10 years ago.  It still holds true.:)&lt;/p&gt;
 754
 755 &lt;ul&gt;
 756
 757 &lt;li&gt;Lightweight (around 1 kg) and small volume (preferably smaller
 758   than A4).&lt;/li&gt;
 759 &lt;li&gt;Robust, it will be in my backpack every day.&lt;/li&gt;
 760 &lt;li&gt;Three button mouse and a mouse pin instead of touch pad.&lt;/li&gt;
 761 &lt;li&gt;Long battery life time.  Preferable a week.&lt;/li&gt;
 762 &lt;li&gt;Internal WIFI network card.&lt;/li&gt;
 763 &lt;li&gt;Internal Twisted Pair network card.&lt;/li&gt;
 764 &lt;li&gt;Some USB slots (2-3 is plenty)&lt;/li&gt;
 765 &lt;li&gt;Good keyboard - similar to the Thinkpad.&lt;/li&gt;
 766 &lt;li&gt;Video resolution at least 1024x768, with size around 12&quot; (A4 paper
 767 size).&lt;/li&gt;
 768 &lt;li&gt;Hardware supported by Debian Stable, ie the default kernel and
 769   X.org packages.&lt;/li&gt;
 770 &lt;li&gt;Quiet, preferably fan free (or at least not using the fan most of
 771   the time).
 772
 773 &lt;/ul&gt;
 774
 775 &lt;p&gt;You will notice that there are no RAM and CPU requirements in the
 776 list.  The reason is simply that the specifications on laptops the
 777 last 10-15 years have been sufficient for my needs, and I have to look
 778 at other features to choose my laptop.  But are there still made as
 779 robust laptops as my X41?  The Thinkpad X60/X61 proved to be less
 780 robust, and Thinkpads seem to be heading in the wrong direction since
 781 Lenovo took over.  But I&#39;ve been told that X220 and X1 Carbon might
 782 still be useful.&lt;/p&gt;
 783
 784 &lt;p&gt;Perhaps I should rethink my needs, and look for a pad with an
 785 external keyboard?  I&#39;ll have to check the
 786 &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.linux-laptop.net/&quot;&gt;Linux Laptops site&lt;/a&gt; for
 787 well-supported laptops, or perhaps just buy one preinstalled from one
 788 of the vendors listed on the &lt;a href=&quot;http://linuxpreloaded.com/&quot;&gt;Linux
 789 Pre-loaded site&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
 790 </description>
 791         </item>
 792
 793         <item>
 794                 <title>How to find a browser plugin supporting a given MIME type</title>
 795                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_find_a_browser_plugin_supporting_a_given_MIME_type.html</link>
 796                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_find_a_browser_plugin_supporting_a_given_MIME_type.html</guid>
 797                 <pubDate>Fri, 18 Jan 2013 10:40:00 +0100</pubDate>
 798                 <description>&lt;p&gt;Some times I try to figure out which Iceweasel browser plugin to
 799 install to get support for a given MIME type.  Thanks to
 800 &lt;a href=&quot;https://wiki.ubuntu.com/MozillaTeam/Plugins&quot;&gt;specifications
 801 done by Ubuntu&lt;/a&gt; and Mozilla, it is possible to do this in Debian.
 802 Unfortunately, not very many packages provide the needed meta
 803 information, Anyway, here is a small script to look up all browser
 804 plugin packages announcing ther MIME support using this specification:&lt;/p&gt;
 805
 806 &lt;pre&gt;
 807 #!/usr/bin/python
 808 import sys
 809 import apt
 810 def pkgs_handling_mimetype(mimetype):
 811     cache = apt.Cache()
 812     cache.open(None)
 813     thepkgs = []
 814     for pkg in cache:
 815         version = pkg.candidate
 816         if version is None:
 817             version = pkg.installed
 818         if version is None:
 819             continue
 820         record = version.record
 821         if not record.has_key(&#39;Npp-MimeType&#39;):
 822             continue
 823         mime_types = record[&#39;Npp-MimeType&#39;].split(&#39;,&#39;)
 824         for t in mime_types:
 825             t = t.rstrip().strip()
 826             if t == mimetype:
 827                 thepkgs.append(pkg.name)
 828     return thepkgs
 829 mimetype = &quot;audio/ogg&quot;
 830 if 1 &lt; len(sys.argv):
 831     mimetype = sys.argv[1]
 832 print &quot;Browser plugin packages supporting %s:&quot; % mimetype
 833 for pkg in pkgs_handling_mimetype(mimetype):
 834     print &quot;  %s&quot; %pkg
 835 &lt;/pre&gt;
 836
 837 &lt;p&gt;It can be used like this to look up a given MIME type:&lt;/p&gt;
 838
 839 &lt;pre&gt;
 840 % ./apt-find-browserplug-for-mimetype
 841 Browser plugin packages supporting audio/ogg:
 842   gecko-mediaplayer
 843 % ./apt-find-browserplug-for-mimetype application/x-shockwave-flash
 844 Browser plugin packages supporting application/x-shockwave-flash:
 845   browser-plugin-gnash
 846 %
 847 &lt;/pre&gt;
 848
 849 &lt;p&gt;In Ubuntu this mechanism is combined with support in the browser
 850 itself to query for plugins and propose to install the needed
 851 packages.  It would be great if Debian supported such feature too.  Is
 852 anyone working on adding it?&lt;/p&gt;
 853
 854 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Update 2013-01-18 14:20&lt;/strong&gt;: The Debian BTS
 855 request for icweasel support for this feature is
 856 &lt;a href=&quot;http://bugs.debian.org/484010&quot;&gt;#484010&lt;/a&gt; from 2008 (and
 857 &lt;a href=&quot;http://bugs.debian.org/698426&quot;&gt;#698426&lt;/a&gt; from today).  Lack
 858 of manpower and wish for a different design is the reason thus feature
 859 is not yet in iceweasel from Debian.&lt;/p&gt;
 860 </description>
 861         </item>
 862
 863         <item>
 864                 <title>What is the most supported MIME type in Debian?</title>
 865                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/What_is_the_most_supported_MIME_type_in_Debian_.html</link>
 866                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/What_is_the_most_supported_MIME_type_in_Debian_.html</guid>
 867                 <pubDate>Wed, 16 Jan 2013 10:10:00 +0100</pubDate>
 868                 <description>&lt;p&gt;The &lt;a href=&quot;http://wiki.debian.org/AppStreamDebianProposal&quot;&gt;DEP-11
 869 proposal to add AppStream information to the Debian archive&lt;/a&gt;, is a
 870 proposal to make it possible for a Desktop application to propose to
 871 the user some package to install to gain support for a given MIME
 872 type, font, library etc. that is currently missing.  With such
 873 mechanism in place, it would be possible for the desktop to
 874 automatically propose and install leocad if some LDraw file is
 875 downloaded by the browser.&lt;/p&gt;
 876
 877 &lt;p&gt;To get some idea about the current content of the archive, I decided
 878 to write a simple program to extract all .desktop files from the
 879 Debian archive and look up the claimed MIME support there.  The result
 880 can be found on the
 881 &lt;a href=&quot;http://ftp.skolelinux.org/pub/AppStreamTest&quot;&gt;Skolelinux FTP
 882 site&lt;/a&gt;.  Using the collected information, it become possible to
 883 answer the question in the title.  Here are the 20 most supported MIME
 884 types in Debian stable (Squeeze), testing (Wheezy) and unstable (Sid).
 885 The complete list is available from the link above.&lt;/p&gt;
 886
 887 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Debian Stable:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
 888
 889 &lt;pre&gt;
 890   count MIME type
 891   ----- -----------------------
 892      32 text/plain
 893      30 audio/mpeg
 894      29 image/png
 895      28 image/jpeg
 896      27 application/ogg
 897      26 audio/x-mp3
 898      25 image/tiff
 899      25 image/gif
 900      22 image/bmp
 901      22 audio/x-wav
 902      20 audio/x-flac
 903      19 audio/x-mpegurl
 904      18 video/x-ms-asf
 905      18 audio/x-musepack
 906      18 audio/x-mpeg
 907      18 application/x-ogg
 908      17 video/mpeg
 909      17 audio/x-scpls
 910      17 audio/ogg
 911      16 video/x-ms-wmv
 912 &lt;/pre&gt;
 913
 914 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Debian Testing:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
 915
 916 &lt;pre&gt;
 917   count MIME type
 918   ----- -----------------------
 919      33 text/plain
 920      32 image/png
 921      32 image/jpeg
 922      29 audio/mpeg
 923      27 image/gif
 924      26 image/tiff
 925      26 application/ogg
 926      25 audio/x-mp3
 927      22 image/bmp
 928      21 audio/x-wav
 929      19 audio/x-mpegurl
 930      19 audio/x-mpeg
 931      18 video/mpeg
 932      18 audio/x-scpls
 933      18 audio/x-flac
 934      18 application/x-ogg
 935      17 video/x-ms-asf
 936      17 text/html
 937      17 audio/x-musepack
 938      16 image/x-xbitmap
 939 &lt;/pre&gt;
 940
 941 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Debian Unstable:&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
 942
 943 &lt;pre&gt;
 944   count MIME type
 945   ----- -----------------------
 946      31 text/plain
 947      31 image/png
 948      31 image/jpeg
 949      29 audio/mpeg
 950      28 application/ogg
 951      27 image/gif
 952      26 image/tiff
 953      26 audio/x-mp3
 954      23 audio/x-wav
 955      22 image/bmp
 956      21 audio/x-flac
 957      20 audio/x-mpegurl
 958      19 audio/x-mpeg
 959      18 video/x-ms-asf
 960      18 video/mpeg
 961      18 audio/x-scpls
 962      18 application/x-ogg
 963      17 audio/x-musepack
 964      16 video/x-ms-wmv
 965      16 video/x-msvideo
 966 &lt;/pre&gt;
 967
 968 &lt;p&gt;I am told that PackageKit can provide an API to access the kind of
 969 information mentioned in DEP-11.  I have not yet had time to look at
 970 it, but hope the PackageKit people in Debian are on top of these
 971 issues.&lt;/p&gt;
 972
 973 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Update 2013-01-16 13:35&lt;/strong&gt;: Updated numbers after
 974 discovering a typo in my script.&lt;/p&gt;
 975 </description>
 976         </item>
 977
 978         <item>
 979                 <title>Using modalias info to find packages handling my hardware</title>
 980                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Using_modalias_info_to_find_packages_handling_my_hardware.html</link>
 981                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Using_modalias_info_to_find_packages_handling_my_hardware.html</guid>
 982                 <pubDate>Tue, 15 Jan 2013 08:00:00 +0100</pubDate>
 983                 <description>&lt;p&gt;Yesterday, I wrote about the
 984 &lt;a href=&quot;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Modalias_strings___a_practical_way_to_map__stuff__to_hardware.html&quot;&gt;modalias
 985 values provided by the Linux kernel&lt;/a&gt; following my hope for
 986 &lt;a href=&quot;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lets_make_hardware_dongles_easier_to_use_in_Debian.html&quot;&gt;better
 987 dongle support in Debian&lt;/a&gt;.  Using this knowledge, I have tested how
 988 modalias values attached to package names can be used to map packages
 989 to hardware.  This allow the system to look up and suggest relevant
 990 packages when I plug in some new hardware into my machine, and replace
 991 discover and discover-data as the database used to map hardware to
 992 packages.&lt;/p&gt;
 993
 994 &lt;p&gt;I create a modaliases file with entries like the following,
 995 containing package name, kernel module name (if relevant, otherwise
 996 the package name) and globs matching the relevant hardware
 997 modalias.&lt;/p&gt;
 998
 999 &lt;p&gt;&lt;blockquote&gt;
1000 Package: package-name
1001 &lt;br&gt;Modaliases: module(modaliasglob, modaliasglob, modaliasglob)&lt;/p&gt;
1002 &lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
1003
1004 &lt;p&gt;It is fairly trivial to write code to find the relevant packages
1005 for a given modalias value using this file.&lt;/p&gt;
1006
1007 &lt;p&gt;An entry like this would suggest the video and picture application
1008 cheese for many USB web cameras (interface bus class 0E01):&lt;/p&gt;
1009
1010 &lt;p&gt;&lt;blockquote&gt;
1011 Package: cheese
1012 &lt;br&gt;Modaliases: cheese(usb:v*p*d*dc*dsc*dp*ic0Eisc01ip*)&lt;/p&gt;
1013 &lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
1014
1015 &lt;p&gt;An entry like this would suggest the pcmciautils package when a
1016 CardBus bridge (bus class 0607) PCI device is present:&lt;/p&gt;
1017
1018 &lt;p&gt;&lt;blockquote&gt;
1019 Package: pcmciautils
1020 &lt;br&gt;Modaliases: pcmciautils(pci:v*d*sv*sd*bc06sc07i*)
1021 &lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
1022
1023 &lt;p&gt;An entry like this would suggest the package colorhug-client when
1024 plugging in a ColorHug with USB IDs 04D8:F8DA:&lt;/p&gt;
1025
1026 &lt;p&gt;&lt;blockquote&gt;
1027 Package: colorhug-client
1028 &lt;br&gt;Modaliases: colorhug-client(usb:v04D8pF8DAd*)&lt;/p&gt;
1029 &lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
1030
1031 &lt;p&gt;I believe the format is compatible with the format of the Packages
1032 file in the Debian archive.  Ubuntu already uses their Packages file
1033 to store their mappings from packages to hardware.&lt;/p&gt;
1034
1035 &lt;p&gt;By adding a XB-Modaliases: header in debian/control, any .deb can
1036 announce the hardware it support in a way my prototype understand.
1037 This allow those publishing packages in an APT source outside the
1038 Debian archive as well as those backporting packages to make sure the
1039 hardware mapping are included in the package meta information.  I&#39;ve
1040 tested such header in the pymissile package, and its modalias mapping
1041 is working as it should with my prototype.  It even made it to Ubuntu
1042 Raring.&lt;/p&gt;
1043
1044 &lt;p&gt;To test if it was possible to look up supported hardware using only
1045 the shell tools available in the Debian installer, I wrote a shell
1046 implementation of the lookup code.  The idea is to create files for
1047 each modalias and let the shell do the matching.  Please check out and
1048 try the
1049 &lt;a href=&quot;http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/hw-support-lookup?view=co&quot;&gt;hw-support-lookup&lt;/a&gt;
1050 shell script.  It run without any extra dependencies and fetch the
1051 hardware mappings from the Debian archive and the subversion
1052 repository where I currently work on my prototype.&lt;/p&gt;
1053
1054 &lt;p&gt;When I use it on a machine with a yubikey inserted, it suggest to
1055 install yubikey-personalization:&lt;/p&gt;
1056
1057 &lt;p&gt;&lt;blockquote&gt;
1058 % ./hw-support-lookup
1059 &lt;br&gt;yubikey-personalization
1060 &lt;br&gt;%
1061 &lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
1062
1063 &lt;p&gt;When I run it on my Thinkpad X40 with a PCMCIA/CardBus slot, it
1064 propose to install the pcmciautils package:&lt;/p&gt;
1065
1066 &lt;p&gt;&lt;blockquote&gt;
1067 % ./hw-support-lookup
1068 &lt;br&gt;pcmciautils
1069 &lt;br&gt;%
1070 &lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
1071
1072 &lt;p&gt;If you know of any hardware-package mapping that should be added to
1073 &lt;a href=&quot;http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/modaliases?view=co&quot;&gt;my
1074 database&lt;/a&gt;, please tell me about it.&lt;/p&gt;
1075
1076 &lt;p&gt;It could be possible to generate several of the mappings between
1077 packages and hardware.  One source would be to look at packages with
1078 kernel modules, ie packages with *.ko files in /lib/modules/, and
1079 extract their modalias information.  Another would be to look at
1080 packages with udev rules, ie packages with files in
1081 /lib/udev/rules.d/, and extract their vendor/model information to
1082 generate a modalias matching rule.  I have not tested any of these to
1083 see if it work.&lt;/p&gt;
1084
1085 &lt;p&gt;If you want to help implementing a system to let us propose what
1086 packages to install when new hardware is plugged into a Debian
1087 machine, please send me an email or talk to me on
1088 &lt;a href=&quot;irc://irc.debian.org/%23debian-devel&quot;&gt;#debian-devel&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
1089 </description>
1090         </item>
1091
1092         <item>
1093                 <title>Modalias strings - a practical way to map &quot;stuff&quot; to hardware</title>
1094                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Modalias_strings___a_practical_way_to_map__stuff__to_hardware.html</link>
1095                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Modalias_strings___a_practical_way_to_map__stuff__to_hardware.html</guid>
1096                 <pubDate>Mon, 14 Jan 2013 11:20:00 +0100</pubDate>
1097                 <description>&lt;p&gt;While looking into how to look up Debian packages based on hardware
1098 information, to find the packages that support a given piece of
1099 hardware, I refreshed my memory regarding modalias values, and decided
1100 to document the details.  Here are my findings so far, also available
1101 in
1102 &lt;a href=&quot;http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/&quot;&gt;the
1103 Debian Edu subversion repository&lt;/a&gt;:
1104
1105 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Modalias decoded&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
1106
1107 &lt;p&gt;This document try to explain what the different types of modalias
1108 values stands for.  It is in part based on information from
1109 &amp;lt;URL: &lt;a href=&quot;https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Modalias&quot;&gt;https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Modalias&lt;/a&gt; &amp;gt;,
1110 &amp;lt;URL: &lt;a href=&quot;http://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/26132/how-to-assign-usb-driver-to-device&quot;&gt;http://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/26132/how-to-assign-usb-driver-to-device&lt;/a&gt; &amp;gt;,
1111 &amp;lt;URL: &lt;a href=&quot;http://code.metager.de/source/history/linux/stable/scripts/mod/file2alias.c&quot;&gt;http://code.metager.de/source/history/linux/stable/scripts/mod/file2alias.c&lt;/a&gt; &amp;gt; and
1112 &amp;lt;URL: &lt;a href=&quot;http://cvs.savannah.gnu.org/viewvc/dmidecode/dmidecode.c?root=dmidecode&amp;view=markup&quot;&gt;http://cvs.savannah.gnu.org/viewvc/dmidecode/dmidecode.c?root=dmidecode&amp;view=markup&lt;/a&gt; &amp;gt;.
1113
1114 &lt;p&gt;The modalias entries for a given Linux machine can be found using
1115 this shell script:&lt;/p&gt;
1116
1117 &lt;pre&gt;
1118 find /sys -name modalias -print0 | xargs -0 cat | sort -u
1119 &lt;/pre&gt;
1120
1121 &lt;p&gt;The supported modalias globs for a given kernel module can be found
1122 using modinfo:&lt;/p&gt;
1123
1124 &lt;pre&gt;
1125 % /sbin/modinfo psmouse | grep alias:
1126 alias:          serio:ty05pr*id*ex*
1127 alias:          serio:ty01pr*id*ex*
1128 %
1129 &lt;/pre&gt;
1130
1131 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;PCI subtype&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
1132
1133 &lt;p&gt;A typical PCI entry can look like this.  This is an Intel Host
1134 Bridge memory controller:&lt;/p&gt;
1135
1136 &lt;p&gt;&lt;blockquote&gt;
1137 pci:v00008086d00002770sv00001028sd000001ADbc06sc00i00
1138 &lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
1139
1140 &lt;p&gt;This represent these values:&lt;/p&gt;
1141
1142 &lt;pre&gt;
1143  v   00008086  (vendor)
1144  d   00002770  (device)
1145  sv  00001028  (subvendor)
1146  sd  000001AD  (subdevice)
1147  bc  06        (bus class)
1148  sc  00        (bus subclass)
1149  i   00        (interface)
1150 &lt;/pre&gt;
1151
1152 &lt;p&gt;The vendor/device values are the same values outputted from &#39;lspci
1153 -n&#39; as 8086:2770.  The bus class/subclass is also shown by lspci as
1154 0600.  The 0600 class is a host bridge.  Other useful bus values are
1155 0300 (VGA compatible card) and 0200 (Ethernet controller).&lt;/p&gt;
1156
1157 &lt;p&gt;Not sure how to figure out the interface value, nor what it
1158 means.&lt;/p&gt;
1159
1160 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;USB subtype&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
1161
1162 &lt;p&gt;Some typical USB entries can look like this.  This is an internal
1163 USB hub in a laptop:&lt;/p&gt;
1164
1165 &lt;p&gt;&lt;blockquote&gt;
1166 usb:v1D6Bp0001d0206dc09dsc00dp00ic09isc00ip00
1167 &lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
1168
1169 &lt;p&gt;Here is the values included in this alias:&lt;/p&gt;
1170
1171 &lt;pre&gt;
1172  v    1D6B  (device vendor)
1173  p    0001  (device product)
1174  d    0206  (bcddevice)
1175  dc     09  (device class)
1176  dsc    00  (device subclass)
1177  dp     00  (device protocol)
1178  ic     09  (interface class)
1179  isc    00  (interface subclass)
1180  ip     00  (interface protocol)
1181 &lt;/pre&gt;
1182
1183 &lt;p&gt;The 0900 device class/subclass means hub.  Some times the relevant
1184 class is in the interface class section.  For a simple USB web camera,
1185 these alias entries show up:&lt;/p&gt;
1186
1187 &lt;p&gt;&lt;blockquote&gt;
1188 usb:v0AC8p3420d5000dcEFdsc02dp01ic01isc01ip00
1189 &lt;br&gt;usb:v0AC8p3420d5000dcEFdsc02dp01ic01isc02ip00
1190 &lt;br&gt;usb:v0AC8p3420d5000dcEFdsc02dp01ic0Eisc01ip00
1191 &lt;br&gt;usb:v0AC8p3420d5000dcEFdsc02dp01ic0Eisc02ip00
1192 &lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
1193
1194 &lt;p&gt;Interface class 0E01 is video control, 0E02 is video streaming (aka
1195 camera), 0101 is audio control device and 0102 is audio streaming (aka
1196 microphone).  Thus this is a camera with microphone included.&lt;/p&gt;
1197
1198 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;ACPI subtype&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
1199
1200 &lt;p&gt;The ACPI type is used for several non-PCI/USB stuff.  This is an IR
1201 receiver in a Thinkpad X40:&lt;/p&gt;
1202
1203 &lt;p&gt;&lt;blockquote&gt;
1204 acpi:IBM0071:PNP0511:
1205 &lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
1206
1207 &lt;p&gt;The values between the colons are IDs.&lt;/p&gt;
1208
1209 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;DMI subtype&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
1210
1211 &lt;p&gt;The DMI table contain lots of information about the computer case
1212 and model.  This is an entry for a IBM Thinkpad X40, fetched from
1213 /sys/devices/virtual/dmi/id/modalias:&lt;/p&gt;
1214
1215 &lt;p&gt;&lt;blockquote&gt;
1216 dmi:bvnIBM:bvr1UETB6WW(1.66):bd06/15/2005:svnIBM:pn2371H4G:pvrThinkPadX40:rvnIBM:rn2371H4G:rvrNotAvailable:cvnIBM:ct10:cvrNotAvailable:
1217 &lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
1218
1219 &lt;p&gt;The values present are&lt;/p&gt;
1220
1221 &lt;pre&gt;
1222  bvn  IBM            (BIOS vendor)
1223  bvr  1UETB6WW(1.66) (BIOS version)
1224  bd   06/15/2005     (BIOS date)
1225  svn  IBM            (system vendor)
1226  pn   2371H4G        (product name)
1227  pvr  ThinkPadX40    (product version)
1228  rvn  IBM            (board vendor)
1229  rn   2371H4G        (board name)
1230  rvr  NotAvailable   (board version)
1231  cvn  IBM            (chassis vendor)
1232  ct   10             (chassis type)
1233  cvr  NotAvailable   (chassis version)
1234 &lt;/pre&gt;
1235
1236 &lt;p&gt;The chassis type 10 is Notebook.  Other interesting values can be
1237 found in the dmidecode source:&lt;/p&gt;
1238
1239 &lt;pre&gt;
1240   3 Desktop
1241   4 Low Profile Desktop
1242   5 Pizza Box
1243   6 Mini Tower
1244   7 Tower
1245   8 Portable
1246   9 Laptop
1247  10 Notebook
1248  11 Hand Held
1249  12 Docking Station
1250  13 All In One
1251  14 Sub Notebook
1252  15 Space-saving
1253  16 Lunch Box
1254  17 Main Server Chassis
1255  18 Expansion Chassis
1256  19 Sub Chassis
1257  20 Bus Expansion Chassis
1258  21 Peripheral Chassis
1259  22 RAID Chassis
1260  23 Rack Mount Chassis
1261  24 Sealed-case PC
1262  25 Multi-system
1263  26 CompactPCI
1264  27 AdvancedTCA
1265  28 Blade
1266  29 Blade Enclosing
1267 &lt;/pre&gt;
1268
1269 &lt;p&gt;The chassis type values are not always accurately set in the DMI
1270 table.  For example my home server is a tower, but the DMI modalias
1271 claim it is a desktop.&lt;/p&gt;
1272
1273 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;SerIO subtype&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
1274
1275 &lt;p&gt;This type is used for PS/2 mouse plugs.  One example is from my
1276 test machine:&lt;/p&gt;
1277
1278 &lt;p&gt;&lt;blockquote&gt;
1279 serio:ty01pr00id00ex00
1280 &lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
1281
1282 &lt;p&gt;The values present are&lt;/p&gt;
1283
1284 &lt;pre&gt;
1285   ty  01  (type)
1286   pr  00  (prototype)
1287   id  00  (id)
1288   ex  00  (extra)
1289 &lt;/pre&gt;
1290
1291 &lt;p&gt;This type is supported by the psmouse driver.  I am not sure what
1292 the valid values are.&lt;/p&gt;
1293
1294 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Other subtypes&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
1295
1296 &lt;p&gt;There are heaps of other modalias subtypes according to
1297 file2alias.c.  There is the rest of the list from that source: amba,
1298 ap, bcma, ccw, css, eisa, hid, i2c, ieee1394, input, ipack, isapnp,
1299 mdio, of, parisc, pcmcia, platform, scsi, sdio, spi, ssb, vio, virtio,
1300 vmbus, x86cpu and zorro.  I did not spend time documenting all of
1301 these, as they do not seem relevant for my intended use with mapping
1302 hardware to packages when new stuff is inserted during run time.&lt;/p&gt;
1303
1304 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Looking up kernel modules using modalias values&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
1305
1306 &lt;p&gt;To check which kernel modules provide support for a given modalias,
1307 one can use the following shell script:&lt;/p&gt;
1308
1309 &lt;pre&gt;
1310   for id in $(find /sys -name modalias -print0 | xargs -0 cat | sort -u); do \
1311     echo &quot;$id&quot; ; \
1312     /sbin/modprobe --show-depends &quot;$id&quot;|sed &#39;s/^/  /&#39; ; \
1313   done
1314 &lt;/pre&gt;
1315
1316 &lt;p&gt;The output can look like this (only the first few entries as the
1317 list is very long on my test machine):&lt;/p&gt;
1318
1319 &lt;pre&gt;
1320   acpi:ACPI0003:
1321     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/drivers/acpi/ac.ko
1322   acpi:device:
1323   FATAL: Module acpi:device: not found.
1324   acpi:IBM0068:
1325     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/drivers/char/nvram.ko
1326     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/drivers/leds/led-class.ko
1327     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/net/rfkill/rfkill.ko
1328     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/drivers/platform/x86/thinkpad_acpi.ko
1329   acpi:IBM0071:PNP0511:
1330     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/lib/crc-ccitt.ko
1331     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/net/irda/irda.ko
1332     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/drivers/net/irda/nsc-ircc.ko
1333   [...]
1334 &lt;/pre&gt;
1335
1336 &lt;p&gt;If you want to help implementing a system to let us propose what
1337 packages to install when new hardware is plugged into a Debian
1338 machine, please send me an email or talk to me on
1339 &lt;a href=&quot;irc://irc.debian.org/%23debian-devel&quot;&gt;#debian-devel&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
1340
1341 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Update 2013-01-15:&lt;/strong&gt; Rewrite &quot;cat $(find ...)&quot; to
1342 &quot;find ... -print0 | xargs -0 cat&quot; to make sure it handle directories
1343 in /sys/ with space in them.&lt;/p&gt;
1344 </description>
1345         </item>
1346
1347         <item>
1348                 <title>Moved the pymissile Debian packaging to collab-maint</title>
1349                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Moved_the_pymissile_Debian_packaging_to_collab_maint.html</link>
1350                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Moved_the_pymissile_Debian_packaging_to_collab_maint.html</guid>
1351                 <pubDate>Thu, 10 Jan 2013 20:40:00 +0100</pubDate>
1352                 <description>&lt;p&gt;As part of my investigation on how to improve the support in Debian
1353 for hardware dongles, I dug up my old Mark and Spencer USB Rocket
1354 Launcher and updated the Debian package
1355 &lt;a href=&quot;http://packages.qa.debian.org/pymissile&quot;&gt;pymissile&lt;/a&gt; to make
1356 sure udev will fix the device permissions when it is plugged in.  I
1357 also added a &quot;Modaliases&quot; header to test it in the Debian archive and
1358 hopefully make the package be proposed by jockey in Ubuntu when a user
1359 plug in his rocket launcher.  In the process I moved the source to a
1360 git repository under collab-maint, to make it easier for any DD to
1361 contribute.  &lt;a href=&quot;http://code.google.com/p/pymissile/&quot;&gt;Upstream&lt;/a&gt;
1362 is not very active, but the software still work for me even after five
1363 years of relative silence.  The new git repository is not listed in
1364 the uploaded package yet, because I want to test the other changes a
1365 bit more before I upload the new version.  If you want to check out
1366 the new version with a .desktop file included, visit the
1367 &lt;a href=&quot;http://anonscm.debian.org/gitweb/?p=collab-maint/pymissile.git&quot;&gt;gitweb
1368 view&lt;/a&gt; or use &quot;&lt;tt&gt;git clone
1369 git://anonscm.debian.org/collab-maint/pymissile.git&lt;/tt&gt;&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;
1370 </description>
1371         </item>
1372
1373         <item>
1374                 <title>Lets make hardware dongles easier to use in Debian</title>
1375                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lets_make_hardware_dongles_easier_to_use_in_Debian.html</link>
1376                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lets_make_hardware_dongles_easier_to_use_in_Debian.html</guid>
1377                 <pubDate>Wed, 9 Jan 2013 15:40:00 +0100</pubDate>
1378                 <description>&lt;p&gt;One thing that annoys me with Debian and Linux distributions in
1379 general, is that there is a great package management system with the
1380 ability to automatically install software packages by downloading them
1381 from the distribution mirrors, but no way to get it to automatically
1382 install the packages I need to use the hardware I plug into my
1383 machine.  Even if the package to use it is easily available from the
1384 Linux distribution.  When I plug in a LEGO Mindstorms NXT, it could
1385 suggest to automatically install the python-nxt, nbc and t2n packages
1386 I need to talk to it.  When I plug in a Yubikey, it could propose the
1387 yubikey-personalization package.  The information required to do this
1388 is available, but no-one have pulled all the pieces together.&lt;/p&gt;
1389
1390 &lt;p&gt;Some years ago, I proposed to
1391 &lt;a href=&quot;http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2010/05/msg01206.html&quot;&gt;use
1392 the discover subsystem to implement this&lt;/a&gt;.  The idea is fairly
1393 simple:
1394
1395 &lt;ul&gt;
1396
1397 &lt;li&gt;Add a desktop entry in /usr/share/autostart/ pointing to a program
1398   starting when a user log in.&lt;/li&gt;
1399
1400 &lt;li&gt;Set this program up to listen for kernel events emitted when new
1401   hardware is inserted into the computer.&lt;/li&gt;
1402
1403 &lt;li&gt;When new hardware is inserted, look up the hardware ID in a
1404   database mapping to packages, and take note of any non-installed
1405   packages.&lt;/li&gt;
1406
1407 &lt;li&gt;Show a message to the user proposing to install the discovered
1408   package, and make it easy to install it.&lt;/li&gt;
1409
1410 &lt;/ul&gt;
1411
1412 &lt;p&gt;I am not sure what the best way to implement this is, but my
1413 initial idea was to use dbus events to discover new hardware, the
1414 discover database to find packages and
1415 &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.packagekit.org/&quot;&gt;PackageKit&lt;/a&gt; to install
1416 packages.&lt;/p&gt;
1417
1418 &lt;p&gt;Yesterday, I found time to try to implement this idea, and the
1419 draft package is now checked into
1420 &lt;a href=&quot;http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/&quot;&gt;the
1421 Debian Edu subversion repository&lt;/a&gt;.  In the process, I updated the
1422 &lt;a href=&quot;http://packages.qa.debian.org/d/discover-data.html&quot;&gt;discover-data&lt;/a&gt;
1423 package to map the USB ids of LEGO Mindstorms and Yubikey devices to
1424 the relevant packages in Debian, and uploaded a new version
1425 2.2013.01.09 to unstable.  I also discovered that the current
1426 &lt;a href=&quot;http://packages.qa.debian.org/d/discover.html&quot;&gt;discover&lt;/a&gt;
1427 package in Debian no longer discovered any USB devices, because
1428 /proc/bus/usb/devices is no longer present.  I ported it to use
1429 libusb as a fall back option to get it working.  The fixed package
1430 version 2.1.2-6 is now in experimental (didn&#39;t upload it to unstable
1431 because of the freeze).&lt;/p&gt;
1432
1433 &lt;p&gt;With this prototype in place, I can insert my Yubikey, and get this
1434 desktop notification to show up (only once, the first time it is
1435 inserted):&lt;/p&gt;
1436
1437 &lt;p align=&quot;center&quot;&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-01-09-hw-autoinstall.png&quot;&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
1438
1439 &lt;p&gt;For this prototype to be really useful, some way to automatically
1440 install the proposed packages by pressing the &quot;Please install
1441 program(s)&quot; button should to be implemented.&lt;/p&gt;
1442
1443 &lt;p&gt;If this idea seem useful to you, and you want to help make it
1444 happen, please help me update the discover-data database with mappings
1445 from hardware to Debian packages.  Check if &#39;discover-pkginstall -l&#39;
1446 list the package you would like to have installed when a given
1447 hardware device is inserted into your computer, and report bugs using
1448 reportbug if it isn&#39;t.  Or, if you know of a better way to provide
1449 such mapping, please let me know.&lt;/p&gt;
1450
1451 &lt;p&gt;This prototype need more work, and there are several questions that
1452 should be considered before it is ready for production use.  Is dbus
1453 the correct way to detect new hardware?  At the moment I look for HAL
1454 dbus events on the system bus, because that is the events I could see
1455 on my Debian Squeeze KDE desktop.  Are there better events to use?
1456 How should the user be notified?  Is the desktop notification
1457 mechanism the best option, or should the background daemon raise a
1458 popup instead?  How should packages be installed?  When should they
1459 not be installed?&lt;/p&gt;
1460
1461 &lt;p&gt;If you want to help getting such feature implemented in Debian,
1462 please send me an email. :)&lt;/p&gt;
1463 </description>
1464         </item>
1465
1466         <item>
1467                 <title>New IRC channel for LEGO designers using Debian</title>
1468                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/New_IRC_channel_for_LEGO_designers_using_Debian.html</link>
1469                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/New_IRC_channel_for_LEGO_designers_using_Debian.html</guid>
1470                 <pubDate>Wed, 2 Jan 2013 15:40:00 +0100</pubDate>
1471                 <description>&lt;p&gt;During Christmas, I have worked a bit on the Debian support for
1472 &lt;a href=&quot;http://mindstorms.lego.com/en-us/Default.aspx&quot;&gt;LEGO Mindstorm
1473 NXT&lt;/a&gt;.  My son and I have played a bit with my NXT set, and I
1474 discovered I had to build all the tools myself because none were
1475 already in Debian Squeeze.  If Debian support for LEGO is something
1476 you care about, please join me on the IRC channel
1477 &lt;a href=&quot;irc://irc.debian.org/%23debian-lego&quot;&gt;#debian-lego&lt;/a&gt; (server
1478 irc.debian.org).  There is a lot that could be done to improve the
1479 Debian support for LEGO designers.  For example both CAD software
1480 and Mindstorm compilers are missing. :)&lt;/p&gt;
1481
1482 &lt;p&gt;Update 2012-01-03: A
1483 &lt;a href=&quot;http://wiki.debian.org/LegoDesigners&quot;&gt;project page&lt;/a&gt;
1484 including links to Lego related packages is now available.&lt;/p&gt;
1485 </description>
1486         </item>
1487
1488         <item>
1489                 <title>A Christmas present for Skolelinux / Debian Edu</title>
1490                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/A_Christmas_present_for_Skolelinux___Debian_Edu.html</link>
1491                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/A_Christmas_present_for_Skolelinux___Debian_Edu.html</guid>
1492                 <pubDate>Fri, 28 Dec 2012 09:20:00 +0100</pubDate>
1493                 <description>&lt;p&gt;I was happy to discover a few days ago that the
1494 &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.skolelinux.org/&quot;&gt;Skolelinux / Debian Edu&lt;/a&gt;
1495 project also this year received a Christmas present from Another
1496 Agency in Trondheim.  NOK 1000,- showed up on our donation account
1497 December 24th.  I want to express our thanks for this very welcome
1498 present.  As the Debian Edu / Skolelinux project is very short on
1499 funding these days, and thus lack the money to do regular developer
1500 gatherings, this donation was most welcome.  One developer gathering
1501 cost around NOK 15&amp;nbsp;000,-, so we need quite a lot more to keep the
1502 development pace we want.  Thus, I hope their example this year is
1503 followed by many others. :)&lt;/p&gt;
1504
1505 &lt;p&gt;The public list of donors can be found on
1506 &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.linuxiskolen.no/slxdebianlabs/donations.html&quot;&gt;the
1507 donation page&lt;/a&gt; for the project, which also contain instructions if
1508 you want to donate to the project.&lt;/p&gt;
1509 </description>
1510         </item>
1511
1512         <item>
1513                 <title>How to backport bitcoin-qt version 0.7.2-2 to Debian Squeeze</title>
1514                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_backport_bitcoin_qt_version_0_7_2_2_to_Debian_Squeeze.html</link>
1515                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_backport_bitcoin_qt_version_0_7_2_2_to_Debian_Squeeze.html</guid>
1516                 <pubDate>Tue, 25 Dec 2012 20:50:00 +0100</pubDate>
1517                 <description>&lt;p&gt;Let me start by wishing you all marry Christmas and a happy new
1518 year!  I hope next year will prove to be a good year.&lt;/p&gt;
1519
1520 &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bitcoin.org/&quot;&gt;Bitcoin&lt;/a&gt;, the digital
1521 decentralised &quot;currency&quot; that allow people to transfer bitcoins
1522 between each other with minimal overhead, is a very interesting
1523 experiment.  And as I wrote a few days ago, the bitcoin situation in
1524 &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.debian.org/&quot;&gt;Debian&lt;/a&gt; is about to improve a bit.
1525 The &lt;a href=&quot;http://packages.qa.debian.org/bitcoin&quot;&gt;new debian source
1526 package&lt;/a&gt; (version 0.7.2-2) was uploaded yesterday, and is waiting
1527 in &lt;a href=&quot;http://ftp-master.debian.org/new.html&quot;&gt;the NEW queue&lt;/A&gt;
1528 for one of the ftpmasters to approve the new bitcoin-qt package
1529 name.&lt;/p&gt;
1530
1531 &lt;p&gt;And thanks to the great work of Jonas and the rest of the bitcoin
1532 team in Debian, you can easily test the package in Debian Squeeze
1533 using the following steps to get a set of working packages:&lt;/p&gt;
1534
1535 &lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;pre&gt;
1536 git clone git://git.debian.org/git/collab-maint/bitcoin
1537 cd bitcoin
1538 DEB_MAINTAINER_MODE=1 DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS=noupnp fakeroot debian/rules clean
1539 DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS=noupnp git-buildpackage --git-ignore-new
1540 &lt;/pre&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
1541
1542 &lt;p&gt;You might have to install some build dependencies as well.  The
1543 list of commands should give you two packages, bitcoind and
1544 bitcoin-qt, ready for use in a Squeeze environment.  Note that the
1545 client will download the complete set of bitcoin &quot;blocks&quot;, which need
1546 around 5.6 GiB of data on my machine at the moment.  Make sure your
1547 ~/.bitcoin/ directory have lots of spare room if you want to download
1548 all the blocks.  The client will warn if the disk is getting full, so
1549 there is not really a problem if you got too little room, but you will
1550 not be able to get all the features out of the client.&lt;/p&gt;
1551
1552 &lt;p&gt;As usual, if you use bitcoin and want to show your support of my
1553 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
1554 &lt;b&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b&amp;label=PetterReinholdtsenBlog&quot;&gt;15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/b&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
1555 </description>
1556         </item>
1557
1558         <item>
1559                 <title>A word on bitcoin support in Debian</title>
1560                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/A_word_on_bitcoin_support_in_Debian.html</link>
1561                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/A_word_on_bitcoin_support_in_Debian.html</guid>
1562                 <pubDate>Fri, 21 Dec 2012 23:59:00 +0100</pubDate>
1563                 <description>&lt;p&gt;It has been a while since I wrote about
1564 &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bitcoin.org/&quot;&gt;bitcoin&lt;/a&gt;, the decentralised
1565 peer-to-peer based crypto-currency, and the reason is simply that I
1566 have been busy elsewhere.  But two days ago, I started looking at the
1567 state of &lt;a href=&quot;http://packages.qa.debian.org/bitcoin&quot;&gt;bitcoin in
1568 Debian&lt;/a&gt; again to try to recover my old bitcoin wallet.  The package
1569 is now maintained by a
1570 &lt;a href=&quot;https://alioth.debian.org/projects/pkg-bitcoin/&quot;&gt;team of
1571 people&lt;/a&gt;, and the grunt work had already been done by this team.  We
1572 owe a huge thank you to all these team members. :)
1573 But I was sad to discover that the bitcoin client is missing in
1574 Wheezy.  It is only available in Sid (and an outdated client from
1575 backports).  The client had several RC bugs registered in BTS blocking
1576 it from entering testing.  To try to help the team and improve the
1577 situation, I spent some time providing patches and triaging the bug
1578 reports.  I also had a look at the bitcoin package available from Matt
1579 Corallo in a
1580 &lt;a href=&quot;https://launchpad.net/~bitcoin/+archive/bitcoin&quot;&gt;PPA for
1581 Ubuntu&lt;/a&gt;, and moved the useful pieces from that version into the
1582 Debian package.&lt;/p&gt;
1583
1584 &lt;p&gt;After checking with the main package maintainer Jonas Smedegaard on
1585 IRC, I pushed several patches into the collab-maint git repository to
1586 improve the package.  It now contains fixes for the RC issues (not from
1587 me, but fixed by Scott Howard), build rules for a Qt GUI client
1588 package, konqueror support for the bitcoin: URI and bash completion
1589 setup.  As I work on Debian Squeeze, I also created
1590 &lt;a href=&quot;http://lists.alioth.debian.org/pipermail/pkg-bitcoin-devel/Week-of-Mon-20121217/000041.html&quot;&gt;a
1591 patch to backport&lt;/a&gt; the latest version.  Jonas is going to look at
1592 it and try to integrate it into the git repository before uploading a
1593 new version to unstable.
1594
1595 &lt;p&gt;I would very much like bitcoin to succeed, to get rid of the
1596 centralized control currently exercised in the monetary system.  I
1597 find it completely unacceptable that the USA government is collecting
1598 transaction data for almost all international money transfers (most are done in USD and transaction logs shipped to the spooks), and
1599 that the major credit card companies can block legal money
1600 transactions to Wikileaks.  But for bitcoin to succeed, more people
1601 need to use bitcoins, and more people need to accept bitcoins when
1602 they sell products and services.  Improving the bitcoin support in
1603 Debian is a small step in the right direction, but not enough.
1604 Unfortunately the user experience when browsing the web and wanting to
1605 pay with bitcoin is still not very good.  The bitcoin: URI is a step
1606 in the right direction, but need to work in most or every browser in
1607 use.  Also the bitcoin-qt client is too heavy to fire up to do a
1608 quick transaction.  I believe there are other clients available, but
1609 have not tested them.&lt;/p&gt;
1610
1611 &lt;p&gt;My
1612 &lt;a href=&quot;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Now_accepting_bitcoins___anonymous_and_distributed_p2p_crypto_money.html&quot;&gt;experiment
1613 with bitcoins&lt;/a&gt; showed that at least some of my readers use bitcoin.
1614 I received 20.15 BTC so far on the address I provided in my blog two
1615 years ago, as can be
1616 &lt;a href=&quot;http://blockexplorer.com/address/15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b&quot;&gt;seen
1617 on the blockexplorer service&lt;/a&gt;.  Thank you everyone for your
1618 donation.  The blockexplorer service demonstrates quite well that
1619 bitcoin is not quite anonymous and untracked. :) I wonder if the
1620 number of users have gone up since then.  If you use bitcoin and want
1621 to show your support of my activity, please send Bitcoin donations to
1622 the same address as last time,
1623 &lt;b&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b&amp;label=PetterReinholdtsenBlog&quot;&gt;15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/b&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
1624 </description>
1625         </item>
1626
1627         <item>
1628                 <title>Ledger - double-entry accounting using text based storage format</title>
1629                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Ledger___double_entry_accounting_using_text_based_storage_format.html</link>
1630                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Ledger___double_entry_accounting_using_text_based_storage_format.html</guid>
1631                 <pubDate>Tue, 18 Dec 2012 23:30:00 +0100</pubDate>
1632                 <description>&lt;p&gt;A few days ago I came across
1633 &lt;a href=&quot;http://joeyh.name/blog/entry/hledger/&quot;&gt;a blog post from Joey
1634 Hess&lt;/a&gt; describing &lt;a href=&quot;http://ledger-cli.org/&quot;&gt;ledger&lt;/a&gt; and
1635 hledger, a text based system for double-entry accounting.  I found it
1636 interesting, as I am involved with several organizations where
1637 accounting is an issue, and I have not really become too friendly with
1638 the different web based systems we use.  I find it hard to find what I
1639 look for in the menus and even harder try to get sensible data out of
1640 the systems.  Ledger seem different.  The accounting data is kept in
1641 text files that can be stored in a version control system, and there
1642
1643 are at least &lt;a href=&quot;https://github.com/ledger/ledger/wiki/Ports&quot;&gt;five
1644 different implementations&lt;/a&gt; able to read the format.  An example
1645 entry look like this, and is simple enough that it will be trivial to
1646 generate entries based on CVS files fetched from the bank:&lt;/p&gt;
1647
1648 &lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;pre&gt;
1649 2004-05-27 Book Store
1650       Expenses:Books                 $20.00
1651       Liabilities:Visa
1652 &lt;/pre&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
1653
1654 &lt;p&gt;The concept seemed interesting enough for me to check it out and
1655 look for others using it.  I found blog posts from
1656 &lt;a href=&quot;http://blog.spang.cc/posts/hledger_rocks_my_world/&quot;&gt;Christine
1657 Spang&lt;/a&gt;,
1658 &lt;a href=&quot;http://bugsplat.info/2010-05-23-keeping-finances-with-ledger.html&quot;&gt;Pete
1659 Keen&lt;/a&gt;,
1660 &lt;a href=&quot;http://blog.andrewcantino.com/blog/2010/11/06/command-line-accounting-with-ledger-and-reckon/&quot;&gt;Andrew
1661 Cantino&lt;/a&gt; and
1662 &lt;a href=&quot;http://blog.iphoting.com/blog/2012/11/29/command-line-double-entry-accounting/&quot;&gt;Ronald
1663 Ip&lt;/a&gt; describing how they use it, as well as a post from
1664 &lt;a href=&quot;https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups=#!topic/ledger-cli/r0oWjwbQ9Bo&quot;&gt;Bradley
1665 M. Kuhn&lt;/a&gt; at the Software Freedom Conservancy.  All seemed like good
1666 recommendations fitting my need.&lt;/p&gt;
1667
1668 &lt;p&gt;The &lt;a href=&quot;http://packages.qa.debian.org/l/ledger.html&quot;&gt;ledger&lt;/a&gt;
1669 package is available in Debian Squeeze, while the
1670 &lt;a href=&quot;http://packages.qa.debian.org/h/haskell-hledger.html&quot;&gt;hledger&lt;/a&gt;
1671 package only is available in Debian Sid.  As I use Squeeze, ledger
1672 seemed the best choice to get started.&lt;/p&gt;
1673
1674 &lt;p&gt;To get some real data to test on, I wrote a
1675 &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.nuug.no/tools/lodo2ledger&quot;&gt;web scraper&lt;/a&gt; for
1676 &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.lodo.no/&quot;&gt;LODO&lt;/a&gt;, the accounting system used by
1677 the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.nuug.no/&quot;&gt;NUUG&lt;/a&gt; association, and started to
1678 play with the data set.  I&#39;m not really deeply into accounting, but I
1679 am able to get a simple balance and accounting status for example
1680 using the &quot;&lt;tt&gt;ledger balance&lt;/tt&gt;&quot; command.  But I will have to
1681 gather more experience before I know if the ledger way is a good fit
1682 for the organisations I am involved in.&lt;/p&gt;
1683 </description>
1684         </item>
1685
1686         <item>
1687                 <title>Scripting the Cerebrum/bofhd user administration system using XML-RPC</title>
1688                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Scripting_the_Cerebrum_bofhd_user_administration_system_using_XML_RPC.html</link>
1689                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Scripting_the_Cerebrum_bofhd_user_administration_system_using_XML_RPC.html</guid>
1690                 <pubDate>Thu, 6 Dec 2012 10:30:00 +0100</pubDate>
1691                 <description>&lt;p&gt;Where I work at the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.uio.no/&quot;&gt;University of
1692 Oslo&lt;/a&gt;, we use the
1693 &lt;a href=&quot;http://sourceforge.net/projects/cerebrum/&quot;&gt;Cerebrum user
1694 administration system&lt;/a&gt; to maintain users, groups, DNS, DHCP, etc.
1695 I&#39;ve known since the system was written that the server is providing
1696 an &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XML-RPC&quot;&gt;XML-RPC&lt;/a&gt; API, but
1697 I have never spent time to try to figure out how to use it, as we
1698 always use the bofh command line client at work.  Until today.  I want
1699 to script the updating of DNS and DHCP to make it easier to set up
1700 virtual machines.  Here are a few notes on how to use it with
1701 Python.&lt;/p&gt;
1702
1703 &lt;p&gt;I started by looking at the source of the Java
1704 &lt;a href=&quot;http://cerebrum.svn.sourceforge.net/viewvc/cerebrum/trunk/cerebrum/clients/jbofh/&quot;&gt;bofh
1705 client&lt;/a&gt;, to figure out how it connected to the API server.  I also
1706 googled for python examples on how to use XML-RPC, and found
1707 &lt;a href=&quot;http://tldp.org/HOWTO/XML-RPC-HOWTO/xmlrpc-howto-python.html&quot;&gt;a
1708 simple example in&lt;/a&gt; the XML-RPC howto.&lt;/p&gt;
1709
1710 &lt;p&gt;This simple example code show how to connect, get the list of
1711 commands (as a JSON dump), and how to get the information about the
1712 user currently logged in:&lt;/p&gt;
1713
1714 &lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;pre&gt;
1715 #!/usr/bin/env python
1716 import getpass
1717 import xmlrpclib
1718 server_url = &#39;https://cerebrum-uio.uio.no:8000&#39;;
1719 username = getpass.getuser()
1720 password = getpass.getpass()
1721 server = xmlrpclib.Server(server_url);
1722 #print server.get_commands(sessionid)
1723 sessionid = server.login(username, password)
1724 print server.run_command(sessionid, &quot;user_info&quot;, username)
1725 result = server.logout(sessionid)
1726 print result
1727 &lt;/pre&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
1728
1729 &lt;p&gt;Armed with this knowledge I can now move forward and script the DNS
1730 and DHCP updates I wanted to do.&lt;/p&gt;
1731 </description>
1732         </item>
1733
1734         <item>
1735                 <title>Why isn&#39;t the value of copyright taxed?</title>
1736                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Why_isn_t_the_value_of_copyright_taxed_.html</link>
1737                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Why_isn_t_the_value_of_copyright_taxed_.html</guid>
1738                 <pubDate>Sat, 17 Nov 2012 11:30:00 +0100</pubDate>
1739                 <description>&lt;p&gt;While working on a
1740 &lt;a href=&quot;https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/free-culture-lessig&quot;&gt;Norwegian
1741 translation of the Free Culture by Lawrence Lessig&lt;/a&gt; (76% done),
1742 which cover the problems with todays copyright law and how it stifles
1743 creativity, one idea occurred to me.  The idea is to get the tax
1744 office to help make more works enter the public domain and also help
1745 make it easier to clear rights for using copyrighted works.&lt;/p&gt;
1746
1747 &lt;p&gt;I mentioned this idea briefly during Yesterdays
1748 &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.farmann.no/2012/11/14/john-perry-barlow-in-oslo-friday-nov-16
1749 -15-30-19-00/&quot;&gt;presentation
1750 by John Perry Barlow&lt;/a&gt;, and concluded that it was best to put it
1751 in writing for a wider audience.  The idea is not really based on the
1752 argument that copyrighted works are &quot;intellectual property&quot;, as the
1753 core requirement is that copyrighted work have value for the copyright
1754 holder and the tax office like to collect their share from any value
1755 controlled by the citizens in a country.  I&#39;m sharing the idea here to
1756 let others consider it and perhaps shoot it down with a fresh set of
1757 arguments.&lt;/p&gt;
1758
1759 &lt;p&gt;Most valuables are taxed by the government.  At least here in
1760 Norway, the amount of money you have, the value of our land property,
1761 the value of your house, the value of your car, the value of our
1762 stocks and other valuables are all added together.  If the tax value
1763 of these values exceed your debt, you have to pay the tax office some
1764 taxes for these values.  And copyrighted work have value.  It have
1765 value for the rights holder, who can earn money selling access to the
1766 work.  But it is not included in the tax calculations?  Why not?&lt;/p&gt;
1767
1768 &lt;p&gt;If the government want to tax copyrighted works, it would want to
1769 maintain a database of all the copyrighted works and who are the
1770 rights holders for a given works, to be able to associate the works
1771 value to the right citizen or company for tax purposes.  If such
1772 database exist, it will become a lot easier to find out who to talk to
1773 for clearing permissions to use a copyrighted work, which is a very
1774 hard operation with todays copyright law.  To ensure that copyright
1775 holders keep the database up-to-date, it would have to become a
1776 requirement to be able to collect money for granting access to
1777 copyrighted works that the work is listed in the database with the
1778 correct right holder.&lt;/p&gt;
1779
1780 &lt;p&gt;If copyright causes copyright holders to have to pay more taxes,
1781 they will have a small incentive to &quot;disown&quot; their copyright, and let
1782 the work enter the public domain. For works with several right holders
1783 one of the right holders could state (and get it registered in the
1784 database) that she do not need to be consulted when clearing rights to
1785 use the work in question and thus will not get any income from that
1786 work.  Stating this would have to be impossible to revert and stop the
1787 tax office from adding the value of that work to the given citizens
1788 tax calculation.  I assume the copyright law would stay the same,
1789 allowing creators to pick a license of their choosing, and also
1790 allowing them to put their work directly in the public domain.  The
1791 existence of such database will make it even easier to clear rights,
1792 and if the right holders listed in the database is taxed, this system
1793 would increase the amount of works that enter the public domain.&lt;/p&gt;
1794
1795 &lt;p&gt;The effect would be that the tax office help to make it easier to
1796 get rights to use the works that have not yet entered the public
1797 domain and help to get more work into the public domain and .&lt;/p&gt;
1798
1799 &lt;p&gt;Why have such taxing not happened yet?  I am sure the tax office
1800 would like to tax copyrighted work values if they could.&lt;/p&gt;
1801 </description>
1802         </item>
1803
1804         <item>
1805                 <title>Debian Edu interview: Angela Fuß</title>
1806                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__Angela_Fu_.html</link>
1807                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__Angela_Fu_.html</guid>
1808                 <pubDate>Wed, 14 Nov 2012 21:30:00 +0100</pubDate>
1809                 <description>&lt;p&gt;Here is another interview with one of the people in the &lt;a
1810 href=&quot;http://www.skolelinux.org/&quot;&gt;Debian Edu and Skolelinux&lt;/a&gt;
1811 community.  I am running short on people willing to be interviewed, so
1812 if you know about someone I should interview, Please send me an email.
1813 After asking for many months, I finally managed to lure another one of
1814 the people behind the German
1815 &quot;&lt;a href=&quot;http://wiki.it-zukunft-schule.de/&quot;&gt;IT-Zukunft Schule&lt;/a&gt;&quot;
1816 project out from maternity leave to conduct an interview.  Give a warm
1817 welcome to Angela Fuß. :)&lt;/p&gt;
1818
1819 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Who are you, and how do you spend your days?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
1820
1821 &lt;p&gt;I am a 39-year-old woman living in the very north of Germany near
1822 Denmark. I live in a patchwork family with &quot;my man&quot; Mike Gabriel, my
1823 two daughters, Mikes daughter and Mikes and my rather newborn son.
1824
1825 &lt;p&gt;At the moment - because of our little baby - I am spending most of
1826 the day by being a caring and organising mom for all the kids.
1827 Besides that I am really involved into and occupied with several inner
1828 growth processes: New born souls always bring the whole familiar
1829 system into movement and that needs time and focus ;-).  We are also
1830 in the middle of buying a house and moving to it.&lt;/p&gt;
1831
1832 &lt;p&gt;In 2013 I will work again in my job in a German foundation for
1833 nature conservation. I am doing public relation work there.  Besides
1834 that - and that is the connection to Skolelinux / Debian Edu - I am
1835 working in our own school project &quot;IT-Zukunft Schule&quot; in North
1836 Germany. I am responsible for the quality assurance, the customer
1837 relationship management and the communication processes in the
1838 project.&lt;/p&gt;
1839
1840 &lt;p&gt;Since 2001 I constantly have been training myself in communication
1841 and leadership. Besides that I am a forester, a landscaping gardener
1842 and a yoga teacher.&lt;/p&gt;
1843
1844 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;How did you get in contact with the Skolelinux / Debian Edu
1845 project?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
1846
1847 &lt;p&gt;I fell in love with Mike ;-).&lt;/p&gt;
1848
1849 &lt;p&gt;Very soon after getting to know him I was completely enrolled into
1850 Free Software.  At this time Mike did IT-services for one newly
1851 founded school in Kiel. Other schools in Kiel needed concepts for
1852 their IT environment.  Often when Mike came home from working at the
1853 newly founded school I found myself listening to his complaints about
1854 several points where the communication with the schools head or the
1855 teachers did not work.  So we were clear that he would not work for
1856 one more school if we did not set up a structure for communication
1857 between him, the schools head, the teachers, the students and the
1858 parents.&lt;/p&gt;
1859
1860 &lt;p&gt;Together with our friend and hardware supplier Andreas Buchholz we
1861 started to get an overview of free software solutions suitable for
1862 schools. One day before Christmas 2010 Mike and I had a date with Kurt
1863 Gramlich in Gütersloh. As Kurt and I are really interested in building
1864 networks of people and in being in communication we dived into
1865 Skolelinux and brought it to the first grammar schools in Northern
1866 Germany.&lt;/p&gt;
1867
1868 &lt;p&gt;For information about our school project you can read
1869 &lt;a href=&quot;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__Mike_Gabriel.html&quot;&gt;the
1870 interview with Mike Gabriel&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
1871
1872 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What do you see as the advantages of Skolelinux / Debian
1873 Edu?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
1874
1875 &lt;p&gt;First I have to say: I cannot answer this question technically. My
1876 answer comes rather from a social point of view.&lt;/p&gt;
1877
1878 &lt;p&gt;The biggest advantage of Skolelinux / Debian Edu I see is the large
1879 and strong international community of Debian Developers in the
1880 background which is very alive and connected over mailinglists, blogs
1881 and meetings. My constant feeling for the Debian Community is: If
1882 something does not work they will somehow fix it. All is well
1883 ;-). This is of course a user experience.  What I also get as a big
1884 advantage of Skolelinux / Debian Edu is that everybody who uses it and
1885 works with it can also contribute to it - that includes students,
1886 teachers, parents...&lt;/p&gt;
1887
1888 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What do you see as the disadvantages of Skolelinux / Debian
1889 Edu?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
1890
1891 &lt;p&gt;I will answer this question relating to the internal structure of
1892 Skolelinux / Debian Edu.&lt;/p&gt;
1893
1894 &lt;p&gt;What I see as a major disadvantage is that there is a gap between
1895 the group of developers for Debian Edu and the people who make the
1896 marketing, that means the people that bring Skolelinux to the
1897 schools. There is a lack of communication between these two groups and
1898 I think that does not really work for Skolelinux / Debian Edu.&lt;/p&gt;
1899
1900 &lt;p&gt;Further I appreciate that Skolelinux / Debian Edu is known as a
1901 do-ocracy. Nevertheless I keep asking myself if at some points a
1902 democracy or some kind of hierarchical project structure would be good
1903 and helpful.  I am also missing some kind of contact between the
1904 Skolelinux / Debian Edu communities in Europe or on an international
1905 level. I think it would be good if there was more sharing between the
1906 different countries using Skolelinux / Debian Edu.&lt;/p&gt;
1907
1908 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Which free software do you use daily?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
1909
1910 &lt;p&gt;On my laptop I am still using an Ubuntu 10.04 with a Gnome Desktop
1911 on.  As applications I use Openoffice.org, Gedit, Firefox, Pidgin,
1912 LaTeX and GnuCash. For mails I am using Horde. And I am really fond of
1913 my N900 running with Maemo.&lt;/p&gt;
1914
1915 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Which strategy do you believe is the right one to use to
1916 get schools to use free software?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
1917
1918 &lt;p&gt;I am really convinced that in our school project &quot;IT-Zukunft
1919 Schule&quot; we have developed (and keep developing) a great way to get
1920 schools to use Free Software. We have written a detailed concept for
1921 that so I cannot explain the whole thing here. But in a nutshell the
1922 strategy has three crucial pillars:&lt;/p&gt;
1923
1924 &lt;ul&gt;
1925
1926 &lt;li&gt;We really take time to get what sort of stories, questions and
1927 concerns the schools head and the teachers have about using different
1928 kinds of IT and we take time to enrol them into Free Software.&lt;/li&gt;
1929
1930 &lt;li&gt;Our solution for schools is never just technical. In the centre
1931 are always the people who are going to use the software. From the very
1932 beginning of the planning for a school, we tell the schools head that
1933 they are paying us not only for a technical solution for their school,
1934 they also pay us for leading all the communication processes
1935 needed. If they do not want that, we are not working with them because
1936 we cannot give a guarantee for the quality of our work then.&lt;/li&gt;
1937
1938 &lt;li&gt;Another focus lies in the training of teachers and students in
1939 co-administrating the IT-System at their school. They start getting in
1940 contact with the Skolelinux / Debian Edu community and they get the
1941 offer to become more and more independent from us.&lt;/li&gt;
1942
1943 &lt;/ul&gt;
1944 </description>
1945         </item>
1946
1947         <item>
1948                 <title>The European Central Bank (ECB) take a look at bitcoin</title>
1949                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_European_Central_Bank__ECB__take_a_look_at_bitcoin.html</link>
1950                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_European_Central_Bank__ECB__take_a_look_at_bitcoin.html</guid>
1951                 <pubDate>Sun, 4 Nov 2012 08:30:00 +0100</pubDate>
1952                 <description>&lt;p&gt;Slashdot just ran a story about the European Central Bank (ECB)
1953 &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.ecb.europa.eu/pub/pdf/other/virtualcurrencyschemes201210en.pdf&quot;&gt;releasing
1954 a report (PDF)&lt;/a&gt; about virtual currencies and
1955 &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bitcoin.org/&quot;&gt;bitcoin&lt;/a&gt;.  It is interesting to
1956 see how a member of the bitcoin community
1957 &lt;a href=&quot;http://blog.bitinstant.com/blog/2012/10/30/the-ecb-report-on-bitcoin-and-virtual-currencies.html&quot;&gt;receive
1958 the report&lt;/a&gt;.  As for the future, I suspect the central banks and
1959 the governments will outlaw bitcoin if it gain any popularity, to avoid
1960 competition.  My thoughts go to the
1961 &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wörgl&quot;&gt;Wörgl experiment&lt;/a&gt; with
1962 negative inflation on cash which was such a success that it was
1963 terminated by the Austrian National Bank in 1933.  A successful
1964 alternative would be a threat to the current money system and gain
1965 powerful forces to work against it.&lt;/p&gt;
1966
1967 &lt;p&gt;While checking out the current status of bitcoin, I also discovered
1968 that the community already seem to have
1969 &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.theverge.com/2012/8/27/3271637/bitcoin-savings-trust-pyramid-scheme-shuts-down&quot;&gt;experienced
1970 its first pyramid game / Ponzi scheme&lt;/a&gt;.  Not very surprising, given
1971 how members of &quot;small&quot; communities tend to trust each other.  I guess
1972 enterprising crocks will try again and again, as they do anywhere
1973 wealth is available.&lt;/p&gt;
1974 </description>
1975         </item>
1976
1977         <item>
1978                 <title>12 years of outages - summarised by Stuart Kendrick</title>
1979                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/12_years_of_outages___summarised_by_Stuart_Kendrick.html</link>
1980                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/12_years_of_outages___summarised_by_Stuart_Kendrick.html</guid>
1981                 <pubDate>Fri, 26 Oct 2012 14:20:00 +0200</pubDate>
1982                 <description>&lt;p&gt;I work at the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.uio.no/&quot;&gt;University of Oslo&lt;/a&gt;
1983 looking after the computers, mostly on the unix side, but in general
1984 all over the place.  I am also a member (and currently leader) of
1985 &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.nuug.no/&quot;&gt;the NUUG association&lt;/a&gt;, which in turn
1986 make me a member of &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.usenix.org/&quot;&gt;USENIX&lt;/a&gt;.  NUUG
1987 is an member organisation for us in Norway interested in free
1988 software, open standards and unix like operating systems, and USENIX
1989 is a US based member organisation with similar targets.  And thanks to
1990 these memberships, I get all issues of the great USENIX magazine
1991 &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.usenix.org/publications/login&quot;&gt;;login:&lt;/a&gt; in the
1992 mail several times a year.  The magazine is great, and I read most of
1993 it every time.&lt;/p&gt;
1994
1995 &lt;p&gt;In the last issue of the USENIX magazine ;login:, there is an
1996 article by &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.skendric.com/&quot;&gt;Stuart Kendrick&lt;/a&gt; from
1997 Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center titled
1998 &quot;&lt;a href=&quot;https://www.usenix.org/publications/login/october-2012-volume-37-number-5/what-takes-us-down&quot;&gt;What
1999 Takes Us Down&lt;/a&gt;&quot; (longer version also
2000 &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.skendric.com/problem/incident-analysis/2012-06-30/What-Takes-Us-Down.pdf&quot;&gt;available
2001 from his own site&lt;/a&gt;), where he report what he found when he
2002 processed the outage reports (both planned and unplanned) from the
2003 last twelve years and classified them according to cause, time of day,
2004 etc etc.  The article is a good read to get some empirical data on
2005 what kind of problems affect a data centre, but what really inspired
2006 me was the kind of reporting they had put in place since 2000.&lt;p&gt;
2007
2008 &lt;p&gt;The centre set up a mailing list, and started to send fairly
2009 standardised messages to this list when a outage was planned or when
2010 it already occurred, to announce the plan and get feedback on the
2011 assumtions on scope and user impact.  Here is the two example from the
2012 article: First the unplanned outage:
2013
2014 &lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;pre&gt;
2015 Subject:     Exchange 2003 Cluster Issues
2016 Severity:    Critical (Unplanned)
2017 Start:       Monday, May 7, 2012, 11:58
2018 End:         Monday, May 7, 2012, 12:38
2019 Duration:    40 minutes
2020 Scope:       Exchange 2003
2021 Description: The HTTPS service on the Exchange cluster crashed, triggering
2022              a cluster failover.
2023
2024 User Impact: During this period, all Exchange users were unable to
2025              access e-mail. Zimbra users were unaffected.
2026 Technician:  [xxx]
2027 &lt;/pre&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
2028
2029 Next the planned outage:
2030
2031 &lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;pre&gt;
2032 Subject:     H Building Switch Upgrades
2033 Severity:    Major (Planned)
2034 Start:       Saturday, June 16, 2012, 06:00
2035 End:         Saturday, June 16, 2012, 16:00
2036 Duration:    10 hours
2037 Scope:       H2 Transport
2038 Description: Currently, Catalyst 4006s provide 10/100 Ethernet to end-
2039              stations. We will replace these with newer Catalyst
2040              4510s.
2041 User Impact: All users on H2 will be isolated from the network during
2042              this work. Afterward, they will have gigabit
2043              connectivity.
2044 Technician:  [xxx]
2045 &lt;/pre&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
2046
2047 &lt;p&gt;He notes in his article that the date formats and other fields have
2048 been a bit too free form to make it easy to automatically process them
2049 into a database for further analysis, and I would have used ISO 8601
2050 dates myself to make it easier to process (in other words I would ask
2051 people to write &#39;2012-06-16 06:00 +0000&#39; instead of the start time
2052 format listed above).  There are also other issues with the format
2053 that could be improved, read the article for the details.&lt;/p&gt;
2054
2055 &lt;p&gt;I find the idea of standardising outage messages seem to be such a
2056 good idea that I would like to get it implemented here at the
2057 university too.  We do register
2058 &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.uio.no/tjenester/it/aktuelt/planlagte-tjenesteavbrudd/&quot;&gt;planned
2059 changes and outages in a calendar&lt;/a&gt;, and report the to a mailing
2060 list, but we do not do so in a structured format and there is not a
2061 report to the same location for unplanned outages.  Perhaps something
2062 for other sites to consider too?&lt;/p&gt;
2063 </description>
2064         </item>
2065
2066         <item>
2067                 <title>Amazon steal books from customer and throw out her out without any explanation</title>
2068                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Amazon_steal_books_from_customer_and_throw_out_her_out_without_any_explanation.html</link>
2069                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Amazon_steal_books_from_customer_and_throw_out_her_out_without_any_explanation.html</guid>
2070                 <pubDate>Mon, 22 Oct 2012 20:30:00 +0200</pubDate>
2071                 <description>&lt;p&gt;A blog post from Martin Bekkelund today tell the story of
2072 &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bekkelund.net/2012/10/22/outlawed-by-amazon-drm/&quot;&gt;how
2073 Amazon erased the books from a customer&#39;s kindle, locked the account
2074 and refuse to tell the customer why&lt;/a&gt;.  If a real book store did
2075 this to a customer, it would be called breaking into private property
2076 and theft.  The story has spread around the net today.  A bit more
2077 background information is available in Norwegian from
2078 &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.digi.no/904658/hun-ble-kastet-ut-av-amazon&quot;&gt;digi.no&lt;/a&gt;.
2079 It is no surprise that digital restriction mechanisms (DRM) are used
2080 this way, as it has been warned about such abuse since DRM was
2081 introduced many years back.  And Amazon proved in 2009 that it was
2082 willing to
2083 &lt;a href=&quot;http://boingboing.net/2009/07/20/amazons-orwellian-de.html&quot;&gt;
2084 break into customers equipment and remove the books&lt;/a&gt; people had
2085 bought, when it removed the book 1984 by George Orwell from all the
2086 customers who had bought it.  From the official comments, it even
2087 sounded like
2088 &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/18/technology/companies/18amazon.html&quot;&gt;Amazon
2089 would never do that again&lt;/a&gt;.  And here we are, three years
2090 later.&lt;/p&gt;
2091
2092 &lt;p&gt;And thought this action is
2093 &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.itavisen.no/904648/forbrukerraadet-helt-haarreisende&quot;&gt;against
2094 Norwegian regulations and law&lt;/a&gt;, it is according to the terms of use
2095 as written by Amazon, and it is hard to hold Amazon accountable to
2096 Norwegian laws.  It is just yet another example of unacceptable terms
2097 of use on the web, and how they are used to remove customer
2098 rights.&lt;/p&gt;
2099
2100 &lt;p&gt;Luckily for electronic books, there are alternatives without
2101 unacceptable terms.  For example
2102 &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.gutenberg.org/&quot;&gt;Project Gutenberg&lt;/a&gt; (about 40,000
2103 books), &lt;a href=&quot;http://runeberg.org/&quot;&gt;Project Runenberg&lt;/a&gt; (1,652
2104 books) and &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.archive.org/details/texts&quot;&gt;The Internet
2105 Archive&lt;/a&gt; (3,641,797 books) have heaps of books without DRM, which
2106 can read by anyone and shared with anyone.&lt;/p&gt;
2107
2108 &lt;p&gt;Update 2012-10-23: This story broke in the morning on Monday. In
2109 the evening after the story had spread all across the Internet, Amazon
2110 restored the account of the user, as reported by
2111 &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.digi.no/904675/helomvending-fra-amazon&quot;&gt;digi.no&lt;/a&gt;
2112 and &lt;a href=&quot;http://nrk.no/kultur-og-underholdning/1.8368487&quot;&gt;NRK&lt;/a&gt;.
2113 Apparently public pressure work.  The story from Martin have seen
2114 several twitter messages per minute the last 24 hours, which is quite
2115 a lot, and is still drawing a lot of attention.  But even when the
2116 account is restored, the fundamental problem still exist.  I recommend
2117 reading two opinions from
2118 &lt;a href=&quot;http://blogs.computerworlduk.com/simon-says/2012/10/rights-you-have-no-right-to-your-ebooks/index.htm&quot;&gt;Simon
2119 Phipps&lt;/a&gt; and
2120 &lt;a href=&quot;http://blogs.computerworlduk.com/open-enterprise/2012/10/is-amazon-playing-fair/index.htm&quot;&gt;Glen
2121 Moody&lt;/a&gt; if you want to learn more about the fundamentals and more
2122 details about the original story.&lt;/p&gt;
2123 </description>
2124         </item>
2125
2126         <item>
2127                 <title>The fight for freedom and privacy</title>
2128                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_fight_for_freedom_and_privacy.html</link>
2129                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_fight_for_freedom_and_privacy.html</guid>
2130                 <pubDate>Thu, 18 Oct 2012 10:50:00 +0200</pubDate>
2131                 <description>&lt;p&gt;Civil liberties and privacy in the western world are going down the
2132 drain, and it is hard to fight against it.  I try to do my best, but
2133 time is limited.  I hope you do your best too.  A few years ago I came
2134 across a marvellous drawing by
2135 &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.claybennett.com/about.html&quot;&gt;Clay Bennett&lt;/a&gt;
2136 visualising some of what is going on.
2137
2138 &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.claybennett.com/pages/security_fence.html&quot;&gt;
2139 &lt;img src=&quot;http://www.claybennett.com/images/archivetoons/security_fence.jpg&quot;&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
2140
2141 &lt;blockquote&gt;
2142 «They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary
2143 safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.» - Benjamin Franklin
2144 &lt;/blockquote&gt;
2145
2146 &lt;p&gt;Do you feel safe at the airport?  I do not.  Do you feel safe when
2147 you see a surveillance camera?  I do not.  Do you feel safe when you
2148 leave electronic traces of your behaviour and opinions?  I do not.  I
2149 just remember &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panopticon&quot;&gt;the
2150 Panopticon&lt;/a&gt;, and can not help to think that we are slowly
2151 transforming our society to a huge Panopticon on our own.&lt;/p&gt;
2152 </description>
2153         </item>
2154
2155         <item>
2156                 <title>ColonHelp produser sue WordPress to silence critic</title>
2157                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/ColonHelp_produser_sue_WordPress_to_silence_critic.html</link>
2158                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/ColonHelp_produser_sue_WordPress_to_silence_critic.html</guid>
2159                 <pubDate>Fri, 12 Oct 2012 23:50:00 +0200</pubDate>
2160                 <description>&lt;p&gt;Thanks to a blog post by
2161 &lt;a href=&quot;http://ramblingfoo.blogspot.no/2012/10/a-shitstorm-is-comming.html&quot;&gt;Eddy
2162 Petrișor&lt;/a&gt;, I became aware of yet another &quot;alternative medicine&quot;
2163 company using legal intimidation tactics to scare off critics.
2164 According to the originating blog post about the detox &quot;cure&quot;
2165 &lt;a href=&quot;http://insulaindoielii.wordpress.com/2012/10/11/colon-help-sues-wordpress/&quot;&gt;ColonHelp
2166 and its producers Zenyth Pharmaceuticals actions&lt;/a&gt;, the producer
2167 sues Wordpress to get rid of the critical information.  To check if
2168 the story was for real, I contacted Automattic, the company behind
2169 wordpress.com, and they reply was &quot;We can confirm that Zenyth is
2170 seeking a court order against WordPress / Automattic.  However, we
2171 don&#39;t believe the Terms of Service have been violated in this
2172 matter&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;
2173
2174 &lt;p&gt;The story seem to be simply that a blogger checked the scientific
2175 foundation for a popular health product in Rumania, ColonHelp, and
2176 reported that there was no reason at all to believe it improved the
2177 health of its users.  This caused the company behind the product,
2178 Zenyth Pharmaceuticals, to use legal intimidation to try to silence
2179 the critic, instead of presenting its views and scientific foundation
2180 to argue its side.&lt;/p&gt;
2181
2182 &lt;p&gt;This is the usual story, and the Zenyth Pharmaceuticals company
2183 deserve everyone to know how it failed to act properly.  Lets hope the
2184 &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streisand_effect&quot;&gt;Streisand
2185 effect&lt;/a&gt; can make it rethink its strategy.&lt;/p&gt;
2186
2187 &lt;p&gt;What is the harm, you might think.  I suggest you take a look at
2188 &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.whatstheharm.net/detoxification.html&quot;&gt;a list of
2189 victims of detoxification&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
2190 </description>
2191         </item>
2192
2193         <item>
2194                 <title>Why is your local library collecting the &quot;wrong&quot; computer books?</title>
2195                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Why_is_your_local_library_collecting_the__wrong__computer_books_.html</link>
2196                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Why_is_your_local_library_collecting_the__wrong__computer_books_.html</guid>
2197                 <pubDate>Wed, 3 Oct 2012 10:00:00 +0200</pubDate>
2198                 <description>&lt;p&gt;I just read the blog post from Tim Retout
2199 &lt;a href=&quot;http://retout.co.uk/blog/2012/10/02/the-library-challenge&quot;&gt;about
2200 the computer science book collection available in his local
2201 library&lt;/a&gt;, and just wanted to share my comment on his theory about
2202 computer books becoming obsolete so soon.  That is part of the reason
2203 why the selection is so sad in almost any local library (it is in mine
2204 too), but I believe the major contributing factor is that the people
2205 buying books to the library have no way to know a good and future
2206 computer classic from trash.  And they need to know which one will
2207 become a classic in the future, as they would normally buy one of the
2208 recently published books.&lt;/p&gt;
2209
2210 &lt;p&gt;During my university years, I worked for a while at the university
2211 library, and even there the person in charge of buying computer
2212 related books (and in fact any natural science related book), did not
2213 know enough about computers to make a good educated guess.  Once, just
2214 before Christmas, they had some leftover money on the book budget and
2215 I was asked if I could pick out a lot of computer books in the
2216 university book store, for the library to buy for their collection.  I
2217 had a great time picking all the books I dreamt of buying and reading,
2218 and the books I knew were classics (like most of the
2219 &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W._Richard_Stevens&quot;&gt;Stevens
2220 collection&lt;/a&gt;).  I picked several of the generic O&#39;Reilly books (ie
2221 documenting protocols, formats and systems, not specific versions of
2222 products) and stayed away from the &#39;teach yourself X in N days&#39; class.
2223 I had a great time, and probably picked out more than a hundred books
2224 for the library that evening.&lt;/p&gt;
2225
2226 &lt;p&gt;The sad fact is that there is no way a overworked librarian is
2227 going to know that for example
2228 &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Practice_of_Programming&quot;&gt;The
2229 Practice of Programming&lt;/a&gt; is a must-have in any computer library,
2230 and they will most of the time end up picking the wrong books to buy.
2231 Perhaps you can help your local library make better choices by giving
2232 the suggestions for books to get?  I know they would love to hear from
2233 you, even if their budget might block them from getting your favourite
2234 book right away.&lt;/p&gt;
2235 </description>
2236         </item>
2237
2238         <item>
2239                 <title>Seventy percent done with Norwegian docbook version of Free Culture</title>
2240                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Seventy_percent_done_with_Norwegian_docbook_version_of_Free_Culture.html</link>
2241                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Seventy_percent_done_with_Norwegian_docbook_version_of_Free_Culture.html</guid>
2242                 <pubDate>Sun, 23 Sep 2012 09:30:00 +0200</pubDate>
2243                 <description>&lt;p&gt;Since this summer, I have worked in my spare time on a Norwegian &lt;a
2244 href=&quot;http://www.docbook.org/&quot;&gt;docbook&lt;/a&gt; version of the 2004 book &lt;a
2245 href=&quot;http://free-culture.cc/&quot;&gt;Free Culture&lt;/a&gt; by Lawrence Lessig.
2246 The reason is that this book is a great primer on what problems exist
2247 in the current copyright laws, and I want it to be available also for
2248 those that are reluctant do read an English book.
2249
2250 When I started, I
2251 &lt;a href=&quot;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Dugnad_for___sende_norsk_versjon_av_Free_Culture_til_stortingets_representanter_.html&quot;&gt;called
2252 for volunteers&lt;/a&gt; to help me, but too few have volunteered so far,
2253 and progress is a bit slow.  Anyway, today I broken the 70 percent
2254 mark for the first rough translation.  At the moment, less than 700
2255 strings (paragraphs, index terms, titles) are left to translate.  With
2256 my current progress of 10-20 strings per day, it will take a while to
2257 complete the translation.  This graph show the updated progress:&lt;/p&gt;
2258
2259 &lt;img width=&quot;80%&quot; align=&quot;center&quot; src=&quot;https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/free-culture-lessig/raw/master/progress.png&quot;&gt;
2260
2261 &lt;p&gt;Progress have slowed down lately due to family and work
2262 commitments.  If you want to help, please get in touch, and check out
2263 the project files currently available from
2264 &lt;a href=&quot;https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/free-culture-lessig&quot;&gt;github&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
2265
2266 &lt;p&gt;If you are curious what the translated book currently look like,
2267 the updated
2268 &lt;a href=&quot;https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/free-culture-lessig/blob/master/archive/freeculture.nb.pdf?raw=true&quot;&gt;PDF&lt;/a&gt;
2269 and
2270 &lt;a href=&quot;https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/free-culture-lessig/blob/master/archive/freeculture.nb.epub?raw=true&quot;&gt;EPUB&lt;/a&gt;
2271 are published on github.  The HTML version is published as well, but
2272 github hand it out with MIME type text/plain, confusing browsers, so I
2273 saw no point in linking to that version.&lt;/p&gt;
2274 </description>
2275         </item>
2276
2277         <item>
2278                 <title>Debian Edu interview: Giorgio Pioda</title>
2279                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__Giorgio_Pioda.html</link>
2280                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__Giorgio_Pioda.html</guid>
2281                 <pubDate>Mon, 17 Sep 2012 14:10:00 +0200</pubDate>
2282                 <description>&lt;p&gt;After a long break in my row of interviews with people in the
2283 &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.skolelinux.org/&quot;&gt;Debian Edu and Skolelinux&lt;/a&gt;
2284 community, I finally found time to wrap up another.  This time it is
2285 Giorgio Pioda, which showed up on the mailing list at the start of
2286 this year, asking questions and inspiring us to improve the first time
2287 administrators experience with Skolelinux. :) The interview was
2288 conduced in May, but I only found time to publish it now.&lt;/p&gt;
2289
2290 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Who are you, and how do you spend your days?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
2291
2292 &lt;p&gt;I have a PhD in chemistry but since several years I work as teacher
2293 in secondary (15-18 year old students) and tertiary (a kind of &quot;light&quot;
2294 university) schools. Five years ago I started to manage a Learning
2295 Management Service server and slowly I got more and more involved with
2296 IT. 3 years ago the graduating schools moved completely to Linux and I
2297 got the head of the IT for this. The experience collected in chemistry
2298 labs computers (for example NMR analysis of protein folding) and in
2299 the IT-courses during university where sufficient to start. Self
2300 training is anyway very important&lt;/p&gt;
2301
2302 &lt;p&gt;I live in the Italian speaking part of Switzerland, and the
2303 &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.spse.ch/&quot;&gt;SPSE school&lt;/a&gt; (secondary) is a very
2304 special sport school for young people who try to became sport pro (for
2305 all sports, we have dozens of disciplines represented) and we are
2306 recognised by the Olympic Swiss Organisation.
2307
2308 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;How did you get in contact with the Skolelinux/Debian Edu
2309 project?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
2310
2311 &lt;p&gt;Looking for Linux / Primary Domain Controller (PDC) I found it
2312 already several years ago. But since the system was still not
2313 Kerberized and since our schools relies strongly on laptops I didn&#39;t
2314 use it. I plan to introduce it in the next future, probably for the
2315 next school year, since the squeeze release solved this security
2316 hole.&lt;/p&gt;
2317
2318 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What do you see as the advantages of Skolelinux/Debian
2319 Edu?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
2320
2321 &lt;p&gt;Many. First of all there is a strong and living community that is
2322 very generous for help and hints.  Chat help is crucial, together with
2323 the mailing list.  Second. With Skolelinux you get an already well
2324 engineered platform and you don&#39;t have to start to build up your PDC
2325 and your clients from GNU/scratch; I&#39;ve already done this once and I
2326 can tell it, it is hard. Third, since Skolelinux is a standard
2327 platform, it is way easier to educate other IT people and even if the
2328 head IT is sick another one could pick up the task without too much
2329 hassle.&lt;/p&gt;
2330
2331 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What do you see as the disadvantages of Skolelinux/Debian
2332 Edu?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
2333
2334 &lt;p&gt;The only real problem I see is that it is a little too less
2335 flexible at client level. Debian stable is rocky and desirable, but
2336 there are many reasons that force for another choice. For example the
2337 need of new drivers for new PC, or the need for a specific OS for some
2338 devices that have specific software packages for another specific
2339 distribution (I have such a case for whiteboards that have only
2340 Ubuntu packages). Thus, I prepared compatibility packages educlient
2341 and eduroaming, hoping not to use them ;-)&lt;/p&gt;
2342
2343 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Which free software do you use daily?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
2344
2345 &lt;p&gt;I have a Debian Stable PDC at school (Kerberos, NIS, NFS) with
2346 mixed Debian and Ubuntu clients. If you think that this triad
2347 combination is exotic... well I discovered right yesterday that
2348 &lt;a href=&quot;http://moo.nac.uci.edu/~hjm/Perceus-Report.html&quot;&gt;Perceus&lt;/a&gt;
2349 has the same...&lt;/p&gt;
2350
2351 &lt;p&gt;For myself I run Debian wheezy/sid, but this combination is good
2352 only I you have enough competence to fix stuff for yourself, if
2353 something breaks.  Daily I use texmacs, gnumeric, a little bit of R
2354 statistics, kmplot, and less frequently OpenOffice.org.&lt;/p&gt;
2355
2356 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Which strategy do you believe is the right one to use to
2357 get schools to use free software?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
2358
2359 &lt;P&gt;I think that the only real argument that school managers &quot;hear&quot; is
2360 cost reduction. They don&#39;t give too much weight on quality, stability,
2361 just because they are normally not open to change.&lt;/p&gt;
2362
2363 &lt;p&gt;Students adapts very quickly to GNU/Linux (and for them being able
2364 to switch between different OS is a plus value); teachers and managers
2365 don&#39;t.&lt;/p&gt;
2366
2367 &lt;p&gt;We decided to move to Linux because students at our school have own
2368 laptop and we have the responsibility to keep the laptop ready to use;
2369 we were really unsatisfied with Microsoft since every Monday we had 20
2370 machine to fix for viral infections... With Linux this has been
2371 reduced to zero, since people installs almost only from official
2372 repositories. I think that our special needs brought us to Linux.
2373 Those who don&#39;t have such needs will hardly move to Linux.&lt;/p&gt;
2374 </description>
2375         </item>
2376
2377         <item>
2378                 <title>IETF activity to standardise video codec</title>
2379                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/IETF_activity_to_standardise_video_codec.html</link>
2380                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/IETF_activity_to_standardise_video_codec.html</guid>
2381                 <pubDate>Sat, 15 Sep 2012 20:00:00 +0200</pubDate>
2382                 <description>&lt;p&gt;After the
2383 &lt;a href=&quot;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/IETF_standardize_its_first_multimedia_codec__Opus.html&quot;&gt;Opus
2384 codec made&lt;/a&gt; it into &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.ietf.org/&quot;&gt;IETF&lt;/a&gt; as
2385 &lt;a href=&quot;http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc6716&quot;&gt;RFC 6716&lt;/a&gt;, I had a look
2386 to see if there is any activity in IETF to standardise a video codec
2387 too, and I was happy to discover that there is some activity in this
2388 area.  A non-&quot;working group&quot; mailing list
2389 &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.ietf.org/mailman/listinfo/video-codec&quot;&gt;video-codec&lt;/a&gt;
2390 was
2391 &lt;a href=&quot;http://ietf.10.n7.nabble.com/New-Non-WG-Mailing-List-video-codec-Video-codec-BoF-discussion-list-td119548.html&quot;&gt;created 2012-08-20&lt;/a&gt;.  It is intended to discuss the topic and if a
2392 formal working group should be formed.&lt;/p&gt;
2393
2394 &lt;p&gt;I look forward to see how this plays out.  There is already
2395 &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.ietf.org/mail-archive/web/video-codec/current/msg00003.html&quot;&gt;an
2396 email from someone&lt;/a&gt; in the MPEG group at ISO asking people to
2397 participate in the ISO group.  Given how ISO failed with OOXML and given
2398 that it so far (as far as I can remember) only have produced
2399 multimedia formats requiring royalty payments, I suspect
2400 joining the ISO group would be a complete waste of time, but I am not
2401 involved in any codec work and my opinion will not matter much.&lt;/p&gt;
2402
2403 &lt;p&gt;If one of my readers is involved with codec work, I hope she will
2404 join this work to standardise a royalty free video codec within
2405 IETF.&lt;/p&gt;
2406 </description>
2407         </item>
2408
2409         <item>
2410                 <title>IETF standardize its first multimedia codec: Opus</title>
2411                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/IETF_standardize_its_first_multimedia_codec__Opus.html</link>
2412                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/IETF_standardize_its_first_multimedia_codec__Opus.html</guid>
2413                 <pubDate>Wed, 12 Sep 2012 13:50:00 +0200</pubDate>
2414                 <description>&lt;p&gt;Yesterday, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.ietf.org/&quot;&gt;IETF&lt;/a&gt; announced the
2415 publication of of
2416 &lt;a href=&quot;http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc6716&quot;&gt;RFC 6716, the Definition
2417 of the Opus Audio Codec&lt;/a&gt;, a low latency, variable bandwidth, codec
2418 intended for both VoIP, film and music.  This is the first time, as
2419 far as I know, that IETF have standardized a multimedia codec.  In
2420 &lt;a href=&quot;http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc3533&quot;&gt;RFC 3533&lt;/a&gt;, IETF
2421 standardized the OGG container format, and it has proven to be a great
2422 royalty free container for audio, video and movies.  I hope IETF will
2423 continue to standardize more royalty free codeces, after ISO and MPEG
2424 have proven incapable of securing everyone equal rights to publish
2425 multimedia content on the Internet.&lt;/p&gt;
2426
2427 &lt;p&gt;IETF require two interoperating independent implementations to
2428 ratify a standard, and have so far ensured to only standardize royalty
2429 free specifications.  Both are key factors to allow everyone (rich and
2430 poor), to compete on equal terms on the Internet.&lt;/p&gt;
2431
2432 &lt;p&gt;Visit the &lt;a href=&quot;http://opus-codec.org/&quot;&gt;Opus project page&lt;/a&gt; if
2433 you want to learn more about the solution.&lt;/p&gt;
2434 </description>
2435         </item>
2436
2437         <item>
2438                 <title>Git repository for song book for Computer Scientists</title>
2439                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Git_repository_for_song_book_for_Computer_Scientists.html</link>
2440                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Git_repository_for_song_book_for_Computer_Scientists.html</guid>
2441                 <pubDate>Fri, 7 Sep 2012 13:50:00 +0200</pubDate>
2442                 <description>&lt;p&gt;As I
2443 &lt;a href=&quot;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Song_book_for_Computer_Scientists.html&quot;&gt;mentioned
2444 this summer&lt;/a&gt;, I have created a Computer Science song book a few
2445 years ago, and today I finally found time to create a public
2446 &lt;a href=&quot;https://gitorious.org/pere-cs-songbook/pere-cs-songbook&quot;&gt;Gitorious
2447 repository for the project&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
2448
2449 &lt;p&gt;If you want to help out, please clone the source and submit patches
2450 to the HTML version.  To generate the PDF and PostScript version,
2451 please use prince XML, or let me know about a useful free software
2452 processor capable of creating a good looking PDF from the HTML.&lt;/p&gt;
2453
2454 &lt;p&gt;Want to sing?  You can still find the song book in HTML, PDF and
2455 PostScript formats at
2456 &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hungry.com/~pere/cs-songbook/&quot;&gt;Petter&#39;s Computer
2457 Science Songbook&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
2458 </description>
2459         </item>
2460
2461         <item>
2462                 <title>Free software forced Microsoft to open Office (and don&#39;t forget Officeshots)</title>
2463                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Free_software_forced_Microsoft_to_open_Office__and_don_t_forget_Officeshots_.html</link>
2464                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Free_software_forced_Microsoft_to_open_Office__and_don_t_forget_Officeshots_.html</guid>
2465                 <pubDate>Thu, 23 Aug 2012 14:20:00 +0200</pubDate>
2466                 <description>&lt;p&gt;I came across a great comment from Simon Phipps today, about how
2467 &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.infoworld.com/d/open-source-software/how-microsoft-was-forced-open-office-200233&quot;&gt;Microsoft
2468 have been forced to open Office&lt;/a&gt;, and it made me remember and
2469 revisit the great site
2470 &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.officeshots.org/&quot;&gt;officeshots&lt;/a&gt; which allow you
2471 to check out how different programs present the ODF file format.  I
2472 recommend both to those of my readers interested in ODF. :)&lt;/p&gt;
2473 </description>
2474         </item>
2475
2476         <item>
2477                 <title>Half way there with translated docbook version of Free Culture</title>
2478                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Half_way_there_with_translated_docbook_version_of_Free_Culture.html</link>
2479                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Half_way_there_with_translated_docbook_version_of_Free_Culture.html</guid>
2480                 <pubDate>Fri, 17 Aug 2012 21:50:00 +0200</pubDate>
2481                 <description>&lt;p&gt;In my spare time, I currently work on a Norwegian
2482 &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.docbook.org/&quot;&gt;docbook&lt;/a&gt; version of the 2004 book
2483 &lt;a href=&quot;http://free-culture.cc/&quot;&gt;Free Culture&lt;/a&gt; by Lawrence Lessig,
2484 to get a Norwegian text explaining the problems with the copyright law
2485 I can give to my parents and others that are reluctant to read an
2486 English book.  It is a marvellous set of examples on how the ever
2487 expanding copyright regulations hurt culture and society.  When the
2488 translation is done, I hope to find funding to print and ship a copy
2489 to all the members of the Norwegian parliament, before they sit down
2490 to debate the latest revisions to the Norwegian copyright law.  This
2491 summer I
2492 &lt;a href=&quot;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Dugnad_for___sende_norsk_versjon_av_Free_Culture_til_stortingets_representanter_.html&quot;&gt;called
2493 for volunteers&lt;/a&gt; to help me, and I have been able to secure the
2494 valuable contribution from at least one other Norwegian.&lt;/p&gt;
2495
2496 &lt;p&gt;Two days ago, we finally broke the 50% mark.  Then more than 50% of
2497 the number of strings to translate (normally paragraphs, but also
2498 titles and index entries are also counted).  All parts from the
2499 beginning up to and including chapter four is translated.  So is
2500 chapters six, seven and the conclusion.  I created a graph to show the
2501 progress:&lt;/p&gt;
2502
2503 &lt;img width=&quot;80%&quot; align=&quot;center&quot; src=&quot;https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/free-culture-lessig/raw/master/progress.png&quot;&gt;
2504
2505 &lt;p&gt;The number of strings to translate increase as I insert the index
2506 entries into the docbook.  They were missing with the docbook version
2507 I initially started with.  There are still quite a few index entries
2508 missing, but everyone starting with A, B, O, Z and Y are done.  I
2509 currently focus on completing the index entries, to get a complete
2510 english version of the docbook source.&lt;/p&gt;
2511
2512 &lt;p&gt;There is still need for translators and people with docbook
2513 knowledge, to be able to get a good looking book (I still struggle
2514 with dblatex, xmlto and docbook-xsl) as well as to do the draft
2515 translation and proof reading.  And I would like the figures to be
2516 redrawn as SVGs to make it easy to translate them.  Any SVG master
2517 around?  I am sure there are some legal terms that are unfamiliar to
2518 me.  If you want to help, please get in touch, and check out the
2519 project files currently available from &lt;a
2520 href=&quot;https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/free-culture-lessig&quot;&gt;github&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
2521
2522 &lt;p&gt;If you are curious what the translated book currently look like,
2523 the updated
2524 &lt;a href=&quot;https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/free-culture-lessig/blob/master/archive/freeculture.nb.pdf?raw=true&quot;&gt;PDF&lt;/a&gt;
2525 and
2526 &lt;a href=&quot;https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/free-culture-lessig/blob/master/archive/freeculture.nb.epub?raw=true&quot;&gt;EPUB&lt;/a&gt;
2527 are published on github.  The HTML version is published as well, but
2528 github hand it out with MIME type text/plain, confusing browsers, so I
2529 saw no point in linking to that version.&lt;/p&gt;
2530 </description>
2531         </item>
2532
2533         <item>
2534                 <title>Notes on language codes for Norwegian docbook processing...</title>
2535                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Notes_on_language_codes_for_Norwegian_docbook_processing___.html</link>
2536                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Notes_on_language_codes_for_Norwegian_docbook_processing___.html</guid>
2537                 <pubDate>Fri, 10 Aug 2012 21:00:00 +0200</pubDate>
2538                 <description>&lt;p&gt;In &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.docbook.org/&quot;&gt;docbook&lt;/a&gt; one can specify
2539 the language used at the top, and the processing pipeline will use
2540 this information to pick the correct translations for &#39;chapter&#39;, &#39;see
2541 also&#39;, &#39;index&#39; etc.  And for most languages used with docbook, I guess
2542 this work just fine.  For example a German user can start the document
2543 with &amp;lt;book lang=&quot;de&quot;&amp;gt;, and the document will show up with the
2544 correct content with any of the docbook processors.  This is not the
2545 case for the language
2546 &lt;a href=&quot;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Free_Culture_in_Norwegian___5_chapters_done__74_percent_left_to_do.html&quot;&gt;I
2547 am working with at the moment&lt;/a&gt;, Norwegian Bokmål.&lt;/p&gt;
2548
2549 &lt;p&gt;For a while, I was confused about which language code to use,
2550 because I was unable to find any language code that would work across
2551 all tools.  I am currently testing dblatex, xmlto, docbook-xsl, and
2552 dbtoepub, and they do not handle Norwegian Bokmål the same way.  Some
2553 of them do not handle it at all.&lt;/p&gt;
2554
2555 &lt;p&gt;A bit of background information is probably needed to understand
2556 this mess.  Norwegian is not one, but two written variants.  The
2557 variants are Norwegian Nynorsk and Norwegian Bokmål.  There are three
2558 two letter language codes associated with these languages, Norwegian
2559 is &#39;no&#39;, Norwegian Nynorsk is &#39;nn&#39; and Norwegian Bokmål is &#39;nb&#39;.
2560 Historically the &#39;no&#39; language code was used for Norwegian Bokmål, but
2561 many years ago this was found to be å bad idea, and the recommendation
2562 is to use the most specific language code instead, to avoid confusion.
2563 In the transition period it is a good idea to make sure &#39;no&#39; was an
2564 alias for &#39;nb&#39;.&lt;/p&gt;
2565
2566 &lt;p&gt;Back to docbook processing tools in Debian.  The dblatex tool only
2567 understand &#39;nn&#39;.  There are translations for &#39;no&#39;, but not &#39;nb&#39; (BTS
2568 &lt;a href=&quot;http://bugs.debian.org/684391&quot;&gt;#684391&lt;/a&gt;), but due to a bug
2569 (BTS &lt;a href=&quot;http://bugs.debian.org/682936&quot;&gt;#682936&lt;/a&gt;) the &#39;no&#39;
2570 language code is not recognised.  The docbook-xsl tool chain only
2571 recognise &#39;nn&#39; and &#39;nb&#39;, but not &#39;no&#39;.  The xmlto tool only recognise
2572 &#39;nn&#39; and &#39;nb&#39;, but not &#39;no&#39;.  The end result that there is no language
2573 code I can use to get the docbook file working with all of these tools
2574 at the same time. :(&lt;/p&gt;
2575
2576 &lt;p&gt;The correct solution is to use &amp;lt;book lang=&quot;nb&quot;&amp;gt;, but it will
2577 take time before that will work with all the free software docbook
2578 processors. :(&lt;/p&gt;
2579
2580 &lt;p&gt;Oh, the joy of well integrated tools. :/&lt;/p&gt;
2581 </description>
2582         </item>
2583
2584         <item>
2585                 <title>Best way to create a docbook book?</title>
2586                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Best_way_to_create_a_docbook_book_.html</link>
2587                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Best_way_to_create_a_docbook_book_.html</guid>
2588                 <pubDate>Tue, 31 Jul 2012 22:00:00 +0200</pubDate>
2589                 <description>&lt;p&gt;I tried to send this text to the
2590 &lt;a href=&quot;https://lists.oasis-open.org/archives/docbook-apps/&quot;&gt;docbook-apps
2591 mailing list at lists.oasis-open.org&lt;/a&gt;, but it only accept messages
2592 from subscribers and rejected my post, and I completely lack the
2593 bandwidth required to subscribe to another mailing list, so instead I
2594 try to post my message here and hope my blog readers can help me
2595 out.&lt;/p&gt;
2596
2597 &lt;p&gt;I am quite new to docbook processing, and am climbing a steep
2598 learning curve at the moment.&lt;/p&gt;
2599
2600 &lt;p&gt;To give you some background, I am working on a Norwegian
2601 translation of the book Free Culture by Lawrence Lessig, and I use
2602 docbook to handle the process.  The files to build the book are
2603 available from
2604 &lt;a href=&quot;https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/free-culture-lessig&quot;&gt;github&lt;/a&gt;.
2605 The book got around 400 pages with parts, images, footnotes, tables,
2606 index entries etc, which has proven to be a challenge for the free
2607 software docbook processors.  My build platform is Debian GNU/Linux
2608 Squeeze.&lt;/p&gt;
2609
2610 &lt;p&gt;I want to build PDF, EPUB and HTML version of the book, and have
2611 tried different tool chains to do the conversion from docbook to these
2612 formats.  I am currently focusing on the PDF version, and have a few
2613 problems.&lt;/p&gt;
2614
2615 &lt;ul&gt;
2616
2617 &lt;li&gt;Using dblatex, the &amp;lt;part&amp;gt; handling is not the way I want to,
2618    as &amp;lt;/part&amp;gt; do not really end the &amp;lt;part&amp;gt;. (See
2619    &lt;a href=&quot;http://bugs.debian.org/683166&quot;&gt;BTS report #683166&lt;/a&gt;), the
2620    xetex backend (needed to process UTF-8) give incorrect hyphens in
2621    index references spanning several pages (See
2622    &lt;a href=&quot;http://bugs.debian.org/682901&quot;&gt;BTS report #682901&lt;/a&gt;), and
2623    I am unable to get the norwegian template texts (See
2624    &lt;a href=&quot;http://bugs.debian.org/682936&quot;&gt;BTS report #682936&lt;/a&gt;).&lt;/li&gt;
2625
2626 &lt;li&gt;Using straight xmlto fail with some latex error (See
2627    &lt;a href=&quot;http://bugs.debian.org/683163&quot;&gt;BTS report
2628    #683163&lt;/a&gt;).&lt;/li&gt;
2629
2630 &lt;li&gt;Using xmlto with the fop backend fail to handle images (do not
2631    show up in the PDF), fail to handle a long footnote (overlap
2632    footnote and text body, see
2633    &lt;a href=&quot;http://bugs.debian.org/683197&quot;&gt;BTS report #683197&lt;/a&gt;), and
2634    fail to create a correct index (some lack page ref, and the page
2635    refs listed are not right).&lt;/li&gt;
2636
2637 &lt;li&gt;Using xmlto with the dblatex backend behave like dblatex.&lt;/li&gt;
2638
2639 &lt;li&gt;Using docbook-xls with xsltproc + fop have the same footnote and
2640    index problems the xmlto + fop processing.&lt;/li&gt;
2641
2642 &lt;/ul&gt;
2643
2644 &lt;p&gt;So I wonder, what would be the best way to create the PDF version
2645 of this book?  Are some of the bugs found above solved in new or
2646 experimental versions of some docbook tool chain?&lt;/p&gt;
2647
2648 &lt;p&gt;What about HTML and EPUB versions?&lt;/p&gt;
2649 </description>
2650         </item>
2651
2652         <item>
2653                 <title>Free Culture in Norwegian - 5 chapters done, 74 percent left to do</title>
2654                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Free_Culture_in_Norwegian___5_chapters_done__74_percent_left_to_do.html</link>
2655                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Free_Culture_in_Norwegian___5_chapters_done__74_percent_left_to_do.html</guid>
2656                 <pubDate>Sat, 21 Jul 2012 20:00:00 +0200</pubDate>
2657                 <description>&lt;p&gt;I reported earlier that I am working on
2658 &lt;a href=&quot;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Dugnad_for___sende_norsk_versjon_av_Free_Culture_til_stortingets_representanter_.html&quot;&gt;a
2659 norwegian version&lt;/a&gt; of the book
2660 &lt;a href=&quot;http://free-culture.cc/&quot;&gt;Free Culture&lt;/a&gt; by Lawrence Lessig.
2661 Progress is good, and yesterday I got a major contribution from Anders
2662 Hagen Jarmund completing chapter six.  The source files as well as a
2663 PDF and EPUB version of this book are available from
2664 &lt;a href=&quot;https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/free-culture-lessig&quot;&gt;github&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
2665
2666 &lt;p&gt;I am happy to report that the draft for the first two chapters
2667 (preface, introduction) is complete, and three other chapters are also
2668 completely translated.  This completes 26 percent of the number of
2669 strings (equivalent to paragraphs) in the book, and there is thus 74
2670 percent left to translate.  A graph of the progress is present at the
2671 bottom of the github project page.  There is still room for more
2672 contributors.  Get in touch or send github pull requests with fixes if
2673 you got time and are willing to help make this book make it to
2674 print. :)&lt;/p&gt;
2675
2676 &lt;p&gt;The book translation framework could also be a good basis for other
2677 translations, if you want the book to be available in your
2678 language.&lt;/p&gt;
2679 </description>
2680         </item>
2681
2682         <item>
2683                 <title>Call for help from docbook expert to tag Free Culture by Lawrence Lessig</title>
2684                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Call_for_help_from_docbook_expert_to_tag_Free_Culture_by_Lawrence_Lessig.html</link>
2685                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Call_for_help_from_docbook_expert_to_tag_Free_Culture_by_Lawrence_Lessig.html</guid>
2686                 <pubDate>Mon, 16 Jul 2012 22:50:00 +0200</pubDate>
2687                 <description>&lt;p&gt;I am currently working on a
2688 &lt;a href=&quot;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Dugnad_for___sende_norsk_versjon_av_Free_Culture_til_stortingets_representanter_.html&quot;&gt;project
2689 to translate&lt;/a&gt; the book
2690 &lt;a href=&quot;http://free-culture.cc/&quot;&gt;Free Culture&lt;/a&gt; by Lawrence Lessig
2691 to Norwegian.  And the source we base our translation on is the
2692 &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DocBook&quot;&gt;docbook&lt;/a&gt; version, to
2693 allow us to use po4a and .po files to handle the translation, and for
2694 this to work well the docbook source document need to be properly
2695 tagged.  The source files of this project is available from
2696 &lt;a href=&quot;https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/free-culture-lessig&quot;&gt;github&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
2697
2698 &lt;p&gt;The problem is that the docbook source have flaws, and we have
2699 no-one involved in the project that is a docbook expert.  Is there a
2700 docbook expert somewhere that is interested in helping us create a
2701 well tagged docbook version of the book, and adjust our build process
2702 for the PDF, EPUB and HTML version of the book?  This will provide a
2703 well tagged English version (our source document), and make it a lot
2704 easier for us to create a good Norwegian version.  If you can and want
2705 to help, please get in touch with me or fork the github project and
2706 send pull requests with fixes. :)&lt;/p&gt;
2707 </description>
2708         </item>
2709
2710         <item>
2711                 <title>Debian Edu interview: George Bredberg</title>
2712                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__George_Bredberg.html</link>
2713                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__George_Bredberg.html</guid>
2714                 <pubDate>Mon, 9 Jul 2012 00:30:00 +0200</pubDate>
2715                 <description>&lt;p&gt;The &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.skolelinux.org/&quot;&gt;Debian Edu /
2716 Skolelinux&lt;/a&gt; project have users all over the globe, but until
2717 recently we have not known about any users in Norway&#39;s neighbour
2718 country Sweden.  This changed when George Bredberg showed up in March
2719 this year on the mailing list, asking interesting questions about how
2720 to adjust and scale the just released
2721 &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.debian.org/News/2012/20120311.html&quot;&gt;Debian Edu
2722 Wheezy&lt;/a&gt; setup to his liking.  He granted me an interview, and I am
2723 happy to share his answers with you here.&lt;/p&gt;
2724
2725 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Who are you, and how do you spend your days?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
2726
2727 &lt;p&gt;I&#39;m a 44 year old country guy that have been working 12 years at
2728 the same school as 50% IT-manager and 50% Teacher. My educational
2729 background is fil.kand in history and religious beliefs, an exam as a
2730 &quot;folkhighschool&quot; teacher, that is, for teaching grownups.  In
2731 Norwegian I believe it&#39;s called &quot;Vuxenupplaring&quot;. I also have a master
2732 in &quot;Technology and social change&quot;. So I&#39;m not really a tech guy, I
2733 just like to study how humans and technology interact and that is my
2734 perspective when working with IT.&lt;/p&gt;
2735
2736 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;How did you get in contact with the Skolelinux/Debian Edu
2737 project?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
2738
2739 I have followed the Skolelinux project for quite some time by
2740 now. Earlier I tested out the K12-LTSP project, which we used for some
2741 time, but I really like the idea of having a distribution aimed to be
2742 a complete solution for schools with necessary tools integrated. When
2743 K12-LTSP abandoned that idea some years ago, I started to look more
2744 seriously into Skolelinux instead.
2745
2746 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What do you see as the advantages of Skolelinux/Debian
2747 Edu?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
2748
2749 The big point of Skolelinux to me is that it is a complete
2750 distribution, ready to install. It has LDAP-support, MS Windows
2751 integration tools and so forth already configured, saving an
2752 administrator a lot of time and headache. We were using another Linux
2753 based thin-client system called Thinlinc, that has served us very
2754 well. But that Skolelinux is based on VNC and LTSP, to me, is better
2755 when it comes to the kind of multimedia used in schools. That is
2756 showing videos from Youtube or educational TV. It is also easier to
2757 mix thin clients with workstations, since the user settings will be the
2758 same. In our VNC-based solution you had to &quot;beat around the bush&quot; by
2759 setting up a second, hidden, home-directory for user settings for the
2760 workstations, because they will be different from the ones used on the
2761 thin clients. Skolelinux support for diskless workstations are very
2762 convenient since a school today often need to use a class room
2763 projector showing videos in full screen. That is easily done with a
2764 small integrated media computer running as a diskless workstation. You
2765 have only two installs to update and configure. One for the thin
2766 clients and one for the workstations. Also saving a lot of time.  Our
2767 old system was also based on Redhat and CentOS. They are both very
2768 nice distributions, but they are sometimes painfully slow when it
2769 comes to updating multimedia support and multimedia programs (even
2770 such as Gimp), leaving us with a bit &quot;oldish&quot; applications. Debian is
2771 quicker to update.
2772
2773 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What do you see as the disadvantages of Skolelinux/Debian
2774 Edu?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
2775
2776 &lt;p&gt;Debian is a bit too quick when it comes to updating. As an example
2777 we use old HP terminals as thinclients, and two times already this
2778 year (2012) the updates you get from the repositories has stopped
2779 sound from working with them.  It&#39;s a kernel/ALSA issue. So you have
2780 to be more careful properly testing the updates before you run them in
2781 a production environment. This has never happened with CentOS.&lt;/p&gt;
2782
2783 &lt;p&gt;I also would like to be able to set my own domain-settings at
2784 install time.  In Skolelinux they are kind of hard coded into the
2785 distribution, when it comes to LDAP and at least samba integration.
2786 That is more a cosmetic/translation issue, and not a real problem.
2787 Running MS Windows applications within the Skolelinux environment needs
2788 to be better supported. That is, running them seamlessly via RDP, and
2789 support for single-sign on.  That will make the transition to free
2790 software easier, because you can keep the applications you really
2791 need.  No support will make it impossible if you work in a school where
2792 some applications can&#39;t be open source. As for us we really need to
2793 run Adobe InDesign in our journalist classes.  We run a journalist
2794 education, and is one of the very few non university ones that is ok:d
2795 by Svenska journalistförbundet (Swedish journalist association).  Our
2796 education gives the pupils the right of membership there, once they
2797 are done.  This is important if you want to get a job.&lt;/p&gt;
2798
2799 &lt;p&gt;Adobe InDesign is the program most commonly used in newspapers and
2800 magazines.  We used Quark Express before, but they seem to loose there
2801 market to Adobe. The only &quot;equivalent&quot; to InDesign in the opensource
2802 world is Scribus, and its not advanced enough. At least not according
2803 to the teacher. I think it would be possible to use it, because they
2804 are not supposed to learn a program, they are supposed to learn how to
2805 edit and compile a newspaper.  But politically at our school we are not
2806 there yet.  And Scribus lacks a lot of things you find i InDesign.&lt;/p&gt;
2807
2808 &lt;p&gt;We used even a windows program for sound editing when it comes to
2809 the radio-journalist part. The year to come we are going to try
2810 Audacity. That software has the same kind of limitations compared to
2811 Adobe Audition, but that teacher is a bit more open minded. We have
2812 tried Ardour also, but that instead is more like a music studio
2813 program, not intended for the kind of editing taking place in a radio
2814 studio. Its way to complex and the GUI is to scattered when you only
2815 want to cut, make pass-overs, add extra channels and normalise.  Those
2816 things you can do in Audacity, but its not as easy as in Audition. You
2817 have to do more things manually with envelopes, and that is a bit old
2818 fashion and timewasting. Its also harder to cut and move sound from
2819 one channel to another, which is a thing that you do frequently
2820 because you often find yourself needing to rearrange parts of the
2821 sound file.&lt;/p&gt;
2822
2823 &lt;p&gt;So, I am not sure we will succeed in replacing even Audition, but we
2824 will try.  The problem is the students have certain expectations when
2825 they start an education towards a profession.  So the programs has to
2826 look and feel professional.  Good thing with radio, there are many
2827 programs out there, that radio studios use, so its not as standardised
2828 as Newspaper editing. That means, it does not really matter what
2829 program they learn, because once they start working they still have to
2830 learn the program the studio uses, so instead focus has to be to learn
2831 the editing part without to much focus on a specific software.&lt;/p&gt;
2832
2833 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Which free software do you use daily?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
2834
2835 &lt;p&gt;Myself I&#39;m running Linux Mint, or Ubuntu these days.  I use almost
2836 only open source software, and preferably Linux based. When it comes
2837 to most used applications its OpenOffice, and Firefox (of course ;)
2838 )&lt;/p&gt;
2839
2840 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Which strategy do you believe is the right one to use to
2841 get schools to use free software?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
2842
2843 &lt;p&gt;To get schools to use free software there has to be good open
2844 source software that are windows based, to ease the transition. But
2845 it&#39;s also very important that the multimedia support is working
2846 flawlessly.  The problems with Youtube, Twitter, Facebook and whatever
2847 will create problems when it comes to both teachers and
2848 students. Economy are also important for schools, so using thin
2849 clients, as long as they have good multimedia support, is a very good
2850 idea. It&#39;s also important that the open source software works even for
2851 the administration.  It&#39;s hard to convince the teachers to stick with
2852 open source, if the principal has to run Windows.  It also creates a
2853 problem if some classes has to use Windows for there tasks, since that
2854 will create a difference in &quot;status&quot; between classes, so a good
2855 support for running windows applications via the thin client (Linux)
2856 desktop is essential.  At least at our school, where we have mixed
2857 level of educations, from high-school to journalist-school.&lt;/p&gt;
2858
2859 &lt;p&gt;Update 2012-07-09 08:30: Paul Wise tipped me on IRC about three
2860 useful sources related to Free Software for radio stations: the LWN
2861 article &lt;a href=&quot;https://lwn.net/Articles/481607/&quot;&gt;Radio station
2862 management with Airtime&lt;/a&gt;,
2863 &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.sourcefabric.org/en/airtime/&quot;&gt;Airtime&lt;/a&gt; which
2864 claim to be a Free open source radio automation software and
2865 &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.rivendellaudio.org/&quot;&gt;Rivendell&lt;/a&gt; which claim to
2866 be complete radio broadcast automation solution.  All of them seem
2867 useful to the aspiring radio producer.&lt;/p&gt;
2868 </description>
2869         </item>
2870
2871         <item>
2872                 <title>Why do schools waste money on IT?</title>
2873                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Why_do_schools_waste_money_on_IT_.html</link>
2874                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Why_do_schools_waste_money_on_IT_.html</guid>
2875                 <pubDate>Sun, 8 Jul 2012 09:40:00 +0200</pubDate>
2876                 <description>&lt;p&gt;In the Debian Edu / Skolelinux project, we have realised that one
2877 of the major blockers for the project success is the purchasing skills
2878 in schools and municipalities.  We provide what the happy users of
2879 Debian Edu / Skolelinux say they need and to a lower cost than the
2880 alternatives, and yet so few schools decide to use our solution.  I
2881 was pleased to discover the same observation done by mySociety and Tom
2882 Steinberg in his blog post
2883 &quot;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.mysociety.org/2012/06/19/can-you-recognize-the-million-pound-chair/&quot;&gt;Can
2884 you recognize the million pound chair?&lt;/a&gt;&quot;.  Read it and weep for the
2885 spending of your tax money.&lt;/p&gt;
2886
2887 &lt;p&gt;Of course there are other factors involved as well, like our
2888 projects bad marketing skills and the Linux community fragmentation
2889 causing worry with the people on the outside, so we as a project need
2890 to keep working hard to gain users, but it is a up-hill battle when
2891 public decision makers are unable to understand computer system
2892 purchases.&lt;/p&gt;
2893 </description>
2894         </item>
2895
2896         <item>
2897                 <title>Free Timetabling Software - nice free software</title>
2898                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Free_Timetabling_Software___nice_free_software.html</link>
2899                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Free_Timetabling_Software___nice_free_software.html</guid>
2900                 <pubDate>Sat, 7 Jul 2012 09:50:00 +0200</pubDate>
2901                 <description>&lt;p&gt;Included in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.skolelinux.org/&quot;&gt;Debian Edu /
2902 Skolelinux&lt;/a&gt; is a large collection of end user and school specific
2903 software.  It is one of the packages not installed by default but
2904 provided in the Debian archive for schools to install if they want to,
2905 is a system to automatically plan the school time table using
2906 information about available teachers, classes and rooms, combined with
2907 the list of required courses and how many hours each topic should
2908 receive.  The software is
2909
2910 &lt;a href=&quot;http://lalescu.ro/liviu/fet/&quot;&gt;named FET&lt;/a&gt;, and it provide a
2911 graphical user interface to input the required information, save the
2912 result in a fairly simple XML format, and generate time tables for
2913 both teachers and students.  It is available both for
2914 &lt;a href=&quot;http://lalescu.ro/liviu/fet/download.html&quot;&gt;Linux, MacOSX and
2915 Windows&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
2916
2917 &lt;p&gt;This is &lt;a href=&quot;http://lalescu.ro/liviu/fet/features.html&quot;&gt;the
2918 feature list&lt;/a&gt;, liftet from the project web site:&lt;/p&gt;
2919
2920 &lt;p&gt;&lt;ul&gt;
2921
2922   &lt;li&gt;FET is free software, licensed under the GNU GPL v2 or later.
2923     You can freely use, copy, modify and redistribute it &lt;/li&gt;
2924
2925   &lt;li&gt;Localized to en_US (US English, default), ar (Arabic), ca
2926     (Catalan), da (Danish), de (German), el (Greek), es (Spanish), fa
2927     (Persian), fr (French), gl (Galician), he (Hebrew), hu
2928     (Hungarian), id (Indonesian), it (Italian), lt (Lithuanian), mk
2929     (Macedonian), ms (Malay), nl (Dutch), pl (Polish), pt_BR
2930     (Brazilian Portuguese), ro (Romanian), ru (Russian), si (Sinhala),
2931     sk (Slovak), sr (Serbian), tr (Turkish), uk (Ukrainian), uz
2932     (Uzbek) and vi (Vietnamese) (incompletely for some languages)
2933     &lt;/li&gt;
2934
2935   &lt;li&gt;Fully automatic generation algorithm, allowing also
2936     semi-automatic or manual allocation&lt;/li&gt;
2937
2938   &lt;li&gt;Platform independent implementation, allowing running on
2939     GNU/Linux, Windows, Mac and any system that Qt supports &lt;/li&gt;
2940
2941   &lt;li&gt;Flexible modular XML format for the input file, allowing editing
2942     with an XML editor or by hand (besides FET interface)&lt;/li&gt;
2943
2944   &lt;li&gt;Import/export from CSV format&lt;/li&gt;
2945
2946   &lt;li&gt;The resulted timetables are exported into HTML, XML and CSV
2947     formats &lt;/li&gt;
2948
2949   &lt;li&gt;Flexible students structure, organized into sets: years, groups
2950     and subgroups. FET allows overlapping years and groups and
2951     non-overlapping subgroups. You can even define individual students
2952     (as separate sets)&lt;/li&gt;
2953
2954   &lt;li&gt;Each constraint has a weight percentage, from 0.0% to 100.0%
2955     (but some special constraints are allowed to have only 100% weight
2956     percentage)&lt;/li&gt;
2957
2958   &lt;li&gt;Limits for the algorithm (all these limits can be increased on
2959     demand, as a custom version, because this would require a bit more
2960     memory):
2961     &lt;ul&gt;
2962       &lt;li&gt;Maximum total number of hours (periods) per day: 60&lt;/li&gt;
2963       &lt;li&gt;Maximum number of working days per week: 35&lt;/li&gt;
2964       &lt;li&gt;Maximum total number of teachers: 6000&lt;/li&gt;
2965       &lt;li&gt;Maximum total number of sets of students: 30000&lt;/li&gt;
2966       &lt;li&gt;Maximum total number of subjects: 6000&lt;/li&gt;
2967       &lt;li&gt;Virtually unlimited number of activity tags&lt;/li&gt;
2968       &lt;li&gt;Maximum number of activities: 30000&lt;/li&gt;
2969       &lt;li&gt;Maximum number of rooms: 6000&lt;/li&gt;
2970       &lt;li&gt;Maximum number of buildings: 6000&lt;/li&gt;
2971       &lt;li&gt;Possibility of adding multiple teachers and
2972           students sets for each activity.  (it is possible
2973           also to have no teachers or no students sets for an
2974           activity)&lt;/li&gt;
2975       &lt;li&gt;Virtually unlimited number of time constraints&lt;/li&gt;
2976       &lt;li&gt;Virtually unlimited number of space constraints&lt;/li&gt;
2977     &lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
2978
2979   &lt;li&gt;A large and flexible palette of time constraints:
2980     &lt;ul&gt;
2981       &lt;li&gt;Break periods&lt;/li&gt;
2982       &lt;li&gt;For teacher(s):
2983         &lt;ul&gt;
2984           &lt;li&gt;Not available periods&lt;/li&gt;
2985           &lt;li&gt;Max/min days per week&lt;/li&gt;
2986           &lt;li&gt;Max gaps per day/week&lt;/li&gt;
2987           &lt;li&gt;Max hours daily/continuously&lt;/li&gt;
2988           &lt;li&gt;Min hours daily&lt;/li&gt;
2989           &lt;li&gt;Max hours daily/continuously with an activity tag&lt;/li&gt;
2990
2991           &lt;li&gt;Respect working in an hourly interval a max number of
2992             days per week&lt;/li&gt;
2993         &lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
2994       &lt;li&gt;For students (sets):
2995         &lt;ul&gt;
2996           &lt;li&gt;Not available periods&lt;/li&gt;
2997           &lt;li&gt;Begins early (specify max allowed beginnings at second hour)&lt;/li&gt;
2998           &lt;li&gt;Max gaps per day/week&lt;/li&gt;
2999           &lt;li&gt;Max hours daily/continuously&lt;/li&gt;
3000           &lt;li&gt;Min hours daily&lt;/li&gt;
3001           &lt;li&gt;Max hours daily/continuously with an activity tag&lt;/li&gt;
3002
3003           &lt;li&gt;Respect working in an hourly interval a max number of
3004             days per week&lt;/li&gt;
3005         &lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
3006       &lt;li&gt;For an activity or a set of activities/subactivities:
3007         &lt;ul&gt;
3008           &lt;li&gt;A single preferred starting time&lt;/li&gt;
3009           &lt;li&gt;A set of preferred starting times&lt;/li&gt;
3010           &lt;li&gt;A set of preferred time slots&lt;/li&gt;
3011           &lt;li&gt;Min/max days between them&lt;/li&gt;
3012           &lt;li&gt;End(s) students day&lt;/li&gt;
3013           &lt;li&gt;Same starting time/day/hour&lt;/li&gt;
3014           &lt;li&gt;Occupy max time slots from selection (a complex and
3015             flexible constraint, useful in many situations)&lt;/li&gt;
3016           &lt;li&gt;Consecutive, ordered, grouped (for 2 or 3 (sub)activities)&lt;/li&gt;
3017           &lt;li&gt;Not overlapping&lt;/li&gt;
3018           &lt;li&gt;Max simultaneous in selected time slots&lt;/li&gt;
3019           &lt;li&gt;Min gaps between a set of (sub)activities&lt;/li&gt;
3020         &lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
3021     &lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
3022
3023   &lt;li&gt;A large and flexible palette of space constraints:
3024     &lt;ul&gt;
3025       &lt;li&gt;Room not available periods&lt;/li&gt;
3026       &lt;li&gt;For teacher(s):
3027         &lt;ul&gt;
3028           &lt;li&gt;Home room(s)&lt;/li&gt;
3029           &lt;li&gt;Max building changes per day/week&lt;/li&gt;
3030           &lt;li&gt;Min gaps between building changes&lt;/li&gt;
3031         &lt;/ul&gt;
3032       &lt;/li&gt;
3033
3034       &lt;li&gt;For students (sets):
3035         &lt;ul&gt;
3036           &lt;li&gt;Home room(s)&lt;/li&gt;
3037           &lt;li&gt;Max building changes per day/week&lt;/li&gt;
3038           &lt;li&gt;Min gaps between building changes&lt;/li&gt;
3039         &lt;/ul&gt;
3040       &lt;/li&gt;
3041       &lt;li&gt;Preferred room(s):
3042         &lt;ul&gt;
3043           &lt;li&gt;For a subject&lt;/li&gt;
3044           &lt;li&gt;For an activity tag&lt;/li&gt;
3045           &lt;li&gt;For a subject and an activity tag&lt;/li&gt;
3046           &lt;li&gt;Individually for a (sub)activity&lt;/li&gt;
3047         &lt;/ul&gt;
3048       &lt;/li&gt;
3049
3050       &lt;li&gt;For a set of activities:
3051         &lt;ul&gt;
3052           &lt;li&gt;Occupy a maximum number of different rooms&lt;/li&gt;
3053         &lt;/ul&gt;
3054       &lt;/li&gt;
3055     &lt;/ul&gt;
3056   &lt;/li&gt;
3057 &lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
3058
3059 &lt;p&gt;I have not used it myself, as I am not involved in time table
3060 planning at a school, but it seem to work fine when I test it.  If you
3061 need to set up your schools time table, and is tired of doing it
3062 manually, check it out.
3063
3064 A quick summary on how to use it can be found in
3065 &lt;a href=&quot;http://marvelsoft.co.in/wp/2012/03/generate-timetable-for-state-cbse-icse-igcse-schools-free/&quot;&gt;a
3066 blog post from MarvelSoft&lt;/a&gt;.  If you find FET useful, please provide
3067 a recipe for the Debian Edu project in the
3068 &lt;a href=&quot;http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu#Howtos&quot;&gt;Debian Edu HowTo
3069 section&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
3070 </description>
3071         </item>
3072
3073         <item>
3074                 <title>Can Zimbra be told to send autoreplies to the From: address?</title>
3075                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Can_Zimbra_be_told_to_send_autoreplies_to_the_From__address_.html</link>
3076                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Can_Zimbra_be_told_to_send_autoreplies_to_the_From__address_.html</guid>
3077                 <pubDate>Tue, 3 Jul 2012 23:30:00 +0200</pubDate>
3078                 <description>&lt;p&gt;In the NUUG &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.fiksgatami.no/&quot;&gt;FiksGataMi&lt;/a&gt;
3079 project (Norwegian version of
3080 &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.fixmystreet.com/&quot;&gt;FixMyStreet&lt;/a&gt; from
3081 &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.mysociety.org/&quot;&gt;mySociety&lt;/a&gt;), we have discovered
3082 a problem with the municipalities using
3083 &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.zimbra.com/&quot;&gt;Zimbra&lt;/a&gt;.  When FiksGataMi send a
3084 problem report to the government, the email From: address is set to
3085 the address of the person reporting the problem, while envelope sender
3086 is set to the FiksGataMi contact address.  The intention is to make
3087 sure the municipality send any replies to the person reporting the
3088 problem, while any email delivery problems are sent to us in NUUG.
3089 This work well in most cases, but not for Karmøy municipality using
3090 Zimbra.  Karmøy is using the vacation message function in Zimbra to
3091 send an automatic reply to report that the message has been received,
3092 and this message is sent to the envelope sender and not the address in
3093 the From: header.&lt;/p&gt;
3094
3095 &lt;p&gt;This causes the automatic message from Karmøy to go to NUUGs
3096 request-tracker instance instead of to the person reporting the
3097 problem.  We can not really change the envelope sender address, as
3098 this would make it impossible for us to discover when there are
3099 problems with the MTAs receiving problem reports.  We have been in
3100 contact with the people at Karmøy municipality, and they are willing
3101 to adjust Zimbra if something can be changed there to get a better
3102 behaviour.&lt;/p&gt;
3103
3104 &lt;p&gt;The default behaviour of Zimbra is as far as I can tell according
3105 to the specification in RFC 3834, which recommend that vacation
3106 messages are sent to the envelope sender and not to the From: address.
3107 But I wonder if it is possible to adjust or configure Zimbra to behave
3108 differently.  Anyone know?  Please let us know at
3109 &lt;a href=&quot;http://lists.nuug.no/mailman/listinfo/fiksgatami&quot;&gt;fiksgatami
3110 (at) nuug.no&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
3111 </description>
3112         </item>
3113
3114         <item>
3115                 <title>Debian Edu interview: José Luis Redrejo Rodríguez</title>
3116                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__Jos__Luis_Redrejo_Rodr_guez.html</link>
3117                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__Jos__Luis_Redrejo_Rodr_guez.html</guid>
3118                 <pubDate>Tue, 26 Jun 2012 08:30:00 +0200</pubDate>
3119                 <description>&lt;p&gt;I&#39;ve been too busy at home, but finally I found time to wrap up
3120 another interview with the people behind
3121 &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.skolelinux.org/&quot;&gt;Debian Edu and Skolelinux&lt;/a&gt;.
3122 This time we get to know José Luis Redrejo Rodríguez, one of our great
3123 helpers from Spain.  His effort was the reason we added support for
3124 several desktop types (KDE, Gnome and most recently LXDE) in Debian
3125 Edu, and have all of these available in the recently published
3126 &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.debian.org/News/2012/20120311.html&quot;&gt;Debian Edu
3127 Squeeze&lt;/a&gt; version.&lt;/p&gt;
3128
3129 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Who are you, and how do you spend your days?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
3130
3131 &lt;p&gt;I&#39;m a father, teacher and engineer who is working for the Education
3132 ministry of the Region of Extremadura (Spain) in the implementation of
3133 ICT in schools&lt;/p&gt;
3134
3135 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;How did you get in contact with the Skolelinux/Debian Edu
3136 project?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
3137
3138 &lt;p&gt;At 2006, I verified that both, we in Extremadura and Skolelinux
3139 project, had been working in parallel for some years, doing very
3140 similar things, using very similar tools and with similar targets, so
3141 I decided it was time to join forces as much as possible.&lt;/p&gt;
3142
3143 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What do you see as the advantages of Skolelinux/Debian
3144 Edu?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
3145
3146 &lt;p&gt;A community of highly skilled experts working together, with a
3147 really open schema of collaboration and work. I really love the
3148 concepts of Do-ocracy and Merit-ocracy and the way these concepts are
3149 been used everyday inside Debian Edu.&lt;/p&gt;
3150
3151 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What do you see as the disadvantages of Skolelinux/Debian
3152 Edu?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
3153
3154 &lt;p&gt;Sometimes the differences in the implementations, laws or
3155 economical and technical resources in the different countries don&#39;t
3156 allow us to agree in the same solution for all of us, and several
3157 approaches are needed, what is a waste of effort. Also, there is a
3158 lack of more man power to be able to follow the fast evolution of the
3159 technologies in school.&lt;/p&gt;
3160
3161 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Which free software do you use daily?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
3162
3163 &lt;p&gt;Debian, of course, and due to my kind of job I am most of my time
3164 between Iceweasel, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.geany.org/&quot;&gt;Geany&lt;/a&gt; and
3165 &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.ohloh.net/p/gnome-terminator&quot;&gt;Terminator&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
3166
3167 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Which strategy do you believe is the right one to use to
3168 get schools to use free software?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
3169
3170 &lt;p&gt;I think there is not a single strategy because there are very
3171 different scenarios: schools with mixed proprietary and free
3172 environments, schools using only workstations, other schools using
3173 laptops, netbooks, tablets, interactive white-boards, etc.&lt;/p&gt;
3174
3175 &lt;p&gt;Also the range of ages of the students is very broad and you can
3176 not use the same solutions for primary schools and secondary or even
3177 universities. So different strategies are needed.&lt;/p&gt;
3178
3179 &lt;p&gt;But, looking at these differences, and looking back to the things
3180 we&#39;ve done and implemented, and the places were we have spent most of
3181 our forces, I think we should focus as much as possible in free
3182 multi-platform environments, using only standards tools, and moving
3183 more and more to Internet or network solutions that could be deployed
3184 using wireless. I think we&#39;ll see more and more personal devices in
3185 the schools, devices the students and teachers will take home with
3186 them, so the solutions must be able to be taken at home and continue
3187 working there.&lt;/p&gt;
3188 </description>
3189         </item>
3190
3191         <item>
3192                 <title>Song book for Computer Scientists</title>
3193                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Song_book_for_Computer_Scientists.html</link>
3194                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Song_book_for_Computer_Scientists.html</guid>
3195                 <pubDate>Sun, 24 Jun 2012 13:30:00 +0200</pubDate>
3196                 <description>&lt;p&gt;Many years ago, while studying Computer Science at the
3197 &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.uit.no/&quot;&gt;University of Tromsø&lt;/a&gt;, I started
3198 collecting computer related songs for use at parties.  The original
3199 version was written in LaTeX, but a few years ago I got help from
3200 Håkon W. Lie, one of the inventors of W3C CSS, to convert it to HTML
3201 while keeping the ability to create a nice book in PDF format.  I have
3202 not had time to maintain the book for a while now, and guess I should
3203 put it up on some public version control repository where others can
3204 help me extend and update the book.  If anyone is volunteering to help
3205 me with this, send me an email.  Also let me know if there are songs
3206 missing in my book.&lt;/p&gt;
3207
3208 &lt;p&gt;I have not mentioned the book on my blog so far, and it occured to
3209 me today that I really should let all my readers share the joys of
3210 singing out load about programming, computers and computer networks.
3211 Especially now that &lt;a href=&quot;http://debconf12.debconf.org/&quot;&gt;Debconf
3212 12&lt;/a&gt; is about to start (and I am not going).  Want to sing?  Check
3213 out &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hungry.com/~pere/cs-songbook/&quot;&gt;Petter&#39;s
3214 Computer Science Songbook&lt;/a&gt;.
3215 </description>
3216         </item>
3217
3218         <item>
3219                 <title>Debian Edu - some ideas for the future versions</title>
3220                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu___some_ideas_for_the_future_versions.html</link>
3221                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu___some_ideas_for_the_future_versions.html</guid>
3222                 <pubDate>Mon, 11 Jun 2012 14:30:00 +0200</pubDate>
3223                 <description>&lt;p&gt;During my work on
3224 &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.debian.org/News/2012/20120311.nb.html&quot;&gt;Debian Edu
3225 based on Squeeze&lt;/a&gt;, I came across some issues that should be
3226 addressed in the Wheezy release.  I finally found time to wrap up my
3227 notes and provide quick summary of what I found, with a bit
3228 explanation.&lt;/p&gt;
3229
3230 &lt;p&gt;&lt;ul&gt;
3231
3232 &lt;li&gt;We need to rewrite our package installation framework, as tasksel
3233 changed from using tasksel tasks to using meta packages (aka packages
3234 with dependencies like our education-* packages), and our installation
3235 system depend on tasksel tasks in
3236 /usr/share/tasksel/debian-edu-tasks.desc for package
3237 installation.&lt;/li&gt;
3238
3239 &lt;li&gt;Enable Kerberos login for more services.  Now with the Kerberos
3240 foundation in place, we should use it to get single sign on with more
3241 services, and avoiding unneeded password / login questions.  We should
3242 at least try to enable it for these services:
3243 &lt;ul&gt;
3244
3245   &lt;li&gt;CUPS for admins to add/configure printers and users when using
3246     quotas.&lt;/li&gt;
3247   &lt;li&gt;Nagios for admins checking the system status.&lt;/li&gt;
3248   &lt;li&gt;GOsa for admins updating LDAP and users changing their passwords.&lt;/li&gt;
3249   &lt;li&gt;LDAP for admins updating LDAP.&lt;/li&gt;
3250   &lt;li&gt;Squid for users when exam mode / filtering is active.&lt;/li&gt;
3251   &lt;li&gt;ssh for admins and users to save a password prompt.&lt;/li&gt;
3252
3253 &lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
3254
3255 &lt;li&gt;When we move GOsa to use Kerberos instead of LDAP bind to
3256 authenticate users, we should try to block or at least limit access to
3257 use LDAP bind for authentication, to ensure Kerberos is used when it
3258 is intended, and nothing fall back to using the less safe LDAP bind&lt;/li&gt;
3259
3260 &lt;li&gt;Merge debian-edu-config and debian-edu-install.  The split made
3261 sense when d-e-install did a lot more, but these days it is just an
3262 inconvenience when we update the debconf preseeding values.&lt;/li&gt;
3263
3264 &lt;li&gt;Fix partman-auto to allow us to abort the installation before
3265 touching the disk if the disk is too small.  This is
3266 &lt;a href=&quot;http://bugs.debian.org/653305&quot;&gt;BTS report #653305&lt;/a&gt; and the
3267 d-i developers are fine with the patch and someone just need to apply
3268 it and upload.  After this is done we need to adjust
3269 debian-edu-install to use this new hook.&lt;/li&gt;
3270
3271 &lt;li&gt;Adjust to new LTSP framework (boot time config instead of install
3272 time config).  LTSP changed its design, and our hooks to install
3273 packages and update the configuration is most likely not going to work
3274 in Wheezy.
3275
3276 &lt;li&gt;Consider switching to NBD instead of NFS for LTSP root, to allow
3277 the Kernel to cache files in its normal file cache, possibly speeding
3278 up KDE login on slow networks.&lt;/li&gt;
3279
3280 &lt;li&gt;Make it possible to create expired user passwords that need to
3281 change on first login.  This is useful when handing out password on
3282 paper, to make sure only the user know the password.  This require
3283 fixes to the PAM handling of kdm and gdm.&lt;/li&gt;
3284
3285 &lt;li&gt;Make GUI for adding new machines automatically from sitesummary.
3286 The current command line script is not very friendly to people most
3287 familiar with GUIs.  This should probably be integrated into GOsa to
3288 have it available where the admin will be looking for it..&lt;/li&gt;
3289
3290 &lt;li&gt;We should find way for Nagios to check that the DHCP service
3291 actually is working (as in handling out IP addresses).  None of the
3292 Nagios checks I have found so far have been working for me.&lt;/li&gt;
3293
3294 &lt;li&gt;We should switch from libpam-nss-ldapd to sssd for all profiles
3295 using LDAP, and not only on for roaming workstations, to have less
3296 packages to configure and consistent setup across all profiles.&lt;/li&gt;
3297
3298 &lt;li&gt;We should configure Kerberos to update LDAP and Samba password
3299 when changing password using the Kerberos protocol.  The hook was
3300 requested in &lt;a href=&quot;http://bugs.debian.org/588968&quot;&gt;BTS report
3301 #588968&lt;/a&gt; and is now available in Wheezy.  We might need to write a
3302 MIT Kerberos plugin in C to get this.&lt;/li&gt;
3303
3304 &lt;li&gt;We should clean up the set of applications installed by default.
3305 &lt;ul&gt;
3306
3307 &lt;li&gt;reduce the number of chemistry visualisers&lt;/li&gt;
3308 &lt;li&gt;consider dropping xpaint&lt;/li&gt;
3309 &lt;li&gt;and probably more?&lt;/li&gt;
3310 &lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
3311
3312 &lt;li&gt;Some hardware need external firmware to work properly.  This is
3313 mostly the case for WiFi network cards, but there are some other
3314 examples too.  For popular laptops to work out of the box, such
3315 firmware need to be installed from non-free, and we should provide
3316 some GUI to do this.  Ubuntu already have this implemented, and we
3317 could consider using their packages.  At the moment we have some
3318 command line script to do this (one for the running system, another
3319 for the LTSP chroot).&lt;/li&gt;
3320
3321
3322 &lt;li&gt;In Squeeze, we provide KDE, Gnome and LXDE as desktop options.  We
3323 should extend the list to Xfce and Sugar, and preferably find a way to
3324 install several and allow the admin or the user to select which one to
3325 use.&lt;/li&gt;
3326
3327 &lt;li&gt;The golearn tool from the goplay package make it easy to check out
3328 interesting educational packages.  We should work on the package
3329 tagging in Debian to ensure it represent all the useful educational
3330 packages, and extend the tool to allow it to use packagekit to install
3331 new applications with a simple mouse click.&lt;/li&gt;
3332
3333 &lt;li&gt;The Squeeze version got half a exam solution already in place,
3334 with the introduction of iptable based network blocking, but for it to
3335 be a complete exam solution the Squid proxy need to enable
3336 filtering/blocking as well when the exam mode is enabled.  We should
3337 implement a way to easily enable this for the schools that want it,
3338 instead of the &quot;it is documented&quot; method of today.&lt;/li&gt;
3339
3340 &lt;li&gt;A feature used in several schools is the ability for a teacher to
3341 &quot;take over&quot; the desktop of individual or all computers in the room.
3342 There are at least three implementations,
3343 &lt;a href=&quot;italc.sourceforge.net/&quot;&gt;italc&lt;/a&gt;,
3344 &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.itais.net/help/en/&quot;&gt;controlaula&lt;/a&gt; og
3345 &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.epoptes.org/&quot;&gt;epoptes&lt;/a&gt; and we should pick one of
3346 them and make it trivial to set it up in a school.  The challenges is
3347 how to distribute crypto keys and how to group computers in one room
3348 and how to set up which machine/user can control the machines in a
3349 given room.&lt;/li&gt;
3350
3351 &lt;li&gt;Tablets and surf boards are getting more and more popular, and we
3352 should look into providing a good solution for integrating these into
3353 the Debian Edu network.  Not quite sure how.  Perhaps we should
3354 provide a installation profile with better touch screen support for
3355 them, or add some sync services to allow them to exchange
3356 configuration and data with the central server.  This should be
3357 investigated.&lt;/li&gt;
3358
3359 &lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
3360
3361 &lt;p&gt;I guess we will discover more as we continue to work on the Wheezy
3362 version.&lt;/p&gt;
3363 </description>
3364         </item>
3365
3366         <item>
3367                 <title>TV with face recognition, for improved viewer experience</title>
3368                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/TV_with_face_recognition__for_improved_viewer_experience.html</link>
3369                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/TV_with_face_recognition__for_improved_viewer_experience.html</guid>
3370                 <pubDate>Sat, 9 Jun 2012 22:00:00 +0200</pubDate>
3371                 <description>&lt;p&gt;Slashdot got a story about Intel planning a
3372 &lt;a href=&quot;http://entertainment.slashdot.org/story/12/06/09/0012247/intel-to-launch-tv-service-with-facial-recognition-by-end-of-the-year&quot;&gt;TV
3373 with face recognition&lt;/a&gt; to recognise the viewer, and it occurred to
3374 me that it would be more interesting to turn it around, and do face
3375 recognition on the TV image itself.  It could let the viewer know who
3376 is present on the screen, and perhaps look up their credibility,
3377 company affiliation, previous appearances etc for the viewer to better
3378 evaluate what is being said and done.  That would be a feature I would
3379 be willing to pay for.&lt;/p&gt;
3380
3381 &lt;p&gt;I would not be willing to pay for a TV that point a camera on my
3382 household, like the big brother feature apparently proposed by Intel.
3383 It is the telescreen idea fetched straight out of the book
3384 &lt;a href=&quot;http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks01/0100021.txt&quot;&gt;1984 by George
3385 Orwell&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
3386 </description>
3387         </item>
3388
3389         <item>
3390                 <title>Web service to look up HP and Dell computer hardware support status</title>
3391                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Web_service_to_look_up_HP_and_Dell_computer_hardware_support_status.html</link>
3392                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Web_service_to_look_up_HP_and_Dell_computer_hardware_support_status.html</guid>
3393                 <pubDate>Wed, 6 Jun 2012 23:15:00 +0200</pubDate>
3394                 <description>&lt;p&gt;A few days ago
3395 &lt;a href=&quot;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/SOAP_based_webservice_from_Dell_to_check_server_support_status.html&quot;&gt;I
3396 reported how to get&lt;/a&gt; the support status out of Dell using an
3397 unofficial and undocumented SOAP API, which I since have found out was
3398 &lt;a href=&quot;http://lists.us.dell.com/pipermail/linux-poweredge/2012-February/045959.html&quot;&gt;discovered
3399 by Daniel De Marco in february&lt;/a&gt;.  Combined with my web scraping
3400 code for HP, Dell and IBM
3401 &lt;a href=&quot;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Checking_server_hardware_support_status_for_Dell__HP_and_IBM_servers.html&quot;&gt;from
3402 2009&lt;/a&gt;, I got inspired and wrote
3403 &lt;a href=&quot;https://views.scraperwiki.com/run/computer-hardware-support-status/&quot;&gt;a
3404 web service&lt;/a&gt; based on Scraperwiki to make it easy to look up the
3405 support status and get a machine readable result back.&lt;/p&gt;
3406
3407 &lt;p&gt;This is what it look like at the moment when asking for the JSON
3408 output:
3409
3410 &lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;pre&gt;
3411 % GET &lt;a href=&quot;https://views.scraperwiki.com/run/computer-hardware-support-status/?format=json&amp;vendor=Dell&amp;servicetag=2v1xwn1&quot;&gt;https://views.scraperwiki.com/run/computer-hardware-support-status/?format=json&amp;vendor=Dell&amp;servicetag=2v1xwn1&lt;/a&gt;
3412 supportstatus({&quot;servicetag&quot;: &quot;2v1xwn1&quot;, &quot;warrantyend&quot;: &quot;2013-11-24&quot;, &quot;shipped&quot;: &quot;2010-11-24&quot;, &quot;scrapestamputc&quot;: &quot;2012-06-06T20:26:56.965847&quot;, &quot;scrapedurl&quot;: &quot;http://143.166.84.118/services/assetservice.asmx?WSDL&quot;, &quot;vendor&quot;: &quot;Dell&quot;, &quot;productid&quot;: &quot;&quot;})
3413 %
3414 &lt;/pre&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
3415
3416 &lt;p&gt;It currently support Dell and HP, and I am hoping for help to add
3417 support for other vendors.  The python source is available on
3418 Scraperwiki and I welcome help with adding more features.&lt;/p&gt;
3419 </description>
3420         </item>
3421
3422         <item>
3423                 <title>Debian Edu interview: Mike Gabriel</title>
3424                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__Mike_Gabriel.html</link>
3425                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__Mike_Gabriel.html</guid>
3426                 <pubDate>Sat, 2 Jun 2012 15:00:00 +0200</pubDate>
3427                 <description>&lt;p&gt;Back in 2010, Mike Gabriel showed up on the
3428 &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.skolelinux.org/&quot;&gt;Debian Edu and Skolelinux&lt;/a&gt;
3429 mailing list.  He quickly proved to be a valuable developer, and
3430 thanks to his tireless effort we now have Kerberos integrated into the
3431 &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.debian.org/News/2012/20120311.html&quot;&gt;Debian Edu
3432 Squeeze&lt;/a&gt; version.&lt;/p&gt;
3433
3434 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Who are you, and how do you spend your days?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
3435
3436 &lt;p&gt;My name is Mike Gabriel, I am 38 years old and live near Kiel,
3437 Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. I live together with a wonderful partner
3438 (Angela Fuß) and two own children and two bonus children (contributed
3439 by Angela).&lt;/p&gt;
3440
3441 &lt;p&gt;During the day I am part-time employed as a system administrator
3442 and part-time working as an IT consultant. The consultancy work
3443 touches free software topics wherever and whenever possible. During
3444 the nights I am a free software developer. In the gaps I also train in
3445 becoming an osteopath.&lt;/p&gt;
3446
3447 &lt;p&gt;Starting in 2010 we (Andreas Buchholz, Angela Fuß, Mike Gabriel)
3448 have set up a free software project in the area of Kiel that aims at
3449 introducing free software into schools. The project&#39;s name is
3450 &quot;IT-Zukunft Schule&quot; (IT future for schools). The project links IT
3451 skills with communication skills.&lt;/p&gt;
3452
3453 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;How did you get in contact with the Skolelinux/Debian Edu
3454 project?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
3455
3456 &lt;p&gt;While preparing our own customised Linux distribution for
3457 &quot;IT-Zukunft Schule&quot; we were repeatedly asked if we really wanted to
3458 reinvent the wheel. What schools really need is already available,
3459 people said.  From this impulse we started evaluating other Linux
3460 distributions that target being used for school networks.&lt;/p&gt;
3461
3462 &lt;p&gt;At the end we short-listed two approaches and compared them: a
3463 commercial Linux distribution developed by a company in Bremen,
3464 Germany, and Skolelinux / Debian Edu. Between 12/2010 and 03/2011 we
3465 went to several events and met people being responsible for marketing
3466 and development of either of the distributions. Skolelinux / Debian
3467 Edu was by far much more convincing compared to the other product that
3468 got short-listed beforehand--across the full spectrum. What was most
3469 attractive for me personally: the perspective of collaboration within
3470 the developmental branch of the Debian Edu project itself.&lt;/p&gt;
3471
3472 &lt;p&gt;In parallel with this, we talked to many local and not-so-local
3473 people.  People teaching at schools, headmasters, politicians, data
3474 protection experts, other IT professionals.&lt;/p&gt;
3475
3476 &lt;p&gt;We came to two conclusions:&lt;/p&gt;
3477
3478 &lt;p&gt;First, a technical conclusion: What schools need is available in
3479 bits and pieces here and there, and none of the solutions really fit
3480 by 100%. Any school we have seen has a very individual IT setup
3481 whereas most of each school&#39;s requirements could mapped by a standard
3482 IT solution.  The requirement to this IT solution is flexibility and
3483 customisability, so that individual adaptations here and there are
3484 possible.  In terms of re-distributing and rolling out such a
3485 standardised IT system for schools (a system that is still to some
3486 degree customisable) there is still a lot of work to do here
3487 locally. Debian Edu / Skolelinux has been our choice as the starting
3488 point.&lt;/p&gt;
3489
3490 &lt;p&gt;Second, a holistic conclusion: What schools need does not exist at
3491 all (or we missed it so far). There are several technical solutions
3492 for handling IT at schools that tend to make a good impression. What
3493 has been missing completely here in Germany, though, is the enrolment
3494 of people into using IT and teaching with IT. &quot;IT-Zukunft Schule&quot;
3495 tries to provide an approach for this.&lt;/p&gt;
3496
3497 &lt;p&gt;Only some schools have some sort of a media concept which explains,
3498 defines and gives guidance on how to use IT in class. Most schools in
3499 Northern Germany do not have an IT service provider, the school&#39;s IT
3500 equipment is managed by one or (if the school is lucky) two (admin)
3501 teachers, most of the workload these admin teachers get done in there
3502 spare time.&lt;/p&gt;
3503
3504 &lt;p&gt;We were surprised that only a very few admin teachers were
3505 networked with colleagues from other schools. Basically, every school
3506 here around has its individual approach of providing IT equipment to
3507 teachers and students and the exchange of ideas has been quasi
3508 non-existent until 2010/2011.&lt;/p&gt;
3509
3510 &lt;p&gt;Quite some (non-admin) teachers try to avoid using IT technology in
3511 class as a learning medium completely. Several reasons for this
3512 avoidance do exist.&lt;/p&gt;
3513
3514 &lt;p&gt;We discovered that no-one has ever taken a closer look at this
3515 social part of IT management in schools, so far. On our quest journey
3516 for a technical IT solution for schools, we discussed this issue with
3517 several teachers, headmasters, politicians, other IT professionals and
3518 they all confirmed: a holistic approach of considering IT management
3519 at schools, an approach that includes the people in place, will be new
3520 and probably a gain for all.&lt;/p&gt;
3521
3522 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What do you see as the advantages of Skolelinux/Debian
3523 Edu?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
3524
3525 &lt;p&gt;There is a list of advantages: international context, openness to
3526 any kind of contributions, do-ocracy policy, the closeness to Debian,
3527 the different installation scenarios possible (from stand-alone
3528 workstation to complex multi-server sites), the transparency within
3529 project communication, honest communication within the group of
3530 developers, etc.&lt;/p&gt;
3531
3532 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What do you see as the disadvantages of Skolelinux/Debian
3533 Edu?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
3534
3535 &lt;p&gt;Every coin has two sides:&lt;/p&gt;
3536
3537 &lt;p&gt;Technically: &lt;a href=&quot;http://bugs.debian.org/311188&quot;&gt;BTS issue
3538 #311188&lt;/a&gt;, tricky upgradability of a Debian Edu main server, network
3539 client installations on top of a plain vanilla Debian installation
3540 should become possible sometime in the near future, one could think
3541 about splitting the very complex package debian-edu-config into
3542 several portions (to make it easier for new developers to
3543 contribute).&lt;/p&gt;
3544
3545 &lt;p&gt;Another issue I see is that we (as Debian Edu developers) should
3546 find out more about the network of people who do the marketing for
3547 Debian Edu / Skolelinux. There is a very active group in Germany
3548 promoting Skolelinux on the bigger Linux Days within Germany. Are
3549 there other groups like that in other countries? How can we bring
3550 these marketing people together (marketing group A with group B and
3551 all of them with the group of Debian Edu developers)? During the last
3552 meeting of the German Skolelinux group, I got the impression of people
3553 there being rather disconnected from the development department of
3554 Debian Edu / Skolelinux.&lt;/p&gt;
3555
3556 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Which free software do you use daily?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
3557
3558 &lt;p&gt;For my daily business, I do not use commercial software at all.&lt;/p&gt;
3559
3560 &lt;p&gt;For normal stuff I use Iceweasel/Firefox, Libreoffice.org. For
3561 serious text writing I prefer LaTeX. I use gimp, inkscape, scribus for
3562 more artistic tasks. I run virtual machines in KVM and Virtualbox.&lt;/p&gt;
3563
3564 &lt;p&gt;I am one of the upstream developers of X2Go. In 2010 I started the
3565 development of a Python based X2Go Client, called PyHoca-GUI.
3566 PyHoca-GUI has brought forth a Python X2Go Client API that currently
3567 is being integrated in Ubuntu&#39;s software center.&lt;/p&gt;
3568
3569 &lt;p&gt;For communications I have my own Kolab server running using Horde
3570 as web-based groupware client. For IRC I love to use irssi, for Jabber
3571 I have several clients that I use, mostly pidgin, though. I am also
3572 the Debian maintainer of Coccinella, a Jabber-based interactive
3573 whiteboard.&lt;/p&gt;
3574
3575 &lt;p&gt;My favourite terminal emulator is KDE&#39;s Yakuake.&lt;/p&gt;
3576
3577 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Which strategy do you believe is the right one to use to
3578 get schools to use free software?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
3579
3580 &lt;p&gt;Communicate, communicate, communicate. Enrol people, enrol people,
3581 enrol people.&lt;/p&gt;
3582 </description>
3583         </item>
3584
3585         <item>
3586                 <title>SOAP based webservice from Dell to check server support status</title>
3587                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/SOAP_based_webservice_from_Dell_to_check_server_support_status.html</link>
3588                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/SOAP_based_webservice_from_Dell_to_check_server_support_status.html</guid>
3589                 <pubDate>Fri, 1 Jun 2012 15:20:00 +0200</pubDate>
3590                 <description>&lt;p&gt;A few years ago I wrote
3591 &lt;a href=&quot;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Checking_server_hardware_support_status_for_Dell__HP_and_IBM_servers.html&quot;&gt;how
3592 to extract support status&lt;/a&gt; for your Dell and HP servers.  Recently
3593 I have learned from colleges here at the
3594 &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.uio.no/&quot;&gt;University of Oslo&lt;/a&gt; that Dell have
3595 made this even easier, by providing a SOAP based web service.  Given
3596 the service tag, one can now query the Dell servers and get machine
3597 readable information about the support status.  This perl code
3598 demonstrate how to do it:&lt;/p&gt;
3599
3600 &lt;p&gt;&lt;pre&gt;
3601 use strict;
3602 use warnings;
3603 use SOAP::Lite;
3604 use Data::Dumper;
3605 my $GUID = &#39;11111111-1111-1111-1111-111111111111&#39;;
3606 my $App = &#39;test&#39;;
3607 my $servicetag = $ARGV[0] or die &quot;Please supply a servicetag. $!\n&quot;;
3608 my ($deal, $latest, @dates);
3609 my $s = SOAP::Lite
3610     -&gt; uri(&#39;http://support.dell.com/WebServices/&#39;)
3611     -&gt; on_action( sub { join &#39;&#39;, @_ } )
3612     -&gt; proxy(&#39;http://xserv.dell.com/services/assetservice.asmx&#39;)
3613     ;
3614 my $a = $s-&gt;GetAssetInformation(
3615     SOAP::Data-&gt;name(&#39;guid&#39;)-&gt;value($GUID)-&gt;type(&#39;&#39;),
3616     SOAP::Data-&gt;name(&#39;applicationName&#39;)-&gt;value($App)-&gt;type(&#39;&#39;),
3617     SOAP::Data-&gt;name(&#39;serviceTags&#39;)-&gt;value($servicetag)-&gt;type(&#39;&#39;),
3618 );
3619 print Dumper($a -&gt; result) ;
3620 &lt;/pre&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
3621
3622 &lt;p&gt;The output can look like this:&lt;/p&gt;
3623
3624 &lt;p&gt;&lt;pre&gt;
3625 $VAR1 = {
3626           &#39;Asset&#39; =&gt; {
3627                      &#39;Entitlements&#39; =&gt; {
3628                                        &#39;EntitlementData&#39; =&gt; [
3629                                                             {
3630                                                               &#39;EntitlementType&#39; =&gt; &#39;Expired&#39;,
3631                                                               &#39;EndDate&#39; =&gt; &#39;2009-07-29T00:00:00&#39;,
3632                                                               &#39;Provider&#39; =&gt; &#39;&#39;,
3633                                                               &#39;StartDate&#39; =&gt; &#39;2006-07-29T00:00:00&#39;,
3634                                                               &#39;DaysLeft&#39; =&gt; &#39;0&#39;
3635                                                             },
3636                                                             {
3637                                                               &#39;EntitlementType&#39; =&gt; &#39;Expired&#39;,
3638                                                               &#39;EndDate&#39; =&gt; &#39;2009-07-29T00:00:00&#39;,
3639                                                               &#39;Provider&#39; =&gt; &#39;&#39;,
3640                                                               &#39;StartDate&#39; =&gt; &#39;2006-07-29T00:00:00&#39;,
3641                                                               &#39;DaysLeft&#39; =&gt; &#39;0&#39;
3642                                                             },
3643                                                             {
3644                                                               &#39;EntitlementType&#39; =&gt; &#39;Expired&#39;,
3645                                                               &#39;EndDate&#39; =&gt; &#39;2007-07-29T00:00:00&#39;,
3646                                                               &#39;Provider&#39; =&gt; &#39;&#39;,
3647                                                               &#39;StartDate&#39; =&gt; &#39;2006-07-29T00:00:00&#39;,
3648                                                               &#39;DaysLeft&#39; =&gt; &#39;0&#39;
3649                                                             }
3650                                                           ]
3651                                      },
3652                      &#39;AssetHeaderData&#39; =&gt; {
3653                                           &#39;SystemModel&#39; =&gt; &#39;GX620&#39;,
3654                                           &#39;ServiceTag&#39; =&gt; &#39;8DSGD2J&#39;,
3655                                           &#39;SystemShipDate&#39; =&gt; &#39;2006-07-29T19:00:00-05:00&#39;,
3656                                           &#39;Buid&#39; =&gt; &#39;2323&#39;,
3657                                           &#39;Region&#39; =&gt; &#39;Europe&#39;,
3658                                           &#39;SystemID&#39; =&gt; &#39;PLX_GX620&#39;,
3659                                           &#39;SystemType&#39; =&gt; &#39;OptiPlex&#39;
3660                                         }
3661                    }
3662         };
3663 &lt;/pre&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
3664
3665 &lt;p&gt;I have not been able to find any documentation from Dell about this
3666 service outside the
3667 &lt;a href=&quot;http://xserv.dell.com/services/assetservice.asmx?op=GetAssetInformation&quot;&gt;inline
3668 documentation&lt;/a&gt;, and according to
3669 &lt;a href=&quot;http://iboyd.net/index.php/2012/02/14/updated-dell-warranty-information-script/&quot;&gt;one
3670 comment&lt;/a&gt; it can have stability issues, but it is a lot better than
3671 scraping HTML pages. :)&lt;/p&gt;
3672
3673 &lt;p&gt;Wonder if HP and other server vendors have a similar service.  If
3674 you know of one, drop me an email. :)&lt;/p&gt;
3675 </description>
3676         </item>
3677
3678         <item>
3679                 <title>First monitor calibration using ColorHug</title>
3680                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/First_monitor_calibration_using_ColorHug.html</link>
3681                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/First_monitor_calibration_using_ColorHug.html</guid>
3682                 <pubDate>Thu, 31 May 2012 22:10:00 +0200</pubDate>
3683                 <description>&lt;p&gt;A few days ago my color calibration gadget
3684 &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hughski.com/index.html&quot;&gt;ColorHug&lt;/a&gt; arrived in the
3685 mail, and I&#39;ve had a few days to test it.  As all my machines are
3686 running Debian Squeeze, where
3687 &lt;a href=&quot;http://packages.qa.debian.org/c/colorhug-client.html&quot;&gt;the
3688 calibration software&lt;/a&gt; is missing (it is present in Wheezy and Sid),
3689 I ran the calibration using the Fedora based live CD.  This worked
3690 just fine.  So far I have only done the quick calibration.  It was
3691 slow enough for me, so I will leave the more extensive calibration for
3692 another day.&lt;/p&gt;
3693
3694 &lt;p&gt;After calibration, I get a
3695 &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ICC_profile&quot;&gt;ICC color
3696 profile&lt;/a&gt; file that can be passed to programs understanding such
3697 tools.  KDE do not seem to understand it out of the box, so I searched
3698 for command line tools to use to load the color profile into X.
3699 xcalib was the first one I found, and it seem to work fine for single
3700 monitor setups.  But for my video player, a laptop with a flat screen
3701 attached, it was unable to load the color profile for the correct
3702 monitor.  After searching a bit, I
3703 &lt;a href=&quot;http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1347896&quot;&gt;discovered&lt;/a&gt;
3704 that the dispwin tool from the argyll package would do what I wanted,
3705 and a simple&lt;/p&gt;
3706
3707 &lt;p&gt;&lt;pre&gt;
3708 dispwin -d 1 profile.icc
3709 &lt;/pre&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
3710
3711 &lt;p&gt;later I had the color profile loaded for the correct monitor.  The
3712 result was a bit more pink than I expected.  I guess I picked the
3713 wrong monitor type for the &quot;led&quot; monitor I got, but the result is good
3714 enough for now.&lt;/p&gt;
3715 </description>
3716         </item>
3717
3718         <item>
3719                 <title>Debian Edu interview: Ralf Gesellensetter</title>
3720                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__Ralf_Gesellensetter.html</link>
3721                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__Ralf_Gesellensetter.html</guid>
3722                 <pubDate>Sun, 27 May 2012 17:15:00 +0200</pubDate>
3723                 <description>&lt;p&gt;In 2003, a German teacher showed up on the
3724 &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.skolelinux.org/&quot;&gt;Debian Edu and Skolelinux&lt;/a&gt;
3725 mailing list with interesting problems and reports proving he setting
3726 up Linux for a (for us at the time) lot of pupils.  His name was Ralf
3727 Gesellensetter, and he has been an important tester and contributor
3728 since then, helping to make sure the
3729 &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.debian.org/News/2012/20120311.html&quot;&gt;Debian Edu
3730 Squeeze&lt;/a&gt; release became as good as it is..&lt;/p&gt;
3731
3732 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Who are you, and how do you spend your days?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
3733
3734 &lt;p&gt;I am a teacher from Germany, and my subjects are Geography,
3735 Mathematics, and Computer Science (&quot;Informatik&quot;). During the past 12
3736 years (since 2000), I have been working for a comprehensive (and soon,
3737 also inclusive) school leading to all kind of general levels, such as
3738 O- or A-level (&quot;Abitur&quot;).  For quite as long, I&#39;ve been taking care of
3739 our computer network.&lt;/p&gt;
3740
3741 &lt;p&gt;Now, in my early 40s, I enjoy the privilege of spending a lot of my
3742 spare time together with my wife, our son (3 years) and our daughter
3743 (4 months).&lt;/p&gt;
3744
3745 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;How did you get in contact with the Skolelinux/Debian Edu
3746 project?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
3747
3748 &lt;p&gt;We had tried different Linux based school servers, when members of
3749 my local Linux User Group (LUG OWL) detected Skolelinux. I remember
3750 very well, being part of a party celebrating the Linux New Media Award
3751 (&quot;Best Newcomer Distribution&quot;, also nominated: Ubuntu) that was given
3752 to Skolelinux at Linux World Exposition in Frankfurt, 2005 (IIRC). Few
3753 months later, I had the chance to join a developer meeting in Ulsrud
3754 (Oslo) and to hand out the award to Knut Yrvin and others.  For more
3755 than 7 years, Skolelinux is part of our schools infrastructure, namely
3756 our main server (tjener), one LTSP (today without thin clients), and
3757 approximately 50 work stations. Most of these have the option to boot a
3758 locally installed Skolelinux image.  As a consequence, I joined quite
3759 a few events dealing with free software or Linux, and met many Debian
3760 (Edu) developers. All of them seemed quite nice and competent to me,
3761 one more reason to stick to Skolelinux.&lt;/p&gt;
3762
3763 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What do you see as the advantages of Skolelinux/Debian
3764 Edu?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
3765
3766 &lt;p&gt;Debian driven, you are given all the advantages of a community
3767 project including well maintained updates. Once, you are familiar with
3768 the network layout, you can easily roll out an entire educational
3769 computer infrastructure, from just one installation media. As only
3770 free software (FOSS) is used, that supports even elderly hardware,
3771 up-sizing your IT equipment is only limited by space (i.e. available
3772 labs).  Especially if you run a LTSP thin client server, your
3773 administration costs tend towards zero.&lt;/p&gt;
3774
3775 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What do you see as the disadvantages of Skolelinux/Debian
3776 Edu?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
3777
3778 &lt;p&gt;While Debian&#39;s stability has loads of advantages for servers, this
3779 might be different in some cases for clients: Schools with unlimited
3780 budget might buy new hardware with components that are not yet
3781 supported by Debian stable, or wish to use more recent versions of
3782 office packages or desktop environments.  These schools have the
3783 option to run Debian testing or other distributions - if they have the
3784 capacity to do so.  Another issue is that Debian release cycles
3785 include a wide range of changes; therefor a high percentage of human
3786 power seems to be absorbed by just keeping the features of Skolelinux
3787 within the new setting of the version to come. During this process,
3788 the cogs of Debian Edu are getting more and more professional,
3789 i.e. harder to understand for novices.&lt;/p&gt;
3790
3791 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Which free software do you use daily?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
3792
3793 &lt;p&gt;LibreOffice, Wikipedia, Openstreetmap, Iceweasel (Mozilla Firefox),
3794 KMail, Gimp, Inkscape - and of course the Linux Kernel (not only on
3795 PC, Laptop, Mobile, but also our SAT receiver)&lt;/p&gt;
3796
3797 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Which strategy do you believe is the right one to use to
3798 get schools to use free software?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
3799
3800 &lt;p&gt;&lt;ol&gt;
3801
3802 &lt;li&gt;Support computer science as regular subject in schools to make
3803 people really &quot;own&quot; their hardware, to make them understand the
3804 difference between proprietary software products, and free software
3805 developing.&lt;/li&gt;
3806
3807 &lt;li&gt;Make budget baskets corresponding: In Germany&#39;s public schools
3808 there are more or less fixed budgets for IT equipment (including
3809 licenses), so schools won&#39;t benefit from any savings here. This
3810 privilege is left to private schools which have consequently a large
3811 share among German Skolelinux schools.&lt;/li&gt;
3812
3813 &lt;li&gt;Get free software in the seminars where would-be teachers are
3814 trained. In many cases, teachers&#39; software customs are respected by
3815 decision makers rather than the expertise of any IT experts.&lt;/li&gt;
3816
3817 &lt;li&gt;Don&#39;t limit ourself to free software run natively. Everybody uses
3818 free software or free licenses (for instance Wikipedia), and this
3819 general concept should get expanded to free educational content to be
3820 shared world wide (school books e.g.).&lt;/li&gt;
3821
3822 &lt;li&gt;Make clear where ever you can that the market share of free (libre)
3823 office suites is much above 20 p.c. today, and that you pupils don&#39;t
3824 need to know the &quot;ribbon menu&quot; in order to get employed.&lt;/li&gt;
3825
3826 &lt;li&gt;Talk about the difference between freeware and free software.&lt;/li&gt;
3827
3828 &lt;li&gt;Spread free software, or even collections of portable free apps
3829 for USB pen drives. Endorse students to get a legal copy of
3830 Libreoffice rather than accepting them to use illegal serials.  And
3831 keep sending documents in ODF formats.&lt;/li&gt;
3832
3833 &lt;/ol&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
3834 </description>
3835         </item>
3836
3837         <item>
3838                 <title>The cost of ODF and OOXML</title>
3839                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_cost_of_ODF_and_OOXML.html</link>
3840                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_cost_of_ODF_and_OOXML.html</guid>
3841                 <pubDate>Sat, 26 May 2012 18:00:00 +0200</pubDate>
3842                 <description>&lt;p&gt;I just come across a blog post from Glyn Moody reporting the
3843 claimed cost from Microsoft on requiring ODF to be used by the UK
3844 government.  I just sent him an email to let him know that his
3845 assumption are most likely wrong.  Sharing it here in case some of my
3846 blog readers have seem the same numbers float around in the UK.&lt;/p&gt;
3847
3848 &lt;p&gt;&lt;blockquote&gt; &lt;p&gt;Hi.  I just noted your
3849 &lt;a href=&quot;http://blogs.computerworlduk.com/open-enterprise/2012/04/does-microsoft-office-lock-in-cost-the-uk-government-500-million/index.htm&quot;&gt;http://blogs.computerworlduk.com/open-enterprise/2012/04/does-microsoft-office-lock-in-cost-the-uk-government-500-million/index.htm&lt;/a&gt;
3850 comment:&lt;/p&gt;
3851
3852 &lt;p&gt;&lt;blockquote&gt;&quot;They&#39;re all in Danish, not unreasonably, but even
3853 with the help of Google Translate I can&#39;t find any figures about the
3854 savings of &quot;moving to a flexible two standard&quot; as claimed by the
3855 Microsoft email. But I assume it is backed up somewhere, so let&#39;s take
3856 it, and the £500 million figure for the UK, on trust.&quot;
3857 &lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
3858
3859 &lt;p&gt;I can tell you that the Danish reports are inflated.  I believe it is
3860 the same reports that were used in the Norwegian debate around 2007,
3861 and Gisle Hannemyr (a well known IT commentator in Norway) had a look
3862 at the content.  In short, the reason it is claimed that using ODF
3863 will be so costly, is based on the assumption that this mean every
3864 existing document need to be converted from one of the MS Office
3865 formats to ODF, transferred to the receiver, and converted back from
3866 ODF to one of the MS Office formats, and that the conversion will cost
3867 10 minutes of work time for both the sender and the receiver.  In
3868 reality the sender would have a tool capable of saving to ODF, and the
3869 receiver would have a tool capable of reading it, and the time spent
3870 would at most be a few seconds for saving and loading, not 20 minutes
3871 of wasted effort.&lt;/p&gt;
3872
3873 &lt;p&gt;Microsoft claimed all these costs were saved by allowing people to
3874 transfer the original files from MS Office instead of spending 10
3875 minutes converting to ODF. :)&lt;/p&gt;
3876
3877 &lt;p&gt;See
3878 &lt;a href=&quot;http://hannemyr.com/no/ms12_vl02.php&quot;&gt;http://hannemyr.com/no/ms12_vl02.php&lt;/a&gt;
3879 and
3880 &lt;a href=&quot;http://hannemyr.com/no/ms12.php&quot;&gt;http://hannemyr.com/no/ms12.php&lt;/a&gt;
3881 for background information.  Norwegian only, sorry. :)&lt;/p&gt;
3882 &lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
3883 </description>
3884         </item>
3885
3886         <item>
3887                 <title>ColorHug - USB and free software based screen color calibration</title>
3888                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/ColorHug___USB_and_free_software_based_screen_color_calibration.html</link>
3889                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/ColorHug___USB_and_free_software_based_screen_color_calibration.html</guid>
3890                 <pubDate>Fri, 18 May 2012 10:00:00 +0200</pubDate>
3891                 <description>&lt;p&gt;In january, I
3892 &lt;a href=&quot;http://blog.cihar.com/archives/2012/01/17/colorhug-has-arrived/&quot;&gt;discovered
3893 the ColorHug&lt;/a&gt;, a USB dongle from
3894 &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.hughski.com/index.html&quot;&gt;Hughski&lt;/a&gt; to calibrate
3895 the color on a computer screen.  The software required is
3896 &lt;a href=&quot;http://packages.qa.debian.org/c/colorhug-client.html&quot;&gt;included
3897 in Debian&lt;/a&gt;, and I decided back then to preorder from the next
3898 batch.  Yesterday I finally heard back from them, and got the
3899 opportunity to order.  Today I ordered mine, and eagerly await the
3900 delivery.  I hope it arrive next week, as I got a confirmation that it
3901 should go in the mail on monday. :)&lt;/p&gt;
3902
3903 &lt;p&gt;If you want to ensure the colors on the screen match the intended
3904 colors, I suggest you check out this cheap tool with free software
3905 drivers. :)&lt;/p&gt;
3906 </description>
3907         </item>
3908
3909         <item>
3910                 <title>Debian Edu interview: Jürgen Leibner</title>
3911                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__J_rgen_Leibner.html</link>
3912                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__J_rgen_Leibner.html</guid>
3913                 <pubDate>Sun, 13 May 2012 20:30:00 +0200</pubDate>
3914                 <description>&lt;p&gt;It has been a few busy weeks for me, but I am finally back to
3915 publish another interview with the people behind
3916 &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.skolelinux.org/&quot;&gt;Debian Edu and Skolelinux&lt;/a&gt;.
3917 This time it is one of our German developers, who have helped out over the
3918 years to make sure both a lot of major but also a lot of the minor
3919 details get right before release.
3920
3921 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Who are you, and how do you spend your days?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
3922
3923 &lt;p&gt;My name is Jürgen Leibner, I&#39;m 49 years old and living in
3924 Bielefeld, a town in northern Germany.  I worked nearly 20 years as
3925 certified engineer in the department for plant design and layout of an
3926 international company for machinery and equipment.  Since 2011 I&#39;m a
3927 certified technical writer (tekom e.V.) and doing technical
3928 documentations for a steam turbine manufacturer.  From April this year
3929 I will manage the department of technical documentation at a
3930 manufacturer of automation and assembly line engineering.&lt;/p&gt;
3931
3932 &lt;p&gt;My first contact with linux was around 1993. Since that time I used
3933 it at work and at home repeatedly but not exclusively as I do now at
3934 home since 2006.&lt;/p&gt;
3935
3936 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;How did you get in contact with the Skolelinux/Debian Edu
3937 project?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
3938
3939 &lt;p&gt;Once a day in the early year of 2001 when I wanted to fetch my
3940 daughter from primary school, there was a teacher sitting in the
3941 middle of 20 old computers trying to boot them and he failed. I helped
3942 him to get them booting. That was seen by the school director and she
3943 asked me if I would like to manage that the school gets all that old
3944 computers in use. I answered: &quot;Yes&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;
3945
3946 &lt;p&gt;Some weeks later every of the 10 classrooms had one computer
3947 running Windows98. I began to collect old computers and equipment as
3948 gifts and installed the first computer room with a peer-to-peer
3949 network. I did my work at school without being payed in my spare time
3950 and with a lot of fun.  About one year later the school was connected
3951 to Internet and a local area network was installed in the school
3952 building.  That was the time to have a server and I knew it must be a
3953 Linux server to be able to fulfil all the wishes of the teachers and
3954 being able to do this in a transparent and economic way, without extra
3955 costs for things like licence and software.  So I searched for a
3956 school server system running under Linux and I found a couple of
3957 people nearby who founded &#39;skolelinux.de&#39;. It was the Skolelinux
3958 prerelease 32 I first tried out for being used at the school.  I
3959 managed the IT of that school until the municipal authority took over
3960 the IT management and centralised the services for all schools in
3961 Bielefeld in December of 2006.&lt;/p&gt;
3962
3963 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What do you see as the advantages of Skolelinux/Debian
3964 Edu?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
3965
3966 &lt;p&gt;When I&#39;m looking back to the beginning, there were other advantages
3967 for me as today.&lt;/p&gt;
3968
3969 &lt;p&gt;In the past there were advantages like:&lt;/p&gt;
3970
3971 &lt;p&gt;&lt;ul&gt;
3972
3973 &lt;li&gt;I don&#39;t need to buy it so it generates no costs to the school as
3974 they had little money to spent for computers and software.&lt;/li&gt;
3975
3976 &lt;li&gt;It has a licence which grands all rights to use it without
3977 cost.&lt;/li&gt;
3978
3979 &lt;li&gt;It was more able to fit all requirements of a server system for
3980 schools than a Microsoft server system, even if there are only Windows
3981 clients because of it&#39;s preconfigured overall concept of being a
3982 infrastructure solution and community for schools, not only a
3983 server&lt;/li&gt;
3984
3985 &lt;li&gt;I was able to configure the server to the needs of the
3986 school.&lt;/li&gt;
3987
3988 &lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
3989
3990 &lt;p&gt;Today some of the advantages has been lost, changed or new ones
3991 came up in this way:&lt;/p&gt;
3992
3993 &lt;p&gt;&lt;ul&gt;
3994
3995 &lt;li&gt;Most schools here do have money to buy hardware and software
3996 now.&lt;/li&gt;
3997
3998 &lt;li&gt;They are today mostly managed from central IT departments which
3999 have own concepts which often do not fit to Debian Edu concepts
4000 because they are to close to Microsoft ideology.&lt;/li&gt;
4001
4002 &lt;li&gt;With the Squeeze version of Debian Edu which now uses GOsa² for
4003 management I feel more able to manage the daily tasks than with the
4004 interfaces used in the past.&lt;/li&gt;
4005
4006 &lt;li&gt;It is more modular than in the past and fits even better to the
4007 different needs.&lt;/li&gt;
4008
4009 &lt;li&gt;The documentation is usable and gets better every day.&lt;/li&gt;
4010
4011 &lt;li&gt;More people than ever before are using Debian Edu all over the
4012 world and so the community, which is an very important part I think,
4013 is sharing knowledge and minds.&lt;/li&gt;
4014
4015 &lt;li&gt;Most, maybe all, of the technical requirements for schools are
4016 solved today by Debian Edu. &lt;/li&gt;
4017
4018 &lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
4019
4020 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What do you see as the disadvantages of Skolelinux/Debian
4021 Edu?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
4022
4023 &lt;p&gt;&lt;ul&gt;
4024
4025 &lt;li&gt;There are too few IT companies able to integrate Debian Edu into
4026 their product portfolio for serving schools with concepts or even
4027 whole municipality areas.&lt;/li&gt;
4028
4029 &lt;li&gt;Debian Edu has beside other free and open software projects not
4030 enough lobbyists which promote free and open software to
4031 politicians.&lt;/li&gt;
4032
4033 &lt;li&gt;Technically there are no disadvantages I&#39;m aware of.&lt;/li&gt;
4034
4035 &lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
4036
4037 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Which free software do you use daily?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
4038
4039 &lt;p&gt;I use Debian stable on my home server and on my little desktop
4040 computer. On my laptop I use Debian testing/sid. The applications I
4041 use on my laptop and my desktop are Open/Libre-office, Iceweasel,
4042 KMail, DigiKam, Amarok, Dolphin, okular and all the other programs I
4043 need from the KDE environment.  On console I use newsbeuter, mutt,
4044 screen, irssi and all the other famous and useful tools.&lt;/p&gt;
4045
4046 &lt;p&gt;My home server provides mail services with exim, dovecot, roundcube
4047 and mutt over ssh on the console, file services with samba, NFS,
4048 rsync, web services with apache, moinmoin-wiki, multimedia services
4049 with gallery2 and mediatomb and database services with MySQL for me
4050 and the whole family.  I probably forgot something.&lt;/p&gt;
4051
4052 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Which strategy do you believe is the right one to use to
4053 get schools to use free software?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
4054
4055 &lt;p&gt;I believe, we should provide concepts for IT companies to integrate
4056 Debian Edu into their product portfolio with use cases for different
4057 countries and areas all over the world.&lt;/p&gt;
4058 </description>
4059         </item>
4060
4061         <item>
4062                 <title>Cutting it short - and picking the right tool for the job</title>
4063                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Cutting_it_short___and_picking_the_right_tool_for_the_job.html</link>
4064                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Cutting_it_short___and_picking_the_right_tool_for_the_job.html</guid>
4065                 <pubDate>Mon, 30 Apr 2012 23:30:00 +0200</pubDate>
4066                 <description>&lt;p&gt;&lt;!-- IMG_5869.JPG --&gt;
4067 &lt;img src=&quot;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/panasonic-er-1611.jpeg&quot;&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
4068
4069 &lt;p&gt;I normally cut my hair short, and my tool of choice has been a
4070 common hair/beard cutter, bought in a electrical shop here in Norway.
4071 But the last ones have not really been up to the task.  My last
4072 cutter, some model from Braun, could only cut a few of my hairs at the
4073 time, and cutting my head took forever.  And the one before that did
4074 not work very well either.  We have looked for something better for a
4075 while, but it was not until I ended up visiting a hairdresser that we
4076 discovered that there are indeed better tools available.  But these
4077 are not marketed and sold to &quot;regular consumers&quot;.  The hair saloons
4078 can get them through their suppliers, but their suppliers only sell
4079 companies.  The models they sell, are very different from the ones
4080 available from Elkjøp and Lefdal.  The main difference is their
4081 efficiency.  It would cut my hair in 5 minutes, instead of the 30-40
4082 minutes required by my impotent Braun.  The hairdresser I visited had
4083 a Panasonic ER160, which unfortunately is no longer available from the
4084 producer.  But I found it had a successor, the Panasonic ER1611.&lt;/p&gt;
4085
4086 &lt;p&gt;The next step was to find somewhere to buy it.  This was not
4087 straight forward.  The list of suppliers I got from the hairdresser
4088 did not want to sell anything to me.  But searching for the model on
4089 the web we found a supplier in Norway willing to sell it to us for
4090 around NOK 4000,-.  This was a bit much.  We kept searching and
4091 finally found a Danish supplier
4092 &lt;a href=&quot;http://nicehair.dk/panasonic-er-1611-professionel-hartrimmer.html&quot;&gt;selling
4093 it for around NOK 1800,-&lt;/a&gt;.  We ordered one, and it arrived a few
4094 days ago.&lt;/p&gt;
4095
4096 &lt;p&gt;The instructions said it had to charge for 8 hours when we started
4097 to use it, so we left it charging over night.  Normally it will only
4098 need one hour to charge.  The following evening we successfully tested
4099 it, and I can warmly recommend it to anyone looking for a real hair
4100 cutter.  The ones we have used until now have been hair cutter
4101 toys.&lt;/p&gt;
4102 </description>
4103         </item>
4104
4105         <item>
4106                 <title>HTC One X - Your video?  What do you mean?</title>
4107                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/HTC_One_X___Your_video___What_do_you_mean_.html</link>
4108                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/HTC_One_X___Your_video___What_do_you_mean_.html</guid>
4109                 <pubDate>Thu, 26 Apr 2012 13:20:00 +0200</pubDate>
4110                 <description>&lt;p&gt;In &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.idg.no/computerworld/article243690.ece&quot;&gt;an
4111 article today&lt;/a&gt; published by Computerworld Norway, the photographer
4112 &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.urke.com/eirik/&quot;&gt;Eirik Helland Urke&lt;/a&gt; reports
4113 that the video editor application included with
4114 &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.htc.com/www/smartphones/htc-one-x/#specs&quot;&gt;HTC One
4115 X&lt;/a&gt; have some quite surprising terms of use.  The article is mostly
4116 based on the twitter message from mister Urke, stating:
4117
4118 &lt;p&gt;&lt;blockquote&gt;
4119 &quot;&lt;a href=&quot;http://twitter.com/urke/status/194062269724897280&quot;&gt;Drøy
4120 brukeravtale: HTC kan bruke MINE redigerte videoer kommersielt. Selv
4121 kan jeg KUN bruke dem privat.&lt;/a&gt;&quot;
4122 &lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
4123
4124 &lt;p&gt;I quickly translated it to this English message:&lt;/p&gt;
4125
4126 &lt;p&gt;&lt;blockquote&gt;
4127 &quot;Arrogant user agreement: HTC can use MY edited videos
4128 commercially.  Although I can ONLY use them privately.&quot;
4129 &lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
4130
4131 &lt;p&gt;I&#39;ve been unable to find the text of the license term myself, but
4132 suspect it is a variation of the MPEG-LA terms I
4133 &lt;a href=&quot;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Terms_of_use_for_video_produced_by_a_Canon_IXUS_130_digital_camera.html&quot;&gt;discovered
4134 with my Canon IXUS 130&lt;/a&gt;.  The HTC One X specification specifies that
4135 the recording format of the phone is .amr for audio and .mp3 for
4136 video.  AMR is
4137 &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adaptive_Multi-Rate_audio_codec#Licensing_and_patent_issues&quot;&gt;Adaptive
4138 Multi-Rate audio codec&lt;/a&gt; with patents which according to the
4139 Wikipedia article require an license agreement with
4140 &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.voiceage.com/&quot;&gt;VoiceAge&lt;/a&gt;.  MP4 is
4141 &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H.264/MPEG-4_AVC#Patent_licensing&quot;&gt;MPEG4 with
4142 H.264&lt;/a&gt;, which according to Wikipedia require a licence agreement
4143 with &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.mpegla.com/&quot;&gt;MPEG-LA&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
4144
4145 &lt;p&gt;I know why I prefer
4146 &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.digistan.org/open-standard:definition&quot;&gt;free and open
4147 standards&lt;/a&gt; also for video.&lt;/p&gt;
4148 </description>
4149         </item>
4150
4151         <item>
4152                 <title>RAND terms - non-reasonable and discriminatory</title>
4153                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/RAND_terms___non_reasonable_and_discriminatory.html</link>
4154                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/RAND_terms___non_reasonable_and_discriminatory.html</guid>
4155                 <pubDate>Thu, 19 Apr 2012 22:20:00 +0200</pubDate>
4156                 <description>&lt;p&gt;Here in Norway, the
4157 &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.regjeringen.no/nb/dep/fad.html?id=339&quot;&gt; Ministry of
4158 Government Administration, Reform and Church Affairs&lt;/a&gt; is behind
4159 a &lt;a href=&quot;http://standard.difi.no/forvaltningsstandarder&quot;&gt;directory of
4160 standards&lt;/a&gt; that are recommended or mandatory for use by the
4161 government.  When the directory was created, the people behind it made
4162 an effort to ensure that everyone would be able to implement the
4163 standards and compete on equal terms to supply software and solutions
4164 to the government.  Free software and non-free software could compete
4165 on the same level.&lt;/p&gt;
4166
4167 &lt;p&gt;But recently, some standards with RAND
4168 (&lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reasonable_and_non-discriminatory_licensing&quot;&gt;Reasonable
4169 And Non-Discriminatory&lt;/a&gt;) terms have made their way into the
4170 directory.  And while this might not sound too bad, the fact is that
4171 standard specifications with RAND terms often block free software from
4172 implementing them.  The reasonable part of RAND mean that the cost per
4173 user/unit is low,and the non-discriminatory part mean that everyone
4174 willing to pay will get a license.  Both sound great in theory.  In
4175 practice, to get such license one need to be able to count users, and
4176 be able to pay a small amount of money per unit or user.  By
4177 definition, users of free software do not need to register their use.
4178 So counting users or units is not possible for free software projects.
4179 And given that people will use the software without handing any money
4180 to the author, it is not really economically possible for a free
4181 software author to pay a small amount of money to license the rights
4182 to implement a standard when the income available is zero.  The result
4183 in these situations is that free software are locked out from
4184 implementing standards with RAND terms.&lt;/p&gt;
4185
4186 &lt;p&gt;Because of this, when I see someone claiming the terms of a
4187 standard is reasonable and non-discriminatory, all I can think of is
4188 how this really is non-reasonable and discriminatory.  Because free
4189 software developers are working in a global market, it does not really
4190 help to know that software patents are not supposed to be enforceable
4191 in Norway.  The patent regimes in other countries affect us even here.
4192 I really hope the people behind the standard directory will pay more
4193 attention to these issues in the future.&lt;/p&gt;
4194
4195 &lt;p&gt;You can find more on the issues with RAND, FRAND and RAND-Z terms
4196 from Simon Phipps
4197 (&lt;a href=&quot;http://blogs.computerworlduk.com/simon-says/2010/11/rand-not-so-reasonable/&quot;&gt;RAND:
4198 Not So Reasonable?&lt;/a&gt;).&lt;/p&gt;
4199
4200 &lt;p&gt;Update 2012-04-21: Just came across a
4201 &lt;a href=&quot;http://blogs.computerworlduk.com/open-enterprise/2012/04/of-microsoft-netscape-patents-and-open-standards/index.htm&quot;&gt;blog
4202 post from Glyn Moody&lt;/a&gt; over at Computer World UK warning about the
4203 same issue, and urging people to speak out to the UK government.  I
4204 can only urge Norwegian users to do the same for
4205 &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.standard.difi.no/hoyring/hoyring-om-nye-anbefalte-it-standarder&quot;&gt;the
4206 hearing taking place at the moment&lt;/a&gt; (respond before 2012-04-27).
4207 It proposes to require video conferencing standards including
4208 specifications with RAND terms.&lt;/p&gt;
4209 </description>
4210         </item>
4211
4212         <item>
4213                 <title>Debian Edu interview: Andreas Mundt</title>
4214                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__Andreas_Mundt.html</link>
4215                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__Andreas_Mundt.html</guid>
4216                 <pubDate>Sun, 15 Apr 2012 12:10:00 +0200</pubDate>
4217                 <description>&lt;p&gt;Behind &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.skolelinux.org/&quot;&gt;Debian Edu and
4218 Skolelinux&lt;/a&gt; there are a lot of people doing the hard work of
4219 setting together all the pieces.  This time I present to you Andreas
4220 Mundt, who have been part of the technical development team several
4221 years.  He was also a key contributor in getting GOsa and Kerberos set
4222 up in the recently released
4223 &lt;a href=&quot;http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Documentation/Squeeze&quot;&gt;Debian
4224 Edu Squeeze&lt;/a&gt; version.&lt;/p&gt;
4225
4226 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Who are you, and how do you spend your days?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
4227
4228 &lt;p&gt;My name is Andreas Mundt, I grew up in south Germany.  After
4229 studying Physics I spent several years at university doing research in
4230 Quantum Optics.  After that I worked some years in an optics company.
4231 Finally I decided to turn over a new leaf in my life and started
4232 teaching 10 to 19 years old kids at school.  I teach math, physics,
4233 information technology and science/technology.&lt;/p&gt;
4234
4235 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;How did you get in contact with the Skolelinux/Debian Edu
4236 project?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
4237
4238 &lt;p&gt;Already before I switched to teaching, I followed the Debian Edu
4239 project because of my interest in education and Debian.  Within the
4240 qualification/training period for the teaching, I started
4241 contributing.&lt;/p&gt;
4242
4243 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What do you see as the advantages of Skolelinux/Debian
4244 Edu?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
4245
4246 &lt;p&gt;The advantages of Debian Edu are the well known name, the
4247 out-of-the-box philosophy and of course the great free software of the
4248 Debian Project!&lt;/p&gt;
4249
4250 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What do you see as the disadvantages of Skolelinux/Debian
4251 Edu?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
4252
4253 &lt;p&gt;As every coin has two sides, the out-of-the-box philosophy has its
4254 downside, too.  In my opinion, it is hard to modify and tweak the
4255 setup, if you need or want that.  Further more, it is not easily
4256 possible to upgrade the system to a new release.  It takes much too
4257 long after a Debian release to prepare the -Edu release, perhaps
4258 because the number of developers working on the core of the code is
4259 rather small and often busy elsewhere.&lt;/p&gt;
4260
4261 &lt;p&gt;The &lt;a href=&quot;http://wiki.debian.org/DebianLAN&quot;&gt;Debian LAN&lt;/a&gt;
4262 project might fill the use case of a more flexible system.&lt;/p&gt;
4263
4264 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Which free software do you use daily?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
4265
4266 &lt;p&gt;I am only using non-free software if I am forced to and run Debian
4267 on all my machines.  For documents I prefer LaTeX and PGF/TikZ, then
4268 mutt and iceweasel for email respectively web browsing.  At school I
4269 have Arduino and Fritzing in use for a micro controller project.&lt;/p&gt;
4270
4271 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Which strategy do you believe is the right one to use to
4272 get schools to use free software?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
4273
4274 &lt;p&gt;One of the major problems is the vendor lock-in from top to bottom:
4275 Especially in combination with ignorant government employees and
4276 politicians, this works out great for the &quot;market-leader&quot;.  The school
4277 administration here in Baden-Wuerttemberg is occupied by that vendor.
4278 Documents have to be prepared in non-free, proprietary formats.  Even
4279 free browsers do not work for the school administration.  Publishers
4280 of school books provide software only for proprietary platforms.&lt;/p&gt;
4281
4282 &lt;p&gt;To change this, political work is very important.  Parts of the
4283 political spectrum have become aware of the problem in the last years.
4284 However it takes quite some time and courageous politicians to &#39;free&#39;
4285 the system.  There is currently some discussion about &quot;Open Data&quot; and
4286 &quot;Free/Open Standards&quot;.  I am not sure if all the involved parties have
4287 a clue about the potential of these ideas, and probably only a
4288 fraction takes them seriously.  However it might slowly make free
4289 software and the philosophy behind it more known and popular.&lt;/p&gt;
4290 </description>
4291         </item>
4292
4293         <item>
4294                 <title>Debian Edu interview: Justin B. Rye</title>
4295                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__Justin_B__Rye.html</link>
4296                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__Justin_B__Rye.html</guid>
4297                 <pubDate>Sun, 8 Apr 2012 10:50:00 +0200</pubDate>
4298                 <description>&lt;p&gt;It take all kind of contributions to create a Linux distribution
4299 like &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.skolelinux.org/&quot;&gt;Debian Edu / Skolelinux&lt;/a&gt;,
4300 and this time I lend the ear to Justin B. Rye, who is listed as a big
4301 contributor to the
4302 &lt;a href=&quot;http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Documentation/Squeeze&quot;&gt;Debian
4303 Edu Squeeze release manual&lt;/a&gt;.
4304
4305 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Who are you, and how do you spend your days?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
4306
4307 &lt;p&gt;I&#39;m a 44-year-old linguistics graduate living in Edinburgh who has
4308 occasionally been employed as a sysadmin.&lt;/p&gt;
4309
4310 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;How did you get in contact with the Skolelinux/Debian Edu
4311 project?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
4312
4313 &lt;p&gt;I&#39;m neither a developer nor a Skolelinux/Debian Edu user!  The only
4314 reason my name&#39;s in the credits for the documentation is that I hang
4315 around on debian-l10n-english waiting for people to mention things
4316 they&#39;d like a native English speaker to proofread...  So I did a sweep
4317 through the wiki for typos and Norglish and inconsistent spellings of
4318 &quot;localisation&quot;.&lt;/p&gt;
4319
4320 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What do you see as the advantages of Skolelinux/Debian
4321 Edu?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
4322
4323 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What do you see as the disadvantages of Skolelinux/Debian
4324 Edu?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
4325
4326 &lt;p&gt;These questions are too hard for me - I don&#39;t use it!  In fact I
4327 had hardly any contact with I.T. until long after I&#39;d got out of the
4328 education system.&lt;/p&gt;
4329
4330 &lt;p&gt;I can tell you the advantages of Debian for me though: it soaks up
4331 as much of my free time as I want and no more, and lets me do
4332 everything I want a computer for without ever forcing me to spend
4333 money on the latest hardware.&lt;/p&gt;
4334
4335 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Which free software do you use daily?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
4336
4337 &lt;p&gt;I&#39;ve been using Debian since Rex; popularity-contest says the
4338 software that I use most is xinit, xterm, and xulrunner (in other
4339 words, I use a distinctly retro sort of desktop).&lt;/p&gt;
4340
4341 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Which strategy do you believe is the right one to use to
4342 get schools to use free software?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
4343
4344 &lt;p&gt;Well, I don&#39;t know.  I suppose I&#39;d be inclined to try reasoning
4345 with the people who make the decisions, but obviously if that worked
4346 you would hardly need a strategy.&lt;/p&gt;
4347 </description>
4348         </item>
4349
4350         <item>
4351                 <title>Why the KDE menu is slow when /usr/ is NFS mounted - and a workaround</title>
4352                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Why_the_KDE_menu_is_slow_when__usr__is_NFS_mounted___and_a_workaround.html</link>
4353                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Why_the_KDE_menu_is_slow_when__usr__is_NFS_mounted___and_a_workaround.html</guid>
4354                 <pubDate>Fri, 6 Apr 2012 22:40:00 +0200</pubDate>
4355                 <description>&lt;p&gt;Recently I have spent time with
4356 &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.slxdrift.no/&quot;&gt;Skolelinux Drift AS&lt;/a&gt; on speeding
4357 up a &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.skolelinux.org/&quot;&gt;Debian Edu / Skolelinux&lt;/a&gt;
4358 Lenny installation using LTSP diskless workstations, and in the
4359 process I discovered something very surprising.  The reason the KDE
4360 menu was responding slow when using it for the first time, was mostly
4361 due to the way KDE find application icons.  I discovered that showing
4362 the Multimedia menu would cause more than 20 000 IP packages to be
4363 passed between the LTSP client and the NFS server.  Most of these were
4364
4365 NFS LOOKUP calls, resulting in a NFS3ERR_NOENT response.  Because the
4366 ping times between the client and the server were in the range 2-20
4367 ms, the menus would be very slow.  Looking at the strace of kicker in
4368 Lenny (or plasma-desktop i Squeeze - same problem there), I see that
4369 the source of these NFS calls are access(2) system calls for
4370 non-existing files.  KDE can do hundreds of access(2) calls to find
4371 one icon file.  In my example, just finding the mplayer icon required
4372 around 230 access(2) calls.&lt;/p&gt;
4373
4374 &lt;p&gt;The KDE code seem to search for icons using a list of icon
4375 directories, and the list of possible directories is large.  In
4376 (almost) each directory, it look for files ending in .png, .svgz, .svg
4377 and .xpm.  The result is a very slow KDE menu when /usr/ is NFS
4378 mounted.  Showing a single sub menu may result in thousands of NFS
4379 requests.  I am not the first one to discover this.  I found a
4380 &lt;a href=&quot;https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=211416&quot;&gt;KDE bug report
4381 from 2009&lt;/a&gt; about this problem, and it is still unsolved.&lt;/p&gt;
4382
4383 &lt;p&gt;My solution to speed up the KDE menu was to create a package
4384 kde-icon-cache that upon installation will look at all .desktop files
4385 used to generate the KDE menu, find their icons, search the icon paths
4386 for the file that KDE will end up finding at run time, and copying the
4387 icon file to /var/lib/kde-icon-cache/.  Finally, I add symlinks to
4388 these icon files in one of the first directories where KDE will look
4389 for them.  This cut down the number of file accesses required to find
4390 one icon from several hundred to less than 5, and make the KDE menu
4391 almost instantaneous.  I&#39;m not quite sure where to make the package
4392 publicly available, so for now it is only available on request.&lt;/p&gt;
4393
4394 &lt;p&gt;The bug report mention that this do not only affect the KDE menu
4395 and icon handling, but also the login process.  Not quite sure how to
4396 speed up that part without replacing NFS with for example NBD, and
4397 that is not really an option at the moment.&lt;/p&gt;
4398
4399 &lt;p&gt;If you got feedback on this issue, please let us know on debian-edu
4400 (at) lists.debian.org.&lt;/p&gt;
4401 </description>
4402         </item>
4403
4404         <item>
4405                 <title>Debian Edu in the Linux Weekly News</title>
4406                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_in_the_Linux_Weekly_News.html</link>
4407                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_in_the_Linux_Weekly_News.html</guid>
4408                 <pubDate>Thu, 5 Apr 2012 08:00:00 +0200</pubDate>
4409                 <description>&lt;p&gt;About two weeks ago, I was interviewed via email about
4410 &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.skolelinux.org/&quot;&gt;Debian Edu and Skolelinux&lt;/a&gt; by
4411 Bruce Byfield in Linux Weekly News.  The result was made public for
4412 non-subscribers today.  I am pleased to see liked our Linux solution
4413 for schools.  Check out his article
4414 &lt;a href=&quot;https://lwn.net/Articles/488805/&quot;&gt;Debian Edu/Skolelinux: A
4415 distribution for education&lt;/a&gt; if you want to learn more.&lt;/p&gt;
4416 </description>
4417         </item>
4418
4419         <item>
4420                 <title>Debian Edu interview: Wolfgang Schweer</title>
4421                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__Wolfgang_Schweer.html</link>
4422                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__Wolfgang_Schweer.html</guid>
4423                 <pubDate>Sun, 1 Apr 2012 23:00:00 +0200</pubDate>
4424                 <description>&lt;p&gt;Germany is a core area for the
4425 &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.skolelinux.org/&quot;&gt;Debian Edu and Skolelinux&lt;/a&gt;
4426 user community, and this time I managed to get hold of Wolfgang
4427 Schweer, a valuable contributor to the project from Germany.
4428
4429 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Who are you, and how do you spend your days?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
4430
4431 &lt;p&gt;I&#39;ve studied Mathematics at the university &#39;Ruhr-Universität&#39; in
4432 Bochum, Germany. Since 1981 I&#39;m working as a teacher at the school
4433 &quot;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.westfalenkolleg-dortmund.de/&quot;&gt;Westfalen-Kolleg
4434 Dortmund&lt;/a&gt;&quot;, a second chance school.  Here, young adults is given
4435 the opportunity to get further education in order to do the school
4436 examination &#39;Abitur&#39;, which will allow to study at a university. This
4437 second chance is of value for those who want a better job perspective
4438 or failed to get a higher school examination being teens.&lt;/p&gt;
4439
4440 &lt;p&gt;Besides teaching I was involved in developing online courses for a
4441 blended learning project called &#39;abitur-online.nrw&#39; and in some other
4442 information technology related projects. For about ten years I&#39;ve been
4443 teacher and coordinator for the &#39;abitur-online&#39; project at my
4444 school. Being now in my early sixties, I&#39;ve decided to leave school at
4445 the end of April this year.&lt;/p&gt;
4446
4447 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;How did you get in contact with the Skolelinux/Debian Edu
4448 project?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
4449
4450 &lt;p&gt;The first information about Skolelinux must have come to my
4451 attention years ago and somehow related to LTSP (Linux Terminal Server
4452 Project).  At school, we had set up a network at the beginning of 1997
4453 using Suse Linux on the desktop, replacing a Novell network. Since
4454 2002, we used old machines from the city council of Dortmund as thin
4455 clients (LTSP, later Ubuntu/Lessdisks) cause new hardware was out of
4456 reach. At home I&#39;m using Debian since years and - subscribed to the
4457 Debian news letter - heard from time to time about Skolelinux. About
4458 two years ago I proposed to replace the (somehow undocumented and only
4459 known to me) system at school by a well known Debian based system:
4460 Skolelinux.&lt;/p&gt;
4461
4462 &lt;p&gt;Students and teachers appreciated the new system because of a
4463 better look and feel and an enhanced access to local media on thin
4464 clients.  The possibility to alter and/or reset passwords using a GUI
4465 was welcomed, too. Being able to do administrative tasks using a GUI
4466 and to easily set up workstations using PXE was of very high value for
4467 the admin teachers.&lt;/p&gt;
4468
4469 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What do you see as the advantages of Skolelinux/Debian
4470 Edu?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
4471
4472 &lt;p&gt;It&#39;s open source, easy to set up, stable and flexible due to it&#39;s
4473 Debian base. It integrates LTSP out-of-the-box. And it is documented!
4474 So it was a perfect choice.&lt;/p&gt;
4475
4476 &lt;p&gt;Being open source, there are no license problems and so it&#39;s
4477 possible to point teachers and students to programs like
4478 OpenOffice.org, ViewYourMind (mind mapping) and The Gimp.  It&#39;s of
4479 high value to be able to adapt parts of the system to special needs of
4480 a school and to choose where to get support for this.&lt;/p&gt;
4481
4482 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What do you see as the disadvantages of Skolelinux/Debian
4483 Edu?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
4484
4485 &lt;p&gt;Nothing yet.&lt;/p&gt;
4486
4487 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Which free software do you use daily?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
4488
4489 &lt;p&gt;At home (Debian Sid with Gnome Desktop): Iceweasel, LibreOffice,
4490 Mutt, Gedit, Document Viewer, Midnight Commander, flpsed (PDF
4491 Annotator).  At school (Skolelinux Lenny): Iceweasel, Gedit,
4492 LibreOffice.&lt;/p&gt;
4493
4494 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Which strategy do you believe is the right one to use to
4495 get schools to use free software?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
4496
4497 &lt;p&gt;Some time ago I thought it was enough to tell people about it. But
4498 that doesn&#39;t seem to work quite well. Now I concentrate on those more
4499 interested and hope to get multiplicators that way.&lt;/p&gt;
4500 </description>
4501         </item>
4502
4503         <item>
4504                 <title>Debian Edu screencast: Checking email with kmail using Kerberos authentication</title>
4505                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_screencast__Checking_email_with_kmail_using_Kerberos_authentication.html</link>
4506                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_screencast__Checking_email_with_kmail_using_Kerberos_authentication.html</guid>
4507                 <pubDate>Sun, 25 Mar 2012 10:00:00 +0200</pubDate>
4508                 <description>&lt;!-- Video HTML based on http://www.diveintohtml5.net/video.html --&gt;
4509
4510 &lt;p&gt;The same Debian Edu developer that did the last screen cast I
4511 published, Wolfgang Schweer, has created a new screen cast showing how
4512 to set up Kmail in Debian Edu Squeze to authenticate using Kerberos,
4513 allowing users to check their local email account without providing
4514 any password. The video is embedded here in quarter size,
4515 and also available from &lt;a href=&quot;https://vimeo.com/38601767&quot;&gt;vimeo&lt;/a&gt;
4516 and download as a
4517 &lt;a href=&quot;http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux/press/screencasts/2012-03-14-Debian-Edu_Configure_Kmail_for_internal_usage.ogv&quot;&gt;Ogg
4518 Theora&lt;/a&gt; file.  Check it out below.&lt;/p&gt;
4519
4520 &lt;p&gt;&lt;video id=&quot;kmail-kerberos-movie&quot; width=&quot;256&quot; height=&quot;184&quot; preload controls&gt;
4521   &lt;source src=&quot;http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux/press/screencasts/2012-03-14-Debian-Edu_Configure_Kmail_for_internal_usage.ogv&quot; type=&#39;video/ogg; codecs=&quot;theora, vorbis&quot;&#39; /&gt;
4522     &lt;p&gt;Download video as
4523       &lt;a href=&quot;http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux/press/screencasts/2012-03-14-Debian-Edu_Configure_Kmail_for_internal_usage.ogv&quot;&gt;Ogg&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
4524 &lt;/video&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
4525 </description>
4526         </item>
4527
4528         <item>
4529                 <title>Debian Edu interview: John Ingleby</title>
4530                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__John_Ingleby.html</link>
4531                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__John_Ingleby.html</guid>
4532                 <pubDate>Mon, 19 Mar 2012 21:15:00 +0100</pubDate>
4533                 <description>&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.skolelinux.org/&quot;&gt;Debian Edu / Skolelinux&lt;/a&gt;
4534 users are spread all across the globe.  The second inteview after
4535 &lt;a href=&quot;http://lists.debian.org/debian-edu-announce/2012/03/msg00001.html&quot;&gt;the
4536 Squeeze release&lt;/a&gt; was publised is with John Ingleby, a teacher and
4537 long time Linux user in United Kingdom.&lt;/p&gt;
4538
4539 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Who are you, and how do you spend your days?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
4540
4541 &lt;p&gt;I teach ICT part time at the Rudolf Steiner School in Kings
4542 Langley, near London, UK. Previously I worked as a technical
4543 author/trainer while my children attended the school, and I also
4544 contributed to the Schoolforge UK community with the aim of
4545 encouraging UK schools to adopt free/open source software. Five or six
4546 years ago we had about 50 schools interested in some way, but we
4547 weren&#39;t able to convert many of them into sustainable
4548 installations.&lt;/p&gt;
4549
4550 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;How did you get in contact with the Skolelinux/Debian Edu
4551 project?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
4552
4553 &lt;p&gt;Skolelinux had two representatives at an early Edubuntu meeting in
4554 London which I attended. However at that time our school network had
4555 just been installed using CentOS, LTSP 4 and GNOME. When LTSP 5 came
4556 along we switched to Edubuntu thin client servers so now we have a
4557 mixed environment which includes Windows PCs and student laptops, as
4558 well as their MacBooks and iPads. However, the proprietary systems
4559 have always been rather problematic, and we never built a GUI for the
4560 LDAP server, so when I discovered Skolelinux is configured for all
4561 these things we decided to try it.&lt;/p&gt;
4562
4563 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What do you see as the advantages of Skolelinux/Debian
4564 Edu?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
4565
4566 &lt;p&gt;By far the biggest advantage is the Debian Edu community. Apart
4567 from that I have always believed in the same &quot;sustainable computing&quot;
4568 goals that Skolelinux is built on: installing Linux on computers which
4569 would otherwise be thrown away, to provide a reliable, secure and
4570 low-cost IT environment for schools. From my own experience I know
4571 that a part-time person can teach and manage a network of about 25
4572 Linux computers, but it would take much more of my time if we had
4573 proprietary software everywhere.&lt;/p&gt;
4574
4575 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What do you see as the disadvantages of Skolelinux/Debian
4576 Edu?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
4577
4578 &lt;p&gt;As a newcomer I&#39;m just finding out who&#39;s who in the community and
4579 how you&#39;re organised, and what your procedures are for dealing with
4580 various things such as editing manual pages and so-on. The only
4581 English language mailing list seems to be for developers as well as
4582 users, so my inbox needs heavy pruning each day!&lt;/p&gt;
4583
4584 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Which free software do you use daily?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
4585
4586 &lt;p&gt;Besides the software already mentioned at school we use Samba,
4587 OpenLDAP, CUPS, Nagios and Dansguardian for the network, and on the
4588 desktops we have LibreOffice, Firefox, GIMP and Inkscape. At home I
4589 use Ubuntu and an Android 4 eePad Transformer (but I&#39;m not sure if
4590 that counts...)&lt;/p&gt;
4591
4592 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Which strategy do you believe is the right one to use to
4593 get schools to use free software?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
4594
4595 &lt;p&gt;That&#39;s a tough question! For very many years UK schools installed
4596 and taught only proprietary software, so that at the highest levels
4597 the notion of &quot;computer&quot; means simply &quot;proprietary office
4598 applications&quot;.  However, schools today are experiencing budget
4599 constraints, and many are having to think hard about upgrading Windows
4600 XP.  At the same time, we have students showing teachers how to use
4601 iPads, MacBooks and Android, so the choice of operating system is no
4602 longer quite so automatic. What is more, our government at last
4603 realised that we need people with programming skills, so they&#39;re
4604 putting coding back in the curriculum! And it&#39;s encouraging that the
4605 first 10,000 Raspberry Pi units sold out in 2 hours.&lt;/p&gt;
4606
4607 &lt;p&gt;I don&#39;t really know what strategy is going to get UK schools to use
4608 free software, but building an active community of Skolelinux/Debian
4609 Edu users in this country has to be part of it.&lt;/p&gt;
4610 </description>
4611         </item>
4612
4613         <item>
4614                 <title>Writing and translating documentation in Debian Edu</title>
4615                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Writing_and_translating_documentation_in_Debian_Edu.html</link>
4616                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Writing_and_translating_documentation_in_Debian_Edu.html</guid>
4617                 <pubDate>Fri, 16 Mar 2012 09:55:00 +0100</pubDate>
4618                 <description>&lt;p&gt;Documentation in Debian Edu is provided in several languages, and
4619 it is important to make it both easy to contribute and to keep the
4620 translated versions in sync.  To do this we have come up with what we
4621 believe is a very efficient work flow.&lt;/p&gt;
4622
4623 &lt;ol&gt;
4624
4625 &lt;li&gt;The documentation is written in a
4626 &lt;a href=&quot;http://moinmo.in&quot;&gt;moinmoin wiki&lt;/a&gt; (see for example
4627 &lt;a href=&quot;http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Documentation/Squeeze&quot;&gt;the
4628 Squeeze release manual&lt;/a&gt;) with support for exporting the content as
4629 docbook XML.&lt;/li&gt;
4630
4631 &lt;li&gt;This docbook document is given to po4a to extract a gettext style
4632 .pot file with the content, which in turn is used to create .po files
4633 with the translated text.&lt;/li&gt;
4634
4635 &lt;li&gt;The .po files are given to translators, and they can always tell
4636 which part of the original wiki document is new or changed.  They can
4637 use their normal translation tools like lokalize or poedit to write
4638 the translation.  There is even a system in place to handle translated
4639 images.&lt;/li&gt;
4640
4641 &lt;li&gt;The translated .po files are combined with the original docbook
4642 XML document using po4a to create a translated docbook document.&lt;/li&gt;
4643
4644 &lt;li&gt;The final step is to use all the generated docbook files and
4645 create PDF and HTML version of the original and translated documents.&lt;/li&gt;
4646
4647 &lt;/ol&gt;
4648
4649 &lt;p&gt;This setup work very well, but have a few issues.  The biggest
4650 issue is that &lt;a href=&quot;http://moinmo.in/DocBook&quot;&gt;the docbook support
4651 we use in moinmoin&lt;/a&gt; is not actively maintained.  The docbook
4652 support is also buggy, and our build system contain workarounds to
4653 make sure the generated docbook is usable despite these bugs.&lt;/p&gt;
4654
4655 &lt;p&gt;If you want to have a look at our setup, it is all there in the
4656 &lt;a href=&quot;http://packages.qa.debian.org/debian-edu-doc&quot;&gt;debian-edu-doc
4657 package&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
4658 </description>
4659         </item>
4660
4661         <item>
4662                 <title>Skolelinux / Debian Edu Squeeze is out!</title>
4663                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Skolelinux___Debian_Edu_Squeeze_is_out_.html</link>
4664                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Skolelinux___Debian_Edu_Squeeze_is_out_.html</guid>
4665                 <pubDate>Sun, 11 Mar 2012 23:00:00 +0100</pubDate>
4666                 <description>&lt;p&gt;This weekend we finally published the first stable release of
4667 &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.skolelinux.org/&quot;&gt;Skolelinux / Debian Edu&lt;/a&gt; based
4668 on Debian/Squeeze.  The full announcement is
4669 &lt;a href=&quot;http://lists.debian.org/debian-edu-announce/2012/03/msg00001.html&quot;&gt;available&lt;/a&gt;
4670 from the project announcement list.  Now is a good time to test if it
4671 you have not done so already.&lt;/p&gt;
4672
4673 &lt;p&gt;I plan to present the new version at
4674 &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.nuug.no/aktiviteter/20120313-skolelinux/&quot;&gt;a NUUG
4675 meeting&lt;/a&gt; on tuesday.  I look forward to seeing you there if you are
4676 in Oslo, Norway.&lt;/p&gt;
4677 </description>
4678         </item>
4679
4680         <item>
4681                 <title>Debian Edu interview: Nigel Barker</title>
4682                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__Nigel_Barker.html</link>
4683                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__Nigel_Barker.html</guid>
4684                 <pubDate>Fri, 9 Mar 2012 11:30:00 +0100</pubDate>
4685                 <description>&lt;p&gt;Inspired by &lt;a href=&quot;http://raphaelhertzog.com/tag/interview/&quot;&gt;the
4686 interview series&lt;/a&gt; conducted by Raphael, I started a Norwegian
4687 interview series with people involved in the Debian Edu / Skolelinux
4688 community.  This was so popular that I believe it is time to move to a
4689 more international audience.&lt;/p&gt;
4690
4691 &lt;p&gt;While &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.skolelinux.org/&quot;&gt;Debian Edu and
4692 Skolelinux&lt;/a&gt; originated in France and Norway, and have most users in
4693 Europe, there are users all around the globe.  One of those far away
4694 from me is Nigel Barker, a long time Debian Edu system administrator
4695 and contributor.  It is thanks to him that Debian Edu is adjusted to
4696 work out of the box in Japan.  I got him to answer a few questions,
4697 and am happy to share the response with you. :)
4698
4699
4700 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Who are you, and how do you spend your days?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
4701
4702 &lt;p&gt;My name is Nigel Barker, and I am British. I am married to Yumiko,
4703 and we have three lovely children, aged 15, 14 and 4(!) I am the IT
4704 Coordinator at Hiroshima International School, Japan. I am also a
4705 teacher, and in fact I spend most of my day teaching Mathematics,
4706 Science, IT, and Chemistry. I was originally a Chemistry teacher, but
4707 I have always had an interest in computers. Another teacher teaches
4708 primary school IT, but apart from that I am the only computer person,
4709 so that means I am the network manager, technician and webmaster,
4710 also, and I help people with their computer problems. I teach python
4711 to beginners in an after-school club. I am way too busy, so I really
4712 appreciate the simplicity of Skolelinux.&lt;/p&gt;
4713
4714 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;How did you get in contact with the Skolelinux/Debian Edu
4715 project?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
4716
4717 &lt;p&gt;In around 2004 or 5 I discovered the ltsp project, and set up a
4718 server in the IT lab. I wanted some way to connect it to our central
4719 samba server, which I was also quite poor at configuring. I discovered
4720 Edubuntu when it came out, but it didn&#39;t really improve my setup. I
4721 did various desperate searches for things like &quot;school Linux server&quot;
4722 and ended up in a document called &quot;Drift&quot; something or other. Reading
4723 there it became clear that Skolelinux was going to solve all my
4724 problems in one go. I was very excited, but apprehensive, because my
4725 previous attempts to install Debian had ended in failure (I used
4726 Mandrake for everything - ltsp, samba, apache, mail, ns...). I
4727 downloaded a beta version, had some problems, so subscribed to the
4728 Debian Edu list for help. I have remained subscribed ever since, and
4729 my school has run a Skolelinux network since Sarge.&lt;/p&gt;
4730
4731 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What do you see as the advantages of Skolelinux/Debian
4732 Edu?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
4733
4734 &lt;p&gt;For me the integrated setup. This is not just the server, or the
4735 workstation, or the ltsp. Its all of them, and its all configured
4736 ready to go. I read somewhere in the early documentation that it is
4737 designed to be setup and managed by the Maths or Science teacher, who
4738 doesn&#39;t necessarily know much about computers, in a small Norwegian
4739 school. That describes me perfectly if you replace Norway with
4740 Japan.&lt;/p&gt;
4741
4742 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;What do you see as the disadvantages of Skolelinux/Debian
4743 Edu?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
4744
4745 &lt;p&gt;The desktop is fairly plain. If you compare it with Edubuntu, who
4746 have fun themes for children, or with distributions such as Mint, who
4747 make the desktop beautiful. They create a good impression on people
4748 who don&#39;t need to understand how to use any of it, but who might be
4749 important to the school. School administrators or directors, for
4750 instance, or parents. Even kids. Debian itself usually has ugly
4751 default theme settings. It was my dream a few years back that some
4752 kind of integration would allow Edubuntu to do the desktop stuff and
4753 Debian Edu the servers, but now I realise how impossible that is.  A
4754 second disadvantage is that if something goes wrong, or you need to
4755 customise something, then suddenly the level of expertise required
4756 multiplies. For example, backup wasn&#39;t working properly in Lenny. It
4757 took me ages to learn how to set up my own server to do rsync backups.
4758 I am afraid of anything to do with ldap, but perhaps Gosa will
4759 help.&lt;/p&gt;
4760
4761 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Which free software do you use daily?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
4762
4763 &lt;p&gt;Nowadays I only use Debian on my personal computers. I have one for
4764 studio work (I play guitar and write songs), running AV Linux
4765 (customised Debian) a netbook running Squeeze, and a bigger laptop
4766 still running Skolelinux Lenny workstation. I have a Tjener in my
4767 house, that&#39;s very useful for the family photos and music.  At school
4768 the students only use Skolelinux. (Some teachers and the office still
4769 have windows). So that means we only use free software all day every
4770 day. Open office, The GIMP, Firefox/Iceweasel, VLC and Audacity are
4771 installed on every computer in school, irrespective of OS.  We also
4772 have Koha on Debian for the library, and Apache, Moodle, b2evolution
4773 and Etomite on Debian for the www. The firewall is Untangle.&lt;/p&gt;
4774
4775 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Which strategy do you believe is the right one to use to
4776 get schools to use free software?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
4777
4778 &lt;p&gt;Current trends are in our favour. Open source is big in industry,
4779 and ordinary people have heard of it. The spread of Android and the
4780 popularity of Apple have helped to weaken the impression that you have
4781 to have Microsoft on everything. People complain to me much less about
4782 file formats and Word than they did 5 years ago.  The Edu aspect is
4783 also a selling point. This is all customised for schools. Where is the
4784 Windows-edu, or the Mac-edu?  But of course the main attraction is
4785 budget.The trick is to convince people that the quality is not
4786 compromised when you stop paying and use free software instead. That
4787 is one reason why I say the desktop experience is a weakness. People
4788 are not impressed when their USB drive doesn&#39;t work, or their browser
4789 doesn&#39;t play flash, for example.&lt;/p&gt;
4790 </description>
4791         </item>
4792
4793         <item>
4794                 <title>Debian Edu screencast: Mass creation of user accounts in Squeeze</title>
4795                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_screencast__Mass_creation_of_user_accounts_in_Squeeze.html</link>
4796                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_screencast__Mass_creation_of_user_accounts_in_Squeeze.html</guid>
4797                 <pubDate>Wed, 7 Mar 2012 13:40:00 +0100</pubDate>
4798                 <description>&lt;!-- Video HTML based on http://www.diveintohtml5.net/video.html --&gt;
4799
4800 &lt;p&gt;One of the Debian Edu developers, Wolfgang Schweer, just created a
4801 screen cast documenting how to create a lot of new users in LDAP on
4802 Debian Edu Squeeze.  The video is embedded here in quarter size, and
4803 also available from &lt;a href=&quot;http://vimeo.com/37675399&quot;&gt;vimeo&lt;/a&gt; and
4804 download as a
4805 &lt;a href=&quot;http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux/press/screencasts/2012-02-29-debian_edu_mass_create_user_accounts.ogv&quot;&gt;Ogg
4806 Theora&lt;/a&gt; file.  Check it out below.&lt;/p&gt;
4807
4808 &lt;p&gt;&lt;video id=&quot;gosa-mass-user-create-movie&quot; width=&quot;256&quot; height=&quot;184&quot; preload controls&gt;
4809   &lt;source src=&quot;http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux/press/screencasts/2012-02-29-debian_edu_mass_create_user_accounts.ogv&quot; type=&#39;video/ogg; codecs=&quot;theora, vorbis&quot;&#39; /&gt;
4810     &lt;p&gt;Download video as
4811       &lt;a href=&quot;http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux/press/screencasts/2012-02-29-debian_edu_mass_create_user_accounts.ogv&quot;&gt;Ogg&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
4812 &lt;/video&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
4813 </description>
4814         </item>
4815
4816         <item>
4817                 <title>Third release candidate of Debian Edu / Skolelinux based on Squeeze</title>
4818                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Third_release_candidate_of_Debian_Edu___Skolelinux_based_on_Squeeze.html</link>
4819                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Third_release_candidate_of_Debian_Edu___Skolelinux_based_on_Squeeze.html</guid>
4820                 <pubDate>Sun, 4 Mar 2012 18:20:00 +0100</pubDate>
4821                 <description>&lt;p&gt;This weekend we wrapped up and published the third release
4822 candidate for &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.skolelinux.org/&quot;&gt;Debian Edu /
4823 Skolelinux&lt;/a&gt; based on Squeeze.  The full announcement is
4824 &lt;a href=&quot;http://lists.debian.org/debian-edu-announce/2012/03/msg00000.html&quot;&gt;available&lt;/a&gt;
4825 from the project announcement list.  Check it out if you
4826 need a software solution for your school.&lt;/p&gt;
4827 </description>
4828         </item>
4829
4830         <item>
4831                 <title>Stopmotion for making stop motion animations on Linux - reloaded</title>
4832                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Stopmotion_for_making_stop_motion_animations_on_Linux___reloaded.html</link>
4833                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Stopmotion_for_making_stop_motion_animations_on_Linux___reloaded.html</guid>
4834                 <pubDate>Sat, 3 Mar 2012 12:50:00 +0100</pubDate>
4835                 <description>&lt;p&gt;Many years ago, the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.skolelinux.org/&quot;&gt;Skolelinux
4836 / Debian Edu project&lt;/a&gt; initiated a student project to create a tool
4837 for making stop motion movies.  The proposal came from a teacher
4838 needing such tool on Skolelinux.  The project, called &quot;stopmotion&quot;,
4839 was manned by two extraordinary students and won a school award and a
4840 national aware with this great project.  The project was initiated and
4841 mentored by Herman Robak, and manned by the students Bjørn Erik Nilsen
4842 and Fredrik Berg Kjølstad.  They got in touch with people at Aardman
4843 Animation studio and received feedback on how professionals would like
4844 such stopmotion tool to work, and the end result was and is used by
4845 animators around the globe.  But as is usual after studying, both got
4846 jobs and went elsewhere, and did not have time to properly tend to the
4847 project, and it has been lingering for a few years now.  Until last
4848 year...&lt;/p&gt;
4849
4850 &lt;p&gt;Last year some of the users got together with Herman, and moved the
4851 project to Sourceforge and in effect restarted the project under a new
4852 name,
4853 &lt;a href=&quot;http://sourceforge.net/projects/linuxstopmotion/&quot;&gt;linuxstopmotion&lt;/a&gt;.
4854 The name change was done to make it possible to find the project using
4855 Internet search engines (try to search for &#39;stopmotion&#39; to see what I
4856 mean). I&#39;ve been following
4857 &lt;a href=&quot;https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/linuxstopmotion-community&quot;&gt;the
4858 mailing list&lt;/a&gt; and the improvement already in place and planned for
4859 the future is encouraging.  If you want to make stop motion movies.
4860 Check it out. :)&lt;/p&gt;
4861 </description>
4862         </item>
4863
4864         <item>
4865                 <title>Second release candidate of Debian Edu / Skolelinux based on Squeeze</title>
4866                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Second_release_candidate_of_Debian_Edu___Skolelinux_based_on_Squeeze.html</link>
4867                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Second_release_candidate_of_Debian_Edu___Skolelinux_based_on_Squeeze.html</guid>
4868                 <pubDate>Mon, 27 Feb 2012 14:00:00 +0100</pubDate>
4869                 <description>&lt;p&gt;This weekend we wrapped up and published the second release
4870 candidate for &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.skolelinux.org/&quot;&gt;Debian Edu /
4871 Skolelinux&lt;/a&gt; based on Squeeze.  The full announcement did for some
4872 reason not make it the project announcement list, but is
4873 &lt;a href=&quot;http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce/2012/02/msg00015.html&quot;&gt;available&lt;/a&gt;
4874 from the Debian development announcement list.  Check it out if you
4875 need a software solution for your school.&lt;/p&gt;
4876 </description>
4877         </item>
4878
4879         <item>
4880                 <title>First release candidate of Debian Edu / Skolelinux based on Squeeze</title>
4881                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/First_release_candidate_of_Debian_Edu___Skolelinux_based_on_Squeeze.html</link>
4882                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/First_release_candidate_of_Debian_Edu___Skolelinux_based_on_Squeeze.html</guid>
4883                 <pubDate>Sun, 19 Feb 2012 23:10:00 +0100</pubDate>
4884                 <description>&lt;p&gt;One week delayed due to DVD build problems, we managed today to
4885 wrap up and publish the first release candidate for
4886 &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.skolelinux.org/&quot;&gt;Debian Edu / Skolelinux&lt;/a&gt; based
4887 on Squeeze.  The full announcement is
4888 &lt;a href=&quot;http://lists.debian.org/debian-edu-announce/2012/02/msg00001.html&quot;&gt;available&lt;/a&gt;
4889 on the project announcement list.  Check it out if you need a software
4890 solution for your school.&lt;/p&gt;
4891 </description>
4892         </item>
4893
4894         <item>
4895                 <title>How to figure out which RAID disk to replace when it fail</title>
4896                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_figure_out_which_RAID_disk_to_replace_when_it_fail.html</link>
4897                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_figure_out_which_RAID_disk_to_replace_when_it_fail.html</guid>
4898                 <pubDate>Tue, 14 Feb 2012 21:25:00 +0100</pubDate>
4899                 <description>&lt;p&gt;Once in a while my home server have disk problems.  Thanks to Linux
4900 Software RAID, I have not lost data yet (but
4901 &lt;a href=&quot;http://comments.gmane.org/gmane.linux.raid/34532&quot;&gt;I was
4902 close&lt;/a&gt; this summer :).  But once a disk is starting to behave
4903 funny, a practical problem present itself.  How to get from the Linux
4904 device name (like /dev/sdd) to something that can be used to identify
4905 the disk when the computer is turned off?  In my case I have SATA
4906 disks with a unique ID printed on the label.  All I need is a way to
4907 figure out how to query the disk to get the ID out.&lt;/p&gt;
4908
4909 &lt;p&gt;After fumbling a bit, I
4910 &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.cyberciti.biz/faq/linux-getting-scsi-ide-harddisk-information/&quot;&gt;found
4911 that hdparm -I&lt;/a&gt; will report the disk serial number, which is
4912 printed on the disk label.  The following (almost) one-liner can be
4913 used to look up the ID of all the failed disks:&lt;/p&gt;
4914
4915 &lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;pre&gt;
4916 for d in $(cat /proc/mdstat |grep &#39;(F)&#39;|tr &#39; &#39; &quot;\n&quot;|grep &#39;(F)&#39;|cut -d\[ -f1|sort -u);
4917 do
4918     printf &quot;Failed disk $d: &quot;
4919     hdparm -I /dev/$d |grep &#39;Serial Num&#39;
4920 done
4921 &lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;
4922
4923 &lt;p&gt;Putting it here to make sure I do not have to search for it the
4924 next time, and in case other find it useful.&lt;/p&gt;
4925
4926 &lt;p&gt;At the moment I have two failing disk. :(&lt;/p&gt;
4927
4928 &lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;pre&gt;
4929 Failed disk sdd1:       Serial Number:      WD-WCASJ1860823
4930 Failed disk sdd2:       Serial Number:      WD-WCASJ1860823
4931 Failed disk sde2:       Serial Number:      WD-WCASJ1840589
4932 &lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/pre&gt;
4933
4934 &lt;p&gt;The last time I had failing disks, I added the serial number on
4935 labels I printed and stuck on the short sides of each disk, to be able
4936 to figure out which disk to take out of the box without having to
4937 remove each disk to look at the physical vendor label.  The vendor
4938 label is at the top of the disk, which is hidden when the disks are
4939 mounted inside my box.&lt;/p&gt;
4940
4941 &lt;p&gt;I really wish the check_linux_raid Nagios plugin for checking Linux
4942 Software RAID in the
4943 &lt;a href=&quot;http://packages.qa.debian.org/n/nagios-plugins.html&quot;&gt;nagios-plugins-standard&lt;/a&gt;
4944 debian package would look up this value automatically, as it would
4945 make the plugin a lot more useful when my disks fail.  At the moment
4946 it only report a failure when there are no more spares left (it really
4947 should warn as soon as a disk is failing), and it do not tell me which
4948 disk(s) is failing when the RAID is running short on disks.&lt;/p&gt;
4949 </description>
4950         </item>
4951
4952         <item>
4953                 <title>Automatic proxy configuration with Debian Edu / Skolelinux</title>
4954                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Automatic_proxy_configuration_with_Debian_Edu___Skolelinux.html</link>
4955                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Automatic_proxy_configuration_with_Debian_Edu___Skolelinux.html</guid>
4956                 <pubDate>Mon, 13 Feb 2012 23:40:00 +0100</pubDate>
4957                 <description>&lt;p&gt;New in the Squeeze version of
4958 &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.skolelinux.org/&quot;&gt;Debian Edu / Skolelinux&lt;/a&gt; is the
4959 ability for clients to automatically configure their proxy settings
4960 based on their environment.  We want all systems on the client to use
4961 the WPAD based proxy definition fetched from &lt;tt&gt;http://wpad/wpad.dat&lt;/tt&gt;, to
4962 allow sites to control the proxy setting from a central place and make
4963 sure clients do not have hard coded proxy settings.  The schools can
4964 change the global proxy setting by editing
4965 &lt;tt&gt;tjener:/etc/debian-edu/www/wpad.dat&lt;/tt&gt; and the change propagate
4966 to all Debian Edu clients in the network.&lt;/p&gt;
4967
4968 &lt;p&gt;The problem is that some systems do not understand the WPAD system.
4969 In other words, how do one get from a WPAD file like this (this is a
4970 simple one, they can run arbitrary code):&lt;/p&gt;
4971
4972 &lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;pre&gt;
4973 function FindProxyForURL(url, host)
4974 {
4975    if (!isResolvable(host) ||
4976        isPlainHostName(host) ||
4977        dnsDomainIs(host, &quot;.intern&quot;))
4978       return &quot;DIRECT&quot;;
4979    else
4980       return &quot;PROXY webcache:3128; DIRECT&quot;;
4981 }
4982 &lt;/pre&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
4983
4984 &lt;p&gt;to a proxy setting in the process environment looking like this:&lt;/p&gt;
4985
4986 &lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;pre&gt;
4987 http_proxy=http://webcache:3128/
4988 ftp_proxy=http://webcache:3128/
4989 &lt;/pre&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
4990
4991 &lt;p&gt;To do this conversion I developed a perl script that will execute
4992 the javascript fragment in the WPAD file and return the proxy that
4993 would be used for
4994 &lt;tt&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.debian.org/&quot;&gt;http://www.debian.org/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/tt&gt;,
4995 and insert this extracted proxy URL in &lt;tt&gt;/etc/environment&lt;/tt&gt; and
4996 &lt;tt&gt;/etc/apt/apt.conf&lt;/tt&gt;.  The perl script wpad-extract work just
4997 fine in Squeeze, but in Wheezy the library it need to run the
4998 javascript code is &lt;a href=&quot;http://bugs.debian.org/631045&quot;&gt;no longer
4999 able to build&lt;/a&gt; because the C library it depended on is now a C++
5000 library.  I hope someone find a solution to that problem before Wheezy
5001 is frozen.  An alternative would be for us to rewrite wpad-extract to
5002 use some other javascript library currently working in Wheezy, but no
5003 known alternative is known at the moment.&lt;/p&gt;
5004
5005 &lt;p&gt;This automatic proxy system allow the roaming workstation (aka
5006 laptop) setup in Debian Edu/Squeeze to use the proxy when the laptop
5007 is connected to the backbone network in a Debian Edu setup, and to
5008 automatically use any proxy present and announced using the WPAD
5009 feature when it is connected to other networks.  And if no proxy is
5010 announced, direct connections will be used instead.&lt;/p&gt;
5011
5012 &lt;p&gt;Silently using a proxy announced on the network might be a privacy
5013 or security problem.  But those controlling DHCP and DNS on a network
5014 could just as easily set up a transparent proxy, and force all HTTP
5015 and FTP connections to use a proxy anyway, so I consider that
5016 distinction to be academic.  If you are afraid of using the wrong
5017 proxy, you should avoid connecting to the network in question in the
5018 first place.  In Debian Edu, the proxy setup is updated using dhcp and
5019 ifupdown hooks, to make sure the configuration is updated every time
5020 the network setup changes.&lt;/p&gt;
5021
5022 &lt;p&gt;The WPAD system is documented in a
5023 &lt;a href=&quot;http://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-ietf-wrec-wpad-01&quot;&gt;IETF
5024 draft&lt;/a&gt; and a
5025 &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_Proxy_Autodiscovery_Protocol&quot;&gt;Wikipedia
5026 page&lt;/a&gt; for those that want to learn more.&lt;/p&gt;
5027 </description>
5028         </item>
5029
5030         <item>
5031                 <title>Saving power with Debian Edu / Skolelinux using shutdown-at-night</title>
5032                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Saving_power_with_Debian_Edu___Skolelinux_using_shutdown_at_night.html</link>
5033                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Saving_power_with_Debian_Edu___Skolelinux_using_shutdown_at_night.html</guid>
5034                 <pubDate>Sun, 5 Feb 2012 09:45:00 +0100</pubDate>
5035                 <description>&lt;p&gt;Since the Lenny version of
5036 &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.skolelinux.org/&quot;&gt;Debian Edu / Skolelinux&lt;/a&gt;, a
5037 feature to save power have been included.  It is as simple as it is
5038 practical: Shut down unused clients at night, and turn them on again
5039 in the morning.  This is done using the
5040 &lt;a href=&quot;http://packages.qa.debian.org/s/shutdown-at-night.html&quot;&gt;shutdown-at-night&lt;/a&gt; Debian package.&lt;/p&gt;
5041
5042 &lt;p&gt;To enable this feature on a client, the machine need to be added to
5043 the netgroup shutdown-at-night-hosts.  For Debian Edu, this is done in
5044 LDAP, and once this is in place, the machine in question will check
5045 every hour from 16:00 until 06:00 to see if the machine is unused, and
5046 shut it down if it is.  If the hardware in question is supported by
5047 the
5048 &lt;a href=&quot;http://packages.qa.debian.org/n/nvram-wakeup.html&quot;&gt;nvram-wakeup&lt;/a&gt;
5049 package, the BIOS is told to turn the machine back on around 07:00 +-
5050 10 minutes.  If this isn&#39;t working, one can configure wake-on-lan to
5051 try to turn on the client.  The wake-on-lan option is only documented
5052 and not enabled by default in Debian Edu.&lt;/p&gt;
5053
5054 &lt;p&gt;It is important to not turn all machines on at once, as this can
5055 blow a fuse if several computers are connected to the same fuse like
5056 the common setup for a classroom.  The nvram-wakeup method only work
5057 for machines with a functioning hardware/BIOS clock.  I&#39;ve seen old
5058 machines where the BIOS battery were dead and the hardware clock were
5059 starting from 0 (or was it 1990?) every boot.  If you have one of
5060 those, you have to turn on the computer manually.&lt;/p&gt;
5061
5062 &lt;p&gt;The shutdown-at-night package is completely self contained, and can
5063 also be used outside the Debian Edu environment.  For those without a
5064 central LDAP server with netgroups, one can instead touch the file
5065 &lt;tt&gt;/etc/shutdown-at-night/shutdown-at-night&lt;/tt&gt; to enable it.
5066 Perhaps you too can use it to save some power?&lt;/p&gt;
5067 </description>
5068         </item>
5069
5070         <item>
5071                 <title>Third beta version of Debian Edu / Skolelinux based on Squeeze</title>
5072                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Third_beta_version_of_Debian_Edu___Skolelinux_based_on_Squeeze.html</link>
5073                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Third_beta_version_of_Debian_Edu___Skolelinux_based_on_Squeeze.html</guid>
5074                 <pubDate>Sat, 4 Feb 2012 13:25:00 +0100</pubDate>
5075                 <description>&lt;p&gt;I am happy to announce that finally we managed today to wrap up and
5076 publish the third beta version of
5077 &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.skolelinux.org/&quot;&gt;Debian Edu / Skolelinux&lt;/a&gt; based
5078 on Squeeze.  If you want to test a LDAP backed Kerberos server with
5079 out of the box PXE configuration for running diskless machines and
5080 installing new machines, check it out.  If you need a software
5081 solution for your school, check it out too.  The full announcement is
5082 &lt;a href=&quot;http://lists.debian.org/debian-edu-announce/2012/02/msg00000.html&quot;&gt;available&lt;/a&gt;
5083 on the project announcement list.&lt;/p&gt;
5084
5085 &lt;p&gt;I am very happy to report these changes and improvements since
5086 beta2 (there are more, see announcement for full list):&lt;/p&gt;
5087
5088 &lt;ul&gt;
5089
5090 &lt;li&gt;It is now possible to change the pre-configured IP subnet from
5091   10.0.0.0/8 to something else by using the subnet-change tool after
5092   the installation.&lt;/li&gt;
5093
5094 &lt;li&gt;Too full partitions are now automatically extended on the Main
5095   Server, based on the rules specified in /etc/fsautoresizetab.&lt;/li&gt;
5096
5097 &lt;li&gt;The CUPS queues are now automatically flushed every night, and all
5098   disabled queues are restarted every hour.  This should cut down on
5099   the amount of manual administration needed for printers.&lt;/li&gt;
5100
5101 &lt;li&gt;The set of initial users have been changed.  Now a personal user
5102   for the local system administrator is created during installation
5103   instead of the previously created localadmin and super-admin users,
5104   and this user is granted administrative privileges using group
5105   membership.  This reduces the number of passwords one need to keep
5106   up to date on the system.&lt;/li&gt;
5107
5108 &lt;/ul&gt;
5109
5110 &lt;p&gt;The new main server seem to work so well that I am testing it as my
5111 private DNS/LDAP/Kerberos/PXE/LTSP server at home.  I will use it look
5112 for issues we could fix to polish Debian Edu even further before the
5113 final Squeeze release is published.&lt;/p&gt;
5114
5115 &lt;p&gt;Next weekend the project organise a
5116 &lt;a href=&quot;http://lists.debian.org/debian-edu-announce/2012/01/msg00001.html&quot;&gt;developer
5117 gathering&lt;/a&gt; in Oslo.  We will continue the work on the Squeeze
5118 version, and start initial planning for the Wheezy version.  Perhaps I
5119 will see you there?&lt;/p&gt;
5120 </description>
5121         </item>
5122
5123         <item>
5124                 <title>Handling non-free firmware in Debian Edu/Squeeze</title>
5125                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Handling_non_free_firmware_in_Debian_Edu_Squeeze.html</link>
5126                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Handling_non_free_firmware_in_Debian_Edu_Squeeze.html</guid>
5127                 <pubDate>Fri, 27 Jan 2012 23:30:00 +0100</pubDate>
5128                 <description>&lt;p&gt;With some computer hardware, one need non-free firmware blobs.
5129 This is the sad fact of todays computers.  In the next version of
5130 &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.skolelinux.org/&quot;&gt;Debian Edu / Skolelinux&lt;/a&gt; based
5131 on Squeeze, we provide several scripts and modifications to make
5132 firmware blobs easier to handle.  The common use case I run into is a
5133 laptop with a wireless network card requiring non-free firmware to
5134 work, but there are other use cases as well.&lt;/p&gt;
5135
5136 &lt;p&gt;First and foremost, Debian Edu provide ISO images for DVD and CD
5137 with all firmware packages in the Debian sections main and non-free
5138 included, to ensure debian-installer find and can install all of them
5139 during installation.  This take care firmware for network devices used
5140 by the installer when installing from from local media.  But for
5141 example multimedia devices are not activated in the installer and are
5142 not taken care of by this.&lt;/p&gt;
5143
5144 &lt;p&gt;For non-network devices, we provide the script
5145 &lt;tt&gt;/usr/share/debian-edu-config/tools/auto-addfirmware&lt;/tt&gt; which
5146 search through the &lt;tt&gt;dmesg&lt;/tt&gt; output for drivers requesting extra
5147 firmware.  The firmware file name is looked up in the Contents-ARCH.gz
5148 file available in the package repository, and the packages providing
5149 the requested firmware file(s) is installed.  I have proposed to do
5150 something similar in debian-installer (BTS report
5151 &lt;a href=&quot;http://bugs.debian.org/655507&quot;&gt;#655507&lt;/a&gt;), to allow PXE
5152 installs of Debian to handle firmware installation better.  Run the
5153 script as root from the command line to fetch and install the needed
5154 firmware packages.&lt;/p&gt;
5155
5156 &lt;p&gt;Debian Edu provide PXE installation of Debian out of the box, and
5157 because some machines need firmware to get their network cards
5158 working, the installation initrd some times need extra firmware
5159 included to be able to install at all.  To fill the PXE installation
5160 initrd with extra firmware, the
5161 &lt;tt&gt;/usr/share/debian-edu-config/tools/pxe-addfirmware&lt;/tt&gt; script is
5162 provided.  Again, just run it as root on the command line to fill the
5163 PXE initrd with firmware packages.&lt;/p&gt;
5164
5165 &lt;p&gt;Last, some LTSP clients might also need firmware to get their
5166 network cards working.  For this,
5167 &lt;tt&gt;/usr/share/debian-edu-config/tools/ltsp-addfirmware&lt;/tt&gt; is
5168 provided to update the LTSP initrd with firmware blobs.  It is used
5169 the same way as the other firmware related tools.&lt;/p&gt;
5170
5171 &lt;p&gt;At the moment, we do not run any of these during installation.  We
5172 do not know if this is acceptable for the local administrator to use
5173 non-free software, and it is their choice.&lt;/p&gt;
5174
5175 &lt;p&gt;We plan to release beta3 this weekend.  You might want to give it a
5176 try.&lt;/p&gt;
5177 </description>
5178         </item>
5179
5180         <item>
5181                 <title>Setting up a new school with Debian Edu/Squeeze</title>
5182                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Setting_up_a_new_school_with_Debian_Edu_Squeeze.html</link>
5183                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Setting_up_a_new_school_with_Debian_Edu_Squeeze.html</guid>
5184                 <pubDate>Wed, 25 Jan 2012 21:00:00 +0100</pubDate>
5185                 <description>&lt;p&gt;The next version of &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.skolelinux.org/&quot;&gt;Debian Edu
5186 / Skolelinux&lt;/a&gt; will include a new tool
5187 &lt;tt&gt;sitesummary2ldapdhcp&lt;/tt&gt;, which can be used to quickly set up all
5188 the computers in a school without much manual labour.  Here is a short
5189 summary on how to use it to set up a new school.&lt;/p&gt;
5190
5191 &lt;p&gt;First, install a combined Main Server and Thin Client Server as the
5192 central server in the network.  Next, PXE boot all the client machines
5193 as thin clients and wait 5 minutes after the last client booted to
5194 allow the clients to report their existence to the central server.  When
5195 this is done, log on to the central server and run
5196 &lt;tt&gt;sitesummary2ldapdhcp -a&lt;/tt&gt; in the &lt;tt&gt;konsole&lt;/tt&gt; to use the
5197 collected information to generate system objects in LDAP.  The output
5198 will look similar to this:&lt;/p&gt;
5199
5200 &lt;p&gt;&lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;pre&gt;
5201 % sitesummary2ldapdhcp -a
5202 info: Updating machine tjener.intern [10.0.2.2] id ether-00:01:02:03:04:05.
5203 info: Create GOsa machine for auto-mac-00-01-02-03-04-06 [10.0.16.20] id ether-00:01:02:03:04:06.
5204
5205 Enter password if you want to activate these changes, and ^c to abort.
5206
5207 Connecting to LDAP as cn=admin,ou=ldap-access,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
5208 enter password: *******
5209 %
5210 &lt;/pre&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
5211
5212 &lt;p&gt;After providing the LDAP administrative password (the same as the
5213 root password set during installation), the LDAP database will be
5214 populated with system objects for each PXE booted machine with
5215 automatically generated names.  The final step to set up the school is
5216 then to log into &lt;a href=&quot;https://oss.gonicus.de/labs/gosa/&quot;&gt;GOsa&lt;/a&gt;,
5217 the web based user, group and system administration system to change
5218 system names, add systems to the correct host groups and finally
5219 enable DHCP and DNS for the systems.  All clients that should be used
5220 as diskless workstations should be added to the workstation-hosts
5221 group.  After this is done, all computers can be booted again via PXE
5222 and get their assigned names and group based configuration
5223 automatically.&lt;/p&gt;
5224
5225 &lt;p&gt;We plan to release beta3 with the updated version of this feature
5226 enabled this weekend.  You might want to give it a try.&lt;/p&gt;
5227
5228 &lt;p&gt;Update 2012-01-28: When calling sitesummary2ldapdhcp to add new
5229 hosts, one need to add the option -a.  I forgot to mention this in my
5230 original text, and have added it to the text now.&lt;/p&gt;
5231 </description>
5232         </item>
5233
5234         <item>
5235                 <title>Changing the default Iceweasel start page in Debian Edu/Squeeze</title>
5236                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Changing_the_default_Iceweasel_start_page_in_Debian_Edu_Squeeze.html</link>
5237                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Changing_the_default_Iceweasel_start_page_in_Debian_Edu_Squeeze.html</guid>
5238                 <pubDate>Tue, 10 Jan 2012 15:30:00 +0100</pubDate>
5239                 <description>&lt;p&gt;In the Squeeze version of
5240 &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.skolelinux.org/&quot;&gt;Debian Edu / Skolelinux&lt;/a&gt; soon
5241 to be released, users of the system will get their default browser
5242 start page set from LDAP, allowing the system administrator to point
5243 all users to the school web page by updating one setting in LDAP.  In
5244 addition to setting the default start page when a machine boots, users
5245 are shown the same page as a welcome page when they log in for the
5246 first time.&lt;/p&gt;
5247
5248 &lt;p&gt;The LDAP object dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no have an attribute
5249 labeledURI with &quot;http://www/ LDAP for Debian Edu/Skolelinux&quot; as the
5250 default content.  By changing this value to another URL, all users get
5251 to see the page behind this new URL.&lt;/p&gt;
5252
5253 &lt;p&gt;An easy way to update it is by using the ldapvi tool.  It can be
5254 called as &quot;&lt;tt&gt;ldapvi -ZD &#39;(cn=admin)&#39;&lt;/tt&gt;&#39; to update LDAP with the
5255 new setting.&lt;/p&gt;
5256
5257 &lt;p&gt;We have written the code to adjust the default start page and show
5258 the welcome page, and I wonder if there is an easier way to do this
5259 from within Iceweasel instead.&lt;/p&gt;
5260 </description>
5261         </item>
5262
5263         <item>
5264                 <title>Second beta version of Debian Edu / Skolelinux based on Squeeze</title>
5265                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Second_beta_version_of_Debian_Edu___Skolelinux_based_on_Squeeze.html</link>
5266                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Second_beta_version_of_Debian_Edu___Skolelinux_based_on_Squeeze.html</guid>
5267                 <pubDate>Sat, 7 Jan 2012 22:50:00 +0100</pubDate>
5268                 <description>&lt;p&gt;I am happy to announce that today we managed to wrap up and publish
5269 the second beta version of
5270 &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.skolelinux.org/&quot;&gt;Debian Edu / Skolelinux&lt;/a&gt;.  If
5271 you want to test a LDAP backed Kerberos server with out of the box PXE
5272 configuration for running diskless machines and installing new
5273 machines, check it out.  If you need a software solution for your
5274 school, check it out too.  The full announcement is
5275 &lt;a href=&quot;http://lists.debian.org/debian-edu-announce/2012/01/msg00000.html&quot;&gt;available&lt;/a&gt;
5276 on the project announcement list.&lt;/p&gt;
5277 </description>
5278         </item>
5279
5280         <item>
5281                 <title>Fixing an hanging debian installer for Debian Edu</title>
5282                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Fixing_an_hanging_debian_installer_for_Debian_Edu.html</link>
5283                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Fixing_an_hanging_debian_installer_for_Debian_Edu.html</guid>
5284                 <pubDate>Tue, 3 Jan 2012 11:25:00 +0100</pubDate>
5285                 <description>&lt;p&gt;During christmas, I have been working getting the next version of
5286 &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.skolelinux.org/&quot;&gt;Debian Edu / Skolelinux&lt;/a&gt; ready
5287 for release.  The initial problem I looked at was particularly
5288 interesting.&lt;/p&gt;
5289
5290 &lt;P&gt;The installer would hang at the end when it was doing it
5291 post-installation configuration, and whatevery I did to try to find
5292 the cause and fix it always worked while I tested it, but never when I
5293 integrated it into the installer and ran the installation from
5294 scratch.  I would try to restart processes, close file descriptors,
5295 remove or create files, and the installer would always unblock and
5296 wrap up its tasks.&lt;/p&gt;
5297
5298 &lt;p&gt;Eventually the cause was found.  The kernel was simply running out
5299 of entropy, causing the Kerberos setup to hang waiting for more.
5300 Pressing keys was adding entropy to the kernel, and thus all my tries
5301 to fix the problem worked not because what I was typing to fix it, but
5302 because I was typing.&lt;/P&gt;
5303
5304 &lt;p&gt;The fix I implemented was to add a background process looking at
5305 the level of entropy in the kernel (by checking
5306 /proc/sys/kernel/random/entropy_avail), and if it was too small, the
5307 installer will flush the kernel file buffers and do &#39;find /&#39; to
5308 generate some disk IO.  Disk IO generate entropy in the kernel, and is
5309 one of the few things that can be initated from within the system to
5310 generate entropy.&lt;/p&gt;
5311
5312 &lt;p&gt;The fix is in
5313 &lt;a href=&quot;http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Documentation/Squeeze/Installation&quot;&gt;beta1
5314 of the Debian Edu/Squeeze&lt;/a&gt; version, and we
5315 &lt;a href=&quot;http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu&quot;&gt;welcome more testers and
5316 developers&lt;/a&gt;.  We plan to release beta2 this weekend.&lt;/p&gt;
5317 </description>
5318         </item>
5319
5320         <item>
5321                 <title>Automatically upgrading server firmware on Dell PowerEdge</title>
5322                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Automatically_upgrading_server_firmware_on_Dell_PowerEdge.html</link>
5323                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Automatically_upgrading_server_firmware_on_Dell_PowerEdge.html</guid>
5324                 <pubDate>Mon, 21 Nov 2011 12:00:00 +0100</pubDate>
5325                 <description>&lt;p&gt;At work we have heaps of servers.  I believe the total count is
5326 around 1000 at the moment.  To be able to get help from the vendors
5327 when something go wrong, we want to keep the firmware on the servers
5328 up to date.  If the firmware isn&#39;t the latest and greatest, the
5329 vendors typically refuse to start debugging any problems until the
5330 firmware is upgraded.  So before every reboot, we want to upgrade the
5331 firmware, and we would really like everyone handling servers at the
5332 university to do this themselves when they plan to reboot a machine.
5333 For that to happen we at the unix server admin group need to provide
5334 the tools to do so.&lt;/p&gt;
5335
5336 &lt;p&gt;To make firmware upgrading easier, I am working on a script to
5337 fetch and install the latest firmware for the servers we got.  Most of
5338 our hardware are from Dell and HP, so I have focused on these servers
5339 so far.  This blog post is about the Dell part.&lt;/P&gt;
5340
5341 &lt;p&gt;On the Dell FTP site I was lucky enough to find
5342 &lt;a href=&quot;ftp://ftp.us.dell.com/catalog/Catalog.xml.gz&quot;&gt;an XML file&lt;/a&gt;
5343 with firmware information for all 11th generation servers, listing
5344 which firmware should be used on a given model and where on the FTP
5345 site I can find it.  Using a simple perl XML parser I can then
5346 download the shell scripts Dell provides to do firmware upgrades from
5347 within Linux and reboot when all the firmware is primed and ready to
5348 be activated on the first reboot.&lt;/p&gt;
5349
5350 &lt;p&gt;This is the Dell related fragment of the perl code I am working on.
5351 Are there anyone working on similar tools for firmware upgrading all
5352 servers at a site?  Please get in touch and lets share resources.&lt;/p&gt;
5353
5354 &lt;p&gt;&lt;pre&gt;
5355 #!/usr/bin/perl
5356 use strict;
5357 use warnings;
5358 use File::Temp qw(tempdir);
5359 BEGIN {
5360     # Install needed RHEL packages if missing
5361     my %rhelmodules = (
5362         &#39;XML::Simple&#39; =&gt; &#39;perl-XML-Simple&#39;,
5363         );
5364     for my $module (keys %rhelmodules) {
5365         eval &quot;use $module;&quot;;
5366         if ($@) {
5367             my $pkg = $rhelmodules{$module};
5368             system(&quot;yum install -y $pkg&quot;);
5369             eval &quot;use $module;&quot;;
5370         }
5371     }
5372 }
5373 my $errorsto = &#39;pere@hungry.com&#39;;
5374
5375 upgrade_dell();
5376
5377 exit 0;
5378
5379 sub run_firmware_script {
5380     my ($opts, $script) = @_;
5381     unless ($script) {
5382         print STDERR &quot;fail: missing script name\n&quot;;
5383         exit 1
5384     }
5385     print STDERR &quot;Running $script\n\n&quot;;
5386
5387     if (0 == system(&quot;sh $script $opts&quot;)) { # FIXME correct exit code handling
5388         print STDERR &quot;success: firmware script ran succcessfully\n&quot;;
5389     } else {
5390         print STDERR &quot;fail: firmware script returned error\n&quot;;
5391     }
5392 }
5393
5394 sub run_firmware_scripts {
5395     my ($opts, @dirs) = @_;
5396     # Run firmware packages
5397     for my $dir (@dirs) {
5398         print STDERR &quot;info: Running scripts in $dir\n&quot;;
5399         opendir(my $dh, $dir) or die &quot;Unable to open directory $dir: $!&quot;;
5400         while (my $s = readdir $dh) {
5401             next if $s =~ m/^\.\.?/;
5402             run_firmware_script($opts, &quot;$dir/$s&quot;);
5403         }
5404         closedir $dh;
5405     }
5406 }
5407
5408 sub download {
5409     my $url = shift;
5410     print STDERR &quot;info: Downloading $url\n&quot;;
5411     system(&quot;wget --quiet \&quot;$url\&quot;&quot;);
5412 }
5413
5414 sub upgrade_dell {
5415     my @dirs;
5416     my $product = `dmidecode -s system-product-name`;
5417     chomp $product;
5418
5419     if ($product =~ m/PowerEdge/) {
5420
5421         # on RHEL, these pacakges are needed by the firwmare upgrade scripts
5422         system(&#39;yum install -y compat-libstdc++-33.i686 libstdc++.i686 libxml2.i686 procmail&#39;);
5423
5424         my $tmpdir = tempdir(
5425             CLEANUP =&gt; 1
5426             );
5427         chdir($tmpdir);
5428         fetch_dell_fw(&#39;catalog/Catalog.xml.gz&#39;);
5429         system(&#39;gunzip Catalog.xml.gz&#39;);
5430         my @paths = fetch_dell_fw_list(&#39;Catalog.xml&#39;);
5431         # -q is quiet, disabling interactivity and reducing console output
5432         my $fwopts = &quot;-q&quot;;
5433         if (@paths) {
5434             for my $url (@paths) {
5435                 fetch_dell_fw($url);
5436             }
5437             run_firmware_scripts($fwopts, $tmpdir);
5438         } else {
5439             print STDERR &quot;error: Unsupported Dell model &#39;$product&#39;.\n&quot;;
5440             print STDERR &quot;error: Please report to $errorsto.\n&quot;;
5441         }
5442         chdir(&#39;/&#39;);
5443     } else {
5444         print STDERR &quot;error: Unsupported Dell model &#39;$product&#39;.\n&quot;;
5445         print STDERR &quot;error: Please report to $errorsto.\n&quot;;
5446     }
5447 }
5448
5449 sub fetch_dell_fw {
5450     my $path = shift;
5451     my $url = &quot;ftp://ftp.us.dell.com/$path&quot;;
5452     download($url);
5453 }
5454
5455 # Using ftp://ftp.us.dell.com/catalog/Catalog.xml.gz, figure out which
5456 # firmware packages to download from Dell.  Only work for Linux
5457 # machines and 11th generation Dell servers.
5458 sub fetch_dell_fw_list {
5459     my $filename = shift;
5460
5461     my $product = `dmidecode -s system-product-name`;
5462     chomp $product;
5463     my ($mybrand, $mymodel) = split(/\s+/, $product);
5464
5465     print STDERR &quot;Finding firmware bundles for $mybrand $mymodel\n&quot;;
5466
5467     my $xml = XMLin($filename);
5468     my @paths;
5469     for my $bundle (@{$xml-&gt;{SoftwareBundle}}) {
5470         my $brand = $bundle-&gt;{TargetSystems}-&gt;{Brand}-&gt;{Display}-&gt;{content};
5471         my $model = $bundle-&gt;{TargetSystems}-&gt;{Brand}-&gt;{Model}-&gt;{Display}-&gt;{content};
5472         my $oscode;
5473         if (&quot;ARRAY&quot; eq ref $bundle-&gt;{TargetOSes}-&gt;{OperatingSystem}) {
5474             $oscode = $bundle-&gt;{TargetOSes}-&gt;{OperatingSystem}[0]-&gt;{osCode};
5475         } else {
5476             $oscode = $bundle-&gt;{TargetOSes}-&gt;{OperatingSystem}-&gt;{osCode};
5477         }
5478         if ($mybrand eq $brand &amp;&amp; $mymodel eq $model &amp;&amp; &quot;LIN&quot; eq $oscode)
5479         {
5480             @paths = map { $_-&gt;{path} } @{$bundle-&gt;{Contents}-&gt;{Package}};
5481         }
5482     }
5483     for my $component (@{$xml-&gt;{SoftwareComponent}}) {
5484         my $componenttype = $component-&gt;{ComponentType}-&gt;{value};
5485
5486         # Drop application packages, only firmware and BIOS
5487         next if &#39;APAC&#39; eq $componenttype;
5488
5489         my $cpath = $component-&gt;{path};
5490         for my $path (@paths) {
5491             if ($cpath =~ m%/$path$%) {
5492                 push(@paths, $cpath);
5493             }
5494         }
5495     }
5496     return @paths;
5497 }
5498 &lt;/pre&gt;
5499
5500 &lt;p&gt;The code is only tested on RedHat Enterprise Linux, but I suspect
5501 it could work on other platforms with some tweaking.  Anyone know a
5502 index like Catalog.xml is available from HP for HP servers?  At the
5503 moment I maintain a similar list manually and it is quickly getting
5504 outdated.&lt;/p&gt;
5505 </description>
5506         </item>
5507
5508         <item>
5509                 <title>Free e-book kiosk for the public libraries?</title>
5510                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Free_e_book_kiosk_for_the_public_libraries_.html</link>
5511                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Free_e_book_kiosk_for_the_public_libraries_.html</guid>
5512                 <pubDate>Fri, 7 Oct 2011 19:20:00 +0200</pubDate>
5513                 <description>&lt;p&gt;Here in Norway the public libraries are debating with the
5514 publishing houses how to handle electronic books.  Surprisingly, the
5515 libraries seem to be willing to accept digital restriction mechanisms
5516 (DRM) on books and renting e-books with artificial scarcity from the
5517 publishing houses.  Time limited renting (2-3 years) is one proposed
5518 model, and only allowing X borrowers for each book is another.
5519 Personally I find it amazing that libraries are even considering such
5520 models.&lt;/p&gt;
5521
5522 &lt;p&gt;Anyway, while reading &lt;a href=&quot;http://boklaben.no/?p=220&quot;&gt;part of
5523 this debate&lt;/a&gt;, it occurred to me that someone should present a more
5524 sensible approach to the libraries, to allow its borrowers to get used
5525 to a better model.  The idea is simple:&lt;/p&gt;
5526
5527 &lt;p&gt;Create a computer system for the libraries, either in the form of a
5528 Live DVD or a installable distribution, that provide a simple kiosk
5529 solution to hand out free e-books.  As a start, the books distributed
5530 by &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.gutenberg.org/&quot;&gt;Project Gutenberg&lt;/a&gt; (about
5531 36,000 books), &lt;a href=&quot;http://runeberg.org/&quot;&gt;Project Runenberg&lt;/a&gt;
5532 (1149 books) and &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.archive.org/details/texts&quot;&gt;The
5533 Internet Archive&lt;/a&gt; (3,033,748 books) could be included, but any book
5534 where the copyright has expired or with a free licence could be
5535 distributed.&lt;/p&gt;
5536
5537 &lt;p&gt;The computer system would make it easy to:&lt;/p&gt;
5538
5539 &lt;ul&gt;
5540
5541 &lt;li&gt;Copy e-books into a USB stick, reading tablets, cell phones and
5542   other relevant equipment.&lt;/li&gt;
5543
5544 &lt;li&gt;Show the books for reading on the the screen in the library.&lt;/li&gt;
5545
5546 &lt;/ul&gt;
5547
5548 &lt;p&gt;In addition to such kiosk solution, there should probably be a web
5549 site as well to allow people easy access to these books without
5550 visiting the library.  The site would be the distribution point for
5551 the kiosk systems, which would connect regularly to fetch any new
5552 books available.&lt;/p&gt;
5553
5554 &lt;p&gt;Are there anyone working on a system like this?  I guess it would
5555 fit any library in the world, and not just the Norwegian public
5556 libraries. :)&lt;/p&gt;
5557 </description>
5558         </item>
5559
5560         <item>
5561                 <title>Ripping problematic DVDs using dvdbackup and genisoimage</title>
5562                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Ripping_problematic_DVDs_using_dvdbackup_and_genisoimage.html</link>
5563                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Ripping_problematic_DVDs_using_dvdbackup_and_genisoimage.html</guid>
5564                 <pubDate>Sat, 17 Sep 2011 20:20:00 +0200</pubDate>
5565                 <description>&lt;p&gt;For convenience, I want to store copies of all my DVDs on my file
5566 server.  It allow me to save shelf space flat while still having my
5567 movie collection easily available.  It also make it possible to let
5568 the kids see their favourite DVDs without wearing the physical copies
5569 down.  I prefer to store the DVDs as ISOs to keep the DVD menu and
5570 subtitle options intact.  It also ensure that the entire film is one
5571 file on the disk.  As this is for personal use, the ripping is
5572 perfectly legal here in Norway.&lt;/p&gt;
5573
5574 &lt;p&gt;Normally I rip the DVDs using dd like this:&lt;/p&gt;
5575
5576 &lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;pre&gt;
5577 #!/bin/sh
5578 # apt-get install lsdvd
5579 title=$(lsdvd 2&gt;/dev/null|awk &#39;/Disc Title: / {print $3}&#39;)
5580 dd if=/dev/dvd of=/storage/dvds/$title.iso bs=1M
5581 &lt;/pre&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
5582
5583 &lt;p&gt;But some DVDs give a input/output error when I read it, and I have
5584 been looking for a better alternative.  I have no idea why this I/O
5585 error occur, but suspect my DVD drive, the Linux kernel driver or
5586 something fishy with the DVDs in question.  Or perhaps all three.&lt;/p&gt;
5587
5588 &lt;p&gt;Anyway, I believe I found a solution today using dvdbackup and
5589 genisoimage.  This script gave me a working ISO for a problematic
5590 movie by first extracting the DVD file system and then re-packing it
5591 back as an ISO.
5592
5593 &lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;pre&gt;
5594 #!/bin/sh
5595 # apt-get install lsdvd dvdbackup genisoimage
5596 set -e
5597 tmpdir=/storage/dvds/
5598 title=$(lsdvd 2&gt;/dev/null|awk &#39;/Disc Title: / {print $3}&#39;)
5599 dvdbackup -i /dev/dvd -M -o $tmpdir -n$title
5600 genisoimage -dvd-video -o $tmpdir/$title.iso $tmpdir/$title
5601 rm -rf $tmpdir/$title
5602 &lt;/pre&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
5603
5604 &lt;p&gt;Anyone know of a better way available in Debian/Squeeze?&lt;/p&gt;
5605
5606 &lt;p&gt;Update 2011-09-18: I got a tip from Konstantin Khomoutov about the
5607 readom program from the wodim package.  It is specially written to
5608 read optical media, and is called like this: &lt;tt&gt;readom dev=/dev/dvd
5609 f=image.iso&lt;/tt&gt;.  It got 6 GB along with the problematic Cars DVD
5610 before it failed, and failed right away with a Timmy Time DVD.&lt;/p&gt;
5611
5612 &lt;p&gt;Next, I got a tip from Bastian Blank about
5613 &lt;a href=&quot;http://bblank.thinkmo.de/blog/new-software-python-dvdvideo&quot;&gt;his
5614 program python-dvdvideo&lt;/a&gt;, which seem to be just what I am looking
5615 for.  Tested it with my problematic Timmy Time DVD, and it succeeded
5616 creating a ISO image.  The git source built and installed just fine in
5617 Squeeze, so I guess this will be my tool of choice in the future.&lt;/p&gt;
5618 </description>
5619         </item>
5620
5621         <item>
5622                 <title>How is booting into runlevel 1 different from single user boots?</title>
5623                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_is_booting_into_runlevel_1_different_from_single_user_boots_.html</link>
5624                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_is_booting_into_runlevel_1_different_from_single_user_boots_.html</guid>
5625                 <pubDate>Thu, 4 Aug 2011 12:40:00 +0200</pubDate>
5626                 <description>&lt;p&gt;Wouter Verhelst have some
5627 &lt;a href=&quot;http://grep.be/blog/en/retorts/pere_kubuntu_boot&quot;&gt;interesting
5628 comments and opinions&lt;/a&gt; on my blog post on
5629 &lt;a href=&quot;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/What_should_start_from__etc_rcS_d__in_Debian____almost_nothing.html&quot;&gt;the
5630 need to clean up /etc/rcS.d/ in Debian&lt;/a&gt; and my blog post about
5631 &lt;a href=&quot;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/What_is_missing_in_the_Debian_desktop__or_why_my_parents_use_Kubuntu.html&quot;&gt;the
5632 default KDE desktop in Debian&lt;/a&gt;.  I only have time to address one
5633 small piece of his comment now, and though it best to address the
5634 misunderstanding he bring forward:&lt;/p&gt;
5635
5636 &lt;p&gt;&lt;blockquote&gt;
5637 Currently, a system admin has four options: [...] boot to a
5638 single-user system (by adding &#39;single&#39; to the kernel command line;
5639 this runs rcS and rc1 scripts)
5640 &lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
5641
5642 &lt;p&gt;This make me believe Wouter believe booting into single user mode
5643 and booting into runlevel 1 is the same.  I am not surprised he
5644 believe this, because it would make sense and is a quite sensible
5645 thing to believe.  But because the boot in Debian is slightly broken,
5646 runlevel 1 do not work properly and it isn&#39;t the same as single user
5647 mode.  I&#39;ll try to explain what is actually happing, but it is a bit
5648 hard to explain.&lt;/p&gt;
5649
5650 &lt;p&gt;Single user mode is defined like this in /etc/inittab:
5651 &quot;&lt;tt&gt;~~:S:wait:/sbin/sulogin&lt;/tt&gt;&quot;.  This means the only thing that is
5652 executed in single user mode is sulogin.  Single user mode is a boot
5653 state &quot;between&quot; the runlevels, and when booting into single user mode,
5654 only the scripts in /etc/rcS.d/ are executed before the init process
5655 enters the single user state.  When switching to runlevel 1, the state
5656 is in fact not ending in runlevel 1, but it passes through runlevel 1
5657 and end up in the single user mode (see /etc/rc1.d/S03single, which
5658 runs &quot;init -t1 S&quot; to switch to single user mode at the end of runlevel
5659 1.  It is confusing that the &#39;S&#39; (single user) init mode is not the
5660 mode enabled by /etc/rcS.d/ (which is more like the initial boot
5661 mode).&lt;/p&gt;
5662
5663 &lt;p&gt;This summary might make it clearer.  When booting for the first
5664 time into single user mode, the following commands are executed:
5665 &quot;&lt;tt&gt;/etc/init.d/rc S; /sbin/sulogin&lt;/tt&gt;&quot;.  When booting into
5666 runlevel 1, the following commands are executed: &quot;&lt;tt&gt;/etc/init.d/rc
5667 S; /etc/init.d/rc 1; /sbin/sulogin&lt;/tt&gt;&quot;.  A problem show up when
5668 trying to continue after visiting single user mode.  Not all services
5669 are started again as they should, causing the machine to end up in an
5670 unpredicatble state.  This is why Debian admins recommend rebooting
5671 after visiting single user mode.&lt;/p&gt;
5672
5673 &lt;p&gt;A similar problem with runlevel 1 is caused by the amount of
5674 scripts executed from /etc/rcS.d/.  When switching from say runlevel 2
5675 to runlevel 1, the services started from /etc/rcS.d/ are not properly
5676 stopped when passing through the scripts in /etc/rc1.d/, and not
5677 started again when switching away from runlevel 1 to the runlevels
5678 2-5.  I believe the problem is best fixed by moving all the scripts
5679 out of /etc/rcS.d/ that are not &lt;strong&gt;required&lt;/strong&gt; to get a
5680 functioning single user mode during boot.&lt;/p&gt;
5681
5682 &lt;p&gt;I have spent several years investigating the Debian boot system,
5683 and discovered this problem a few years ago.  I suspect it originates
5684 from when sysvinit was introduced into Debian, a long time ago.&lt;/p&gt;
5685 </description>
5686         </item>
5687
5688         <item>
5689                 <title>What should start from /etc/rcS.d/ in Debian? - almost nothing</title>
5690                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/What_should_start_from__etc_rcS_d__in_Debian____almost_nothing.html</link>
5691                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/What_should_start_from__etc_rcS_d__in_Debian____almost_nothing.html</guid>
5692                 <pubDate>Sat, 30 Jul 2011 14:00:00 +0200</pubDate>
5693                 <description>&lt;p&gt;In the Debian boot system, several packages include scripts that
5694 are started from /etc/rcS.d/.  In fact, there is a bite more of them
5695 than make sense, and this causes a few problems.  What kind of
5696 problems, you might ask.  There are at least two problems.  The first
5697 is that it is not possible to recover a machine after switching to
5698 runlevel 1.  One need to actually reboot to get the machine back to
5699 the expected state.  The other is that single user boot will sometimes
5700 run into problems because some of the subsystems are activated before
5701 the root login is presented, causing problems when trying to recover a
5702 machine from a problem in that subsystem.  A minor additional point is
5703 that moving more scripts out of rcS.d/ and into the other rc#.d/
5704 directories will increase the amount of scripts that can run in
5705 parallel during boot, and thus decrease the boot time.&lt;/p&gt;
5706
5707 &lt;p&gt;So, which scripts should start from rcS.d/.  In short, only the
5708 scripts that _have_ to execute before the root login prompt is
5709 presented during a single user boot should go there.  Everything else
5710 should go into the numeric runlevels.  This means things like
5711 lm-sensors, fuse and x11-common should not run from rcS.d, but from
5712 the numeric runlevels.  Today in Debian, there are around 115 init.d
5713 scripts that are started from rcS.d/, and most of them should be moved
5714 out.  Do your package have one of them?  Please help us make single
5715 user and runlevel 1 better by moving it.&lt;/p&gt;
5716
5717 &lt;p&gt;Scripts setting up the screen, keyboard, system partitions
5718 etc. should still be started from rcS.d/, but there is for example no
5719 need to have the network enabled before the single user login prompt
5720 is presented.&lt;/p&gt;
5721
5722 &lt;p&gt;As always, things are not so easy to fix as they sound.  To keep
5723 Debian systems working while scripts migrate and during upgrades, the
5724 scripts need to be moved from rcS.d/ to rc2.d/ in reverse dependency
5725 order, ie the scripts that nothing in rcS.d/ depend on can be moved,
5726 and the next ones can only be moved when their dependencies have been
5727 moved first.  This migration must be done sequentially while we ensure
5728 that the package system upgrade packages in the right order to keep
5729 the system state correct.  This will require some coordination when it
5730 comes to network related packages, but most of the packages with
5731 scripts that should migrate do not have anything in rcS.d/ depending
5732 on them.  Some packages have already been updated, like the sudo
5733 package, while others are still left to do.  I wish I had time to work
5734 on this myself, but real live constrains make it unlikely that I will
5735 find time to push this forward.&lt;/p&gt;
5736 </description>
5737         </item>
5738
5739         <item>
5740                 <title>What is missing in the Debian desktop, or why my parents use Kubuntu</title>
5741                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/What_is_missing_in_the_Debian_desktop__or_why_my_parents_use_Kubuntu.html</link>
5742                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/What_is_missing_in_the_Debian_desktop__or_why_my_parents_use_Kubuntu.html</guid>
5743                 <pubDate>Fri, 29 Jul 2011 08:10:00 +0200</pubDate>
5744                 <description>&lt;p&gt;While at Debconf11, I have several times during discussions
5745 mentioned the issues I believe should be improved in Debian for its
5746 desktop to be useful for more people.  The use case for this is my
5747 parents, which are currently running Kubuntu which solve the
5748 issues.&lt;/p&gt;
5749
5750 &lt;p&gt;I suspect these four missing features are not very hard to
5751 implement.  After all, they are present in Ubuntu, so if we wanted to
5752 do this in Debian we would have a source.&lt;/p&gt;
5753
5754 &lt;ol&gt;
5755
5756 &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Simple GUI based upgrade of packages.&lt;/strong&gt; When there
5757 are new packages available for upgrades, a icon in the KDE status bar
5758 indicate this, and clicking on it will activate the simple upgrade
5759 tool to handle it.  I have no problem guiding both of my parents
5760 through the process over the phone.  If a kernel reboot is required,
5761 this too is indicated by the status bars and the upgrade tool.  Last
5762 time I checked, nothing with the same features was working in KDE in
5763 Debian.&lt;/li&gt;
5764
5765 &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Simple handling of missing Firefox browser
5766 plugins.&lt;/strong&gt; When the browser encounter a MIME type it do not
5767 currently have a handler for, it will ask the user if the system
5768 should search for a package that would add support for this MIME type,
5769 and if the user say yes, the APT sources will be searched for packages
5770 advertising the MIME type in their control file (visible in the
5771 Packages file in the APT archive).  If one or more packages are found,
5772 it is a simple click of the mouse to add support for the missing mime
5773 type.  If the package require the user to accept some non-free
5774 license, this is explained to the user.  The entire process make it
5775 more clear to the user why something do not work in the browser, and
5776 make the chances higher for the user to blame the web page authors and
5777 not the browser for any missing features.&lt;/li&gt;
5778
5779 &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Simple handling of missing multimedia codec/format
5780 handlers.&lt;/strong&gt; When the media players encounter a format or codec
5781 it is not supporting, a dialog pop up asking the user if the system
5782 should search for a package that would add support for it.  This
5783 happen with things like MP3, Windows Media or H.264.  The selection
5784 and installation procedure is very similar to the Firefox browser
5785 plugin handling.  This is as far as I know implemented using a
5786 gstreamer hook.  The end result is that the user easily get access to
5787 the codecs that are present from the APT archives available, while
5788 explaining more on why a given format is unsupported by Ubuntu.&lt;/li&gt;
5789
5790 &lt;li&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Better browser handling of some MIME types.&lt;/strong&gt; When
5791 displaying a text/plain file in my Debian browser, it will propose to
5792 start emacs to show it.  If I remember correctly, when doing the same
5793 in Kunbutu it show the file as a text file in the browser.  At least I
5794 know Opera will show text files within the browser.  I much prefer the
5795 latter behaviour.&lt;/li&gt;
5796
5797 &lt;/ol&gt;
5798
5799 &lt;p&gt;There are other nice features as well, like the simplified suite
5800 upgrader, but given that I am the one mostly doing the dist-upgrade,
5801 it do not matter much.&lt;/p&gt;
5802
5803 &lt;p&gt;I really hope we could get these features in place for the next
5804 Debian release.  It would require the coordinated effort of several
5805 maintainers, but would make the end user experience a lot better.&lt;/p&gt;
5806 </description>
5807         </item>
5808
5809         <item>
5810                 <title>Perl modules used by FixMyStreet which are missing in Debian/Squeeze</title>
5811                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Perl_modules_used_by_FixMyStreet_which_are_missing_in_Debian_Squeeze.html</link>
5812                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Perl_modules_used_by_FixMyStreet_which_are_missing_in_Debian_Squeeze.html</guid>
5813                 <pubDate>Tue, 26 Jul 2011 12:25:00 +0200</pubDate>
5814                 <description>&lt;p&gt;The Norwegian &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.fiksgatami.no/&quot;&gt;FiksGataMi&lt;/A&gt;
5815 site is build on Debian/Squeeze, and this platform was chosen because
5816 I am most familiar with Debian (being a Debian Developer for around 10
5817 years) because it is the latest stable Debian release which should get
5818 security support for a few years.&lt;/p&gt;
5819
5820 &lt;p&gt;The web service is written in Perl, and depend on some perl modules
5821 that are missing in Debian at the moment.  It would be great if these
5822 modules were added to the Debian archive, allowing anyone to set up
5823 their own &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.fixmystreet.com&quot;&gt;FixMyStreet&lt;/a&gt; clone
5824 in their own country using only Debian packages.  The list of modules
5825 missing in Debian/Squeeze isn&#39;t very long, and I hope the perl group
5826 will find time to package the 12 modules Catalyst::Plugin::SmartURI,
5827 Catalyst::Plugin::Unicode::Encoding, Catalyst::View::TT, Devel::Hide,
5828 Sort::Key, Statistics::Distributions, Template::Plugin::Comma,
5829 Template::Plugin::DateTime::Format, Term::Size::Any, Term::Size::Perl,
5830 URI::SmartURI and Web::Scraper to make the maintenance of FixMyStreet
5831 easier in the future.&lt;/p&gt;
5832
5833 &lt;p&gt;Thanks to the great tools in Debian, getting the missing modules
5834 installed on my server was a simple call to &#39;cpan2deb Module::Name&#39;
5835 and &#39;dpkg -i&#39; to install the resulting package.  But this leave me
5836 with the responsibility of tracking security problems, which I really
5837 do not have time for.&lt;/p&gt;
5838 </description>
5839         </item>
5840
5841         <item>
5842                 <title>Free Software vs. proprietary softare...</title>
5843                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Free_Software_vs__proprietary_softare___.html</link>
5844                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Free_Software_vs__proprietary_softare___.html</guid>
5845                 <pubDate>Mon, 20 Jun 2011 12:50:00 +0200</pubDate>
5846                 <description>&lt;p&gt;Reading
5847 &lt;a href=&quot;http://blog.thingiverse.com/2011/06/20/open-source-vs-closed-source-eulas/&quot;&gt;the
5848 thingiverse blog&lt;/a&gt;, I came across two highlights of interesting
5849 parts of the
5850 &lt;a href=&quot;http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Autodesk_EULA&quot;&gt;Autodesk&lt;/a&gt;
5851 and
5852 &lt;a href=&quot;http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2011/06/things-you-cant-do-with-the-microsoft-kinect-sdk.html&quot;&gt;Microsoft
5853 Kinect&lt;/a&gt; End User License Agreements (EULAs), which illustrates
5854 quite well why I stay away from software with EULAs.  Whenever I take
5855 the time to read their content, the terms are simply unacceptable.&lt;/p&gt;
5856 </description>
5857         </item>
5858
5859         <item>
5860                 <title>Experimental Open311 API for the mySociety fixmystreet system</title>
5861                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Experimental_Open311_API_for_the_mySociety_fixmystreet_system.html</link>
5862                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Experimental_Open311_API_for_the_mySociety_fixmystreet_system.html</guid>
5863                 <pubDate>Sat, 30 Apr 2011 17:20:00 +0200</pubDate>
5864                 <description>&lt;p&gt;Today, the first draft implementation of an
5865 &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.open311.org/&quot;&gt;Open311 API&lt;/a&gt; for the Norwegian
5866 service &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.fiksgatami.no/&quot;&gt;FiksGataMi&lt;/a&gt; started to
5867 work.  It is only available on the developer server for now, and I
5868 have not tested it using any existing Open311 client (I lack the
5869 platforms needed to run the clients I have found so far), but it is
5870 able to query the database and extract a list of open and closed
5871 requests within a given category and reported to a given municipality.
5872 I believe that is a good start to create a useful service for those
5873 that want to do data mining on the requests submitted so far.&lt;/p&gt;
5874
5875 &lt;p&gt;Where is it?  Visit
5876 &lt;a href=&quot;http://fiksgatami-dev.nuug.no/open311.cgi/v2/&quot;&gt;http://fiksgatami-dev.nuug.no/open311.cgi/v2/&lt;/a&gt;
5877 to have a look.  Please send feedback to the
5878 &lt;a href=&quot;http://lists.nuug.no/mailman/listinfo/fiksgatami&quot;&gt;fiksgatami
5879 (at) nuug.no&lt;/a&gt; mailing list.&lt;/p&gt;
5880 </description>
5881         </item>
5882
5883         <item>
5884                 <title>Initial notes on adding Open311 server API on FixMyStreet</title>
5885                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Initial_notes_on_adding_Open311_server_API_on_FixMyStreet.html</link>
5886                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Initial_notes_on_adding_Open311_server_API_on_FixMyStreet.html</guid>
5887                 <pubDate>Fri, 29 Apr 2011 10:00:00 +0200</pubDate>
5888                 <description>&lt;p&gt;The last few days I have spent some time trying to add support for
5889 the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.open311.org/&quot;&gt;Open311 API&lt;/a&gt; in the
5890 &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.fiksgatami.no/&quot;&gt;Norwegian FixMyStreet service&lt;/a&gt;.
5891 Earlier I believed Open311 would be a useful API to use to submit
5892 reports to the municipalities, but when I noticed that the
5893 &lt;a href=&quot;http://fixmystreet.org.nz/&quot;&gt;New Zealand version&lt;/a&gt; of
5894 FixMyStreet had implemented Open311 on the server side, it occurred to
5895 me that this was a nice way to allow the public, press and
5896 municipalities to do data mining directly in the FixMyStreet service.
5897 Thus I went to work implementing the Open311 specification for
5898 FixMyStreet.  The implementation is not yet ready, but I am starting
5899 to get a draft limping along.  In the process, I have discovered a few
5900 issues with the Open311 specification.&lt;/p&gt;
5901
5902 &lt;p&gt;One obvious missing feature is the lack of natural language
5903 handling in the specification.  The specification seem to assume all
5904 reports will be written in English, and do not provide a way for the
5905 receiving end to specify which languages are understood there.  To be
5906 able to use the same client and submit to several Open311 receivers,
5907 it would be useful to know which language to use when writing reports.
5908 I believe the specification should be extended to allow the receivers
5909 of problem reports to specify which language they accept, and the
5910 submitter to specify which language the report is written in.
5911 Language of a text can also be automatically guessed using statistical
5912 methods, but for multi-lingual persons like myself, it is useful to
5913 know which language to use when writing a problem report.  I suspect
5914 some lang=nb,nn kind of attribute would solve it.&lt;/p&gt;
5915
5916 &lt;p&gt;A key part of the Open311 API is the list of services provided,
5917 which is similar to the categories used by FixMyStreet.  One issue I
5918 run into is the need to specify both name and unique identifier for
5919 each category.  The specification do not state that the identifier
5920 should be numeric, but all example implementations have used numbers
5921 here.  In FixMyStreet, there is no number associated with each
5922 category.  As the specification do not forbid it, I will use the name
5923 as the unique identifier for now and see how open311 clients handle
5924 it.&lt;/p&gt;
5925
5926 &lt;p&gt;The report format in open311 and the report format in FixMyStreet
5927 differ in a key part.  FixMyStreet have a title and a description,
5928 while Open311 only have a description and lack the title.  I&#39;m not
5929 quite sure how to best handle this yet.  When asking for a FixMyStreet
5930 report in Open311 format, I just merge title an description into the
5931 open311 description, but this is not going to work if the open311 API
5932 should be used for submitting new reports to FixMyStreet.&lt;/p&gt;
5933
5934 &lt;p&gt;The search feature in Open311 is missing a way to ask for problems
5935 near a geographic location.  I believe this is important if one is to
5936 use Open311 as the query language for mobile units.  The specification
5937 should be extended to handle this, probably using some new lat=, lon=
5938 and range= options.&lt;/p&gt;
5939
5940 &lt;p&gt;The final challenge I see is that the FixMyStreet code handle
5941 several administrations in one interface, while the Open311 API seem
5942 to assume only one administration.  For FixMyStreet, this mean a
5943 report can be sent to several administrations, and the categories
5944 available depend on the location of the problem.  Not quite sure how
5945 to best handle this.  I&#39;ve noticed
5946 &lt;a href=&quot;http://seeclickfix.com/open311/&quot;&gt;SeeClickFix&lt;/a&gt; added
5947 latitude and longitude options to the services request, but it do not
5948 solve the problem of what to return when no location is specified.
5949 Will have to investigate this a bit more.&lt;/p&gt;
5950
5951 &lt;p&gt;My distaste for web forums have kept me from bringing these issues
5952 up with the open311 developer group.  I really wish they had a email
5953 list available via &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.gmane.org/&quot;&gt;Gmane&lt;/a&gt; to use for
5954 discussions instead of only
5955 &lt;a href=&quot;http://lists.open311.org/groups/discuss&quot;&gt;a forum&lt;a/&gt;.  Oh,
5956 well.  That will probably resolve itself, one way or another.  I&#39;ve
5957 also tried visiting the IRC channel #open311 on FreeNode, but no-one
5958 seem to reply to my questions there.  This make me wonder if I just
5959 fail to understand how the open311 community work.  It sure do not
5960 work like the free software project communities I am used to.&lt;/p&gt;
5961 </description>
5962         </item>
5963
5964         <item>
5965                 <title>Gnash enteres Google Summer of Code 2011</title>
5966                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Gnash_enteres_Google_Summer_of_Code_2011.html</link>
5967                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Gnash_enteres_Google_Summer_of_Code_2011.html</guid>
5968                 <pubDate>Wed, 6 Apr 2011 09:00:00 +0200</pubDate>
5969                 <description>&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.getgnash.org/&quot;&gt;The Gnash project&lt;/a&gt; is still
5970 the most promising solution for a Free Software Flash implementation.
5971 A few days ago the project
5972 &lt;a href=&quot;http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/gnash-dev/2011-04/msg00011.html&quot;&gt;announced&lt;/a&gt;
5973 that it will participate in Google Summer of Code.  I hope many
5974 students apply, and that some of them succeed in getting AVM2 support
5975 into Gnash.&lt;/p&gt;
5976 </description>
5977         </item>
5978
5979         <item>
5980                 <title>A Norwegian FixMyStreet have kept me busy the last few weeks</title>
5981                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/A_Norwegian_FixMyStreet_have_kept_me_busy_the_last_few_weeks.html</link>
5982                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/A_Norwegian_FixMyStreet_have_kept_me_busy_the_last_few_weeks.html</guid>
5983                 <pubDate>Sun, 3 Apr 2011 22:50:00 +0200</pubDate>
5984                 <description>&lt;p&gt;Here is a small update for my English readers.  Most of my blog
5985 posts have been in Norwegian the last few weeks, so here is a short
5986 update in English.&lt;/p&gt;
5987
5988 &lt;p&gt;The kids still keep me too busy to get much free software work
5989 done, but I did manage to organise a project to get a Norwegian port
5990 of the British service
5991 &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.fixmystreet.com/&quot;&gt;FixMyStreet&lt;/a&gt; up and running,
5992 and it has been running for a month now.  The entire project has been
5993 organised by me and two others.  Around Christmas we gathered sponsors
5994 to fund the development work.  In January I drafted a contract with
5995 &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.mysociety.org/&quot;&gt;mySociety&lt;/a&gt; on what to develop,
5996 and in February the development took place.  Most of it involved
5997 converting the source to use GPS coordinates instead of British
5998 easting/northing, and the resulting code should be a lot easier to get
5999 running in any country by now.  The Norwegian
6000 &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.fiksgatami.no/&quot;&gt;FiksGataMi&lt;/a&gt; is using
6001 &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.openstreetmap.org/&quot;&gt;OpenStreetmap&lt;/a&gt; as the map
6002 source and the source for administrative borders in Norway, and
6003 support for this had to be added/fixed.&lt;/p&gt;
6004
6005 &lt;p&gt;The Norwegian version went live March 3th, and we spent the weekend
6006 polishing the system before we announced it March 7th.  The system is
6007 running on a KVM instance of Debian/Squeeze, and has seen almost 3000
6008 problem reports in a few weeks.  Soon we hope to announce the Android
6009 and iPhone versions making it even easier to report problems with the
6010 public infrastructure.&lt;/p&gt;
6011
6012 &lt;p&gt;Perhaps something to consider for those of you in countries without
6013 such service?&lt;/p&gt;
6014 </description>
6015         </item>
6016
6017         <item>
6018                 <title>Using NVD and CPE to track CVEs in locally maintained software</title>
6019                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Using_NVD_and_CPE_to_track_CVEs_in_locally_maintained_software.html</link>
6020                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Using_NVD_and_CPE_to_track_CVEs_in_locally_maintained_software.html</guid>
6021                 <pubDate>Fri, 28 Jan 2011 15:40:00 +0100</pubDate>
6022                 <description>&lt;p&gt;The last few days I have looked at ways to track open security
6023 issues here at my work with the University of Oslo.  My idea is that
6024 it should be possible to use the information about security issues
6025 available on the Internet, and check our locally
6026 maintained/distributed software against this information.  It should
6027 allow us to verify that no known security issues are forgotten.  The
6028 CVE database listing vulnerabilities seem like a great central point,
6029 and by using the package lists from Debian mapped to CVEs provided by
6030 the testing security team, I believed it should be possible to figure
6031 out which security holes were present in our free software
6032 collection.&lt;/p&gt;
6033
6034 &lt;p&gt;After reading up on the topic, it became obvious that the first
6035 building block is to be able to name software packages in a unique and
6036 consistent way across data sources.  I considered several ways to do
6037 this, for example coming up with my own naming scheme like using URLs
6038 to project home pages or URLs to the Freshmeat entries, or using some
6039 existing naming scheme.  And it seem like I am not the first one to
6040 come across this problem, as MITRE already proposed and implemented a
6041 solution.  Enter the &lt;a href=&quot;http://cpe.mitre.org/index.html&quot;&gt;Common
6042 Platform Enumeration&lt;/a&gt; dictionary, a vocabulary for referring to
6043 software, hardware and other platform components.  The CPE ids are
6044 mapped to CVEs in the &lt;a href=&quot;http://web.nvd.nist.gov/&quot;&gt;National
6045 Vulnerability Database&lt;/a&gt;, allowing me to look up know security
6046 issues for any CPE name.  With this in place, all I need to do is to
6047 locate the CPE id for the software packages we use at the university.
6048 This is fairly trivial (I google for &#39;cve cpe $package&#39; and check the
6049 NVD entry if a CVE for the package exist).&lt;/p&gt;
6050
6051 &lt;p&gt;To give you an example.  The GNU gzip source package have the CPE
6052 name cpe:/a:gnu:gzip.  If the old version 1.3.3 was the package to
6053 check out, one could look up
6054 &lt;a href=&quot;http://web.nvd.nist.gov/view/vuln/search?cpe=cpe%3A%2Fa%3Agnu%3Agzip:1.3.3&quot;&gt;cpe:/a:gnu:gzip:1.3.3
6055 in NVD&lt;/a&gt; and get a list of 6 security holes with public CVE entries.
6056 The most recent one is
6057 &lt;a href=&quot;http://web.nvd.nist.gov/view/vuln/detail?vulnId=CVE-2010-0001&quot;&gt;CVE-2010-0001&lt;/a&gt;,
6058 and at the bottom of the NVD page for this vulnerability the complete
6059 list of affected versions is provided.&lt;/p&gt;
6060
6061 &lt;p&gt;The NVD database of CVEs is also available as a XML dump, allowing
6062 for offline processing of issues.  Using this dump, I&#39;ve written a
6063 small script taking a list of CPEs as input and list all CVEs
6064 affecting the packages represented by these CPEs.  One give it CPEs
6065 with version numbers as specified above and get a list of open
6066 security issues out.&lt;/p&gt;
6067
6068 &lt;p&gt;Of course for this approach to be useful, the quality of the NVD
6069 information need to be high.  For that to happen, I believe as many as
6070 possible need to use and contribute to the NVD database.  I notice
6071 RHEL is providing
6072 &lt;a href=&quot;https://www.redhat.com/security/data/metrics/rhsamapcpe.txt&quot;&gt;a
6073 map from CVE to CPE&lt;/a&gt;, indicating that they are using the CPE
6074 information.  I&#39;m not aware of Debian and Ubuntu doing the same.&lt;/p&gt;
6075
6076 &lt;p&gt;To get an idea about the quality for free software, I spent some
6077 time making it possible to compare the CVE database from Debian with
6078 the CVE database in NVD.  The result look fairly good, but there are
6079 some inconsistencies in NVD (same software package having several
6080 CPEs), and some inaccuracies (NVD not mentioning buggy packages that
6081 Debian believe are affected by a CVE).  Hope to find time to improve
6082 the quality of NVD, but that require being able to get in touch with
6083 someone maintaining it.  So far my three emails with questions and
6084 corrections have not seen any reply, but I hope contact can be
6085 established soon.&lt;/p&gt;
6086
6087 &lt;p&gt;An interesting application for CPEs is cross platform package
6088 mapping.  It would be useful to know which packages in for example
6089 RHEL, OpenSuSe and Mandriva are missing from Debian and Ubuntu, and
6090 this would be trivial if all linux distributions provided CPE entries
6091 for their packages.&lt;/p&gt;
6092 </description>
6093         </item>
6094
6095         <item>
6096                 <title>Which module is loaded for a given PCI and USB device?</title>
6097                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Which_module_is_loaded_for_a_given_PCI_and_USB_device_.html</link>
6098                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Which_module_is_loaded_for_a_given_PCI_and_USB_device_.html</guid>
6099                 <pubDate>Sun, 23 Jan 2011 00:20:00 +0100</pubDate>
6100                 <description>&lt;p&gt;In the
6101 &lt;a href=&quot;http://packages.qa.debian.org/discover-data&quot;&gt;discover-data&lt;/a&gt;
6102 package in Debian, there is a script to report useful information
6103 about the running hardware for use when people report missing
6104 information.  One part of this script that I find very useful when
6105 debugging hardware problems, is the part mapping loaded kernel module
6106 to the PCI device it claims.  It allow me to quickly see if the kernel
6107 module I expect is driving the hardware I am struggling with.  To see
6108 the output, make sure discover-data is installed and run
6109 &lt;tt&gt;/usr/share/bug/discover-data 3&gt;&amp;1&lt;/tt&gt;.  The relevant output on
6110 one of my machines like this:&lt;/p&gt;
6111
6112 &lt;pre&gt;
6113 loaded modules:
6114 10de:03eb i2c_nforce2
6115 10de:03f1 ohci_hcd
6116 10de:03f2 ehci_hcd
6117 10de:03f0 snd_hda_intel
6118 10de:03ec pata_amd
6119 10de:03f6 sata_nv
6120 1022:1103 k8temp
6121 109e:036e bttv
6122 109e:0878 snd_bt87x
6123 11ab:4364 sky2
6124 &lt;/pre&gt;
6125
6126 &lt;p&gt;The code in question look like this, slightly modified for
6127 readability and to drop the output to file descriptor 3:&lt;/p&gt;
6128
6129 &lt;pre&gt;
6130 if [ -d /sys/bus/pci/devices/ ] ; then
6131     echo loaded pci modules:
6132     (
6133         cd /sys/bus/pci/devices/
6134         for address in * ; do
6135             if [ -d &quot;$address/driver/module&quot; ] ; then
6136                 module=`cd $address/driver/module ; pwd -P | xargs basename`
6137                 if grep -q &quot;^$module &quot; /proc/modules ; then
6138                     address=$(echo $address |sed s/0000://)
6139                     id=`lspci -n -s $address | tail -n 1 | awk &#39;{print $3}&#39;`
6140                     echo &quot;$id $module&quot;
6141                 fi
6142             fi
6143         done
6144     )
6145     echo
6146 fi
6147 &lt;/pre&gt;
6148
6149 &lt;p&gt;Similar code could be used to extract USB device module
6150 mappings:&lt;/p&gt;
6151
6152 &lt;pre&gt;
6153 if [ -d /sys/bus/usb/devices/ ] ; then
6154     echo loaded usb modules:
6155     (
6156         cd /sys/bus/usb/devices/
6157         for address in * ; do
6158             if [ -d &quot;$address/driver/module&quot; ] ; then
6159                 module=`cd $address/driver/module ; pwd -P | xargs basename`
6160                 if grep -q &quot;^$module &quot; /proc/modules ; then
6161                     address=$(echo $address |sed s/0000://)
6162                     id=$(lsusb -s $address | tail -n 1 | awk &#39;{print $6}&#39;)
6163                     if [ &quot;$id&quot; ] ; then
6164                         echo &quot;$id $module&quot;
6165                     fi
6166                 fi
6167             fi
6168         done
6169     )
6170     echo
6171 fi
6172 &lt;/pre&gt;
6173
6174 &lt;p&gt;This might perhaps be something to include in other tools as
6175 well.&lt;/p&gt;
6176 </description>
6177         </item>
6178
6179         <item>
6180                 <title>The video format most supported in web browsers?</title>
6181                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_video_format_most_supported_in_web_browsers_.html</link>
6182                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_video_format_most_supported_in_web_browsers_.html</guid>
6183                 <pubDate>Sun, 16 Jan 2011 00:20:00 +0100</pubDate>
6184                 <description>&lt;p&gt;The video format struggle on the web continues, and the three
6185 contenders seem to be Ogg Theora, H.264 and WebM.  Most video sites
6186 seem to use H.264, while others use Ogg Theora.  Interestingly enough,
6187 the comments I see give me the feeling that a lot of people believe
6188 H.264 is the most supported video format in browsers, but according to
6189 the Wikipedia article on
6190 &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTML5_video&quot;&gt;HTML5 video&lt;/a&gt;,
6191 this is not true.  Check out the nice table of supprted formats in
6192 different browsers there.  The format supported by most browsers is
6193 Ogg Theora, supported by released versions of Mozilla Firefox, Google
6194 Chrome, Chromium, Opera, Konqueror, Epiphany, Origyn Web Browser and
6195 BOLT browser, while not supported by Internet Explorer nor Safari.
6196 The runner up is WebM supported by released versions of Google Chrome
6197 Chromium Opera and Origyn Web Browser, and test versions of Mozilla
6198 Firefox.  H.264 is supported by released versions of Safari, Origyn
6199 Web Browser and BOLT browser, and the test version of Internet
6200 Explorer.  Those wanting Ogg Theora support in Internet Explorer and
6201 Safari can install plugins to get it.&lt;/p&gt;
6202
6203 &lt;p&gt;To me, the simple conclusion from this is that to reach most users
6204 without any extra software installed, one uses Ogg Theora with the
6205 HTML5 video tag.   Of course to reach all those without a browser
6206 handling HTML5, one need fallback mechanisms.  In
6207 &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.nuug.no/&quot;&gt;NUUG&lt;/a&gt;, we provide first fallback to a
6208 plugin capable of playing MPEG1 video, and those without such support
6209 we have a second fallback to the Cortado java applet playing Ogg
6210 Theora.  This seem to work quite well, as can be seen in an &lt;a
6211 href=&quot;http://www.nuug.no/aktiviteter/20110111-semantic-web/&quot;&gt;example
6212 from last week&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
6213
6214 &lt;p&gt;The reason Ogg Theora is the most supported format, and H.264 is
6215 the least supported is simple.  Implementing and using H.264
6216 require royalty payment to MPEG-LA, and the terms of use from MPEG-LA
6217 are incompatible with free software licensing.  If you believed H.264
6218 was without royalties and license terms, check out
6219 &quot;&lt;a href=&quot;http://webmink.com/essays/h-264/&quot;&gt;H.264 – Not The Kind Of
6220 Free That Matters&lt;/a&gt;&quot; by Simon Phipps.&lt;/p&gt;
6221
6222 &lt;p&gt;A incomplete list of sites providing video in Ogg Theora is
6223 available from
6224 &lt;a href=&quot;http://wiki.xiph.org/index.php/List_of_Theora_videos&quot;&gt;the
6225 Xiph.org wiki&lt;/a&gt;, if you want to have a look.  I&#39;m not aware of a
6226 similar list for WebM nor H.264.&lt;/p&gt;
6227
6228 &lt;p&gt;Update 2011-01-16 09:40: A question from Tollef on IRC made me
6229 realise that I failed to make it clear enough this text is about the
6230 &amp;lt;video&amp;gt; tag support in browsers and not the video support
6231 provided by external plugins like the Flash plugins.&lt;/p&gt;
6232 </description>
6233         </item>
6234
6235         <item>
6236                 <title>Chrome plan to drop H.264 support for HTML5 &amp;lt;video&amp;gt;</title>
6237                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Chrome_plan_to_drop_H_264_support_for_HTML5__lt_video_gt_.html</link>
6238                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Chrome_plan_to_drop_H_264_support_for_HTML5__lt_video_gt_.html</guid>
6239                 <pubDate>Wed, 12 Jan 2011 22:10:00 +0100</pubDate>
6240                 <description>&lt;p&gt;Today I discovered
6241 &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.digi.no/860070/google-dropper-h264-stotten-i-chrome&quot;&gt;via
6242 digi.no&lt;/a&gt; that the Chrome developers, in a surprising announcement,
6243 &lt;a href=&quot;http://blog.chromium.org/2011/01/html-video-codec-support-in-chrome.html&quot;&gt;yesterday
6244 announced&lt;/a&gt; plans to drop H.264 support for HTML5 &amp;lt;video&amp;gt; in
6245 the browser.  The argument used is that H.264 is not a &quot;completely
6246 open&quot; codec technology.  If you believe H.264 was free for everyone
6247 to use, I recommend having a look at the essay
6248 &quot;&lt;a href=&quot;http://webmink.com/essays/h-264/&quot;&gt;H.264 – Not The Kind Of
6249 Free That Matters&lt;/a&gt;&quot;.  It is not free of cost for creators of video
6250 tools, nor those of us that want to publish on the Internet, and the
6251 terms provided by MPEG-LA excludes free software projects from
6252 licensing the patents needed for H.264.  Some background information
6253 on the Google announcement is available from
6254 &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.osnews.com/story/24243/Google_To_Drop_H264_Support_from_Chrome&quot;&gt;OSnews&lt;/a&gt;.
6255 A good read. :)&lt;/p&gt;
6256
6257 &lt;p&gt;Personally, I believe it is great that Google is taking a stand to
6258 promote equal terms for everyone when it comes to video publishing on
6259 the Internet.  This can only be done by publishing using free and open
6260 standards, which is only possible if the web browsers provide support
6261 for these free and open standards.  At the moment there seem to be two
6262 camps in the web browser world when it come to video support.  Some
6263 browsers support H.264, and others support
6264 &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.theora.org/&quot;&gt;Ogg Theora&lt;/a&gt; and
6265 &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.webmproject.org/&quot;&gt;WebM&lt;/a&gt;
6266 (&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.diracvideo.org/&quot;&gt;Dirac&lt;/a&gt; is not really an option
6267 yet), forcing those of us that want to publish video on the Internet
6268 and which can not accept the terms of use presented by MPEG-LA for
6269 H.264 to not reach all potential viewers.
6270 Wikipedia keep &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTML5_video&quot;&gt;an
6271 updated summary&lt;/a&gt; of the current browser support.&lt;/p&gt;
6272
6273 &lt;p&gt;Not surprising, several people would prefer Google to keep
6274 promoting H.264, and John Gruber
6275 &lt;a href=&quot;http://daringfireball.net/2011/01/simple_questions&quot;&gt;presents
6276 the mind set&lt;/a&gt; of these people quite well.  His rhetorical questions
6277 provoked a reply from Thom Holwerda with another set of questions
6278 &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.osnews.com/story/24245/10_Questions_for_John_Gruber_Regarding_H_264_WebM&quot;&gt;presenting
6279 the issues with H.264&lt;/a&gt;. Both are worth a read.&lt;/p&gt;
6280
6281 &lt;p&gt;Some argue that if Google is dropping H.264 because it isn&#39;t free,
6282 they should also drop support for the Adobe Flash plugin.  This
6283 argument was covered by Simon Phipps in
6284 &lt;a href=&quot;http://blogs.computerworlduk.com/simon-says/2011/01/google-and-h264---far-from-hypocritical/index.htm&quot;&gt;todays
6285 blog post&lt;/a&gt;, which I find to put the issue in context.  To me it
6286 make perfect sense to drop native H.264 support for HTML5 in the
6287 browser while still allowing plugins.&lt;/p&gt;
6288
6289 &lt;p&gt;I suspect the reason this announcement make so many people protest,
6290 is that all the users and promoters of H.264 suddenly get an uneasy
6291 feeling that they might be backing the wrong horse.  A lot of TV
6292 broadcasters have been moving to H.264 the last few years, and a lot
6293 of money has been invested in hardware based on the belief that they
6294 could use the same video format for both broadcasting and web
6295 publishing.  Suddenly this belief is shaken.&lt;/p&gt;
6296
6297 &lt;p&gt;An interesting question is why Google is doing this.  While the
6298 presented argument might be true enough, I believe Google would only
6299 present the argument if the change make sense from a business
6300 perspective.  One reason might be that they are currently negotiating
6301 with MPEG-LA over royalties or usage terms, and giving MPEG-LA the
6302 feeling that dropping H.264 completely from Chroome, Youtube and
6303 Google Video would improve the negotiation position of Google.
6304 Another reason might be that Google want to save money by not having
6305 to pay the video tax to MPEG-LA at all, and thus want to move to a
6306 video format not requiring royalties at all.  A third reason might be
6307 that the Chrome development team simply want to avoid the
6308 Chrome/Chromium split to get more help with the development of Chrome.
6309 I guess time will tell.&lt;/p&gt;
6310
6311 &lt;p&gt;Update 2011-01-15: The Google Chrome team provided
6312 &lt;a href=&quot;http://blog.chromium.org/2011/01/more-about-chrome-html-video-codec.html&quot;&gt;more
6313 background and information on the move&lt;/a&gt; it a blog post yesterday.&lt;/p&gt;
6314 </description>
6315         </item>
6316
6317         <item>
6318                 <title>What standards are Free and Open as defined by Digistan?</title>
6319                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/What_standards_are_Free_and_Open_as_defined_by_Digistan_.html</link>
6320                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/What_standards_are_Free_and_Open_as_defined_by_Digistan_.html</guid>
6321                 <pubDate>Thu, 30 Dec 2010 23:15:00 +0100</pubDate>
6322                 <description>&lt;p&gt;After trying to
6323 &lt;a href=&quot;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Is_Ogg_Theora_a_free_and_open_standard_.html&quot;&gt;compare
6324 Ogg Theora&lt;/a&gt; to
6325 &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.digistan.org/open-standard:definition&quot;&gt;the Digistan
6326 definition&lt;/a&gt; of a free and open standard, I concluded that this need
6327 to be done for more standards and started on a framework for doing
6328 this.  As a start, I want to get the status for all the standards in
6329 the Norwegian reference directory, which include UTF-8, HTML, PDF, ODF,
6330 JPEG, PNG, SVG and others.  But to be able to complete this in a
6331 reasonable time frame, I will need help.&lt;/p&gt;
6332
6333 &lt;p&gt;If you want to help out with this work, please visit
6334 &lt;a href=&quot;http://wiki.nuug.no/grupper/standard/digistan-analyse&quot;&gt;the
6335 wiki pages I have set up for this&lt;/a&gt;, and let me know that you want
6336 to help out.  The IRC channel #nuug on irc.freenode.net is a good
6337 place to coordinate this for now, as it is the IRC channel for the
6338 NUUG association where I have created the framework (I am the leader
6339 of the Norwegian Unix User Group).&lt;/p&gt;
6340
6341 &lt;p&gt;The framework is still forming, and a lot is left to do.  Do not be
6342 scared by the sketchy form of the current pages. :)&lt;/p&gt;
6343 </description>
6344         </item>
6345
6346         <item>
6347                 <title>The many definitions of a open standard</title>
6348                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_many_definitions_of_a_open_standard.html</link>
6349                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_many_definitions_of_a_open_standard.html</guid>
6350                 <pubDate>Mon, 27 Dec 2010 14:45:00 +0100</pubDate>
6351                 <description>&lt;p&gt;One of the reasons I like the Digistan definition of
6352 &quot;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.digistan.org/open-standard:definition&quot;&gt;Free and
6353 Open Standard&lt;/a&gt;&quot; is that this is a new term, and thus the meaning of
6354 the term has been decided by Digistan.  The term &quot;Open Standard&quot; has
6355 become so misunderstood that it is no longer very useful when talking
6356 about standards.  One end up discussing which definition is the best
6357 one and with such frame the only one gaining are the proponents of
6358 de-facto standards and proprietary solutions.&lt;/p&gt;
6359
6360 &lt;p&gt;But to give us an idea about the diversity of definitions of open
6361 standards, here are a few that I know about.  This list is not
6362 complete, but can be a starting point for those that want to do a
6363 complete survey.  More definitions are available on the
6364 &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_standard&quot;&gt;wikipedia
6365 page&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
6366
6367 &lt;p&gt;First off is my favourite, the definition from the European
6368 Interoperability Framework version 1.0.  Really sad to notice that BSA
6369 and others has succeeded in getting it removed from version 2.0 of the
6370 framework by stacking the committee drafting the new version with
6371 their own people.  Anyway, the definition is still available and it
6372 include the key properties needed to make sure everyone can use a
6373 specification on equal terms.&lt;/p&gt;
6374
6375 &lt;blockquote&gt;
6376
6377 &lt;p&gt;The following are the minimal characteristics that a specification
6378 and its attendant documents must have in order to be considered an
6379 open standard:&lt;/p&gt;
6380
6381 &lt;ul&gt;
6382
6383 &lt;li&gt;The standard is adopted and will be maintained by a not-for-profit
6384 organisation, and its ongoing development occurs on the basis of an
6385 open decision-making procedure available to all interested parties
6386 (consensus or majority decision etc.).&lt;/li&gt;
6387
6388 &lt;li&gt;The standard has been published and the standard specification
6389 document is available either freely or at a nominal charge. It must be
6390 permissible to all to copy, distribute and use it for no fee or at a
6391 nominal fee.&lt;/li&gt;
6392
6393 &lt;li&gt;The intellectual property - i.e. patents possibly present - of
6394 (parts of) the standard is made irrevocably available on a royalty-
6395 free basis.&lt;/li&gt;
6396
6397 &lt;li&gt;There are no constraints on the re-use of the standard.&lt;/li&gt;
6398
6399 &lt;/ul&gt;
6400 &lt;/blockquote&gt;
6401
6402 &lt;p&gt;Another one originates from my friends over at
6403 &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.dkuug.dk/&quot;&gt;DKUUG&lt;/a&gt;, who coined and gathered
6404 support for &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.aaben-standard.dk/&quot;&gt;this
6405 definition&lt;/a&gt; in 2004.  It even made it into the Danish parlament as
6406 &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.ft.dk/dokumenter/tingdok.aspx?/samling/20051/beslutningsforslag/B103/som_fremsat.htm&quot;&gt;their
6407 definition of a open standard&lt;/a&gt;.  Another from a different part of
6408 the Danish government is available from the wikipedia page.&lt;/p&gt;
6409
6410 &lt;blockquote&gt;
6411
6412 &lt;p&gt;En åben standard opfylder følgende krav:&lt;/p&gt;
6413
6414 &lt;ol&gt;
6415
6416 &lt;li&gt;Veldokumenteret med den fuldstændige specifikation offentligt
6417 tilgængelig.&lt;/li&gt;
6418
6419 &lt;li&gt;Frit implementerbar uden økonomiske, politiske eller juridiske
6420 begrænsninger på implementation og anvendelse.&lt;/li&gt;
6421
6422 &lt;li&gt;Standardiseret og vedligeholdt i et åbent forum (en såkaldt
6423 &quot;standardiseringsorganisation&quot;) via en åben proces.&lt;/li&gt;
6424
6425 &lt;/ol&gt;
6426
6427 &lt;/blockquote&gt;
6428
6429 &lt;p&gt;Then there is &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.fsfe.org/projects/os/def.html&quot;&gt;the
6430 definition&lt;/a&gt; from Free Software Foundation Europe.&lt;/p&gt;
6431
6432 &lt;blockquote&gt;
6433
6434 &lt;p&gt;An Open Standard refers to a format or protocol that is&lt;/p&gt;
6435
6436 &lt;ol&gt;
6437
6438 &lt;li&gt;subject to full public assessment and use without constraints in a
6439 manner equally available to all parties;&lt;/li&gt;
6440
6441 &lt;li&gt;without any components or extensions that have dependencies on
6442 formats or protocols that do not meet the definition of an Open
6443 Standard themselves;&lt;/li&gt;
6444
6445 &lt;li&gt;free from legal or technical clauses that limit its utilisation by
6446 any party or in any business model;&lt;/li&gt;
6447
6448 &lt;li&gt;managed and further developed independently of any single vendor
6449 in a process open to the equal participation of competitors and third
6450 parties;&lt;/li&gt;
6451
6452 &lt;li&gt;available in multiple complete implementations by competing
6453 vendors, or as a complete implementation equally available to all
6454 parties.&lt;/li&gt;
6455
6456 &lt;/ol&gt;
6457
6458 &lt;/blockquote&gt;
6459
6460 &lt;p&gt;A long time ago, SUN Microsystems, now bought by Oracle, created
6461 its
6462 &lt;a href=&quot;http://blogs.sun.com/dennisding/resource/Open%20Standard%20Definition.pdf&quot;&gt;Open
6463 Standards Checklist&lt;/a&gt; with a fairly detailed description.&lt;/p&gt;
6464
6465 &lt;blockquote&gt;
6466 &lt;p&gt;Creation and Management of an Open Standard
6467
6468 &lt;ul&gt;
6469
6470 &lt;li&gt;Its development and management process must be collaborative and
6471   democratic:
6472
6473          &lt;ul&gt;
6474
6475          &lt;li&gt;Participation must be accessible to all those who wish to
6476             participate and can meet fair and reasonable criteria
6477             imposed by the organization under which it is developed
6478             and managed.&lt;/li&gt;
6479
6480          &lt;li&gt;The processes must be documented and, through a known
6481             method, can be changed through input from all
6482             participants.&lt;/li&gt;
6483
6484          &lt;li&gt;The process must be based on formal and binding commitments for
6485             the disclosure and licensing of intellectual property rights.&lt;/li&gt;
6486
6487          &lt;li&gt;Development and management should strive for consensus,
6488             and an appeals process must be clearly outlined.&lt;/li&gt;
6489
6490          &lt;li&gt;The standard specification must be open to extensive
6491             public review at least once in its life-cycle, with
6492             comments duly discussed and acted upon, if required.&lt;/li&gt;
6493
6494          &lt;/ul&gt;
6495
6496 &lt;/li&gt;
6497
6498 &lt;/ul&gt;
6499
6500 &lt;p&gt;Use and Licensing of an Open Standard&lt;/p&gt;
6501 &lt;ul&gt;
6502
6503 &lt;li&gt;The standard must describe an interface, not an implementation,
6504   and the industry must be capable of creating multiple, competing
6505   implementations to the interface described in the standard without
6506   undue or restrictive constraints.  Interfaces include APIs,
6507   protocols, schemas, data formats and their encoding.&lt;/li&gt;
6508
6509 &lt;li&gt; The standard must not contain any proprietary &quot;hooks&quot; that create
6510   a technical or economic barriers&lt;/li&gt;
6511
6512 &lt;li&gt;Faithful implementations of the standard must
6513   interoperate. Interoperability means the ability of a computer
6514   program to communicate and exchange information with other computer
6515   programs and mutually to use the information which has been
6516   exchanged. This includes the ability to use, convert, or exchange
6517   file formats, protocols, schemas, interface information or
6518   conventions, so as to permit the computer program to work with other
6519   computer programs and users in all the ways in which they are
6520   intended to function.&lt;/li&gt;
6521
6522 &lt;li&gt;It must be permissible for anyone to copy, distribute and read the
6523   standard for a nominal fee, or even no fee. If there is a fee, it
6524   must be low enough to not preclude widespread use.&lt;/li&gt;
6525
6526 &lt;li&gt;It must be possible for anyone to obtain free (no royalties or
6527   fees; also known as &quot;royalty free&quot;), worldwide, non-exclusive and
6528   perpetual licenses to all essential patent claims to make, use and
6529   sell products based on the standard.  The only exceptions are
6530   terminations per the reciprocity and defensive suspension terms
6531   outlined below. Essential patent claims include pending, unpublished
6532   patents, published patents, and patent applications. The license is
6533   only for the exact scope of the standard in question.
6534
6535       &lt;ul&gt;
6536
6537       &lt;li&gt; May be conditioned only on reciprocal licenses to any of
6538         licensees&#39; patent claims essential to practice that standard
6539         (also known as a reciprocity clause)&lt;/li&gt;
6540
6541       &lt;li&gt; May be terminated as to any licensee who sues the licensor
6542         or any other licensee for infringement of patent claims
6543         essential to practice that standard (also known as a
6544         &quot;defensive suspension&quot; clause)&lt;/li&gt;
6545
6546       &lt;li&gt; The same licensing terms are available to every potential
6547         licensor&lt;/li&gt;
6548
6549       &lt;/ul&gt;
6550 &lt;/li&gt;
6551
6552 &lt;li&gt;The licensing terms of an open standards must not preclude
6553   implementations of that standard under open source licensing terms
6554   or restricted licensing terms&lt;/li&gt;
6555
6556 &lt;/ul&gt;
6557
6558 &lt;/blockquote&gt;
6559
6560 &lt;p&gt;It is said that one of the nice things about standards is that
6561 there are so many of them.  As you can see, the same holds true for
6562 open standard definitions.  Most of the definitions have a lot in
6563 common, and it is not really controversial what properties a open
6564 standard should have, but the diversity of definitions have made it
6565 possible for those that want to avoid a level marked field and real
6566 competition to downplay the significance of open standards.  I hope we
6567 can turn this tide by focusing on the advantages of Free and Open
6568 Standards.&lt;/p&gt;
6569 </description>
6570         </item>
6571
6572         <item>
6573                 <title>Is Ogg Theora a free and open standard?</title>
6574                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Is_Ogg_Theora_a_free_and_open_standard_.html</link>
6575                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Is_Ogg_Theora_a_free_and_open_standard_.html</guid>
6576                 <pubDate>Sat, 25 Dec 2010 20:25:00 +0100</pubDate>
6577                 <description>&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.digistan.org/open-standard:definition&quot;&gt;The
6578 Digistan definition&lt;/a&gt; of a free and open standard reads like this:&lt;/p&gt;
6579
6580 &lt;blockquote&gt;
6581
6582 &lt;p&gt;The Digital Standards Organization defines free and open standard
6583 as follows:&lt;/p&gt;
6584
6585 &lt;ol&gt;
6586
6587 &lt;li&gt;A free and open standard is immune to vendor capture at all stages
6588 in its life-cycle. Immunity from vendor capture makes it possible to
6589 freely use, improve upon, trust, and extend a standard over time.&lt;/li&gt;
6590
6591 &lt;li&gt;The standard is adopted and will be maintained by a not-for-profit
6592 organisation, and its ongoing development occurs on the basis of an
6593 open decision-making procedure available to all interested
6594 parties.&lt;/li&gt;
6595
6596 &lt;li&gt;The standard has been published and the standard specification
6597 document is available freely. It must be permissible to all to copy,
6598 distribute, and use it freely.&lt;/li&gt;
6599
6600 &lt;li&gt;The patents possibly present on (parts of) the standard are made
6601 irrevocably available on a royalty-free basis.&lt;/li&gt;
6602
6603 &lt;li&gt;There are no constraints on the re-use of the standard.&lt;/li&gt;
6604
6605 &lt;/ol&gt;
6606
6607 &lt;p&gt;The economic outcome of a free and open standard, which can be
6608 measured, is that it enables perfect competition between suppliers of
6609 products based on the standard.&lt;/p&gt;
6610 &lt;/blockquote&gt;
6611
6612 &lt;p&gt;For a while now I have tried to figure out of Ogg Theora is a free
6613 and open standard according to this definition.  Here is a short
6614 writeup of what I have been able to gather so far.  I brought up the
6615 topic on the Xiph advocacy mailing list
6616 &lt;a href=&quot;http://lists.xiph.org/pipermail/advocacy/2009-July/001632.html&quot;&gt;in
6617 July 2009&lt;/a&gt;, for those that want to see some background information.
6618 According to Ivo Emanuel Gonçalves and Monty Montgomery on that list
6619 the Ogg Theora specification fulfils the Digistan definition.&lt;/p&gt;
6620
6621 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Free from vendor capture?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
6622
6623 &lt;p&gt;As far as I can see, there is no single vendor that can control the
6624 Ogg Theora specification.  It can be argued that the
6625 &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.xiph.org/&quot;&gt;Xiph foundation&lt;/A&gt; is such vendor, but
6626 given that it is a non-profit foundation with the expressed goal
6627 making free and open protocols and standards available, it is not
6628 obvious that this is a real risk.  One issue with the Xiph
6629 foundation is that its inner working (as in board member list, or who
6630 control the foundation) are not easily available on the web.  I&#39;ve
6631 been unable to find out who is in the foundation board, and have not
6632 seen any accounting information documenting how money is handled nor
6633 where is is spent in the foundation.  It is thus not obvious for an
6634 external observer who control The Xiph foundation, and for all I know
6635 it is possible for a single vendor to take control over the
6636 specification.  But it seem unlikely.&lt;/p&gt;
6637
6638 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Maintained by open not-for-profit organisation?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
6639
6640 &lt;p&gt;Assuming that the Xiph foundation is the organisation its web pages
6641 claim it to be, this point is fulfilled.  If Xiph foundation is
6642 controlled by a single vendor, it isn&#39;t, but I have not found any
6643 documentation indicating this.&lt;/p&gt;
6644
6645 &lt;p&gt;According to
6646 &lt;a href=&quot;http://media.hiof.no/diverse/fad/rapport_4.pdf&quot;&gt;a report&lt;/a&gt;
6647 prepared by Audun Vaaler og Børre Ludvigsen for the Norwegian
6648 government, the Xiph foundation is a non-commercial organisation and
6649 the development process is open, transparent and non-Discrimatory.
6650 Until proven otherwise, I believe it make most sense to believe the
6651 report is correct.&lt;/p&gt;
6652
6653 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Specification freely available?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
6654
6655 &lt;p&gt;The specification for the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.xiph.org/ogg/doc/&quot;&gt;Ogg
6656 container format&lt;/a&gt; and both the
6657 &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.xiph.org/vorbis/doc/&quot;&gt;Vorbis&lt;/a&gt; and
6658 &lt;a href=&quot;http://theora.org/doc/&quot;&gt;Theora&lt;/a&gt; codeces are available on
6659 the web.  This are the terms in the Vorbis and Theora specification:
6660
6661 &lt;blockquote&gt;
6662
6663 Anyone may freely use and distribute the Ogg and [Vorbis/Theora]
6664 specifications, whether in private, public, or corporate
6665 capacity. However, the Xiph.Org Foundation and the Ogg project reserve
6666 the right to set the Ogg [Vorbis/Theora] specification and certify
6667 specification compliance.
6668
6669 &lt;/blockquote&gt;
6670
6671 &lt;p&gt;The Ogg container format is specified in IETF
6672 &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.xiph.org/ogg/doc/rfc3533.txt&quot;&gt;RFC 3533&lt;/a&gt;, and
6673 this is the term:&lt;p&gt;
6674
6675 &lt;blockquote&gt;
6676
6677 &lt;p&gt;This document and translations of it may be copied and furnished to
6678 others, and derivative works that comment on or otherwise explain it
6679 or assist in its implementation may be prepared, copied, published and
6680 distributed, in whole or in part, without restriction of any kind,
6681 provided that the above copyright notice and this paragraph are
6682 included on all such copies and derivative works.  However, this
6683 document itself may not be modified in any way, such as by removing
6684 the copyright notice or references to the Internet Society or other
6685 Internet organizations, except as needed for the purpose of developing
6686 Internet standards in which case the procedures for copyrights defined
6687 in the Internet Standards process must be followed, or as required to
6688 translate it into languages other than English.&lt;/p&gt;
6689
6690 &lt;p&gt;The limited permissions granted above are perpetual and will not be
6691 revoked by the Internet Society or its successors or assigns.&lt;/p&gt;
6692 &lt;/blockquote&gt;
6693
6694 &lt;p&gt;All these terms seem to allow unlimited distribution and use, an
6695 this term seem to be fulfilled.  There might be a problem with the
6696 missing permission to distribute modified versions of the text, and
6697 thus reuse it in other specifications.  Not quite sure if that is a
6698 requirement for the Digistan definition.&lt;/p&gt;
6699
6700 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Royalty-free?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
6701
6702 &lt;p&gt;There are no known patent claims requiring royalties for the Ogg
6703 Theora format.
6704 &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.streamingmedia.com/Articles/ReadArticle.aspx?ArticleID=65782&quot;&gt;MPEG-LA&lt;/a&gt;
6705 and
6706 &lt;a href=&quot;http://yro.slashdot.org/story/10/04/30/237238/Steve-Jobs-Hints-At-Theora-Lawsuit&quot;&gt;Steve
6707 Jobs&lt;/a&gt; in Apple claim to know about some patent claims (submarine
6708 patents) against the Theora format, but no-one else seem to believe
6709 them.  Both Opera Software and the Mozilla Foundation have looked into
6710 this and decided to implement Ogg Theora support in their browsers
6711 without paying any royalties.  For now the claims from MPEG-LA and
6712 Steve Jobs seem more like FUD to scare people to use the H.264 codec
6713 than any real problem with Ogg Theora.&lt;/p&gt;
6714
6715 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;No constraints on re-use?&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
6716
6717 &lt;p&gt;I am not aware of any constraints on re-use.&lt;/p&gt;
6718
6719 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Conclusion&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
6720
6721 &lt;p&gt;3 of 5 requirements seem obviously fulfilled, and the remaining 2
6722 depend on the governing structure of the Xiph foundation.  Given the
6723 background report used by the Norwegian government, I believe it is
6724 safe to assume the last two requirements are fulfilled too, but it
6725 would be nice if the Xiph foundation web site made it easier to verify
6726 this.&lt;/p&gt;
6727
6728 &lt;p&gt;It would be nice to see other analysis of other specifications to
6729 see if they are free and open standards.&lt;/p&gt;
6730 </description>
6731         </item>
6732
6733         <item>
6734                 <title>The reply from Edgar Villanueva to Microsoft in Peru</title>
6735                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_reply_from_Edgar_Villanueva_to_Microsoft_in_Peru.html</link>
6736                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_reply_from_Edgar_Villanueva_to_Microsoft_in_Peru.html</guid>
6737                 <pubDate>Sat, 25 Dec 2010 10:50:00 +0100</pubDate>
6738                 <description>&lt;p&gt;A few days ago
6739 &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.idg.no/computerworld/article189879.ece&quot;&gt;an
6740 article&lt;/a&gt; in the Norwegian Computerworld magazine about how version
6741 2.0 of
6742 &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Interoperability_Framework&quot;&gt;European
6743 Interoperability Framework&lt;/a&gt; has been successfully lobbied by the
6744 proprietary software industry to remove the focus on free software.
6745 Nothing very surprising there, given
6746 &lt;a href=&quot;http://news.slashdot.org/story/10/03/29/2115235/Open-Source-Open-Standards-Under-Attack-In-Europe&quot;&gt;earlier
6747 reports&lt;/a&gt; on how Microsoft and others have stacked the committees in
6748 this work.  But I find this very sad.   The definition of
6749 &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.nuug.no/dokumenter/standard-presse-def-200506.txt&quot;&gt;an
6750 open standard from version 1&lt;/a&gt; was very good, and something I
6751 believe should be used also in the future, alongside
6752 &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.digistan.org/open-standard:definition&quot;&gt;the
6753 definition from Digistan&lt;/A&gt;.  Version 2 have removed the open
6754 standard definition from its content.&lt;/p&gt;
6755
6756 &lt;p&gt;Anyway, the news reminded me of the great reply sent by Dr. Edgar
6757 Villanueva, congressman in Peru at the time, to Microsoft as a reply
6758 to Microsofts attack on his proposal regarding the use of free software
6759 in the public sector in Peru.  As the text was not available from a
6760 few of the URLs where it used to be available, I copy it here from
6761 &lt;a href=&quot;http://gnuwin.epfl.ch/articles/en/reponseperou/villanueva_to_ms.html&quot;&gt;my
6762 source&lt;/a&gt; to ensure it is available also in the future.  Some
6763 background information about that story is available in
6764 &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/6099&quot;&gt;an article&lt;/a&gt; from
6765 Linux Journal in 2002.&lt;/p&gt;
6766
6767 &lt;blockquote&gt;
6768 &lt;p&gt;Lima, 8th of April, 2002&lt;br&gt;
6769 To: Señor JUAN ALBERTO GONZÁLEZ&lt;br&gt;
6770 General Manager of Microsoft Perú&lt;/p&gt;
6771
6772 &lt;p&gt;Dear Sir:&lt;/p&gt;
6773
6774 &lt;p&gt;First of all, I thank you for your letter of March 25, 2002 in which you state the official position of Microsoft relative to Bill Number 1609, Free Software in Public Administration, which is indubitably inspired by the desire for Peru to find a suitable place in the global technological context. In the same spirit, and convinced that we will find the best solutions through an exchange of clear and open ideas, I will take this opportunity to reply to the commentaries included in your letter.&lt;/p&gt;
6775
6776 &lt;p&gt;While acknowledging that opinions such as yours constitute a significant contribution, it would have been even more worthwhile for me if, rather than formulating objections of a general nature (which we will analyze in detail later) you had gathered solid arguments for the advantages that proprietary software could bring to the Peruvian State, and to its citizens in general, since this would have allowed a more enlightening exchange in respect of each of our positions.&lt;/p&gt;
6777
6778 &lt;p&gt;With the aim of creating an orderly debate, we will assume that what you call &quot;open source software&quot; is what the Bill defines as &quot;free software&quot;, since there exists software for which the source code is distributed together with the program, but which does not fall within the definition established by the Bill; and that what you call &quot;commercial software&quot; is what the Bill defines as &quot;proprietary&quot; or &quot;unfree&quot;, given that there exists free software which is sold in the market for a price like any other good or service.&lt;/p&gt;
6779
6780 &lt;p&gt;It is also necessary to make it clear that the aim of the Bill we are discussing is not directly related to the amount of direct savings that can by made by using free software in state institutions. That is in any case a marginal aggregate value, but in no way is it the chief focus of the Bill. The basic principles which inspire the Bill are linked to the basic guarantees of a state of law, such as:&lt;/p&gt;
6781
6782 &lt;p&gt;
6783 &lt;ul&gt;
6784 &lt;li&gt;Free access to public information by the citizen. &lt;/li&gt;
6785 &lt;li&gt;Permanence of public data. &lt;/li&gt;
6786 &lt;li&gt;Security of the State and citizens.&lt;/li&gt;
6787 &lt;/ul&gt;
6788 &lt;/p&gt;
6789
6790 &lt;p&gt;To guarantee the free access of citizens to public information, it is indispensable that the encoding of data is not tied to a single provider. The use of standard and open formats gives a guarantee of this free access, if necessary through the creation of compatible free software.&lt;/p&gt;
6791
6792 &lt;p&gt;To guarantee the permanence of public data, it is necessary that the usability and maintenance of the software does not depend on the goodwill of the suppliers, or on the monopoly conditions imposed by them. For this reason the State needs systems the development of which can be guaranteed due to the availability of the source code.&lt;/p&gt;
6793
6794 &lt;p&gt;To guarantee national security or the security of the State, it is indispensable to be able to rely on systems without elements which allow control from a distance or the undesired transmission of information to third parties. Systems with source code freely accessible to the public are required to allow their inspection by the State itself, by the citizens, and by a large number of independent experts throughout the world. Our proposal brings further security, since the knowledge of the source code will eliminate the growing number of programs with *spy code*. &lt;/p&gt;
6795
6796 &lt;p&gt;In the same way, our proposal strengthens the security of the citizens, both in their role as legitimate owners of information managed by the state, and in their role as consumers. In this second case, by allowing the growth of a widespread availability of free software not containing *spy code* able to put at risk privacy and individual freedoms.&lt;/p&gt;
6797
6798 &lt;p&gt;In this sense, the Bill is limited to establishing the conditions under which the state bodies will obtain software in the future, that is, in a way compatible with these basic principles.&lt;/p&gt;
6799
6800
6801 &lt;p&gt;From reading the Bill it will be clear that once passed:&lt;br&gt;
6802 &lt;li&gt;the law does not forbid the production of proprietary software&lt;/li&gt;
6803 &lt;li&gt;the law does not forbid the sale of proprietary software&lt;/li&gt;
6804 &lt;li&gt;the law does not specify which concrete software to use&lt;/li&gt;
6805 &lt;li&gt;the law does not dictate the supplier from whom software will be bought&lt;/li&gt;
6806 &lt;li&gt;the law does not limit the terms under which a software product can be licensed.&lt;/li&gt;
6807
6808 &lt;/p&gt;
6809
6810 &lt;p&gt;What the Bill does express clearly, is that, for software to be acceptable for the state it is not enough that it is technically capable of fulfilling a task, but that further the contractual conditions must satisfy a series of requirements regarding the license, without which the State cannot guarantee the citizen adequate processing of his data, watching over its integrity, confidentiality, and accessibility throughout time, as these are very critical aspects for its normal functioning.&lt;/p&gt;
6811
6812 &lt;p&gt;We agree, Mr. Gonzalez, that information and communication technology have a significant impact on the quality of life of the citizens (whether it be positive or negative). We surely also agree that the basic values I have pointed out above are fundamental in a democratic state like Peru. So we are very interested to know of any other way of guaranteeing these principles, other than through the use of free software in the terms defined by the Bill.&lt;/p&gt;
6813
6814 &lt;p&gt;As for the observations you have made, we will now go on to analyze them in detail:&lt;/p&gt;
6815
6816 &lt;p&gt;Firstly, you point out that: &quot;1. The bill makes it compulsory for all public bodies to use only free software, that is to say open source software, which breaches the principles of equality before the law, that of non-discrimination and the right of free private enterprise, freedom of industry and of contract, protected by the constitution.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;
6817
6818 &lt;p&gt;This understanding is in error. The Bill in no way affects the rights you list; it limits itself entirely to establishing conditions for the use of software on the part of state institutions, without in any way meddling in private sector transactions. It is a well established principle that the State does not enjoy the wide spectrum of contractual freedom of the private sector, as it is limited in its actions precisely by the requirement for transparency of public acts; and in this sense, the preservation of the greater common interest must prevail when legislating on the matter.&lt;/p&gt;
6819
6820 &lt;p&gt;The Bill protects equality under the law, since no natural or legal person is excluded from the right of offering these goods to the State under the conditions defined in the Bill and without more limitations than those established by the Law of State Contracts and Purchasing (T.U.O. by Supreme Decree No. 012-2001-PCM).&lt;/p&gt;
6821
6822 &lt;p&gt;The Bill does not introduce any discrimination whatever, since it only establishes *how* the goods have to be provided (which is a state power) and not *who* has to provide them (which would effectively be discriminatory, if restrictions based on national origin, race religion, ideology, sexual preference etc. were imposed). On the contrary, the Bill is decidedly antidiscriminatory. This is so because by defining with no room for doubt the conditions for the provision of software, it prevents state bodies from using software which has a license including discriminatory conditions.&lt;/p&gt;
6823
6824 &lt;p&gt;It should be obvious from the preceding two paragraphs that the Bill does not harm free private enterprise, since the latter can always choose under what conditions it will produce software; some of these will be acceptable to the State, and others will not be since they contradict the guarantee of the basic principles listed above. This free initiative is of course compatible with the freedom of industry and freedom of contract (in the limited form in which the State can exercise the latter). Any private subject can produce software under the conditions which the State requires, or can refrain from doing so. Nobody is forced to adopt a model of production, but if they wish to provide software to the State, they must provide the mechanisms which guarantee the basic principles, and which are those described in the Bill.&lt;/p&gt;
6825
6826 &lt;p&gt;By way of an example: nothing in the text of the Bill would prevent your company offering the State bodies an office &quot;suite&quot;, under the conditions defined in the Bill and setting the price that you consider satisfactory. If you did not, it would not be due to restrictions imposed by the law, but to business decisions relative to the method of commercializing your products, decisions with which the State is not involved.&lt;/p&gt;
6827
6828 &lt;p&gt;To continue; you note that:&quot; 2. The bill, by making the use of open source software compulsory, would establish discriminatory and non competitive practices in the contracting and purchasing by public bodies...&quot;&lt;/p&gt;
6829
6830 &lt;p&gt;This statement is just a reiteration of the previous one, and so the response can be found above. However, let us concern ourselves for a moment with your comment regarding &quot;non-competitive ... practices.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;
6831
6832 &lt;p&gt;Of course, in defining any kind of purchase, the buyer sets conditions which relate to the proposed use of the good or service. From the start, this excludes certain manufacturers from the possibility of competing, but does not exclude them &quot;a priori&quot;, but rather based on a series of principles determined by the autonomous will of the purchaser, and so the process takes place in conformance with the law. And in the Bill it is established that *no one* is excluded from competing as far as he guarantees the fulfillment of the basic principles.&lt;/p&gt;
6833
6834 &lt;p&gt;Furthermore, the Bill *stimulates* competition, since it tends to generate a supply of software with better conditions of usability, and to better existing work, in a model of continuous improvement.&lt;/p&gt;
6835
6836 &lt;p&gt;On the other hand, the central aspect of competivity is the chance to provide better choices to the consumer. Now, it is impossible to ignore the fact that marketing does not play a neutral role when the product is offered on the market (since accepting the opposite would lead one to suppose that firms&#39; expenses in marketing lack any sense), and that therefore a significant expense under this heading can influence the decisions of the purchaser. This influence of marketing is in large measure reduced by the bill that we are backing, since the choice within the framework proposed is based on the *technical merits* of the product and not on the effort put into commercialization by the producer; in this sense, competitiveness is increased, since the smallest software producer can compete on equal terms with the most powerful corporations.&lt;/p&gt;
6837
6838 &lt;p&gt;It is necessary to stress that there is no position more anti-competitive than that of the big software producers, which frequently abuse their dominant position, since in innumerable cases they propose as a solution to problems raised by users: &quot;update your software to the new version&quot; (at the user&#39;s expense, naturally); furthermore, it is common to find arbitrary cessation of technical help for products, which, in the provider&#39;s judgment alone, are &quot;old&quot;; and so, to receive any kind of technical assistance, the user finds himself forced to migrate to new versions (with non-trivial costs, especially as changes in hardware platform are often involved). And as the whole infrastructure is based on proprietary data formats, the user stays &quot;trapped&quot; in the need to continue using products from the same supplier, or to make the huge effort to change to another environment (probably also proprietary).&lt;/p&gt;
6839
6840 &lt;p&gt;You add: &quot;3. So, by compelling the State to favor a business model based entirely on open source, the bill would only discourage the local and international manufacturing companies, which are the ones which really undertake important expenditures, create a significant number of direct and indirect jobs, as well as contributing to the GNP, as opposed to a model of open source software which tends to have an ever weaker economic impact, since it mainly creates jobs in the service sector.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;
6841
6842 &lt;p&gt;I do not agree with your statement. Partly because of what you yourself point out in paragraph 6 of your letter, regarding the relative weight of services in the context of software use. This contradiction alone would invalidate your position. The service model, adopted by a large number of companies in the software industry, is much larger in economic terms, and with a tendency to increase, than the licensing of programs.&lt;/p&gt;
6843
6844 &lt;p&gt;On the other hand, the private sector of the economy has the widest possible freedom to choose the economic model which best suits its interests, even if this freedom of choice is often obscured subliminally by the disproportionate expenditure on marketing by the producers of proprietary software.&lt;/p&gt;
6845
6846 &lt;p&gt;In addition, a reading of your opinion would lead to the conclusion that the State market is crucial and essential for the proprietary software industry, to such a point that the choice made by the State in this bill would completely eliminate the market for these firms. If that is true, we can deduce that the State must be subsidizing the proprietary software industry. In the unlikely event that this were true, the State would have the right to apply the subsidies in the area it considered of greatest social value; it is undeniable, in this improbable hypothesis, that if the State decided to subsidize software, it would have to do so choosing the free over the proprietary, considering its social effect and the rational use of taxpayers money.&lt;/p&gt;
6847
6848 &lt;p&gt;In respect of the jobs generated by proprietary software in countries like ours, these mainly concern technical tasks of little aggregate value; at the local level, the technicians who provide support for proprietary software produced by transnational companies do not have the possibility of fixing bugs, not necessarily for lack of technical capability or of talent, but because they do not have access to the source code to fix it. With free software one creates more technically qualified employment and a framework of free competence where success is only tied to the ability to offer good technical support and quality of service, one stimulates the market, and one increases the shared fund of knowledge, opening up alternatives to generate services of greater total value and a higher quality level, to the benefit of all involved: producers, service organizations, and consumers.&lt;/p&gt;
6849
6850 &lt;p&gt;It is a common phenomenon in developing countries that local software industries obtain the majority of their takings in the service sector, or in the creation of &quot;ad hoc&quot; software. Therefore, any negative impact that the application of the Bill might have in this sector will be more than compensated by a growth in demand for services (as long as these are carried out to high quality standards). If the transnational software companies decide not to compete under these new rules of the game, it is likely that they will undergo some decrease in takings in terms of payment for licenses; however, considering that these firms continue to allege that much of the software used by the State has been illegally copied, one can see that the impact will not be very serious. Certainly, in any case their fortune will be determined by market laws, changes in which cannot be avoided; many firms traditionally associated with proprietary software have already set out on the road (supported by copious expense) of providing services associated with free software, which shows that the models are not mutually exclusive.&lt;/p&gt;
6851
6852 &lt;p&gt;With this bill the State is deciding that it needs to preserve certain fundamental values. And it is deciding this based on its sovereign power, without affecting any of the constitutional guarantees. If these values could be guaranteed without having to choose a particular economic model, the effects of the law would be even more beneficial. In any case, it should be clear that the State does not choose an economic model; if it happens that there only exists one economic model capable of providing software which provides the basic guarantee of these principles, this is because of historical circumstances, not because of an arbitrary choice of a given model.&lt;/p&gt;
6853
6854 &lt;p&gt;Your letter continues: &quot;4. The bill imposes the use of open source software without considering the dangers that this can bring from the point of view of security, guarantee, and possible violation of the intellectual property rights of third parties.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;
6855
6856 &lt;p&gt;Alluding in an abstract way to &quot;the dangers this can bring&quot;, without specifically mentioning a single one of these supposed dangers, shows at the least some lack of knowledge of the topic. So, allow me to enlighten you on these points.&lt;/p&gt;
6857
6858 &lt;p&gt;On security:&lt;/p&gt;
6859
6860 &lt;p&gt;National security has already been mentioned in general terms in the initial discussion of the basic principles of the bill. In more specific terms, relative to the security of the software itself, it is well known that all software (whether proprietary or free) contains errors or &quot;bugs&quot; (in programmers&#39; slang). But it is also well known that the bugs in free software are fewer, and are fixed much more quickly, than in proprietary software. It is not in vain that numerous public bodies responsible for the IT security of state systems in developed countries require the use of free software for the same conditions of security and efficiency.&lt;/p&gt;
6861
6862 &lt;p&gt;What is impossible to prove is that proprietary software is more secure than free, without the public and open inspection of the scientific community and users in general. This demonstration is impossible because the model of proprietary software itself prevents this analysis, so that any guarantee of security is based only on promises of good intentions (biased, by any reckoning) made by the producer itself, or its contractors.&lt;/p&gt;
6863
6864 &lt;p&gt;It should be remembered that in many cases, the licensing conditions include Non-Disclosure clauses which prevent the user from publicly revealing security flaws found in the licensed proprietary product.&lt;/p&gt;
6865
6866 &lt;p&gt;In respect of the guarantee:&lt;/p&gt;
6867
6868 &lt;p&gt;As you know perfectly well, or could find out by reading the &quot;End User License Agreement&quot; of the products you license, in the great majority of cases the guarantees are limited to replacement of the storage medium in case of defects, but in no case is compensation given for direct or indirect damages, loss of profits, etc... If as a result of a security bug in one of your products, not fixed in time by yourselves, an attacker managed to compromise crucial State systems, what guarantees, reparations and compensation would your company make in accordance with your licensing conditions? The guarantees of proprietary software, inasmuch as programs are delivered ``AS IS&#39;&#39;, that is, in the state in which they are, with no additional responsibility of the provider in respect of function, in no way differ from those normal with free software.&lt;/p&gt;
6869
6870 &lt;p&gt;On Intellectual Property:&lt;/p&gt;
6871
6872 &lt;p&gt;Questions of intellectual property fall outside the scope of this bill, since they are covered by specific other laws. The model of free software in no way implies ignorance of these laws, and in fact the great majority of free software is covered by copyright. In reality, the inclusion of this question in your observations shows your confusion in respect of the legal framework in which free software is developed. The inclusion of the intellectual property of others in works claimed as one&#39;s own is not a practice that has been noted in the free software community; whereas, unfortunately, it has been in the area of proprietary software. As an example, the condemnation by the Commercial Court of Nanterre, France, on 27th September 2001 of Microsoft Corp. to a penalty of 3 million francs in damages and interest, for violation of intellectual property (piracy, to use the unfortunate term that your firm commonly uses in its publicity).&lt;/p&gt;
6873
6874 &lt;p&gt;You go on to say that: &quot;The bill uses the concept of open source software incorrectly, since it does not necessarily imply that the software is free or of zero cost, and so arrives at mistaken conclusions regarding State savings, with no cost-benefit analysis to validate its position.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;
6875
6876 &lt;p&gt;This observation is wrong; in principle, freedom and lack of cost are orthogonal concepts: there is software which is proprietary and charged for (for example, MS Office), software which is proprietary and free of charge (MS Internet Explorer), software which is free and charged for (Red Hat, SuSE etc GNU/Linux distributions), software which is free and not charged for (Apache, Open Office, Mozilla), and even software which can be licensed in a range of combinations (MySQL).&lt;/p&gt;
6877
6878 &lt;p&gt;Certainly free software is not necessarily free of charge. And the text of the bill does not state that it has to be so, as you will have noted after reading it. The definitions included in the Bill state clearly *what* should be considered free software, at no point referring to freedom from charges. Although the possibility of savings in payments for proprietary software licenses are mentioned, the foundations of the bill clearly refer to the fundamental guarantees to be preserved and to the stimulus to local technological development. Given that a democratic State must support these principles, it has no other choice than to use software with publicly available source code, and to exchange information only in standard formats.&lt;/p&gt;
6879
6880 &lt;p&gt;If the State does not use software with these characteristics, it will be weakening basic republican principles. Luckily, free software also implies lower total costs; however, even given the hypothesis (easily disproved) that it was more expensive than proprietary software, the simple existence of an effective free software tool for a particular IT function would oblige the State to use it; not by command of this Bill, but because of the basic principles we enumerated at the start, and which arise from the very essence of the lawful democratic State.&lt;/p&gt;
6881
6882 &lt;p&gt;You continue: &quot;6. It is wrong to think that Open Source Software is free of charge. Research by the Gartner Group (an important investigator of the technological market recognized at world level) has shown that the cost of purchase of software (operating system and applications) is only 8% of the total cost which firms and institutions take on for a rational and truly beneficial use of the technology. The other 92% consists of: installation costs, enabling, support, maintenance, administration, and down-time.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;
6883
6884 &lt;p&gt;This argument repeats that already given in paragraph 5 and partly contradicts paragraph 3. For the sake of brevity we refer to the comments on those paragraphs. However, allow me to point out that your conclusion is logically false: even if according to Gartner Group the cost of software is on average only 8% of the total cost of use, this does not in any way deny the existence of software which is free of charge, that is, with a licensing cost of zero.&lt;/p&gt;
6885
6886 &lt;p&gt;In addition, in this paragraph you correctly point out that the service components and losses due to down-time make up the largest part of the total cost of software use, which, as you will note, contradicts your statement regarding the small value of services suggested in paragraph 3. Now the use of free software contributes significantly to reduce the remaining life-cycle costs. This reduction in the costs of installation, support etc. can be noted in several areas: in the first place, the competitive service model of free software, support and maintenance for which can be freely contracted out to a range of suppliers competing on the grounds of quality and low cost. This is true for installation, enabling, and support, and in large part for maintenance. In the second place, due to the reproductive characteristics of the model, maintenance carried out for an application is easily replicable, without incurring large costs (that is, without paying more than once for the same thing) since modifications, if one wishes, can be incorporated in the common fund of knowledge. Thirdly, the huge costs caused by non-functioning software (&quot;blue screens of death&quot;, malicious code such as virus, worms, and trojans, exceptions, general protection faults and other well-known problems) are reduced considerably by using more stable software; and it is well known that one of the most notable virtues of free software is its stability.&lt;/p&gt;
6887
6888 &lt;p&gt;You further state that: &quot;7. One of the arguments behind the bill is the supposed freedom from costs of open-source software, compared with the costs of commercial software, without taking into account the fact that there exist types of volume licensing which can be highly advantageous for the State, as has happened in other countries.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;
6889
6890 &lt;p&gt;I have already pointed out that what is in question is not the cost of the software but the principles of freedom of information, accessibility, and security. These arguments have been covered extensively in the preceding paragraphs to which I would refer you.&lt;/p&gt;
6891
6892 &lt;p&gt;On the other hand, there certainly exist types of volume licensing (although unfortunately proprietary software does not satisfy the basic principles). But as you correctly pointed out in the immediately preceding paragraph of your letter, they only manage to reduce the impact of a component which makes up no more than 8% of the total.&lt;/p&gt;
6893
6894 &lt;p&gt;You continue: &quot;8. In addition, the alternative adopted by the bill (I) is clearly more expensive, due to the high costs of software migration, and (II) puts at risk compatibility and interoperability of the IT platforms within the State, and between the State and the private sector, given the hundreds of versions of open source software on the market.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;
6895
6896 &lt;p&gt;Let us analyze your statement in two parts. Your first argument, that migration implies high costs, is in reality an argument in favor of the Bill. Because the more time goes by, the more difficult migration to another technology will become; and at the same time, the security risks associated with proprietary software will continue to increase. In this way, the use of proprietary systems and formats will make the State ever more dependent on specific suppliers. Once a policy of using free software has been established (which certainly, does imply some cost) then on the contrary migration from one system to another becomes very simple, since all data is stored in open formats. On the other hand, migration to an open software context implies no more costs than migration between two different proprietary software contexts, which invalidates your argument completely.&lt;/p&gt;
6897
6898 &lt;p&gt;The second argument refers to &quot;problems in interoperability of the IT platforms within the State, and between the State and the private sector&quot; This statement implies a certain lack of knowledge of the way in which free software is built, which does not maximize the dependence of the user on a particular platform, as normally happens in the realm of proprietary software. Even when there are multiple free software distributions, and numerous programs which can be used for the same function, interoperability is guaranteed as much by the use of standard formats, as required by the bill, as by the possibility of creating interoperable software given the availability of the source code.&lt;/p&gt;
6899
6900 &lt;p&gt;You then say that: &quot;9. The majority of open source code does not offer adequate levels of service nor the guarantee from recognized manufacturers of high productivity on the part of the users, which has led various public organizations to retract their decision to go with an open source software solution and to use commercial software in its place.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;
6901
6902 &lt;p&gt;This observation is without foundation. In respect of the guarantee, your argument was rebutted in the response to paragraph 4. In respect of support services, it is possible to use free software without them (just as also happens with proprietary software), but anyone who does need them can obtain support separately, whether from local firms or from international corporations, again just as in the case of proprietary software.&lt;/p&gt;
6903
6904 &lt;p&gt;On the other hand, it would contribute greatly to our analysis if you could inform us about free software projects *established* in public bodies which have already been abandoned in favor of proprietary software. We know of a good number of cases where the opposite has taken place, but not know of any where what you describe has taken place.&lt;/p&gt;
6905
6906 &lt;p&gt;You continue by observing that: &quot;10. The bill discourages the creativity of the Peruvian software industry, which invoices 40 million US$/year, exports 4 million US$ (10th in ranking among non-traditional exports, more than handicrafts) and is a source of highly qualified employment. With a law that encourages the use of open source, software programmers lose their intellectual property rights and their main source of payment.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;
6907
6908 &lt;p&gt;It is clear enough that nobody is forced to commercialize their code as free software. The only thing to take into account is that if it is not free software, it cannot be sold to the public sector. This is not in any case the main market for the national software industry. We covered some questions referring to the influence of the Bill on the generation of employment which would be both highly technically qualified and in better conditions for competition above, so it seems unnecessary to insist on this point.&lt;/p&gt;
6909
6910 &lt;p&gt;What follows in your statement is incorrect. On the one hand, no author of free software loses his intellectual property rights, unless he expressly wishes to place his work in the public domain. The free software movement has always been very respectful of intellectual property, and has generated widespread public recognition of its authors. Names like those of Richard Stallman, Linus Torvalds, Guido van Rossum, Larry Wall, Miguel de Icaza, Andrew Tridgell, Theo de Raadt, Andrea Arcangeli, Bruce Perens, Darren Reed, Alan Cox, Eric Raymond, and many others, are recognized world-wide for their contributions to the development of software that is used today by millions of people throughout the world. On the other hand, to say that the rewards for authors rights make up the main source of payment of Peruvian programmers is in any case a guess, in particular since there is no proof to this effect, nor a demonstration of how the use of free software by the State would influence these payments.&lt;/p&gt;
6911
6912 &lt;p&gt;You go on to say that: &quot;11. Open source software, since it can be distributed without charge, does not allow the generation of income for its developers through exports. In this way, the multiplier effect of the sale of software to other countries is weakened, and so in turn is the growth of the industry, while Government rules ought on the contrary to stimulate local industry.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;
6913
6914 &lt;p&gt;This statement shows once again complete ignorance of the mechanisms of and market for free software. It tries to claim that the market of sale of non- exclusive rights for use (sale of licenses) is the only possible one for the software industry, when you yourself pointed out several paragraphs above that it is not even the most important one. The incentives that the bill offers for the growth of a supply of better qualified professionals, together with the increase in experience that working on a large scale with free software within the State will bring for Peruvian technicians, will place them in a highly competitive position to offer their services abroad.&lt;/p&gt;
6915
6916 &lt;p&gt;You then state that: &quot;12. In the Forum, the use of open source software in education was discussed, without mentioning the complete collapse of this initiative in a country like Mexico, where precisely the State employees who founded the project now state that open source software did not make it possible to offer a learning experience to pupils in the schools, did not take into account the capability at a national level to give adequate support to the platform, and that the software did not and does not allow for the levels of platform integration that now exist in schools.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;
6917
6918 &lt;p&gt;In fact Mexico has gone into reverse with the Red Escolar (Schools Network) project. This is due precisely to the fact that the driving forces behind the Mexican project used license costs as their main argument, instead of the other reasons specified in our project, which are far more essential. Because of this conceptual mistake, and as a result of the lack of effective support from the SEP (Secretary of State for Public Education), the assumption was made that to implant free software in schools it would be enough to drop their software budget and send them a CD ROM with Gnu/Linux instead. Of course this failed, and it couldn&#39;t have been otherwise, just as school laboratories fail when they use proprietary software and have no budget for implementation and maintenance. That&#39;s exactly why our bill is not limited to making the use of free software mandatory, but recognizes the need to create a viable migration plan, in which the State undertakes the technical transition in an orderly way in order to then enjoy the advantages of free software.&lt;/p&gt;
6919
6920 &lt;p&gt;You end with a rhetorical question: &quot;13. If open source software satisfies all the requirements of State bodies, why do you need a law to adopt it? Shouldn&#39;t it be the market which decides freely which products give most benefits or value?&quot;&lt;/p&gt;
6921
6922 &lt;p&gt;We agree that in the private sector of the economy, it must be the market that decides which products to use, and no state interference is permissible there. However, in the case of the public sector, the reasoning is not the same: as we have already established, the state archives, handles, and transmits information which does not belong to it, but which is entrusted to it by citizens, who have no alternative under the rule of law. As a counterpart to this legal requirement, the State must take extreme measures to safeguard the integrity, confidentiality, and accessibility of this information. The use of proprietary software raises serious doubts as to whether these requirements can be fulfilled, lacks conclusive evidence in this respect, and so is not suitable for use in the public sector.&lt;/p&gt;
6923
6924 &lt;p&gt;The need for a law is based, firstly, on the realization of the fundamental principles listed above in the specific area of software; secondly, on the fact that the State is not an ideal homogeneous entity, but made up of multiple bodies with varying degrees of autonomy in decision making. Given that it is inappropriate to use proprietary software, the fact of establishing these rules in law will prevent the personal discretion of any state employee from putting at risk the information which belongs to citizens. And above all, because it constitutes an up-to-date reaffirmation in relation to the means of management and communication of information used today, it is based on the republican principle of openness to the public.&lt;/p&gt;
6925
6926 &lt;p&gt;In conformance with this universally accepted principle, the citizen has the right to know all information held by the State and not covered by well- founded declarations of secrecy based on law. Now, software deals with information and is itself information. Information in a special form, capable of being interpreted by a machine in order to execute actions, but crucial information all the same because the citizen has a legitimate right to know, for example, how his vote is computed or his taxes calculated. And for that he must have free access to the source code and be able to prove to his satisfaction the programs used for electoral computations or calculation of his taxes.&lt;/p&gt;
6927
6928 &lt;p&gt;I wish you the greatest respect, and would like to repeat that my office will always be open for you to expound your point of view to whatever level of detail you consider suitable.&lt;/p&gt;
6929
6930 &lt;p&gt;Cordially,&lt;br&gt;
6931 DR. EDGAR DAVID VILLANUEVA NUÑEZ&lt;br&gt;
6932 Congressman of the Republic of Perú.&lt;/p&gt;
6933 &lt;/blockquote&gt;
6934 </description>
6935         </item>
6936
6937         <item>
6938                 <title>Officeshots still going strong</title>
6939                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Officeshots_still_going_strong.html</link>
6940                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Officeshots_still_going_strong.html</guid>
6941                 <pubDate>Sat, 25 Dec 2010 09:40:00 +0100</pubDate>
6942                 <description>&lt;p&gt;Half a year ago I
6943 &lt;a href=&quot;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Officeshots_taking_shape.html&quot;&gt;wrote
6944 a bit&lt;/a&gt; about &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.officeshots.org/&quot;&gt;OfficeShots&lt;/a&gt;,
6945 a web service to allow anyone to test how ODF documents are handled by
6946 the different programs reading and writing the ODF format.&lt;/p&gt;
6947
6948 &lt;p&gt;I just had a look at the service, and it seem to be going strong.
6949 Very interesting to see the results reported in the gallery, how
6950 different Office implementations handle different ODF features.  Sad
6951 to see that KOffice was not doing it very well, and happy to see that
6952 LibreOffice has been tested already (but sadly not listed as a option
6953 for OfficeShots users yet).  I am glad to see that the ODF community
6954 got such a great test tool available.&lt;/p&gt;
6955 </description>
6956         </item>
6957
6958         <item>
6959                 <title>How to test if a laptop is working with Linux</title>
6960                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_test_if_a_laptop_is_working_with_Linux.html</link>
6961                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_test_if_a_laptop_is_working_with_Linux.html</guid>
6962                 <pubDate>Wed, 22 Dec 2010 14:55:00 +0100</pubDate>
6963                 <description>&lt;p&gt;The last few days I have spent at work here at the &lt;a
6964 href=&quot;http://www.uio.no/&quot;&gt;University of Oslo&lt;/a&gt; testing if the new
6965 batch of computers will work with Linux.  Every year for the last few
6966 years the university have organised shared bid of a few thousand
6967 computers, and this year HP won the bid.  Two different desktops and
6968 five different laptops are on the list this year.  We in the UNIX
6969 group want to know which one of these computers work well with RHEL
6970 and Ubuntu, the two Linux distributions we currently handle at the
6971 university.&lt;/p&gt;
6972
6973 &lt;p&gt;My test method is simple, and I share it here to get feedback and
6974 perhaps inspire others to test hardware as well.  To test, I PXE
6975 install the OS version of choice, and log in as my normal user and run
6976 a few applications and plug in selected pieces of hardware.  When
6977 something fail, I make a note about this in the test matrix and move
6978 on.  If I have some spare time I try to report the bug to the OS
6979 vendor, but as I only have the machines for a short time, I rarely
6980 have the time to do this for all the problems I find.&lt;/p&gt;
6981
6982 &lt;p&gt;Anyway, to get to the point of this post.  Here is the simple tests
6983 I perform on a new model.&lt;/p&gt;
6984
6985 &lt;ul&gt;
6986
6987 &lt;li&gt;Is PXE installation working?  I&#39;m testing with RHEL6, Ubuntu Lucid
6988 and Ubuntu Maverik at the moment.  If I feel like it, I also test with
6989 RHEL5 and Debian Edu/Squeeze.&lt;/li&gt;
6990
6991 &lt;li&gt;Is X.org working?  If the graphical login screen show up after
6992 installation, X.org is working.&lt;/li&gt;
6993
6994 &lt;li&gt;Is hardware accelerated OpenGL working?  Running glxgears (in
6995 package mesa-utils on Ubuntu) and writing down the frames per second
6996 reported by the program.&lt;/li&gt;
6997
6998 &lt;li&gt;Is sound working?  With Gnome and KDE, a sound is played when
6999 logging in, and if I can hear this the test is successful.  If there
7000 are several audio exits on the machine, I try them all and check if
7001 the Gnome/KDE audio mixer can control where to send the sound.  I
7002 normally test this by playing
7003 &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.nuug.no/aktiviteter/20101012-chef/ &quot;&gt;a HTML5
7004 video&lt;/a&gt; in Firefox/Iceweasel.&lt;/li&gt;
7005
7006 &lt;li&gt;Is the USB subsystem working?  I test this by plugging in a USB
7007 memory stick and see if Gnome/KDE notices this.&lt;/li&gt;
7008
7009 &lt;li&gt;Is the CD/DVD player working?  I test this by inserting any CD/DVD
7010 I have lying around, and see if Gnome/KDE notices this.&lt;/li&gt;
7011
7012 &lt;li&gt;Is any built in camera working?  Test using cheese, and see if a
7013 picture from the v4l device show up.&lt;/li&gt;
7014
7015 &lt;li&gt;Is bluetooth working?  Use the Gnome/KDE browsing tool to see if
7016 any bluetooth devices are discovered.  In my office, I normally see a
7017 few.&lt;/li&gt;
7018
7019 &lt;li&gt;For laptops, is the SD or Compaq Flash reader working.  I have
7020 memory modules lying around, and stick them in and see if Gnome/KDE
7021 notice this.&lt;/li&gt;
7022
7023 &lt;li&gt;For laptops, is suspend/hibernate working?  I&#39;m testing if the
7024 special button work, and if the laptop continue to work after
7025 resume.&lt;/li&gt;
7026
7027 &lt;li&gt;For laptops, is the extra buttons working, like audio level,
7028 adjusting background light, switching on/off external video output,
7029 switching on/off wifi, bluetooth, etc?  The set of buttons differ from
7030 laptop to laptop, so I just write down which are working and which are
7031 not.&lt;/li&gt;
7032
7033 &lt;li&gt;Some laptops have smart card readers, finger print readers,
7034 acceleration sensors etc.  I rarely test these, as I do not know how
7035 to quickly test if they are working or not, so I only document their
7036 existence.&lt;/li&gt;
7037
7038 &lt;/ul&gt;
7039
7040 &lt;p&gt;By now I suspect you are really curious what the test results are
7041 for the HP machines I am testing.  I&#39;m not done yet, so I will report
7042 the test results later.  For now I can report that HP 8100 Elite work
7043 fine, and hibernation fail with HP EliteBook 8440p on Ubuntu Lucid,
7044 and audio fail on RHEL6.  Ubuntu Maverik worked with 8440p.  As you
7045 can see, I have most machines left to test.  One interesting
7046 observation is that Ubuntu Lucid has almost twice the frame rate than
7047 RHEL6 with glxgears.  No idea why.&lt;/p&gt;
7048 </description>
7049         </item>
7050
7051         <item>
7052                 <title>Some thoughts on BitCoins</title>
7053                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Some_thoughts_on_BitCoins.html</link>
7054                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Some_thoughts_on_BitCoins.html</guid>
7055                 <pubDate>Sat, 11 Dec 2010 15:10:00 +0100</pubDate>
7056                 <description>&lt;p&gt;As I continue to explore
7057 &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bitcoin.org/&quot;&gt;BitCoin&lt;/a&gt;, I&#39;ve starting to wonder
7058 what properties the system have, and how it will be affected by laws
7059 and regulations here in Norway.  Here are some random notes.&lt;/p&gt;
7060
7061 &lt;p&gt;One interesting thing to note is that since the transactions are
7062 verified using a peer to peer network, all details about a transaction
7063 is known to everyone.  This means that if a BitCoin address has been
7064 published like I did with mine in my initial post about BitCoin, it is
7065 possible for everyone to see how many BitCoins have been transfered to
7066 that address.  There is even a web service to look at the details for
7067 all transactions.  There I can see that my address
7068 &lt;a href=&quot;http://blockexplorer.com/address/15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b&quot;&gt;15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b&lt;/a&gt;
7069 have received 16.06 Bitcoin, the
7070 &lt;a href=&quot;http://blockexplorer.com/address/1LfdGnGuWkpSJgbQySxxCWhv8MHqvwst3&quot;&gt;1LfdGnGuWkpSJgbQySxxCWhv8MHqvwst3&lt;/a&gt;
7071 address of Simon Phipps have received 181.97 BitCoin and the address
7072 &lt;a href=&quot;http://blockexplorer.com/address/1MCwBbhNGp5hRm5rC1Aims2YFRe2SXPYKt&quot;&gt;1MCwBbhNGp5hRm5rC1Aims2YFRe2SXPYKt&lt;/A&gt;
7073 of EFF have received 2447.38 BitCoins so far.  Thank you to each and
7074 every one of you that donated bitcoins to support my activity. The
7075 fact that anyone can see how much money was transfered to a given
7076 address make it more obvious why the BitCoin community recommend to
7077 generate and hand out a new address for each transaction.  I&#39;m told
7078 there is no way to track which addresses belong to a given person or
7079 organisation without the person or organisation revealing it
7080 themselves, as Simon, EFF and I have done.&lt;/p&gt;
7081
7082 &lt;p&gt;In Norway, and in most other countries, there are laws and
7083 regulations limiting how much money one can transfer across the border
7084 without declaring it.  There are money laundering, tax and accounting
7085 laws and regulations I would expect to apply to the use of BitCoin.
7086 If the Skolelinux foundation
7087 (&lt;a href=&quot;http://linuxiskolen.no/slxdebianlabs/donations.html&quot;&gt;SLX
7088 Debian Labs&lt;/a&gt;) were to accept donations in BitCoin in addition to
7089 normal bank transfers like EFF is doing, how should this be accounted?
7090 Given that it is impossible to know if money can cross the border or
7091 not, should everything or nothing be declared?  What exchange rate
7092 should be used when calculating taxes?  Would receivers have to pay
7093 income tax if the foundation were to pay Skolelinux contributors in
7094 BitCoin?  I have no idea, but it would be interesting to know.&lt;/p&gt;
7095
7096 &lt;p&gt;For a currency to be useful and successful, it must be trusted and
7097 accepted by a lot of users.  It must be possible to get easy access to
7098 the currency (as a wage or using currency exchanges), and it must be
7099 easy to spend it.  At the moment BitCoin seem fairly easy to get
7100 access to, but there are very few places to spend it.  I am not really
7101 a regular user of any of the vendor types currently accepting BitCoin,
7102 so I wonder when my kind of shop would start accepting BitCoins.  I
7103 would like to buy electronics, travels and subway tickets, not herbs
7104 and books. :) The currency is young, and this will improve over time
7105 if it become popular, but I suspect regular banks will start to lobby
7106 to get BitCoin declared illegal if it become popular.  I&#39;m sure they
7107 will claim it is helping fund terrorism and money laundering (which
7108 probably would be true, as is any currency in existence), but I
7109 believe the problems should be solved elsewhere and not by blaming
7110 currencies.&lt;/p&gt;
7111
7112 &lt;p&gt;The process of creating new BitCoins is called mining, and it is
7113 CPU intensive process that depend on a bit of luck as well (as one is
7114 competing against all the other miners currently spending CPU cycles
7115 to see which one get the next lump of cash).  The &quot;winner&quot; get 50
7116 BitCoin when this happen.  Yesterday I came across the obvious way to
7117 join forces to increase ones changes of getting at least some coins,
7118 by coordinating the work on mining BitCoins across several machines
7119 and people, and sharing the result if one is lucky and get the 50
7120 BitCoins.  Check out
7121 &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bluishcoder.co.nz/bitcoin-pool/&quot;&gt;BitCoin Pool&lt;/a&gt;
7122 if this sounds interesting.  I have not had time to try to set up a
7123 machine to participate there yet, but have seen that running on ones
7124 own for a few days have not yield any BitCoins througth mining
7125 yet.&lt;/p&gt;
7126
7127 &lt;p&gt;Update 2010-12-15: Found an &lt;a
7128 href=&quot;http://inertia.posterous.com/reply-to-the-underground-economist-why-bitcoi&quot;&gt;interesting
7129 criticism&lt;/a&gt; of bitcoin.  Not quite sure how valid it is, but thought
7130 it was interesting to read.  The arguments presented seem to be
7131 equally valid for gold, which was used as a currency for many years.&lt;/p&gt;
7132 </description>
7133         </item>
7134
7135         <item>
7136                 <title>Now accepting bitcoins - anonymous and distributed p2p crypto-money</title>
7137                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Now_accepting_bitcoins___anonymous_and_distributed_p2p_crypto_money.html</link>
7138                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Now_accepting_bitcoins___anonymous_and_distributed_p2p_crypto_money.html</guid>
7139                 <pubDate>Fri, 10 Dec 2010 08:20:00 +0100</pubDate>
7140                 <description>&lt;p&gt;With this weeks lawless
7141 &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2010/12/06/wikileaks/index.html&quot;&gt;governmental
7142 attacks&lt;/a&gt; on Wikileak and
7143 &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.salon.com/technology/dan_gillmor/2010/12/06/war_on_speech&quot;&gt;free
7144 speech&lt;/a&gt;, it has become obvious that PayPal, visa and mastercard can
7145 not be trusted to handle money transactions.
7146 A blog post from
7147 &lt;a href=&quot;http://webmink.com/2010/12/06/now-accepting-bitcoin/&quot;&gt;Simon
7148 Phipps on bitcoin&lt;/a&gt; reminded me about a project that a friend of
7149 mine mentioned earlier.  I decided to follow Simon&#39;s example, and get
7150 involved with &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bitcoin.org/&quot;&gt;BitCoin&lt;/a&gt;.  I got
7151 some help from my friend to get it all running, and he even handed me
7152 some bitcoins to get started.  I even donated a few bitcoins to Simon
7153 for helping me remember BitCoin.&lt;/p&gt;
7154
7155 &lt;p&gt;So, what is bitcoins, you probably wonder?  It is a digital
7156 crypto-currency, decentralised and handled using peer-to-peer
7157 networks.  It allows anonymous transactions and prohibits central
7158 control over the transactions, making it impossible for governments
7159 and companies alike to block donations and other transactions.  The
7160 source is free software, and while the key dependency wxWidgets 2.9
7161 for the graphical user interface is missing in Debian, the command
7162 line client builds just fine.  Hopefully Jonas
7163 &lt;a href=&quot;http://bugs.debian.org/578157&quot;&gt;will get the package into
7164 Debian&lt;/a&gt; soon.&lt;/p&gt;
7165
7166 &lt;p&gt;Bitcoins can be converted to other currencies, like USD and EUR.
7167 There are &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bitcoin.org/trade&quot;&gt;companies accepting
7168 bitcoins&lt;/a&gt; when selling services and goods, and there are even
7169 currency &quot;stock&quot; markets where the exchange rate is decided.  There
7170 are not many users so far, but the concept seems promising.  If you
7171 want to get started and lack a friend with any bitcoins to spare,
7172 you can even get
7173 &lt;a href=&quot;https://freebitcoins.appspot.com/&quot;&gt;some for free&lt;/a&gt; (0.05
7174 bitcoin at the time of writing).  Use
7175 &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.bitcoinwatch.com/&quot;&gt;BitcoinWatch&lt;/a&gt; to keep an eye
7176 on the current exchange rates.&lt;/p&gt;
7177
7178 &lt;p&gt;As an experiment, I have decided to set up bitcoind on one of my
7179 machines.  If you want to support my activity, please send Bitcoin
7180 donations to the address
7181 &lt;b&gt;15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b&lt;/b&gt;.  Thank you!&lt;/p&gt;
7182 </description>
7183         </item>
7184
7185         <item>
7186                 <title>Student group continue the work on my Reprap 3D printer</title>
7187                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Student_group_continue_the_work_on_my_Reprap_3D_printer.html</link>
7188                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Student_group_continue_the_work_on_my_Reprap_3D_printer.html</guid>
7189                 <pubDate>Thu, 9 Dec 2010 19:30:00 +0100</pubDate>
7190                 <description>&lt;p&gt;A few days ago, I was introduces to some students in the robot
7191 student assosiation &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.robotica.no/&quot;&gt;Robotica
7192 Osloensis&lt;/a&gt; at the University of Oslo where I work, who planned to
7193 get their own 3D printer.  They wanted to learn from me based on my
7194 work in the area.  After having a short lunch meeting with them, I
7195 offered them to borrow my reprap kit, as I never had time to complete
7196 the build and this seem unlike to change any time soon.  I look
7197 forward to see how this goes.  This monday their volunteer driver
7198 picked up my kit and drove it to their lab, and tomorrow I am told the
7199 last exam is over so they can start work on getting the 3D printer
7200 operational.&lt;/p&gt;
7201
7202 &lt;p&gt;The robotic group have already build several robots on their own,
7203 and seem capable of getting the reprap operational.  I really look
7204 forward to being able to print all the cool 3D designs published on
7205 &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.thingiverse.com/&quot;&gt;Thingiverse&lt;/a&gt;.  I even got
7206 some 3D scans I got made during Dagen@IFI when one of the groups at
7207 the computer science department at the university demonstrated their
7208 very cool 3D scanner.&lt;/p&gt;
7209 </description>
7210         </item>
7211
7212         <item>
7213                 <title>Debian Edu development gathering and General Assembly for FRiSK</title>
7214                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_development_gathering_and_General_Assembly_for_FRiSK.html</link>
7215                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_development_gathering_and_General_Assembly_for_FRiSK.html</guid>
7216                 <pubDate>Mon, 29 Nov 2010 18:40:00 +0100</pubDate>
7217                 <description>&lt;p&gt;On friday, the first Debian Edu / Skolelinux
7218 &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.friprogramvareiskolen.no/Gathering/2010-12-03-05-Oslo&quot;&gt;development
7219 gathering&lt;/a&gt; in a long time take place here in Oslo, Norway.  I
7220 really look forward to seeing all the good people working on the
7221 Squeeze release.  The gathering is open for everyone interested in
7222 learning more about Debian Edu / Skolelinux.&lt;/p&gt;
7223
7224 &lt;p&gt;On Saturday, the Norwegian member organization taking care of
7225 organizing these development gatherings, Fri Programvare i Skolen,
7226 will hold its
7227 &lt;a href=&quot;http://friprogramvareiskolen.no/Genfors/2010&quot;&gt;General Assembly
7228 for 2010&lt;/a&gt;.  Membership is open for all, and currently there are 388
7229 people registered as members.  Last year 32 members cast their vote in
7230 the memberdb based election system.  I hope more people find time to
7231 vote this year.&lt;/p&gt;
7232 </description>
7233         </item>
7234
7235         <item>
7236                 <title>Why isn&#39;t Debian Edu using VLC?</title>
7237                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Why_isn_t_Debian_Edu_using_VLC_.html</link>
7238                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Why_isn_t_Debian_Edu_using_VLC_.html</guid>
7239                 <pubDate>Sat, 27 Nov 2010 11:30:00 +0100</pubDate>
7240                 <description>&lt;p&gt;In the latest issue of Linux Journal, the readers choices were
7241 presented, and the winner among the multimedia player were VLC.
7242 Personally, I like VLC, and it is my player of choice when I first try
7243 to play a video file or stream.  Only if VLC fail will I drag out
7244 gmplayer to see if it can do better.  The reason is mostly the failure
7245 model and trust.  When VLC fail, it normally pop up a error message
7246 reporting the problem.  When mplayer fail, it normally segfault or
7247 just hangs.  The latter failure mode drain my trust in the program.&lt;p&gt;
7248
7249 &lt;p&gt;But even if VLC is my player of choice, we have choosen to use
7250 mplayer in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.skolelinux.org/&quot;&gt;Debian
7251 Edu/Skolelinux&lt;/a&gt;.  The reason is simple.  We need a good browser
7252 plugin to play web videos seamlessly, and the VLC browser plugin is
7253 not very good.  For example, it lack in-line control buttons, so there
7254 is no way for the user to pause the video.  Also, when I
7255 &lt;a href=&quot;http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/BrowserMultimedia&quot;&gt;last
7256 tested the browser plugins&lt;/a&gt; available in Debian, the VLC plugin
7257 failed on several video pages where mplayer based plugins worked.  If
7258 the browser plugin for VLC was as good as the gecko-mediaplayer
7259 package (which uses mplayer), we would switch.&lt;/P&gt;
7260
7261 &lt;p&gt;While VLC is a good player, its user interface is slightly
7262 annoying.  The most annoying feature is its inconsistent use of
7263 keyboard shortcuts.  When the player is in full screen mode, its
7264 shortcuts are different from when it is playing the video in a window.
7265 For example, space only work as pause when in full screen mode.  I
7266 wish it had consisten shortcuts and that space also would work when in
7267 window mode.  Another nice shortcut in gmplayer is [enter] to restart
7268 the current video.  It is very nice when playing short videos from the
7269 web and want to restart it when new people arrive to have a look at
7270 what is going on.&lt;/p&gt;
7271 </description>
7272         </item>
7273
7274         <item>
7275                 <title>Lenny-&gt;Squeeze upgrades of the Gnome and KDE desktop, now with apt-get autoremove</title>
7276                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lenny__Squeeze_upgrades_of_the_Gnome_and_KDE_desktop__now_with_apt_get_autoremove.html</link>
7277                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lenny__Squeeze_upgrades_of_the_Gnome_and_KDE_desktop__now_with_apt_get_autoremove.html</guid>
7278                 <pubDate>Mon, 22 Nov 2010 14:15:00 +0100</pubDate>
7279                 <description>&lt;p&gt;Michael Biebl suggested to me on IRC, that I changed my automated
7280 upgrade testing of the
7281 &lt;a href=&quot;http://people.skolelinux.org/~pere/debian-upgrade-testing/&quot;&gt;Lenny
7282 Gnome and KDE Desktop&lt;/a&gt; to do &lt;tt&gt;apt-get autoremove&lt;/tt&gt; when using apt-get.
7283 This seem like a very good idea, so I adjusted by test scripts and
7284 can now present the updated result from today:&lt;/p&gt;
7285
7286 &lt;p&gt;This is for Gnome:&lt;/p&gt;
7287
7288 &lt;p&gt;Installed using apt-get, missing with aptitude&lt;/p&gt;
7289
7290 &lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;p&gt;
7291   apache2.2-bin
7292   aptdaemon
7293   baobab
7294   binfmt-support
7295   browser-plugin-gnash
7296   cheese-common
7297   cli-common
7298   cups-pk-helper
7299   dmz-cursor-theme
7300   empathy
7301   empathy-common
7302   freedesktop-sound-theme
7303   freeglut3
7304   gconf-defaults-service
7305   gdm-themes
7306   gedit-plugins
7307   geoclue
7308   geoclue-hostip
7309   geoclue-localnet
7310   geoclue-manual
7311   geoclue-yahoo
7312   gnash
7313   gnash-common
7314   gnome
7315   gnome-backgrounds
7316   gnome-cards-data
7317   gnome-codec-install
7318   gnome-core
7319   gnome-desktop-environment
7320   gnome-disk-utility
7321   gnome-screenshot
7322   gnome-search-tool
7323   gnome-session-canberra
7324   gnome-system-log
7325   gnome-themes-extras
7326   gnome-themes-more
7327   gnome-user-share
7328   gstreamer0.10-fluendo-mp3
7329   gstreamer0.10-tools
7330   gtk2-engines
7331   gtk2-engines-pixbuf
7332   gtk2-engines-smooth
7333   hamster-applet
7334   libapache2-mod-dnssd
7335   libapr1
7336   libaprutil1
7337   libaprutil1-dbd-sqlite3
7338   libaprutil1-ldap
7339   libart2.0-cil
7340   libboost-date-time1.42.0
7341   libboost-python1.42.0
7342   libboost-thread1.42.0
7343   libchamplain-0.4-0
7344   libchamplain-gtk-0.4-0
7345   libcheese-gtk18
7346   libclutter-gtk-0.10-0
7347   libcryptui0
7348   libdiscid0
7349   libelf1
7350   libepc-1.0-2
7351   libepc-common
7352   libepc-ui-1.0-2
7353   libfreerdp-plugins-standard
7354   libfreerdp0
7355   libgconf2.0-cil
7356   libgdata-common
7357   libgdata7
7358   libgdu-gtk0
7359   libgee2
7360   libgeoclue0
7361   libgexiv2-0
7362   libgif4
7363   libglade2.0-cil
7364   libglib2.0-cil
7365   libgmime2.4-cil
7366   libgnome-vfs2.0-cil
7367   libgnome2.24-cil
7368   libgnomepanel2.24-cil
7369   libgpod-common
7370   libgpod4
7371   libgtk2.0-cil
7372   libgtkglext1
7373   libgtksourceview2.0-common
7374   libmono-addins-gui0.2-cil
7375   libmono-addins0.2-cil
7376   libmono-cairo2.0-cil
7377   libmono-corlib2.0-cil
7378   libmono-i18n-west2.0-cil
7379   libmono-posix2.0-cil
7380   libmono-security2.0-cil
7381   libmono-sharpzip2.84-cil
7382   libmono-system2.0-cil
7383   libmtp8
7384   libmusicbrainz3-6
7385   libndesk-dbus-glib1.0-cil
7386   libndesk-dbus1.0-cil
7387   libopal3.6.8
7388   libpolkit-gtk-1-0
7389   libpt2.6.7
7390   libpython2.6
7391   librpm1
7392   librpmio1
7393   libsdl1.2debian
7394   libsrtp0
7395   libssh-4
7396   libtelepathy-farsight0
7397   libtelepathy-glib0
7398   libtidy-0.99-0
7399   media-player-info
7400   mesa-utils
7401   mono-2.0-gac
7402   mono-gac
7403   mono-runtime
7404   nautilus-sendto
7405   nautilus-sendto-empathy
7406   p7zip-full
7407   pkg-config
7408   python-aptdaemon
7409   python-aptdaemon-gtk
7410   python-axiom
7411   python-beautifulsoup
7412   python-bugbuddy
7413   python-clientform
7414   python-coherence
7415   python-configobj
7416   python-crypto
7417   python-cupshelpers
7418   python-elementtree
7419   python-epsilon
7420   python-evolution
7421   python-feedparser
7422   python-gdata
7423   python-gdbm
7424   python-gst0.10
7425   python-gtkglext1
7426   python-gtksourceview2
7427   python-httplib2
7428   python-louie
7429   python-mako
7430   python-markupsafe
7431   python-mechanize
7432   python-nevow
7433   python-notify
7434   python-opengl
7435   python-openssl
7436   python-pam
7437   python-pkg-resources
7438   python-pyasn1
7439   python-pysqlite2
7440   python-rdflib
7441   python-serial
7442   python-tagpy
7443   python-twisted-bin
7444   python-twisted-conch
7445   python-twisted-core
7446   python-twisted-web
7447   python-utidylib
7448   python-webkit
7449   python-xdg
7450   python-zope.interface
7451   remmina
7452   remmina-plugin-data
7453   remmina-plugin-rdp
7454   remmina-plugin-vnc
7455   rhythmbox-plugin-cdrecorder
7456   rhythmbox-plugins
7457   rpm-common
7458   rpm2cpio
7459   seahorse-plugins
7460   shotwell
7461   software-center
7462   system-config-printer-udev
7463   telepathy-gabble
7464   telepathy-mission-control-5
7465   telepathy-salut
7466   tomboy
7467   totem
7468   totem-coherence
7469   totem-mozilla
7470   totem-plugins
7471   transmission-common
7472   xdg-user-dirs
7473   xdg-user-dirs-gtk
7474   xserver-xephyr
7475 &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
7476
7477 &lt;p&gt;Installed using apt-get, removed with aptitude&lt;/p&gt;
7478
7479 &lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;p&gt;
7480   cheese
7481   ekiga
7482   eog
7483   epiphany-extensions
7484   evolution-exchange
7485   fast-user-switch-applet
7486   file-roller
7487   gcalctool
7488   gconf-editor
7489   gdm
7490   gedit
7491   gedit-common
7492   gnome-games
7493   gnome-games-data
7494   gnome-nettool
7495   gnome-system-tools
7496   gnome-themes
7497   gnuchess
7498   gucharmap
7499   guile-1.8-libs
7500   libavahi-ui0
7501   libdmx1
7502   libgalago3
7503   libgtk-vnc-1.0-0
7504   libgtksourceview2.0-0
7505   liblircclient0
7506   libsdl1.2debian-alsa
7507   libspeexdsp1
7508   libsvga1
7509   rhythmbox
7510   seahorse
7511   sound-juicer
7512   system-config-printer
7513   totem-common
7514   transmission-gtk
7515   vinagre
7516   vino
7517 &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
7518
7519 &lt;p&gt;Installed using aptitude, missing with apt-get&lt;/p&gt;
7520
7521 &lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;p&gt;
7522   gstreamer0.10-gnomevfs
7523 &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
7524
7525 &lt;p&gt;Installed using aptitude, removed with apt-get&lt;/p&gt;
7526
7527 &lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;p&gt;
7528 [nothing]
7529 &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
7530
7531 &lt;p&gt;This is for KDE:&lt;/p&gt;
7532
7533 &lt;p&gt;Installed using apt-get, missing with aptitude&lt;/p&gt;
7534
7535 &lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;p&gt;
7536   ksmserver
7537 &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
7538
7539 &lt;p&gt;Installed using apt-get, removed with aptitude&lt;/p&gt;
7540
7541 &lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;p&gt;
7542   kwin
7543   network-manager-kde
7544 &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
7545
7546 &lt;p&gt;Installed using aptitude, missing with apt-get&lt;/p&gt;
7547
7548 &lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;p&gt;
7549   arts
7550   dolphin
7551   freespacenotifier
7552   google-gadgets-gst
7553   google-gadgets-xul
7554   kappfinder
7555   kcalc
7556   kcharselect
7557   kde-core
7558   kde-plasma-desktop
7559   kde-standard
7560   kde-window-manager
7561   kdeartwork
7562   kdeartwork-emoticons
7563   kdeartwork-style
7564   kdeartwork-theme-icon
7565   kdebase
7566   kdebase-apps
7567   kdebase-workspace
7568   kdebase-workspace-bin
7569   kdebase-workspace-data
7570   kdeeject
7571   kdelibs
7572   kdeplasma-addons
7573   kdeutils
7574   kdewallpapers
7575   kdf
7576   kfloppy
7577   kgpg
7578   khelpcenter4
7579   kinfocenter
7580   konq-plugins-l10n
7581   konqueror-nsplugins
7582   kscreensaver
7583   kscreensaver-xsavers
7584   ktimer
7585   kwrite
7586   libgle3
7587   libkde4-ruby1.8
7588   libkonq5
7589   libkonq5-templates
7590   libnetpbm10
7591   libplasma-ruby
7592   libplasma-ruby1.8
7593   libqt4-ruby1.8
7594   marble-data
7595   marble-plugins
7596   netpbm
7597   nuvola-icon-theme
7598   plasma-dataengines-workspace
7599   plasma-desktop
7600   plasma-desktopthemes-artwork
7601   plasma-runners-addons
7602   plasma-scriptengine-googlegadgets
7603   plasma-scriptengine-python
7604   plasma-scriptengine-qedje
7605   plasma-scriptengine-ruby
7606   plasma-scriptengine-webkit
7607   plasma-scriptengines
7608   plasma-wallpapers-addons
7609   plasma-widget-folderview
7610   plasma-widget-networkmanagement
7611   ruby
7612   sweeper
7613   update-notifier-kde
7614   xscreensaver-data-extra
7615   xscreensaver-gl
7616   xscreensaver-gl-extra
7617   xscreensaver-screensaver-bsod
7618 &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
7619
7620 &lt;p&gt;Installed using aptitude, removed with apt-get&lt;/p&gt;
7621
7622 &lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;p&gt;
7623   ark
7624   google-gadgets-common
7625   google-gadgets-qt
7626   htdig
7627   kate
7628   kdebase-bin
7629   kdebase-data
7630   kdepasswd
7631   kfind
7632   klipper
7633   konq-plugins
7634   konqueror
7635   ksysguard
7636   ksysguardd
7637   libarchive1
7638   libcln6
7639   libeet1
7640   libeina-svn-06
7641   libggadget-1.0-0b
7642   libggadget-qt-1.0-0b
7643   libgps19
7644   libkdecorations4
7645   libkephal4
7646   libkonq4
7647   libkonqsidebarplugin4a
7648   libkscreensaver5
7649   libksgrd4
7650   libksignalplotter4
7651   libkunitconversion4
7652   libkwineffects1a
7653   libmarblewidget4
7654   libntrack-qt4-1
7655   libntrack0
7656   libplasma-geolocation-interface4
7657   libplasmaclock4a
7658   libplasmagenericshell4
7659   libprocesscore4a
7660   libprocessui4a
7661   libqalculate5
7662   libqedje0a
7663   libqtruby4shared2
7664   libqzion0a
7665   libruby1.8
7666   libscim8c2a
7667   libsmokekdecore4-3
7668   libsmokekdeui4-3
7669   libsmokekfile3
7670   libsmokekhtml3
7671   libsmokekio3
7672   libsmokeknewstuff2-3
7673   libsmokeknewstuff3-3
7674   libsmokekparts3
7675   libsmokektexteditor3
7676   libsmokekutils3
7677   libsmokenepomuk3
7678   libsmokephonon3
7679   libsmokeplasma3
7680   libsmokeqtcore4-3
7681   libsmokeqtdbus4-3
7682   libsmokeqtgui4-3
7683   libsmokeqtnetwork4-3
7684   libsmokeqtopengl4-3
7685   libsmokeqtscript4-3
7686   libsmokeqtsql4-3
7687   libsmokeqtsvg4-3
7688   libsmokeqttest4-3
7689   libsmokeqtuitools4-3
7690   libsmokeqtwebkit4-3
7691   libsmokeqtxml4-3
7692   libsmokesolid3
7693   libsmokesoprano3
7694   libtaskmanager4a
7695   libtidy-0.99-0
7696   libweather-ion4a
7697   libxklavier16
7698   libxxf86misc1
7699   okteta
7700   oxygencursors
7701   plasma-dataengines-addons
7702   plasma-scriptengine-superkaramba
7703   plasma-widget-lancelot
7704   plasma-widgets-addons
7705   plasma-widgets-workspace
7706   polkit-kde-1
7707   ruby1.8
7708   systemsettings
7709   update-notifier-common
7710 &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
7711
7712 &lt;p&gt;Running apt-get autoremove made the results using apt-get and
7713 aptitude a bit more similar, but there are still quite a lott of
7714 differences.  I have no idea what packages should be installed after
7715 the upgrade, but hope those that do can have a look.&lt;/p&gt;
7716 </description>
7717         </item>
7718
7719         <item>
7720                 <title>Migrating Xen virtual machines using LVM to KVM using disk images</title>
7721                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Migrating_Xen_virtual_machines_using_LVM_to_KVM_using_disk_images.html</link>
7722                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Migrating_Xen_virtual_machines_using_LVM_to_KVM_using_disk_images.html</guid>
7723                 <pubDate>Mon, 22 Nov 2010 11:20:00 +0100</pubDate>
7724                 <description>&lt;p&gt;Most of the computers in use by the
7725 &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.skolelinux.org/&quot;&gt;Debian Edu/Skolelinux project&lt;/a&gt;
7726 are virtual machines.  And they have been Xen machines running on a
7727 fairly old IBM eserver xseries 345 machine, and we wanted to migrate
7728 them to KVM on a newer Dell PowerEdge 2950 host machine.  This was a
7729 bit harder that it could have been, because we set up the Xen virtual
7730 machines to get the virtual partitions from LVM, which as far as I
7731 know is not supported by KVM.  So to migrate, we had to convert
7732 several LVM logical volumes to partitions on a virtual disk file.&lt;/p&gt;
7733
7734 &lt;p&gt;I found
7735 &lt;a href=&quot;http://searchnetworking.techtarget.com.au/articles/35011-Six-steps-for-migrating-Xen-virtual-machines-to-KVM&quot;&gt;a
7736 nice recipe&lt;/a&gt; to do this, and wrote the following script to do the
7737 migration.  It uses qemu-img from the qemu package to make the disk
7738 image, parted to partition it, losetup and kpartx to present the disk
7739 image partions as devices, and dd to copy the data.  I NFS mounted the
7740 new servers storage area on the old server to do the migration.&lt;/p&gt;
7741
7742 &lt;pre&gt;
7743 #!/bin/sh
7744
7745 # Based on
7746 # http://searchnetworking.techtarget.com.au/articles/35011-Six-steps-for-migrating-Xen-virtual-machines-to-KVM
7747
7748 set -e
7749 set -x
7750
7751 if [ -z &quot;$1&quot; ] ; then
7752     echo &quot;Usage: $0 &amp;lt;hostname&amp;gt;&quot;
7753     exit 1
7754 else
7755     host=&quot;$1&quot;
7756 fi
7757
7758 if [ ! -e /dev/vg_data/$host-disk ] ; then
7759     echo &quot;error: unable to find LVM volume for $host&quot;
7760     exit 1
7761 fi
7762
7763 # Partitions need to be a bit bigger than the LVM LVs.  not sure why.
7764 disksize=$( lvs --units m | grep $host-disk | awk &#39;{sum = sum + $4} END { print int(sum * 1.05) }&#39;)
7765 swapsize=$( lvs --units m | grep $host-swap | awk &#39;{sum = sum + $4} END { print int(sum * 1.05) }&#39;)
7766 totalsize=$(( ( $disksize + $swapsize ) ))
7767
7768 img=$host.img
7769 #dd if=/dev/zero of=$img bs=1M count=$(( $disksize + $swapsize ))
7770 qemu-img create $img ${totalsize}MMaking room on the Debian Edu/Sqeeze DVD
7771
7772 parted $img mklabel msdos
7773 parted $img mkpart primary linux-swap 0 $disksize
7774 parted $img mkpart primary ext2 $disksize $totalsize
7775 parted $img set 1 boot on
7776
7777 modprobe dm-mod
7778 losetup /dev/loop0 $img
7779 kpartx -a /dev/loop0
7780
7781 dd if=/dev/vg_data/$host-disk of=/dev/mapper/loop0p1 bs=1M
7782 fsck.ext3 -f /dev/mapper/loop0p1 || true
7783 mkswap /dev/mapper/loop0p2
7784
7785 kpartx -d /dev/loop0
7786 losetup -d /dev/loop0
7787 &lt;/pre&gt;
7788
7789 &lt;p&gt;The script is perhaps so simple that it is not copyrightable, but
7790 if it is, it is licenced using GPL v2 or later at your discretion.&lt;/p&gt;
7791
7792 &lt;p&gt;After doing this, I booted a Debian CD in rescue mode in KVM with
7793 the new disk image attached, installed grub-pc and linux-image-686 and
7794 set up grub to boot from the disk image.  After this, the KVM machines
7795 seem to work just fine.&lt;/p&gt;
7796 </description>
7797         </item>
7798
7799         <item>
7800                 <title>Lenny-&gt;Squeeze upgrades, apt vs aptitude with the Gnome and KDE desktop</title>
7801                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lenny__Squeeze_upgrades__apt_vs_aptitude_with_the_Gnome_and_KDE_desktop.html</link>
7802                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lenny__Squeeze_upgrades__apt_vs_aptitude_with_the_Gnome_and_KDE_desktop.html</guid>
7803                 <pubDate>Sat, 20 Nov 2010 22:50:00 +0100</pubDate>
7804                 <description>&lt;p&gt;I&#39;m still running upgrade testing of the
7805 &lt;a href=&quot;http://people.skolelinux.org/~pere/debian-upgrade-testing/&quot;&gt;Lenny
7806 Gnome and KDE Desktop&lt;/a&gt;, but have not had time to spend on reporting the
7807 status.  Here is a short update based on a test I ran 20101118.&lt;/p&gt;
7808
7809 &lt;p&gt;I still do not know what a correct migration should look like, so I
7810 report any differences between apt and aptitude and hope someone else
7811 can see if anything should be changed.&lt;/p&gt;
7812
7813 &lt;p&gt;This is for Gnome:&lt;/p&gt;
7814
7815 &lt;p&gt;Installed using apt-get, missing with aptitude&lt;/p&gt;
7816
7817 &lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;p&gt;
7818   apache2.2-bin aptdaemon at-spi baobab binfmt-support
7819   browser-plugin-gnash cheese-common cli-common cpp-4.3 cups-pk-helper
7820   dmz-cursor-theme empathy empathy-common finger
7821   freedesktop-sound-theme freeglut3 gconf-defaults-service gdm-themes
7822   gedit-plugins geoclue geoclue-hostip geoclue-localnet geoclue-manual
7823   geoclue-yahoo gnash gnash-common gnome gnome-backgrounds
7824   gnome-cards-data gnome-codec-install gnome-core
7825   gnome-desktop-environment gnome-disk-utility gnome-screenshot
7826   gnome-search-tool gnome-session-canberra gnome-spell
7827   gnome-system-log gnome-themes-extras gnome-themes-more
7828   gnome-user-share gs-common gstreamer0.10-fluendo-mp3
7829   gstreamer0.10-tools gtk2-engines gtk2-engines-pixbuf
7830   gtk2-engines-smooth hal-info hamster-applet libapache2-mod-dnssd
7831   libapr1 libaprutil1 libaprutil1-dbd-sqlite3 libaprutil1-ldap
7832   libart2.0-cil libatspi1.0-0 libboost-date-time1.42.0
7833   libboost-python1.42.0 libboost-thread1.42.0 libchamplain-0.4-0
7834   libchamplain-gtk-0.4-0 libcheese-gtk18 libclutter-gtk-0.10-0
7835   libcryptui0 libcupsys2 libdiscid0 libeel2-data libelf1 libepc-1.0-2
7836   libepc-common libepc-ui-1.0-2 libfreerdp-plugins-standard
7837   libfreerdp0 libgail-common libgconf2.0-cil libgdata-common libgdata7
7838   libgdl-1-common libgdu-gtk0 libgee2 libgeoclue0 libgexiv2-0 libgif4
7839   libglade2.0-cil libglib2.0-cil libgmime2.4-cil libgnome-vfs2.0-cil
7840   libgnome2.24-cil libgnomepanel2.24-cil libgnomeprint2.2-data
7841   libgnomeprintui2.2-common libgnomevfs2-bin libgpod-common libgpod4
7842   libgtk2.0-cil libgtkglext1 libgtksourceview-common
7843   libgtksourceview2.0-common libmono-addins-gui0.2-cil
7844   libmono-addins0.2-cil libmono-cairo2.0-cil libmono-corlib2.0-cil
7845   libmono-i18n-west2.0-cil libmono-posix2.0-cil
7846   libmono-security2.0-cil libmono-sharpzip2.84-cil
7847   libmono-system2.0-cil libmtp8 libmusicbrainz3-6
7848   libndesk-dbus-glib1.0-cil libndesk-dbus1.0-cil libopal3.6.8
7849   libpolkit-gtk-1-0 libpt-1.10.10-plugins-alsa
7850   libpt-1.10.10-plugins-v4l libpt2.6.7 libpython2.6 librpm1 librpmio1
7851   libsdl1.2debian libservlet2.4-java libsrtp0 libssh-4
7852   libtelepathy-farsight0 libtelepathy-glib0 libtidy-0.99-0
7853   libxalan2-java libxerces2-java media-player-info mesa-utils
7854   mono-2.0-gac mono-gac mono-runtime nautilus-sendto
7855   nautilus-sendto-empathy openoffice.org-writer2latex
7856   openssl-blacklist p7zip p7zip-full pkg-config python-4suite-xml
7857   python-aptdaemon python-aptdaemon-gtk python-axiom
7858   python-beautifulsoup python-bugbuddy python-clientform
7859   python-coherence python-configobj python-crypto python-cupshelpers
7860   python-cupsutils python-eggtrayicon python-elementtree
7861   python-epsilon python-evolution python-feedparser python-gdata
7862   python-gdbm python-gst0.10 python-gtkglext1 python-gtkmozembed
7863   python-gtksourceview2 python-httplib2 python-louie python-mako
7864   python-markupsafe python-mechanize python-nevow python-notify
7865   python-opengl python-openssl python-pam python-pkg-resources
7866   python-pyasn1 python-pysqlite2 python-rdflib python-serial
7867   python-tagpy python-twisted-bin python-twisted-conch
7868   python-twisted-core python-twisted-web python-utidylib python-webkit
7869   python-xdg python-zope.interface remmina remmina-plugin-data
7870   remmina-plugin-rdp remmina-plugin-vnc rhythmbox-plugin-cdrecorder
7871   rhythmbox-plugins rpm-common rpm2cpio seahorse-plugins shotwell
7872   software-center svgalibg1 system-config-printer-udev
7873   telepathy-gabble telepathy-mission-control-5 telepathy-salut tomboy
7874   totem totem-coherence totem-mozilla totem-plugins
7875   transmission-common xdg-user-dirs xdg-user-dirs-gtk xserver-xephyr
7876   zip
7877 &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
7878
7879 Installed using apt-get, removed with aptitude
7880
7881 &lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;p&gt;
7882   arj bluez-utils cheese dhcdbd djvulibre-desktop ekiga eog
7883   epiphany-extensions epiphany-gecko evolution-exchange
7884   fast-user-switch-applet file-roller gcalctool gconf-editor gdm gedit
7885   gedit-common gnome-app-install gnome-games gnome-games-data
7886   gnome-nettool gnome-system-tools gnome-themes gnome-utils
7887   gnome-vfs-obexftp gnome-volume-manager gnuchess gucharmap
7888   guile-1.8-libs hal libavahi-compat-libdnssd1 libavahi-core5
7889   libavahi-ui0 libbind9-50 libbluetooth2 libcamel1.2-11 libcdio7
7890   libcucul0 libcurl3 libdirectfb-1.0-0 libdmx1 libdvdread3
7891   libedata-cal1.2-6 libedataserver1.2-9 libeel2-2.20 libepc-1.0-1
7892   libepc-ui-1.0-1 libexchange-storage1.2-3 libfaad0 libgadu3
7893   libgalago3 libgd2-noxpm libgda3-3 libgda3-common libggz2 libggzcore9
7894   libggzmod4 libgksu1.2-0 libgksuui1.0-1 libgmyth0 libgnome-desktop-2
7895   libgnome-pilot2 libgnomecups1.0-1 libgnomeprint2.2-0
7896   libgnomeprintui2.2-0 libgpod3 libgraphviz4 libgtk-vnc-1.0-0
7897   libgtkhtml2-0 libgtksourceview1.0-0 libgtksourceview2.0-0
7898   libgucharmap6 libhesiod0 libicu38 libisccc50 libisccfg50 libiw29
7899   libjaxp1.3-java-gcj libkpathsea4 liblircclient0 libltdl3 liblwres50
7900   libmagick++10 libmagick10 libmalaga7 libmozjs1d libmpfr1ldbl libmtp7
7901   libmysqlclient15off libnautilus-burn4 libneon27 libnm-glib0
7902   libnm-util0 libopal-2.2 libosp5 libparted1.8-10 libpisock9
7903   libpisync1 libpoppler-glib3 libpoppler3 libpt-1.10.10 libraw1394-8
7904   libsdl1.2debian-alsa libsensors3 libsexy2 libsmbios2 libsoup2.2-8
7905   libspeexdsp1 libssh2-1 libsuitesparse-3.1.0 libsvga1
7906   libswfdec-0.6-90 libtalloc1 libtotem-plparser10 libtrackerclient0
7907   libvoikko1 libxalan2-java-gcj libxerces2-java-gcj libxklavier12
7908   libxtrap6 libxxf86misc1 libzephyr3 mysql-common rhythmbox seahorse
7909   sound-juicer swfdec-gnome system-config-printer totem-common
7910   totem-gstreamer transmission-gtk vinagre vino w3c-dtd-xhtml wodim
7911 &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
7912
7913 &lt;p&gt;Installed using aptitude, missing with apt-get&lt;/p&gt;
7914
7915 &lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;p&gt;
7916   gstreamer0.10-gnomevfs
7917 &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
7918
7919 &lt;p&gt;Installed using aptitude, removed with apt-get&lt;/p&gt;
7920
7921 &lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;p&gt;
7922 [nothing]
7923 &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
7924
7925 &lt;p&gt;This is for KDE:&lt;/p&gt;
7926
7927 &lt;p&gt;Installed using apt-get, missing with aptitude&lt;/p&gt;
7928
7929 &lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;p&gt;
7930   autopoint bomber bovo cantor cantor-backend-kalgebra cpp-4.3 dcoprss
7931   edict espeak espeak-data eyesapplet fifteenapplet finger gettext
7932   ghostscript-x git gnome-audio gnugo granatier gs-common
7933   gstreamer0.10-pulseaudio indi kaddressbook-plugins kalgebra
7934   kalzium-data kanjidic kapman kate-plugins kblocks kbreakout kbstate
7935   kde-icons-mono kdeaccessibility kdeaddons-kfile-plugins
7936   kdeadmin-kfile-plugins kdeartwork-misc kdeartwork-theme-window
7937   kdeedu kdeedu-data kdeedu-kvtml-data kdegames kdegames-card-data
7938   kdegames-mahjongg-data kdegraphics-kfile-plugins kdelirc
7939   kdemultimedia-kfile-plugins kdenetwork-kfile-plugins
7940   kdepim-kfile-plugins kdepim-kio-plugins kdessh kdetoys kdewebdev
7941   kdiamond kdnssd kfilereplace kfourinline kgeography-data kigo
7942   killbots kiriki klettres-data kmoon kmrml knewsticker-scripts
7943   kollision kpf krosspython ksirk ksmserver ksquares kstars-data
7944   ksudoku kubrick kweather libasound2-plugins libboost-python1.42.0
7945   libcfitsio3 libconvert-binhex-perl libcrypt-ssleay-perl libdb4.6++
7946   libdjvulibre-text libdotconf1.0 liberror-perl libespeak1
7947   libfinance-quote-perl libgail-common libgsl0ldbl libhtml-parser-perl
7948   libhtml-tableextract-perl libhtml-tagset-perl libhtml-tree-perl
7949   libio-stringy-perl libkdeedu4 libkdegames5 libkiten4 libkpathsea5
7950   libkrossui4 libmailtools-perl libmime-tools-perl
7951   libnews-nntpclient-perl libopenbabel3 libportaudio2 libpulse-browse0
7952   libservlet2.4-java libspeechd2 libtiff-tools libtimedate-perl
7953   libunistring0 liburi-perl libwww-perl libxalan2-java libxerces2-java
7954   lirc luatex marble networkstatus noatun-plugins
7955   openoffice.org-writer2latex palapeli palapeli-data parley
7956   parley-data poster psutils pulseaudio pulseaudio-esound-compat
7957   pulseaudio-module-x11 pulseaudio-utils quanta-data rocs rsync
7958   speech-dispatcher step svgalibg1 texlive-binaries texlive-luatex
7959   ttf-sazanami-gothic
7960 &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
7961
7962 &lt;p&gt;Installed using apt-get, removed with aptitude&lt;/p&gt;
7963
7964 &lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;p&gt;
7965   amor artsbuilder atlantik atlantikdesigner blinken bluez-utils cvs
7966   dhcdbd djvulibre-desktop imlib-base imlib11 kalzium kanagram kandy
7967   kasteroids katomic kbackgammon kbattleship kblackbox kbounce kbruch
7968   kcron kdat kdemultimedia-kappfinder-data kdeprint kdict kdvi kedit
7969   keduca kenolaba kfax kfaxview kfouleggs kgeography kghostview
7970   kgoldrunner khangman khexedit kiconedit kig kimagemapeditor
7971   kitchensync kiten kjumpingcube klatin klettres klickety klines
7972   klinkstatus kmag kmahjongg kmailcvt kmenuedit kmid kmilo kmines
7973   kmousetool kmouth kmplot knetwalk kodo kolf kommander konquest kooka
7974   kpager kpat kpdf kpercentage kpilot kpoker kpovmodeler krec
7975   kregexpeditor kreversi ksame ksayit kshisen ksig ksim ksirc ksirtet
7976   ksmiletris ksnake ksokoban kspaceduel kstars ksvg ksysv kteatime
7977   ktip ktnef ktouch ktron kttsd ktuberling kturtle ktux kuickshow
7978   kverbos kview kviewshell kvoctrain kwifimanager kwin kwin4 kwordquiz
7979   kworldclock kxsldbg libakode2 libarts1-akode libarts1-audiofile
7980   libarts1-mpeglib libarts1-xine libavahi-compat-libdnssd1
7981   libavahi-core5 libavc1394-0 libbind9-50 libbluetooth2
7982   libboost-python1.34.1 libcucul0 libcurl3 libcvsservice0
7983   libdirectfb-1.0-0 libdjvulibre21 libdvdread3 libfaad0 libfreebob0
7984   libgd2-noxpm libgraphviz4 libgsmme1c2a libgtkhtml2-0 libicu38
7985   libiec61883-0 libindex0 libisccc50 libisccfg50 libiw29
7986   libjaxp1.3-java-gcj libk3b3 libkcal2b libkcddb1 libkdeedu3
7987   libkdegames1 libkdepim1a libkgantt0 libkleopatra1 libkmime2
7988   libkpathsea4 libkpimexchange1 libkpimidentities1 libkscan1
7989   libksieve0 libktnef1 liblockdev1 libltdl3 liblwres50 libmagick10
7990   libmimelib1c2a libmodplug0c2 libmozjs1d libmpcdec3 libmpfr1ldbl
7991   libneon27 libnm-util0 libopensync0 libpisock9 libpoppler-glib3
7992   libpoppler-qt2 libpoppler3 libraw1394-8 librss1 libsensors3
7993   libsmbios2 libssh2-1 libsuitesparse-3.1.0 libswfdec-0.6-90
7994   libtalloc1 libxalan2-java-gcj libxerces2-java-gcj libxtrap6 lskat
7995   mpeglib network-manager-kde noatun pmount tex-common texlive-base
7996   texlive-common texlive-doc-base texlive-fonts-recommended tidy
7997   ttf-dustin ttf-kochi-gothic ttf-sjfonts
7998 &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
7999
8000 &lt;p&gt;Installed using aptitude, missing with apt-get&lt;/p&gt;
8001
8002 &lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;p&gt;
8003   dolphin kde-core kde-plasma-desktop kde-standard kde-window-manager
8004   kdeartwork kdebase kdebase-apps kdebase-workspace
8005   kdebase-workspace-bin kdebase-workspace-data kdeutils kscreensaver
8006   kscreensaver-xsavers libgle3 libkonq5 libkonq5-templates libnetpbm10
8007   netpbm plasma-widget-folderview plasma-widget-networkmanagement
8008   xscreensaver-data-extra xscreensaver-gl xscreensaver-gl-extra
8009   xscreensaver-screensaver-bsod
8010 &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
8011
8012 &lt;p&gt;Installed using aptitude, removed with apt-get&lt;/p&gt;
8013
8014 &lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;p&gt;
8015   kdebase-bin konq-plugins konqueror
8016 &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
8017 </description>
8018         </item>
8019
8020         <item>
8021                 <title>Gnash buildbot slave and Debian kfreebsd</title>
8022                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Gnash_buildbot_slave_and_Debian_kfreebsd.html</link>
8023                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Gnash_buildbot_slave_and_Debian_kfreebsd.html</guid>
8024                 <pubDate>Sat, 20 Nov 2010 07:20:00 +0100</pubDate>
8025                 <description>&lt;p&gt;Answering
8026 &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.listware.net/201011/gnash-dev/67431-gnash-dev-buildbot-looking-for-slaves.html&quot;&gt;the
8027 call from the Gnash project&lt;/a&gt; for
8028 &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.gnashdev.org:8010&quot;&gt;buildbot&lt;/a&gt; slaves to test the
8029 current source, I have set up a virtual KVM machine on the Debian
8030 Edu/Skolelinux virtualization host to test the git source on
8031 Debian/Squeeze.  I hope this can help the developers in getting new
8032 releases out more often.&lt;/p&gt;
8033
8034 &lt;p&gt;As the developers want less main-stream build platforms tested to,
8035 I have considered setting up a &lt;a
8036 href=&quot;http://www.debian.org/ports/kfreebsd-gnu/&quot;&gt;Debian/kfreebsd&lt;/a&gt;
8037 machine as well.  I have also considered using the kfreebsd
8038 architecture in Debian as a file server in NUUG to get access to the 5
8039 TB zfs volume we currently use to store DV video.  Because of this, I
8040 finally got around to do a test installation of Debian/Squeeze with
8041 kfreebsd.  Installation went fairly smooth, thought I noticed some
8042 visual glitches in the cdebconf dialogs (black cursor left on the
8043 screen at random locations).  Have not gotten very far with the
8044 testing.  Noticed cfdisk did not work, but fdisk did so it was not a
8045 fatal problem.  Have to spend some more time on it to see if it is
8046 useful as a file server for NUUG.  Will try to find time to set up a
8047 gnash buildbot slave on the Debian Edu/Skolelinux this weekend.&lt;/p&gt;
8048 </description>
8049         </item>
8050
8051         <item>
8052                 <title>Debian in 3D</title>
8053                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_in_3D.html</link>
8054                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_in_3D.html</guid>
8055                 <pubDate>Tue, 9 Nov 2010 16:10:00 +0100</pubDate>
8056                 <description>&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src=&quot;http://thingiverse-production.s3.amazonaws.com/renders/23/e0/c4/f9/2b/debswagtdose_preview_medium.jpg&quot;&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
8057
8058 &lt;p&gt;3D printing is just great.  I just came across this Debian logo in
8059 3D linked in from
8060 &lt;a href=&quot;http://blog.thingiverse.com/2010/11/09/participatory-branding/&quot;&gt;the
8061 thingiverse blog&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
8062 </description>
8063         </item>
8064
8065         <item>
8066                 <title>Making room on the Debian Edu/Sqeeze DVD</title>
8067                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Making_room_on_the_Debian_Edu_Sqeeze_DVD.html</link>
8068                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Making_room_on_the_Debian_Edu_Sqeeze_DVD.html</guid>
8069                 <pubDate>Sun, 7 Nov 2010 11:45:00 +0100</pubDate>
8070                 <description>&lt;p&gt;Prioritising packages for the Debian Edu /
8071 &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.skolelinux.org/&quot;&gt;Skolelinux&lt;/a&gt; DVD, which is
8072 supposed provide a school with all the services and user applications
8073 needed on the pupils computer network has always been hard.  Even
8074 schools without Internet connections should be able to get Debian Edu
8075 working using this DVD.&lt;/p&gt;
8076
8077 &lt;p&gt;The job became a lot harder when apt and aptitude started
8078 installing recommended packages by default.  We want the same set of
8079 packages to be installed when using the DVD and the netinst CD, and
8080 that means all recommended packages need to be on the DVD.  I created
8081 a patch for debian-cd in &lt;a href=&quot;http://bugs.debian.org/601203&quot;&gt;BTS
8082 report #601203&lt;/a&gt; to do this, and since this change was applied to
8083 the Debian Edu DVD build, we have been seriously short on space.&lt;/p&gt;
8084
8085 &lt;p&gt;A few days ago we decided to drop blender, wxmaxima and kicad from
8086 the default installation to save space on the DVD, believing that
8087 those needing these applications are few and can get them from the
8088 Debian archive.&lt;/p&gt;
8089
8090 &lt;p&gt;Yesterday, I had a look what source packages to see which packages
8091 were using most space.  A few large packages are well know;
8092 openoffice.org, openclipart and fluid-soundfont.  But I also
8093 discovered that lilypond used 106 MiB and fglrx-driver used 53 MiB.
8094 The lilypond package is pulled in as a dependency for rosegarden, and
8095 when looking a bit closer I discovered that 99 MiB of the 106 MiB were
8096 the documentation package, which is recommended by the binary package.
8097 I decided to drop this documentation package from our DVD, as most of
8098 our users will use the GUI front-ends and do not need the lilypond
8099 documentation.  Similarly, I dropped the non-free fglrx-driver package
8100 which might be installed by d-i when its hardware is detected, as the
8101 free X driver should work.&lt;/p&gt;
8102
8103 &lt;p&gt;With this change, we finally got space for the LXDE and Gnome
8104 desktop packages as well as the language specific packages making the
8105 DVD more useful again.&lt;/p&gt;
8106 </description>
8107         </item>
8108
8109         <item>
8110                 <title>Software updates 2010-10-24</title>
8111                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Software_updates_2010_10_24.html</link>
8112                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Software_updates_2010_10_24.html</guid>
8113                 <pubDate>Sun, 24 Oct 2010 22:45:00 +0200</pubDate>
8114                 <description>&lt;p&gt;Some updates.&lt;/p&gt;
8115
8116 &lt;p&gt;My &lt;a href=&quot;http://pledgebank.com/gnash-avm2&quot;&gt;gnash pledge&lt;/a&gt; to
8117 raise money for the project is going well.  The lower limit of 10
8118 signers was reached in 24 hours, and so far 13 people have signed it.
8119 More signers and more funding is most welcome, and I am really curious
8120 how far we can get before the time limit of December 24 is reached.
8121 :)&lt;/p&gt;
8122
8123 &lt;p&gt;On the #gnash IRC channel on irc.freenode.net, I was just tipped
8124 about what appear to be a great code coverage tool capable of
8125 generating code coverage stats without any changes to the source code.
8126 It is called
8127 &lt;a href=&quot;http://simonkagstrom.github.com/kcov/index.html&quot;&gt;kcov&lt;/a&gt;,
8128 and can be used using &lt;tt&gt;kcov &amp;lt;directory&amp;gt; &amp;lt;binary&amp;gt;&lt;/tt&gt;.
8129 It is missing in Debian, but the git source built just fine in Squeeze
8130 after I installed libelf-dev, libdwarf-dev, pkg-config and
8131 libglib2.0-dev.  Failed to build in Lenny, but suspect that is
8132 solvable.  I hope kcov make it into Debian soon.&lt;/p&gt;
8133
8134 &lt;p&gt;Finally found time to wrap up the release notes for &lt;a
8135 href=&quot;http://lists.debian.org/debian-edu-announce/2010/10/msg00002.html&quot;&gt;a
8136 new alpha release of Debian Edu&lt;/a&gt;, and just published the second
8137 alpha test release of the Squeeze based Debian Edu /
8138 &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.skolelinux.org/&quot;&gt;Skolelinux&lt;/a&gt;
8139 release.  Give it a try if you need a complete linux solution for your
8140 school, including central infrastructure server, workstations, thin
8141 client servers and diskless workstations.  A nice touch added
8142 yesterday is RDP support on the thin client servers, for windows
8143 clients to get a Linux desktop on request.&lt;/p&gt;
8144 </description>
8145         </item>
8146
8147         <item>
8148                 <title>Pledge for funding to the Gnash project to get AVM2 support</title>
8149                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Pledge_for_funding_to_the_Gnash_project_to_get_AVM2_support.html</link>
8150                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Pledge_for_funding_to_the_Gnash_project_to_get_AVM2_support.html</guid>
8151                 <pubDate>Tue, 19 Oct 2010 14:45:00 +0200</pubDate>
8152                 <description>&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.getgnash.org/&quot;&gt;The Gnash project&lt;/a&gt; is the
8153 most promising solution for a Free Software Flash implementation. It
8154 has done great so far, but there is still far to go, and recently its
8155 funding has dried up.  I believe AVM2 support in Gnash is vital to the
8156 continued progress of the project, as more and more sites show up with
8157 AVM2 flash files.&lt;/p&gt;
8158
8159 &lt;p&gt;To try to get funding for developing such support, I have started
8160 &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.pledgebank.com/gnash-avm2&quot;&gt;a pledge&lt;/a&gt; with the
8161 following text:&lt;/P&gt;
8162
8163 &lt;p&gt;&lt;blockquote&gt;
8164
8165   &lt;p&gt;&quot;I will pay 100$ to the Gnash project to develop AVM2 support but
8166   only if 10 other people will do the same.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;
8167
8168   &lt;p&gt;- Petter Reinholdtsen, free software developer&lt;/p&gt;
8169
8170   &lt;p&gt;Deadline to sign up by: 24th December 2010&lt;/p&gt;
8171
8172   &lt;p&gt;The Gnash project need to get support for the new Flash file
8173   format AVM2 to work with a lot of sites using Flash on the
8174   web. Gnash already work with a lot of Flash sites using the old AVM1
8175   format, but more and more sites are using the AVM2 format these
8176   days. The project web page is available from
8177   http://www.getgnash.org/ . Gnash is a free software implementation
8178   of Adobe Flash, allowing those of us that do not accept the terms of
8179   the Adobe Flash license to get access to Flash sites.&lt;/p&gt;
8180
8181   &lt;p&gt;The project need funding to get developers to put aside enough
8182   time to develop the AVM2 support, and this pledge is my way to try
8183   to get this to happen.&lt;/p&gt;
8184
8185   &lt;p&gt;The project accept donations via the OpenMediaNow foundation,
8186   &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.openmedianow.org/?q=node/32&quot;&gt;http://www.openmedianow.org/?q=node/32&lt;/a&gt; .&lt;/p&gt;
8187
8188 &lt;/blockquote&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
8189
8190 &lt;p&gt;I hope you will support this effort too.  I hope more than 10
8191 people will participate to make this happen.  The more money the
8192 project gets, the more features it can develop using these funds.
8193 :)&lt;/p&gt;
8194 </description>
8195         </item>
8196
8197         <item>
8198                 <title>First version of a Perl library to control the Spykee robot</title>
8199                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/First_version_of_a_Perl_library_to_control_the_Spykee_robot.html</link>
8200                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/First_version_of_a_Perl_library_to_control_the_Spykee_robot.html</guid>
8201                 <pubDate>Sat, 9 Oct 2010 14:00:00 +0200</pubDate>
8202                 <description>&lt;p&gt;This summer I got the chance to buy cheap Spykee robots, and since
8203 then I have worked on getting Linux software in place to control them.
8204 The firmware for the robot is available from the producer, and using
8205 that source it was trivial to figure out the protocol specification.
8206 I&#39;ve started on a perl library to control it, and made some demo
8207 programs using this perl library to allow one to control the
8208 robots.&lt;/p&gt;
8209
8210 &lt;p&gt;The library is quite functional already, and capable of controlling
8211 the driving, fetching video, uploading MP3s and play them.  There are
8212 a few less important features too.&lt;/p&gt;
8213
8214 &lt;p&gt;Since a few weeks ago, I ran out of time to spend on this project,
8215 but I never got around to releasing the current source.  I decided
8216 today that it was time to do something about it, and uploaded the
8217 source to my Debian package store at people.skolelinux.org.&lt;/p&gt;
8218
8219 &lt;p&gt;Because it was simpler for me, I made a Debian package and
8220 published the source and deb.  If you got a spykee robot, grab the
8221 source or binary package:&lt;/p&gt;
8222
8223 &lt;p&gt;&lt;ul&gt;
8224 &lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://people.skolelinux.org/~pere/debian/packages/lenny/libspykee-perl_0.0.20101009-1.tar.gz&quot;&gt;libspykee-perl_0.0.20101009-1.tar.gz&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
8225 &lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://people.skolelinux.org/~pere/debian/packages/lenny/libspykee-perl_0.0.20101009-1.dsc&quot;&gt;libspykee-perl_0.0.20101009-1.dsc&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
8226 &lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://people.skolelinux.org/~pere/debian/packages/lenny/libspykee-perl_0.0.20101009-1_all.deb&quot;&gt;libspykee-perl_0.0.20101009-1_all.deb&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
8227 &lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
8228
8229 &lt;p&gt;If you are interested in helping out with developing this library,
8230 please let me know.&lt;/p&gt;
8231 </description>
8232         </item>
8233
8234         <item>
8235                 <title>Links for 2010-10-03</title>
8236                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Links_for_2010_10_03.html</link>
8237                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Links_for_2010_10_03.html</guid>
8238                 <pubDate>Sun, 3 Oct 2010 22:30:00 +0200</pubDate>
8239                 <description>&lt;p&gt;&lt;ul&gt;
8240
8241 &lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://arstechnica.com/business/news/2010/09/there-is-no-plan-b-why-the-ipv4-to-ipv6-transition-will-be-ugly.ars&quot;&gt;There
8242 is no Plan B: why the IPv4-to-IPv6 transition will be ugly&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
8243
8244 &lt;li&gt;Scanner looking under clothes
8245 &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.dagbladet.no/2010/10/03/nyheter/utenriks/reise/overvakingskamera/flyplasser/13667192/&quot;&gt;has
8246 already been misused at Heathrow&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/li&gt;
8247
8248 &lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://wiki.softwarelivre.org/Landell&quot;&gt;Landell
8249 Webcasting&lt;/a&gt; - interesting alternative for
8250 &lt;ahref=&quot;http://dvswitch.alioth.debian.org/wiki/&quot;&gt;DVSwitch&lt;/a&gt; with
8251 simple setup.
8252
8253 &lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
8254 </description>
8255         </item>
8256
8257         <item>
8258                 <title>Terms of use for video produced by a Canon IXUS 130 digital camera</title>
8259                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Terms_of_use_for_video_produced_by_a_Canon_IXUS_130_digital_camera.html</link>
8260                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Terms_of_use_for_video_produced_by_a_Canon_IXUS_130_digital_camera.html</guid>
8261                 <pubDate>Thu, 9 Sep 2010 23:55:00 +0200</pubDate>
8262                 <description>&lt;p&gt;A few days ago I had the mixed pleasure of bying a new digital
8263 camera, a Canon IXUS 130.  It was instructive and very disturbing to
8264 be able to verify that also this camera producer have the nerve to
8265 specify how I can or can not use the videos produced with the camera.
8266 Even thought I was aware of the issue, the options with new cameras
8267 are limited and I ended up bying the camera anyway.  What is the
8268 problem, you might ask?  It is software patents, MPEG-4, H.264 and the
8269 MPEG-LA that is the problem, and our right to record our experiences
8270 without asking for permissions that is at risk.
8271
8272 &lt;p&gt;On page 27 of the Danish instruction manual, this section is
8273 written:&lt;/p&gt;
8274
8275 &lt;blockquote&gt;
8276 &lt;p&gt;This product is licensed under AT&amp;T patents for the MPEG-4 standard
8277 and may be used for encoding MPEG-4 compliant video and/or decoding
8278 MPEG-4 compliant video that was encoded only (1) for a personal and
8279 non-commercial purpose or (2) by a video provider licensed under the
8280 AT&amp;T patents to provide MPEG-4 compliant video.&lt;/p&gt;
8281
8282 &lt;p&gt;No license is granted or implied for any other use for MPEG-4
8283 standard.&lt;/p&gt;
8284 &lt;/blockquote&gt;
8285
8286 &lt;p&gt;In short, the camera producer have chosen to use technology
8287 (MPEG-4/H.264) that is only provided if I used it for personal and
8288 non-commercial purposes, or ask for permission from the organisations
8289 holding the knowledge monopoly (patent) for technology used.&lt;/p&gt;
8290
8291 &lt;p&gt;This issue has been brewing for a while, and I recommend you to
8292 read
8293 &quot;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.osnews.com/story/23236/Why_Our_Civilization_s_Video_Art_and_Culture_is_Threatened_by_the_MPEG-LA&quot;&gt;Why
8294 Our Civilization&#39;s Video Art and Culture is Threatened by the
8295 MPEG-LA&lt;/a&gt;&quot; by Eugenia Loli-Queru and
8296 &quot;&lt;a href=&quot;http://webmink.com/2010/09/03/h-264-and-foss/&quot;&gt;H.264 Is Not
8297 The Sort Of Free That Matters&lt;/a&gt;&quot; by Simon Phipps to learn more about
8298 the issue.  The solution is to support the
8299 &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.digistan.org/open-standard:definition&quot;&gt;free and
8300 open standards&lt;/a&gt; for video, like &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.theora.org/&quot;&gt;Ogg
8301 Theora&lt;/a&gt;, and avoid MPEG-4 and H.264 if you can.&lt;/p&gt;
8302 </description>
8303         </item>
8304
8305         <item>
8306                 <title>Some notes on Flash in Debian and Debian Edu</title>
8307                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Some_notes_on_Flash_in_Debian_and_Debian_Edu.html</link>
8308                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Some_notes_on_Flash_in_Debian_and_Debian_Edu.html</guid>
8309                 <pubDate>Sat, 4 Sep 2010 10:10:00 +0200</pubDate>
8310                 <description>&lt;p&gt;In the &lt;a href=&quot;http://popcon.debian.org/unknown/by_vote&quot;&gt;Debian
8311 popularity-contest numbers&lt;/a&gt;, the adobe-flashplugin package the
8312 second most popular used package that is missing in Debian.  The sixth
8313 most popular is flashplayer-mozilla.  This is a clear indication that
8314 working flash is important for Debian users.  Around 10 percent of the
8315 users submitting data to popcon.debian.org have this package
8316 installed.&lt;/p&gt;
8317
8318 &lt;p&gt;In the report written by Lars Risan in August 2008
8319 («&lt;a href=&quot;http://wiki.skolelinux.no/Dokumentasjon/Rapporter?action=AttachFile&amp;do=view&amp;target=Skolelinux_i_bruk_rapport_1.0.pdf&quot;&gt;Skolelinux
8320 i bruk – Rapport for Hurum kommune, Universitetet i Agder og
8321 stiftelsen SLX Debian Labs&lt;/a&gt;»), one of the most important problems
8322 schools experienced with &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.skolelinux.org/&quot;&gt;Debian
8323 Edu/Skolelinux&lt;/a&gt; was the lack of working Flash.  A lot of educational
8324 web sites require Flash to work, and lacking working Flash support in
8325 the web browser and the problems with installing it was perceived as a
8326 good reason to stay with Windows.&lt;/p&gt;
8327
8328 &lt;p&gt;I once saw a funny and sad comment in a web forum, where Linux was
8329 said to be the retarded cousin that did not really understand
8330 everything you told him but could work fairly well.  This was a
8331 comment regarding the problems Linux have with proprietary formats and
8332 non-standard web pages, and is sad because it exposes a fairly common
8333 understanding of whose fault it is if web pages that only work in for
8334 example Internet Explorer 6 fail to work on Firefox, and funny because
8335 it explain very well how annoying it is for users when Linux
8336 distributions do not work with the documents they receive or the web
8337 pages they want to visit.&lt;/p&gt;
8338
8339 &lt;p&gt;This is part of the reason why I believe it is important for Debian
8340 and Debian Edu to have a well working Flash implementation in the
8341 distribution, to get at least popular sites as Youtube and Google
8342 Video to working out of the box.  For Squeeze, Debian have the chance
8343 to include the latest version of Gnash that will make this happen, as
8344 the new release 0.8.8 was published a few weeks ago and is resting in
8345 unstable.  The new version work with more sites that version 0.8.7.
8346 The Gnash maintainers have asked for a freeze exception, but the
8347 release team have not had time to reply to it yet.  I hope they agree
8348 with me that Flash is important for the Debian desktop users, and thus
8349 accept the new package into Squeeze.&lt;/p&gt;
8350 </description>
8351         </item>
8352
8353         <item>
8354                 <title>My first perl GUI application - controlling a Spykee robot</title>
8355                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/My_first_perl_GUI_application___controlling_a_Spykee_robot.html</link>
8356                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/My_first_perl_GUI_application___controlling_a_Spykee_robot.html</guid>
8357                 <pubDate>Wed, 1 Sep 2010 21:00:00 +0200</pubDate>
8358                 <description>&lt;p&gt;This evening I made my first Perl GUI application.  The last few
8359 days I have worked on a Perl module for controlling my recently
8360 aquired Spykee robots, and the module is now getting complete enought
8361 that it is possible to use it to control the robot driving at least.
8362 It was now time to figure out how to use it to create some GUI to
8363 allow me to drive the robot around.  I picked PerlQt as I have had
8364 positive experiences with the Qt API before, and spent a few minutes
8365 browsing the web for examples.  Using Qt Designer seemed like a short
8366 cut, so I ended up writing the perl GUI using Qt Designer and
8367 compiling it into a perl program using the puic program from
8368 libqt-perl.  Nothing fancy yet, but it got buttons to connect and
8369 drive around.&lt;/p&gt;
8370
8371 &lt;p&gt;The perl module I have written provide a object oriented API for
8372 controlling the robot.  Here is an small example on how to use it:&lt;/p&gt;
8373
8374 &lt;p&gt;&lt;pre&gt;
8375 use Spykee;
8376 Spykee::discover(sub {$robot{$_[0]} = $_[1]});
8377 my $host = (keys %robot)[0];
8378 my $spykee = Spykee-&gt;new();
8379 $spykee-&gt;contact($host, &quot;admin&quot;, &quot;admin&quot;);
8380 $spykee-&gt;left();
8381 sleep 2;
8382 $spykee-&gt;right();
8383 sleep 2;
8384 $spykee-&gt;forward();
8385 sleep 2;
8386 $spykee-&gt;back();
8387 sleep 2;
8388 $spykee-&gt;stop();
8389 &lt;/pre&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
8390
8391 &lt;p&gt;Thanks to the release of the source of the robot firmware, I could
8392 peek into the implementation at the other end to figure out how to
8393 implement the protocol used by the robot.  I&#39;ve implemented several of
8394 the commands the robot understand, but is still missing the camera
8395 support to make it possible to control the robot from remote.  First I
8396 want to implement support for uploading new firmware and configuring
8397 the wireless network, to make it possible to bootstrap a Spykee robot
8398 without the producers Windows and MacOSX software (I only have Linux,
8399 so I had to ask a friend to come over to get the robot testing
8400 going. :).&lt;/p&gt;
8401
8402 &lt;p&gt;Will release the source to the public soon, but need to figure out
8403 where to make it available first.  I will add a link to
8404 &lt;a href=&quot;http://wiki.nuug.no/grupper/robot/&quot;&gt;the NUUG wiki&lt;/a&gt; for
8405 those that want to check back later to find it.&lt;/p&gt;
8406 </description>
8407         </item>
8408
8409         <item>
8410                 <title>Broken hard link handling with sshfs</title>
8411                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Broken_hard_link_handling_with_sshfs.html</link>
8412                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Broken_hard_link_handling_with_sshfs.html</guid>
8413                 <pubDate>Mon, 30 Aug 2010 19:30:00 +0200</pubDate>
8414                 <description>&lt;p&gt;Just got an email from Tobias Gruetzmacher as a followup on my
8415 &lt;a href=&quot;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Broken_umask_handling_with_sshfs.html&quot;&gt;previous
8416 post about sshfs&lt;/a&gt;.  He reported another problem with sshfs.  It
8417 fail to handle hard links properly.  A simple way to spot this is to
8418 look at the . and .. entries in the directory tree.  These should have
8419 a link count &gt;1, but on sshfs the count is 1.  I just tested to see
8420 what happen when trying to hardlink, and this fail as well:&lt;/p&gt;
8421
8422 &lt;pre&gt;
8423 % ln foo bar
8424 ln: creating hard link `bar&#39; =&gt; `foo&#39;: Function not implemented
8425 %
8426 &lt;/pre&gt;
8427
8428 &lt;p&gt;I have not yet found time to implement a test for this in my file
8429 system test code, but believe having working hard links is useful to
8430 avoid surprised unix programs.  Not as useful as working file locking
8431 and symlinks, which are required to get a working desktop, but useful
8432 nevertheless. :)&lt;/p&gt;
8433
8434 &lt;p&gt;The latest version of the file system test code is available via
8435 git from
8436 &lt;a href=&quot;http://github.com/gebi/fs-test&quot;&gt;http://github.com/gebi/fs-test&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
8437 </description>
8438         </item>
8439
8440         <item>
8441                 <title>Broken umask handling with sshfs</title>
8442                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Broken_umask_handling_with_sshfs.html</link>
8443                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Broken_umask_handling_with_sshfs.html</guid>
8444                 <pubDate>Thu, 26 Aug 2010 13:30:00 +0200</pubDate>
8445                 <description>&lt;p&gt;My file system sematics program
8446 &lt;a href=&quot;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Testing_if_a_file_system_can_be_used_for_home_directories___.html&quot;&gt;presented
8447 a few days ago&lt;/a&gt; is very useful to verify that a file system can
8448 work as a unix home directory,and today I had to extend it a bit.  I&#39;m
8449 looking into alternatives for home directory access here at the
8450 University of Oslo, and one of the options is sshfs.  My friend
8451 Finn-Arne mentioned a while back that they had used sshfs with Debian
8452 Edu, but stopped because of problems.  I asked today what the problems
8453 where, and he mentioned that sshfs failed to handle umask properly.
8454 Trying to detect the problem I wrote this addition to my fs testing
8455 script:&lt;/p&gt;
8456
8457 &lt;pre&gt;
8458 mode_t touch_get_mode(const char *name, mode_t mode) {
8459   mode_t retval = 0;
8460   int fd = open(name, O_RDWR|O_CREAT|O_LARGEFILE, mode);
8461   if (-1 != fd) {
8462     unlink(name);
8463     struct stat statbuf;
8464     if (-1 != fstat(fd, &amp;statbuf)) {
8465       retval = statbuf.st_mode &amp; 0x1ff;
8466     }
8467     close(fd);
8468   }
8469   return retval;
8470 }
8471
8472 /* Try to detect problem discovered using sshfs */
8473 int test_umask(void) {
8474   printf(&quot;info: testing umask effect on file creation\n&quot;);
8475
8476   mode_t orig_umask = umask(000);
8477   mode_t newmode;
8478   if (0666 != (newmode = touch_get_mode(&quot;foobar&quot;, 0666))) {
8479     printf(&quot;  error: Wrong file mode %o when creating using mode 666 and umask 000\n&quot;,
8480            newmode);
8481   }
8482   umask(007);
8483   if (0660 != (newmode = touch_get_mode(&quot;foobar&quot;, 0666))) {
8484     printf(&quot;  error: Wrong file mode %o when creating using mode 666 and umask 007\n&quot;,
8485            newmode);
8486   }
8487
8488   umask (orig_umask);
8489   return 0;
8490 }
8491
8492 int main(int argc, char **argv) {
8493   [...]
8494   test_umask();
8495   return 0;
8496 }
8497 &lt;/pre&gt;
8498
8499 &lt;p&gt;Sure enough.  On NFS to a netapp, I get this result:&lt;/p&gt;
8500
8501 &lt;pre&gt;
8502 Testing POSIX/Unix sematics on file system
8503 info: testing symlink creation
8504 info: testing subdirectory creation
8505 info: testing fcntl locking
8506   Read-locking 1 byte from 1073741824
8507   Read-locking 510 byte from 1073741826
8508   Unlocking 1 byte from 1073741824
8509   Write-locking 1 byte from 1073741824
8510   Write-locking 510 byte from 1073741826
8511   Unlocking 2 byte from 1073741824
8512 info: testing umask effect on file creation
8513 &lt;/pre&gt;
8514
8515 &lt;p&gt;When mounting the same directory using sshfs, I get this
8516 result:&lt;/p&gt;
8517
8518 &lt;pre&gt;
8519 Testing POSIX/Unix sematics on file system
8520 info: testing symlink creation
8521 info: testing subdirectory creation
8522 info: testing fcntl locking
8523   Read-locking 1 byte from 1073741824
8524   Read-locking 510 byte from 1073741826
8525   Unlocking 1 byte from 1073741824
8526   Write-locking 1 byte from 1073741824
8527   Write-locking 510 byte from 1073741826
8528   Unlocking 2 byte from 1073741824
8529 info: testing umask effect on file creation
8530   error: Wrong file mode 644 when creating using mode 666 and umask 000
8531   error: Wrong file mode 640 when creating using mode 666 and umask 007
8532 &lt;/pre&gt;
8533
8534 &lt;p&gt;So, I can conclude that sshfs is better than smb to a Netapp or a
8535 Windows server, but not good enough to be used as a home
8536 directory.&lt;/p&gt;
8537
8538 &lt;p&gt;Update 2010-08-26: Reported the issue in
8539 &lt;a href=&quot;http://bugs.debian.org/594498&quot;&gt;BTS report #594498&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
8540
8541 &lt;p&gt;Update 2010-08-27: Michael Gebetsroither report that he found the
8542 script so useful that he created a GIT repository and stored it in
8543 &lt;a href=&quot;http://github.com/gebi/fs-test&quot;&gt;http://github.com/gebi/fs-test&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
8544 </description>
8545         </item>
8546
8547         <item>
8548                 <title>Rob Weir: How to Crush Dissent</title>
8549                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Rob_Weir__How_to_Crush_Dissent.html</link>
8550                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Rob_Weir__How_to_Crush_Dissent.html</guid>
8551                 <pubDate>Sun, 15 Aug 2010 22:20:00 +0200</pubDate>
8552                 <description>&lt;p&gt;I found the notes from Rob Weir on
8553 &lt;a href=&quot;http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/robweir/antic-atom/~3/VGb23-kta8c/how-to-crush-dissent.html&quot;&gt;how
8554 to crush dissent&lt;/a&gt; matching my own thoughts on the matter quite
8555 well.  Highly recommended for those wondering which road our society
8556 should go down.  In my view we have been heading the wrong way for a
8557 long time.&lt;/p&gt;
8558 </description>
8559         </item>
8560
8561         <item>
8562                 <title>No hardcoded config on Debian Edu clients</title>
8563                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/No_hardcoded_config_on_Debian_Edu_clients.html</link>
8564                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/No_hardcoded_config_on_Debian_Edu_clients.html</guid>
8565                 <pubDate>Mon, 9 Aug 2010 20:15:00 +0200</pubDate>
8566                 <description>&lt;p&gt;As reported earlier, the last few days I have looked at how Debian
8567 Edu clients are configured, and tried to get rid of all hardcoded
8568 configuration settings on the clients.  I believe the work to be
8569 mostly done, and the clients seem to work just fine with dynamically
8570 generated configuration.&lt;/p&gt;
8571
8572 &lt;p&gt;What is the point, you might ask?  The point is to allow a Debian
8573 Edu desktop to integrate into an existing network infrastructure
8574 without any manual configuration.&lt;/p&gt;
8575
8576 &lt;p&gt;This is what happens when installing a Debian Edu client here at
8577 the University of Oslo using PXE.  With the PXE installation, I am
8578 asked for language (Norwegian Bokmål), locality (Norway) and keyboard
8579 layout (no-latin1), Debian Edu profile (Roaming Workstation), if I
8580 accept to reformat the hard drive (yes), if I want to submit info to
8581 popcon.debian.org (no) and root password (secret).  After answering
8582 these questions, the installer goes ahead and does its thing, and
8583 after around 50 minutes it is done.  I press enter to finish the
8584 installation, and the machine reboots into KDE.  When the machine is
8585 ready and kdm asks for login information, I enter my university
8586 username and password, am told by kdm that a local home directory has
8587 been created and that I must log in again, and finally log in with the
8588 same username and password to the KDE 4.4 desktop.  At no point during
8589 this process did it ask for university specific settings, and all the
8590 required configuration was dynamically detected using information
8591 fetched via DHCP and DNS.  The roaming workstation is now ready for
8592 use.&lt;/p&gt;
8593
8594 &lt;p&gt;How was this done, you might wonder?  First of all, here is the
8595 list of things that need to be configured on the client to get it
8596 working properly out of the box:&lt;/p&gt;
8597
8598 &lt;ul&gt;
8599 &lt;li&gt;IP address/netmask and DNS server.&lt;/li&gt;
8600 &lt;li&gt;Web proxy URL.&lt;/li&gt;
8601 &lt;li&gt;LDAP server for NSS directory information (user, group, etc).&lt;/li&gt;
8602 &lt;li&gt;Kerberos server for PAM password checking.&lt;/li&gt;
8603 &lt;li&gt;SMB mount point to access the network home directory. (*)&lt;/li&gt;
8604 &lt;li&gt;Central syslog server to send syslog messages to. (*)&lt;/li&gt;
8605 &lt;li&gt;Sitesummary collector URL to submit info to central server. (*)&lt;/li&gt;
8606 &lt;/ul&gt;
8607
8608 &lt;p&gt;(Hm, did I forget anything?  Let me knew if I did.)&lt;/p&gt;
8609
8610 &lt;p&gt;The points marked (*) are not required to be able to use the
8611 machine, but needed to provide central storage and allowing system
8612 administrators to track their machines.  Since yesterday, everything
8613 but the sitesummary collector URL is dynamically discovered at boot
8614 and installation time in the svn version of Debian Edu.&lt;/p&gt;
8615
8616 &lt;p&gt;The IP and DNS setup is fetched during boot using DHCP as usual.
8617 When a DHCP update arrives, the proxy setup is updated by looking for
8618 http://wpat/wpad.dat and using the content of this WPAD file to
8619 configure the http and ftp proxy in /etc/environment and
8620 /etc/apt/apt.conf.  I decided to update the proxy setup using a DHCP
8621 hook to ensure that the client stops using the Debian Edu proxy when
8622 it is moved outside the Debian Edu network, and instead uses any local
8623 proxy present on the new network when it moves around.&lt;/p&gt;
8624
8625 &lt;p&gt;The DNS names of the LDAP, Kerberos and syslog server and related
8626 configuration are generated using DNS information at boot.  First the
8627 installer looks for a host named ldap in the current DNS domain.  If
8628 not found, it looks for _ldap._tcp SRV records in DNS instead.  If an
8629 LDAP server is found, its root DSE entry is requested and the
8630 attributes namingContexts and defaultNamingContext are used to
8631 determine which LDAP base to use for NSS.  If there are several
8632 namingContexts attibutes and the defaultNamingContext is present, that
8633 LDAP subtree is used as the base.  If defaultNamingContext is missing,
8634 the subtrees listed as namingContexts are searched in sequence for any
8635 object with class posixAccount or posixGroup, and the first one with
8636 such an object is used as the LDAP base.  For Kerberos, a similar
8637 search is done by first looking for a host named kerberos, and then
8638 for the _kerberos._tcp SRV record.  I&#39;ve been unable to find a way to
8639 look up the Kerberos realm, so for this the upper case string of the
8640 current DNS domain is used.&lt;/p&gt;
8641
8642 &lt;p&gt;For the syslog server, the hosts syslog and loghost are searched
8643 for, and the _syslog._udp SRV record is consulted if no such host is
8644 found.  This algorithm works for both Debian Edu and the University of
8645 Oslo.  A similar strategy would work for locating the sitesummary
8646 server, but have not been implemented yet.  I decided to fetch and
8647 save these settings during installation, to make sure moving to a
8648 different network does not change the set of users being allowed to
8649 log in nor the passwords required to log in.  Usernames and passwords
8650 will be cached by sssd when the user logs in on the Debian Edu
8651 network, and will not change as the laptop move around.  For a
8652 non-roaming machine, there is no caching, but given that it is
8653 supposed to stay in place it should not matter much.  Perhaps we
8654 should switch those to use sssd too?&lt;/p&gt;
8655
8656 &lt;p&gt;The user&#39;s SMB mount point for the network home directory is
8657 located when the user logs in for the first time.  The LDAP server is
8658 consulted to look for the user&#39;s LDAP object and the sambaHomePath
8659 attribute is used if found.  If it isn&#39;t found, the home directory
8660 path fetched from NSS is used instead.  Assuming the path is of the
8661 form /site/server/directory/username, the second part is looked up in
8662 DNS and used to generate a SMB URL of the form
8663 smb://server.domain/username.  This algorithm works for both Debian
8664 edu and the University of Oslo.  Perhaps there are better attributes
8665 to use or a better algorithm that works for more sites, but this will
8666 do for now. :)&lt;/p&gt;
8667
8668 &lt;p&gt;This work should make it easier to integrate the Debian Edu clients
8669 into any LDAP/Kerberos infrastructure, and make the current setup even
8670 more flexible than before.  I suspect it will also work for thin
8671 client servers, allowing one to easily set up LTSP and hook it into a
8672 existing network infrastructure, but I have not had time to test this
8673 yet.&lt;/p&gt;
8674
8675 &lt;p&gt;If you want to help out with implementing these things for Debian
8676 Edu, please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.&lt;/p&gt;
8677
8678 &lt;p&gt;Update 2010-08-09: Simon Farnsworth gave me a heads-up on how to
8679 detect Kerberos realm from DNS, by looking for _kerberos TXT entries
8680 before falling back to the upper case DNS domain name.  Will have to
8681 implement it for Debian Edu. :)&lt;/p&gt;
8682 </description>
8683         </item>
8684
8685         <item>
8686                 <title>Testing if a file system can be used for home directories...</title>
8687                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Testing_if_a_file_system_can_be_used_for_home_directories___.html</link>
8688                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Testing_if_a_file_system_can_be_used_for_home_directories___.html</guid>
8689                 <pubDate>Sun, 8 Aug 2010 21:20:00 +0200</pubDate>
8690                 <description>&lt;p&gt;A few years ago, I was involved in a project planning to use
8691 Windows file servers as home directory servers for Debian
8692 Edu/Skolelinux machines.  This was thought to be no problem, as the
8693 access would be through the SMB network file system protocol, and we
8694 knew other sites used SMB with unix and samba as the file server to
8695 mount home directories without any problems.  But, after months of
8696 struggling, we had to conclude that our goal was impossible.&lt;/p&gt;
8697
8698 &lt;p&gt;The reason is simply that while SMB can be used for home
8699 directories when the file server is Samba running on Unix, this only
8700 work because of Samba have some extensions and the fact that the
8701 underlying file system is a unix file system.  When using a Windows
8702 file server, the underlying file system do not have POSIX semantics,
8703 and several programs will fail if the users home directory where they
8704 want to store their configuration lack POSIX semantics.&lt;/p&gt;
8705
8706 &lt;p&gt;As part of this work, I wrote a small C program I want to share
8707 with you all, to replicate a few of the problematic applications (like
8708 OpenOffice.org and GCompris) and see if the file system was working as
8709 it should.  If you find yourself in spooky file system land, it might
8710 help you find your way out again.  This is the fs-test.c source:&lt;/p&gt;
8711
8712 &lt;pre&gt;
8713 /*
8714  * Some tests to check the file system sematics.  Used to verify that
8715  * CIFS from a windows server do not work properly as a linux home
8716  * directory.
8717  * License: GPL v2 or later
8718  *
8719  * needs libsqlite3-dev and build-essential installed
8720  * compile with: gcc -Wall -lsqlite3 -DTEST_SQLITE fs-test.c -o fs-test
8721 */
8722
8723 #define _FILE_OFFSET_BITS 64
8724 #define _LARGEFILE_SOURCE 1
8725 #define _LARGEFILE64_SOURCE 1
8726
8727 #define _GNU_SOURCE /* for asprintf() */
8728
8729 #include &amp;lt;errno.h&gt;
8730 #include &amp;lt;fcntl.h&gt;
8731 #include &amp;lt;stdio.h&gt;
8732 #include &amp;lt;string.h&gt;
8733 #include &amp;lt;stdlib.h&gt;
8734 #include &amp;lt;sys/file.h&gt;
8735 #include &amp;lt;sys/stat.h&gt;
8736 #include &amp;lt;sys/types.h&gt;
8737 #include &amp;lt;unistd.h&gt;
8738
8739 #ifdef TEST_SQLITE
8740 /*
8741  * Test sqlite open, as done by gcompris require the libsqlite3-dev
8742  * package and linking with -lsqlite3.  A more low level test is
8743  * below.
8744  * See also &amp;lt;URL: http://www.sqlite.org./faq.html#q5 &gt;.
8745  */
8746 #include &amp;lt;sqlite3.h&gt;
8747 #define CREATE_TABLE_USERS                                              \
8748   &quot;CREATE TABLE users (user_id INT UNIQUE, login TEXT, lastname TEXT, firstname TEXT, birthdate TEXT, class_id INT ); &quot;
8749 int test_sqlite_open(void) {
8750   char *zErrMsg;
8751   char *name = &quot;testsqlite.db&quot;;
8752   sqlite3 *db=NULL;
8753   unlink(name);
8754   int rc = sqlite3_open(name, &amp;db);
8755   if( rc ){
8756     printf(&quot;error: sqlite open of %s failed: %s\n&quot;, name, sqlite3_errmsg(db));
8757     sqlite3_close(db);
8758     return -1;
8759   }
8760
8761   /* create tables */
8762   rc = sqlite3_exec(db,CREATE_TABLE_USERS, NULL,  0, &amp;zErrMsg);
8763   if( rc != SQLITE_OK ){
8764     printf(&quot;error: sqlite table create failed: %s\n&quot;, zErrMsg);
8765     sqlite3_close(db);
8766     return -1;
8767   }
8768   printf(&quot;info: sqlite worked\n&quot;);
8769   sqlite3_close(db);
8770   return 0;
8771 }
8772 #endif /* TEST_SQLITE */
8773
8774 /*
8775  * Demonstrate locking issue found in gcompris using sqlite3.  This
8776  * work with ext3, but not with cifs server on Windows 2003.  This is
8777  * done in the sqlite3 library.
8778  * See also
8779  * &amp;lt;URL:http://www.cygwin.com/ml/cygwin/2001-08/msg00854.html&gt; and the
8780  * POSIX specification
8781  * &amp;lt;URL:http://www.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/009695399/functions/fcntl.html&gt;.
8782  */
8783 int test_gcompris_locking(void) {
8784   struct flock fl;
8785   char *name = &quot;testsqlite.db&quot;;
8786   unlink(name);
8787   int fd = open(name, O_RDWR|O_CREAT|O_LARGEFILE, 0644);
8788   printf(&quot;info: testing fcntl locking\n&quot;);
8789
8790   fl.l_whence = SEEK_SET;
8791   fl.l_pid    = getpid();
8792   printf(&quot;  Read-locking 1 byte from 1073741824&quot;);
8793   fl.l_start  = 1073741824;
8794   fl.l_len    = 1;
8795   fl.l_type   = F_RDLCK;
8796   if (0 != fcntl(fd, F_SETLK, &amp;fl) ) printf(&quot; - error!\n&quot;); else printf(&quot;\n&quot;);
8797
8798   printf(&quot;  Read-locking 510 byte from 1073741826&quot;);
8799   fl.l_start  = 1073741826;
8800   fl.l_len    = 510;
8801   fl.l_type   = F_RDLCK;
8802   if (0 != fcntl(fd, F_SETLK, &amp;fl) ) printf(&quot; - error!\n&quot;); else printf(&quot;\n&quot;);
8803
8804   printf(&quot;  Unlocking 1 byte from 1073741824&quot;);
8805   fl.l_start  = 1073741824;
8806   fl.l_len    = 1;
8807   fl.l_type   = F_UNLCK;
8808   if (0 != fcntl(fd, F_SETLK, &amp;fl) ) printf(&quot; - error!\n&quot;); else printf(&quot;\n&quot;);
8809
8810   printf(&quot;  Write-locking 1 byte from 1073741824&quot;);
8811   fl.l_start  = 1073741824;
8812   fl.l_len    = 1;
8813   fl.l_type   = F_WRLCK;
8814   if (0 != fcntl(fd, F_SETLK, &amp;fl) ) printf(&quot; - error!\n&quot;); else printf(&quot;\n&quot;);
8815
8816   printf(&quot;  Write-locking 510 byte from 1073741826&quot;);
8817   fl.l_start  = 1073741826;
8818   fl.l_len    = 510;
8819   if (0 != fcntl(fd, F_SETLK, &amp;fl) ) printf(&quot; - error!\n&quot;); else printf(&quot;\n&quot;);
8820
8821   printf(&quot;  Unlocking 2 byte from 1073741824&quot;);
8822   fl.l_start  = 1073741824;
8823   fl.l_len    = 2;
8824   fl.l_type   = F_UNLCK;
8825   if (0 != fcntl(fd, F_SETLK, &amp;fl) ) printf(&quot; - error!\n&quot;); else printf(&quot;\n&quot;);
8826
8827   close(fd);
8828   return 0;
8829 }
8830
8831 /*
8832  * Test if permissions of freshly created directories allow entries
8833  * below them.  This was a problem with OpenOffice.org and gcompris.
8834  * Mounting with option &#39;sync&#39; seem to solve this problem while
8835  * slowing down file operations.
8836  */
8837 int test_subdirectory_creation(void) {
8838 #define LEVELS 5
8839   char *path = strdup(&quot;test&quot;);
8840   char *dirs[LEVELS];
8841   int level;
8842   printf(&quot;info: testing subdirectory creation\n&quot;);
8843   for (level = 0; level &amp;lt; LEVELS; level++) {
8844     char *newpath = NULL;
8845     if (-1 == mkdir(path, 0777)) {
8846       printf(&quot;  error: Unable to create directory &#39;%s&#39;: %s\n&quot;,
8847              path, strerror(errno));
8848       break;
8849     }
8850     asprintf(&amp;newpath, &quot;%s/%s&quot;, path, &quot;test&quot;);
8851     free(path);
8852     path = newpath;
8853   }
8854   return 0;
8855 }
8856
8857 /*
8858  * Test if symlinks can be created.  This was a problem detected with
8859  * KDE.
8860  */
8861 int test_symlinks(void) {
8862   printf(&quot;info: testing symlink creation\n&quot;);
8863   unlink(&quot;symlink&quot;);
8864   if (-1 == symlink(&quot;file&quot;, &quot;symlink&quot;))
8865     printf(&quot;  error: Unable to create symlink\n&quot;);
8866   return 0;
8867 }
8868
8869 int main(int argc, char **argv) {
8870   printf(&quot;Testing POSIX/Unix sematics on file system\n&quot;);
8871   test_symlinks();
8872   test_subdirectory_creation();
8873 #ifdef TEST_SQLITE
8874   test_sqlite_open();
8875 #endif /* TEST_SQLITE */
8876   test_gcompris_locking();
8877   return 0;
8878 }
8879 &lt;/pre&gt;
8880
8881 &lt;p&gt;When everything is working, it should print something like
8882 this:&lt;/p&gt;
8883
8884 &lt;pre&gt;
8885 Testing POSIX/Unix sematics on file system
8886 info: testing symlink creation
8887 info: testing subdirectory creation
8888 info: sqlite worked
8889 info: testing fcntl locking
8890   Read-locking 1 byte from 1073741824
8891   Read-locking 510 byte from 1073741826
8892   Unlocking 1 byte from 1073741824
8893   Write-locking 1 byte from 1073741824
8894   Write-locking 510 byte from 1073741826
8895   Unlocking 2 byte from 1073741824
8896 &lt;/pre&gt;
8897
8898 &lt;p&gt;I do not remember the exact details of the problems we saw, but one
8899 of them was with locking, where if I remember correctly, POSIX allow a
8900 read-only lock to be upgraded to a read-write lock without unlocking
8901 the read-only lock (while Windows do not).  Another was a bug in the
8902 CIFS/SMB client implementation in the Linux kernel where directory
8903 meta information would be wrong for a fraction of a second, making
8904 OpenOffice.org fail to create its deep directory tree because it was
8905 not allowed to create files in its freshly created directory.&lt;/p&gt;
8906
8907 &lt;p&gt;Anyway, here is a nice tool for your tool box, might you never need
8908 it. :)&lt;/p&gt;
8909
8910 &lt;p&gt;Update 2010-08-27: Michael Gebetsroither report that he found the
8911 script so useful that he created a GIT repository and stored it in
8912 &lt;a href=&quot;http://github.com/gebi/fs-test&quot;&gt;http://github.com/gebi/fs-test&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
8913 </description>
8914         </item>
8915
8916         <item>
8917                 <title>Autodetecting Client setup for roaming workstations in Debian Edu</title>
8918                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Autodetecting_Client_setup_for_roaming_workstations_in_Debian_Edu.html</link>
8919                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Autodetecting_Client_setup_for_roaming_workstations_in_Debian_Edu.html</guid>
8920                 <pubDate>Sat, 7 Aug 2010 14:45:00 +0200</pubDate>
8921                 <description>&lt;p&gt;A few days ago, I
8922 &lt;a href=&quot;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_roaming_workstation___at_the_university_of_Oslo.html&quot;&gt;tried
8923 to install&lt;/a&gt; a Roaming workation profile from Debian Edu/Squeeze
8924 while on the university network here at the University of Oslo, and
8925 noticed how much had to change to get it operational using the
8926 university infrastructure.  It was fairly easy, but it occured to me
8927 that Debian Edu would improve a lot if I could get the client to
8928 connect without any changes at all, and thus let the client configure
8929 itself during installation and first boot to use the infrastructure
8930 around it.  Now I am a huge step further along that road.&lt;/p&gt;
8931
8932 &lt;p&gt;With our current squeeze-test packages, I can select the roaming
8933 workstation profile and get a working laptop connecting to the
8934 university LDAP server for user and group and our active directory
8935 servers for Kerberos authentication.  All this without any
8936 configuration at all during installation.  My users home directory got
8937 a bookmark in the KDE menu to mount it via SMB, with the correct URL.
8938 In short, openldap and sssd is correctly configured.  In addition to
8939 this, the client look for http://wpad/wpad.dat to configure a web
8940 proxy, and when it fail to find it no proxy settings are stored in
8941 /etc/environment and /etc/apt/apt.conf.  Iceweasel and KDE is
8942 configured to look for the same wpad configuration and also do not use
8943 a proxy when at the university network.  If the machine is moved to a
8944 network with such wpad setup, it would automatically use it when DHCP
8945 gave it a IP address.&lt;/p&gt;
8946
8947 &lt;p&gt;The LDAP server is located using DNS, by first looking for the DNS
8948 entry ldap.$domain.  If this do not exist, it look for the
8949 _ldap._tcp.$domain SRV records and use the first one as the LDAP
8950 server.  Next, it connects to the LDAP server and search all
8951 namingContexts entries for posixAccount or posixGroup objects, and
8952 pick the first one as the LDAP base.  For Kerberos, a similar
8953 algorithm is used to locate the LDAP server, and the realm is the
8954 uppercase version of $domain.&lt;/p&gt;
8955
8956 &lt;p&gt;So, what is not working, you might ask.  SMB mounting my home
8957 directory do not work.  No idea why, but suspected the incorrect
8958 Kerberos settings in /etc/krb5.conf and /etc/samba/smb.conf might be
8959 the cause.  These are not properly configured during installation, and
8960 had to be hand-edited to get the correct Kerberos realm and server,
8961 but SMB mounting still do not work. :(&lt;/p&gt;
8962
8963 &lt;p&gt;With this automatic configuration in place, I expect a Debian Edu
8964 roaming profile installation would be able to automatically detect and
8965 connect to any site using LDAP and Kerberos for NSS directory and PAM
8966 authentication.  It should also work out of the box in a Active
8967 Directory environment providing posixAccount and posixGroup objects
8968 with UID and GID values.&lt;/p&gt;
8969
8970 &lt;p&gt;If you want to help out with implementing these things for Debian
8971 Edu, please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.&lt;/p&gt;
8972 </description>
8973         </item>
8974
8975         <item>
8976                 <title>Debian Edu roaming workstation - at the university of Oslo</title>
8977                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_roaming_workstation___at_the_university_of_Oslo.html</link>
8978                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_roaming_workstation___at_the_university_of_Oslo.html</guid>
8979                 <pubDate>Tue, 3 Aug 2010 23:30:00 +0200</pubDate>
8980                 <description>&lt;p&gt;The new roaming workstation profile in Debian Edu/Squeeze is fairly
8981 similar to the laptop setup am I working on using Ubuntu for the
8982 University of Oslo, and just for the heck of it, I tested today how
8983 hard it would be to integrate that profile into the university
8984 infrastructure.  In this case, it is the university LDAP server,
8985 Active Directory Kerberos server and SMB mounting from the Netapp file
8986 servers.&lt;/p&gt;
8987
8988 &lt;p&gt;I was pleasantly surprised that the only three files needed to be
8989 changed (/etc/sssd/sssd.conf, /etc/ldap.conf and
8990 /etc/mklocaluser.d/20-debian-edu-config) and one file had to be added
8991 (/usr/share/perl5/Debian/Edu_Local.pm), to get the client working.
8992 Most of the changes were to get the client to use the university LDAP
8993 for NSS and Kerberos server for PAM, but one was to change a hard
8994 coded DNS domain name in the mklocaluser hook from .intern to
8995 .uio.no.&lt;/p&gt;
8996
8997 &lt;p&gt;This testing was so encouraging, that I went ahead and adjusted the
8998 Debian Edu scripts and setup in subversion to centralise the roaming
8999 workstation setup a bit more and avoid the hardcoded DNS domain name,
9000 so that when I test this tomorrow, I expect to get away with modifying
9001 only /etc/sssd/sssd.conf and /etc/ldap.conf to get it to use the
9002 university servers.&lt;/p&gt;
9003
9004 &lt;p&gt;My goal is to get the clients to have no hardcoded settings and
9005 fetch all their initial setup during installation and first boot, to
9006 allow them to be inserted also into environments where the default
9007 setup in Debian Edu has been changed or as with the university, where
9008 the environment is different but provides the protocols Debian Edu
9009 uses.&lt;/p&gt;
9010 </description>
9011         </item>
9012
9013         <item>
9014                 <title>Circular package dependencies harms apt recovery</title>
9015                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Circular_package_dependencies_harms_apt_recovery.html</link>
9016                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Circular_package_dependencies_harms_apt_recovery.html</guid>
9017                 <pubDate>Tue, 27 Jul 2010 23:50:00 +0200</pubDate>
9018                 <description>&lt;p&gt;I discovered this while doing
9019 &lt;a href=&quot;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Automatic_upgrade_testing_from_Lenny_to_Squeeze.html&quot;&gt;automated
9020 testing of upgrades from Debian Lenny to Squeeze&lt;/a&gt;.  A few packages
9021 in Debian still got circular dependencies, and it is often claimed
9022 that apt and aptitude should be able to handle this just fine, but
9023 some times these dependency loops causes apt to fail.&lt;/p&gt;
9024
9025 &lt;p&gt;An example is from todays
9026 &lt;a href=&quot;http://people.skolelinux.org/~pere/debian-upgrade-testing//test-20100727-lenny-squeeze-kde-aptitude.txt&quot;&gt;upgrade
9027 of KDE using aptitude&lt;/a&gt;.  In it, a bug in kdebase-workspace-data
9028 causes perl-modules to fail to upgrade.  The cause is simple.  If a
9029 package fail to unpack, then only part of packages with the circular
9030 dependency might end up being unpacked when unpacking aborts, and the
9031 ones already unpacked will fail to configure in the recovery phase
9032 because its dependencies are unavailable.&lt;/p&gt;
9033
9034 &lt;p&gt;In this log, the problem manifest itself with this error:&lt;/p&gt;
9035
9036 &lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;pre&gt;
9037 dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of perl-modules:
9038  perl-modules depends on perl (&gt;= 5.10.1-1); however:
9039   Version of perl on system is 5.10.0-19lenny2.
9040 dpkg: error processing perl-modules (--configure):
9041  dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
9042 &lt;/pre&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
9043
9044 &lt;p&gt;The perl/perl-modules circular dependency is already
9045 &lt;a href=&quot;http://bugs.debian.org/527917&quot;&gt;reported as a bug&lt;/a&gt;, and will
9046 hopefully be solved as soon as possible, but it is not the only one,
9047 and each one of these loops in the dependency tree can cause similar
9048 failures.  Of course, they only occur when there are bugs in other
9049 packages causing the unpacking to fail, but it is rather nasty when
9050 the failure of one package causes the problem to become worse because
9051 of dependency loops.&lt;/p&gt;
9052
9053 &lt;p&gt;Thanks to
9054 &lt;a href=&quot;http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2010/06/msg00116.html&quot;&gt;the
9055 tireless effort by Bill Allombert&lt;/a&gt;, the number of circular
9056 dependencies
9057 &lt;a href=&quot;http://debian.semistable.com/debgraph.out.html&quot;&gt;left in Debian
9058 is dropping&lt;/a&gt;, and perhaps it will reach zero one day. :)&lt;/p&gt;
9059
9060 &lt;p&gt;Todays testing also exposed a bug in
9061 &lt;a href=&quot;http://bugs.debian.org/590605&quot;&gt;update-notifier&lt;/a&gt; and
9062 &lt;a href=&quot;http://bugs.debian.org/590604&quot;&gt;different behaviour&lt;/a&gt; between
9063 apt-get and aptitude, the latter possibly caused by some circular
9064 dependency.  Reported both to BTS to try to get someone to look at
9065 it.&lt;/p&gt;
9066 </description>
9067         </item>
9068
9069         <item>
9070                 <title>First Debian Edu test release (alpha0) based on Squeeze is released</title>
9071                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/First_Debian_Edu_test_release__alpha0__based_on_Squeeze_is_released.html</link>
9072                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/First_Debian_Edu_test_release__alpha0__based_on_Squeeze_is_released.html</guid>
9073                 <pubDate>Tue, 27 Jul 2010 17:45:00 +0200</pubDate>
9074                 <description>&lt;p&gt;I just posted this announcement culminating several months of work
9075 with the next Debian Edu release.  Not nearly done, but one major step
9076 completed.&lt;/p&gt;
9077
9078 &lt;blockquote&gt;
9079 &lt;p&gt;This is the first test release based on Squeeze. The focus of this
9080 release is to test the user application selection. To have a look,
9081 install the standalone profile and let the developers know if the set
9082 of installed packages i.e. applications should be modified. If some
9083 user application is missing, or if there are some applications that no
9084 longer make sense to be included in Debian Edu, please let us know.
9085 Also, if a useful application is missing the translation for your
9086 language of choice, please let us know too.&lt;/p&gt;
9087
9088 &lt;p&gt;In addition, feedback and help to polish the desktop (menus,
9089 artwork, starters, etc.) is appreciated. We would like to ship a nice
9090 and handy KDE4 desktop targeted for schools out of the box.&lt;/p&gt;
9091
9092 &lt;p&gt;The other profiles should be installable, but there is a lot more
9093 work left to be done before they are ready, so do not expect to
9094 much.&lt;/p&gt;
9095
9096 &lt;p&gt;Changes compared to the lenny based version&lt;/p&gt;
9097
9098 &lt;ul&gt;
9099 &lt;li&gt;Everything from Debian Squeeze
9100 &lt;ul&gt;
9101   &lt;li&gt;Desktop environment KDE 4.4 =&gt; the new KDE desktop in
9102          combination with some new artwork
9103   &lt;li&gt;Web browser Iceweasel 3.5
9104   &lt;li&gt;OpenOffice.org 3.2
9105   &lt;li&gt;Educational toolbox GCompris 9.3
9106   &lt;li&gt;Music creator Rosegarden 10.04.2
9107   &lt;li&gt;Image editor Gimp 2.6.10
9108   &lt;li&gt;Virtual universe Celestia 1.6.0
9109   &lt;li&gt;Virtual stargazer Stellarium 0.10.4
9110   &lt;li&gt;3D modeler Blender 2.49.2 (new application)
9111   &lt;li&gt;Video editor Kdenlive 0.7.7 (new application)
9112 &lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
9113 &lt;li&gt;Now using Kerberos for password checking (migration not finished).
9114     Enabled for:
9115 &lt;ul&gt;
9116   &lt;li&gt;PAM
9117   &lt;li&gt;LDAP
9118   &lt;li&gt;IMAP
9119   &lt;li&gt;SMTP (sender verification)
9120 &lt;/ul&gt;
9121 &lt;/li&gt;
9122 &lt;li&gt;New experimental roaming workstation profile for laptops.&lt;/li&gt;
9123 &lt;li&gt;Show welcome page to users when they first log in. The URL is
9124     fetched from LDAP.&lt;/li&gt;
9125 &lt;li&gt;New LXDE desktop option, in addition to KDE (default) and Gnome.&lt;/li&gt;
9126 &lt;li&gt;General cleanup (not finished)&lt;/li&gt;
9127 &lt;/ul&gt;
9128 &lt;p&gt;The following features are not working as they should&lt;/p&gt;
9129
9130 &lt;ul&gt;
9131 &lt;li&gt;No web based administration tool for creating users and groups. The
9132     scripts ldap-createuser-krb and ldap-add-user-to-group can be used
9133     for testing.&lt;/li&gt;
9134 &lt;li&gt;DVD installs are missing debian-installer images for the PXE boot,
9135     and do not set up the PXE menu on eth0 because of this. LTSP
9136     clients should still boot from eth1 on thin client servers.&lt;/li&gt;
9137 &lt;li&gt;The restructured KDE menu is not implemented.&lt;/li&gt;
9138 &lt;li&gt;The LDAP server setup need to be reviewed for security.&lt;/li&gt;
9139 &lt;li&gt;The LDAP directory structure need to be reworked.&lt;/li&gt;
9140 &lt;li&gt;Different sets of packages are installed when using the DVD and the
9141     netinst CD. More packages are installed using the netinst CD.&lt;/li&gt;
9142 &lt;li&gt;The jackd package fail to install. This is believed to be caused by
9143     some ongoing transition, and hopefully should be solved soon. The
9144     jackd1 package can be installed manually for those that need it.&lt;/li&gt;
9145 &lt;li&gt;Some packages lack translations. See
9146     http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Status/Squeeze for updated status,
9147     and help out with translations.&lt;/li&gt;
9148 &lt;/ul&gt;
9149
9150 &lt;p&gt;To download this multiarch netinstall release you can use&lt;/p&gt;
9151
9152 &lt;ul&gt;
9153 &lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;ftp://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/squeeze-alpha/debian-edu-6.0.0+edua0-CD.iso&quot;&gt;ftp://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/squeeze-alpha/debian-edu-6.0.0+edua0-CD.iso&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
9154 &lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/squeeze-alpha/debian-edu-6.0.0+edua0-CD.iso&quot;&gt;http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/squeeze-alpha/debian-edu-6.0.0+edua0-CD.iso&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
9155 &lt;li&gt;rsync -avzP ftp.skolelinux.org::skolelinux-cd/squeeze-alpha/debian-edu-6.0.0+edua0-CD.iso&lt;/li&gt;
9156 &lt;/ul&gt;
9157 &lt;p&gt;To download this multiarch dvd release you can use&lt;/p&gt;
9158
9159 &lt;ul&gt;
9160 &lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;ftp://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/squeeze-alpha/debian-edu-6.0.0+edua0-DVD.iso&quot;&gt;ftp://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/squeeze-alpha/debian-edu-6.0.0+edua0-DVD.iso&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
9161 &lt;li&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/squeeze-alpha/debian-edu-6.0.0+edua0-DVD.iso&quot;&gt;http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/squeeze-alpha/debian-edu-6.0.0+edua0-DVD.iso&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li&gt;
9162 &lt;li&gt;rsync -avzP ftp.skolelinux.org::skolelinux-cd/squeeze-alpha/debian-edu-6.0.0+edua0-DVD.iso&lt;/li&gt;
9163 &lt;/ul&gt;
9164
9165 &lt;p&gt;There is no source DVD available yet. It will be prepared when we
9166 get closer to the final release.&lt;/p&gt;
9167
9168 &lt;p&gt;The MD5SUM of these images are&lt;/p&gt;
9169
9170 &lt;ul&gt;
9171 &lt;li&gt;3dbf45d59f42a53518b6e3c9ec3b5eb6 debian-edu-6.0.0+edua0-CD.iso&lt;/li&gt;
9172 &lt;li&gt;22f2cbfce281d1c6e478be452638675d debian-edu-6.0.0+edua0-DVD.iso&lt;/li&gt;
9173 &lt;/ul&gt;
9174
9175 &lt;p&gt;The SHA1SUM of these images are&lt;/p&gt;
9176 &lt;ul&gt;
9177 &lt;li&gt;c53d1b69b40cf37cd27aefaf33f6f6a3821bedf0 debian-edu-6.0.0+edua0-CD.iso&lt;/li&gt;
9178 &lt;li&gt;2ec29d7db676d59d32197b05c277ffe16348376c debian-edu-6.0.0+edua0-DVD.iso&lt;/li&gt;
9179 &lt;/ul&gt;
9180 &lt;p&gt;How to report bugs:
9181 http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/HowTo/ReportBugsInBugzilla&lt;/p&gt;
9182
9183 &lt;p&gt;Please direct replies to debian-edu@lists.debian.org&lt;/p&gt;
9184 &lt;/blockquote&gt;
9185 </description>
9186         </item>
9187
9188         <item>
9189                 <title>One step closer to single signon in Debian Edu</title>
9190                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/One_step_closer_to_single_signon_in_Debian_Edu.html</link>
9191                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/One_step_closer_to_single_signon_in_Debian_Edu.html</guid>
9192                 <pubDate>Sun, 25 Jul 2010 10:00:00 +0200</pubDate>
9193                 <description>&lt;p&gt;The last few months me and the other Debian Edu developers have
9194 been working hard to get the Debian/Squeeze based version of Debian
9195 Edu/Skolelinux into shape.  This future version will use Kerberos for
9196 authentication, and services are slowly migrated to single signon,
9197 getting rid of password questions one at the time.&lt;/p&gt;
9198
9199 &lt;p&gt;It will also feature a roaming workstation profile with local home
9200 directory, for laptops that are only some times on the Skolelinux
9201 network, and for this profile a shortcut is created in Gnome and KDE
9202 to gain access to the users home directory on the file server.  This
9203 shortcut uses SMB at the moment, and yesterday I had time to test if
9204 SMB mounting had started working in KDE after we added the cifs-utils
9205 package.  I was pleasantly surprised how well it worked.&lt;/p&gt;
9206
9207 &lt;p&gt;Thanks to the recent changes to our samba configuration to get it
9208 to use Kerberos for authentication, there were no question about user
9209 password when mounting the SMB volume.  A simple click on the shortcut
9210 in the KDE menu, and a window with the home directory popped
9211 up. :)&lt;/p&gt;
9212
9213 &lt;p&gt;One step closer to a single signon solution out of the box in
9214 Debian Edu.  We already had PAM, LDAP, IMAP and SMTP in place, and now
9215 also Samba.  Next step is Cups and hopefully also NFS.&lt;/p&gt;
9216
9217 &lt;p&gt;We had planned a alpha0 release of Debian Edu for today, but thanks
9218 to the autobuilder administrators for some architectures being slow to
9219 sign packages, we are still missing the fixed LTSP package we need for
9220 the release.  It was uploaded three days ago with urgency=high, and if
9221 it had entered testing yesterday we would have been able to test it in
9222 time for a alpha0 release today.  As the binaries for ia64 and powerpc
9223 still not uploaded to the Debian archive, we need to delay the alpha
9224 release another day.&lt;/p&gt;
9225
9226 &lt;p&gt;If you want to help out with implementing Kerberos for Debian Edu,
9227 please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.&lt;/p&gt;
9228 </description>
9229         </item>
9230
9231         <item>
9232                 <title>OpenStreetmap one step closer to having routing on its front page</title>
9233                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/OpenStreetmap_one_step_closer_to_having_routing_on_its_front_page.html</link>
9234                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/OpenStreetmap_one_step_closer_to_having_routing_on_its_front_page.html</guid>
9235                 <pubDate>Sun, 18 Jul 2010 16:45:00 +0200</pubDate>
9236                 <description>&lt;p&gt;Thanks to
9237 &lt;a href=&quot;http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Opengeodata/~3/wUTCzDZk3lc/project-of-the-week-which-way-home&quot;&gt;todays
9238 opengeodata blog entry&lt;/a&gt;, I just discovered that the
9239 OpenStreetmap.org site have gotten
9240 &lt;a href=&quot;http://nroets.dev.openstreetmap.org/demo/index.html?layers=B000FTFTT&quot;&gt;support
9241 for calculating routes&lt;/a&gt;.  The support is still experimental and
9242 only available from the development server, until more experience is
9243 gathered on the user interface and any scalability issues.&lt;/p&gt;
9244
9245 &lt;p&gt;Earlier, the routing I knew about using the OpenStreetmap.org data
9246 was provided by &lt;a href=&quot;http://maps.cloudmade.com/&quot;&gt;Cloudmade&lt;/a&gt;,
9247 but having it on the main page is required to make everyone aware of
9248 the issue.  I&#39;ve had people reject Openstreetmap.org as a viable
9249 alternative for them because the front page lacked routing support,
9250 and I hope their needs will be catered for when routing show up on the
9251 www.openstreetmap.org front page.&lt;/p&gt;
9252 </description>
9253         </item>
9254
9255         <item>
9256                 <title>What are they searching for - PowerDNS and ISC DHCP in LDAP</title>
9257                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/What_are_they_searching_for___PowerDNS_and_ISC_DHCP_in_LDAP.html</link>
9258                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/What_are_they_searching_for___PowerDNS_and_ISC_DHCP_in_LDAP.html</guid>
9259                 <pubDate>Sat, 17 Jul 2010 21:00:00 +0200</pubDate>
9260                 <description>&lt;p&gt;This is a
9261 &lt;a href=&quot;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Time_for_new__LDAP_schemas_replacing_RFC_2307_.html&quot;&gt;followup&lt;/a&gt;
9262 on my
9263 &lt;a href=&quot;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&quot;&gt;previous
9264 work&lt;/a&gt; on
9265 &lt;a href=&quot;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Combining_PowerDNS_and_ISC_DHCP_LDAP_objects.html&quot;&gt;merging
9266 all&lt;/a&gt; the computer related LDAP objects in Debian Edu.&lt;/p&gt;
9267
9268 &lt;p&gt;As a step to try to see if it possible to merge the DNS and DHCP
9269 LDAP objects, I have had a look at how the packages pdns-backend-ldap
9270 and dhcp3-server-ldap in Debian use the LDAP server.  The two
9271 implementations are quite different in how they use LDAP.&lt;/p&gt;
9272
9273 To get this information, I started slapd with debugging enabled and
9274 dumped the debug output to a file to get the LDAP searches performed
9275 on a Debian Edu main-server.  Here is a summary.
9276
9277 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;powerdns&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
9278
9279 &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.linuxnetworks.de/doc/index.php/PowerDNS_LDAP_Backend&quot;&gt;Clues
9280 on how to&lt;/a&gt; set up PowerDNS to use a LDAP backend is available on
9281 the web.
9282
9283 &lt;p&gt;PowerDNS have two modes of operation using LDAP as its backend.
9284 One &quot;strict&quot; mode where the forward and reverse DNS lookups are done
9285 using the same LDAP objects, and a &quot;tree&quot; mode where the forward and
9286 reverse entries are in two different subtrees in LDAP with a structure
9287 based on the DNS names, as in tjener.intern and
9288 2.2.0.10.in-addr.arpa.&lt;/p&gt;
9289
9290 &lt;p&gt;In tree mode, the server is set up to use a LDAP subtree as its
9291 base, and uses a &quot;base&quot; scoped search for the DNS name by adding
9292 &quot;dc=tjener,dc=intern,&quot; to the base with a filter for
9293 &quot;(associateddomain=tjener.intern)&quot; for the forward entry and
9294 &quot;dc=2,dc=2,dc=0,dc=10,dc=in-addr,dc=arpa,&quot; with a filter for
9295 &quot;(associateddomain=2.2.0.10.in-addr.arpa)&quot; for the reverse entry.  For
9296 forward entries, it is looking for attributes named dnsttl, arecord,
9297 nsrecord, cnamerecord, soarecord, ptrrecord, hinforecord, mxrecord,
9298 txtrecord, rprecord, afsdbrecord, keyrecord, aaaarecord, locrecord,
9299 srvrecord, naptrrecord, kxrecord, certrecord, dsrecord, sshfprecord,
9300 ipseckeyrecord, rrsigrecord, nsecrecord, dnskeyrecord, dhcidrecord,
9301 spfrecord and modifytimestamp.  For reverse entries it is looking for
9302 the attributes dnsttl, arecord, nsrecord, cnamerecord, soarecord,
9303 ptrrecord, hinforecord, mxrecord, txtrecord, rprecord, aaaarecord,
9304 locrecord, srvrecord, naptrrecord and modifytimestamp.  The equivalent
9305 ldapsearch commands could look like this:&lt;/p&gt;
9306
9307 &lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;pre&gt;
9308 ldapsearch -h ldap \
9309   -b dc=tjener,dc=intern,ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no \
9310   -s base -x &#39;(associateddomain=tjener.intern)&#39; dNSTTL aRecord nSRecord \
9311   cNAMERecord sOARecord pTRRecord hInfoRecord mXRecord tXTRecord \
9312   rPRecord aFSDBRecord KeyRecord aAAARecord lOCRecord sRVRecord \
9313   nAPTRRecord kXRecord certRecord dSRecord sSHFPRecord iPSecKeyRecord \
9314   rRSIGRecord nSECRecord dNSKeyRecord dHCIDRecord sPFRecord modifyTimestamp
9315
9316 ldapsearch -h ldap \
9317   -b dc=2,dc=2,dc=0,dc=10,dc=in-addr,dc=arpa,ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no \
9318   -s base -x &#39;(associateddomain=2.2.0.10.in-addr.arpa)&#39;
9319   dnsttl, arecord, nsrecord, cnamerecord soarecord ptrrecord \
9320   hinforecord mxrecord txtrecord rprecord aaaarecord locrecord \
9321   srvrecord naptrrecord modifytimestamp
9322 &lt;/pre&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
9323
9324 &lt;p&gt;In Debian Edu/Lenny, the PowerDNS tree mode is used with
9325 ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no as the base, and these are two
9326 example LDAP objects used there.  In addition to these objects, the
9327 parent objects all th way up to ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
9328 also exist.&lt;/p&gt;
9329
9330 &lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;pre&gt;
9331 dn: dc=tjener,dc=intern,ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
9332 objectclass: top
9333 objectclass: dnsdomain
9334 objectclass: domainrelatedobject
9335 dc: tjener
9336 arecord: 10.0.2.2
9337 associateddomain: tjener.intern
9338
9339 dn: dc=2,dc=2,dc=0,dc=10,dc=in-addr,dc=arpa,ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
9340 objectclass: top
9341 objectclass: dnsdomain2
9342 objectclass: domainrelatedobject
9343 dc: 2
9344 ptrrecord: tjener.intern
9345 associateddomain: 2.2.0.10.in-addr.arpa
9346 &lt;/pre&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
9347
9348 &lt;p&gt;In strict mode, the server behaves differently.  When looking for
9349 forward DNS entries, it is doing a &quot;subtree&quot; scoped search with the
9350 same base as in the tree mode for a object with filter
9351 &quot;(associateddomain=tjener.intern)&quot; and requests the attributes dnsttl,
9352 arecord, nsrecord, cnamerecord, soarecord, ptrrecord, hinforecord,
9353 mxrecord, txtrecord, rprecord, aaaarecord, locrecord, srvrecord,
9354 naptrrecord and modifytimestamp.  For reverse entires it also do a
9355 subtree scoped search but this time the filter is &quot;(arecord=10.0.2.2)&quot;
9356 and the requested attributes are associateddomain, dnsttl and
9357 modifytimestamp.  In short, in strict mode the objects with ptrrecord
9358 go away, and the arecord attribute in the forward object is used
9359 instead.&lt;/p&gt;
9360
9361 &lt;p&gt;The forward and reverse searches can be simulated using ldapsearch
9362 like this:&lt;/p&gt;
9363
9364 &lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;pre&gt;
9365 ldapsearch -h ldap -b ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no -s sub -x \
9366   &#39;(associateddomain=tjener.intern)&#39; dNSTTL aRecord nSRecord \
9367   cNAMERecord sOARecord pTRRecord hInfoRecord mXRecord tXTRecord \
9368   rPRecord aFSDBRecord KeyRecord aAAARecord lOCRecord sRVRecord \
9369   nAPTRRecord kXRecord certRecord dSRecord sSHFPRecord iPSecKeyRecord \
9370   rRSIGRecord nSECRecord dNSKeyRecord dHCIDRecord sPFRecord modifyTimestamp
9371
9372 ldapsearch -h ldap -b ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no -s sub -x \
9373   &#39;(arecord=10.0.2.2)&#39; associateddomain dnsttl modifytimestamp
9374 &lt;/pre&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
9375
9376 &lt;p&gt;In addition to the forward and reverse searches , there is also a
9377 search for SOA records, which behave similar to the forward and
9378 reverse lookups.&lt;/p&gt;
9379
9380 &lt;p&gt;A thing to note with the PowerDNS behaviour is that it do not
9381 specify any objectclass names, and instead look for the attributes it
9382 need to generate a DNS reply.  This make it able to work with any
9383 objectclass that provide the needed attributes.&lt;/p&gt;
9384
9385 &lt;p&gt;The attributes are normally provided in the cosine (RFC 1274) and
9386 dnsdomain2 schemas.  The latter is used for reverse entries like
9387 ptrrecord and recent DNS additions like aaaarecord and srvrecord.&lt;/p&gt;
9388
9389 &lt;p&gt;In Debian Edu, we have created DNS objects using the object classes
9390 dcobject (for dc), dnsdomain or dnsdomain2 (structural, for the DNS
9391 attributes) and domainrelatedobject (for associatedDomain).  The use
9392 of structural object classes make it impossible to combine these
9393 classes with the object classes used by DHCP.&lt;/p&gt;
9394
9395 &lt;p&gt;There are other schemas that could be used too, for example the
9396 dnszone structural object class used by Gosa and bind-sdb for the DNS
9397 attributes combined with the domainrelatedobject object class, but in
9398 this case some unused attributes would have to be included as well
9399 (zonename and relativedomainname).&lt;/p&gt;
9400
9401 &lt;p&gt;My proposal for Debian Edu would be to switch PowerDNS to strict
9402 mode and not use any of the existing objectclasses (dnsdomain,
9403 dnsdomain2 and dnszone) when one want to combine the DNS information
9404 with DHCP information, and instead create a auxiliary object class
9405 defined something like this (using the attributes defined for
9406 dnsdomain and dnsdomain2 or dnszone):&lt;/p&gt;
9407
9408 &lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;pre&gt;
9409 objectclass ( some-oid NAME &#39;dnsDomainAux&#39;
9410     SUP top
9411     AUXILIARY
9412     MAY ( ARecord $ MDRecord $ MXRecord $ NSRecord $ SOARecord $ CNAMERecord $
9413           DNSTTL $ DNSClass $ PTRRecord $ HINFORecord $ MINFORecord $
9414           TXTRecord $ SIGRecord $ KEYRecord $ AAAARecord $ LOCRecord $
9415           NXTRecord $ SRVRecord $ NAPTRRecord $ KXRecord $ CERTRecord $
9416           A6Record $ DNAMERecord
9417     ))
9418 &lt;/pre&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
9419
9420 &lt;p&gt;This will allow any object to become a DNS entry when combined with
9421 the domainrelatedobject object class, and allow any entity to include
9422 all the attributes PowerDNS wants.  I&#39;ve sent an email to the PowerDNS
9423 developers asking for their view on this schema and if they are
9424 interested in providing such schema with PowerDNS, and I hope my
9425 message will be accepted into their mailing list soon.&lt;/p&gt;
9426
9427 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;ISC dhcp&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
9428
9429 &lt;p&gt;The DHCP server searches for specific objectclass and requests all
9430 the object attributes, and then uses the attributes it want.  This
9431 make it harder to figure out exactly what attributes are used, but
9432 thanks to the working example in Debian Edu I can at least get an idea
9433 what is needed without having to read the source code.&lt;/p&gt;
9434
9435 &lt;p&gt;In the DHCP server configuration, the LDAP base to use and the
9436 search filter to use to locate the correct dhcpServer entity is
9437 stored.  These are the relevant entries from
9438 /etc/dhcp3/dhcpd.conf:&lt;/p&gt;
9439
9440 &lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;pre&gt;
9441 ldap-base-dn &quot;dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no&quot;;
9442 ldap-dhcp-server-cn &quot;dhcp&quot;;
9443 &lt;/pre&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
9444
9445 &lt;p&gt;The DHCP server uses this information to nest all the DHCP
9446 configuration it need.  The cn &quot;dhcp&quot; is located using the given LDAP
9447 base and the filter &quot;(&amp;(objectClass=dhcpServer)(cn=dhcp))&quot;.  The
9448 search result is this entry:&lt;/p&gt;
9449
9450 &lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;pre&gt;
9451 dn: cn=dhcp,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
9452 cn: dhcp
9453 objectClass: top
9454 objectClass: dhcpServer
9455 dhcpServiceDN: cn=DHCP Config,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
9456 &lt;/pre&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
9457
9458 &lt;p&gt;The content of the dhcpServiceDN attribute is next used to locate the
9459 subtree with DHCP configuration.  The DHCP configuration subtree base
9460 is located using a base scope search with base &quot;cn=DHCP
9461 Config,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no&quot; and filter
9462 &quot;(&amp;(objectClass=dhcpService)(|(dhcpPrimaryDN=cn=dhcp,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no)(dhcpSecondaryDN=cn=dhcp,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no)))&quot;.
9463 The search result is this entry:&lt;/p&gt;
9464
9465 &lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;pre&gt;
9466 dn: cn=DHCP Config,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
9467 cn: DHCP Config
9468 objectClass: top
9469 objectClass: dhcpService
9470 objectClass: dhcpOptions
9471 dhcpPrimaryDN: cn=dhcp, dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
9472 dhcpStatements: ddns-update-style none
9473 dhcpStatements: authoritative
9474 dhcpOption: smtp-server code 69 = array of ip-address
9475 dhcpOption: www-server code 72 = array of ip-address
9476 dhcpOption: wpad-url code 252 = text
9477 &lt;/pre&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
9478
9479 &lt;p&gt;Next, the entire subtree is processed, one level at the time.  When
9480 all the DHCP configuration is loaded, it is ready to receive requests.
9481 The subtree in Debian Edu contain objects with object classes
9482 top/dhcpService/dhcpOptions, top/dhcpSharedNetwork/dhcpOptions,
9483 top/dhcpSubnet, top/dhcpGroup and top/dhcpHost.  These provide options
9484 and information about netmasks, dynamic range etc.  Leaving out the
9485 details here because it is not relevant for the focus of my
9486 investigation, which is to see if it is possible to merge dns and dhcp
9487 related computer objects.&lt;/p&gt;
9488
9489 &lt;p&gt;When a DHCP request come in, LDAP is searched for the MAC address
9490 of the client (00:00:00:00:00:00 in this example), using a subtree
9491 scoped search with &quot;cn=DHCP Config,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no&quot; as
9492 the base and &quot;(&amp;(objectClass=dhcpHost)(dhcpHWAddress=ethernet
9493 00:00:00:00:00:00))&quot; as the filter.  This is what a host object look
9494 like:&lt;/p&gt;
9495
9496 &lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;pre&gt;
9497 dn: cn=hostname,cn=group1,cn=THINCLIENTS,cn=DHCP Config,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
9498 cn: hostname
9499 objectClass: top
9500 objectClass: dhcpHost
9501 dhcpHWAddress: ethernet 00:00:00:00:00:00
9502 dhcpStatements: fixed-address hostname
9503 &lt;/pre&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
9504
9505 &lt;p&gt;There is less flexiblity in the way LDAP searches are done here.
9506 The object classes need to have fixed names, and the configuration
9507 need to be stored in a fairly specific LDAP structure.  On the
9508 positive side, the invidiual dhcpHost entires can be anywhere without
9509 the DN pointed to by the dhcpServer entries.  The latter should make
9510 it possible to group all host entries in a subtree next to the
9511 configuration entries, and this subtree can also be shared with the
9512 DNS server if the schema proposed above is combined with the dhcpHost
9513 structural object class.
9514
9515 &lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Conclusion&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
9516
9517 &lt;p&gt;The PowerDNS implementation seem to be very flexible when it come
9518 to which LDAP schemas to use.  While its &quot;tree&quot; mode is rigid when it
9519 come to the the LDAP structure, the &quot;strict&quot; mode is very flexible,
9520 allowing DNS objects to be stored anywhere under the base cn specified
9521 in the configuration.&lt;/p&gt;
9522
9523 &lt;p&gt;The DHCP implementation on the other hand is very inflexible, both
9524 regarding which LDAP schemas to use and which LDAP structure to use.
9525 I guess one could implement ones own schema, as long as the
9526 objectclasses and attributes have the names used, but this do not
9527 really help when the DHCP subtree need to have a fairly fixed
9528 structure.&lt;/p&gt;
9529
9530 &lt;p&gt;Based on the observed behaviour, I suspect a LDAP structure like
9531 this might work for Debian Edu:&lt;/p&gt;
9532
9533 &lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;pre&gt;
9534 ou=services
9535   cn=machine-info (dhcpService) - dhcpServiceDN points here
9536     cn=dhcp (dhcpServer)
9537     cn=dhcp-internal (dhcpSharedNetwork/dhcpOptions)
9538       cn=10.0.2.0 (dhcpSubnet)
9539         cn=group1 (dhcpGroup/dhcpOptions)
9540     cn=dhcp-thinclients (dhcpSharedNetwork/dhcpOptions)
9541       cn=192.168.0.0 (dhcpSubnet)
9542         cn=group1 (dhcpGroup/dhcpOptions)
9543     ou=machines - PowerDNS base points here
9544       cn=hostname (dhcpHost/domainrelatedobject/dnsDomainAux)
9545 &lt;/pre&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
9546
9547 &lt;P&gt;This is not tested yet.  If the DHCP server require the dhcpHost
9548 entries to be in the dhcpGroup subtrees, the entries can be stored
9549 there instead of a common machines subtree, and the PowerDNS base
9550 would have to be moved one level up to the machine-info subtree.&lt;/p&gt;
9551
9552 &lt;p&gt;The combined object under the machines subtree would look something
9553 like this:&lt;/p&gt;
9554
9555 &lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;pre&gt;
9556 dn: dc=hostname,ou=machines,cn=machine-info,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
9557 dc: hostname
9558 objectClass: top
9559 objectClass: dhcpHost
9560 objectclass: domainrelatedobject
9561 objectclass: dnsDomainAux
9562 associateddomain: hostname.intern
9563 arecord: 10.11.12.13
9564 dhcpHWAddress: ethernet 00:00:00:00:00:00
9565 dhcpStatements: fixed-address hostname.intern
9566 &lt;/pre&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
9567
9568 &lt;/p&gt;One could even add the LTSP configuration associated with a given
9569 machine, as long as the required attributes are available in a
9570 auxiliary object class.&lt;/p&gt;
9571 </description>
9572         </item>
9573
9574         <item>
9575                 <title>Combining PowerDNS and ISC DHCP LDAP objects</title>
9576                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Combining_PowerDNS_and_ISC_DHCP_LDAP_objects.html</link>
9577                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Combining_PowerDNS_and_ISC_DHCP_LDAP_objects.html</guid>
9578                 <pubDate>Wed, 14 Jul 2010 23:45:00 +0200</pubDate>
9579                 <description>&lt;p&gt;For a while now, I have wanted to find a way to change the DNS and
9580 DHCP services in Debian Edu to use the same LDAP objects for a given
9581 computer, to avoid the possibility of having a inconsistent state for
9582 a computer in LDAP (as in DHCP but no DNS entry or the other way
9583 around) and make it easier to add computers to LDAP.&lt;/p&gt;
9584
9585 &lt;p&gt;I&#39;ve looked at how powerdns and dhcpd is using LDAP, and using this
9586 information finally found a solution that seem to work.&lt;/p&gt;
9587
9588 &lt;p&gt;The old setup required three LDAP objects for a given computer.
9589 One forward DNS entry, one reverse DNS entry and one DHCP entry.  If
9590 we switch powerdns to use its strict LDAP method (ldap-method=strict
9591 in pdns-debian-edu.conf), the forward and reverse DNS entries are
9592 merged into one while making it impossible to transfer the reverse map
9593 to a slave DNS server.&lt;/p&gt;
9594
9595 &lt;p&gt;If we also replace the object class used to get the DNS related
9596 attributes to one allowing these attributes to be combined with the
9597 dhcphost object class, we can merge the DNS and DHCP entries into one.
9598 I&#39;ve written such object class in the dnsdomainaux.schema file (need
9599 proper OIDs, but that is a minor issue), and tested the setup.  It
9600 seem to work.&lt;/p&gt;
9601
9602 &lt;p&gt;With this test setup in place, we can get away with one LDAP object
9603 for both DNS and DHCP, and even the LTSP configuration I suggested in
9604 an earlier email.  The combined LDAP object will look something like
9605 this:&lt;/p&gt;
9606
9607 &lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;pre&gt;
9608   dn: cn=hostname,cn=group1,cn=THINCLIENTS,cn=DHCP Config,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
9609   cn: hostname
9610   objectClass: dhcphost
9611   objectclass: domainrelatedobject
9612   objectclass: dnsdomainaux
9613   associateddomain: hostname.intern
9614   arecord: 10.11.12.13
9615   dhcphwaddress: ethernet 00:00:00:00:00:00
9616   dhcpstatements: fixed-address hostname
9617   ldapconfigsound: Y
9618 &lt;/pre&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
9619
9620 &lt;p&gt;The DNS server uses the associateddomain and arecord entries, while
9621 the DHCP server uses the dhcphwaddress and dhcpstatements entries
9622 before asking DNS to resolve the fixed-adddress.  LTSP will use
9623 dhcphwaddress or associateddomain and the ldapconfig* attributes.&lt;/p&gt;
9624
9625 &lt;p&gt;I am not yet sure if I can get the DHCP server to look for its
9626 dhcphost in a different location, to allow us to put the objects
9627 outside the &quot;DHCP Config&quot; subtree, but hope to figure out a way to do
9628 that.  If I can&#39;t figure out a way to do that, we can still get rid of
9629 the hosts subtree and move all its content into the DHCP Config tree
9630 (which probably should be renamed to be more related to the new
9631 content.  I suspect cn=dnsdhcp,ou=services or something like that
9632 might be a good place to put it.&lt;/p&gt;
9633
9634 &lt;p&gt;If you want to help out with implementing this for Debian Edu,
9635 please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.&lt;/p&gt;
9636 </description>
9637         </item>
9638
9639         <item>
9640                 <title>Idea for storing LTSP configuration in LDAP</title>
9641                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Idea_for_storing_LTSP_configuration_in_LDAP.html</link>
9642                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Idea_for_storing_LTSP_configuration_in_LDAP.html</guid>
9643                 <pubDate>Sun, 11 Jul 2010 22:00:00 +0200</pubDate>
9644                 <description>&lt;p&gt;Vagrant mentioned on IRC today that ltsp_config now support
9645 sourcing files from /usr/share/ltsp/ltsp_config.d/ on the thin
9646 clients, and that this can be used to fetch configuration from LDAP if
9647 Debian Edu choose to store configuration there.&lt;/p&gt;
9648
9649 &lt;p&gt;Armed with this information, I got inspired and wrote a test module
9650 to get configuration from LDAP.  The idea is to look up the MAC
9651 address of the client in LDAP, and look for attributes on the form
9652 ltspconfigsetting=value, and use this to export SETTING=value to the
9653 LTSP clients.&lt;/p&gt;
9654
9655 &lt;p&gt;The goal is to be able to store the LTSP configuration attributes
9656 in a &quot;computer&quot; LDAP object used by both DNS and DHCP, and thus
9657 allowing us to store all information about a computer in one place.&lt;/p&gt;
9658
9659 &lt;p&gt;This is a untested draft implementation, and I welcome feedback on
9660 this approach.  A real LDAP schema for the ltspClientAux objectclass
9661 need to be written.  Comments, suggestions, etc?&lt;/p&gt;
9662
9663 &lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;pre&gt;
9664 # Store in /opt/ltsp/$arch/usr/share/ltsp/ltsp_config.d/ldap-config
9665 #
9666 # Fetch LTSP client settings from LDAP based on MAC address
9667 #
9668 # Uses ethernet address as stored in the dhcpHost objectclass using
9669 # the dhcpHWAddress attribute or ethernet address stored in the
9670 # ieee802Device objectclass with the macAddress attribute.
9671 #
9672 # This module is written to be schema agnostic, and only depend on the
9673 # existence of attribute names.
9674 #
9675 # The LTSP configuration variables are saved directly using a
9676 # ltspConfig prefix and uppercasing the rest of the attribute name.
9677 # To set the SERVER variable, set the ltspConfigServer attribute.
9678 #
9679 # Some LDAP schema should be created with all the relevant
9680 # configuration settings.  Something like this should work:
9681 #
9682 # objectclass ( 1.1.2.2 NAME &#39;ltspClientAux&#39;
9683 #     SUP top
9684 #     AUXILIARY
9685 #     MAY ( ltspConfigServer $ ltsConfigSound $ ... )
9686
9687 LDAPSERVER=$(debian-edu-ldapserver)
9688 if [ &quot;$LDAPSERVER&quot; ] ; then
9689     LDAPBASE=$(debian-edu-ldapserver -b)
9690     for MAC in $(LANG=C ifconfig |grep -i hwaddr| awk &#39;{print $5}&#39;|sort -u) ; do
9691         filter=&quot;(|(dhcpHWAddress=ethernet $MAC)(macAddress=$MAC))&quot;
9692         ldapsearch -h &quot;$LDAPSERVER&quot; -b &quot;$LDAPBASE&quot; -v -x &quot;$filter&quot; | \
9693             grep &#39;^ltspConfig&#39; | while read attr value ; do
9694             # Remove prefix and convert to upper case
9695             attr=$(echo $attr | sed &#39;s/^ltspConfig//i&#39; | tr a-z A-Z)
9696             # bass value on to clients
9697             eval &quot;$attr=$value; export $attr&quot;
9698         done
9699     done
9700 fi
9701 &lt;/pre&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
9702
9703 &lt;p&gt;I&#39;m not sure this shell construction will work, because I suspect
9704 the while block might end up in a subshell causing the variables set
9705 there to not show up in ltsp-config, but if that is the case I am sure
9706 the code can be restructured to make sure the variables are passed on.
9707 I expect that can be solved with some testing. :)&lt;/p&gt;
9708
9709 &lt;p&gt;If you want to help out with implementing this for Debian Edu,
9710 please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.&lt;/p&gt;
9711
9712 &lt;p&gt;Update 2010-07-17: I am aware of another effort to store LTSP
9713 configuration in LDAP that was created around year 2000 by
9714 &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.pcxperience.com/thinclient/documentation/ldap.html&quot;&gt;PC
9715 Xperience, Inc., 2000&lt;/a&gt;.  I found its
9716 &lt;a href=&quot;http://people.redhat.com/alikins/ltsp/ldap/&quot;&gt;files&lt;/a&gt; on a
9717 personal home page over at redhat.com.&lt;/p&gt;
9718 </description>
9719         </item>
9720
9721         <item>
9722                 <title>jXplorer, a very nice LDAP GUI</title>
9723                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/jXplorer__a_very_nice_LDAP_GUI.html</link>
9724                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/jXplorer__a_very_nice_LDAP_GUI.html</guid>
9725                 <pubDate>Fri, 9 Jul 2010 12:55:00 +0200</pubDate>
9726                 <description>&lt;p&gt;Since
9727 &lt;a href=&quot;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/LUMA__a_very_nice_LDAP_GUI.html&quot;&gt;my
9728 last post&lt;/a&gt; about available LDAP tools in Debian, I was told about a
9729 LDAP GUI that is even better than luma.  The java application
9730 &lt;a href=&quot;http://jxplorer.org/&quot;&gt;jXplorer&lt;/a&gt; is claimed to be capable of
9731 moving LDAP objects and subtrees using drag-and-drop, and can
9732 authenticate using Kerberos.  I have only tested the Kerberos
9733 authentication, but do not have a LDAP setup allowing me to rewrite
9734 LDAP with my test user yet.  It is
9735 &lt;a href=&quot;http://packages.qa.debian.org/j/jxplorer.html&quot;&gt;available in
9736 Debian&lt;/a&gt; testing and unstable at the moment.  The only problem I
9737 have with it is how it handle errors.  If something go wrong, its
9738 non-intuitive behaviour require me to go through some query work list
9739 and remove the failing query.  Nothing big, but very annoying.&lt;/p&gt;
9740 </description>
9741         </item>
9742
9743         <item>
9744                 <title>Lenny-&gt;Squeeze upgrades, apt vs aptitude with the Gnome desktop</title>
9745                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lenny__Squeeze_upgrades__apt_vs_aptitude_with_the_Gnome_desktop.html</link>
9746                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lenny__Squeeze_upgrades__apt_vs_aptitude_with_the_Gnome_desktop.html</guid>
9747                 <pubDate>Sat, 3 Jul 2010 23:55:00 +0200</pubDate>
9748                 <description>&lt;p&gt;Here is a short update on my &lt;a
9749 href=&quot;http://people.skolelinux.org/~pere/debian-upgrade-testing/&quot;&gt;my
9750 Debian Lenny-&gt;Squeeze upgrade testing&lt;/a&gt;.  Here is a summary of the
9751 difference for Gnome when it is upgraded by apt-get and aptitude.  I&#39;m
9752 not reporting the status for KDE, because the upgrade crashes when
9753 aptitude try because of missing conflicts
9754 (&lt;a href=&quot;http://bugs.debian.org/584861&quot;&gt;#584861&lt;/a&gt; and
9755 &lt;a href=&quot;http://bugs.debian.org/585716&quot;&gt;#585716&lt;/a&gt;).&lt;/p&gt;
9756
9757 &lt;p&gt;At the end of the upgrade test script, dpkg -l is executed to get a
9758 complete list of the installed packages.  Based on this I see these
9759 differences when I did a test run today.  As usual, I do not really
9760 know what the correct set of packages would be, but thought it best to
9761 publish the difference.&lt;/p&gt;
9762
9763 &lt;p&gt;Installed using apt-get, missing with aptitude&lt;/p&gt;
9764
9765 &lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;p&gt;
9766   at-spi cpp-4.3 finger gnome-spell gstreamer0.10-gnomevfs
9767   libatspi1.0-0 libcupsys2 libeel2-data libgail-common libgdl-1-common
9768   libgnomeprint2.2-data libgnomeprintui2.2-common libgnomevfs2-bin
9769   libgtksourceview-common libpt-1.10.10-plugins-alsa
9770   libpt-1.10.10-plugins-v4l libservlet2.4-java libxalan2-java
9771   libxerces2-java openoffice.org-writer2latex openssl-blacklist p7zip
9772   python-4suite-xml python-eggtrayicon python-gtkhtml2
9773   python-gtkmozembed svgalibg1 xserver-xephyr zip
9774 &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
9775
9776 &lt;p&gt;Installed using apt-get, removed with aptitude&lt;/p&gt;
9777
9778 &lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;p&gt;
9779   bluez-utils dhcdbd djvulibre-desktop epiphany-gecko
9780   gnome-app-install gnome-mount gnome-vfs-obexftp gnome-volume-manager
9781   libao2 libavahi-compat-libdnssd1 libavahi-core5 libbind9-50
9782   libbluetooth2 libcamel1.2-11 libcdio7 libcucul0 libcurl3
9783   libdirectfb-1.0-0 libdvdread3 libedata-cal1.2-6 libedataserver1.2-9
9784   libeel2-2.20 libepc-1.0-1 libepc-ui-1.0-1 libexchange-storage1.2-3
9785   libfaad0 libgd2-noxpm libgda3-3 libgda3-common libggz2 libggzcore9
9786   libggzmod4 libgksu1.2-0 libgksuui1.0-1 libgmyth0 libgnome-desktop-2
9787   libgnome-pilot2 libgnomecups1.0-1 libgnomeprint2.2-0
9788   libgnomeprintui2.2-0 libgpod3 libgraphviz4 libgtkhtml2-0
9789   libgtksourceview1.0-0 libgucharmap6 libhesiod0 libicu38 libisccc50
9790   libisccfg50 libiw29 libkpathsea4 libltdl3 liblwres50 libmagick++10
9791   libmagick10 libmalaga7 libmtp7 libmysqlclient15off libnautilus-burn4
9792   libneon27 libnm-glib0 libnm-util0 libopal-2.2 libosp5
9793   libparted1.8-10 libpisock9 libpisync1 libpoppler-glib3 libpoppler3
9794   libpt-1.10.10 libraw1394-8 libsensors3 libsmbios2 libsoup2.2-8
9795   libssh2-1 libsuitesparse-3.1.0 libswfdec-0.6-90 libtalloc1
9796   libtotem-plparser10 libtrackerclient0 libvoikko1 libxalan2-java-gcj
9797   libxerces2-java-gcj libxklavier12 libxtrap6 libxxf86misc1 libzephyr3
9798   mysql-common swfdec-gnome totem-gstreamer wodim
9799 &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
9800
9801 &lt;p&gt;Installed using aptitude, missing with apt-get&lt;/p&gt;
9802
9803 &lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;p&gt;
9804   gnome gnome-desktop-environment hamster-applet python-gnomeapplet
9805   python-gnomekeyring python-wnck rhythmbox-plugins xorg
9806   xserver-xorg-input-all xserver-xorg-input-evdev
9807   xserver-xorg-input-kbd xserver-xorg-input-mouse
9808   xserver-xorg-input-synaptics xserver-xorg-video-all
9809   xserver-xorg-video-apm xserver-xorg-video-ark xserver-xorg-video-ati
9810   xserver-xorg-video-chips xserver-xorg-video-cirrus
9811   xserver-xorg-video-dummy xserver-xorg-video-fbdev
9812   xserver-xorg-video-glint xserver-xorg-video-i128
9813   xserver-xorg-video-i740 xserver-xorg-video-mach64
9814   xserver-xorg-video-mga xserver-xorg-video-neomagic
9815   xserver-xorg-video-nouveau xserver-xorg-video-nv
9816   xserver-xorg-video-r128 xserver-xorg-video-radeon
9817   xserver-xorg-video-radeonhd xserver-xorg-video-rendition
9818   xserver-xorg-video-s3 xserver-xorg-video-s3virge
9819   xserver-xorg-video-savage xserver-xorg-video-siliconmotion
9820   xserver-xorg-video-sis xserver-xorg-video-sisusb
9821   xserver-xorg-video-tdfx xserver-xorg-video-tga
9822   xserver-xorg-video-trident xserver-xorg-video-tseng
9823   xserver-xorg-video-vesa xserver-xorg-video-vmware
9824   xserver-xorg-video-voodoo
9825 &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
9826
9827 &lt;p&gt;Installed using aptitude, removed with apt-get&lt;/p&gt;
9828
9829 &lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;p&gt;
9830   deskbar-applet xserver-xorg xserver-xorg-core
9831   xserver-xorg-input-wacom xserver-xorg-video-intel
9832   xserver-xorg-video-openchrome
9833 &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
9834
9835 &lt;p&gt;I was told on IRC that the xorg-xserver package was
9836 &lt;a href=&quot;http://git.debian.org/?p=pkg-xorg/xserver/xorg-server.git;a=commit;h=9c8080d06c457932d3bfec021c69ac000aa60120&quot;&gt;changed
9837 in git&lt;/a&gt; today to try to get apt-get to not remove xorg completely.
9838 No idea when it hits Squeeze, but when it does I hope it will reduce
9839 the difference somewhat.
9840 </description>
9841         </item>
9842
9843         <item>
9844                 <title>Caching password, user and group on a roaming Debian laptop</title>
9845                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Caching_password__user_and_group_on_a_roaming_Debian_laptop.html</link>
9846                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Caching_password__user_and_group_on_a_roaming_Debian_laptop.html</guid>
9847                 <pubDate>Thu, 1 Jul 2010 11:40:00 +0200</pubDate>
9848                 <description>&lt;p&gt;For a laptop, centralized user directories and password checking is
9849 a bit troubling.  Laptops are typically used also when not connected
9850 to the network, and it is vital for a user to be able to log in or
9851 unlock the screen saver also when a central server is unavailable.
9852 This is possible by caching passwords and directory information (user
9853 and group attributes) locally, and the packages to do so are available
9854 in Debian.  Here follow two recipes to set this up in Debian/Squeeze.
9855 It is also possible to set up in Debian/Lenny, but require more manual
9856 setup there because pam-auth-update is missing in Lenny.&lt;/p&gt;
9857
9858 &lt;h2&gt;LDAP/Kerberos + nscd + libpam-ccreds + libpam-mklocaluser/pam_mkhomedir&lt;/h2&gt;
9859
9860 This is the traditional method with a twist.  The password caching is
9861 provided by libpam-ccreds (version 10-4 or later is needed on
9862 Squeeze), and the directory caching is done by nscd.  The directory
9863 lookup and password checking is done using LDAP.  If one want to use
9864 Kerberos for password checking the libpam-ldapd package can be
9865 replaced with libpam-krb5 or libpam-heimdal.  If one is happy having a
9866 local home directory with the path listed in LDAP, one can use the
9867 pam_mkhomedir module from pam-modules to make this happen instead of
9868 using libpam-mklocaluser.  A setup for pam-auth-update to enable
9869 pam_mkhomedir will have to be written until a fix for
9870 &lt;a href=&quot;http://bugs.debian.org/568577&quot;&gt;bug #568577&lt;/a&gt; is in the
9871 archive.  Because I believe it is a bad idea to have local home
9872 directories using misleading paths like /site/server/partition/, I
9873 prefer to create a local user with the home directory in /home/.  This
9874 is done using the libpam-mklocaluser package.&lt;/p&gt;
9875
9876 &lt;p&gt;These packages need to be installed and configured&lt;/p&gt;
9877
9878 &lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;pre&gt;
9879 libnss-ldapd libpam-ldapd nscd libpam-ccreds libpam-mklocaluser
9880 &lt;/pre&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
9881
9882 &lt;p&gt;The ldapd packages will ask for LDAP connection information, and
9883 one have to fill in the values that fits ones own site.  Make sure the
9884 PAM part uses encrypted connections, to make sure the password is not
9885 sent in clear text to the LDAP server.  I&#39;ve been unable to get TLS
9886 certificate checking for a self signed certificate working, which make
9887 LDAP authentication unsafe for Debian Edu (nslcd is not checking if it
9888 is talking to the correct LDAP server), and very much welcome feedback
9889 on how to get this working.&lt;/p&gt;
9890
9891 &lt;p&gt;Because nscd do not have a default configuration fit for offline
9892 caching until &lt;a href=&quot;http://bugs.debian.org/485282&quot;&gt;bug #485282&lt;/a&gt;
9893 is fixed, this configuration should be used instead of the one
9894 currently in /etc/nscd.conf.  The changes are in the fields
9895 reload-count and positive-time-to-live, and is based on the
9896 instructions I found in the
9897 &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.flyn.org/laptopldap/&quot;&gt;LDAP for Mobile Laptops&lt;/a&gt;
9898 instructions by Flyn Computing.&lt;/p&gt;
9899
9900 &lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;pre&gt;
9901         debug-level             0
9902         reload-count            unlimited
9903         paranoia                no
9904
9905         enable-cache            passwd          yes
9906         positive-time-to-live   passwd          2592000
9907         negative-time-to-live   passwd          20
9908         suggested-size          passwd          211
9909         check-files             passwd          yes
9910         persistent              passwd          yes
9911         shared                  passwd          yes
9912         max-db-size             passwd          33554432
9913         auto-propagate          passwd          yes
9914
9915         enable-cache            group           yes
9916         positive-time-to-live   group           2592000
9917         negative-time-to-live   group           20
9918         suggested-size          group           211
9919         check-files             group           yes
9920         persistent              group           yes
9921         shared                  group           yes
9922         max-db-size             group           33554432
9923         auto-propagate          group           yes
9924
9925         enable-cache            hosts           no
9926         positive-time-to-live   hosts           2592000
9927         negative-time-to-live   hosts           20
9928         suggested-size          hosts           211
9929         check-files             hosts           yes
9930         persistent              hosts           yes
9931         shared                  hosts           yes
9932         max-db-size             hosts           33554432
9933
9934         enable-cache            services        yes
9935         positive-time-to-live   services        2592000
9936         negative-time-to-live   services        20
9937         suggested-size          services        211
9938         check-files             services        yes
9939         persistent              services        yes
9940         shared                  services        yes
9941         max-db-size             services        33554432
9942 &lt;/pre&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
9943
9944 &lt;p&gt;While we wait for a mechanism to update /etc/nsswitch.conf
9945 automatically like the one provided in
9946 &lt;a href=&quot;http://bugs.debian.org/496915&quot;&gt;bug #496915&lt;/a&gt;, the file
9947 content need to be manually replaced to ensure LDAP is used as the
9948 directory service on the machine.  /etc/nsswitch.conf should normally
9949 look like this:&lt;/p&gt;
9950
9951 &lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;pre&gt;
9952 passwd:         files ldap
9953 group:          files ldap
9954 shadow:         files ldap
9955 hosts:          files mdns4_minimal [NOTFOUND=return] dns mdns4
9956 networks:       files
9957 protocols:      files
9958 services:       files
9959 ethers:         files
9960 rpc:            files
9961 netgroup:       files ldap
9962 &lt;/pre&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
9963
9964 &lt;p&gt;The important parts are that ldap is listed last for passwd, group,
9965 shadow and netgroup.&lt;/p&gt;
9966
9967 &lt;p&gt;With these changes in place, any user in LDAP will be able to log
9968 in locally on the machine using for example kdm, get a local home
9969 directory created and have the password as well as user and group
9970 attributes cached.
9971
9972 &lt;h2&gt;LDAP/Kerberos + nss-updatedb + libpam-ccreds +
9973   libpam-mklocaluser/pam_mkhomedir&lt;/h2&gt;
9974
9975 &lt;p&gt;Because nscd have had its share of problems, and seem to have
9976 problems doing proper caching, I&#39;ve seen suggestions and recipes to
9977 use nss-updatedb to copy parts of the LDAP database locally when the
9978 LDAP database is available.  I have not tested such setup, because I
9979 discovered sssd.&lt;/p&gt;
9980
9981 &lt;h2&gt;LDAP/Kerberos + sssd + libpam-mklocaluser&lt;/h2&gt;
9982
9983 &lt;p&gt;A more flexible and robust setup than the nscd combination
9984 mentioned earlier that has shown up recently, is the
9985 &lt;a href=&quot;https://fedorahosted.org/sssd/&quot;&gt;sssd&lt;/a&gt; package from Redhat.
9986 It is part of the &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.freeipa.org/&quot;&gt;FreeIPA&lt;/A&gt; project
9987 to provide a Active Directory like directory service for Linux
9988 machines.  The sssd system combines the caching of passwords and user
9989 information into one package, and remove the need for nscd and
9990 libpam-ccreds.  It support LDAP and Kerberos, but not NIS.  Version
9991 1.2 do not support netgroups, but it is said that it will support this
9992 in version 1.5 expected to show up later in 2010.  Because the
9993 &lt;a href=&quot;http://packages.qa.debian.org/s/sssd.html&quot;&gt;sssd package&lt;/a&gt;
9994 was missing in Debian, I ended up co-maintaining it with Werner, and
9995 version 1.2 is now in testing.
9996
9997 &lt;p&gt;These packages need to be installed and configured to get the
9998 roaming setup I want&lt;/p&gt;
9999
10000 &lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;pre&gt;
10001 libpam-sss libnss-sss libpam-mklocaluser
10002 &lt;/pre&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
10003
10004 The complete setup of sssd is done by editing/creating
10005 &lt;tt&gt;/etc/sssd/sssd.conf&lt;/tt&gt;.
10006
10007 &lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;pre&gt;
10008 [sssd]
10009 config_file_version = 2
10010 reconnection_retries = 3
10011 sbus_timeout = 30
10012 services = nss, pam
10013 domains = INTERN
10014
10015 [nss]
10016 filter_groups = root
10017 filter_users = root
10018 reconnection_retries = 3
10019
10020 [pam]
10021 reconnection_retries = 3
10022
10023 [domain/INTERN]
10024 enumerate = false
10025 cache_credentials = true
10026
10027 id_provider = ldap
10028 auth_provider = ldap
10029 chpass_provider = ldap
10030
10031 ldap_uri = ldap://ldap
10032 ldap_search_base = dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
10033 ldap_tls_reqcert = never
10034 ldap_tls_cacert = /etc/ssl/certs/ca-certificates.crt
10035 &lt;/pre&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
10036
10037 &lt;p&gt;I got the same problem here with certificate checking.  Had to set
10038 &quot;ldap_tls_reqcert = never&quot; to get it working.&lt;/p&gt;
10039
10040 &lt;p&gt;With the libnss-sss package in testing at the moment, the
10041 nsswitch.conf file is update automatically, so there is no need to
10042 modify it manually.&lt;/p&gt;
10043
10044 &lt;p&gt;If you want to help out with implementing this for Debian Edu,
10045 please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.&lt;/p&gt;
10046 </description>
10047         </item>
10048
10049         <item>
10050                 <title>LUMA, a very nice LDAP GUI</title>
10051                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/LUMA__a_very_nice_LDAP_GUI.html</link>
10052                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/LUMA__a_very_nice_LDAP_GUI.html</guid>
10053                 <pubDate>Mon, 28 Jun 2010 00:30:00 +0200</pubDate>
10054                 <description>&lt;p&gt;The last few days I have been looking into the status of the LDAP
10055 directory in Debian Edu, and in the process I started to miss a GUI
10056 tool to browse the LDAP tree.  The only one I was able to find in
10057 Debian/Squeeze and Lenny is
10058 &lt;a href=&quot;http://luma.sourceforge.net/&quot;&gt;LUMA&lt;/a&gt;, which has proved to
10059 be a great tool to get a overview of the current LDAP directory
10060 populated by default in Skolelinux.  Thanks to it, I have been able to
10061 find empty and obsolete subtrees, misplaced objects and duplicate
10062 objects.  It will be installed by default in Debian/Squeeze.  If you
10063 are working with LDAP, give it a go. :)&lt;/p&gt;
10064
10065 &lt;p&gt;I did notice one problem with it I have not had time to report to
10066 the BTS yet.  There is no .desktop file in the package, so the tool do
10067 not show up in the Gnome and KDE menus, but only deep down in in the
10068 Debian submenu in KDE.  I hope that can be fixed before Squeeze is
10069 released.&lt;/p&gt;
10070
10071 &lt;p&gt;I have not yet been able to get it to modify the tree yet.  I would
10072 like to move objects and remove subtrees directly in the GUI, but have
10073 not found a way to do that with LUMA yet.  So in the mean time, I use
10074 &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.lichteblau.com/ldapvi/&quot;&gt;ldapvi&lt;/a&gt; for that.&lt;/p&gt;
10075
10076 &lt;p&gt;If you have tips on other GUI tools for LDAP that might be useful
10077 in Debian Edu, please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.&lt;/p&gt;
10078
10079 &lt;p&gt;Update 2010-06-29: Ross Reedstrom tipped us about the
10080 &lt;a href=&quot;http://packages.qa.debian.org/g/gq.html&quot;&gt;gq&lt;/a&gt; package as a
10081 useful GUI alternative.  It seem like a good tool, but is unmaintained
10082 in Debian and got a RC bug keeping it out of Squeeze.  Unless that
10083 changes, it will not be an option for Debian Edu based on Squeeze.&lt;/p&gt;
10084 </description>
10085         </item>
10086
10087         <item>
10088                 <title>Idea for a change to LDAP schemas allowing DNS and DHCP info to be combined into one object</title>
10089                 <link>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</link>
10090                 <guid isPermaLink="true">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</guid>
10091                 <pubDate>Thu, 24 Jun 2010 00:35:00 +0200</pubDate>
10092                 <description>&lt;p&gt;A while back, I
10093 &lt;a href=&quot;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Time_for_new__LDAP_schemas_replacing_RFC_2307_.html&quot;&gt;complained
10094 about the fact&lt;/a&gt; that it is not possible with the provided schemas
10095 for storing DNS and DHCP information in LDAP to combine the two sets
10096 of information into one LDAP object representing a computer.&lt;/p&gt;
10097
10098 &lt;p&gt;In the mean time, I discovered that a simple fix would be to make
10099 the dhcpHost object class auxiliary, to allow it to be combined with
10100 the dNSDomain object class, and thus forming one object for one
10101 computer when storing both DHCP and DNS information in LDAP.&lt;/p&gt;
10102
10103 &lt;p&gt;If I understand this correctly, it is not safe to do this change
10104 without also changing the assigned number for the object class, and I
10105 do not know enough about LDAP schema design to do that properly for
10106 Debian Edu.&lt;/p&gt;
10107
10108 &lt;p&gt;Anyway, for future reference, this is how I believe we could change
10109 the
10110 &lt;a href=&quot;http://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-ietf-dhc-ldap-schema-00&quot;&gt;DHCP
10111 schema&lt;/a&gt; to solve at least part of the problem with the LDAP schemas
10112 available today from IETF.&lt;/p&gt;
10113
10114 &lt;pre&gt;
10115 --- dhcp.schema    (revision 65192)
10116 +++ dhcp.schema    (working copy)
10117 @@ -376,7 +376,7 @@
10118  objectclass ( 2.16.840.1.113719.1.203.6.6
10119         NAME &#39;dhcpHost&#39;
10120         DESC &#39;This represents information about a particular client&#39;
10121 -       SUP top
10122 +       SUP top AUXILIARY
10123         MUST cn
10124         MAY  (dhcpLeaseDN $ dhcpHWAddress $ dhcpOptionsDN $ dhcpStatements $ dhcpComments $ dhcpOption)
10125         X-NDS_CONTAINMENT (&#39;dhcpService&#39; &#39;dhcpSubnet&#39; &#39;dhcpGroup&#39;) )
10126 &lt;/pre&gt;
10127
10128 &lt;p&gt;I very much welcome clues on how to do this properly for Debian
10129 Edu/Squeeze.  We provide the DHCP schema in our debian-edu-config
10130 package, and should thus be free to rewrite it as we see fit.&lt;/p&gt;
10131
10132 &lt;p&gt;If you want to help out with implementing this for Debian Edu,
10133 please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.&lt;/p&gt;
10134 </description>
10135         </item>
10136
10137         <item>
10138                 <title>Calling tasksel like the installer, while still getting useful output</title>
10139                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Calling_tasksel_like_the_installer__while_still_getting_useful_output.html</link>
10140                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Calling_tasksel_like_the_installer__while_still_getting_useful_output.html</guid>
10141                 <pubDate>Wed, 16 Jun 2010 14:55:00 +0200</pubDate>
10142                 <description>&lt;p&gt;A few times I have had the need to simulate the way tasksel
10143 installs packages during the normal debian-installer run.  Until now,
10144 I have ended up letting tasksel do the work, with the annoying problem
10145 of not getting any feedback at all when something fails (like a
10146 conffile question from dpkg or a download that fails), using code like
10147 this:
10148
10149 &lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;pre&gt;
10150 export DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive
10151 tasksel --new-install
10152 &lt;/pre&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
10153
10154 This would invoke tasksel, let its automatic task selection pick the
10155 tasks to install, and continue to install the requested tasks without
10156 any output what so ever.
10157
10158 Recently I revisited this problem while working on the automatic
10159 package upgrade testing, because tasksel would some times hang without
10160 any useful feedback, and I want to see what is going on when it
10161 happen.  Then it occured to me, I can parse the output from tasksel
10162 when asked to run in test mode, and use that aptitude command line
10163 printed by tasksel then to simulate the tasksel run.  I ended up using
10164 code like this:
10165
10166 &lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;pre&gt;
10167 export DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive
10168 cmd=&quot;$(in_target tasksel -t --new-install | sed &#39;s/debconf-apt-progress -- //&#39;)&quot;
10169 $cmd
10170 &lt;/pre&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
10171
10172 &lt;p&gt;The content of $cmd is typically something like &quot;&lt;tt&gt;aptitude -q
10173 --without-recommends -o APT::Install-Recommends=no -y install
10174 ~t^desktop$ ~t^gnome-desktop$ ~t^laptop$ ~pstandard ~prequired
10175 ~pimportant&lt;/tt&gt;&quot;, which will install the gnome desktop task, the
10176 laptop task and all packages with priority standard , required and
10177 important, just like tasksel would have done it during
10178 installation.&lt;/p&gt;
10179
10180 &lt;p&gt;A better approach is probably to extend tasksel to be able to
10181 install packages without using debconf-apt-progress, for use cases
10182 like this.&lt;/p&gt;
10183 </description>
10184         </item>
10185
10186         <item>
10187                 <title>Officeshots taking shape</title>
10188                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Officeshots_taking_shape.html</link>
10189                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Officeshots_taking_shape.html</guid>
10190                 <pubDate>Sun, 13 Jun 2010 11:40:00 +0200</pubDate>
10191                 <description>&lt;p&gt;For those of us caring about document exchange and
10192 interoperability, &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.officeshots.org/&quot;&gt;OfficeShots&lt;/a&gt;
10193 is a great service.  It is to ODF documents what
10194 &lt;a href=&quot;http://browsershots.org/&quot;&gt;BrowserShots&lt;/a&gt; is for web
10195 pages.&lt;/p&gt;
10196
10197 &lt;p&gt;A while back, I was contacted by Knut Yrvin at the part of Nokia
10198 that used to be Trolltech, who wanted to help the OfficeShots project
10199 and wondered if the University of Oslo where I work would be
10200 interested in supporting the project.  I helped him to navigate his
10201 request to the right people at work, and his request was answered with
10202 a spot in the machine room with power and network connected, and Knut
10203 arranged funding for a machine to fill the spot.  The machine is
10204 administrated by the OfficeShots people, so I do not have daily
10205 contact with its progress, and thus from time to time check back to
10206 see how the project is doing.&lt;/p&gt;
10207
10208 &lt;p&gt;Today I had a look, and was happy to see that the Dell box in our
10209 machine room now is the host for several virtual machines running as
10210 OfficeShots factories, and the project is able to render ODF documents
10211 in 17 different document processing implementation on Linux and
10212 Windows.  This is great.&lt;/p&gt;
10213 </description>
10214         </item>
10215
10216         <item>
10217                 <title>Lenny-&gt;Squeeze upgrades, removals by apt and aptitude</title>
10218                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lenny__Squeeze_upgrades__removals_by_apt_and_aptitude.html</link>
10219                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lenny__Squeeze_upgrades__removals_by_apt_and_aptitude.html</guid>
10220                 <pubDate>Sun, 13 Jun 2010 09:05:00 +0200</pubDate>
10221                 <description>&lt;p&gt;My
10222 &lt;a href=&quot;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Automatic_upgrade_testing_from_Lenny_to_Squeeze.html&quot;&gt;testing
10223 of Debian upgrades&lt;/a&gt; from Lenny to Squeeze continues, and I&#39;ve
10224 finally made the upgrade logs available from
10225 &lt;a href=&quot;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/debian-upgrade-testing/&quot;&gt;http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/debian-upgrade-testing/&lt;/a&gt;.
10226 I am now testing dist-upgrade of Gnome and KDE in a chroot using both
10227 apt and aptitude, and found their differences interesting.  This time
10228 I will only focus on their removal plans.&lt;/p&gt;
10229
10230 &lt;p&gt;After installing a Gnome desktop and the laptop task, apt-get wants
10231 to remove 72 packages when dist-upgrading from Lenny to Squeeze.  The
10232 surprising part is that it want to remove xorg and all
10233 xserver-xorg-video* drivers.  Clearly not a good choice, but I am not
10234 sure why.  When asking aptitude to do the same, it want to remove 129
10235 packages, but most of them are library packages I suspect are no
10236 longer needed.  Both of them want to remove bluetooth packages, which
10237 I do not know.  Perhaps these bluetooth packages are obsolete?&lt;/p&gt;
10238
10239 &lt;p&gt;For KDE, apt-get want to remove 82 packages, among them kdebase
10240 which seem like a bad idea and xorg the same way as with Gnome. Asking
10241 aptitude for the same, it wants to remove 192 packages, none which are
10242 too surprising.&lt;/p&gt;
10243
10244 &lt;p&gt;I guess the removal of xorg during upgrades should be investigated
10245 and avoided, and perhaps others as well.  Here are the complete list
10246 of planned removals.  The complete logs is available from the URL
10247 above.  Note if you want to repeat these tests, that the upgrade test
10248 for kde+apt-get hung in the tasksel setup because of dpkg asking
10249 conffile questions.  No idea why.  I worked around it by using
10250 &#39;&lt;tt&gt;echo &gt;&gt; /proc/&lt;em&gt;pidofdpkg&lt;/em&gt;/fd/0&lt;/tt&gt;&#39; to tell dpkg to
10251 continue.&lt;/p&gt;
10252
10253 &lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;apt-get gnome 72&lt;/b&gt;
10254 &lt;br&gt;bluez-gnome cupsddk-drivers deskbar-applet gnome
10255   gnome-desktop-environment gnome-network-admin gtkhtml3.14
10256   iceweasel-gnome-support libavcodec51 libdatrie0 libgdl-1-0
10257   libgnomekbd2 libgnomekbdui2 libmetacity0 libslab0 libxcb-xlib0
10258   nautilus-cd-burner python-gnome2-desktop python-gnome2-extras
10259   serpentine swfdec-mozilla update-manager xorg xserver-xorg
10260   xserver-xorg-core xserver-xorg-input-all xserver-xorg-input-evdev
10261   xserver-xorg-input-kbd xserver-xorg-input-mouse
10262   xserver-xorg-input-synaptics xserver-xorg-input-wacom
10263   xserver-xorg-video-all xserver-xorg-video-apm xserver-xorg-video-ark
10264   xserver-xorg-video-ati xserver-xorg-video-chips
10265   xserver-xorg-video-cirrus xserver-xorg-video-cyrix
10266   xserver-xorg-video-dummy xserver-xorg-video-fbdev
10267   xserver-xorg-video-glint xserver-xorg-video-i128
10268   xserver-xorg-video-i740 xserver-xorg-video-imstt
10269   xserver-xorg-video-intel xserver-xorg-video-mach64
10270   xserver-xorg-video-mga xserver-xorg-video-neomagic
10271   xserver-xorg-video-nsc xserver-xorg-video-nv
10272   xserver-xorg-video-openchrome xserver-xorg-video-r128
10273   xserver-xorg-video-radeon xserver-xorg-video-radeonhd
10274   xserver-xorg-video-rendition xserver-xorg-video-s3
10275   xserver-xorg-video-s3virge xserver-xorg-video-savage
10276   xserver-xorg-video-siliconmotion xserver-xorg-video-sis
10277   xserver-xorg-video-sisusb xserver-xorg-video-tdfx
10278   xserver-xorg-video-tga xserver-xorg-video-trident
10279   xserver-xorg-video-tseng xserver-xorg-video-v4l
10280   xserver-xorg-video-vesa xserver-xorg-video-vga
10281   xserver-xorg-video-vmware xserver-xorg-video-voodoo xulrunner-1.9
10282   xulrunner-1.9-gnome-support&lt;/p&gt;
10283
10284 &lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;aptitude gnome 129&lt;/b&gt;
10285
10286 &lt;br&gt;bluez-gnome bluez-utils cpp-4.3 cupsddk-drivers dhcdbd
10287   djvulibre-desktop finger gnome-app-install gnome-mount
10288   gnome-network-admin gnome-spell gnome-vfs-obexftp
10289   gnome-volume-manager gstreamer0.10-gnomevfs gtkhtml3.14 libao2
10290   libavahi-compat-libdnssd1 libavahi-core5 libavcodec51 libbluetooth2
10291   libcamel1.2-11 libcdio7 libcucul0 libcupsys2 libcurl3 libdatrie0
10292   libdirectfb-1.0-0 libdvdread3 libedataserver1.2-9 libeel2-2.20
10293   libeel2-data libepc-1.0-1 libepc-ui-1.0-1 libfaad0 libgail-common
10294   libgd2-noxpm libgda3-3 libgda3-common libgdl-1-0 libgdl-1-common
10295   libggz2 libggzcore9 libggzmod4 libgksu1.2-0 libgksuui1.0-1 libgmyth0
10296   libgnomecups1.0-1 libgnomekbd2 libgnomekbdui2 libgnomeprint2.2-0
10297   libgnomeprint2.2-data libgnomeprintui2.2-0 libgnomeprintui2.2-common
10298   libgnomevfs2-bin libgpod3 libgraphviz4 libgtkhtml2-0
10299   libgtksourceview-common libgtksourceview1.0-0 libgucharmap6
10300   libhesiod0 libicu38 libiw29 libkpathsea4 libltdl3 libmagick++10
10301   libmagick10 libmalaga7 libmetacity0 libmtp7 libmysqlclient15off
10302   libnautilus-burn4 libneon27 libnm-glib0 libnm-util0 libopal-2.2
10303   libosp5 libparted1.8-10 libpoppler-glib3 libpoppler3 libpt-1.10.10
10304   libpt-1.10.10-plugins-alsa libpt-1.10.10-plugins-v4l libraw1394-8
10305   libsensors3 libslab0 libsmbios2 libsoup2.2-8 libssh2-1
10306   libsuitesparse-3.1.0 libswfdec-0.6-90 libtalloc1 libtotem-plparser10
10307   libtrackerclient0 libxalan2-java libxalan2-java-gcj libxcb-xlib0
10308   libxerces2-java libxerces2-java-gcj libxklavier12 libxtrap6
10309   libxxf86misc1 libzephyr3 mysql-common nautilus-cd-burner
10310   openoffice.org-writer2latex openssl-blacklist p7zip
10311   python-4suite-xml python-eggtrayicon python-gnome2-desktop
10312   python-gnome2-extras python-gtkhtml2 python-gtkmozembed
10313   python-numeric python-sexy serpentine svgalibg1 swfdec-gnome
10314   swfdec-mozilla totem-gstreamer update-manager wodim
10315   xserver-xorg-video-cyrix xserver-xorg-video-imstt
10316   xserver-xorg-video-nsc xserver-xorg-video-v4l xserver-xorg-video-vga
10317   zip&lt;/p&gt;
10318
10319 &lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;apt-get kde 82&lt;/b&gt;
10320
10321 &lt;br&gt;cupsddk-drivers karm kaudiocreator kcoloredit kcontrol kde kde-core
10322   kdeaddons kdeartwork kdebase kdebase-bin kdebase-bin-kde3
10323   kdebase-kio-plugins kdesktop kdeutils khelpcenter kicker
10324   kicker-applets knewsticker kolourpaint konq-plugins konqueror korn
10325   kpersonalizer kscreensaver ksplash libavcodec51 libdatrie0 libkiten1
10326   libxcb-xlib0 quanta superkaramba texlive-base-bin xorg xserver-xorg
10327   xserver-xorg-core xserver-xorg-input-all xserver-xorg-input-evdev
10328   xserver-xorg-input-kbd xserver-xorg-input-mouse
10329   xserver-xorg-input-synaptics xserver-xorg-input-wacom
10330   xserver-xorg-video-all xserver-xorg-video-apm xserver-xorg-video-ark
10331   xserver-xorg-video-ati xserver-xorg-video-chips
10332   xserver-xorg-video-cirrus xserver-xorg-video-cyrix
10333   xserver-xorg-video-dummy xserver-xorg-video-fbdev
10334   xserver-xorg-video-glint xserver-xorg-video-i128
10335   xserver-xorg-video-i740 xserver-xorg-video-imstt
10336   xserver-xorg-video-intel xserver-xorg-video-mach64
10337   xserver-xorg-video-mga xserver-xorg-video-neomagic
10338   xserver-xorg-video-nsc xserver-xorg-video-nv
10339   xserver-xorg-video-openchrome xserver-xorg-video-r128
10340   xserver-xorg-video-radeon xserver-xorg-video-radeonhd
10341   xserver-xorg-video-rendition xserver-xorg-video-s3
10342   xserver-xorg-video-s3virge xserver-xorg-video-savage
10343   xserver-xorg-video-siliconmotion xserver-xorg-video-sis
10344   xserver-xorg-video-sisusb xserver-xorg-video-tdfx
10345   xserver-xorg-video-tga xserver-xorg-video-trident
10346   xserver-xorg-video-tseng xserver-xorg-video-v4l
10347   xserver-xorg-video-vesa xserver-xorg-video-vga
10348   xserver-xorg-video-vmware xserver-xorg-video-voodoo xulrunner-1.9&lt;/p&gt;
10349
10350 &lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;aptitude kde 192&lt;/b&gt;
10351 &lt;br&gt;bluez-utils cpp-4.3 cupsddk-drivers cvs dcoprss dhcdbd
10352   djvulibre-desktop dosfstools eyesapplet fifteenapplet finger gettext
10353   ghostscript-x imlib-base imlib11 indi kandy karm kasteroids
10354   kaudiocreator kbackgammon kbstate kcoloredit kcontrol kcron kdat
10355   kdeadmin-kfile-plugins kdeartwork-misc kdeartwork-theme-window
10356   kdebase-bin-kde3 kdebase-kio-plugins kdeedu-data
10357   kdegraphics-kfile-plugins kdelirc kdemultimedia-kappfinder-data
10358   kdemultimedia-kfile-plugins kdenetwork-kfile-plugins
10359   kdepim-kfile-plugins kdepim-kio-plugins kdeprint kdesktop kdessh
10360   kdict kdnssd kdvi kedit keduca kenolaba kfax kfaxview kfouleggs
10361   kghostview khelpcenter khexedit kiconedit kitchensync klatin
10362   klickety kmailcvt kmenuedit kmid kmilo kmoon kmrml kodo kolourpaint
10363   kooka korn kpager kpdf kpercentage kpf kpilot kpoker kpovmodeler
10364   krec kregexpeditor ksayit ksim ksirc ksirtet ksmiletris ksmserver
10365   ksnake ksokoban ksplash ksvg ksysv ktip ktnef kuickshow kverbos
10366   kview kviewshell kvoctrain kwifimanager kwin kwin4 kworldclock
10367   kxsldbg libakode2 libao2 libarts1-akode libarts1-audiofile
10368   libarts1-mpeglib libarts1-xine libavahi-compat-libdnssd1
10369   libavahi-core5 libavc1394-0 libavcodec51 libbluetooth2
10370   libboost-python1.34.1 libcucul0 libcurl3 libcvsservice0 libdatrie0
10371   libdirectfb-1.0-0 libdjvulibre21 libdvdread3 libfaad0 libfreebob0
10372   libgail-common libgd2-noxpm libgraphviz4 libgsmme1c2a libgtkhtml2-0
10373   libicu38 libiec61883-0 libindex0 libiw29 libk3b3 libkcal2b libkcddb1
10374   libkdeedu3 libkdepim1a libkgantt0 libkiten1 libkleopatra1 libkmime2
10375   libkpathsea4 libkpimexchange1 libkpimidentities1 libkscan1
10376   libksieve0 libktnef1 liblockdev1 libltdl3 libmagick10 libmimelib1c2a
10377   libmozjs1d libmpcdec3 libneon27 libnm-util0 libopensync0 libpisock9
10378   libpoppler-glib3 libpoppler-qt2 libpoppler3 libraw1394-8 libsmbios2
10379   libssh2-1 libsuitesparse-3.1.0 libtalloc1 libtiff-tools
10380   libxalan2-java libxalan2-java-gcj libxcb-xlib0 libxerces2-java
10381   libxerces2-java-gcj libxtrap6 mpeglib networkstatus
10382   openoffice.org-writer2latex pmount poster psutils quanta quanta-data
10383   superkaramba svgalibg1 tex-common texlive-base texlive-base-bin
10384   texlive-common texlive-doc-base texlive-fonts-recommended
10385   xserver-xorg-video-cyrix xserver-xorg-video-imstt
10386   xserver-xorg-video-nsc xserver-xorg-video-v4l xserver-xorg-video-vga
10387   xulrunner-1.9&lt;/p&gt;
10388
10389 </description>
10390         </item>
10391
10392         <item>
10393                 <title>Automatic upgrade testing from Lenny to Squeeze</title>
10394                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Automatic_upgrade_testing_from_Lenny_to_Squeeze.html</link>
10395                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Automatic_upgrade_testing_from_Lenny_to_Squeeze.html</guid>
10396                 <pubDate>Fri, 11 Jun 2010 22:50:00 +0200</pubDate>
10397                 <description>&lt;p&gt;The last few days I have done some upgrade testing in Debian, to
10398 see if the upgrade from Lenny to Squeeze will go smoothly.  A few bugs
10399 have been discovered and reported in the process
10400 (&lt;a href=&quot;http://bugs.debian.org/585410&quot;&gt;#585410&lt;/a&gt; in nagios3-cgi,
10401 &lt;a href=&quot;http://bugs.debian.org/584879&quot;&gt;#584879&lt;/a&gt; already fixed in
10402 enscript and &lt;a href=&quot;http://bugs.debian.org/584861&quot;&gt;#584861&lt;/a&gt; in
10403 kdebase-workspace-data), and to get a more regular testing going on, I
10404 am working on a script to automate the test.&lt;/p&gt;
10405
10406 &lt;p&gt;The idea is to create a Lenny chroot and use tasksel to install a
10407 Gnome or KDE desktop installation inside the chroot before upgrading
10408 it.  To ensure no services are started in the chroot, a policy-rc.d
10409 script is inserted.  To make sure tasksel believe it is to install a
10410 desktop on a laptop, the tasksel tests are replaced in the chroot
10411 (only acceptable because this is a throw-away chroot).&lt;/p&gt;
10412
10413 &lt;p&gt;A naive upgrade from Lenny to Squeeze using aptitude dist-upgrade
10414 currently always fail because udev refuses to upgrade with the kernel
10415 in Lenny, so to avoid that problem the file /etc/udev/kernel-upgrade
10416 is created.  The bug report
10417 &lt;a href=&quot;http://bugs.debian.org/566000&quot;&gt;#566000&lt;/a&gt; make me suspect
10418 this problem do not trigger in a chroot, but I touch the file anyway
10419 to make sure the upgrade go well.  Testing on virtual and real
10420 hardware have failed me because of udev so far, and creating this file
10421 do the trick in such settings anyway.  This is a
10422 &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/debian-26/failed-dist-upgrade-due-to-udev-config_sysfs_deprecated-nonsense-804130/&quot;&gt;known
10423 issue&lt;/a&gt; and the current udev behaviour is intended by the udev
10424 maintainer because he lack the resources to rewrite udev to keep
10425 working with old kernels or something like that.  I really wish the
10426 udev upstream would keep udev backwards compatible, to avoid such
10427 upgrade problem, but given that they fail to do so, I guess
10428 documenting the way out of this mess is the best option we got for
10429 Debian Squeeze.&lt;/p&gt;
10430
10431 &lt;p&gt;Anyway, back to the task at hand, testing upgrades.  This test
10432 script, which I call &lt;tt&gt;upgrade-test&lt;/tt&gt; for now, is doing the
10433 trick:&lt;/p&gt;
10434
10435 &lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;pre&gt;
10436 #!/bin/sh
10437 set -ex
10438
10439 if [ &quot;$1&quot; ] ; then
10440     desktop=$1
10441 else
10442     desktop=gnome
10443 fi
10444
10445 from=lenny
10446 to=squeeze
10447
10448 exec &amp;lt; /dev/null
10449 unset LANG
10450 mirror=http://ftp.skolelinux.org/debian
10451 tmpdir=chroot-$from-upgrade-$to-$desktop
10452 fuser -mv .
10453 debootstrap $from $tmpdir $mirror
10454 chroot $tmpdir aptitude update
10455 cat &gt; $tmpdir/usr/sbin/policy-rc.d &amp;lt;&amp;lt;EOF
10456 #!/bin/sh
10457 exit 101
10458 EOF
10459 chmod a+rx $tmpdir/usr/sbin/policy-rc.d
10460 exit_cleanup() {
10461     umount $tmpdir/proc
10462 }
10463 mount -t proc proc $tmpdir/proc
10464 # Make sure proc is unmounted also on failure
10465 trap exit_cleanup EXIT INT
10466
10467 chroot $tmpdir aptitude -y install debconf-utils
10468
10469 # Make sure tasksel autoselection trigger.  It need the test scripts
10470 # to return the correct answers.
10471 echo tasksel tasksel/desktop multiselect $desktop | \
10472     chroot $tmpdir debconf-set-selections
10473
10474 # Include the desktop and laptop task
10475 for test in desktop laptop ; do
10476     echo &gt; $tmpdir/usr/lib/tasksel/tests/$test &amp;lt;&amp;lt;EOF
10477 #!/bin/sh
10478 exit 2
10479 EOF
10480     chmod a+rx $tmpdir/usr/lib/tasksel/tests/$test
10481 done
10482
10483 DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive
10484 DEBIAN_PRIORITY=critical
10485 export DEBIAN_FRONTEND DEBIAN_PRIORITY
10486 chroot $tmpdir tasksel --new-install
10487
10488 echo deb $mirror $to main &gt; $tmpdir/etc/apt/sources.list
10489 chroot $tmpdir aptitude update
10490 touch $tmpdir/etc/udev/kernel-upgrade
10491 chroot $tmpdir aptitude -y dist-upgrade
10492 fuser -mv
10493 &lt;/pre&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
10494
10495 &lt;p&gt;I suspect it would be useful to test upgrades with both apt-get and
10496 with aptitude, but I have not had time to look at how they behave
10497 differently so far.  I hope to get a cron job running to do the test
10498 regularly and post the result on the web.  The Gnome upgrade currently
10499 work, while the KDE upgrade fail because of the bug in
10500 kdebase-workspace-data&lt;/p&gt;
10501
10502 &lt;p&gt;I am not quite sure what kind of extract from the huge upgrade logs
10503 (KDE 167 KiB, Gnome 516 KiB) it make sense to include in this blog
10504 post, so I will refrain from trying.  I can report that for Gnome,
10505 aptitude report 760 packages upgraded, 448 newly installed, 129 to
10506 remove and 1 not upgraded and 1024MB need to be downloaded while for
10507 KDE the same numbers are 702 packages upgraded, 507 newly installed,
10508 193 to remove and 0 not upgraded and 1117MB need to be downloaded&lt;/p&gt;
10509
10510 &lt;p&gt;I am very happy to notice that the Gnome desktop + laptop upgrade
10511 is able to migrate to dependency based boot sequencing and parallel
10512 booting without a hitch.  Was unsure if there were still bugs with
10513 packages failing to clean up their obsolete init.d script during
10514 upgrades, and no such problem seem to affect the Gnome desktop+laptop
10515 packages.&lt;/p&gt;
10516 </description>
10517         </item>
10518
10519         <item>
10520                 <title>Upstart or sysvinit - as init.d scripts see it</title>
10521                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Upstart_or_sysvinit___as_init_d_scripts_see_it.html</link>
10522                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Upstart_or_sysvinit___as_init_d_scripts_see_it.html</guid>
10523                 <pubDate>Sun, 6 Jun 2010 23:55:00 +0200</pubDate>
10524                 <description>&lt;p&gt;If Debian is to migrate to upstart on Linux, I expect some init.d
10525 scripts to migrate (some of) their operations to upstart job while
10526 keeping the init.d for hurd and kfreebsd.  The packages with such
10527 needs will need a way to get their init.d scripts to behave
10528 differently when used with sysvinit and with upstart.  Because of
10529 this, I had a look at the environment variables set when a init.d
10530 script is running under upstart, and when it is not.&lt;/p&gt;
10531
10532 &lt;p&gt;With upstart, I notice these environment variables are set when a
10533 script is started from rcS.d/ (ignoring some irrelevant ones like
10534 COLUMNS):&lt;/p&gt;
10535
10536 &lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;pre&gt;
10537 DEFAULT_RUNLEVEL=2
10538 previous=N
10539 PREVLEVEL=
10540 RUNLEVEL=
10541 runlevel=S
10542 UPSTART_EVENTS=startup
10543 UPSTART_INSTANCE=
10544 UPSTART_JOB=rc-sysinit
10545 &lt;/pre&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
10546
10547 &lt;p&gt;With sysvinit, these environment variables are set for the same
10548 script.&lt;/p&gt;
10549
10550 &lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;pre&gt;
10551 INIT_VERSION=sysvinit-2.88
10552 previous=N
10553 PREVLEVEL=N
10554 RUNLEVEL=S
10555 runlevel=S
10556 &lt;/pre&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
10557
10558 &lt;p&gt;The RUNLEVEL and PREVLEVEL environment variables passed on from
10559 sysvinit are not set by upstart.  Not sure if it is intentional or not
10560 to not be compatible with sysvinit in this regard.&lt;/p&gt;
10561
10562 &lt;p&gt;For scripts needing to behave differently when upstart is used,
10563 looking for the UPSTART_JOB environment variable seem to be a good
10564 choice.&lt;/p&gt;
10565 </description>
10566         </item>
10567
10568         <item>
10569                 <title>A manual for standards wars...</title>
10570                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/A_manual_for_standards_wars___.html</link>
10571                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/A_manual_for_standards_wars___.html</guid>
10572                 <pubDate>Sun, 6 Jun 2010 14:15:00 +0200</pubDate>
10573                 <description>&lt;p&gt;Via the
10574 &lt;a href=&quot;http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/robweir/antic-atom/~3/QzU4RgoAGMg/weekly-links-10.html&quot;&gt;blog
10575 of Rob Weir&lt;/a&gt; I came across the very interesting essay named
10576 &lt;a href=&quot;http://faculty.haas.berkeley.edu/shapiro/wars.pdf&quot;&gt;The Art of
10577 Standards Wars&lt;/a&gt; (PDF 25 pages).  I recommend it for everyone
10578 following the standards wars of today.&lt;/p&gt;
10579 </description>
10580         </item>
10581
10582         <item>
10583                 <title>Sitesummary tip: Listing computer hardware models used at site</title>
10584                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Sitesummary_tip__Listing_computer_hardware_models_used_at_site.html</link>
10585                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Sitesummary_tip__Listing_computer_hardware_models_used_at_site.html</guid>
10586                 <pubDate>Thu, 3 Jun 2010 12:05:00 +0200</pubDate>
10587                 <description>&lt;p&gt;When using sitesummary at a site to track machines, it is possible
10588 to get a list of the machine types in use thanks to the DMI
10589 information extracted from each machine.  The script to do so is
10590 included in the sitesummary package, and here is example output from
10591 the Skolelinux build servers:&lt;/p&gt;
10592
10593 &lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;pre&gt;
10594 maintainer:~# /usr/lib/sitesummary/hardware-model-summary
10595   vendor                    count
10596   Dell Computer Corporation     1
10597     PowerEdge 1750              1
10598   IBM                           1
10599     eserver xSeries 345 -[8670M1X]-     1
10600   Intel                         2
10601   [no-dmi-info]                 3
10602 maintainer:~#
10603 &lt;/pre&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
10604
10605 &lt;p&gt;The quality of the report depend on the quality of the DMI tables
10606 provided in each machine.  Here there are Intel machines without model
10607 information listed with Intel as vendor and no model, and virtual Xen
10608 machines listed as [no-dmi-info].  One can add -l as a command line
10609 option to list the individual machines.&lt;/p&gt;
10610
10611 &lt;p&gt;A larger list is
10612 &lt;a href=&quot;http://narvikskolen.no/sitesummary/&quot;&gt;available from the the
10613 city of Narvik&lt;/a&gt;, which uses Skolelinux on all their shools and also
10614 provide the basic sitesummary report publicly.  In their report there
10615 are ~1400 machines. I know they use both Ubuntu and Skolelinux on
10616 their machines, and as sitesummary is available in both distributions,
10617 it is trivial to get all of them to report to the same central
10618 collector.&lt;/p&gt;
10619 </description>
10620         </item>
10621
10622         <item>
10623                 <title>KDM fail at boot with NVidia cards - and no one try to fix it?</title>
10624                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/KDM_fail_at_boot_with_NVidia_cards___and_no_one_try_to_fix_it_.html</link>
10625                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/KDM_fail_at_boot_with_NVidia_cards___and_no_one_try_to_fix_it_.html</guid>
10626                 <pubDate>Tue, 1 Jun 2010 17:05:00 +0200</pubDate>
10627                 <description>&lt;p&gt;It is strange to watch how a bug in Debian causing KDM to fail to
10628 start at boot when an NVidia video card is used is handled.  The
10629 problem seem to be that the nvidia X.org driver uses a long time to
10630 initialize, and this duration is longer than kdm is configured to
10631 wait.&lt;/p&gt;
10632
10633 &lt;p&gt;I came across two bugs related to this issue,
10634 &lt;a href=&quot;http://bugs.debian.org/583312&quot;&gt;#583312&lt;/a&gt; initially filed
10635 against initscripts and passed on to nvidia-glx when it became obvious
10636 that the nvidia drivers were involved, and
10637 &lt;a href=&quot;http://bugs.debian.org/524751&quot;&gt;#524751&lt;/a&gt; initially filed against
10638 kdm and passed on to src:nvidia-graphics-drivers for unknown reasons.&lt;/p&gt;
10639
10640 &lt;p&gt;To me, it seem that no-one is interested in actually solving the
10641 problem nvidia video card owners experience and make sure the Debian
10642 distribution work out of the box for these users.  The nvidia driver
10643 maintainers expect kdm to be set up to wait longer, while kdm expect
10644 the nvidia driver maintainers to fix the driver to start faster, and
10645 while they wait for each other I guess the users end up switching to a
10646 distribution that work for them.  I have no idea what the solution is,
10647 but I am pretty sure that waiting for each other is not it.&lt;/p&gt;
10648
10649 &lt;p&gt;I wonder why we end up handling bugs this way.&lt;/p&gt;
10650 </description>
10651         </item>
10652
10653         <item>
10654                 <title>Parallellized boot seem to hold up well in Debian/testing</title>
10655                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Parallellized_boot_seem_to_hold_up_well_in_Debian_testing.html</link>
10656                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Parallellized_boot_seem_to_hold_up_well_in_Debian_testing.html</guid>
10657                 <pubDate>Thu, 27 May 2010 23:55:00 +0200</pubDate>
10658                 <description>&lt;p&gt;A few days ago, parallel booting was enabled in Debian/testing.
10659 The feature seem to hold up pretty well, but three fairly serious
10660 issues are known and should be solved:
10661
10662 &lt;p&gt;&lt;ul&gt;
10663
10664 &lt;li&gt;The wicd package seen to
10665 &lt;a href=&quot;http://bugs.debian.org/508289&quot;&gt;break NFS mounting&lt;/a&gt; and
10666 &lt;a href=&quot;http://bugs.debian.org/581586&quot;&gt;network setup&lt;/a&gt; when
10667 parallel booting is enabled.  No idea why, but the wicd maintainer
10668 seem to be on the case.&lt;/li&gt;
10669
10670 &lt;li&gt;The nvidia X driver seem to
10671 &lt;a href=&quot;http://bugs.debian.org/583312&quot;&gt;have a race condition&lt;/a&gt;
10672 triggered more easily when parallel booting is in effect.  The
10673 maintainer is on the case.&lt;/li&gt;
10674
10675 &lt;li&gt;The sysv-rc package fail to properly enable dependency based boot
10676 sequencing (the shutdown is broken) when old file-rc users
10677 &lt;a href=&quot;http://bugs.debian.org/575080&quot;&gt;try to switch back&lt;/a&gt; to
10678 sysv-rc.  One way to solve it would be for file-rc to create
10679 /etc/init.d/.legacy-bootordering, and another is to try to make
10680 sysv-rc more robust.  Will investigate some more and probably upload a
10681 workaround in sysv-rc to help those trying to move from file-rc to
10682 sysv-rc get a working shutdown.&lt;/li&gt;
10683
10684 &lt;/ul&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
10685
10686 &lt;p&gt;All in all not many surprising issues, and all of them seem
10687 solvable before Squeeze is released.  In addition to these there are
10688 some packages with bugs in their dependencies and run level settings,
10689 which I expect will be fixed in a reasonable time span.&lt;/p&gt;
10690
10691 &lt;p&gt;If you report any problems with dependencies in init.d scripts to
10692 the BTS, please usertag the report to get it to show up at
10693 &lt;a href=&quot;http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/pkgreport.cgi?users=initscripts-ng-devel@lists.alioth.debian.org&quot;&gt;the
10694 list of usertagged bugs related to this&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
10695
10696 &lt;p&gt;Update: Correct bug number to file-rc issue.&lt;/p&gt;
10697 </description>
10698         </item>
10699
10700         <item>
10701                 <title>More flexible firmware handling in debian-installer</title>
10702                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/More_flexible_firmware_handling_in_debian_installer.html</link>
10703                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/More_flexible_firmware_handling_in_debian_installer.html</guid>
10704                 <pubDate>Sat, 22 May 2010 21:30:00 +0200</pubDate>
10705                 <description>&lt;p&gt;After a long break from debian-installer development, I finally
10706 found time today to return to the project.  Having to spend less time
10707 working dependency based boot in debian, as it is almost complete now,
10708 definitely helped freeing some time.&lt;/p&gt;
10709
10710 &lt;p&gt;A while back, I ran into a problem while working on Debian Edu.  We
10711 include some firmware packages on the Debian Edu CDs, those needed to
10712 get disk and network controllers working.  Without having these
10713 firmware packages available during installation, it is impossible to
10714 install Debian Edu on the given machine, and because our target group
10715 are non-technical people, asking them to provide firmware packages on
10716 an external medium is a support pain.  Initially, I expected it to be
10717 enough to include the firmware packages on the CD to get
10718 debian-installer to find and use them.  This proved to be wrong.
10719 Next, I hoped it was enough to symlink the relevant firmware packages
10720 to some useful location on the CD (tried /cdrom/ and
10721 /cdrom/firmware/).  This also proved to not work, and at this point I
10722 found time to look at the debian-installer code to figure out what was
10723 going to work.&lt;/p&gt;
10724
10725 &lt;p&gt;The firmware loading code is in the hw-detect package, and a closer
10726 look revealed that it would only look for firmware packages outside
10727 the installation media, so the CD was never checked for firmware
10728 packages.  It would only check USB sticks, floppies and other
10729 &quot;external&quot; media devices.  Today I changed it to also look in the
10730 /cdrom/firmware/ directory on the mounted CD or DVD, which should
10731 solve the problem I ran into with Debian edu.  I also changed it to
10732 look in /firmware/, to make sure the installer also find firmware
10733 provided in the initrd when booting the installer via PXE, to allow us
10734 to provide the same feature in the PXE setup included in Debian
10735 Edu.&lt;/p&gt;
10736
10737 &lt;p&gt;To make sure firmware deb packages with a license questions are not
10738 activated without asking if the license is accepted, I extended
10739 hw-detect to look for preinst scripts in the firmware packages, and
10740 run these before activating the firmware during installation.  The
10741 license question is asked using debconf in the preinst, so this should
10742 solve the issue for the firmware packages I have looked at so far.&lt;/p&gt;
10743
10744 &lt;p&gt;If you want to discuss the details of these features, please
10745 contact us on debian-boot@lists.debian.org.&lt;/p&gt;
10746 </description>
10747         </item>
10748
10749         <item>
10750                 <title>Pieces of the roaming laptop puzzle in Debian</title>
10751                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Pieces_of_the_roaming_laptop_puzzle_in_Debian.html</link>
10752                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Pieces_of_the_roaming_laptop_puzzle_in_Debian.html</guid>
10753                 <pubDate>Wed, 19 May 2010 19:00:00 +0200</pubDate>
10754                 <description>&lt;p&gt;Today, the last piece of the puzzle for roaming laptops in Debian
10755 Edu finally entered the Debian archive.  Today, the new
10756 &lt;a href=&quot;http://packages.qa.debian.org/libp/libpam-mklocaluser.html&quot;&gt;libpam-mklocaluser&lt;/a&gt;
10757 package was accepted.  Two days ago, two other pieces was accepted
10758 into unstable.  The
10759 &lt;a href=&quot;http://packages.qa.debian.org/p/pam-python.html&quot;&gt;pam-python&lt;/a&gt;
10760 package needed by libpam-mklocaluser, and the
10761 &lt;a href=&quot;http://packages.qa.debian.org/s/sssd.html&quot;&gt;sssd&lt;/a&gt; package
10762 passed NEW on Monday.  In addition, the
10763 &lt;a href=&quot;http://packages.qa.debian.org/libp/libpam-ccreds.html&quot;&gt;libpam-ccreds&lt;/a&gt;
10764 package we need is in experimental (version 10-4) since Saturday, and
10765 hopefully will be moved to unstable soon.&lt;/p&gt;
10766
10767 &lt;p&gt;This collection of packages allow for two different setups for
10768 roaming laptops.  The traditional setup would be using libpam-ccreds,
10769 nscd and libpam-mklocaluser with LDAP or Kerberos authentication,
10770 which should work out of the box if the configuration changes proposed
10771 for nscd in &lt;a href=&quot;http://bugs.debian.org/485282&quot;&gt;BTS report
10772 #485282&lt;/a&gt; is implemented.  The alternative setup is to use sssd with
10773 libpam-mklocaluser to connect to LDAP or Kerberos and let sssd take
10774 care of the caching of passwords and group information.&lt;/p&gt;
10775
10776 &lt;p&gt;I have so far been unable to get sssd to work with the LDAP server
10777 at the University, but suspect the issue is some SSL/GnuTLS related
10778 problem with the server certificate.  I plan to update the Debian
10779 package to version 1.2, which is scheduled for next week, and hope to
10780 find time to make sure the next release will include both the
10781 Debian/Ubuntu specific patches.  Upstream is friendly and responsive,
10782 and I am sure we will find a good solution.&lt;/p&gt;
10783
10784 &lt;p&gt;The idea is to set up the roaming laptops to authenticate using
10785 LDAP or Kerberos and create a local user with home directory in /home/
10786 when a usre in LDAP logs in via KDM or GDM for the first time, and
10787 cache the password for offline checking, as well as caching group
10788 memberhips and other relevant LDAP information.  The
10789 libpam-mklocaluser package was created to make sure the local home
10790 directory is in /home/, instead of /site/server/directory/ which would
10791 be the home directory if pam_mkhomedir was used.  To avoid confusion
10792 with support requests and configuration, we do not want local laptops
10793 to have users in a path that is used for the same users home directory
10794 on the home directory servers.&lt;/p&gt;
10795
10796 &lt;p&gt;One annoying problem with gdm is that it do not show the PAM
10797 message passed to the user from libpam-mklocaluser when the local user
10798 is created.  Instead gdm simply reject the login with some generic
10799 message.  The message is shown in kdm, ssh and login, so I guess it is
10800 a bug in gdm.  Have not investigated if there is some other message
10801 type that can be used instead to get gdm to also show the message.&lt;/p&gt;
10802
10803 &lt;p&gt;If you want to help out with implementing this for Debian Edu,
10804 please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.&lt;/p&gt;
10805 </description>
10806         </item>
10807
10808         <item>
10809                 <title>Parallellized boot is now the default in Debian/unstable</title>
10810                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Parallellized_boot_is_now_the_default_in_Debian_unstable.html</link>
10811                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Parallellized_boot_is_now_the_default_in_Debian_unstable.html</guid>
10812                 <pubDate>Fri, 14 May 2010 22:40:00 +0200</pubDate>
10813                 <description>&lt;p&gt;Since this evening, parallel booting is the default in
10814 Debian/unstable for machines using dependency based boot sequencing.
10815 Apparently the testing of concurrent booting has been wider than
10816 expected, if I am to believe the
10817 &lt;a href=&quot;http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2010/05/msg00122.html&quot;&gt;input
10818 on debian-devel@&lt;/a&gt;, and I concluded a few days ago to move forward
10819 with the feature this weekend, to give us some time to detect any
10820 remaining problems before Squeeze is frozen.  If serious problems are
10821 detected, it is simple to change the default back to sequential boot.
10822 The upload of the new sysvinit package also activate a new upstream
10823 version.&lt;/p&gt;
10824
10825 More information about
10826 &lt;a href=&quot;http://wiki.debian.org/LSBInitScripts/DependencyBasedBoot&quot;&gt;dependency
10827 based boot sequencing&lt;/a&gt; is available from the Debian wiki.  It is
10828 currently possible to disable parallel booting when one run into
10829 problems caused by it, by adding this line to /etc/default/rcS:&lt;/p&gt;
10830
10831 &lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;pre&gt;
10832 CONCURRENCY=none
10833 &lt;/pre&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
10834
10835 &lt;p&gt;If you report any problems with dependencies in init.d scripts to
10836 the BTS, please usertag the report to get it to show up at
10837 &lt;a href=&quot;http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/pkgreport.cgi?users=initscripts-ng-devel@lists.alioth.debian.org&quot;&gt;the
10838 list of usertagged bugs related to this&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
10839 </description>
10840         </item>
10841
10842         <item>
10843                 <title>Sitesummary tip: Listing MAC address of all clients</title>
10844                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Sitesummary_tip__Listing_MAC_address_of_all_clients.html</link>
10845                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Sitesummary_tip__Listing_MAC_address_of_all_clients.html</guid>
10846                 <pubDate>Fri, 14 May 2010 21:10:00 +0200</pubDate>
10847                 <description>&lt;p&gt;In the recent Debian Edu versions, the
10848 &lt;a href=&quot;http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/HowTo/SiteSummary&quot;&gt;sitesummary
10849 system&lt;/a&gt; is used to keep track of the machines in the school
10850 network.  Each machine will automatically report its status to the
10851 central server after boot and once per night.  The network setup is
10852 also reported, and using this information it is possible to get the
10853 MAC address of all network interfaces in the machines.  This is useful
10854 to update the DHCP configuration.&lt;/p&gt;
10855
10856 &lt;p&gt;To give some idea how to use sitesummary, here is a one-liner to
10857 ist all MAC addresses of all machines reporting to sitesummary.  Run
10858 this on the collector host:&lt;/p&gt;
10859
10860 &lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;pre&gt;
10861 perl -MSiteSummary -e &#39;for_all_hosts(sub { print join(&quot; &quot;, get_macaddresses(shift)), &quot;\n&quot;; });&#39;
10862 &lt;/pre&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
10863
10864 &lt;p&gt;This will list all MAC addresses assosiated with all machine, one
10865 line per machine and with space between the MAC addresses.&lt;/p&gt;
10866
10867 &lt;p&gt;To allow system administrators easier job at adding static DHCP
10868 addresses for hosts, it would be possible to extend this to fetch
10869 machine information from sitesummary and update the DHCP and DNS
10870 tables in LDAP using this information.  Such tool is unfortunately not
10871 written yet.&lt;/p&gt;
10872 </description>
10873         </item>
10874
10875         <item>
10876                 <title>systemd, an interesting alternative to upstart</title>
10877                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/systemd__an_interesting_alternative_to_upstart.html</link>
10878                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/systemd__an_interesting_alternative_to_upstart.html</guid>
10879                 <pubDate>Thu, 13 May 2010 22:20:00 +0200</pubDate>
10880                 <description>&lt;p&gt;The last few days a new boot system called
10881 &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/systemd&quot;&gt;systemd&lt;/a&gt;
10882 has been
10883 &lt;a href=&quot;http://0pointer.de/blog/projects/systemd.html&quot;&gt;introduced&lt;/a&gt;
10884
10885 to the free software world.  I have not yet had time to play around
10886 with it, but it seem to be a very interesting alternative to
10887 &lt;a href=&quot;http://upstart.ubuntu.com/&quot;&gt;upstart&lt;/a&gt;, and might prove to be
10888 a good alternative for Debian when we are able to switch to an event
10889 based boot system.  Tollef is
10890 &lt;a href=&quot;http://bugs.debian.org/580814&quot;&gt;in the process&lt;/a&gt; of getting
10891 systemd into Debian, and I look forward to seeing how well it work.  I
10892 like the fact that systemd handles init.d scripts with dependency
10893 information natively, allowing them to run in parallel where upstart
10894 at the moment do not.&lt;/p&gt;
10895
10896 &lt;p&gt;Unfortunately do systemd have the same problem as upstart regarding
10897 platform support.  It only work on recent Linux kernels, and also need
10898 some new kernel features enabled to function properly.  This means
10899 kFreeBSD and Hurd ports of Debian will need a port or a different boot
10900 system.  Not sure how that will be handled if systemd proves to be the
10901 way forward.&lt;/p&gt;
10902
10903 &lt;p&gt;In the mean time, based on the
10904 &lt;a href=&quot;http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2010/05/msg00122.html&quot;&gt;input
10905 on debian-devel@&lt;/a&gt; regarding parallel booting in Debian, I have
10906 decided to enable full parallel booting as the default in Debian as
10907 soon as possible (probably this weekend or early next week), to see if
10908 there are any remaining serious bugs in the init.d dependencies.  A
10909 new version of the sysvinit package implementing this change is
10910 already in experimental.  If all go well, Squeeze will be released
10911 with parallel booting enabled by default.&lt;/p&gt;
10912 </description>
10913         </item>
10914
10915         <item>
10916                 <title>Parallellizing the boot in Debian Squeeze - ready for wider testing</title>
10917                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Parallellizing_the_boot_in_Debian_Squeeze___ready_for_wider_testing.html</link>
10918                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Parallellizing_the_boot_in_Debian_Squeeze___ready_for_wider_testing.html</guid>
10919                 <pubDate>Thu, 6 May 2010 23:25:00 +0200</pubDate>
10920                 <description>&lt;p&gt;These days, the init.d script dependencies in Squeeze are quite
10921 complete, so complete that it is actually possible to run all the
10922 init.d scripts in parallell based on these dependencies.  If you want
10923 to test your Squeeze system, make sure
10924 &lt;a href=&quot;http://wiki.debian.org/LSBInitScripts/DependencyBasedBoot&quot;&gt;dependency
10925 based boot sequencing&lt;/a&gt; is enabled, and add this line to
10926 /etc/default/rcS:&lt;/p&gt;
10927
10928 &lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;pre&gt;
10929 CONCURRENCY=makefile
10930 &lt;/pre&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
10931
10932 &lt;p&gt;That is it.  It will cause sysv-rc to use the startpar tool to run
10933 scripts in parallel using the dependency information stored in
10934 /etc/init.d/.depend.boot, /etc/init.d/.depend.start and
10935 /etc/init.d/.depend.stop to order the scripts.  Startpar is configured
10936 to try to start the kdm and gdm scripts as early as possible, and will
10937 start the facilities required by kdm or gdm as early as possible to
10938 make this happen.&lt;/p&gt;
10939
10940 &lt;p&gt;Give it a try, and see if you like the result.  If some services
10941 fail to start properly, it is most likely because they have incomplete
10942 init.d script dependencies in their startup script (or some of their
10943 dependent scripts have incomplete dependencies).  Report bugs and get
10944 the package maintainers to fix it. :)&lt;/p&gt;
10945
10946 &lt;p&gt;Running scripts in parallel could be the default in Debian when we
10947 manage to get the init.d script dependencies complete and correct.  I
10948 expect we will get there in Squeeze+1, if we get manage to test and
10949 fix the remaining issues.&lt;/p&gt;
10950
10951 &lt;p&gt;If you report any problems with dependencies in init.d scripts to
10952 the BTS, please usertag the report to get it to show up at
10953 &lt;a href=&quot;http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/pkgreport.cgi?users=initscripts-ng-devel@lists.alioth.debian.org&quot;&gt;the
10954 list of usertagged bugs related to this&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
10955 </description>
10956         </item>
10957
10958         <item>
10959                 <title>Forcing new users to change their password on first login</title>
10960                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Forcing_new_users_to_change_their_password_on_first_login.html</link>
10961                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Forcing_new_users_to_change_their_password_on_first_login.html</guid>
10962                 <pubDate>Sun, 2 May 2010 13:47:00 +0200</pubDate>
10963                 <description>&lt;p&gt;One interesting feature in Active Directory, is the ability to
10964 create a new user with an expired password, and thus force the user to
10965 change the password on the first login attempt.&lt;/p&gt;
10966
10967 &lt;p&gt;I&#39;m not quite sure how to do that with the LDAP setup in Debian
10968 Edu, but did some initial testing with a local account.  The account
10969 and password aging information is available in /etc/shadow, but
10970 unfortunately, it is not possible to specify an expiration time for
10971 passwords, only a maximum age for passwords.&lt;/p&gt;
10972
10973 &lt;p&gt;A freshly created account (using adduser test) will have these
10974 settings in /etc/shadow:&lt;/p&gt;
10975
10976 &lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;pre&gt;
10977 root@tjener:~# chage -l test
10978 Last password change                                    : May 02, 2010
10979 Password expires                                        : never
10980 Password inactive                                       : never
10981 Account expires                                         : never
10982 Minimum number of days between password change          : 0
10983 Maximum number of days between password change          : 99999
10984 Number of days of warning before password expires       : 7
10985 root@tjener:~#
10986 &lt;/pre&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
10987
10988 &lt;p&gt;The only way I could come up with to create a user with an expired
10989 account, is to change the date of the last password change to the
10990 lowest value possible (January 1th 1970), and the maximum password age
10991 to the difference in days between that date and today.  To make it
10992 simple, I went for 30 years (30 * 365 = 10950) and January 2th (to
10993 avoid testing if 0 is a valid value).&lt;/p&gt;
10994
10995 &lt;p&gt;After using these commands to set it up, it seem to work as
10996 intended:&lt;/p&gt;
10997
10998 &lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;pre&gt;
10999 root@tjener:~# chage -d 1 test; chage -M 10950 test
11000 root@tjener:~# chage -l test
11001 Last password change                                    : Jan 02, 1970
11002 Password expires                                        : never
11003 Password inactive                                       : never
11004 Account expires                                         : never
11005 Minimum number of days between password change          : 0
11006 Maximum number of days between password change          : 10950
11007 Number of days of warning before password expires       : 7
11008 root@tjener:~#
11009 &lt;/pre&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
11010
11011 &lt;p&gt;So far I have tested this with ssh and console, and kdm (in
11012 Squeeze) login, and all ask for a new password before login in the
11013 user (with ssh, I was thrown out and had to log in again).&lt;/p&gt;
11014
11015 &lt;p&gt;Perhaps we should set up something similar for Debian Edu, to make
11016 sure only the user itself have the account password?&lt;/p&gt;
11017
11018 &lt;p&gt;If you want to comment on or help out with implementing this for
11019 Debian Edu, please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.&lt;/p&gt;
11020
11021 &lt;p&gt;Update 2010-05-02 17:20: Paul Tötterman tells me on IRC that the
11022 shadow(8) page in Debian/testing now state that setting the date of
11023 last password change to zero (0) will force the password to be changed
11024 on the first login.  This was not mentioned in the manual in Lenny, so
11025 I did not notice this in my initial testing.  I have tested it on
11026 Squeeze, and &#39;&lt;tt&gt;chage -d 0 username&lt;/tt&gt;&#39; do work there.  I have not
11027 tested it on Lenny yet.&lt;/p&gt;
11028
11029 &lt;p&gt;Update 2010-05-02-19:05: Jim Paris tells me via email that an
11030 equivalent command to expire a password is &#39;&lt;tt&gt;passwd -e
11031 username&lt;/tt&gt;&#39;, which insert zero into the date of the last password
11032 change.&lt;/p&gt;
11033 </description>
11034         </item>
11035
11036         <item>
11037                 <title>Thoughts on roaming laptop setup for Debian Edu</title>
11038                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Thoughts_on_roaming_laptop_setup_for_Debian_Edu.html</link>
11039                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Thoughts_on_roaming_laptop_setup_for_Debian_Edu.html</guid>
11040                 <pubDate>Wed, 28 Apr 2010 20:40:00 +0200</pubDate>
11041                 <description>&lt;p&gt;For some years now, I have wondered how we should handle laptops in
11042 Debian Edu.  The Debian Edu infrastructure is mostly designed to
11043 handle stationary computers, and less suited for computers that come
11044 and go.&lt;/p&gt;
11045
11046 &lt;p&gt;Now I finally believe I have an sensible idea on how to adjust
11047 Debian Edu for laptops, by introducing a new profile for them, for
11048 example called Roaming Workstations.  Here are my thought on this.
11049 The setup would consist of the following:&lt;/p&gt;
11050
11051 &lt;ul&gt;
11052
11053  &lt;li&gt;During installation, the user name of the owner / primary user of
11054    the laptop is requested and a local home directory is set up for
11055    the user, with uid and gid information fetched from the LDAP
11056    server.  This allow the user to work also when offline.  The
11057    central home directory can be available in a subdirectory on
11058    request, for example mounted via CIFS.  It could be mounted
11059    automatically when a user log in while on the Debian Edu network,
11060    and unmounted when the machine is taken away (network down,
11061    hibernate, etc), it can be set up to do automatic mounting on
11062    request (using autofs), or perhaps some GUI button on the desktop
11063    can be used to access it when needed.  Perhaps it is enough to use
11064    the fish protocol in KDE?&lt;/li&gt;
11065
11066  &lt;li&gt;Password checking is set up to use LDAP or Kerberos
11067    authentication when the machine is on the Debian Edu network, and
11068    to cache the password for offline checking when the machine unable
11069    to reach the LDAP or Kerberos server.  This can be done using
11070    &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.padl.com/OSS/pam_ccreds.html&quot;&gt;libpam-ccreds&lt;/a&gt;
11071    or the Fedora developed
11072    &lt;a href=&quot;https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Features/SSSD&quot;&gt;System
11073    Security Services Daemon&lt;/a&gt; packages.&lt;/li&gt;
11074
11075  &lt;li&gt;File synchronisation with the central home directory is set up
11076    using a shared directory in both the local and the central home
11077    directory, using unison.&lt;/li&gt;
11078
11079  &lt;li&gt;Printing should be set up to print to all printers broadcasting
11080    their existence on the local network, and should then work out of
11081    the box with CUPS.  For sites needing accurate printer quotas, some
11082    system with Kerberos authentication or printing via ssh could be
11083    implemented.&lt;/li&gt;
11084
11085  &lt;li&gt;For users that should have local root access to their laptop,
11086    sudo should be used to allow this to the local user.&lt;/li&gt;
11087
11088  &lt;li&gt;It would be nice if user and group information from LDAP is
11089    cached on the client, but given that there are entries for the
11090    local user and primary group in /etc/, it should not be needed.&lt;/li&gt;
11091
11092 &lt;/ul&gt;
11093
11094 &lt;p&gt;I believe all the pieces to implement this are in Debian/testing at
11095 the moment.  If we work quickly, we should be able to get this ready
11096 in time for the Squeeze release to freeze.  Some of the pieces need
11097 tweaking, like libpam-ccreds should get support for pam-auth-update
11098 (&lt;a href=&quot;http://bugs.debian.org/566718&quot;&gt;#566718&lt;/a&gt;) and nslcd (or
11099 perhaps debian-edu-config) should get some integration code to stop
11100 its daemon when the LDAP server is unavailable to avoid long timeouts
11101 when disconnected from the net.  If we get Kerberos enabled, we need
11102 to make sure we avoid long timeouts there too.&lt;/p&gt;
11103
11104 &lt;p&gt;If you want to help out with implementing this for Debian Edu,
11105 please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.&lt;/p&gt;
11106 </description>
11107         </item>
11108
11109         <item>
11110                 <title>Great book: &quot;Content: Selected Essays on Technology, Creativity, Copyright, and the Future of the Future&quot;</title>
11111                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Great_book___Content__Selected_Essays_on_Technology__Creativity__Copyright__and_the_Future_of_the_Future_.html</link>
11112                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Great_book___Content__Selected_Essays_on_Technology__Creativity__Copyright__and_the_Future_of_the_Future_.html</guid>
11113                 <pubDate>Mon, 19 Apr 2010 17:10:00 +0200</pubDate>
11114                 <description>&lt;p&gt;The last few weeks i have had the pleasure of reading a
11115 thought-provoking collection of essays by Cory Doctorow, on topics
11116 touching copyright, virtual worlds, the future of man when the
11117 conscience mind can be duplicated into a computer and many more. The
11118 book titled &quot;Content: Selected Essays on Technology, Creativity,
11119 Copyright, and the Future of the Future&quot; is available with few
11120 restrictions on the web, for example from
11121 &lt;a href=&quot;http://craphound.com/content/&quot;&gt;his own site&lt;/a&gt;. I read the
11122 epub-version from
11123 &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.feedbooks.com/book/2883&quot;&gt;feedbooks&lt;/a&gt; using
11124 &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.fbreader.org/&quot;&gt;fbreader&lt;/a&gt; and my N810. I
11125 strongly recommend this book.&lt;/p&gt;
11126 </description>
11127         </item>
11128
11129         <item>
11130                 <title>Kerberos for Debian Edu/Squeeze?</title>
11131                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Kerberos_for_Debian_Edu_Squeeze_.html</link>
11132                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Kerberos_for_Debian_Edu_Squeeze_.html</guid>
11133                 <pubDate>Wed, 14 Apr 2010 17:20:00 +0200</pubDate>
11134                 <description>&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.nuug.no/aktiviteter/20100413-kerberos/&quot;&gt;Yesterdays
11135 NUUG presentation&lt;/a&gt; about Kerberos was inspiring, and reminded me
11136 about the need to start using Kerberos in Skolelinux.  Setting up a
11137 Kerberos server seem to be straight forward, and if we get this in
11138 place a long time before the Squeeze version of Debian freezes, we
11139 have a chance to migrate Skolelinux away from NFSv3 for the home
11140 directories, and over to an architecture where the infrastructure do
11141 not have to trust IP addresses and machines, and instead can trust
11142 users and cryptographic keys instead.&lt;/p&gt;
11143
11144 &lt;p&gt;A challenge will be integration and administration.  Is there a
11145 Kerberos implementation for Debian where one can control the
11146 administration access in Kerberos using LDAP groups?  With it, the
11147 school administration will have to maintain access control using flat
11148 files on the main server, which give a huge potential for errors.&lt;/p&gt;
11149
11150 &lt;p&gt;A related question I would like to know is how well Kerberos and
11151 pam-ccreds (offline password check) work together.  Anyone know?&lt;/p&gt;
11152
11153 &lt;p&gt;Next step will be to use Kerberos for access control in Lwat and
11154 Nagios.  I have no idea how much work that will be to implement.  We
11155 would also need to document how to integrate with Windows AD, as such
11156 shared network will require two Kerberos realms that need to cooperate
11157 to work properly.&lt;/p&gt;
11158
11159 &lt;p&gt;I believe a good start would be to start using Kerberos on the
11160 skolelinux.no machines, and this way get ourselves experience with
11161 configuration and integration.  A natural starting point would be
11162 setting up ldap.skolelinux.no as the Kerberos server, and migrate the
11163 rest of the machines from PAM via LDAP to PAM via Kerberos one at the
11164 time.&lt;/p&gt;
11165
11166 &lt;p&gt;If you would like to contribute to get this working in Skolelinux,
11167 I recommend you to see the video recording from yesterdays NUUG
11168 presentation, and start using Kerberos at home.  The video show show
11169 up in a few days.&lt;/p&gt;
11170 </description>
11171         </item>
11172
11173         <item>
11174                 <title>After 6 years of waiting, the Xreset.d feature is implemented</title>
11175                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/After_6_years_of_waiting__the_Xreset_d_feature_is_implemented.html</link>
11176                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/After_6_years_of_waiting__the_Xreset_d_feature_is_implemented.html</guid>
11177                 <pubDate>Sat, 6 Mar 2010 18:15:00 +0100</pubDate>
11178                 <description>&lt;p&gt;6 years ago, as part of the Debian Edu development I am involved
11179 in, I asked for a hook in the kdm and gdm setup to run scripts as root
11180 when the user log out.  A bug was submitted against the xfree86-common
11181 package in 2004 (&lt;a href=&quot;http://bugs.debian.org/230422&quot;&gt;#230422&lt;/a&gt;),
11182 and revisited every time Debian Edu was working on a new release.
11183 Today, this finally paid off.&lt;/p&gt;
11184
11185 &lt;p&gt;The framework for this feature was today commited to the git
11186 repositry for the xorg package, and the git repository for xdm has
11187 been updated to use this framework.  Next on my agenda is to make sure
11188 kdm and gdm also add code to use this framework.&lt;/p&gt;
11189
11190 &lt;p&gt;In Debian Edu, we want to ability to run commands as root when the
11191 user log out, to get rid of runaway processes and do general cleanup
11192 after a user.  With this framework in place, we finally can do that in
11193 a generic way that work with all display managers using this
11194 framework.  My goal is to get all display managers in Debian use it,
11195 similar to how they use the Xsession.d framework today.&lt;p&gt;
11196 </description>
11197         </item>
11198
11199         <item>
11200                 <title>Debian Edu / Skolelinux based on Lenny released, work continues</title>
11201                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu___Skolelinux_based_on_Lenny_released__work_continues.html</link>
11202                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu___Skolelinux_based_on_Lenny_released__work_continues.html</guid>
11203                 <pubDate>Thu, 11 Feb 2010 17:15:00 +0100</pubDate>
11204                 <description>&lt;p&gt;On Tuesday, the Debian/Lenny based version of
11205 &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.skolelinux.org/&quot;&gt;Skolelinux&lt;/a&gt; was finally
11206 shipped.  This was a major leap forward for the project, and I am very
11207 pleased that we finally got the release wrapped up.  Work on the first
11208 point release starts imediately, as we plan to get that one out a
11209 month after the major release, to include all fixes for bugs we found
11210 and fixed too late in the release process to include last Tuesday.&lt;/p&gt;
11211
11212 &lt;p&gt;Perhaps it even is time for some partying?&lt;/p&gt;
11213
11214 &lt;p&gt;After this first point release, my plan is to focus again on the
11215 next major release, based on Squeeze.  We will try to get as many of
11216 the fixes we need into the official Debian packages before the freeze,
11217 and have just a few weeks or months to make it happen.&lt;/p&gt;
11218 </description>
11219         </item>
11220
11221         <item>
11222                 <title>Automatic Munin and Nagios configuration</title>
11223                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Automatic_Munin_and_Nagios_configuration.html</link>
11224                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Automatic_Munin_and_Nagios_configuration.html</guid>
11225                 <pubDate>Wed, 27 Jan 2010 15:15:00 +0100</pubDate>
11226                 <description>&lt;p&gt;One of the new features in the next Debian/Lenny based release of
11227 Debian Edu/Skolelinux, which is scheduled for release in the next few
11228 days, is automatic configuration of the service monitoring system
11229 Nagios.  The previous release had automatic configuration of trend
11230 analysis using Munin, and this Lenny based release take that a step
11231 further.&lt;/p&gt;
11232
11233 &lt;p&gt;When installing a Debian Edu Main-server, it is automatically
11234 configured as a Munin and Nagios server.  In addition, it is
11235 configured to be a server for the
11236 &lt;a href=&quot;http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/HowTo/SiteSummary&quot;&gt;SiteSummary
11237 system&lt;/a&gt; I have written for use in Debian Edu.  The SiteSummary
11238 system is inspired by a system used by the University of Oslo where I
11239 work.  In short, the system provide a centralised collector of
11240 information about the computers on the network, and a client on each
11241 computer submitting information to this collector.  This allow for
11242 automatic information on which packages are installed on each machine,
11243 which kernel the machines are using, what kind of configuration the
11244 packages got etc.  This also allow us to automatically generate Munin
11245 and Nagios configuration.&lt;/p&gt;
11246
11247 &lt;p&gt;All computers reporting to the sitesummary collector with the
11248 munin-node package installed is automatically enabled as a Munin
11249 client and graphs from the statistics collected from that machine show
11250 up automatically on http://www/munin/ on the Main-server.&lt;/p&gt;
11251
11252 &lt;p&gt;All non-laptop computers reporting to the sitesummary collector are
11253 automatically monitored for network presence (ping and any network
11254 services detected).  In addition, all computers (also laptops) with
11255 the nagios-nrpe-server package installed and configured the way
11256 sitesummary would configure it, are monitored for full disks, software
11257 raid status, swap free and other checks that need to run locally on
11258 the machine.&lt;/p&gt;
11259
11260 &lt;p&gt;The result is that the administrator on a school using Debian Edu
11261 based on Lenny will be able to check the health of his installation
11262 with one look at the Nagios settings, without having to spend any time
11263 keeping the Nagios configuration up-to-date.&lt;/p&gt;
11264
11265 &lt;p&gt;The only configuration one need to do to get Nagios up and running
11266 is to set the password used to get access via HTTP.  The system
11267 administrator need to run &quot;&lt;tt&gt;htpasswd /etc/nagios3/htpasswd.users
11268 nagiosadmin&lt;/tt&gt;&quot; to create a nagiosadmin user and set a password for
11269 it to be able to log into the Nagios web pages.  After that,
11270 everything is taken care of.&lt;/p&gt;
11271 </description>
11272         </item>
11273
11274         <item>
11275                 <title>Relative popularity of document formats (MS Office vs. ODF)</title>
11276                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Relative_popularity_of_document_formats__MS_Office_vs__ODF_.html</link>
11277                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Relative_popularity_of_document_formats__MS_Office_vs__ODF_.html</guid>
11278                 <pubDate>Wed, 12 Aug 2009 15:50:00 +0200</pubDate>
11279                 <description>&lt;p&gt;Just for fun, I did a search right now on Google for a few file ODF
11280 and MS Office based formats (not to be mistaken for ISO or ECMA
11281 OOXML), to get an idea of their relative usage.  I searched using
11282 &#39;filetype:odt&#39; and equvalent terms, and got these results:&lt;/P&gt;
11283
11284 &lt;table&gt;
11285 &lt;tr&gt;&lt;th&gt;Type&lt;/th&gt;&lt;th&gt;ODF&lt;/th&gt;&lt;th&gt;MS Office&lt;/th&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
11286 &lt;tr&gt;&lt;td&gt;Tekst&lt;/td&gt; &lt;td&gt;odt:282000&lt;/td&gt; &lt;td&gt;docx:308000&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
11287 &lt;tr&gt;&lt;td&gt;Presentasjon&lt;/td&gt; &lt;td&gt;odp:75600&lt;/td&gt; &lt;td&gt;pptx:183000&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
11288 &lt;tr&gt;&lt;td&gt;Regneark&lt;/td&gt; &lt;td&gt;ods:26500     &lt;/td&gt; &lt;td&gt;xlsx:145000&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
11289 &lt;/table&gt;
11290
11291 &lt;p&gt;Next, I added a &#39;site:no&#39; limit to get the numbers for Norway, and
11292 got these numbers:&lt;/p&gt;
11293
11294 &lt;table&gt;
11295 &lt;tr&gt;&lt;th&gt;Type&lt;/th&gt;&lt;th&gt;ODF&lt;/th&gt;&lt;th&gt;MS Office&lt;/th&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
11296 &lt;tr&gt;&lt;td&gt;Tekst&lt;/td&gt; &lt;td&gt;odt:2480 &lt;/td&gt; &lt;td&gt;docx:4460&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
11297 &lt;tr&gt;&lt;td&gt;Presentasjon&lt;/td&gt; &lt;td&gt;odp:299   &lt;/td&gt; &lt;td&gt;pptx:741&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
11298 &lt;tr&gt;&lt;td&gt;Regneark&lt;/td&gt; &lt;td&gt;ods:187       &lt;/td&gt; &lt;td&gt;xlsx:372&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
11299 &lt;/table&gt;
11300
11301 &lt;p&gt;I wonder how these numbers change over time.&lt;/p&gt;
11302
11303 &lt;p&gt;I am aware of Google returning different results and numbers based
11304 on where the search is done, so I guess these numbers will differ if
11305 they are conduced in another country.  Because of this, I did the same
11306 search from a machine in California, USA, a few minutes after the
11307 search done from a machine here in Norway.&lt;/p&gt;
11308
11309
11310 &lt;table&gt;
11311 &lt;tr&gt;&lt;th&gt;Type&lt;/th&gt;&lt;th&gt;ODF&lt;/th&gt;&lt;th&gt;MS Office&lt;/th&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
11312 &lt;tr&gt;&lt;td&gt;Tekst&lt;/td&gt; &lt;td&gt;odt:129000&lt;/td&gt; &lt;td&gt;docx:308000&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
11313 &lt;tr&gt;&lt;td&gt;Presentasjon&lt;/td&gt; &lt;td&gt;odp:44200&lt;/td&gt; &lt;td&gt;pptx:93900&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
11314 &lt;tr&gt;&lt;td&gt;Regneark&lt;/td&gt; &lt;td&gt;ods:26500     &lt;/td&gt; &lt;td&gt;xlsx:82400&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
11315 &lt;/table&gt;
11316
11317 &lt;p&gt;And with &#39;site:no&#39;:
11318
11319 &lt;table&gt;
11320 &lt;tr&gt;&lt;th&gt;Type&lt;/th&gt;&lt;th&gt;ODF&lt;/th&gt;&lt;th&gt;MS Office&lt;/th&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
11321 &lt;tr&gt;&lt;td&gt;Tekst&lt;/td&gt; &lt;td&gt;odt:2480&lt;/td&gt; &lt;td&gt;docx:3410&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
11322 &lt;tr&gt;&lt;td&gt;Presentasjon&lt;/td&gt; &lt;td&gt;odp:175&lt;/td&gt; &lt;td&gt;pptx:604&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
11323 &lt;tr&gt;&lt;td&gt;Regneark&lt;/td&gt; &lt;td&gt;ods:186       &lt;/td&gt; &lt;td&gt;xlsx:296&lt;/td&gt;&lt;/tr&gt;
11324 &lt;/table&gt;
11325
11326 &lt;p&gt;Interesting difference, not sure what to conclude from these
11327 numbers.&lt;/p&gt;
11328 </description>
11329         </item>
11330
11331         <item>
11332                 <title>ISO still hope to fix OOXML</title>
11333                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/ISO_still_hope_to_fix_OOXML.html</link>
11334                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/ISO_still_hope_to_fix_OOXML.html</guid>
11335                 <pubDate>Sat, 8 Aug 2009 14:00:00 +0200</pubDate>
11336                 <description>&lt;p&gt;According to &lt;a
11337 href=&quot;http://twerner.blogspot.com/2009/08/defects-of-office-open-xml.html&quot;&gt;a
11338 blog post from Torsten Werner&lt;/a&gt;, the current defect report for ISO
11339 29500 (ISO OOXML) is 809 pages.  His interesting point is that the
11340 defect report is 71 pages more than the full ODF 1.1 specification.
11341 Personally I find it more interesting that ISO still believe ISO OOXML
11342 can be fixed in ISO.  Personally, I believe it is broken beyon repair,
11343 and I completely lack any trust in ISO for being able to get anywhere
11344 close to solving the problems.  I was part of the Norwegian committee
11345 involved in the OOXML fast track process, and was not impressed with
11346 Standard Norway and ISO in how they handled it.&lt;/p&gt;
11347
11348 &lt;p&gt;These days I focus on ODF instead, which seem like a specification
11349 with the future ahead of it.  We are working in NUUG to organise a ODF
11350 seminar this autumn.&lt;/p&gt;
11351 </description>
11352         </item>
11353
11354         <item>
11355                 <title>Debian has switched to dependency based boot sequencing</title>
11356                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_has_switched_to_dependency_based_boot_sequencing.html</link>
11357                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_has_switched_to_dependency_based_boot_sequencing.html</guid>
11358                 <pubDate>Mon, 27 Jul 2009 23:50:00 +0200</pubDate>
11359                 <description>&lt;p&gt;Since this evening, with the upload of sysvinit version 2.87dsf-2,
11360 and the upload of insserv version 1.12.0-10 yesterday, Debian unstable
11361 have been migrated to using dependency based boot sequencing.  This
11362 conclude work me and others have been doing for the last three days.
11363 It feels great to see this finally part of the default Debian
11364 installation.  Now we just need to weed out the last few problems that
11365 are bound to show up, to get everything ready for Squeeze.&lt;/p&gt;
11366
11367 &lt;p&gt;The next step is migrating /sbin/init from sysvinit to upstart, and
11368 fixing the more fundamental problem of handing the event based
11369 non-predictable kernel in the early boot.&lt;/p&gt;
11370 </description>
11371         </item>
11372
11373         <item>
11374                 <title>Taking over sysvinit development</title>
11375                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Taking_over_sysvinit_development.html</link>
11376                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Taking_over_sysvinit_development.html</guid>
11377                 <pubDate>Wed, 22 Jul 2009 23:00:00 +0200</pubDate>
11378                 <description>&lt;p&gt;After several years of frustration with the lack of activity from
11379 the existing sysvinit upstream developer, I decided a few weeks ago to
11380 take over the package and become the new upstream.  The number of
11381 patches to track for the Debian package was becoming a burden, and the
11382 lack of synchronization between the distribution made it hard to keep
11383 the package up to date.&lt;/p&gt;
11384
11385 &lt;p&gt;On the new sysvinit team is the SuSe maintainer Dr. Werner Fink,
11386 and my Debian co-maintainer Kel Modderman.  About 10 days ago, I made
11387 a new upstream tarball with version number 2.87dsf (for Debian, SuSe
11388 and Fedora), based on the patches currently in use in these
11389 distributions.  We Debian maintainers plan to move to this tarball as
11390 the new upstream as soon as we find time to do the merge.  Since the
11391 new tarball was created, we agreed with Werner at SuSe to make a new
11392 upstream project at &lt;a href=&quot;http://savannah.nongnu.org/&quot;&gt;Savannah&lt;/a&gt;, and continue
11393 development there.  The project is registered and currently waiting
11394 for approval by the Savannah administrators, and as soon as it is
11395 approved, we will import the old versions from svn and continue
11396 working on the future release.&lt;/p&gt;
11397
11398 &lt;p&gt;It is a bit ironic that this is done now, when some of the involved
11399 distributions are moving to upstart as a syvinit replacement.&lt;/p&gt;
11400 </description>
11401         </item>
11402
11403         <item>
11404                 <title>Debian boots quicker and quicker</title>
11405                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_boots_quicker_and_quicker.html</link>
11406                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_boots_quicker_and_quicker.html</guid>
11407                 <pubDate>Wed, 24 Jun 2009 21:40:00 +0200</pubDate>
11408                 <description>&lt;p&gt;I spent Monday and tuesday this week in London with a lot of the
11409 people involved in the boot system on Debian and Ubuntu, to see if we
11410 could find more ways to speed up the boot system.  This was an Ubuntu
11411 funded
11412 &lt;a href=&quot;https://wiki.ubuntu.com/FoundationsTeam/BootPerformance/DebianUbuntuSprint&quot;&gt;developer
11413 gathering&lt;/a&gt;. It was quite productive.  We also discussed the future
11414 of boot systems, and ways to handle the increasing number of boot
11415 issues introduced by the Linux kernel becoming more and more
11416 asynchronous and event base.  The Ubuntu approach using udev and
11417 upstart might be a good way forward.  Time will show.&lt;/p&gt;
11418
11419 &lt;p&gt;Anyway, there are a few ways at the moment to speed up the boot
11420 process in Debian.  All of these should be applied to get a quick
11421 boot:&lt;/p&gt;
11422
11423 &lt;ul&gt;
11424
11425 &lt;li&gt;Use dash as /bin/sh.&lt;/li&gt;
11426
11427 &lt;li&gt;Disable the init.d/hwclock*.sh scripts and make sure the hardware
11428    clock is in UTC.&lt;/li&gt;
11429
11430 &lt;li&gt;Install and activate the insserv package to enable
11431    &lt;a href=&quot;http://wiki.debian.org/LSBInitScripts/DependencyBasedBoot&quot;&gt;dependency
11432    based boot sequencing&lt;/a&gt;, and enable concurrent booting.&lt;/li&gt;
11433
11434 &lt;/ul&gt;
11435
11436 These points are based on the Google summer of code work done by
11437 &lt;a href=&quot;http://initscripts-ng.alioth.debian.org/soc2006-bootsystem/&quot;&gt;Carlos
11438 Villegas&lt;/a&gt;.
11439
11440 &lt;p&gt;Support for makefile-style concurrency during boot was uploaded to
11441 unstable yesterday.  When we tested it, we were able to cut 6 seconds
11442 from the boot sequence.  It depend on very correct dependency
11443 declaration in all init.d scripts, so I expect us to find edge cases
11444 where the dependences in some scripts are slightly wrong when we start
11445 using this.&lt;/p&gt;
11446
11447 &lt;p&gt;On our IRC channel for this effort, #pkg-sysvinit, a new idea was
11448 introduced by Raphael Geissert today, one that could affect the
11449 startup speed as well.  Instead of starting some scripts concurrently
11450 from rcS.d/ and another set of scripts from rc2.d/, it would be
11451 possible to run a of them in the same process.  A quick way to test
11452 this would be to enable insserv and run &#39;mv /etc/rc2.d/S* /etc/rcS.d/;
11453 insserv&#39;.  Will need to test if that work. :)&lt;/p&gt;
11454 </description>
11455         </item>
11456
11457         <item>
11458                 <title>Two projects that have improved the quality of free software a lot</title>
11459                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Two_projects_that_have_improved_the_quality_of_free_software_a_lot.html</link>
11460                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Two_projects_that_have_improved_the_quality_of_free_software_a_lot.html</guid>
11461                 <pubDate>Sat, 2 May 2009 15:00:00 +0200</pubDate>
11462                 <description>&lt;p&gt;There are two software projects that have had huge influence on the
11463 quality of free software, and I wanted to mention both in case someone
11464 do not yet know them.&lt;/p&gt;
11465
11466 &lt;p&gt;The first one is &lt;a href=&quot;http://valgrind.org/&quot;&gt;valgrind&lt;/a&gt;, a
11467 tool to detect and expose errors in the memory handling of programs.
11468 It is easy to use, all one need to do is to run &#39;valgrind program&#39;,
11469 and it will report any problems on stdout.  It is even better if the
11470 program include debug information.  With debug information, it is able
11471 to report the source file name and line number where the problem
11472 occurs.  It can report things like &#39;reading past memory block in file
11473 X line N, the memory block was allocated in file Y, line M&#39;, and
11474 &#39;using uninitialised value in control logic&#39;.  This tool has made it
11475 trivial to investigate reproducible crash bugs in programs, and have
11476 reduced the number of this kind of bugs in free software a lot.
11477
11478 &lt;p&gt;The second one is
11479 &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coverity&quot;&gt;Coverity&lt;/a&gt; which is
11480 a source code checker.  It is able to process the source of a program
11481 and find problems in the logic without running the program.  It
11482 started out as the Stanford Checker and became well known when it was
11483 used to find bugs in the Linux kernel.  It is now a commercial tool
11484 and the company behind it is running
11485 &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.scan.coverity.com/&quot;&gt;a community service&lt;/a&gt; for the
11486 free software community, where a lot of free software projects get
11487 their source checked for free.  Several thousand defects have been
11488 found and fixed so far.  It can find errors like &#39;lock L taken in file
11489 X line N is never released if exiting in line M&#39;, or &#39;the code in file
11490 Y lines O to P can never be executed&#39;.  The projects included in the
11491 community service project have managed to get rid of a lot of
11492 reliability problems thanks to Coverity.&lt;/p&gt;
11493
11494 &lt;p&gt;I believe tools like this, that are able to automatically find
11495 errors in the source, are vital to improve the quality of software and
11496 make sure we can get rid of the crashing and failing software we are
11497 surrounded by today.&lt;/p&gt;
11498 </description>
11499         </item>
11500
11501         <item>
11502                 <title>No patch is not better than a useless patch</title>
11503                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/No_patch_is_not_better_than_a_useless_patch.html</link>
11504                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/No_patch_is_not_better_than_a_useless_patch.html</guid>
11505                 <pubDate>Tue, 28 Apr 2009 09:30:00 +0200</pubDate>
11506                 <description>&lt;p&gt;Julien Blache
11507 &lt;a href=&quot;http://blog.technologeek.org/2009/04/12/214&quot;&gt;claim that no
11508 patch is better than a useless patch&lt;/a&gt;.  I completely disagree, as a
11509 patch allow one to discuss a concrete and proposed solution, and also
11510 prove that the issue at hand is important enough for someone to spent
11511 time on fixing it.  No patch do not provide any of these positive
11512 properties.&lt;/p&gt;
11513 </description>
11514         </item>
11515
11516         <item>
11517                 <title>Recording video from cron using VLC</title>
11518                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Recording_video_from_cron_using_VLC.html</link>
11519                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Recording_video_from_cron_using_VLC.html</guid>
11520                 <pubDate>Sun, 5 Apr 2009 10:00:00 +0200</pubDate>
11521                 <description>&lt;p&gt;One think I have wanted to figure out for a along time is how to
11522 run vlc from cron to do recording of video streams on the net.  The
11523 task is trivial with mplayer, but I do not really trust the security
11524 of mplayer (it crashes too often on strange input), and thus prefer
11525 vlc.  I finally found a way to do it today.  I spent an hour or so
11526 searching the web for recipes and reading the documentation.  The
11527 hardest part was to get rid of the GUI window, but after finding the
11528 dummy interface, the command line finally presented itself:&lt;/p&gt;
11529
11530 &lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;pre&gt;URL=http://www.ping.uio.no/video/rms-oslo_2009.ogg
11531 SAVEFILE=rms.ogg
11532 DISPLAY= vlc -q $URL \
11533   --sout=&quot;#duplicate{dst=std{access=file,url=&#39;$SAVEFILE&#39;},dst=nodisplay}&quot; \
11534   --intf=dummy&lt;/pre&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
11535
11536 &lt;p&gt;The command stream the URL and store it in the SAVEFILE by
11537 duplicating the output stream to &quot;nodisplay&quot; and the file, using the
11538 dummy interface.  The dummy interface and the nodisplay output make
11539 sure no X interface is needed.&lt;/p&gt;
11540
11541 &lt;p&gt;The cron job then need to start this job with the appropriate URL
11542 and file name to save, sleep for the duration wanted, and then kill
11543 the vlc process with SIGTERM.  Here is a complete script
11544 &lt;tt&gt;vlc-record&lt;/tt&gt; to use from &lt;tt&gt;at&lt;/tt&gt; or &lt;tt&gt;cron&lt;/tt&gt;:&lt;/p&gt;
11545
11546 &lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;pre&gt;#!/bin/sh
11547 set -e
11548 URL=&quot;$1&quot;
11549 SAVEFILE=&quot;$2&quot;
11550 DURATION=&quot;$3&quot;
11551 DISPLAY= vlc -q &quot;$URL&quot; \
11552   --sout=&quot;#duplicate{dst=std{access=file,url=&#39;$SAVEFILE&#39;},dst=nodisplay}&quot; \
11553   --intf=dummy &lt; /dev/null &gt; /dev/null 2&gt;&amp;1 &amp;
11554 pid=$!
11555 sleep $DURATION
11556 kill $pid
11557 wait $pid&lt;/pre&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
11558 </description>
11559         </item>
11560
11561         <item>
11562                 <title>Standardize on protocols and formats, not vendors and applications</title>
11563                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Standardize_on_protocols_and_formats__not_vendors_and_applications.html</link>
11564                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Standardize_on_protocols_and_formats__not_vendors_and_applications.html</guid>
11565                 <pubDate>Mon, 30 Mar 2009 11:50:00 +0200</pubDate>
11566                 <description>&lt;p&gt;Where I work at the University of Oslo, one decision stand out as a
11567 very good one to form a long lived computer infrastructure.  It is the
11568 simple one, lost by many in todays computer industry: Standardize on
11569 open network protocols and open exchange/storage formats, not applications.
11570 Applications come and go, while protocols and files tend to stay, and
11571 thus one want to make it easy to change application and vendor, while
11572 avoiding conversion costs and locking users to a specific platform or
11573 application.&lt;/p&gt;
11574
11575 &lt;p&gt;This approach make it possible to replace the client applications
11576 independently of the server applications.  One can even allow users to
11577 use several different applications as long as they handle the selected
11578 protocol and format.  In the normal case, only one client application
11579 is recommended and users only get help if they choose to use this
11580 application, but those that want to deviate from the easy path are not
11581 blocked from doing so.&lt;/p&gt;
11582
11583 &lt;p&gt;It also allow us to replace the server side without forcing the
11584 users to replace their applications, and thus allow us to select the
11585 best server implementation at any moment, when scale and resouce
11586 requirements change.&lt;/p&gt;
11587
11588 &lt;p&gt;I strongly recommend standardizing - on open network protocols and
11589 open formats, but I would never recommend standardizing on a single
11590 application that do not use open network protocol or open formats.&lt;/p&gt;
11591 </description>
11592         </item>
11593
11594         <item>
11595                 <title>Returning from Skolelinux developer gathering</title>
11596                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Returning_from_Skolelinux_developer_gathering.html</link>
11597                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Returning_from_Skolelinux_developer_gathering.html</guid>
11598                 <pubDate>Sun, 29 Mar 2009 21:00:00 +0200</pubDate>
11599                 <description>&lt;p&gt;I&#39;m sitting on the train going home from this weekends Debian
11600 Edu/Skolelinux development gathering.  I got a bit done tuning the
11601 desktop, and looked into the dynamic service location protocol
11602 implementation avahi.  It look like it could be useful for us.  Almost
11603 30 people participated, and I believe it was a great environment to
11604 get to know the Skolelinux system.  Walter Bender, involved in the
11605 development of the Sugar educational platform, presented his stuff and
11606 also helped me improve my OLPC installation.  He also showed me that
11607 his Turtle Art application can be used in standalone mode, and we
11608 agreed that I would help getting it packaged for Debian.  As a
11609 standalone application it would be great for Debian Edu.  We also
11610 tried to get the video conferencing working with two OLPCs, but that
11611 proved to be too hard for us.  The application seem to need more work
11612 before it is ready for me.  I look forward to getting home and relax
11613 now. :)&lt;/p&gt;
11614 </description>
11615         </item>
11616
11617         <item>
11618                 <title>Time for new  LDAP schemas replacing RFC 2307?</title>
11619                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Time_for_new__LDAP_schemas_replacing_RFC_2307_.html</link>
11620                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Time_for_new__LDAP_schemas_replacing_RFC_2307_.html</guid>
11621                 <pubDate>Sun, 29 Mar 2009 20:30:00 +0200</pubDate>
11622                 <description>&lt;p&gt;The state of standardized LDAP schemas on Linux is far from
11623 optimal.  There is RFC 2307 documenting one way to store NIS maps in
11624 LDAP, and a modified version of this normally called RFC 2307bis, with
11625 some modifications to be compatible with Active Directory.  The RFC
11626 specification handle the content of a lot of system databases, but do
11627 not handle DNS zones and DHCP configuration.&lt;/p&gt;
11628
11629 &lt;p&gt;In &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.skolelinux.org/&quot;&gt;Debian Edu/Skolelinux&lt;/a&gt;,
11630 we would like to store information about users, SMB clients/hosts,
11631 filegroups, netgroups (users and hosts), DHCP and DNS configuration,
11632 and LTSP configuration in LDAP.  These objects have a lot in common,
11633 but with the current LDAP schemas it is not possible to have one
11634 object per entity.  For example, one need to have at least three LDAP
11635 objects for a given computer, one with the SMB related stuff, one with
11636 DNS information and another with DHCP information.  The schemas
11637 provided for DNS and DHCP are impossible to combine into one LDAP
11638 object.  In addition, it is impossible to implement quick queries for
11639 netgroup membership, because of the way NIS triples are implemented.
11640 It just do not scale.  I believe it is time for a few RFC
11641 specifications to cleam up this mess.&lt;/p&gt;
11642
11643 &lt;p&gt;I would like to have one LDAP object representing each computer in
11644 the network, and this object can then keep the SMB (ie host key), DHCP
11645 (mac address/name) and DNS (name/IP address) settings in one place.
11646 It need to be efficently stored to make sure it scale well.&lt;/p&gt;
11647
11648 &lt;p&gt;I would also like to have a quick way to map from a user or
11649 computer and to the net group this user or computer is a member.&lt;/p&gt;
11650
11651 &lt;p&gt;Active Directory have done a better job than unix heads like myself
11652 in this regard, and the unix side need to catch up.  Time to start a
11653 new IETF work group?&lt;/p&gt;
11654 </description>
11655         </item>
11656
11657         <item>
11658                 <title>Checking server hardware support status for Dell, HP and IBM servers</title>
11659                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Checking_server_hardware_support_status_for_Dell__HP_and_IBM_servers.html</link>
11660                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Checking_server_hardware_support_status_for_Dell__HP_and_IBM_servers.html</guid>
11661                 <pubDate>Sat, 28 Feb 2009 23:50:00 +0100</pubDate>
11662                 <description>&lt;p&gt;At work, we have a few hundred Linux servers, and with that amount
11663 of hardware it is important to keep track of when the hardware support
11664 contract expire for each server.  We have a machine (and service)
11665 register, which until recently did not contain much useful besides the
11666 machine room location and contact information for the system owner for
11667 each machine.  To make it easier for us to track support contract
11668 status, I&#39;ve recently spent time on extending the machine register to
11669 include information about when the support contract expire, and to tag
11670 machines with expired contracts to make it easy to get a list of such
11671 machines.  I extended a perl script already being used to import
11672 information about machines into the register, to also do some screen
11673 scraping off the sites of Dell, HP and IBM (our majority of machines
11674 are from these vendors), and automatically check the support status
11675 for the relevant machines.  This make the support status information
11676 easily available and I hope it will make it easier for the computer
11677 owner to know when to get new hardware or renew the support contract.
11678 The result of this work documented that 27% of the machines in the
11679 registry is without a support contract, and made it very easy to find
11680 them.  27% might seem like a lot, but I see it more as the case of us
11681 using machines a bit longer than the 3 years a normal support contract
11682 last, to have test machines and a platform for less important
11683 services.  After all, the machines without a contract are working fine
11684 at the moment and the lack of contract is only a problem if any of
11685 them break down.  When that happen, we can either fix it using spare
11686 parts from other machines or move the service to another old
11687 machine.&lt;/p&gt;
11688
11689 &lt;p&gt;I believe the code for screen scraping the Dell site was originally
11690 written by Trond Hasle Amundsen, and later adjusted by me and Morten
11691 Werner Forsbring.  The HP scraping was written by me after reading a
11692 nice article in ;login: about how to use WWW::Mechanize, and the IBM
11693 scraping was written by me based on the Dell code.  I know the HTML
11694 parsing could be done using nice libraries, but did not want to
11695 introduce more dependencies.  This is the current incarnation:&lt;/p&gt;
11696
11697 &lt;pre&gt;
11698 use LWP::Simple;
11699 use POSIX;
11700 use WWW::Mechanize;
11701 use Date::Parse;
11702 [...]
11703 sub get_support_info {
11704     my ($machine, $model, $serial, $productnumber) = @_;
11705     my $str;
11706
11707     if ( $model =~ m/^Dell / ) {
11708         # fetch website from Dell support
11709         my $url = &quot;http://support.euro.dell.com/support/topics/topic.aspx/emea/shared/support/my_systems_info/no/details?c=no&amp;amp;cs=nodhs1&amp;amp;l=no&amp;amp;s=dhs&amp;amp;ServiceTag=$serial&quot;;
11710         my $webpage = get($url);
11711         return undef unless ($webpage);
11712
11713         my $daysleft = -1;
11714         my @lines = split(/\n/, $webpage);
11715         foreach my $line (@lines) {
11716             next unless ($line =~ m/Beskrivelse/);
11717             $line =~ s/&amp;lt;[^&gt;]+?&gt;/;/gm;
11718             $line =~ s/^.+?;(Beskrivelse;)/$1/;
11719
11720             my @f = split(/\;/, $line);
11721             @f = @f[13 .. $#f];
11722             my $lastend = &quot;&quot;;
11723             while ($f[3] eq &quot;DELL&quot;) {
11724                 my ($type, $startstr, $endstr, $days) = @f[0, 5, 7, 10];
11725
11726                 my $start = POSIX::strftime(&quot;%Y-%m-%d&quot;,
11727                                             localtime(str2time($startstr)));
11728                 my $end = POSIX::strftime(&quot;%Y-%m-%d&quot;,
11729                                           localtime(str2time($endstr)));
11730                 $str .= &quot;$type $start -&gt; $end &quot;;
11731                 @f = @f[14 .. $#f];
11732                 $lastend = $end if ($end gt $lastend);
11733             }
11734             my $today = POSIX::strftime(&quot;%Y-%m-%d&quot;, localtime(time));
11735             tag_machine_unsupported($machine)
11736                 if ($lastend lt $today);
11737         }
11738     } elsif ( $model =~ m/^HP / ) {
11739         my $mech = WWW::Mechanize-&gt;new();
11740         my $url =
11741             &#39;http://www1.itrc.hp.com/service/ewarranty/warrantyInput.do&#39;;
11742         $mech-&gt;get($url);
11743         my $fields = {
11744             &#39;BODServiceID&#39; =&gt; &#39;NA&#39;,
11745             &#39;RegisteredPurchaseDate&#39; =&gt; &#39;&#39;,
11746             &#39;country&#39; =&gt; &#39;NO&#39;,
11747             &#39;productNumber&#39; =&gt; $productnumber,
11748             &#39;serialNumber1&#39; =&gt; $serial,
11749         };
11750         $mech-&gt;submit_form( form_number =&gt; 2,
11751                             fields      =&gt; $fields );
11752         # Next step is screen scraping
11753         my $content = $mech-&gt;content();
11754
11755         $content =~ s/&amp;lt;[^&gt;]+?&gt;/;/gm;
11756         $content =~ s/\s+/ /gm;
11757         $content =~ s/;\s*;/;;/gm;
11758         $content =~ s/;[\s;]+/;/gm;
11759
11760         my $today = POSIX::strftime(&quot;%Y-%m-%d&quot;, localtime(time));
11761
11762         while ($content =~ m/;Warranty Type;/) {
11763             my ($type, $status, $startstr, $stopstr) = $content =~
11764                 m/;Warranty Type;([^;]+);.+?;Status;(\w+);Start Date;([^;]+);End Date;([^;]+);/;
11765             $content =~ s/^.+?;Warranty Type;//;
11766             my $start = POSIX::strftime(&quot;%Y-%m-%d&quot;,
11767                                         localtime(str2time($startstr)));
11768             my $end = POSIX::strftime(&quot;%Y-%m-%d&quot;,
11769                                       localtime(str2time($stopstr)));
11770
11771             $str .= &quot;$type ($status) $start -&gt; $end &quot;;
11772
11773             tag_machine_unsupported($machine)
11774                 if ($end lt $today);
11775         }
11776     } elsif ( $model =~ m/^IBM / ) {
11777         # This code ignore extended support contracts.
11778         my ($producttype) = $model =~ m/.*-\[(.{4}).+\]-/;
11779         if ($producttype &amp;amp;&amp;amp; $serial) {
11780             my $content =
11781                 get(&quot;http://www-947.ibm.com/systems/support/supportsite.wss/warranty?action=warranty&amp;amp;brandind=5000008&amp;amp;Submit=Submit&amp;amp;type=$producttype&amp;amp;serial=$serial&quot;);
11782             if ($content) {
11783                 $content =~ s/&amp;lt;[^&gt;]+?&gt;/;/gm;
11784                 $content =~ s/\s+/ /gm;
11785                 $content =~ s/;\s*;/;;/gm;
11786                 $content =~ s/;[\s;]+/;/gm;
11787
11788                 $content =~ s/^.+?;Warranty status;//;
11789                 my ($status, $end) = $content =~ m/;Warranty status;([^;]+)\s*;Expiration date;(\S+) ;/;
11790
11791                 $str .= &quot;($status) -&gt; $end &quot;;
11792
11793                 my $today = POSIX::strftime(&quot;%Y-%m-%d&quot;, localtime(time));
11794                 tag_machine_unsupported($machine)
11795                     if ($end lt $today);
11796             }
11797         }
11798     }
11799     return $str;
11800 }
11801 &lt;/pre&gt;
11802
11803 &lt;p&gt;Here are some examples on how to use the function, using fake
11804 serial numbers.  The information passed in as arguments are fetched
11805 from dmidecode.&lt;/p&gt;
11806
11807 &lt;pre&gt;
11808 print get_support_info(&quot;hp.host&quot;, &quot;HP ProLiant BL460c G1&quot;, &quot;1234567890&quot;
11809                        &quot;447707-B21&quot;);
11810 print get_support_info(&quot;dell.host&quot;, &quot;Dell Inc. PowerEdge 2950&quot;, &quot;1234567&quot;);
11811 print get_support_info(&quot;ibm.host&quot;, &quot;IBM eserver xSeries 345 -[867061X]-&quot;,
11812                        &quot;1234567&quot;);
11813 &lt;/pre&gt;
11814
11815 &lt;p&gt;I would recommend this approach for tracking support contracts for
11816 everyone with more than a few computers to administer. :)&lt;/p&gt;
11817
11818 &lt;p&gt;Update 2009-03-06: The IBM page do not include extended support
11819 contracts, so it is useless in that case.  The original Dell code do
11820 not handle extended support contracts either, but has been updated to
11821 do so.&lt;/p&gt;
11822 </description>
11823         </item>
11824
11825         <item>
11826                 <title>Using bar codes at a computing center</title>
11827                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Using_bar_codes_at_a_computing_center.html</link>
11828                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Using_bar_codes_at_a_computing_center.html</guid>
11829                 <pubDate>Fri, 20 Feb 2009 08:50:00 +0100</pubDate>
11830                 <description>&lt;p&gt;At work with the University of Oslo, we have several hundred computers
11831 in our computing center.  This give us a challenge in tracking the
11832 location and cabling of the computers, when they are added, moved and
11833 removed.  Some times the location register is not updated when a
11834 computer is inserted or moved and we then have to search the room for
11835 the &quot;missing&quot; computer.&lt;/p&gt;
11836
11837 &lt;p&gt;In the last issue of Linux Journal, I came across a project
11838 &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.libdmtx.org/&quot;&gt;libdmtx&lt;/a&gt; to write and read bar
11839 code blocks as defined in the
11840 &lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_Matrix&quot;&gt;The Data Matrix
11841 Standard&lt;/a&gt;.  This is bar codes that can be read with a normal
11842 digital camera, for example that on a cell phone, and several such bar
11843 codes can be read by libdmtx from one picture.  The bar code standard
11844 allow up to 2 KiB to be written in the tag.  There is another project
11845 with &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.terryburton.co.uk/barcodewriter/&quot;&gt;a bar code
11846 writer written in postscript&lt;/a&gt; capable of creating such bar codes,
11847 but this was the first time I found a tool to read these bar
11848 codes.&lt;/p&gt;
11849
11850 &lt;p&gt;It occurred to me that this could be used to tag and track the
11851 machines in our computing center.  If both racks and computers are
11852 tagged this way, we can use a picture of the rack and all its
11853 computers to detect the rack location of any computer in that rack.
11854 If we do this regularly for the entire room, we will find all
11855 locations, and can detect movements and removals.&lt;/p&gt;
11856
11857 &lt;p&gt;I decided to test if this would work in practice, and picked a
11858 random rack and tagged all the machines with their names.  Next, I
11859 took pictures with my digital camera, and gave the dmtxread program
11860 these JPEG pictures to see how many tags it could read.  This worked
11861 fairly well.  If the pictures was well focused and not taken from the
11862 side, all tags in the image could be read.  Because of limited space
11863 between the racks, I was unable to get a good picture of the entire
11864 rack, but could without problem read all tags from a picture covering
11865 about half the rack.  I had to limit the search time used by dmtxread
11866 to 60000 ms to make sure it terminated in a reasonable time frame.&lt;/p&gt;
11867
11868 &lt;p&gt;My conclusion is that this could work, and we should probably look
11869 at adjusting our computer tagging procedures to use bar codes for
11870 easier automatic tracking of computers.&lt;/p&gt;
11871 </description>
11872         </item>
11873
11874         <item>
11875                 <title>When web browser developers make a video player...</title>
11876                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/When_web_browser_developers_make_a_video_player___.html</link>
11877                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/When_web_browser_developers_make_a_video_player___.html</guid>
11878                 <pubDate>Sat, 17 Jan 2009 18:50:00 +0100</pubDate>
11879                 <description>&lt;p&gt;As part of the work we do in &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.nuug.no&quot;&gt;NUUG&lt;/a&gt;
11880 to publish video recordings of our monthly presentations, we provide a
11881 page with embedded video for easy access to the recording.  Putting a
11882 good set of HTML tags together to get working embedded video in all
11883 browsers and across all operating systems is not easy.  I hope this
11884 will become easier when the &amp;lt;video&amp;gt; tag is implemented in all
11885 browsers, but I am not sure.  We provide the recordings in several
11886 formats, MPEG1, Ogg Theora, H.264 and Quicktime, and want the
11887 browser/media plugin to pick one it support and use it to play the
11888 recording, using whatever embed mechanism the browser understand.
11889 There is at least four different tags to use for this, the new HTML5
11890 &amp;lt;video&amp;gt; tag, the &amp;lt;object&amp;gt; tag, the &amp;lt;embed&amp;gt; tag and
11891 the &amp;lt;applet&amp;gt; tag.  All of these take a lot of options, and
11892 finding the best options is a major challenge.&lt;/p&gt;
11893
11894 &lt;p&gt;I just tested the experimental Opera browser available from &lt;a
11895 href=&quot;http://labs.opera.com&quot;&gt;labs.opera.com&lt;/a&gt;, to see how it handled
11896 a &amp;lt;video&amp;gt; tag with a few video sources and no extra attributes.
11897 I was not very impressed.  The browser start by fetching a picture
11898 from the video stream.  Not sure if it is the first frame, but it is
11899 definitely very early in the recording.  So far, so good. Next,
11900 instead of streaming the 76 MiB video file, it start to download all
11901 of it, but do not start to play the video.  This mean I have to wait
11902 for several minutes for the downloading to finish.  When the download
11903 is done, the playing of the video do not start!  Waiting for the
11904 download, but I do not get to see the video?  Some testing later, I
11905 discover that I have to add the controls=&quot;true&quot; attribute to be able
11906 to get a play button to pres to start the video.  Adding
11907 autoplay=&quot;true&quot; did not help.  I sure hope this is a misfeature of the
11908 test version of Opera, and that future implementations of the
11909 &amp;lt;video&amp;gt; tag will stream recordings by default, or at least start
11910 playing when the download is done.&lt;/p&gt;
11911
11912 &lt;p&gt;The test page I used (since changed to add more attributes) is
11913 &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.nuug.no/aktiviteter/20090113-foredrag-om-foredrag/&quot;&gt;available
11914 from the nuug site&lt;/a&gt;.  Will have to test it with the new Firefox
11915 too.&lt;/p&gt;
11916
11917 &lt;p&gt;In the test process, I discovered a missing feature.  I was unable
11918 to find a way to get the URL of the playing video out of Opera, so I
11919 am not quite sure it picked the Ogg Theora version of the video.  I
11920 sure hope it was using the announced Ogg Theora support. :)&lt;/p&gt;
11921 </description>
11922         </item>
11923
11924         <item>
11925                 <title>Software video mixer on a USB stick</title>
11926                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Software_video_mixer_on_a_USB_stick.html</link>
11927                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Software_video_mixer_on_a_USB_stick.html</guid>
11928                 <pubDate>Sun, 28 Dec 2008 15:40:00 +0100</pubDate>
11929                 <description>&lt;p&gt;The &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.nuug.no/&quot;&gt;Norwegian Unix User Group&lt;/a&gt; is
11930 recording our montly presentation on video, and recently we have
11931 worked on improving the quality of the recordings by mixing the slides
11932 directly with the video stream.  For this, we use the
11933 &lt;a href=&quot;http://dvswitch.alioth.debian.org/&quot;&gt;dvswitch&lt;/a&gt; package from
11934 the Debian video team.  As this require quite one computer per video
11935 source, and NUUG do not have enough laptops available, we need to
11936 borrow laptops.  And to avoid having to install extra software on
11937 these borrwed laptops, I have wrapped up all the programs needed on a
11938 bootable USB stick.  The software required is dvswitch with assosiated
11939 source, sink and mixer applications and
11940 &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.kinodv.org/&quot;&gt;dvgrab&lt;/a&gt;.  To allow this setup to
11941 work without any configuration, I&#39;ve patched dvswitch to use
11942 &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.avahi.org/&quot;&gt;avahi&lt;/a&gt; to connect the various parts
11943 together.  And to allow us to use laptops without firewire plugs, I
11944 upgraded dvgrab to the one from Debian/unstable to get one that work
11945 with USB sources.  We have not yet tested this setup in a production
11946 setup, but I hope it will work properly, and allow us to set up a
11947 video mixer in a very short time frame.  We will need it for
11948 &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.goopen.no/&quot;&gt;Go Open 2009&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
11949
11950 &lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.nuug.no/pub/video/bin/usbstick-dvswitch.img.gz&quot;&gt;The
11951 USB image&lt;/a&gt; is for a 1 GB memory stick, but can be used on any
11952 larger stick as well.&lt;/p&gt;
11953 </description>
11954         </item>
11955
11956         <item>
11957                 <title>Devcamp brought us closer to the Lenny based Debian Edu release</title>
11958                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Devcamp_brought_us_closer_to_the_Lenny_based_Debian_Edu_release.html</link>
11959                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Devcamp_brought_us_closer_to_the_Lenny_based_Debian_Edu_release.html</guid>
11960                 <pubDate>Sun, 7 Dec 2008 12:00:00 +0100</pubDate>
11961                 <description>&lt;p&gt;This weekend we had a small developer gathering for Debian Edu in
11962 Oslo.  Most of Saturday was used for the general assemly for the
11963 member organization, but the rest of the weekend I used to tune the
11964 LTSP installation.  LTSP now work out of the box on the 10-network.
11965 Acer Aspire One proved to be a very nice thin client, with both
11966 screen, mouse and keybard in a small box.  Was working on getting the
11967 diskless workstation setup configured out of the box, but did not
11968 finish it before the weekend was up.&lt;/p&gt;
11969
11970 &lt;p&gt;Did not find time to look at the 4 VGA cards in one box we got from
11971 the Brazilian group, so that will have to wait for the next
11972 development gathering.  Would love to have the Debian Edu installer
11973 automatically detect and configure a multiseat setup when it find one
11974 of these cards.&lt;/p&gt;
11975 </description>
11976         </item>
11977
11978         <item>
11979                 <title>The sorry state of multimedia browser plugins in Debian</title>
11980                 <link>http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_sorry_state_of_multimedia_browser_plugins_in_Debian.html</link>
11981                 <guid isPermaLink="true">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_sorry_state_of_multimedia_browser_plugins_in_Debian.html</guid>
11982                 <pubDate>Tue, 25 Nov 2008 00:10:00 +0100</pubDate>
11983                 <description>&lt;p&gt;Recently I have spent some time evaluating the multimedia browser
11984 plugins available in Debian Lenny, to see which one we should use by
11985 default in Debian Edu.  We need an embedded video playing plugin with
11986 control buttons to pause or stop the video, and capable of streaming
11987 all the multimedia content available on the web.  The test results and
11988 notes are available on
11989 &lt;a href=&quot;http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/BrowserMultimedia&quot;&gt;the
11990 Debian wiki&lt;/a&gt;.  I was surprised how few of the plugins are able to
11991 fill this need.  My personal video player favorite, VLC, has a really
11992 bad plugin which fail on a lot of the test pages.  A lot of the MIME
11993 types I would expect to work with any free software player (like
11994 video/ogg), just do not work.  And simple formats like the
11995 audio/x-mplegurl format (m3u playlists), just isn&#39;t supported by the
11996 totem and vlc plugins.  I hope the situation will improve soon.  No
11997 wonder sites use the proprietary Adobe flash to play video.&lt;/p&gt;
11998
11999 &lt;p&gt;For Lenny, we seem to end up with the mplayer plugin.  It seem to
12000 be the only one fitting our needs. :/&lt;/p&gt;
12001 </description>
12002         </item>
12003
12004         </channel>
12005 </rss>