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  13  <h1>
  14      <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/">Petter Reinholdtsen</a>
  15
  16  </h1>
  17
  18 </div>
  19
  20
  21     <h3>Entries tagged "debian".</h3>
  22
  23     <div class="entry">
  24       <div class="title">
  25         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Where_did_that_package_go___mdash__geolocated_IP_traceroute.html">Where did that package go? &mdash; geolocated IP traceroute</a>
  26       </div>
  27       <div class="date">
  28          9th January 2017
  29       </div>
  30       <div class="body">
  31         <p>Did you ever wonder where the web trafic really flow to reach the
  32 web servers, and who own the network equipment it is flowing through?
  33 It is possible to get a glimpse of this from using traceroute, but it
  34 is hard to find all the details.  Many years ago, I wrote a system to
  35 map the Norwegian Internet (trying to figure out if our plans for a
  36 network game service would get low enough latency, and who we needed
  37 to talk to about setting up game servers close to the users.  Back
  38 then I used traceroute output from many locations (I asked my friends
  39 to run a script and send me their traceroute output) to create the
  40 graph and the map.  The output from traceroute typically look like
  41 this:
  42
  43 <p><pre>
  44 traceroute to www.stortinget.no (85.88.67.10), 30 hops max, 60 byte packets
  45  1  uio-gw10.uio.no (129.240.202.1)  0.447 ms  0.486 ms  0.621 ms
  46  2  uio-gw8.uio.no (129.240.24.229)  0.467 ms  0.578 ms  0.675 ms
  47  3  oslo-gw1.uninett.no (128.39.65.17)  0.385 ms  0.373 ms  0.358 ms
  48  4  te3-1-2.br1.fn3.as2116.net (193.156.90.3)  1.174 ms  1.172 ms  1.153 ms
  49  5  he16-1-1.cr1.san110.as2116.net (195.0.244.234)  2.627 ms he16-1-1.cr2.oslosda310.as2116.net (195.0.244.48)  3.172 ms he16-1-1.cr1.san110.as2116.net (195.0.244.234)  2.857 ms
  50  6  ae1.ar8.oslosda310.as2116.net (195.0.242.39)  0.662 ms  0.637 ms ae0.ar8.oslosda310.as2116.net (195.0.242.23)  0.622 ms
  51  7  89.191.10.146 (89.191.10.146)  0.931 ms  0.917 ms  0.955 ms
  52  8  * * *
  53  9  * * *
  54 [...]
  55 </pre></p>
  56
  57 <p>This show the DNS names and IP addresses of (at least some of the)
  58 network equipment involved in getting the data traffic from me to the
  59 www.stortinget.no server, and how long it took in milliseconds for a
  60 package to reach the equipment and return to me.  Three packages are
  61 sent, and some times the packages do not follow the same path.  This
  62 is shown for hop 5, where three different IP addresses replied to the
  63 traceroute request.</p>
  64
  65 <p>There are many ways to measure trace routes.  Other good traceroute
  66 implementations I use are traceroute (using ICMP packages) mtr (can do
  67 both ICMP, UDP and TCP) and scapy (python library with ICMP, UDP, TCP
  68 traceroute and a lot of other capabilities).  All of them are easily
  69 available in <a href="https://www.debian.org/">Debian</a>.</p>
  70
  71 <p>This time around, I wanted to know the geographic location of
  72 different route points, to visualize how visiting a web page spread
  73 information about the visit to a lot of servers around the globe.  The
  74 background is that a web site today often will ask the browser to get
  75 from many servers the parts (for example HTML, JSON, fonts,
  76 JavaScript, CSS, video) required to display the content.  This will
  77 leak information about the visit to those controlling these servers
  78 and anyone able to peek at the data traffic passing by (like your ISP,
  79 the ISPs backbone provider, FRA, GCHQ, NSA and others).</p>
  80
  81 <p>Lets pick an example, the Norwegian parliament web site
  82 www.stortinget.no.  It is read daily by all members of parliament and
  83 their staff, as well as political journalists, activits and many other
  84 citizens of Norway.  A visit to the www.stortinget.no web site will
  85 ask your browser to contact 8 other servers: ajax.googleapis.com,
  86 insights.hotjar.com, script.hotjar.com, static.hotjar.com,
  87 stats.g.doubleclick.net, www.google-analytics.com,
  88 www.googletagmanager.com and www.netigate.se.  I extracted this by
  89 asking <a href="http://phantomjs.org/">PhantomJS</a> to visit the
  90 Stortinget web page and tell me all the URLs PhantomJS downloaded to
  91 render the page (in HAR format using
  92 <a href="https://github.com/ariya/phantomjs/blob/master/examples/netsniff.js">their
  93 netsniff example</a>.  I am very grateful to Gorm for showing me how
  94 to do this).  My goal is to visualize network traces to all IP
  95 addresses behind these DNS names, do show where visitors personal
  96 information is spread when visiting the page.</p>
  97
  98 <p align="center"><a href="www.stortinget.no-geoip.kml"><img
  99 src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2017-01-09-www.stortinget.no-geoip-small.png" alt="map of combined traces for URLs used by www.stortinget.no using GeoIP"/></a></p>
 100
 101 <p>When I had a look around for options, I could not find any good
 102 free software tools to do this, and decided I needed my own traceroute
 103 wrapper outputting KML based on locations looked up using GeoIP.  KML
 104 is easy to work with and easy to generate, and understood by several
 105 of the GIS tools I have available.  I got good help from by NUUG
 106 colleague Anders Einar with this, and the result can be seen in
 107 <a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/kmltraceroute">my
 108 kmltraceroute git repository</a>.  Unfortunately, the quality of the
 109 free GeoIP databases I could find (and the for-pay databases my
 110 friends had access to) is not up to the task.  The IP addresses of
 111 central Internet infrastructure would typically be placed near the
 112 controlling companies main office, and not where the router is really
 113 located, as you can see from <a href="www.stortinget.no-geoip.kml">the
 114 KML file I created</a> using the GeoLite City dataset from MaxMind.
 115
 116 <p align="center"><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2017-01-09-www.stortinget.no-scapy.svg"><img
 117 src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2017-01-09-www.stortinget.no-scapy-small.png" alt="scapy traceroute graph for URLs used by www.stortinget.no"/></a></p>
 118
 119 <p>I also had a look at the visual traceroute graph created by
 120 <a href="http://www.secdev.org/projects/scapy/">the scrapy project</a>,
 121 showing IP network ownership (aka AS owner) for the IP address in
 122 question.
 123 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2017-01-09-www.stortinget.no-scapy.svg">The
 124 graph display a lot of useful information about the traceroute in SVG
 125 format</a>, and give a good indication on who control the network
 126 equipment involved, but it do not include geolocation.  This graph
 127 make it possible to see the information is made available at least for
 128 UNINETT, Catchcom, Stortinget, Nordunet, Google, Amazon, Telia, Level
 129 3 Communications and NetDNA.</p>
 130
 131 <p align="center"><a href="https://geotraceroute.com/index.php?node=4&host=www.stortinget.no"><img
 132 src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2017-01-09-www.stortinget.no-geotraceroute-small.png" alt="example geotraceroute view for www.stortinget.no"/></a></p>
 133
 134 <p>In the process, I came across the
 135 <a href="https://geotraceroute.com/">web service GeoTraceroute</a> by
 136 Salim Gasmi.  Its methology of combining guesses based on DNS names,
 137 various location databases and finally use latecy times to rule out
 138 candidate locations seemed to do a very good job of guessing correct
 139 geolocation.  But it could only do one trace at the time, did not have
 140 a sensor in Norway and did not make the geolocations easily available
 141 for postprocessing.  So I contacted the developer and asked if he
 142 would be willing to share the code (he refused until he had time to
 143 clean it up), but he was interested in providing the geolocations in a
 144 machine readable format, and willing to set up a sensor in Norway.  So
 145 since yesterday, it is possible to run traces from Norway in this
 146 service thanks to a sensor node set up by
 147 <a href="https://www.nuug.no/">the NUUG assosiation</a>, and get the
 148 trace in KML format for further processing.</p>
 149
 150 <p align="center"><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2017-01-09-www.stortinget.no-geotraceroute-kml-join.kml"><img
 151 src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2017-01-09-www.stortinget.no-geotraceroute-kml-join.png" alt="map of combined traces for URLs used by www.stortinget.no using geotraceroute"/></a></p>
 152
 153 <p>Here we can see a lot of trafic passes Sweden on its way to
 154 Denmark, Germany, Holland and Ireland.  Plenty of places where the
 155 Snowden confirmations verified the traffic is read by various actors
 156 without your best interest as their top priority.</p>
 157
 158 <p>Combining KML files is trivial using a text editor, so I could loop
 159 over all the hosts behind the urls imported by www.stortinget.no and
 160 ask for the KML file from GeoTraceroute, and create a combined KML
 161 file with all the traces (unfortunately only one of the IP addresses
 162 behind the DNS name is traced this time.  To get them all, one would
 163 have to request traces using IP number instead of DNS names from
 164 GeoTraceroute).  That might be the next step in this project.</p>
 165
 166 <p>Armed with these tools, I find it a lot easier to figure out where
 167 the IP traffic moves and who control the boxes involved in moving it.
 168 And every time the link crosses for example the Swedish border, we can
 169 be sure Swedish Signal Intelligence (FRA) is listening, as GCHQ do in
 170 Britain and NSA in USA and cables around the globe.  (Hm, what should
 171 we tell them? :) Keep that in mind if you ever send anything
 172 unencrypted over the Internet.</p>
 173
 174 <p>PS: KML files are drawn using
 175 <a href="http://ivanrublev.me/kml/">the KML viewer from Ivan
 176 Rublev<a/>, as it was less cluttered than the local Linux application
 177 Marble.  There are heaps of other options too.</p>
 178
 179 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
 180 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
 181 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b&label=PetterReinholdtsenBlog">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
 182
 183       </div>
 184       <div class="tags">
 185
 186
 187         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/kart">kart</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/personvern">personvern</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/stortinget">stortinget</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/web">web</a>.
 188
 189
 190       </div>
 191     </div>
 192     <div class="padding"></div>
 193
 194     <div class="entry">
 195       <div class="title">
 196         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Appstream_just_learned_how_to_map_hardware_to_packages_too_.html">Appstream just learned how to map hardware to packages too!</a>
 197       </div>
 198       <div class="date">
 199         23rd December 2016
 200       </div>
 201       <div class="body">
 202         <p>I received a very nice Christmas present today.  As my regular
 203 readers probably know, I have been working on the
 204 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/isenkram">the Isenkram
 205 system</a> for many years.  The goal of the Isenkram system is to make
 206 it easier for users to figure out what to install to get a given piece
 207 of hardware to work in Debian, and a key part of this system is a way
 208 to map hardware to packages.  Isenkram have its own mapping database,
 209 and also uses data provided by each package using the AppStream
 210 metadata format.  And today,
 211 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/appstream">AppStream</a> in
 212 Debian learned to look up hardware the same way Isenkram is doing it,
 213 ie using fnmatch():</p>
 214
 215 <p><pre>
 216 % appstreamcli what-provides modalias \
 217   usb:v1130p0202d0100dc00dsc00dp00ic03isc00ip00in00
 218 Identifier: pymissile [generic]
 219 Name: pymissile
 220 Summary: Control original Striker USB Missile Launcher
 221 Package: pymissile
 222 % appstreamcli what-provides modalias usb:v0694p0002d0000
 223 Identifier: libnxt [generic]
 224 Name: libnxt
 225 Summary: utility library for talking to the LEGO Mindstorms NXT brick
 226 Package: libnxt
 227 ---
 228 Identifier: t2n [generic]
 229 Name: t2n
 230 Summary: Simple command-line tool for Lego NXT
 231 Package: t2n
 232 ---
 233 Identifier: python-nxt [generic]
 234 Name: python-nxt
 235 Summary: Python driver/interface/wrapper for the Lego Mindstorms NXT robot
 236 Package: python-nxt
 237 ---
 238 Identifier: nbc [generic]
 239 Name: nbc
 240 Summary: C compiler for LEGO Mindstorms NXT bricks
 241 Package: nbc
 242 %
 243 </pre></p>
 244
 245 <p>A similar query can be done using the combined AppStream and
 246 Isenkram databases using the isenkram-lookup tool:</p>
 247
 248 <p><pre>
 249 % isenkram-lookup usb:v1130p0202d0100dc00dsc00dp00ic03isc00ip00in00
 250 pymissile
 251 % isenkram-lookup usb:v0694p0002d0000
 252 libnxt
 253 nbc
 254 python-nxt
 255 t2n
 256 %
 257 </pre></p>
 258
 259 <p>You can find modalias values relevant for your machine using
 260 <tt>cat $(find /sys/devices/ -name modalias)</tt>.
 261
 262 <p>If you want to make this system a success and help Debian users
 263 make the most of the hardware they have, please
 264 help<a href="https://wiki.debian.org/AppStream/Guidelines">add
 265 AppStream metadata for your package following the guidelines</a>
 266 documented in the wiki.  So far only 11 packages provide such
 267 information, among the several hundred hardware specific packages in
 268 Debian. The Isenkram database on the other hand contain 101 packages,
 269 mostly related to USB dongles.  Most of the packages with hardware
 270 mapping in AppStream are LEGO Mindstorms related, because I have, as
 271 part of my involvement in
 272 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/LegoDesigners">the Debian LEGO
 273 team</a> given priority to making sure LEGO users get proposed the
 274 complete set of packages in Debian for that particular hardware.  The
 275 team also got a nice Christmas present today.  The
 276 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/nxt-firmware">nxt-firmware
 277 package</a> made it into Debian.  With this package in place, it is
 278 now possible to use the LEGO Mindstorms NXT unit with only free
 279 software, as the nxt-firmware package contain the source and firmware
 280 binaries for the NXT brick.</p>
 281
 282 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
 283 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
 284 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b&label=PetterReinholdtsenBlog">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
 285
 286       </div>
 287       <div class="tags">
 288
 289
 290         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram">isenkram</a>.
 291
 292
 293       </div>
 294     </div>
 295     <div class="padding"></div>
 296
 297     <div class="entry">
 298       <div class="title">
 299         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Isenkram_updated_with_a_lot_more_hardware_package_mappings.html">Isenkram updated with a lot more hardware-package mappings</a>
 300       </div>
 301       <div class="date">
 302         20th December 2016
 303       </div>
 304       <div class="body">
 305         <p><a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/isenkram">The Isenkram
 306 system</a> I wrote two years ago to make it easier in Debian to find
 307 and install packages to get your hardware dongles to work, is still
 308 going strong.  It is a system to look up the hardware present on or
 309 connected to the current system, and map the hardware to Debian
 310 packages.  It can either be done using the tools in isenkram-cli or
 311 using the user space daemon in the isenkram package.  The latter will
 312 notify you, when inserting new hardware, about what packages to
 313 install to get the dongle working.  It will even provide a button to
 314 click on to ask packagekit to install the packages.</p>
 315
 316 <p>Here is an command line example from my Thinkpad laptop:</p>
 317
 318 <p><pre>
 319 % isenkram-lookup
 320 bluez
 321 cheese
 322 ethtool
 323 fprintd
 324 fprintd-demo
 325 gkrellm-thinkbat
 326 hdapsd
 327 libpam-fprintd
 328 pidgin-blinklight
 329 thinkfan
 330 tlp
 331 tp-smapi-dkms
 332 tp-smapi-source
 333 tpb
 334 %
 335 </pre></p>
 336
 337 <p>It can also list the firware package providing firmware requested
 338 by the load kernel modules, which in my case is an empty list because
 339 I have all the firmware my machine need:
 340
 341 <p><pre>
 342 % /usr/sbin/isenkram-autoinstall-firmware -l
 343 info: did not find any firmware files requested by loaded kernel modules.  exiting
 344 %
 345 </pre></p>
 346
 347 <p>The last few days I had a look at several of the around 250
 348 packages in Debian with udev rules.  These seem like good candidates
 349 to install when a given hardware dongle is inserted, and I found
 350 several that should be proposed by isenkram.  I have not had time to
 351 check all of them, but am happy to report that now there are 97
 352 packages packages mapped to hardware by Isenkram.  11 of these
 353 packages provide hardware mapping using AppStream, while the rest are
 354 listed in the modaliases file provided in isenkram.</p>
 355
 356 <p>These are the packages with hardware mappings at the moment.  The
 357 <strong>marked packages</strong> are also announcing their hardware
 358 support using AppStream, for everyone to use:</p>
 359
 360 <p>air-quality-sensor, alsa-firmware-loaders, argyll,
 361 <strong>array-info</strong>, avarice, avrdude, b43-fwcutter,
 362 bit-babbler, bluez, bluez-firmware, <strong>brltty</strong>,
 363 <strong>broadcom-sta-dkms</strong>, calibre, cgminer, cheese, colord,
 364 <strong>colorhug-client</strong>, dahdi-firmware-nonfree, dahdi-linux,
 365 dfu-util, dolphin-emu, ekeyd, ethtool, firmware-ipw2x00, fprintd,
 366 fprintd-demo, <strong>galileo</strong>, gkrellm-thinkbat, gphoto2,
 367 gpsbabel, gpsbabel-gui, gpsman, gpstrans, gqrx-sdr, gr-fcdproplus,
 368 gr-osmosdr, gtkpod, hackrf, hdapsd, hdmi2usb-udev, hpijs-ppds, hplip,
 369 ipw3945-source, ipw3945d, kde-config-tablet, kinect-audio-setup,
 370 <strong>libnxt</strong>, libpam-fprintd, <strong>lomoco</strong>,
 371 madwimax, minidisc-utils, mkgmap, msi-keyboard, mtkbabel,
 372 <strong>nbc</strong>, <strong>nqc</strong>, nut-hal-drivers, ola,
 373 open-vm-toolbox, open-vm-tools, openambit, pcgminer, pcmciautils,
 374 pcscd, pidgin-blinklight, printer-driver-splix,
 375 <strong>pymissile</strong>, python-nxt, qlandkartegt,
 376 qlandkartegt-garmin, rosegarden, rt2x00-source, sispmctl,
 377 soapysdr-module-hackrf, solaar, squeak-plugins-scratch, sunxi-tools,
 378 <strong>t2n</strong>, thinkfan, thinkfinger-tools, tlp, tp-smapi-dkms,
 379 tp-smapi-source, tpb, tucnak, uhd-host, usbmuxd, viking,
 380 virtualbox-ose-guest-x11, w1retap, xawtv, xserver-xorg-input-vmmouse,
 381 xserver-xorg-input-wacom, xserver-xorg-video-qxl,
 382 xserver-xorg-video-vmware, yubikey-personalization and
 383 zd1211-firmware</p>
 384
 385 <p>If you know of other packages, please let me know with a wishlist
 386 bug report against the isenkram-cli package, and ask the package
 387 maintainer to
 388 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/AppStream/Guidelines">add AppStream
 389 metadata according to the guidelines</a> to provide the information
 390 for everyone.  In time, I hope to get rid of the isenkram specific
 391 hardware mapping and depend exclusively on AppStream.</p>
 392
 393 <p>Note, the AppStream metadata for broadcom-sta-dkms is matching too
 394 much hardware, and suggest that the package with with any ethernet
 395 card.  See <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/838735">bug #838735</a> for
 396 the details.  I hope the maintainer find time to address it soon.  In
 397 the mean time I provide an override in isenkram.</p>
 398
 399       </div>
 400       <div class="tags">
 401
 402
 403         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram">isenkram</a>.
 404
 405
 406       </div>
 407     </div>
 408     <div class="padding"></div>
 409
 410     <div class="entry">
 411       <div class="title">
 412         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Oolite__a_life_in_space_as_vagabond_and_mercenary___nice_free_software.html">Oolite, a life in space as vagabond and mercenary - nice free software</a>
 413       </div>
 414       <div class="date">
 415         11th December 2016
 416       </div>
 417       <div class="body">
 418         <p align="center"><img width="70%" src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2016-12-11-nice-oolite.png"/></p>
 419
 420 <p>In my early years, I played
 421 <a href="http://wiki.alioth.net/index.php/Classic_Elite">the epic game
 422 Elite</a> on my PC.  I spent many months trading and fighting in
 423 space, and reached the 'elite' fighting status before I moved on.  The
 424 original Elite game was available on Commodore 64 and the IBM PC
 425 edition I played had a 64 KB executable.  I am still impressed today
 426 that the authors managed to squeeze both a 3D engine and details about
 427 more than 2000 planet systems across 7 galaxies into a binary so
 428 small.</p>
 429
 430 <p>I have known about <a href="http://www.oolite.org/">the free
 431 software game Oolite inspired by Elite</a> for a while, but did not
 432 really have time to test it properly until a few days ago.  It was
 433 great to discover that my old knowledge about trading routes were
 434 still valid.  But my fighting and flying abilities were gone, so I had
 435 to retrain to be able to dock on a space station.  And I am still not
 436 able to make much resistance when I am attacked by pirates, so I
 437 bougth and mounted the most powerful laser in the rear to be able to
 438 put up at least some resistance while fleeing for my life. :)</p>
 439
 440 <p>When playing Elite in the late eighties, I had to discover
 441 everything on my own, and I had long lists of prices seen on different
 442 planets to be able to decide where to trade what.  This time I had the
 443 advantages of the
 444 <a href="http://wiki.alioth.net/index.php/Main_Page">Elite wiki</a>,
 445 where information about each planet is easily available with common
 446 price ranges and suggested trading routes.  This improved my ability
 447 to earn money and I have been able to earn enough to buy a lot of
 448 useful equipent in a few days.  I believe I originally played for
 449 months before I could get a docking computer, while now I could get it
 450 after less then a week.</p>
 451
 452 <p>If you like science fiction and dreamed of a life as a vagabond in
 453 space, you should try out Oolite.  It is available for Linux, MacOSX
 454 and Windows, and is included in Debian and derivatives since 2011.</p>
 455
 456 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
 457 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
 458 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b&label=PetterReinholdtsenBlog">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
 459
 460       </div>
 461       <div class="tags">
 462
 463
 464         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nice free software">nice free software</a>.
 465
 466
 467       </div>
 468     </div>
 469     <div class="padding"></div>
 470
 471     <div class="entry">
 472       <div class="title">
 473         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Quicker_Debian_installations_using_eatmydata.html">Quicker Debian installations using eatmydata</a>
 474       </div>
 475       <div class="date">
 476         25th November 2016
 477       </div>
 478       <div class="body">
 479         <p>Two years ago, I did some experiments with eatmydata and the Debian
 480 installation system, observing how using
 481 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Speeding_up_the_Debian_installer_using_eatmydata_and_dpkg_divert.html">eatmydata
 482 could speed up the installation</a> quite a bit.  My testing measured
 483 speedup around 20-40 percent for Debian Edu, where we install around
 484 1000 packages from within the installer.  The eatmydata package
 485 provide a way to disable/delay file system flushing.  This is a bit
 486 risky in the general case, as files that should be stored on disk will
 487 stay only in memory a bit longer than expected, causing problems if a
 488 machine crashes at an inconvenient time.  But for an installation, if
 489 the machine crashes during installation the process is normally
 490 restarted, and avoiding disk operations as much as possible to speed
 491 up the process make perfect sense.
 492
 493 <p>I added code in the Debian Edu specific installation code to enable
 494 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/libeatmydata">eatmydata</a>,
 495 but did not have time to push it any further.  But a few months ago I
 496 picked it up again and worked with the libeatmydata package maintainer
 497 Mattia Rizzolo to make it easier for everyone to get this installation
 498 speedup in Debian.  Thanks to our cooperation There is now an
 499 eatmydata-udeb package in Debian testing and unstable, and simply
 500 enabling/installing it in debian-installer (d-i) is enough to get the
 501 quicker installations.  It can be enabled using preseeding.  The
 502 following untested kernel argument should do the trick:</p>
 503
 504 <blockquote><pre>
 505 preseed/early_command="anna-install eatmydata-udeb"
 506 </pre></blockquote>
 507
 508 <p>This should ask d-i to install the package inside the d-i
 509 environment early in the installation sequence.  Having it installed
 510 in d-i in turn will make sure the relevant scripts are called just
 511 after debootstrap filled /target/ with the freshly installed Debian
 512 system to configure apt to run dpkg with eatmydata.  This is enough to
 513 speed up the installation process.  There is a proposal to
 514 <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/841153">extend the idea a bit further
 515 by using /etc/ld.so.preload instead of apt.conf</a>, but I have not
 516 tested its impact.</p>
 517
 518
 519       </div>
 520       <div class="tags">
 521
 522
 523         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
 524
 525
 526       </div>
 527     </div>
 528     <div class="padding"></div>
 529
 530     <div class="entry">
 531       <div class="title">
 532         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Oversette_bokm_l_til_nynorsk__enklere_enn_du_tror_takket_v_re_Apertium.html">Oversette bokmål til nynorsk, enklere enn du tror takket være Apertium</a>
 533       </div>
 534       <div class="date">
 535         24th November 2016
 536       </div>
 537       <div class="body">
 538         <p>I Norge er det mange som trenger å skrive både bokmål og nynorsk.
 539 Eksamensoppgaver, offentlige brev og nyheter er eksempler på tekster
 540 der det er krav om skriftspråk.  I tillegg til alle skoleoppgavene som
 541 elever over det ganske land skal levere inn hvert år.  Det mange ikke
 542 vet er at selv om de kommersielle alternativene
 543 <a href="https://translate.google.com/">Google Translate</a> og
 544 <a href="https://www.bing.com/translator/">Bing Translator</a> ikke kan
 545 bidra med å oversette mellom bokmål og nynorsk, så finnes det et
 546 utmerket fri programvarealternativ som kan.  Oversetterverktøyet
 547 Apertium har støtte for en rekke språkkombinasjoner, og takket være
 548 den utrettelige innsatsen til blant annet Kevin Brubeck Unhammer, kan
 549 en bruke webtjenesten til å fylle inn en tekst på bokmål eller
 550 nynorsk, og få den automatoversatt til det andre skriftspråket.
 551 Resultatet er ikke perfekt, men et svært godt utgangspunkt.  Av og til
 552 er resultatet så bra at det kan benyttes uten endringer.  Jeg vet
 553 f.eks. at store deler av Joomla ble oversatt til nynorsk ved hjelp
 554 Apertium.  Høres det ut som noe du kan ha bruk for?  Besøk i så fall
 555 <a href="https://www.apertium.org/">Apertium.org</a> og fyll inn
 556 teksten din i webskjemaet der.
 557
 558 <p>Hvis du trenger maskinell tilgang til den bakenforliggende
 559 teknologien kan du enten installere pakken
 560 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/apertium-nno-nob">apertium-nno-nob</a>
 561 på en Debian-maskin eller bruke web-API-et tilgjengelig fra
 562 api.apertium.org.  Se
 563 <a href="http://wiki.apertium.org/wiki/Apertium-apy">API-dokumentasjonen</a>
 564 for detaljer om web-API-et.  Her kan du se hvordan resultatet blir for
 565 denne teksten som ble skrevet på bokmål over maskinoversatt til
 566 nynorsk.</p>
 567
 568 <hr/>
 569
 570 <p>I Noreg er det mange som treng å skriva både bokmål og nynorsk.
 571 Eksamensoppgåver, offentlege brev og nyhende er døme på tekster der
 572 det er krav om skriftspråk.  I tillegg til alle skuleoppgåvene som
 573 elevar over det ganske land skal levera inn kvart år.  Det mange ikkje
 574 veit er at sjølv om dei kommersielle alternativa
 575 <a href="https://translate.google.com/">Google *Translate</a> og
 576 <a href="https://www.bing.com/translator/">Bing *Translator</a> ikkje
 577 kan bidra med å omsetja mellom bokmål og nynorsk, så finst det eit
 578 utmerka fri programvarealternativ som kan.  Omsetjarverktøyet
 579 *Apertium har støtte for ei rekkje språkkombinasjonar, og takka vera
 580 den utrøyttelege innsatsen til blant anna Kevin Brubeck Unhammer, kan
 581 ein bruka *webtjenesten til å fylla inn ei tekst på bokmål eller
 582 nynorsk, og få den *automatoversatt til det andre skriftspråket.
 583 Resultatet er ikkje perfekt, men eit svært godt utgangspunkt.  Av og
 584 til er resultatet så bra at det kan nyttast utan endringar.  Eg veit
 585 t.d. at store delar av *Joomla vart omsett til nynorsk ved hjelp
 586 *Apertium.  Høyrast det ut som noko du kan ha bruk for?  Besøk i så
 587 fall <a href="https://www.apertium.org/">*Apertium.org</a> og fyll inn
 588 teksta di i *webskjemaet der.
 589
 590 <p>Viss du treng *maskinell tilgjenge til den *bakenforliggende
 591 teknologien kan du anten installera pakken
 592 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/apertium-nno-nob">*apertium-*nno-*nob</a>
 593 på ein *Debian-maskin eller bruka *web-*API-eit tilgjengeleg frå
 594 *api.*apertium.org.  Sjå
 595 <a href="http://wiki.apertium.org/wiki/Apertium-apy">*API-dokumentasjonen</a>
 596 for detaljar om *web-*API-eit.  Her kan du sjå korleis resultatet vert
 597 for denne teksta som vart skreva på bokmål over *maskinoversatt til
 598 nynorsk.</p>
 599
 600       </div>
 601       <div class="tags">
 602
 603
 604         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/norsk">norsk</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/stavekontroll">stavekontroll</a>.
 605
 606
 607       </div>
 608     </div>
 609     <div class="padding"></div>
 610
 611     <div class="entry">
 612       <div class="title">
 613         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Coz_profiler_for_multi_threaded_software_is_now_in_Debian.html">Coz profiler for multi-threaded software is now in Debian</a>
 614       </div>
 615       <div class="date">
 616         13th November 2016
 617       </div>
 618       <div class="body">
 619         <p><a href="http://coz-profiler.org/">The Coz profiler</a>, a nice
 620 profiler able to run benchmarking experiments on the instrumented
 621 multi-threaded program, finally
 622 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/coz-profiler">made it into
 623 Debian unstable yesterday</A>.  Lluís Vilanova and I have spent many
 624 months since
 625 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Coz_can_help_you_find_bottlenecks_in_multi_threaded_software___nice_free_software.html">I
 626 blogged about the coz tool</a> in August working with upstream to make
 627 it suitable for Debian.  There are still issues with clang
 628 compatibility, inline assembly only working x86 and minimized
 629 JavaScript libraries.</p>
 630
 631 <p>To test it, install 'coz-profiler' using apt and run it like this:</p>
 632
 633 <p><blockquote>
 634 <tt>coz run --- /path/to/binary-with-debug-info</tt>
 635 </blockquote></p>
 636
 637 <p>This will produce a profile.coz file in the current working
 638 directory with the profiling information.  This is then given to a
 639 JavaScript application provided in the package and available from
 640 <a href="http://plasma-umass.github.io/coz/">a project web page</a>.
 641 To start the local copy, invoke it in a browser like this:</p>
 642
 643 <p><blockquote>
 644 <tt>sensible-browser /usr/share/coz-profiler/viewer/index.htm</tt>
 645 </blockquote></p>
 646
 647 <p>See the project home page and the
 648 <a href="https://www.usenix.org/publications/login/summer2016/curtsinger">USENIX
 649 ;login: article on Coz</a> for more information on how it is
 650 working.</p>
 651
 652       </div>
 653       <div class="tags">
 654
 655
 656         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
 657
 658
 659       </div>
 660     </div>
 661     <div class="padding"></div>
 662
 663     <div class="entry">
 664       <div class="title">
 665         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/My_own_self_balancing_Lego_Segway.html">My own self balancing Lego Segway</a>
 666       </div>
 667       <div class="date">
 668          4th November 2016
 669       </div>
 670       <div class="body">
 671         <p>A while back I received a Gyro sensor for the NXT
 672 <a href="mindstorms.lego.com">Mindstorms</a> controller as a birthday
 673 present.  It had been on my wishlist for a while, because I wanted to
 674 build a Segway like balancing lego robot.  I had already built
 675 <a href="http://www.nxtprograms.com/NXT2/segway/">a simple balancing
 676 robot</a> with the kids, using the light/color sensor included in the
 677 NXT kit as the balance sensor, but it was not working very well.  It
 678 could balance for a while, but was very sensitive to the light
 679 condition in the room and the reflective properties of the surface and
 680 would fall over after a short while.  I wanted something more robust,
 681 and had
 682 <a href="https://www.hitechnic.com/cgi-bin/commerce.cgi?preadd=action&key=NGY1044">the
 683 gyro sensor from HiTechnic</a> I believed would solve it on my
 684 wishlist for some years before it suddenly showed up as a gift from my
 685 loved ones. :)</p>
 686
 687 <p>Unfortunately I have not had time to sit down and play with it
 688 since then.  But that changed some days ago, when I was searching for
 689 lego segway information and came across a recipe from HiTechnic for
 690 building
 691 <a href="http://www.hitechnic.com/blog/gyro-sensor/htway/">the
 692 HTWay</a>, a segway like balancing robot.  Build instructions and
 693 <a href="https://www.hitechnic.com/upload/786-HTWayC.nxc">source
 694 code</a> was included, so it was just a question of putting it all
 695 together.  And thanks to the great work of many Debian developers, the
 696 compiler needed to build the source for the NXT is already included in
 697 Debian, so I was read to go in less than an hour.  The resulting robot
 698 do not look very impressive in its simplicity:</p>
 699
 700 <p align="center"><img width="70%" src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2016-11-04-lego-htway-robot.jpeg"></p>
 701
 702 <p>Because I lack the infrared sensor used to control the robot in the
 703 design from HiTechnic, I had to comment out the last task
 704 (taskControl).  I simply placed /* and */ around it get the program
 705 working without that sensor present.  Now it balances just fine until
 706 the battery status run low:</p>
 707
 708 <p align="center"><video width="70%" controls="true">
 709    <source src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2016-11-04-lego-htway-balancing.ogv" type="video/ogg">
 710 </video></p>
 711
 712 <p>Now we would like to teach it how to follow a line and take remote
 713 control instructions using the included Bluetooth receiver in the NXT.</p>
 714
 715 <p>If you, like me, love LEGO and want to make sure we find the tools
 716 they need to work with LEGO in Debian and all our derivative
 717 distributions like Ubuntu, check out
 718 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/LegoDesigners">the LEGO designers
 719 project page</a> and join the Debian LEGO team.  Personally I own a
 720 RCX and NXT controller (no EV3), and would like to make sure the
 721 Debian tools needed to program the systems I own work as they
 722 should.</p>
 723
 724       </div>
 725       <div class="tags">
 726
 727
 728         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/robot">robot</a>.
 729
 730
 731       </div>
 732     </div>
 733     <div class="padding"></div>
 734
 735     <div class="entry">
 736       <div class="title">
 737         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Experience_and_updated_recipe_for_using_the_Signal_app_without_a_mobile_phone.html">Experience and updated recipe for using the Signal app without a mobile phone</a>
 738       </div>
 739       <div class="date">
 740         10th October 2016
 741       </div>
 742       <div class="body">
 743         <p>In July
 744 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_use_the_Signal_app_if_you_only_have_a_land_line__ie_no_mobile_phone_.html">I
 745 wrote how to get the Signal Chrome/Chromium app working</a> without
 746 the ability to receive SMS messages (aka without a cell phone).  It is
 747 time to share some experiences and provide an updated setup.</p>
 748
 749 <p>The Signal app have worked fine for several months now, and I use
 750 it regularly to chat with my loved ones.  I had a major snag at the
 751 end of my summer vacation, when the the app completely forgot my
 752 setup, identity and keys.  The reason behind this major mess was
 753 running out of disk space.  To avoid that ever happening again I have
 754 started storing everything in <tt>userdata/</tt> in git, to be able to
 755 roll back to an earlier version if the files are wiped by mistake.  I
 756 had to use it once after introducing the git backup.  When rolling
 757 back to an earlier version, one need to use the 'reset session' option
 758 in Signal to get going, and notify the people you talk with about the
 759 problem.  I assume there is some sequence number tracking in the
 760 protocol to detect rollback attacks.  The git repository is rather big
 761 (674 MiB so far), but I have not tried to figure out if some of the
 762 content can be added to a .gitignore file due to lack of spare
 763 time.</p>
 764
 765 <p>I've also hit the 90 days timeout blocking, and noticed that this
 766 make it impossible to send messages using Signal.  I could still
 767 receive them, but had to patch the code with a new timestamp to send.
 768 I believe the timeout is added by the developers to force people to
 769 upgrade to the latest version of the app, even when there is no
 770 protocol changes, to reduce the version skew among the user base and
 771 thus try to keep the number of support requests down.</p>
 772
 773 <p>Since my original recipe, the Signal source code changed slightly,
 774 making the old patch fail to apply cleanly.  Below is an updated
 775 patch, including the shell wrapper I use to start Signal.  The
 776 original version required a new user to locate the JavaScript console
 777 and call a function from there.  I got help from a friend with more
 778 JavaScript knowledge than me to modify the code to provide a GUI
 779 button instead.  This mean that to get started you just need to run
 780 the wrapper and click the 'Register without mobile phone' to get going
 781 now.  I've also modified the timeout code to always set it to 90 days
 782 in the future, to avoid having to patch the code regularly.</p>
 783
 784 <p>So, the updated recipe for Debian Jessie:</p>
 785
 786 <ol>
 787
 788 <li>First, install required packages to get the source code and the
 789 browser you need.  Signal only work with Chrome/Chromium, as far as I
 790 know, so you need to install it.
 791
 792 <pre>
 793 apt install git tor chromium
 794 git clone https://github.com/WhisperSystems/Signal-Desktop.git
 795 </pre></li>
 796
 797 <li>Modify the source code using command listed in the the patch
 798 block below.</li>
 799
 800 <li>Start Signal using the run-signal-app wrapper (for example using
 801 <tt>`pwd`/run-signal-app</tt>).
 802
 803 <li>Click on the 'Register without mobile phone', will in a phone
 804 number you can receive calls to the next minute, receive the
 805 verification code and enter it into the form field and press
 806 'Register'.  Note, the phone number you use will be user Signal
 807 username, ie the way others can find you on Signal.</li>
 808
 809 <li>You can now use Signal to contact others.  Note, new contacts do
 810 not show up in the contact list until you restart Signal, and there is
 811 no way to assign names to Contacts.  There is also no way to create or
 812 update chat groups.  I suspect this is because the web app do not have
 813 a associated contact database.</li>
 814
 815 </ol>
 816
 817 <p>I am still a bit uneasy about using Signal, because of the way its
 818 main author moxie0 reject federation and accept dependencies to major
 819 corporations like Google (part of the code is fetched from Google) and
 820 Amazon (the central coordination point is owned by Amazon).  See for
 821 example
 822 <a href="https://github.com/LibreSignal/LibreSignal/issues/37">the
 823 LibreSignal issue tracker</a> for a thread documenting the authors
 824 view on these issues.  But the network effect is strong in this case,
 825 and several of the people I want to communicate with already use
 826 Signal.  Perhaps we can all move to <a href="https://ring.cx/">Ring</a>
 827 once it <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/830265">work on my
 828 laptop</a>?  It already work on Windows and Android, and is included
 829 in <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/ring">Debian</a> and
 830 <a href="https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/ring">Ubuntu</a>, but not
 831 working on Debian Stable.</p>
 832
 833 <p>Anyway, this is the patch I apply to the Signal code to get it
 834 working.  It switch to the production servers, disable to timeout,
 835 make registration easier and add the shell wrapper:</p>
 836
 837 <pre>
 838 cd Signal-Desktop; cat &lt;&lt;EOF | patch -p1
 839 diff --git a/js/background.js b/js/background.js
 840 index 24b4c1d..579345f 100644
 841 --- a/js/background.js
 842 +++ b/js/background.js
 843 @@ -33,9 +33,9 @@
 844          });
 845      });
 846
 847 -    var SERVER_URL = 'https://textsecure-service-staging.whispersystems.org';
 848 +    var SERVER_URL = 'https://textsecure-service-ca.whispersystems.org';
 849      var SERVER_PORTS = [80, 4433, 8443];
 850 -    var ATTACHMENT_SERVER_URL = 'https://whispersystems-textsecure-attachments-staging.s3.amazonaws.com';
 851 +    var ATTACHMENT_SERVER_URL = 'https://whispersystems-textsecure-attachments.s3.amazonaws.com';
 852      var messageReceiver;
 853      window.getSocketStatus = function() {
 854          if (messageReceiver) {
 855 diff --git a/js/expire.js b/js/expire.js
 856 index 639aeae..beb91c3 100644
 857 --- a/js/expire.js
 858 +++ b/js/expire.js
 859 @@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 860  ;(function() {
 861      'use strict';
 862 -    var BUILD_EXPIRATION = 0;
 863 +    var BUILD_EXPIRATION = Date.now() + (90 * 24 * 60 * 60 * 1000);
 864
 865      window.extension = window.extension || {};
 866
 867 diff --git a/js/views/install_view.js b/js/views/install_view.js
 868 index 7816f4f..1d6233b 100644
 869 --- a/js/views/install_view.js
 870 +++ b/js/views/install_view.js
 871 @@ -38,7 +38,8 @@
 872              return {
 873                  'click .step1': this.selectStep.bind(this, 1),
 874                  'click .step2': this.selectStep.bind(this, 2),
 875 -                'click .step3': this.selectStep.bind(this, 3)
 876 +                'click .step3': this.selectStep.bind(this, 3),
 877 +                'click .callreg': function() { extension.install('standalone') },
 878              };
 879          },
 880          clearQR: function() {
 881 diff --git a/options.html b/options.html
 882 index dc0f28e..8d709f6 100644
 883 --- a/options.html
 884 +++ b/options.html
 885 @@ -14,7 +14,10 @@
 886          &lt;div class='nav'>
 887            &lt;h1>{{ installWelcome }}&lt;/h1>
 888            &lt;p>{{ installTagline }}&lt;/p>
 889 -          &lt;div> &lt;a class='button step2'>{{ installGetStartedButton }}&lt;/a> &lt;/div>
 890 +          &lt;div> &lt;a class='button step2'>{{ installGetStartedButton }}&lt;/a>
 891 +           &lt;br> &lt;a class="button callreg">Register without mobile phone&lt;/a>
 892 +
 893 +         &lt;/div>
 894            &lt;span class='dot step1 selected'>&lt;/span>
 895            &lt;span class='dot step2'>&lt;/span>
 896            &lt;span class='dot step3'>&lt;/span>
 897 --- /dev/null   2016-10-07 09:55:13.730181472 +0200
 898 +++ b/run-signal-app   2016-10-10 08:54:09.434172391 +0200
 899 @@ -0,0 +1,12 @@
 900 +#!/bin/sh
 901 +set -e
 902 +cd $(dirname $0)
 903 +mkdir -p userdata
 904 +userdata="`pwd`/userdata"
 905 +if [ -d "$userdata" ] && [ ! -d "$userdata/.git" ] ; then
 906 +    (cd $userdata && git init)
 907 +fi
 908 +(cd $userdata && git add . && git commit -m "Current status." || true)
 909 +exec chromium \
 910 +  --proxy-server="socks://localhost:9050" \
 911 +  --user-data-dir=$userdata --load-and-launch-app=`pwd`
 912 EOF
 913 chmod a+rx run-signal-app
 914 </pre>
 915
 916 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
 917 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
 918 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b&label=PetterReinholdtsenBlog">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
 919
 920       </div>
 921       <div class="tags">
 922
 923
 924         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance</a>.
 925
 926
 927       </div>
 928     </div>
 929     <div class="padding"></div>
 930
 931     <div class="entry">
 932       <div class="title">
 933         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Isenkram__Appstream_and_udev_make_life_as_a_LEGO_builder_easier.html">Isenkram, Appstream and udev make life as a LEGO builder easier</a>
 934       </div>
 935       <div class="date">
 936          7th October 2016
 937       </div>
 938       <div class="body">
 939         <p><a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/isenkram">The Isenkram
 940 system</a> provide a practical and easy way to figure out which
 941 packages support the hardware in a given machine.  The command line
 942 tool <tt>isenkram-lookup</tt> and the tasksel options provide a
 943 convenient way to list and install packages relevant for the current
 944 hardware during system installation, both user space packages and
 945 firmware packages. The GUI background daemon on the other hand provide
 946 a pop-up proposing to install packages when a new dongle is inserted
 947 while using the computer.  For example, if you plug in a smart card
 948 reader, the system will ask if you want to install <tt>pcscd</tt> if
 949 that package isn't already installed, and if you plug in a USB video
 950 camera the system will ask if you want to install <tt>cheese</tt> if
 951 cheese is currently missing.  This already work just fine.</p>
 952
 953 <p>But Isenkram depend on a database mapping from hardware IDs to
 954 package names.  When I started no such database existed in Debian, so
 955 I made my own data set and included it with the isenkram package and
 956 made isenkram fetch the latest version of this database from git using
 957 http.  This way the isenkram users would get updated package proposals
 958 as soon as I learned more about hardware related packages.</p>
 959
 960 <p>The hardware is identified using modalias strings.  The modalias
 961 design is from the Linux kernel where most hardware descriptors are
 962 made available as a strings that can be matched using filename style
 963 globbing.  It handle USB, PCI, DMI and a lot of other hardware related
 964 identifiers.</p>
 965
 966 <p>The downside to the Isenkram specific database is that there is no
 967 information about relevant distribution / Debian version, making
 968 isenkram propose obsolete packages too.  But along came AppStream, a
 969 cross distribution mechanism to store and collect metadata about
 970 software packages.  When I heard about the proposal, I contacted the
 971 people involved and suggested to add a hardware matching rule using
 972 modalias strings in the specification, to be able to use AppStream for
 973 mapping hardware to packages.  This idea was accepted and AppStream is
 974 now a great way for a package to announce the hardware it support in a
 975 distribution neutral way.  I wrote
 976 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Using_appstream_with_isenkram_to_install_hardware_related_packages_in_Debian.html">a
 977 recipe on how to add such meta-information</a> in a blog post last
 978 December.  If you have a hardware related package in Debian, please
 979 announce the relevant hardware IDs using AppStream.</p>
 980
 981 <p>In Debian, almost all packages that can talk to a LEGO Mindestorms
 982 RCX or NXT unit, announce this support using AppStream.  The effect is
 983 that when you insert such LEGO robot controller into your Debian
 984 machine, Isenkram will propose to install the packages needed to get
 985 it working.  The intention is that this should allow the local user to
 986 start programming his robot controller right away without having to
 987 guess what packages to use or which permissions to fix.</p>
 988
 989 <p>But when I sat down with my son the other day to program our NXT
 990 unit using his Debian Stretch computer, I discovered something
 991 annoying.  The local console user (ie my son) did not get access to
 992 the USB device for programming the unit.  This used to work, but no
 993 longer in Jessie and Stretch.  After some investigation and asking
 994 around on #debian-devel, I discovered that this was because udev had
 995 changed the mechanism used to grant access to local devices.  The
 996 ConsoleKit mechanism from <tt>/lib/udev/rules.d/70-udev-acl.rules</tt>
 997 no longer applied, because LDAP users no longer was added to the
 998 plugdev group during login.  Michael Biebl told me that this method
 999 was obsolete and the new method used ACLs instead.  This was good
1000 news, as the plugdev mechanism is a mess when using a remote user
1001 directory like LDAP.  Using ACLs would make sure a user lost device
1002 access when she logged out, even if the user left behind a background
1003 process which would retain the plugdev membership with the ConsoleKit
1004 setup.  Armed with this knowledge I moved on to fix the access problem
1005 for the LEGO Mindstorms related packages.</p>
1006
1007 <p>The new system uses a udev tag, 'uaccess'.  It can either be
1008 applied directly for a device, or is applied in
1009 /lib/udev/rules.d/70-uaccess.rules for classes of devices.  As the
1010 LEGO Mindstorms udev rules did not have a class, I decided to add the
1011 tag directly in the udev rules files included in the packages.  Here
1012 is one example.  For the nqc C compiler for the RCX, the
1013 <tt>/lib/udev/rules.d/60-nqc.rules</tt> file now look like this:
1014
1015 <p><pre>
1016 SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ACTION=="add", ATTR{idVendor}=="0694", ATTR{idProduct}=="0001", \
1017     SYMLINK+="rcx-%k", TAG+="uaccess"
1018 </pre></p>
1019
1020 <p>The key part is the 'TAG+="uaccess"' at the end.  I suspect all
1021 packages using plugdev in their /lib/udev/rules.d/ files should be
1022 changed to use this tag (either directly or indirectly via
1023 <tt>70-uaccess.rules</tt>).  Perhaps a lintian check should be created
1024 to detect this?</p>
1025
1026 <p>I've been unable to find good documentation on the uaccess feature.
1027 It is unclear to me if the uaccess tag is an internal implementation
1028 detail like the udev-acl tag used by
1029 <tt>/lib/udev/rules.d/70-udev-acl.rules</tt>.  If it is, I guess the
1030 indirect method is the preferred way.  Michael
1031 <a href="https://github.com/systemd/systemd/issues/4288">asked for more
1032 documentation from the systemd project</a> and I hope it will make
1033 this clearer.  For now I use the generic classes when they exist and
1034 is already handled by <tt>70-uaccess.rules</tt>, and add the tag
1035 directly if no such class exist.</p>
1036
1037 <p>To learn more about the isenkram system, please check out
1038 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram/">my
1039 blog posts tagged isenkram</a>.</p>
1040
1041 <p>To help out making life for LEGO constructors in Debian easier,
1042 please join us on our IRC channel
1043 <a href="irc://irc.debian.org/%23debian-lego">#debian-lego</a> and join
1044 the <a href="https://alioth.debian.org/projects/debian-lego/">Debian
1045 LEGO team</a> in the Alioth project we created yesterday.  A mailing
1046 list is not yet created, but we are working on it. :)</p>
1047
1048 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
1049 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
1050 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b&label=PetterReinholdtsenBlog">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
1051
1052       </div>
1053       <div class="tags">
1054
1055
1056         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram">isenkram</a>.
1057
1058
1059       </div>
1060     </div>
1061     <div class="padding"></div>
1062
1063     <div class="entry">
1064       <div class="title">
1065         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/First_draft_Norwegian_Bokm_l_edition_of_The_Debian_Administrator_s_Handbook_now_public.html">First draft Norwegian Bokmål edition of The Debian Administrator's Handbook now public</a>
1066       </div>
1067       <div class="date">
1068         30th August 2016
1069       </div>
1070       <div class="body">
1071         <p>In April we
1072 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lets_make_a_Norwegian_Bokm_l_edition_of_The_Debian_Administrator_s_Handbook.html">started
1073 to work</a> on a Norwegian Bokmål edition of the "open access" book on
1074 how to set up and administrate a Debian system.  Today I am happy to
1075 report that the first draft is now publicly available.  You can find
1076 it on <a href="https://debian-handbook.info/get/">get the Debian
1077 Administrator's Handbook page</a> (under Other languages).  The first
1078 eight chapters have a first draft translation, and we are working on
1079 proofreading the content.  If you want to help out, please start
1080 contributing using
1081 <a href="https://hosted.weblate.org/projects/debian-handbook/">the
1082 hosted weblate project page</a>, and get in touch using
1083 <a href="http://lists.alioth.debian.org/mailman/listinfo/debian-handbook-translators">the
1084 translators mailing list</a>.  Please also check out
1085 <a href="https://debian-handbook.info/contribute/">the instructions for
1086 contributors</a>.  A good way to contribute is to proofread the text
1087 and update weblate if you find errors.</p>
1088
1089 <p>Our goal is still to make the Norwegian book available on paper as well as
1090 electronic form.</p>
1091
1092       </div>
1093       <div class="tags">
1094
1095
1096         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
1097
1098
1099       </div>
1100     </div>
1101     <div class="padding"></div>
1102
1103     <div class="entry">
1104       <div class="title">
1105         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Coz_can_help_you_find_bottlenecks_in_multi_threaded_software___nice_free_software.html">Coz can help you find bottlenecks in multi-threaded software - nice free software</a>
1106       </div>
1107       <div class="date">
1108         11th August 2016
1109       </div>
1110       <div class="body">
1111         <p>This summer, I read a great article
1112 "<a href="https://www.usenix.org/publications/login/summer2016/curtsinger">coz:
1113 This Is the Profiler You're Looking For</a>" in USENIX ;login: about
1114 how to profile multi-threaded programs.  It presented a system for
1115 profiling software by running experiences in the running program,
1116 testing how run time performance is affected by "speeding up" parts of
1117 the code to various degrees compared to a normal run.  It does this by
1118 slowing down parallel threads while the "faster up" code is running
1119 and measure how this affect processing time.  The processing time is
1120 measured using probes inserted into the code, either using progress
1121 counters (COZ_PROGRESS) or as latency meters (COZ_BEGIN/COZ_END).  It
1122 can also measure unmodified code by measuring complete the program
1123 runtime and running the program several times instead.</p>
1124
1125 <p>The project and presentation was so inspiring that I would like to
1126 get the system into Debian.  I
1127 <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=830708">created
1128 a WNPP request for it</a> and contacted upstream to try to make the
1129 system ready for Debian by sending patches.  The build process need to
1130 be changed a bit to avoid running 'git clone' to get dependencies, and
1131 to include the JavaScript web page used to visualize the collected
1132 profiling information included in the source package.
1133 But I expect that should work out fairly soon.</p>
1134
1135 <p>The way the system work is fairly simple.  To run an coz experiment
1136 on a binary with debug symbols available, start the program like this:
1137
1138 <p><blockquote><pre>
1139 coz run --- program-to-run
1140 </pre></blockquote></p>
1141
1142 <p>This will create a text file profile.coz with the instrumentation
1143 information.  To show what part of the code affect the performance
1144 most, use a web browser and either point it to
1145 <a href="http://plasma-umass.github.io/coz/">http://plasma-umass.github.io/coz/</a>
1146 or use the copy from git (in the gh-pages branch).  Check out this web
1147 site to have a look at several example profiling runs and get an idea what the end result from the profile runs look like.  To make the
1148 profiling more useful you include &lt;coz.h&gt; and insert the
1149 COZ_PROGRESS or COZ_BEGIN and COZ_END at appropriate places in the
1150 code, rebuild and run the profiler.  This allow coz to do more
1151 targeted experiments.</p>
1152
1153 <p>A video published by ACM
1154 <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jE0V-p1odPg">presenting the
1155 Coz profiler</a> is available from Youtube.  There is also a paper
1156 from the 25th Symposium on Operating Systems Principles available
1157 titled
1158 <a href="https://www.usenix.org/conference/atc16/technical-sessions/presentation/curtsinger">Coz:
1159 finding code that counts with causal profiling</a>.</p>
1160
1161 <p><a href="https://github.com/plasma-umass/coz">The source code</a>
1162 for Coz is available from github.  It will only build with clang
1163 because it uses a
1164 <a href="https://gcc.gnu.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=55606">C++
1165 feature missing in GCC</a>, but I've submitted
1166 <a href="https://github.com/plasma-umass/coz/pull/67">a patch to solve
1167 it</a> and hope it will be included in the upstream source soon.</p>
1168
1169 <p>Please get in touch if you, like me, would like to see this piece
1170 of software in Debian.  I would very much like some help with the
1171 packaging effort, as I lack the in depth knowledge on how to package
1172 C++ libraries.</p>
1173
1174       </div>
1175       <div class="tags">
1176
1177
1178         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nice free software">nice free software</a>.
1179
1180
1181       </div>
1182     </div>
1183     <div class="padding"></div>
1184
1185     <div class="entry">
1186       <div class="title">
1187         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Unlocking_HTC_Desire_HD_on_Linux_using_unruu_and_fastboot.html">Unlocking HTC Desire HD on Linux using unruu and fastboot</a>
1188       </div>
1189       <div class="date">
1190          7th July 2016
1191       </div>
1192       <div class="body">
1193         <p>Yesterday, I tried to unlock a HTC Desire HD phone, and it proved
1194 to be a slight challenge.  Here is the recipe if I ever need to do it
1195 again.  It all started by me wanting to try the recipe to set up
1196 <a href="https://blog.torproject.org/blog/mission-impossible-hardening-android-security-and-privacy">an
1197 hardened Android installation</a> from the Tor project blog on a
1198 device I had access to.  It is a old mobile phone with a broken
1199 microphone The initial idea had been to just
1200 <a href="http://wiki.cyanogenmod.org/w/Install_CM_for_ace">install
1201 CyanogenMod on it</a>, but did not quite find time to start on it
1202 until a few days ago.</p>
1203
1204 <p>The unlock process is supposed to be simple: (1) Boot into the boot
1205 loader (press volume down and power at the same time), (2) select
1206 'fastboot' before (3) connecting the device via USB to a Linux
1207 machine, (4) request the device identifier token by running 'fastboot
1208 oem get_identifier_token', (5) request the device unlocking key using
1209 the <a href="http://www.htcdev.com/bootloader/">HTC developer web
1210 site</a> and unlock the phone using the key file emailed to you.</p>
1211
1212 <p>Unfortunately, this only work fi you have hboot version 2.00.0029
1213 or newer, and the device I was working on had 2.00.0027.  This
1214 apparently can be easily fixed by downloading a Windows program and
1215 running it on your Windows machine, if you accept the terms Microsoft
1216 require you to accept to use Windows - which I do not.  So I had to
1217 come up with a different approach.  I got a lot of help from AndyCap
1218 on #nuug, and would not have been able to get this working without
1219 him.</p>
1220
1221 <p>First I needed to extract the hboot firmware from
1222 <a href="http://www.htcdev.com/ruu/PD9810000_Ace_Sense30_S_hboot_2.00.0029.exe">the
1223 windows binary for HTC Desire HD</a> downloaded as 'the RUU' from HTC.
1224 For this there is is <a href="https://github.com/kmdm/unruu/">a github
1225 project named unruu</a> using libunshield.  The unshield tool did not
1226 recognise the file format, but unruu worked and extracted rom.zip,
1227 containing the new hboot firmware and a text file describing which
1228 devices it would work for.</p>
1229
1230 <p>Next, I needed to get the new firmware into the device.  For this I
1231 followed some instructions
1232 <a href="http://www.htc1guru.com/2013/09/new-ruu-zips-posted/">available
1233 from HTC1Guru.com</a>, and ran these commands as root on a Linux
1234 machine with Debian testing:</p>
1235
1236 <p><pre>
1237 adb reboot-bootloader
1238 fastboot oem rebootRUU
1239 fastboot flash zip rom.zip
1240 fastboot flash zip rom.zip
1241 fastboot reboot
1242 </pre></p>
1243
1244 <p>The flash command apparently need to be done twice to take effect,
1245 as the first is just preparations and the second one do the flashing.
1246 The adb command is just to get to the boot loader menu, so turning the
1247 device on while holding volume down and the power button should work
1248 too.</p>
1249
1250 <p>With the new hboot version in place I could start following the
1251 instructions on the HTC developer web site.  I got the device token
1252 like this:</p>
1253
1254 <p><pre>
1255 fastboot oem get_identifier_token 2>&1 | sed 's/(bootloader) //'
1256 </pre>
1257
1258 <p>And once I got the unlock code via email, I could use it like
1259 this:</p>
1260
1261 <p><pre>
1262 fastboot flash unlocktoken Unlock_code.bin
1263 </pre></p>
1264
1265 <p>And with that final step in place, the phone was unlocked and I
1266 could start stuffing the software of my own choosing into the device.
1267 So far I only inserted a replacement recovery image to wipe the phone
1268 before I start.  We will see what happen next.  Perhaps I should
1269 install <a href="https://www.debian.org/">Debian</a> on it. :)</p>
1270
1271       </div>
1272       <div class="tags">
1273
1274
1275         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bootsystem">bootsystem</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/opphavsrett">opphavsrett</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet</a>.
1276
1277
1278       </div>
1279     </div>
1280     <div class="padding"></div>
1281
1282     <div class="entry">
1283       <div class="title">
1284         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_use_the_Signal_app_if_you_only_have_a_land_line__ie_no_mobile_phone_.html">How to use the Signal app if you only have a land line (ie no mobile phone)</a>
1285       </div>
1286       <div class="date">
1287          3rd July 2016
1288       </div>
1289       <div class="body">
1290         <p>For a while now, I have wanted to test
1291 <a href="https://whispersystems.org/">the Signal app</a>, as it is
1292 said to provide end to end encrypted communication and several of my
1293 friends and family are already using it.  As I by choice do not own a
1294 mobile phone, this proved to be harder than expected.  And I wanted to
1295 have the source of the client and know that it was the code used on my
1296 machine.  But yesterday I managed to get it working.  I used the
1297 Github source, compared it to the source in
1298 <a href="https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/signal-private-messenger/bikioccmkafdpakkkcpdbppfkghcmihk?hl=en-US">the
1299 Signal Chrome app</a> available from the Chrome web store, applied
1300 patches to use the production Signal servers, started the app and
1301 asked for the hidden "register without a smart phone" form.  Here is
1302 the recipe how I did it.</p>
1303
1304 <p>First, I fetched the Signal desktop source from Github, using
1305
1306 <pre>
1307 git clone https://github.com/WhisperSystems/Signal-Desktop.git
1308 </pre>
1309
1310 <p>Next, I patched the source to use the production servers, to be
1311 able to talk to other Signal users:</p>
1312
1313 <pre>
1314 cat &lt;&lt;EOF | patch -p0
1315 diff -ur ./js/background.js userdata/Default/Extensions/bikioccmkafdpakkkcpdbppfkghcmihk/0.15.0_0/js/background.js
1316 --- ./js/background.js  2016-06-29 13:43:15.630344628 +0200
1317 +++ userdata/Default/Extensions/bikioccmkafdpakkkcpdbppfkghcmihk/0.15.0_0/js/background.js    2016-06-29 14:06:29.530300934 +0200
1318 @@ -47,8 +47,8 @@
1319          });
1320      });
1321
1322 -    var SERVER_URL = 'https://textsecure-service-staging.whispersystems.org';
1323 -    var ATTACHMENT_SERVER_URL = 'https://whispersystems-textsecure-attachments-staging.s3.amazonaws.com';
1324 +    var SERVER_URL = 'https://textsecure-service-ca.whispersystems.org:4433';
1325 +    var ATTACHMENT_SERVER_URL = 'https://whispersystems-textsecure-attachments.s3.amazonaws.com';
1326      var messageReceiver;
1327      window.getSocketStatus = function() {
1328          if (messageReceiver) {
1329 diff -ur ./js/expire.js userdata/Default/Extensions/bikioccmkafdpakkkcpdbppfkghcmihk/0.15.0_0/js/expire.js
1330 --- ./js/expire.js      2016-06-29 13:43:15.630344628 +0200
1331 +++ userdata/Default/Extensions/bikioccmkafdpakkkcpdbppfkghcmihk/0.15.0_0/js/expire.js2016-06-29 14:06:29.530300934 +0200
1332 @@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
1333  ;(function() {
1334      'use strict';
1335 -    var BUILD_EXPIRATION = 0;
1336 +    var BUILD_EXPIRATION = 1474492690000;
1337
1338      window.extension = window.extension || {};
1339
1340 EOF
1341 </pre>
1342
1343 <p>The first part is changing the servers, and the second is updating
1344 an expiration timestamp.  This timestamp need to be updated regularly.
1345 It is set 90 days in the future by the build process (Gruntfile.js).
1346 The value is seconds since 1970 times 1000, as far as I can tell.</p>
1347
1348 <p>Based on a tip and good help from the #nuug IRC channel, I wrote a
1349 script to launch Signal in Chromium.</p>
1350
1351 <pre>
1352 #!/bin/sh
1353 cd $(dirname $0)
1354 mkdir -p userdata
1355 exec chromium \
1356   --proxy-server="socks://localhost:9050" \
1357   --user-data-dir=`pwd`/userdata --load-and-launch-app=`pwd`
1358 </pre>
1359
1360 <p> The script start the app and configure Chromium to use the Tor
1361 SOCKS5 proxy to make sure those controlling the Signal servers (today
1362 Amazon and Whisper Systems) as well as those listening on the lines
1363 will have a harder time location my laptop based on the Signal
1364 connections if they use source IP address.</p>
1365
1366 <p>When the script starts, one need to follow the instructions under
1367 "Standalone Registration" in the CONTRIBUTING.md file in the git
1368 repository.  I right clicked on the Signal window to get up the
1369 Chromium debugging tool, visited the 'Console' tab and wrote
1370 'extension.install("standalone")' on the console prompt to get the
1371 registration form.  Then I entered by land line phone number and
1372 pressed 'Call'.  5 seconds later the phone rang and a robot voice
1373 repeated the verification code three times.  After entering the number
1374 into the verification code field in the form, I could start using
1375 Signal from my laptop.
1376
1377 <p>As far as I can tell, The Signal app will leak who is talking to
1378 whom and thus who know who to those controlling the central server,
1379 but such leakage is hard to avoid with a centrally controlled server
1380 setup.  It is something to keep in mind when using Signal - the
1381 content of your chats are harder to intercept, but the meta data
1382 exposing your contact network is available to people you do not know.
1383 So better than many options, but not great.  And sadly the usage is
1384 connected to my land line, thus allowing those controlling the server
1385 to associate it to my home and person.  I would prefer it if only
1386 those I knew could tell who I was on Signal.  There are options
1387 avoiding such information leakage, but most of my friends are not
1388 using them, so I am stuck with Signal for now.</p>
1389
1390       </div>
1391       <div class="tags">
1392
1393
1394         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance</a>.
1395
1396
1397       </div>
1398     </div>
1399     <div class="padding"></div>
1400
1401     <div class="entry">
1402       <div class="title">
1403         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_new__best__multimedia_player_in_Debian_.html">The new "best" multimedia player in Debian?</a>
1404       </div>
1405       <div class="date">
1406          6th June 2016
1407       </div>
1408       <div class="body">
1409         <p>When I set out a few weeks ago to figure out
1410 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/What_is_the_best_multimedia_player_in_Debian_.html">which
1411 multimedia player in Debian claimed to support most file formats /
1412 MIME types</a>, I was a bit surprised how varied the sets of MIME types
1413 the various players claimed support for.  The range was from 55 to 130
1414 MIME types.  I suspect most media formats are supported by all
1415 players, but this is not really reflected in the MimeTypes values in
1416 their desktop files.  There are probably also some bogus MIME types
1417 listed, but it is hard to identify which one this is.</p>
1418
1419 <p>Anyway, in the mean time I got in touch with upstream for some of
1420 the players suggesting to add more MIME types to their desktop files,
1421 and decided to spend some time myself improving the situation for my
1422 favorite media player VLC.  The fixes for VLC entered Debian unstable
1423 yesterday. The complete list of MIME types can be seen on the
1424 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/DebianMultimedia/PlayerSupport">Multimedia
1425 player MIME type support status</a> Debian wiki page.</p>
1426
1427 <p>The new "best" multimedia player in Debian?  It is VLC, followed by
1428 totem, parole, kplayer, gnome-mpv, mpv, smplayer, mplayer-gui and
1429 kmplayer.  I am sure some of the other players desktop files support
1430 several of the formats currently listed as working only with vlc,
1431 toten and parole.</p>
1432
1433 <p>A sad observation is that only 14 MIME types are listed as
1434 supported by all the tested multimedia players in Debian in their
1435 desktop files: audio/mpeg, audio/vnd.rn-realaudio, audio/x-mpegurl,
1436 audio/x-ms-wma, audio/x-scpls, audio/x-wav, video/mp4, video/mpeg,
1437 video/quicktime, video/vnd.rn-realvideo, video/x-matroska,
1438 video/x-ms-asf, video/x-ms-wmv and video/x-msvideo.  Personally I find
1439 it sad that video/ogg and video/webm is not supported by all the media
1440 players in Debian.  As far as I can tell, all of them can handle both
1441 formats.</p>
1442
1443       </div>
1444       <div class="tags">
1445
1446
1447         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/multimedia">multimedia</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/video">video</a>.
1448
1449
1450       </div>
1451     </div>
1452     <div class="padding"></div>
1453
1454     <div class="entry">
1455       <div class="title">
1456         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/A_program_should_be_able_to_open_its_own_files_on_Linux.html">A program should be able to open its own files on Linux</a>
1457       </div>
1458       <div class="date">
1459          5th June 2016
1460       </div>
1461       <div class="body">
1462         <p>Many years ago, when koffice was fresh and with few users, I
1463 decided to test its presentation tool when making the slides for a
1464 talk I was giving for NUUG on Japhar, a free Java virtual machine.  I
1465 wrote the first draft of the slides, saved the result and went to bed
1466 the day before I would give the talk.  The next day I took a plane to
1467 the location where the meeting should take place, and on the plane I
1468 started up koffice again to polish the talk a bit, only to discover
1469 that kpresenter refused to load its own data file.  I cursed a bit and
1470 started making the slides again from memory, to have something to
1471 present when I arrived.  I tested that the saved files could be
1472 loaded, and the day seemed to be rescued.  I continued to polish the
1473 slides until I suddenly discovered that the saved file could no longer
1474 be loaded into kpresenter.  In the end I had to rewrite the slides
1475 three times, condensing the content until the talk became shorter and
1476 shorter.  After the talk I was able to pinpoint the problem &ndash;
1477 kpresenter wrote inline images in a way itself could not understand.
1478 Eventually that bug was fixed and kpresenter ended up being a great
1479 program to make slides.  The point I'm trying to make is that we
1480 expect a program to be able to load its own data files, and it is
1481 embarrassing to its developers if it can't.</p>
1482
1483 <p>Did you ever experience a program failing to load its own data
1484 files from the desktop file browser?  It is not a uncommon problem.  A
1485 while back I discovered that the screencast recorder
1486 gtk-recordmydesktop would save an Ogg Theora video file the KDE file
1487 browser would refuse to open.  No video player claimed to understand
1488 such file.  I tracked down the cause being <tt>file --mime-type</tt>
1489 returning the application/ogg MIME type, which no video player I had
1490 installed listed as a MIME type they would understand.  I asked for
1491 <a href="http://bugs.gw.com/view.php?id=382">file to change its
1492 behavour</a> and use the MIME type video/ogg instead.  I also asked
1493 several video players to add video/ogg to their desktop files, to give
1494 the file browser an idea what to do about Ogg Theora files.  After a
1495 while, the desktop file browsers in Debian started to handle the
1496 output from gtk-recordmydesktop properly.</p>
1497
1498 <p>But history repeats itself.  A few days ago I tested the music
1499 system Rosegarden again, and I discovered that the KDE and xfce file
1500 browsers did not know what to do with the Rosegarden project files
1501 (*.rg).  I've reported <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/825993">the
1502 rosegarden problem to BTS</a> and a fix is commited to git and will be
1503 included in the next upload.  To increase the chance of me remembering
1504 how to fix the problem next time some program fail to load its files
1505 from the file browser, here are some notes on how to fix it.</p>
1506
1507 <p>The file browsers in Debian in general operates on MIME types.
1508 There are two sources for the MIME type of a given file.  The output from
1509 <tt>file --mime-type</tt> mentioned above, and the content of the
1510 shared MIME type registry (under /usr/share/mime/).  The file MIME
1511 type is mapped to programs supporting the MIME type, and this
1512 information is collected from
1513 <a href="https://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Specifications/desktop-entry-spec/">the
1514 desktop files</a> available in /usr/share/applications/.  If there is
1515 one desktop file claiming support for the MIME type of the file, it is
1516 activated when asking to open a given file.  If there are more, one
1517 can normally select which one to use by right-clicking on the file and
1518 selecting the wanted one using 'Open with' or similar.  In general
1519 this work well.  But it depend on each program picking a good MIME
1520 type (preferably
1521 <a href="http://www.iana.org/assignments/media-types/media-types.xhtml">a
1522 MIME type registered with IANA</a>), file and/or the shared MIME
1523 registry recognizing the file and the desktop file to list the MIME
1524 type in its list of supported MIME types.</p>
1525
1526 <p>The <tt>/usr/share/mime/packages/rosegarden.xml</tt> entry for
1527 <a href="http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Specifications/shared-mime-info-spec">the
1528 Shared MIME database</a> look like this:</p>
1529
1530 <p><blockquote><pre>
1531 &lt;?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?&gt;
1532 &lt;mime-info xmlns="http://www.freedesktop.org/standards/shared-mime-info"&gt;
1533   &lt;mime-type type="audio/x-rosegarden"&gt;
1534     &lt;sub-class-of type="application/x-gzip"/&gt;
1535     &lt;comment&gt;Rosegarden project file&lt;/comment&gt;
1536     &lt;glob pattern="*.rg"/&gt;
1537   &lt;/mime-type&gt;
1538 &lt;/mime-info&gt;
1539 </pre></blockquote></p>
1540
1541 <p>This states that audio/x-rosegarden is a kind of application/x-gzip
1542 (it is a gzipped XML file).  Note, it is much better to use an
1543 official MIME type registered with IANA than it is to make up ones own
1544 unofficial ones like the x-rosegarden type used by rosegarden.</p>
1545
1546 <p>The desktop file of the rosegarden program failed to list
1547 audio/x-rosegarden in its list of supported MIME types, causing the
1548 file browsers to have no idea what to do with *.rg files:</p>
1549
1550 <p><blockquote><pre>
1551 % grep Mime /usr/share/applications/rosegarden.desktop
1552 MimeType=audio/x-rosegarden-composition;audio/x-rosegarden-device;audio/x-rosegarden-project;audio/x-rosegarden-template;audio/midi;
1553 X-KDE-NativeMimeType=audio/x-rosegarden-composition
1554 %
1555 </pre></blockquote></p>
1556
1557 <p>The fix was to add "audio/x-rosegarden;" at the end of the
1558 MimeType= line.</p>
1559
1560 <p>If you run into a file which fail to open the correct program when
1561 selected from the file browser, please check out the output from
1562 <tt>file --mime-type</tt> for the file, ensure the file ending and
1563 MIME type is registered somewhere under /usr/share/mime/ and check
1564 that some desktop file under /usr/share/applications/ is claiming
1565 support for this MIME type.  If not, please report a bug to have it
1566 fixed. :)</p>
1567
1568       </div>
1569       <div class="tags">
1570
1571
1572         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
1573
1574
1575       </div>
1576     </div>
1577     <div class="padding"></div>
1578
1579     <div class="entry">
1580       <div class="title">
1581         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Isenkram_with_PackageKit_support___new_version_0_23_available_in_Debian_unstable.html">Isenkram with PackageKit support - new version 0.23 available in Debian unstable</a>
1582       </div>
1583       <div class="date">
1584         25th May 2016
1585       </div>
1586       <div class="body">
1587         <p><a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/isenkram">The isenkram
1588 system</a> is a user-focused solution in Debian for handling hardware
1589 related packages.  The idea is to have a database of mappings between
1590 hardware and packages, and pop up a dialog suggesting for the user to
1591 install the packages to use a given hardware dongle.  Some use cases
1592 are when you insert a Yubikey, it proposes to install the software
1593 needed to control it; when you insert a braille reader list it
1594 proposes to install the packages needed to send text to the reader;
1595 and when you insert a ColorHug screen calibrator it suggests to
1596 install the driver for it.  The system work well, and even have a few
1597 command line tools to install firmware packages and packages for the
1598 hardware already in the machine (as opposed to hotpluggable hardware).</p>
1599
1600 <p>The system was initially written using aptdaemon, because I found
1601 good documentation and example code on how to use it.  But aptdaemon
1602 is going away and is generally being replaced by
1603 <a href="http://www.freedesktop.org/software/PackageKit/">PackageKit</a>,
1604 so Isenkram needed a rewrite.  And today, thanks to the great patch
1605 from my college Sunil Mohan Adapa in the FreedomBox project, the
1606 rewrite finally took place.  I've just uploaded a new version of
1607 Isenkram into Debian Unstable with the patch included, and the default
1608 for the background daemon is now to use PackageKit.  To check it out,
1609 install the <tt>isenkram</tt> package and insert some hardware dongle
1610 and see if it is recognised.</p>
1611
1612 <p>If you want to know what kind of packages isenkram would propose for
1613 the machine it is running on, you can check out the isenkram-lookup
1614 program.  This is what it look like on a Thinkpad X230:</p>
1615
1616 <p><blockquote><pre>
1617 % isenkram-lookup
1618 bluez
1619 cheese
1620 fprintd
1621 fprintd-demo
1622 gkrellm-thinkbat
1623 hdapsd
1624 libpam-fprintd
1625 pidgin-blinklight
1626 thinkfan
1627 tleds
1628 tp-smapi-dkms
1629 tp-smapi-source
1630 tpb
1631 %p
1632 </pre></blockquote></p>
1633
1634 <p>The hardware mappings come from several places.  The preferred way
1635 is for packages to announce their hardware support using
1636 <a href="https://www.freedesktop.org/software/appstream/docs/">the
1637 cross distribution appstream system</a>.
1638 See
1639 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram/">previous
1640 blog posts about isenkram</a> to learn how to do that.</p>
1641
1642       </div>
1643       <div class="tags">
1644
1645
1646         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram">isenkram</a>.
1647
1648
1649       </div>
1650     </div>
1651     <div class="padding"></div>
1652
1653     <div class="entry">
1654       <div class="title">
1655         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Discharge_rate_estimate_in_new_battery_statistics_collector_for_Debian.html">Discharge rate estimate in new battery statistics collector for Debian</a>
1656       </div>
1657       <div class="date">
1658         23rd May 2016
1659       </div>
1660       <div class="body">
1661         <p>Yesterday I updated the
1662 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/battery-stats">battery-stats
1663 package in Debian</a> with a few patches sent to me by skilled and
1664 enterprising users.  There were some nice user and visible changes.
1665 First of all, both desktop menu entries now work.  A design flaw in
1666 one of the script made the history graph fail to show up (its PNG was
1667 dumped in ~/.xsession-errors) if no controlling TTY was available.
1668 The script worked when called from the command line, but not when
1669 called from the desktop menu.  I changed this to look for a DISPLAY
1670 variable or a TTY before deciding where to draw the graph, and now the
1671 graph window pop up as expected.</p>
1672
1673 <p>The next new feature is a discharge rate estimator in one of the
1674 graphs (the one showing the last few hours).  New is also the user of
1675 colours showing charging in blue and discharge in red.  The percentages
1676 of this graph is relative to last full charge, not battery design
1677 capacity.</p>
1678
1679 <p align="center"><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2016-05-23-battery-stats-rate.png"/></p>
1680
1681 <p>The other graph show the entire history of the collected battery
1682 statistics, comparing it to the design capacity of the battery to
1683 visualise how the battery life time get shorter over time.  The red
1684 line in this graph is what the previous graph considers 100 percent:
1685
1686 <p align="center"><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2016-05-23-battery-stats-history.png"/></p>
1687
1688 <p>In this graph you can see that I only charge the battery to 80
1689 percent of last full capacity, and how the capacity of the battery is
1690 shrinking. :(</p>
1691
1692 <p>The last new feature is in the collector, which now will handle
1693 more hardware models.  On some hardware, Linux power supply
1694 information is stored in /sys/class/power_supply/ACAD/, while the
1695 collector previously only looked in /sys/class/power_supply/AC/.  Now
1696 both are checked to figure if there is power connected to the
1697 machine.</p>
1698
1699 <p>If you are interested in how your laptop battery is doing, please
1700 check out the
1701 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/battery-stats">battery-stats</a>
1702 in Debian unstable, or rebuild it on Jessie to get it working on
1703 Debian stable. :) The upstream source is available from <a
1704 href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/battery-stats">github</a>.
1705 Patches are very welcome.</p>
1706
1707 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
1708 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
1709 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
1710
1711       </div>
1712       <div class="tags">
1713
1714
1715         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
1716
1717
1718       </div>
1719     </div>
1720     <div class="padding"></div>
1721
1722     <div class="entry">
1723       <div class="title">
1724         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_now_with_ZFS_on_Linux_included.html">Debian now with ZFS on Linux included</a>
1725       </div>
1726       <div class="date">
1727         12th May 2016
1728       </div>
1729       <div class="body">
1730         <p>Today, after many years of hard work from many people,
1731 <a href="http://zfsonlinux.org/">ZFS for Linux</a> finally entered
1732 Debian.  The package status can be seen on
1733 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/zfs-linux">the package tracker
1734 for zfs-linux</a>.  and
1735 <a href="https://qa.debian.org/developer.php?login=pkg-zfsonlinux-devel@lists.alioth.debian.org">the
1736 team status page</a>. If you want to help out, please join us.
1737 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/gitweb/?p=pkg-zfsonlinux/zfs.git">The
1738 source code</a> is available via git on Alioth.  It would also be
1739 great if you could help out with
1740 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/dkms">the dkms package</a>, as
1741 it is an important piece of the puzzle to get ZFS working.</p>
1742
1743       </div>
1744       <div class="tags">
1745
1746
1747         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
1748
1749
1750       </div>
1751     </div>
1752     <div class="padding"></div>
1753
1754     <div class="entry">
1755       <div class="title">
1756         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/What_is_the_best_multimedia_player_in_Debian_.html">What is the best multimedia player in Debian?</a>
1757       </div>
1758       <div class="date">
1759          8th May 2016
1760       </div>
1761       <div class="body">
1762         <p><strong>Where I set out to figure out which multimedia player in
1763 Debian claim support for most file formats.</strong></p>
1764
1765 <p>A few years ago, I had a look at the media support for Browser
1766 plugins in Debian, to get an idea which plugins to include in Debian
1767 Edu.  I created a script to extract the set of supported MIME types
1768 for each plugin, and used this to find out which multimedia browser
1769 plugin supported most file formats / media types.
1770 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/BrowserMultimedia">The
1771 result</a> can still be seen on the Debian wiki, even though it have
1772 not been updated for a while.  But browser plugins are less relevant
1773 these days, so I thought it was time to look at standalone
1774 players.</p>
1775
1776 <p>A few days ago I was tired of VLC not being listed as a viable
1777 player when I wanted to play videos from the Norwegian National
1778 Broadcasting Company, and decided to investigate why.  The cause is a
1779 <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/822245">missing MIME type in the VLC
1780 desktop file</a>.  In the process I wrote a script to compare the set
1781 of MIME types announced in the desktop file and the browser plugin,
1782 only to discover that there is quite a large difference between the
1783 two for VLC.  This discovery made me dig up the script I used to
1784 compare browser plugins, and adjust it to compare desktop files
1785 instead, to try to figure out which multimedia player in Debian
1786 support most file formats.</p>
1787
1788 <p>The result can be seen on the Debian Wiki, as
1789 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/DebianMultimedia/PlayerSupport">a
1790 table listing all MIME types supported by one of the packages included
1791 in the table</a>, with the package supporting most MIME types being
1792 listed first in the table.</p>
1793
1794 </p>The best multimedia player in Debian?  It is totem, followed by
1795 parole, kplayer, mpv, vlc, smplayer mplayer-gui gnome-mpv and
1796 kmplayer.  Time for the other players to update their announced MIME
1797 support?</p>
1798
1799       </div>
1800       <div class="tags">
1801
1802
1803         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/multimedia">multimedia</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/video">video</a>.
1804
1805
1806       </div>
1807     </div>
1808     <div class="padding"></div>
1809
1810     <div class="entry">
1811       <div class="title">
1812         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_Pyra___handheld_computer_with_Debian_preinstalled.html">The Pyra - handheld computer with Debian preinstalled</a>
1813       </div>
1814       <div class="date">
1815          4th May 2016
1816       </div>
1817       <div class="body">
1818         A friend of mine made me aware of
1819 <a href="https://pyra-handheld.com/boards/pages/pyra/">The Pyra</a>, a
1820 handheld computer which will be delivered with Debian preinstalled.  I
1821 would love to get one of those for my birthday. :)</p>
1822
1823 <p>The machine is a complete ARM-based PC with micro HDMI, SATA, USB
1824 plugs and many others connectors, and include a full keyboard and a 5"
1825 LCD touch screen.  The 6000mAh battery is claimed to provide a whole
1826 day of battery life time, but I have not seen any independent tests
1827 confirming this.  The vendor is still collecting preorders, and the
1828 last I heard last night was that 22 more orders were needed before
1829 production started.</p>
1830
1831 <p>As far as I know, this is the first handheld preinstalled with
1832 Debian.  Please let me know if you know of any others.  Is it the
1833 first computer being sold with Debian preinstalled?</p>
1834
1835       </div>
1836       <div class="tags">
1837
1838
1839         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
1840
1841
1842       </div>
1843     </div>
1844     <div class="padding"></div>
1845
1846     <div class="entry">
1847       <div class="title">
1848         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lets_make_a_Norwegian_Bokm_l_edition_of_The_Debian_Administrator_s_Handbook.html">Lets make a Norwegian Bokmål edition of The Debian Administrator's Handbook</a>
1849       </div>
1850       <div class="date">
1851         10th April 2016
1852       </div>
1853       <div class="body">
1854         <p>During this weekends
1855 <a href="http://www.nuug.no/news/Oslo__Takk_for_feilfiksingsfesten.shtml">bug
1856 squashing party and developer gathering</a>, we decided to do our part
1857 to make sure there are good books about Debian available in Norwegian
1858 Bokmål, and got in touch with the people behind the
1859 <a href="http://debian-handbook.info/">Debian Administrator's Handbook
1860 project</a> to get started.  If you want to help out, please start
1861 contributing using
1862 <a href="https://hosted.weblate.org/projects/debian-handbook/">the
1863 hosted weblate project page</a>, and get in touch using
1864 <a href="http://lists.alioth.debian.org/mailman/listinfo/debian-handbook-translators">the
1865 translators mailing list</a>.  Please also check out
1866 <a href="https://debian-handbook.info/contribute/">the instructions for
1867 contributors</a>.</p>
1868
1869 <p>The book is already available on paper in English, French and
1870 Japanese, and our goal is to get it available on paper in Norwegian
1871 Bokmål too.  In addition to the paper edition, there are also EPUB and
1872 Mobi versions available.  And there are incomplete translations
1873 available for many more languages.</p>
1874
1875       </div>
1876       <div class="tags">
1877
1878
1879         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
1880
1881
1882       </div>
1883     </div>
1884     <div class="padding"></div>
1885
1886     <div class="entry">
1887       <div class="title">
1888         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/One_in_two_hundred_Debian_users_using_ZFS_on_Linux_.html">One in two hundred Debian users using ZFS on Linux?</a>
1889       </div>
1890       <div class="date">
1891          7th April 2016
1892       </div>
1893       <div class="body">
1894         <p>Just for fun I had a look at the popcon number of ZFS related
1895 packages in Debian, and was quite surprised with what I found.  I use
1896 ZFS myself at home, but did not really expect many others to do so.
1897 But I might be wrong.</p>
1898
1899 <p>According to
1900 <a href="https://qa.debian.org/popcon.php?package=spl-linux">the popcon
1901 results for spl-linux</a>, there are 1019 Debian installations, or
1902 0.53% of the population, with the package installed.  As far as I know
1903 the only use of the spl-linux package is as a support library for ZFS
1904 on Linux, so I use it here as proxy for measuring the number of ZFS
1905 installation on Linux in Debian.  In the kFreeBSD variant of Debian
1906 the ZFS feature is already available, and there
1907 <a href="https://qa.debian.org/popcon.php?package=zfsutils">the popcon
1908 results for zfsutils</a> show 1625 Debian installations or 0.84% of
1909 the population.  So I guess I am not alone in using ZFS on Debian.</p>
1910
1911 <p>But even though the Debian project leader Lucas Nussbaum
1912 <a href="https://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce/2015/04/msg00006.html">announced
1913 in April 2015</a> that the legal obstacles blocking ZFS on Debian were
1914 cleared, the package is still not in Debian.  The package is again in
1915 the NEW queue.  Several uploads have been rejected so far because the
1916 debian/copyright file was incomplete or wrong, but there is no reason
1917 to give up.  The current status can be seen on
1918 <a href="https://qa.debian.org/developer.php?login=pkg-zfsonlinux-devel@lists.alioth.debian.org">the
1919 team status page</a>, and
1920 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/gitweb/?p=pkg-zfsonlinux/zfs.git">the
1921 source code</a> is available on Alioth.</p>
1922
1923 <p>As I want ZFS to be included in next version of Debian to make sure
1924 my home server can function in the future using only official Debian
1925 packages, and the current blocker is to get the debian/copyright file
1926 accepted by the FTP masters in Debian, I decided a while back to try
1927 to help out the team.  This was the background for my blog post about
1928 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Creating__updating_and_checking_debian_copyright_semi_automatically.html">creating,
1929 updating and checking debian/copyright semi-automatically</a>, and I
1930 used the techniques I explored there to try to find any errors in the
1931 copyright file.  It is not very easy to check every one of the around
1932 2000 files in the source package, but I hope we this time got it
1933 right.  If you want to help out, check out the git source and try to
1934 find missing entries in the debian/copyright file.</p>
1935
1936       </div>
1937       <div class="tags">
1938
1939
1940         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
1941
1942
1943       </div>
1944     </div>
1945     <div class="padding"></div>
1946
1947     <div class="entry">
1948       <div class="title">
1949         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Full_battery_stats_collector_is_now_available_in_Debian.html">Full battery stats collector is now available in Debian</a>
1950       </div>
1951       <div class="date">
1952         23rd March 2016
1953       </div>
1954       <div class="body">
1955         <p>Since this morning, the battery-stats package in Debian include an
1956 extended collector that will collect the complete battery history for
1957 later processing and graphing.  The original collector store the
1958 battery level as percentage of last full level, while the new
1959 collector also record battery vendor, model, serial number, design
1960 full level, last full level and current battery level.  This make it
1961 possible to predict the lifetime of the battery as well as visualise
1962 the energy flow when the battery is charging or discharging.</p>
1963
1964 <p>The new tools are available in <tt>/usr/share/battery-stats/</tt>
1965 in the version 0.5.1 package in unstable.  Get the new battery level graph
1966 and lifetime prediction by running:
1967
1968 <p><pre>
1969 /usr/share/battery-stats/battery-stats-graph /var/log/battery-stats.csv
1970 </pre></p>
1971
1972 <p>Or select the 'Battery Level Graph' from your application menu.</p>
1973
1974 <p>The flow in/out of the battery can be seen by running (no menu
1975 entry yet):</p>
1976
1977 <p><pre>
1978 /usr/share/battery-stats/battery-stats-graph-flow
1979 </pre></p>
1980
1981 <p>I'm not quite happy with the way the data is visualised, at least
1982 when there are few data points.  The graphs look a bit better with a
1983 few years of data.</p>
1984
1985 <p>A while back one important feature I use in the battery stats
1986 collector broke in Debian.  The scripts in
1987 <tt>/usr/lib/pm-utils/power.d/</tt> were no longer executed.  I
1988 suspect it happened when Jessie started using systemd, but I do not
1989 know.  The issue is reported as
1990 <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/818649">bug #818649</a> against
1991 pm-utils.  I managed to work around it by adding an udev rule to call
1992 the collector script every time the power connector is connected and
1993 disconnected.  With this fix in place it was finally time to make a
1994 new release of the package, and get it into Debian.</p>
1995
1996 <p>If you are interested in how your laptop battery is doing, please
1997 check out the
1998 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/battery-stats">battery-stats</a>
1999 in Debian unstable, or rebuild it on Jessie to get it working on
2000 Debian stable. :) The upstream source is available from
2001 <a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/battery-stats">github</a>.
2002 As always, patches are very welcome.</p>
2003
2004       </div>
2005       <div class="tags">
2006
2007
2008         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
2009
2010
2011       </div>
2012     </div>
2013     <div class="padding"></div>
2014
2015     <div class="entry">
2016       <div class="title">
2017         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Making_battery_measurements_a_little_easier_in_Debian.html">Making battery measurements a little easier in Debian</a>
2018       </div>
2019       <div class="date">
2020         15th March 2016
2021       </div>
2022       <div class="body">
2023         <p>Back in September, I blogged about
2024 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_life_and_death_of_a_laptop_battery.html">the
2025 system I wrote to collect statistics about my laptop battery</a>, and
2026 how it showed the decay and death of this battery (now replaced).  I
2027 created a simple deb package to handle the collection and graphing,
2028 but did not want to upload it to Debian as there were already
2029 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/battery-stats">a battery-stats
2030 package in Debian</a> that should do the same thing, and I did not see
2031 a point of uploading a competing package when battery-stats could be
2032 fixed instead.  I reported a few bugs about its non-function, and
2033 hoped someone would step in and fix it.  But no-one did.</p>
2034
2035 <p>I got tired of waiting a few days ago, and took matters in my own
2036 hands.  The end result is that I am now the new upstream developer of
2037 battery stats (<a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/battery-stats">available from github</a>) and part of the team maintaining
2038 battery-stats in Debian, and the package in Debian unstable is finally
2039 able to collect battery status using the <tt>/sys/class/power_supply/</tt>
2040 information provided by the Linux kernel.  If you install the
2041 battery-stats package from unstable now, you will be able to get a
2042 graph of the current battery fill level, to get some idea about the
2043 status of the battery.  The source package build and work just fine in
2044 Debian testing and stable (and probably oldstable too, but I have not
2045 tested).  The default graph you get for that system look like this:</p>
2046
2047 <p align="center"><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2016-03-15-battery-stats-graph-example.png" width="70%" align="center"></p>
2048
2049 <p>My plans for the future is to merge my old scripts into the
2050 battery-stats package, as my old scripts collected a lot more details
2051 about the battery.  The scripts are merged into the upstream
2052 battery-stats git repository already, but I am not convinced they work
2053 yet, as I changed a lot of paths along the way.  Will have to test a
2054 bit more before I make a new release.</p>
2055
2056 <p>I will also consider changing the file format slightly, as I
2057 suspect the way I combine several values into one field might make it
2058 impossible to know the type of the value when using it for processing
2059 and graphing.</p>
2060
2061 <p>If you would like I would like to keep an close eye on your laptop
2062 battery, check out the battery-stats package in
2063 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/battery-stats">Debian</a> and
2064 on
2065 <a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/battery-stats">github</a>.
2066 I would love some help to improve the system further.</p>
2067
2068       </div>
2069       <div class="tags">
2070
2071
2072         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
2073
2074
2075       </div>
2076     </div>
2077     <div class="padding"></div>
2078
2079     <div class="entry">
2080       <div class="title">
2081         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Creating__updating_and_checking_debian_copyright_semi_automatically.html">Creating, updating and checking debian/copyright semi-automatically</a>
2082       </div>
2083       <div class="date">
2084         19th February 2016
2085       </div>
2086       <div class="body">
2087         <p>Making packages for Debian requires quite a lot of attention to
2088 details.  And one of the details is the content of the
2089 debian/copyright file, which should list all relevant licenses used by
2090 the code in the package in question, preferably in
2091 <a href="https://www.debian.org/doc/packaging-manuals/copyright-format/1.0/">machine
2092 readable DEP5 format</a>.</p>
2093
2094 <p>For large packages with lots of contributors it is hard to write
2095 and update this file manually, and if you get some detail wrong, the
2096 package is normally rejected by the ftpmasters.  So getting it right
2097 the first time around get the package into Debian faster, and save
2098 both you and the ftpmasters some work..  Today, while trying to figure
2099 out what was wrong with
2100 <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=686447">the
2101 zfsonlinux copyright file</a>, I decided to spend some time on
2102 figuring out the options for doing this job automatically, or at least
2103 semi-automatically.</p>
2104
2105 <p>Lucikly, there are at least two tools available for generating the
2106 file based on the code in the source package,
2107 <tt><a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/debmake">debmake</a></tt>
2108 and <tt><a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/cme">cme</a></tt>.  I'm
2109 not sure which one of them came first, but both seem to be able to
2110 create a sensible draft file.  As far as I can tell, none of them can
2111 be trusted to get the result just right, so the content need to be
2112 polished a bit before the file is OK to upload.  I found the debmake
2113 option in
2114 <a href="http://goofying-with-debian.blogspot.com/2014/07/debmake-checking-source-against-dep-5.html">a
2115 blog posts from 2014</a>.
2116
2117 <p>To generate using debmake, use the -cc option:
2118
2119 <p><pre>
2120 debmake -cc > debian/copyright
2121 </pre></p>
2122
2123 <p>Note there are some problems with python and non-ASCII names, so
2124 this might not be the best option.</p>
2125
2126 <p>The cme option is based on a config parsing library, and I found
2127 this approach in
2128 <a href="https://ddumont.wordpress.com/2015/04/05/improving-creation-of-debian-copyright-file/">a
2129 blog post from 2015</a>.  To generate using cme, use the 'update
2130 dpkg-copyright' option:
2131
2132 <p><pre>
2133 cme update dpkg-copyright
2134 </pre></p>
2135
2136 <p>This will create or update debian/copyright.  The cme tool seem to
2137 handle UTF-8 names better than debmake.</p>
2138
2139 <p>When the copyright file is created, I would also like some help to
2140 check if the file is correct.  For this I found two good options,
2141 <tt>debmake -k</tt> and <tt>license-reconcile</tt>.  The former seem
2142 to focus on license types and file matching, and is able to detect
2143 ineffective blocks in the copyright file.  The latter reports missing
2144 copyright holders and years, but was confused by inconsistent license
2145 names (like CDDL vs. CDDL-1.0).  I suspect it is good to use both and
2146 fix all issues reported by them before uploading.  But I do not know
2147 if the tools and the ftpmasters agree on what is important to fix in a
2148 copyright file, so the package might still be rejected.</p>
2149
2150 <p>The devscripts tool <tt>licensecheck</tt> deserve mentioning.  It
2151 will read through the source and try to find all copyright statements.
2152 It is not comparing the result to the content of debian/copyright, but
2153 can be useful when verifying the content of the copyright file.</p>
2154
2155 <p>Are you aware of better tools in Debian to create and update
2156 debian/copyright file.  Please let me know, or blog about it on
2157 planet.debian.org.</p>
2158
2159 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
2160 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
2161 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
2162
2163 <p><strong>Update 2016-02-20</strong>: I got a tip from Mike Gabriel
2164 on how to use licensecheck and cdbs to create a draft copyright file
2165
2166 <p><pre>
2167 licensecheck --copyright -r `find * -type f` | \
2168   /usr/lib/cdbs/licensecheck2dep5 > debian/copyright.auto
2169 </pre></p>
2170
2171 <p>He mentioned that he normally check the generated file into the
2172 version control system to make it easier to discover license and
2173 copyright changes in the upstream source.  I will try to do the same
2174 with my packages in the future.</p>
2175
2176 <p><strong>Update 2016-02-21</strong>: The cme author recommended
2177 against using -quiet for new users, so I removed it from the proposed
2178 command line.</p>
2179
2180       </div>
2181       <div class="tags">
2182
2183
2184         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
2185
2186
2187       </div>
2188     </div>
2189     <div class="padding"></div>
2190
2191     <div class="entry">
2192       <div class="title">
2193         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Using_appstream_in_Debian_to_locate_packages_with_firmware_and_mime_type_support.html">Using appstream in Debian to locate packages with firmware and mime type support</a>
2194       </div>
2195       <div class="date">
2196          4th February 2016
2197       </div>
2198       <div class="body">
2199         <p>The <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/DEP-11">appstream system</a>
2200 is taking shape in Debian, and one provided feature is a very
2201 convenient way to tell you which package to install to make a given
2202 firmware file available when the kernel is looking for it.  This can
2203 be done using apt-file too, but that is for someone else to blog
2204 about. :)</p>
2205
2206 <p>Here is a small recipe to find the package with a given firmware
2207 file, in this example I am looking for ctfw-3.2.3.0.bin, randomly
2208 picked from the set of firmware announced using appstream in Debian
2209 unstable.  In general you would be looking for the firmware requested
2210 by the kernel during kernel module loading.  To find the package
2211 providing the example file, do like this:</p>
2212
2213 <blockquote><pre>
2214 % apt install appstream
2215 [...]
2216 % apt update
2217 [...]
2218 % appstreamcli what-provides firmware:runtime ctfw-3.2.3.0.bin | \
2219   awk '/Package:/ {print $2}'
2220 firmware-qlogic
2221 %
2222 </pre></blockquote>
2223
2224 <p>See <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/AppStream/Guidelines">the
2225 appstream wiki</a> page to learn how to embed the package metadata in
2226 a way appstream can use.</p>
2227
2228 <p>This same approach can be used to find any package supporting a
2229 given MIME type.  This is very useful when you get a file you do not
2230 know how to handle.  First find the mime type using <tt>file
2231 --mime-type</tt>, and next look up the package providing support for
2232 it.  Lets say you got an SVG file.  Its MIME type is image/svg+xml,
2233 and you can find all packages handling this type like this:</p>
2234
2235 <blockquote><pre>
2236 % apt install appstream
2237 [...]
2238 % apt update
2239 [...]
2240 % appstreamcli what-provides mimetype image/svg+xml | \
2241   awk '/Package:/ {print $2}'
2242 bkchem
2243 phototonic
2244 inkscape
2245 shutter
2246 tetzle
2247 geeqie
2248 xia
2249 pinta
2250 gthumb
2251 karbon
2252 comix
2253 mirage
2254 viewnior
2255 postr
2256 ristretto
2257 kolourpaint4
2258 eog
2259 eom
2260 gimagereader
2261 midori
2262 %
2263 </pre></blockquote>
2264
2265 <p>I believe the MIME types are fetched from the desktop file for
2266 packages providing appstream metadata.</p>
2267
2268       </div>
2269       <div class="tags">
2270
2271
2272         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
2273
2274
2275       </div>
2276     </div>
2277     <div class="padding"></div>
2278
2279     <div class="entry">
2280       <div class="title">
2281         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Creepy__visualise_geotagged_social_media_information___nice_free_software.html">Creepy, visualise geotagged social media information - nice free software</a>
2282       </div>
2283       <div class="date">
2284         24th January 2016
2285       </div>
2286       <div class="body">
2287         <p>Most people seem not to realise that every time they walk around
2288 with the computerised radio beacon known as a mobile phone their
2289 position is tracked by the phone company and often stored for a long
2290 time (like every time a SMS is received or sent).  And if their
2291 computerised radio beacon is capable of running programs (often called
2292 mobile apps) downloaded from the Internet, these programs are often
2293 also capable of tracking their location (if the app requested access
2294 during installation).  And when these programs send out information to
2295 central collection points, the location is often included, unless
2296 extra care is taken to not send the location.  The provided
2297 information is used by several entities, for good and bad (what is
2298 good and bad, depend on your point of view).  What is certain, is that
2299 the private sphere and the right to free movement is challenged and
2300 perhaps even eradicated for those announcing their location this way,
2301 when they share their whereabouts with private and public
2302 entities.</p>
2303
2304 <p align="center"><img width="70%" src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2016-01-24-nice-creepy-desktop-window.png"></p>
2305
2306 <p>The phone company logs provide a register of locations to check out
2307 when one want to figure out what the tracked person was doing.  It is
2308 unavailable for most of us, but provided to selected government
2309 officials, company staff, those illegally buying information from
2310 unfaithful servants and crackers stealing the information.  But the
2311 public information can be collected and analysed, and a free software
2312 tool to do so is called
2313 <a href="http://www.geocreepy.com/">Creepy or Cree.py</a>.  I
2314 discovered it when I read
2315 <a href="http://www.aftenposten.no/kultur/Slik-kan-du-bli-overvaket-pa-Twitter-og-Instagram-uten-a-ane-det-7787884.html">an
2316 article about Creepy</a> in the Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten i
2317 November 2014, and decided to check if it was available in Debian.
2318 The python program was in Debian, but
2319 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/creepy">the version in
2320 Debian</a> was completely broken and practically unmaintained.  I
2321 uploaded a new version which did not work quite right, but did not
2322 have time to fix it then.  This Christmas I decided to finally try to
2323 get Creepy operational in Debian.  Now a fixed version is available in
2324 Debian unstable and testing, and almost all Debian specific patches
2325 are now included
2326 <a href="https://github.com/jkakavas/creepy">upstream</a>.</p>
2327
2328 <p>The Creepy program visualises geolocation information fetched from
2329 Twitter, Instagram, Flickr and Google+, and allow one to get a
2330 complete picture of every social media message posted recently in a
2331 given area, or track the movement of a given individual across all
2332 these services.  Earlier it was possible to use the search API of at
2333 least some of these services without identifying oneself, but these
2334 days it is impossible.  This mean that to use Creepy, you need to
2335 configure it to log in as yourself on these services, and provide
2336 information to them about your search interests.  This should be taken
2337 into account when using Creepy, as it will also share information
2338 about yourself with the services.</p>
2339
2340 <p>The picture above show the twitter messages sent from (or at least
2341 geotagged with a position from) the city centre of Oslo, the capital
2342 of Norway.  One useful way to use Creepy is to first look at
2343 information tagged with an area of interest, and next look at all the
2344 information provided by one or more individuals who was in the area.
2345 I tested it by checking out which celebrity provide their location in
2346 twitter messages by checkout out who sent twitter messages near a
2347 Norwegian TV station, and next could track their position over time,
2348 making it possible to locate their home and work place, among other
2349 things.  A similar technique have been
2350 <a href="http://www.buzzfeed.com/maxseddon/does-this-soldiers-instagram-account-prove-russia-is-covertl">used
2351 to locate Russian soldiers in Ukraine</a>, and it is both a powerful
2352 tool to discover lying governments, and a useful tool to help people
2353 understand the value of the private information they provide to the
2354 public.</p>
2355
2356 <p>The package is not trivial to backport to Debian Stable/Jessie, as
2357 it depend on several python modules currently missing in Jessie (at
2358 least python-instagram, python-flickrapi and
2359 python-requests-toolbelt).</p>
2360
2361 <p>(I have uploaded
2362 <a href="https://screenshots.debian.net/package/creepy">the image to
2363 screenshots.debian.net</a> and licensed it under the same terms as the
2364 Creepy program in Debian.)</p>
2365
2366       </div>
2367       <div class="tags">
2368
2369
2370         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nice free software">nice free software</a>.
2371
2372
2373       </div>
2374     </div>
2375     <div class="padding"></div>
2376
2377     <div class="entry">
2378       <div class="title">
2379         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Always_download_Debian_packages_using_Tor___the_simple_recipe.html">Always download Debian packages using Tor - the simple recipe</a>
2380       </div>
2381       <div class="date">
2382         15th January 2016
2383       </div>
2384       <div class="body">
2385         <p>During his DebConf15 keynote, Jacob Appelbaum
2386 <a href="https://summit.debconf.org/debconf15/meeting/331/what-is-to-be-done/">observed
2387 that those listening on the Internet lines would have good reason to
2388 believe a computer have a given security hole</a> if it download a
2389 security fix from a Debian mirror.  This is a good reason to always
2390 use encrypted connections to the Debian mirror, to make sure those
2391 listening do not know which IP address to attack.  In August, Richard
2392 Hartmann observed that encryption was not enough, when it was possible
2393 to interfere download size to security patches or the fact that
2394 download took place shortly after a security fix was released, and
2395 <a href="http://richardhartmann.de/blog/posts/2015/08/24-Tor-enabled_Debian_mirror/">proposed
2396 to always use Tor to download packages from the Debian mirror</a>.  He
2397 was not the first to propose this, as the
2398 <tt><a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/apt-transport-tor">apt-transport-tor</a></tt>
2399 package by Tim Retout already existed to make it easy to convince apt
2400 to use <a href="https://www.torproject.org/">Tor</a>, but I was not
2401 aware of that package when I read the blog post from Richard.</p>
2402
2403 <p>Richard discussed the idea with Peter Palfrader, one of the Debian
2404 sysadmins, and he set up a Tor hidden service on one of the central
2405 Debian mirrors using the address vwakviie2ienjx6t.onion, thus making
2406 it possible to download packages directly between two tor nodes,
2407 making sure the network traffic always were encrypted.</p>
2408
2409 <p>Here is a short recipe for enabling this on your machine, by
2410 installing <tt>apt-transport-tor</tt> and replacing http and https
2411 urls with tor+http and tor+https, and using the hidden service instead
2412 of the official Debian mirror site.  I recommend installing
2413 <tt>etckeeper</tt> before you start to have a history of the changes
2414 done in /etc/.</p>
2415
2416 <blockquote><pre>
2417 apt install apt-transport-tor
2418 sed -i 's% http://ftp.debian.org/% tor+http://vwakviie2ienjx6t.onion/%' /etc/apt/sources.list
2419 sed -i 's% http% tor+http%' /etc/apt/sources.list
2420 </pre></blockquote>
2421
2422 <p>If you have more sources listed in /etc/apt/sources.list.d/, run
2423 the sed commands for these too.  The sed command is assuming your are
2424 using the ftp.debian.org Debian mirror.  Adjust the command (or just
2425 edit the file manually) to match your mirror.</p>
2426
2427 <p>This work in Debian Jessie and later.  Note that tools like
2428 <tt>apt-file</tt> only recently started using the apt transport
2429 system, and do not work with these tor+http URLs.  For
2430 <tt>apt-file</tt> you need the version currently in experimental,
2431 which need a recent apt version currently only in unstable.  So if you
2432 need a working <tt>apt-file</tt>, this is not for you.</p>
2433
2434 <p>Another advantage from this change is that your machine will start
2435 using Tor regularly and at fairly random intervals (every time you
2436 update the package lists or upgrade or install a new package), thus
2437 masking other Tor traffic done from the same machine.  Using Tor will
2438 become normal for the machine in question.</p>
2439
2440 <p>On <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/FreedomBox">Freedombox</a>, APT
2441 is set up by default to use <tt>apt-transport-tor</tt> when Tor is
2442 enabled.  It would be great if it was the default on any Debian
2443 system.</p>
2444
2445       </div>
2446       <div class="tags">
2447
2448
2449         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet</a>.
2450
2451
2452       </div>
2453     </div>
2454     <div class="padding"></div>
2455
2456     <div class="entry">
2457       <div class="title">
2458         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/OpenALPR__find_car_license_plates_in_video_streams___nice_free_software.html">OpenALPR, find car license plates in video streams - nice free software</a>
2459       </div>
2460       <div class="date">
2461         23rd December 2015
2462       </div>
2463       <div class="body">
2464         <p>When I was a kid, we used to collect "car numbers", as we used to
2465 call the car license plate numbers in those days.  I would write the
2466 numbers down in my little book and compare notes with the other kids
2467 to see how many region codes we had seen and if we had seen some
2468 exotic or special region codes and numbers.  It was a fun game to pass
2469 time, as we kids have plenty of it.</p>
2470
2471 <p>A few days I came across
2472 <a href="https://github.com/openalpr/openalpr">the OpenALPR
2473 project</a>, a free software project to automatically discover and
2474 report license plates in images and video streams, and provide the
2475 "car numbers" in a machine readable format.  I've been looking for
2476 such system for a while now, because I believe it is a bad idea that the
2477 <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automatic_number_plate_recognition">automatic
2478 number plate recognition</a> tool only is available in the hands of
2479 the powerful, and want it to be available also for the powerless to
2480 even the score when it comes to surveillance and sousveillance.  I
2481 discovered the developer
2482 <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/747509">wanted to get the tool into
2483 Debian</a>, and as I too wanted it to be in Debian, I volunteered to
2484 help him get it into shape to get the package uploaded into the Debian
2485 archive.</p>
2486
2487 <p>Today we finally managed to get the package into shape and uploaded
2488 it into Debian, where it currently
2489 <a href="https://ftp-master.debian.org//new/openalpr_2.2.1-1.html">waits
2490 in the NEW queue</a> for review by the Debian ftpmasters.</p>
2491
2492 <p>I guess you are wondering why on earth such tool would be useful
2493 for the common folks, ie those not running a large government
2494 surveillance system?  Well, I plan to put it in a computer on my bike
2495 and in my car, tracking the cars nearby and allowing me to be notified
2496 when number plates on my watch list are discovered.  Another use case
2497 was suggested by a friend of mine, who wanted to set it up at his home
2498 to open the car port automatically when it discovered the plate on his
2499 car.  When I mentioned it perhaps was a bit foolhardy to allow anyone
2500 capable of placing his license plate number of a piece of cardboard to
2501 open his car port, men replied that it was always unlocked anyway.  I
2502 guess for such use case it make sense.  I am sure there are other use
2503 cases too, for those with imagination and a vision.</p>
2504
2505 <p>If you want to build your own version of the Debian package, check
2506 out the upstream git source and symlink ./distros/debian to ./debian/
2507 before running "debuild" to build the source.  Or wait a bit until the
2508 package show up in unstable.</p>
2509
2510       </div>
2511       <div class="tags">
2512
2513
2514         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nice free software">nice free software</a>.
2515
2516
2517       </div>
2518     </div>
2519     <div class="padding"></div>
2520
2521     <div class="entry">
2522       <div class="title">
2523         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Using_appstream_with_isenkram_to_install_hardware_related_packages_in_Debian.html">Using appstream with isenkram to install hardware related packages in Debian</a>
2524       </div>
2525       <div class="date">
2526         20th December 2015
2527       </div>
2528       <div class="body">
2529         <p>Around three years ago, I created
2530 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/isenkram">the isenkram
2531 system</a> to get a more practical solution in Debian for handing
2532 hardware related packages.  A GUI system in the isenkram package will
2533 present a pop-up dialog when some hardware dongle supported by
2534 relevant packages in Debian is inserted into the machine.  The same
2535 lookup mechanism to detect packages is available as command line
2536 tools in the isenkram-cli package.  In addition to mapping hardware,
2537 it will also map kernel firmware files to packages and make it easy to
2538 install needed firmware packages automatically.  The key for this
2539 system to work is a good way to map hardware to packages, in other
2540 words, allow packages to announce what hardware they will work
2541 with.</p>
2542
2543 <p>I started by providing data files in the isenkram source, and
2544 adding code to download the latest version of these data files at run
2545 time, to ensure every user had the most up to date mapping available.
2546 I also added support for storing the mapping in the Packages file in
2547 the apt repositories, but did not push this approach because while I
2548 was trying to figure out how to best store hardware/package mappings,
2549 <a href="http://www.freedesktop.org/software/appstream/docs/">the
2550 appstream system</a> was announced.  I got in touch and suggested to
2551 add the hardware mapping into that data set to be able to use
2552 appstream as a data source, and this was accepted at least for the
2553 Debian version of appstream.</p>
2554
2555 <p>A few days ago using appstream in Debian for this became possible,
2556 and today I uploaded a new version 0.20 of isenkram adding support for
2557 appstream as a data source for mapping hardware to packages.  The only
2558 package so far using appstream to announce its hardware support is my
2559 pymissile package.  I got help from Matthias Klumpp with figuring out
2560 how do add the required
2561 <a href="https://appstream.debian.org/html/sid/main/metainfo/pymissile.html">metadata
2562 in pymissile</a>.  I added a file debian/pymissile.metainfo.xml with
2563 this content:</p>
2564
2565 <blockquote><pre>
2566 &lt;?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?&gt;
2567 &lt;component&gt;
2568   &lt;id&gt;pymissile&lt;/id&gt;
2569   &lt;metadata_license&gt;MIT&lt;/metadata_license&gt;
2570   &lt;name&gt;pymissile&lt;/name&gt;
2571   &lt;summary&gt;Control original Striker USB Missile Launcher&lt;/summary&gt;
2572   &lt;description&gt;
2573     &lt;p&gt;
2574       Pymissile provides a curses interface to control an original
2575       Marks and Spencer / Striker USB Missile Launcher, as well as a
2576       motion control script to allow a webcamera to control the
2577       launcher.
2578     &lt;/p&gt;
2579   &lt;/description&gt;
2580   &lt;provides&gt;
2581     &lt;modalias&gt;usb:v1130p0202d*&lt;/modalias&gt;
2582   &lt;/provides&gt;
2583 &lt;/component&gt;
2584 </pre></blockquote>
2585
2586 <p>The key for isenkram is the component/provides/modalias value,
2587 which is a glob style match rule for hardware specific strings
2588 (modalias strings) provided by the Linux kernel.  In this case, it
2589 will map to all USB devices with vendor code 1130 and product code
2590 0202.</p>
2591
2592 <p>Note, it is important that the license of all the metadata files
2593 are compatible to have permissions to aggregate them into archive wide
2594 appstream files.  Matthias suggested to use MIT or BSD licenses for
2595 these files.  A challenge is figuring out a good id for the data, as
2596 it is supposed to be globally unique and shared across distributions
2597 (in other words, best to coordinate with upstream what to use).  But
2598 it can be changed later or, so we went with the package name as
2599 upstream for this project is dormant.</p>
2600
2601 <p>To get the metadata file installed in the correct location for the
2602 mirror update scripts to pick it up and include its content the
2603 appstream data source, the file must be installed in the binary
2604 package under /usr/share/appdata/.  I did this by adding the following
2605 line to debian/pymissile.install:</p>
2606
2607 <blockquote><pre>
2608 debian/pymissile.metainfo.xml usr/share/appdata
2609 </pre></blockquote>
2610
2611 <p>With that in place, the command line tool isenkram-lookup will list
2612 all packages useful on the current computer automatically, and the GUI
2613 pop-up handler will propose to install the package not already
2614 installed if a hardware dongle is inserted into the machine in
2615 question.</p>
2616
2617 <p>Details of the modalias field in appstream is available from the
2618 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/DEP-11">DEP-11</a> proposal.</p>
2619
2620 <p>To locate the modalias values of all hardware present in a machine,
2621 try running this command on the command line:</p>
2622
2623 <blockquote><pre>
2624 cat $(find /sys/devices/|grep modalias)
2625 </pre></blockquote>
2626
2627 <p>To learn more about the isenkram system, please check out
2628 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram/">my
2629 blog posts tagged isenkram</a>.</p>
2630
2631       </div>
2632       <div class="tags">
2633
2634
2635         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram">isenkram</a>.
2636
2637
2638       </div>
2639     </div>
2640     <div class="padding"></div>
2641
2642     <div class="entry">
2643       <div class="title">
2644         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_GNU_General_Public_License_is_not_magic_pixie_dust.html">The GNU General Public License is not magic pixie dust</a>
2645       </div>
2646       <div class="date">
2647         30th November 2015
2648       </div>
2649       <div class="body">
2650         <p>A blog post from my fellow Debian developer Paul Wise titled
2651 "<a href="http://bonedaddy.net/pabs3/log/2015/11/27/sfc-supporter/">The
2652 GPL is not magic pixie dust</a>" explain the importance of making sure
2653 the <a href="http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html">GPL</a> is enforced.
2654 I quote the blog post from Paul in full here with his permission:<p>
2655
2656 <blockquote>
2657
2658 <p><a href="https://sfconservancy.org/supporter/"><img src="https://sfconservancy.org/img/supporter-badge.png" width="194" height="90" alt="Become a Software Freedom Conservancy Supporter!" align="right" border="0" /></a></p>
2659
2660 <blockquote>
2661 The GPL is not magic pixie dust. It does not work by itself.<br/>
2662
2663 The first step is to choose a
2664 <a href="https://copyleft.org/">copyleft</a> license for your
2665 code.<br/>
2666
2667 The next step is, when someone fails to follow that copyleft license,
2668 <b>it must be enforced</b><br/>
2669
2670 and its a simple fact of our modern society that such type of
2671 work<br/>
2672
2673 is incredibly expensive to do and incredibly difficult to do.
2674 </blockquote>
2675
2676 <p><small>-- <a href="http://ebb.org/bkuhn/">Bradley Kuhn</a>, in
2677 <a href="http://faif.us/" title="Free as in Freedom">FaiF</a>
2678 <a href="http://faif.us/cast/2015/nov/24/0x57/">episode
2679 0x57</a></small></p>
2680
2681 <p>As the Debian Website
2682 <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/794116">used</a>
2683 <a href="https://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/webwml/webwml/english/intro/free.wml?r1=1.24&amp;r2=1.25">to</a>
2684 imply, public domain and permissively licensed software can lead to
2685 the production of more proprietary software as people discover useful
2686 software, extend it and or incorporate it into their hardware or
2687 software products.  Copyleft licenses such as the GNU GPL were created
2688 to close off this avenue to the production of proprietary software but
2689 such licenses are not enough.  With the ongoing adoption of Free
2690 Software by individuals and groups, inevitably the community's
2691 expectations of license compliance are violated, usually out of
2692 ignorance of the way Free Software works, but not always.  As Karen
2693 and Bradley explained in <a href="http://faif.us/" title="Free as in
2694 Freedom">FaiF</a>
2695 <a href="http://faif.us/cast/2015/nov/24/0x57/">episode 0x57</a>,
2696 copyleft is nothing if no-one is willing and able to stand up in court
2697 to protect it.  The reality of today's world is that legal
2698 representation is expensive, difficult and time consuming.  With
2699 <a href="http://gpl-violations.org/">gpl-violations.org</a> in hiatus
2700 <a href="http://gpl-violations.org/news/20151027-homepage-recovers/">until</a>
2701 some time in 2016, the <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/">Software
2702 Freedom Conservancy</a> (a tax-exempt charity) is the major defender
2703 of the Linux project, Debian and other groups against GPL violations.
2704 In March the SFC supported a
2705 <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/news/2015/mar/05/vmware-lawsuit/">lawsuit
2706 by Christoph Hellwig</a> against VMware for refusing to
2707 <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/linux-compliance/vmware-lawsuit-faq.html">comply
2708 with the GPL</a> in relation to their use of parts of the Linux
2709 kernel.  Since then two of their sponsors pulled corporate funding and
2710 conferences
2711 <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/blog/2015/nov/24/faif-carols-fundraiser/">blocked
2712 or cancelled their talks</a>.  As a result they have decided to rely
2713 less on corporate funding and more on the broad community of
2714 individuals who support Free Software and copyleft.  So the SFC has
2715 <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/news/2015/nov/23/2015fundraiser/">launched</a>
2716 a <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/supporter/">campaign</a> to create
2717 a community of folks who stand up for copyleft and the GPL by
2718 supporting their work on promoting and supporting copyleft and Free
2719 Software.</p>
2720
2721 <p>If you support Free Software,
2722 <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/blog/2015/nov/26/like-what-I-do/">like</a>
2723 what the SFC do, agree with their
2724 <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/linux-compliance/principles.html">compliance
2725 principles</a>, are happy about their
2726 <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/supporter/">successes</a> in 2015,
2727 work on a project that is an SFC
2728 <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/members/current/">member</a> and or
2729 just want to stand up for copyleft, please join
2730 <a href="https://identi.ca/cwebber/image/JQGPA4qbTyyp3-MY8QpvuA">Christopher
2731 Allan Webber</a>,
2732 <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/blog/2015/nov/24/faif-carols-fundraiser/">Carol
2733 Smith</a>,
2734 <a href="http://www.jonobacon.org/2015/11/25/supporting-software-freedom-conservancy/">Jono
2735 Bacon</a>, myself and
2736 <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/sponsors/#supporters">others</a> in
2737 becoming a
2738 <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/supporter/">supporter</a>.  For the
2739 next week your donation will be
2740 <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/news/2015/nov/27/black-friday/">matched</a>
2741 by an anonymous donor.  Please also consider asking your employer to
2742 match your donation or become a sponsor of SFC.  Don't forget to
2743 spread the word about your support for SFC via email, your blog and or
2744 social media accounts.</p>
2745
2746 </blockquote>
2747
2748 <p>I agree with Paul on this topic and just signed up as a Supporter
2749 of Software Freedom Conservancy myself.  Perhaps you should be a
2750 supporter too?</p>
2751
2752       </div>
2753       <div class="tags">
2754
2755
2756         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/opphavsrett">opphavsrett</a>.
2757
2758
2759       </div>
2760     </div>
2761     <div class="padding"></div>
2762
2763     <div class="entry">
2764       <div class="title">
2765         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/PGP_key_transition_statement_for_key_EE4E02F9.html">PGP key transition statement for key EE4E02F9</a>
2766       </div>
2767       <div class="date">
2768         17th November 2015
2769       </div>
2770       <div class="body">
2771         <p>I've needed a new OpenPGP key for a while, but have not had time to
2772 set it up properly.  I wanted to generate it offline and have it
2773 available on <a href="http://shop.kernelconcepts.de/#openpgp">a OpenPGP
2774 smart card</a> for daily use, and learning how to do it and finding
2775 time to sit down with an offline machine almost took forever.  But
2776 finally I've been able to complete the process, and have now moved
2777 from my old GPG key to a new GPG key.  See
2778 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2015-11-17-new-gpg-key-transition.txt">the
2779 full transition statement, signed with both my old and new key</a> for
2780 the details.  This is my new key:</p>
2781
2782 <pre>
2783 pub   3936R/<a href="http://pgp.cs.uu.nl/stats/111D6B29EE4E02F9.html">111D6B29EE4E02F9</a> 2015-11-03 [expires: 2019-11-14]
2784       Key fingerprint = 3AC7 B2E3 ACA5 DF87 78F1  D827 111D 6B29 EE4E 02F9
2785 uid                  Petter Reinholdtsen &lt;pere@hungry.com&gt;
2786 uid                  Petter Reinholdtsen &lt;pere@debian.org&gt;
2787 sub   4096R/87BAFB0E 2015-11-03 [expires: 2019-11-02]
2788 sub   4096R/F91E6DE9 2015-11-03 [expires: 2019-11-02]
2789 sub   4096R/A0439BAB 2015-11-03 [expires: 2019-11-02]
2790 </pre>
2791
2792 <p>The key can be downloaded from the OpenPGP key servers, signed by
2793 my old key.</p>
2794
2795 <p>If you signed my old key
2796 (<a href="http://pgp.cs.uu.nl/stats/DB4CCC4B2A30D729.html">DB4CCC4B2A30D729</a>),
2797 I'd very much appreciate a signature on my new key, details and
2798 instructions in the transition statement. I m happy to reciprocate if
2799 you have a similarly signed transition statement to present.</p>
2800
2801       </div>
2802       <div class="tags">
2803
2804
2805         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet</a>.
2806
2807
2808       </div>
2809     </div>
2810     <div class="padding"></div>
2811
2812     <div class="entry">
2813       <div class="title">
2814         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_life_and_death_of_a_laptop_battery.html">The life and death of a laptop battery</a>
2815       </div>
2816       <div class="date">
2817         24th September 2015
2818       </div>
2819       <div class="body">
2820         <p>When I get a new laptop, the battery life time at the start is OK.
2821 But this do not last.  The last few laptops gave me a feeling that
2822 within a year, the life time is just a fraction of what it used to be,
2823 and it slowly become painful to use the laptop without power connected
2824 all the time.  Because of this, when I got a new Thinkpad X230 laptop
2825 about two years ago, I decided to monitor its battery state to have
2826 more hard facts when the battery started to fail.</p>
2827
2828 <img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2015-09-24-laptop-battery-graph.png"/>
2829
2830 <p>First I tried to find a sensible Debian package to record the
2831 battery status, assuming that this must be a problem already handled
2832 by someone else.  I found
2833 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/battery-stats">battery-stats</a>,
2834 which collects statistics from the battery, but it was completely
2835 broken.  I sent a few suggestions to the maintainer, but decided to
2836 write my own collector as a shell script while I waited for feedback
2837 from him.  Via
2838 <a href="http://www.ifweassume.com/2013/08/the-de-evolution-of-my-laptop-battery.html">a
2839 blog post about the battery development on a MacBook Air</a> I also
2840 discovered
2841 <a href="https://github.com/jradavenport/batlog.git">batlog</a>, not
2842 available in Debian.</p>
2843
2844 <p>I started my collector 2013-07-15, and it has been collecting
2845 battery stats ever since. Now my
2846 /var/log/hjemmenett-battery-status.log file contain around 115,000
2847 measurements, from the time the battery was working great until now,
2848 when it is unable to charge above 7% of original capacity.  My
2849 collector shell script is quite simple and look like this:</p>
2850
2851 <pre>
2852 #!/bin/sh
2853 # Inspired by
2854 # http://www.ifweassume.com/2013/08/the-de-evolution-of-my-laptop-battery.html
2855 # See also
2856 # http://blog.sleeplessbeastie.eu/2013/01/02/debian-how-to-monitor-battery-capacity/
2857 logfile=/var/log/hjemmenett-battery-status.log
2858
2859 files="manufacturer model_name technology serial_number \
2860     energy_full energy_full_design energy_now cycle_count status"
2861
2862 if [ ! -e "$logfile" ] ; then
2863     (
2864         printf "timestamp,"
2865         for f in $files; do
2866             printf "%s," $f
2867         done
2868         echo
2869     ) > "$logfile"
2870 fi
2871
2872 log_battery() {
2873     # Print complete message in one echo call, to avoid race condition
2874     # when several log processes run in parallel.
2875     msg=$(printf "%s," $(date +%s); \
2876         for f in $files; do \
2877             printf "%s," $(cat $f); \
2878         done)
2879     echo "$msg"
2880 }
2881
2882 cd /sys/class/power_supply
2883
2884 for bat in BAT*; do
2885     (cd $bat && log_battery >> "$logfile")
2886 done
2887 </pre>
2888
2889 <p>The script is called when the power management system detect a
2890 change in the power status (power plug in or out), and when going into
2891 and out of hibernation and suspend.  In addition, it collect a value
2892 every 10 minutes.  This make it possible for me know when the battery
2893 is discharging, charging and how the maximum charge change over time.
2894 The code for the Debian package
2895 <a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/battery-status">is now
2896 available on github</a>.</p>
2897
2898 <p>The collected log file look like this:</p>
2899
2900 <pre>
2901 timestamp,manufacturer,model_name,technology,serial_number,energy_full,energy_full_design,energy_now,cycle_count,status,
2902 1376591133,LGC,45N1025,Li-ion,974,62800000,62160000,39050000,0,Discharging,
2903 [...]
2904 1443090528,LGC,45N1025,Li-ion,974,4900000,62160000,4900000,0,Full,
2905 1443090601,LGC,45N1025,Li-ion,974,4900000,62160000,4900000,0,Full,
2906 </pre>
2907
2908 <p>I wrote a small script to create a graph of the charge development
2909 over time.  This graph depicted above show the slow death of my laptop
2910 battery.</p>
2911
2912 <p>But why is this happening?  Why are my laptop batteries always
2913 dying in a year or two, while the batteries of space probes and
2914 satellites keep working year after year.  If we are to believe
2915 <a href="http://batteryuniversity.com/learn/article/how_to_prolong_lithium_based_batteries">Battery
2916 University</a>, the cause is me charging the battery whenever I have a
2917 chance, and the fix is to not charge the Lithium-ion batteries to 100%
2918 all the time, but to stay below 90% of full charge most of the time.
2919 I've been told that the Tesla electric cars
2920 <a href="http://my.teslamotors.com/de_CH/forum/forums/battery-charge-limit">limit
2921 the charge of their batteries to 80%</a>, with the option to charge to
2922 100% when preparing for a longer trip (not that I would want a car
2923 like Tesla where rights to privacy is abandoned, but that is another
2924 story), which I guess is the option we should have for laptops on
2925 Linux too.</p>
2926
2927 <p>Is there a good and generic way with Linux to tell the battery to
2928 stop charging at 80%, unless requested to charge to 100% once in
2929 preparation for a longer trip?  I found
2930 <a href="http://askubuntu.com/questions/34452/how-can-i-limit-battery-charging-to-80-capacity">one
2931 recipe on askubuntu for Ubuntu to limit charging on Thinkpad to
2932 80%</a>, but could not get it to work (kernel module refused to
2933 load).</p>
2934
2935 <p>I wonder why the battery capacity was reported to be more than 100%
2936 at the start.  I also wonder why the "full capacity" increases some
2937 times, and if it is possible to repeat the process to get the battery
2938 back to design capacity.  And I wonder if the discharge and charge
2939 speed change over time, or if this stay the same.  I did not yet try
2940 to write a tool to calculate the derivative values of the battery
2941 level, but suspect some interesting insights might be learned from
2942 those.</p>
2943
2944 <p>Update 2015-09-24: I got a tip to install the packages
2945 acpi-call-dkms and tlp (unfortunately missing in Debian stable)
2946 packages instead of the tp-smapi-dkms package I had tried to use
2947 initially, and use 'tlp setcharge 40 80' to change when charging start
2948 and stop.  I've done so now, but expect my existing battery is toast
2949 and need to be replaced.  The proposal is unfortunately Thinkpad
2950 specific.</p>
2951
2952       </div>
2953       <div class="tags">
2954
2955
2956         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
2957
2958
2959       </div>
2960     </div>
2961     <div class="padding"></div>
2962
2963     <div class="entry">
2964       <div class="title">
2965         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/New_laptop___some_more_clues_and_ideas_based_on_feedback.html">New laptop - some more clues and ideas based on feedback</a>
2966       </div>
2967       <div class="date">
2968          5th July 2015
2969       </div>
2970       <div class="body">
2971         <p>Several people contacted me after my previous blog post about my
2972 need for a new laptop, and provided very useful feedback.  I wish to
2973 thank every one of these.  Several pointed me to the possibility of
2974 fixing my X230, and I am already in the process of getting Lenovo to
2975 do so thanks to the on site, next day support contract covering the
2976 machine.  But the battery is almost useless (I expect to replace it
2977 with a non-official battery) and I do not expect the machine to live
2978 for many more years, so it is time to plan its replacement.  If I did
2979 not have a support contract, it was suggested to find replacement parts
2980 using <a href="http://www.francecrans.com/">FrancEcrans</a>, but it
2981 might present a language barrier as I do not understand French.</p>
2982
2983 <p>One tip I got was to use the
2984 <a href="https://skinflint.co.uk/?cat=nb">Skinflint</a> web service to
2985 compare laptop models.  It seem to have more models available than
2986 prisjakt.no.  Another tip I got from someone I know have similar
2987 keyboard preferences was that the HP EliteBook 840 keyboard is not
2988 very good, and this matches my experience with earlier EliteBook
2989 keyboards I tested.  Because of this, I will not consider it any further.
2990
2991 <p>When I wrote my blog post, I was not aware of Thinkpad X250, the
2992 newest Thinkpad X model.  The keyboard reintroduces mouse buttons
2993 (which is missing from the X240), and is working fairly well with
2994 Debian Sid/Unstable according to
2995 <a href="http://www.corsac.net/X250/">Corsac.net</a>.  The reports I
2996 got on the keyboard quality are not consistent.  Some say the keyboard
2997 is good, others say it is ok, while others say it is not very good.
2998 Those with experience from X41 and and X60 agree that the X250
2999 keyboard is not as good as those trusty old laptops, and suggest I
3000 keep and fix my X230 instead of upgrading, or get a used X230 to
3001 replace it.  I'm also told that the X250 lack leds for caps lock, disk
3002 activity and battery status, which is very convenient on my X230.  I'm
3003 also told that the CPU fan is running very often, making it a bit
3004 noisy.  In any case, the X250 do not work out of the box with Debian
3005 Stable/Jessie, one of my requirements.</p>
3006
3007 <p>I have also gotten a few vendor proposals, one was
3008 <a href="http://pro-star.com">Pro-Star</a>, another was
3009 <a href="http://shop.gluglug.org.uk/product/libreboot-x200/">Libreboot</a>.
3010 The latter look very attractive to me.</p>
3011
3012 <p>Again, thank you all for the very useful feedback.  It help a lot
3013 as I keep looking for a replacement.</p>
3014
3015 <p>Update 2015-07-06: I was recommended to check out the
3016 <a href="">lapstore.de</a> web shop for used laptops.  They got several
3017 different
3018 <a href="http://www.lapstore.de/f.php/shop/lapstore/f/411/lang/x/kw/Lenovo_ThinkPad_X_Serie/">old
3019 thinkpad X models</a>, and provide one year warranty.</p>
3020
3021       </div>
3022       <div class="tags">
3023
3024
3025         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
3026
3027
3028       </div>
3029     </div>
3030     <div class="padding"></div>
3031
3032     <div class="entry">
3033       <div class="title">
3034         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Time_to_find_a_new_laptop__as_the_old_one_is_broken_after_only_two_years.html">Time to find a new laptop, as the old one is broken after only two years</a>
3035       </div>
3036       <div class="date">
3037          3rd July 2015
3038       </div>
3039       <div class="body">
3040         <p>My primary work horse laptop is failing, and will need a
3041 replacement soon.  The left 5 cm of the screen on my Thinkpad X230
3042 started flickering yesterday, and I suspect the cause is a broken
3043 cable, as changing the angle of the screen some times get rid of the
3044 flickering.</p>
3045
3046 <p>My requirements have not really changed since I bought it, and is
3047 still as
3048 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Thank_you_Thinkpad_X41__for_your_long_and_trustworthy_service.html">I
3049 described them in 2013</a>.  The last time I bought a laptop, I had
3050 good help from
3051 <a href="http://www.prisjakt.no/category.php?k=353">prisjakt.no</a>
3052 where I could select at least a few of the requirements (mouse pin,
3053 wifi, weight) and go through the rest manually.  Three button mouse
3054 and a good keyboard is not available as an option, and all the three
3055 laptop models proposed today (Thinkpad X240, HP EliteBook 820 G1 and
3056 G2) lack three mouse buttons).  It is also unclear to me how good the
3057 keyboard on the HP EliteBooks are.  I hope Lenovo have not messed up
3058 the keyboard, even if the quality and robustness in the X series have
3059 deteriorated since X41.</p>
3060
3061 <p>I wonder how I can find a sensible laptop when none of the options
3062 seem sensible to me?  Are there better services around to search the
3063 set of available laptops for features?  Please send me an email if you
3064 have suggestions.</p>
3065
3066 <p>Update 2015-07-23: I got a suggestion to check out the FSF
3067 <a href="http://www.fsf.org/resources/hw/endorsement/respects-your-freedom">list
3068 of endorsed hardware</a>, which is useful background information.</p>
3069
3070       </div>
3071       <div class="tags">
3072
3073
3074         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
3075
3076
3077       </div>
3078     </div>
3079     <div class="padding"></div>
3080
3081     <div class="entry">
3082       <div class="title">
3083         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_stay_with_sysvinit_in_Debian_Jessie.html">How to stay with sysvinit in Debian Jessie</a>
3084       </div>
3085       <div class="date">
3086         22nd November 2014
3087       </div>
3088       <div class="body">
3089         <p>By now, it is well known that Debian Jessie will not be using
3090 sysvinit as its boot system by default.  But how can one keep using
3091 sysvinit in Jessie?  It is fairly easy, and here are a few recipes,
3092 courtesy of
3093 <a href="http://www.vitavonni.de/blog/201410/2014102101-avoiding-systemd.html">Erich
3094 Schubert</a> and
3095 <a href="http://smcv.pseudorandom.co.uk/2014/still_universal/">Simon
3096 McVittie</a>.
3097
3098 <p>If you already are using Wheezy and want to upgrade to Jessie and
3099 keep sysvinit as your boot system, create a file
3100 <tt>/etc/apt/preferences.d/use-sysvinit</tt> with this content before
3101 you upgrade:</p>
3102
3103 <p><blockquote><pre>
3104 Package: systemd-sysv
3105 Pin: release o=Debian
3106 Pin-Priority: -1
3107 </pre></blockquote><p>
3108
3109 <p>This file content will tell apt and aptitude to not consider
3110 installing systemd-sysv as part of any installation and upgrade
3111 solution when resolving dependencies, and thus tell it to avoid
3112 systemd as a default boot system.  The end result should be that the
3113 upgraded system keep using sysvinit.</p>
3114
3115 <p>If you are installing Jessie for the first time, there is no way to
3116 get sysvinit installed by default (debootstrap used by
3117 debian-installer have no option for this), but one can tell the
3118 installer to switch to sysvinit before the first boot.  Either by
3119 using a kernel argument to the installer, or by adding a line to the
3120 preseed file used.  First, the kernel command line argument:
3121
3122 <p><blockquote><pre>
3123 preseed/late_command="in-target apt-get install --purge -y sysvinit-core"
3124 </pre></blockquote><p>
3125
3126 <p>Next, the line to use in a preseed file:</p>
3127
3128 <p><blockquote><pre>
3129 d-i preseed/late_command string in-target apt-get install -y sysvinit-core
3130 </pre></blockquote><p>
3131
3132 <p>One can of course also do this after the first boot by installing
3133 the sysvinit-core package.</p>
3134
3135 <p>I recommend only using sysvinit if you really need it, as the
3136 sysvinit boot sequence in Debian have several hardware specific bugs
3137 on Linux caused by the fact that it is unpredictable when hardware
3138 devices show up during boot.  But on the other hand, the new default
3139 boot system still have a few rough edges I hope will be fixed before
3140 Jessie is released.</p>
3141
3142 <p>Update 2014-11-26: Inspired by
3143 <ahref="https://www.mirbsd.org/permalinks/wlog-10-tg_e20141125-tg.htm#e20141125-tg_wlog-10-tg">a
3144 blog post by Torsten Glaser</a>, added --purge to the preseed
3145 line.</p>
3146
3147       </div>
3148       <div class="tags">
3149
3150
3151         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bootsystem">bootsystem</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
3152
3153
3154       </div>
3155     </div>
3156     <div class="padding"></div>
3157
3158     <div class="entry">
3159       <div class="title">
3160         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/A_Debian_package_for_SMTP_via_Tor__aka_SMTorP__using_exim4.html">A Debian package for SMTP via Tor (aka SMTorP) using exim4</a>
3161       </div>
3162       <div class="date">
3163         10th November 2014
3164       </div>
3165       <div class="body">
3166         <p>The right to communicate with your friends and family in private,
3167 without anyone snooping, is a right every citicen have in a liberal
3168 democracy.  But this right is under serious attack these days.</p>
3169
3170 <p>A while back it occurred to me that one way to make the dragnet
3171 surveillance conducted by NSA, GCHQ, FRA and others (and confirmed by
3172 the whisleblower Snowden) more expensive for Internet email,
3173 is to deliver all email using SMTP via Tor.  Such SMTP option would be
3174 a nice addition to the FreedomBox project if we could send email
3175 between FreedomBox machines without leaking metadata about the emails
3176 to the people peeking on the wire.  I
3177 <a href="http://lists.alioth.debian.org/pipermail/freedombox-discuss/2014-October/006493.html">proposed
3178 this on the FreedomBox project mailing list in October</a> and got a
3179 lot of useful feedback and suggestions.  It also became obvious to me
3180 that this was not a novel idea, as the same idea was tested and
3181 documented by Johannes Berg as early as 2006, and both
3182 <a href="https://github.com/pagekite/Mailpile/wiki/SMTorP">the
3183 Mailpile</a> and <a href="http://dee.su/cables">the Cables</a> systems
3184 propose a similar method / protocol to pass emails between users.</p>
3185
3186 <p>To implement such system one need to set up a Tor hidden service
3187 providing the SMTP protocol on port 25, and use email addresses
3188 looking like username@hidden-service-name.onion.  With such addresses
3189 the connections to port 25 on hidden-service-name.onion using Tor will
3190 go to the correct SMTP server.  To do this, one need to configure the
3191 Tor daemon to provide the hidden service and the mail server to accept
3192 emails for this .onion domain.  To learn more about Exim configuration
3193 in Debian and test the design provided by Johannes Berg in his FAQ, I
3194 set out yesterday to create a Debian package for making it trivial to
3195 set up such SMTP over Tor service based on Debian.  Getting it to work
3196 were fairly easy, and
3197 <a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/exim4-smtorp">the
3198 source code for the Debian package</a> is available from github.  I
3199 plan to move it into Debian if further testing prove this to be a
3200 useful approach.</p>
3201
3202 <p>If you want to test this, set up a blank Debian machine without any
3203 mail system installed (or run <tt>apt-get purge exim4-config</tt> to
3204 get rid of exim4).  Install tor, clone the git repository mentioned
3205 above, build the deb and install it on the machine.  Next, run
3206 <tt>/usr/lib/exim4-smtorp/setup-exim-hidden-service</tt> and follow
3207 the instructions to get the service up and running.  Restart tor and
3208 exim when it is done, and test mail delivery using swaks like
3209 this:</p>
3210
3211 <p><blockquote><pre>
3212 torsocks swaks --server dutlqrrmjhtfa3vp.onion \
3213   --to fbx@dutlqrrmjhtfa3vp.onion
3214 </pre></blockquote></p>
3215
3216 <p>This will test the SMTP delivery using tor.  Replace the email
3217 address with your own address to test your server. :)</p>
3218
3219 <p>The setup procedure is still to complex, and I hope it can be made
3220 easier and more automatic.  Especially the tor setup need more work.
3221 Also, the package include a tor-smtp tool written in C, but its task
3222 should probably be rewritten in some script language to make the deb
3223 architecture independent.  It would probably also make the code easier
3224 to review.  The tor-smtp tool currently need to listen on a socket for
3225 exim to talk to it and is started using xinetd.  It would be better if
3226 no daemon and no socket is needed.  I suspect it is possible to get
3227 exim to run a command line tool for delivery instead of talking to a
3228 socket, and hope to figure out how in a future version of this
3229 system.</p>
3230
3231 <p>Until I wipe my test machine, I can be reached using the
3232 <tt>fbx@dutlqrrmjhtfa3vp.onion</tt> mail address, deliverable over
3233 SMTorP. :)</p>
3234
3235       </div>
3236       <div class="tags">
3237
3238
3239         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freedombox">freedombox</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/personvern">personvern</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance</a>.
3240
3241
3242       </div>
3243     </div>
3244     <div class="padding"></div>
3245
3246     <div class="entry">
3247       <div class="title">
3248         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/listadmin__the_quick_way_to_moderate_mailman_lists___nice_free_software.html">listadmin, the quick way to moderate mailman lists - nice free software</a>
3249       </div>
3250       <div class="date">
3251         22nd October 2014
3252       </div>
3253       <div class="body">
3254         <p>If you ever had to moderate a mailman list, like the ones on
3255 alioth.debian.org, you know the web interface is fairly slow to
3256 operate.  First you visit one web page, enter the moderation password
3257 and get a new page shown with a list of all the messages to moderate
3258 and various options for each email address.  This take a while for
3259 every list you moderate, and you need to do it regularly to do a good
3260 job as a list moderator.  But there is a quick alternative,
3261 <a href="http://heim.ifi.uio.no/kjetilho/hacks/#listadmin">the
3262 listadmin program</a>.  It allow you to check lists for new messages
3263 to moderate in a fraction of a second.  Here is a test run on two
3264 lists I recently took over:</p>
3265
3266 <p><blockquote><pre>
3267 % time listadmin xiph
3268 fetching data for pkg-xiph-commits@lists.alioth.debian.org ... nothing in queue
3269 fetching data for pkg-xiph-maint@lists.alioth.debian.org ... nothing in queue
3270
3271 real    0m1.709s
3272 user    0m0.232s
3273 sys     0m0.012s
3274 %
3275 </pre></blockquote></p>
3276
3277 <p>In 1.7 seconds I had checked two mailing lists and confirmed that
3278 there are no message in the moderation queue.  Every morning I
3279 currently moderate 68 mailman lists, and it normally take around two
3280 minutes.  When I took over the two pkg-xiph lists above a few days
3281 ago, there were 400 emails waiting in the moderator queue.  It took me
3282 less than 15 minutes to process them all using the listadmin
3283 program.</p>
3284
3285 <p>If you install
3286 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/listadmin">the listadmin
3287 package</a> from Debian and create a file <tt>~/.listadmin.ini</tt>
3288 with content like this, the moderation task is a breeze:</p>
3289
3290 <p><blockquote><pre>
3291 username username@example.org
3292 spamlevel 23
3293 default discard
3294 discard_if_reason "Posting restricted to members only. Remove us from your mail list."
3295
3296 password secret
3297 adminurl https://{domain}/mailman/admindb/{list}
3298 mailman-list@lists.example.com
3299
3300 password hidden
3301 other-list@otherserver.example.org
3302 </pre></blockquote></p>
3303
3304 <p>There are other options to set as well.  Check the manual page to
3305 learn the details.</p>
3306
3307 <p>If you are forced to moderate lists on a mailman installation where
3308 the SSL certificate is self signed or not properly signed by a
3309 generally accepted signing authority, you can set a environment
3310 variable when calling listadmin to disable SSL verification:</p>
3311
3312 <p><blockquote><pre>
3313 PERL_LWP_SSL_VERIFY_HOSTNAME=0 listadmin
3314 </pre></blockquote></p>
3315
3316 <p>If you want to moderate a subset of the lists you take care of, you
3317 can provide an argument to the listadmin script like I do in the
3318 initial screen dump (the xiph argument).  Using an argument, only
3319 lists matching the argument string will be processed.  This make it
3320 quick to accept messages if you notice the moderation request in your
3321 email.</p>
3322
3323 <p>Without the listadmin program, I would never be the moderator of 68
3324 mailing lists, as I simply do not have time to spend on that if the
3325 process was any slower. The listadmin program have saved me hours of
3326 time I could spend elsewhere over the years.  It truly is nice free
3327 software.</p>
3328
3329 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
3330 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
3331 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b&label=PetterReinholdtsenBlog">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
3332
3333 <p>Update 2014-10-27: Added missing 'username' statement in
3334 configuration example.  Also, I've been told that the
3335 PERL_LWP_SSL_VERIFY_HOSTNAME=0 setting do not work for everyone.  Not
3336 sure why.</p>
3337
3338       </div>
3339       <div class="tags">
3340
3341
3342         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nice free software">nice free software</a>.
3343
3344
3345       </div>
3346     </div>
3347     <div class="padding"></div>
3348
3349     <div class="entry">
3350       <div class="title">
3351         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Jessie__PXE_and_automatic_firmware_installation.html">Debian Jessie, PXE and automatic firmware installation</a>
3352       </div>
3353       <div class="date">
3354         17th October 2014
3355       </div>
3356       <div class="body">
3357         <p>When PXE installing laptops with Debian, I often run into the
3358 problem that the WiFi card require some firmware to work properly.
3359 And it has been a pain to fix this using preseeding in Debian.
3360 Normally something more is needed.  But thanks to
3361 <a href="https://packages.qa.debian.org/i/isenkram.html">my isenkram
3362 package</a> and its recent tasksel extension, it has now become easy
3363 to do this using simple preseeding.</p>
3364
3365 <p>The isenkram-cli package provide tasksel tasks which will install
3366 firmware for the hardware found in the machine (actually, requested by
3367 the kernel modules for the hardware).  (It can also install user space
3368 programs supporting the hardware detected, but that is not the focus
3369 of this story.)</p>
3370
3371 <p>To get this working in the default installation, two preeseding
3372 values are needed.  First, the isenkram-cli package must be installed
3373 into the target chroot (aka the hard drive) before tasksel is executed
3374 in the pkgsel step of the debian-installer system.  This is done by
3375 preseeding the base-installer/includes debconf value to include the
3376 isenkram-cli package.  The package name is next passed to debootstrap
3377 for installation.  With the isenkram-cli package in place, tasksel
3378 will automatically use the isenkram tasks to detect hardware specific
3379 packages for the machine being installed and install them, because
3380 isenkram-cli contain tasksel tasks.</p>
3381
3382 <p>Second, one need to enable the non-free APT repository, because
3383 most firmware unfortunately is non-free.  This is done by preseeding
3384 the apt-mirror-setup step.  This is unfortunate, but for a lot of
3385 hardware it is the only option in Debian.</p>
3386
3387 <p>The end result is two lines needed in your preseeding file to get
3388 firmware installed automatically by the installer:</p>
3389
3390 <p><blockquote><pre>
3391 base-installer base-installer/includes string isenkram-cli
3392 apt-mirror-setup apt-setup/non-free boolean true
3393 </pre></blockquote></p>
3394
3395 <p>The current version of isenkram-cli in testing/jessie will install
3396 both firmware and user space packages when using this method.  It also
3397 do not work well, so use version 0.15 or later.  Installing both
3398 firmware and user space packages might give you a bit more than you
3399 want, so I decided to split the tasksel task in two, one for firmware
3400 and one for user space programs.  The firmware task is enabled by
3401 default, while the one for user space programs is not.  This split is
3402 implemented in the package currently in unstable.</p>
3403
3404 <p>If you decide to give this a go, please let me know (via email) how
3405 this recipe work for you. :)</p>
3406
3407 <p>So, I bet you are wondering, how can this work.  First and
3408 foremost, it work because tasksel is modular, and driven by whatever
3409 files it find in /usr/lib/tasksel/ and /usr/share/tasksel/.  So the
3410 isenkram-cli package place two files for tasksel to find.  First there
3411 is the task description file (/usr/share/tasksel/descs/isenkram.desc):</p>
3412
3413 <p><blockquote><pre>
3414 Task: isenkram-packages
3415 Section: hardware
3416 Description: Hardware specific packages (autodetected by isenkram)
3417  Based on the detected hardware various hardware specific packages are
3418  proposed.
3419 Test-new-install: show show
3420 Relevance: 8
3421 Packages: for-current-hardware
3422
3423 Task: isenkram-firmware
3424 Section: hardware
3425 Description: Hardware specific firmware packages (autodetected by isenkram)
3426  Based on the detected hardware various hardware specific firmware
3427  packages are proposed.
3428 Test-new-install: mark show
3429 Relevance: 8
3430 Packages: for-current-hardware-firmware
3431 </pre></blockquote></p>
3432
3433 <p>The key parts are Test-new-install which indicate how the task
3434 should be handled and the Packages line referencing to a script in
3435 /usr/lib/tasksel/packages/.  The scripts use other scripts to get a
3436 list of packages to install.  The for-current-hardware-firmware script
3437 look like this to list relevant firmware for the machine:
3438
3439 <p><blockquote><pre>
3440 #!/bin/sh
3441 #
3442 PATH=/usr/sbin:$PATH
3443 export PATH
3444 isenkram-autoinstall-firmware -l
3445 </pre></blockquote></p>
3446
3447 <p>With those two pieces in place, the firmware is installed by
3448 tasksel during the normal d-i run. :)</p>
3449
3450 <p>If you want to test what tasksel will install when isenkram-cli is
3451 installed, run <tt>DEBIAN_PRIORITY=critical tasksel --test
3452 --new-install</tt> to get the list of packages that tasksel would
3453 install.</p>
3454
3455 <p><a href="https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/">Debian Edu</a> will be
3456 pilots in testing this feature, as isenkram is used there now to
3457 install firmware, replacing the earlier scripts.</p>
3458
3459       </div>
3460       <div class="tags">
3461
3462
3463         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram">isenkram</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sysadmin">sysadmin</a>.
3464
3465
3466       </div>
3467     </div>
3468     <div class="padding"></div>
3469
3470     <div class="entry">
3471       <div class="title">
3472         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Ubuntu_used_to_show_the_bread_prizes_at_ICA_Storo.html">Ubuntu used to show the bread prizes at ICA Storo</a>
3473       </div>
3474       <div class="date">
3475          4th October 2014
3476       </div>
3477       <div class="body">
3478         <p>Today I came across an unexpected Ubuntu boot screen.  Above the
3479 bread shelf on the ICA shop at Storo in Oslo, the grub menu of Ubuntu
3480 with Linux kernel 3.2.0-23 (ie probably version 12.04 LTS) was stuck
3481 on a screen normally showing the bread types and prizes:</p>
3482
3483 <p align="center"><img width="70%" src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2014-10-04-ubuntu-ica-storo-crop.jpeg"></p>
3484
3485 <p>If it had booted as it was supposed to, I would never had known
3486 about this hidden Linux installation.  It is interesting what
3487 <a href="http://revealingerrors.com/">errors can reveal</a>.</p>
3488
3489       </div>
3490       <div class="tags">
3491
3492
3493         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
3494
3495
3496       </div>
3497     </div>
3498     <div class="padding"></div>
3499
3500     <div class="entry">
3501       <div class="title">
3502         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/New_lsdvd_release_version_0_17_is_ready.html">New lsdvd release version 0.17 is ready</a>
3503       </div>
3504       <div class="date">
3505          4th October 2014
3506       </div>
3507       <div class="body">
3508         <p>The <a href="https://sourceforge.net/p/lsdvd/">lsdvd project</a>
3509 got a new set of developers a few weeks ago, after the original
3510 developer decided to step down and pass the project to fresh blood.
3511 This project is now maintained by Petter Reinholdtsen and Steve
3512 Dibb.</p>
3513
3514 <p>I just wrapped up
3515 <a href="https://sourceforge.net/p/lsdvd/mailman/message/32896061/">a
3516 new lsdvd release</a>, available in git or from
3517 <a href="https://sourceforge.net/projects/lsdvd/files/lsdvd/">the
3518 download page</a>.  This is the changelog dated 2014-10-03 for version
3519 0.17.</p>
3520
3521 <ul>
3522
3523  <li>Ignore 'phantom' audio, subtitle tracks</li>
3524  <li>Check for garbage in the program chains, which indicate that a track is
3525    non-existant, to work around additional copy protection</li>
3526  <li>Fix displaying content type for audio tracks, subtitles</li>
3527  <li>Fix pallete display of first entry</li>
3528  <li>Fix include orders</li>
3529  <li>Ignore read errors in titles that would not be displayed anyway</li>
3530  <li>Fix the chapter count</li>
3531  <li>Make sure the array size and the array limit used when initialising
3532    the palette size is the same.</li>
3533  <li>Fix array printing.</li>
3534  <li>Correct subsecond calculations.</li>
3535  <li>Add sector information to the output format.</li>
3536  <li>Clean up code to be closer to ANSI C and compile without warnings
3537    with more GCC compiler warnings.</li>
3538
3539 </ul>
3540
3541 <p>This change bring together patches for lsdvd in use in various
3542 Linux and Unix distributions, as well as patches submitted to the
3543 project the last nine years.  Please check it out. :)</p>
3544
3545       </div>
3546       <div class="tags">
3547
3548
3549         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/lsdvd">lsdvd</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/multimedia">multimedia</a>.
3550
3551
3552       </div>
3553     </div>
3554     <div class="padding"></div>
3555
3556     <div class="entry">
3557       <div class="title">
3558         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_test_Debian_Edu_Jessie_despite_some_fatal_problems_with_the_installer.html">How to test Debian Edu Jessie despite some fatal problems with the installer</a>
3559       </div>
3560       <div class="date">
3561         26th September 2014
3562       </div>
3563       <div class="body">
3564         <p>The <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux
3565 project</a> provide a Linux solution for schools, including a
3566 powerful desktop with education software, a central server providing
3567 web pages, user database, user home directories, central login and PXE
3568 boot of both  clients without disk and the installation to install Debian
3569 Edu on machines with disk (and a few other services perhaps to small
3570 to mention here).  We in the Debian Edu team are currently working on
3571 the Jessie based version, trying to get everything in shape before the
3572 freeze, to avoid having to maintain our own package repository in the
3573 future.  The
3574 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Status/Jessie">current
3575 status</a> can be seen on the Debian wiki, and there is still heaps of
3576 work left.  Some fatal problems block testing, breaking the installer,
3577 but it is possible to work around these to get anyway.  Here is a
3578 recipe on how to get the installation limping along.</p>
3579
3580 <p>First, download the test ISO via
3581 <a href="ftp://ftp.skolelinux.no/cd-edu-testing-nolocal-netinst/debian-edu-amd64-i386-NETINST-1.iso">ftp</a>,
3582 <a href="http://ftp.skolelinux.no/cd-edu-testing-nolocal-netinst/debian-edu-amd64-i386-NETINST-1.iso">http</a>
3583 or rsync (use
3584 ftp.skolelinux.org::cd-edu-testing-nolocal-netinst/debian-edu-amd64-i386-NETINST-1.iso).
3585 The ISO build was broken on Tuesday, so we do not get a new ISO every
3586 12 hours or so, but thankfully the ISO we already got we are able to
3587 install with some tweaking.</p>
3588
3589 <p>When you get to the Debian Edu profile question, go to tty2
3590 (use Alt-Ctrl-F2), run</p>
3591
3592 <p><blockquote><pre>
3593 nano /usr/bin/edu-eatmydata-install
3594 </pre></blockquote></p>
3595
3596 <p>and add 'exit 0' as the second line, disabling the eatmydata
3597 optimization.  Return to the installation, select the profile you want
3598 and continue.  Without this change, exim4-config will fail to install
3599 due to a known bug in eatmydata.</p>
3600
3601 <p>When you get the grub question at the end, answer /dev/sda (or if
3602 this do not work, figure out what your correct value would be.  All my
3603 test machines need /dev/sda, so I have no advice if it do not fit
3604 your need.</p>
3605
3606 <p>If you installed a profile including a graphical desktop, log in as
3607 root after the initial boot from hard drive, and install the
3608 education-desktop-XXX metapackage.  XXX can be kde, gnome, lxde, xfce
3609 or mate.  If you want several desktop options, install more than one
3610 metapackage.  Once this is done, reboot and you should have a working
3611 graphical login screen.  This workaround should no longer be needed
3612 once the education-tasks package version 1.801 enter testing in two
3613 days.</p>
3614
3615 <p>I believe the ISO build will start working on two days when the new
3616 tasksel package enter testing and Steve McIntyre get a chance to
3617 update the debian-cd git repository.  The eatmydata, grub and desktop
3618 issues are already fixed in unstable and testing, and should show up
3619 on the ISO as soon as the ISO build start working again.  Well the
3620 eatmydata optimization is really just disabled.  The proper fix
3621 require an upload by the eatmydata maintainer applying the patch
3622 provided in bug <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/702711">#702711</a>.
3623 The rest have proper fixes in unstable.</p>
3624
3625 <p>I hope this get you going with the installation testing, as we are
3626 quickly running out of time trying to get our Jessie based
3627 installation ready before the distribution freeze in a month.</p>
3628
3629       </div>
3630       <div class="tags">
3631
3632
3633         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
3634
3635
3636       </div>
3637     </div>
3638     <div class="padding"></div>
3639
3640     <div class="entry">
3641       <div class="title">
3642         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Suddenly_I_am_the_new_upstream_of_the_lsdvd_command_line_tool.html">Suddenly I am the new upstream of the lsdvd command line tool</a>
3643       </div>
3644       <div class="date">
3645         25th September 2014
3646       </div>
3647       <div class="body">
3648         <p>I use the <a href="https://sourceforge.net/p/lsdvd/">lsdvd tool</a>
3649 to handle my fairly large DVD collection.  It is a nice command line
3650 tool to get details about a DVD, like title, tracks, track length,
3651 etc, in XML, Perl or human readable format.  But lsdvd have not seen
3652 any new development since 2006 and had a few irritating bugs affecting
3653 its use with some DVDs.  Upstream seemed to be dead, and in January I
3654 sent a small probe asking for a version control repository for the
3655 project, without any reply.  But I use it regularly and would like to
3656 get <a href="https://packages.qa.debian.org/lsdvd">an updated version
3657 into Debian</a>.  So two weeks ago I tried harder to get in touch with
3658 the project admin, and after getting a reply from him explaining that
3659 he was no longer interested in the project, I asked if I could take
3660 over.  And yesterday, I became project admin.</p>
3661
3662 <p>I've been in touch with a Gentoo developer and the Debian
3663 maintainer interested in joining forces to maintain the upstream
3664 project, and I hope we can get a new release out fairly quickly,
3665 collecting the patches spread around on the internet into on place.
3666 I've added the relevant Debian patches to the freshly created git
3667 repository, and expect the Gentoo patches to make it too.  If you got
3668 a DVD collection and care about command line tools, check out
3669 <a href="https://sourceforge.net/p/lsdvd/git/ci/master/tree/">the git source</a> and join
3670 <a href="https://sourceforge.net/p/lsdvd/mailman/">the project mailing
3671 list</a>. :)</p>
3672
3673       </div>
3674       <div class="tags">
3675
3676
3677         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/lsdvd">lsdvd</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/multimedia">multimedia</a>.
3678
3679
3680       </div>
3681     </div>
3682     <div class="padding"></div>
3683
3684     <div class="entry">
3685       <div class="title">
3686         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Speeding_up_the_Debian_installer_using_eatmydata_and_dpkg_divert.html">Speeding up the Debian installer using eatmydata and dpkg-divert</a>
3687       </div>
3688       <div class="date">
3689         16th September 2014
3690       </div>
3691       <div class="body">
3692         <p>The <a href="https://www.debian.org/">Debian</a> installer could be
3693 a lot quicker.  When we install more than 2000 packages in
3694 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Skolelinux / Debian Edu</a> using
3695 tasksel in the installer, unpacking the binary packages take forever.
3696 A part of the slow I/O issue was discussed in
3697 <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/613428">bug #613428</a> about too
3698 much file system sync-ing done by dpkg, which is the package
3699 responsible for unpacking the binary packages.  Other parts (like code
3700 executed by postinst scripts) might also sync to disk during
3701 installation.  All this sync-ing to disk do not really make sense to
3702 me.  If the machine crash half-way through, I start over, I do not try
3703 to salvage the half installed system.  So the failure sync-ing is
3704 supposed to protect against, hardware or system crash, is not really
3705 relevant while the installer is running.</p>
3706
3707 <p>A few days ago, I thought of a way to get rid of all the file
3708 system sync()-ing in a fairly non-intrusive way, without the need to
3709 change the code in several packages.  The idea is not new, but I have
3710 not heard anyone propose the approach using dpkg-divert before.  It
3711 depend on the small and clever package
3712 <a href="https://packages.qa.debian.org/eatmydata">eatmydata</a>, which
3713 uses LD_PRELOAD to replace the system functions for syncing data to
3714 disk with functions doing nothing, thus allowing programs to live
3715 dangerous while speeding up disk I/O significantly.  Instead of
3716 modifying the implementation of dpkg, apt and tasksel (which are the
3717 packages responsible for selecting, fetching and installing packages),
3718 it occurred to me that we could just divert the programs away, replace
3719 them with a simple shell wrapper calling
3720 "eatmydata&nbsp;$program&nbsp;$@", to get the same effect.
3721 Two days ago I decided to test the idea, and wrapped up a simple
3722 implementation for the Debian Edu udeb.</p>
3723
3724 <p>The effect was stunning.  In my first test it reduced the running
3725 time of the pkgsel step (installing tasks) from 64 to less than 44
3726 minutes (20 minutes shaved off the installation) on an old Dell
3727 Latitude D505 machine.  I am not quite sure what the optimised time
3728 would have been, as I messed up the testing a bit, causing the debconf
3729 priority to get low enough for two questions to pop up during
3730 installation.  As soon as I saw the questions I moved the installation
3731 along, but do not know how long the question were holding up the
3732 installation.  I did some more measurements using Debian Edu Jessie,
3733 and got these results.  The time measured is the time stamp in
3734 /var/log/syslog between the "pkgsel: starting tasksel" and the
3735 "pkgsel: finishing up" lines, if you want to do the same measurement
3736 yourself.  In Debian Edu, the tasksel dialog do not show up, and the
3737 timing thus do not depend on how quickly the user handle the tasksel
3738 dialog.</p>
3739
3740 <p><table>
3741
3742 <tr>
3743 <th>Machine/setup</th>
3744 <th>Original tasksel</th>
3745 <th>Optimised tasksel</th>
3746 <th>Reduction</th>
3747 </tr>
3748
3749 <tr>
3750 <td>Latitude D505 Main+LTSP LXDE</td>
3751 <td>64 min (07:46-08:50)</td>
3752 <td><44 min (11:27-12:11)</td>
3753 <td>>20 min 18%</td>
3754 </tr>
3755
3756 <tr>
3757 <td>Latitude D505 Roaming LXDE</td>
3758 <td>57 min (08:48-09:45)</td>
3759 <td>34 min (07:43-08:17)</td>
3760 <td>23 min 40%</td>
3761 </tr>
3762
3763 <tr>
3764 <td>Latitude D505 Minimal</td>
3765 <td>22 min (10:37-10:59)</td>
3766 <td>11 min (11:16-11:27)</td>
3767 <td>11 min 50%</td>
3768 </tr>
3769
3770 <tr>
3771 <td>Thinkpad X200 Minimal</td>
3772 <td>6 min (08:19-08:25)</td>
3773 <td>4 min (08:04-08:08)</td>
3774 <td>2 min 33%</td>
3775 </tr>
3776
3777 <tr>
3778 <td>Thinkpad X200 Roaming KDE</td>
3779 <td>19 min (09:21-09:40)</td>
3780 <td>15 min (10:25-10:40)</td>
3781 <td>4 min 21%</td>
3782 </tr>
3783
3784 </table></p>
3785
3786 <p>The test is done using a netinst ISO on a USB stick, so some of the
3787 time is spent downloading packages.  The connection to the Internet
3788 was 100Mbit/s during testing, so downloading should not be a
3789 significant factor in the measurement.  Download typically took a few
3790 seconds to a few minutes, depending on the amount of packages being
3791 installed.</p>
3792
3793 <p>The speedup is implemented by using two hooks in
3794 <a href="https://www.debian.org/devel/debian-installer/">Debian
3795 Installer</a>, the pre-pkgsel.d hook to set up the diverts, and the
3796 finish-install.d hook to remove the divert at the end of the
3797 installation.  I picked the pre-pkgsel.d hook instead of the
3798 post-base-installer.d hook because I test using an ISO without the
3799 eatmydata package included, and the post-base-installer.d hook in
3800 Debian Edu can only operate on packages included in the ISO.  The
3801 negative effect of this is that I am unable to activate this
3802 optimization for the kernel installation step in d-i.  If the code is
3803 moved to the post-base-installer.d hook, the speedup would be larger
3804 for the entire installation.</p>
3805
3806 <p>I've implemented this in the
3807 <a href="https://packages.qa.debian.org/debian-edu-install">debian-edu-install</a>
3808 git repository, and plan to provide the optimization as part of the
3809 Debian Edu installation.  If you want to test this yourself, you can
3810 create two files in the installer (or in an udeb).  One shell script
3811 need do go into /usr/lib/pre-pkgsel.d/, with content like this:</p>
3812
3813 <p><blockquote><pre>
3814 #!/bin/sh
3815 set -e
3816 . /usr/share/debconf/confmodule
3817 info() {
3818     logger -t my-pkgsel "info: $*"
3819 }
3820 error() {
3821     logger -t my-pkgsel "error: $*"
3822 }
3823 override_install() {
3824     apt-install eatmydata || true
3825     if [ -x /target/usr/bin/eatmydata ] ; then
3826         for bin in dpkg apt-get aptitude tasksel ; do
3827             file=/usr/bin/$bin
3828             # Test that the file exist and have not been diverted already.
3829             if [ -f /target$file ] ; then
3830                 info "diverting $file using eatmydata"
3831                 printf "#!/bin/sh\neatmydata $bin.distrib \"\$@\"\n" \
3832                     > /target$file.edu
3833                 chmod 755 /target$file.edu
3834                 in-target dpkg-divert --package debian-edu-config \
3835                     --rename --quiet --add $file
3836                 ln -sf ./$bin.edu /target$file
3837             else
3838                 error "unable to divert $file, as it is missing."
3839             fi
3840         done
3841     else
3842         error "unable to find /usr/bin/eatmydata after installing the eatmydata pacage"
3843     fi
3844 }
3845
3846 override_install
3847 </pre></blockquote></p>
3848
3849 <p>To clean up, another shell script should go into
3850 /usr/lib/finish-install.d/ with code like this:
3851
3852 <p><blockquote><pre>
3853 #! /bin/sh -e
3854 . /usr/share/debconf/confmodule
3855 error() {
3856     logger -t my-finish-install "error: $@"
3857 }
3858 remove_install_override() {
3859     for bin in dpkg apt-get aptitude tasksel ; do
3860         file=/usr/bin/$bin
3861         if [ -x /target$file.edu ] ; then
3862             rm /target$file
3863             in-target dpkg-divert --package debian-edu-config \
3864                 --rename --quiet --remove $file
3865             rm /target$file.edu
3866         else
3867             error "Missing divert for $file."
3868         fi
3869     done
3870     sync # Flush file buffers before continuing
3871 }
3872
3873 remove_install_override
3874 </pre></blockquote></p>
3875
3876 <p>In Debian Edu, I placed both code fragments in a separate script
3877 edu-eatmydata-install and call it from the pre-pkgsel.d and
3878 finish-install.d scripts.</p>
3879
3880 <p>By now you might ask if this change should get into the normal
3881 Debian installer too?  I suspect it should, but am not sure the
3882 current debian-installer coordinators find it useful enough.  It also
3883 depend on the side effects of the change.  I'm not aware of any, but I
3884 guess we will see if the change is safe after some more testing.
3885 Perhaps there is some package in Debian depending on sync() and
3886 fsync() having effect?  Perhaps it should go into its own udeb, to
3887 allow those of us wanting to enable it to do so without affecting
3888 everyone.</p>
3889
3890 <p>Update 2014-09-24: Since a few days ago, enabling this optimization
3891 will break installation of all programs using gnutls because of
3892 <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/702711">bug #702711</a>.  An updated
3893 eatmydata package in Debian will solve it.</p>
3894
3895 <p>Update 2014-10-17: The bug mentioned above is fixed in testing and
3896 the optimization work again.  And I have discovered that the
3897 dpkg-divert trick is not really needed and implemented a slightly
3898 simpler approach as part of the debian-edu-install package.  See
3899 tools/edu-eatmydata-install in the source package.</p>
3900
3901 <p>Update 2014-11-11: Unfortunately, a new
3902 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/765738">bug #765738</a> in eatmydata only
3903 triggering on i386 made it into testing, and broke this installation
3904 optimization again.  If <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/768893">unblock
3905 request 768893</a> is accepted, it should be working again.</p>
3906
3907       </div>
3908       <div class="tags">
3909
3910
3911         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
3912
3913
3914       </div>
3915     </div>
3916     <div class="padding"></div>
3917
3918     <div class="entry">
3919       <div class="title">
3920         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Good_bye_subkeys_pgp_net__welcome_pool_sks_keyservers_net.html">Good bye subkeys.pgp.net, welcome pool.sks-keyservers.net</a>
3921       </div>
3922       <div class="date">
3923         10th September 2014
3924       </div>
3925       <div class="body">
3926         <p>Yesterday, I had the pleasure of attending a talk with the
3927 <a href="http://www.nuug.no/">Norwegian Unix User Group</a> about
3928 <a href="http://www.nuug.no/aktiviteter/20140909-sks-keyservers/">the
3929 OpenPGP keyserver pool sks-keyservers.net</a>, and was very happy to
3930 learn that there is a large set of publicly available key servers to
3931 use when looking for peoples public key.  So far I have used
3932 subkeys.pgp.net, and some times wwwkeys.nl.pgp.net when the former
3933 were misbehaving, but those days are ended.  The servers I have used
3934 up until yesterday have been slow and some times unavailable.  I hope
3935 those problems are gone now.</p>
3936
3937 <p>Behind the round robin DNS entry of the
3938 <a href="https://sks-keyservers.net/">sks-keyservers.net</a> service
3939 there is a pool of more than 100 keyservers which are checked every
3940 day to ensure they are well connected and up to date.  It must be
3941 better than what I have used so far. :)</p>
3942
3943 <p>Yesterdays speaker told me that the service is the default
3944 keyserver provided by the default configuration in GnuPG, but this do
3945 not seem to be used in Debian.  Perhaps it should?</p>
3946
3947 <p>Anyway, I've updated my ~/.gnupg/options file to now include this
3948 line:</p>
3949
3950 <p><blockquote><pre>
3951 keyserver pool.sks-keyservers.net
3952 </pre></blockquote></p>
3953
3954 <p>With GnuPG version 2 one can also locate the keyserver using SRV
3955 entries in DNS.  Just for fun, I did just that at work, so now every
3956 user of GnuPG at the University of Oslo should find a OpenGPG
3957 keyserver automatically should their need it:</p>
3958
3959 <p><blockquote><pre>
3960 % host -t srv _pgpkey-http._tcp.uio.no
3961 _pgpkey-http._tcp.uio.no has SRV record 0 100 11371 pool.sks-keyservers.net.
3962 %
3963 </pre></blockquote></p>
3964
3965 <p>Now if only
3966 <a href="http://ietfreport.isoc.org/idref/draft-shaw-openpgp-hkp/">the
3967 HKP lookup protocol</a> supported finding signature paths, I would be
3968 very happy.  It can look up a given key or search for a user ID, but I
3969 normally do not want that, but to find a trust path from my key to
3970 another key.  Given a user ID or key ID, I would like to find (and
3971 download) the keys representing a signature path from my key to the
3972 key in question, to be able to get a trust path between the two keys.
3973 This is as far as I can tell not possible today.  Perhaps something
3974 for a future version of the protocol?</p>
3975
3976       </div>
3977       <div class="tags">
3978
3979
3980         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/personvern">personvern</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet</a>.
3981
3982
3983       </div>
3984     </div>
3985     <div class="padding"></div>
3986
3987     <div class="entry">
3988       <div class="title">
3989         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/From_English_wiki_to_translated_PDF_and_epub_via_Docbook.html">From English wiki to translated PDF and epub via Docbook</a>
3990       </div>
3991       <div class="date">
3992         17th June 2014
3993       </div>
3994       <div class="body">
3995         <p>The <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux
3996 project</a> provide an instruction manual for teachers, system
3997 administrators and other users that contain useful tips for setting up
3998 and maintaining a Debian Edu installation.  This text is about how the
3999 text processing of this manual is handled in the project.</p>
4000
4001 <p>One goal of the project is to provide information in the native
4002 language of its users, and for this we need to handle translations.
4003 But we also want to make sure each language contain the same
4004 information, so for this we need a good way to keep the translations
4005 in sync.  And we want it to be easy for our users to improve the
4006 documentation, avoiding the need to learn special formats or tools to
4007 contribute, and the obvious way to do this is to make it possible to
4008 edit the documentation using a web browser.  We also want it to be
4009 easy for translators to keep the translation up to date, and give them
4010 help in figuring out what need to be translated. Here is the list of
4011 tools and the process we have found trying to reach all these
4012 goals.</p>
4013
4014 <p>We maintain the authoritative source of our manual in the
4015 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Documentation/Wheezy/">Debian
4016 wiki</a>, as several wiki pages written in English.  It consist of one
4017 front page with references to the different chapters, several pages
4018 for each chapter, and finally one "collection page" gluing all the
4019 chapters together into one large web page (aka
4020 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Documentation/Wheezy/AllInOne">the
4021 AllInOne page</a>).  The AllInOne page is the one used for further
4022 processing and translations.  Thanks to the fact that the
4023 <a href="http://moinmo.in/">MoinMoin</a> installation on
4024 wiki.debian.org support exporting pages in
4025 <a href="http://www.docbook.org/">the Docbook format</a>, we can fetch
4026 the list of pages to export using the raw version of the AllInOne
4027 page, loop over each of them to generate a Docbook XML version of the
4028 manual.  This process also download images and transform image
4029 references to use the locally downloaded images.  The generated
4030 Docbook XML files are slightly broken, so some post-processing is done
4031 using the <tt>documentation/scripts/get_manual</tt> program, and the
4032 result is a nice Docbook XML file (debian-edu-wheezy-manual.xml) and
4033 a handfull of images.  The XML file can now be used to generate PDF, HTML
4034 and epub versions of the English manual.  This is the basic step of
4035 our process, making PDF (using dblatex), HTML (using xsltproc) and
4036 epub (using dbtoepub) version from Docbook XML, and the resulting files
4037 are placed in the debian-edu-doc-en binary package.</p>
4038
4039 <p>But English documentation is not enough for us.  We want translated
4040 documentation too, and we want to make it easy for translators to
4041 track the English original.  For this we use the
4042 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/p/poxml.html">poxml</a> package,
4043 which allow us to transform the English Docbook XML file into a
4044 translation file (a .pot file), usable with the normal gettext based
4045 translation tools used by those translating free software.  The pot
4046 file is used to create and maintain translation files (several .po
4047 files), which the translations update with the native language
4048 translations of all titles, paragraphs and blocks of text in the
4049 original.  The next step is combining the original English Docbook XML
4050 and the translation file (say debian-edu-wheezy-manual.nb.po), to
4051 create a translated Docbook XML file (in this case
4052 debian-edu-wheezy-manual.nb.xml).  This translated (or partly
4053 translated, if the translation is not complete) Docbook XML file can
4054 then be used like the original to create a PDF, HTML and epub version
4055 of the documentation.</p>
4056
4057 <p>The translators use different tools to edit the .po files.  We
4058 recommend using
4059 <a href="http://www.kde.org/applications/development/lokalize/">lokalize</a>,
4060 while some use emacs and vi, others can use web based editors like
4061 <a href="http://pootle.translatehouse.org/">Poodle</a> or
4062 <a href="https://www.transifex.com/">Transifex</a>.  All we care about
4063 is where the .po file end up, in our git repository.  Updated
4064 translations can either be committed directly to git, or submitted as
4065 <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/src:debian-edu-doc">bug reports
4066 against the debian-edu-doc package</a>.</p>
4067
4068 <p>One challenge is images, which both might need to be translated (if
4069 they show translated user applications), and are needed in different
4070 formats when creating PDF and HTML versions (epub is a HTML version in
4071 this regard).  For this we transform the original PNG images to the
4072 needed density and format during build, and have a way to provide
4073 translated images by storing translated versions in
4074 images/$LANGUAGECODE/.  I am a bit unsure about the details here.  The
4075 package maintainers know more.</p>
4076
4077 <p>If you wonder what the result look like, we provide
4078 <a href="http://maintainer.skolelinux.org/debian-edu-doc/">the content
4079 of the documentation packages on the web</a>.  See for example the
4080 <a href="http://maintainer.skolelinux.org/debian-edu-doc/it/debian-edu-wheezy-manual.pdf">Italian
4081 PDF version</a> or the
4082 <a href="http://maintainer.skolelinux.org/debian-edu-doc/de/debian-edu-wheezy-manual.html">German
4083 HTML version</a>.  We do not yet build the epub version by default,
4084 but perhaps it will be done in the future.</p>
4085
4086 <p>To learn more, check out
4087 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/d/debian-edu-doc.html">the
4088 debian-edu-doc package</a>,
4089 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Documentation/Wheezy/">the
4090 manual on the wiki</a> and
4091 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Documentation/Wheezy/Translations">the
4092 translation instructions</a> in the manual.</p>
4093
4094       </div>
4095       <div class="tags">
4096
4097
4098         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/docbook">docbook</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
4099
4100
4101       </div>
4102     </div>
4103     <div class="padding"></div>
4104
4105     <div class="entry">
4106       <div class="title">
4107         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Install_hardware_dependent_packages_using_tasksel__Isenkram_0_7_.html">Install hardware dependent packages using tasksel (Isenkram 0.7)</a>
4108       </div>
4109       <div class="date">
4110         23rd April 2014
4111       </div>
4112       <div class="body">
4113         <p>It would be nice if it was easier in Debian to get all the hardware
4114 related packages relevant for the computer installed automatically.
4115 So I implemented one, using
4116 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/isenkram">my Isenkram
4117 package</a>.  To use it, install the tasksel and isenkram packages and
4118 run tasksel as user root.  You should be presented with a new option,
4119 "Hardware specific packages (autodetected by isenkram)".  When you
4120 select it, tasksel will install the packages isenkram claim is fit for
4121 the current hardware, hot pluggable or not.<p>
4122
4123 <p>The implementation is in two files, one is the tasksel menu entry
4124 description, and the other is the script used to extract the list of
4125 packages to install.  The first part is in
4126 <tt>/usr/share/tasksel/descs/isenkram.desc</tt> and look like
4127 this:</p>
4128
4129 <p><blockquote><pre>
4130 Task: isenkram
4131 Section: hardware
4132 Description: Hardware specific packages (autodetected by isenkram)
4133  Based on the detected hardware various hardware specific packages are
4134  proposed.
4135 Test-new-install: mark show
4136 Relevance: 8
4137 Packages: for-current-hardware
4138 </pre></blockquote></p>
4139
4140 <p>The second part is in
4141 <tt>/usr/lib/tasksel/packages/for-current-hardware</tt> and look like
4142 this:</p>
4143
4144 <p><blockquote><pre>
4145 #!/bin/sh
4146 #
4147 (
4148     isenkram-lookup
4149     isenkram-autoinstall-firmware -l
4150 ) | sort -u
4151 </pre></blockquote></p>
4152
4153 <p>All in all, a very short and simple implementation making it
4154 trivial to install the hardware dependent package we all may want to
4155 have installed on our machines.  I've not been able to find a way to
4156 get tasksel to tell you exactly which packages it plan to install
4157 before doing the installation.  So if you are curious or careful,
4158 check the output from the isenkram-* command line tools first.</p>
4159
4160 <p>The information about which packages are handling which hardware is
4161 fetched either from the isenkram package itself in
4162 /usr/share/isenkram/, from git.debian.org or from the APT package
4163 database (using the Modaliases header).  The APT package database
4164 parsing have caused a nasty resource leak in the isenkram daemon (bugs
4165 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/719837">#719837</a> and
4166 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/730704">#730704</a>).  The cause is in
4167 the python-apt code (bug
4168 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/745487">#745487</a>), but using a
4169 workaround I was able to get rid of the file descriptor leak and
4170 reduce the memory leak from ~30 MiB per hardware detection down to
4171 around 2 MiB per hardware detection.  It should make the desktop
4172 daemon a lot more useful.  The fix is in version 0.7 uploaded to
4173 unstable today.</p>
4174
4175 <p>I believe the current way of mapping hardware to packages in
4176 Isenkram is is a good draft, but in the future I expect isenkram to
4177 use the AppStream data source for this.  A proposal for getting proper
4178 AppStream support into Debian is floating around as
4179 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/DEP-11">DEP-11</a>, and
4180 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/SummerOfCode2014/Projects#SummerOfCode2014.2FProjects.2FAppStreamDEP11Implementation.AppStream.2FDEP-11_for_the_Debian_Archive">GSoC
4181 project</a> will take place this summer to improve the situation.  I
4182 look forward to seeing the result, and welcome patches for isenkram to
4183 start using the information when it is ready.</p>
4184
4185 <p>If you want your package to map to some specific hardware, either
4186 add a "Xb-Modaliases" header to your control file like I did in
4187 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/pymissile">the pymissile
4188 package</a> or submit a bug report with the details to the isenkram
4189 package.  See also
4190 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram/">all my
4191 blog posts tagged isenkram</a> for details on the notation.  I expect
4192 the information will be migrated to AppStream eventually, but for the
4193 moment I got no better place to store it.</p>
4194
4195       </div>
4196       <div class="tags">
4197
4198
4199         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram">isenkram</a>.
4200
4201
4202       </div>
4203     </div>
4204     <div class="padding"></div>
4205
4206     <div class="entry">
4207       <div class="title">
4208         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/FreedomBox_milestone___all_packages_now_in_Debian_Sid.html">FreedomBox milestone - all packages now in Debian Sid</a>
4209       </div>
4210       <div class="date">
4211         15th April 2014
4212       </div>
4213       <div class="body">
4214         <p>The <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/FreedomBox">Freedombox
4215 project</a> is working on providing the software and hardware to make
4216 it easy for non-technical people to host their data and communication
4217 at home, and being able to communicate with their friends and family
4218 encrypted and away from prying eyes.  It is still going strong, and
4219 today a major mile stone was reached.</p>
4220
4221 <p>Today, the last of the packages currently used by the project to
4222 created the system images were accepted into Debian Unstable.  It was
4223 the freedombox-setup package, which is used to configure the images
4224 during build and on the first boot.  Now all one need to get going is
4225 the build code from the freedom-maker git repository and packages from
4226 Debian.  And once the freedombox-setup package enter testing, we can
4227 build everything directly from Debian. :)</p>
4228
4229 <p>Some key packages used by Freedombox are
4230 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/freedombox-setup">freedombox-setup</a>,
4231 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/plinth">plinth</a>,
4232 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/pagekite">pagekite</a>,
4233 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/tor">tor</a>,
4234 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/privoxy">privoxy</a>,
4235 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/owncloud">owncloud</a> and
4236 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/dnsmasq">dnsmasq</a>.  There
4237 are plans to integrate more packages into the setup.  User
4238 documentation is maintained on the Debian wiki.  Please
4239 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/FreedomBox/Manual/Jessie">check out
4240 the manual</a> and help us improve it.</p>
4241
4242 <p>To test for yourself and create boot images with the FreedomBox
4243 setup, run this on a Debian machine using a user with sudo rights to
4244 become root:</p>
4245
4246 <p><pre>
4247 sudo apt-get install git vmdebootstrap mercurial python-docutils \
4248   mktorrent extlinux virtualbox qemu-user-static binfmt-support \
4249   u-boot-tools
4250 git clone http://anonscm.debian.org/git/freedombox/freedom-maker.git \
4251   freedom-maker
4252 make -C freedom-maker dreamplug-image raspberry-image virtualbox-image
4253 </pre></p>
4254
4255 <p>Root access is needed to run debootstrap and mount loopback
4256 devices.  See the README in the freedom-maker git repo for more
4257 details on the build.  If you do not want all three images, trim the
4258 make line.  Note that the virtualbox-image target is not really
4259 virtualbox specific.  It create a x86 image usable in kvm, qemu,
4260 vmware and any other x86 virtual machine environment.  You might need
4261 the version of vmdebootstrap in Jessie to get the build working, as it
4262 include fixes for a race condition with kpartx.</p>
4263
4264 <p>If you instead want to install using a Debian CD and the preseed
4265 method, boot a Debian Wheezy ISO and use this boot argument to load
4266 the preseed values:</p>
4267
4268 <p><pre>
4269 url=<a href="http://www.reinholdtsen.name/freedombox/preseed-jessie.dat">http://www.reinholdtsen.name/freedombox/preseed-jessie.dat</a>
4270 </pre></p>
4271
4272 <p>I have not tested it myself the last few weeks, so I do not know if
4273 it still work.</p>
4274
4275 <p>If you wonder how to help, one task you could look at is using
4276 systemd as the boot system.  It will become the default for Linux in
4277 Jessie, so we need to make sure it is usable on the Freedombox.  I did
4278 a simple test a few weeks ago, and noticed dnsmasq failed to start
4279 during boot when using systemd.  I suspect there are other problems
4280 too. :) To detect problems, there is a test suite included, which can
4281 be run from the plinth web interface.</p>
4282
4283 <p>Give it a go and let us know how it goes on the mailing list, and help
4284 us get the new release published. :) Please join us on
4285 <a href="irc://irc.debian.org:6667/%23freedombox">IRC (#freedombox on
4286 irc.debian.org)</a> and
4287 <a href="http://lists.alioth.debian.org/mailman/listinfo/freedombox-discuss">the
4288 mailing list</a> if you want to help make this vision come true.</p>
4289
4290       </div>
4291       <div class="tags">
4292
4293
4294         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freedombox">freedombox</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/web">web</a>.
4295
4296
4297       </div>
4298     </div>
4299     <div class="padding"></div>
4300
4301     <div class="entry">
4302       <div class="title">
4303         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/S3QL__a_locally_mounted_cloud_file_system___nice_free_software.html">S3QL, a locally mounted cloud file system - nice free software</a>
4304       </div>
4305       <div class="date">
4306          9th April 2014
4307       </div>
4308       <div class="body">
4309         <p>For a while now, I have been looking for a sensible offsite backup
4310 solution for use at home.  My requirements are simple, it must be
4311 cheap and locally encrypted (in other words, I keep the encryption
4312 keys, the storage provider do not have access to my private files).
4313 One idea me and my friends had many years ago, before the cloud
4314 storage providers showed up, was to use Google mail as storage,
4315 writing a Linux block device storing blocks as emails in the mail
4316 service provided by Google, and thus get heaps of free space.  On top
4317 of this one can add encryption, RAID and volume management to have
4318 lots of (fairly slow, I admit that) cheap and encrypted storage.  But
4319 I never found time to implement such system.  But the last few weeks I
4320 have looked at a system called
4321 <a href="https://bitbucket.org/nikratio/s3ql/">S3QL</a>, a locally
4322 mounted network backed file system with the features I need.</p>
4323
4324 <p>S3QL is a fuse file system with a local cache and cloud storage,
4325 handling several different storage providers, any with Amazon S3,
4326 Google Drive or OpenStack API.  There are heaps of such storage
4327 providers.  S3QL can also use a local directory as storage, which
4328 combined with sshfs allow for file storage on any ssh server.  S3QL
4329 include support for encryption, compression, de-duplication, snapshots
4330 and immutable file systems, allowing me to mount the remote storage as
4331 a local mount point, look at and use the files as if they were local,
4332 while the content is stored in the cloud as well.  This allow me to
4333 have a backup that should survive fire.  The file system can not be
4334 shared between several machines at the same time, as only one can
4335 mount it at the time, but any machine with the encryption key and
4336 access to the storage service can mount it if it is unmounted.</p>
4337
4338 <p>It is simple to use.  I'm using it on Debian Wheezy, where the
4339 package is included already.  So to get started, run <tt>apt-get
4340 install s3ql</tt>.  Next, pick a storage provider.  I ended up picking
4341 Greenqloud, after reading their nice recipe on
4342 <a href="https://greenqloud.zendesk.com/entries/44611757-How-To-Use-S3QL-to-mount-a-StorageQloud-bucket-on-Debian-Wheezy">how
4343 to use S3QL with their Amazon S3 service</a>, because I trust the laws
4344 in Iceland more than those in USA when it come to keeping my personal
4345 data safe and private, and thus would rather spend money on a company
4346 in Iceland.  Another nice recipe is available from the article
4347 <a href="http://www.admin-magazine.com/HPC/Articles/HPC-Cloud-Storage">S3QL
4348 Filesystem for HPC Storage</a> by Jeff Layton in the HPC section of
4349 Admin magazine.  When the provider is picked, figure out how to get
4350 the API key needed to connect to the storage API.  With Greencloud,
4351 the key did not show up until I had added payment details to my
4352 account.</p>
4353
4354 <p>Armed with the API access details, it is time to create the file
4355 system.  First, create a new bucket in the cloud.  This bucket is the
4356 file system storage area.  I picked a bucket name reflecting the
4357 machine that was going to store data there, but any name will do.
4358 I'll refer to it as <tt>bucket-name</tt> below.  In addition, one need
4359 the API login and password, and a locally created password.  Store it
4360 all in ~root/.s3ql/authinfo2 like this:
4361
4362 <p><blockquote><pre>
4363 [s3c]
4364 storage-url: s3c://s.greenqloud.com:443/bucket-name
4365 backend-login: API-login
4366 backend-password: API-password
4367 fs-passphrase: local-password
4368 </pre></blockquote></p>
4369
4370 <p>I create my local passphrase using <tt>pwget 50</tt> or similar,
4371 but any sensible way to create a fairly random password should do it.
4372 Armed with these details, it is now time to run mkfs, entering the API
4373 details and password to create it:</p>
4374
4375 <p><blockquote><pre>
4376 # mkdir -m 700 /var/lib/s3ql-cache
4377 # mkfs.s3ql --cachedir /var/lib/s3ql-cache --authfile /root/.s3ql/authinfo2 \
4378   --ssl s3c://s.greenqloud.com:443/bucket-name
4379 Enter backend login:
4380 Enter backend password:
4381 Before using S3QL, make sure to read the user's guide, especially
4382 the 'Important Rules to Avoid Loosing Data' section.
4383 Enter encryption password:
4384 Confirm encryption password:
4385 Generating random encryption key...
4386 Creating metadata tables...
4387 Dumping metadata...
4388 ..objects..
4389 ..blocks..
4390 ..inodes..
4391 ..inode_blocks..
4392 ..symlink_targets..
4393 ..names..
4394 ..contents..
4395 ..ext_attributes..
4396 Compressing and uploading metadata...
4397 Wrote 0.00 MB of compressed metadata.
4398 # </pre></blockquote></p>
4399
4400 <p>The next step is mounting the file system to make the storage available.
4401
4402 <p><blockquote><pre>
4403 # mount.s3ql --cachedir /var/lib/s3ql-cache --authfile /root/.s3ql/authinfo2 \
4404   --ssl --allow-root s3c://s.greenqloud.com:443/bucket-name /s3ql
4405 Using 4 upload threads.
4406 Downloading and decompressing metadata...
4407 Reading metadata...
4408 ..objects..
4409 ..blocks..
4410 ..inodes..
4411 ..inode_blocks..
4412 ..symlink_targets..
4413 ..names..
4414 ..contents..
4415 ..ext_attributes..
4416 Mounting filesystem...
4417 # df -h /s3ql
4418 Filesystem                              Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
4419 s3c://s.greenqloud.com:443/bucket-name  1.0T     0  1.0T   0% /s3ql
4420 #
4421 </pre></blockquote></p>
4422
4423 <p>The file system is now ready for use.  I use rsync to store my
4424 backups in it, and as the metadata used by rsync is downloaded at
4425 mount time, no network traffic (and storage cost) is triggered by
4426 running rsync.  To unmount, one should not use the normal umount
4427 command, as this will not flush the cache to the cloud storage, but
4428 instead running the umount.s3ql command like this:
4429
4430 <p><blockquote><pre>
4431 # umount.s3ql /s3ql
4432 #
4433 </pre></blockquote></p>
4434
4435 <p>There is a fsck command available to check the file system and
4436 correct any problems detected.  This can be used if the local server
4437 crashes while the file system is mounted, to reset the "already
4438 mounted" flag.  This is what it look like when processing a working
4439 file system:</p>
4440
4441 <p><blockquote><pre>
4442 # fsck.s3ql --force --ssl s3c://s.greenqloud.com:443/bucket-name
4443 Using cached metadata.
4444 File system seems clean, checking anyway.
4445 Checking DB integrity...
4446 Creating temporary extra indices...
4447 Checking lost+found...
4448 Checking cached objects...
4449 Checking names (refcounts)...
4450 Checking contents (names)...
4451 Checking contents (inodes)...
4452 Checking contents (parent inodes)...
4453 Checking objects (reference counts)...
4454 Checking objects (backend)...
4455 ..processed 5000 objects so far..
4456 ..processed 10000 objects so far..
4457 ..processed 15000 objects so far..
4458 Checking objects (sizes)...
4459 Checking blocks (referenced objects)...
4460 Checking blocks (refcounts)...
4461 Checking inode-block mapping (blocks)...
4462 Checking inode-block mapping (inodes)...
4463 Checking inodes (refcounts)...
4464 Checking inodes (sizes)...
4465 Checking extended attributes (names)...
4466 Checking extended attributes (inodes)...
4467 Checking symlinks (inodes)...
4468 Checking directory reachability...
4469 Checking unix conventions...
4470 Checking referential integrity...
4471 Dropping temporary indices...
4472 Backing up old metadata...
4473 Dumping metadata...
4474 ..objects..
4475 ..blocks..
4476 ..inodes..
4477 ..inode_blocks..
4478 ..symlink_targets..
4479 ..names..
4480 ..contents..
4481 ..ext_attributes..
4482 Compressing and uploading metadata...
4483 Wrote 0.89 MB of compressed metadata.
4484 #
4485 </pre></blockquote></p>
4486
4487 <p>Thanks to the cache, working on files that fit in the cache is very
4488 quick, about the same speed as local file access.  Uploading large
4489 amount of data is to me limited by the bandwidth out of and into my
4490 house.  Uploading 685 MiB with a 100 MiB cache gave me 305 kiB/s,
4491 which is very close to my upload speed, and downloading the same
4492 Debian installation ISO gave me 610 kiB/s, close to my download speed.
4493 Both were measured using <tt>dd</tt>.  So for me, the bottleneck is my
4494 network, not the file system code.  I do not know what a good cache
4495 size would be, but suspect that the cache should e larger than your
4496 working set.</p>
4497
4498 <p>I mentioned that only one machine can mount the file system at the
4499 time.  If another machine try, it is told that the file system is
4500 busy:</p>
4501
4502 <p><blockquote><pre>
4503 # mount.s3ql --cachedir /var/lib/s3ql-cache --authfile /root/.s3ql/authinfo2 \
4504   --ssl --allow-root s3c://s.greenqloud.com:443/bucket-name /s3ql
4505 Using 8 upload threads.
4506 Backend reports that fs is still mounted elsewhere, aborting.
4507 #
4508 </pre></blockquote></p>
4509
4510 <p>The file content is uploaded when the cache is full, while the
4511 metadata is uploaded once every 24 hour by default.  To ensure the
4512 file system content is flushed to the cloud, one can either umount the
4513 file system, or ask S3QL to flush the cache and metadata using
4514 s3qlctrl:
4515
4516 <p><blockquote><pre>
4517 # s3qlctrl upload-meta /s3ql
4518 # s3qlctrl flushcache /s3ql
4519 #
4520 </pre></blockquote></p>
4521
4522 <p>If you are curious about how much space your data uses in the
4523 cloud, and how much compression and deduplication cut down on the
4524 storage usage, you can use s3qlstat on the mounted file system to get
4525 a report:</p>
4526
4527 <p><blockquote><pre>
4528 # s3qlstat /s3ql
4529 Directory entries:    9141
4530 Inodes:               9143
4531 Data blocks:          8851
4532 Total data size:      22049.38 MB
4533 After de-duplication: 21955.46 MB (99.57% of total)
4534 After compression:    21877.28 MB (99.22% of total, 99.64% of de-duplicated)
4535 Database size:        2.39 MB (uncompressed)
4536 (some values do not take into account not-yet-uploaded dirty blocks in cache)
4537 #
4538 </pre></blockquote></p>
4539
4540 <p>I mentioned earlier that there are several possible suppliers of
4541 storage.  I did not try to locate them all, but am aware of at least
4542 <a href="https://www.greenqloud.com/">Greenqloud</a>,
4543 <a href="http://drive.google.com/">Google Drive</a>,
4544 <a href="http://aws.amazon.com/s3/">Amazon S3 web serivces</a>,
4545 <a href="http://www.rackspace.com/">Rackspace</a> and
4546 <a href="http://crowncloud.net/">Crowncloud</A>.  The latter even
4547 accept payment in Bitcoin.  Pick one that suit your need.  Some of
4548 them provide several GiB of free storage, but the prize models are
4549 quite different and you will have to figure out what suits you
4550 best.</p>
4551
4552 <p>While researching this blog post, I had a look at research papers
4553 and posters discussing the S3QL file system.  There are several, which
4554 told me that the file system is getting a critical check by the
4555 science community and increased my confidence in using it.  One nice
4556 poster is titled
4557 "<a href="http://www.lanl.gov/orgs/adtsc/publications/science_highlights_2013/docs/pg68_69.pdf">An
4558 Innovative Parallel Cloud Storage System using OpenStack’s SwiftObject
4559 Store and Transformative Parallel I/O Approach</a>" by Hsing-Bung
4560 Chen, Benjamin McClelland, David Sherrill, Alfred Torrez, Parks Fields
4561 and Pamela Smith.  Please  have a look.</p>
4562
4563 <p>Given my problems with different file systems earlier, I decided to
4564 check out the mounted S3QL file system to see if it would be usable as
4565 a home directory (in other word, that it provided POSIX semantics when
4566 it come to locking and umask handling etc).  Running
4567 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Testing_if_a_file_system_can_be_used_for_home_directories___.html">my
4568 test code to check file system semantics</a>, I was happy to discover that
4569 no error was found.  So the file system can be used for home
4570 directories, if one chooses to do so.</p>
4571
4572 <p>If you do not want a locally file system, and want something that
4573 work without the Linux fuse file system, I would like to mention the
4574 <a href="http://www.tarsnap.com/">Tarsnap service</a>, which also
4575 provide locally encrypted backup using a command line client.  It have
4576 a nicer access control system, where one can split out read and write
4577 access, allowing some systems to write to the backup and others to
4578 only read from it.</p>
4579
4580 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
4581 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
4582 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b&label=PetterReinholdtsenBlog">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
4583
4584       </div>
4585       <div class="tags">
4586
4587
4588         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nice free software">nice free software</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/personvern">personvern</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet</a>.
4589
4590
4591       </div>
4592     </div>
4593     <div class="padding"></div>
4594
4595     <div class="entry">
4596       <div class="title">
4597         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Freedombox_on_Dreamplug__Raspberry_Pi_and_virtual_x86_machine.html">Freedombox on Dreamplug, Raspberry Pi and virtual x86 machine</a>
4598       </div>
4599       <div class="date">
4600         14th March 2014
4601       </div>
4602       <div class="body">
4603         <p>The <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/FreedomBox">Freedombox
4604 project</a> is working on providing the software and hardware for
4605 making it easy for non-technical people to host their data and
4606 communication at home, and being able to communicate with their
4607 friends and family encrypted and away from prying eyes.  It has been
4608 going on for a while, and is slowly progressing towards a new test
4609 release (0.2).</p>
4610
4611 <p>And what day could be better than the Pi day to announce that the
4612 new version will provide "hard drive" / SD card / USB stick images for
4613 Dreamplug, Raspberry Pi and VirtualBox (or any other virtualization
4614 system), and can also be installed using a Debian installer preseed
4615 file.  The Debian based Freedombox is now based on Debian Jessie,
4616 where most of the needed packages used are already present.  Only one,
4617 the freedombox-setup package, is missing.  To try to build your own
4618 boot image to test the current status, fetch the freedom-maker scripts
4619 and build using
4620 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/vmdebootstrap">vmdebootstrap</a>
4621 with a user with sudo access to become root:
4622
4623 <pre>
4624 git clone http://anonscm.debian.org/git/freedombox/freedom-maker.git \
4625   freedom-maker
4626 sudo apt-get install git vmdebootstrap mercurial python-docutils \
4627   mktorrent extlinux virtualbox qemu-user-static binfmt-support \
4628   u-boot-tools
4629 make -C freedom-maker dreamplug-image raspberry-image virtualbox-image
4630 </pre>
4631
4632 <p>Root access is needed to run debootstrap and mount loopback
4633 devices.  See the README for more details on the build. If you do not
4634 want all three images, trim the make line.  But note that thanks to <a
4635 href="https://bugs.debian.org/741407">a race condition in
4636 vmdebootstrap</a>, the build might fail without the patch to the
4637 kpartx call.</p>
4638
4639 <p>If you instead want to install using a Debian CD and the preseed
4640 method, boot a Debian Wheezy ISO and use this boot argument to load
4641 the preseed values:</p>
4642
4643 <pre>
4644 url=<a href="http://www.reinholdtsen.name/freedombox/preseed-jessie.dat">http://www.reinholdtsen.name/freedombox/preseed-jessie.dat</a>
4645 </pre>
4646
4647 <p>But note that due to <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/740673">a
4648 recently introduced bug in apt in Jessie</a>, the installer will
4649 currently hang while setting up APT sources.  Killing the
4650 '<tt>apt-cdrom ident</tt>' process when it hang a few times during the
4651 installation will get the installation going.  This affect all
4652 installations in Jessie, and I expect it will be fixed soon.</p>
4653
4654 <p>Give it a go and let us know how it goes on the mailing list, and help
4655 us get the new release published. :) Please join us on
4656 <a href="irc://irc.debian.org:6667/%23freedombox">IRC (#freedombox on
4657 irc.debian.org)</a> and
4658 <a href="http://lists.alioth.debian.org/mailman/listinfo/freedombox-discuss">the
4659 mailing list</a> if you want to help make this vision come true.</p>
4660
4661       </div>
4662       <div class="tags">
4663
4664
4665         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freedombox">freedombox</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/web">web</a>.
4666
4667
4668       </div>
4669     </div>
4670     <div class="padding"></div>
4671
4672     <div class="entry">
4673       <div class="title">
4674         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/New_home_and_release_1_0_for_netgroup_and_innetgr__aka_ng_utils_.html">New home and release 1.0 for netgroup and innetgr (aka ng-utils)</a>
4675       </div>
4676       <div class="date">
4677         22nd February 2014
4678       </div>
4679       <div class="body">
4680         <p>Many years ago, I wrote a GPL licensed version of the netgroup and
4681 innetgr tools, because I needed them in
4682 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Skolelinux</a>.  I called the project
4683 ng-utils, and it has served me well.  I placed the project under the
4684 <a href="http://www.hungry.com/">Hungry Programmer</a> umbrella, and it was maintained in our CVS
4685 repository.  But many years ago, the CVS repository was dropped (lost,
4686 not migrated to new hardware, not sure), and the project have lacked a
4687 proper home since then.</p>
4688
4689 <p>Last summer, I had a look at the package and made a new release
4690 fixing a irritating crash bug, but was unable to store the changes in
4691 a proper source control system.  I applied for a project on
4692 <a href="https://alioth.debian.org/">Alioth</a>, but did not have time
4693 to follow up on it.  Until today. :)</p>
4694
4695 <p>After many hours of cleaning and migration, the ng-utils project
4696 now have a new home, and a git repository with the highlight of the
4697 history of the project.  I published all release tarballs and imported
4698 them into the git repository.  As the project is really stable and not
4699 expected to gain new features any time soon, I decided to make a new
4700 release and call it 1.0.  Visit the new project home on
4701 <a href="https://alioth.debian.org/projects/ng-utils/">https://alioth.debian.org/projects/ng-utils/</a>
4702 if you want to check it out.  The new version is also uploaded into
4703 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/n/ng-utils.html">Debian Unstable</a>.</p>
4704
4705       </div>
4706       <div class="tags">
4707
4708
4709         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
4710
4711
4712       </div>
4713     </div>
4714     <div class="padding"></div>
4715
4716     <div class="entry">
4717       <div class="title">
4718         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Testing_sysvinit_from_experimental_in_Debian_Hurd.html">Testing sysvinit from experimental in Debian Hurd</a>
4719       </div>
4720       <div class="date">
4721          3rd February 2014
4722       </div>
4723       <div class="body">
4724         <p>A few days ago I decided to try to help the Hurd people to get
4725 their changes into sysvinit, to allow them to use the normal sysvinit
4726 boot system instead of their old one.  This follow up on the
4727 <a href="https://teythoon.cryptobitch.de//categories/gsoc.html">great
4728 Google Summer of Code work</a> done last summer by Justus Winter to
4729 get Debian on Hurd working more like Debian on Linux.  To get started,
4730 I downloaded a prebuilt hard disk image from
4731 <a href="http://ftp.debian-ports.org/debian-cd/hurd-i386/current/debian-hurd.img.tar.gz">http://ftp.debian-ports.org/debian-cd/hurd-i386/current/debian-hurd.img.tar.gz</a>,
4732 and started it using virt-manager.</p>
4733
4734 <p>The first think I had to do after logging in (root without any
4735 password) was to get the network operational.  I followed
4736 <a href="https://www.debian.org/ports/hurd/hurd-install">the
4737 instructions on the Debian GNU/Hurd ports page</a> and ran these
4738 commands as root to get the machine to accept a IP address from the
4739 kvm internal DHCP server:</p>
4740
4741 <p><blockquote><pre>
4742 settrans -fgap /dev/netdde /hurd/netdde
4743 kill $(ps -ef|awk '/[p]finet/ { print $2}')
4744 kill $(ps -ef|awk '/[d]evnode/ { print $2}')
4745 dhclient /dev/eth0
4746 </pre></blockquote></p>
4747
4748 <p>After this, the machine had internet connectivity, and I could
4749 upgrade it and install the sysvinit packages from experimental and
4750 enable it as the default boot system in Hurd.</p>
4751
4752 <p>But before I did that, I set a password on the root user, as ssh is
4753 running on the machine it for ssh login to work a password need to be
4754 set.  Also, note that a bug somewhere in openssh on Hurd block
4755 compression from working.  Remember to turn that off on the client
4756 side.</p>
4757
4758 <p>Run these commands as root to upgrade and test the new sysvinit
4759 stuff:</p>
4760
4761 <p><blockquote><pre>
4762 cat > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/experimental.list &lt;&lt;EOF
4763 deb http://http.debian.net/debian/ experimental main
4764 EOF
4765 apt-get update
4766 apt-get dist-upgrade
4767 apt-get install -t experimental initscripts sysv-rc sysvinit \
4768     sysvinit-core sysvinit-utils
4769 update-alternatives --config runsystem
4770 </pre></blockquote></p>
4771
4772 <p>To reboot after switching boot system, you have to use
4773 <tt>reboot-hurd</tt> instead of just <tt>reboot</tt>, as there is not
4774 yet a sysvinit process able to receive the signals from the normal
4775 'reboot' command.  After switching to sysvinit as the boot system,
4776 upgrading every package and rebooting, the network come up with DHCP
4777 after boot as it should, and the settrans/pkill hack mentioned at the
4778 start is no longer needed.  But for some strange reason, there are no
4779 longer any login prompt in the virtual console, so I logged in using
4780 ssh instead.
4781
4782 <p>Note that there are some race conditions in Hurd making the boot
4783 fail some times.  No idea what the cause is, but hope the Hurd porters
4784 figure it out.  At least Justus said on IRC (#debian-hurd on
4785 irc.debian.org) that they are aware of the problem.  A way to reduce
4786 the impact is to upgrade to the Hurd packages built by Justus by
4787 adding this repository to the machine:</p>
4788
4789 <p><blockquote><pre>
4790 cat > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/hurd-ci.list &lt;&lt;EOF
4791 deb http://darnassus.sceen.net/~teythoon/hurd-ci/ sid main
4792 EOF
4793 </pre></blockquote></p>
4794
4795 <p>At the moment the prebuilt virtual machine get some packages from
4796 http://ftp.debian-ports.org/debian, because some of the packages in
4797 unstable do not yet include the required patches that are lingering in
4798 BTS.  This is the completely list of "unofficial" packages installed:</p>
4799
4800 <p><blockquote><pre>
4801 # aptitude search '?narrow(?version(CURRENT),?origin(Debian Ports))'
4802 i   emacs                   - GNU Emacs editor (metapackage)
4803 i   gdb                     - GNU Debugger
4804 i   hurd-recommended        - Miscellaneous translators
4805 i   isc-dhcp-client         - ISC DHCP client
4806 i   isc-dhcp-common         - common files used by all the isc-dhcp* packages
4807 i   libc-bin                - Embedded GNU C Library: Binaries
4808 i   libc-dev-bin            - Embedded GNU C Library: Development binaries
4809 i   libc0.3                 - Embedded GNU C Library: Shared libraries
4810 i A libc0.3-dbg             - Embedded GNU C Library: detached debugging symbols
4811 i   libc0.3-dev             - Embedded GNU C Library: Development Libraries and Hea
4812 i   multiarch-support       - Transitional package to ensure multiarch compatibilit
4813 i A x11-common              - X Window System (X.Org) infrastructure
4814 i   xorg                    - X.Org X Window System
4815 i A xserver-xorg            - X.Org X server
4816 i A xserver-xorg-input-all  - X.Org X server -- input driver metapackage
4817 #
4818 </pre></blockquote></p>
4819
4820 <p>All in all, testing hurd has been an interesting experience. :)
4821 X.org did not work out of the box and I never took the time to follow
4822 the porters instructions to fix it.  This time I was interested in the
4823 command line stuff.<p>
4824
4825       </div>
4826       <div class="tags">
4827
4828
4829         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bootsystem">bootsystem</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
4830
4831
4832       </div>
4833     </div>
4834     <div class="padding"></div>
4835
4836     <div class="entry">
4837       <div class="title">
4838         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/New_chrpath_release_0_16.html">New chrpath release 0.16</a>
4839       </div>
4840       <div class="date">
4841         14th January 2014
4842       </div>
4843       <div class="body">
4844         <p><a href="http://www.coverity.com/">Coverity</a> is a nice tool to
4845 find problems in C, C++ and Java code using static source code
4846 analysis.  It can detect a lot of different problems, and is very
4847 useful to find memory and locking bugs in the error handling part of
4848 the source.  The company behind it provide
4849 <a href="https://scan.coverity.com/">check of free software projects as
4850 a community service</a>, and many hundred free software projects are
4851 already checked.  A few days ago I decided to have a closer look at
4852 the Coverity system, and discovered that the
4853 <a href="http://www.gnu.org/software/gnash/">gnash</a> and
4854 <a href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/ipmitool/">ipmitool</a>
4855 projects I am involved with was already registered.  But these are
4856 fairly big, and I would also like to have a small and easy project to
4857 check, and decided to <a href="http://scan.coverity.com/projects/1179">request
4858 checking of the chrpath project</a>.  It was
4859 added to the checker and discovered seven potential defects.  Six of
4860 these were real, mostly resource "leak" when the program detected an
4861 error.  Nothing serious, as the resources would be released a fraction
4862 of a second later when the program exited because of the error, but it
4863 is nice to do it right in case the source of the program some time in
4864 the future end up in a library.  Having fixed all defects and added
4865 <a href="https://lists.alioth.debian.org/mailman/listinfo/chrpath-devel">a
4866 mailing list for the chrpath developers</a>, I decided it was time to
4867 publish a new release.  These are the release notes:</p>
4868
4869 <p>New in 0.16 released 2014-01-14:</p>
4870
4871 <ul>
4872
4873   <li>Fixed all minor bugs discovered by Coverity.</li>
4874   <li>Updated config.sub and config.guess from the GNU project.</li>
4875   <li>Mention new project mailing list in the documentation.</li>
4876
4877 </ul>
4878
4879 <p>You can
4880 <a href="https://alioth.debian.org/frs/?group_id=31052">download the
4881 new version 0.16 from alioth</a>.  Please let us know via the Alioth
4882 project if something is wrong with the new release.  The test suite
4883 did not discover any old errors, so if you find a new one, please also
4884 include a test suite check.</p>
4885
4886       </div>
4887       <div class="tags">
4888
4889
4890         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/chrpath">chrpath</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
4891
4892
4893       </div>
4894     </div>
4895     <div class="padding"></div>
4896
4897     <div class="entry">
4898       <div class="title">
4899         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/New_chrpath_release_0_15.html">New chrpath release 0.15</a>
4900       </div>
4901       <div class="date">
4902         24th November 2013
4903       </div>
4904       <div class="body">
4905         <p>After many years break from the package and a vain hope that
4906 development would be continued by someone else, I finally pulled my
4907 acts together this morning and wrapped up a new release of chrpath,
4908 the command line tool to modify the rpath and runpath of already
4909 compiled ELF programs.  The update was triggered by the persistence of
4910 Isha Vishnoi at IBM, which needed a new config.guess file to get
4911 support for the ppc64le architecture (powerpc 64-bit Little Endian) he
4912 is working on.  I checked the
4913 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/chrpath">Debian</a>,
4914 <a href="https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/chrpath">Ubuntu</a> and
4915 <a href="https://admin.fedoraproject.org/pkgdb/acls/name/chrpath">Fedora</a>
4916 packages for interesting patches (failed to find the source from
4917 OpenSUSE and Mandriva packages), and found quite a few nice fixes.
4918 These are the release notes:</p>
4919
4920 <p>New in 0.15 released 2013-11-24:</p>
4921
4922 <ul>
4923
4924   <li>Updated config.sub and config.guess from the GNU project to work
4925    with newer architectures.  Thanks to isha vishnoi for the heads
4926    up.</li>
4927
4928   <li>Updated README with current URLs.</li>
4929
4930   <li>Added byteswap fix found in Ubuntu, credited Jeremy Kerr and
4931    Matthias Klose.</li>
4932
4933   <li>Added missing help for -k|--keepgoing option, using patch by
4934    Petr Machata found in Fedora.</li>
4935
4936   <li>Rewrite removal of RPATH/RUNPATH to make sure the entry in
4937    .dynamic is a NULL terminated string.  Based on patch found in
4938    Fedora credited Axel Thimm and Christian Krause.</li>
4939
4940 </ul>
4941
4942 <p>You can
4943 <a href="https://alioth.debian.org/frs/?group_id=31052">download the
4944 new version 0.15 from alioth</a>.  Please let us know via the Alioth
4945 project if something is wrong with the new release.  The test suite
4946 did not discover any old errors, so if you find a new one, please also
4947 include a testsuite check.</p>
4948
4949       </div>
4950       <div class="tags">
4951
4952
4953         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/chrpath">chrpath</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
4954
4955
4956       </div>
4957     </div>
4958     <div class="padding"></div>
4959
4960     <div class="entry">
4961       <div class="title">
4962         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_init_d_boot_script_example_for_rsyslog.html">Debian init.d boot script example for rsyslog</a>
4963       </div>
4964       <div class="date">
4965          2nd November 2013
4966       </div>
4967       <div class="body">
4968         <p>If one of the points of switching to a new init system in Debian is
4969 <a href="http://thomas.goirand.fr/blog/?p=147">to get rid of huge
4970 init.d scripts</a>, I doubt we need to switch away from sysvinit and
4971 init.d scripts at all.  Here is an example init.d script, ie a rewrite
4972 of /etc/init.d/rsyslog:</p>
4973
4974 <p><pre>
4975 #!/lib/init/init-d-script
4976 ### BEGIN INIT INFO
4977 # Provides:          rsyslog
4978 # Required-Start:    $remote_fs $time
4979 # Required-Stop:     umountnfs $time
4980 # X-Stop-After:      sendsigs
4981 # Default-Start:     2 3 4 5
4982 # Default-Stop:      0 1 6
4983 # Short-Description: enhanced syslogd
4984 # Description:       Rsyslog is an enhanced multi-threaded syslogd.
4985 #                    It is quite compatible to stock sysklogd and can be
4986 #                    used as a drop-in replacement.
4987 ### END INIT INFO
4988 DESC="enhanced syslogd"
4989 DAEMON=/usr/sbin/rsyslogd
4990 </pre></p>
4991
4992 <p>Pretty minimalistic to me... For the record, the original sysv-rc
4993 script was 137 lines, and the above is just 15 lines, most of it meta
4994 info/comments.</p>
4995
4996 <p>How to do this, you ask?  Well, one create a new script
4997 /lib/init/init-d-script looking something like this:
4998
4999 <p><pre>
5000 #!/bin/sh
5001
5002 # Define LSB log_* functions.
5003 # Depend on lsb-base (>= 3.2-14) to ensure that this file is present
5004 # and status_of_proc is working.
5005 . /lib/lsb/init-functions
5006
5007 #
5008 # Function that starts the daemon/service
5009
5010 #
5011 do_start()
5012 {
5013         # Return
5014         #   0 if daemon has been started
5015         #   1 if daemon was already running
5016         #   2 if daemon could not be started
5017         start-stop-daemon --start --quiet --pidfile $PIDFILE --exec $DAEMON --test > /dev/null \
5018                 || return 1
5019         start-stop-daemon --start --quiet --pidfile $PIDFILE --exec $DAEMON -- \
5020                 $DAEMON_ARGS \
5021                 || return 2
5022         # Add code here, if necessary, that waits for the process to be ready
5023         # to handle requests from services started subsequently which depend
5024         # on this one.  As a last resort, sleep for some time.
5025 }
5026
5027 #
5028 # Function that stops the daemon/service
5029 #
5030 do_stop()
5031 {
5032         # Return
5033         #   0 if daemon has been stopped
5034         #   1 if daemon was already stopped
5035         #   2 if daemon could not be stopped
5036         #   other if a failure occurred
5037         start-stop-daemon --stop --quiet --retry=TERM/30/KILL/5 --pidfile $PIDFILE --name $NAME
5038         RETVAL="$?"
5039         [ "$RETVAL" = 2 ] && return 2
5040         # Wait for children to finish too if this is a daemon that forks
5041         # and if the daemon is only ever run from this initscript.
5042         # If the above conditions are not satisfied then add some other code
5043         # that waits for the process to drop all resources that could be
5044         # needed by services started subsequently.  A last resort is to
5045         # sleep for some time.
5046         start-stop-daemon --stop --quiet --oknodo --retry=0/30/KILL/5 --exec $DAEMON
5047         [ "$?" = 2 ] && return 2
5048         # Many daemons don't delete their pidfiles when they exit.
5049         rm -f $PIDFILE
5050         return "$RETVAL"
5051 }
5052
5053 #
5054 # Function that sends a SIGHUP to the daemon/service
5055 #
5056 do_reload() {
5057         #
5058         # If the daemon can reload its configuration without
5059         # restarting (for example, when it is sent a SIGHUP),
5060         # then implement that here.
5061         #
5062         start-stop-daemon --stop --signal 1 --quiet --pidfile $PIDFILE --name $NAME
5063         return 0
5064 }
5065
5066 SCRIPTNAME=$1
5067 scriptbasename="$(basename $1)"
5068 echo "SN: $scriptbasename"
5069 if [ "$scriptbasename" != "init-d-library" ] ; then
5070     script="$1"
5071     shift
5072     . $script
5073 else
5074     exit 0
5075 fi
5076
5077 NAME=$(basename $DAEMON)
5078 PIDFILE=/var/run/$NAME.pid
5079
5080 # Exit if the package is not installed
5081 #[ -x "$DAEMON" ] || exit 0
5082
5083 # Read configuration variable file if it is present
5084 [ -r /etc/default/$NAME ] && . /etc/default/$NAME
5085
5086 # Load the VERBOSE setting and other rcS variables
5087 . /lib/init/vars.sh
5088
5089 case "$1" in
5090   start)
5091         [ "$VERBOSE" != no ] && log_daemon_msg "Starting $DESC" "$NAME"
5092         do_start
5093         case "$?" in
5094                 0|1) [ "$VERBOSE" != no ] && log_end_msg 0 ;;
5095                 2) [ "$VERBOSE" != no ] && log_end_msg 1 ;;
5096         esac
5097         ;;
5098   stop)
5099         [ "$VERBOSE" != no ] && log_daemon_msg "Stopping $DESC" "$NAME"
5100         do_stop
5101         case "$?" in
5102                 0|1) [ "$VERBOSE" != no ] && log_end_msg 0 ;;
5103                 2) [ "$VERBOSE" != no ] && log_end_msg 1 ;;
5104         esac
5105         ;;
5106   status)
5107         status_of_proc "$DAEMON" "$NAME" && exit 0 || exit $?
5108         ;;
5109   #reload|force-reload)
5110         #
5111         # If do_reload() is not implemented then leave this commented out
5112         # and leave 'force-reload' as an alias for 'restart'.
5113         #
5114         #log_daemon_msg "Reloading $DESC" "$NAME"
5115         #do_reload
5116         #log_end_msg $?
5117         #;;
5118   restart|force-reload)
5119         #
5120         # If the "reload" option is implemented then remove the
5121         # 'force-reload' alias
5122         #
5123         log_daemon_msg "Restarting $DESC" "$NAME"
5124         do_stop
5125         case "$?" in
5126           0|1)
5127                 do_start
5128                 case "$?" in
5129                         0) log_end_msg 0 ;;
5130                         1) log_end_msg 1 ;; # Old process is still running
5131                         *) log_end_msg 1 ;; # Failed to start
5132                 esac
5133                 ;;
5134           *)
5135                 # Failed to stop
5136                 log_end_msg 1
5137                 ;;
5138         esac
5139         ;;
5140   *)
5141         echo "Usage: $SCRIPTNAME {start|stop|status|restart|force-reload}" >&2
5142         exit 3
5143         ;;
5144 esac
5145
5146 :
5147 </pre></p>
5148
5149 <p>It is based on /etc/init.d/skeleton, and could be improved quite a
5150 lot.  I did not really polish the approach, so it might not always
5151 work out of the box, but you get the idea.  I did not try very hard to
5152 optimize it nor make it more robust either.</p>
5153
5154 <p>A better argument for switching init system in Debian than reducing
5155 the size of init scripts (which is a good thing to do anyway), is to
5156 get boot system that is able to handle the kernel events sensibly and
5157 robustly, and do not depend on the boot to run sequentially.  The boot
5158 and the kernel have not behaved sequentially in years.</p>
5159
5160       </div>
5161       <div class="tags">
5162
5163
5164         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bootsystem">bootsystem</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
5165
5166
5167       </div>
5168     </div>
5169     <div class="padding"></div>
5170
5171     <div class="entry">
5172       <div class="title">
5173         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Browser_plugin_for_SPICE__spice_xpi__uploaded_to_Debian.html">Browser plugin for SPICE (spice-xpi) uploaded to Debian</a>
5174       </div>
5175       <div class="date">
5176          1st November 2013
5177       </div>
5178       <div class="body">
5179         <p><a href="http://www.spice-space.org/">The SPICE protocol</a> for
5180 remote display access is the preferred solution with oVirt and RedHat
5181 Enterprise Virtualization, and I was sad to discover the other day
5182 that the browser plugin needed to use these systems seamlessly was
5183 missing in Debian.  The <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/668284">request
5184 for a package</a> was from 2012-04-10 with no progress since
5185 2013-04-01, so I decided to wrap up a package based on the great work
5186 from Cajus Pollmeier and put it in a collab-maint maintained git
5187 repository to get a package I could use.  I would very much like
5188 others to help me maintain the package (or just take over, I do not
5189 mind), but as no-one had volunteered so far, I just uploaded it to
5190 NEW.  I hope it will be available in Debian in a few days.</p>
5191
5192 <p>The source is now available from
5193 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/gitweb/?p=collab-maint/spice-xpi.git;a=summary">http://anonscm.debian.org/gitweb/?p=collab-maint/spice-xpi.git;a=summary</a>.</p>
5194
5195       </div>
5196       <div class="tags">
5197
5198
5199         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
5200
5201
5202       </div>
5203     </div>
5204     <div class="padding"></div>
5205
5206     <div class="entry">
5207       <div class="title">
5208         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Teaching_vmdebootstrap_to_create_Raspberry_Pi_SD_card_images.html">Teaching vmdebootstrap to create Raspberry Pi SD card images</a>
5209       </div>
5210       <div class="date">
5211         27th October 2013
5212       </div>
5213       <div class="body">
5214         <p>The
5215 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/v/vmdebootstrap.html">vmdebootstrap</a>
5216 program is a a very nice system to create virtual machine images.  It
5217 create a image file, add a partition table, mount it and run
5218 debootstrap in the mounted directory to create a Debian system on a
5219 stick.  Yesterday, I decided to try to teach it how to make images for
5220 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/RaspberryPi">Raspberry Pi</a>, as part
5221 of a plan to simplify the build system for
5222 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/FreedomBox">the FreedomBox
5223 project</a>.  The FreedomBox project already uses vmdebootstrap for
5224 the virtualbox images, but its current build system made multistrap
5225 based system for Dreamplug images, and it is lacking support for
5226 Raspberry Pi.</p>
5227
5228 <p>Armed with the knowledge on how to build "foreign" (aka non-native
5229 architecture) chroots for Raspberry Pi, I dived into the vmdebootstrap
5230 code and adjusted it to be able to build armel images on my amd64
5231 Debian laptop.  I ended up giving vmdebootstrap five new options,
5232 allowing me to replicate the image creation process I use to make
5233 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/A_Raspberry_Pi_based_batman_adv_Mesh_network_node.html">Debian
5234 Jessie based mesh node images for the Raspberry Pi</a>.  First, the
5235 <tt>--foreign /path/to/binfm_handler</tt> option tell vmdebootstrap to
5236 call debootstrap with --foreign and to copy the handler into the
5237 generated chroot before running the second stage.  This allow
5238 vmdebootstrap to create armel images on an amd64 host.  Next I added
5239 two new options <tt>--bootsize size</tt> and <tt>--boottype
5240 fstype</tt> to teach it to create a separate /boot/ partition with the
5241 given file system type, allowing me to create an image with a vfat
5242 partition for the /boot/ stuff.  I also added a <tt>--variant
5243 variant</tt> option to allow me to create smaller images without the
5244 Debian base system packages installed.  Finally, I added an option
5245 <tt>--no-extlinux</tt> to tell vmdebootstrap to not install extlinux
5246 as a boot loader.  It is not needed on the Raspberry Pi and probably
5247 most other non-x86 architectures.  The changes were accepted by the
5248 upstream author of vmdebootstrap yesterday and today, and is now
5249 available from
5250 <a href="http://git.liw.fi/cgi-bin/cgit/cgit.cgi/vmdebootstrap/">the
5251 upstream project page</a>.</p>
5252
5253 <p>To use it to build a Raspberry Pi image using Debian Jessie, first
5254 create a small script (the customize script) to add the non-free
5255 binary blob needed to boot the Raspberry Pi and the APT source
5256 list:</p>
5257
5258 <p><pre>
5259 #!/bin/sh
5260 set -e # Exit on first error
5261 rootdir="$1"
5262 cd "$rootdir"
5263 cat &lt;&lt;EOF > etc/apt/sources.list
5264 deb http://http.debian.net/debian/ jessie main contrib non-free
5265 EOF
5266 # Install non-free binary blob needed to boot Raspberry Pi.  This
5267 # install a kernel somewhere too.
5268 wget https://raw.github.com/Hexxeh/rpi-update/master/rpi-update \
5269     -O $rootdir/usr/bin/rpi-update
5270 chmod a+x $rootdir/usr/bin/rpi-update
5271 mkdir -p $rootdir/lib/modules
5272 touch $rootdir/boot/start.elf
5273 chroot $rootdir rpi-update
5274 </pre></p>
5275
5276 <p>Next, fetch the latest vmdebootstrap script and call it like this
5277 to build the image:</p>
5278
5279 <pre>
5280 sudo ./vmdebootstrap \
5281     --variant minbase \
5282     --arch armel \
5283     --distribution jessie \
5284     --mirror http://http.debian.net/debian \
5285     --image test.img \
5286     --size 600M \
5287     --bootsize 64M \
5288     --boottype vfat \
5289     --log-level debug \
5290     --verbose \
5291     --no-kernel \
5292     --no-extlinux \
5293     --root-password raspberry \
5294     --hostname raspberrypi \
5295     --foreign /usr/bin/qemu-arm-static \
5296     --customize `pwd`/customize \
5297     --package netbase \
5298     --package git-core \
5299     --package binutils \
5300     --package ca-certificates \
5301     --package wget \
5302     --package kmod
5303 </pre></p>
5304
5305 <p>The list of packages being installed are the ones needed by
5306 rpi-update to make the image bootable on the Raspberry Pi, with the
5307 exception of netbase, which is needed by debootstrap to find
5308 /etc/hosts with the minbase variant.  I really wish there was a way to
5309 set up an Raspberry Pi using only packages in the Debian archive, but
5310 that is not possible as far as I know, because it boots from the GPU
5311 using a non-free binary blob.</p>
5312
5313 <p>The build host need debootstrap, kpartx and qemu-user-static and
5314 probably a few others installed.  I have not checked the complete
5315 build dependency list.</p>
5316
5317 <p>The resulting image will not use the hardware floating point unit
5318 on the Raspberry PI, because the armel architecture in Debian is not
5319 optimized for that use.  So the images created will be a bit slower
5320 than <a href="http://www.raspbian.org/">Raspbian</a> based images.</p>
5321
5322       </div>
5323       <div class="tags">
5324
5325
5326         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freedombox">freedombox</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/mesh network">mesh network</a>.
5327
5328
5329       </div>
5330     </div>
5331     <div class="padding"></div>
5332
5333     <div class="entry">
5334       <div class="title">
5335         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Good_causes__Debian_Outreach_Program_for_Women__EFF_documenting_the_spying_and_Open_access_in_Norway.html">Good causes: Debian Outreach Program for Women, EFF documenting the spying and Open access in Norway</a>
5336       </div>
5337       <div class="date">
5338         15th October 2013
5339       </div>
5340       <div class="body">
5341         <p>The last few days I came across a few good causes that should get
5342 wider attention.  I recommend signing and donating to each one of
5343 these. :)</p>
5344
5345 <p>Via <a href="http://www.debian.org/News/weekly/2013/18/">Debian
5346 Project News for 2013-10-14</a> I came across the Outreach Program for
5347 Women program which is a Google Summer of Code like initiative to get
5348 more women involved in free software.  One debian sponsor has offered
5349 to match <a href="http://debian.ch/opw2013">any donation done to Debian
5350 earmarked</a> for this initiative.  I donated a few minutes ago, and
5351 hope you will to. :)</p>
5352
5353 <p>And the Electronic Frontier Foundation just announced plans to
5354 create <a href="https://supporters.eff.org/donate/nsa-videos">video
5355 documentaries about the excessive spying</a> on every Internet user that
5356 take place these days, and their need to fund the work.  I've already
5357 donated.  Are you next?</p>
5358
5359 <p>For my Norwegian audience, the organisation Studentenes og
5360 Akademikernes Internasjonale Hjelpefond is collecting signatures for a
5361 statement under the heading
5362 <a href="http://saih.no/Bloggers_United/">Bloggers United for Open
5363 Access</a> for those of us asking for more focus on open access in the
5364 Norwegian government.  So far 499 signatures.  I hope you will sign it
5365 too.</p>
5366
5367       </div>
5368       <div class="tags">
5369
5370
5371         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/opphavsrett">opphavsrett</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance</a>.
5372
5373
5374       </div>
5375     </div>
5376     <div class="padding"></div>
5377
5378     <div class="entry">
5379       <div class="title">
5380         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Videos_about_the_Freedombox_project___for_inspiration_and_learning.html">Videos about the Freedombox project - for inspiration and learning</a>
5381       </div>
5382       <div class="date">
5383         27th September 2013
5384       </div>
5385       <div class="body">
5386         <p>The <a href="http://www.freedomboxfoundation.org/">Freedombox
5387 project</a> have been going on for a while, and have presented the
5388 vision, ideas and solution several places.  Here is a little
5389 collection of videos of talks and presentation of the project.</p>
5390
5391 <ul>
5392
5393 <li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ukvUz5taxvA">FreedomBox -
5394 2,5 minute marketing film</a> (Youtube)</li>
5395
5396 <li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SzW25QTVWsE">Eben Moglen
5397 discusses the Freedombox on CBS news 2011</a> (Youtube)</li>
5398
5399 <li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ae8SZbxfE0g">Eben Moglen -
5400 Freedom in the Cloud - Software Freedom, Privacy and and Security for
5401 Web 2.0 and Cloud computing at ISOC-NY Public Meeting 2010</a>
5402 (Youtube)</li>
5403
5404 <li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNaIji_3xBE">Fosdem 2011
5405 Keynote by Eben Moglen presenting the Freedombox</a> (Youtube)</li>
5406
5407 <li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bDDUyJSQ9s">Presentation of
5408 the Freedombox by James Vasile at Elevate in Gratz 2011</a> (Youtube)</li>
5409
5410 <li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQTmnk27g9s"> Freedombox -
5411 Discovery, Identity, and Trust by Nick Daly at Freedombox Hackfest New
5412 York City in 2012</a> (Youtube)</li>
5413
5414 <li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tkbSB4Ba7Ck">Introduction
5415 to the Freedombox at Freedombox Hackfest New York City in 2012</a>
5416 (Youtube)</li>
5417
5418 <li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-P2Jaeg0aQ">Freedom, Out
5419 of the Box! by Bdale Garbee at linux.conf.au Ballarat, 2012</a> (Youtube) </li>
5420
5421 <li><a href="https://archive.fosdem.org/2013/schedule/event/freedombox/">Freedombox
5422 1.0 by Eben Moglen and Bdale Garbee at Fosdem 2013</a> (FOSDEM) </li>
5423
5424 <li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e1LpYX2zVYg">What is the
5425 FreedomBox today by Bdale Garbee at Debconf13 in Vaumarcus
5426 2013</a> (Youtube)</li>
5427
5428 </ul>
5429
5430 <p>A larger list is available from
5431 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/FreedomBox/TalksAndPresentations">the
5432 Freedombox Wiki</a>.</p>
5433
5434 <p>On other news, I am happy to report that Freedombox based on Debian
5435 Jessie is coming along quite well, and soon both Owncloud and using
5436 Tor should be available for testers of the Freedombox solution. :) In
5437 a few weeks I hope everything needed to test it is included in Debian.
5438 The withsqlite package is already in Debian, and the plinth package is
5439 pending in NEW.  The third and vital part of that puzzle is the
5440 metapackage/setup framework, which is still pending an upload.  Join
5441 us on <a href="irc://irc.debian.org:6667/%23freedombox">IRC
5442 (#freedombox on irc.debian.org)</a> and
5443 <a href="http://lists.alioth.debian.org/mailman/listinfo/freedombox-discuss">the
5444 mailing list</a> if you want to help make this vision come true.</p>
5445
5446       </div>
5447       <div class="tags">
5448
5449
5450         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freedombox">freedombox</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/web">web</a>.
5451
5452
5453       </div>
5454     </div>
5455     <div class="padding"></div>
5456
5457     <div class="entry">
5458       <div class="title">
5459         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Recipe_to_test_the_Freedombox_project_on_amd64_or_Raspberry_Pi.html">Recipe to test the Freedombox project on amd64 or Raspberry Pi</a>
5460       </div>
5461       <div class="date">
5462         10th September 2013
5463       </div>
5464       <div class="body">
5465         <p>I was introduced to the
5466 <a href="http://www.freedomboxfoundation.org/">Freedombox project</a>
5467 in 2010, when Eben Moglen presented his vision about serving the need
5468 of non-technical people to keep their personal information private and
5469 within the legal protection of their own homes.  The idea is to give
5470 people back the power over their network and machines, and return
5471 Internet back to its intended peer-to-peer architecture.  Instead of
5472 depending on a central service, the Freedombox will give everyone
5473 control over their own basic infrastructure.</p>
5474
5475 <p>I've intended to join the effort since then, but other tasks have
5476 taken priority.  But this summers nasty news about the misuse of trust
5477 and privilege exercised by the "western" intelligence gathering
5478 communities increased my eagerness to contribute to a point where I
5479 actually started working on the project a while back.</p>
5480
5481 <p>The <a href="https://alioth.debian.org/projects/freedombox/">initial
5482 Debian initiative</a> based on the vision from Eben Moglen, is to
5483 create a simple and cheap Debian based appliance that anyone can hook
5484 up in their home and get access to secure and private services and
5485 communication.  The initial deployment platform have been the
5486 <a href="http://www.globalscaletechnologies.com/t-dreamplugdetails.aspx">Dreamplug</a>,
5487 which is a piece of hardware I do not own.  So to be able to test what
5488 the current Freedombox setup look like, I had to come up with a way to install
5489 it on some hardware I do have access to.  I have rewritten the
5490 <a href="https://github.com/NickDaly/freedom-maker">freedom-maker</a>
5491 image build framework to use .deb packages instead of only copying
5492 setup into the boot images, and thanks to this rewrite I am able to
5493 set up any machine supported by Debian Wheezy as a Freedombox, using
5494 the previously mentioned deb (and a few support debs for packages
5495 missing in Debian).</p>
5496
5497 <p>The current Freedombox setup consist of a set of bootstrapping
5498 scripts
5499 (<a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/freedombox-setup">freedombox-setup</a>),
5500 and a administrative web interface
5501 (<a href="https://github.com/NickDaly/Plinth">plinth</a> + exmachina +
5502 withsqlite), as well as a privacy enhancing proxy based on
5503 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/privoxy">privoxy</a>
5504 (freedombox-privoxy).  There is also a web/javascript based XMPP
5505 client (<a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/jwchat">jwchat</a>)
5506 trying (unsuccessfully so far) to talk to the XMPP server
5507 (<a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/ejabberd">ejabberd</a>).  The
5508 web interface is pluggable, and the goal is to use it to enable OpenID
5509 services, mesh network connectivity, use of TOR, etc, etc.  Not much of
5510 this is really working yet, see
5511 <a href="https://github.com/NickDaly/freedombox-todos/blob/master/TODO">the
5512 project TODO</a> for links to GIT repositories.  Most of the code is
5513 on github at the moment.  The HTTP proxy is operational out of the
5514 box, and the admin web interface can be used to add/remove plinth
5515 users.  I've not been able to do anything else with it so far, but
5516 know there are several branches spread around github and other places
5517 with lots of half baked features.</p>
5518
5519 <p>Anyway, if you want to have a look at the current state, the
5520 following recipes should work to give you a test machine to poke
5521 at.</p>
5522
5523 <p><strong>Debian Wheezy amd64</strong></p>
5524
5525 <ol>
5526
5527 <li>Fetch normal Debian Wheezy installation ISO.</li>
5528 <li>Boot from it, either as CD or USB stick.</li>
5529 <li><p>Press [tab] on the boot prompt and add this as a boot argument
5530 to the Debian installer:<p>
5531 <pre>url=<a href="http://www.reinholdtsen.name/freedombox/preseed-wheezy.dat">http://www.reinholdtsen.name/freedombox/preseed-wheezy.dat</a></pre></li>
5532
5533 <li>Answer the few language/region/password questions and pick disk to
5534 install on.</li>
5535
5536 <li>When the installation is finished and the machine have rebooted a
5537 few times, your Freedombox is ready for testing.</li>
5538
5539 </ol>
5540
5541 <p><strong>Raspberry Pi Raspbian</strong></p>
5542
5543 <ol>
5544
5545 <li>Fetch a Raspbian SD card image, create SD card.</li>
5546 <li>Boot from SD card, extend file system to fill the card completely.</li>
5547 <li><p>Log in and add this to /etc/sources.list:</p>
5548 <pre>
5549 deb <a href="http://www.reinholdtsen.name/freedombox/">http://www.reinholdtsen.name/freedombox</a> wheezy main
5550 </pre></li>
5551 <li><p>Run this as root:</p>
5552 <pre>
5553 wget -O - http://www.reinholdtsen.name/freedombox/BE1A583D.asc | \
5554    apt-key add -
5555 apt-get update
5556 apt-get install freedombox-setup
5557 /usr/lib/freedombox/setup
5558 </pre></li>
5559 <li>Reboot into your freshly created Freedombox.</li>
5560
5561 </ol>
5562
5563 <p>You can test it on other architectures too, but because the
5564 freedombox-privoxy package is binary, it will only work as intended on
5565 the architectures where I have had time to build the binary and put it
5566 in my APT repository.  But do not let this stop you.  It is only a
5567 short "<tt>apt-get source -b freedombox-privoxy</tt>" away. :)</p>
5568
5569 <p>Note that by default Freedombox is a DHCP server on the
5570 192.168.1.0/24 subnet, so if this is your subnet be careful and turn
5571 off the DHCP server by running "<tt>update-rc.d isc-dhcp-server
5572 disable</tt>" as root.</p>
5573
5574 <p>Please let me know if this works for you, or if you have any
5575 problems.  We gather on the IRC channel
5576 <a href="irc://irc.debian.org:6667/%23freedombox">#freedombox</a> on
5577 irc.debian.org and the
5578 <a href="http://lists.alioth.debian.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/freedombox-discuss">project
5579 mailing list</a>.</p>
5580
5581 <p>Once you get your freedombox operational, you can visit
5582 <tt>http://your-host-name:8001/</tt> to see the state of the plint
5583 welcome screen (dead end - do not be surprised if you are unable to
5584 get past it), and next visit <tt>http://your-host-name:8001/help/</tt>
5585 to look at the rest of plinth.  The default user is 'admin' and the
5586 default password is 'secret'.</p>
5587
5588       </div>
5589       <div class="tags">
5590
5591
5592         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freedombox">freedombox</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/web">web</a>.
5593
5594
5595       </div>
5596     </div>
5597     <div class="padding"></div>
5598
5599     <div class="entry">
5600       <div class="title">
5601         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Intel_180_SSD_disk_with_Lenovo_firmware_can_not_use_Intel_firmware.html">Intel 180 SSD disk with Lenovo firmware can not use Intel firmware</a>
5602       </div>
5603       <div class="date">
5604         18th August 2013
5605       </div>
5606       <div class="body">
5607         <p>Earlier, I reported about
5608 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_fix_a_Thinkpad_X230_with_a_broken_180_GB_SSD_disk.html">my
5609 problems using an Intel SSD 520 Series 180 GB disk</a>.  Friday I was
5610 told by IBM that the original disk should be thrown away.  And as
5611 there no longer was a problem if I bricked the firmware, I decided
5612 today to try to install Intel firmware to replace the Lenovo firmware
5613 currently on the disk.</p>
5614
5615 <p>I searched the Intel site for firmware, and found
5616 <a href="https://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_Desc.aspx?agr=Y&ProdId=3472&DwnldID=18363&ProductFamily=Solid-State+Drives+and+Caching&ProductLine=Intel%c2%ae+High+Performance+Solid-State+Drive&ProductProduct=Intel%c2%ae+SSD+520+Series+(180GB%2c+2.5in+SATA+6Gb%2fs%2c+25nm%2c+MLC)&lang=eng">issdfut_2.0.4.iso</a>
5617 (aka Intel SATA Solid-State Drive Firmware Update Tool) which
5618 according to the site should contain the latest firmware for SSD
5619 disks.  I inserted the broken disk in one of my spare laptops and
5620 booted the ISO from a USB stick.  The disk was recognized, but the
5621 program claimed the newest firmware already were installed and refused
5622 to insert any Intel firmware.  So no change, and the disk is still
5623 unable to handle write load. :( I guess the only way to get them
5624 working would be if Lenovo releases new firmware.  No idea how likely
5625 that is.  Anyway, just blogging about this test for completeness.  I
5626 got a working Samsung disk, and see no point in spending more time on
5627 the broken disks.</p>
5628
5629       </div>
5630       <div class="tags">
5631
5632
5633         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
5634
5635
5636       </div>
5637     </div>
5638     <div class="padding"></div>
5639
5640     <div class="entry">
5641       <div class="title">
5642         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_fix_a_Thinkpad_X230_with_a_broken_180_GB_SSD_disk.html">How to fix a Thinkpad X230 with a broken 180 GB SSD disk</a>
5643       </div>
5644       <div class="date">
5645         17th July 2013
5646       </div>
5647       <div class="body">
5648         <p>Today I switched to
5649 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_Thinkpad_is_dead__long_live_the_Thinkpad_X230_.html">my
5650 new laptop</a>.  I've previously written about the problems I had with
5651 my new Thinkpad X230, which was delivered with an
5652 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Intel_SSD_520_Series_180_GB_with_Lenovo_firmware_still_lock_up_from_sustained_writes.html">180
5653 GB Intel SSD disk with Lenovo firmware</a> that did not handle
5654 sustained writes.  My hardware supplier have been very forthcoming in
5655 trying to find a solution, and after first trying with another
5656 identical 180 GB disks they decided to send me a 256 GB Samsung SSD
5657 disk instead to fix it once and for all.  The Samsung disk survived
5658 the installation of Debian with encrypted disks (filling the disk with
5659 random data during installation killed the first two), and I thus
5660 decided to trust it with my data.  I have installed it as a Debian Edu
5661 Wheezy roaming workstation hooked up with my Debian Edu Squeeze main
5662 server at home using Kerberos and LDAP, and will use it as my work
5663 station from now on.</p>
5664
5665 <p>As this is a solid state disk with no moving parts, I believe the
5666 Debian Wheezy default installation need to be tuned a bit to increase
5667 performance and increase life time of the disk.  The Linux kernel and
5668 user space applications do not yet adjust automatically to such
5669 environment.  To make it easier for my self, I created a draft Debian
5670 package <tt>ssd-setup</tt> to handle this tuning.  The
5671 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/gitweb/?p=collab-maint/ssd-setup.git">source
5672 for the ssd-setup package</a> is available from collab-maint, and it
5673 is set up to adjust the setup of the machine by just installing the
5674 package.  If there is any non-SSD disk in the machine, the package
5675 will refuse to install, as I did not try to write any logic to sort
5676 file systems in SSD and non-SSD file systems.</p>
5677
5678 <p>I consider the package a draft, as I am a bit unsure how to best
5679 set up Debian Wheezy with an SSD.  It is adjusted to my use case,
5680 where I set up the machine with one large encrypted partition (in
5681 addition to /boot), put LVM on top of this and set up partitions on
5682 top of this again.  See the README file in the package source for the
5683 references I used to pick the settings.  At the moment these
5684 parameters are tuned:</p>
5685
5686 <ul>
5687
5688 <li>Set up cryptsetup to pass TRIM commands to the physical disk
5689     (adding discard to /etc/crypttab)</li>
5690
5691 <li>Set up LVM to pass on TRIM commands to the underlying device (in
5692     this case a cryptsetup partition) by changing issue_discards from
5693     0 to 1 in /etc/lvm/lvm.conf.</li>
5694
5695 <li>Set relatime as a file system option for ext3 and ext4 file
5696     systems.</li>
5697
5698 <li>Tell swap to use TRIM commands by adding 'discard' to
5699     /etc/fstab.</li>
5700
5701 <li>Change I/O scheduler from cfq to deadline using a udev rule.</li>
5702
5703 <li>Run fstrim on every ext3 and ext4 file system every night (from
5704     cron.daily).</li>
5705
5706 <li>Adjust sysctl values vm.swappiness to 1 and vm.vfs_cache_pressure
5707     to 50 to reduce the kernel eagerness to swap out processes.</li>
5708
5709 </ul>
5710
5711 <p>During installation, I cancelled the part where the installer fill
5712 the disk with random data, as this would kill the SSD performance for
5713 little gain.  My goal with the encrypted file system is to ensure
5714 those stealing my laptop end up with a brick and not a working
5715 computer.  I have no hope in keeping the really resourceful people
5716 from getting the data on the disk (see
5717 <a href="http://xkcd.com/538/">XKCD #538</a> for an explanation why).
5718 Thus I concluded that adding the discard option to crypttab is the
5719 right thing to do.</p>
5720
5721 <p>I considered using the noop I/O scheduler, as several recommended
5722 it for SSD, but others recommended deadline and a benchmark I found
5723 indicated that deadline might be better for interactive use.</p>
5724
5725 <p>I also considered using the 'discard' file system option for ext3
5726 and ext4, but read that it would give a performance hit ever time a
5727 file is removed, and thought it best to that that slowdown once a day
5728 instead of during my work.</p>
5729
5730 <p>My package do not set up tmpfs on /var/run, /var/lock and /tmp, as
5731 this is already done by Debian Edu.</p>
5732
5733 <p>I have not yet started on the user space tuning.  I expect
5734 iceweasel need some tuning, and perhaps other applications too, but
5735 have not yet had time to investigate those parts.</p>
5736
5737 <p>The package should work on Ubuntu too, but I have not yet tested it
5738 there.</p>
5739
5740 <p>As for the answer to the question in the title of this blog post,
5741 as far as I know, the only solution I know about is to replace the
5742 disk.  It might be possible to flash it with Intel firmware instead of
5743 the Lenovo firmware.  But I have not tried and did not want to do so
5744 without approval from Lenovo as I wanted to keep the warranty on the
5745 disk until a solution was found and they wanted the broken disks
5746 back.</p>
5747
5748       </div>
5749       <div class="tags">
5750
5751
5752         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
5753
5754
5755       </div>
5756     </div>
5757     <div class="padding"></div>
5758
5759     <div class="entry">
5760       <div class="title">
5761         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Intel_SSD_520_Series_180_GB_with_Lenovo_firmware_still_lock_up_from_sustained_writes.html">Intel SSD 520 Series 180 GB with Lenovo firmware still lock up from sustained writes</a>
5762       </div>
5763       <div class="date">
5764         10th July 2013
5765       </div>
5766       <div class="body">
5767         <p>A few days ago, I wrote about
5768 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_Thinkpad_is_dead__long_live_the_Thinkpad_X230_.html">the
5769 problems I experienced with my new X230 and its SSD disk</a>, which
5770 was dying during installation because it is unable to cope with
5771 sustained write.  My supplier is in contact with
5772 <a href="http://www.lenovo.com/">Lenovo</a>, and they wanted to send a
5773 replacement disk to try to fix the problem.  They decided to send an
5774 identical model, so my hopes for a permanent fix was slim.</p>
5775
5776 <p>Anyway, today I got the replacement disk and tried to install
5777 Debian Edu Wheezy with encrypted disk on it.  The new disk have the
5778 same firmware version as the original.  This time my hope raised
5779 slightly as the installation progressed, as the original disk used to
5780 die after 4-7% of the disk was written to, while this time it kept
5781 going past 10%, 20%, 40% and even past 50%.  But around 60%, the disk
5782 died again and I was back on square one.  I still do not have a new
5783 laptop with a disk I can trust.  I can not live with a disk that might
5784 lock up when I download a new
5785 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux</a> ISO or
5786 other large files.  I look forward to hearing from my supplier with
5787 the next proposal from Lenovo.</p>
5788
5789 <p>The original disk is marked Intel SSD 520 Series 180 GB,
5790 11S0C38722Z1ZNME35X1TR, ISN: CVCV321407HB180EGN, SA: G57560302, FW:
5791 LF1i, 29MAY2013, PBA: G39779-300, LBA 351,651,888, LI P/N: 0C38722,
5792 Pb-free 2LI, LC P/N: 16-200366, WWN: 55CD2E40002756C4, Model:
5793 SSDSC2BW180A3L 2.5" 6Gb/s SATA SSD 180G 5V 1A, ASM P/N 0C38732, FRU
5794 P/N 45N8295, P0C38732.</p>
5795
5796 <p>The replacement disk is marked Intel SSD 520 Series 180 GB,
5797 11S0C38722Z1ZNDE34N0L0, ISN: CVCV315306RK180EGN, SA: G57560-302, FW:
5798 LF1i, 22APR2013, PBA: G39779-300, LBA 351,651,888, LI P/N: 0C38722,
5799 Pb-free 2LI, LC P/N: 16-200366, WWN: 55CD2E40000AB69E, Model:
5800 SSDSC2BW180A3L 2.5" 6Gb/s SATA SSD 180G 5V 1A, ASM P/N 0C38732, FRU
5801 P/N 45N8295, P0C38732.</p>
5802
5803 <p>The only difference is in the first number (serial number?), ISN,
5804 SA, date and WNPP values.  Mentioning all the details here in case
5805 someone is able to use the information to find a way to identify the
5806 failing disk among working ones (if any such working disk actually
5807 exist).</p>
5808
5809       </div>
5810       <div class="tags">
5811
5812
5813         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
5814
5815
5816       </div>
5817     </div>
5818     <div class="padding"></div>
5819
5820     <div class="entry">
5821       <div class="title">
5822         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/July_13th__Debian_Ubuntu_BSP_and_Skolelinux_Debian_Edu_developer_gathering_in_Oslo.html">July 13th: Debian/Ubuntu BSP and Skolelinux/Debian Edu developer gathering in Oslo</a>
5823       </div>
5824       <div class="date">
5825          9th July 2013
5826       </div>
5827       <div class="body">
5828         <p>The upcoming Saturday, 2013-07-13, we are organising a combined
5829 Debian Edu developer gathering and Debian and Ubuntu bug squashing
5830 party in Oslo.  It is organised by <a href="http://www.nuug.no/">the
5831 member assosiation NUUG</a> and
5832 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">the Debian Edu / Skolelinux
5833 project</a> together with <a href="http://bitraf.no/">the hack space
5834 Bitraf</a>.</p>
5835
5836 <p>It starts 10:00 and continue until late evening.  Everyone is
5837 welcome, and there is no fee to participate.  There is on the other
5838 hand limited space, and only room for 30 people.  Please put your name
5839 on <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/BSP/2013/07/13/no/Oslo">the event
5840 wiki page</a> if you plan to join us.</p>
5841
5842       </div>
5843       <div class="tags">
5844
5845
5846         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
5847
5848
5849       </div>
5850     </div>
5851     <div class="padding"></div>
5852
5853     <div class="entry">
5854       <div class="title">
5855         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_Thinkpad_is_dead__long_live_the_Thinkpad_X230_.html">The Thinkpad is dead, long live the Thinkpad X230?</a>
5856       </div>
5857       <div class="date">
5858          5th July 2013
5859       </div>
5860       <div class="body">
5861         <p>Half a year ago, I reported that I had to find a
5862 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Thank_you_Thinkpad_X41__for_your_long_and_trustworthy_service.html">replacement
5863 for my trusty old Thinkpad X41</a>.  Unfortunately I did not have much
5864 time to spend on it, and it took a while to find a model I believe
5865 will do the job, but two days ago the replacement finally arrived.  I
5866 ended up picking a
5867 <a href="http://www.linlap.com/lenovo_thinkpad_x230">Thinkpad X230</a>
5868 with SSD disk (NZDAJMN).  I first test installed Debian Edu Wheezy as
5869 a roaming workstation, and it seemed to work flawlessly.  But my
5870 second installation with encrypted disk was not as successful.  More
5871 on that below.</p>
5872
5873 <p>I had a hard time trying to track down a good laptop, as my most
5874 important requirements (robust and with a good keyboard) are never
5875 listed in the feature list.  But I did get good help from the search
5876 feature at <a href="http://www.prisjakt.no/">Prisjakt</a>, which
5877 allowed me to limit the list of interesting laptops based on my other
5878 requirements.  A bit surprising that SSD disk are not disks according
5879 to that search interface, so I had to drop specifying the number of
5880 disks from my search parameters.  I also asked around among friends to
5881 get their impression on keyboards and robustness.</p>
5882
5883 <p>So the new laptop arrived, and it is quite a lot wider than the
5884 X41.  I am not quite convinced about the keyboard, as it is
5885 significantly wider than my old keyboard, and I have to stretch my
5886 hand a lot more to reach the edges.  But the key response is fairly
5887 good and the individual key shape is fairly easy to handle, so I hope
5888 I will get used to it.  My old X40 was starting to fail, and I really
5889 needed a new laptop now. :)</p>
5890
5891 <p>Turning off the touch pad was simple.  All it took was a quick
5892 visit to the BIOS during boot it disable it.</p>
5893
5894 <p>But there is a fatal problem with the laptop.  The 180 GB SSD disk
5895 lock up during load.  And this happen when installing Debian Wheezy
5896 with encrypted disk, while the disk is being filled with random data.
5897 I also tested to install Ubuntu Raring, and it happen there too if I
5898 reenable the code to fill the disk with random data (it is disabled by
5899 default in Ubuntu).  And the bug with is already known.  It was
5900 reported to Debian as <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/691427">BTS
5901 report #691427 2012-10-25</a> (journal commit I/O error on brand-new
5902 Thinkpad T430s ext4 on lvm on SSD).  It is also reported to the Linux
5903 kernel developers as
5904 <a href="https://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=51861">Kernel bugzilla
5905 report #51861 2012-12-20</a> (Intel SSD 520 stops working under load
5906 (SSDSC2BW180A3L in Lenovo ThinkPad T430s)). It is also reported on the
5907 Lenovo forums, both for
5908 <a href="http://forums.lenovo.com/t5/T400-T500-and-newer-T-series/T430s-Intel-SSD-520-180GB-issue/m-p/1070549">T430
5909 2012-11-10</a> and for
5910 <a href="http://forums.lenovo.com/t5/X-Series-ThinkPad-Laptops/x230-SATA-errors-with-180GB-Intel-520-SSD-under-heavy-write-load/m-p/1068147">X230
5911 03-20-2013</a>.  The problem do not only affect installation.  The
5912 reports state that the disk lock up during use if many writes are done
5913 on the disk, so it is much no use to work around the installation
5914 problem and end up with a computer that can lock up at any moment.
5915 There is even a
5916 <a href="https://git.efficios.com/?p=test-ssd.git">small C program
5917 available</a> that will lock up the hard drive after running a few
5918 minutes by writing to a file.</p>
5919
5920 <p>I've contacted my supplier and asked how to handle this, and after
5921 contacting PCHELP Norway (request 01D1FDP) which handle support
5922 requests for Lenovo, his first suggestion was to upgrade the disk
5923 firmware.  Unfortunately there is no newer firmware available from
5924 Lenovo, as my disk already have the most recent one (version LF1i).  I
5925 hope to hear more from him today and hope the problem can be
5926 fixed. :)</p>
5927
5928       </div>
5929       <div class="tags">
5930
5931
5932         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
5933
5934
5935       </div>
5936     </div>
5937     <div class="padding"></div>
5938
5939     <div class="entry">
5940       <div class="title">
5941         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_Thinkpad_is_dead__long_live_the_Thinkpad_X230.html">The Thinkpad is dead, long live the Thinkpad X230</a>
5942       </div>
5943       <div class="date">
5944          4th July 2013
5945       </div>
5946       <div class="body">
5947         <p>Half a year ago, I reported that I had to find a replacement for my
5948 trusty old Thinkpad X41.  Unfortunately I did not have much time to
5949 spend on it, but today the replacement finally arrived.  I ended up
5950 picking a <a href="http://www.linlap.com/lenovo_thinkpad_x230">Thinkpad
5951 X230</a> with SSD disk (NZDAJMN).  I first test installed Debian Edu
5952 Wheezy as a roaming workstation, and it worked flawlessly.  As I write
5953 this, it is installing what I hope will be a more final installation,
5954 with a encrypted hard drive to ensure any dope head stealing it end up
5955 with an expencive door stop.</p>
5956
5957 <p>I had a hard time trying to track down a good laptop, as my most
5958 important requirements (robust and with a good keyboard) are never
5959 listed in the feature list.  But I did get good help from the search
5960 feature at <ahref="http://www.prisjakt.no/">Prisjakt</a>, which
5961 allowed me to limit the list of interesting laptops based on my other
5962 requirements.  A bit surprising that SSD disk are not disks, so I had
5963 to drop number of disks from my search parameters.</p>
5964
5965 <p>I am not quite convinced about the keyboard, as it is significantly
5966 wider than my old keyboard, and I have to stretch my hand a lot more
5967 to reach the edges.  But the key response is fairly good and the
5968 individual key shape is fairly easy to handle, so I hope I will get
5969 used to it.  My old X40 was starting to fail, and I really needed a
5970 new laptop now. :)</p>
5971
5972 <p>I look forward to figuring out how to turn off the touch pad.</p>
5973
5974       </div>
5975       <div class="tags">
5976
5977
5978         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
5979
5980
5981       </div>
5982     </div>
5983     <div class="padding"></div>
5984
5985     <div class="entry">
5986       <div class="title">
5987         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Automatically_locate_and_install_required_firmware_packages_on_Debian__Isenkram_0_4_.html">Automatically locate and install required firmware packages on Debian (Isenkram 0.4)</a>
5988       </div>
5989       <div class="date">
5990         25th June 2013
5991       </div>
5992       <div class="body">
5993         <p>It annoys me when the computer fail to do automatically what it is
5994 perfectly capable of, and I have to do it manually to get things
5995 working.  One such task is to find out what firmware packages are
5996 needed to get the hardware on my computer working.  Most often this
5997 affect the wifi card, but some times it even affect the RAID
5998 controller or the ethernet card.  Today I pushed version 0.4 of the
5999 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/isenkram">Isenkram package</a>
6000 including a new script isenkram-autoinstall-firmware handling the
6001 process of asking all the loaded kernel modules what firmware files
6002 they want, find debian packages providing these files and install the
6003 debian packages.  Here is a test run on my laptop:</p>
6004
6005 <p><pre>
6006 # isenkram-autoinstall-firmware
6007 info: kernel drivers requested extra firmware: ipw2200-bss.fw ipw2200-ibss.fw ipw2200-sniffer.fw
6008 info: fetching http://http.debian.net/debian/dists/squeeze/Contents-i386.gz
6009 info: locating packages with the requested firmware files
6010 info: Updating APT sources after adding non-free APT source
6011 info: trying to install firmware-ipw2x00
6012 firmware-ipw2x00
6013 firmware-ipw2x00
6014 Preconfiguring packages ...
6015 Selecting previously deselected package firmware-ipw2x00.
6016 (Reading database ... 259727 files and directories currently installed.)
6017 Unpacking firmware-ipw2x00 (from .../firmware-ipw2x00_0.28+squeeze1_all.deb) ...
6018 Setting up firmware-ipw2x00 (0.28+squeeze1) ...
6019 #
6020 </pre></p>
6021
6022 <p>When all the requested firmware is present, a simple message is
6023 printed instead:</p>
6024
6025 <p><pre>
6026 # isenkram-autoinstall-firmware
6027 info: did not find any firmware files requested by loaded kernel modules.  exiting
6028 #
6029 </pre></p>
6030
6031 <p>It could use some polish, but it is already working well and saving
6032 me some time when setting up new machines. :)</p>
6033
6034 <p>So, how does it work?  It look at the set of currently loaded
6035 kernel modules, and look up each one of them using modinfo, to find
6036 the firmware files listed in the module meta-information.  Next, it
6037 download the Contents file from a nearby APT mirror, and search for
6038 the firmware files in this file to locate the package with the
6039 requested firmware file.  If the package is in the non-free section, a
6040 non-free APT source is added and the package is installed using
6041 <tt>apt-get install</tt>.  The end result is a slightly better working
6042 machine.</p>
6043
6044 <p>I hope someone find time to implement a more polished version of
6045 this script as part of the hw-detect debian-installer module, to
6046 finally fix <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/655507">BTS report
6047 #655507</a>.  There really is no need to insert USB sticks with
6048 firmware during a PXE install when the packages already are available
6049 from the nearby Debian mirror.</p>
6050
6051       </div>
6052       <div class="tags">
6053
6054
6055         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram">isenkram</a>.
6056
6057
6058       </div>
6059     </div>
6060     <div class="padding"></div>
6061
6062     <div class="entry">
6063       <div class="title">
6064         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Fixing_the_Linux_black_screen_of_death_on_machines_with_Intel_HD_video.html">Fixing the Linux black screen of death on machines with Intel HD video</a>
6065       </div>
6066       <div class="date">
6067         11th June 2013
6068       </div>
6069       <div class="body">
6070         <p>When installing RedHat, Fedora, Debian and Ubuntu on some machines,
6071 the screen just turn black when Linux boot, either during installation
6072 or on first boot from the hard disk.  I've seen it once in a while the
6073 last few years, but only recently understood the cause.  I've seen it
6074 on HP laptops, and on my latest acquaintance the Packard Bell laptop.
6075 The reason seem to be in the wiring of some laptops.  The system to
6076 control the screen background light is inverted, so when Linux try to
6077 turn the brightness fully on, it end up turning it off instead.  I do
6078 not know which Linux drivers are affected, but this post is about the
6079 i915 driver used by the
6080 <a href="http://www.linlap.com/packard_bell_easynote_lv">Packard Bell
6081 EasyNote LV</a>, Thinkpad X40 and many other laptops.</p>
6082
6083 <p>The problem can be worked around two ways.  Either by adding
6084 i915.invert_brightness=1 as a kernel option, or by adding a file in
6085 /etc/modprobe.d/ to tell modprobe to add the invert_brightness=1
6086 option when it load the i915 kernel module.  On Debian and Ubuntu, it
6087 can be done by running these commands as root:</p>
6088
6089 <pre>
6090 echo options i915 invert_brightness=1 | tee /etc/modprobe.d/i915.conf
6091 update-initramfs -u -k all
6092 </pre>
6093
6094 <p>Since March 2012 there is
6095 <a href="http://git.kernel.org/cgit/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/commit/?id=4dca20efb1a9c2efefc28ad2867e5d6c3f5e1955">a
6096 mechanism in the Linux kernel</a> to tell the i915 driver which
6097 hardware have this problem, and get the driver to invert the
6098 brightness setting automatically.  To use it, one need to add a row in
6099 <a href="http://git.kernel.org/cgit/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/tree/drivers/gpu/drm/i915/intel_display.c">the
6100 intel_quirks array</a> in the driver source
6101 <tt>drivers/gpu/drm/i915/intel_display.c</tt> (look for "<tt>static
6102 struct intel_quirk intel_quirks</tt>"), specifying the PCI device
6103 number (vendor number 8086 is assumed) and subdevice vendor and device
6104 number.</p>
6105
6106 <p>My Packard Bell EasyNote LV got this output from <tt>lspci
6107 -vvnn</tt> for the video card in question:</p>
6108
6109 <p><pre>
6110 00:02.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: Intel Corporation \
6111     3rd Gen Core processor Graphics Controller [8086:0156] \
6112     (rev 09) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
6113  Subsystem: Acer Incorporated [ALI] Device [1025:0688]
6114  Control: I/O+ Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- \
6115     ParErr- Stepping- SE RR- FastB2B- DisINTx+
6116  Status: Cap+ 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B+ ParErr- DEVSEL=fast >TAbort- \
6117     <TAbort- <MAbort->SERR- <PERR- INTx-
6118  Latency: 0
6119  Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 42
6120  Region 0: Memory at c2000000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=4M]
6121  Region 2: Memory at b0000000 (64-bit, prefetchable) [size=256M]
6122  Region 4: I/O ports at 4000 [size=64]
6123  Expansion ROM at <unassigned> [disabled]
6124  Capabilities: <access denied>
6125  Kernel driver in use: i915
6126 </pre></p>
6127
6128 <p>The resulting intel_quirks entry would then look like this:</p>
6129
6130 <p><pre>
6131 struct intel_quirk intel_quirks[] = {
6132        ...
6133         /* Packard Bell EasyNote LV11HC needs invert brightness quirk */
6134         { 0x0156, 0x1025, 0x0688, quirk_invert_brightness },
6135        ...
6136 }
6137 </pre></p>
6138
6139 <p>According to the kernel module instructions (as seen using
6140 <tt>modinfo i915</tt>), information about hardware needing the
6141 invert_brightness flag should be sent to the
6142 <a href="http://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/dri-devel">dri-devel
6143 (at) lists.freedesktop.org</a> mailing list to reach the kernel
6144 developers.  But my email about the laptop sent 2013-06-03 have not
6145 yet shown up in
6146 <a href="http://lists.freedesktop.org/archives/dri-devel/2013-June/thread.html">the
6147 web archive for the mailing list</a>, so I suspect they do not accept
6148 emails from non-subscribers.  Because of this, I sent my patch also to
6149 the Debian bug tracking system instead as
6150 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/710938">BTS report #710938</a>, to make
6151 sure the patch is not lost.</p>
6152
6153 <p>Unfortunately, it is not enough to fix the kernel to get Laptops
6154 with this problem working properly with Linux.  If you use Gnome, your
6155 worries should be over at this point.  But if you use KDE, there is
6156 something in KDE ignoring the invert_brightness setting and turning on
6157 the screen during login.  I've reported it to Debian as
6158 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/711237">BTS report #711237</a>, and
6159 have no idea yet how to figure out exactly what subsystem is doing
6160 this.  Perhaps you can help?  Perhaps you know what the Gnome
6161 developers did to handle this, and this can give a clue to the KDE
6162 developers?  Or you know where in KDE the screen brightness is changed
6163 during login?  If so, please update the BTS report (or get in touch if
6164 you do not know how to update BTS).</p>
6165
6166 <p>Update 2013-07-19: The correct fix for this machine seem to be
6167 acpi_backlight=vendor, to disable ACPI backlight support completely,
6168 as the ACPI information on the machine is trash and it is better to
6169 leave it to the intel video driver to control the screen
6170 backlight.</p>
6171
6172       </div>
6173       <div class="tags">
6174
6175
6176         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
6177
6178
6179       </div>
6180     </div>
6181     <div class="padding"></div>
6182
6183     <div class="entry">
6184       <div class="title">
6185         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_install_Linux_on_a_Packard_Bell_Easynote_LV_preinstalled_with_Windows_8.html">How to install Linux on a Packard Bell Easynote LV preinstalled with Windows 8</a>
6186       </div>
6187       <div class="date">
6188         27th May 2013
6189       </div>
6190       <div class="body">
6191         <p>Two days ago, I asked
6192 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_can_I_install_Linux_on_a_Packard_Bell_Easynote_LV_preinstalled_with_Windows_8_.html">how
6193 I could install Linux on a Packard Bell EasyNote LV computer
6194 preinstalled with Windows 8</a>.  I found a solution, but am horrified
6195 with the obstacles put in the way of Linux users on a laptop with UEFI
6196 and Windows 8.</p>
6197
6198 <p>I never found out if the cause of my problems were the use of UEFI
6199 secure booting or fast boot.  I suspect fast boot was the problem,
6200 causing the firmware to boot directly from HD without considering any
6201 key presses and alternative devices, but do not know UEFI settings
6202 enough to tell.</p>
6203
6204 <p>There is no way to install Linux on the machine in question without
6205 opening the box and disconnecting the hard drive!  This is as far as I
6206 can tell, the only way to get access to the firmware setup menu
6207 without accepting the Windows 8 license agreement.  I am told (and
6208 found description on how to) that it is possible to configure the
6209 firmware setup once booted into Windows 8.  But as I believe the terms
6210 of that agreement are completely unacceptable, accepting the license
6211 was never an alternative.  I do not enter agreements I do not intend
6212 to follow.</p>
6213
6214 <p>I feared I had to return the laptops and ask for a refund, and
6215 waste many hours on this, but luckily there was a way to get it to
6216 work.  But I would not recommend it to anyone planning to run Linux on
6217 it, and I have become sceptical to Windows 8 certified laptops.  Is
6218 this the way Linux will be forced out of the market place, by making
6219 it close to impossible for "normal" users to install Linux without
6220 accepting the Microsoft Windows license terms?  Or at least not
6221 without risking to loose the warranty?</p>
6222
6223 <p>I've updated the
6224 <a href="http://www.linlap.com/packard_bell_easynote_lv">Linux Laptop
6225 wiki page for Packard Bell EasyNote LV</a>, to ensure the next person
6226 do not have to struggle as much as I did to get Linux into the
6227 machine.</p>
6228
6229 <p>Thanks to Bob Rosbag, Florian Weimer, Philipp Kern, Ben Hutching,
6230 Michael Tokarev and others for feedback and ideas.</p>
6231
6232       </div>
6233       <div class="tags">
6234
6235
6236         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
6237
6238
6239       </div>
6240     </div>
6241     <div class="padding"></div>
6242
6243     <div class="entry">
6244       <div class="title">
6245         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_can_I_install_Linux_on_a_Packard_Bell_Easynote_LV_preinstalled_with_Windows_8_.html">How can I install Linux on a Packard Bell Easynote LV preinstalled with Windows 8?</a>
6246       </div>
6247       <div class="date">
6248         25th May 2013
6249       </div>
6250       <div class="body">
6251         <p>I've run into quite a problem the last few days.  I bought three
6252 new laptops for my parents and a few others.  I bought Packard Bell
6253 Easynote LV to run Kubuntu on and use as their home computer.  But I
6254 am completely unable to figure out how to install Linux on it.  The
6255 computer is preinstalled with Windows 8, and I suspect it uses UEFI
6256 instead of a BIOS to boot.</p>
6257
6258 <p>The problem is that I am unable to get it to PXE boot, and unable
6259 to get it to boot the Linux installer from my USB stick.  I have yet
6260 to try the DVD install, and still hope it will work.  when I turn on
6261 the computer, there is no information on what buttons to press to get
6262 the normal boot menu.  I expect to get some boot menu to select PXE or
6263 USB stick booting.  When booting, it first ask for the language to
6264 use, then for some regional settings, and finally if I will accept the
6265 Windows 8 terms of use.  As these terms are completely unacceptable to
6266 me, I have no other choice but to turn off the computer and try again
6267 to get it to boot the Linux installer.</p>
6268
6269 <p>I have gathered my findings so far on a Linlap page about the
6270 <a href="http://www.linlap.com/packard_bell_easynote_lv">Packard Bell
6271 EasyNote LV</a> model.  If you have any idea how to get Linux
6272 installed on this machine, please get in touch or update that wiki
6273 page.  If I can't find a way to install Linux, I will have to return
6274 the laptop to the seller and find another machine for my parents.</p>
6275
6276 <p>I wonder, is this the way Linux will be forced out of the market
6277 using UEFI and "secure boot" by making it impossible to install Linux
6278 on new Laptops?</p>
6279
6280       </div>
6281       <div class="tags">
6282
6283
6284         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
6285
6286
6287       </div>
6288     </div>
6289     <div class="padding"></div>
6290
6291     <div class="entry">
6292       <div class="title">
6293         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_transform_a_Debian_based_system_to_a_Debian_Edu_installation.html">How to transform a Debian based system to a Debian Edu installation</a>
6294       </div>
6295       <div class="date">
6296         17th May 2013
6297       </div>
6298       <div class="body">
6299         <p><a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux</a> is
6300 an operating system based on Debian intended for use in schools.  It
6301 contain a turn-key solution for the computer network provided to
6302 pupils in the primary schools.  It provide both the central server,
6303 network boot servers and desktop environments with heaps of
6304 educational software.  The project was founded almost 12 years ago,
6305 2001-07-02.  If you want to support the project, which is in need for
6306 cash to fund developer gatherings and other project related activity,
6307 <a href="http://www.linuxiskolen.no/slxdebianlabs/donations.html">please
6308 donate some money</a>.
6309
6310 <p>A topic that come up again and again on the Debian Edu mailing
6311 lists and elsewhere, is the question on how to transform a Debian or
6312 Ubuntu installation into a Debian Edu installation.  It isn't very
6313 hard, and last week I wrote a script to replicate the steps done by
6314 the Debian Edu installer.</p>
6315
6316 <p>The script,
6317 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/branches/wheezy/debian-edu-config/share/debian-edu-config/tools/debian-edu-bless?view=markup">debian-edu-bless<a/>
6318 in the debian-edu-config package, will go through these six steps and
6319 transform an existing Debian Wheezy or Ubuntu (untested) installation
6320 into a Debian Edu Workstation:</p>
6321
6322 <ol>
6323
6324 <li>Add skolelinux related APT sources.</li>
6325 <li>Create /etc/debian-edu/config with the wanted configuration.</li>
6326 <li>Install debian-edu-install to load preseeding values and pull in
6327     our configuration.</li>
6328 <li>Preseed debconf database with profile setup in
6329     /etc/debian-edu/config, and run tasksel to install packages
6330     according to the profile specified in the config above,
6331     overriding some of the Debian automation machinery.</li>
6332 <li>Run debian-edu-cfengine-D installation to configure everything
6333     that could not be done using preseeding.</li>
6334 <li>Ask for a reboot to enable all the configuration changes.</li>
6335
6336 </ol>
6337
6338 <p>There are some steps in the Debian Edu installation that can not be
6339 replicated like this.  Disk partitioning and LVM setup, for example.
6340 So this script just assume there is enough disk space to install all
6341 the needed packages.</p>
6342
6343 <p>The script was created to help a Debian Edu student working on
6344 setting up <a href="http://www.raspberrypi.org">Raspberry Pi</a> as a
6345 Debian Edu client, and using it he can take the existing
6346 <a href="http://www.raspbian.org/FrontPage‎">Raspbian</a> installation and
6347 transform it into a fully functioning Debian Edu Workstation (or
6348 Roaming Workstation, or whatever :).</p>
6349
6350 <p>The default setting in the script is to create a KDE Workstation.
6351 If a LXDE based Roaming workstation is wanted instead, modify the
6352 PROFILE and DESKTOP values at the top to look like this instead:</p>
6353
6354 <p><pre>
6355 PROFILE="Roaming-Workstation"
6356 DESKTOP="lxde"
6357 </pre></p>
6358
6359 <p>The script could even become useful to set up Debian Edu servers in
6360 the cloud, by starting with a virtual Debian installation at some
6361 virtual hosting service and setting up all the services on first
6362 boot.</p>
6363
6364       </div>
6365       <div class="tags">
6366
6367
6368         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
6369
6370
6371       </div>
6372     </div>
6373     <div class="padding"></div>
6374
6375     <div class="entry">
6376       <div class="title">
6377         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian__the_Linux_distribution_of_choice_for_LEGO_designers_.html">Debian, the Linux distribution of choice for LEGO designers?</a>
6378       </div>
6379       <div class="date">
6380         11th May 2013
6381       </div>
6382       <div class="body">
6383         <P>In January,
6384 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/New_IRC_channel_for_LEGO_designers_using_Debian.html">I
6385 announced a</a> new <a href="irc://irc.debian.org/%23debian-lego">IRC
6386 channel #debian-lego</a>, for those of us in the Debian and Linux
6387 community interested in <a href="http://www.lego.com/">LEGO</a>, the
6388 marvellous construction system from Denmark.  We also created
6389 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/LegoDesigners">a wiki page</a> to have
6390 a place to take notes and write down our plans and hopes.  And several
6391 people showed up to help.  I was very happy to see the effect of my
6392 call.  Since the small start, we have a debtags tag
6393 <a href="http://debtags.debian.net/search/bytag?wl=hardware::hobby:lego">hardware::hobby:lego</a>
6394 tag for LEGO related packages, and now count 10 packages related to
6395 LEGO and <a href="http://mindstorms.lego.com/">Mindstorms</a>:</p>
6396
6397 <p><table>
6398 <tr><td><a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/brickos">brickos</a></td><td>alternative OS for LEGO Mindstorms RCX. Supports development in C/C++</td></tr>
6399 <tr><td><a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/leocad">leocad</a></td><td>virtual brick CAD software</td></tr>
6400 <tr><td><a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/libnxt">libnxt</a></td><td>utility library for talking to the LEGO Mindstorms NX</td></tr>
6401 <tr><td><a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/lnpd">lnpd</a></td><td>daemon for LNP communication with BrickOS</td></tr>
6402 <tr><td><a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/nbc">nbc</a></td><td>compiler for LEGO Mindstorms NXT bricks</td></tr>
6403 <tr><td><a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/nqc">nqc</a></td><td>Not Quite C compiler for LEGO Mindstorms RCX</td></tr>
6404 <tr><td><a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/python-nxt">python-nxt</a></td><td>python driver/interface/wrapper for the Lego Mindstorms NXT robot</td></tr>
6405 <tr><td><a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/python-nxt-filer">python-nxt-filer</a></td><td>simple GUI to manage files on a LEGO Mindstorms NXT</td></tr>
6406 <tr><td><a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/scratch">scratch</a></td><td>easy to use programming environment for ages 8 and up</td></tr>
6407 <tr><td><a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/t2n">t2n</a></td><td>simple command-line tool for Lego NXT</td></tr>
6408 </table></p>
6409
6410 <p>Some of these are available in Wheezy, and all but one are
6411 currently available in Jessie/testing.  leocad is so far only
6412 available in experimental.</p>
6413
6414 <p>If you care about LEGO in Debian, please join us on IRC and help
6415 adding the rest of the great free software tools available on Linux
6416 for LEGO designers.</p>
6417
6418       </div>
6419       <div class="tags">
6420
6421
6422         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/robot">robot</a>.
6423
6424
6425       </div>
6426     </div>
6427     <div class="padding"></div>
6428
6429     <div class="entry">
6430       <div class="title">
6431         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Wheezy_is_out___and_Debian_Edu___Skolelinux_should_soon_follow___newinwheezy.html">Debian Wheezy is out - and Debian Edu / Skolelinux should soon follow! #newinwheezy</a>
6432       </div>
6433       <div class="date">
6434          5th May 2013
6435       </div>
6436       <div class="body">
6437         <p>When I woke up this morning, I was very happy to see that the
6438 <a href="http://www.debian.org/News/2013/20130504">release announcement
6439 for Debian Wheezy</a> was waiting in my mail box.  This is a great
6440 Debian release, and I expect to move my machines at home over to it fairly
6441 soon.</p>
6442
6443 <p>The new debian release contain heaps of new stuff, and one program
6444 in particular make me very happy to see included.  The
6445 <a href="http://scratch.mit.edu/">Scratch</a> program, made famous by
6446 the <a href="http://www.code.org/">Teach kids code</a> movement, is
6447 included for the first time.  Alongside similar programs like
6448 <a href="http://edu.kde.org/kturtle/">kturtle</a> and
6449 <a href="http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Activities/Turtle_Art">turtleart</a>,
6450 it allow for visual programming where syntax errors can not happen,
6451 and a friendly programming environment for learning to control the
6452 computer.  Scratch will also be included in the next release of Debian
6453 Edu.</a>
6454
6455 <p>And now that Wheezy is wrapped up, we can wrap up the next Debian
6456 Edu/Skolelinux release too.  The
6457 <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-edu/2013/04/msg00132.html">first
6458 alpha release</a> went out last week, and the next should soon
6459 follow.<p>
6460
6461       </div>
6462       <div class="tags">
6463
6464
6465         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
6466
6467
6468       </div>
6469     </div>
6470     <div class="padding"></div>
6471
6472     <div class="entry">
6473       <div class="title">
6474         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Isenkram_0_2_finally_in_the_Debian_archive.html">Isenkram 0.2 finally in the Debian archive</a>
6475       </div>
6476       <div class="date">
6477          3rd April 2013
6478       </div>
6479       <div class="body">
6480         <p>Today the <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/isenkram">Isenkram
6481 package</a> finally made it into the archive, after lingering in NEW
6482 for many months.  I uploaded it to the Debian experimental suite
6483 2013-01-27, and today it was accepted into the archive.</p>
6484
6485 <p>Isenkram is a system for suggesting to users what packages to
6486 install to work with a pluggable hardware device.  The suggestion pop
6487 up when the device is plugged in.  For example if a Lego Mindstorm NXT
6488 is inserted, it will suggest to install the program needed to program
6489 the NXT controller.  Give it a go, and report bugs and suggestions to
6490 BTS. :)</p>
6491
6492       </div>
6493       <div class="tags">
6494
6495
6496         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram">isenkram</a>.
6497
6498
6499       </div>
6500     </div>
6501     <div class="padding"></div>
6502
6503     <div class="entry">
6504       <div class="title">
6505         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Bitcoin_GUI_now_available_from_Debian_unstable__and_Ubuntu_raring_.html">Bitcoin GUI now available from Debian/unstable (and Ubuntu/raring)</a>
6506       </div>
6507       <div class="date">
6508          2nd February 2013
6509       </div>
6510       <div class="body">
6511         <p>My
6512 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_backport_bitcoin_qt_version_0_7_2_2_to_Debian_Squeeze.html">last
6513 bitcoin related blog post</a> mentioned that the new
6514 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/bitcoin">bitcoin package</a> for
6515 Debian was waiting in NEW.  It was accepted by the Debian ftp-masters
6516 2013-01-19, and have been available in unstable since then.  It was
6517 automatically copied to Ubuntu, and is available in their Raring
6518 version too.</p>
6519
6520 <p>But there is a strange problem with the build that block this new
6521 version from being available on the i386 and kfreebsd-i386
6522 architectures.  For some strange reason, the autobuilders in Debian
6523 for these architectures fail to run the test suite on these
6524 architectures (<a href="http://bugs.debian.org/672524">BTS #672524</a>).
6525 We are so far unable to reproduce it when building it manually, and
6526 no-one have been able to propose a fix.  If you got an idea what is
6527 failing, please let us know via the BTS.</p>
6528
6529 <p>One feature that is annoying me with of the bitcoin client, because
6530 I often run low on disk space, is the fact that the client will exit
6531 if it run short on space (<a href="http://bugs.debian.org/696715">BTS
6532 #696715</a>).  So make sure you have enough disk space when you run
6533 it. :)</p>
6534
6535 <p>As usual, if you use bitcoin and want to show your support of my
6536 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
6537 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b&label=PetterReinholdtsenBlog">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
6538
6539       </div>
6540       <div class="tags">
6541
6542
6543         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bitcoin">bitcoin</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
6544
6545
6546       </div>
6547     </div>
6548     <div class="padding"></div>
6549
6550     <div class="entry">
6551       <div class="title">
6552         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Welcome_to_the_world__Isenkram_.html">Welcome to the world, Isenkram!</a>
6553       </div>
6554       <div class="date">
6555         22nd January 2013
6556       </div>
6557       <div class="body">
6558         <p>Yesterday, I
6559 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/First_prototype_ready_making_hardware_easier_to_use_in_Debian.html">asked
6560 for testers</a> for my prototype for making Debian better at handling
6561 pluggable hardware devices, which I
6562 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lets_make_hardware_dongles_easier_to_use_in_Debian.html">set
6563 out to create</a> earlier this month.  Several valuable testers showed
6564 up, and caused me to really want to to open up the development to more
6565 people.  But before I did this, I want to come up with a sensible name
6566 for this project.  Today I finally decided on a new name, and I have
6567 renamed the project from hw-support-handler to this new name.  In the
6568 process, I moved the source to git and made it available as a
6569 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/gitweb/?p=collab-maint/isenkram.git">collab-maint</a>
6570 repository in Debian.  The new name?  It is <strong>Isenkram</strong>.
6571 To fetch and build the latest version of the source, use</p>
6572
6573 <pre>
6574 git clone http://anonscm.debian.org/git/collab-maint/isenkram.git
6575 cd isenkram && git-buildpackage -us -uc
6576 </pre>
6577
6578 <p>I have not yet adjusted all files to use the new name yet.  If you
6579 want to hack on the source or improve the package, please go ahead.
6580 But please talk to me first on IRC or via email before you do major
6581 changes, to make sure we do not step on each others toes. :)</p>
6582
6583 <p>If you wonder what 'isenkram' is, it is a Norwegian word for iron
6584 stuff, typically meaning tools, nails, screws, etc.  Typical hardware
6585 stuff, in other words.  I've been told it is the Norwegian variant of
6586 the German word eisenkram, for those that are familiar with that
6587 word.</p>
6588
6589 <p><strong>Update 2013-01-26</strong>: Added -us -us to build
6590 instructions, to avoid confusing people with an error from the signing
6591 process.</p>
6592
6593 <p><strong>Update 2013-01-27</strong>: Switch to HTTP URL for the git
6594 clone argument to avoid the need for authentication.</p>
6595
6596       </div>
6597       <div class="tags">
6598
6599
6600         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram">isenkram</a>.
6601
6602
6603       </div>
6604     </div>
6605     <div class="padding"></div>
6606
6607     <div class="entry">
6608       <div class="title">
6609         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/First_prototype_ready_making_hardware_easier_to_use_in_Debian.html">First prototype ready making hardware easier to use in Debian</a>
6610       </div>
6611       <div class="date">
6612         21st January 2013
6613       </div>
6614       <div class="body">
6615         <p>Early this month I set out to try to
6616 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lets_make_hardware_dongles_easier_to_use_in_Debian.html">improve
6617 the Debian support for pluggable hardware devices</a>.  Now my
6618 prototype is working, and it is ready for a larger audience.  To test
6619 it, fetch the
6620 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/">source
6621 from the Debian Edu subversion repository</a>, build and install the
6622 package.  You might have to log out and in again activate the
6623 autostart script.</p>
6624
6625 <p>The design is simple:</p>
6626
6627 <ul>
6628
6629 <li>Add desktop entry in /usr/share/autostart/ causing a program
6630 hw-support-handlerd to start when the user log in.</li>
6631
6632 <li>This program listen for kernel events about new hardware (directly
6633 from the kernel like udev does), not using HAL dbus events as I
6634 initially did.</li>
6635
6636 <li>When new hardware is inserted, look up the hardware modalias in
6637 the APT database, a database
6638 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/modaliases?view=markup">available
6639 via HTTP</a> and a database available as part of the package.</li>
6640
6641 <li>If a package is mapped to the hardware in question, the package
6642 isn't installed yet and this is the first time the hardware was
6643 plugged in, show a desktop notification suggesting to install the
6644 package or packages.</li>
6645
6646 <li>If the user click on the 'install package now' button, ask
6647 aptdaemon via the PackageKit API to install the requrired package.</li>
6648
6649 <li>aptdaemon ask for root password or sudo password, and install the
6650 package while showing progress information in a window.</li>
6651
6652 </ul>
6653
6654 <p>I still need to come up with a better name for the system.  Here
6655 are some screen shots showing the prototype in action.  First the
6656 notification, then the password request, and finally the request to
6657 approve all the dependencies.  Sorry for the Norwegian Bokmål GUI.</p>
6658
6659 <p><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-01-21-hw-support-1-notification.png">
6660 <br><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-01-21-hw-support-2-password.png">
6661 <br><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-01-21-hw-support-3-dependencies.png">
6662 <br><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-01-21-hw-support-4-installing.png">
6663 <br><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-01-21-hw-support-5-installing-details.png" width="70%"></p>
6664
6665 <p>The prototype still need to be improved with longer timeouts, but
6666 is already useful.  The database of hardware to package mappings also
6667 need more work.  It is currently compatible with the Ubuntu way of
6668 storing such information in the package control file, but could be
6669 changed to use other formats instead or in addition to the current
6670 method.  I've dropped the use of discover for this mapping, as the
6671 modalias approach is more flexible and easier to use on Linux as long
6672 as the Linux kernel expose its modalias strings directly.</p>
6673
6674 <p><strong>Update 2013-01-21 16:50</strong>: Due to popular demand,
6675 here is the command required to check out and build the source: Use
6676 '<tt>svn checkout
6677 svn://svn.debian.org/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/; cd
6678 hw-support-handler; debuild</tt>'.  If you lack debuild, install the
6679 devscripts package.</p>
6680
6681 <p><strong>Update 2013-01-23 12:00</strong>: The project is now
6682 renamed to Isenkram and the source moved from the Debian Edu
6683 subversion repository to a Debian collab-maint git repository.  See
6684 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Welcome_to_the_world__Isenkram_.html">build
6685 instructions</a> for details.</p>
6686
6687       </div>
6688       <div class="tags">
6689
6690
6691         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram">isenkram</a>.
6692
6693
6694       </div>
6695     </div>
6696     <div class="padding"></div>
6697
6698     <div class="entry">
6699       <div class="title">
6700         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Thank_you_Thinkpad_X41__for_your_long_and_trustworthy_service.html">Thank you Thinkpad X41, for your long and trustworthy service</a>
6701       </div>
6702       <div class="date">
6703         19th January 2013
6704       </div>
6705       <div class="body">
6706         <p>This Christmas my trusty old laptop died.  It died quietly and
6707 suddenly in bed.  With a quiet whimper, it went completely quiet and
6708 black.  The power button was no longer able to turn it on.  It was a
6709 IBM Thinkpad X41, and the best laptop I ever had.  Better than both
6710 Thinkpads X30, X31, X40, X60, X61 and X61S.  Far better than the
6711 Compaq I had before that.  Now I need to find a replacement.  To keep
6712 going during Christmas, I moved the one year old SSD disk to my old
6713 X40 where it fitted (only one I had left that could use it), but it is
6714 not a durable solution.
6715
6716 <p>My laptop needs are fairly modest.  This is my wishlist from when I
6717 got a new one more than 10 years ago.  It still holds true.:)</p>
6718
6719 <ul>
6720
6721 <li>Lightweight (around 1 kg) and small volume (preferably smaller
6722   than A4).</li>
6723 <li>Robust, it will be in my backpack every day.</li>
6724 <li>Three button mouse and a mouse pin instead of touch pad.</li>
6725 <li>Long battery life time.  Preferable a week.</li>
6726 <li>Internal WIFI network card.</li>
6727 <li>Internal Twisted Pair network card.</li>
6728 <li>Some USB slots (2-3 is plenty)</li>
6729 <li>Good keyboard - similar to the Thinkpad.</li>
6730 <li>Video resolution at least 1024x768, with size around 12" (A4 paper
6731 size).</li>
6732 <li>Hardware supported by Debian Stable, ie the default kernel and
6733   X.org packages.</li>
6734 <li>Quiet, preferably fan free (or at least not using the fan most of
6735   the time).
6736
6737 </ul>
6738
6739 <p>You will notice that there are no RAM and CPU requirements in the
6740 list.  The reason is simply that the specifications on laptops the
6741 last 10-15 years have been sufficient for my needs, and I have to look
6742 at other features to choose my laptop.  But are there still made as
6743 robust laptops as my X41?  The Thinkpad X60/X61 proved to be less
6744 robust, and Thinkpads seem to be heading in the wrong direction since
6745 Lenovo took over.  But I've been told that X220 and X1 Carbon might
6746 still be useful.</p>
6747
6748 <p>Perhaps I should rethink my needs, and look for a pad with an
6749 external keyboard?  I'll have to check the
6750 <a href="http://www.linux-laptop.net/">Linux Laptops site</a> for
6751 well-supported laptops, or perhaps just buy one preinstalled from one
6752 of the vendors listed on the <a href="http://linuxpreloaded.com/">Linux
6753 Pre-loaded site</a>.</p>
6754
6755       </div>
6756       <div class="tags">
6757
6758
6759         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
6760
6761
6762       </div>
6763     </div>
6764     <div class="padding"></div>
6765
6766     <div class="entry">
6767       <div class="title">
6768         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_find_a_browser_plugin_supporting_a_given_MIME_type.html">How to find a browser plugin supporting a given MIME type</a>
6769       </div>
6770       <div class="date">
6771         18th January 2013
6772       </div>
6773       <div class="body">
6774         <p>Some times I try to figure out which Iceweasel browser plugin to
6775 install to get support for a given MIME type.  Thanks to
6776 <a href="https://wiki.ubuntu.com/MozillaTeam/Plugins">specifications
6777 done by Ubuntu</a> and Mozilla, it is possible to do this in Debian.
6778 Unfortunately, not very many packages provide the needed meta
6779 information, Anyway, here is a small script to look up all browser
6780 plugin packages announcing ther MIME support using this specification:</p>
6781
6782 <pre>
6783 #!/usr/bin/python
6784 import sys
6785 import apt
6786 def pkgs_handling_mimetype(mimetype):
6787     cache = apt.Cache()
6788     cache.open(None)
6789     thepkgs = []
6790     for pkg in cache:
6791         version = pkg.candidate
6792         if version is None:
6793             version = pkg.installed
6794         if version is None:
6795             continue
6796         record = version.record
6797         if not record.has_key('Npp-MimeType'):
6798             continue
6799         mime_types = record['Npp-MimeType'].split(',')
6800         for t in mime_types:
6801             t = t.rstrip().strip()
6802             if t == mimetype:
6803                 thepkgs.append(pkg.name)
6804     return thepkgs
6805 mimetype = "audio/ogg"
6806 if 1 < len(sys.argv):
6807     mimetype = sys.argv[1]
6808 print "Browser plugin packages supporting %s:" % mimetype
6809 for pkg in pkgs_handling_mimetype(mimetype):
6810     print "  %s" %pkg
6811 </pre>
6812
6813 <p>It can be used like this to look up a given MIME type:</p>
6814
6815 <pre>
6816 % ./apt-find-browserplug-for-mimetype
6817 Browser plugin packages supporting audio/ogg:
6818   gecko-mediaplayer
6819 % ./apt-find-browserplug-for-mimetype application/x-shockwave-flash
6820 Browser plugin packages supporting application/x-shockwave-flash:
6821   browser-plugin-gnash
6822 %
6823 </pre>
6824
6825 <p>In Ubuntu this mechanism is combined with support in the browser
6826 itself to query for plugins and propose to install the needed
6827 packages.  It would be great if Debian supported such feature too.  Is
6828 anyone working on adding it?</p>
6829
6830 <p><strong>Update 2013-01-18 14:20</strong>: The Debian BTS
6831 request for icweasel support for this feature is
6832 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/484010">#484010</a> from 2008 (and
6833 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/698426">#698426</a> from today).  Lack
6834 of manpower and wish for a different design is the reason thus feature
6835 is not yet in iceweasel from Debian.</p>
6836
6837       </div>
6838       <div class="tags">
6839
6840
6841         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
6842
6843
6844       </div>
6845     </div>
6846     <div class="padding"></div>
6847
6848     <div class="entry">
6849       <div class="title">
6850         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/What_is_the_most_supported_MIME_type_in_Debian_.html">What is the most supported MIME type in Debian?</a>
6851       </div>
6852       <div class="date">
6853         16th January 2013
6854       </div>
6855       <div class="body">
6856         <p>The <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/AppStreamDebianProposal">DEP-11
6857 proposal to add AppStream information to the Debian archive</a>, is a
6858 proposal to make it possible for a Desktop application to propose to
6859 the user some package to install to gain support for a given MIME
6860 type, font, library etc. that is currently missing.  With such
6861 mechanism in place, it would be possible for the desktop to
6862 automatically propose and install leocad if some LDraw file is
6863 downloaded by the browser.</p>
6864
6865 <p>To get some idea about the current content of the archive, I decided
6866 to write a simple program to extract all .desktop files from the
6867 Debian archive and look up the claimed MIME support there.  The result
6868 can be found on the
6869 <a href="http://ftp.skolelinux.org/pub/AppStreamTest">Skolelinux FTP
6870 site</a>.  Using the collected information, it become possible to
6871 answer the question in the title.  Here are the 20 most supported MIME
6872 types in Debian stable (Squeeze), testing (Wheezy) and unstable (Sid).
6873 The complete list is available from the link above.</p>
6874
6875 <p><strong>Debian Stable:</strong></p>
6876
6877 <pre>
6878   count MIME type
6879   ----- -----------------------
6880      32 text/plain
6881      30 audio/mpeg
6882      29 image/png
6883      28 image/jpeg
6884      27 application/ogg
6885      26 audio/x-mp3
6886      25 image/tiff
6887      25 image/gif
6888      22 image/bmp
6889      22 audio/x-wav
6890      20 audio/x-flac
6891      19 audio/x-mpegurl
6892      18 video/x-ms-asf
6893      18 audio/x-musepack
6894      18 audio/x-mpeg
6895      18 application/x-ogg
6896      17 video/mpeg
6897      17 audio/x-scpls
6898      17 audio/ogg
6899      16 video/x-ms-wmv
6900 </pre>
6901
6902 <p><strong>Debian Testing:</strong></p>
6903
6904 <pre>
6905   count MIME type
6906   ----- -----------------------
6907      33 text/plain
6908      32 image/png
6909      32 image/jpeg
6910      29 audio/mpeg
6911      27 image/gif
6912      26 image/tiff
6913      26 application/ogg
6914      25 audio/x-mp3
6915      22 image/bmp
6916      21 audio/x-wav
6917      19 audio/x-mpegurl
6918      19 audio/x-mpeg
6919      18 video/mpeg
6920      18 audio/x-scpls
6921      18 audio/x-flac
6922      18 application/x-ogg
6923      17 video/x-ms-asf
6924      17 text/html
6925      17 audio/x-musepack
6926      16 image/x-xbitmap
6927 </pre>
6928
6929 <p><strong>Debian Unstable:</strong></p>
6930
6931 <pre>
6932   count MIME type
6933   ----- -----------------------
6934      31 text/plain
6935      31 image/png
6936      31 image/jpeg
6937      29 audio/mpeg
6938      28 application/ogg
6939      27 image/gif
6940      26 image/tiff
6941      26 audio/x-mp3
6942      23 audio/x-wav
6943      22 image/bmp
6944      21 audio/x-flac
6945      20 audio/x-mpegurl
6946      19 audio/x-mpeg
6947      18 video/x-ms-asf
6948      18 video/mpeg
6949      18 audio/x-scpls
6950      18 application/x-ogg
6951      17 audio/x-musepack
6952      16 video/x-ms-wmv
6953      16 video/x-msvideo
6954 </pre>
6955
6956 <p>I am told that PackageKit can provide an API to access the kind of
6957 information mentioned in DEP-11.  I have not yet had time to look at
6958 it, but hope the PackageKit people in Debian are on top of these
6959 issues.</p>
6960
6961 <p><strong>Update 2013-01-16 13:35</strong>: Updated numbers after
6962 discovering a typo in my script.</p>
6963
6964       </div>
6965       <div class="tags">
6966
6967
6968         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
6969
6970
6971       </div>
6972     </div>
6973     <div class="padding"></div>
6974
6975     <div class="entry">
6976       <div class="title">
6977         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Using_modalias_info_to_find_packages_handling_my_hardware.html">Using modalias info to find packages handling my hardware</a>
6978       </div>
6979       <div class="date">
6980         15th January 2013
6981       </div>
6982       <div class="body">
6983         <p>Yesterday, I wrote about the
6984 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Modalias_strings___a_practical_way_to_map__stuff__to_hardware.html">modalias
6985 values provided by the Linux kernel</a> following my hope for
6986 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lets_make_hardware_dongles_easier_to_use_in_Debian.html">better
6987 dongle support in Debian</a>.  Using this knowledge, I have tested how
6988 modalias values attached to package names can be used to map packages
6989 to hardware.  This allow the system to look up and suggest relevant
6990 packages when I plug in some new hardware into my machine, and replace
6991 discover and discover-data as the database used to map hardware to
6992 packages.</p>
6993
6994 <p>I create a modaliases file with entries like the following,
6995 containing package name, kernel module name (if relevant, otherwise
6996 the package name) and globs matching the relevant hardware
6997 modalias.</p>
6998
6999 <p><blockquote>
7000 Package: package-name
7001 <br>Modaliases: module(modaliasglob, modaliasglob, modaliasglob)</p>
7002 </blockquote></p>
7003
7004 <p>It is fairly trivial to write code to find the relevant packages
7005 for a given modalias value using this file.</p>
7006
7007 <p>An entry like this would suggest the video and picture application
7008 cheese for many USB web cameras (interface bus class 0E01):</p>
7009
7010 <p><blockquote>
7011 Package: cheese
7012 <br>Modaliases: cheese(usb:v*p*d*dc*dsc*dp*ic0Eisc01ip*)</p>
7013 </blockquote></p>
7014
7015 <p>An entry like this would suggest the pcmciautils package when a
7016 CardBus bridge (bus class 0607) PCI device is present:</p>
7017
7018 <p><blockquote>
7019 Package: pcmciautils
7020 <br>Modaliases: pcmciautils(pci:v*d*sv*sd*bc06sc07i*)
7021 </blockquote></p>
7022
7023 <p>An entry like this would suggest the package colorhug-client when
7024 plugging in a ColorHug with USB IDs 04D8:F8DA:</p>
7025
7026 <p><blockquote>
7027 Package: colorhug-client
7028 <br>Modaliases: colorhug-client(usb:v04D8pF8DAd*)</p>
7029 </blockquote></p>
7030
7031 <p>I believe the format is compatible with the format of the Packages
7032 file in the Debian archive.  Ubuntu already uses their Packages file
7033 to store their mappings from packages to hardware.</p>
7034
7035 <p>By adding a XB-Modaliases: header in debian/control, any .deb can
7036 announce the hardware it support in a way my prototype understand.
7037 This allow those publishing packages in an APT source outside the
7038 Debian archive as well as those backporting packages to make sure the
7039 hardware mapping are included in the package meta information.  I've
7040 tested such header in the pymissile package, and its modalias mapping
7041 is working as it should with my prototype.  It even made it to Ubuntu
7042 Raring.</p>
7043
7044 <p>To test if it was possible to look up supported hardware using only
7045 the shell tools available in the Debian installer, I wrote a shell
7046 implementation of the lookup code.  The idea is to create files for
7047 each modalias and let the shell do the matching.  Please check out and
7048 try the
7049 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/hw-support-lookup?view=co">hw-support-lookup</a>
7050 shell script.  It run without any extra dependencies and fetch the
7051 hardware mappings from the Debian archive and the subversion
7052 repository where I currently work on my prototype.</p>
7053
7054 <p>When I use it on a machine with a yubikey inserted, it suggest to
7055 install yubikey-personalization:</p>
7056
7057 <p><blockquote>
7058 % ./hw-support-lookup
7059 <br>yubikey-personalization
7060 <br>%
7061 </blockquote></p>
7062
7063 <p>When I run it on my Thinkpad X40 with a PCMCIA/CardBus slot, it
7064 propose to install the pcmciautils package:</p>
7065
7066 <p><blockquote>
7067 % ./hw-support-lookup
7068 <br>pcmciautils
7069 <br>%
7070 </blockquote></p>
7071
7072 <p>If you know of any hardware-package mapping that should be added to
7073 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/modaliases?view=co">my
7074 database</a>, please tell me about it.</p>
7075
7076 <p>It could be possible to generate several of the mappings between
7077 packages and hardware.  One source would be to look at packages with
7078 kernel modules, ie packages with *.ko files in /lib/modules/, and
7079 extract their modalias information.  Another would be to look at
7080 packages with udev rules, ie packages with files in
7081 /lib/udev/rules.d/, and extract their vendor/model information to
7082 generate a modalias matching rule.  I have not tested any of these to
7083 see if it work.</p>
7084
7085 <p>If you want to help implementing a system to let us propose what
7086 packages to install when new hardware is plugged into a Debian
7087 machine, please send me an email or talk to me on
7088 <a href="irc://irc.debian.org/%23debian-devel">#debian-devel</a>.</p>
7089
7090       </div>
7091       <div class="tags">
7092
7093
7094         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram">isenkram</a>.
7095
7096
7097       </div>
7098     </div>
7099     <div class="padding"></div>
7100
7101     <div class="entry">
7102       <div class="title">
7103         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Modalias_strings___a_practical_way_to_map__stuff__to_hardware.html">Modalias strings - a practical way to map "stuff" to hardware</a>
7104       </div>
7105       <div class="date">
7106         14th January 2013
7107       </div>
7108       <div class="body">
7109         <p>While looking into how to look up Debian packages based on hardware
7110 information, to find the packages that support a given piece of
7111 hardware, I refreshed my memory regarding modalias values, and decided
7112 to document the details.  Here are my findings so far, also available
7113 in
7114 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/">the
7115 Debian Edu subversion repository</a>:
7116
7117 <p><strong>Modalias decoded</strong></p>
7118
7119 <p>This document try to explain what the different types of modalias
7120 values stands for.  It is in part based on information from
7121 &lt;URL: <a href="https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Modalias">https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Modalias</a> &gt;,
7122 &lt;URL: <a href="http://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/26132/how-to-assign-usb-driver-to-device">http://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/26132/how-to-assign-usb-driver-to-device</a> &gt;,
7123 &lt;URL: <a href="http://code.metager.de/source/history/linux/stable/scripts/mod/file2alias.c">http://code.metager.de/source/history/linux/stable/scripts/mod/file2alias.c</a> &gt; and
7124 &lt;URL: <a href="http://cvs.savannah.gnu.org/viewvc/dmidecode/dmidecode.c?root=dmidecode&view=markup">http://cvs.savannah.gnu.org/viewvc/dmidecode/dmidecode.c?root=dmidecode&view=markup</a> &gt;.
7125
7126 <p>The modalias entries for a given Linux machine can be found using
7127 this shell script:</p>
7128
7129 <pre>
7130 find /sys -name modalias -print0 | xargs -0 cat | sort -u
7131 </pre>
7132
7133 <p>The supported modalias globs for a given kernel module can be found
7134 using modinfo:</p>
7135
7136 <pre>
7137 % /sbin/modinfo psmouse | grep alias:
7138 alias:          serio:ty05pr*id*ex*
7139 alias:          serio:ty01pr*id*ex*
7140 %
7141 </pre>
7142
7143 <p><strong>PCI subtype</strong></p>
7144
7145 <p>A typical PCI entry can look like this.  This is an Intel Host
7146 Bridge memory controller:</p>
7147
7148 <p><blockquote>
7149 pci:v00008086d00002770sv00001028sd000001ADbc06sc00i00
7150 </blockquote></p>
7151
7152 <p>This represent these values:</p>
7153
7154 <pre>
7155  v   00008086  (vendor)
7156  d   00002770  (device)
7157  sv  00001028  (subvendor)
7158  sd  000001AD  (subdevice)
7159  bc  06        (bus class)
7160  sc  00        (bus subclass)
7161  i   00        (interface)
7162 </pre>
7163
7164 <p>The vendor/device values are the same values outputted from 'lspci
7165 -n' as 8086:2770.  The bus class/subclass is also shown by lspci as
7166 0600.  The 0600 class is a host bridge.  Other useful bus values are
7167 0300 (VGA compatible card) and 0200 (Ethernet controller).</p>
7168
7169 <p>Not sure how to figure out the interface value, nor what it
7170 means.</p>
7171
7172 <p><strong>USB subtype</strong></p>
7173
7174 <p>Some typical USB entries can look like this.  This is an internal
7175 USB hub in a laptop:</p>
7176
7177 <p><blockquote>
7178 usb:v1D6Bp0001d0206dc09dsc00dp00ic09isc00ip00
7179 </blockquote></p>
7180
7181 <p>Here is the values included in this alias:</p>
7182
7183 <pre>
7184  v    1D6B  (device vendor)
7185  p    0001  (device product)
7186  d    0206  (bcddevice)
7187  dc     09  (device class)
7188  dsc    00  (device subclass)
7189  dp     00  (device protocol)
7190  ic     09  (interface class)
7191  isc    00  (interface subclass)
7192  ip     00  (interface protocol)
7193 </pre>
7194
7195 <p>The 0900 device class/subclass means hub.  Some times the relevant
7196 class is in the interface class section.  For a simple USB web camera,
7197 these alias entries show up:</p>
7198
7199 <p><blockquote>
7200 usb:v0AC8p3420d5000dcEFdsc02dp01ic01isc01ip00
7201 <br>usb:v0AC8p3420d5000dcEFdsc02dp01ic01isc02ip00
7202 <br>usb:v0AC8p3420d5000dcEFdsc02dp01ic0Eisc01ip00
7203 <br>usb:v0AC8p3420d5000dcEFdsc02dp01ic0Eisc02ip00
7204 </blockquote></p>
7205
7206 <p>Interface class 0E01 is video control, 0E02 is video streaming (aka
7207 camera), 0101 is audio control device and 0102 is audio streaming (aka
7208 microphone).  Thus this is a camera with microphone included.</p>
7209
7210 <p><strong>ACPI subtype</strong></p>
7211
7212 <p>The ACPI type is used for several non-PCI/USB stuff.  This is an IR
7213 receiver in a Thinkpad X40:</p>
7214
7215 <p><blockquote>
7216 acpi:IBM0071:PNP0511:
7217 </blockquote></p>
7218
7219 <p>The values between the colons are IDs.</p>
7220
7221 <p><strong>DMI subtype</strong></p>
7222
7223 <p>The DMI table contain lots of information about the computer case
7224 and model.  This is an entry for a IBM Thinkpad X40, fetched from
7225 /sys/devices/virtual/dmi/id/modalias:</p>
7226
7227 <p><blockquote>
7228 dmi:bvnIBM:bvr1UETB6WW(1.66):bd06/15/2005:svnIBM:pn2371H4G:pvrThinkPadX40:rvnIBM:rn2371H4G:rvrNotAvailable:cvnIBM:ct10:cvrNotAvailable:
7229 </blockquote></p>
7230
7231 <p>The values present are</p>
7232
7233 <pre>
7234  bvn  IBM            (BIOS vendor)
7235  bvr  1UETB6WW(1.66) (BIOS version)
7236  bd   06/15/2005     (BIOS date)
7237  svn  IBM            (system vendor)
7238  pn   2371H4G        (product name)
7239  pvr  ThinkPadX40    (product version)
7240  rvn  IBM            (board vendor)
7241  rn   2371H4G        (board name)
7242  rvr  NotAvailable   (board version)
7243  cvn  IBM            (chassis vendor)
7244  ct   10             (chassis type)
7245  cvr  NotAvailable   (chassis version)
7246 </pre>
7247
7248 <p>The chassis type 10 is Notebook.  Other interesting values can be
7249 found in the dmidecode source:</p>
7250
7251 <pre>
7252   3 Desktop
7253   4 Low Profile Desktop
7254   5 Pizza Box
7255   6 Mini Tower
7256   7 Tower
7257   8 Portable
7258   9 Laptop
7259  10 Notebook
7260  11 Hand Held
7261  12 Docking Station
7262  13 All In One
7263  14 Sub Notebook
7264  15 Space-saving
7265  16 Lunch Box
7266  17 Main Server Chassis
7267  18 Expansion Chassis
7268  19 Sub Chassis
7269  20 Bus Expansion Chassis
7270  21 Peripheral Chassis
7271  22 RAID Chassis
7272  23 Rack Mount Chassis
7273  24 Sealed-case PC
7274  25 Multi-system
7275  26 CompactPCI
7276  27 AdvancedTCA
7277  28 Blade
7278  29 Blade Enclosing
7279 </pre>
7280
7281 <p>The chassis type values are not always accurately set in the DMI
7282 table.  For example my home server is a tower, but the DMI modalias
7283 claim it is a desktop.</p>
7284
7285 <p><strong>SerIO subtype</strong></p>
7286
7287 <p>This type is used for PS/2 mouse plugs.  One example is from my
7288 test machine:</p>
7289
7290 <p><blockquote>
7291 serio:ty01pr00id00ex00
7292 </blockquote></p>
7293
7294 <p>The values present are</p>
7295
7296 <pre>
7297   ty  01  (type)
7298   pr  00  (prototype)
7299   id  00  (id)
7300   ex  00  (extra)
7301 </pre>
7302
7303 <p>This type is supported by the psmouse driver.  I am not sure what
7304 the valid values are.</p>
7305
7306 <p><strong>Other subtypes</strong></p>
7307
7308 <p>There are heaps of other modalias subtypes according to
7309 file2alias.c.  There is the rest of the list from that source: amba,
7310 ap, bcma, ccw, css, eisa, hid, i2c, ieee1394, input, ipack, isapnp,
7311 mdio, of, parisc, pcmcia, platform, scsi, sdio, spi, ssb, vio, virtio,
7312 vmbus, x86cpu and zorro.  I did not spend time documenting all of
7313 these, as they do not seem relevant for my intended use with mapping
7314 hardware to packages when new stuff is inserted during run time.</p>
7315
7316 <p><strong>Looking up kernel modules using modalias values</strong></p>
7317
7318 <p>To check which kernel modules provide support for a given modalias,
7319 one can use the following shell script:</p>
7320
7321 <pre>
7322   for id in $(find /sys -name modalias -print0 | xargs -0 cat | sort -u); do \
7323     echo "$id" ; \
7324     /sbin/modprobe --show-depends "$id"|sed 's/^/  /' ; \
7325   done
7326 </pre>
7327
7328 <p>The output can look like this (only the first few entries as the
7329 list is very long on my test machine):</p>
7330
7331 <pre>
7332   acpi:ACPI0003:
7333     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/drivers/acpi/ac.ko
7334   acpi:device:
7335   FATAL: Module acpi:device: not found.
7336   acpi:IBM0068:
7337     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/drivers/char/nvram.ko
7338     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/drivers/leds/led-class.ko
7339     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/net/rfkill/rfkill.ko
7340     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/drivers/platform/x86/thinkpad_acpi.ko
7341   acpi:IBM0071:PNP0511:
7342     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/lib/crc-ccitt.ko
7343     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/net/irda/irda.ko
7344     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/drivers/net/irda/nsc-ircc.ko
7345   [...]
7346 </pre>
7347
7348 <p>If you want to help implementing a system to let us propose what
7349 packages to install when new hardware is plugged into a Debian
7350 machine, please send me an email or talk to me on
7351 <a href="irc://irc.debian.org/%23debian-devel">#debian-devel</a>.</p>
7352
7353 <p><strong>Update 2013-01-15:</strong> Rewrite "cat $(find ...)" to
7354 "find ... -print0 | xargs -0 cat" to make sure it handle directories
7355 in /sys/ with space in them.</p>
7356
7357       </div>
7358       <div class="tags">
7359
7360
7361         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram">isenkram</a>.
7362
7363
7364       </div>
7365     </div>
7366     <div class="padding"></div>
7367
7368     <div class="entry">
7369       <div class="title">
7370         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Moved_the_pymissile_Debian_packaging_to_collab_maint.html">Moved the pymissile Debian packaging to collab-maint</a>
7371       </div>
7372       <div class="date">
7373         10th January 2013
7374       </div>
7375       <div class="body">
7376         <p>As part of my investigation on how to improve the support in Debian
7377 for hardware dongles, I dug up my old Mark and Spencer USB Rocket
7378 Launcher and updated the Debian package
7379 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/pymissile">pymissile</a> to make
7380 sure udev will fix the device permissions when it is plugged in.  I
7381 also added a "Modaliases" header to test it in the Debian archive and
7382 hopefully make the package be proposed by jockey in Ubuntu when a user
7383 plug in his rocket launcher.  In the process I moved the source to a
7384 git repository under collab-maint, to make it easier for any DD to
7385 contribute.  <a href="http://code.google.com/p/pymissile/">Upstream</a>
7386 is not very active, but the software still work for me even after five
7387 years of relative silence.  The new git repository is not listed in
7388 the uploaded package yet, because I want to test the other changes a
7389 bit more before I upload the new version.  If you want to check out
7390 the new version with a .desktop file included, visit the
7391 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/gitweb/?p=collab-maint/pymissile.git">gitweb
7392 view</a> or use "<tt>git clone
7393 git://anonscm.debian.org/collab-maint/pymissile.git</tt>".</p>
7394
7395       </div>
7396       <div class="tags">
7397
7398
7399         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram">isenkram</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/robot">robot</a>.
7400
7401
7402       </div>
7403     </div>
7404     <div class="padding"></div>
7405
7406     <div class="entry">
7407       <div class="title">
7408         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lets_make_hardware_dongles_easier_to_use_in_Debian.html">Lets make hardware dongles easier to use in Debian</a>
7409       </div>
7410       <div class="date">
7411          9th January 2013
7412       </div>
7413       <div class="body">
7414         <p>One thing that annoys me with Debian and Linux distributions in
7415 general, is that there is a great package management system with the
7416 ability to automatically install software packages by downloading them
7417 from the distribution mirrors, but no way to get it to automatically
7418 install the packages I need to use the hardware I plug into my
7419 machine.  Even if the package to use it is easily available from the
7420 Linux distribution.  When I plug in a LEGO Mindstorms NXT, it could
7421 suggest to automatically install the python-nxt, nbc and t2n packages
7422 I need to talk to it.  When I plug in a Yubikey, it could propose the
7423 yubikey-personalization package.  The information required to do this
7424 is available, but no-one have pulled all the pieces together.</p>
7425
7426 <p>Some years ago, I proposed to
7427 <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2010/05/msg01206.html">use
7428 the discover subsystem to implement this</a>.  The idea is fairly
7429 simple:
7430
7431 <ul>
7432
7433 <li>Add a desktop entry in /usr/share/autostart/ pointing to a program
7434   starting when a user log in.</li>
7435
7436 <li>Set this program up to listen for kernel events emitted when new
7437   hardware is inserted into the computer.</li>
7438
7439 <li>When new hardware is inserted, look up the hardware ID in a
7440   database mapping to packages, and take note of any non-installed
7441   packages.</li>
7442
7443 <li>Show a message to the user proposing to install the discovered
7444   package, and make it easy to install it.</li>
7445
7446 </ul>
7447
7448 <p>I am not sure what the best way to implement this is, but my
7449 initial idea was to use dbus events to discover new hardware, the
7450 discover database to find packages and
7451 <a href="http://www.packagekit.org/">PackageKit</a> to install
7452 packages.</p>
7453
7454 <p>Yesterday, I found time to try to implement this idea, and the
7455 draft package is now checked into
7456 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/">the
7457 Debian Edu subversion repository</a>.  In the process, I updated the
7458 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/d/discover-data.html">discover-data</a>
7459 package to map the USB ids of LEGO Mindstorms and Yubikey devices to
7460 the relevant packages in Debian, and uploaded a new version
7461 2.2013.01.09 to unstable.  I also discovered that the current
7462 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/d/discover.html">discover</a>
7463 package in Debian no longer discovered any USB devices, because
7464 /proc/bus/usb/devices is no longer present.  I ported it to use
7465 libusb as a fall back option to get it working.  The fixed package
7466 version 2.1.2-6 is now in experimental (didn't upload it to unstable
7467 because of the freeze).</p>
7468
7469 <p>With this prototype in place, I can insert my Yubikey, and get this
7470 desktop notification to show up (only once, the first time it is
7471 inserted):</p>
7472
7473 <p align="center"><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-01-09-hw-autoinstall.png"></p>
7474
7475 <p>For this prototype to be really useful, some way to automatically
7476 install the proposed packages by pressing the "Please install
7477 program(s)" button should to be implemented.</p>
7478
7479 <p>If this idea seem useful to you, and you want to help make it
7480 happen, please help me update the discover-data database with mappings
7481 from hardware to Debian packages.  Check if 'discover-pkginstall -l'
7482 list the package you would like to have installed when a given
7483 hardware device is inserted into your computer, and report bugs using
7484 reportbug if it isn't.  Or, if you know of a better way to provide
7485 such mapping, please let me know.</p>
7486
7487 <p>This prototype need more work, and there are several questions that
7488 should be considered before it is ready for production use.  Is dbus
7489 the correct way to detect new hardware?  At the moment I look for HAL
7490 dbus events on the system bus, because that is the events I could see
7491 on my Debian Squeeze KDE desktop.  Are there better events to use?
7492 How should the user be notified?  Is the desktop notification
7493 mechanism the best option, or should the background daemon raise a
7494 popup instead?  How should packages be installed?  When should they
7495 not be installed?</p>
7496
7497 <p>If you want to help getting such feature implemented in Debian,
7498 please send me an email. :)</p>
7499
7500       </div>
7501       <div class="tags">
7502
7503
7504         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram">isenkram</a>.
7505
7506
7507       </div>
7508     </div>
7509     <div class="padding"></div>
7510
7511     <div class="entry">
7512       <div class="title">
7513         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/New_IRC_channel_for_LEGO_designers_using_Debian.html">New IRC channel for LEGO designers using Debian</a>
7514       </div>
7515       <div class="date">
7516          2nd January 2013
7517       </div>
7518       <div class="body">
7519         <p>During Christmas, I have worked a bit on the Debian support for
7520 <a href="http://mindstorms.lego.com/en-us/Default.aspx">LEGO Mindstorm
7521 NXT</a>.  My son and I have played a bit with my NXT set, and I
7522 discovered I had to build all the tools myself because none were
7523 already in Debian Squeeze.  If Debian support for LEGO is something
7524 you care about, please join me on the IRC channel
7525 <a href="irc://irc.debian.org/%23debian-lego">#debian-lego</a> (server
7526 irc.debian.org).  There is a lot that could be done to improve the
7527 Debian support for LEGO designers.  For example both CAD software
7528 and Mindstorm compilers are missing. :)</p>
7529
7530 <p>Update 2012-01-03: A
7531 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/LegoDesigners">project page</a>
7532 including links to Lego related packages is now available.</p>
7533
7534       </div>
7535       <div class="tags">
7536
7537
7538         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/robot">robot</a>.
7539
7540
7541       </div>
7542     </div>
7543     <div class="padding"></div>
7544
7545     <div class="entry">
7546       <div class="title">
7547         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_backport_bitcoin_qt_version_0_7_2_2_to_Debian_Squeeze.html">How to backport bitcoin-qt version 0.7.2-2 to Debian Squeeze</a>
7548       </div>
7549       <div class="date">
7550         25th December 2012
7551       </div>
7552       <div class="body">
7553         <p>Let me start by wishing you all marry Christmas and a happy new
7554 year!  I hope next year will prove to be a good year.</p>
7555
7556 <p><a href="http://www.bitcoin.org/">Bitcoin</a>, the digital
7557 decentralised "currency" that allow people to transfer bitcoins
7558 between each other with minimal overhead, is a very interesting
7559 experiment.  And as I wrote a few days ago, the bitcoin situation in
7560 <a href="http://www.debian.org/">Debian</a> is about to improve a bit.
7561 The <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/bitcoin">new debian source
7562 package</a> (version 0.7.2-2) was uploaded yesterday, and is waiting
7563 in <a href="http://ftp-master.debian.org/new.html">the NEW queue</A>
7564 for one of the ftpmasters to approve the new bitcoin-qt package
7565 name.</p>
7566
7567 <p>And thanks to the great work of Jonas and the rest of the bitcoin
7568 team in Debian, you can easily test the package in Debian Squeeze
7569 using the following steps to get a set of working packages:</p>
7570
7571 <blockquote><pre>
7572 git clone git://git.debian.org/git/collab-maint/bitcoin
7573 cd bitcoin
7574 DEB_MAINTAINER_MODE=1 DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS=noupnp fakeroot debian/rules clean
7575 DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS=noupnp git-buildpackage --git-ignore-new
7576 </pre></blockquote>
7577
7578 <p>You might have to install some build dependencies as well.  The
7579 list of commands should give you two packages, bitcoind and
7580 bitcoin-qt, ready for use in a Squeeze environment.  Note that the
7581 client will download the complete set of bitcoin "blocks", which need
7582 around 5.6 GiB of data on my machine at the moment.  Make sure your
7583 ~/.bitcoin/ directory have lots of spare room if you want to download
7584 all the blocks.  The client will warn if the disk is getting full, so
7585 there is not really a problem if you got too little room, but you will
7586 not be able to get all the features out of the client.</p>
7587
7588 <p>As usual, if you use bitcoin and want to show your support of my
7589 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
7590 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b&label=PetterReinholdtsenBlog">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
7591
7592       </div>
7593       <div class="tags">
7594
7595
7596         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bitcoin">bitcoin</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
7597
7598
7599       </div>
7600     </div>
7601     <div class="padding"></div>
7602
7603     <div class="entry">
7604       <div class="title">
7605         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/A_word_on_bitcoin_support_in_Debian.html">A word on bitcoin support in Debian</a>
7606       </div>
7607       <div class="date">
7608         21st December 2012
7609       </div>
7610       <div class="body">
7611         <p>It has been a while since I wrote about
7612 <a href="http://www.bitcoin.org/">bitcoin</a>, the decentralised
7613 peer-to-peer based crypto-currency, and the reason is simply that I
7614 have been busy elsewhere.  But two days ago, I started looking at the
7615 state of <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/bitcoin">bitcoin in
7616 Debian</a> again to try to recover my old bitcoin wallet.  The package
7617 is now maintained by a
7618 <a href="https://alioth.debian.org/projects/pkg-bitcoin/">team of
7619 people</a>, and the grunt work had already been done by this team.  We
7620 owe a huge thank you to all these team members. :)
7621 But I was sad to discover that the bitcoin client is missing in
7622 Wheezy.  It is only available in Sid (and an outdated client from
7623 backports).  The client had several RC bugs registered in BTS blocking
7624 it from entering testing.  To try to help the team and improve the
7625 situation, I spent some time providing patches and triaging the bug
7626 reports.  I also had a look at the bitcoin package available from Matt
7627 Corallo in a
7628 <a href="https://launchpad.net/~bitcoin/+archive/bitcoin">PPA for
7629 Ubuntu</a>, and moved the useful pieces from that version into the
7630 Debian package.</p>
7631
7632 <p>After checking with the main package maintainer Jonas Smedegaard on
7633 IRC, I pushed several patches into the collab-maint git repository to
7634 improve the package.  It now contains fixes for the RC issues (not from
7635 me, but fixed by Scott Howard), build rules for a Qt GUI client
7636 package, konqueror support for the bitcoin: URI and bash completion
7637 setup.  As I work on Debian Squeeze, I also created
7638 <a href="http://lists.alioth.debian.org/pipermail/pkg-bitcoin-devel/Week-of-Mon-20121217/000041.html">a
7639 patch to backport</a> the latest version.  Jonas is going to look at
7640 it and try to integrate it into the git repository before uploading a
7641 new version to unstable.
7642
7643 <p>I would very much like bitcoin to succeed, to get rid of the
7644 centralized control currently exercised in the monetary system.  I
7645 find it completely unacceptable that the USA government is collecting
7646 transaction data for almost all international money transfers (most are done in USD and transaction logs shipped to the spooks), and
7647 that the major credit card companies can block legal money
7648 transactions to Wikileaks.  But for bitcoin to succeed, more people
7649 need to use bitcoins, and more people need to accept bitcoins when
7650 they sell products and services.  Improving the bitcoin support in
7651 Debian is a small step in the right direction, but not enough.
7652 Unfortunately the user experience when browsing the web and wanting to
7653 pay with bitcoin is still not very good.  The bitcoin: URI is a step
7654 in the right direction, but need to work in most or every browser in
7655 use.  Also the bitcoin-qt client is too heavy to fire up to do a
7656 quick transaction.  I believe there are other clients available, but
7657 have not tested them.</p>
7658
7659 <p>My
7660 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Now_accepting_bitcoins___anonymous_and_distributed_p2p_crypto_money.html">experiment
7661 with bitcoins</a> showed that at least some of my readers use bitcoin.
7662 I received 20.15 BTC so far on the address I provided in my blog two
7663 years ago, as can be
7664 <a href="http://blockexplorer.com/address/15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">seen
7665 on the blockexplorer service</a>.  Thank you everyone for your
7666 donation.  The blockexplorer service demonstrates quite well that
7667 bitcoin is not quite anonymous and untracked. :) I wonder if the
7668 number of users have gone up since then.  If you use bitcoin and want
7669 to show your support of my activity, please send Bitcoin donations to
7670 the same address as last time,
7671 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b&label=PetterReinholdtsenBlog">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
7672
7673       </div>
7674       <div class="tags">
7675
7676
7677         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bitcoin">bitcoin</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
7678
7679
7680       </div>
7681     </div>
7682     <div class="padding"></div>
7683
7684     <div class="entry">
7685       <div class="title">
7686         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Git_repository_for_song_book_for_Computer_Scientists.html">Git repository for song book for Computer Scientists</a>
7687       </div>
7688       <div class="date">
7689          7th September 2012
7690       </div>
7691       <div class="body">
7692         <p>As I
7693 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Song_book_for_Computer_Scientists.html">mentioned
7694 this summer</a>, I have created a Computer Science song book a few
7695 years ago, and today I finally found time to create a public
7696 <a href="https://gitorious.org/pere-cs-songbook/pere-cs-songbook">Gitorious
7697 repository for the project</a>.</p>
7698
7699 <p>If you want to help out, please clone the source and submit patches
7700 to the HTML version.  To generate the PDF and PostScript version,
7701 please use prince XML, or let me know about a useful free software
7702 processor capable of creating a good looking PDF from the HTML.</p>
7703
7704 <p>Want to sing?  You can still find the song book in HTML, PDF and
7705 PostScript formats at
7706 <a href="http://www.hungry.com/~pere/cs-songbook/">Petter's Computer
7707 Science Songbook</a>.</p>
7708
7709       </div>
7710       <div class="tags">
7711
7712
7713         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/multimedia">multimedia</a>.
7714
7715
7716       </div>
7717     </div>
7718     <div class="padding"></div>
7719
7720     <div class="entry">
7721       <div class="title">
7722         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Gratulerer_med_19__rsdagen__Debian_.html">Gratulerer med 19-årsdagen, Debian!</a>
7723       </div>
7724       <div class="date">
7725         16th August 2012
7726       </div>
7727       <div class="body">
7728         <p>I dag fyller
7729 <a href="http://www.debian.org/News/2012/20120813">Debian-prosjektet 19
7730 år</a>.  Jeg har fulgt det de siste 12 årene, og er veldig glad for å kunne
7731 si gratulerer med dagen, Debian!</p>
7732
7733       </div>
7734       <div class="tags">
7735
7736
7737         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/norsk">norsk</a>.
7738
7739
7740       </div>
7741     </div>
7742     <div class="padding"></div>
7743
7744     <div class="entry">
7745       <div class="title">
7746         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Song_book_for_Computer_Scientists.html">Song book for Computer Scientists</a>
7747       </div>
7748       <div class="date">
7749         24th June 2012
7750       </div>
7751       <div class="body">
7752         <p>Many years ago, while studying Computer Science at the
7753 <a href="http://www.uit.no/">University of Tromsø</a>, I started
7754 collecting computer related songs for use at parties.  The original
7755 version was written in LaTeX, but a few years ago I got help from
7756 Håkon W. Lie, one of the inventors of W3C CSS, to convert it to HTML
7757 while keeping the ability to create a nice book in PDF format.  I have
7758 not had time to maintain the book for a while now, and guess I should
7759 put it up on some public version control repository where others can
7760 help me extend and update the book.  If anyone is volunteering to help
7761 me with this, send me an email.  Also let me know if there are songs
7762 missing in my book.</p>
7763
7764 <p>I have not mentioned the book on my blog so far, and it occured to
7765 me today that I really should let all my readers share the joys of
7766 singing out load about programming, computers and computer networks.
7767 Especially now that <a href="http://debconf12.debconf.org/">Debconf
7768 12</a> is about to start (and I am not going).  Want to sing?  Check
7769 out <a href="http://www.hungry.com/~pere/cs-songbook/">Petter's
7770 Computer Science Songbook</a>.
7771
7772       </div>
7773       <div class="tags">
7774
7775
7776         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/multimedia">multimedia</a>.
7777
7778
7779       </div>
7780     </div>
7781     <div class="padding"></div>
7782
7783     <div class="entry">
7784       <div class="title">
7785         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Automatically_upgrading_server_firmware_on_Dell_PowerEdge.html">Automatically upgrading server firmware on Dell PowerEdge</a>
7786       </div>
7787       <div class="date">
7788         21st November 2011
7789       </div>
7790       <div class="body">
7791         <p>At work we have heaps of servers.  I believe the total count is
7792 around 1000 at the moment.  To be able to get help from the vendors
7793 when something go wrong, we want to keep the firmware on the servers
7794 up to date.  If the firmware isn't the latest and greatest, the
7795 vendors typically refuse to start debugging any problems until the
7796 firmware is upgraded.  So before every reboot, we want to upgrade the
7797 firmware, and we would really like everyone handling servers at the
7798 university to do this themselves when they plan to reboot a machine.
7799 For that to happen we at the unix server admin group need to provide
7800 the tools to do so.</p>
7801
7802 <p>To make firmware upgrading easier, I am working on a script to
7803 fetch and install the latest firmware for the servers we got.  Most of
7804 our hardware are from Dell and HP, so I have focused on these servers
7805 so far.  This blog post is about the Dell part.</P>
7806
7807 <p>On the Dell FTP site I was lucky enough to find
7808 <a href="ftp://ftp.us.dell.com/catalog/Catalog.xml.gz">an XML file</a>
7809 with firmware information for all 11th generation servers, listing
7810 which firmware should be used on a given model and where on the FTP
7811 site I can find it.  Using a simple perl XML parser I can then
7812 download the shell scripts Dell provides to do firmware upgrades from
7813 within Linux and reboot when all the firmware is primed and ready to
7814 be activated on the first reboot.</p>
7815
7816 <p>This is the Dell related fragment of the perl code I am working on.
7817 Are there anyone working on similar tools for firmware upgrading all
7818 servers at a site?  Please get in touch and lets share resources.</p>
7819
7820 <p><pre>
7821 #!/usr/bin/perl
7822 use strict;
7823 use warnings;
7824 use File::Temp qw(tempdir);
7825 BEGIN {
7826     # Install needed RHEL packages if missing
7827     my %rhelmodules = (
7828         'XML::Simple' => 'perl-XML-Simple',
7829         );
7830     for my $module (keys %rhelmodules) {
7831         eval "use $module;";
7832         if ($@) {
7833             my $pkg = $rhelmodules{$module};
7834             system("yum install -y $pkg");
7835             eval "use $module;";
7836         }
7837     }
7838 }
7839 my $errorsto = 'pere@hungry.com';
7840
7841 upgrade_dell();
7842
7843 exit 0;
7844
7845 sub run_firmware_script {
7846     my ($opts, $script) = @_;
7847     unless ($script) {
7848         print STDERR "fail: missing script name\n";
7849         exit 1
7850     }
7851     print STDERR "Running $script\n\n";
7852
7853     if (0 == system("sh $script $opts")) { # FIXME correct exit code handling
7854         print STDERR "success: firmware script ran succcessfully\n";
7855     } else {
7856         print STDERR "fail: firmware script returned error\n";
7857     }
7858 }
7859
7860 sub run_firmware_scripts {
7861     my ($opts, @dirs) = @_;
7862     # Run firmware packages
7863     for my $dir (@dirs) {
7864         print STDERR "info: Running scripts in $dir\n";
7865         opendir(my $dh, $dir) or die "Unable to open directory $dir: $!";
7866         while (my $s = readdir $dh) {
7867             next if $s =~ m/^\.\.?/;
7868             run_firmware_script($opts, "$dir/$s");
7869         }
7870         closedir $dh;
7871     }
7872 }
7873
7874 sub download {
7875     my $url = shift;
7876     print STDERR "info: Downloading $url\n";
7877     system("wget --quiet \"$url\"");
7878 }
7879
7880 sub upgrade_dell {
7881     my @dirs;
7882     my $product = `dmidecode -s system-product-name`;
7883     chomp $product;
7884
7885     if ($product =~ m/PowerEdge/) {
7886
7887         # on RHEL, these pacakges are needed by the firwmare upgrade scripts
7888         system('yum install -y compat-libstdc++-33.i686 libstdc++.i686 libxml2.i686 procmail');
7889
7890         my $tmpdir = tempdir(
7891             CLEANUP => 1
7892             );
7893         chdir($tmpdir);
7894         fetch_dell_fw('catalog/Catalog.xml.gz');
7895         system('gunzip Catalog.xml.gz');
7896         my @paths = fetch_dell_fw_list('Catalog.xml');
7897         # -q is quiet, disabling interactivity and reducing console output
7898         my $fwopts = "-q";
7899         if (@paths) {
7900             for my $url (@paths) {
7901                 fetch_dell_fw($url);
7902             }
7903             run_firmware_scripts($fwopts, $tmpdir);
7904         } else {
7905             print STDERR "error: Unsupported Dell model '$product'.\n";
7906             print STDERR "error: Please report to $errorsto.\n";
7907         }
7908         chdir('/');
7909     } else {
7910         print STDERR "error: Unsupported Dell model '$product'.\n";
7911         print STDERR "error: Please report to $errorsto.\n";
7912     }
7913 }
7914
7915 sub fetch_dell_fw {
7916     my $path = shift;
7917     my $url = "ftp://ftp.us.dell.com/$path";
7918     download($url);
7919 }
7920
7921 # Using ftp://ftp.us.dell.com/catalog/Catalog.xml.gz, figure out which
7922 # firmware packages to download from Dell.  Only work for Linux
7923 # machines and 11th generation Dell servers.
7924 sub fetch_dell_fw_list {
7925     my $filename = shift;
7926
7927     my $product = `dmidecode -s system-product-name`;
7928     chomp $product;
7929     my ($mybrand, $mymodel) = split(/\s+/, $product);
7930
7931     print STDERR "Finding firmware bundles for $mybrand $mymodel\n";
7932
7933     my $xml = XMLin($filename);
7934     my @paths;
7935     for my $bundle (@{$xml->{SoftwareBundle}}) {
7936         my $brand = $bundle->{TargetSystems}->{Brand}->{Display}->{content};
7937         my $model = $bundle->{TargetSystems}->{Brand}->{Model}->{Display}->{content};
7938         my $oscode;
7939         if ("ARRAY" eq ref $bundle->{TargetOSes}->{OperatingSystem}) {
7940             $oscode = $bundle->{TargetOSes}->{OperatingSystem}[0]->{osCode};
7941         } else {
7942             $oscode = $bundle->{TargetOSes}->{OperatingSystem}->{osCode};
7943         }
7944         if ($mybrand eq $brand && $mymodel eq $model && "LIN" eq $oscode)
7945         {
7946             @paths = map { $_->{path} } @{$bundle->{Contents}->{Package}};
7947         }
7948     }
7949     for my $component (@{$xml->{SoftwareComponent}}) {
7950         my $componenttype = $component->{ComponentType}->{value};
7951
7952         # Drop application packages, only firmware and BIOS
7953         next if 'APAC' eq $componenttype;
7954
7955         my $cpath = $component->{path};
7956         for my $path (@paths) {
7957             if ($cpath =~ m%/$path$%) {
7958                 push(@paths, $cpath);
7959             }
7960         }
7961     }
7962     return @paths;
7963 }
7964 </pre>
7965
7966 <p>The code is only tested on RedHat Enterprise Linux, but I suspect
7967 it could work on other platforms with some tweaking.  Anyone know a
7968 index like Catalog.xml is available from HP for HP servers?  At the
7969 moment I maintain a similar list manually and it is quickly getting
7970 outdated.</p>
7971
7972       </div>
7973       <div class="tags">
7974
7975
7976         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
7977
7978
7979       </div>
7980     </div>
7981     <div class="padding"></div>
7982
7983     <div class="entry">
7984       <div class="title">
7985         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_is_booting_into_runlevel_1_different_from_single_user_boots_.html">How is booting into runlevel 1 different from single user boots?</a>
7986       </div>
7987       <div class="date">
7988          4th August 2011
7989       </div>
7990       <div class="body">
7991         <p>Wouter Verhelst have some
7992 <a href="http://grep.be/blog/en/retorts/pere_kubuntu_boot">interesting
7993 comments and opinions</a> on my blog post on
7994 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/What_should_start_from__etc_rcS_d__in_Debian____almost_nothing.html">the
7995 need to clean up /etc/rcS.d/ in Debian</a> and my blog post about
7996 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/What_is_missing_in_the_Debian_desktop__or_why_my_parents_use_Kubuntu.html">the
7997 default KDE desktop in Debian</a>.  I only have time to address one
7998 small piece of his comment now, and though it best to address the
7999 misunderstanding he bring forward:</p>
8000
8001 <p><blockquote>
8002 Currently, a system admin has four options: [...] boot to a
8003 single-user system (by adding 'single' to the kernel command line;
8004 this runs rcS and rc1 scripts)
8005 </blockquote></p>
8006
8007 <p>This make me believe Wouter believe booting into single user mode
8008 and booting into runlevel 1 is the same.  I am not surprised he
8009 believe this, because it would make sense and is a quite sensible
8010 thing to believe.  But because the boot in Debian is slightly broken,
8011 runlevel 1 do not work properly and it isn't the same as single user
8012 mode.  I'll try to explain what is actually happing, but it is a bit
8013 hard to explain.</p>
8014
8015 <p>Single user mode is defined like this in /etc/inittab:
8016 "<tt>~~:S:wait:/sbin/sulogin</tt>".  This means the only thing that is
8017 executed in single user mode is sulogin.  Single user mode is a boot
8018 state "between" the runlevels, and when booting into single user mode,
8019 only the scripts in /etc/rcS.d/ are executed before the init process
8020 enters the single user state.  When switching to runlevel 1, the state
8021 is in fact not ending in runlevel 1, but it passes through runlevel 1
8022 and end up in the single user mode (see /etc/rc1.d/S03single, which
8023 runs "init -t1 S" to switch to single user mode at the end of runlevel
8024 1.  It is confusing that the 'S' (single user) init mode is not the
8025 mode enabled by /etc/rcS.d/ (which is more like the initial boot
8026 mode).</p>
8027
8028 <p>This summary might make it clearer.  When booting for the first
8029 time into single user mode, the following commands are executed:
8030 "<tt>/etc/init.d/rc S; /sbin/sulogin</tt>".  When booting into
8031 runlevel 1, the following commands are executed: "<tt>/etc/init.d/rc
8032 S; /etc/init.d/rc 1; /sbin/sulogin</tt>".  A problem show up when
8033 trying to continue after visiting single user mode.  Not all services
8034 are started again as they should, causing the machine to end up in an
8035 unpredicatble state.  This is why Debian admins recommend rebooting
8036 after visiting single user mode.</p>
8037
8038 <p>A similar problem with runlevel 1 is caused by the amount of
8039 scripts executed from /etc/rcS.d/.  When switching from say runlevel 2
8040 to runlevel 1, the services started from /etc/rcS.d/ are not properly
8041 stopped when passing through the scripts in /etc/rc1.d/, and not
8042 started again when switching away from runlevel 1 to the runlevels
8043 2-5.  I believe the problem is best fixed by moving all the scripts
8044 out of /etc/rcS.d/ that are not <strong>required</strong> to get a
8045 functioning single user mode during boot.</p>
8046
8047 <p>I have spent several years investigating the Debian boot system,
8048 and discovered this problem a few years ago.  I suspect it originates
8049 from when sysvinit was introduced into Debian, a long time ago.</p>
8050
8051       </div>
8052       <div class="tags">
8053
8054
8055         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bootsystem">bootsystem</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
8056
8057
8058       </div>
8059     </div>
8060     <div class="padding"></div>
8061
8062     <div class="entry">
8063       <div class="title">
8064         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/What_should_start_from__etc_rcS_d__in_Debian____almost_nothing.html">What should start from /etc/rcS.d/ in Debian? - almost nothing</a>
8065       </div>
8066       <div class="date">
8067         30th July 2011
8068       </div>
8069       <div class="body">
8070         <p>In the Debian boot system, several packages include scripts that
8071 are started from /etc/rcS.d/.  In fact, there is a bite more of them
8072 than make sense, and this causes a few problems.  What kind of
8073 problems, you might ask.  There are at least two problems.  The first
8074 is that it is not possible to recover a machine after switching to
8075 runlevel 1.  One need to actually reboot to get the machine back to
8076 the expected state.  The other is that single user boot will sometimes
8077 run into problems because some of the subsystems are activated before
8078 the root login is presented, causing problems when trying to recover a
8079 machine from a problem in that subsystem.  A minor additional point is
8080 that moving more scripts out of rcS.d/ and into the other rc#.d/
8081 directories will increase the amount of scripts that can run in
8082 parallel during boot, and thus decrease the boot time.</p>
8083
8084 <p>So, which scripts should start from rcS.d/.  In short, only the
8085 scripts that _have_ to execute before the root login prompt is
8086 presented during a single user boot should go there.  Everything else
8087 should go into the numeric runlevels.  This means things like
8088 lm-sensors, fuse and x11-common should not run from rcS.d, but from
8089 the numeric runlevels.  Today in Debian, there are around 115 init.d
8090 scripts that are started from rcS.d/, and most of them should be moved
8091 out.  Do your package have one of them?  Please help us make single
8092 user and runlevel 1 better by moving it.</p>
8093
8094 <p>Scripts setting up the screen, keyboard, system partitions
8095 etc. should still be started from rcS.d/, but there is for example no
8096 need to have the network enabled before the single user login prompt
8097 is presented.</p>
8098
8099 <p>As always, things are not so easy to fix as they sound.  To keep
8100 Debian systems working while scripts migrate and during upgrades, the
8101 scripts need to be moved from rcS.d/ to rc2.d/ in reverse dependency
8102 order, ie the scripts that nothing in rcS.d/ depend on can be moved,
8103 and the next ones can only be moved when their dependencies have been
8104 moved first.  This migration must be done sequentially while we ensure
8105 that the package system upgrade packages in the right order to keep
8106 the system state correct.  This will require some coordination when it
8107 comes to network related packages, but most of the packages with
8108 scripts that should migrate do not have anything in rcS.d/ depending
8109 on them.  Some packages have already been updated, like the sudo
8110 package, while others are still left to do.  I wish I had time to work
8111 on this myself, but real live constrains make it unlikely that I will
8112 find time to push this forward.</p>
8113
8114       </div>
8115       <div class="tags">
8116
8117
8118         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bootsystem">bootsystem</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
8119
8120
8121       </div>
8122     </div>
8123     <div class="padding"></div>
8124
8125     <div class="entry">
8126       <div class="title">
8127         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/What_is_missing_in_the_Debian_desktop__or_why_my_parents_use_Kubuntu.html">What is missing in the Debian desktop, or why my parents use Kubuntu</a>
8128       </div>
8129       <div class="date">
8130         29th July 2011
8131       </div>
8132       <div class="body">
8133         <p>While at Debconf11, I have several times during discussions
8134 mentioned the issues I believe should be improved in Debian for its
8135 desktop to be useful for more people.  The use case for this is my
8136 parents, which are currently running Kubuntu which solve the
8137 issues.</p>
8138
8139 <p>I suspect these four missing features are not very hard to
8140 implement.  After all, they are present in Ubuntu, so if we wanted to
8141 do this in Debian we would have a source.</p>
8142
8143 <ol>
8144
8145 <li><strong>Simple GUI based upgrade of packages.</strong> When there
8146 are new packages available for upgrades, a icon in the KDE status bar
8147 indicate this, and clicking on it will activate the simple upgrade
8148 tool to handle it.  I have no problem guiding both of my parents
8149 through the process over the phone.  If a kernel reboot is required,
8150 this too is indicated by the status bars and the upgrade tool.  Last
8151 time I checked, nothing with the same features was working in KDE in
8152 Debian.</li>
8153
8154 <li><strong>Simple handling of missing Firefox browser
8155 plugins.</strong> When the browser encounter a MIME type it do not
8156 currently have a handler for, it will ask the user if the system
8157 should search for a package that would add support for this MIME type,
8158 and if the user say yes, the APT sources will be searched for packages
8159 advertising the MIME type in their control file (visible in the
8160 Packages file in the APT archive).  If one or more packages are found,
8161 it is a simple click of the mouse to add support for the missing mime
8162 type.  If the package require the user to accept some non-free
8163 license, this is explained to the user.  The entire process make it
8164 more clear to the user why something do not work in the browser, and
8165 make the chances higher for the user to blame the web page authors and
8166 not the browser for any missing features.</li>
8167
8168 <li><strong>Simple handling of missing multimedia codec/format
8169 handlers.</strong> When the media players encounter a format or codec
8170 it is not supporting, a dialog pop up asking the user if the system
8171 should search for a package that would add support for it.  This
8172 happen with things like MP3, Windows Media or H.264.  The selection
8173 and installation procedure is very similar to the Firefox browser
8174 plugin handling.  This is as far as I know implemented using a
8175 gstreamer hook.  The end result is that the user easily get access to
8176 the codecs that are present from the APT archives available, while
8177 explaining more on why a given format is unsupported by Ubuntu.</li>
8178
8179 <li><strong>Better browser handling of some MIME types.</strong> When
8180 displaying a text/plain file in my Debian browser, it will propose to
8181 start emacs to show it.  If I remember correctly, when doing the same
8182 in Kunbutu it show the file as a text file in the browser.  At least I
8183 know Opera will show text files within the browser.  I much prefer the
8184 latter behaviour.</li>
8185
8186 </ol>
8187
8188 <p>There are other nice features as well, like the simplified suite
8189 upgrader, but given that I am the one mostly doing the dist-upgrade,
8190 it do not matter much.</p>
8191
8192 <p>I really hope we could get these features in place for the next
8193 Debian release.  It would require the coordinated effort of several
8194 maintainers, but would make the end user experience a lot better.</p>
8195
8196       </div>
8197       <div class="tags">
8198
8199
8200         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/h264">h264</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/multimedia">multimedia</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/web">web</a>.
8201
8202
8203       </div>
8204     </div>
8205     <div class="padding"></div>
8206
8207     <div class="entry">
8208       <div class="title">
8209         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Perl_modules_used_by_FixMyStreet_which_are_missing_in_Debian_Squeeze.html">Perl modules used by FixMyStreet which are missing in Debian/Squeeze</a>
8210       </div>
8211       <div class="date">
8212         26th July 2011
8213       </div>
8214       <div class="body">
8215         <p>The Norwegian <a href="http://www.fiksgatami.no/">FiksGataMi</A>
8216 site is build on Debian/Squeeze, and this platform was chosen because
8217 I am most familiar with Debian (being a Debian Developer for around 10
8218 years) because it is the latest stable Debian release which should get
8219 security support for a few years.</p>
8220
8221 <p>The web service is written in Perl, and depend on some perl modules
8222 that are missing in Debian at the moment.  It would be great if these
8223 modules were added to the Debian archive, allowing anyone to set up
8224 their own <a href="http://www.fixmystreet.com">FixMyStreet</a> clone
8225 in their own country using only Debian packages.  The list of modules
8226 missing in Debian/Squeeze isn't very long, and I hope the perl group
8227 will find time to package the 12 modules Catalyst::Plugin::SmartURI,
8228 Catalyst::Plugin::Unicode::Encoding, Catalyst::View::TT, Devel::Hide,
8229 Sort::Key, Statistics::Distributions, Template::Plugin::Comma,
8230 Template::Plugin::DateTime::Format, Term::Size::Any, Term::Size::Perl,
8231 URI::SmartURI and Web::Scraper to make the maintenance of FixMyStreet
8232 easier in the future.</p>
8233
8234 <p>Thanks to the great tools in Debian, getting the missing modules
8235 installed on my server was a simple call to 'cpan2deb Module::Name'
8236 and 'dpkg -i' to install the resulting package.  But this leave me
8237 with the responsibility of tracking security problems, which I really
8238 do not have time for.</p>
8239
8240       </div>
8241       <div class="tags">
8242
8243
8244         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/fiksgatami">fiksgatami</a>.
8245
8246
8247       </div>
8248     </div>
8249     <div class="padding"></div>
8250
8251     <div class="entry">
8252       <div class="title">
8253         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/A_Norwegian_FixMyStreet_have_kept_me_busy_the_last_few_weeks.html">A Norwegian FixMyStreet have kept me busy the last few weeks</a>
8254       </div>
8255       <div class="date">
8256          3rd April 2011
8257       </div>
8258       <div class="body">
8259         <p>Here is a small update for my English readers.  Most of my blog
8260 posts have been in Norwegian the last few weeks, so here is a short
8261 update in English.</p>
8262
8263 <p>The kids still keep me too busy to get much free software work
8264 done, but I did manage to organise a project to get a Norwegian port
8265 of the British service
8266 <a href="http://www.fixmystreet.com/">FixMyStreet</a> up and running,
8267 and it has been running for a month now.  The entire project has been
8268 organised by me and two others.  Around Christmas we gathered sponsors
8269 to fund the development work.  In January I drafted a contract with
8270 <a href="http://www.mysociety.org/">mySociety</a> on what to develop,
8271 and in February the development took place.  Most of it involved
8272 converting the source to use GPS coordinates instead of British
8273 easting/northing, and the resulting code should be a lot easier to get
8274 running in any country by now.  The Norwegian
8275 <a href="http://www.fiksgatami.no/">FiksGataMi</a> is using
8276 <a href="http://www.openstreetmap.org/">OpenStreetmap</a> as the map
8277 source and the source for administrative borders in Norway, and
8278 support for this had to be added/fixed.</p>
8279
8280 <p>The Norwegian version went live March 3th, and we spent the weekend
8281 polishing the system before we announced it March 7th.  The system is
8282 running on a KVM instance of Debian/Squeeze, and has seen almost 3000
8283 problem reports in a few weeks.  Soon we hope to announce the Android
8284 and iPhone versions making it even easier to report problems with the
8285 public infrastructure.</p>
8286
8287 <p>Perhaps something to consider for those of you in countries without
8288 such service?</p>
8289
8290       </div>
8291       <div class="tags">
8292
8293
8294         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/fiksgatami">fiksgatami</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/kart">kart</a>.
8295
8296
8297       </div>
8298     </div>
8299     <div class="padding"></div>
8300
8301     <div class="entry">
8302       <div class="title">
8303         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Using_NVD_and_CPE_to_track_CVEs_in_locally_maintained_software.html">Using NVD and CPE to track CVEs in locally maintained software</a>
8304       </div>
8305       <div class="date">
8306         28th January 2011
8307       </div>
8308       <div class="body">
8309         <p>The last few days I have looked at ways to track open security
8310 issues here at my work with the University of Oslo.  My idea is that
8311 it should be possible to use the information about security issues
8312 available on the Internet, and check our locally
8313 maintained/distributed software against this information.  It should
8314 allow us to verify that no known security issues are forgotten.  The
8315 CVE database listing vulnerabilities seem like a great central point,
8316 and by using the package lists from Debian mapped to CVEs provided by
8317 the testing security team, I believed it should be possible to figure
8318 out which security holes were present in our free software
8319 collection.</p>
8320
8321 <p>After reading up on the topic, it became obvious that the first
8322 building block is to be able to name software packages in a unique and
8323 consistent way across data sources.  I considered several ways to do
8324 this, for example coming up with my own naming scheme like using URLs
8325 to project home pages or URLs to the Freshmeat entries, or using some
8326 existing naming scheme.  And it seem like I am not the first one to
8327 come across this problem, as MITRE already proposed and implemented a
8328 solution.  Enter the <a href="http://cpe.mitre.org/index.html">Common
8329 Platform Enumeration</a> dictionary, a vocabulary for referring to
8330 software, hardware and other platform components.  The CPE ids are
8331 mapped to CVEs in the <a href="http://web.nvd.nist.gov/">National
8332 Vulnerability Database</a>, allowing me to look up know security
8333 issues for any CPE name.  With this in place, all I need to do is to
8334 locate the CPE id for the software packages we use at the university.
8335 This is fairly trivial (I google for 'cve cpe $package' and check the
8336 NVD entry if a CVE for the package exist).</p>
8337
8338 <p>To give you an example.  The GNU gzip source package have the CPE
8339 name cpe:/a:gnu:gzip.  If the old version 1.3.3 was the package to
8340 check out, one could look up
8341 <a href="http://web.nvd.nist.gov/view/vuln/search?cpe=cpe%3A%2Fa%3Agnu%3Agzip:1.3.3">cpe:/a:gnu:gzip:1.3.3
8342 in NVD</a> and get a list of 6 security holes with public CVE entries.
8343 The most recent one is
8344 <a href="http://web.nvd.nist.gov/view/vuln/detail?vulnId=CVE-2010-0001">CVE-2010-0001</a>,
8345 and at the bottom of the NVD page for this vulnerability the complete
8346 list of affected versions is provided.</p>
8347
8348 <p>The NVD database of CVEs is also available as a XML dump, allowing
8349 for offline processing of issues.  Using this dump, I've written a
8350 small script taking a list of CPEs as input and list all CVEs
8351 affecting the packages represented by these CPEs.  One give it CPEs
8352 with version numbers as specified above and get a list of open
8353 security issues out.</p>
8354
8355 <p>Of course for this approach to be useful, the quality of the NVD
8356 information need to be high.  For that to happen, I believe as many as
8357 possible need to use and contribute to the NVD database.  I notice
8358 RHEL is providing
8359 <a href="https://www.redhat.com/security/data/metrics/rhsamapcpe.txt">a
8360 map from CVE to CPE</a>, indicating that they are using the CPE
8361 information.  I'm not aware of Debian and Ubuntu doing the same.</p>
8362
8363 <p>To get an idea about the quality for free software, I spent some
8364 time making it possible to compare the CVE database from Debian with
8365 the CVE database in NVD.  The result look fairly good, but there are
8366 some inconsistencies in NVD (same software package having several
8367 CPEs), and some inaccuracies (NVD not mentioning buggy packages that
8368 Debian believe are affected by a CVE).  Hope to find time to improve
8369 the quality of NVD, but that require being able to get in touch with
8370 someone maintaining it.  So far my three emails with questions and
8371 corrections have not seen any reply, but I hope contact can be
8372 established soon.</p>
8373
8374 <p>An interesting application for CPEs is cross platform package
8375 mapping.  It would be useful to know which packages in for example
8376 RHEL, OpenSuSe and Mandriva are missing from Debian and Ubuntu, and
8377 this would be trivial if all linux distributions provided CPE entries
8378 for their packages.</p>
8379
8380       </div>
8381       <div class="tags">
8382
8383
8384         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet</a>.
8385
8386
8387       </div>
8388     </div>
8389     <div class="padding"></div>
8390
8391     <div class="entry">
8392       <div class="title">
8393         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Which_module_is_loaded_for_a_given_PCI_and_USB_device_.html">Which module is loaded for a given PCI and USB device?</a>
8394       </div>
8395       <div class="date">
8396         23rd January 2011
8397       </div>
8398       <div class="body">
8399         <p>In the
8400 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/discover-data">discover-data</a>
8401 package in Debian, there is a script to report useful information
8402 about the running hardware for use when people report missing
8403 information.  One part of this script that I find very useful when
8404 debugging hardware problems, is the part mapping loaded kernel module
8405 to the PCI device it claims.  It allow me to quickly see if the kernel
8406 module I expect is driving the hardware I am struggling with.  To see
8407 the output, make sure discover-data is installed and run
8408 <tt>/usr/share/bug/discover-data 3>&1</tt>.  The relevant output on
8409 one of my machines like this:</p>
8410
8411 <pre>
8412 loaded modules:
8413 10de:03eb i2c_nforce2
8414 10de:03f1 ohci_hcd
8415 10de:03f2 ehci_hcd
8416 10de:03f0 snd_hda_intel
8417 10de:03ec pata_amd
8418 10de:03f6 sata_nv
8419 1022:1103 k8temp
8420 109e:036e bttv
8421 109e:0878 snd_bt87x
8422 11ab:4364 sky2
8423 </pre>
8424
8425 <p>The code in question look like this, slightly modified for
8426 readability and to drop the output to file descriptor 3:</p>
8427
8428 <pre>
8429 if [ -d /sys/bus/pci/devices/ ] ; then
8430     echo loaded pci modules:
8431     (
8432         cd /sys/bus/pci/devices/
8433         for address in * ; do
8434             if [ -d "$address/driver/module" ] ; then
8435                 module=`cd $address/driver/module ; pwd -P | xargs basename`
8436                 if grep -q "^$module " /proc/modules ; then
8437                     address=$(echo $address |sed s/0000://)
8438                     id=`lspci -n -s $address | tail -n 1 | awk '{print $3}'`
8439                     echo "$id $module"
8440                 fi
8441             fi
8442         done
8443     )
8444     echo
8445 fi
8446 </pre>
8447
8448 <p>Similar code could be used to extract USB device module
8449 mappings:</p>
8450
8451 <pre>
8452 if [ -d /sys/bus/usb/devices/ ] ; then
8453     echo loaded usb modules:
8454     (
8455         cd /sys/bus/usb/devices/
8456         for address in * ; do
8457             if [ -d "$address/driver/module" ] ; then
8458                 module=`cd $address/driver/module ; pwd -P | xargs basename`
8459                 if grep -q "^$module " /proc/modules ; then
8460                     address=$(echo $address |sed s/0000://)
8461                     id=$(lsusb -s $address | tail -n 1 | awk '{print $6}')
8462                     if [ "$id" ] ; then
8463                         echo "$id $module"
8464                     fi
8465                 fi
8466             fi
8467         done
8468     )
8469     echo
8470 fi
8471 </pre>
8472
8473 <p>This might perhaps be something to include in other tools as
8474 well.</p>
8475
8476       </div>
8477       <div class="tags">
8478
8479
8480         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
8481
8482
8483       </div>
8484     </div>
8485     <div class="padding"></div>
8486
8487     <div class="entry">
8488       <div class="title">
8489         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_test_if_a_laptop_is_working_with_Linux.html">How to test if a laptop is working with Linux</a>
8490       </div>
8491       <div class="date">
8492         22nd December 2010
8493       </div>
8494       <div class="body">
8495         <p>The last few days I have spent at work here at the <a
8496 href="http://www.uio.no/">University of Oslo</a> testing if the new
8497 batch of computers will work with Linux.  Every year for the last few
8498 years the university have organised shared bid of a few thousand
8499 computers, and this year HP won the bid.  Two different desktops and
8500 five different laptops are on the list this year.  We in the UNIX
8501 group want to know which one of these computers work well with RHEL
8502 and Ubuntu, the two Linux distributions we currently handle at the
8503 university.</p>
8504
8505 <p>My test method is simple, and I share it here to get feedback and
8506 perhaps inspire others to test hardware as well.  To test, I PXE
8507 install the OS version of choice, and log in as my normal user and run
8508 a few applications and plug in selected pieces of hardware.  When
8509 something fail, I make a note about this in the test matrix and move
8510 on.  If I have some spare time I try to report the bug to the OS
8511 vendor, but as I only have the machines for a short time, I rarely
8512 have the time to do this for all the problems I find.</p>
8513
8514 <p>Anyway, to get to the point of this post.  Here is the simple tests
8515 I perform on a new model.</p>
8516
8517 <ul>
8518
8519 <li>Is PXE installation working?  I'm testing with RHEL6, Ubuntu Lucid
8520 and Ubuntu Maverik at the moment.  If I feel like it, I also test with
8521 RHEL5 and Debian Edu/Squeeze.</li>
8522
8523 <li>Is X.org working?  If the graphical login screen show up after
8524 installation, X.org is working.</li>
8525
8526 <li>Is hardware accelerated OpenGL working?  Running glxgears (in
8527 package mesa-utils on Ubuntu) and writing down the frames per second
8528 reported by the program.</li>
8529
8530 <li>Is sound working?  With Gnome and KDE, a sound is played when
8531 logging in, and if I can hear this the test is successful.  If there
8532 are several audio exits on the machine, I try them all and check if
8533 the Gnome/KDE audio mixer can control where to send the sound.  I
8534 normally test this by playing
8535 <a href="http://www.nuug.no/aktiviteter/20101012-chef/ ">a HTML5
8536 video</a> in Firefox/Iceweasel.</li>
8537
8538 <li>Is the USB subsystem working?  I test this by plugging in a USB
8539 memory stick and see if Gnome/KDE notices this.</li>
8540
8541 <li>Is the CD/DVD player working?  I test this by inserting any CD/DVD
8542 I have lying around, and see if Gnome/KDE notices this.</li>
8543
8544 <li>Is any built in camera working?  Test using cheese, and see if a
8545 picture from the v4l device show up.</li>
8546
8547 <li>Is bluetooth working?  Use the Gnome/KDE browsing tool to see if
8548 any bluetooth devices are discovered.  In my office, I normally see a
8549 few.</li>
8550
8551 <li>For laptops, is the SD or Compaq Flash reader working.  I have
8552 memory modules lying around, and stick them in and see if Gnome/KDE
8553 notice this.</li>
8554
8555 <li>For laptops, is suspend/hibernate working?  I'm testing if the
8556 special button work, and if the laptop continue to work after
8557 resume.</li>
8558
8559 <li>For laptops, is the extra buttons working, like audio level,
8560 adjusting background light, switching on/off external video output,
8561 switching on/off wifi, bluetooth, etc?  The set of buttons differ from
8562 laptop to laptop, so I just write down which are working and which are
8563 not.</li>
8564
8565 <li>Some laptops have smart card readers, finger print readers,
8566 acceleration sensors etc.  I rarely test these, as I do not know how
8567 to quickly test if they are working or not, so I only document their
8568 existence.</li>
8569
8570 </ul>
8571
8572 <p>By now I suspect you are really curious what the test results are
8573 for the HP machines I am testing.  I'm not done yet, so I will report
8574 the test results later.  For now I can report that HP 8100 Elite work
8575 fine, and hibernation fail with HP EliteBook 8440p on Ubuntu Lucid,
8576 and audio fail on RHEL6.  Ubuntu Maverik worked with 8440p.  As you
8577 can see, I have most machines left to test.  One interesting
8578 observation is that Ubuntu Lucid has almost twice the frame rate than
8579 RHEL6 with glxgears.  No idea why.</p>
8580
8581       </div>
8582       <div class="tags">
8583
8584
8585         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
8586
8587
8588       </div>
8589     </div>
8590     <div class="padding"></div>
8591
8592     <div class="entry">
8593       <div class="title">
8594         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Some_thoughts_on_BitCoins.html">Some thoughts on BitCoins</a>
8595       </div>
8596       <div class="date">
8597         11th December 2010
8598       </div>
8599       <div class="body">
8600         <p>As I continue to explore
8601 <a href="http://www.bitcoin.org/">BitCoin</a>, I've starting to wonder
8602 what properties the system have, and how it will be affected by laws
8603 and regulations here in Norway.  Here are some random notes.</p>
8604
8605 <p>One interesting thing to note is that since the transactions are
8606 verified using a peer to peer network, all details about a transaction
8607 is known to everyone.  This means that if a BitCoin address has been
8608 published like I did with mine in my initial post about BitCoin, it is
8609 possible for everyone to see how many BitCoins have been transfered to
8610 that address.  There is even a web service to look at the details for
8611 all transactions.  There I can see that my address
8612 <a href="http://blockexplorer.com/address/15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a>
8613 have received 16.06 Bitcoin, the
8614 <a href="http://blockexplorer.com/address/1LfdGnGuWkpSJgbQySxxCWhv8MHqvwst3">1LfdGnGuWkpSJgbQySxxCWhv8MHqvwst3</a>
8615 address of Simon Phipps have received 181.97 BitCoin and the address
8616 <a href="http://blockexplorer.com/address/1MCwBbhNGp5hRm5rC1Aims2YFRe2SXPYKt">1MCwBbhNGp5hRm5rC1Aims2YFRe2SXPYKt</A>
8617 of EFF have received 2447.38 BitCoins so far.  Thank you to each and
8618 every one of you that donated bitcoins to support my activity. The
8619 fact that anyone can see how much money was transfered to a given
8620 address make it more obvious why the BitCoin community recommend to
8621 generate and hand out a new address for each transaction.  I'm told
8622 there is no way to track which addresses belong to a given person or
8623 organisation without the person or organisation revealing it
8624 themselves, as Simon, EFF and I have done.</p>
8625
8626 <p>In Norway, and in most other countries, there are laws and
8627 regulations limiting how much money one can transfer across the border
8628 without declaring it.  There are money laundering, tax and accounting
8629 laws and regulations I would expect to apply to the use of BitCoin.
8630 If the Skolelinux foundation
8631 (<a href="http://linuxiskolen.no/slxdebianlabs/donations.html">SLX
8632 Debian Labs</a>) were to accept donations in BitCoin in addition to
8633 normal bank transfers like EFF is doing, how should this be accounted?
8634 Given that it is impossible to know if money can cross the border or
8635 not, should everything or nothing be declared?  What exchange rate
8636 should be used when calculating taxes?  Would receivers have to pay
8637 income tax if the foundation were to pay Skolelinux contributors in
8638 BitCoin?  I have no idea, but it would be interesting to know.</p>
8639
8640 <p>For a currency to be useful and successful, it must be trusted and
8641 accepted by a lot of users.  It must be possible to get easy access to
8642 the currency (as a wage or using currency exchanges), and it must be
8643 easy to spend it.  At the moment BitCoin seem fairly easy to get
8644 access to, but there are very few places to spend it.  I am not really
8645 a regular user of any of the vendor types currently accepting BitCoin,
8646 so I wonder when my kind of shop would start accepting BitCoins.  I
8647 would like to buy electronics, travels and subway tickets, not herbs
8648 and books. :) The currency is young, and this will improve over time
8649 if it become popular, but I suspect regular banks will start to lobby
8650 to get BitCoin declared illegal if it become popular.  I'm sure they
8651 will claim it is helping fund terrorism and money laundering (which
8652 probably would be true, as is any currency in existence), but I
8653 believe the problems should be solved elsewhere and not by blaming
8654 currencies.</p>
8655
8656 <p>The process of creating new BitCoins is called mining, and it is
8657 CPU intensive process that depend on a bit of luck as well (as one is
8658 competing against all the other miners currently spending CPU cycles
8659 to see which one get the next lump of cash).  The "winner" get 50
8660 BitCoin when this happen.  Yesterday I came across the obvious way to
8661 join forces to increase ones changes of getting at least some coins,
8662 by coordinating the work on mining BitCoins across several machines
8663 and people, and sharing the result if one is lucky and get the 50
8664 BitCoins.  Check out
8665 <a href="http://www.bluishcoder.co.nz/bitcoin-pool/">BitCoin Pool</a>
8666 if this sounds interesting.  I have not had time to try to set up a
8667 machine to participate there yet, but have seen that running on ones
8668 own for a few days have not yield any BitCoins througth mining
8669 yet.</p>
8670
8671 <p>Update 2010-12-15: Found an <a
8672 href="http://inertia.posterous.com/reply-to-the-underground-economist-why-bitcoi">interesting
8673 criticism</a> of bitcoin.  Not quite sure how valid it is, but thought
8674 it was interesting to read.  The arguments presented seem to be
8675 equally valid for gold, which was used as a currency for many years.</p>
8676
8677       </div>
8678       <div class="tags">
8679
8680
8681         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bitcoin">bitcoin</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/personvern">personvern</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet</a>.
8682
8683
8684       </div>
8685     </div>
8686     <div class="padding"></div>
8687
8688     <div class="entry">
8689       <div class="title">
8690         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Now_accepting_bitcoins___anonymous_and_distributed_p2p_crypto_money.html">Now accepting bitcoins - anonymous and distributed p2p crypto-money</a>
8691       </div>
8692       <div class="date">
8693         10th December 2010
8694       </div>
8695       <div class="body">
8696         <p>With this weeks lawless
8697 <a href="http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2010/12/06/wikileaks/index.html">governmental
8698 attacks</a> on Wikileak and
8699 <a href="http://www.salon.com/technology/dan_gillmor/2010/12/06/war_on_speech">free
8700 speech</a>, it has become obvious that PayPal, visa and mastercard can
8701 not be trusted to handle money transactions.
8702 A blog post from
8703 <a href="http://webmink.com/2010/12/06/now-accepting-bitcoin/">Simon
8704 Phipps on bitcoin</a> reminded me about a project that a friend of
8705 mine mentioned earlier.  I decided to follow Simon's example, and get
8706 involved with <a href="http://www.bitcoin.org/">BitCoin</a>.  I got
8707 some help from my friend to get it all running, and he even handed me
8708 some bitcoins to get started.  I even donated a few bitcoins to Simon
8709 for helping me remember BitCoin.</p>
8710
8711 <p>So, what is bitcoins, you probably wonder?  It is a digital
8712 crypto-currency, decentralised and handled using peer-to-peer
8713 networks.  It allows anonymous transactions and prohibits central
8714 control over the transactions, making it impossible for governments
8715 and companies alike to block donations and other transactions.  The
8716 source is free software, and while the key dependency wxWidgets 2.9
8717 for the graphical user interface is missing in Debian, the command
8718 line client builds just fine.  Hopefully Jonas
8719 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/578157">will get the package into
8720 Debian</a> soon.</p>
8721
8722 <p>Bitcoins can be converted to other currencies, like USD and EUR.
8723 There are <a href="http://www.bitcoin.org/trade">companies accepting
8724 bitcoins</a> when selling services and goods, and there are even
8725 currency "stock" markets where the exchange rate is decided.  There
8726 are not many users so far, but the concept seems promising.  If you
8727 want to get started and lack a friend with any bitcoins to spare,
8728 you can even get
8729 <a href="https://freebitcoins.appspot.com/">some for free</a> (0.05
8730 bitcoin at the time of writing).  Use
8731 <a href="http://www.bitcoinwatch.com/">BitcoinWatch</a> to keep an eye
8732 on the current exchange rates.</p>
8733
8734 <p>As an experiment, I have decided to set up bitcoind on one of my
8735 machines.  If you want to support my activity, please send Bitcoin
8736 donations to the address
8737 <b>15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</b>.  Thank you!</p>
8738
8739       </div>
8740       <div class="tags">
8741
8742
8743         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bitcoin">bitcoin</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/personvern">personvern</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet</a>.
8744
8745
8746       </div>
8747     </div>
8748     <div class="padding"></div>
8749
8750     <div class="entry">
8751       <div class="title">
8752         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Why_isn_t_Debian_Edu_using_VLC_.html">Why isn't Debian Edu using VLC?</a>
8753       </div>
8754       <div class="date">
8755         27th November 2010
8756       </div>
8757       <div class="body">
8758         <p>In the latest issue of Linux Journal, the readers choices were
8759 presented, and the winner among the multimedia player were VLC.
8760 Personally, I like VLC, and it is my player of choice when I first try
8761 to play a video file or stream.  Only if VLC fail will I drag out
8762 gmplayer to see if it can do better.  The reason is mostly the failure
8763 model and trust.  When VLC fail, it normally pop up a error message
8764 reporting the problem.  When mplayer fail, it normally segfault or
8765 just hangs.  The latter failure mode drain my trust in the program.<p>
8766
8767 <p>But even if VLC is my player of choice, we have choosen to use
8768 mplayer in <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian
8769 Edu/Skolelinux</a>.  The reason is simple.  We need a good browser
8770 plugin to play web videos seamlessly, and the VLC browser plugin is
8771 not very good.  For example, it lack in-line control buttons, so there
8772 is no way for the user to pause the video.  Also, when I
8773 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/BrowserMultimedia">last
8774 tested the browser plugins</a> available in Debian, the VLC plugin
8775 failed on several video pages where mplayer based plugins worked.  If
8776 the browser plugin for VLC was as good as the gecko-mediaplayer
8777 package (which uses mplayer), we would switch.</P>
8778
8779 <p>While VLC is a good player, its user interface is slightly
8780 annoying.  The most annoying feature is its inconsistent use of
8781 keyboard shortcuts.  When the player is in full screen mode, its
8782 shortcuts are different from when it is playing the video in a window.
8783 For example, space only work as pause when in full screen mode.  I
8784 wish it had consisten shortcuts and that space also would work when in
8785 window mode.  Another nice shortcut in gmplayer is [enter] to restart
8786 the current video.  It is very nice when playing short videos from the
8787 web and want to restart it when new people arrive to have a look at
8788 what is going on.</p>
8789
8790       </div>
8791       <div class="tags">
8792
8793
8794         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/multimedia">multimedia</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/video">video</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/web">web</a>.
8795
8796
8797       </div>
8798     </div>
8799     <div class="padding"></div>
8800
8801     <div class="entry">
8802       <div class="title">
8803         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lenny__Squeeze_upgrades_of_the_Gnome_and_KDE_desktop__now_with_apt_get_autoremove.html">Lenny->Squeeze upgrades of the Gnome and KDE desktop, now with apt-get autoremove</a>
8804       </div>
8805       <div class="date">
8806         22nd November 2010
8807       </div>
8808       <div class="body">
8809         <p>Michael Biebl suggested to me on IRC, that I changed my automated
8810 upgrade testing of the
8811 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/~pere/debian-upgrade-testing/">Lenny
8812 Gnome and KDE Desktop</a> to do <tt>apt-get autoremove</tt> when using apt-get.
8813 This seem like a very good idea, so I adjusted by test scripts and
8814 can now present the updated result from today:</p>
8815
8816 <p>This is for Gnome:</p>
8817
8818 <p>Installed using apt-get, missing with aptitude</p>
8819
8820 <blockquote><p>
8821   apache2.2-bin
8822   aptdaemon
8823   baobab
8824   binfmt-support
8825   browser-plugin-gnash
8826   cheese-common
8827   cli-common
8828   cups-pk-helper
8829   dmz-cursor-theme
8830   empathy
8831   empathy-common
8832   freedesktop-sound-theme
8833   freeglut3
8834   gconf-defaults-service
8835   gdm-themes
8836   gedit-plugins
8837   geoclue
8838   geoclue-hostip
8839   geoclue-localnet
8840   geoclue-manual
8841   geoclue-yahoo
8842   gnash
8843   gnash-common
8844   gnome
8845   gnome-backgrounds
8846   gnome-cards-data
8847   gnome-codec-install
8848   gnome-core
8849   gnome-desktop-environment
8850   gnome-disk-utility
8851   gnome-screenshot
8852   gnome-search-tool
8853   gnome-session-canberra
8854   gnome-system-log
8855   gnome-themes-extras
8856   gnome-themes-more
8857   gnome-user-share
8858   gstreamer0.10-fluendo-mp3
8859   gstreamer0.10-tools
8860   gtk2-engines
8861   gtk2-engines-pixbuf
8862   gtk2-engines-smooth
8863   hamster-applet
8864   libapache2-mod-dnssd
8865   libapr1
8866   libaprutil1
8867   libaprutil1-dbd-sqlite3
8868   libaprutil1-ldap
8869   libart2.0-cil
8870   libboost-date-time1.42.0
8871   libboost-python1.42.0
8872   libboost-thread1.42.0
8873   libchamplain-0.4-0
8874   libchamplain-gtk-0.4-0
8875   libcheese-gtk18
8876   libclutter-gtk-0.10-0
8877   libcryptui0
8878   libdiscid0
8879   libelf1
8880   libepc-1.0-2
8881   libepc-common
8882   libepc-ui-1.0-2
8883   libfreerdp-plugins-standard
8884   libfreerdp0
8885   libgconf2.0-cil
8886   libgdata-common
8887   libgdata7
8888   libgdu-gtk0
8889   libgee2
8890   libgeoclue0
8891   libgexiv2-0
8892   libgif4
8893   libglade2.0-cil
8894   libglib2.0-cil
8895   libgmime2.4-cil
8896   libgnome-vfs2.0-cil
8897   libgnome2.24-cil
8898   libgnomepanel2.24-cil
8899   libgpod-common
8900   libgpod4
8901   libgtk2.0-cil
8902   libgtkglext1
8903   libgtksourceview2.0-common
8904   libmono-addins-gui0.2-cil
8905   libmono-addins0.2-cil
8906   libmono-cairo2.0-cil
8907   libmono-corlib2.0-cil
8908   libmono-i18n-west2.0-cil
8909   libmono-posix2.0-cil
8910   libmono-security2.0-cil
8911   libmono-sharpzip2.84-cil
8912   libmono-system2.0-cil
8913   libmtp8
8914   libmusicbrainz3-6
8915   libndesk-dbus-glib1.0-cil
8916   libndesk-dbus1.0-cil
8917   libopal3.6.8
8918   libpolkit-gtk-1-0
8919   libpt2.6.7
8920   libpython2.6
8921   librpm1
8922   librpmio1
8923   libsdl1.2debian
8924   libsrtp0
8925   libssh-4
8926   libtelepathy-farsight0
8927   libtelepathy-glib0
8928   libtidy-0.99-0
8929   media-player-info
8930   mesa-utils
8931   mono-2.0-gac
8932   mono-gac
8933   mono-runtime
8934   nautilus-sendto
8935   nautilus-sendto-empathy
8936   p7zip-full
8937   pkg-config
8938   python-aptdaemon
8939   python-aptdaemon-gtk
8940   python-axiom
8941   python-beautifulsoup
8942   python-bugbuddy
8943   python-clientform
8944   python-coherence
8945   python-configobj
8946   python-crypto
8947   python-cupshelpers
8948   python-elementtree
8949   python-epsilon
8950   python-evolution
8951   python-feedparser
8952   python-gdata
8953   python-gdbm
8954   python-gst0.10
8955   python-gtkglext1
8956   python-gtksourceview2
8957   python-httplib2
8958   python-louie
8959   python-mako
8960   python-markupsafe
8961   python-mechanize
8962   python-nevow
8963   python-notify
8964   python-opengl
8965   python-openssl
8966   python-pam
8967   python-pkg-resources
8968   python-pyasn1
8969   python-pysqlite2
8970   python-rdflib
8971   python-serial
8972   python-tagpy
8973   python-twisted-bin
8974   python-twisted-conch
8975   python-twisted-core
8976   python-twisted-web
8977   python-utidylib
8978   python-webkit
8979   python-xdg
8980   python-zope.interface
8981   remmina
8982   remmina-plugin-data
8983   remmina-plugin-rdp
8984   remmina-plugin-vnc
8985   rhythmbox-plugin-cdrecorder
8986   rhythmbox-plugins
8987   rpm-common
8988   rpm2cpio
8989   seahorse-plugins
8990   shotwell
8991   software-center
8992   system-config-printer-udev
8993   telepathy-gabble
8994   telepathy-mission-control-5
8995   telepathy-salut
8996   tomboy
8997   totem
8998   totem-coherence
8999   totem-mozilla
9000   totem-plugins
9001   transmission-common
9002   xdg-user-dirs
9003   xdg-user-dirs-gtk
9004   xserver-xephyr
9005 </p></blockquote>
9006
9007 <p>Installed using apt-get, removed with aptitude</p>
9008
9009 <blockquote><p>
9010   cheese
9011   ekiga
9012   eog
9013   epiphany-extensions
9014   evolution-exchange
9015   fast-user-switch-applet
9016   file-roller
9017   gcalctool
9018   gconf-editor
9019   gdm
9020   gedit
9021   gedit-common
9022   gnome-games
9023   gnome-games-data
9024   gnome-nettool
9025   gnome-system-tools
9026   gnome-themes
9027   gnuchess
9028   gucharmap
9029   guile-1.8-libs
9030   libavahi-ui0
9031   libdmx1
9032   libgalago3
9033   libgtk-vnc-1.0-0
9034   libgtksourceview2.0-0
9035   liblircclient0
9036   libsdl1.2debian-alsa
9037   libspeexdsp1
9038   libsvga1
9039   rhythmbox
9040   seahorse
9041   sound-juicer
9042   system-config-printer
9043   totem-common
9044   transmission-gtk
9045   vinagre
9046   vino
9047 </p></blockquote>
9048
9049 <p>Installed using aptitude, missing with apt-get</p>
9050
9051 <blockquote><p>
9052   gstreamer0.10-gnomevfs
9053 </p></blockquote>
9054
9055 <p>Installed using aptitude, removed with apt-get</p>
9056
9057 <blockquote><p>
9058 [nothing]
9059 </p></blockquote>
9060
9061 <p>This is for KDE:</p>
9062
9063 <p>Installed using apt-get, missing with aptitude</p>
9064
9065 <blockquote><p>
9066   ksmserver
9067 </p></blockquote>
9068
9069 <p>Installed using apt-get, removed with aptitude</p>
9070
9071 <blockquote><p>
9072   kwin
9073   network-manager-kde
9074 </p></blockquote>
9075
9076 <p>Installed using aptitude, missing with apt-get</p>
9077
9078 <blockquote><p>
9079   arts
9080   dolphin
9081   freespacenotifier
9082   google-gadgets-gst
9083   google-gadgets-xul
9084   kappfinder
9085   kcalc
9086   kcharselect
9087   kde-core
9088   kde-plasma-desktop
9089   kde-standard
9090   kde-window-manager
9091   kdeartwork
9092   kdeartwork-emoticons
9093   kdeartwork-style
9094   kdeartwork-theme-icon
9095   kdebase
9096   kdebase-apps
9097   kdebase-workspace
9098   kdebase-workspace-bin
9099   kdebase-workspace-data
9100   kdeeject
9101   kdelibs
9102   kdeplasma-addons
9103   kdeutils
9104   kdewallpapers
9105   kdf
9106   kfloppy
9107   kgpg
9108   khelpcenter4
9109   kinfocenter
9110   konq-plugins-l10n
9111   konqueror-nsplugins
9112   kscreensaver
9113   kscreensaver-xsavers
9114   ktimer
9115   kwrite
9116   libgle3
9117   libkde4-ruby1.8
9118   libkonq5
9119   libkonq5-templates
9120   libnetpbm10
9121   libplasma-ruby
9122   libplasma-ruby1.8
9123   libqt4-ruby1.8
9124   marble-data
9125   marble-plugins
9126   netpbm
9127   nuvola-icon-theme
9128   plasma-dataengines-workspace
9129   plasma-desktop
9130   plasma-desktopthemes-artwork
9131   plasma-runners-addons
9132   plasma-scriptengine-googlegadgets
9133   plasma-scriptengine-python
9134   plasma-scriptengine-qedje
9135   plasma-scriptengine-ruby
9136   plasma-scriptengine-webkit
9137   plasma-scriptengines
9138   plasma-wallpapers-addons
9139   plasma-widget-folderview
9140   plasma-widget-networkmanagement
9141   ruby
9142   sweeper
9143   update-notifier-kde
9144   xscreensaver-data-extra
9145   xscreensaver-gl
9146   xscreensaver-gl-extra
9147   xscreensaver-screensaver-bsod
9148 </p></blockquote>
9149
9150 <p>Installed using aptitude, removed with apt-get</p>
9151
9152 <blockquote><p>
9153   ark
9154   google-gadgets-common
9155   google-gadgets-qt
9156   htdig
9157   kate
9158   kdebase-bin
9159   kdebase-data
9160   kdepasswd
9161   kfind
9162   klipper
9163   konq-plugins
9164   konqueror
9165   ksysguard
9166   ksysguardd
9167   libarchive1
9168   libcln6
9169   libeet1
9170   libeina-svn-06
9171   libggadget-1.0-0b
9172   libggadget-qt-1.0-0b
9173   libgps19
9174   libkdecorations4
9175   libkephal4
9176   libkonq4
9177   libkonqsidebarplugin4a
9178   libkscreensaver5
9179   libksgrd4
9180   libksignalplotter4
9181   libkunitconversion4
9182   libkwineffects1a
9183   libmarblewidget4
9184   libntrack-qt4-1
9185   libntrack0
9186   libplasma-geolocation-interface4
9187   libplasmaclock4a
9188   libplasmagenericshell4
9189   libprocesscore4a
9190   libprocessui4a
9191   libqalculate5
9192   libqedje0a
9193   libqtruby4shared2
9194   libqzion0a
9195   libruby1.8
9196   libscim8c2a
9197   libsmokekdecore4-3
9198   libsmokekdeui4-3
9199   libsmokekfile3
9200   libsmokekhtml3
9201   libsmokekio3
9202   libsmokeknewstuff2-3
9203   libsmokeknewstuff3-3
9204   libsmokekparts3
9205   libsmokektexteditor3
9206   libsmokekutils3
9207   libsmokenepomuk3
9208   libsmokephonon3
9209   libsmokeplasma3
9210   libsmokeqtcore4-3
9211   libsmokeqtdbus4-3
9212   libsmokeqtgui4-3
9213   libsmokeqtnetwork4-3
9214   libsmokeqtopengl4-3
9215   libsmokeqtscript4-3
9216   libsmokeqtsql4-3
9217   libsmokeqtsvg4-3
9218   libsmokeqttest4-3
9219   libsmokeqtuitools4-3
9220   libsmokeqtwebkit4-3
9221   libsmokeqtxml4-3
9222   libsmokesolid3
9223   libsmokesoprano3
9224   libtaskmanager4a
9225   libtidy-0.99-0
9226   libweather-ion4a
9227   libxklavier16
9228   libxxf86misc1
9229   okteta
9230   oxygencursors
9231   plasma-dataengines-addons
9232   plasma-scriptengine-superkaramba
9233   plasma-widget-lancelot
9234   plasma-widgets-addons
9235   plasma-widgets-workspace
9236   polkit-kde-1
9237   ruby1.8
9238   systemsettings
9239   update-notifier-common
9240 </p></blockquote>
9241
9242 <p>Running apt-get autoremove made the results using apt-get and
9243 aptitude a bit more similar, but there are still quite a lott of
9244 differences.  I have no idea what packages should be installed after
9245 the upgrade, but hope those that do can have a look.</p>
9246
9247       </div>
9248       <div class="tags">
9249
9250
9251         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
9252
9253
9254       </div>
9255     </div>
9256     <div class="padding"></div>
9257
9258     <div class="entry">
9259       <div class="title">
9260         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Migrating_Xen_virtual_machines_using_LVM_to_KVM_using_disk_images.html">Migrating Xen virtual machines using LVM to KVM using disk images</a>
9261       </div>
9262       <div class="date">
9263         22nd November 2010
9264       </div>
9265       <div class="body">
9266         <p>Most of the computers in use by the
9267 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu/Skolelinux project</a>
9268 are virtual machines.  And they have been Xen machines running on a
9269 fairly old IBM eserver xseries 345 machine, and we wanted to migrate
9270 them to KVM on a newer Dell PowerEdge 2950 host machine.  This was a
9271 bit harder that it could have been, because we set up the Xen virtual
9272 machines to get the virtual partitions from LVM, which as far as I
9273 know is not supported by KVM.  So to migrate, we had to convert
9274 several LVM logical volumes to partitions on a virtual disk file.</p>
9275
9276 <p>I found
9277 <a href="http://searchnetworking.techtarget.com.au/articles/35011-Six-steps-for-migrating-Xen-virtual-machines-to-KVM">a
9278 nice recipe</a> to do this, and wrote the following script to do the
9279 migration.  It uses qemu-img from the qemu package to make the disk
9280 image, parted to partition it, losetup and kpartx to present the disk
9281 image partions as devices, and dd to copy the data.  I NFS mounted the
9282 new servers storage area on the old server to do the migration.</p>
9283
9284 <pre>
9285 #!/bin/sh
9286
9287 # Based on
9288 # http://searchnetworking.techtarget.com.au/articles/35011-Six-steps-for-migrating-Xen-virtual-machines-to-KVM
9289
9290 set -e
9291 set -x
9292
9293 if [ -z "$1" ] ; then
9294     echo "Usage: $0 &lt;hostname&gt;"
9295     exit 1
9296 else
9297     host="$1"
9298 fi
9299
9300 if [ ! -e /dev/vg_data/$host-disk ] ; then
9301     echo "error: unable to find LVM volume for $host"
9302     exit 1
9303 fi
9304
9305 # Partitions need to be a bit bigger than the LVM LVs.  not sure why.
9306 disksize=$( lvs --units m | grep $host-disk | awk '{sum = sum + $4} END { print int(sum * 1.05) }')
9307 swapsize=$( lvs --units m | grep $host-swap | awk '{sum = sum + $4} END { print int(sum * 1.05) }')
9308 totalsize=$(( ( $disksize + $swapsize ) ))
9309
9310 img=$host.img
9311 #dd if=/dev/zero of=$img bs=1M count=$(( $disksize + $swapsize ))
9312 qemu-img create $img ${totalsize}MMaking room on the Debian Edu/Sqeeze DVD
9313
9314 parted $img mklabel msdos
9315 parted $img mkpart primary linux-swap 0 $disksize
9316 parted $img mkpart primary ext2 $disksize $totalsize
9317 parted $img set 1 boot on
9318
9319 modprobe dm-mod
9320 losetup /dev/loop0 $img
9321 kpartx -a /dev/loop0
9322
9323 dd if=/dev/vg_data/$host-disk of=/dev/mapper/loop0p1 bs=1M
9324 fsck.ext3 -f /dev/mapper/loop0p1 || true
9325 mkswap /dev/mapper/loop0p2
9326
9327 kpartx -d /dev/loop0
9328 losetup -d /dev/loop0
9329 </pre>
9330
9331 <p>The script is perhaps so simple that it is not copyrightable, but
9332 if it is, it is licenced using GPL v2 or later at your discretion.</p>
9333
9334 <p>After doing this, I booted a Debian CD in rescue mode in KVM with
9335 the new disk image attached, installed grub-pc and linux-image-686 and
9336 set up grub to boot from the disk image.  After this, the KVM machines
9337 seem to work just fine.</p>
9338
9339       </div>
9340       <div class="tags">
9341
9342
9343         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
9344
9345
9346       </div>
9347     </div>
9348     <div class="padding"></div>
9349
9350     <div class="entry">
9351       <div class="title">
9352         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lenny__Squeeze_upgrades__apt_vs_aptitude_with_the_Gnome_and_KDE_desktop.html">Lenny->Squeeze upgrades, apt vs aptitude with the Gnome and KDE desktop</a>
9353       </div>
9354       <div class="date">
9355         20th November 2010
9356       </div>
9357       <div class="body">
9358         <p>I'm still running upgrade testing of the
9359 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/~pere/debian-upgrade-testing/">Lenny
9360 Gnome and KDE Desktop</a>, but have not had time to spend on reporting the
9361 status.  Here is a short update based on a test I ran 20101118.</p>
9362
9363 <p>I still do not know what a correct migration should look like, so I
9364 report any differences between apt and aptitude and hope someone else
9365 can see if anything should be changed.</p>
9366
9367 <p>This is for Gnome:</p>
9368
9369 <p>Installed using apt-get, missing with aptitude</p>
9370
9371 <blockquote><p>
9372   apache2.2-bin aptdaemon at-spi baobab binfmt-support
9373   browser-plugin-gnash cheese-common cli-common cpp-4.3 cups-pk-helper
9374   dmz-cursor-theme empathy empathy-common finger
9375   freedesktop-sound-theme freeglut3 gconf-defaults-service gdm-themes
9376   gedit-plugins geoclue geoclue-hostip geoclue-localnet geoclue-manual
9377   geoclue-yahoo gnash gnash-common gnome gnome-backgrounds
9378   gnome-cards-data gnome-codec-install gnome-core
9379   gnome-desktop-environment gnome-disk-utility gnome-screenshot
9380   gnome-search-tool gnome-session-canberra gnome-spell
9381   gnome-system-log gnome-themes-extras gnome-themes-more
9382   gnome-user-share gs-common gstreamer0.10-fluendo-mp3
9383   gstreamer0.10-tools gtk2-engines gtk2-engines-pixbuf
9384   gtk2-engines-smooth hal-info hamster-applet libapache2-mod-dnssd
9385   libapr1 libaprutil1 libaprutil1-dbd-sqlite3 libaprutil1-ldap
9386   libart2.0-cil libatspi1.0-0 libboost-date-time1.42.0
9387   libboost-python1.42.0 libboost-thread1.42.0 libchamplain-0.4-0
9388   libchamplain-gtk-0.4-0 libcheese-gtk18 libclutter-gtk-0.10-0
9389   libcryptui0 libcupsys2 libdiscid0 libeel2-data libelf1 libepc-1.0-2
9390   libepc-common libepc-ui-1.0-2 libfreerdp-plugins-standard
9391   libfreerdp0 libgail-common libgconf2.0-cil libgdata-common libgdata7
9392   libgdl-1-common libgdu-gtk0 libgee2 libgeoclue0 libgexiv2-0 libgif4
9393   libglade2.0-cil libglib2.0-cil libgmime2.4-cil libgnome-vfs2.0-cil
9394   libgnome2.24-cil libgnomepanel2.24-cil libgnomeprint2.2-data
9395   libgnomeprintui2.2-common libgnomevfs2-bin libgpod-common libgpod4
9396   libgtk2.0-cil libgtkglext1 libgtksourceview-common
9397   libgtksourceview2.0-common libmono-addins-gui0.2-cil
9398   libmono-addins0.2-cil libmono-cairo2.0-cil libmono-corlib2.0-cil
9399   libmono-i18n-west2.0-cil libmono-posix2.0-cil
9400   libmono-security2.0-cil libmono-sharpzip2.84-cil
9401   libmono-system2.0-cil libmtp8 libmusicbrainz3-6
9402   libndesk-dbus-glib1.0-cil libndesk-dbus1.0-cil libopal3.6.8
9403   libpolkit-gtk-1-0 libpt-1.10.10-plugins-alsa
9404   libpt-1.10.10-plugins-v4l libpt2.6.7 libpython2.6 librpm1 librpmio1
9405   libsdl1.2debian libservlet2.4-java libsrtp0 libssh-4
9406   libtelepathy-farsight0 libtelepathy-glib0 libtidy-0.99-0
9407   libxalan2-java libxerces2-java media-player-info mesa-utils
9408   mono-2.0-gac mono-gac mono-runtime nautilus-sendto
9409   nautilus-sendto-empathy openoffice.org-writer2latex
9410   openssl-blacklist p7zip p7zip-full pkg-config python-4suite-xml
9411   python-aptdaemon python-aptdaemon-gtk python-axiom
9412   python-beautifulsoup python-bugbuddy python-clientform
9413   python-coherence python-configobj python-crypto python-cupshelpers
9414   python-cupsutils python-eggtrayicon python-elementtree
9415   python-epsilon python-evolution python-feedparser python-gdata
9416   python-gdbm python-gst0.10 python-gtkglext1 python-gtkmozembed
9417   python-gtksourceview2 python-httplib2 python-louie python-mako
9418   python-markupsafe python-mechanize python-nevow python-notify
9419   python-opengl python-openssl python-pam python-pkg-resources
9420   python-pyasn1 python-pysqlite2 python-rdflib python-serial
9421   python-tagpy python-twisted-bin python-twisted-conch
9422   python-twisted-core python-twisted-web python-utidylib python-webkit
9423   python-xdg python-zope.interface remmina remmina-plugin-data
9424   remmina-plugin-rdp remmina-plugin-vnc rhythmbox-plugin-cdrecorder
9425   rhythmbox-plugins rpm-common rpm2cpio seahorse-plugins shotwell
9426   software-center svgalibg1 system-config-printer-udev
9427   telepathy-gabble telepathy-mission-control-5 telepathy-salut tomboy
9428   totem totem-coherence totem-mozilla totem-plugins
9429   transmission-common xdg-user-dirs xdg-user-dirs-gtk xserver-xephyr
9430   zip
9431 </p></blockquote>
9432
9433 Installed using apt-get, removed with aptitude
9434
9435 <blockquote><p>
9436   arj bluez-utils cheese dhcdbd djvulibre-desktop ekiga eog
9437   epiphany-extensions epiphany-gecko evolution-exchange
9438   fast-user-switch-applet file-roller gcalctool gconf-editor gdm gedit
9439   gedit-common gnome-app-install gnome-games gnome-games-data
9440   gnome-nettool gnome-system-tools gnome-themes gnome-utils
9441   gnome-vfs-obexftp gnome-volume-manager gnuchess gucharmap
9442   guile-1.8-libs hal libavahi-compat-libdnssd1 libavahi-core5
9443   libavahi-ui0 libbind9-50 libbluetooth2 libcamel1.2-11 libcdio7
9444   libcucul0 libcurl3 libdirectfb-1.0-0 libdmx1 libdvdread3
9445   libedata-cal1.2-6 libedataserver1.2-9 libeel2-2.20 libepc-1.0-1
9446   libepc-ui-1.0-1 libexchange-storage1.2-3 libfaad0 libgadu3
9447   libgalago3 libgd2-noxpm libgda3-3 libgda3-common libggz2 libggzcore9
9448   libggzmod4 libgksu1.2-0 libgksuui1.0-1 libgmyth0 libgnome-desktop-2
9449   libgnome-pilot2 libgnomecups1.0-1 libgnomeprint2.2-0
9450   libgnomeprintui2.2-0 libgpod3 libgraphviz4 libgtk-vnc-1.0-0
9451   libgtkhtml2-0 libgtksourceview1.0-0 libgtksourceview2.0-0
9452   libgucharmap6 libhesiod0 libicu38 libisccc50 libisccfg50 libiw29
9453   libjaxp1.3-java-gcj libkpathsea4 liblircclient0 libltdl3 liblwres50
9454   libmagick++10 libmagick10 libmalaga7 libmozjs1d libmpfr1ldbl libmtp7
9455   libmysqlclient15off libnautilus-burn4 libneon27 libnm-glib0
9456   libnm-util0 libopal-2.2 libosp5 libparted1.8-10 libpisock9
9457   libpisync1 libpoppler-glib3 libpoppler3 libpt-1.10.10 libraw1394-8
9458   libsdl1.2debian-alsa libsensors3 libsexy2 libsmbios2 libsoup2.2-8
9459   libspeexdsp1 libssh2-1 libsuitesparse-3.1.0 libsvga1
9460   libswfdec-0.6-90 libtalloc1 libtotem-plparser10 libtrackerclient0
9461   libvoikko1 libxalan2-java-gcj libxerces2-java-gcj libxklavier12
9462   libxtrap6 libxxf86misc1 libzephyr3 mysql-common rhythmbox seahorse
9463   sound-juicer swfdec-gnome system-config-printer totem-common
9464   totem-gstreamer transmission-gtk vinagre vino w3c-dtd-xhtml wodim
9465 </p></blockquote>
9466
9467 <p>Installed using aptitude, missing with apt-get</p>
9468
9469 <blockquote><p>
9470   gstreamer0.10-gnomevfs
9471 </p></blockquote>
9472
9473 <p>Installed using aptitude, removed with apt-get</p>
9474
9475 <blockquote><p>
9476 [nothing]
9477 </p></blockquote>
9478
9479 <p>This is for KDE:</p>
9480
9481 <p>Installed using apt-get, missing with aptitude</p>
9482
9483 <blockquote><p>
9484   autopoint bomber bovo cantor cantor-backend-kalgebra cpp-4.3 dcoprss
9485   edict espeak espeak-data eyesapplet fifteenapplet finger gettext
9486   ghostscript-x git gnome-audio gnugo granatier gs-common
9487   gstreamer0.10-pulseaudio indi kaddressbook-plugins kalgebra
9488   kalzium-data kanjidic kapman kate-plugins kblocks kbreakout kbstate
9489   kde-icons-mono kdeaccessibility kdeaddons-kfile-plugins
9490   kdeadmin-kfile-plugins kdeartwork-misc kdeartwork-theme-window
9491   kdeedu kdeedu-data kdeedu-kvtml-data kdegames kdegames-card-data
9492   kdegames-mahjongg-data kdegraphics-kfile-plugins kdelirc
9493   kdemultimedia-kfile-plugins kdenetwork-kfile-plugins
9494   kdepim-kfile-plugins kdepim-kio-plugins kdessh kdetoys kdewebdev
9495   kdiamond kdnssd kfilereplace kfourinline kgeography-data kigo
9496   killbots kiriki klettres-data kmoon kmrml knewsticker-scripts
9497   kollision kpf krosspython ksirk ksmserver ksquares kstars-data
9498   ksudoku kubrick kweather libasound2-plugins libboost-python1.42.0
9499   libcfitsio3 libconvert-binhex-perl libcrypt-ssleay-perl libdb4.6++
9500   libdjvulibre-text libdotconf1.0 liberror-perl libespeak1
9501   libfinance-quote-perl libgail-common libgsl0ldbl libhtml-parser-perl
9502   libhtml-tableextract-perl libhtml-tagset-perl libhtml-tree-perl
9503   libio-stringy-perl libkdeedu4 libkdegames5 libkiten4 libkpathsea5
9504   libkrossui4 libmailtools-perl libmime-tools-perl
9505   libnews-nntpclient-perl libopenbabel3 libportaudio2 libpulse-browse0
9506   libservlet2.4-java libspeechd2 libtiff-tools libtimedate-perl
9507   libunistring0 liburi-perl libwww-perl libxalan2-java libxerces2-java
9508   lirc luatex marble networkstatus noatun-plugins
9509   openoffice.org-writer2latex palapeli palapeli-data parley
9510   parley-data poster psutils pulseaudio pulseaudio-esound-compat
9511   pulseaudio-module-x11 pulseaudio-utils quanta-data rocs rsync
9512   speech-dispatcher step svgalibg1 texlive-binaries texlive-luatex
9513   ttf-sazanami-gothic
9514 </p></blockquote>
9515
9516 <p>Installed using apt-get, removed with aptitude</p>
9517
9518 <blockquote><p>
9519   amor artsbuilder atlantik atlantikdesigner blinken bluez-utils cvs
9520   dhcdbd djvulibre-desktop imlib-base imlib11 kalzium kanagram kandy
9521   kasteroids katomic kbackgammon kbattleship kblackbox kbounce kbruch
9522   kcron kdat kdemultimedia-kappfinder-data kdeprint kdict kdvi kedit
9523   keduca kenolaba kfax kfaxview kfouleggs kgeography kghostview
9524   kgoldrunner khangman khexedit kiconedit kig kimagemapeditor
9525   kitchensync kiten kjumpingcube klatin klettres klickety klines
9526   klinkstatus kmag kmahjongg kmailcvt kmenuedit kmid kmilo kmines
9527   kmousetool kmouth kmplot knetwalk kodo kolf kommander konquest kooka
9528   kpager kpat kpdf kpercentage kpilot kpoker kpovmodeler krec
9529   kregexpeditor kreversi ksame ksayit kshisen ksig ksim ksirc ksirtet
9530   ksmiletris ksnake ksokoban kspaceduel kstars ksvg ksysv kteatime
9531   ktip ktnef ktouch ktron kttsd ktuberling kturtle ktux kuickshow
9532   kverbos kview kviewshell kvoctrain kwifimanager kwin kwin4 kwordquiz
9533   kworldclock kxsldbg libakode2 libarts1-akode libarts1-audiofile
9534   libarts1-mpeglib libarts1-xine libavahi-compat-libdnssd1
9535   libavahi-core5 libavc1394-0 libbind9-50 libbluetooth2
9536   libboost-python1.34.1 libcucul0 libcurl3 libcvsservice0
9537   libdirectfb-1.0-0 libdjvulibre21 libdvdread3 libfaad0 libfreebob0
9538   libgd2-noxpm libgraphviz4 libgsmme1c2a libgtkhtml2-0 libicu38
9539   libiec61883-0 libindex0 libisccc50 libisccfg50 libiw29
9540   libjaxp1.3-java-gcj libk3b3 libkcal2b libkcddb1 libkdeedu3
9541   libkdegames1 libkdepim1a libkgantt0 libkleopatra1 libkmime2
9542   libkpathsea4 libkpimexchange1 libkpimidentities1 libkscan1
9543   libksieve0 libktnef1 liblockdev1 libltdl3 liblwres50 libmagick10
9544   libmimelib1c2a libmodplug0c2 libmozjs1d libmpcdec3 libmpfr1ldbl
9545   libneon27 libnm-util0 libopensync0 libpisock9 libpoppler-glib3
9546   libpoppler-qt2 libpoppler3 libraw1394-8 librss1 libsensors3
9547   libsmbios2 libssh2-1 libsuitesparse-3.1.0 libswfdec-0.6-90
9548   libtalloc1 libxalan2-java-gcj libxerces2-java-gcj libxtrap6 lskat
9549   mpeglib network-manager-kde noatun pmount tex-common texlive-base
9550   texlive-common texlive-doc-base texlive-fonts-recommended tidy
9551   ttf-dustin ttf-kochi-gothic ttf-sjfonts
9552 </p></blockquote>
9553
9554 <p>Installed using aptitude, missing with apt-get</p>
9555
9556 <blockquote><p>
9557   dolphin kde-core kde-plasma-desktop kde-standard kde-window-manager
9558   kdeartwork kdebase kdebase-apps kdebase-workspace
9559   kdebase-workspace-bin kdebase-workspace-data kdeutils kscreensaver
9560   kscreensaver-xsavers libgle3 libkonq5 libkonq5-templates libnetpbm10
9561   netpbm plasma-widget-folderview plasma-widget-networkmanagement
9562   xscreensaver-data-extra xscreensaver-gl xscreensaver-gl-extra
9563   xscreensaver-screensaver-bsod
9564 </p></blockquote>
9565
9566 <p>Installed using aptitude, removed with apt-get</p>
9567
9568 <blockquote><p>
9569   kdebase-bin konq-plugins konqueror
9570 </p></blockquote>
9571
9572       </div>
9573       <div class="tags">
9574
9575
9576         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
9577
9578
9579       </div>
9580     </div>
9581     <div class="padding"></div>
9582
9583     <div class="entry">
9584       <div class="title">
9585         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Gnash_buildbot_slave_and_Debian_kfreebsd.html">Gnash buildbot slave and Debian kfreebsd</a>
9586       </div>
9587       <div class="date">
9588         20th November 2010
9589       </div>
9590       <div class="body">
9591         <p>Answering
9592 <a href="http://www.listware.net/201011/gnash-dev/67431-gnash-dev-buildbot-looking-for-slaves.html">the
9593 call from the Gnash project</a> for
9594 <a href="http://www.gnashdev.org:8010">buildbot</a> slaves to test the
9595 current source, I have set up a virtual KVM machine on the Debian
9596 Edu/Skolelinux virtualization host to test the git source on
9597 Debian/Squeeze.  I hope this can help the developers in getting new
9598 releases out more often.</p>
9599
9600 <p>As the developers want less main-stream build platforms tested to,
9601 I have considered setting up a <a
9602 href="http://www.debian.org/ports/kfreebsd-gnu/">Debian/kfreebsd</a>
9603 machine as well.  I have also considered using the kfreebsd
9604 architecture in Debian as a file server in NUUG to get access to the 5
9605 TB zfs volume we currently use to store DV video.  Because of this, I
9606 finally got around to do a test installation of Debian/Squeeze with
9607 kfreebsd.  Installation went fairly smooth, thought I noticed some
9608 visual glitches in the cdebconf dialogs (black cursor left on the
9609 screen at random locations).  Have not gotten very far with the
9610 testing.  Noticed cfdisk did not work, but fdisk did so it was not a
9611 fatal problem.  Have to spend some more time on it to see if it is
9612 useful as a file server for NUUG.  Will try to find time to set up a
9613 gnash buildbot slave on the Debian Edu/Skolelinux this weekend.</p>
9614
9615       </div>
9616       <div class="tags">
9617
9618
9619         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
9620
9621
9622       </div>
9623     </div>
9624     <div class="padding"></div>
9625
9626     <div class="entry">
9627       <div class="title">
9628         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_in_3D.html">Debian in 3D</a>
9629       </div>
9630       <div class="date">
9631          9th November 2010
9632       </div>
9633       <div class="body">
9634         <p><img src="http://thingiverse-production.s3.amazonaws.com/renders/23/e0/c4/f9/2b/debswagtdose_preview_medium.jpg"></p>
9635
9636 <p>3D printing is just great.  I just came across this Debian logo in
9637 3D linked in from
9638 <a href="http://blog.thingiverse.com/2010/11/09/participatory-branding/">the
9639 thingiverse blog</a>.</p>
9640
9641       </div>
9642       <div class="tags">
9643
9644
9645         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/3d-printer">3d-printer</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
9646
9647
9648       </div>
9649     </div>
9650     <div class="padding"></div>
9651
9652     <div class="entry">
9653       <div class="title">
9654         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Software_updates_2010_10_24.html">Software updates 2010-10-24</a>
9655       </div>
9656       <div class="date">
9657         24th October 2010
9658       </div>
9659       <div class="body">
9660         <p>Some updates.</p>
9661
9662 <p>My <a href="http://pledgebank.com/gnash-avm2">gnash pledge</a> to
9663 raise money for the project is going well.  The lower limit of 10
9664 signers was reached in 24 hours, and so far 13 people have signed it.
9665 More signers and more funding is most welcome, and I am really curious
9666 how far we can get before the time limit of December 24 is reached.
9667 :)</p>
9668
9669 <p>On the #gnash IRC channel on irc.freenode.net, I was just tipped
9670 about what appear to be a great code coverage tool capable of
9671 generating code coverage stats without any changes to the source code.
9672 It is called
9673 <a href="http://simonkagstrom.github.com/kcov/index.html">kcov</a>,
9674 and can be used using <tt>kcov &lt;directory&gt; &lt;binary&gt;</tt>.
9675 It is missing in Debian, but the git source built just fine in Squeeze
9676 after I installed libelf-dev, libdwarf-dev, pkg-config and
9677 libglib2.0-dev.  Failed to build in Lenny, but suspect that is
9678 solvable.  I hope kcov make it into Debian soon.</p>
9679
9680 <p>Finally found time to wrap up the release notes for <a
9681 href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-edu-announce/2010/10/msg00002.html">a
9682 new alpha release of Debian Edu</a>, and just published the second
9683 alpha test release of the Squeeze based Debian Edu /
9684 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Skolelinux</a>
9685 release.  Give it a try if you need a complete linux solution for your
9686 school, including central infrastructure server, workstations, thin
9687 client servers and diskless workstations.  A nice touch added
9688 yesterday is RDP support on the thin client servers, for windows
9689 clients to get a Linux desktop on request.</p>
9690
9691       </div>
9692       <div class="tags">
9693
9694
9695         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/multimedia">multimedia</a>.
9696
9697
9698       </div>
9699     </div>
9700     <div class="padding"></div>
9701
9702     <div class="entry">
9703       <div class="title">
9704         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Some_notes_on_Flash_in_Debian_and_Debian_Edu.html">Some notes on Flash in Debian and Debian Edu</a>
9705       </div>
9706       <div class="date">
9707          4th September 2010
9708       </div>
9709       <div class="body">
9710         <p>In the <a href="http://popcon.debian.org/unknown/by_vote">Debian
9711 popularity-contest numbers</a>, the adobe-flashplugin package the
9712 second most popular used package that is missing in Debian.  The sixth
9713 most popular is flashplayer-mozilla.  This is a clear indication that
9714 working flash is important for Debian users.  Around 10 percent of the
9715 users submitting data to popcon.debian.org have this package
9716 installed.</p>
9717
9718 <p>In the report written by Lars Risan in August 2008
9719 («<a href="http://wiki.skolelinux.no/Dokumentasjon/Rapporter?action=AttachFile&do=view&target=Skolelinux_i_bruk_rapport_1.0.pdf">Skolelinux
9720 i bruk – Rapport for Hurum kommune, Universitetet i Agder og
9721 stiftelsen SLX Debian Labs</a>»), one of the most important problems
9722 schools experienced with <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian
9723 Edu/Skolelinux</a> was the lack of working Flash.  A lot of educational
9724 web sites require Flash to work, and lacking working Flash support in
9725 the web browser and the problems with installing it was perceived as a
9726 good reason to stay with Windows.</p>
9727
9728 <p>I once saw a funny and sad comment in a web forum, where Linux was
9729 said to be the retarded cousin that did not really understand
9730 everything you told him but could work fairly well.  This was a
9731 comment regarding the problems Linux have with proprietary formats and
9732 non-standard web pages, and is sad because it exposes a fairly common
9733 understanding of whose fault it is if web pages that only work in for
9734 example Internet Explorer 6 fail to work on Firefox, and funny because
9735 it explain very well how annoying it is for users when Linux
9736 distributions do not work with the documents they receive or the web
9737 pages they want to visit.</p>
9738
9739 <p>This is part of the reason why I believe it is important for Debian
9740 and Debian Edu to have a well working Flash implementation in the
9741 distribution, to get at least popular sites as Youtube and Google
9742 Video to working out of the box.  For Squeeze, Debian have the chance
9743 to include the latest version of Gnash that will make this happen, as
9744 the new release 0.8.8 was published a few weeks ago and is resting in
9745 unstable.  The new version work with more sites that version 0.8.7.
9746 The Gnash maintainers have asked for a freeze exception, but the
9747 release team have not had time to reply to it yet.  I hope they agree
9748 with me that Flash is important for the Debian desktop users, and thus
9749 accept the new package into Squeeze.</p>
9750
9751       </div>
9752       <div class="tags">
9753
9754
9755         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/multimedia">multimedia</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/video">video</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/web">web</a>.
9756
9757
9758       </div>
9759     </div>
9760     <div class="padding"></div>
9761
9762     <div class="entry">
9763       <div class="title">
9764         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Circular_package_dependencies_harms_apt_recovery.html">Circular package dependencies harms apt recovery</a>
9765       </div>
9766       <div class="date">
9767         27th July 2010
9768       </div>
9769       <div class="body">
9770         <p>I discovered this while doing
9771 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Automatic_upgrade_testing_from_Lenny_to_Squeeze.html">automated
9772 testing of upgrades from Debian Lenny to Squeeze</a>.  A few packages
9773 in Debian still got circular dependencies, and it is often claimed
9774 that apt and aptitude should be able to handle this just fine, but
9775 some times these dependency loops causes apt to fail.</p>
9776
9777 <p>An example is from todays
9778 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/~pere/debian-upgrade-testing//test-20100727-lenny-squeeze-kde-aptitude.txt">upgrade
9779 of KDE using aptitude</a>.  In it, a bug in kdebase-workspace-data
9780 causes perl-modules to fail to upgrade.  The cause is simple.  If a
9781 package fail to unpack, then only part of packages with the circular
9782 dependency might end up being unpacked when unpacking aborts, and the
9783 ones already unpacked will fail to configure in the recovery phase
9784 because its dependencies are unavailable.</p>
9785
9786 <p>In this log, the problem manifest itself with this error:</p>
9787
9788 <blockquote><pre>
9789 dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of perl-modules:
9790  perl-modules depends on perl (>= 5.10.1-1); however:
9791   Version of perl on system is 5.10.0-19lenny2.
9792 dpkg: error processing perl-modules (--configure):
9793  dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
9794 </pre></blockquote>
9795
9796 <p>The perl/perl-modules circular dependency is already
9797 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/527917">reported as a bug</a>, and will
9798 hopefully be solved as soon as possible, but it is not the only one,
9799 and each one of these loops in the dependency tree can cause similar
9800 failures.  Of course, they only occur when there are bugs in other
9801 packages causing the unpacking to fail, but it is rather nasty when
9802 the failure of one package causes the problem to become worse because
9803 of dependency loops.</p>
9804
9805 <p>Thanks to
9806 <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2010/06/msg00116.html">the
9807 tireless effort by Bill Allombert</a>, the number of circular
9808 dependencies
9809 <a href="http://debian.semistable.com/debgraph.out.html">left in Debian
9810 is dropping</a>, and perhaps it will reach zero one day. :)</p>
9811
9812 <p>Todays testing also exposed a bug in
9813 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/590605">update-notifier</a> and
9814 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/590604">different behaviour</a> between
9815 apt-get and aptitude, the latter possibly caused by some circular
9816 dependency.  Reported both to BTS to try to get someone to look at
9817 it.</p>
9818
9819       </div>
9820       <div class="tags">
9821
9822
9823         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
9824
9825
9826       </div>
9827     </div>
9828     <div class="padding"></div>
9829
9830     <div class="entry">
9831       <div class="title">
9832         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/What_are_they_searching_for___PowerDNS_and_ISC_DHCP_in_LDAP.html">What are they searching for - PowerDNS and ISC DHCP in LDAP</a>
9833       </div>
9834       <div class="date">
9835         17th July 2010
9836       </div>
9837       <div class="body">
9838         <p>This is a
9839 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Time_for_new__LDAP_schemas_replacing_RFC_2307_.html">followup</a>
9840 on my
9841 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Idea_for_a_change_to_LDAP_schemas_allowing_DNS_and_DHCP_info_to_be_combined_into_one_object.html">previous
9842 work</a> on
9843 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Combining_PowerDNS_and_ISC_DHCP_LDAP_objects.html">merging
9844 all</a> the computer related LDAP objects in Debian Edu.</p>
9845
9846 <p>As a step to try to see if it possible to merge the DNS and DHCP
9847 LDAP objects, I have had a look at how the packages pdns-backend-ldap
9848 and dhcp3-server-ldap in Debian use the LDAP server.  The two
9849 implementations are quite different in how they use LDAP.</p>
9850
9851 To get this information, I started slapd with debugging enabled and
9852 dumped the debug output to a file to get the LDAP searches performed
9853 on a Debian Edu main-server.  Here is a summary.
9854
9855 <p><strong>powerdns</strong></p>
9856
9857 <a href="http://www.linuxnetworks.de/doc/index.php/PowerDNS_LDAP_Backend">Clues
9858 on how to</a> set up PowerDNS to use a LDAP backend is available on
9859 the web.
9860
9861 <p>PowerDNS have two modes of operation using LDAP as its backend.
9862 One "strict" mode where the forward and reverse DNS lookups are done
9863 using the same LDAP objects, and a "tree" mode where the forward and
9864 reverse entries are in two different subtrees in LDAP with a structure
9865 based on the DNS names, as in tjener.intern and
9866 2.2.0.10.in-addr.arpa.</p>
9867
9868 <p>In tree mode, the server is set up to use a LDAP subtree as its
9869 base, and uses a "base" scoped search for the DNS name by adding
9870 "dc=tjener,dc=intern," to the base with a filter for
9871 "(associateddomain=tjener.intern)" for the forward entry and
9872 "dc=2,dc=2,dc=0,dc=10,dc=in-addr,dc=arpa," with a filter for
9873 "(associateddomain=2.2.0.10.in-addr.arpa)" for the reverse entry.  For
9874 forward entries, it is looking for attributes named dnsttl, arecord,
9875 nsrecord, cnamerecord, soarecord, ptrrecord, hinforecord, mxrecord,
9876 txtrecord, rprecord, afsdbrecord, keyrecord, aaaarecord, locrecord,
9877 srvrecord, naptrrecord, kxrecord, certrecord, dsrecord, sshfprecord,
9878 ipseckeyrecord, rrsigrecord, nsecrecord, dnskeyrecord, dhcidrecord,
9879 spfrecord and modifytimestamp.  For reverse entries it is looking for
9880 the attributes dnsttl, arecord, nsrecord, cnamerecord, soarecord,
9881 ptrrecord, hinforecord, mxrecord, txtrecord, rprecord, aaaarecord,
9882 locrecord, srvrecord, naptrrecord and modifytimestamp.  The equivalent
9883 ldapsearch commands could look like this:</p>
9884
9885 <blockquote><pre>
9886 ldapsearch -h ldap \
9887   -b dc=tjener,dc=intern,ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no \
9888   -s base -x '(associateddomain=tjener.intern)' dNSTTL aRecord nSRecord \
9889   cNAMERecord sOARecord pTRRecord hInfoRecord mXRecord tXTRecord \
9890   rPRecord aFSDBRecord KeyRecord aAAARecord lOCRecord sRVRecord \
9891   nAPTRRecord kXRecord certRecord dSRecord sSHFPRecord iPSecKeyRecord \
9892   rRSIGRecord nSECRecord dNSKeyRecord dHCIDRecord sPFRecord modifyTimestamp
9893
9894 ldapsearch -h ldap \
9895   -b dc=2,dc=2,dc=0,dc=10,dc=in-addr,dc=arpa,ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no \
9896   -s base -x '(associateddomain=2.2.0.10.in-addr.arpa)'
9897   dnsttl, arecord, nsrecord, cnamerecord soarecord ptrrecord \
9898   hinforecord mxrecord txtrecord rprecord aaaarecord locrecord \
9899   srvrecord naptrrecord modifytimestamp
9900 </pre></blockquote>
9901
9902 <p>In Debian Edu/Lenny, the PowerDNS tree mode is used with
9903 ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no as the base, and these are two
9904 example LDAP objects used there.  In addition to these objects, the
9905 parent objects all th way up to ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
9906 also exist.</p>
9907
9908 <blockquote><pre>
9909 dn: dc=tjener,dc=intern,ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
9910 objectclass: top
9911 objectclass: dnsdomain
9912 objectclass: domainrelatedobject
9913 dc: tjener
9914 arecord: 10.0.2.2
9915 associateddomain: tjener.intern
9916
9917 dn: dc=2,dc=2,dc=0,dc=10,dc=in-addr,dc=arpa,ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
9918 objectclass: top
9919 objectclass: dnsdomain2
9920 objectclass: domainrelatedobject
9921 dc: 2
9922 ptrrecord: tjener.intern
9923 associateddomain: 2.2.0.10.in-addr.arpa
9924 </pre></blockquote>
9925
9926 <p>In strict mode, the server behaves differently.  When looking for
9927 forward DNS entries, it is doing a "subtree" scoped search with the
9928 same base as in the tree mode for a object with filter
9929 "(associateddomain=tjener.intern)" and requests the attributes dnsttl,
9930 arecord, nsrecord, cnamerecord, soarecord, ptrrecord, hinforecord,
9931 mxrecord, txtrecord, rprecord, aaaarecord, locrecord, srvrecord,
9932 naptrrecord and modifytimestamp.  For reverse entires it also do a
9933 subtree scoped search but this time the filter is "(arecord=10.0.2.2)"
9934 and the requested attributes are associateddomain, dnsttl and
9935 modifytimestamp.  In short, in strict mode the objects with ptrrecord
9936 go away, and the arecord attribute in the forward object is used
9937 instead.</p>
9938
9939 <p>The forward and reverse searches can be simulated using ldapsearch
9940 like this:</p>
9941
9942 <blockquote><pre>
9943 ldapsearch -h ldap -b ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no -s sub -x \
9944   '(associateddomain=tjener.intern)' dNSTTL aRecord nSRecord \
9945   cNAMERecord sOARecord pTRRecord hInfoRecord mXRecord tXTRecord \
9946   rPRecord aFSDBRecord KeyRecord aAAARecord lOCRecord sRVRecord \
9947   nAPTRRecord kXRecord certRecord dSRecord sSHFPRecord iPSecKeyRecord \
9948   rRSIGRecord nSECRecord dNSKeyRecord dHCIDRecord sPFRecord modifyTimestamp
9949
9950 ldapsearch -h ldap -b ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no -s sub -x \
9951   '(arecord=10.0.2.2)' associateddomain dnsttl modifytimestamp
9952 </pre></blockquote>
9953
9954 <p>In addition to the forward and reverse searches , there is also a
9955 search for SOA records, which behave similar to the forward and
9956 reverse lookups.</p>
9957
9958 <p>A thing to note with the PowerDNS behaviour is that it do not
9959 specify any objectclass names, and instead look for the attributes it
9960 need to generate a DNS reply.  This make it able to work with any
9961 objectclass that provide the needed attributes.</p>
9962
9963 <p>The attributes are normally provided in the cosine (RFC 1274) and
9964 dnsdomain2 schemas.  The latter is used for reverse entries like
9965 ptrrecord and recent DNS additions like aaaarecord and srvrecord.</p>
9966
9967 <p>In Debian Edu, we have created DNS objects using the object classes
9968 dcobject (for dc), dnsdomain or dnsdomain2 (structural, for the DNS
9969 attributes) and domainrelatedobject (for associatedDomain).  The use
9970 of structural object classes make it impossible to combine these
9971 classes with the object classes used by DHCP.</p>
9972
9973 <p>There are other schemas that could be used too, for example the
9974 dnszone structural object class used by Gosa and bind-sdb for the DNS
9975 attributes combined with the domainrelatedobject object class, but in
9976 this case some unused attributes would have to be included as well
9977 (zonename and relativedomainname).</p>
9978
9979 <p>My proposal for Debian Edu would be to switch PowerDNS to strict
9980 mode and not use any of the existing objectclasses (dnsdomain,
9981 dnsdomain2 and dnszone) when one want to combine the DNS information
9982 with DHCP information, and instead create a auxiliary object class
9983 defined something like this (using the attributes defined for
9984 dnsdomain and dnsdomain2 or dnszone):</p>
9985
9986 <blockquote><pre>
9987 objectclass ( some-oid NAME 'dnsDomainAux'
9988     SUP top
9989     AUXILIARY
9990     MAY ( ARecord $ MDRecord $ MXRecord $ NSRecord $ SOARecord $ CNAMERecord $
9991           DNSTTL $ DNSClass $ PTRRecord $ HINFORecord $ MINFORecord $
9992           TXTRecord $ SIGRecord $ KEYRecord $ AAAARecord $ LOCRecord $
9993           NXTRecord $ SRVRecord $ NAPTRRecord $ KXRecord $ CERTRecord $
9994           A6Record $ DNAMERecord
9995     ))
9996 </pre></blockquote>
9997
9998 <p>This will allow any object to become a DNS entry when combined with
9999 the domainrelatedobject object class, and allow any entity to include
10000 all the attributes PowerDNS wants.  I've sent an email to the PowerDNS
10001 developers asking for their view on this schema and if they are
10002 interested in providing such schema with PowerDNS, and I hope my
10003 message will be accepted into their mailing list soon.</p>
10004
10005 <p><strong>ISC dhcp</strong></p>
10006
10007 <p>The DHCP server searches for specific objectclass and requests all
10008 the object attributes, and then uses the attributes it want.  This
10009 make it harder to figure out exactly what attributes are used, but
10010 thanks to the working example in Debian Edu I can at least get an idea
10011 what is needed without having to read the source code.</p>
10012
10013 <p>In the DHCP server configuration, the LDAP base to use and the
10014 search filter to use to locate the correct dhcpServer entity is
10015 stored.  These are the relevant entries from
10016 /etc/dhcp3/dhcpd.conf:</p>
10017
10018 <blockquote><pre>
10019 ldap-base-dn "dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no";
10020 ldap-dhcp-server-cn "dhcp";
10021 </pre></blockquote>
10022
10023 <p>The DHCP server uses this information to nest all the DHCP
10024 configuration it need.  The cn "dhcp" is located using the given LDAP
10025 base and the filter "(&(objectClass=dhcpServer)(cn=dhcp))".  The
10026 search result is this entry:</p>
10027
10028 <blockquote><pre>
10029 dn: cn=dhcp,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
10030 cn: dhcp
10031 objectClass: top
10032 objectClass: dhcpServer
10033 dhcpServiceDN: cn=DHCP Config,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
10034 </pre></blockquote>
10035
10036 <p>The content of the dhcpServiceDN attribute is next used to locate the
10037 subtree with DHCP configuration.  The DHCP configuration subtree base
10038 is located using a base scope search with base "cn=DHCP
10039 Config,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no" and filter
10040 "(&(objectClass=dhcpService)(|(dhcpPrimaryDN=cn=dhcp,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no)(dhcpSecondaryDN=cn=dhcp,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no)))".
10041 The search result is this entry:</p>
10042
10043 <blockquote><pre>
10044 dn: cn=DHCP Config,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
10045 cn: DHCP Config
10046 objectClass: top
10047 objectClass: dhcpService
10048 objectClass: dhcpOptions
10049 dhcpPrimaryDN: cn=dhcp, dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
10050 dhcpStatements: ddns-update-style none
10051 dhcpStatements: authoritative
10052 dhcpOption: smtp-server code 69 = array of ip-address
10053 dhcpOption: www-server code 72 = array of ip-address
10054 dhcpOption: wpad-url code 252 = text
10055 </pre></blockquote>
10056
10057 <p>Next, the entire subtree is processed, one level at the time.  When
10058 all the DHCP configuration is loaded, it is ready to receive requests.
10059 The subtree in Debian Edu contain objects with object classes
10060 top/dhcpService/dhcpOptions, top/dhcpSharedNetwork/dhcpOptions,
10061 top/dhcpSubnet, top/dhcpGroup and top/dhcpHost.  These provide options
10062 and information about netmasks, dynamic range etc.  Leaving out the
10063 details here because it is not relevant for the focus of my
10064 investigation, which is to see if it is possible to merge dns and dhcp
10065 related computer objects.</p>
10066
10067 <p>When a DHCP request come in, LDAP is searched for the MAC address
10068 of the client (00:00:00:00:00:00 in this example), using a subtree
10069 scoped search with "cn=DHCP Config,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no" as
10070 the base and "(&(objectClass=dhcpHost)(dhcpHWAddress=ethernet
10071 00:00:00:00:00:00))" as the filter.  This is what a host object look
10072 like:</p>
10073
10074 <blockquote><pre>
10075 dn: cn=hostname,cn=group1,cn=THINCLIENTS,cn=DHCP Config,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
10076 cn: hostname
10077 objectClass: top
10078 objectClass: dhcpHost
10079 dhcpHWAddress: ethernet 00:00:00:00:00:00
10080 dhcpStatements: fixed-address hostname
10081 </pre></blockquote>
10082
10083 <p>There is less flexiblity in the way LDAP searches are done here.
10084 The object classes need to have fixed names, and the configuration
10085 need to be stored in a fairly specific LDAP structure.  On the
10086 positive side, the invidiual dhcpHost entires can be anywhere without
10087 the DN pointed to by the dhcpServer entries.  The latter should make
10088 it possible to group all host entries in a subtree next to the
10089 configuration entries, and this subtree can also be shared with the
10090 DNS server if the schema proposed above is combined with the dhcpHost
10091 structural object class.
10092
10093 <p><strong>Conclusion</strong></p>
10094
10095 <p>The PowerDNS implementation seem to be very flexible when it come
10096 to which LDAP schemas to use.  While its "tree" mode is rigid when it
10097 come to the the LDAP structure, the "strict" mode is very flexible,
10098 allowing DNS objects to be stored anywhere under the base cn specified
10099 in the configuration.</p>
10100
10101 <p>The DHCP implementation on the other hand is very inflexible, both
10102 regarding which LDAP schemas to use and which LDAP structure to use.
10103 I guess one could implement ones own schema, as long as the
10104 objectclasses and attributes have the names used, but this do not
10105 really help when the DHCP subtree need to have a fairly fixed
10106 structure.</p>
10107
10108 <p>Based on the observed behaviour, I suspect a LDAP structure like
10109 this might work for Debian Edu:</p>
10110
10111 <blockquote><pre>
10112 ou=services
10113   cn=machine-info (dhcpService) - dhcpServiceDN points here
10114     cn=dhcp (dhcpServer)
10115     cn=dhcp-internal (dhcpSharedNetwork/dhcpOptions)
10116       cn=10.0.2.0 (dhcpSubnet)
10117         cn=group1 (dhcpGroup/dhcpOptions)
10118     cn=dhcp-thinclients (dhcpSharedNetwork/dhcpOptions)
10119       cn=192.168.0.0 (dhcpSubnet)
10120         cn=group1 (dhcpGroup/dhcpOptions)
10121     ou=machines - PowerDNS base points here
10122       cn=hostname (dhcpHost/domainrelatedobject/dnsDomainAux)
10123 </pre></blockquote>
10124
10125 <P>This is not tested yet.  If the DHCP server require the dhcpHost
10126 entries to be in the dhcpGroup subtrees, the entries can be stored
10127 there instead of a common machines subtree, and the PowerDNS base
10128 would have to be moved one level up to the machine-info subtree.</p>
10129
10130 <p>The combined object under the machines subtree would look something
10131 like this:</p>
10132
10133 <blockquote><pre>
10134 dn: dc=hostname,ou=machines,cn=machine-info,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
10135 dc: hostname
10136 objectClass: top
10137 objectClass: dhcpHost
10138 objectclass: domainrelatedobject
10139 objectclass: dnsDomainAux
10140 associateddomain: hostname.intern
10141 arecord: 10.11.12.13
10142 dhcpHWAddress: ethernet 00:00:00:00:00:00
10143 dhcpStatements: fixed-address hostname.intern
10144 </pre></blockquote>
10145
10146 </p>One could even add the LTSP configuration associated with a given
10147 machine, as long as the required attributes are available in a
10148 auxiliary object class.</p>
10149
10150       </div>
10151       <div class="tags">
10152
10153
10154         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ldap">ldap</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
10155
10156
10157       </div>
10158     </div>
10159     <div class="padding"></div>
10160
10161     <div class="entry">
10162       <div class="title">
10163         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Combining_PowerDNS_and_ISC_DHCP_LDAP_objects.html">Combining PowerDNS and ISC DHCP LDAP objects</a>
10164       </div>
10165       <div class="date">
10166         14th July 2010
10167       </div>
10168       <div class="body">
10169         <p>For a while now, I have wanted to find a way to change the DNS and
10170 DHCP services in Debian Edu to use the same LDAP objects for a given
10171 computer, to avoid the possibility of having a inconsistent state for
10172 a computer in LDAP (as in DHCP but no DNS entry or the other way
10173 around) and make it easier to add computers to LDAP.</p>
10174
10175 <p>I've looked at how powerdns and dhcpd is using LDAP, and using this
10176 information finally found a solution that seem to work.</p>
10177
10178 <p>The old setup required three LDAP objects for a given computer.
10179 One forward DNS entry, one reverse DNS entry and one DHCP entry.  If
10180 we switch powerdns to use its strict LDAP method (ldap-method=strict
10181 in pdns-debian-edu.conf), the forward and reverse DNS entries are
10182 merged into one while making it impossible to transfer the reverse map
10183 to a slave DNS server.</p>
10184
10185 <p>If we also replace the object class used to get the DNS related
10186 attributes to one allowing these attributes to be combined with the
10187 dhcphost object class, we can merge the DNS and DHCP entries into one.
10188 I've written such object class in the dnsdomainaux.schema file (need
10189 proper OIDs, but that is a minor issue), and tested the setup.  It
10190 seem to work.</p>
10191
10192 <p>With this test setup in place, we can get away with one LDAP object
10193 for both DNS and DHCP, and even the LTSP configuration I suggested in
10194 an earlier email.  The combined LDAP object will look something like
10195 this:</p>
10196
10197 <blockquote><pre>
10198   dn: cn=hostname,cn=group1,cn=THINCLIENTS,cn=DHCP Config,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
10199   cn: hostname
10200   objectClass: dhcphost
10201   objectclass: domainrelatedobject
10202   objectclass: dnsdomainaux
10203   associateddomain: hostname.intern
10204   arecord: 10.11.12.13
10205   dhcphwaddress: ethernet 00:00:00:00:00:00
10206   dhcpstatements: fixed-address hostname
10207   ldapconfigsound: Y
10208 </pre></blockquote>
10209
10210 <p>The DNS server uses the associateddomain and arecord entries, while
10211 the DHCP server uses the dhcphwaddress and dhcpstatements entries
10212 before asking DNS to resolve the fixed-adddress.  LTSP will use
10213 dhcphwaddress or associateddomain and the ldapconfig* attributes.</p>
10214
10215 <p>I am not yet sure if I can get the DHCP server to look for its
10216 dhcphost in a different location, to allow us to put the objects
10217 outside the "DHCP Config" subtree, but hope to figure out a way to do
10218 that.  If I can't figure out a way to do that, we can still get rid of
10219 the hosts subtree and move all its content into the DHCP Config tree
10220 (which probably should be renamed to be more related to the new
10221 content.  I suspect cn=dnsdhcp,ou=services or something like that
10222 might be a good place to put it.</p>
10223
10224 <p>If you want to help out with implementing this for Debian Edu,
10225 please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.</p>
10226
10227       </div>
10228       <div class="tags">
10229
10230
10231         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ldap">ldap</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
10232
10233
10234       </div>
10235     </div>
10236     <div class="padding"></div>
10237
10238     <div class="entry">
10239       <div class="title">
10240         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Idea_for_storing_LTSP_configuration_in_LDAP.html">Idea for storing LTSP configuration in LDAP</a>
10241       </div>
10242       <div class="date">
10243         11th July 2010
10244       </div>
10245       <div class="body">
10246         <p>Vagrant mentioned on IRC today that ltsp_config now support
10247 sourcing files from /usr/share/ltsp/ltsp_config.d/ on the thin
10248 clients, and that this can be used to fetch configuration from LDAP if
10249 Debian Edu choose to store configuration there.</p>
10250
10251 <p>Armed with this information, I got inspired and wrote a test module
10252 to get configuration from LDAP.  The idea is to look up the MAC
10253 address of the client in LDAP, and look for attributes on the form
10254 ltspconfigsetting=value, and use this to export SETTING=value to the
10255 LTSP clients.</p>
10256
10257 <p>The goal is to be able to store the LTSP configuration attributes
10258 in a "computer" LDAP object used by both DNS and DHCP, and thus
10259 allowing us to store all information about a computer in one place.</p>
10260
10261 <p>This is a untested draft implementation, and I welcome feedback on
10262 this approach.  A real LDAP schema for the ltspClientAux objectclass
10263 need to be written.  Comments, suggestions, etc?</p>
10264
10265 <blockquote><pre>
10266 # Store in /opt/ltsp/$arch/usr/share/ltsp/ltsp_config.d/ldap-config
10267 #
10268 # Fetch LTSP client settings from LDAP based on MAC address
10269 #
10270 # Uses ethernet address as stored in the dhcpHost objectclass using
10271 # the dhcpHWAddress attribute or ethernet address stored in the
10272 # ieee802Device objectclass with the macAddress attribute.
10273 #
10274 # This module is written to be schema agnostic, and only depend on the
10275 # existence of attribute names.
10276 #
10277 # The LTSP configuration variables are saved directly using a
10278 # ltspConfig prefix and uppercasing the rest of the attribute name.
10279 # To set the SERVER variable, set the ltspConfigServer attribute.
10280 #
10281 # Some LDAP schema should be created with all the relevant
10282 # configuration settings.  Something like this should work:
10283 #
10284 # objectclass ( 1.1.2.2 NAME 'ltspClientAux'
10285 #     SUP top
10286 #     AUXILIARY
10287 #     MAY ( ltspConfigServer $ ltsConfigSound $ ... )
10288
10289 LDAPSERVER=$(debian-edu-ldapserver)
10290 if [ "$LDAPSERVER" ] ; then
10291     LDAPBASE=$(debian-edu-ldapserver -b)
10292     for MAC in $(LANG=C ifconfig |grep -i hwaddr| awk '{print $5}'|sort -u) ; do
10293         filter="(|(dhcpHWAddress=ethernet $MAC)(macAddress=$MAC))"
10294         ldapsearch -h "$LDAPSERVER" -b "$LDAPBASE" -v -x "$filter" | \
10295             grep '^ltspConfig' | while read attr value ; do
10296             # Remove prefix and convert to upper case
10297             attr=$(echo $attr | sed 's/^ltspConfig//i' | tr a-z A-Z)
10298             # bass value on to clients
10299             eval "$attr=$value; export $attr"
10300         done
10301     done
10302 fi
10303 </pre></blockquote>
10304
10305 <p>I'm not sure this shell construction will work, because I suspect
10306 the while block might end up in a subshell causing the variables set
10307 there to not show up in ltsp-config, but if that is the case I am sure
10308 the code can be restructured to make sure the variables are passed on.
10309 I expect that can be solved with some testing. :)</p>
10310
10311 <p>If you want to help out with implementing this for Debian Edu,
10312 please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.</p>
10313
10314 <p>Update 2010-07-17: I am aware of another effort to store LTSP
10315 configuration in LDAP that was created around year 2000 by
10316 <a href="http://www.pcxperience.com/thinclient/documentation/ldap.html">PC
10317 Xperience, Inc., 2000</a>.  I found its
10318 <a href="http://people.redhat.com/alikins/ltsp/ldap/">files</a> on a
10319 personal home page over at redhat.com.</p>
10320
10321       </div>
10322       <div class="tags">
10323
10324
10325         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ldap">ldap</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
10326
10327
10328       </div>
10329     </div>
10330     <div class="padding"></div>
10331
10332     <div class="entry">
10333       <div class="title">
10334         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/jXplorer__a_very_nice_LDAP_GUI.html">jXplorer, a very nice LDAP GUI</a>
10335       </div>
10336       <div class="date">
10337          9th July 2010
10338       </div>
10339       <div class="body">
10340         <p>Since
10341 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/LUMA__a_very_nice_LDAP_GUI.html">my
10342 last post</a> about available LDAP tools in Debian, I was told about a
10343 LDAP GUI that is even better than luma.  The java application
10344 <a href="http://jxplorer.org/">jXplorer</a> is claimed to be capable of
10345 moving LDAP objects and subtrees using drag-and-drop, and can
10346 authenticate using Kerberos.  I have only tested the Kerberos
10347 authentication, but do not have a LDAP setup allowing me to rewrite
10348 LDAP with my test user yet.  It is
10349 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/j/jxplorer.html">available in
10350 Debian</a> testing and unstable at the moment.  The only problem I
10351 have with it is how it handle errors.  If something go wrong, its
10352 non-intuitive behaviour require me to go through some query work list
10353 and remove the failing query.  Nothing big, but very annoying.</p>
10354
10355       </div>
10356       <div class="tags">
10357
10358
10359         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ldap">ldap</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
10360
10361
10362       </div>
10363     </div>
10364     <div class="padding"></div>
10365
10366     <div class="entry">
10367       <div class="title">
10368         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lenny__Squeeze_upgrades__apt_vs_aptitude_with_the_Gnome_desktop.html">Lenny->Squeeze upgrades, apt vs aptitude with the Gnome desktop</a>
10369       </div>
10370       <div class="date">
10371          3rd July 2010
10372       </div>
10373       <div class="body">
10374         <p>Here is a short update on my <a
10375 href="http://people.skolelinux.org/~pere/debian-upgrade-testing/">my
10376 Debian Lenny->Squeeze upgrade testing</a>.  Here is a summary of the
10377 difference for Gnome when it is upgraded by apt-get and aptitude.  I'm
10378 not reporting the status for KDE, because the upgrade crashes when
10379 aptitude try because of missing conflicts
10380 (<a href="http://bugs.debian.org/584861">#584861</a> and
10381 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/585716">#585716</a>).</p>
10382
10383 <p>At the end of the upgrade test script, dpkg -l is executed to get a
10384 complete list of the installed packages.  Based on this I see these
10385 differences when I did a test run today.  As usual, I do not really
10386 know what the correct set of packages would be, but thought it best to
10387 publish the difference.</p>
10388
10389 <p>Installed using apt-get, missing with aptitude</p>
10390
10391 <blockquote><p>
10392   at-spi cpp-4.3 finger gnome-spell gstreamer0.10-gnomevfs
10393   libatspi1.0-0 libcupsys2 libeel2-data libgail-common libgdl-1-common
10394   libgnomeprint2.2-data libgnomeprintui2.2-common libgnomevfs2-bin
10395   libgtksourceview-common libpt-1.10.10-plugins-alsa
10396   libpt-1.10.10-plugins-v4l libservlet2.4-java libxalan2-java
10397   libxerces2-java openoffice.org-writer2latex openssl-blacklist p7zip
10398   python-4suite-xml python-eggtrayicon python-gtkhtml2
10399   python-gtkmozembed svgalibg1 xserver-xephyr zip
10400 </p></blockquote>
10401
10402 <p>Installed using apt-get, removed with aptitude</p>
10403
10404 <blockquote><p>
10405   bluez-utils dhcdbd djvulibre-desktop epiphany-gecko
10406   gnome-app-install gnome-mount gnome-vfs-obexftp gnome-volume-manager
10407   libao2 libavahi-compat-libdnssd1 libavahi-core5 libbind9-50
10408   libbluetooth2 libcamel1.2-11 libcdio7 libcucul0 libcurl3
10409   libdirectfb-1.0-0 libdvdread3 libedata-cal1.2-6 libedataserver1.2-9
10410   libeel2-2.20 libepc-1.0-1 libepc-ui-1.0-1 libexchange-storage1.2-3
10411   libfaad0 libgd2-noxpm libgda3-3 libgda3-common libggz2 libggzcore9
10412   libggzmod4 libgksu1.2-0 libgksuui1.0-1 libgmyth0 libgnome-desktop-2
10413   libgnome-pilot2 libgnomecups1.0-1 libgnomeprint2.2-0
10414   libgnomeprintui2.2-0 libgpod3 libgraphviz4 libgtkhtml2-0
10415   libgtksourceview1.0-0 libgucharmap6 libhesiod0 libicu38 libisccc50
10416   libisccfg50 libiw29 libkpathsea4 libltdl3 liblwres50 libmagick++10
10417   libmagick10 libmalaga7 libmtp7 libmysqlclient15off libnautilus-burn4
10418   libneon27 libnm-glib0 libnm-util0 libopal-2.2 libosp5
10419   libparted1.8-10 libpisock9 libpisync1 libpoppler-glib3 libpoppler3
10420   libpt-1.10.10 libraw1394-8 libsensors3 libsmbios2 libsoup2.2-8
10421   libssh2-1 libsuitesparse-3.1.0 libswfdec-0.6-90 libtalloc1
10422   libtotem-plparser10 libtrackerclient0 libvoikko1 libxalan2-java-gcj
10423   libxerces2-java-gcj libxklavier12 libxtrap6 libxxf86misc1 libzephyr3
10424   mysql-common swfdec-gnome totem-gstreamer wodim
10425 </p></blockquote>
10426
10427 <p>Installed using aptitude, missing with apt-get</p>
10428
10429 <blockquote><p>
10430   gnome gnome-desktop-environment hamster-applet python-gnomeapplet
10431   python-gnomekeyring python-wnck rhythmbox-plugins xorg
10432   xserver-xorg-input-all xserver-xorg-input-evdev
10433   xserver-xorg-input-kbd xserver-xorg-input-mouse
10434   xserver-xorg-input-synaptics xserver-xorg-video-all
10435   xserver-xorg-video-apm xserver-xorg-video-ark xserver-xorg-video-ati
10436   xserver-xorg-video-chips xserver-xorg-video-cirrus
10437   xserver-xorg-video-dummy xserver-xorg-video-fbdev
10438   xserver-xorg-video-glint xserver-xorg-video-i128
10439   xserver-xorg-video-i740 xserver-xorg-video-mach64
10440   xserver-xorg-video-mga xserver-xorg-video-neomagic
10441   xserver-xorg-video-nouveau xserver-xorg-video-nv
10442   xserver-xorg-video-r128 xserver-xorg-video-radeon
10443   xserver-xorg-video-radeonhd xserver-xorg-video-rendition
10444   xserver-xorg-video-s3 xserver-xorg-video-s3virge
10445   xserver-xorg-video-savage xserver-xorg-video-siliconmotion
10446   xserver-xorg-video-sis xserver-xorg-video-sisusb
10447   xserver-xorg-video-tdfx xserver-xorg-video-tga
10448   xserver-xorg-video-trident xserver-xorg-video-tseng
10449   xserver-xorg-video-vesa xserver-xorg-video-vmware
10450   xserver-xorg-video-voodoo
10451 </p></blockquote>
10452
10453 <p>Installed using aptitude, removed with apt-get</p>
10454
10455 <blockquote><p>
10456   deskbar-applet xserver-xorg xserver-xorg-core
10457   xserver-xorg-input-wacom xserver-xorg-video-intel
10458   xserver-xorg-video-openchrome
10459 </p></blockquote>
10460
10461 <p>I was told on IRC that the xorg-xserver package was
10462 <a href="http://git.debian.org/?p=pkg-xorg/xserver/xorg-server.git;a=commit;h=9c8080d06c457932d3bfec021c69ac000aa60120">changed
10463 in git</a> today to try to get apt-get to not remove xorg completely.
10464 No idea when it hits Squeeze, but when it does I hope it will reduce
10465 the difference somewhat.
10466
10467       </div>
10468       <div class="tags">
10469
10470
10471         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
10472
10473
10474       </div>
10475     </div>
10476     <div class="padding"></div>
10477
10478     <div class="entry">
10479       <div class="title">
10480         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/LUMA__a_very_nice_LDAP_GUI.html">LUMA, a very nice LDAP GUI</a>
10481       </div>
10482       <div class="date">
10483         28th June 2010
10484       </div>
10485       <div class="body">
10486         <p>The last few days I have been looking into the status of the LDAP
10487 directory in Debian Edu, and in the process I started to miss a GUI
10488 tool to browse the LDAP tree.  The only one I was able to find in
10489 Debian/Squeeze and Lenny is
10490 <a href="http://luma.sourceforge.net/">LUMA</a>, which has proved to
10491 be a great tool to get a overview of the current LDAP directory
10492 populated by default in Skolelinux.  Thanks to it, I have been able to
10493 find empty and obsolete subtrees, misplaced objects and duplicate
10494 objects.  It will be installed by default in Debian/Squeeze.  If you
10495 are working with LDAP, give it a go. :)</p>
10496
10497 <p>I did notice one problem with it I have not had time to report to
10498 the BTS yet.  There is no .desktop file in the package, so the tool do
10499 not show up in the Gnome and KDE menus, but only deep down in in the
10500 Debian submenu in KDE.  I hope that can be fixed before Squeeze is
10501 released.</p>
10502
10503 <p>I have not yet been able to get it to modify the tree yet.  I would
10504 like to move objects and remove subtrees directly in the GUI, but have
10505 not found a way to do that with LUMA yet.  So in the mean time, I use
10506 <a href="http://www.lichteblau.com/ldapvi/">ldapvi</a> for that.</p>
10507
10508 <p>If you have tips on other GUI tools for LDAP that might be useful
10509 in Debian Edu, please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.</p>
10510
10511 <p>Update 2010-06-29: Ross Reedstrom tipped us about the
10512 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/g/gq.html">gq</a> package as a
10513 useful GUI alternative.  It seem like a good tool, but is unmaintained
10514 in Debian and got a RC bug keeping it out of Squeeze.  Unless that
10515 changes, it will not be an option for Debian Edu based on Squeeze.</p>
10516
10517       </div>
10518       <div class="tags">
10519
10520
10521         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ldap">ldap</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
10522
10523
10524       </div>
10525     </div>
10526     <div class="padding"></div>
10527
10528     <div class="entry">
10529       <div class="title">
10530         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Idea_for_a_change_to_LDAP_schemas_allowing_DNS_and_DHCP_info_to_be_combined_into_one_object.html">Idea for a change to LDAP schemas allowing DNS and DHCP info to be combined into one object</a>
10531       </div>
10532       <div class="date">
10533         24th June 2010
10534       </div>
10535       <div class="body">
10536         <p>A while back, I
10537 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Time_for_new__LDAP_schemas_replacing_RFC_2307_.html">complained
10538 about the fact</a> that it is not possible with the provided schemas
10539 for storing DNS and DHCP information in LDAP to combine the two sets
10540 of information into one LDAP object representing a computer.</p>
10541
10542 <p>In the mean time, I discovered that a simple fix would be to make
10543 the dhcpHost object class auxiliary, to allow it to be combined with
10544 the dNSDomain object class, and thus forming one object for one
10545 computer when storing both DHCP and DNS information in LDAP.</p>
10546
10547 <p>If I understand this correctly, it is not safe to do this change
10548 without also changing the assigned number for the object class, and I
10549 do not know enough about LDAP schema design to do that properly for
10550 Debian Edu.</p>
10551
10552 <p>Anyway, for future reference, this is how I believe we could change
10553 the
10554 <a href="http://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-ietf-dhc-ldap-schema-00">DHCP
10555 schema</a> to solve at least part of the problem with the LDAP schemas
10556 available today from IETF.</p>
10557
10558 <pre>
10559 --- dhcp.schema    (revision 65192)
10560 +++ dhcp.schema    (working copy)
10561 @@ -376,7 +376,7 @@
10562  objectclass ( 2.16.840.1.113719.1.203.6.6
10563         NAME 'dhcpHost'
10564         DESC 'This represents information about a particular client'
10565 -       SUP top
10566 +       SUP top AUXILIARY
10567         MUST cn
10568         MAY  (dhcpLeaseDN $ dhcpHWAddress $ dhcpOptionsDN $ dhcpStatements $ dhcpComments $ dhcpOption)
10569         X-NDS_CONTAINMENT ('dhcpService' 'dhcpSubnet' 'dhcpGroup') )
10570 </pre>
10571
10572 <p>I very much welcome clues on how to do this properly for Debian
10573 Edu/Squeeze.  We provide the DHCP schema in our debian-edu-config
10574 package, and should thus be free to rewrite it as we see fit.</p>
10575
10576 <p>If you want to help out with implementing this for Debian Edu,
10577 please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.</p>
10578
10579       </div>
10580       <div class="tags">
10581
10582
10583         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ldap">ldap</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
10584
10585
10586       </div>
10587     </div>
10588     <div class="padding"></div>
10589
10590     <div class="entry">
10591       <div class="title">
10592         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Calling_tasksel_like_the_installer__while_still_getting_useful_output.html">Calling tasksel like the installer, while still getting useful output</a>
10593       </div>
10594       <div class="date">
10595         16th June 2010
10596       </div>
10597       <div class="body">
10598         <p>A few times I have had the need to simulate the way tasksel
10599 installs packages during the normal debian-installer run.  Until now,
10600 I have ended up letting tasksel do the work, with the annoying problem
10601 of not getting any feedback at all when something fails (like a
10602 conffile question from dpkg or a download that fails), using code like
10603 this:
10604
10605 <blockquote><pre>
10606 export DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive
10607 tasksel --new-install
10608 </pre></blockquote>
10609
10610 This would invoke tasksel, let its automatic task selection pick the
10611 tasks to install, and continue to install the requested tasks without
10612 any output what so ever.
10613
10614 Recently I revisited this problem while working on the automatic
10615 package upgrade testing, because tasksel would some times hang without
10616 any useful feedback, and I want to see what is going on when it
10617 happen.  Then it occured to me, I can parse the output from tasksel
10618 when asked to run in test mode, and use that aptitude command line
10619 printed by tasksel then to simulate the tasksel run.  I ended up using
10620 code like this:
10621
10622 <blockquote><pre>
10623 export DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive
10624 cmd="$(in_target tasksel -t --new-install | sed 's/debconf-apt-progress -- //')"
10625 $cmd
10626 </pre></blockquote>
10627
10628 <p>The content of $cmd is typically something like "<tt>aptitude -q
10629 --without-recommends -o APT::Install-Recommends=no -y install
10630 ~t^desktop$ ~t^gnome-desktop$ ~t^laptop$ ~pstandard ~prequired
10631 ~pimportant</tt>", which will install the gnome desktop task, the
10632 laptop task and all packages with priority standard , required and
10633 important, just like tasksel would have done it during
10634 installation.</p>
10635
10636 <p>A better approach is probably to extend tasksel to be able to
10637 install packages without using debconf-apt-progress, for use cases
10638 like this.</p>
10639
10640       </div>
10641       <div class="tags">
10642
10643
10644         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
10645
10646
10647       </div>
10648     </div>
10649     <div class="padding"></div>
10650
10651     <div class="entry">
10652       <div class="title">
10653         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lenny__Squeeze_upgrades__removals_by_apt_and_aptitude.html">Lenny->Squeeze upgrades, removals by apt and aptitude</a>
10654       </div>
10655       <div class="date">
10656         13th June 2010
10657       </div>
10658       <div class="body">
10659         <p>My
10660 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Automatic_upgrade_testing_from_Lenny_to_Squeeze.html">testing
10661 of Debian upgrades</a> from Lenny to Squeeze continues, and I've
10662 finally made the upgrade logs available from
10663 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/debian-upgrade-testing/">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/debian-upgrade-testing/</a>.
10664 I am now testing dist-upgrade of Gnome and KDE in a chroot using both
10665 apt and aptitude, and found their differences interesting.  This time
10666 I will only focus on their removal plans.</p>
10667
10668 <p>After installing a Gnome desktop and the laptop task, apt-get wants
10669 to remove 72 packages when dist-upgrading from Lenny to Squeeze.  The
10670 surprising part is that it want to remove xorg and all
10671 xserver-xorg-video* drivers.  Clearly not a good choice, but I am not
10672 sure why.  When asking aptitude to do the same, it want to remove 129
10673 packages, but most of them are library packages I suspect are no
10674 longer needed.  Both of them want to remove bluetooth packages, which
10675 I do not know.  Perhaps these bluetooth packages are obsolete?</p>
10676
10677 <p>For KDE, apt-get want to remove 82 packages, among them kdebase
10678 which seem like a bad idea and xorg the same way as with Gnome. Asking
10679 aptitude for the same, it wants to remove 192 packages, none which are
10680 too surprising.</p>
10681
10682 <p>I guess the removal of xorg during upgrades should be investigated
10683 and avoided, and perhaps others as well.  Here are the complete list
10684 of planned removals.  The complete logs is available from the URL
10685 above.  Note if you want to repeat these tests, that the upgrade test
10686 for kde+apt-get hung in the tasksel setup because of dpkg asking
10687 conffile questions.  No idea why.  I worked around it by using
10688 '<tt>echo >> /proc/<em>pidofdpkg</em>/fd/0</tt>' to tell dpkg to
10689 continue.</p>
10690
10691 <p><b>apt-get gnome 72</b>
10692 <br>bluez-gnome cupsddk-drivers deskbar-applet gnome
10693   gnome-desktop-environment gnome-network-admin gtkhtml3.14
10694   iceweasel-gnome-support libavcodec51 libdatrie0 libgdl-1-0
10695   libgnomekbd2 libgnomekbdui2 libmetacity0 libslab0 libxcb-xlib0
10696   nautilus-cd-burner python-gnome2-desktop python-gnome2-extras
10697   serpentine swfdec-mozilla update-manager xorg xserver-xorg
10698   xserver-xorg-core xserver-xorg-input-all xserver-xorg-input-evdev
10699   xserver-xorg-input-kbd xserver-xorg-input-mouse
10700   xserver-xorg-input-synaptics xserver-xorg-input-wacom
10701   xserver-xorg-video-all xserver-xorg-video-apm xserver-xorg-video-ark
10702   xserver-xorg-video-ati xserver-xorg-video-chips
10703   xserver-xorg-video-cirrus xserver-xorg-video-cyrix
10704   xserver-xorg-video-dummy xserver-xorg-video-fbdev
10705   xserver-xorg-video-glint xserver-xorg-video-i128
10706   xserver-xorg-video-i740 xserver-xorg-video-imstt
10707   xserver-xorg-video-intel xserver-xorg-video-mach64
10708   xserver-xorg-video-mga xserver-xorg-video-neomagic
10709   xserver-xorg-video-nsc xserver-xorg-video-nv
10710   xserver-xorg-video-openchrome xserver-xorg-video-r128
10711   xserver-xorg-video-radeon xserver-xorg-video-radeonhd
10712   xserver-xorg-video-rendition xserver-xorg-video-s3
10713   xserver-xorg-video-s3virge xserver-xorg-video-savage
10714   xserver-xorg-video-siliconmotion xserver-xorg-video-sis
10715   xserver-xorg-video-sisusb xserver-xorg-video-tdfx
10716   xserver-xorg-video-tga xserver-xorg-video-trident
10717   xserver-xorg-video-tseng xserver-xorg-video-v4l
10718   xserver-xorg-video-vesa xserver-xorg-video-vga
10719   xserver-xorg-video-vmware xserver-xorg-video-voodoo xulrunner-1.9
10720   xulrunner-1.9-gnome-support</p>
10721
10722 <p><b>aptitude gnome 129</b>
10723
10724 <br>bluez-gnome bluez-utils cpp-4.3 cupsddk-drivers dhcdbd
10725   djvulibre-desktop finger gnome-app-install gnome-mount
10726   gnome-network-admin gnome-spell gnome-vfs-obexftp
10727   gnome-volume-manager gstreamer0.10-gnomevfs gtkhtml3.14 libao2
10728   libavahi-compat-libdnssd1 libavahi-core5 libavcodec51 libbluetooth2
10729   libcamel1.2-11 libcdio7 libcucul0 libcupsys2 libcurl3 libdatrie0
10730   libdirectfb-1.0-0 libdvdread3 libedataserver1.2-9 libeel2-2.20
10731   libeel2-data libepc-1.0-1 libepc-ui-1.0-1 libfaad0 libgail-common
10732   libgd2-noxpm libgda3-3 libgda3-common libgdl-1-0 libgdl-1-common
10733   libggz2 libggzcore9 libggzmod4 libgksu1.2-0 libgksuui1.0-1 libgmyth0
10734   libgnomecups1.0-1 libgnomekbd2 libgnomekbdui2 libgnomeprint2.2-0
10735   libgnomeprint2.2-data libgnomeprintui2.2-0 libgnomeprintui2.2-common
10736   libgnomevfs2-bin libgpod3 libgraphviz4 libgtkhtml2-0
10737   libgtksourceview-common libgtksourceview1.0-0 libgucharmap6
10738   libhesiod0 libicu38 libiw29 libkpathsea4 libltdl3 libmagick++10
10739   libmagick10 libmalaga7 libmetacity0 libmtp7 libmysqlclient15off
10740   libnautilus-burn4 libneon27 libnm-glib0 libnm-util0 libopal-2.2
10741   libosp5 libparted1.8-10 libpoppler-glib3 libpoppler3 libpt-1.10.10
10742   libpt-1.10.10-plugins-alsa libpt-1.10.10-plugins-v4l libraw1394-8
10743   libsensors3 libslab0 libsmbios2 libsoup2.2-8 libssh2-1
10744   libsuitesparse-3.1.0 libswfdec-0.6-90 libtalloc1 libtotem-plparser10
10745   libtrackerclient0 libxalan2-java libxalan2-java-gcj libxcb-xlib0
10746   libxerces2-java libxerces2-java-gcj libxklavier12 libxtrap6
10747   libxxf86misc1 libzephyr3 mysql-common nautilus-cd-burner
10748   openoffice.org-writer2latex openssl-blacklist p7zip
10749   python-4suite-xml python-eggtrayicon python-gnome2-desktop
10750   python-gnome2-extras python-gtkhtml2 python-gtkmozembed
10751   python-numeric python-sexy serpentine svgalibg1 swfdec-gnome
10752   swfdec-mozilla totem-gstreamer update-manager wodim
10753   xserver-xorg-video-cyrix xserver-xorg-video-imstt
10754   xserver-xorg-video-nsc xserver-xorg-video-v4l xserver-xorg-video-vga
10755   zip</p>
10756
10757 <p><b>apt-get kde 82</b>
10758
10759 <br>cupsddk-drivers karm kaudiocreator kcoloredit kcontrol kde kde-core
10760   kdeaddons kdeartwork kdebase kdebase-bin kdebase-bin-kde3
10761   kdebase-kio-plugins kdesktop kdeutils khelpcenter kicker
10762   kicker-applets knewsticker kolourpaint konq-plugins konqueror korn
10763   kpersonalizer kscreensaver ksplash libavcodec51 libdatrie0 libkiten1
10764   libxcb-xlib0 quanta superkaramba texlive-base-bin xorg xserver-xorg
10765   xserver-xorg-core xserver-xorg-input-all xserver-xorg-input-evdev
10766   xserver-xorg-input-kbd xserver-xorg-input-mouse
10767   xserver-xorg-input-synaptics xserver-xorg-input-wacom
10768   xserver-xorg-video-all xserver-xorg-video-apm xserver-xorg-video-ark
10769   xserver-xorg-video-ati xserver-xorg-video-chips
10770   xserver-xorg-video-cirrus xserver-xorg-video-cyrix
10771   xserver-xorg-video-dummy xserver-xorg-video-fbdev
10772   xserver-xorg-video-glint xserver-xorg-video-i128
10773   xserver-xorg-video-i740 xserver-xorg-video-imstt
10774   xserver-xorg-video-intel xserver-xorg-video-mach64
10775   xserver-xorg-video-mga xserver-xorg-video-neomagic
10776   xserver-xorg-video-nsc xserver-xorg-video-nv
10777   xserver-xorg-video-openchrome xserver-xorg-video-r128
10778   xserver-xorg-video-radeon xserver-xorg-video-radeonhd
10779   xserver-xorg-video-rendition xserver-xorg-video-s3
10780   xserver-xorg-video-s3virge xserver-xorg-video-savage
10781   xserver-xorg-video-siliconmotion xserver-xorg-video-sis
10782   xserver-xorg-video-sisusb xserver-xorg-video-tdfx
10783   xserver-xorg-video-tga xserver-xorg-video-trident
10784   xserver-xorg-video-tseng xserver-xorg-video-v4l
10785   xserver-xorg-video-vesa xserver-xorg-video-vga
10786   xserver-xorg-video-vmware xserver-xorg-video-voodoo xulrunner-1.9</p>
10787
10788 <p><b>aptitude kde 192</b>
10789 <br>bluez-utils cpp-4.3 cupsddk-drivers cvs dcoprss dhcdbd
10790   djvulibre-desktop dosfstools eyesapplet fifteenapplet finger gettext
10791   ghostscript-x imlib-base imlib11 indi kandy karm kasteroids
10792   kaudiocreator kbackgammon kbstate kcoloredit kcontrol kcron kdat
10793   kdeadmin-kfile-plugins kdeartwork-misc kdeartwork-theme-window
10794   kdebase-bin-kde3 kdebase-kio-plugins kdeedu-data
10795   kdegraphics-kfile-plugins kdelirc kdemultimedia-kappfinder-data
10796   kdemultimedia-kfile-plugins kdenetwork-kfile-plugins
10797   kdepim-kfile-plugins kdepim-kio-plugins kdeprint kdesktop kdessh
10798   kdict kdnssd kdvi kedit keduca kenolaba kfax kfaxview kfouleggs
10799   kghostview khelpcenter khexedit kiconedit kitchensync klatin
10800   klickety kmailcvt kmenuedit kmid kmilo kmoon kmrml kodo kolourpaint
10801   kooka korn kpager kpdf kpercentage kpf kpilot kpoker kpovmodeler
10802   krec kregexpeditor ksayit ksim ksirc ksirtet ksmiletris ksmserver
10803   ksnake ksokoban ksplash ksvg ksysv ktip ktnef kuickshow kverbos
10804   kview kviewshell kvoctrain kwifimanager kwin kwin4 kworldclock
10805   kxsldbg libakode2 libao2 libarts1-akode libarts1-audiofile
10806   libarts1-mpeglib libarts1-xine libavahi-compat-libdnssd1
10807   libavahi-core5 libavc1394-0 libavcodec51 libbluetooth2
10808   libboost-python1.34.1 libcucul0 libcurl3 libcvsservice0 libdatrie0
10809   libdirectfb-1.0-0 libdjvulibre21 libdvdread3 libfaad0 libfreebob0
10810   libgail-common libgd2-noxpm libgraphviz4 libgsmme1c2a libgtkhtml2-0
10811   libicu38 libiec61883-0 libindex0 libiw29 libk3b3 libkcal2b libkcddb1
10812   libkdeedu3 libkdepim1a libkgantt0 libkiten1 libkleopatra1 libkmime2
10813   libkpathsea4 libkpimexchange1 libkpimidentities1 libkscan1
10814   libksieve0 libktnef1 liblockdev1 libltdl3 libmagick10 libmimelib1c2a
10815   libmozjs1d libmpcdec3 libneon27 libnm-util0 libopensync0 libpisock9
10816   libpoppler-glib3 libpoppler-qt2 libpoppler3 libraw1394-8 libsmbios2
10817   libssh2-1 libsuitesparse-3.1.0 libtalloc1 libtiff-tools
10818   libxalan2-java libxalan2-java-gcj libxcb-xlib0 libxerces2-java
10819   libxerces2-java-gcj libxtrap6 mpeglib networkstatus
10820   openoffice.org-writer2latex pmount poster psutils quanta quanta-data
10821   superkaramba svgalibg1 tex-common texlive-base texlive-base-bin
10822   texlive-common texlive-doc-base texlive-fonts-recommended
10823   xserver-xorg-video-cyrix xserver-xorg-video-imstt
10824   xserver-xorg-video-nsc xserver-xorg-video-v4l xserver-xorg-video-vga
10825   xulrunner-1.9</p>
10826
10827
10828       </div>
10829       <div class="tags">
10830
10831
10832         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
10833
10834
10835       </div>
10836     </div>
10837     <div class="padding"></div>
10838
10839     <div class="entry">
10840       <div class="title">
10841         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Automatic_upgrade_testing_from_Lenny_to_Squeeze.html">Automatic upgrade testing from Lenny to Squeeze</a>
10842       </div>
10843       <div class="date">
10844         11th June 2010
10845       </div>
10846       <div class="body">
10847         <p>The last few days I have done some upgrade testing in Debian, to
10848 see if the upgrade from Lenny to Squeeze will go smoothly.  A few bugs
10849 have been discovered and reported in the process
10850 (<a href="http://bugs.debian.org/585410">#585410</a> in nagios3-cgi,
10851 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/584879">#584879</a> already fixed in
10852 enscript and <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/584861">#584861</a> in
10853 kdebase-workspace-data), and to get a more regular testing going on, I
10854 am working on a script to automate the test.</p>
10855
10856 <p>The idea is to create a Lenny chroot and use tasksel to install a
10857 Gnome or KDE desktop installation inside the chroot before upgrading
10858 it.  To ensure no services are started in the chroot, a policy-rc.d
10859 script is inserted.  To make sure tasksel believe it is to install a
10860 desktop on a laptop, the tasksel tests are replaced in the chroot
10861 (only acceptable because this is a throw-away chroot).</p>
10862
10863 <p>A naive upgrade from Lenny to Squeeze using aptitude dist-upgrade
10864 currently always fail because udev refuses to upgrade with the kernel
10865 in Lenny, so to avoid that problem the file /etc/udev/kernel-upgrade
10866 is created.  The bug report
10867 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/566000">#566000</a> make me suspect
10868 this problem do not trigger in a chroot, but I touch the file anyway
10869 to make sure the upgrade go well.  Testing on virtual and real
10870 hardware have failed me because of udev so far, and creating this file
10871 do the trick in such settings anyway.  This is a
10872 <a href="http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/debian-26/failed-dist-upgrade-due-to-udev-config_sysfs_deprecated-nonsense-804130/">known
10873 issue</a> and the current udev behaviour is intended by the udev
10874 maintainer because he lack the resources to rewrite udev to keep
10875 working with old kernels or something like that.  I really wish the
10876 udev upstream would keep udev backwards compatible, to avoid such
10877 upgrade problem, but given that they fail to do so, I guess
10878 documenting the way out of this mess is the best option we got for
10879 Debian Squeeze.</p>
10880
10881 <p>Anyway, back to the task at hand, testing upgrades.  This test
10882 script, which I call <tt>upgrade-test</tt> for now, is doing the
10883 trick:</p>
10884
10885 <blockquote><pre>
10886 #!/bin/sh
10887 set -ex
10888
10889 if [ "$1" ] ; then
10890     desktop=$1
10891 else
10892     desktop=gnome
10893 fi
10894
10895 from=lenny
10896 to=squeeze
10897
10898 exec &lt; /dev/null
10899 unset LANG
10900 mirror=http://ftp.skolelinux.org/debian
10901 tmpdir=chroot-$from-upgrade-$to-$desktop
10902 fuser -mv .
10903 debootstrap $from $tmpdir $mirror
10904 chroot $tmpdir aptitude update
10905 cat > $tmpdir/usr/sbin/policy-rc.d &lt;&lt;EOF
10906 #!/bin/sh
10907 exit 101
10908 EOF
10909 chmod a+rx $tmpdir/usr/sbin/policy-rc.d
10910 exit_cleanup() {
10911     umount $tmpdir/proc
10912 }
10913 mount -t proc proc $tmpdir/proc
10914 # Make sure proc is unmounted also on failure
10915 trap exit_cleanup EXIT INT
10916
10917 chroot $tmpdir aptitude -y install debconf-utils
10918
10919 # Make sure tasksel autoselection trigger.  It need the test scripts
10920 # to return the correct answers.
10921 echo tasksel tasksel/desktop multiselect $desktop | \
10922     chroot $tmpdir debconf-set-selections
10923
10924 # Include the desktop and laptop task
10925 for test in desktop laptop ; do
10926     echo > $tmpdir/usr/lib/tasksel/tests/$test &lt;&lt;EOF
10927 #!/bin/sh
10928 exit 2
10929 EOF
10930     chmod a+rx $tmpdir/usr/lib/tasksel/tests/$test
10931 done
10932
10933 DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive
10934 DEBIAN_PRIORITY=critical
10935 export DEBIAN_FRONTEND DEBIAN_PRIORITY
10936 chroot $tmpdir tasksel --new-install
10937
10938 echo deb $mirror $to main > $tmpdir/etc/apt/sources.list
10939 chroot $tmpdir aptitude update
10940 touch $tmpdir/etc/udev/kernel-upgrade
10941 chroot $tmpdir aptitude -y dist-upgrade
10942 fuser -mv
10943 </pre></blockquote>
10944
10945 <p>I suspect it would be useful to test upgrades with both apt-get and
10946 with aptitude, but I have not had time to look at how they behave
10947 differently so far.  I hope to get a cron job running to do the test
10948 regularly and post the result on the web.  The Gnome upgrade currently
10949 work, while the KDE upgrade fail because of the bug in
10950 kdebase-workspace-data</p>
10951
10952 <p>I am not quite sure what kind of extract from the huge upgrade logs
10953 (KDE 167 KiB, Gnome 516 KiB) it make sense to include in this blog
10954 post, so I will refrain from trying.  I can report that for Gnome,
10955 aptitude report 760 packages upgraded, 448 newly installed, 129 to
10956 remove and 1 not upgraded and 1024MB need to be downloaded while for
10957 KDE the same numbers are 702 packages upgraded, 507 newly installed,
10958 193 to remove and 0 not upgraded and 1117MB need to be downloaded</p>
10959
10960 <p>I am very happy to notice that the Gnome desktop + laptop upgrade
10961 is able to migrate to dependency based boot sequencing and parallel
10962 booting without a hitch.  Was unsure if there were still bugs with
10963 packages failing to clean up their obsolete init.d script during
10964 upgrades, and no such problem seem to affect the Gnome desktop+laptop
10965 packages.</p>
10966
10967       </div>
10968       <div class="tags">
10969
10970
10971         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bootsystem">bootsystem</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
10972
10973
10974       </div>
10975     </div>
10976     <div class="padding"></div>
10977
10978     <div class="entry">
10979       <div class="title">
10980         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Upstart_or_sysvinit___as_init_d_scripts_see_it.html">Upstart or sysvinit - as init.d scripts see it</a>
10981       </div>
10982       <div class="date">
10983          6th June 2010
10984       </div>
10985       <div class="body">
10986         <p>If Debian is to migrate to upstart on Linux, I expect some init.d
10987 scripts to migrate (some of) their operations to upstart job while
10988 keeping the init.d for hurd and kfreebsd.  The packages with such
10989 needs will need a way to get their init.d scripts to behave
10990 differently when used with sysvinit and with upstart.  Because of
10991 this, I had a look at the environment variables set when a init.d
10992 script is running under upstart, and when it is not.</p>
10993
10994 <p>With upstart, I notice these environment variables are set when a
10995 script is started from rcS.d/ (ignoring some irrelevant ones like
10996 COLUMNS):</p>
10997
10998 <blockquote><pre>
10999 DEFAULT_RUNLEVEL=2
11000 previous=N
11001 PREVLEVEL=
11002 RUNLEVEL=
11003 runlevel=S
11004 UPSTART_EVENTS=startup
11005 UPSTART_INSTANCE=
11006 UPSTART_JOB=rc-sysinit
11007 </pre></blockquote>
11008
11009 <p>With sysvinit, these environment variables are set for the same
11010 script.</p>
11011
11012 <blockquote><pre>
11013 INIT_VERSION=sysvinit-2.88
11014 previous=N
11015 PREVLEVEL=N
11016 RUNLEVEL=S
11017 runlevel=S
11018 </pre></blockquote>
11019
11020 <p>The RUNLEVEL and PREVLEVEL environment variables passed on from
11021 sysvinit are not set by upstart.  Not sure if it is intentional or not
11022 to not be compatible with sysvinit in this regard.</p>
11023
11024 <p>For scripts needing to behave differently when upstart is used,
11025 looking for the UPSTART_JOB environment variable seem to be a good
11026 choice.</p>
11027
11028       </div>
11029       <div class="tags">
11030
11031
11032         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bootsystem">bootsystem</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
11033
11034
11035       </div>
11036     </div>
11037     <div class="padding"></div>
11038
11039     <div class="entry">
11040       <div class="title">
11041         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/A_manual_for_standards_wars___.html">A manual for standards wars...</a>
11042       </div>
11043       <div class="date">
11044          6th June 2010
11045       </div>
11046       <div class="body">
11047         <p>Via the
11048 <a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/robweir/antic-atom/~3/QzU4RgoAGMg/weekly-links-10.html">blog
11049 of Rob Weir</a> I came across the very interesting essay named
11050 <a href="http://faculty.haas.berkeley.edu/shapiro/wars.pdf">The Art of
11051 Standards Wars</a> (PDF 25 pages).  I recommend it for everyone
11052 following the standards wars of today.</p>
11053
11054       </div>
11055       <div class="tags">
11056
11057
11058         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/standard">standard</a>.
11059
11060
11061       </div>
11062     </div>
11063     <div class="padding"></div>
11064
11065     <div class="entry">
11066       <div class="title">
11067         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Sitesummary_tip__Listing_computer_hardware_models_used_at_site.html">Sitesummary tip: Listing computer hardware models used at site</a>
11068       </div>
11069       <div class="date">
11070          3rd June 2010
11071       </div>
11072       <div class="body">
11073         <p>When using sitesummary at a site to track machines, it is possible
11074 to get a list of the machine types in use thanks to the DMI
11075 information extracted from each machine.  The script to do so is
11076 included in the sitesummary package, and here is example output from
11077 the Skolelinux build servers:</p>
11078
11079 <blockquote><pre>
11080 maintainer:~# /usr/lib/sitesummary/hardware-model-summary
11081   vendor                    count
11082   Dell Computer Corporation     1
11083     PowerEdge 1750              1
11084   IBM                           1
11085     eserver xSeries 345 -[8670M1X]-     1
11086   Intel                         2
11087   [no-dmi-info]                 3
11088 maintainer:~#
11089 </pre></blockquote>
11090
11091 <p>The quality of the report depend on the quality of the DMI tables
11092 provided in each machine.  Here there are Intel machines without model
11093 information listed with Intel as vendor and no model, and virtual Xen
11094 machines listed as [no-dmi-info].  One can add -l as a command line
11095 option to list the individual machines.</p>
11096
11097 <p>A larger list is
11098 <a href="http://narvikskolen.no/sitesummary/">available from the the
11099 city of Narvik</a>, which uses Skolelinux on all their shools and also
11100 provide the basic sitesummary report publicly.  In their report there
11101 are ~1400 machines. I know they use both Ubuntu and Skolelinux on
11102 their machines, and as sitesummary is available in both distributions,
11103 it is trivial to get all of them to report to the same central
11104 collector.</p>
11105
11106       </div>
11107       <div class="tags">
11108
11109
11110         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sitesummary">sitesummary</a>.
11111
11112
11113       </div>
11114     </div>
11115     <div class="padding"></div>
11116
11117     <div class="entry">
11118       <div class="title">
11119         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/KDM_fail_at_boot_with_NVidia_cards___and_no_one_try_to_fix_it_.html">KDM fail at boot with NVidia cards - and no one try to fix it?</a>
11120       </div>
11121       <div class="date">
11122          1st June 2010
11123       </div>
11124       <div class="body">
11125         <p>It is strange to watch how a bug in Debian causing KDM to fail to
11126 start at boot when an NVidia video card is used is handled.  The
11127 problem seem to be that the nvidia X.org driver uses a long time to
11128 initialize, and this duration is longer than kdm is configured to
11129 wait.</p>
11130
11131 <p>I came across two bugs related to this issue,
11132 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/583312">#583312</a> initially filed
11133 against initscripts and passed on to nvidia-glx when it became obvious
11134 that the nvidia drivers were involved, and
11135 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/524751">#524751</a> initially filed against
11136 kdm and passed on to src:nvidia-graphics-drivers for unknown reasons.</p>
11137
11138 <p>To me, it seem that no-one is interested in actually solving the
11139 problem nvidia video card owners experience and make sure the Debian
11140 distribution work out of the box for these users.  The nvidia driver
11141 maintainers expect kdm to be set up to wait longer, while kdm expect
11142 the nvidia driver maintainers to fix the driver to start faster, and
11143 while they wait for each other I guess the users end up switching to a
11144 distribution that work for them.  I have no idea what the solution is,
11145 but I am pretty sure that waiting for each other is not it.</p>
11146
11147 <p>I wonder why we end up handling bugs this way.</p>
11148
11149       </div>
11150       <div class="tags">
11151
11152
11153         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bootsystem">bootsystem</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
11154
11155
11156       </div>
11157     </div>
11158     <div class="padding"></div>
11159
11160     <div class="entry">
11161       <div class="title">
11162         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Parallellized_boot_seem_to_hold_up_well_in_Debian_testing.html">Parallellized boot seem to hold up well in Debian/testing</a>
11163       </div>
11164       <div class="date">
11165         27th May 2010
11166       </div>
11167       <div class="body">
11168         <p>A few days ago, parallel booting was enabled in Debian/testing.
11169 The feature seem to hold up pretty well, but three fairly serious
11170 issues are known and should be solved:
11171
11172 <p><ul>
11173
11174 <li>The wicd package seen to
11175 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/508289">break NFS mounting</a> and
11176 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/581586">network setup</a> when
11177 parallel booting is enabled.  No idea why, but the wicd maintainer
11178 seem to be on the case.</li>
11179
11180 <li>The nvidia X driver seem to
11181 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/583312">have a race condition</a>
11182 triggered more easily when parallel booting is in effect.  The
11183 maintainer is on the case.</li>
11184
11185 <li>The sysv-rc package fail to properly enable dependency based boot
11186 sequencing (the shutdown is broken) when old file-rc users
11187 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/575080">try to switch back</a> to
11188 sysv-rc.  One way to solve it would be for file-rc to create
11189 /etc/init.d/.legacy-bootordering, and another is to try to make
11190 sysv-rc more robust.  Will investigate some more and probably upload a
11191 workaround in sysv-rc to help those trying to move from file-rc to
11192 sysv-rc get a working shutdown.</li>
11193
11194 </ul></p>
11195
11196 <p>All in all not many surprising issues, and all of them seem
11197 solvable before Squeeze is released.  In addition to these there are
11198 some packages with bugs in their dependencies and run level settings,
11199 which I expect will be fixed in a reasonable time span.</p>
11200
11201 <p>If you report any problems with dependencies in init.d scripts to
11202 the BTS, please usertag the report to get it to show up at
11203 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/pkgreport.cgi?users=initscripts-ng-devel@lists.alioth.debian.org">the
11204 list of usertagged bugs related to this</a>.</p>
11205
11206 <p>Update: Correct bug number to file-rc issue.</p>
11207
11208       </div>
11209       <div class="tags">
11210
11211
11212         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bootsystem">bootsystem</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
11213
11214
11215       </div>
11216     </div>
11217     <div class="padding"></div>
11218
11219     <div class="entry">
11220       <div class="title">
11221         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/More_flexible_firmware_handling_in_debian_installer.html">More flexible firmware handling in debian-installer</a>
11222       </div>
11223       <div class="date">
11224         22nd May 2010
11225       </div>
11226       <div class="body">
11227         <p>After a long break from debian-installer development, I finally
11228 found time today to return to the project.  Having to spend less time
11229 working dependency based boot in debian, as it is almost complete now,
11230 definitely helped freeing some time.</p>
11231
11232 <p>A while back, I ran into a problem while working on Debian Edu.  We
11233 include some firmware packages on the Debian Edu CDs, those needed to
11234 get disk and network controllers working.  Without having these
11235 firmware packages available during installation, it is impossible to
11236 install Debian Edu on the given machine, and because our target group
11237 are non-technical people, asking them to provide firmware packages on
11238 an external medium is a support pain.  Initially, I expected it to be
11239 enough to include the firmware packages on the CD to get
11240 debian-installer to find and use them.  This proved to be wrong.
11241 Next, I hoped it was enough to symlink the relevant firmware packages
11242 to some useful location on the CD (tried /cdrom/ and
11243 /cdrom/firmware/).  This also proved to not work, and at this point I
11244 found time to look at the debian-installer code to figure out what was
11245 going to work.</p>
11246
11247 <p>The firmware loading code is in the hw-detect package, and a closer
11248 look revealed that it would only look for firmware packages outside
11249 the installation media, so the CD was never checked for firmware
11250 packages.  It would only check USB sticks, floppies and other
11251 "external" media devices.  Today I changed it to also look in the
11252 /cdrom/firmware/ directory on the mounted CD or DVD, which should
11253 solve the problem I ran into with Debian edu.  I also changed it to
11254 look in /firmware/, to make sure the installer also find firmware
11255 provided in the initrd when booting the installer via PXE, to allow us
11256 to provide the same feature in the PXE setup included in Debian
11257 Edu.</p>
11258
11259 <p>To make sure firmware deb packages with a license questions are not
11260 activated without asking if the license is accepted, I extended
11261 hw-detect to look for preinst scripts in the firmware packages, and
11262 run these before activating the firmware during installation.  The
11263 license question is asked using debconf in the preinst, so this should
11264 solve the issue for the firmware packages I have looked at so far.</p>
11265
11266 <p>If you want to discuss the details of these features, please
11267 contact us on debian-boot@lists.debian.org.</p>
11268
11269       </div>
11270       <div class="tags">
11271
11272
11273         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
11274
11275
11276       </div>
11277     </div>
11278     <div class="padding"></div>
11279
11280     <div class="entry">
11281       <div class="title">
11282         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Parallellized_boot_is_now_the_default_in_Debian_unstable.html">Parallellized boot is now the default in Debian/unstable</a>
11283       </div>
11284       <div class="date">
11285         14th May 2010
11286       </div>
11287       <div class="body">
11288         <p>Since this evening, parallel booting is the default in
11289 Debian/unstable for machines using dependency based boot sequencing.
11290 Apparently the testing of concurrent booting has been wider than
11291 expected, if I am to believe the
11292 <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2010/05/msg00122.html">input
11293 on debian-devel@</a>, and I concluded a few days ago to move forward
11294 with the feature this weekend, to give us some time to detect any
11295 remaining problems before Squeeze is frozen.  If serious problems are
11296 detected, it is simple to change the default back to sequential boot.
11297 The upload of the new sysvinit package also activate a new upstream
11298 version.</p>
11299
11300 More information about
11301 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/LSBInitScripts/DependencyBasedBoot">dependency
11302 based boot sequencing</a> is available from the Debian wiki.  It is
11303 currently possible to disable parallel booting when one run into
11304 problems caused by it, by adding this line to /etc/default/rcS:</p>
11305
11306 <blockquote><pre>
11307 CONCURRENCY=none
11308 </pre></blockquote>
11309
11310 <p>If you report any problems with dependencies in init.d scripts to
11311 the BTS, please usertag the report to get it to show up at
11312 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/pkgreport.cgi?users=initscripts-ng-devel@lists.alioth.debian.org">the
11313 list of usertagged bugs related to this</a>.</p>
11314
11315       </div>
11316       <div class="tags">
11317
11318
11319         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bootsystem">bootsystem</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
11320
11321
11322       </div>
11323     </div>
11324     <div class="padding"></div>
11325
11326     <div class="entry">
11327       <div class="title">
11328         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Sitesummary_tip__Listing_MAC_address_of_all_clients.html">Sitesummary tip: Listing MAC address of all clients</a>
11329       </div>
11330       <div class="date">
11331         14th May 2010
11332       </div>
11333       <div class="body">
11334         <p>In the recent Debian Edu versions, the
11335 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/HowTo/SiteSummary">sitesummary
11336 system</a> is used to keep track of the machines in the school
11337 network.  Each machine will automatically report its status to the
11338 central server after boot and once per night.  The network setup is
11339 also reported, and using this information it is possible to get the
11340 MAC address of all network interfaces in the machines.  This is useful
11341 to update the DHCP configuration.</p>
11342
11343 <p>To give some idea how to use sitesummary, here is a one-liner to
11344 ist all MAC addresses of all machines reporting to sitesummary.  Run
11345 this on the collector host:</p>
11346
11347 <blockquote><pre>
11348 perl -MSiteSummary -e 'for_all_hosts(sub { print join(" ", get_macaddresses(shift)), "\n"; });'
11349 </pre></blockquote>
11350
11351 <p>This will list all MAC addresses assosiated with all machine, one
11352 line per machine and with space between the MAC addresses.</p>
11353
11354 <p>To allow system administrators easier job at adding static DHCP
11355 addresses for hosts, it would be possible to extend this to fetch
11356 machine information from sitesummary and update the DHCP and DNS
11357 tables in LDAP using this information.  Such tool is unfortunately not
11358 written yet.</p>
11359
11360       </div>
11361       <div class="tags">
11362
11363
11364         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sitesummary">sitesummary</a>.
11365
11366
11367       </div>
11368     </div>
11369     <div class="padding"></div>
11370
11371     <div class="entry">
11372       <div class="title">
11373         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/systemd__an_interesting_alternative_to_upstart.html">systemd, an interesting alternative to upstart</a>
11374       </div>
11375       <div class="date">
11376         13th May 2010
11377       </div>
11378       <div class="body">
11379         <p>The last few days a new boot system called
11380 <a href="http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/systemd">systemd</a>
11381 has been
11382 <a href="http://0pointer.de/blog/projects/systemd.html">introduced</a>
11383
11384 to the free software world.  I have not yet had time to play around
11385 with it, but it seem to be a very interesting alternative to
11386 <a href="http://upstart.ubuntu.com/">upstart</a>, and might prove to be
11387 a good alternative for Debian when we are able to switch to an event
11388 based boot system.  Tollef is
11389 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/580814">in the process</a> of getting
11390 systemd into Debian, and I look forward to seeing how well it work.  I
11391 like the fact that systemd handles init.d scripts with dependency
11392 information natively, allowing them to run in parallel where upstart
11393 at the moment do not.</p>
11394
11395 <p>Unfortunately do systemd have the same problem as upstart regarding
11396 platform support.  It only work on recent Linux kernels, and also need
11397 some new kernel features enabled to function properly.  This means
11398 kFreeBSD and Hurd ports of Debian will need a port or a different boot
11399 system.  Not sure how that will be handled if systemd proves to be the
11400 way forward.</p>
11401
11402 <p>In the mean time, based on the
11403 <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2010/05/msg00122.html">input
11404 on debian-devel@</a> regarding parallel booting in Debian, I have
11405 decided to enable full parallel booting as the default in Debian as
11406 soon as possible (probably this weekend or early next week), to see if
11407 there are any remaining serious bugs in the init.d dependencies.  A
11408 new version of the sysvinit package implementing this change is
11409 already in experimental.  If all go well, Squeeze will be released
11410 with parallel booting enabled by default.</p>
11411
11412       </div>
11413       <div class="tags">
11414
11415
11416         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bootsystem">bootsystem</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
11417
11418
11419       </div>
11420     </div>
11421     <div class="padding"></div>
11422
11423     <div class="entry">
11424       <div class="title">
11425         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Parallellizing_the_boot_in_Debian_Squeeze___ready_for_wider_testing.html">Parallellizing the boot in Debian Squeeze - ready for wider testing</a>
11426       </div>
11427       <div class="date">
11428          6th May 2010
11429       </div>
11430       <div class="body">
11431         <p>These days, the init.d script dependencies in Squeeze are quite
11432 complete, so complete that it is actually possible to run all the
11433 init.d scripts in parallell based on these dependencies.  If you want
11434 to test your Squeeze system, make sure
11435 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/LSBInitScripts/DependencyBasedBoot">dependency
11436 based boot sequencing</a> is enabled, and add this line to
11437 /etc/default/rcS:</p>
11438
11439 <blockquote><pre>
11440 CONCURRENCY=makefile
11441 </pre></blockquote>
11442
11443 <p>That is it.  It will cause sysv-rc to use the startpar tool to run
11444 scripts in parallel using the dependency information stored in
11445 /etc/init.d/.depend.boot, /etc/init.d/.depend.start and
11446 /etc/init.d/.depend.stop to order the scripts.  Startpar is configured
11447 to try to start the kdm and gdm scripts as early as possible, and will
11448 start the facilities required by kdm or gdm as early as possible to
11449 make this happen.</p>
11450
11451 <p>Give it a try, and see if you like the result.  If some services
11452 fail to start properly, it is most likely because they have incomplete
11453 init.d script dependencies in their startup script (or some of their
11454 dependent scripts have incomplete dependencies).  Report bugs and get
11455 the package maintainers to fix it. :)</p>
11456
11457 <p>Running scripts in parallel could be the default in Debian when we
11458 manage to get the init.d script dependencies complete and correct.  I
11459 expect we will get there in Squeeze+1, if we get manage to test and
11460 fix the remaining issues.</p>
11461
11462 <p>If you report any problems with dependencies in init.d scripts to
11463 the BTS, please usertag the report to get it to show up at
11464 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/pkgreport.cgi?users=initscripts-ng-devel@lists.alioth.debian.org">the
11465 list of usertagged bugs related to this</a>.</p>
11466
11467       </div>
11468       <div class="tags">
11469
11470
11471         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bootsystem">bootsystem</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
11472
11473
11474       </div>
11475     </div>
11476     <div class="padding"></div>
11477
11478     <div class="entry">
11479       <div class="title">
11480         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_has_switched_to_dependency_based_boot_sequencing.html">Debian has switched to dependency based boot sequencing</a>
11481       </div>
11482       <div class="date">
11483         27th July 2009
11484       </div>
11485       <div class="body">
11486         <p>Since this evening, with the upload of sysvinit version 2.87dsf-2,
11487 and the upload of insserv version 1.12.0-10 yesterday, Debian unstable
11488 have been migrated to using dependency based boot sequencing.  This
11489 conclude work me and others have been doing for the last three days.
11490 It feels great to see this finally part of the default Debian
11491 installation.  Now we just need to weed out the last few problems that
11492 are bound to show up, to get everything ready for Squeeze.</p>
11493
11494 <p>The next step is migrating /sbin/init from sysvinit to upstart, and
11495 fixing the more fundamental problem of handing the event based
11496 non-predictable kernel in the early boot.</p>
11497
11498       </div>
11499       <div class="tags">
11500
11501
11502         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bootsystem">bootsystem</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
11503
11504
11505       </div>
11506     </div>
11507     <div class="padding"></div>
11508
11509     <div class="entry">
11510       <div class="title">
11511         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Taking_over_sysvinit_development.html">Taking over sysvinit development</a>
11512       </div>
11513       <div class="date">
11514         22nd July 2009
11515       </div>
11516       <div class="body">
11517         <p>After several years of frustration with the lack of activity from
11518 the existing sysvinit upstream developer, I decided a few weeks ago to
11519 take over the package and become the new upstream.  The number of
11520 patches to track for the Debian package was becoming a burden, and the
11521 lack of synchronization between the distribution made it hard to keep
11522 the package up to date.</p>
11523
11524 <p>On the new sysvinit team is the SuSe maintainer Dr. Werner Fink,
11525 and my Debian co-maintainer Kel Modderman.  About 10 days ago, I made
11526 a new upstream tarball with version number 2.87dsf (for Debian, SuSe
11527 and Fedora), based on the patches currently in use in these
11528 distributions.  We Debian maintainers plan to move to this tarball as
11529 the new upstream as soon as we find time to do the merge.  Since the
11530 new tarball was created, we agreed with Werner at SuSe to make a new
11531 upstream project at <a href="http://savannah.nongnu.org/">Savannah</a>, and continue
11532 development there.  The project is registered and currently waiting
11533 for approval by the Savannah administrators, and as soon as it is
11534 approved, we will import the old versions from svn and continue
11535 working on the future release.</p>
11536
11537 <p>It is a bit ironic that this is done now, when some of the involved
11538 distributions are moving to upstart as a syvinit replacement.</p>
11539
11540       </div>
11541       <div class="tags">
11542
11543
11544         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bootsystem">bootsystem</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
11545
11546
11547       </div>
11548     </div>
11549     <div class="padding"></div>
11550
11551     <div class="entry">
11552       <div class="title">
11553         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_boots_quicker_and_quicker.html">Debian boots quicker and quicker</a>
11554       </div>
11555       <div class="date">
11556         24th June 2009
11557       </div>
11558       <div class="body">
11559         <p>I spent Monday and tuesday this week in London with a lot of the
11560 people involved in the boot system on Debian and Ubuntu, to see if we
11561 could find more ways to speed up the boot system.  This was an Ubuntu
11562 funded
11563 <a href="https://wiki.ubuntu.com/FoundationsTeam/BootPerformance/DebianUbuntuSprint">developer
11564 gathering</a>. It was quite productive.  We also discussed the future
11565 of boot systems, and ways to handle the increasing number of boot
11566 issues introduced by the Linux kernel becoming more and more
11567 asynchronous and event base.  The Ubuntu approach using udev and
11568 upstart might be a good way forward.  Time will show.</p>
11569
11570 <p>Anyway, there are a few ways at the moment to speed up the boot
11571 process in Debian.  All of these should be applied to get a quick
11572 boot:</p>
11573
11574 <ul>
11575
11576 <li>Use dash as /bin/sh.</li>
11577
11578 <li>Disable the init.d/hwclock*.sh scripts and make sure the hardware
11579    clock is in UTC.</li>
11580
11581 <li>Install and activate the insserv package to enable
11582    <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/LSBInitScripts/DependencyBasedBoot">dependency
11583    based boot sequencing</a>, and enable concurrent booting.</li>
11584
11585 </ul>
11586
11587 These points are based on the Google summer of code work done by
11588 <a href="http://initscripts-ng.alioth.debian.org/soc2006-bootsystem/">Carlos
11589 Villegas</a>.
11590
11591 <p>Support for makefile-style concurrency during boot was uploaded to
11592 unstable yesterday.  When we tested it, we were able to cut 6 seconds
11593 from the boot sequence.  It depend on very correct dependency
11594 declaration in all init.d scripts, so I expect us to find edge cases
11595 where the dependences in some scripts are slightly wrong when we start
11596 using this.</p>
11597
11598 <p>On our IRC channel for this effort, #pkg-sysvinit, a new idea was
11599 introduced by Raphael Geissert today, one that could affect the
11600 startup speed as well.  Instead of starting some scripts concurrently
11601 from rcS.d/ and another set of scripts from rc2.d/, it would be
11602 possible to run a of them in the same process.  A quick way to test
11603 this would be to enable insserv and run 'mv /etc/rc2.d/S* /etc/rcS.d/;
11604 insserv'.  Will need to test if that work. :)</p>
11605
11606       </div>
11607       <div class="tags">
11608
11609
11610         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bootsystem">bootsystem</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
11611
11612
11613       </div>
11614     </div>
11615     <div class="padding"></div>
11616
11617     <div class="entry">
11618       <div class="title">
11619         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/BSAs_p_stander_om_piratkopiering_m_ter_motstand.html">BSAs påstander om piratkopiering møter motstand</a>
11620       </div>
11621       <div class="date">
11622         17th May 2009
11623       </div>
11624       <div class="body">
11625         <p>Hvert år de siste årene har BSA, lobbyfronten til de store
11626 programvareselskapene som Microsoft og Apple, publisert en rapport der
11627 de gjetter på hvor mye piratkopiering påfører i tapte inntekter i
11628 ulike land rundt om i verden.  Resultatene er tendensiøse.  For noen
11629 dager siden kom
11630 <a href="http://global.bsa.org/globalpiracy2008/studies/globalpiracy2008.pdf">siste
11631 rapport</a>, og det er flere kritiske kommentarer publisert de siste
11632 dagene.  Et spesielt interessant kommentar fra Sverige,
11633 <a href="http://www.idg.se/2.1085/1.229795/bsa-hoftade-sverigesiffror">BSA
11634 höftade Sverigesiffror</a>, oppsummeres slik:</p>
11635
11636 <blockquote>
11637 I sin senaste rapport slår BSA fast att 25 procent av all mjukvara i
11638 Sverige är piratkopierad. Det utan att ha pratat med ett enda svenskt
11639 företag. "Man bör nog kanske inte se de här siffrorna som helt
11640 exakta", säger BSAs Sverigechef John Hugosson.
11641 </blockquote>
11642
11643 <p>Mon tro om de er like metodiske når de gjetter på andelen piratkopiering i Norge?  To andre kommentarer er <a
11644 href="http://www.vnunet.com/vnunet/comment/2242134/bsa-piracy-figures-shot-reality">BSA
11645 piracy figures need a shot of reality</a> og <a
11646 href="http://www.michaelgeist.ca/content/view/3958/125/">Does The WIPO
11647 Copyright Treaty Work?</a></p>
11648
11649 <p>Fant lenkene via <a
11650 href="http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/05/17/1632242">oppslag
11651 på Slashdot</a>.</p>
11652
11653       </div>
11654       <div class="tags">
11655
11656
11657         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bsa">bsa</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/fildeling">fildeling</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/norsk">norsk</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/opphavsrett">opphavsrett</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/personvern">personvern</a>.
11658
11659
11660       </div>
11661     </div>
11662     <div class="padding"></div>
11663
11664     <div class="entry">
11665       <div class="title">
11666         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/IDG_mener_linux_i_servermarkedet_vil_vokse_med_21__i_2009.html">IDG mener linux i servermarkedet vil vokse med 21% i 2009</a>
11667       </div>
11668       <div class="date">
11669          7th May 2009
11670       </div>
11671       <div class="body">
11672         <p>Kom over
11673 <a href="http://news.cnet.com/8301-13505_3-10216873-16.html">interessante
11674 tall</a> fra IDG om utviklingen av linuxservermarkedet.  Fikk meg til
11675 å tenke på antall tjenermaskiner ved Universitetet i Oslo der jeg
11676 jobber til daglig.  En rask opptelling forteller meg at vi har 490
11677 (61%) fysiske unix-tjener (mest linux men også noen solaris) og 196
11678 (25%) windowstjenere, samt 112 (14%) virtuelle unix-tjenere.  Med den
11679 bakgrunnskunnskapen kan jeg godt tro at IDG er inne på noe.</p>
11680
11681       </div>
11682       <div class="tags">
11683
11684
11685         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/norsk">norsk</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
11686
11687
11688       </div>
11689     </div>
11690     <div class="padding"></div>
11691
11692     <div class="entry">
11693       <div class="title">
11694         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Kryptert_harddisk___naturligvis.html">Kryptert harddisk - naturligvis</a>
11695       </div>
11696       <div class="date">
11697          2nd May 2009
11698       </div>
11699       <div class="body">
11700         <p><a href="http://www.dagensit.no/trender/article1658676.ece">Dagens
11701 IT melder</a> at Intel hevder at det er dyrt å miste en datamaskin,
11702 når en tar tap av arbeidstid, fortrolige dokumenter,
11703 personopplysninger og alt annet det innebærer.  Det er ingen tvil om
11704 at det er en kostbar affære å miste sin datamaskin, og det er årsaken
11705 til at jeg har kryptert harddisken på både kontormaskinen og min
11706 bærbare.  Begge inneholder personopplysninger jeg ikke ønsker skal
11707 komme på avveie, den første informasjon relatert til jobben min ved
11708 Universitetet i Oslo, og den andre relatert til blant annet
11709 foreningsarbeide.  Kryptering av diskene gjør at det er lite
11710 sannsynlig at dophoder som kan finne på å rappe maskinene får noe ut
11711 av dem.  Maskinene låses automatisk etter noen minutter uten bruk,
11712 og en reboot vil gjøre at de ber om passord før de vil starte opp.
11713 Jeg bruker Debian på begge maskinene, og installasjonssystemet der
11714 gjør det trivielt å sette opp krypterte disker.  Jeg har LVM på toppen
11715 av krypterte partisjoner, slik at alt av datapartisjoner er kryptert.
11716 Jeg anbefaler alle å kryptere diskene på sine bærbare.  Kostnaden når
11717 det er gjort slik jeg gjør det er minimale, og gevinstene er
11718 betydelige.  En bør dog passe på passordet.  Hvis det går tapt, må
11719 maskinen reinstalleres og alt er tapt.</p>
11720
11721 <p>Krypteringen vil ikke stoppe kompetente angripere som f.eks. kjøler
11722 ned minnebrikkene før maskinen rebootes med programvare for å hente ut
11723 krypteringsnøklene.  Kostnaden med å forsvare seg mot slike angripere
11724 er for min del høyere enn gevinsten.  Jeg tror oddsene for at
11725 f.eks. etteretningsorganisasjoner har glede av å titte på mine
11726 maskiner er minimale, og ulempene jeg ville oppnå ved å forsøke å
11727 gjøre det vanskeligere for angripere med kompetanse og ressurser er
11728 betydelige.</p>
11729
11730       </div>
11731       <div class="tags">
11732
11733
11734         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/norsk">norsk</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet</a>.
11735
11736
11737       </div>
11738     </div>
11739     <div class="padding"></div>
11740
11741     <div class="entry">
11742       <div class="title">
11743         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Two_projects_that_have_improved_the_quality_of_free_software_a_lot.html">Two projects that have improved the quality of free software a lot</a>
11744       </div>
11745       <div class="date">
11746          2nd May 2009
11747       </div>
11748       <div class="body">
11749         <p>There are two software projects that have had huge influence on the
11750 quality of free software, and I wanted to mention both in case someone
11751 do not yet know them.</p>
11752
11753 <p>The first one is <a href="http://valgrind.org/">valgrind</a>, a
11754 tool to detect and expose errors in the memory handling of programs.
11755 It is easy to use, all one need to do is to run 'valgrind program',
11756 and it will report any problems on stdout.  It is even better if the
11757 program include debug information.  With debug information, it is able
11758 to report the source file name and line number where the problem
11759 occurs.  It can report things like 'reading past memory block in file
11760 X line N, the memory block was allocated in file Y, line M', and
11761 'using uninitialised value in control logic'.  This tool has made it
11762 trivial to investigate reproducible crash bugs in programs, and have
11763 reduced the number of this kind of bugs in free software a lot.
11764
11765 <p>The second one is
11766 <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coverity">Coverity</a> which is
11767 a source code checker.  It is able to process the source of a program
11768 and find problems in the logic without running the program.  It
11769 started out as the Stanford Checker and became well known when it was
11770 used to find bugs in the Linux kernel.  It is now a commercial tool
11771 and the company behind it is running
11772 <a href="http://www.scan.coverity.com/">a community service</a> for the
11773 free software community, where a lot of free software projects get
11774 their source checked for free.  Several thousand defects have been
11775 found and fixed so far.  It can find errors like 'lock L taken in file
11776 X line N is never released if exiting in line M', or 'the code in file
11777 Y lines O to P can never be executed'.  The projects included in the
11778 community service project have managed to get rid of a lot of
11779 reliability problems thanks to Coverity.</p>
11780
11781 <p>I believe tools like this, that are able to automatically find
11782 errors in the source, are vital to improve the quality of software and
11783 make sure we can get rid of the crashing and failing software we are
11784 surrounded by today.</p>
11785
11786       </div>
11787       <div class="tags">
11788
11789
11790         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
11791
11792
11793       </div>
11794     </div>
11795     <div class="padding"></div>
11796
11797     <div class="entry">
11798       <div class="title">
11799         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/No_patch_is_not_better_than_a_useless_patch.html">No patch is not better than a useless patch</a>
11800       </div>
11801       <div class="date">
11802         28th April 2009
11803       </div>
11804       <div class="body">
11805         <p>Julien Blache
11806 <a href="http://blog.technologeek.org/2009/04/12/214">claim that no
11807 patch is better than a useless patch</a>.  I completely disagree, as a
11808 patch allow one to discuss a concrete and proposed solution, and also
11809 prove that the issue at hand is important enough for someone to spent
11810 time on fixing it.  No patch do not provide any of these positive
11811 properties.</p>
11812
11813       </div>
11814       <div class="tags">
11815
11816
11817         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
11818
11819
11820       </div>
11821     </div>
11822     <div class="padding"></div>
11823
11824     <div class="entry">
11825       <div class="title">
11826         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Standardize_on_protocols_and_formats__not_vendors_and_applications.html">Standardize on protocols and formats, not vendors and applications</a>
11827       </div>
11828       <div class="date">
11829         30th March 2009
11830       </div>
11831       <div class="body">
11832         <p>Where I work at the University of Oslo, one decision stand out as a
11833 very good one to form a long lived computer infrastructure.  It is the
11834 simple one, lost by many in todays computer industry: Standardize on
11835 open network protocols and open exchange/storage formats, not applications.
11836 Applications come and go, while protocols and files tend to stay, and
11837 thus one want to make it easy to change application and vendor, while
11838 avoiding conversion costs and locking users to a specific platform or
11839 application.</p>
11840
11841 <p>This approach make it possible to replace the client applications
11842 independently of the server applications.  One can even allow users to
11843 use several different applications as long as they handle the selected
11844 protocol and format.  In the normal case, only one client application
11845 is recommended and users only get help if they choose to use this
11846 application, but those that want to deviate from the easy path are not
11847 blocked from doing so.</p>
11848
11849 <p>It also allow us to replace the server side without forcing the
11850 users to replace their applications, and thus allow us to select the
11851 best server implementation at any moment, when scale and resouce
11852 requirements change.</p>
11853
11854 <p>I strongly recommend standardizing - on open network protocols and
11855 open formats, but I would never recommend standardizing on a single
11856 application that do not use open network protocol or open formats.</p>
11857
11858       </div>
11859       <div class="tags">
11860
11861
11862         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/standard">standard</a>.
11863
11864
11865       </div>
11866     </div>
11867     <div class="padding"></div>
11868
11869     <div class="entry">
11870       <div class="title">
11871         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Returning_from_Skolelinux_developer_gathering.html">Returning from Skolelinux developer gathering</a>
11872       </div>
11873       <div class="date">
11874         29th March 2009
11875       </div>
11876       <div class="body">
11877         <p>I'm sitting on the train going home from this weekends Debian
11878 Edu/Skolelinux development gathering.  I got a bit done tuning the
11879 desktop, and looked into the dynamic service location protocol
11880 implementation avahi.  It look like it could be useful for us.  Almost
11881 30 people participated, and I believe it was a great environment to
11882 get to know the Skolelinux system.  Walter Bender, involved in the
11883 development of the Sugar educational platform, presented his stuff and
11884 also helped me improve my OLPC installation.  He also showed me that
11885 his Turtle Art application can be used in standalone mode, and we
11886 agreed that I would help getting it packaged for Debian.  As a
11887 standalone application it would be great for Debian Edu.  We also
11888 tried to get the video conferencing working with two OLPCs, but that
11889 proved to be too hard for us.  The application seem to need more work
11890 before it is ready for me.  I look forward to getting home and relax
11891 now. :)</p>
11892
11893       </div>
11894       <div class="tags">
11895
11896
11897         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
11898
11899
11900       </div>
11901     </div>
11902     <div class="padding"></div>
11903
11904     <div class="entry">
11905       <div class="title">
11906         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Time_for_new__LDAP_schemas_replacing_RFC_2307_.html">Time for new  LDAP schemas replacing RFC 2307?</a>
11907       </div>
11908       <div class="date">
11909         29th March 2009
11910       </div>
11911       <div class="body">
11912         <p>The state of standardized LDAP schemas on Linux is far from
11913 optimal.  There is RFC 2307 documenting one way to store NIS maps in
11914 LDAP, and a modified version of this normally called RFC 2307bis, with
11915 some modifications to be compatible with Active Directory.  The RFC
11916 specification handle the content of a lot of system databases, but do
11917 not handle DNS zones and DHCP configuration.</p>
11918
11919 <p>In <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu/Skolelinux</a>,
11920 we would like to store information about users, SMB clients/hosts,
11921 filegroups, netgroups (users and hosts), DHCP and DNS configuration,
11922 and LTSP configuration in LDAP.  These objects have a lot in common,
11923 but with the current LDAP schemas it is not possible to have one
11924 object per entity.  For example, one need to have at least three LDAP
11925 objects for a given computer, one with the SMB related stuff, one with
11926 DNS information and another with DHCP information.  The schemas
11927 provided for DNS and DHCP are impossible to combine into one LDAP
11928 object.  In addition, it is impossible to implement quick queries for
11929 netgroup membership, because of the way NIS triples are implemented.
11930 It just do not scale.  I believe it is time for a few RFC
11931 specifications to cleam up this mess.</p>
11932
11933 <p>I would like to have one LDAP object representing each computer in
11934 the network, and this object can then keep the SMB (ie host key), DHCP
11935 (mac address/name) and DNS (name/IP address) settings in one place.
11936 It need to be efficently stored to make sure it scale well.</p>
11937
11938 <p>I would also like to have a quick way to map from a user or
11939 computer and to the net group this user or computer is a member.</p>
11940
11941 <p>Active Directory have done a better job than unix heads like myself
11942 in this regard, and the unix side need to catch up.  Time to start a
11943 new IETF work group?</p>
11944
11945       </div>
11946       <div class="tags">
11947
11948
11949         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ldap">ldap</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
11950
11951
11952       </div>
11953     </div>
11954     <div class="padding"></div>
11955
11956     <div class="entry">
11957       <div class="title">
11958         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Endelig_er_Debian_Lenny_gitt_ut.html">Endelig er Debian Lenny gitt ut</a>
11959       </div>
11960       <div class="date">
11961         15th February 2009
11962       </div>
11963       <div class="body">
11964         <p>Endelig er <a href="http://www.debian.org/">Debian</a>
11965 <a href="http://www.debian.org/News/2009/20090214">Lenny</a> gitt ut.
11966 Et langt steg videre for Debian-prosjektet, og en rekke nye
11967 programpakker blir nå tilgjengelig for de av oss som bruker den
11968 stabile utgaven av Debian.  Neste steg er nå å få
11969 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Skolelinux</a> /
11970 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/">Debian Edu</a> ferdig
11971 oppdatert for den nye utgaven, slik at en oppdatert versjon kan
11972 slippes løs på skolene.  Takk til alle debian-utviklerne som har
11973 gjort dette mulig.  Endelig er f.eks. fungerende avhengighetsstyrt
11974 bootsekvens tilgjengelig i stabil utgave, vha pakken
11975 <tt>insserv</tt>.</p>
11976
11977       </div>
11978       <div class="tags">
11979
11980
11981         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/norsk">norsk</a>.
11982
11983
11984       </div>
11985     </div>
11986     <div class="padding"></div>
11987
11988     <div class="entry">
11989       <div class="title">
11990         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Devcamp_brought_us_closer_to_the_Lenny_based_Debian_Edu_release.html">Devcamp brought us closer to the Lenny based Debian Edu release</a>
11991       </div>
11992       <div class="date">
11993          7th December 2008
11994       </div>
11995       <div class="body">
11996         <p>This weekend we had a small developer gathering for Debian Edu in
11997 Oslo.  Most of Saturday was used for the general assemly for the
11998 member organization, but the rest of the weekend I used to tune the
11999 LTSP installation.  LTSP now work out of the box on the 10-network.
12000 Acer Aspire One proved to be a very nice thin client, with both
12001 screen, mouse and keybard in a small box.  Was working on getting the
12002 diskless workstation setup configured out of the box, but did not
12003 finish it before the weekend was up.</p>
12004
12005 <p>Did not find time to look at the 4 VGA cards in one box we got from
12006 the Brazilian group, so that will have to wait for the next
12007 development gathering.  Would love to have the Debian Edu installer
12008 automatically detect and configure a multiseat setup when it find one
12009 of these cards.</p>
12010
12011       </div>
12012       <div class="tags">
12013
12014
12015         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ltsp">ltsp</a>.
12016
12017
12018       </div>
12019     </div>
12020     <div class="padding"></div>
12021
12022     <div class="entry">
12023       <div class="title">
12024         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_sorry_state_of_multimedia_browser_plugins_in_Debian.html">The sorry state of multimedia browser plugins in Debian</a>
12025       </div>
12026       <div class="date">
12027         25th November 2008
12028       </div>
12029       <div class="body">
12030         <p>Recently I have spent some time evaluating the multimedia browser
12031 plugins available in Debian Lenny, to see which one we should use by
12032 default in Debian Edu.  We need an embedded video playing plugin with
12033 control buttons to pause or stop the video, and capable of streaming
12034 all the multimedia content available on the web.  The test results and
12035 notes are available on
12036 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/BrowserMultimedia">the
12037 Debian wiki</a>.  I was surprised how few of the plugins are able to
12038 fill this need.  My personal video player favorite, VLC, has a really
12039 bad plugin which fail on a lot of the test pages.  A lot of the MIME
12040 types I would expect to work with any free software player (like
12041 video/ogg), just do not work.  And simple formats like the
12042 audio/x-mplegurl format (m3u playlists), just isn't supported by the
12043 totem and vlc plugins.  I hope the situation will improve soon.  No
12044 wonder sites use the proprietary Adobe flash to play video.</p>
12045
12046 <p>For Lenny, we seem to end up with the mplayer plugin.  It seem to
12047 be the only one fitting our needs. :/</p>
12048
12049       </div>
12050       <div class="tags">
12051
12052
12053         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/multimedia">multimedia</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/web">web</a>.
12054
12055
12056       </div>
12057     </div>
12058     <div class="padding"></div>
12059
12060     <p style="text-align: right;"><a href="debian.rss"><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/xml.gif" alt="RSS Feed" width="36" height="14" /></a></p>
12061     <div id="sidebar">
12062
12063
12064
12065 <h2>Archive</h2>
12066 <ul>
12067
12068 <li>2017
12069 <ul>
12070
12071 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2017/01/">January (2)</a></li>
12072
12073 </ul></li>
12074
12075 <li>2016
12076 <ul>
12077
12078 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2016/01/">January (3)</a></li>
12079
12080 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2016/02/">February (2)</a></li>
12081
12082 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2016/03/">March (3)</a></li>
12083
12084 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2016/04/">April (8)</a></li>
12085
12086 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2016/05/">May (8)</a></li>
12087
12088 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2016/06/">June (2)</a></li>
12089
12090 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2016/07/">July (2)</a></li>
12091
12092 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2016/08/">August (5)</a></li>
12093
12094 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2016/09/">September (2)</a></li>
12095
12096 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2016/10/">October (3)</a></li>
12097
12098 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2016/11/">November (8)</a></li>
12099
12100 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2016/12/">December (5)</a></li>
12101
12102 </ul></li>
12103
12104 <li>2015
12105 <ul>
12106
12107 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/01/">January (7)</a></li>
12108
12109 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/02/">February (6)</a></li>
12110
12111 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/03/">March (1)</a></li>
12112
12113 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/04/">April (4)</a></li>
12114
12115 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/05/">May (3)</a></li>
12116
12117 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/06/">June (4)</a></li>
12118
12119 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/07/">July (6)</a></li>
12120
12121 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/08/">August (2)</a></li>
12122
12123 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/09/">September (2)</a></li>
12124
12125 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/10/">October (9)</a></li>
12126
12127 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/11/">November (6)</a></li>
12128
12129 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/12/">December (3)</a></li>
12130
12131 </ul></li>
12132
12133 <li>2014
12134 <ul>
12135
12136 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/01/">January (2)</a></li>
12137
12138 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/02/">February (3)</a></li>
12139
12140 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/03/">March (8)</a></li>
12141
12142 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/04/">April (7)</a></li>
12143
12144 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/05/">May (1)</a></li>
12145
12146 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/06/">June (2)</a></li>
12147
12148 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/07/">July (2)</a></li>
12149
12150 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/08/">August (2)</a></li>
12151
12152 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/09/">September (5)</a></li>
12153
12154 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/10/">October (6)</a></li>
12155
12156 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/11/">November (3)</a></li>
12157
12158 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/12/">December (5)</a></li>
12159
12160 </ul></li>
12161
12162 <li>2013
12163 <ul>
12164
12165 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/01/">January (11)</a></li>
12166
12167 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/02/">February (9)</a></li>
12168
12169 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/03/">March (9)</a></li>
12170
12171 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/04/">April (6)</a></li>
12172
12173 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/05/">May (9)</a></li>
12174
12175 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/06/">June (10)</a></li>
12176
12177 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/07/">July (7)</a></li>
12178
12179 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/08/">August (3)</a></li>
12180
12181 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/09/">September (5)</a></li>
12182
12183 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/10/">October (7)</a></li>
12184
12185 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/11/">November (9)</a></li>
12186
12187 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/12/">December (3)</a></li>
12188
12189 </ul></li>
12190
12191 <li>2012
12192 <ul>
12193
12194 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/01/">January (7)</a></li>
12195
12196 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/02/">February (10)</a></li>
12197
12198 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/03/">March (17)</a></li>
12199
12200 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/04/">April (12)</a></li>
12201
12202 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/05/">May (12)</a></li>
12203
12204 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/06/">June (20)</a></li>
12205
12206 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/07/">July (17)</a></li>
12207
12208 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/08/">August (6)</a></li>
12209
12210 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/09/">September (9)</a></li>
12211
12212 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/10/">October (17)</a></li>
12213
12214 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/11/">November (10)</a></li>
12215
12216 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/12/">December (7)</a></li>
12217
12218 </ul></li>
12219
12220 <li>2011
12221 <ul>
12222
12223 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/01/">January (16)</a></li>
12224
12225 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/02/">February (6)</a></li>
12226
12227 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/03/">March (6)</a></li>
12228
12229 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/04/">April (7)</a></li>
12230
12231 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/05/">May (3)</a></li>
12232
12233 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/06/">June (2)</a></li>
12234
12235 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/07/">July (7)</a></li>
12236
12237 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/08/">August (6)</a></li>
12238
12239 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/09/">September (4)</a></li>
12240
12241 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/10/">October (2)</a></li>
12242
12243 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/11/">November (3)</a></li>
12244
12245 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/12/">December (1)</a></li>
12246
12247 </ul></li>
12248
12249 <li>2010
12250 <ul>
12251
12252 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/01/">January (2)</a></li>
12253
12254 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/02/">February (1)</a></li>
12255
12256 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/03/">March (3)</a></li>
12257
12258 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/04/">April (3)</a></li>
12259
12260 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/05/">May (9)</a></li>
12261
12262 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/06/">June (14)</a></li>
12263
12264 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/07/">July (12)</a></li>
12265
12266 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/08/">August (13)</a></li>
12267
12268 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/09/">September (7)</a></li>
12269
12270 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/10/">October (9)</a></li>
12271
12272 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/11/">November (13)</a></li>
12273
12274 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/12/">December (12)</a></li>
12275
12276 </ul></li>
12277
12278 <li>2009
12279 <ul>
12280
12281 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/01/">January (8)</a></li>
12282
12283 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/02/">February (8)</a></li>
12284
12285 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/03/">March (12)</a></li>
12286
12287 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/04/">April (10)</a></li>
12288
12289 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/05/">May (9)</a></li>
12290
12291 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/06/">June (3)</a></li>
12292
12293 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/07/">July (4)</a></li>
12294
12295 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/08/">August (3)</a></li>
12296
12297 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/09/">September (1)</a></li>
12298
12299 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/10/">October (2)</a></li>
12300
12301 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/11/">November (3)</a></li>
12302
12303 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/12/">December (3)</a></li>
12304
12305 </ul></li>
12306
12307 <li>2008
12308 <ul>
12309
12310 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2008/11/">November (5)</a></li>
12311
12312 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2008/12/">December (7)</a></li>
12313
12314 </ul></li>
12315
12316 </ul>
12317
12318
12319
12320 <h2>Tags</h2>
12321 <ul>
12322
12323  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/3d-printer">3d-printer (13)</a></li>
12324
12325  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/amiga">amiga (1)</a></li>
12326
12327  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/aros">aros (1)</a></li>
12328
12329  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bankid">bankid (4)</a></li>
12330
12331  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bitcoin">bitcoin (9)</a></li>
12332
12333  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bootsystem">bootsystem (16)</a></li>
12334
12335  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bsa">bsa (2)</a></li>
12336
12337  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/chrpath">chrpath (2)</a></li>
12338
12339  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian (145)</a></li>
12340
12341  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu (158)</a></li>
12342
12343  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/digistan">digistan (10)</a></li>
12344
12345  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/dld">dld (16)</a></li>
12346
12347  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/docbook">docbook (23)</a></li>
12348
12349  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/drivstoffpriser">drivstoffpriser (4)</a></li>
12350
12351  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english (338)</a></li>
12352
12353  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/fiksgatami">fiksgatami (23)</a></li>
12354
12355  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/fildeling">fildeling (12)</a></li>
12356
12357  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freeculture">freeculture (29)</a></li>
12358
12359  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freedombox">freedombox (9)</a></li>
12360
12361  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/frikanalen">frikanalen (18)</a></li>
12362
12363  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/h264">h264 (20)</a></li>
12364
12365  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/intervju">intervju (42)</a></li>
12366
12367  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram">isenkram (15)</a></li>
12368
12369  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/kart">kart (20)</a></li>
12370
12371  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ldap">ldap (9)</a></li>
12372
12373  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/lenker">lenker (8)</a></li>
12374
12375  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/lsdvd">lsdvd (2)</a></li>
12376
12377  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ltsp">ltsp (1)</a></li>
12378
12379  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/mesh network">mesh network (8)</a></li>
12380
12381  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/multimedia">multimedia (39)</a></li>
12382
12383  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nice free software">nice free software (9)</a></li>
12384
12385  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/norsk">norsk (285)</a></li>
12386
12387  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug (183)</a></li>
12388
12389  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/offentlig innsyn">offentlig innsyn (26)</a></li>
12390
12391  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/open311">open311 (2)</a></li>
12392
12393  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/opphavsrett">opphavsrett (62)</a></li>
12394
12395  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/personvern">personvern (97)</a></li>
12396
12397  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/raid">raid (1)</a></li>
12398
12399  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/reactos">reactos (1)</a></li>
12400
12401  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/reprap">reprap (11)</a></li>
12402
12403  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/rfid">rfid (3)</a></li>
12404
12405  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/robot">robot (10)</a></li>
12406
12407  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/rss">rss (1)</a></li>
12408
12409  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ruter">ruter (5)</a></li>
12410
12411  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/scraperwiki">scraperwiki (2)</a></li>
12412
12413  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet (52)</a></li>
12414
12415  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sitesummary">sitesummary (4)</a></li>
12416
12417  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/skepsis">skepsis (5)</a></li>
12418
12419  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/standard">standard (50)</a></li>
12420
12421  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/stavekontroll">stavekontroll (5)</a></li>
12422
12423  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/stortinget">stortinget (11)</a></li>
12424
12425  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance (45)</a></li>
12426
12427  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sysadmin">sysadmin (2)</a></li>
12428
12429  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/usenix">usenix (2)</a></li>
12430
12431  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/valg">valg (8)</a></li>
12432
12433  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/video">video (59)</a></li>
12434
12435  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/vitenskap">vitenskap (4)</a></li>
12436
12437  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/web">web (39)</a></li>
12438
12439 </ul>
12440
12441
12442     </div>
12443     <p style="text-align: right">
12444  Created by <a href="http://steve.org.uk/Software/chronicle">Chronicle v4.6</a>
12445 </p>
12446
12447   </body>
12448 </html>