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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/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>
  26       </div>
  27       <div class="date">
  28         26th September 2014
  29       </div>
  30       <div class="body">
  31         <p>The <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux
  32 project</a> provide a Linux solution for schools, including a
  33 powerful desktop with education software, a central server providing
  34 web pages, user database, user home directories, central login and PXE
  35 boot of both  clients without disk and the installation to install Debian
  36 Edu on machines with disk (and a few other services perhaps to small
  37 to mention here).  We in the Debian Edu team are currently working on
  38 the Jessie based version, trying to get everything in shape before the
  39 freeze, to avoid having to maintain our own package repository in the
  40 future.  The
  41 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Status/Jessie">current
  42 status</a> can be seen on the Debian wiki, and there is still heaps of
  43 work left.  Some fatal problems block testing, breaking the installer,
  44 but it is possible to work around these to get anyway.  Here is a
  45 recipe on how to get the installation limping along.</p>
  46
  47 <p>First, download the test ISO via
  48 <a href="ftp://ftp.skolelinux.no/cd-edu-testing-nolocal-netinst/debian-edu-amd64-i386-NETINST-1.iso">ftp</a>,
  49 <a href="http://ftp.skolelinux.no/cd-edu-testing-nolocal-netinst/debian-edu-amd64-i386-NETINST-1.iso">http</a>
  50 or rsync (use
  51 ftp.skolelinux.org::cd-edu-testing-nolocal-netinst/debian-edu-amd64-i386-NETINST-1.iso).
  52 The ISO build was broken on Tuesday, so we do not get a new ISO every
  53 12 hours or so, but thankfully the ISO we got is able to install with
  54 some tweaking.</p>
  55
  56 <p>When you get to the Debian Edu profile question, go to tty2
  57 (use Alt-Ctrl-F2), run</p>
  58
  59 <p><blockquote><pre>
  60 nano /usr/bin/edu-eatmydata-install
  61 </pre></blockquote></p>
  62
  63 <p>and add 'exit 0' as the second line, disabling the eatmydata
  64 optimization.  Return to the installation, select the profile you want
  65 and continue.  Without this change, exim4-config will fail to install
  66 due to a known bug in eatmydata.</p>
  67
  68 <p>When you get the grub question at the end, answer /dev/sda (or if
  69 this do not work, figure out what your correct value would be.  All my
  70 test machines need /dev/sda, so I have no advice if it do not fit
  71 your need.</p>
  72
  73 <p>If you installed a profile including a graphical desktop, log in as
  74 root after the initial boot from hard drive, and install the
  75 education-desktop-XXX metapackage.  XXX can be kde, gnome, lxde, xfce
  76 or mate.  If you want several desktop options, install more than one
  77 metapackage.  Once this is done, reboot and you should have a working
  78 graphical login screen.  This should no longer be needed once the
  79 education-tasks package version 1.801 enter testing in two days.</p>
  80
  81 <p>I believe the ISO build will start working on two days when the new
  82 tasksel package enter testing and Steve McIntyre get a chance to
  83 update the debian-cd git repository.  The eatmydata, grub and desktop
  84 issues are already fixed in unstable and testing, and should show up
  85 on the ISO as soon as the ISO build start working again.  Well the
  86 eatmydata optimization is really just disabled.  The proper fix
  87 require an upload by the eatmydata maintainer applying the patch
  88 provided in bug <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/702711">#702711</a>.
  89 The rest have proper fixes in unstable.</p>
  90
  91 <p>I hope this get you going with the installation testing, as we are
  92 quickly running out of time trying to get our Jessie based
  93 installation ready before the distribution freeze in a month.</p>
  94
  95       </div>
  96       <div class="tags">
  97
  98
  99         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>.
 100
 101
 102       </div>
 103     </div>
 104     <div class="padding"></div>
 105
 106     <div class="entry">
 107       <div class="title">
 108         <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>
 109       </div>
 110       <div class="date">
 111         25th September 2014
 112       </div>
 113       <div class="body">
 114         <p>I use the <a href="https://sourceforge.net/p/lsdvd/">lsdvd tool</a>
 115 to handle my fairly large DVD collection.  It is a nice command line
 116 tool to get details about a DVD, like title, tracks, track length,
 117 etc, in XML, Perl or human readable format.  But lsdvd have not seen
 118 any new development since 2006 and had a few irritating bugs affecting
 119 its use with some DVDs.  Upstream seemed to be dead, and in January I
 120 sent a small probe asking for a version control repository for the
 121 project, without any reply.  But I use it regularly and would like to
 122 get <a href="https://packages.qa.debian.org/lsdvd">an updated version
 123 into Debian</a>.  So two weeks ago I tried harder to get in touch with
 124 the project admin, and after getting a reply from him explaining that
 125 he was no longer interested in the project, I asked if I could take
 126 over.  And yesterday, I became project admin.</p>
 127
 128 <p>I've been in touch with a Gentoo developer and the Debian
 129 maintainer interested in joining forces to maintain the upstream
 130 project, and I hope we can get a new release out fairly quickly,
 131 collecting the patches spread around on the internet into on place.
 132 I've added the relevant Debian patches to the freshly created git
 133 repository, and expect the Gentoo patches to make it too.  If you got
 134 a DVD collection and care about command line tools, check out
 135 <a href="https://sourceforge.net/p/lsdvd/git/ci/master/tree/">the git source</a> and join
 136 <a href="https://sourceforge.net/p/lsdvd/mailman/">the project mailing
 137 list</a>. :)</p>
 138
 139       </div>
 140       <div class="tags">
 141
 142
 143         Tags: <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>.
 144
 145
 146       </div>
 147     </div>
 148     <div class="padding"></div>
 149
 150     <div class="entry">
 151       <div class="title">
 152         <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>
 153       </div>
 154       <div class="date">
 155         16th September 2014
 156       </div>
 157       <div class="body">
 158         <p>The <a href="https://www.debian.org/">Debian</a> installer could be
 159 a lot quicker.  When we install more than 2000 packages in
 160 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Skolelinux / Debian Edu</a> using
 161 tasksel in the installer, unpacking the binary packages take forever.
 162 A part of the slow I/O issue was discussed in
 163 <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/613428">bug #613428</a> about too
 164 much file system sync-ing done by dpkg, which is the package
 165 responsible for unpacking the binary packages.  Other parts (like code
 166 executed by postinst scripts) might also sync to disk during
 167 installation.  All this sync-ing to disk do not really make sense to
 168 me.  If the machine crash half-way through, I start over, I do not try
 169 to salvage the half installed system.  So the failure sync-ing is
 170 supposed to protect against, hardware or system crash, is not really
 171 relevant while the installer is running.</p>
 172
 173 <p>A few days ago, I thought of a way to get rid of all the file
 174 system sync()-ing in a fairly non-intrusive way, without the need to
 175 change the code in several packages.  The idea is not new, but I have
 176 not heard anyone propose the approach using dpkg-divert before.  It
 177 depend on the small and clever package
 178 <a href="https://packages.qa.debian.org/eatmydata">eatmydata</a>, which
 179 uses LD_PRELOAD to replace the system functions for syncing data to
 180 disk with functions doing nothing, thus allowing programs to live
 181 dangerous while speeding up disk I/O significantly.  Instead of
 182 modifying the implementation of dpkg, apt and tasksel (which are the
 183 packages responsible for selecting, fetching and installing packages),
 184 it occurred to me that we could just divert the programs away, replace
 185 them with a simple shell wrapper calling
 186 "eatmydata&nbsp;$program&nbsp;$@", to get the same effect.
 187 Two days ago I decided to test the idea, and wrapped up a simple
 188 implementation for the Debian Edu udeb.</p>
 189
 190 <p>The effect was stunning.  In my first test it reduced the running
 191 time of the pkgsel step (installing tasks) from 64 to less than 44
 192 minutes (20 minutes shaved off the installation) on an old Dell
 193 Latitude D505 machine.  I am not quite sure what the optimised time
 194 would have been, as I messed up the testing a bit, causing the debconf
 195 priority to get low enough for two questions to pop up during
 196 installation.  As soon as I saw the questions I moved the installation
 197 along, but do not know how long the question were holding up the
 198 installation.  I did some more measurements using Debian Edu Jessie,
 199 and got these results.  The time measured is the time stamp in
 200 /var/log/syslog between the "pkgsel: starting tasksel" and the
 201 "pkgsel: finishing up" lines, if you want to do the same measurement
 202 yourself.  In Debian Edu, the tasksel dialog do not show up, and the
 203 timing thus do not depend on how quickly the user handle the tasksel
 204 dialog.</p>
 205
 206 <p><table>
 207
 208 <tr>
 209 <th>Machine/setup</th>
 210 <th>Original tasksel</th>
 211 <th>Optimised tasksel</th>
 212 <th>Reduction</th>
 213 </tr>
 214
 215 <tr>
 216 <td>Latitude D505 Main+LTSP LXDE</td>
 217 <td>64 min (07:46-08:50)</td>
 218 <td><44 min (11:27-12:11)</td>
 219 <td>>20 min 18%</td>
 220 </tr>
 221
 222 <tr>
 223 <td>Latitude D505 Roaming LXDE</td>
 224 <td>57 min (08:48-09:45)</td>
 225 <td>34 min (07:43-08:17)</td>
 226 <td>23 min 40%</td>
 227 </tr>
 228
 229 <tr>
 230 <td>Latitude D505 Minimal</td>
 231 <td>22 min (10:37-10:59)</td>
 232 <td>11 min (11:16-11:27)</td>
 233 <td>11 min 50%</td>
 234 </tr>
 235
 236 <tr>
 237 <td>Thinkpad X200 Minimal</td>
 238 <td>6 min (08:19-08:25)</td>
 239 <td>4 min (08:04-08:08)</td>
 240 <td>2 min 33%</td>
 241 </tr>
 242
 243 <tr>
 244 <td>Thinkpad X200 Roaming KDE</td>
 245 <td>19 min (09:21-09:40)</td>
 246 <td>15 min (10:25-10:40)</td>
 247 <td>4 min 21%</td>
 248 </tr>
 249
 250 </table></p>
 251
 252 <p>The test is done using a netinst ISO on a USB stick, so some of the
 253 time is spent downloading packages.  The connection to the Internet
 254 was 100Mbit/s during testing, so downloading should not be a
 255 significant factor in the measurement.  Download typically took a few
 256 seconds to a few minutes, depending on the amount of packages being
 257 installed.</p>
 258
 259 <p>The speedup is implemented by using two hooks in
 260 <a href="https://www.debian.org/devel/debian-installer/">Debian
 261 Installer</a>, the pre-pkgsel.d hook to set up the diverts, and the
 262 finish-install.d hook to remove the divert at the end of the
 263 installation.  I picked the pre-pkgsel.d hook instead of the
 264 post-base-installer.d hook because I test using an ISO without the
 265 eatmydata package included, and the post-base-installer.d hook in
 266 Debian Edu can only operate on packages included in the ISO.  The
 267 negative effect of this is that I am unable to activate this
 268 optimization for the kernel installation step in d-i.  If the code is
 269 moved to the post-base-installer.d hook, the speedup would be larger
 270 for the entire installation.</p>
 271
 272 <p>I've implemented this in the
 273 <a href="https://packages.qa.debian.org/debian-edu-install">debian-edu-install</a>
 274 git repository, and plan to provide the optimization as part of the
 275 Debian Edu installation.  If you want to test this yourself, you can
 276 create two files in the installer (or in an udeb).  One shell script
 277 need do go into /usr/lib/pre-pkgsel.d/, with content like this:</p>
 278
 279 <p><blockquote><pre>
 280 #!/bin/sh
 281 set -e
 282 . /usr/share/debconf/confmodule
 283 info() {
 284     logger -t my-pkgsel "info: $*"
 285 }
 286 error() {
 287     logger -t my-pkgsel "error: $*"
 288 }
 289 override_install() {
 290     apt-install eatmydata || true
 291     if [ -x /target/usr/bin/eatmydata ] ; then
 292         for bin in dpkg apt-get aptitude tasksel ; do
 293             file=/usr/bin/$bin
 294             # Test that the file exist and have not been diverted already.
 295             if [ -f /target$file ] ; then
 296                 info "diverting $file using eatmydata"
 297                 printf "#!/bin/sh\neatmydata $bin.distrib \"\$@\"\n" \
 298                     > /target$file.edu
 299                 chmod 755 /target$file.edu
 300                 in-target dpkg-divert --package debian-edu-config \
 301                     --rename --quiet --add $file
 302                 ln -sf ./$bin.edu /target$file
 303             else
 304                 error "unable to divert $file, as it is missing."
 305             fi
 306         done
 307     else
 308         error "unable to find /usr/bin/eatmydata after installing the eatmydata pacage"
 309     fi
 310 }
 311
 312 override_install
 313 </pre></blockquote></p>
 314
 315 <p>To clean up, another shell script should go into
 316 /usr/lib/finish-install.d/ with code like this:
 317
 318 <p><blockquote><pre>
 319 #! /bin/sh -e
 320 . /usr/share/debconf/confmodule
 321 error() {
 322     logger -t my-finish-install "error: $@"
 323 }
 324 remove_install_override() {
 325     for bin in dpkg apt-get aptitude tasksel ; do
 326         file=/usr/bin/$bin
 327         if [ -x /target$file.edu ] ; then
 328             rm /target$file
 329             in-target dpkg-divert --package debian-edu-config \
 330                 --rename --quiet --remove $file
 331             rm /target$file.edu
 332         else
 333             error "Missing divert for $file."
 334         fi
 335     done
 336     sync # Flush file buffers before continuing
 337 }
 338
 339 remove_install_override
 340 </pre></blockquote></p>
 341
 342 <p>In Debian Edu, I placed both code fragments in a separate script
 343 edu-eatmydata-install and call it from the pre-pkgsel.d and
 344 finish-install.d scripts.</p>
 345
 346 <p>By now you might ask if this change should get into the normal
 347 Debian installer too?  I suspect it should, but am not sure the
 348 current debian-installer coordinators find it useful enough.  It also
 349 depend on the side effects of the change.  I'm not aware of any, but I
 350 guess we will see if the change is safe after some more testing.
 351 Perhaps there is some package in Debian depending on sync() and
 352 fsync() having effect?  Perhaps it should go into its own udeb, to
 353 allow those of us wanting to enable it to do so without affecting
 354 everyone.</p>
 355
 356 <p>Update 2014-09-24: Since a few days ago, enabling this optimization
 357 will break installation of all programs using gnutls because of
 358 <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/702711">bug #702711.  An updated
 359 eatmydata package in Debian will solve it.</p>
 360
 361       </div>
 362       <div class="tags">
 363
 364
 365         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>.
 366
 367
 368       </div>
 369     </div>
 370     <div class="padding"></div>
 371
 372     <div class="entry">
 373       <div class="title">
 374         <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>
 375       </div>
 376       <div class="date">
 377         10th September 2014
 378       </div>
 379       <div class="body">
 380         <p>Yesterday, I had the pleasure of attending a talk with the
 381 <a href="http://www.nuug.no/">Norwegian Unix User Group</a> about
 382 <a href="http://www.nuug.no/aktiviteter/20140909-sks-keyservers/">the
 383 OpenPGP keyserver pool sks-keyservers.net</a>, and was very happy to
 384 learn that there is a large set of publicly available key servers to
 385 use when looking for peoples public key.  So far I have used
 386 subkeys.pgp.net, and some times wwwkeys.nl.pgp.net when the former
 387 were misbehaving, but those days are ended.  The servers I have used
 388 up until yesterday have been slow and some times unavailable.  I hope
 389 those problems are gone now.</p>
 390
 391 <p>Behind the round robin DNS entry of the
 392 <a href="https://sks-keyservers.net/">sks-keyservers.net</a> service
 393 there is a pool of more than 100 keyservers which are checked every
 394 day to ensure they are well connected and up to date.  It must be
 395 better than what I have used so far. :)</p>
 396
 397 <p>Yesterdays speaker told me that the service is the default
 398 keyserver provided by the default configuration in GnuPG, but this do
 399 not seem to be used in Debian.  Perhaps it should?</p>
 400
 401 <p>Anyway, I've updated my ~/.gnupg/options file to now include this
 402 line:</p>
 403
 404 <p><blockquote><pre>
 405 keyserver pool.sks-keyservers.net
 406 </pre></blockquote></p>
 407
 408 <p>With GnuPG version 2 one can also locate the keyserver using SRV
 409 entries in DNS.  Just for fun, I did just that at work, so now every
 410 user of GnuPG at the University of Oslo should find a OpenGPG
 411 keyserver automatically should their need it:</p>
 412
 413 <p><blockquote><pre>
 414 % host -t srv _pgpkey-http._tcp.uio.no
 415 _pgpkey-http._tcp.uio.no has SRV record 0 100 11371 pool.sks-keyservers.net.
 416 %
 417 </pre></blockquote></p>
 418
 419 <p>Now if only
 420 <a href="http://ietfreport.isoc.org/idref/draft-shaw-openpgp-hkp/">the
 421 HKP lookup protocol</a> supported finding signature paths, I would be
 422 very happy.  It can look up a given key or search for a user ID, but I
 423 normally do not want that, but to find a trust path from my key to
 424 another key.  Given a user ID or key ID, I would like to find (and
 425 download) the keys representing a signature path from my key to the
 426 key in question, to be able to get a trust path between the two keys.
 427 This is as far as I can tell not possible today.  Perhaps something
 428 for a future version of the protocol?</p>
 429
 430       </div>
 431       <div class="tags">
 432
 433
 434         Tags: <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>.
 435
 436
 437       </div>
 438     </div>
 439     <div class="padding"></div>
 440
 441     <div class="entry">
 442       <div class="title">
 443         <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>
 444       </div>
 445       <div class="date">
 446         17th June 2014
 447       </div>
 448       <div class="body">
 449         <p>The <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux
 450 project</a> provide an instruction manual for teachers, system
 451 administrators and other users that contain useful tips for setting up
 452 and maintaining a Debian Edu installation.  This text is about how the
 453 text processing of this manual is handled in the project.</p>
 454
 455 <p>One goal of the project is to provide information in the native
 456 language of its users, and for this we need to handle translations.
 457 But we also want to make sure each language contain the same
 458 information, so for this we need a good way to keep the translations
 459 in sync.  And we want it to be easy for our users to improve the
 460 documentation, avoiding the need to learn special formats or tools to
 461 contribute, and the obvious way to do this is to make it possible to
 462 edit the documentation using a web browser.  We also want it to be
 463 easy for translators to keep the translation up to date, and give them
 464 help in figuring out what need to be translated. Here is the list of
 465 tools and the process we have found trying to reach all these
 466 goals.</p>
 467
 468 <p>We maintain the authoritative source of our manual in the
 469 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Documentation/Wheezy/">Debian
 470 wiki</a>, as several wiki pages written in English.  It consist of one
 471 front page with references to the different chapters, several pages
 472 for each chapter, and finally one "collection page" gluing all the
 473 chapters together into one large web page (aka
 474 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Documentation/Wheezy/AllInOne">the
 475 AllInOne page</a>).  The AllInOne page is the one used for further
 476 processing and translations.  Thanks to the fact that the
 477 <a href="http://moinmo.in/">MoinMoin</a> installation on
 478 wiki.debian.org support exporting pages in
 479 <a href="http://www.docbook.org/">the Docbook format</a>, we can fetch
 480 the list of pages to export using the raw version of the AllInOne
 481 page, loop over each of them to generate a Docbook XML version of the
 482 manual.  This process also download images and transform image
 483 references to use the locally downloaded images.  The generated
 484 Docbook XML files are slightly broken, so some post-processing is done
 485 using the <tt>documentation/scripts/get_manual</tt> program, and the
 486 result is a nice Docbook XML file (debian-edu-wheezy-manual.xml) and
 487 a handfull of images.  The XML file can now be used to generate PDF, HTML
 488 and epub versions of the English manual.  This is the basic step of
 489 our process, making PDF (using dblatex), HTML (using xsltproc) and
 490 epub (using dbtoepub) version from Docbook XML, and the resulting files
 491 are placed in the debian-edu-doc-en binary package.</p>
 492
 493 <p>But English documentation is not enough for us.  We want translated
 494 documentation too, and we want to make it easy for translators to
 495 track the English original.  For this we use the
 496 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/p/poxml.html">poxml</a> package,
 497 which allow us to transform the English Docbook XML file into a
 498 translation file (a .pot file), usable with the normal gettext based
 499 translation tools used by those translating free software.  The pot
 500 file is used to create and maintain translation files (several .po
 501 files), which the translations update with the native language
 502 translations of all titles, paragraphs and blocks of text in the
 503 original.  The next step is combining the original English Docbook XML
 504 and the translation file (say debian-edu-wheezy-manual.nb.po), to
 505 create a translated Docbook XML file (in this case
 506 debian-edu-wheezy-manual.nb.xml).  This translated (or partly
 507 translated, if the translation is not complete) Docbook XML file can
 508 then be used like the original to create a PDF, HTML and epub version
 509 of the documentation.</p>
 510
 511 <p>The translators use different tools to edit the .po files.  We
 512 recommend using
 513 <a href="http://www.kde.org/applications/development/lokalize/">lokalize</a>,
 514 while some use emacs and vi, others can use web based editors like
 515 <a href="http://pootle.translatehouse.org/">Poodle</a> or
 516 <a href="https://www.transifex.com/">Transifex</a>.  All we care about
 517 is where the .po file end up, in our git repository.  Updated
 518 translations can either be committed directly to git, or submitted as
 519 <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/src:debian-edu-doc">bug reports
 520 against the debian-edu-doc package</a>.</p>
 521
 522 <p>One challenge is images, which both might need to be translated (if
 523 they show translated user applications), and are needed in different
 524 formats when creating PDF and HTML versions (epub is a HTML version in
 525 this regard).  For this we transform the original PNG images to the
 526 needed density and format during build, and have a way to provide
 527 translated images by storing translated versions in
 528 images/$LANGUAGECODE/.  I am a bit unsure about the details here.  The
 529 package maintainers know more.</p>
 530
 531 <p>If you wonder what the result look like, we provide
 532 <a href="http://maintainer.skolelinux.org/debian-edu-doc/">the content
 533 of the documentation packages on the web</a>.  See for example the
 534 <a href="http://maintainer.skolelinux.org/debian-edu-doc/it/debian-edu-wheezy-manual.pdf">Italian
 535 PDF version</a> or the
 536 <a href="http://maintainer.skolelinux.org/debian-edu-doc/de/debian-edu-wheezy-manual.html">German
 537 HTML version</a>.  We do not yet build the epub version by default,
 538 but perhaps it will be done in the future.</p>
 539
 540 <p>To learn more, check out
 541 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/d/debian-edu-doc.html">the
 542 debian-edu-doc package</a>,
 543 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Documentation/Wheezy/">the
 544 manual on the wiki</a> and
 545 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Documentation/Wheezy/Translations">the
 546 translation instructions</a> in the manual.</p>
 547
 548       </div>
 549       <div class="tags">
 550
 551
 552         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>.
 553
 554
 555       </div>
 556     </div>
 557     <div class="padding"></div>
 558
 559     <div class="entry">
 560       <div class="title">
 561         <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>
 562       </div>
 563       <div class="date">
 564         23rd April 2014
 565       </div>
 566       <div class="body">
 567         <p>It would be nice if it was easier in Debian to get all the hardware
 568 related packages relevant for the computer installed automatically.
 569 So I implemented one, using
 570 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/isenkram">my Isenkram
 571 package</a>.  To use it, install the tasksel and isenkram packages and
 572 run tasksel as user root.  You should be presented with a new option,
 573 "Hardware specific packages (autodetected by isenkram)".  When you
 574 select it, tasksel will install the packages isenkram claim is fit for
 575 the current hardware, hot pluggable or not.<p>
 576
 577 <p>The implementation is in two files, one is the tasksel menu entry
 578 description, and the other is the script used to extract the list of
 579 packages to install.  The first part is in
 580 <tt>/usr/share/tasksel/descs/isenkram.desc</tt> and look like
 581 this:</p>
 582
 583 <p><blockquote><pre>
 584 Task: isenkram
 585 Section: hardware
 586 Description: Hardware specific packages (autodetected by isenkram)
 587  Based on the detected hardware various hardware specific packages are
 588  proposed.
 589 Test-new-install: mark show
 590 Relevance: 8
 591 Packages: for-current-hardware
 592 </pre></blockquote></p>
 593
 594 <p>The second part is in
 595 <tt>/usr/lib/tasksel/packages/for-current-hardware</tt> and look like
 596 this:</p>
 597
 598 <p><blockquote><pre>
 599 #!/bin/sh
 600 #
 601 (
 602     isenkram-lookup
 603     isenkram-autoinstall-firmware -l
 604 ) | sort -u
 605 </pre></blockquote></p>
 606
 607 <p>All in all, a very short and simple implementation making it
 608 trivial to install the hardware dependent package we all may want to
 609 have installed on our machines.  I've not been able to find a way to
 610 get tasksel to tell you exactly which packages it plan to install
 611 before doing the installation.  So if you are curious or careful,
 612 check the output from the isenkram-* command line tools first.</p>
 613
 614 <p>The information about which packages are handling which hardware is
 615 fetched either from the isenkram package itself in
 616 /usr/share/isenkram/, from git.debian.org or from the APT package
 617 database (using the Modaliases header).  The APT package database
 618 parsing have caused a nasty resource leak in the isenkram daemon (bugs
 619 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/719837">#719837</a> and
 620 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/730704">#730704</a>).  The cause is in
 621 the python-apt code (bug
 622 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/745487">#745487</a>), but using a
 623 workaround I was able to get rid of the file descriptor leak and
 624 reduce the memory leak from ~30 MiB per hardware detection down to
 625 around 2 MiB per hardware detection.  It should make the desktop
 626 daemon a lot more useful.  The fix is in version 0.7 uploaded to
 627 unstable today.</p>
 628
 629 <p>I believe the current way of mapping hardware to packages in
 630 Isenkram is is a good draft, but in the future I expect isenkram to
 631 use the AppStream data source for this.  A proposal for getting proper
 632 AppStream support into Debian is floating around as
 633 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/DEP-11">DEP-11</a>, and
 634 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/SummerOfCode2014/Projects#SummerOfCode2014.2FProjects.2FAppStreamDEP11Implementation.AppStream.2FDEP-11_for_the_Debian_Archive">GSoC
 635 project</a> will take place this summer to improve the situation.  I
 636 look forward to seeing the result, and welcome patches for isenkram to
 637 start using the information when it is ready.</p>
 638
 639 <p>If you want your package to map to some specific hardware, either
 640 add a "Xb-Modaliases" header to your control file like I did in
 641 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/pymissile">the pymissile
 642 package</a> or submit a bug report with the details to the isenkram
 643 package.  See also
 644 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram/">all my
 645 blog posts tagged isenkram</a> for details on the notation.  I expect
 646 the information will be migrated to AppStream eventually, but for the
 647 moment I got no better place to store it.</p>
 648
 649       </div>
 650       <div class="tags">
 651
 652
 653         Tags: <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>.
 654
 655
 656       </div>
 657     </div>
 658     <div class="padding"></div>
 659
 660     <div class="entry">
 661       <div class="title">
 662         <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>
 663       </div>
 664       <div class="date">
 665         15th April 2014
 666       </div>
 667       <div class="body">
 668         <p>The <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/FreedomBox">Freedombox
 669 project</a> is working on providing the software and hardware to make
 670 it easy for non-technical people to host their data and communication
 671 at home, and being able to communicate with their friends and family
 672 encrypted and away from prying eyes.  It is still going strong, and
 673 today a major mile stone was reached.</p>
 674
 675 <p>Today, the last of the packages currently used by the project to
 676 created the system images were accepted into Debian Unstable.  It was
 677 the freedombox-setup package, which is used to configure the images
 678 during build and on the first boot.  Now all one need to get going is
 679 the build code from the freedom-maker git repository and packages from
 680 Debian.  And once the freedombox-setup package enter testing, we can
 681 build everything directly from Debian. :)</p>
 682
 683 <p>Some key packages used by Freedombox are
 684 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/freedombox-setup">freedombox-setup</a>,
 685 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/plinth">plinth</a>,
 686 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/pagekite">pagekite</a>,
 687 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/tor">tor</a>,
 688 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/privoxy">privoxy</a>,
 689 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/owncloud">owncloud</a> and
 690 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/dnsmasq">dnsmasq</a>.  There
 691 are plans to integrate more packages into the setup.  User
 692 documentation is maintained on the Debian wiki.  Please
 693 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/FreedomBox/Manual/Jessie">check out
 694 the manual</a> and help us improve it.</p>
 695
 696 <p>To test for yourself and create boot images with the FreedomBox
 697 setup, run this on a Debian machine using a user with sudo rights to
 698 become root:</p>
 699
 700 <p><pre>
 701 sudo apt-get install git vmdebootstrap mercurial python-docutils \
 702   mktorrent extlinux virtualbox qemu-user-static binfmt-support \
 703   u-boot-tools
 704 git clone http://anonscm.debian.org/git/freedombox/freedom-maker.git \
 705   freedom-maker
 706 make -C freedom-maker dreamplug-image raspberry-image virtualbox-image
 707 </pre></p>
 708
 709 <p>Root access is needed to run debootstrap and mount loopback
 710 devices.  See the README in the freedom-maker git repo for more
 711 details on the build.  If you do not want all three images, trim the
 712 make line.  Note that the virtualbox-image target is not really
 713 virtualbox specific.  It create a x86 image usable in kvm, qemu,
 714 vmware and any other x86 virtual machine environment.  You might need
 715 the version of vmdebootstrap in Jessie to get the build working, as it
 716 include fixes for a race condition with kpartx.</p>
 717
 718 <p>If you instead want to install using a Debian CD and the preseed
 719 method, boot a Debian Wheezy ISO and use this boot argument to load
 720 the preseed values:</p>
 721
 722 <p><pre>
 723 url=<a href="http://www.reinholdtsen.name/freedombox/preseed-jessie.dat">http://www.reinholdtsen.name/freedombox/preseed-jessie.dat</a>
 724 </pre></p>
 725
 726 <p>I have not tested it myself the last few weeks, so I do not know if
 727 it still work.</p>
 728
 729 <p>If you wonder how to help, one task you could look at is using
 730 systemd as the boot system.  It will become the default for Linux in
 731 Jessie, so we need to make sure it is usable on the Freedombox.  I did
 732 a simple test a few weeks ago, and noticed dnsmasq failed to start
 733 during boot when using systemd.  I suspect there are other problems
 734 too. :) To detect problems, there is a test suite included, which can
 735 be run from the plinth web interface.</p>
 736
 737 <p>Give it a go and let us know how it goes on the mailing list, and help
 738 us get the new release published. :) Please join us on
 739 <a href="irc://irc.debian.org:6667/%23freedombox">IRC (#freedombox on
 740 irc.debian.org)</a> and
 741 <a href="http://lists.alioth.debian.org/mailman/listinfo/freedombox-discuss">the
 742 mailing list</a> if you want to help make this vision come true.</p>
 743
 744       </div>
 745       <div class="tags">
 746
 747
 748         Tags: <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>.
 749
 750
 751       </div>
 752     </div>
 753     <div class="padding"></div>
 754
 755     <div class="entry">
 756       <div class="title">
 757         <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>
 758       </div>
 759       <div class="date">
 760          9th April 2014
 761       </div>
 762       <div class="body">
 763         <p>For a while now, I have been looking for a sensible offsite backup
 764 solution for use at home.  My requirements are simple, it must be
 765 cheap and locally encrypted (in other words, I keep the encryption
 766 keys, the storage provider do not have access to my private files).
 767 One idea me and my friends had many years ago, before the cloud
 768 storage providers showed up, was to use Google mail as storage,
 769 writing a Linux block device storing blocks as emails in the mail
 770 service provided by Google, and thus get heaps of free space.  On top
 771 of this one can add encryption, RAID and volume management to have
 772 lots of (fairly slow, I admit that) cheap and encrypted storage.  But
 773 I never found time to implement such system.  But the last few weeks I
 774 have looked at a system called
 775 <a href="https://bitbucket.org/nikratio/s3ql/">S3QL</a>, a locally
 776 mounted network backed file system with the features I need.</p>
 777
 778 <p>S3QL is a fuse file system with a local cache and cloud storage,
 779 handling several different storage providers, any with Amazon S3,
 780 Google Drive or OpenStack API.  There are heaps of such storage
 781 providers.  S3QL can also use a local directory as storage, which
 782 combined with sshfs allow for file storage on any ssh server.  S3QL
 783 include support for encryption, compression, de-duplication, snapshots
 784 and immutable file systems, allowing me to mount the remote storage as
 785 a local mount point, look at and use the files as if they were local,
 786 while the content is stored in the cloud as well.  This allow me to
 787 have a backup that should survive fire.  The file system can not be
 788 shared between several machines at the same time, as only one can
 789 mount it at the time, but any machine with the encryption key and
 790 access to the storage service can mount it if it is unmounted.</p>
 791
 792 <p>It is simple to use.  I'm using it on Debian Wheezy, where the
 793 package is included already.  So to get started, run <tt>apt-get
 794 install s3ql</tt>.  Next, pick a storage provider.  I ended up picking
 795 Greenqloud, after reading their nice recipe on
 796 <a href="https://greenqloud.zendesk.com/entries/44611757-How-To-Use-S3QL-to-mount-a-StorageQloud-bucket-on-Debian-Wheezy">how
 797 to use S3QL with their Amazon S3 service</a>, because I trust the laws
 798 in Iceland more than those in USA when it come to keeping my personal
 799 data safe and private, and thus would rather spend money on a company
 800 in Iceland.  Another nice recipe is available from the article
 801 <a href="http://www.admin-magazine.com/HPC/Articles/HPC-Cloud-Storage">S3QL
 802 Filesystem for HPC Storage</a> by Jeff Layton in the HPC section of
 803 Admin magazine.  When the provider is picked, figure out how to get
 804 the API key needed to connect to the storage API.  With Greencloud,
 805 the key did not show up until I had added payment details to my
 806 account.</p>
 807
 808 <p>Armed with the API access details, it is time to create the file
 809 system.  First, create a new bucket in the cloud.  This bucket is the
 810 file system storage area.  I picked a bucket name reflecting the
 811 machine that was going to store data there, but any name will do.
 812 I'll refer to it as <tt>bucket-name</tt> below.  In addition, one need
 813 the API login and password, and a locally created password.  Store it
 814 all in ~root/.s3ql/authinfo2 like this:
 815
 816 <p><blockquote><pre>
 817 [s3c]
 818 storage-url: s3c://s.greenqloud.com:443/bucket-name
 819 backend-login: API-login
 820 backend-password: API-password
 821 fs-passphrase: local-password
 822 </pre></blockquote></p>
 823
 824 <p>I create my local passphrase using <tt>pwget 50</tt> or similar,
 825 but any sensible way to create a fairly random password should do it.
 826 Armed with these details, it is now time to run mkfs, entering the API
 827 details and password to create it:</p>
 828
 829 <p><blockquote><pre>
 830 # mkdir -m 700 /var/lib/s3ql-cache
 831 # mkfs.s3ql --cachedir /var/lib/s3ql-cache --authfile /root/.s3ql/authinfo2 \
 832   --ssl s3c://s.greenqloud.com:443/bucket-name
 833 Enter backend login:
 834 Enter backend password:
 835 Before using S3QL, make sure to read the user's guide, especially
 836 the 'Important Rules to Avoid Loosing Data' section.
 837 Enter encryption password:
 838 Confirm encryption password:
 839 Generating random encryption key...
 840 Creating metadata tables...
 841 Dumping metadata...
 842 ..objects..
 843 ..blocks..
 844 ..inodes..
 845 ..inode_blocks..
 846 ..symlink_targets..
 847 ..names..
 848 ..contents..
 849 ..ext_attributes..
 850 Compressing and uploading metadata...
 851 Wrote 0.00 MB of compressed metadata.
 852 # </pre></blockquote></p>
 853
 854 <p>The next step is mounting the file system to make the storage available.
 855
 856 <p><blockquote><pre>
 857 # mount.s3ql --cachedir /var/lib/s3ql-cache --authfile /root/.s3ql/authinfo2 \
 858   --ssl --allow-root s3c://s.greenqloud.com:443/bucket-name /s3ql
 859 Using 4 upload threads.
 860 Downloading and decompressing metadata...
 861 Reading metadata...
 862 ..objects..
 863 ..blocks..
 864 ..inodes..
 865 ..inode_blocks..
 866 ..symlink_targets..
 867 ..names..
 868 ..contents..
 869 ..ext_attributes..
 870 Mounting filesystem...
 871 # df -h /s3ql
 872 Filesystem                              Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
 873 s3c://s.greenqloud.com:443/bucket-name  1.0T     0  1.0T   0% /s3ql
 874 #
 875 </pre></blockquote></p>
 876
 877 <p>The file system is now ready for use.  I use rsync to store my
 878 backups in it, and as the metadata used by rsync is downloaded at
 879 mount time, no network traffic (and storage cost) is triggered by
 880 running rsync.  To unmount, one should not use the normal umount
 881 command, as this will not flush the cache to the cloud storage, but
 882 instead running the umount.s3ql command like this:
 883
 884 <p><blockquote><pre>
 885 # umount.s3ql /s3ql
 886 #
 887 </pre></blockquote></p>
 888
 889 <p>There is a fsck command available to check the file system and
 890 correct any problems detected.  This can be used if the local server
 891 crashes while the file system is mounted, to reset the "already
 892 mounted" flag.  This is what it look like when processing a working
 893 file system:</p>
 894
 895 <p><blockquote><pre>
 896 # fsck.s3ql --force --ssl s3c://s.greenqloud.com:443/bucket-name
 897 Using cached metadata.
 898 File system seems clean, checking anyway.
 899 Checking DB integrity...
 900 Creating temporary extra indices...
 901 Checking lost+found...
 902 Checking cached objects...
 903 Checking names (refcounts)...
 904 Checking contents (names)...
 905 Checking contents (inodes)...
 906 Checking contents (parent inodes)...
 907 Checking objects (reference counts)...
 908 Checking objects (backend)...
 909 ..processed 5000 objects so far..
 910 ..processed 10000 objects so far..
 911 ..processed 15000 objects so far..
 912 Checking objects (sizes)...
 913 Checking blocks (referenced objects)...
 914 Checking blocks (refcounts)...
 915 Checking inode-block mapping (blocks)...
 916 Checking inode-block mapping (inodes)...
 917 Checking inodes (refcounts)...
 918 Checking inodes (sizes)...
 919 Checking extended attributes (names)...
 920 Checking extended attributes (inodes)...
 921 Checking symlinks (inodes)...
 922 Checking directory reachability...
 923 Checking unix conventions...
 924 Checking referential integrity...
 925 Dropping temporary indices...
 926 Backing up old metadata...
 927 Dumping metadata...
 928 ..objects..
 929 ..blocks..
 930 ..inodes..
 931 ..inode_blocks..
 932 ..symlink_targets..
 933 ..names..
 934 ..contents..
 935 ..ext_attributes..
 936 Compressing and uploading metadata...
 937 Wrote 0.89 MB of compressed metadata.
 938 #
 939 </pre></blockquote></p>
 940
 941 <p>Thanks to the cache, working on files that fit in the cache is very
 942 quick, about the same speed as local file access.  Uploading large
 943 amount of data is to me limited by the bandwidth out of and into my
 944 house.  Uploading 685 MiB with a 100 MiB cache gave me 305 kiB/s,
 945 which is very close to my upload speed, and downloading the same
 946 Debian installation ISO gave me 610 kiB/s, close to my download speed.
 947 Both were measured using <tt>dd</tt>.  So for me, the bottleneck is my
 948 network, not the file system code.  I do not know what a good cache
 949 size would be, but suspect that the cache should e larger than your
 950 working set.</p>
 951
 952 <p>I mentioned that only one machine can mount the file system at the
 953 time.  If another machine try, it is told that the file system is
 954 busy:</p>
 955
 956 <p><blockquote><pre>
 957 # mount.s3ql --cachedir /var/lib/s3ql-cache --authfile /root/.s3ql/authinfo2 \
 958   --ssl --allow-root s3c://s.greenqloud.com:443/bucket-name /s3ql
 959 Using 8 upload threads.
 960 Backend reports that fs is still mounted elsewhere, aborting.
 961 #
 962 </pre></blockquote></p>
 963
 964 <p>The file content is uploaded when the cache is full, while the
 965 metadata is uploaded once every 24 hour by default.  To ensure the
 966 file system content is flushed to the cloud, one can either umount the
 967 file system, or ask S3QL to flush the cache and metadata using
 968 s3qlctrl:
 969
 970 <p><blockquote><pre>
 971 # s3qlctrl upload-meta /s3ql
 972 # s3qlctrl flushcache /s3ql
 973 #
 974 </pre></blockquote></p>
 975
 976 <p>If you are curious about how much space your data uses in the
 977 cloud, and how much compression and deduplication cut down on the
 978 storage usage, you can use s3qlstat on the mounted file system to get
 979 a report:</p>
 980
 981 <p><blockquote><pre>
 982 # s3qlstat /s3ql
 983 Directory entries:    9141
 984 Inodes:               9143
 985 Data blocks:          8851
 986 Total data size:      22049.38 MB
 987 After de-duplication: 21955.46 MB (99.57% of total)
 988 After compression:    21877.28 MB (99.22% of total, 99.64% of de-duplicated)
 989 Database size:        2.39 MB (uncompressed)
 990 (some values do not take into account not-yet-uploaded dirty blocks in cache)
 991 #
 992 </pre></blockquote></p>
 993
 994 <p>I mentioned earlier that there are several possible suppliers of
 995 storage.  I did not try to locate them all, but am aware of at least
 996 <a href="https://www.greenqloud.com/">Greenqloud</a>,
 997 <a href="http://drive.google.com/">Google Drive</a>,
 998 <a href="http://aws.amazon.com/s3/">Amazon S3 web serivces</a>,
 999 <a href="http://www.rackspace.com/">Rackspace</a> and
1000 <a href="http://crowncloud.net/">Crowncloud</A>.  The latter even
1001 accept payment in Bitcoin.  Pick one that suit your need.  Some of
1002 them provide several GiB of free storage, but the prize models are
1003 quite different and you will have to figure out what suits you
1004 best.</p>
1005
1006 <p>While researching this blog post, I had a look at research papers
1007 and posters discussing the S3QL file system.  There are several, which
1008 told me that the file system is getting a critical check by the
1009 science community and increased my confidence in using it.  One nice
1010 poster is titled
1011 "<a href="http://www.lanl.gov/orgs/adtsc/publications/science_highlights_2013/docs/pg68_69.pdf">An
1012 Innovative Parallel Cloud Storage System using OpenStack’s SwiftObject
1013 Store and Transformative Parallel I/O Approach</a>" by Hsing-Bung
1014 Chen, Benjamin McClelland, David Sherrill, Alfred Torrez, Parks Fields
1015 and Pamela Smith.  Please  have a look.</p>
1016
1017 <p>Given my problems with different file systems earlier, I decided to
1018 check out the mounted S3QL file system to see if it would be usable as
1019 a home directory (in other word, that it provided POSIX semantics when
1020 it come to locking and umask handling etc).  Running
1021 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Testing_if_a_file_system_can_be_used_for_home_directories___.html">my
1022 test code to check file system semantics</a>, I was happy to discover that
1023 no error was found.  So the file system can be used for home
1024 directories, if one chooses to do so.</p>
1025
1026 <p>If you do not want a locally file system, and want something that
1027 work without the Linux fuse file system, I would like to mention the
1028 <a href="http://www.tarsnap.com/">Tarsnap service</a>, which also
1029 provide locally encrypted backup using a command line client.  It have
1030 a nicer access control system, where one can split out read and write
1031 access, allowing some systems to write to the backup and others to
1032 only read from it.</p>
1033
1034 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
1035 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
1036 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b&label=PetterReinholdtsenBlog">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
1037
1038       </div>
1039       <div class="tags">
1040
1041
1042         Tags: <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>.
1043
1044
1045       </div>
1046     </div>
1047     <div class="padding"></div>
1048
1049     <div class="entry">
1050       <div class="title">
1051         <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>
1052       </div>
1053       <div class="date">
1054         14th March 2014
1055       </div>
1056       <div class="body">
1057         <p>The <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/FreedomBox">Freedombox
1058 project</a> is working on providing the software and hardware for
1059 making it easy for non-technical people to host their data and
1060 communication at home, and being able to communicate with their
1061 friends and family encrypted and away from prying eyes.  It has been
1062 going on for a while, and is slowly progressing towards a new test
1063 release (0.2).</p>
1064
1065 <p>And what day could be better than the Pi day to announce that the
1066 new version will provide "hard drive" / SD card / USB stick images for
1067 Dreamplug, Raspberry Pi and VirtualBox (or any other virtualization
1068 system), and can also be installed using a Debian installer preseed
1069 file.  The Debian based Freedombox is now based on Debian Jessie,
1070 where most of the needed packages used are already present.  Only one,
1071 the freedombox-setup package, is missing.  To try to build your own
1072 boot image to test the current status, fetch the freedom-maker scripts
1073 and build using
1074 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/vmdebootstrap">vmdebootstrap</a>
1075 with a user with sudo access to become root:
1076
1077 <pre>
1078 git clone http://anonscm.debian.org/git/freedombox/freedom-maker.git \
1079   freedom-maker
1080 sudo apt-get install git vmdebootstrap mercurial python-docutils \
1081   mktorrent extlinux virtualbox qemu-user-static binfmt-support \
1082   u-boot-tools
1083 make -C freedom-maker dreamplug-image raspberry-image virtualbox-image
1084 </pre>
1085
1086 <p>Root access is needed to run debootstrap and mount loopback
1087 devices.  See the README for more details on the build. If you do not
1088 want all three images, trim the make line.  But note that thanks to <a
1089 href="https://bugs.debian.org/741407">a race condition in
1090 vmdebootstrap</a>, the build might fail without the patch to the
1091 kpartx call.</p>
1092
1093 <p>If you instead want to install using a Debian CD and the preseed
1094 method, boot a Debian Wheezy ISO and use this boot argument to load
1095 the preseed values:</p>
1096
1097 <pre>
1098 url=<a href="http://www.reinholdtsen.name/freedombox/preseed-jessie.dat">http://www.reinholdtsen.name/freedombox/preseed-jessie.dat</a>
1099 </pre>
1100
1101 <p>But note that due to <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/740673">a
1102 recently introduced bug in apt in Jessie</a>, the installer will
1103 currently hang while setting up APT sources.  Killing the
1104 '<tt>apt-cdrom ident</tt>' process when it hang a few times during the
1105 installation will get the installation going.  This affect all
1106 installations in Jessie, and I expect it will be fixed soon.</p>
1107
1108 <p>Give it a go and let us know how it goes on the mailing list, and help
1109 us get the new release published. :) Please join us on
1110 <a href="irc://irc.debian.org:6667/%23freedombox">IRC (#freedombox on
1111 irc.debian.org)</a> and
1112 <a href="http://lists.alioth.debian.org/mailman/listinfo/freedombox-discuss">the
1113 mailing list</a> if you want to help make this vision come true.</p>
1114
1115       </div>
1116       <div class="tags">
1117
1118
1119         Tags: <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>.
1120
1121
1122       </div>
1123     </div>
1124     <div class="padding"></div>
1125
1126     <div class="entry">
1127       <div class="title">
1128         <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>
1129       </div>
1130       <div class="date">
1131         22nd February 2014
1132       </div>
1133       <div class="body">
1134         <p>Many years ago, I wrote a GPL licensed version of the netgroup and
1135 innetgr tools, because I needed them in
1136 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Skolelinux</a>.  I called the project
1137 ng-utils, and it has served me well.  I placed the project under the
1138 <a href="http://www.hungry.com/">Hungry Programmer</a> umbrella, and it was maintained in our CVS
1139 repository.  But many years ago, the CVS repository was dropped (lost,
1140 not migrated to new hardware, not sure), and the project have lacked a
1141 proper home since then.</p>
1142
1143 <p>Last summer, I had a look at the package and made a new release
1144 fixing a irritating crash bug, but was unable to store the changes in
1145 a proper source control system.  I applied for a project on
1146 <a href="https://alioth.debian.org/">Alioth</a>, but did not have time
1147 to follow up on it.  Until today. :)</p>
1148
1149 <p>After many hours of cleaning and migration, the ng-utils project
1150 now have a new home, and a git repository with the highlight of the
1151 history of the project.  I published all release tarballs and imported
1152 them into the git repository.  As the project is really stable and not
1153 expected to gain new features any time soon, I decided to make a new
1154 release and call it 1.0.  Visit the new project home on
1155 <a href="https://alioth.debian.org/projects/ng-utils/">https://alioth.debian.org/projects/ng-utils/</a>
1156 if you want to check it out.  The new version is also uploaded into
1157 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/n/ng-utils.html">Debian Unstable</a>.</p>
1158
1159       </div>
1160       <div class="tags">
1161
1162
1163         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
1164
1165
1166       </div>
1167     </div>
1168     <div class="padding"></div>
1169
1170     <div class="entry">
1171       <div class="title">
1172         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Testing_sysvinit_from_experimental_in_Debian_Hurd.html">Testing sysvinit from experimental in Debian Hurd</a>
1173       </div>
1174       <div class="date">
1175          3rd February 2014
1176       </div>
1177       <div class="body">
1178         <p>A few days ago I decided to try to help the Hurd people to get
1179 their changes into sysvinit, to allow them to use the normal sysvinit
1180 boot system instead of their old one.  This follow up on the
1181 <a href="https://teythoon.cryptobitch.de//categories/gsoc.html">great
1182 Google Summer of Code work</a> done last summer by Justus Winter to
1183 get Debian on Hurd working more like Debian on Linux.  To get started,
1184 I downloaded a prebuilt hard disk image from
1185 <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>,
1186 and started it using virt-manager.</p>
1187
1188 <p>The first think I had to do after logging in (root without any
1189 password) was to get the network operational.  I followed
1190 <a href="https://www.debian.org/ports/hurd/hurd-install">the
1191 instructions on the Debian GNU/Hurd ports page</a> and ran these
1192 commands as root to get the machine to accept a IP address from the
1193 kvm internal DHCP server:</p>
1194
1195 <p><blockquote><pre>
1196 settrans -fgap /dev/netdde /hurd/netdde
1197 kill $(ps -ef|awk '/[p]finet/ { print $2}')
1198 kill $(ps -ef|awk '/[d]evnode/ { print $2}')
1199 dhclient /dev/eth0
1200 </pre></blockquote></p>
1201
1202 <p>After this, the machine had internet connectivity, and I could
1203 upgrade it and install the sysvinit packages from experimental and
1204 enable it as the default boot system in Hurd.</p>
1205
1206 <p>But before I did that, I set a password on the root user, as ssh is
1207 running on the machine it for ssh login to work a password need to be
1208 set.  Also, note that a bug somewhere in openssh on Hurd block
1209 compression from working.  Remember to turn that off on the client
1210 side.</p>
1211
1212 <p>Run these commands as root to upgrade and test the new sysvinit
1213 stuff:</p>
1214
1215 <p><blockquote><pre>
1216 cat > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/experimental.list &lt;&lt;EOF
1217 deb http://http.debian.net/debian/ experimental main
1218 EOF
1219 apt-get update
1220 apt-get dist-upgrade
1221 apt-get install -t experimental initscripts sysv-rc sysvinit \
1222     sysvinit-core sysvinit-utils
1223 update-alternatives --config runsystem
1224 </pre></blockquote></p>
1225
1226 <p>To reboot after switching boot system, you have to use
1227 <tt>reboot-hurd</tt> instead of just <tt>reboot</tt>, as there is not
1228 yet a sysvinit process able to receive the signals from the normal
1229 'reboot' command.  After switching to sysvinit as the boot system,
1230 upgrading every package and rebooting, the network come up with DHCP
1231 after boot as it should, and the settrans/pkill hack mentioned at the
1232 start is no longer needed.  But for some strange reason, there are no
1233 longer any login prompt in the virtual console, so I logged in using
1234 ssh instead.
1235
1236 <p>Note that there are some race conditions in Hurd making the boot
1237 fail some times.  No idea what the cause is, but hope the Hurd porters
1238 figure it out.  At least Justus said on IRC (#debian-hurd on
1239 irc.debian.org) that they are aware of the problem.  A way to reduce
1240 the impact is to upgrade to the Hurd packages built by Justus by
1241 adding this repository to the machine:</p>
1242
1243 <p><blockquote><pre>
1244 cat > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/hurd-ci.list &lt;&lt;EOF
1245 deb http://darnassus.sceen.net/~teythoon/hurd-ci/ sid main
1246 EOF
1247 </pre></blockquote></p>
1248
1249 <p>At the moment the prebuilt virtual machine get some packages from
1250 http://ftp.debian-ports.org/debian, because some of the packages in
1251 unstable do not yet include the required patches that are lingering in
1252 BTS.  This is the completely list of "unofficial" packages installed:</p>
1253
1254 <p><blockquote><pre>
1255 # aptitude search '?narrow(?version(CURRENT),?origin(Debian Ports))'
1256 i   emacs                   - GNU Emacs editor (metapackage)
1257 i   gdb                     - GNU Debugger
1258 i   hurd-recommended        - Miscellaneous translators
1259 i   isc-dhcp-client         - ISC DHCP client
1260 i   isc-dhcp-common         - common files used by all the isc-dhcp* packages
1261 i   libc-bin                - Embedded GNU C Library: Binaries
1262 i   libc-dev-bin            - Embedded GNU C Library: Development binaries
1263 i   libc0.3                 - Embedded GNU C Library: Shared libraries
1264 i A libc0.3-dbg             - Embedded GNU C Library: detached debugging symbols
1265 i   libc0.3-dev             - Embedded GNU C Library: Development Libraries and Hea
1266 i   multiarch-support       - Transitional package to ensure multiarch compatibilit
1267 i A x11-common              - X Window System (X.Org) infrastructure
1268 i   xorg                    - X.Org X Window System
1269 i A xserver-xorg            - X.Org X server
1270 i A xserver-xorg-input-all  - X.Org X server -- input driver metapackage
1271 #
1272 </pre></blockquote></p>
1273
1274 <p>All in all, testing hurd has been an interesting experience. :)
1275 X.org did not work out of the box and I never took the time to follow
1276 the porters instructions to fix it.  This time I was interested in the
1277 command line stuff.<p>
1278
1279       </div>
1280       <div class="tags">
1281
1282
1283         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>.
1284
1285
1286       </div>
1287     </div>
1288     <div class="padding"></div>
1289
1290     <div class="entry">
1291       <div class="title">
1292         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/New_chrpath_release_0_16.html">New chrpath release 0.16</a>
1293       </div>
1294       <div class="date">
1295         14th January 2014
1296       </div>
1297       <div class="body">
1298         <p><a href="http://www.coverity.com/">Coverity</a> is a nice tool to
1299 find problems in C, C++ and Java code using static source code
1300 analysis.  It can detect a lot of different problems, and is very
1301 useful to find memory and locking bugs in the error handling part of
1302 the source.  The company behind it provide
1303 <a href="https://scan.coverity.com/">check of free software projects as
1304 a community service</a>, and many hundred free software projects are
1305 already checked.  A few days ago I decided to have a closer look at
1306 the Coverity system, and discovered that the
1307 <a href="http://www.gnu.org/software/gnash/">gnash</a> and
1308 <a href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/ipmitool/">ipmitool</a>
1309 projects I am involved with was already registered.  But these are
1310 fairly big, and I would also like to have a small and easy project to
1311 check, and decided to <a href="http://scan.coverity.com/projects/1179">request
1312 checking of the chrpath project</a>.  It was
1313 added to the checker and discovered seven potential defects.  Six of
1314 these were real, mostly resource "leak" when the program detected an
1315 error.  Nothing serious, as the resources would be released a fraction
1316 of a second later when the program exited because of the error, but it
1317 is nice to do it right in case the source of the program some time in
1318 the future end up in a library.  Having fixed all defects and added
1319 <a href="https://lists.alioth.debian.org/mailman/listinfo/chrpath-devel">a
1320 mailing list for the chrpath developers</a>, I decided it was time to
1321 publish a new release.  These are the release notes:</p>
1322
1323 <p>New in 0.16 released 2014-01-14:</p>
1324
1325 <ul>
1326
1327   <li>Fixed all minor bugs discovered by Coverity.</li>
1328   <li>Updated config.sub and config.guess from the GNU project.</li>
1329   <li>Mention new project mailing list in the documentation.</li>
1330
1331 </ul>
1332
1333 <p>You can
1334 <a href="https://alioth.debian.org/frs/?group_id=31052">download the
1335 new version 0.16 from alioth</a>.  Please let us know via the Alioth
1336 project if something is wrong with the new release.  The test suite
1337 did not discover any old errors, so if you find a new one, please also
1338 include a test suite check.</p>
1339
1340       </div>
1341       <div class="tags">
1342
1343
1344         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>.
1345
1346
1347       </div>
1348     </div>
1349     <div class="padding"></div>
1350
1351     <div class="entry">
1352       <div class="title">
1353         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/New_chrpath_release_0_15.html">New chrpath release 0.15</a>
1354       </div>
1355       <div class="date">
1356         24th November 2013
1357       </div>
1358       <div class="body">
1359         <p>After many years break from the package and a vain hope that
1360 development would be continued by someone else, I finally pulled my
1361 acts together this morning and wrapped up a new release of chrpath,
1362 the command line tool to modify the rpath and runpath of already
1363 compiled ELF programs.  The update was triggered by the persistence of
1364 Isha Vishnoi at IBM, which needed a new config.guess file to get
1365 support for the ppc64le architecture (powerpc 64-bit Little Endian) he
1366 is working on.  I checked the
1367 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/chrpath">Debian</a>,
1368 <a href="https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/chrpath">Ubuntu</a> and
1369 <a href="https://admin.fedoraproject.org/pkgdb/acls/name/chrpath">Fedora</a>
1370 packages for interesting patches (failed to find the source from
1371 OpenSUSE and Mandriva packages), and found quite a few nice fixes.
1372 These are the release notes:</p>
1373
1374 <p>New in 0.15 released 2013-11-24:</p>
1375
1376 <ul>
1377
1378   <li>Updated config.sub and config.guess from the GNU project to work
1379    with newer architectures.  Thanks to isha vishnoi for the heads
1380    up.</li>
1381
1382   <li>Updated README with current URLs.</li>
1383
1384   <li>Added byteswap fix found in Ubuntu, credited Jeremy Kerr and
1385    Matthias Klose.</li>
1386
1387   <li>Added missing help for -k|--keepgoing option, using patch by
1388    Petr Machata found in Fedora.</li>
1389
1390   <li>Rewrite removal of RPATH/RUNPATH to make sure the entry in
1391    .dynamic is a NULL terminated string.  Based on patch found in
1392    Fedora credited Axel Thimm and Christian Krause.</li>
1393
1394 </ul>
1395
1396 <p>You can
1397 <a href="https://alioth.debian.org/frs/?group_id=31052">download the
1398 new version 0.15 from alioth</a>.  Please let us know via the Alioth
1399 project if something is wrong with the new release.  The test suite
1400 did not discover any old errors, so if you find a new one, please also
1401 include a testsuite check.</p>
1402
1403       </div>
1404       <div class="tags">
1405
1406
1407         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>.
1408
1409
1410       </div>
1411     </div>
1412     <div class="padding"></div>
1413
1414     <div class="entry">
1415       <div class="title">
1416         <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>
1417       </div>
1418       <div class="date">
1419          2nd November 2013
1420       </div>
1421       <div class="body">
1422         <p>If one of the points of switching to a new init system in Debian is
1423 <a href="http://thomas.goirand.fr/blog/?p=147">to get rid of huge
1424 init.d scripts</a>, I doubt we need to switch away from sysvinit and
1425 init.d scripts at all.  Here is an example init.d script, ie a rewrite
1426 of /etc/init.d/rsyslog:</p>
1427
1428 <p><pre>
1429 #!/lib/init/init-d-script
1430 ### BEGIN INIT INFO
1431 # Provides:          rsyslog
1432 # Required-Start:    $remote_fs $time
1433 # Required-Stop:     umountnfs $time
1434 # X-Stop-After:      sendsigs
1435 # Default-Start:     2 3 4 5
1436 # Default-Stop:      0 1 6
1437 # Short-Description: enhanced syslogd
1438 # Description:       Rsyslog is an enhanced multi-threaded syslogd.
1439 #                    It is quite compatible to stock sysklogd and can be
1440 #                    used as a drop-in replacement.
1441 ### END INIT INFO
1442 DESC="enhanced syslogd"
1443 DAEMON=/usr/sbin/rsyslogd
1444 </pre></p>
1445
1446 <p>Pretty minimalistic to me... For the record, the original sysv-rc
1447 script was 137 lines, and the above is just 15 lines, most of it meta
1448 info/comments.</p>
1449
1450 <p>How to do this, you ask?  Well, one create a new script
1451 /lib/init/init-d-script looking something like this:
1452
1453 <p><pre>
1454 #!/bin/sh
1455
1456 # Define LSB log_* functions.
1457 # Depend on lsb-base (>= 3.2-14) to ensure that this file is present
1458 # and status_of_proc is working.
1459 . /lib/lsb/init-functions
1460
1461 #
1462 # Function that starts the daemon/service
1463
1464 #
1465 do_start()
1466 {
1467         # Return
1468         #   0 if daemon has been started
1469         #   1 if daemon was already running
1470         #   2 if daemon could not be started
1471         start-stop-daemon --start --quiet --pidfile $PIDFILE --exec $DAEMON --test > /dev/null \
1472                 || return 1
1473         start-stop-daemon --start --quiet --pidfile $PIDFILE --exec $DAEMON -- \
1474                 $DAEMON_ARGS \
1475                 || return 2
1476         # Add code here, if necessary, that waits for the process to be ready
1477         # to handle requests from services started subsequently which depend
1478         # on this one.  As a last resort, sleep for some time.
1479 }
1480
1481 #
1482 # Function that stops the daemon/service
1483 #
1484 do_stop()
1485 {
1486         # Return
1487         #   0 if daemon has been stopped
1488         #   1 if daemon was already stopped
1489         #   2 if daemon could not be stopped
1490         #   other if a failure occurred
1491         start-stop-daemon --stop --quiet --retry=TERM/30/KILL/5 --pidfile $PIDFILE --name $NAME
1492         RETVAL="$?"
1493         [ "$RETVAL" = 2 ] && return 2
1494         # Wait for children to finish too if this is a daemon that forks
1495         # and if the daemon is only ever run from this initscript.
1496         # If the above conditions are not satisfied then add some other code
1497         # that waits for the process to drop all resources that could be
1498         # needed by services started subsequently.  A last resort is to
1499         # sleep for some time.
1500         start-stop-daemon --stop --quiet --oknodo --retry=0/30/KILL/5 --exec $DAEMON
1501         [ "$?" = 2 ] && return 2
1502         # Many daemons don't delete their pidfiles when they exit.
1503         rm -f $PIDFILE
1504         return "$RETVAL"
1505 }
1506
1507 #
1508 # Function that sends a SIGHUP to the daemon/service
1509 #
1510 do_reload() {
1511         #
1512         # If the daemon can reload its configuration without
1513         # restarting (for example, when it is sent a SIGHUP),
1514         # then implement that here.
1515         #
1516         start-stop-daemon --stop --signal 1 --quiet --pidfile $PIDFILE --name $NAME
1517         return 0
1518 }
1519
1520 SCRIPTNAME=$1
1521 scriptbasename="$(basename $1)"
1522 echo "SN: $scriptbasename"
1523 if [ "$scriptbasename" != "init-d-library" ] ; then
1524     script="$1"
1525     shift
1526     . $script
1527 else
1528     exit 0
1529 fi
1530
1531 NAME=$(basename $DAEMON)
1532 PIDFILE=/var/run/$NAME.pid
1533
1534 # Exit if the package is not installed
1535 #[ -x "$DAEMON" ] || exit 0
1536
1537 # Read configuration variable file if it is present
1538 [ -r /etc/default/$NAME ] && . /etc/default/$NAME
1539
1540 # Load the VERBOSE setting and other rcS variables
1541 . /lib/init/vars.sh
1542
1543 case "$1" in
1544   start)
1545         [ "$VERBOSE" != no ] && log_daemon_msg "Starting $DESC" "$NAME"
1546         do_start
1547         case "$?" in
1548                 0|1) [ "$VERBOSE" != no ] && log_end_msg 0 ;;
1549                 2) [ "$VERBOSE" != no ] && log_end_msg 1 ;;
1550         esac
1551         ;;
1552   stop)
1553         [ "$VERBOSE" != no ] && log_daemon_msg "Stopping $DESC" "$NAME"
1554         do_stop
1555         case "$?" in
1556                 0|1) [ "$VERBOSE" != no ] && log_end_msg 0 ;;
1557                 2) [ "$VERBOSE" != no ] && log_end_msg 1 ;;
1558         esac
1559         ;;
1560   status)
1561         status_of_proc "$DAEMON" "$NAME" && exit 0 || exit $?
1562         ;;
1563   #reload|force-reload)
1564         #
1565         # If do_reload() is not implemented then leave this commented out
1566         # and leave 'force-reload' as an alias for 'restart'.
1567         #
1568         #log_daemon_msg "Reloading $DESC" "$NAME"
1569         #do_reload
1570         #log_end_msg $?
1571         #;;
1572   restart|force-reload)
1573         #
1574         # If the "reload" option is implemented then remove the
1575         # 'force-reload' alias
1576         #
1577         log_daemon_msg "Restarting $DESC" "$NAME"
1578         do_stop
1579         case "$?" in
1580           0|1)
1581                 do_start
1582                 case "$?" in
1583                         0) log_end_msg 0 ;;
1584                         1) log_end_msg 1 ;; # Old process is still running
1585                         *) log_end_msg 1 ;; # Failed to start
1586                 esac
1587                 ;;
1588           *)
1589                 # Failed to stop
1590                 log_end_msg 1
1591                 ;;
1592         esac
1593         ;;
1594   *)
1595         echo "Usage: $SCRIPTNAME {start|stop|status|restart|force-reload}" >&2
1596         exit 3
1597         ;;
1598 esac
1599
1600 :
1601 </pre></p>
1602
1603 <p>It is based on /etc/init.d/skeleton, and could be improved quite a
1604 lot.  I did not really polish the approach, so it might not always
1605 work out of the box, but you get the idea.  I did not try very hard to
1606 optimize it nor make it more robust either.</p>
1607
1608 <p>A better argument for switching init system in Debian than reducing
1609 the size of init scripts (which is a good thing to do anyway), is to
1610 get boot system that is able to handle the kernel events sensibly and
1611 robustly, and do not depend on the boot to run sequentially.  The boot
1612 and the kernel have not behaved sequentially in years.</p>
1613
1614       </div>
1615       <div class="tags">
1616
1617
1618         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>.
1619
1620
1621       </div>
1622     </div>
1623     <div class="padding"></div>
1624
1625     <div class="entry">
1626       <div class="title">
1627         <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>
1628       </div>
1629       <div class="date">
1630          1st November 2013
1631       </div>
1632       <div class="body">
1633         <p><a href="http://www.spice-space.org/">The SPICE protocol</a> for
1634 remote display access is the preferred solution with oVirt and RedHat
1635 Enterprise Virtualization, and I was sad to discover the other day
1636 that the browser plugin needed to use these systems seamlessly was
1637 missing in Debian.  The <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/668284">request
1638 for a package</a> was from 2012-04-10 with no progress since
1639 2013-04-01, so I decided to wrap up a package based on the great work
1640 from Cajus Pollmeier and put it in a collab-maint maintained git
1641 repository to get a package I could use.  I would very much like
1642 others to help me maintain the package (or just take over, I do not
1643 mind), but as no-one had volunteered so far, I just uploaded it to
1644 NEW.  I hope it will be available in Debian in a few days.</p>
1645
1646 <p>The source is now available from
1647 <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>
1648
1649       </div>
1650       <div class="tags">
1651
1652
1653         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
1654
1655
1656       </div>
1657     </div>
1658     <div class="padding"></div>
1659
1660     <div class="entry">
1661       <div class="title">
1662         <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>
1663       </div>
1664       <div class="date">
1665         27th October 2013
1666       </div>
1667       <div class="body">
1668         <p>The
1669 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/v/vmdebootstrap.html">vmdebootstrap</a>
1670 program is a a very nice system to create virtual machine images.  It
1671 create a image file, add a partition table, mount it and run
1672 debootstrap in the mounted directory to create a Debian system on a
1673 stick.  Yesterday, I decided to try to teach it how to make images for
1674 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/RaspberryPi">Raspberry Pi</a>, as part
1675 of a plan to simplify the build system for
1676 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/FreedomBox">the FreedomBox
1677 project</a>.  The FreedomBox project already uses vmdebootstrap for
1678 the virtualbox images, but its current build system made multistrap
1679 based system for Dreamplug images, and it is lacking support for
1680 Raspberry Pi.</p>
1681
1682 <p>Armed with the knowledge on how to build "foreign" (aka non-native
1683 architecture) chroots for Raspberry Pi, I dived into the vmdebootstrap
1684 code and adjusted it to be able to build armel images on my amd64
1685 Debian laptop.  I ended up giving vmdebootstrap five new options,
1686 allowing me to replicate the image creation process I use to make
1687 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/A_Raspberry_Pi_based_batman_adv_Mesh_network_node.html">Debian
1688 Jessie based mesh node images for the Raspberry Pi</a>.  First, the
1689 <tt>--foreign /path/to/binfm_handler</tt> option tell vmdebootstrap to
1690 call debootstrap with --foreign and to copy the handler into the
1691 generated chroot before running the second stage.  This allow
1692 vmdebootstrap to create armel images on an amd64 host.  Next I added
1693 two new options <tt>--bootsize size</tt> and <tt>--boottype
1694 fstype</tt> to teach it to create a separate /boot/ partition with the
1695 given file system type, allowing me to create an image with a vfat
1696 partition for the /boot/ stuff.  I also added a <tt>--variant
1697 variant</tt> option to allow me to create smaller images without the
1698 Debian base system packages installed.  Finally, I added an option
1699 <tt>--no-extlinux</tt> to tell vmdebootstrap to not install extlinux
1700 as a boot loader.  It is not needed on the Raspberry Pi and probably
1701 most other non-x86 architectures.  The changes were accepted by the
1702 upstream author of vmdebootstrap yesterday and today, and is now
1703 available from
1704 <a href="http://git.liw.fi/cgi-bin/cgit/cgit.cgi/vmdebootstrap/">the
1705 upstream project page</a>.</p>
1706
1707 <p>To use it to build a Raspberry Pi image using Debian Jessie, first
1708 create a small script (the customize script) to add the non-free
1709 binary blob needed to boot the Raspberry Pi and the APT source
1710 list:</p>
1711
1712 <p><pre>
1713 #!/bin/sh
1714 set -e # Exit on first error
1715 rootdir="$1"
1716 cd "$rootdir"
1717 cat &lt;&lt;EOF > etc/apt/sources.list
1718 deb http://http.debian.net/debian/ jessie main contrib non-free
1719 EOF
1720 # Install non-free binary blob needed to boot Raspberry Pi.  This
1721 # install a kernel somewhere too.
1722 wget https://raw.github.com/Hexxeh/rpi-update/master/rpi-update \
1723     -O $rootdir/usr/bin/rpi-update
1724 chmod a+x $rootdir/usr/bin/rpi-update
1725 mkdir -p $rootdir/lib/modules
1726 touch $rootdir/boot/start.elf
1727 chroot $rootdir rpi-update
1728 </pre></p>
1729
1730 <p>Next, fetch the latest vmdebootstrap script and call it like this
1731 to build the image:</p>
1732
1733 <pre>
1734 sudo ./vmdebootstrap \
1735     --variant minbase \
1736     --arch armel \
1737     --distribution jessie \
1738     --mirror http://http.debian.net/debian \
1739     --image test.img \
1740     --size 600M \
1741     --bootsize 64M \
1742     --boottype vfat \
1743     --log-level debug \
1744     --verbose \
1745     --no-kernel \
1746     --no-extlinux \
1747     --root-password raspberry \
1748     --hostname raspberrypi \
1749     --foreign /usr/bin/qemu-arm-static \
1750     --customize `pwd`/customize \
1751     --package netbase \
1752     --package git-core \
1753     --package binutils \
1754     --package ca-certificates \
1755     --package wget \
1756     --package kmod
1757 </pre></p>
1758
1759 <p>The list of packages being installed are the ones needed by
1760 rpi-update to make the image bootable on the Raspberry Pi, with the
1761 exception of netbase, which is needed by debootstrap to find
1762 /etc/hosts with the minbase variant.  I really wish there was a way to
1763 set up an Raspberry Pi using only packages in the Debian archive, but
1764 that is not possible as far as I know, because it boots from the GPU
1765 using a non-free binary blob.</p>
1766
1767 <p>The build host need debootstrap, kpartx and qemu-user-static and
1768 probably a few others installed.  I have not checked the complete
1769 build dependency list.</p>
1770
1771 <p>The resulting image will not use the hardware floating point unit
1772 on the Raspberry PI, because the armel architecture in Debian is not
1773 optimized for that use.  So the images created will be a bit slower
1774 than <a href="http://www.raspbian.org/">Raspbian</a> based images.</p>
1775
1776       </div>
1777       <div class="tags">
1778
1779
1780         Tags: <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>.
1781
1782
1783       </div>
1784     </div>
1785     <div class="padding"></div>
1786
1787     <div class="entry">
1788       <div class="title">
1789         <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>
1790       </div>
1791       <div class="date">
1792         15th October 2013
1793       </div>
1794       <div class="body">
1795         <p>The last few days I came across a few good causes that should get
1796 wider attention.  I recommend signing and donating to each one of
1797 these. :)</p>
1798
1799 <p>Via <a href="http://www.debian.org/News/weekly/2013/18/">Debian
1800 Project News for 2013-10-14</a> I came across the Outreach Program for
1801 Women program which is a Google Summer of Code like initiative to get
1802 more women involved in free software.  One debian sponsor has offered
1803 to match <a href="http://debian.ch/opw2013">any donation done to Debian
1804 earmarked</a> for this initiative.  I donated a few minutes ago, and
1805 hope you will to. :)</p>
1806
1807 <p>And the Electronic Frontier Foundation just announced plans to
1808 create <a href="https://supporters.eff.org/donate/nsa-videos">video
1809 documentaries about the excessive spying</a> on every Internet user that
1810 take place these days, and their need to fund the work.  I've already
1811 donated.  Are you next?</p>
1812
1813 <p>For my Norwegian audience, the organisation Studentenes og
1814 Akademikernes Internasjonale Hjelpefond is collecting signatures for a
1815 statement under the heading
1816 <a href="http://saih.no/Bloggers_United/">Bloggers United for Open
1817 Access</a> for those of us asking for more focus on open access in the
1818 Norwegian government.  So far 499 signatures.  I hope you will sign it
1819 too.</p>
1820
1821       </div>
1822       <div class="tags">
1823
1824
1825         Tags: <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>.
1826
1827
1828       </div>
1829     </div>
1830     <div class="padding"></div>
1831
1832     <div class="entry">
1833       <div class="title">
1834         <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>
1835       </div>
1836       <div class="date">
1837         27th September 2013
1838       </div>
1839       <div class="body">
1840         <p>The <a href="http://www.freedomboxfoundation.org/">Freedombox
1841 project</a> have been going on for a while, and have presented the
1842 vision, ideas and solution several places.  Here is a little
1843 collection of videos of talks and presentation of the project.</p>
1844
1845 <ul>
1846
1847 <li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ukvUz5taxvA">FreedomBox -
1848 2,5 minute marketing film</a> (Youtube)</li>
1849
1850 <li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SzW25QTVWsE">Eben Moglen
1851 discusses the Freedombox on CBS news 2011</a> (Youtube)</li>
1852
1853 <li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ae8SZbxfE0g">Eben Moglen -
1854 Freedom in the Cloud - Software Freedom, Privacy and and Security for
1855 Web 2.0 and Cloud computing at ISOC-NY Public Meeting 2010</a>
1856 (Youtube)</li>
1857
1858 <li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNaIji_3xBE">Fosdem 2011
1859 Keynote by Eben Moglen presenting the Freedombox</a> (Youtube)</li>
1860
1861 <li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bDDUyJSQ9s">Presentation of
1862 the Freedombox by James Vasile at Elevate in Gratz 2011</a> (Youtube)</li>
1863
1864 <li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQTmnk27g9s"> Freedombox -
1865 Discovery, Identity, and Trust by Nick Daly at Freedombox Hackfest New
1866 York City in 2012</a> (Youtube)</li>
1867
1868 <li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tkbSB4Ba7Ck">Introduction
1869 to the Freedombox at Freedombox Hackfest New York City in 2012</a>
1870 (Youtube)</li>
1871
1872 <li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-P2Jaeg0aQ">Freedom, Out
1873 of the Box! by Bdale Garbee at linux.conf.au Ballarat, 2012</a> (Youtube) </li>
1874
1875 <li><a href="https://archive.fosdem.org/2013/schedule/event/freedombox/">Freedombox
1876 1.0 by Eben Moglen and Bdale Garbee at Fosdem 2013</a> (FOSDEM) </li>
1877
1878 <li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e1LpYX2zVYg">What is the
1879 FreedomBox today by Bdale Garbee at Debconf13 in Vaumarcus
1880 2013</a> (Youtube)</li>
1881
1882 </ul>
1883
1884 <p>A larger list is available from
1885 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/FreedomBox/TalksAndPresentations">the
1886 Freedombox Wiki</a>.</p>
1887
1888 <p>On other news, I am happy to report that Freedombox based on Debian
1889 Jessie is coming along quite well, and soon both Owncloud and using
1890 Tor should be available for testers of the Freedombox solution. :) In
1891 a few weeks I hope everything needed to test it is included in Debian.
1892 The withsqlite package is already in Debian, and the plinth package is
1893 pending in NEW.  The third and vital part of that puzzle is the
1894 metapackage/setup framework, which is still pending an upload.  Join
1895 us on <a href="irc://irc.debian.org:6667/%23freedombox">IRC
1896 (#freedombox on irc.debian.org)</a> and
1897 <a href="http://lists.alioth.debian.org/mailman/listinfo/freedombox-discuss">the
1898 mailing list</a> if you want to help make this vision come true.</p>
1899
1900       </div>
1901       <div class="tags">
1902
1903
1904         Tags: <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>.
1905
1906
1907       </div>
1908     </div>
1909     <div class="padding"></div>
1910
1911     <div class="entry">
1912       <div class="title">
1913         <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>
1914       </div>
1915       <div class="date">
1916         10th September 2013
1917       </div>
1918       <div class="body">
1919         <p>I was introduced to the
1920 <a href="http://www.freedomboxfoundation.org/">Freedombox project</a>
1921 in 2010, when Eben Moglen presented his vision about serving the need
1922 of non-technical people to keep their personal information private and
1923 within the legal protection of their own homes.  The idea is to give
1924 people back the power over their network and machines, and return
1925 Internet back to its intended peer-to-peer architecture.  Instead of
1926 depending on a central service, the Freedombox will give everyone
1927 control over their own basic infrastructure.</p>
1928
1929 <p>I've intended to join the effort since then, but other tasks have
1930 taken priority.  But this summers nasty news about the misuse of trust
1931 and privilege exercised by the "western" intelligence gathering
1932 communities increased my eagerness to contribute to a point where I
1933 actually started working on the project a while back.</p>
1934
1935 <p>The <a href="https://alioth.debian.org/projects/freedombox/">initial
1936 Debian initiative</a> based on the vision from Eben Moglen, is to
1937 create a simple and cheap Debian based appliance that anyone can hook
1938 up in their home and get access to secure and private services and
1939 communication.  The initial deployment platform have been the
1940 <a href="http://www.globalscaletechnologies.com/t-dreamplugdetails.aspx">Dreamplug</a>,
1941 which is a piece of hardware I do not own.  So to be able to test what
1942 the current Freedombox setup look like, I had to come up with a way to install
1943 it on some hardware I do have access to.  I have rewritten the
1944 <a href="https://github.com/NickDaly/freedom-maker">freedom-maker</a>
1945 image build framework to use .deb packages instead of only copying
1946 setup into the boot images, and thanks to this rewrite I am able to
1947 set up any machine supported by Debian Wheezy as a Freedombox, using
1948 the previously mentioned deb (and a few support debs for packages
1949 missing in Debian).</p>
1950
1951 <p>The current Freedombox setup consist of a set of bootstrapping
1952 scripts
1953 (<a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/freedombox-setup">freedombox-setup</a>),
1954 and a administrative web interface
1955 (<a href="https://github.com/NickDaly/Plinth">plinth</a> + exmachina +
1956 withsqlite), as well as a privacy enhancing proxy based on
1957 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/privoxy">privoxy</a>
1958 (freedombox-privoxy).  There is also a web/javascript based XMPP
1959 client (<a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/jwchat">jwchat</a>)
1960 trying (unsuccessfully so far) to talk to the XMPP server
1961 (<a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/ejabberd">ejabberd</a>).  The
1962 web interface is pluggable, and the goal is to use it to enable OpenID
1963 services, mesh network connectivity, use of TOR, etc, etc.  Not much of
1964 this is really working yet, see
1965 <a href="https://github.com/NickDaly/freedombox-todos/blob/master/TODO">the
1966 project TODO</a> for links to GIT repositories.  Most of the code is
1967 on github at the moment.  The HTTP proxy is operational out of the
1968 box, and the admin web interface can be used to add/remove plinth
1969 users.  I've not been able to do anything else with it so far, but
1970 know there are several branches spread around github and other places
1971 with lots of half baked features.</p>
1972
1973 <p>Anyway, if you want to have a look at the current state, the
1974 following recipes should work to give you a test machine to poke
1975 at.</p>
1976
1977 <p><strong>Debian Wheezy amd64</strong></p>
1978
1979 <ol>
1980
1981 <li>Fetch normal Debian Wheezy installation ISO.</li>
1982 <li>Boot from it, either as CD or USB stick.</li>
1983 <li><p>Press [tab] on the boot prompt and add this as a boot argument
1984 to the Debian installer:<p>
1985 <pre>url=<a href="http://www.reinholdtsen.name/freedombox/preseed-wheezy.dat">http://www.reinholdtsen.name/freedombox/preseed-wheezy.dat</a></pre></li>
1986
1987 <li>Answer the few language/region/password questions and pick disk to
1988 install on.</li>
1989
1990 <li>When the installation is finished and the machine have rebooted a
1991 few times, your Freedombox is ready for testing.</li>
1992
1993 </ol>
1994
1995 <p><strong>Raspberry Pi Raspbian</strong></p>
1996
1997 <ol>
1998
1999 <li>Fetch a Raspbian SD card image, create SD card.</li>
2000 <li>Boot from SD card, extend file system to fill the card completely.</li>
2001 <li><p>Log in and add this to /etc/sources.list:</p>
2002 <pre>
2003 deb <a href="http://www.reinholdtsen.name/freedombox/">http://www.reinholdtsen.name/freedombox</a> wheezy main
2004 </pre></li>
2005 <li><p>Run this as root:</p>
2006 <pre>
2007 wget -O - http://www.reinholdtsen.name/freedombox/BE1A583D.asc | \
2008    apt-key add -
2009 apt-get update
2010 apt-get install freedombox-setup
2011 /usr/lib/freedombox/setup
2012 </pre></li>
2013 <li>Reboot into your freshly created Freedombox.</li>
2014
2015 </ol>
2016
2017 <p>You can test it on other architectures too, but because the
2018 freedombox-privoxy package is binary, it will only work as intended on
2019 the architectures where I have had time to build the binary and put it
2020 in my APT repository.  But do not let this stop you.  It is only a
2021 short "<tt>apt-get source -b freedombox-privoxy</tt>" away. :)</p>
2022
2023 <p>Note that by default Freedombox is a DHCP server on the
2024 192.168.1.0/24 subnet, so if this is your subnet be careful and turn
2025 off the DHCP server by running "<tt>update-rc.d isc-dhcp-server
2026 disable</tt>" as root.</p>
2027
2028 <p>Please let me know if this works for you, or if you have any
2029 problems.  We gather on the IRC channel
2030 <a href="irc://irc.debian.org:6667/%23freedombox">#freedombox</a> on
2031 irc.debian.org and the
2032 <a href="http://lists.alioth.debian.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/freedombox-discuss">project
2033 mailing list</a>.</p>
2034
2035 <p>Once you get your freedombox operational, you can visit
2036 <tt>http://your-host-name:8001/</tt> to see the state of the plint
2037 welcome screen (dead end - do not be surprised if you are unable to
2038 get past it), and next visit <tt>http://your-host-name:8001/help/</tt>
2039 to look at the rest of plinth.  The default user is 'admin' and the
2040 default password is 'secret'.</p>
2041
2042       </div>
2043       <div class="tags">
2044
2045
2046         Tags: <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>.
2047
2048
2049       </div>
2050     </div>
2051     <div class="padding"></div>
2052
2053     <div class="entry">
2054       <div class="title">
2055         <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>
2056       </div>
2057       <div class="date">
2058         18th August 2013
2059       </div>
2060       <div class="body">
2061         <p>Earlier, I reported about
2062 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_fix_a_Thinkpad_X230_with_a_broken_180_GB_SSD_disk.html">my
2063 problems using an Intel SSD 520 Series 180 GB disk</a>.  Friday I was
2064 told by IBM that the original disk should be thrown away.  And as
2065 there no longer was a problem if I bricked the firmware, I decided
2066 today to try to install Intel firmware to replace the Lenovo firmware
2067 currently on the disk.</p>
2068
2069 <p>I searched the Intel site for firmware, and found
2070 <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>
2071 (aka Intel SATA Solid-State Drive Firmware Update Tool) which
2072 according to the site should contain the latest firmware for SSD
2073 disks.  I inserted the broken disk in one of my spare laptops and
2074 booted the ISO from a USB stick.  The disk was recognized, but the
2075 program claimed the newest firmware already were installed and refused
2076 to insert any Intel firmware.  So no change, and the disk is still
2077 unable to handle write load. :( I guess the only way to get them
2078 working would be if Lenovo releases new firmware.  No idea how likely
2079 that is.  Anyway, just blogging about this test for completeness.  I
2080 got a working Samsung disk, and see no point in spending more time on
2081 the broken disks.</p>
2082
2083       </div>
2084       <div class="tags">
2085
2086
2087         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
2088
2089
2090       </div>
2091     </div>
2092     <div class="padding"></div>
2093
2094     <div class="entry">
2095       <div class="title">
2096         <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>
2097       </div>
2098       <div class="date">
2099         17th July 2013
2100       </div>
2101       <div class="body">
2102         <p>Today I switched to
2103 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_Thinkpad_is_dead__long_live_the_Thinkpad_X230_.html">my
2104 new laptop</a>.  I've previously written about the problems I had with
2105 my new Thinkpad X230, which was delivered with an
2106 <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
2107 GB Intel SSD disk with Lenovo firmware</a> that did not handle
2108 sustained writes.  My hardware supplier have been very forthcoming in
2109 trying to find a solution, and after first trying with another
2110 identical 180 GB disks they decided to send me a 256 GB Samsung SSD
2111 disk instead to fix it once and for all.  The Samsung disk survived
2112 the installation of Debian with encrypted disks (filling the disk with
2113 random data during installation killed the first two), and I thus
2114 decided to trust it with my data.  I have installed it as a Debian Edu
2115 Wheezy roaming workstation hooked up with my Debian Edu Squeeze main
2116 server at home using Kerberos and LDAP, and will use it as my work
2117 station from now on.</p>
2118
2119 <p>As this is a solid state disk with no moving parts, I believe the
2120 Debian Wheezy default installation need to be tuned a bit to increase
2121 performance and increase life time of the disk.  The Linux kernel and
2122 user space applications do not yet adjust automatically to such
2123 environment.  To make it easier for my self, I created a draft Debian
2124 package <tt>ssd-setup</tt> to handle this tuning.  The
2125 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/gitweb/?p=collab-maint/ssd-setup.git">source
2126 for the ssd-setup package</a> is available from collab-maint, and it
2127 is set up to adjust the setup of the machine by just installing the
2128 package.  If there is any non-SSD disk in the machine, the package
2129 will refuse to install, as I did not try to write any logic to sort
2130 file systems in SSD and non-SSD file systems.</p>
2131
2132 <p>I consider the package a draft, as I am a bit unsure how to best
2133 set up Debian Wheezy with an SSD.  It is adjusted to my use case,
2134 where I set up the machine with one large encrypted partition (in
2135 addition to /boot), put LVM on top of this and set up partitions on
2136 top of this again.  See the README file in the package source for the
2137 references I used to pick the settings.  At the moment these
2138 parameters are tuned:</p>
2139
2140 <ul>
2141
2142 <li>Set up cryptsetup to pass TRIM commands to the physical disk
2143     (adding discard to /etc/crypttab)</li>
2144
2145 <li>Set up LVM to pass on TRIM commands to the underlying device (in
2146     this case a cryptsetup partition) by changing issue_discards from
2147     0 to 1 in /etc/lvm/lvm.conf.</li>
2148
2149 <li>Set relatime as a file system option for ext3 and ext4 file
2150     systems.</li>
2151
2152 <li>Tell swap to use TRIM commands by adding 'discard' to
2153     /etc/fstab.</li>
2154
2155 <li>Change I/O scheduler from cfq to deadline using a udev rule.</li>
2156
2157 <li>Run fstrim on every ext3 and ext4 file system every night (from
2158     cron.daily).</li>
2159
2160 <li>Adjust sysctl values vm.swappiness to 1 and vm.vfs_cache_pressure
2161     to 50 to reduce the kernel eagerness to swap out processes.</li>
2162
2163 </ul>
2164
2165 <p>During installation, I cancelled the part where the installer fill
2166 the disk with random data, as this would kill the SSD performance for
2167 little gain.  My goal with the encrypted file system is to ensure
2168 those stealing my laptop end up with a brick and not a working
2169 computer.  I have no hope in keeping the really resourceful people
2170 from getting the data on the disk (see
2171 <a href="http://xkcd.com/538/">XKCD #538</a> for an explanation why).
2172 Thus I concluded that adding the discard option to crypttab is the
2173 right thing to do.</p>
2174
2175 <p>I considered using the noop I/O scheduler, as several recommended
2176 it for SSD, but others recommended deadline and a benchmark I found
2177 indicated that deadline might be better for interactive use.</p>
2178
2179 <p>I also considered using the 'discard' file system option for ext3
2180 and ext4, but read that it would give a performance hit ever time a
2181 file is removed, and thought it best to that that slowdown once a day
2182 instead of during my work.</p>
2183
2184 <p>My package do not set up tmpfs on /var/run, /var/lock and /tmp, as
2185 this is already done by Debian Edu.</p>
2186
2187 <p>I have not yet started on the user space tuning.  I expect
2188 iceweasel need some tuning, and perhaps other applications too, but
2189 have not yet had time to investigate those parts.</p>
2190
2191 <p>The package should work on Ubuntu too, but I have not yet tested it
2192 there.</p>
2193
2194 <p>As for the answer to the question in the title of this blog post,
2195 as far as I know, the only solution I know about is to replace the
2196 disk.  It might be possible to flash it with Intel firmware instead of
2197 the Lenovo firmware.  But I have not tried and did not want to do so
2198 without approval from Lenovo as I wanted to keep the warranty on the
2199 disk until a solution was found and they wanted the broken disks
2200 back.</p>
2201
2202       </div>
2203       <div class="tags">
2204
2205
2206         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
2207
2208
2209       </div>
2210     </div>
2211     <div class="padding"></div>
2212
2213     <div class="entry">
2214       <div class="title">
2215         <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>
2216       </div>
2217       <div class="date">
2218         10th July 2013
2219       </div>
2220       <div class="body">
2221         <p>A few days ago, I wrote about
2222 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_Thinkpad_is_dead__long_live_the_Thinkpad_X230_.html">the
2223 problems I experienced with my new X230 and its SSD disk</a>, which
2224 was dying during installation because it is unable to cope with
2225 sustained write.  My supplier is in contact with
2226 <a href="http://www.lenovo.com/">Lenovo</a>, and they wanted to send a
2227 replacement disk to try to fix the problem.  They decided to send an
2228 identical model, so my hopes for a permanent fix was slim.</p>
2229
2230 <p>Anyway, today I got the replacement disk and tried to install
2231 Debian Edu Wheezy with encrypted disk on it.  The new disk have the
2232 same firmware version as the original.  This time my hope raised
2233 slightly as the installation progressed, as the original disk used to
2234 die after 4-7% of the disk was written to, while this time it kept
2235 going past 10%, 20%, 40% and even past 50%.  But around 60%, the disk
2236 died again and I was back on square one.  I still do not have a new
2237 laptop with a disk I can trust.  I can not live with a disk that might
2238 lock up when I download a new
2239 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux</a> ISO or
2240 other large files.  I look forward to hearing from my supplier with
2241 the next proposal from Lenovo.</p>
2242
2243 <p>The original disk is marked Intel SSD 520 Series 180 GB,
2244 11S0C38722Z1ZNME35X1TR, ISN: CVCV321407HB180EGN, SA: G57560302, FW:
2245 LF1i, 29MAY2013, PBA: G39779-300, LBA 351,651,888, LI P/N: 0C38722,
2246 Pb-free 2LI, LC P/N: 16-200366, WWN: 55CD2E40002756C4, Model:
2247 SSDSC2BW180A3L 2.5" 6Gb/s SATA SSD 180G 5V 1A, ASM P/N 0C38732, FRU
2248 P/N 45N8295, P0C38732.</p>
2249
2250 <p>The replacement disk is marked Intel SSD 520 Series 180 GB,
2251 11S0C38722Z1ZNDE34N0L0, ISN: CVCV315306RK180EGN, SA: G57560-302, FW:
2252 LF1i, 22APR2013, PBA: G39779-300, LBA 351,651,888, LI P/N: 0C38722,
2253 Pb-free 2LI, LC P/N: 16-200366, WWN: 55CD2E40000AB69E, Model:
2254 SSDSC2BW180A3L 2.5" 6Gb/s SATA SSD 180G 5V 1A, ASM P/N 0C38732, FRU
2255 P/N 45N8295, P0C38732.</p>
2256
2257 <p>The only difference is in the first number (serial number?), ISN,
2258 SA, date and WNPP values.  Mentioning all the details here in case
2259 someone is able to use the information to find a way to identify the
2260 failing disk among working ones (if any such working disk actually
2261 exist).</p>
2262
2263       </div>
2264       <div class="tags">
2265
2266
2267         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
2268
2269
2270       </div>
2271     </div>
2272     <div class="padding"></div>
2273
2274     <div class="entry">
2275       <div class="title">
2276         <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>
2277       </div>
2278       <div class="date">
2279          9th July 2013
2280       </div>
2281       <div class="body">
2282         <p>The upcoming Saturday, 2013-07-13, we are organising a combined
2283 Debian Edu developer gathering and Debian and Ubuntu bug squashing
2284 party in Oslo.  It is organised by <a href="http://www.nuug.no/">the
2285 member assosiation NUUG</a> and
2286 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">the Debian Edu / Skolelinux
2287 project</a> together with <a href="http://bitraf.no/">the hack space
2288 Bitraf</a>.</p>
2289
2290 <p>It starts 10:00 and continue until late evening.  Everyone is
2291 welcome, and there is no fee to participate.  There is on the other
2292 hand limited space, and only room for 30 people.  Please put your name
2293 on <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/BSP/2013/07/13/no/Oslo">the event
2294 wiki page</a> if you plan to join us.</p>
2295
2296       </div>
2297       <div class="tags">
2298
2299
2300         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>.
2301
2302
2303       </div>
2304     </div>
2305     <div class="padding"></div>
2306
2307     <div class="entry">
2308       <div class="title">
2309         <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>
2310       </div>
2311       <div class="date">
2312          5th July 2013
2313       </div>
2314       <div class="body">
2315         <p>Half a year ago, I reported that I had to find a
2316 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Thank_you_Thinkpad_X41__for_your_long_and_trustworthy_service.html">replacement
2317 for my trusty old Thinkpad X41</a>.  Unfortunately I did not have much
2318 time to spend on it, and it took a while to find a model I believe
2319 will do the job, but two days ago the replacement finally arrived.  I
2320 ended up picking a
2321 <a href="http://www.linlap.com/lenovo_thinkpad_x230">Thinkpad X230</a>
2322 with SSD disk (NZDAJMN).  I first test installed Debian Edu Wheezy as
2323 a roaming workstation, and it seemed to work flawlessly.  But my
2324 second installation with encrypted disk was not as successful.  More
2325 on that below.</p>
2326
2327 <p>I had a hard time trying to track down a good laptop, as my most
2328 important requirements (robust and with a good keyboard) are never
2329 listed in the feature list.  But I did get good help from the search
2330 feature at <a href="http://www.prisjakt.no/">Prisjakt</a>, which
2331 allowed me to limit the list of interesting laptops based on my other
2332 requirements.  A bit surprising that SSD disk are not disks according
2333 to that search interface, so I had to drop specifying the number of
2334 disks from my search parameters.  I also asked around among friends to
2335 get their impression on keyboards and robustness.</p>
2336
2337 <p>So the new laptop arrived, and it is quite a lot wider than the
2338 X41.  I am not quite convinced about the keyboard, as it is
2339 significantly wider than my old keyboard, and I have to stretch my
2340 hand a lot more to reach the edges.  But the key response is fairly
2341 good and the individual key shape is fairly easy to handle, so I hope
2342 I will get used to it.  My old X40 was starting to fail, and I really
2343 needed a new laptop now. :)</p>
2344
2345 <p>Turning off the touch pad was simple.  All it took was a quick
2346 visit to the BIOS during boot it disable it.</p>
2347
2348 <p>But there is a fatal problem with the laptop.  The 180 GB SSD disk
2349 lock up during load.  And this happen when installing Debian Wheezy
2350 with encrypted disk, while the disk is being filled with random data.
2351 I also tested to install Ubuntu Raring, and it happen there too if I
2352 reenable the code to fill the disk with random data (it is disabled by
2353 default in Ubuntu).  And the bug with is already known.  It was
2354 reported to Debian as <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/691427">BTS
2355 report #691427 2012-10-25</a> (journal commit I/O error on brand-new
2356 Thinkpad T430s ext4 on lvm on SSD).  It is also reported to the Linux
2357 kernel developers as
2358 <a href="https://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=51861">Kernel bugzilla
2359 report #51861 2012-12-20</a> (Intel SSD 520 stops working under load
2360 (SSDSC2BW180A3L in Lenovo ThinkPad T430s)). It is also reported on the
2361 Lenovo forums, both for
2362 <a href="http://forums.lenovo.com/t5/T400-T500-and-newer-T-series/T430s-Intel-SSD-520-180GB-issue/m-p/1070549">T430
2363 2012-11-10</a> and for
2364 <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
2365 03-20-2013</a>.  The problem do not only affect installation.  The
2366 reports state that the disk lock up during use if many writes are done
2367 on the disk, so it is much no use to work around the installation
2368 problem and end up with a computer that can lock up at any moment.
2369 There is even a
2370 <a href="https://git.efficios.com/?p=test-ssd.git">small C program
2371 available</a> that will lock up the hard drive after running a few
2372 minutes by writing to a file.</p>
2373
2374 <p>I've contacted my supplier and asked how to handle this, and after
2375 contacting PCHELP Norway (request 01D1FDP) which handle support
2376 requests for Lenovo, his first suggestion was to upgrade the disk
2377 firmware.  Unfortunately there is no newer firmware available from
2378 Lenovo, as my disk already have the most recent one (version LF1i).  I
2379 hope to hear more from him today and hope the problem can be
2380 fixed. :)</p>
2381
2382       </div>
2383       <div class="tags">
2384
2385
2386         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
2387
2388
2389       </div>
2390     </div>
2391     <div class="padding"></div>
2392
2393     <div class="entry">
2394       <div class="title">
2395         <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>
2396       </div>
2397       <div class="date">
2398          4th July 2013
2399       </div>
2400       <div class="body">
2401         <p>Half a year ago, I reported that I had to find a replacement for my
2402 trusty old Thinkpad X41.  Unfortunately I did not have much time to
2403 spend on it, but today the replacement finally arrived.  I ended up
2404 picking a <a href="http://www.linlap.com/lenovo_thinkpad_x230">Thinkpad
2405 X230</a> with SSD disk (NZDAJMN).  I first test installed Debian Edu
2406 Wheezy as a roaming workstation, and it worked flawlessly.  As I write
2407 this, it is installing what I hope will be a more final installation,
2408 with a encrypted hard drive to ensure any dope head stealing it end up
2409 with an expencive door stop.</p>
2410
2411 <p>I had a hard time trying to track down a good laptop, as my most
2412 important requirements (robust and with a good keyboard) are never
2413 listed in the feature list.  But I did get good help from the search
2414 feature at <ahref="http://www.prisjakt.no/">Prisjakt</a>, which
2415 allowed me to limit the list of interesting laptops based on my other
2416 requirements.  A bit surprising that SSD disk are not disks, so I had
2417 to drop number of disks from my search parameters.</p>
2418
2419 <p>I am not quite convinced about the keyboard, as it is significantly
2420 wider than my old keyboard, and I have to stretch my hand a lot more
2421 to reach the edges.  But the key response is fairly good and the
2422 individual key shape is fairly easy to handle, so I hope I will get
2423 used to it.  My old X40 was starting to fail, and I really needed a
2424 new laptop now. :)</p>
2425
2426 <p>I look forward to figuring out how to turn off the touch pad.</p>
2427
2428       </div>
2429       <div class="tags">
2430
2431
2432         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
2433
2434
2435       </div>
2436     </div>
2437     <div class="padding"></div>
2438
2439     <div class="entry">
2440       <div class="title">
2441         <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>
2442       </div>
2443       <div class="date">
2444         25th June 2013
2445       </div>
2446       <div class="body">
2447         <p>It annoys me when the computer fail to do automatically what it is
2448 perfectly capable of, and I have to do it manually to get things
2449 working.  One such task is to find out what firmware packages are
2450 needed to get the hardware on my computer working.  Most often this
2451 affect the wifi card, but some times it even affect the RAID
2452 controller or the ethernet card.  Today I pushed version 0.4 of the
2453 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/isenkram">Isenkram package</a>
2454 including a new script isenkram-autoinstall-firmware handling the
2455 process of asking all the loaded kernel modules what firmware files
2456 they want, find debian packages providing these files and install the
2457 debian packages.  Here is a test run on my laptop:</p>
2458
2459 <p><pre>
2460 # isenkram-autoinstall-firmware
2461 info: kernel drivers requested extra firmware: ipw2200-bss.fw ipw2200-ibss.fw ipw2200-sniffer.fw
2462 info: fetching http://http.debian.net/debian/dists/squeeze/Contents-i386.gz
2463 info: locating packages with the requested firmware files
2464 info: Updating APT sources after adding non-free APT source
2465 info: trying to install firmware-ipw2x00
2466 firmware-ipw2x00
2467 firmware-ipw2x00
2468 Preconfiguring packages ...
2469 Selecting previously deselected package firmware-ipw2x00.
2470 (Reading database ... 259727 files and directories currently installed.)
2471 Unpacking firmware-ipw2x00 (from .../firmware-ipw2x00_0.28+squeeze1_all.deb) ...
2472 Setting up firmware-ipw2x00 (0.28+squeeze1) ...
2473 #
2474 </pre></p>
2475
2476 <p>When all the requested firmware is present, a simple message is
2477 printed instead:</p>
2478
2479 <p><pre>
2480 # isenkram-autoinstall-firmware
2481 info: did not find any firmware files requested by loaded kernel modules.  exiting
2482 #
2483 </pre></p>
2484
2485 <p>It could use some polish, but it is already working well and saving
2486 me some time when setting up new machines. :)</p>
2487
2488 <p>So, how does it work?  It look at the set of currently loaded
2489 kernel modules, and look up each one of them using modinfo, to find
2490 the firmware files listed in the module meta-information.  Next, it
2491 download the Contents file from a nearby APT mirror, and search for
2492 the firmware files in this file to locate the package with the
2493 requested firmware file.  If the package is in the non-free section, a
2494 non-free APT source is added and the package is installed using
2495 <tt>apt-get install</tt>.  The end result is a slightly better working
2496 machine.</p>
2497
2498 <p>I hope someone find time to implement a more polished version of
2499 this script as part of the hw-detect debian-installer module, to
2500 finally fix <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/655507">BTS report
2501 #655507</a>.  There really is no need to insert USB sticks with
2502 firmware during a PXE install when the packages already are available
2503 from the nearby Debian mirror.</p>
2504
2505       </div>
2506       <div class="tags">
2507
2508
2509         Tags: <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>.
2510
2511
2512       </div>
2513     </div>
2514     <div class="padding"></div>
2515
2516     <div class="entry">
2517       <div class="title">
2518         <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>
2519       </div>
2520       <div class="date">
2521         11th June 2013
2522       </div>
2523       <div class="body">
2524         <p>When installing RedHat, Fedora, Debian and Ubuntu on some machines,
2525 the screen just turn black when Linux boot, either during installation
2526 or on first boot from the hard disk.  I've seen it once in a while the
2527 last few years, but only recently understood the cause.  I've seen it
2528 on HP laptops, and on my latest acquaintance the Packard Bell laptop.
2529 The reason seem to be in the wiring of some laptops.  The system to
2530 control the screen background light is inverted, so when Linux try to
2531 turn the brightness fully on, it end up turning it off instead.  I do
2532 not know which Linux drivers are affected, but this post is about the
2533 i915 driver used by the
2534 <a href="http://www.linlap.com/packard_bell_easynote_lv">Packard Bell
2535 EasyNote LV</a>, Thinkpad X40 and many other laptops.</p>
2536
2537 <p>The problem can be worked around two ways.  Either by adding
2538 i915.invert_brightness=1 as a kernel option, or by adding a file in
2539 /etc/modprobe.d/ to tell modprobe to add the invert_brightness=1
2540 option when it load the i915 kernel module.  On Debian and Ubuntu, it
2541 can be done by running these commands as root:</p>
2542
2543 <pre>
2544 echo options i915 invert_brightness=1 | tee /etc/modprobe.d/i915.conf
2545 update-initramfs -u -k all
2546 </pre>
2547
2548 <p>Since March 2012 there is
2549 <a href="http://git.kernel.org/cgit/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/commit/?id=4dca20efb1a9c2efefc28ad2867e5d6c3f5e1955">a
2550 mechanism in the Linux kernel</a> to tell the i915 driver which
2551 hardware have this problem, and get the driver to invert the
2552 brightness setting automatically.  To use it, one need to add a row in
2553 <a href="http://git.kernel.org/cgit/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/tree/drivers/gpu/drm/i915/intel_display.c">the
2554 intel_quirks array</a> in the driver source
2555 <tt>drivers/gpu/drm/i915/intel_display.c</tt> (look for "<tt>static
2556 struct intel_quirk intel_quirks</tt>"), specifying the PCI device
2557 number (vendor number 8086 is assumed) and subdevice vendor and device
2558 number.</p>
2559
2560 <p>My Packard Bell EasyNote LV got this output from <tt>lspci
2561 -vvnn</tt> for the video card in question:</p>
2562
2563 <p><pre>
2564 00:02.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: Intel Corporation \
2565     3rd Gen Core processor Graphics Controller [8086:0156] \
2566     (rev 09) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
2567  Subsystem: Acer Incorporated [ALI] Device [1025:0688]
2568  Control: I/O+ Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- \
2569     ParErr- Stepping- SE RR- FastB2B- DisINTx+
2570  Status: Cap+ 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B+ ParErr- DEVSEL=fast >TAbort- \
2571     <TAbort- <MAbort->SERR- <PERR- INTx-
2572  Latency: 0
2573  Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 42
2574  Region 0: Memory at c2000000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=4M]
2575  Region 2: Memory at b0000000 (64-bit, prefetchable) [size=256M]
2576  Region 4: I/O ports at 4000 [size=64]
2577  Expansion ROM at <unassigned> [disabled]
2578  Capabilities: <access denied>
2579  Kernel driver in use: i915
2580 </pre></p>
2581
2582 <p>The resulting intel_quirks entry would then look like this:</p>
2583
2584 <p><pre>
2585 struct intel_quirk intel_quirks[] = {
2586        ...
2587         /* Packard Bell EasyNote LV11HC needs invert brightness quirk */
2588         { 0x0156, 0x1025, 0x0688, quirk_invert_brightness },
2589        ...
2590 }
2591 </pre></p>
2592
2593 <p>According to the kernel module instructions (as seen using
2594 <tt>modinfo i915</tt>), information about hardware needing the
2595 invert_brightness flag should be sent to the
2596 <a href="http://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/dri-devel">dri-devel
2597 (at) lists.freedesktop.org</a> mailing list to reach the kernel
2598 developers.  But my email about the laptop sent 2013-06-03 have not
2599 yet shown up in
2600 <a href="http://lists.freedesktop.org/archives/dri-devel/2013-June/thread.html">the
2601 web archive for the mailing list</a>, so I suspect they do not accept
2602 emails from non-subscribers.  Because of this, I sent my patch also to
2603 the Debian bug tracking system instead as
2604 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/710938">BTS report #710938</a>, to make
2605 sure the patch is not lost.</p>
2606
2607 <p>Unfortunately, it is not enough to fix the kernel to get Laptops
2608 with this problem working properly with Linux.  If you use Gnome, your
2609 worries should be over at this point.  But if you use KDE, there is
2610 something in KDE ignoring the invert_brightness setting and turning on
2611 the screen during login.  I've reported it to Debian as
2612 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/711237">BTS report #711237</a>, and
2613 have no idea yet how to figure out exactly what subsystem is doing
2614 this.  Perhaps you can help?  Perhaps you know what the Gnome
2615 developers did to handle this, and this can give a clue to the KDE
2616 developers?  Or you know where in KDE the screen brightness is changed
2617 during login?  If so, please update the BTS report (or get in touch if
2618 you do not know how to update BTS).</p>
2619
2620 <p>Update 2013-07-19: The correct fix for this machine seem to be
2621 acpi_backlight=vendor, to disable ACPI backlight support completely,
2622 as the ACPI information on the machine is trash and it is better to
2623 leave it to the intel video driver to control the screen
2624 backlight.</p>
2625
2626       </div>
2627       <div class="tags">
2628
2629
2630         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
2631
2632
2633       </div>
2634     </div>
2635     <div class="padding"></div>
2636
2637     <div class="entry">
2638       <div class="title">
2639         <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>
2640       </div>
2641       <div class="date">
2642         27th May 2013
2643       </div>
2644       <div class="body">
2645         <p>Two days ago, I asked
2646 <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
2647 I could install Linux on a Packard Bell EasyNote LV computer
2648 preinstalled with Windows 8</a>.  I found a solution, but am horrified
2649 with the obstacles put in the way of Linux users on a laptop with UEFI
2650 and Windows 8.</p>
2651
2652 <p>I never found out if the cause of my problems were the use of UEFI
2653 secure booting or fast boot.  I suspect fast boot was the problem,
2654 causing the firmware to boot directly from HD without considering any
2655 key presses and alternative devices, but do not know UEFI settings
2656 enough to tell.</p>
2657
2658 <p>There is no way to install Linux on the machine in question without
2659 opening the box and disconnecting the hard drive!  This is as far as I
2660 can tell, the only way to get access to the firmware setup menu
2661 without accepting the Windows 8 license agreement.  I am told (and
2662 found description on how to) that it is possible to configure the
2663 firmware setup once booted into Windows 8.  But as I believe the terms
2664 of that agreement are completely unacceptable, accepting the license
2665 was never an alternative.  I do not enter agreements I do not intend
2666 to follow.</p>
2667
2668 <p>I feared I had to return the laptops and ask for a refund, and
2669 waste many hours on this, but luckily there was a way to get it to
2670 work.  But I would not recommend it to anyone planning to run Linux on
2671 it, and I have become sceptical to Windows 8 certified laptops.  Is
2672 this the way Linux will be forced out of the market place, by making
2673 it close to impossible for "normal" users to install Linux without
2674 accepting the Microsoft Windows license terms?  Or at least not
2675 without risking to loose the warranty?</p>
2676
2677 <p>I've updated the
2678 <a href="http://www.linlap.com/packard_bell_easynote_lv">Linux Laptop
2679 wiki page for Packard Bell EasyNote LV</a>, to ensure the next person
2680 do not have to struggle as much as I did to get Linux into the
2681 machine.</p>
2682
2683 <p>Thanks to Bob Rosbag, Florian Weimer, Philipp Kern, Ben Hutching,
2684 Michael Tokarev and others for feedback and ideas.</p>
2685
2686       </div>
2687       <div class="tags">
2688
2689
2690         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
2691
2692
2693       </div>
2694     </div>
2695     <div class="padding"></div>
2696
2697     <div class="entry">
2698       <div class="title">
2699         <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>
2700       </div>
2701       <div class="date">
2702         25th May 2013
2703       </div>
2704       <div class="body">
2705         <p>I've run into quite a problem the last few days.  I bought three
2706 new laptops for my parents and a few others.  I bought Packard Bell
2707 Easynote LV to run Kubuntu on and use as their home computer.  But I
2708 am completely unable to figure out how to install Linux on it.  The
2709 computer is preinstalled with Windows 8, and I suspect it uses UEFI
2710 instead of a BIOS to boot.</p>
2711
2712 <p>The problem is that I am unable to get it to PXE boot, and unable
2713 to get it to boot the Linux installer from my USB stick.  I have yet
2714 to try the DVD install, and still hope it will work.  when I turn on
2715 the computer, there is no information on what buttons to press to get
2716 the normal boot menu.  I expect to get some boot menu to select PXE or
2717 USB stick booting.  When booting, it first ask for the language to
2718 use, then for some regional settings, and finally if I will accept the
2719 Windows 8 terms of use.  As these terms are completely unacceptable to
2720 me, I have no other choice but to turn off the computer and try again
2721 to get it to boot the Linux installer.</p>
2722
2723 <p>I have gathered my findings so far on a Linlap page about the
2724 <a href="http://www.linlap.com/packard_bell_easynote_lv">Packard Bell
2725 EasyNote LV</a> model.  If you have any idea how to get Linux
2726 installed on this machine, please get in touch or update that wiki
2727 page.  If I can't find a way to install Linux, I will have to return
2728 the laptop to the seller and find another machine for my parents.</p>
2729
2730 <p>I wonder, is this the way Linux will be forced out of the market
2731 using UEFI and "secure boot" by making it impossible to install Linux
2732 on new Laptops?</p>
2733
2734       </div>
2735       <div class="tags">
2736
2737
2738         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
2739
2740
2741       </div>
2742     </div>
2743     <div class="padding"></div>
2744
2745     <div class="entry">
2746       <div class="title">
2747         <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>
2748       </div>
2749       <div class="date">
2750         17th May 2013
2751       </div>
2752       <div class="body">
2753         <p><a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux</a> is
2754 an operating system based on Debian intended for use in schools.  It
2755 contain a turn-key solution for the computer network provided to
2756 pupils in the primary schools.  It provide both the central server,
2757 network boot servers and desktop environments with heaps of
2758 educational software.  The project was founded almost 12 years ago,
2759 2001-07-02.  If you want to support the project, which is in need for
2760 cash to fund developer gatherings and other project related activity,
2761 <a href="http://www.linuxiskolen.no/slxdebianlabs/donations.html">please
2762 donate some money</a>.
2763
2764 <p>A topic that come up again and again on the Debian Edu mailing
2765 lists and elsewhere, is the question on how to transform a Debian or
2766 Ubuntu installation into a Debian Edu installation.  It isn't very
2767 hard, and last week I wrote a script to replicate the steps done by
2768 the Debian Edu installer.</p>
2769
2770 <p>The script,
2771 <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/>
2772 in the debian-edu-config package, will go through these six steps and
2773 transform an existing Debian Wheezy or Ubuntu (untested) installation
2774 into a Debian Edu Workstation:</p>
2775
2776 <ol>
2777
2778 <li>Add skolelinux related APT sources.</li>
2779 <li>Create /etc/debian-edu/config with the wanted configuration.</li>
2780 <li>Install debian-edu-install to load preseeding values and pull in
2781     our configuration.</li>
2782 <li>Preseed debconf database with profile setup in
2783     /etc/debian-edu/config, and run tasksel to install packages
2784     according to the profile specified in the config above,
2785     overriding some of the Debian automation machinery.</li>
2786 <li>Run debian-edu-cfengine-D installation to configure everything
2787     that could not be done using preseeding.</li>
2788 <li>Ask for a reboot to enable all the configuration changes.</li>
2789
2790 </ol>
2791
2792 <p>There are some steps in the Debian Edu installation that can not be
2793 replicated like this.  Disk partitioning and LVM setup, for example.
2794 So this script just assume there is enough disk space to install all
2795 the needed packages.</p>
2796
2797 <p>The script was created to help a Debian Edu student working on
2798 setting up <a href="http://www.raspberrypi.org">Raspberry Pi</a> as a
2799 Debian Edu client, and using it he can take the existing
2800 <a href="http://www.raspbian.org/FrontPage‎">Raspbian</a> installation and
2801 transform it into a fully functioning Debian Edu Workstation (or
2802 Roaming Workstation, or whatever :).</p>
2803
2804 <p>The default setting in the script is to create a KDE Workstation.
2805 If a LXDE based Roaming workstation is wanted instead, modify the
2806 PROFILE and DESKTOP values at the top to look like this instead:</p>
2807
2808 <p><pre>
2809 PROFILE="Roaming-Workstation"
2810 DESKTOP="lxde"
2811 </pre></p>
2812
2813 <p>The script could even become useful to set up Debian Edu servers in
2814 the cloud, by starting with a virtual Debian installation at some
2815 virtual hosting service and setting up all the services on first
2816 boot.</p>
2817
2818       </div>
2819       <div class="tags">
2820
2821
2822         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>.
2823
2824
2825       </div>
2826     </div>
2827     <div class="padding"></div>
2828
2829     <div class="entry">
2830       <div class="title">
2831         <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>
2832       </div>
2833       <div class="date">
2834         11th May 2013
2835       </div>
2836       <div class="body">
2837         <P>In January,
2838 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/New_IRC_channel_for_LEGO_designers_using_Debian.html">I
2839 announced a</a> new <a href="irc://irc.debian.org/%23debian-lego">IRC
2840 channel #debian-lego</a>, for those of us in the Debian and Linux
2841 community interested in <a href="http://www.lego.com/">LEGO</a>, the
2842 marvellous construction system from Denmark.  We also created
2843 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/LegoDesigners">a wiki page</a> to have
2844 a place to take notes and write down our plans and hopes.  And several
2845 people showed up to help.  I was very happy to see the effect of my
2846 call.  Since the small start, we have a debtags tag
2847 <a href="http://debtags.debian.net/search/bytag?wl=hardware::hobby:lego">hardware::hobby:lego</a>
2848 tag for LEGO related packages, and now count 10 packages related to
2849 LEGO and <a href="http://mindstorms.lego.com/">Mindstorms</a>:</p>
2850
2851 <p><table>
2852 <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>
2853 <tr><td><a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/leocad">leocad</a></td><td>virtual brick CAD software</td></tr>
2854 <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>
2855 <tr><td><a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/lnpd">lnpd</a></td><td>daemon for LNP communication with BrickOS</td></tr>
2856 <tr><td><a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/nbc">nbc</a></td><td>compiler for LEGO Mindstorms NXT bricks</td></tr>
2857 <tr><td><a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/nqc">nqc</a></td><td>Not Quite C compiler for LEGO Mindstorms RCX</td></tr>
2858 <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>
2859 <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>
2860 <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>
2861 <tr><td><a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/t2n">t2n</a></td><td>simple command-line tool for Lego NXT</td></tr>
2862 </table></p>
2863
2864 <p>Some of these are available in Wheezy, and all but one are
2865 currently available in Jessie/testing.  leocad is so far only
2866 available in experimental.</p>
2867
2868 <p>If you care about LEGO in Debian, please join us on IRC and help
2869 adding the rest of the great free software tools available on Linux
2870 for LEGO designers.</p>
2871
2872       </div>
2873       <div class="tags">
2874
2875
2876         Tags: <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>.
2877
2878
2879       </div>
2880     </div>
2881     <div class="padding"></div>
2882
2883     <div class="entry">
2884       <div class="title">
2885         <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>
2886       </div>
2887       <div class="date">
2888          5th May 2013
2889       </div>
2890       <div class="body">
2891         <p>When I woke up this morning, I was very happy to see that the
2892 <a href="http://www.debian.org/News/2013/20130504">release announcement
2893 for Debian Wheezy</a> was waiting in my mail box.  This is a great
2894 Debian release, and I expect to move my machines at home over to it fairly
2895 soon.</p>
2896
2897 <p>The new debian release contain heaps of new stuff, and one program
2898 in particular make me very happy to see included.  The
2899 <a href="http://scratch.mit.edu/">Scratch</a> program, made famous by
2900 the <a href="http://www.code.org/">Teach kids code</a> movement, is
2901 included for the first time.  Alongside similar programs like
2902 <a href="http://edu.kde.org/kturtle/">kturtle</a> and
2903 <a href="http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Activities/Turtle_Art">turtleart</a>,
2904 it allow for visual programming where syntax errors can not happen,
2905 and a friendly programming environment for learning to control the
2906 computer.  Scratch will also be included in the next release of Debian
2907 Edu.</a>
2908
2909 <p>And now that Wheezy is wrapped up, we can wrap up the next Debian
2910 Edu/Skolelinux release too.  The
2911 <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-edu/2013/04/msg00132.html">first
2912 alpha release</a> went out last week, and the next should soon
2913 follow.<p>
2914
2915       </div>
2916       <div class="tags">
2917
2918
2919         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>.
2920
2921
2922       </div>
2923     </div>
2924     <div class="padding"></div>
2925
2926     <div class="entry">
2927       <div class="title">
2928         <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>
2929       </div>
2930       <div class="date">
2931          3rd April 2013
2932       </div>
2933       <div class="body">
2934         <p>Today the <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/isenkram">Isenkram
2935 package</a> finally made it into the archive, after lingering in NEW
2936 for many months.  I uploaded it to the Debian experimental suite
2937 2013-01-27, and today it was accepted into the archive.</p>
2938
2939 <p>Isenkram is a system for suggesting to users what packages to
2940 install to work with a pluggable hardware device.  The suggestion pop
2941 up when the device is plugged in.  For example if a Lego Mindstorm NXT
2942 is inserted, it will suggest to install the program needed to program
2943 the NXT controller.  Give it a go, and report bugs and suggestions to
2944 BTS. :)</p>
2945
2946       </div>
2947       <div class="tags">
2948
2949
2950         Tags: <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>.
2951
2952
2953       </div>
2954     </div>
2955     <div class="padding"></div>
2956
2957     <div class="entry">
2958       <div class="title">
2959         <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>
2960       </div>
2961       <div class="date">
2962          2nd February 2013
2963       </div>
2964       <div class="body">
2965         <p>My
2966 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_backport_bitcoin_qt_version_0_7_2_2_to_Debian_Squeeze.html">last
2967 bitcoin related blog post</a> mentioned that the new
2968 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/bitcoin">bitcoin package</a> for
2969 Debian was waiting in NEW.  It was accepted by the Debian ftp-masters
2970 2013-01-19, and have been available in unstable since then.  It was
2971 automatically copied to Ubuntu, and is available in their Raring
2972 version too.</p>
2973
2974 <p>But there is a strange problem with the build that block this new
2975 version from being available on the i386 and kfreebsd-i386
2976 architectures.  For some strange reason, the autobuilders in Debian
2977 for these architectures fail to run the test suite on these
2978 architectures (<a href="http://bugs.debian.org/672524">BTS #672524</a>).
2979 We are so far unable to reproduce it when building it manually, and
2980 no-one have been able to propose a fix.  If you got an idea what is
2981 failing, please let us know via the BTS.</p>
2982
2983 <p>One feature that is annoying me with of the bitcoin client, because
2984 I often run low on disk space, is the fact that the client will exit
2985 if it run short on space (<a href="http://bugs.debian.org/696715">BTS
2986 #696715</a>).  So make sure you have enough disk space when you run
2987 it. :)</p>
2988
2989 <p>As usual, if you use bitcoin and want to show your support of my
2990 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
2991 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b&label=PetterReinholdtsenBlog">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
2992
2993       </div>
2994       <div class="tags">
2995
2996
2997         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>.
2998
2999
3000       </div>
3001     </div>
3002     <div class="padding"></div>
3003
3004     <div class="entry">
3005       <div class="title">
3006         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Welcome_to_the_world__Isenkram_.html">Welcome to the world, Isenkram!</a>
3007       </div>
3008       <div class="date">
3009         22nd January 2013
3010       </div>
3011       <div class="body">
3012         <p>Yesterday, I
3013 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/First_prototype_ready_making_hardware_easier_to_use_in_Debian.html">asked
3014 for testers</a> for my prototype for making Debian better at handling
3015 pluggable hardware devices, which I
3016 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lets_make_hardware_dongles_easier_to_use_in_Debian.html">set
3017 out to create</a> earlier this month.  Several valuable testers showed
3018 up, and caused me to really want to to open up the development to more
3019 people.  But before I did this, I want to come up with a sensible name
3020 for this project.  Today I finally decided on a new name, and I have
3021 renamed the project from hw-support-handler to this new name.  In the
3022 process, I moved the source to git and made it available as a
3023 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/gitweb/?p=collab-maint/isenkram.git">collab-maint</a>
3024 repository in Debian.  The new name?  It is <strong>Isenkram</strong>.
3025 To fetch and build the latest version of the source, use</p>
3026
3027 <pre>
3028 git clone http://anonscm.debian.org/git/collab-maint/isenkram.git
3029 cd isenkram && git-buildpackage -us -uc
3030 </pre>
3031
3032 <p>I have not yet adjusted all files to use the new name yet.  If you
3033 want to hack on the source or improve the package, please go ahead.
3034 But please talk to me first on IRC or via email before you do major
3035 changes, to make sure we do not step on each others toes. :)</p>
3036
3037 <p>If you wonder what 'isenkram' is, it is a Norwegian word for iron
3038 stuff, typically meaning tools, nails, screws, etc.  Typical hardware
3039 stuff, in other words.  I've been told it is the Norwegian variant of
3040 the German word eisenkram, for those that are familiar with that
3041 word.</p>
3042
3043 <p><strong>Update 2013-01-26</strong>: Added -us -us to build
3044 instructions, to avoid confusing people with an error from the signing
3045 process.</p>
3046
3047 <p><strong>Update 2013-01-27</strong>: Switch to HTTP URL for the git
3048 clone argument to avoid the need for authentication.</p>
3049
3050       </div>
3051       <div class="tags">
3052
3053
3054         Tags: <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>.
3055
3056
3057       </div>
3058     </div>
3059     <div class="padding"></div>
3060
3061     <div class="entry">
3062       <div class="title">
3063         <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>
3064       </div>
3065       <div class="date">
3066         21st January 2013
3067       </div>
3068       <div class="body">
3069         <p>Early this month I set out to try to
3070 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lets_make_hardware_dongles_easier_to_use_in_Debian.html">improve
3071 the Debian support for pluggable hardware devices</a>.  Now my
3072 prototype is working, and it is ready for a larger audience.  To test
3073 it, fetch the
3074 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/">source
3075 from the Debian Edu subversion repository</a>, build and install the
3076 package.  You might have to log out and in again activate the
3077 autostart script.</p>
3078
3079 <p>The design is simple:</p>
3080
3081 <ul>
3082
3083 <li>Add desktop entry in /usr/share/autostart/ causing a program
3084 hw-support-handlerd to start when the user log in.</li>
3085
3086 <li>This program listen for kernel events about new hardware (directly
3087 from the kernel like udev does), not using HAL dbus events as I
3088 initially did.</li>
3089
3090 <li>When new hardware is inserted, look up the hardware modalias in
3091 the APT database, a database
3092 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/modaliases?view=markup">available
3093 via HTTP</a> and a database available as part of the package.</li>
3094
3095 <li>If a package is mapped to the hardware in question, the package
3096 isn't installed yet and this is the first time the hardware was
3097 plugged in, show a desktop notification suggesting to install the
3098 package or packages.</li>
3099
3100 <li>If the user click on the 'install package now' button, ask
3101 aptdaemon via the PackageKit API to install the requrired package.</li>
3102
3103 <li>aptdaemon ask for root password or sudo password, and install the
3104 package while showing progress information in a window.</li>
3105
3106 </ul>
3107
3108 <p>I still need to come up with a better name for the system.  Here
3109 are some screen shots showing the prototype in action.  First the
3110 notification, then the password request, and finally the request to
3111 approve all the dependencies.  Sorry for the Norwegian Bokmål GUI.</p>
3112
3113 <p><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-01-21-hw-support-1-notification.png">
3114 <br><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-01-21-hw-support-2-password.png">
3115 <br><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-01-21-hw-support-3-dependencies.png">
3116 <br><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-01-21-hw-support-4-installing.png">
3117 <br><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-01-21-hw-support-5-installing-details.png" width="70%"></p>
3118
3119 <p>The prototype still need to be improved with longer timeouts, but
3120 is already useful.  The database of hardware to package mappings also
3121 need more work.  It is currently compatible with the Ubuntu way of
3122 storing such information in the package control file, but could be
3123 changed to use other formats instead or in addition to the current
3124 method.  I've dropped the use of discover for this mapping, as the
3125 modalias approach is more flexible and easier to use on Linux as long
3126 as the Linux kernel expose its modalias strings directly.</p>
3127
3128 <p><strong>Update 2013-01-21 16:50</strong>: Due to popular demand,
3129 here is the command required to check out and build the source: Use
3130 '<tt>svn checkout
3131 svn://svn.debian.org/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/; cd
3132 hw-support-handler; debuild</tt>'.  If you lack debuild, install the
3133 devscripts package.</p>
3134
3135 <p><strong>Update 2013-01-23 12:00</strong>: The project is now
3136 renamed to Isenkram and the source moved from the Debian Edu
3137 subversion repository to a Debian collab-maint git repository.  See
3138 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Welcome_to_the_world__Isenkram_.html">build
3139 instructions</a> for details.</p>
3140
3141       </div>
3142       <div class="tags">
3143
3144
3145         Tags: <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>.
3146
3147
3148       </div>
3149     </div>
3150     <div class="padding"></div>
3151
3152     <div class="entry">
3153       <div class="title">
3154         <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>
3155       </div>
3156       <div class="date">
3157         19th January 2013
3158       </div>
3159       <div class="body">
3160         <p>This Christmas my trusty old laptop died.  It died quietly and
3161 suddenly in bed.  With a quiet whimper, it went completely quiet and
3162 black.  The power button was no longer able to turn it on.  It was a
3163 IBM Thinkpad X41, and the best laptop I ever had.  Better than both
3164 Thinkpads X30, X31, X40, X60, X61 and X61S.  Far better than the
3165 Compaq I had before that.  Now I need to find a replacement.  To keep
3166 going during Christmas, I moved the one year old SSD disk to my old
3167 X40 where it fitted (only one I had left that could use it), but it is
3168 not a durable solution.
3169
3170 <p>My laptop needs are fairly modest.  This is my wishlist from when I
3171 got a new one more than 10 years ago.  It still holds true.:)</p>
3172
3173 <ul>
3174
3175 <li>Lightweight (around 1 kg) and small volume (preferably smaller
3176   than A4).</li>
3177 <li>Robust, it will be in my backpack every day.</li>
3178 <li>Three button mouse and a mouse pin instead of touch pad.</li>
3179 <li>Long battery life time.  Preferable a week.</li>
3180 <li>Internal WIFI network card.</li>
3181 <li>Internal Twisted Pair network card.</li>
3182 <li>Some USB slots (2-3 is plenty)</li>
3183 <li>Good keyboard - similar to the Thinkpad.</li>
3184 <li>Video resolution at least 1024x768, with size around 12" (A4 paper
3185 size).</li>
3186 <li>Hardware supported by Debian Stable, ie the default kernel and
3187   X.org packages.</li>
3188 <li>Quiet, preferably fan free (or at least not using the fan most of
3189   the time).
3190
3191 </ul>
3192
3193 <p>You will notice that there are no RAM and CPU requirements in the
3194 list.  The reason is simply that the specifications on laptops the
3195 last 10-15 years have been sufficient for my needs, and I have to look
3196 at other features to choose my laptop.  But are there still made as
3197 robust laptops as my X41?  The Thinkpad X60/X61 proved to be less
3198 robust, and Thinkpads seem to be heading in the wrong direction since
3199 Lenovo took over.  But I've been told that X220 and X1 Carbon might
3200 still be useful.</p>
3201
3202 <p>Perhaps I should rethink my needs, and look for a pad with an
3203 external keyboard?  I'll have to check the
3204 <a href="http://www.linux-laptop.net/">Linux Laptops site</a> for
3205 well-supported laptops, or perhaps just buy one preinstalled from one
3206 of the vendors listed on the <a href="http://linuxpreloaded.com/">Linux
3207 Pre-loaded site</a>.</p>
3208
3209       </div>
3210       <div class="tags">
3211
3212
3213         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
3214
3215
3216       </div>
3217     </div>
3218     <div class="padding"></div>
3219
3220     <div class="entry">
3221       <div class="title">
3222         <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>
3223       </div>
3224       <div class="date">
3225         18th January 2013
3226       </div>
3227       <div class="body">
3228         <p>Some times I try to figure out which Iceweasel browser plugin to
3229 install to get support for a given MIME type.  Thanks to
3230 <a href="https://wiki.ubuntu.com/MozillaTeam/Plugins">specifications
3231 done by Ubuntu</a> and Mozilla, it is possible to do this in Debian.
3232 Unfortunately, not very many packages provide the needed meta
3233 information, Anyway, here is a small script to look up all browser
3234 plugin packages announcing ther MIME support using this specification:</p>
3235
3236 <pre>
3237 #!/usr/bin/python
3238 import sys
3239 import apt
3240 def pkgs_handling_mimetype(mimetype):
3241     cache = apt.Cache()
3242     cache.open(None)
3243     thepkgs = []
3244     for pkg in cache:
3245         version = pkg.candidate
3246         if version is None:
3247             version = pkg.installed
3248         if version is None:
3249             continue
3250         record = version.record
3251         if not record.has_key('Npp-MimeType'):
3252             continue
3253         mime_types = record['Npp-MimeType'].split(',')
3254         for t in mime_types:
3255             t = t.rstrip().strip()
3256             if t == mimetype:
3257                 thepkgs.append(pkg.name)
3258     return thepkgs
3259 mimetype = "audio/ogg"
3260 if 1 < len(sys.argv):
3261     mimetype = sys.argv[1]
3262 print "Browser plugin packages supporting %s:" % mimetype
3263 for pkg in pkgs_handling_mimetype(mimetype):
3264     print "  %s" %pkg
3265 </pre>
3266
3267 <p>It can be used like this to look up a given MIME type:</p>
3268
3269 <pre>
3270 % ./apt-find-browserplug-for-mimetype
3271 Browser plugin packages supporting audio/ogg:
3272   gecko-mediaplayer
3273 % ./apt-find-browserplug-for-mimetype application/x-shockwave-flash
3274 Browser plugin packages supporting application/x-shockwave-flash:
3275   browser-plugin-gnash
3276 %
3277 </pre>
3278
3279 <p>In Ubuntu this mechanism is combined with support in the browser
3280 itself to query for plugins and propose to install the needed
3281 packages.  It would be great if Debian supported such feature too.  Is
3282 anyone working on adding it?</p>
3283
3284 <p><strong>Update 2013-01-18 14:20</strong>: The Debian BTS
3285 request for icweasel support for this feature is
3286 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/484010">#484010</a> from 2008 (and
3287 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/698426">#698426</a> from today).  Lack
3288 of manpower and wish for a different design is the reason thus feature
3289 is not yet in iceweasel from Debian.</p>
3290
3291       </div>
3292       <div class="tags">
3293
3294
3295         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
3296
3297
3298       </div>
3299     </div>
3300     <div class="padding"></div>
3301
3302     <div class="entry">
3303       <div class="title">
3304         <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>
3305       </div>
3306       <div class="date">
3307         16th January 2013
3308       </div>
3309       <div class="body">
3310         <p>The <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/AppStreamDebianProposal">DEP-11
3311 proposal to add AppStream information to the Debian archive</a>, is a
3312 proposal to make it possible for a Desktop application to propose to
3313 the user some package to install to gain support for a given MIME
3314 type, font, library etc. that is currently missing.  With such
3315 mechanism in place, it would be possible for the desktop to
3316 automatically propose and install leocad if some LDraw file is
3317 downloaded by the browser.</p>
3318
3319 <p>To get some idea about the current content of the archive, I decided
3320 to write a simple program to extract all .desktop files from the
3321 Debian archive and look up the claimed MIME support there.  The result
3322 can be found on the
3323 <a href="http://ftp.skolelinux.org/pub/AppStreamTest">Skolelinux FTP
3324 site</a>.  Using the collected information, it become possible to
3325 answer the question in the title.  Here are the 20 most supported MIME
3326 types in Debian stable (Squeeze), testing (Wheezy) and unstable (Sid).
3327 The complete list is available from the link above.</p>
3328
3329 <p><strong>Debian Stable:</strong></p>
3330
3331 <pre>
3332   count MIME type
3333   ----- -----------------------
3334      32 text/plain
3335      30 audio/mpeg
3336      29 image/png
3337      28 image/jpeg
3338      27 application/ogg
3339      26 audio/x-mp3
3340      25 image/tiff
3341      25 image/gif
3342      22 image/bmp
3343      22 audio/x-wav
3344      20 audio/x-flac
3345      19 audio/x-mpegurl
3346      18 video/x-ms-asf
3347      18 audio/x-musepack
3348      18 audio/x-mpeg
3349      18 application/x-ogg
3350      17 video/mpeg
3351      17 audio/x-scpls
3352      17 audio/ogg
3353      16 video/x-ms-wmv
3354 </pre>
3355
3356 <p><strong>Debian Testing:</strong></p>
3357
3358 <pre>
3359   count MIME type
3360   ----- -----------------------
3361      33 text/plain
3362      32 image/png
3363      32 image/jpeg
3364      29 audio/mpeg
3365      27 image/gif
3366      26 image/tiff
3367      26 application/ogg
3368      25 audio/x-mp3
3369      22 image/bmp
3370      21 audio/x-wav
3371      19 audio/x-mpegurl
3372      19 audio/x-mpeg
3373      18 video/mpeg
3374      18 audio/x-scpls
3375      18 audio/x-flac
3376      18 application/x-ogg
3377      17 video/x-ms-asf
3378      17 text/html
3379      17 audio/x-musepack
3380      16 image/x-xbitmap
3381 </pre>
3382
3383 <p><strong>Debian Unstable:</strong></p>
3384
3385 <pre>
3386   count MIME type
3387   ----- -----------------------
3388      31 text/plain
3389      31 image/png
3390      31 image/jpeg
3391      29 audio/mpeg
3392      28 application/ogg
3393      27 image/gif
3394      26 image/tiff
3395      26 audio/x-mp3
3396      23 audio/x-wav
3397      22 image/bmp
3398      21 audio/x-flac
3399      20 audio/x-mpegurl
3400      19 audio/x-mpeg
3401      18 video/x-ms-asf
3402      18 video/mpeg
3403      18 audio/x-scpls
3404      18 application/x-ogg
3405      17 audio/x-musepack
3406      16 video/x-ms-wmv
3407      16 video/x-msvideo
3408 </pre>
3409
3410 <p>I am told that PackageKit can provide an API to access the kind of
3411 information mentioned in DEP-11.  I have not yet had time to look at
3412 it, but hope the PackageKit people in Debian are on top of these
3413 issues.</p>
3414
3415 <p><strong>Update 2013-01-16 13:35</strong>: Updated numbers after
3416 discovering a typo in my script.</p>
3417
3418       </div>
3419       <div class="tags">
3420
3421
3422         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
3423
3424
3425       </div>
3426     </div>
3427     <div class="padding"></div>
3428
3429     <div class="entry">
3430       <div class="title">
3431         <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>
3432       </div>
3433       <div class="date">
3434         15th January 2013
3435       </div>
3436       <div class="body">
3437         <p>Yesterday, I wrote about the
3438 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Modalias_strings___a_practical_way_to_map__stuff__to_hardware.html">modalias
3439 values provided by the Linux kernel</a> following my hope for
3440 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lets_make_hardware_dongles_easier_to_use_in_Debian.html">better
3441 dongle support in Debian</a>.  Using this knowledge, I have tested how
3442 modalias values attached to package names can be used to map packages
3443 to hardware.  This allow the system to look up and suggest relevant
3444 packages when I plug in some new hardware into my machine, and replace
3445 discover and discover-data as the database used to map hardware to
3446 packages.</p>
3447
3448 <p>I create a modaliases file with entries like the following,
3449 containing package name, kernel module name (if relevant, otherwise
3450 the package name) and globs matching the relevant hardware
3451 modalias.</p>
3452
3453 <p><blockquote>
3454 Package: package-name
3455 <br>Modaliases: module(modaliasglob, modaliasglob, modaliasglob)</p>
3456 </blockquote></p>
3457
3458 <p>It is fairly trivial to write code to find the relevant packages
3459 for a given modalias value using this file.</p>
3460
3461 <p>An entry like this would suggest the video and picture application
3462 cheese for many USB web cameras (interface bus class 0E01):</p>
3463
3464 <p><blockquote>
3465 Package: cheese
3466 <br>Modaliases: cheese(usb:v*p*d*dc*dsc*dp*ic0Eisc01ip*)</p>
3467 </blockquote></p>
3468
3469 <p>An entry like this would suggest the pcmciautils package when a
3470 CardBus bridge (bus class 0607) PCI device is present:</p>
3471
3472 <p><blockquote>
3473 Package: pcmciautils
3474 <br>Modaliases: pcmciautils(pci:v*d*sv*sd*bc06sc07i*)
3475 </blockquote></p>
3476
3477 <p>An entry like this would suggest the package colorhug-client when
3478 plugging in a ColorHug with USB IDs 04D8:F8DA:</p>
3479
3480 <p><blockquote>
3481 Package: colorhug-client
3482 <br>Modaliases: colorhug-client(usb:v04D8pF8DAd*)</p>
3483 </blockquote></p>
3484
3485 <p>I believe the format is compatible with the format of the Packages
3486 file in the Debian archive.  Ubuntu already uses their Packages file
3487 to store their mappings from packages to hardware.</p>
3488
3489 <p>By adding a XB-Modaliases: header in debian/control, any .deb can
3490 announce the hardware it support in a way my prototype understand.
3491 This allow those publishing packages in an APT source outside the
3492 Debian archive as well as those backporting packages to make sure the
3493 hardware mapping are included in the package meta information.  I've
3494 tested such header in the pymissile package, and its modalias mapping
3495 is working as it should with my prototype.  It even made it to Ubuntu
3496 Raring.</p>
3497
3498 <p>To test if it was possible to look up supported hardware using only
3499 the shell tools available in the Debian installer, I wrote a shell
3500 implementation of the lookup code.  The idea is to create files for
3501 each modalias and let the shell do the matching.  Please check out and
3502 try the
3503 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/hw-support-lookup?view=co">hw-support-lookup</a>
3504 shell script.  It run without any extra dependencies and fetch the
3505 hardware mappings from the Debian archive and the subversion
3506 repository where I currently work on my prototype.</p>
3507
3508 <p>When I use it on a machine with a yubikey inserted, it suggest to
3509 install yubikey-personalization:</p>
3510
3511 <p><blockquote>
3512 % ./hw-support-lookup
3513 <br>yubikey-personalization
3514 <br>%
3515 </blockquote></p>
3516
3517 <p>When I run it on my Thinkpad X40 with a PCMCIA/CardBus slot, it
3518 propose to install the pcmciautils package:</p>
3519
3520 <p><blockquote>
3521 % ./hw-support-lookup
3522 <br>pcmciautils
3523 <br>%
3524 </blockquote></p>
3525
3526 <p>If you know of any hardware-package mapping that should be added to
3527 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/modaliases?view=co">my
3528 database</a>, please tell me about it.</p>
3529
3530 <p>It could be possible to generate several of the mappings between
3531 packages and hardware.  One source would be to look at packages with
3532 kernel modules, ie packages with *.ko files in /lib/modules/, and
3533 extract their modalias information.  Another would be to look at
3534 packages with udev rules, ie packages with files in
3535 /lib/udev/rules.d/, and extract their vendor/model information to
3536 generate a modalias matching rule.  I have not tested any of these to
3537 see if it work.</p>
3538
3539 <p>If you want to help implementing a system to let us propose what
3540 packages to install when new hardware is plugged into a Debian
3541 machine, please send me an email or talk to me on
3542 <a href="irc://irc.debian.org/%23debian-devel">#debian-devel</a>.</p>
3543
3544       </div>
3545       <div class="tags">
3546
3547
3548         Tags: <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>.
3549
3550
3551       </div>
3552     </div>
3553     <div class="padding"></div>
3554
3555     <div class="entry">
3556       <div class="title">
3557         <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>
3558       </div>
3559       <div class="date">
3560         14th January 2013
3561       </div>
3562       <div class="body">
3563         <p>While looking into how to look up Debian packages based on hardware
3564 information, to find the packages that support a given piece of
3565 hardware, I refreshed my memory regarding modalias values, and decided
3566 to document the details.  Here are my findings so far, also available
3567 in
3568 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/">the
3569 Debian Edu subversion repository</a>:
3570
3571 <p><strong>Modalias decoded</strong></p>
3572
3573 <p>This document try to explain what the different types of modalias
3574 values stands for.  It is in part based on information from
3575 &lt;URL: <a href="https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Modalias">https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Modalias</a> &gt;,
3576 &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;,
3577 &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
3578 &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;.
3579
3580 <p>The modalias entries for a given Linux machine can be found using
3581 this shell script:</p>
3582
3583 <pre>
3584 find /sys -name modalias -print0 | xargs -0 cat | sort -u
3585 </pre>
3586
3587 <p>The supported modalias globs for a given kernel module can be found
3588 using modinfo:</p>
3589
3590 <pre>
3591 % /sbin/modinfo psmouse | grep alias:
3592 alias:          serio:ty05pr*id*ex*
3593 alias:          serio:ty01pr*id*ex*
3594 %
3595 </pre>
3596
3597 <p><strong>PCI subtype</strong></p>
3598
3599 <p>A typical PCI entry can look like this.  This is an Intel Host
3600 Bridge memory controller:</p>
3601
3602 <p><blockquote>
3603 pci:v00008086d00002770sv00001028sd000001ADbc06sc00i00
3604 </blockquote></p>
3605
3606 <p>This represent these values:</p>
3607
3608 <pre>
3609  v   00008086  (vendor)
3610  d   00002770  (device)
3611  sv  00001028  (subvendor)
3612  sd  000001AD  (subdevice)
3613  bc  06        (bus class)
3614  sc  00        (bus subclass)
3615  i   00        (interface)
3616 </pre>
3617
3618 <p>The vendor/device values are the same values outputted from 'lspci
3619 -n' as 8086:2770.  The bus class/subclass is also shown by lspci as
3620 0600.  The 0600 class is a host bridge.  Other useful bus values are
3621 0300 (VGA compatible card) and 0200 (Ethernet controller).</p>
3622
3623 <p>Not sure how to figure out the interface value, nor what it
3624 means.</p>
3625
3626 <p><strong>USB subtype</strong></p>
3627
3628 <p>Some typical USB entries can look like this.  This is an internal
3629 USB hub in a laptop:</p>
3630
3631 <p><blockquote>
3632 usb:v1D6Bp0001d0206dc09dsc00dp00ic09isc00ip00
3633 </blockquote></p>
3634
3635 <p>Here is the values included in this alias:</p>
3636
3637 <pre>
3638  v    1D6B  (device vendor)
3639  p    0001  (device product)
3640  d    0206  (bcddevice)
3641  dc     09  (device class)
3642  dsc    00  (device subclass)
3643  dp     00  (device protocol)
3644  ic     09  (interface class)
3645  isc    00  (interface subclass)
3646  ip     00  (interface protocol)
3647 </pre>
3648
3649 <p>The 0900 device class/subclass means hub.  Some times the relevant
3650 class is in the interface class section.  For a simple USB web camera,
3651 these alias entries show up:</p>
3652
3653 <p><blockquote>
3654 usb:v0AC8p3420d5000dcEFdsc02dp01ic01isc01ip00
3655 <br>usb:v0AC8p3420d5000dcEFdsc02dp01ic01isc02ip00
3656 <br>usb:v0AC8p3420d5000dcEFdsc02dp01ic0Eisc01ip00
3657 <br>usb:v0AC8p3420d5000dcEFdsc02dp01ic0Eisc02ip00
3658 </blockquote></p>
3659
3660 <p>Interface class 0E01 is video control, 0E02 is video streaming (aka
3661 camera), 0101 is audio control device and 0102 is audio streaming (aka
3662 microphone).  Thus this is a camera with microphone included.</p>
3663
3664 <p><strong>ACPI subtype</strong></p>
3665
3666 <p>The ACPI type is used for several non-PCI/USB stuff.  This is an IR
3667 receiver in a Thinkpad X40:</p>
3668
3669 <p><blockquote>
3670 acpi:IBM0071:PNP0511:
3671 </blockquote></p>
3672
3673 <p>The values between the colons are IDs.</p>
3674
3675 <p><strong>DMI subtype</strong></p>
3676
3677 <p>The DMI table contain lots of information about the computer case
3678 and model.  This is an entry for a IBM Thinkpad X40, fetched from
3679 /sys/devices/virtual/dmi/id/modalias:</p>
3680
3681 <p><blockquote>
3682 dmi:bvnIBM:bvr1UETB6WW(1.66):bd06/15/2005:svnIBM:pn2371H4G:pvrThinkPadX40:rvnIBM:rn2371H4G:rvrNotAvailable:cvnIBM:ct10:cvrNotAvailable:
3683 </blockquote></p>
3684
3685 <p>The values present are</p>
3686
3687 <pre>
3688  bvn  IBM            (BIOS vendor)
3689  bvr  1UETB6WW(1.66) (BIOS version)
3690  bd   06/15/2005     (BIOS date)
3691  svn  IBM            (system vendor)
3692  pn   2371H4G        (product name)
3693  pvr  ThinkPadX40    (product version)
3694  rvn  IBM            (board vendor)
3695  rn   2371H4G        (board name)
3696  rvr  NotAvailable   (board version)
3697  cvn  IBM            (chassis vendor)
3698  ct   10             (chassis type)
3699  cvr  NotAvailable   (chassis version)
3700 </pre>
3701
3702 <p>The chassis type 10 is Notebook.  Other interesting values can be
3703 found in the dmidecode source:</p>
3704
3705 <pre>
3706   3 Desktop
3707   4 Low Profile Desktop
3708   5 Pizza Box
3709   6 Mini Tower
3710   7 Tower
3711   8 Portable
3712   9 Laptop
3713  10 Notebook
3714  11 Hand Held
3715  12 Docking Station
3716  13 All In One
3717  14 Sub Notebook
3718  15 Space-saving
3719  16 Lunch Box
3720  17 Main Server Chassis
3721  18 Expansion Chassis
3722  19 Sub Chassis
3723  20 Bus Expansion Chassis
3724  21 Peripheral Chassis
3725  22 RAID Chassis
3726  23 Rack Mount Chassis
3727  24 Sealed-case PC
3728  25 Multi-system
3729  26 CompactPCI
3730  27 AdvancedTCA
3731  28 Blade
3732  29 Blade Enclosing
3733 </pre>
3734
3735 <p>The chassis type values are not always accurately set in the DMI
3736 table.  For example my home server is a tower, but the DMI modalias
3737 claim it is a desktop.</p>
3738
3739 <p><strong>SerIO subtype</strong></p>
3740
3741 <p>This type is used for PS/2 mouse plugs.  One example is from my
3742 test machine:</p>
3743
3744 <p><blockquote>
3745 serio:ty01pr00id00ex00
3746 </blockquote></p>
3747
3748 <p>The values present are</p>
3749
3750 <pre>
3751   ty  01  (type)
3752   pr  00  (prototype)
3753   id  00  (id)
3754   ex  00  (extra)
3755 </pre>
3756
3757 <p>This type is supported by the psmouse driver.  I am not sure what
3758 the valid values are.</p>
3759
3760 <p><strong>Other subtypes</strong></p>
3761
3762 <p>There are heaps of other modalias subtypes according to
3763 file2alias.c.  There is the rest of the list from that source: amba,
3764 ap, bcma, ccw, css, eisa, hid, i2c, ieee1394, input, ipack, isapnp,
3765 mdio, of, parisc, pcmcia, platform, scsi, sdio, spi, ssb, vio, virtio,
3766 vmbus, x86cpu and zorro.  I did not spend time documenting all of
3767 these, as they do not seem relevant for my intended use with mapping
3768 hardware to packages when new stuff is inserted during run time.</p>
3769
3770 <p><strong>Looking up kernel modules using modalias values</strong></p>
3771
3772 <p>To check which kernel modules provide support for a given modalias,
3773 one can use the following shell script:</p>
3774
3775 <pre>
3776   for id in $(find /sys -name modalias -print0 | xargs -0 cat | sort -u); do \
3777     echo "$id" ; \
3778     /sbin/modprobe --show-depends "$id"|sed 's/^/  /' ; \
3779   done
3780 </pre>
3781
3782 <p>The output can look like this (only the first few entries as the
3783 list is very long on my test machine):</p>
3784
3785 <pre>
3786   acpi:ACPI0003:
3787     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/drivers/acpi/ac.ko
3788   acpi:device:
3789   FATAL: Module acpi:device: not found.
3790   acpi:IBM0068:
3791     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/drivers/char/nvram.ko
3792     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/drivers/leds/led-class.ko
3793     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/net/rfkill/rfkill.ko
3794     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/drivers/platform/x86/thinkpad_acpi.ko
3795   acpi:IBM0071:PNP0511:
3796     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/lib/crc-ccitt.ko
3797     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/net/irda/irda.ko
3798     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/drivers/net/irda/nsc-ircc.ko
3799   [...]
3800 </pre>
3801
3802 <p>If you want to help implementing a system to let us propose what
3803 packages to install when new hardware is plugged into a Debian
3804 machine, please send me an email or talk to me on
3805 <a href="irc://irc.debian.org/%23debian-devel">#debian-devel</a>.</p>
3806
3807 <p><strong>Update 2013-01-15:</strong> Rewrite "cat $(find ...)" to
3808 "find ... -print0 | xargs -0 cat" to make sure it handle directories
3809 in /sys/ with space in them.</p>
3810
3811       </div>
3812       <div class="tags">
3813
3814
3815         Tags: <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>.
3816
3817
3818       </div>
3819     </div>
3820     <div class="padding"></div>
3821
3822     <div class="entry">
3823       <div class="title">
3824         <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>
3825       </div>
3826       <div class="date">
3827         10th January 2013
3828       </div>
3829       <div class="body">
3830         <p>As part of my investigation on how to improve the support in Debian
3831 for hardware dongles, I dug up my old Mark and Spencer USB Rocket
3832 Launcher and updated the Debian package
3833 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/pymissile">pymissile</a> to make
3834 sure udev will fix the device permissions when it is plugged in.  I
3835 also added a "Modaliases" header to test it in the Debian archive and
3836 hopefully make the package be proposed by jockey in Ubuntu when a user
3837 plug in his rocket launcher.  In the process I moved the source to a
3838 git repository under collab-maint, to make it easier for any DD to
3839 contribute.  <a href="http://code.google.com/p/pymissile/">Upstream</a>
3840 is not very active, but the software still work for me even after five
3841 years of relative silence.  The new git repository is not listed in
3842 the uploaded package yet, because I want to test the other changes a
3843 bit more before I upload the new version.  If you want to check out
3844 the new version with a .desktop file included, visit the
3845 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/gitweb/?p=collab-maint/pymissile.git">gitweb
3846 view</a> or use "<tt>git clone
3847 git://anonscm.debian.org/collab-maint/pymissile.git</tt>".</p>
3848
3849       </div>
3850       <div class="tags">
3851
3852
3853         Tags: <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>.
3854
3855
3856       </div>
3857     </div>
3858     <div class="padding"></div>
3859
3860     <div class="entry">
3861       <div class="title">
3862         <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>
3863       </div>
3864       <div class="date">
3865          9th January 2013
3866       </div>
3867       <div class="body">
3868         <p>One thing that annoys me with Debian and Linux distributions in
3869 general, is that there is a great package management system with the
3870 ability to automatically install software packages by downloading them
3871 from the distribution mirrors, but no way to get it to automatically
3872 install the packages I need to use the hardware I plug into my
3873 machine.  Even if the package to use it is easily available from the
3874 Linux distribution.  When I plug in a LEGO Mindstorms NXT, it could
3875 suggest to automatically install the python-nxt, nbc and t2n packages
3876 I need to talk to it.  When I plug in a Yubikey, it could propose the
3877 yubikey-personalization package.  The information required to do this
3878 is available, but no-one have pulled all the pieces together.</p>
3879
3880 <p>Some years ago, I proposed to
3881 <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2010/05/msg01206.html">use
3882 the discover subsystem to implement this</a>.  The idea is fairly
3883 simple:
3884
3885 <ul>
3886
3887 <li>Add a desktop entry in /usr/share/autostart/ pointing to a program
3888   starting when a user log in.</li>
3889
3890 <li>Set this program up to listen for kernel events emitted when new
3891   hardware is inserted into the computer.</li>
3892
3893 <li>When new hardware is inserted, look up the hardware ID in a
3894   database mapping to packages, and take note of any non-installed
3895   packages.</li>
3896
3897 <li>Show a message to the user proposing to install the discovered
3898   package, and make it easy to install it.</li>
3899
3900 </ul>
3901
3902 <p>I am not sure what the best way to implement this is, but my
3903 initial idea was to use dbus events to discover new hardware, the
3904 discover database to find packages and
3905 <a href="http://www.packagekit.org/">PackageKit</a> to install
3906 packages.</p>
3907
3908 <p>Yesterday, I found time to try to implement this idea, and the
3909 draft package is now checked into
3910 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/">the
3911 Debian Edu subversion repository</a>.  In the process, I updated the
3912 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/d/discover-data.html">discover-data</a>
3913 package to map the USB ids of LEGO Mindstorms and Yubikey devices to
3914 the relevant packages in Debian, and uploaded a new version
3915 2.2013.01.09 to unstable.  I also discovered that the current
3916 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/d/discover.html">discover</a>
3917 package in Debian no longer discovered any USB devices, because
3918 /proc/bus/usb/devices is no longer present.  I ported it to use
3919 libusb as a fall back option to get it working.  The fixed package
3920 version 2.1.2-6 is now in experimental (didn't upload it to unstable
3921 because of the freeze).</p>
3922
3923 <p>With this prototype in place, I can insert my Yubikey, and get this
3924 desktop notification to show up (only once, the first time it is
3925 inserted):</p>
3926
3927 <p align="center"><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-01-09-hw-autoinstall.png"></p>
3928
3929 <p>For this prototype to be really useful, some way to automatically
3930 install the proposed packages by pressing the "Please install
3931 program(s)" button should to be implemented.</p>
3932
3933 <p>If this idea seem useful to you, and you want to help make it
3934 happen, please help me update the discover-data database with mappings
3935 from hardware to Debian packages.  Check if 'discover-pkginstall -l'
3936 list the package you would like to have installed when a given
3937 hardware device is inserted into your computer, and report bugs using
3938 reportbug if it isn't.  Or, if you know of a better way to provide
3939 such mapping, please let me know.</p>
3940
3941 <p>This prototype need more work, and there are several questions that
3942 should be considered before it is ready for production use.  Is dbus
3943 the correct way to detect new hardware?  At the moment I look for HAL
3944 dbus events on the system bus, because that is the events I could see
3945 on my Debian Squeeze KDE desktop.  Are there better events to use?
3946 How should the user be notified?  Is the desktop notification
3947 mechanism the best option, or should the background daemon raise a
3948 popup instead?  How should packages be installed?  When should they
3949 not be installed?</p>
3950
3951 <p>If you want to help getting such feature implemented in Debian,
3952 please send me an email. :)</p>
3953
3954       </div>
3955       <div class="tags">
3956
3957
3958         Tags: <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>.
3959
3960
3961       </div>
3962     </div>
3963     <div class="padding"></div>
3964
3965     <div class="entry">
3966       <div class="title">
3967         <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>
3968       </div>
3969       <div class="date">
3970          2nd January 2013
3971       </div>
3972       <div class="body">
3973         <p>During Christmas, I have worked a bit on the Debian support for
3974 <a href="http://mindstorms.lego.com/en-us/Default.aspx">LEGO Mindstorm
3975 NXT</a>.  My son and I have played a bit with my NXT set, and I
3976 discovered I had to build all the tools myself because none were
3977 already in Debian Squeeze.  If Debian support for LEGO is something
3978 you care about, please join me on the IRC channel
3979 <a href="irc://irc.debian.org/%23debian-lego">#debian-lego</a> (server
3980 irc.debian.org).  There is a lot that could be done to improve the
3981 Debian support for LEGO designers.  For example both CAD software
3982 and Mindstorm compilers are missing. :)</p>
3983
3984 <p>Update 2012-01-03: A
3985 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/LegoDesigners">project page</a>
3986 including links to Lego related packages is now available.</p>
3987
3988       </div>
3989       <div class="tags">
3990
3991
3992         Tags: <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>.
3993
3994
3995       </div>
3996     </div>
3997     <div class="padding"></div>
3998
3999     <div class="entry">
4000       <div class="title">
4001         <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>
4002       </div>
4003       <div class="date">
4004         25th December 2012
4005       </div>
4006       <div class="body">
4007         <p>Let me start by wishing you all marry Christmas and a happy new
4008 year!  I hope next year will prove to be a good year.</p>
4009
4010 <p><a href="http://www.bitcoin.org/">Bitcoin</a>, the digital
4011 decentralised "currency" that allow people to transfer bitcoins
4012 between each other with minimal overhead, is a very interesting
4013 experiment.  And as I wrote a few days ago, the bitcoin situation in
4014 <a href="http://www.debian.org/">Debian</a> is about to improve a bit.
4015 The <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/bitcoin">new debian source
4016 package</a> (version 0.7.2-2) was uploaded yesterday, and is waiting
4017 in <a href="http://ftp-master.debian.org/new.html">the NEW queue</A>
4018 for one of the ftpmasters to approve the new bitcoin-qt package
4019 name.</p>
4020
4021 <p>And thanks to the great work of Jonas and the rest of the bitcoin
4022 team in Debian, you can easily test the package in Debian Squeeze
4023 using the following steps to get a set of working packages:</p>
4024
4025 <blockquote><pre>
4026 git clone git://git.debian.org/git/collab-maint/bitcoin
4027 cd bitcoin
4028 DEB_MAINTAINER_MODE=1 DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS=noupnp fakeroot debian/rules clean
4029 DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS=noupnp git-buildpackage --git-ignore-new
4030 </pre></blockquote>
4031
4032 <p>You might have to install some build dependencies as well.  The
4033 list of commands should give you two packages, bitcoind and
4034 bitcoin-qt, ready for use in a Squeeze environment.  Note that the
4035 client will download the complete set of bitcoin "blocks", which need
4036 around 5.6 GiB of data on my machine at the moment.  Make sure your
4037 ~/.bitcoin/ directory have lots of spare room if you want to download
4038 all the blocks.  The client will warn if the disk is getting full, so
4039 there is not really a problem if you got too little room, but you will
4040 not be able to get all the features out of the client.</p>
4041
4042 <p>As usual, if you use bitcoin and want to show your support of my
4043 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
4044 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b&label=PetterReinholdtsenBlog">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
4045
4046       </div>
4047       <div class="tags">
4048
4049
4050         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>.
4051
4052
4053       </div>
4054     </div>
4055     <div class="padding"></div>
4056
4057     <div class="entry">
4058       <div class="title">
4059         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/A_word_on_bitcoin_support_in_Debian.html">A word on bitcoin support in Debian</a>
4060       </div>
4061       <div class="date">
4062         21st December 2012
4063       </div>
4064       <div class="body">
4065         <p>It has been a while since I wrote about
4066 <a href="http://www.bitcoin.org/">bitcoin</a>, the decentralised
4067 peer-to-peer based crypto-currency, and the reason is simply that I
4068 have been busy elsewhere.  But two days ago, I started looking at the
4069 state of <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/bitcoin">bitcoin in
4070 Debian</a> again to try to recover my old bitcoin wallet.  The package
4071 is now maintained by a
4072 <a href="https://alioth.debian.org/projects/pkg-bitcoin/">team of
4073 people</a>, and the grunt work had already been done by this team.  We
4074 owe a huge thank you to all these team members. :)
4075 But I was sad to discover that the bitcoin client is missing in
4076 Wheezy.  It is only available in Sid (and an outdated client from
4077 backports).  The client had several RC bugs registered in BTS blocking
4078 it from entering testing.  To try to help the team and improve the
4079 situation, I spent some time providing patches and triaging the bug
4080 reports.  I also had a look at the bitcoin package available from Matt
4081 Corallo in a
4082 <a href="https://launchpad.net/~bitcoin/+archive/bitcoin">PPA for
4083 Ubuntu</a>, and moved the useful pieces from that version into the
4084 Debian package.</p>
4085
4086 <p>After checking with the main package maintainer Jonas Smedegaard on
4087 IRC, I pushed several patches into the collab-maint git repository to
4088 improve the package.  It now contains fixes for the RC issues (not from
4089 me, but fixed by Scott Howard), build rules for a Qt GUI client
4090 package, konqueror support for the bitcoin: URI and bash completion
4091 setup.  As I work on Debian Squeeze, I also created
4092 <a href="http://lists.alioth.debian.org/pipermail/pkg-bitcoin-devel/Week-of-Mon-20121217/000041.html">a
4093 patch to backport</a> the latest version.  Jonas is going to look at
4094 it and try to integrate it into the git repository before uploading a
4095 new version to unstable.
4096
4097 <p>I would very much like bitcoin to succeed, to get rid of the
4098 centralized control currently exercised in the monetary system.  I
4099 find it completely unacceptable that the USA government is collecting
4100 transaction data for almost all international money transfers (most are done in USD and transaction logs shipped to the spooks), and
4101 that the major credit card companies can block legal money
4102 transactions to Wikileaks.  But for bitcoin to succeed, more people
4103 need to use bitcoins, and more people need to accept bitcoins when
4104 they sell products and services.  Improving the bitcoin support in
4105 Debian is a small step in the right direction, but not enough.
4106 Unfortunately the user experience when browsing the web and wanting to
4107 pay with bitcoin is still not very good.  The bitcoin: URI is a step
4108 in the right direction, but need to work in most or every browser in
4109 use.  Also the bitcoin-qt client is too heavy to fire up to do a
4110 quick transaction.  I believe there are other clients available, but
4111 have not tested them.</p>
4112
4113 <p>My
4114 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Now_accepting_bitcoins___anonymous_and_distributed_p2p_crypto_money.html">experiment
4115 with bitcoins</a> showed that at least some of my readers use bitcoin.
4116 I received 20.15 BTC so far on the address I provided in my blog two
4117 years ago, as can be
4118 <a href="http://blockexplorer.com/address/15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">seen
4119 on the blockexplorer service</a>.  Thank you everyone for your
4120 donation.  The blockexplorer service demonstrates quite well that
4121 bitcoin is not quite anonymous and untracked. :) I wonder if the
4122 number of users have gone up since then.  If you use bitcoin and want
4123 to show your support of my activity, please send Bitcoin donations to
4124 the same address as last time,
4125 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b&label=PetterReinholdtsenBlog">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
4126
4127       </div>
4128       <div class="tags">
4129
4130
4131         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>.
4132
4133
4134       </div>
4135     </div>
4136     <div class="padding"></div>
4137
4138     <div class="entry">
4139       <div class="title">
4140         <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>
4141       </div>
4142       <div class="date">
4143          7th September 2012
4144       </div>
4145       <div class="body">
4146         <p>As I
4147 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Song_book_for_Computer_Scientists.html">mentioned
4148 this summer</a>, I have created a Computer Science song book a few
4149 years ago, and today I finally found time to create a public
4150 <a href="https://gitorious.org/pere-cs-songbook/pere-cs-songbook">Gitorious
4151 repository for the project</a>.</p>
4152
4153 <p>If you want to help out, please clone the source and submit patches
4154 to the HTML version.  To generate the PDF and PostScript version,
4155 please use prince XML, or let me know about a useful free software
4156 processor capable of creating a good looking PDF from the HTML.</p>
4157
4158 <p>Want to sing?  You can still find the song book in HTML, PDF and
4159 PostScript formats at
4160 <a href="http://www.hungry.com/~pere/cs-songbook/">Petter's Computer
4161 Science Songbook</a>.</p>
4162
4163       </div>
4164       <div class="tags">
4165
4166
4167         Tags: <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>.
4168
4169
4170       </div>
4171     </div>
4172     <div class="padding"></div>
4173
4174     <div class="entry">
4175       <div class="title">
4176         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Gratulerer_med_19__rsdagen__Debian_.html">Gratulerer med 19-årsdagen, Debian!</a>
4177       </div>
4178       <div class="date">
4179         16th August 2012
4180       </div>
4181       <div class="body">
4182         <p>I dag fyller
4183 <a href="http://www.debian.org/News/2012/20120813">Debian-prosjektet 19
4184 år</a>.  Jeg har fulgt det de siste 12 årene, og er veldig glad for å kunne
4185 si gratulerer med dagen, Debian!</p>
4186
4187       </div>
4188       <div class="tags">
4189
4190
4191         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>.
4192
4193
4194       </div>
4195     </div>
4196     <div class="padding"></div>
4197
4198     <div class="entry">
4199       <div class="title">
4200         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Song_book_for_Computer_Scientists.html">Song book for Computer Scientists</a>
4201       </div>
4202       <div class="date">
4203         24th June 2012
4204       </div>
4205       <div class="body">
4206         <p>Many years ago, while studying Computer Science at the
4207 <a href="http://www.uit.no/">University of Tromsø</a>, I started
4208 collecting computer related songs for use at parties.  The original
4209 version was written in LaTeX, but a few years ago I got help from
4210 Håkon W. Lie, one of the inventors of W3C CSS, to convert it to HTML
4211 while keeping the ability to create a nice book in PDF format.  I have
4212 not had time to maintain the book for a while now, and guess I should
4213 put it up on some public version control repository where others can
4214 help me extend and update the book.  If anyone is volunteering to help
4215 me with this, send me an email.  Also let me know if there are songs
4216 missing in my book.</p>
4217
4218 <p>I have not mentioned the book on my blog so far, and it occured to
4219 me today that I really should let all my readers share the joys of
4220 singing out load about programming, computers and computer networks.
4221 Especially now that <a href="http://debconf12.debconf.org/">Debconf
4222 12</a> is about to start (and I am not going).  Want to sing?  Check
4223 out <a href="http://www.hungry.com/~pere/cs-songbook/">Petter's
4224 Computer Science Songbook</a>.
4225
4226       </div>
4227       <div class="tags">
4228
4229
4230         Tags: <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>.
4231
4232
4233       </div>
4234     </div>
4235     <div class="padding"></div>
4236
4237     <div class="entry">
4238       <div class="title">
4239         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Automatically_upgrading_server_firmware_on_Dell_PowerEdge.html">Automatically upgrading server firmware on Dell PowerEdge</a>
4240       </div>
4241       <div class="date">
4242         21st November 2011
4243       </div>
4244       <div class="body">
4245         <p>At work we have heaps of servers.  I believe the total count is
4246 around 1000 at the moment.  To be able to get help from the vendors
4247 when something go wrong, we want to keep the firmware on the servers
4248 up to date.  If the firmware isn't the latest and greatest, the
4249 vendors typically refuse to start debugging any problems until the
4250 firmware is upgraded.  So before every reboot, we want to upgrade the
4251 firmware, and we would really like everyone handling servers at the
4252 university to do this themselves when they plan to reboot a machine.
4253 For that to happen we at the unix server admin group need to provide
4254 the tools to do so.</p>
4255
4256 <p>To make firmware upgrading easier, I am working on a script to
4257 fetch and install the latest firmware for the servers we got.  Most of
4258 our hardware are from Dell and HP, so I have focused on these servers
4259 so far.  This blog post is about the Dell part.</P>
4260
4261 <p>On the Dell FTP site I was lucky enough to find
4262 <a href="ftp://ftp.us.dell.com/catalog/Catalog.xml.gz">an XML file</a>
4263 with firmware information for all 11th generation servers, listing
4264 which firmware should be used on a given model and where on the FTP
4265 site I can find it.  Using a simple perl XML parser I can then
4266 download the shell scripts Dell provides to do firmware upgrades from
4267 within Linux and reboot when all the firmware is primed and ready to
4268 be activated on the first reboot.</p>
4269
4270 <p>This is the Dell related fragment of the perl code I am working on.
4271 Are there anyone working on similar tools for firmware upgrading all
4272 servers at a site?  Please get in touch and lets share resources.</p>
4273
4274 <p><pre>
4275 #!/usr/bin/perl
4276 use strict;
4277 use warnings;
4278 use File::Temp qw(tempdir);
4279 BEGIN {
4280     # Install needed RHEL packages if missing
4281     my %rhelmodules = (
4282         'XML::Simple' => 'perl-XML-Simple',
4283         );
4284     for my $module (keys %rhelmodules) {
4285         eval "use $module;";
4286         if ($@) {
4287             my $pkg = $rhelmodules{$module};
4288             system("yum install -y $pkg");
4289             eval "use $module;";
4290         }
4291     }
4292 }
4293 my $errorsto = 'pere@hungry.com';
4294
4295 upgrade_dell();
4296
4297 exit 0;
4298
4299 sub run_firmware_script {
4300     my ($opts, $script) = @_;
4301     unless ($script) {
4302         print STDERR "fail: missing script name\n";
4303         exit 1
4304     }
4305     print STDERR "Running $script\n\n";
4306
4307     if (0 == system("sh $script $opts")) { # FIXME correct exit code handling
4308         print STDERR "success: firmware script ran succcessfully\n";
4309     } else {
4310         print STDERR "fail: firmware script returned error\n";
4311     }
4312 }
4313
4314 sub run_firmware_scripts {
4315     my ($opts, @dirs) = @_;
4316     # Run firmware packages
4317     for my $dir (@dirs) {
4318         print STDERR "info: Running scripts in $dir\n";
4319         opendir(my $dh, $dir) or die "Unable to open directory $dir: $!";
4320         while (my $s = readdir $dh) {
4321             next if $s =~ m/^\.\.?/;
4322             run_firmware_script($opts, "$dir/$s");
4323         }
4324         closedir $dh;
4325     }
4326 }
4327
4328 sub download {
4329     my $url = shift;
4330     print STDERR "info: Downloading $url\n";
4331     system("wget --quiet \"$url\"");
4332 }
4333
4334 sub upgrade_dell {
4335     my @dirs;
4336     my $product = `dmidecode -s system-product-name`;
4337     chomp $product;
4338
4339     if ($product =~ m/PowerEdge/) {
4340
4341         # on RHEL, these pacakges are needed by the firwmare upgrade scripts
4342         system('yum install -y compat-libstdc++-33.i686 libstdc++.i686 libxml2.i686 procmail');
4343
4344         my $tmpdir = tempdir(
4345             CLEANUP => 1
4346             );
4347         chdir($tmpdir);
4348         fetch_dell_fw('catalog/Catalog.xml.gz');
4349         system('gunzip Catalog.xml.gz');
4350         my @paths = fetch_dell_fw_list('Catalog.xml');
4351         # -q is quiet, disabling interactivity and reducing console output
4352         my $fwopts = "-q";
4353         if (@paths) {
4354             for my $url (@paths) {
4355                 fetch_dell_fw($url);
4356             }
4357             run_firmware_scripts($fwopts, $tmpdir);
4358         } else {
4359             print STDERR "error: Unsupported Dell model '$product'.\n";
4360             print STDERR "error: Please report to $errorsto.\n";
4361         }
4362         chdir('/');
4363     } else {
4364         print STDERR "error: Unsupported Dell model '$product'.\n";
4365         print STDERR "error: Please report to $errorsto.\n";
4366     }
4367 }
4368
4369 sub fetch_dell_fw {
4370     my $path = shift;
4371     my $url = "ftp://ftp.us.dell.com/$path";
4372     download($url);
4373 }
4374
4375 # Using ftp://ftp.us.dell.com/catalog/Catalog.xml.gz, figure out which
4376 # firmware packages to download from Dell.  Only work for Linux
4377 # machines and 11th generation Dell servers.
4378 sub fetch_dell_fw_list {
4379     my $filename = shift;
4380
4381     my $product = `dmidecode -s system-product-name`;
4382     chomp $product;
4383     my ($mybrand, $mymodel) = split(/\s+/, $product);
4384
4385     print STDERR "Finding firmware bundles for $mybrand $mymodel\n";
4386
4387     my $xml = XMLin($filename);
4388     my @paths;
4389     for my $bundle (@{$xml->{SoftwareBundle}}) {
4390         my $brand = $bundle->{TargetSystems}->{Brand}->{Display}->{content};
4391         my $model = $bundle->{TargetSystems}->{Brand}->{Model}->{Display}->{content};
4392         my $oscode;
4393         if ("ARRAY" eq ref $bundle->{TargetOSes}->{OperatingSystem}) {
4394             $oscode = $bundle->{TargetOSes}->{OperatingSystem}[0]->{osCode};
4395         } else {
4396             $oscode = $bundle->{TargetOSes}->{OperatingSystem}->{osCode};
4397         }
4398         if ($mybrand eq $brand && $mymodel eq $model && "LIN" eq $oscode)
4399         {
4400             @paths = map { $_->{path} } @{$bundle->{Contents}->{Package}};
4401         }
4402     }
4403     for my $component (@{$xml->{SoftwareComponent}}) {
4404         my $componenttype = $component->{ComponentType}->{value};
4405
4406         # Drop application packages, only firmware and BIOS
4407         next if 'APAC' eq $componenttype;
4408
4409         my $cpath = $component->{path};
4410         for my $path (@paths) {
4411             if ($cpath =~ m%/$path$%) {
4412                 push(@paths, $cpath);
4413             }
4414         }
4415     }
4416     return @paths;
4417 }
4418 </pre>
4419
4420 <p>The code is only tested on RedHat Enterprise Linux, but I suspect
4421 it could work on other platforms with some tweaking.  Anyone know a
4422 index like Catalog.xml is available from HP for HP servers?  At the
4423 moment I maintain a similar list manually and it is quickly getting
4424 outdated.</p>
4425
4426       </div>
4427       <div class="tags">
4428
4429
4430         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
4431
4432
4433       </div>
4434     </div>
4435     <div class="padding"></div>
4436
4437     <div class="entry">
4438       <div class="title">
4439         <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>
4440       </div>
4441       <div class="date">
4442          4th August 2011
4443       </div>
4444       <div class="body">
4445         <p>Wouter Verhelst have some
4446 <a href="http://grep.be/blog/en/retorts/pere_kubuntu_boot">interesting
4447 comments and opinions</a> on my blog post on
4448 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/What_should_start_from__etc_rcS_d__in_Debian____almost_nothing.html">the
4449 need to clean up /etc/rcS.d/ in Debian</a> and my blog post about
4450 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/What_is_missing_in_the_Debian_desktop__or_why_my_parents_use_Kubuntu.html">the
4451 default KDE desktop in Debian</a>.  I only have time to address one
4452 small piece of his comment now, and though it best to address the
4453 misunderstanding he bring forward:</p>
4454
4455 <p><blockquote>
4456 Currently, a system admin has four options: [...] boot to a
4457 single-user system (by adding 'single' to the kernel command line;
4458 this runs rcS and rc1 scripts)
4459 </blockquote></p>
4460
4461 <p>This make me believe Wouter believe booting into single user mode
4462 and booting into runlevel 1 is the same.  I am not surprised he
4463 believe this, because it would make sense and is a quite sensible
4464 thing to believe.  But because the boot in Debian is slightly broken,
4465 runlevel 1 do not work properly and it isn't the same as single user
4466 mode.  I'll try to explain what is actually happing, but it is a bit
4467 hard to explain.</p>
4468
4469 <p>Single user mode is defined like this in /etc/inittab:
4470 "<tt>~~:S:wait:/sbin/sulogin</tt>".  This means the only thing that is
4471 executed in single user mode is sulogin.  Single user mode is a boot
4472 state "between" the runlevels, and when booting into single user mode,
4473 only the scripts in /etc/rcS.d/ are executed before the init process
4474 enters the single user state.  When switching to runlevel 1, the state
4475 is in fact not ending in runlevel 1, but it passes through runlevel 1
4476 and end up in the single user mode (see /etc/rc1.d/S03single, which
4477 runs "init -t1 S" to switch to single user mode at the end of runlevel
4478 1.  It is confusing that the 'S' (single user) init mode is not the
4479 mode enabled by /etc/rcS.d/ (which is more like the initial boot
4480 mode).</p>
4481
4482 <p>This summary might make it clearer.  When booting for the first
4483 time into single user mode, the following commands are executed:
4484 "<tt>/etc/init.d/rc S; /sbin/sulogin</tt>".  When booting into
4485 runlevel 1, the following commands are executed: "<tt>/etc/init.d/rc
4486 S; /etc/init.d/rc 1; /sbin/sulogin</tt>".  A problem show up when
4487 trying to continue after visiting single user mode.  Not all services
4488 are started again as they should, causing the machine to end up in an
4489 unpredicatble state.  This is why Debian admins recommend rebooting
4490 after visiting single user mode.</p>
4491
4492 <p>A similar problem with runlevel 1 is caused by the amount of
4493 scripts executed from /etc/rcS.d/.  When switching from say runlevel 2
4494 to runlevel 1, the services started from /etc/rcS.d/ are not properly
4495 stopped when passing through the scripts in /etc/rc1.d/, and not
4496 started again when switching away from runlevel 1 to the runlevels
4497 2-5.  I believe the problem is best fixed by moving all the scripts
4498 out of /etc/rcS.d/ that are not <strong>required</strong> to get a
4499 functioning single user mode during boot.</p>
4500
4501 <p>I have spent several years investigating the Debian boot system,
4502 and discovered this problem a few years ago.  I suspect it originates
4503 from when sysvinit was introduced into Debian, a long time ago.</p>
4504
4505       </div>
4506       <div class="tags">
4507
4508
4509         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>.
4510
4511
4512       </div>
4513     </div>
4514     <div class="padding"></div>
4515
4516     <div class="entry">
4517       <div class="title">
4518         <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>
4519       </div>
4520       <div class="date">
4521         30th July 2011
4522       </div>
4523       <div class="body">
4524         <p>In the Debian boot system, several packages include scripts that
4525 are started from /etc/rcS.d/.  In fact, there is a bite more of them
4526 than make sense, and this causes a few problems.  What kind of
4527 problems, you might ask.  There are at least two problems.  The first
4528 is that it is not possible to recover a machine after switching to
4529 runlevel 1.  One need to actually reboot to get the machine back to
4530 the expected state.  The other is that single user boot will sometimes
4531 run into problems because some of the subsystems are activated before
4532 the root login is presented, causing problems when trying to recover a
4533 machine from a problem in that subsystem.  A minor additional point is
4534 that moving more scripts out of rcS.d/ and into the other rc#.d/
4535 directories will increase the amount of scripts that can run in
4536 parallel during boot, and thus decrease the boot time.</p>
4537
4538 <p>So, which scripts should start from rcS.d/.  In short, only the
4539 scripts that _have_ to execute before the root login prompt is
4540 presented during a single user boot should go there.  Everything else
4541 should go into the numeric runlevels.  This means things like
4542 lm-sensors, fuse and x11-common should not run from rcS.d, but from
4543 the numeric runlevels.  Today in Debian, there are around 115 init.d
4544 scripts that are started from rcS.d/, and most of them should be moved
4545 out.  Do your package have one of them?  Please help us make single
4546 user and runlevel 1 better by moving it.</p>
4547
4548 <p>Scripts setting up the screen, keyboard, system partitions
4549 etc. should still be started from rcS.d/, but there is for example no
4550 need to have the network enabled before the single user login prompt
4551 is presented.</p>
4552
4553 <p>As always, things are not so easy to fix as they sound.  To keep
4554 Debian systems working while scripts migrate and during upgrades, the
4555 scripts need to be moved from rcS.d/ to rc2.d/ in reverse dependency
4556 order, ie the scripts that nothing in rcS.d/ depend on can be moved,
4557 and the next ones can only be moved when their dependencies have been
4558 moved first.  This migration must be done sequentially while we ensure
4559 that the package system upgrade packages in the right order to keep
4560 the system state correct.  This will require some coordination when it
4561 comes to network related packages, but most of the packages with
4562 scripts that should migrate do not have anything in rcS.d/ depending
4563 on them.  Some packages have already been updated, like the sudo
4564 package, while others are still left to do.  I wish I had time to work
4565 on this myself, but real live constrains make it unlikely that I will
4566 find time to push this forward.</p>
4567
4568       </div>
4569       <div class="tags">
4570
4571
4572         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>.
4573
4574
4575       </div>
4576     </div>
4577     <div class="padding"></div>
4578
4579     <div class="entry">
4580       <div class="title">
4581         <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>
4582       </div>
4583       <div class="date">
4584         29th July 2011
4585       </div>
4586       <div class="body">
4587         <p>While at Debconf11, I have several times during discussions
4588 mentioned the issues I believe should be improved in Debian for its
4589 desktop to be useful for more people.  The use case for this is my
4590 parents, which are currently running Kubuntu which solve the
4591 issues.</p>
4592
4593 <p>I suspect these four missing features are not very hard to
4594 implement.  After all, they are present in Ubuntu, so if we wanted to
4595 do this in Debian we would have a source.</p>
4596
4597 <ol>
4598
4599 <li><strong>Simple GUI based upgrade of packages.</strong> When there
4600 are new packages available for upgrades, a icon in the KDE status bar
4601 indicate this, and clicking on it will activate the simple upgrade
4602 tool to handle it.  I have no problem guiding both of my parents
4603 through the process over the phone.  If a kernel reboot is required,
4604 this too is indicated by the status bars and the upgrade tool.  Last
4605 time I checked, nothing with the same features was working in KDE in
4606 Debian.</li>
4607
4608 <li><strong>Simple handling of missing Firefox browser
4609 plugins.</strong> When the browser encounter a MIME type it do not
4610 currently have a handler for, it will ask the user if the system
4611 should search for a package that would add support for this MIME type,
4612 and if the user say yes, the APT sources will be searched for packages
4613 advertising the MIME type in their control file (visible in the
4614 Packages file in the APT archive).  If one or more packages are found,
4615 it is a simple click of the mouse to add support for the missing mime
4616 type.  If the package require the user to accept some non-free
4617 license, this is explained to the user.  The entire process make it
4618 more clear to the user why something do not work in the browser, and
4619 make the chances higher for the user to blame the web page authors and
4620 not the browser for any missing features.</li>
4621
4622 <li><strong>Simple handling of missing multimedia codec/format
4623 handlers.</strong> When the media players encounter a format or codec
4624 it is not supporting, a dialog pop up asking the user if the system
4625 should search for a package that would add support for it.  This
4626 happen with things like MP3, Windows Media or H.264.  The selection
4627 and installation procedure is very similar to the Firefox browser
4628 plugin handling.  This is as far as I know implemented using a
4629 gstreamer hook.  The end result is that the user easily get access to
4630 the codecs that are present from the APT archives available, while
4631 explaining more on why a given format is unsupported by Ubuntu.</li>
4632
4633 <li><strong>Better browser handling of some MIME types.</strong> When
4634 displaying a text/plain file in my Debian browser, it will propose to
4635 start emacs to show it.  If I remember correctly, when doing the same
4636 in Kunbutu it show the file as a text file in the browser.  At least I
4637 know Opera will show text files within the browser.  I much prefer the
4638 latter behaviour.</li>
4639
4640 </ol>
4641
4642 <p>There are other nice features as well, like the simplified suite
4643 upgrader, but given that I am the one mostly doing the dist-upgrade,
4644 it do not matter much.</p>
4645
4646 <p>I really hope we could get these features in place for the next
4647 Debian release.  It would require the coordinated effort of several
4648 maintainers, but would make the end user experience a lot better.</p>
4649
4650       </div>
4651       <div class="tags">
4652
4653
4654         Tags: <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>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/web">web</a>.
4655
4656
4657       </div>
4658     </div>
4659     <div class="padding"></div>
4660
4661     <div class="entry">
4662       <div class="title">
4663         <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>
4664       </div>
4665       <div class="date">
4666         26th July 2011
4667       </div>
4668       <div class="body">
4669         <p>The Norwegian <a href="http://www.fiksgatami.no/">FiksGataMi</A>
4670 site is build on Debian/Squeeze, and this platform was chosen because
4671 I am most familiar with Debian (being a Debian Developer for around 10
4672 years) because it is the latest stable Debian release which should get
4673 security support for a few years.</p>
4674
4675 <p>The web service is written in Perl, and depend on some perl modules
4676 that are missing in Debian at the moment.  It would be great if these
4677 modules were added to the Debian archive, allowing anyone to set up
4678 their own <a href="http://www.fixmystreet.com">FixMyStreet</a> clone
4679 in their own country using only Debian packages.  The list of modules
4680 missing in Debian/Squeeze isn't very long, and I hope the perl group
4681 will find time to package the 12 modules Catalyst::Plugin::SmartURI,
4682 Catalyst::Plugin::Unicode::Encoding, Catalyst::View::TT, Devel::Hide,
4683 Sort::Key, Statistics::Distributions, Template::Plugin::Comma,
4684 Template::Plugin::DateTime::Format, Term::Size::Any, Term::Size::Perl,
4685 URI::SmartURI and Web::Scraper to make the maintenance of FixMyStreet
4686 easier in the future.</p>
4687
4688 <p>Thanks to the great tools in Debian, getting the missing modules
4689 installed on my server was a simple call to 'cpan2deb Module::Name'
4690 and 'dpkg -i' to install the resulting package.  But this leave me
4691 with the responsibility of tracking security problems, which I really
4692 do not have time for.</p>
4693
4694       </div>
4695       <div class="tags">
4696
4697
4698         Tags: <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>.
4699
4700
4701       </div>
4702     </div>
4703     <div class="padding"></div>
4704
4705     <div class="entry">
4706       <div class="title">
4707         <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>
4708       </div>
4709       <div class="date">
4710          3rd April 2011
4711       </div>
4712       <div class="body">
4713         <p>Here is a small update for my English readers.  Most of my blog
4714 posts have been in Norwegian the last few weeks, so here is a short
4715 update in English.</p>
4716
4717 <p>The kids still keep me too busy to get much free software work
4718 done, but I did manage to organise a project to get a Norwegian port
4719 of the British service
4720 <a href="http://www.fixmystreet.com/">FixMyStreet</a> up and running,
4721 and it has been running for a month now.  The entire project has been
4722 organised by me and two others.  Around Christmas we gathered sponsors
4723 to fund the development work.  In January I drafted a contract with
4724 <a href="http://www.mysociety.org/">mySociety</a> on what to develop,
4725 and in February the development took place.  Most of it involved
4726 converting the source to use GPS coordinates instead of British
4727 easting/northing, and the resulting code should be a lot easier to get
4728 running in any country by now.  The Norwegian
4729 <a href="http://www.fiksgatami.no/">FiksGataMi</a> is using
4730 <a href="http://www.openstreetmap.org/">OpenStreetmap</a> as the map
4731 source and the source for administrative borders in Norway, and
4732 support for this had to be added/fixed.</p>
4733
4734 <p>The Norwegian version went live March 3th, and we spent the weekend
4735 polishing the system before we announced it March 7th.  The system is
4736 running on a KVM instance of Debian/Squeeze, and has seen almost 3000
4737 problem reports in a few weeks.  Soon we hope to announce the Android
4738 and iPhone versions making it even easier to report problems with the
4739 public infrastructure.</p>
4740
4741 <p>Perhaps something to consider for those of you in countries without
4742 such service?</p>
4743
4744       </div>
4745       <div class="tags">
4746
4747
4748         Tags: <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>.
4749
4750
4751       </div>
4752     </div>
4753     <div class="padding"></div>
4754
4755     <div class="entry">
4756       <div class="title">
4757         <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>
4758       </div>
4759       <div class="date">
4760         28th January 2011
4761       </div>
4762       <div class="body">
4763         <p>The last few days I have looked at ways to track open security
4764 issues here at my work with the University of Oslo.  My idea is that
4765 it should be possible to use the information about security issues
4766 available on the Internet, and check our locally
4767 maintained/distributed software against this information.  It should
4768 allow us to verify that no known security issues are forgotten.  The
4769 CVE database listing vulnerabilities seem like a great central point,
4770 and by using the package lists from Debian mapped to CVEs provided by
4771 the testing security team, I believed it should be possible to figure
4772 out which security holes were present in our free software
4773 collection.</p>
4774
4775 <p>After reading up on the topic, it became obvious that the first
4776 building block is to be able to name software packages in a unique and
4777 consistent way across data sources.  I considered several ways to do
4778 this, for example coming up with my own naming scheme like using URLs
4779 to project home pages or URLs to the Freshmeat entries, or using some
4780 existing naming scheme.  And it seem like I am not the first one to
4781 come across this problem, as MITRE already proposed and implemented a
4782 solution.  Enter the <a href="http://cpe.mitre.org/index.html">Common
4783 Platform Enumeration</a> dictionary, a vocabulary for referring to
4784 software, hardware and other platform components.  The CPE ids are
4785 mapped to CVEs in the <a href="http://web.nvd.nist.gov/">National
4786 Vulnerability Database</a>, allowing me to look up know security
4787 issues for any CPE name.  With this in place, all I need to do is to
4788 locate the CPE id for the software packages we use at the university.
4789 This is fairly trivial (I google for 'cve cpe $package' and check the
4790 NVD entry if a CVE for the package exist).</p>
4791
4792 <p>To give you an example.  The GNU gzip source package have the CPE
4793 name cpe:/a:gnu:gzip.  If the old version 1.3.3 was the package to
4794 check out, one could look up
4795 <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
4796 in NVD</a> and get a list of 6 security holes with public CVE entries.
4797 The most recent one is
4798 <a href="http://web.nvd.nist.gov/view/vuln/detail?vulnId=CVE-2010-0001">CVE-2010-0001</a>,
4799 and at the bottom of the NVD page for this vulnerability the complete
4800 list of affected versions is provided.</p>
4801
4802 <p>The NVD database of CVEs is also available as a XML dump, allowing
4803 for offline processing of issues.  Using this dump, I've written a
4804 small script taking a list of CPEs as input and list all CVEs
4805 affecting the packages represented by these CPEs.  One give it CPEs
4806 with version numbers as specified above and get a list of open
4807 security issues out.</p>
4808
4809 <p>Of course for this approach to be useful, the quality of the NVD
4810 information need to be high.  For that to happen, I believe as many as
4811 possible need to use and contribute to the NVD database.  I notice
4812 RHEL is providing
4813 <a href="https://www.redhat.com/security/data/metrics/rhsamapcpe.txt">a
4814 map from CVE to CPE</a>, indicating that they are using the CPE
4815 information.  I'm not aware of Debian and Ubuntu doing the same.</p>
4816
4817 <p>To get an idea about the quality for free software, I spent some
4818 time making it possible to compare the CVE database from Debian with
4819 the CVE database in NVD.  The result look fairly good, but there are
4820 some inconsistencies in NVD (same software package having several
4821 CPEs), and some inaccuracies (NVD not mentioning buggy packages that
4822 Debian believe are affected by a CVE).  Hope to find time to improve
4823 the quality of NVD, but that require being able to get in touch with
4824 someone maintaining it.  So far my three emails with questions and
4825 corrections have not seen any reply, but I hope contact can be
4826 established soon.</p>
4827
4828 <p>An interesting application for CPEs is cross platform package
4829 mapping.  It would be useful to know which packages in for example
4830 RHEL, OpenSuSe and Mandriva are missing from Debian and Ubuntu, and
4831 this would be trivial if all linux distributions provided CPE entries
4832 for their packages.</p>
4833
4834       </div>
4835       <div class="tags">
4836
4837
4838         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet</a>.
4839
4840
4841       </div>
4842     </div>
4843     <div class="padding"></div>
4844
4845     <div class="entry">
4846       <div class="title">
4847         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Which_module_is_loaded_for_a_given_PCI_and_USB_device_.html">Which module is loaded for a given PCI and USB device?</a>
4848       </div>
4849       <div class="date">
4850         23rd January 2011
4851       </div>
4852       <div class="body">
4853         <p>In the
4854 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/discover-data">discover-data</a>
4855 package in Debian, there is a script to report useful information
4856 about the running hardware for use when people report missing
4857 information.  One part of this script that I find very useful when
4858 debugging hardware problems, is the part mapping loaded kernel module
4859 to the PCI device it claims.  It allow me to quickly see if the kernel
4860 module I expect is driving the hardware I am struggling with.  To see
4861 the output, make sure discover-data is installed and run
4862 <tt>/usr/share/bug/discover-data 3>&1</tt>.  The relevant output on
4863 one of my machines like this:</p>
4864
4865 <pre>
4866 loaded modules:
4867 10de:03eb i2c_nforce2
4868 10de:03f1 ohci_hcd
4869 10de:03f2 ehci_hcd
4870 10de:03f0 snd_hda_intel
4871 10de:03ec pata_amd
4872 10de:03f6 sata_nv
4873 1022:1103 k8temp
4874 109e:036e bttv
4875 109e:0878 snd_bt87x
4876 11ab:4364 sky2
4877 </pre>
4878
4879 <p>The code in question look like this, slightly modified for
4880 readability and to drop the output to file descriptor 3:</p>
4881
4882 <pre>
4883 if [ -d /sys/bus/pci/devices/ ] ; then
4884     echo loaded pci modules:
4885     (
4886         cd /sys/bus/pci/devices/
4887         for address in * ; do
4888             if [ -d "$address/driver/module" ] ; then
4889                 module=`cd $address/driver/module ; pwd -P | xargs basename`
4890                 if grep -q "^$module " /proc/modules ; then
4891                     address=$(echo $address |sed s/0000://)
4892                     id=`lspci -n -s $address | tail -n 1 | awk '{print $3}'`
4893                     echo "$id $module"
4894                 fi
4895             fi
4896         done
4897     )
4898     echo
4899 fi
4900 </pre>
4901
4902 <p>Similar code could be used to extract USB device module
4903 mappings:</p>
4904
4905 <pre>
4906 if [ -d /sys/bus/usb/devices/ ] ; then
4907     echo loaded usb modules:
4908     (
4909         cd /sys/bus/usb/devices/
4910         for address in * ; do
4911             if [ -d "$address/driver/module" ] ; then
4912                 module=`cd $address/driver/module ; pwd -P | xargs basename`
4913                 if grep -q "^$module " /proc/modules ; then
4914                     address=$(echo $address |sed s/0000://)
4915                     id=$(lsusb -s $address | tail -n 1 | awk '{print $6}')
4916                     if [ "$id" ] ; then
4917                         echo "$id $module"
4918                     fi
4919                 fi
4920             fi
4921         done
4922     )
4923     echo
4924 fi
4925 </pre>
4926
4927 <p>This might perhaps be something to include in other tools as
4928 well.</p>
4929
4930       </div>
4931       <div class="tags">
4932
4933
4934         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
4935
4936
4937       </div>
4938     </div>
4939     <div class="padding"></div>
4940
4941     <div class="entry">
4942       <div class="title">
4943         <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>
4944       </div>
4945       <div class="date">
4946         22nd December 2010
4947       </div>
4948       <div class="body">
4949         <p>The last few days I have spent at work here at the <a
4950 href="http://www.uio.no/">University of Oslo</a> testing if the new
4951 batch of computers will work with Linux.  Every year for the last few
4952 years the university have organised shared bid of a few thousand
4953 computers, and this year HP won the bid.  Two different desktops and
4954 five different laptops are on the list this year.  We in the UNIX
4955 group want to know which one of these computers work well with RHEL
4956 and Ubuntu, the two Linux distributions we currently handle at the
4957 university.</p>
4958
4959 <p>My test method is simple, and I share it here to get feedback and
4960 perhaps inspire others to test hardware as well.  To test, I PXE
4961 install the OS version of choice, and log in as my normal user and run
4962 a few applications and plug in selected pieces of hardware.  When
4963 something fail, I make a note about this in the test matrix and move
4964 on.  If I have some spare time I try to report the bug to the OS
4965 vendor, but as I only have the machines for a short time, I rarely
4966 have the time to do this for all the problems I find.</p>
4967
4968 <p>Anyway, to get to the point of this post.  Here is the simple tests
4969 I perform on a new model.</p>
4970
4971 <ul>
4972
4973 <li>Is PXE installation working?  I'm testing with RHEL6, Ubuntu Lucid
4974 and Ubuntu Maverik at the moment.  If I feel like it, I also test with
4975 RHEL5 and Debian Edu/Squeeze.</li>
4976
4977 <li>Is X.org working?  If the graphical login screen show up after
4978 installation, X.org is working.</li>
4979
4980 <li>Is hardware accelerated OpenGL working?  Running glxgears (in
4981 package mesa-utils on Ubuntu) and writing down the frames per second
4982 reported by the program.</li>
4983
4984 <li>Is sound working?  With Gnome and KDE, a sound is played when
4985 logging in, and if I can hear this the test is successful.  If there
4986 are several audio exits on the machine, I try them all and check if
4987 the Gnome/KDE audio mixer can control where to send the sound.  I
4988 normally test this by playing
4989 <a href="http://www.nuug.no/aktiviteter/20101012-chef/ ">a HTML5
4990 video</a> in Firefox/Iceweasel.</li>
4991
4992 <li>Is the USB subsystem working?  I test this by plugging in a USB
4993 memory stick and see if Gnome/KDE notices this.</li>
4994
4995 <li>Is the CD/DVD player working?  I test this by inserting any CD/DVD
4996 I have lying around, and see if Gnome/KDE notices this.</li>
4997
4998 <li>Is any built in camera working?  Test using cheese, and see if a
4999 picture from the v4l device show up.</li>
5000
5001 <li>Is bluetooth working?  Use the Gnome/KDE browsing tool to see if
5002 any bluetooth devices are discovered.  In my office, I normally see a
5003 few.</li>
5004
5005 <li>For laptops, is the SD or Compaq Flash reader working.  I have
5006 memory modules lying around, and stick them in and see if Gnome/KDE
5007 notice this.</li>
5008
5009 <li>For laptops, is suspend/hibernate working?  I'm testing if the
5010 special button work, and if the laptop continue to work after
5011 resume.</li>
5012
5013 <li>For laptops, is the extra buttons working, like audio level,
5014 adjusting background light, switching on/off external video output,
5015 switching on/off wifi, bluetooth, etc?  The set of buttons differ from
5016 laptop to laptop, so I just write down which are working and which are
5017 not.</li>
5018
5019 <li>Some laptops have smart card readers, finger print readers,
5020 acceleration sensors etc.  I rarely test these, as I do not know how
5021 to quickly test if they are working or not, so I only document their
5022 existence.</li>
5023
5024 </ul>
5025
5026 <p>By now I suspect you are really curious what the test results are
5027 for the HP machines I am testing.  I'm not done yet, so I will report
5028 the test results later.  For now I can report that HP 8100 Elite work
5029 fine, and hibernation fail with HP EliteBook 8440p on Ubuntu Lucid,
5030 and audio fail on RHEL6.  Ubuntu Maverik worked with 8440p.  As you
5031 can see, I have most machines left to test.  One interesting
5032 observation is that Ubuntu Lucid has almost twice the frame rate than
5033 RHEL6 with glxgears.  No idea why.</p>
5034
5035       </div>
5036       <div class="tags">
5037
5038
5039         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>.
5040
5041
5042       </div>
5043     </div>
5044     <div class="padding"></div>
5045
5046     <div class="entry">
5047       <div class="title">
5048         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Some_thoughts_on_BitCoins.html">Some thoughts on BitCoins</a>
5049       </div>
5050       <div class="date">
5051         11th December 2010
5052       </div>
5053       <div class="body">
5054         <p>As I continue to explore
5055 <a href="http://www.bitcoin.org/">BitCoin</a>, I've starting to wonder
5056 what properties the system have, and how it will be affected by laws
5057 and regulations here in Norway.  Here are some random notes.</p>
5058
5059 <p>One interesting thing to note is that since the transactions are
5060 verified using a peer to peer network, all details about a transaction
5061 is known to everyone.  This means that if a BitCoin address has been
5062 published like I did with mine in my initial post about BitCoin, it is
5063 possible for everyone to see how many BitCoins have been transfered to
5064 that address.  There is even a web service to look at the details for
5065 all transactions.  There I can see that my address
5066 <a href="http://blockexplorer.com/address/15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a>
5067 have received 16.06 Bitcoin, the
5068 <a href="http://blockexplorer.com/address/1LfdGnGuWkpSJgbQySxxCWhv8MHqvwst3">1LfdGnGuWkpSJgbQySxxCWhv8MHqvwst3</a>
5069 address of Simon Phipps have received 181.97 BitCoin and the address
5070 <a href="http://blockexplorer.com/address/1MCwBbhNGp5hRm5rC1Aims2YFRe2SXPYKt">1MCwBbhNGp5hRm5rC1Aims2YFRe2SXPYKt</A>
5071 of EFF have received 2447.38 BitCoins so far.  Thank you to each and
5072 every one of you that donated bitcoins to support my activity. The
5073 fact that anyone can see how much money was transfered to a given
5074 address make it more obvious why the BitCoin community recommend to
5075 generate and hand out a new address for each transaction.  I'm told
5076 there is no way to track which addresses belong to a given person or
5077 organisation without the person or organisation revealing it
5078 themselves, as Simon, EFF and I have done.</p>
5079
5080 <p>In Norway, and in most other countries, there are laws and
5081 regulations limiting how much money one can transfer across the border
5082 without declaring it.  There are money laundering, tax and accounting
5083 laws and regulations I would expect to apply to the use of BitCoin.
5084 If the Skolelinux foundation
5085 (<a href="http://linuxiskolen.no/slxdebianlabs/donations.html">SLX
5086 Debian Labs</a>) were to accept donations in BitCoin in addition to
5087 normal bank transfers like EFF is doing, how should this be accounted?
5088 Given that it is impossible to know if money can cross the border or
5089 not, should everything or nothing be declared?  What exchange rate
5090 should be used when calculating taxes?  Would receivers have to pay
5091 income tax if the foundation were to pay Skolelinux contributors in
5092 BitCoin?  I have no idea, but it would be interesting to know.</p>
5093
5094 <p>For a currency to be useful and successful, it must be trusted and
5095 accepted by a lot of users.  It must be possible to get easy access to
5096 the currency (as a wage or using currency exchanges), and it must be
5097 easy to spend it.  At the moment BitCoin seem fairly easy to get
5098 access to, but there are very few places to spend it.  I am not really
5099 a regular user of any of the vendor types currently accepting BitCoin,
5100 so I wonder when my kind of shop would start accepting BitCoins.  I
5101 would like to buy electronics, travels and subway tickets, not herbs
5102 and books. :) The currency is young, and this will improve over time
5103 if it become popular, but I suspect regular banks will start to lobby
5104 to get BitCoin declared illegal if it become popular.  I'm sure they
5105 will claim it is helping fund terrorism and money laundering (which
5106 probably would be true, as is any currency in existence), but I
5107 believe the problems should be solved elsewhere and not by blaming
5108 currencies.</p>
5109
5110 <p>The process of creating new BitCoins is called mining, and it is
5111 CPU intensive process that depend on a bit of luck as well (as one is
5112 competing against all the other miners currently spending CPU cycles
5113 to see which one get the next lump of cash).  The "winner" get 50
5114 BitCoin when this happen.  Yesterday I came across the obvious way to
5115 join forces to increase ones changes of getting at least some coins,
5116 by coordinating the work on mining BitCoins across several machines
5117 and people, and sharing the result if one is lucky and get the 50
5118 BitCoins.  Check out
5119 <a href="http://www.bluishcoder.co.nz/bitcoin-pool/">BitCoin Pool</a>
5120 if this sounds interesting.  I have not had time to try to set up a
5121 machine to participate there yet, but have seen that running on ones
5122 own for a few days have not yield any BitCoins througth mining
5123 yet.</p>
5124
5125 <p>Update 2010-12-15: Found an <a
5126 href="http://inertia.posterous.com/reply-to-the-underground-economist-why-bitcoi">interesting
5127 criticism</a> of bitcoin.  Not quite sure how valid it is, but thought
5128 it was interesting to read.  The arguments presented seem to be
5129 equally valid for gold, which was used as a currency for many years.</p>
5130
5131       </div>
5132       <div class="tags">
5133
5134
5135         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>.
5136
5137
5138       </div>
5139     </div>
5140     <div class="padding"></div>
5141
5142     <div class="entry">
5143       <div class="title">
5144         <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>
5145       </div>
5146       <div class="date">
5147         10th December 2010
5148       </div>
5149       <div class="body">
5150         <p>With this weeks lawless
5151 <a href="http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2010/12/06/wikileaks/index.html">governmental
5152 attacks</a> on Wikileak and
5153 <a href="http://www.salon.com/technology/dan_gillmor/2010/12/06/war_on_speech">free
5154 speech</a>, it has become obvious that PayPal, visa and mastercard can
5155 not be trusted to handle money transactions.
5156 A blog post from
5157 <a href="http://webmink.com/2010/12/06/now-accepting-bitcoin/">Simon
5158 Phipps on bitcoin</a> reminded me about a project that a friend of
5159 mine mentioned earlier.  I decided to follow Simon's example, and get
5160 involved with <a href="http://www.bitcoin.org/">BitCoin</a>.  I got
5161 some help from my friend to get it all running, and he even handed me
5162 some bitcoins to get started.  I even donated a few bitcoins to Simon
5163 for helping me remember BitCoin.</p>
5164
5165 <p>So, what is bitcoins, you probably wonder?  It is a digital
5166 crypto-currency, decentralised and handled using peer-to-peer
5167 networks.  It allows anonymous transactions and prohibits central
5168 control over the transactions, making it impossible for governments
5169 and companies alike to block donations and other transactions.  The
5170 source is free software, and while the key dependency wxWidgets 2.9
5171 for the graphical user interface is missing in Debian, the command
5172 line client builds just fine.  Hopefully Jonas
5173 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/578157">will get the package into
5174 Debian</a> soon.</p>
5175
5176 <p>Bitcoins can be converted to other currencies, like USD and EUR.
5177 There are <a href="http://www.bitcoin.org/trade">companies accepting
5178 bitcoins</a> when selling services and goods, and there are even
5179 currency "stock" markets where the exchange rate is decided.  There
5180 are not many users so far, but the concept seems promising.  If you
5181 want to get started and lack a friend with any bitcoins to spare,
5182 you can even get
5183 <a href="https://freebitcoins.appspot.com/">some for free</a> (0.05
5184 bitcoin at the time of writing).  Use
5185 <a href="http://www.bitcoinwatch.com/">BitcoinWatch</a> to keep an eye
5186 on the current exchange rates.</p>
5187
5188 <p>As an experiment, I have decided to set up bitcoind on one of my
5189 machines.  If you want to support my activity, please send Bitcoin
5190 donations to the address
5191 <b>15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</b>.  Thank you!</p>
5192
5193       </div>
5194       <div class="tags">
5195
5196
5197         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>.
5198
5199
5200       </div>
5201     </div>
5202     <div class="padding"></div>
5203
5204     <div class="entry">
5205       <div class="title">
5206         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Why_isn_t_Debian_Edu_using_VLC_.html">Why isn't Debian Edu using VLC?</a>
5207       </div>
5208       <div class="date">
5209         27th November 2010
5210       </div>
5211       <div class="body">
5212         <p>In the latest issue of Linux Journal, the readers choices were
5213 presented, and the winner among the multimedia player were VLC.
5214 Personally, I like VLC, and it is my player of choice when I first try
5215 to play a video file or stream.  Only if VLC fail will I drag out
5216 gmplayer to see if it can do better.  The reason is mostly the failure
5217 model and trust.  When VLC fail, it normally pop up a error message
5218 reporting the problem.  When mplayer fail, it normally segfault or
5219 just hangs.  The latter failure mode drain my trust in the program.<p>
5220
5221 <p>But even if VLC is my player of choice, we have choosen to use
5222 mplayer in <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian
5223 Edu/Skolelinux</a>.  The reason is simple.  We need a good browser
5224 plugin to play web videos seamlessly, and the VLC browser plugin is
5225 not very good.  For example, it lack in-line control buttons, so there
5226 is no way for the user to pause the video.  Also, when I
5227 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/BrowserMultimedia">last
5228 tested the browser plugins</a> available in Debian, the VLC plugin
5229 failed on several video pages where mplayer based plugins worked.  If
5230 the browser plugin for VLC was as good as the gecko-mediaplayer
5231 package (which uses mplayer), we would switch.</P>
5232
5233 <p>While VLC is a good player, its user interface is slightly
5234 annoying.  The most annoying feature is its inconsistent use of
5235 keyboard shortcuts.  When the player is in full screen mode, its
5236 shortcuts are different from when it is playing the video in a window.
5237 For example, space only work as pause when in full screen mode.  I
5238 wish it had consisten shortcuts and that space also would work when in
5239 window mode.  Another nice shortcut in gmplayer is [enter] to restart
5240 the current video.  It is very nice when playing short videos from the
5241 web and want to restart it when new people arrive to have a look at
5242 what is going on.</p>
5243
5244       </div>
5245       <div class="tags">
5246
5247
5248         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/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>.
5249
5250
5251       </div>
5252     </div>
5253     <div class="padding"></div>
5254
5255     <div class="entry">
5256       <div class="title">
5257         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/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>
5258       </div>
5259       <div class="date">
5260         22nd November 2010
5261       </div>
5262       <div class="body">
5263         <p>Michael Biebl suggested to me on IRC, that I changed my automated
5264 upgrade testing of the
5265 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/~pere/debian-upgrade-testing/">Lenny
5266 Gnome and KDE Desktop</a> to do <tt>apt-get autoremove</tt> when using apt-get.
5267 This seem like a very good idea, so I adjusted by test scripts and
5268 can now present the updated result from today:</p>
5269
5270 <p>This is for Gnome:</p>
5271
5272 <p>Installed using apt-get, missing with aptitude</p>
5273
5274 <blockquote><p>
5275   apache2.2-bin
5276   aptdaemon
5277   baobab
5278   binfmt-support
5279   browser-plugin-gnash
5280   cheese-common
5281   cli-common
5282   cups-pk-helper
5283   dmz-cursor-theme
5284   empathy
5285   empathy-common
5286   freedesktop-sound-theme
5287   freeglut3
5288   gconf-defaults-service
5289   gdm-themes
5290   gedit-plugins
5291   geoclue
5292   geoclue-hostip
5293   geoclue-localnet
5294   geoclue-manual
5295   geoclue-yahoo
5296   gnash
5297   gnash-common
5298   gnome
5299   gnome-backgrounds
5300   gnome-cards-data
5301   gnome-codec-install
5302   gnome-core
5303   gnome-desktop-environment
5304   gnome-disk-utility
5305   gnome-screenshot
5306   gnome-search-tool
5307   gnome-session-canberra
5308   gnome-system-log
5309   gnome-themes-extras
5310   gnome-themes-more
5311   gnome-user-share
5312   gstreamer0.10-fluendo-mp3
5313   gstreamer0.10-tools
5314   gtk2-engines
5315   gtk2-engines-pixbuf
5316   gtk2-engines-smooth
5317   hamster-applet
5318   libapache2-mod-dnssd
5319   libapr1
5320   libaprutil1
5321   libaprutil1-dbd-sqlite3
5322   libaprutil1-ldap
5323   libart2.0-cil
5324   libboost-date-time1.42.0
5325   libboost-python1.42.0
5326   libboost-thread1.42.0
5327   libchamplain-0.4-0
5328   libchamplain-gtk-0.4-0
5329   libcheese-gtk18
5330   libclutter-gtk-0.10-0
5331   libcryptui0
5332   libdiscid0
5333   libelf1
5334   libepc-1.0-2
5335   libepc-common
5336   libepc-ui-1.0-2
5337   libfreerdp-plugins-standard
5338   libfreerdp0
5339   libgconf2.0-cil
5340   libgdata-common
5341   libgdata7
5342   libgdu-gtk0
5343   libgee2
5344   libgeoclue0
5345   libgexiv2-0
5346   libgif4
5347   libglade2.0-cil
5348   libglib2.0-cil
5349   libgmime2.4-cil
5350   libgnome-vfs2.0-cil
5351   libgnome2.24-cil
5352   libgnomepanel2.24-cil
5353   libgpod-common
5354   libgpod4
5355   libgtk2.0-cil
5356   libgtkglext1
5357   libgtksourceview2.0-common
5358   libmono-addins-gui0.2-cil
5359   libmono-addins0.2-cil
5360   libmono-cairo2.0-cil
5361   libmono-corlib2.0-cil
5362   libmono-i18n-west2.0-cil
5363   libmono-posix2.0-cil
5364   libmono-security2.0-cil
5365   libmono-sharpzip2.84-cil
5366   libmono-system2.0-cil
5367   libmtp8
5368   libmusicbrainz3-6
5369   libndesk-dbus-glib1.0-cil
5370   libndesk-dbus1.0-cil
5371   libopal3.6.8
5372   libpolkit-gtk-1-0
5373   libpt2.6.7
5374   libpython2.6
5375   librpm1
5376   librpmio1
5377   libsdl1.2debian
5378   libsrtp0
5379   libssh-4
5380   libtelepathy-farsight0
5381   libtelepathy-glib0
5382   libtidy-0.99-0
5383   media-player-info
5384   mesa-utils
5385   mono-2.0-gac
5386   mono-gac
5387   mono-runtime
5388   nautilus-sendto
5389   nautilus-sendto-empathy
5390   p7zip-full
5391   pkg-config
5392   python-aptdaemon
5393   python-aptdaemon-gtk
5394   python-axiom
5395   python-beautifulsoup
5396   python-bugbuddy
5397   python-clientform
5398   python-coherence
5399   python-configobj
5400   python-crypto
5401   python-cupshelpers
5402   python-elementtree
5403   python-epsilon
5404   python-evolution
5405   python-feedparser
5406   python-gdata
5407   python-gdbm
5408   python-gst0.10
5409   python-gtkglext1
5410   python-gtksourceview2
5411   python-httplib2
5412   python-louie
5413   python-mako
5414   python-markupsafe
5415   python-mechanize
5416   python-nevow
5417   python-notify
5418   python-opengl
5419   python-openssl
5420   python-pam
5421   python-pkg-resources
5422   python-pyasn1
5423   python-pysqlite2
5424   python-rdflib
5425   python-serial
5426   python-tagpy
5427   python-twisted-bin
5428   python-twisted-conch
5429   python-twisted-core
5430   python-twisted-web
5431   python-utidylib
5432   python-webkit
5433   python-xdg
5434   python-zope.interface
5435   remmina
5436   remmina-plugin-data
5437   remmina-plugin-rdp
5438   remmina-plugin-vnc
5439   rhythmbox-plugin-cdrecorder
5440   rhythmbox-plugins
5441   rpm-common
5442   rpm2cpio
5443   seahorse-plugins
5444   shotwell
5445   software-center
5446   system-config-printer-udev
5447   telepathy-gabble
5448   telepathy-mission-control-5
5449   telepathy-salut
5450   tomboy
5451   totem
5452   totem-coherence
5453   totem-mozilla
5454   totem-plugins
5455   transmission-common
5456   xdg-user-dirs
5457   xdg-user-dirs-gtk
5458   xserver-xephyr
5459 </p></blockquote>
5460
5461 <p>Installed using apt-get, removed with aptitude</p>
5462
5463 <blockquote><p>
5464   cheese
5465   ekiga
5466   eog
5467   epiphany-extensions
5468   evolution-exchange
5469   fast-user-switch-applet
5470   file-roller
5471   gcalctool
5472   gconf-editor
5473   gdm
5474   gedit
5475   gedit-common
5476   gnome-games
5477   gnome-games-data
5478   gnome-nettool
5479   gnome-system-tools
5480   gnome-themes
5481   gnuchess
5482   gucharmap
5483   guile-1.8-libs
5484   libavahi-ui0
5485   libdmx1
5486   libgalago3
5487   libgtk-vnc-1.0-0
5488   libgtksourceview2.0-0
5489   liblircclient0
5490   libsdl1.2debian-alsa
5491   libspeexdsp1
5492   libsvga1
5493   rhythmbox
5494   seahorse
5495   sound-juicer
5496   system-config-printer
5497   totem-common
5498   transmission-gtk
5499   vinagre
5500   vino
5501 </p></blockquote>
5502
5503 <p>Installed using aptitude, missing with apt-get</p>
5504
5505 <blockquote><p>
5506   gstreamer0.10-gnomevfs
5507 </p></blockquote>
5508
5509 <p>Installed using aptitude, removed with apt-get</p>
5510
5511 <blockquote><p>
5512 [nothing]
5513 </p></blockquote>
5514
5515 <p>This is for KDE:</p>
5516
5517 <p>Installed using apt-get, missing with aptitude</p>
5518
5519 <blockquote><p>
5520   ksmserver
5521 </p></blockquote>
5522
5523 <p>Installed using apt-get, removed with aptitude</p>
5524
5525 <blockquote><p>
5526   kwin
5527   network-manager-kde
5528 </p></blockquote>
5529
5530 <p>Installed using aptitude, missing with apt-get</p>
5531
5532 <blockquote><p>
5533   arts
5534   dolphin
5535   freespacenotifier
5536   google-gadgets-gst
5537   google-gadgets-xul
5538   kappfinder
5539   kcalc
5540   kcharselect
5541   kde-core
5542   kde-plasma-desktop
5543   kde-standard
5544   kde-window-manager
5545   kdeartwork
5546   kdeartwork-emoticons
5547   kdeartwork-style
5548   kdeartwork-theme-icon
5549   kdebase
5550   kdebase-apps
5551   kdebase-workspace
5552   kdebase-workspace-bin
5553   kdebase-workspace-data
5554   kdeeject
5555   kdelibs
5556   kdeplasma-addons
5557   kdeutils
5558   kdewallpapers
5559   kdf
5560   kfloppy
5561   kgpg
5562   khelpcenter4
5563   kinfocenter
5564   konq-plugins-l10n
5565   konqueror-nsplugins
5566   kscreensaver
5567   kscreensaver-xsavers
5568   ktimer
5569   kwrite
5570   libgle3
5571   libkde4-ruby1.8
5572   libkonq5
5573   libkonq5-templates
5574   libnetpbm10
5575   libplasma-ruby
5576   libplasma-ruby1.8
5577   libqt4-ruby1.8
5578   marble-data
5579   marble-plugins
5580   netpbm
5581   nuvola-icon-theme
5582   plasma-dataengines-workspace
5583   plasma-desktop
5584   plasma-desktopthemes-artwork
5585   plasma-runners-addons
5586   plasma-scriptengine-googlegadgets
5587   plasma-scriptengine-python
5588   plasma-scriptengine-qedje
5589   plasma-scriptengine-ruby
5590   plasma-scriptengine-webkit
5591   plasma-scriptengines
5592   plasma-wallpapers-addons
5593   plasma-widget-folderview
5594   plasma-widget-networkmanagement
5595   ruby
5596   sweeper
5597   update-notifier-kde
5598   xscreensaver-data-extra
5599   xscreensaver-gl
5600   xscreensaver-gl-extra
5601   xscreensaver-screensaver-bsod
5602 </p></blockquote>
5603
5604 <p>Installed using aptitude, removed with apt-get</p>
5605
5606 <blockquote><p>
5607   ark
5608   google-gadgets-common
5609   google-gadgets-qt
5610   htdig
5611   kate
5612   kdebase-bin
5613   kdebase-data
5614   kdepasswd
5615   kfind
5616   klipper
5617   konq-plugins
5618   konqueror
5619   ksysguard
5620   ksysguardd
5621   libarchive1
5622   libcln6
5623   libeet1
5624   libeina-svn-06
5625   libggadget-1.0-0b
5626   libggadget-qt-1.0-0b
5627   libgps19
5628   libkdecorations4
5629   libkephal4
5630   libkonq4
5631   libkonqsidebarplugin4a
5632   libkscreensaver5
5633   libksgrd4
5634   libksignalplotter4
5635   libkunitconversion4
5636   libkwineffects1a
5637   libmarblewidget4
5638   libntrack-qt4-1
5639   libntrack0
5640   libplasma-geolocation-interface4
5641   libplasmaclock4a
5642   libplasmagenericshell4
5643   libprocesscore4a
5644   libprocessui4a
5645   libqalculate5
5646   libqedje0a
5647   libqtruby4shared2
5648   libqzion0a
5649   libruby1.8
5650   libscim8c2a
5651   libsmokekdecore4-3
5652   libsmokekdeui4-3
5653   libsmokekfile3
5654   libsmokekhtml3
5655   libsmokekio3
5656   libsmokeknewstuff2-3
5657   libsmokeknewstuff3-3
5658   libsmokekparts3
5659   libsmokektexteditor3
5660   libsmokekutils3
5661   libsmokenepomuk3
5662   libsmokephonon3
5663   libsmokeplasma3
5664   libsmokeqtcore4-3
5665   libsmokeqtdbus4-3
5666   libsmokeqtgui4-3
5667   libsmokeqtnetwork4-3
5668   libsmokeqtopengl4-3
5669   libsmokeqtscript4-3
5670   libsmokeqtsql4-3
5671   libsmokeqtsvg4-3
5672   libsmokeqttest4-3
5673   libsmokeqtuitools4-3
5674   libsmokeqtwebkit4-3
5675   libsmokeqtxml4-3
5676   libsmokesolid3
5677   libsmokesoprano3
5678   libtaskmanager4a
5679   libtidy-0.99-0
5680   libweather-ion4a
5681   libxklavier16
5682   libxxf86misc1
5683   okteta
5684   oxygencursors
5685   plasma-dataengines-addons
5686   plasma-scriptengine-superkaramba
5687   plasma-widget-lancelot
5688   plasma-widgets-addons
5689   plasma-widgets-workspace
5690   polkit-kde-1
5691   ruby1.8
5692   systemsettings
5693   update-notifier-common
5694 </p></blockquote>
5695
5696 <p>Running apt-get autoremove made the results using apt-get and
5697 aptitude a bit more similar, but there are still quite a lott of
5698 differences.  I have no idea what packages should be installed after
5699 the upgrade, but hope those that do can have a look.</p>
5700
5701       </div>
5702       <div class="tags">
5703
5704
5705         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>.
5706
5707
5708       </div>
5709     </div>
5710     <div class="padding"></div>
5711
5712     <div class="entry">
5713       <div class="title">
5714         <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>
5715       </div>
5716       <div class="date">
5717         22nd November 2010
5718       </div>
5719       <div class="body">
5720         <p>Most of the computers in use by the
5721 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu/Skolelinux project</a>
5722 are virtual machines.  And they have been Xen machines running on a
5723 fairly old IBM eserver xseries 345 machine, and we wanted to migrate
5724 them to KVM on a newer Dell PowerEdge 2950 host machine.  This was a
5725 bit harder that it could have been, because we set up the Xen virtual
5726 machines to get the virtual partitions from LVM, which as far as I
5727 know is not supported by KVM.  So to migrate, we had to convert
5728 several LVM logical volumes to partitions on a virtual disk file.</p>
5729
5730 <p>I found
5731 <a href="http://searchnetworking.techtarget.com.au/articles/35011-Six-steps-for-migrating-Xen-virtual-machines-to-KVM">a
5732 nice recipe</a> to do this, and wrote the following script to do the
5733 migration.  It uses qemu-img from the qemu package to make the disk
5734 image, parted to partition it, losetup and kpartx to present the disk
5735 image partions as devices, and dd to copy the data.  I NFS mounted the
5736 new servers storage area on the old server to do the migration.</p>
5737
5738 <pre>
5739 #!/bin/sh
5740
5741 # Based on
5742 # http://searchnetworking.techtarget.com.au/articles/35011-Six-steps-for-migrating-Xen-virtual-machines-to-KVM
5743
5744 set -e
5745 set -x
5746
5747 if [ -z "$1" ] ; then
5748     echo "Usage: $0 &lt;hostname&gt;"
5749     exit 1
5750 else
5751     host="$1"
5752 fi
5753
5754 if [ ! -e /dev/vg_data/$host-disk ] ; then
5755     echo "error: unable to find LVM volume for $host"
5756     exit 1
5757 fi
5758
5759 # Partitions need to be a bit bigger than the LVM LVs.  not sure why.
5760 disksize=$( lvs --units m | grep $host-disk | awk '{sum = sum + $4} END { print int(sum * 1.05) }')
5761 swapsize=$( lvs --units m | grep $host-swap | awk '{sum = sum + $4} END { print int(sum * 1.05) }')
5762 totalsize=$(( ( $disksize + $swapsize ) ))
5763
5764 img=$host.img
5765 #dd if=/dev/zero of=$img bs=1M count=$(( $disksize + $swapsize ))
5766 qemu-img create $img ${totalsize}MMaking room on the Debian Edu/Sqeeze DVD
5767
5768 parted $img mklabel msdos
5769 parted $img mkpart primary linux-swap 0 $disksize
5770 parted $img mkpart primary ext2 $disksize $totalsize
5771 parted $img set 1 boot on
5772
5773 modprobe dm-mod
5774 losetup /dev/loop0 $img
5775 kpartx -a /dev/loop0
5776
5777 dd if=/dev/vg_data/$host-disk of=/dev/mapper/loop0p1 bs=1M
5778 fsck.ext3 -f /dev/mapper/loop0p1 || true
5779 mkswap /dev/mapper/loop0p2
5780
5781 kpartx -d /dev/loop0
5782 losetup -d /dev/loop0
5783 </pre>
5784
5785 <p>The script is perhaps so simple that it is not copyrightable, but
5786 if it is, it is licenced using GPL v2 or later at your discretion.</p>
5787
5788 <p>After doing this, I booted a Debian CD in rescue mode in KVM with
5789 the new disk image attached, installed grub-pc and linux-image-686 and
5790 set up grub to boot from the disk image.  After this, the KVM machines
5791 seem to work just fine.</p>
5792
5793       </div>
5794       <div class="tags">
5795
5796
5797         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>.
5798
5799
5800       </div>
5801     </div>
5802     <div class="padding"></div>
5803
5804     <div class="entry">
5805       <div class="title">
5806         <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>
5807       </div>
5808       <div class="date">
5809         20th November 2010
5810       </div>
5811       <div class="body">
5812         <p>I'm still running upgrade testing of the
5813 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/~pere/debian-upgrade-testing/">Lenny
5814 Gnome and KDE Desktop</a>, but have not had time to spend on reporting the
5815 status.  Here is a short update based on a test I ran 20101118.</p>
5816
5817 <p>I still do not know what a correct migration should look like, so I
5818 report any differences between apt and aptitude and hope someone else
5819 can see if anything should be changed.</p>
5820
5821 <p>This is for Gnome:</p>
5822
5823 <p>Installed using apt-get, missing with aptitude</p>
5824
5825 <blockquote><p>
5826   apache2.2-bin aptdaemon at-spi baobab binfmt-support
5827   browser-plugin-gnash cheese-common cli-common cpp-4.3 cups-pk-helper
5828   dmz-cursor-theme empathy empathy-common finger
5829   freedesktop-sound-theme freeglut3 gconf-defaults-service gdm-themes
5830   gedit-plugins geoclue geoclue-hostip geoclue-localnet geoclue-manual
5831   geoclue-yahoo gnash gnash-common gnome gnome-backgrounds
5832   gnome-cards-data gnome-codec-install gnome-core
5833   gnome-desktop-environment gnome-disk-utility gnome-screenshot
5834   gnome-search-tool gnome-session-canberra gnome-spell
5835   gnome-system-log gnome-themes-extras gnome-themes-more
5836   gnome-user-share gs-common gstreamer0.10-fluendo-mp3
5837   gstreamer0.10-tools gtk2-engines gtk2-engines-pixbuf
5838   gtk2-engines-smooth hal-info hamster-applet libapache2-mod-dnssd
5839   libapr1 libaprutil1 libaprutil1-dbd-sqlite3 libaprutil1-ldap
5840   libart2.0-cil libatspi1.0-0 libboost-date-time1.42.0
5841   libboost-python1.42.0 libboost-thread1.42.0 libchamplain-0.4-0
5842   libchamplain-gtk-0.4-0 libcheese-gtk18 libclutter-gtk-0.10-0
5843   libcryptui0 libcupsys2 libdiscid0 libeel2-data libelf1 libepc-1.0-2
5844   libepc-common libepc-ui-1.0-2 libfreerdp-plugins-standard
5845   libfreerdp0 libgail-common libgconf2.0-cil libgdata-common libgdata7
5846   libgdl-1-common libgdu-gtk0 libgee2 libgeoclue0 libgexiv2-0 libgif4
5847   libglade2.0-cil libglib2.0-cil libgmime2.4-cil libgnome-vfs2.0-cil
5848   libgnome2.24-cil libgnomepanel2.24-cil libgnomeprint2.2-data
5849   libgnomeprintui2.2-common libgnomevfs2-bin libgpod-common libgpod4
5850   libgtk2.0-cil libgtkglext1 libgtksourceview-common
5851   libgtksourceview2.0-common libmono-addins-gui0.2-cil
5852   libmono-addins0.2-cil libmono-cairo2.0-cil libmono-corlib2.0-cil
5853   libmono-i18n-west2.0-cil libmono-posix2.0-cil
5854   libmono-security2.0-cil libmono-sharpzip2.84-cil
5855   libmono-system2.0-cil libmtp8 libmusicbrainz3-6
5856   libndesk-dbus-glib1.0-cil libndesk-dbus1.0-cil libopal3.6.8
5857   libpolkit-gtk-1-0 libpt-1.10.10-plugins-alsa
5858   libpt-1.10.10-plugins-v4l libpt2.6.7 libpython2.6 librpm1 librpmio1
5859   libsdl1.2debian libservlet2.4-java libsrtp0 libssh-4
5860   libtelepathy-farsight0 libtelepathy-glib0 libtidy-0.99-0
5861   libxalan2-java libxerces2-java media-player-info mesa-utils
5862   mono-2.0-gac mono-gac mono-runtime nautilus-sendto
5863   nautilus-sendto-empathy openoffice.org-writer2latex
5864   openssl-blacklist p7zip p7zip-full pkg-config python-4suite-xml
5865   python-aptdaemon python-aptdaemon-gtk python-axiom
5866   python-beautifulsoup python-bugbuddy python-clientform
5867   python-coherence python-configobj python-crypto python-cupshelpers
5868   python-cupsutils python-eggtrayicon python-elementtree
5869   python-epsilon python-evolution python-feedparser python-gdata
5870   python-gdbm python-gst0.10 python-gtkglext1 python-gtkmozembed
5871   python-gtksourceview2 python-httplib2 python-louie python-mako
5872   python-markupsafe python-mechanize python-nevow python-notify
5873   python-opengl python-openssl python-pam python-pkg-resources
5874   python-pyasn1 python-pysqlite2 python-rdflib python-serial
5875   python-tagpy python-twisted-bin python-twisted-conch
5876   python-twisted-core python-twisted-web python-utidylib python-webkit
5877   python-xdg python-zope.interface remmina remmina-plugin-data
5878   remmina-plugin-rdp remmina-plugin-vnc rhythmbox-plugin-cdrecorder
5879   rhythmbox-plugins rpm-common rpm2cpio seahorse-plugins shotwell
5880   software-center svgalibg1 system-config-printer-udev
5881   telepathy-gabble telepathy-mission-control-5 telepathy-salut tomboy
5882   totem totem-coherence totem-mozilla totem-plugins
5883   transmission-common xdg-user-dirs xdg-user-dirs-gtk xserver-xephyr
5884   zip
5885 </p></blockquote>
5886
5887 Installed using apt-get, removed with aptitude
5888
5889 <blockquote><p>
5890   arj bluez-utils cheese dhcdbd djvulibre-desktop ekiga eog
5891   epiphany-extensions epiphany-gecko evolution-exchange
5892   fast-user-switch-applet file-roller gcalctool gconf-editor gdm gedit
5893   gedit-common gnome-app-install gnome-games gnome-games-data
5894   gnome-nettool gnome-system-tools gnome-themes gnome-utils
5895   gnome-vfs-obexftp gnome-volume-manager gnuchess gucharmap
5896   guile-1.8-libs hal libavahi-compat-libdnssd1 libavahi-core5
5897   libavahi-ui0 libbind9-50 libbluetooth2 libcamel1.2-11 libcdio7
5898   libcucul0 libcurl3 libdirectfb-1.0-0 libdmx1 libdvdread3
5899   libedata-cal1.2-6 libedataserver1.2-9 libeel2-2.20 libepc-1.0-1
5900   libepc-ui-1.0-1 libexchange-storage1.2-3 libfaad0 libgadu3
5901   libgalago3 libgd2-noxpm libgda3-3 libgda3-common libggz2 libggzcore9
5902   libggzmod4 libgksu1.2-0 libgksuui1.0-1 libgmyth0 libgnome-desktop-2
5903   libgnome-pilot2 libgnomecups1.0-1 libgnomeprint2.2-0
5904   libgnomeprintui2.2-0 libgpod3 libgraphviz4 libgtk-vnc-1.0-0
5905   libgtkhtml2-0 libgtksourceview1.0-0 libgtksourceview2.0-0
5906   libgucharmap6 libhesiod0 libicu38 libisccc50 libisccfg50 libiw29
5907   libjaxp1.3-java-gcj libkpathsea4 liblircclient0 libltdl3 liblwres50
5908   libmagick++10 libmagick10 libmalaga7 libmozjs1d libmpfr1ldbl libmtp7
5909   libmysqlclient15off libnautilus-burn4 libneon27 libnm-glib0
5910   libnm-util0 libopal-2.2 libosp5 libparted1.8-10 libpisock9
5911   libpisync1 libpoppler-glib3 libpoppler3 libpt-1.10.10 libraw1394-8
5912   libsdl1.2debian-alsa libsensors3 libsexy2 libsmbios2 libsoup2.2-8
5913   libspeexdsp1 libssh2-1 libsuitesparse-3.1.0 libsvga1
5914   libswfdec-0.6-90 libtalloc1 libtotem-plparser10 libtrackerclient0
5915   libvoikko1 libxalan2-java-gcj libxerces2-java-gcj libxklavier12
5916   libxtrap6 libxxf86misc1 libzephyr3 mysql-common rhythmbox seahorse
5917   sound-juicer swfdec-gnome system-config-printer totem-common
5918   totem-gstreamer transmission-gtk vinagre vino w3c-dtd-xhtml wodim
5919 </p></blockquote>
5920
5921 <p>Installed using aptitude, missing with apt-get</p>
5922
5923 <blockquote><p>
5924   gstreamer0.10-gnomevfs
5925 </p></blockquote>
5926
5927 <p>Installed using aptitude, removed with apt-get</p>
5928
5929 <blockquote><p>
5930 [nothing]
5931 </p></blockquote>
5932
5933 <p>This is for KDE:</p>
5934
5935 <p>Installed using apt-get, missing with aptitude</p>
5936
5937 <blockquote><p>
5938   autopoint bomber bovo cantor cantor-backend-kalgebra cpp-4.3 dcoprss
5939   edict espeak espeak-data eyesapplet fifteenapplet finger gettext
5940   ghostscript-x git gnome-audio gnugo granatier gs-common
5941   gstreamer0.10-pulseaudio indi kaddressbook-plugins kalgebra
5942   kalzium-data kanjidic kapman kate-plugins kblocks kbreakout kbstate
5943   kde-icons-mono kdeaccessibility kdeaddons-kfile-plugins
5944   kdeadmin-kfile-plugins kdeartwork-misc kdeartwork-theme-window
5945   kdeedu kdeedu-data kdeedu-kvtml-data kdegames kdegames-card-data
5946   kdegames-mahjongg-data kdegraphics-kfile-plugins kdelirc
5947   kdemultimedia-kfile-plugins kdenetwork-kfile-plugins
5948   kdepim-kfile-plugins kdepim-kio-plugins kdessh kdetoys kdewebdev
5949   kdiamond kdnssd kfilereplace kfourinline kgeography-data kigo
5950   killbots kiriki klettres-data kmoon kmrml knewsticker-scripts
5951   kollision kpf krosspython ksirk ksmserver ksquares kstars-data
5952   ksudoku kubrick kweather libasound2-plugins libboost-python1.42.0
5953   libcfitsio3 libconvert-binhex-perl libcrypt-ssleay-perl libdb4.6++
5954   libdjvulibre-text libdotconf1.0 liberror-perl libespeak1
5955   libfinance-quote-perl libgail-common libgsl0ldbl libhtml-parser-perl
5956   libhtml-tableextract-perl libhtml-tagset-perl libhtml-tree-perl
5957   libio-stringy-perl libkdeedu4 libkdegames5 libkiten4 libkpathsea5
5958   libkrossui4 libmailtools-perl libmime-tools-perl
5959   libnews-nntpclient-perl libopenbabel3 libportaudio2 libpulse-browse0
5960   libservlet2.4-java libspeechd2 libtiff-tools libtimedate-perl
5961   libunistring0 liburi-perl libwww-perl libxalan2-java libxerces2-java
5962   lirc luatex marble networkstatus noatun-plugins
5963   openoffice.org-writer2latex palapeli palapeli-data parley
5964   parley-data poster psutils pulseaudio pulseaudio-esound-compat
5965   pulseaudio-module-x11 pulseaudio-utils quanta-data rocs rsync
5966   speech-dispatcher step svgalibg1 texlive-binaries texlive-luatex
5967   ttf-sazanami-gothic
5968 </p></blockquote>
5969
5970 <p>Installed using apt-get, removed with aptitude</p>
5971
5972 <blockquote><p>
5973   amor artsbuilder atlantik atlantikdesigner blinken bluez-utils cvs
5974   dhcdbd djvulibre-desktop imlib-base imlib11 kalzium kanagram kandy
5975   kasteroids katomic kbackgammon kbattleship kblackbox kbounce kbruch
5976   kcron kdat kdemultimedia-kappfinder-data kdeprint kdict kdvi kedit
5977   keduca kenolaba kfax kfaxview kfouleggs kgeography kghostview
5978   kgoldrunner khangman khexedit kiconedit kig kimagemapeditor
5979   kitchensync kiten kjumpingcube klatin klettres klickety klines
5980   klinkstatus kmag kmahjongg kmailcvt kmenuedit kmid kmilo kmines
5981   kmousetool kmouth kmplot knetwalk kodo kolf kommander konquest kooka
5982   kpager kpat kpdf kpercentage kpilot kpoker kpovmodeler krec
5983   kregexpeditor kreversi ksame ksayit kshisen ksig ksim ksirc ksirtet
5984   ksmiletris ksnake ksokoban kspaceduel kstars ksvg ksysv kteatime
5985   ktip ktnef ktouch ktron kttsd ktuberling kturtle ktux kuickshow
5986   kverbos kview kviewshell kvoctrain kwifimanager kwin kwin4 kwordquiz
5987   kworldclock kxsldbg libakode2 libarts1-akode libarts1-audiofile
5988   libarts1-mpeglib libarts1-xine libavahi-compat-libdnssd1
5989   libavahi-core5 libavc1394-0 libbind9-50 libbluetooth2
5990   libboost-python1.34.1 libcucul0 libcurl3 libcvsservice0
5991   libdirectfb-1.0-0 libdjvulibre21 libdvdread3 libfaad0 libfreebob0
5992   libgd2-noxpm libgraphviz4 libgsmme1c2a libgtkhtml2-0 libicu38
5993   libiec61883-0 libindex0 libisccc50 libisccfg50 libiw29
5994   libjaxp1.3-java-gcj libk3b3 libkcal2b libkcddb1 libkdeedu3
5995   libkdegames1 libkdepim1a libkgantt0 libkleopatra1 libkmime2
5996   libkpathsea4 libkpimexchange1 libkpimidentities1 libkscan1
5997   libksieve0 libktnef1 liblockdev1 libltdl3 liblwres50 libmagick10
5998   libmimelib1c2a libmodplug0c2 libmozjs1d libmpcdec3 libmpfr1ldbl
5999   libneon27 libnm-util0 libopensync0 libpisock9 libpoppler-glib3
6000   libpoppler-qt2 libpoppler3 libraw1394-8 librss1 libsensors3
6001   libsmbios2 libssh2-1 libsuitesparse-3.1.0 libswfdec-0.6-90
6002   libtalloc1 libxalan2-java-gcj libxerces2-java-gcj libxtrap6 lskat
6003   mpeglib network-manager-kde noatun pmount tex-common texlive-base
6004   texlive-common texlive-doc-base texlive-fonts-recommended tidy
6005   ttf-dustin ttf-kochi-gothic ttf-sjfonts
6006 </p></blockquote>
6007
6008 <p>Installed using aptitude, missing with apt-get</p>
6009
6010 <blockquote><p>
6011   dolphin kde-core kde-plasma-desktop kde-standard kde-window-manager
6012   kdeartwork kdebase kdebase-apps kdebase-workspace
6013   kdebase-workspace-bin kdebase-workspace-data kdeutils kscreensaver
6014   kscreensaver-xsavers libgle3 libkonq5 libkonq5-templates libnetpbm10
6015   netpbm plasma-widget-folderview plasma-widget-networkmanagement
6016   xscreensaver-data-extra xscreensaver-gl xscreensaver-gl-extra
6017   xscreensaver-screensaver-bsod
6018 </p></blockquote>
6019
6020 <p>Installed using aptitude, removed with apt-get</p>
6021
6022 <blockquote><p>
6023   kdebase-bin konq-plugins konqueror
6024 </p></blockquote>
6025
6026       </div>
6027       <div class="tags">
6028
6029
6030         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>.
6031
6032
6033       </div>
6034     </div>
6035     <div class="padding"></div>
6036
6037     <div class="entry">
6038       <div class="title">
6039         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Gnash_buildbot_slave_and_Debian_kfreebsd.html">Gnash buildbot slave and Debian kfreebsd</a>
6040       </div>
6041       <div class="date">
6042         20th November 2010
6043       </div>
6044       <div class="body">
6045         <p>Answering
6046 <a href="http://www.listware.net/201011/gnash-dev/67431-gnash-dev-buildbot-looking-for-slaves.html">the
6047 call from the Gnash project</a> for
6048 <a href="http://www.gnashdev.org:8010">buildbot</a> slaves to test the
6049 current source, I have set up a virtual KVM machine on the Debian
6050 Edu/Skolelinux virtualization host to test the git source on
6051 Debian/Squeeze.  I hope this can help the developers in getting new
6052 releases out more often.</p>
6053
6054 <p>As the developers want less main-stream build platforms tested to,
6055 I have considered setting up a <a
6056 href="http://www.debian.org/ports/kfreebsd-gnu/">Debian/kfreebsd</a>
6057 machine as well.  I have also considered using the kfreebsd
6058 architecture in Debian as a file server in NUUG to get access to the 5
6059 TB zfs volume we currently use to store DV video.  Because of this, I
6060 finally got around to do a test installation of Debian/Squeeze with
6061 kfreebsd.  Installation went fairly smooth, thought I noticed some
6062 visual glitches in the cdebconf dialogs (black cursor left on the
6063 screen at random locations).  Have not gotten very far with the
6064 testing.  Noticed cfdisk did not work, but fdisk did so it was not a
6065 fatal problem.  Have to spend some more time on it to see if it is
6066 useful as a file server for NUUG.  Will try to find time to set up a
6067 gnash buildbot slave on the Debian Edu/Skolelinux this weekend.</p>
6068
6069       </div>
6070       <div class="tags">
6071
6072
6073         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>.
6074
6075
6076       </div>
6077     </div>
6078     <div class="padding"></div>
6079
6080     <div class="entry">
6081       <div class="title">
6082         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_in_3D.html">Debian in 3D</a>
6083       </div>
6084       <div class="date">
6085          9th November 2010
6086       </div>
6087       <div class="body">
6088         <p><img src="http://thingiverse-production.s3.amazonaws.com/renders/23/e0/c4/f9/2b/debswagtdose_preview_medium.jpg"></p>
6089
6090 <p>3D printing is just great.  I just came across this Debian logo in
6091 3D linked in from
6092 <a href="http://blog.thingiverse.com/2010/11/09/participatory-branding/">the
6093 thingiverse blog</a>.</p>
6094
6095       </div>
6096       <div class="tags">
6097
6098
6099         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>.
6100
6101
6102       </div>
6103     </div>
6104     <div class="padding"></div>
6105
6106     <div class="entry">
6107       <div class="title">
6108         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Software_updates_2010_10_24.html">Software updates 2010-10-24</a>
6109       </div>
6110       <div class="date">
6111         24th October 2010
6112       </div>
6113       <div class="body">
6114         <p>Some updates.</p>
6115
6116 <p>My <a href="http://pledgebank.com/gnash-avm2">gnash pledge</a> to
6117 raise money for the project is going well.  The lower limit of 10
6118 signers was reached in 24 hours, and so far 13 people have signed it.
6119 More signers and more funding is most welcome, and I am really curious
6120 how far we can get before the time limit of December 24 is reached.
6121 :)</p>
6122
6123 <p>On the #gnash IRC channel on irc.freenode.net, I was just tipped
6124 about what appear to be a great code coverage tool capable of
6125 generating code coverage stats without any changes to the source code.
6126 It is called
6127 <a href="http://simonkagstrom.github.com/kcov/index.html">kcov</a>,
6128 and can be used using <tt>kcov &lt;directory&gt; &lt;binary&gt;</tt>.
6129 It is missing in Debian, but the git source built just fine in Squeeze
6130 after I installed libelf-dev, libdwarf-dev, pkg-config and
6131 libglib2.0-dev.  Failed to build in Lenny, but suspect that is
6132 solvable.  I hope kcov make it into Debian soon.</p>
6133
6134 <p>Finally found time to wrap up the release notes for <a
6135 href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-edu-announce/2010/10/msg00002.html">a
6136 new alpha release of Debian Edu</a>, and just published the second
6137 alpha test release of the Squeeze based Debian Edu /
6138 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Skolelinux</a>
6139 release.  Give it a try if you need a complete linux solution for your
6140 school, including central infrastructure server, workstations, thin
6141 client servers and diskless workstations.  A nice touch added
6142 yesterday is RDP support on the thin client servers, for windows
6143 clients to get a Linux desktop on request.</p>
6144
6145       </div>
6146       <div class="tags">
6147
6148
6149         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>.
6150
6151
6152       </div>
6153     </div>
6154     <div class="padding"></div>
6155
6156     <div class="entry">
6157       <div class="title">
6158         <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>
6159       </div>
6160       <div class="date">
6161          4th September 2010
6162       </div>
6163       <div class="body">
6164         <p>In the <a href="http://popcon.debian.org/unknown/by_vote">Debian
6165 popularity-contest numbers</a>, the adobe-flashplugin package the
6166 second most popular used package that is missing in Debian.  The sixth
6167 most popular is flashplayer-mozilla.  This is a clear indication that
6168 working flash is important for Debian users.  Around 10 percent of the
6169 users submitting data to popcon.debian.org have this package
6170 installed.</p>
6171
6172 <p>In the report written by Lars Risan in August 2008
6173 («<a href="http://wiki.skolelinux.no/Dokumentasjon/Rapporter?action=AttachFile&do=view&target=Skolelinux_i_bruk_rapport_1.0.pdf">Skolelinux
6174 i bruk – Rapport for Hurum kommune, Universitetet i Agder og
6175 stiftelsen SLX Debian Labs</a>»), one of the most important problems
6176 schools experienced with <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian
6177 Edu/Skolelinux</a> was the lack of working Flash.  A lot of educational
6178 web sites require Flash to work, and lacking working Flash support in
6179 the web browser and the problems with installing it was perceived as a
6180 good reason to stay with Windows.</p>
6181
6182 <p>I once saw a funny and sad comment in a web forum, where Linux was
6183 said to be the retarded cousin that did not really understand
6184 everything you told him but could work fairly well.  This was a
6185 comment regarding the problems Linux have with proprietary formats and
6186 non-standard web pages, and is sad because it exposes a fairly common
6187 understanding of whose fault it is if web pages that only work in for
6188 example Internet Explorer 6 fail to work on Firefox, and funny because
6189 it explain very well how annoying it is for users when Linux
6190 distributions do not work with the documents they receive or the web
6191 pages they want to visit.</p>
6192
6193 <p>This is part of the reason why I believe it is important for Debian
6194 and Debian Edu to have a well working Flash implementation in the
6195 distribution, to get at least popular sites as Youtube and Google
6196 Video to working out of the box.  For Squeeze, Debian have the chance
6197 to include the latest version of Gnash that will make this happen, as
6198 the new release 0.8.8 was published a few weeks ago and is resting in
6199 unstable.  The new version work with more sites that version 0.8.7.
6200 The Gnash maintainers have asked for a freeze exception, but the
6201 release team have not had time to reply to it yet.  I hope they agree
6202 with me that Flash is important for the Debian desktop users, and thus
6203 accept the new package into Squeeze.</p>
6204
6205       </div>
6206       <div class="tags">
6207
6208
6209         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>.
6210
6211
6212       </div>
6213     </div>
6214     <div class="padding"></div>
6215
6216     <div class="entry">
6217       <div class="title">
6218         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Circular_package_dependencies_harms_apt_recovery.html">Circular package dependencies harms apt recovery</a>
6219       </div>
6220       <div class="date">
6221         27th July 2010
6222       </div>
6223       <div class="body">
6224         <p>I discovered this while doing
6225 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Automatic_upgrade_testing_from_Lenny_to_Squeeze.html">automated
6226 testing of upgrades from Debian Lenny to Squeeze</a>.  A few packages
6227 in Debian still got circular dependencies, and it is often claimed
6228 that apt and aptitude should be able to handle this just fine, but
6229 some times these dependency loops causes apt to fail.</p>
6230
6231 <p>An example is from todays
6232 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/~pere/debian-upgrade-testing//test-20100727-lenny-squeeze-kde-aptitude.txt">upgrade
6233 of KDE using aptitude</a>.  In it, a bug in kdebase-workspace-data
6234 causes perl-modules to fail to upgrade.  The cause is simple.  If a
6235 package fail to unpack, then only part of packages with the circular
6236 dependency might end up being unpacked when unpacking aborts, and the
6237 ones already unpacked will fail to configure in the recovery phase
6238 because its dependencies are unavailable.</p>
6239
6240 <p>In this log, the problem manifest itself with this error:</p>
6241
6242 <blockquote><pre>
6243 dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of perl-modules:
6244  perl-modules depends on perl (>= 5.10.1-1); however:
6245   Version of perl on system is 5.10.0-19lenny2.
6246 dpkg: error processing perl-modules (--configure):
6247  dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
6248 </pre></blockquote>
6249
6250 <p>The perl/perl-modules circular dependency is already
6251 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/527917">reported as a bug</a>, and will
6252 hopefully be solved as soon as possible, but it is not the only one,
6253 and each one of these loops in the dependency tree can cause similar
6254 failures.  Of course, they only occur when there are bugs in other
6255 packages causing the unpacking to fail, but it is rather nasty when
6256 the failure of one package causes the problem to become worse because
6257 of dependency loops.</p>
6258
6259 <p>Thanks to
6260 <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2010/06/msg00116.html">the
6261 tireless effort by Bill Allombert</a>, the number of circular
6262 dependencies
6263 <a href="http://debian.semistable.com/debgraph.out.html">left in Debian
6264 is dropping</a>, and perhaps it will reach zero one day. :)</p>
6265
6266 <p>Todays testing also exposed a bug in
6267 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/590605">update-notifier</a> and
6268 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/590604">different behaviour</a> between
6269 apt-get and aptitude, the latter possibly caused by some circular
6270 dependency.  Reported both to BTS to try to get someone to look at
6271 it.</p>
6272
6273       </div>
6274       <div class="tags">
6275
6276
6277         Tags: <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>.
6278
6279
6280       </div>
6281     </div>
6282     <div class="padding"></div>
6283
6284     <div class="entry">
6285       <div class="title">
6286         <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>
6287       </div>
6288       <div class="date">
6289         17th July 2010
6290       </div>
6291       <div class="body">
6292         <p>This is a
6293 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Time_for_new__LDAP_schemas_replacing_RFC_2307_.html">followup</a>
6294 on my
6295 <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
6296 work</a> on
6297 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Combining_PowerDNS_and_ISC_DHCP_LDAP_objects.html">merging
6298 all</a> the computer related LDAP objects in Debian Edu.</p>
6299
6300 <p>As a step to try to see if it possible to merge the DNS and DHCP
6301 LDAP objects, I have had a look at how the packages pdns-backend-ldap
6302 and dhcp3-server-ldap in Debian use the LDAP server.  The two
6303 implementations are quite different in how they use LDAP.</p>
6304
6305 To get this information, I started slapd with debugging enabled and
6306 dumped the debug output to a file to get the LDAP searches performed
6307 on a Debian Edu main-server.  Here is a summary.
6308
6309 <p><strong>powerdns</strong></p>
6310
6311 <a href="http://www.linuxnetworks.de/doc/index.php/PowerDNS_LDAP_Backend">Clues
6312 on how to</a> set up PowerDNS to use a LDAP backend is available on
6313 the web.
6314
6315 <p>PowerDNS have two modes of operation using LDAP as its backend.
6316 One "strict" mode where the forward and reverse DNS lookups are done
6317 using the same LDAP objects, and a "tree" mode where the forward and
6318 reverse entries are in two different subtrees in LDAP with a structure
6319 based on the DNS names, as in tjener.intern and
6320 2.2.0.10.in-addr.arpa.</p>
6321
6322 <p>In tree mode, the server is set up to use a LDAP subtree as its
6323 base, and uses a "base" scoped search for the DNS name by adding
6324 "dc=tjener,dc=intern," to the base with a filter for
6325 "(associateddomain=tjener.intern)" for the forward entry and
6326 "dc=2,dc=2,dc=0,dc=10,dc=in-addr,dc=arpa," with a filter for
6327 "(associateddomain=2.2.0.10.in-addr.arpa)" for the reverse entry.  For
6328 forward entries, it is looking for attributes named dnsttl, arecord,
6329 nsrecord, cnamerecord, soarecord, ptrrecord, hinforecord, mxrecord,
6330 txtrecord, rprecord, afsdbrecord, keyrecord, aaaarecord, locrecord,
6331 srvrecord, naptrrecord, kxrecord, certrecord, dsrecord, sshfprecord,
6332 ipseckeyrecord, rrsigrecord, nsecrecord, dnskeyrecord, dhcidrecord,
6333 spfrecord and modifytimestamp.  For reverse entries it is looking for
6334 the attributes dnsttl, arecord, nsrecord, cnamerecord, soarecord,
6335 ptrrecord, hinforecord, mxrecord, txtrecord, rprecord, aaaarecord,
6336 locrecord, srvrecord, naptrrecord and modifytimestamp.  The equivalent
6337 ldapsearch commands could look like this:</p>
6338
6339 <blockquote><pre>
6340 ldapsearch -h ldap \
6341   -b dc=tjener,dc=intern,ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no \
6342   -s base -x '(associateddomain=tjener.intern)' dNSTTL aRecord nSRecord \
6343   cNAMERecord sOARecord pTRRecord hInfoRecord mXRecord tXTRecord \
6344   rPRecord aFSDBRecord KeyRecord aAAARecord lOCRecord sRVRecord \
6345   nAPTRRecord kXRecord certRecord dSRecord sSHFPRecord iPSecKeyRecord \
6346   rRSIGRecord nSECRecord dNSKeyRecord dHCIDRecord sPFRecord modifyTimestamp
6347
6348 ldapsearch -h ldap \
6349   -b dc=2,dc=2,dc=0,dc=10,dc=in-addr,dc=arpa,ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no \
6350   -s base -x '(associateddomain=2.2.0.10.in-addr.arpa)'
6351   dnsttl, arecord, nsrecord, cnamerecord soarecord ptrrecord \
6352   hinforecord mxrecord txtrecord rprecord aaaarecord locrecord \
6353   srvrecord naptrrecord modifytimestamp
6354 </pre></blockquote>
6355
6356 <p>In Debian Edu/Lenny, the PowerDNS tree mode is used with
6357 ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no as the base, and these are two
6358 example LDAP objects used there.  In addition to these objects, the
6359 parent objects all th way up to ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
6360 also exist.</p>
6361
6362 <blockquote><pre>
6363 dn: dc=tjener,dc=intern,ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
6364 objectclass: top
6365 objectclass: dnsdomain
6366 objectclass: domainrelatedobject
6367 dc: tjener
6368 arecord: 10.0.2.2
6369 associateddomain: tjener.intern
6370
6371 dn: dc=2,dc=2,dc=0,dc=10,dc=in-addr,dc=arpa,ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
6372 objectclass: top
6373 objectclass: dnsdomain2
6374 objectclass: domainrelatedobject
6375 dc: 2
6376 ptrrecord: tjener.intern
6377 associateddomain: 2.2.0.10.in-addr.arpa
6378 </pre></blockquote>
6379
6380 <p>In strict mode, the server behaves differently.  When looking for
6381 forward DNS entries, it is doing a "subtree" scoped search with the
6382 same base as in the tree mode for a object with filter
6383 "(associateddomain=tjener.intern)" and requests the attributes dnsttl,
6384 arecord, nsrecord, cnamerecord, soarecord, ptrrecord, hinforecord,
6385 mxrecord, txtrecord, rprecord, aaaarecord, locrecord, srvrecord,
6386 naptrrecord and modifytimestamp.  For reverse entires it also do a
6387 subtree scoped search but this time the filter is "(arecord=10.0.2.2)"
6388 and the requested attributes are associateddomain, dnsttl and
6389 modifytimestamp.  In short, in strict mode the objects with ptrrecord
6390 go away, and the arecord attribute in the forward object is used
6391 instead.</p>
6392
6393 <p>The forward and reverse searches can be simulated using ldapsearch
6394 like this:</p>
6395
6396 <blockquote><pre>
6397 ldapsearch -h ldap -b ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no -s sub -x \
6398   '(associateddomain=tjener.intern)' dNSTTL aRecord nSRecord \
6399   cNAMERecord sOARecord pTRRecord hInfoRecord mXRecord tXTRecord \
6400   rPRecord aFSDBRecord KeyRecord aAAARecord lOCRecord sRVRecord \
6401   nAPTRRecord kXRecord certRecord dSRecord sSHFPRecord iPSecKeyRecord \
6402   rRSIGRecord nSECRecord dNSKeyRecord dHCIDRecord sPFRecord modifyTimestamp
6403
6404 ldapsearch -h ldap -b ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no -s sub -x \
6405   '(arecord=10.0.2.2)' associateddomain dnsttl modifytimestamp
6406 </pre></blockquote>
6407
6408 <p>In addition to the forward and reverse searches , there is also a
6409 search for SOA records, which behave similar to the forward and
6410 reverse lookups.</p>
6411
6412 <p>A thing to note with the PowerDNS behaviour is that it do not
6413 specify any objectclass names, and instead look for the attributes it
6414 need to generate a DNS reply.  This make it able to work with any
6415 objectclass that provide the needed attributes.</p>
6416
6417 <p>The attributes are normally provided in the cosine (RFC 1274) and
6418 dnsdomain2 schemas.  The latter is used for reverse entries like
6419 ptrrecord and recent DNS additions like aaaarecord and srvrecord.</p>
6420
6421 <p>In Debian Edu, we have created DNS objects using the object classes
6422 dcobject (for dc), dnsdomain or dnsdomain2 (structural, for the DNS
6423 attributes) and domainrelatedobject (for associatedDomain).  The use
6424 of structural object classes make it impossible to combine these
6425 classes with the object classes used by DHCP.</p>
6426
6427 <p>There are other schemas that could be used too, for example the
6428 dnszone structural object class used by Gosa and bind-sdb for the DNS
6429 attributes combined with the domainrelatedobject object class, but in
6430 this case some unused attributes would have to be included as well
6431 (zonename and relativedomainname).</p>
6432
6433 <p>My proposal for Debian Edu would be to switch PowerDNS to strict
6434 mode and not use any of the existing objectclasses (dnsdomain,
6435 dnsdomain2 and dnszone) when one want to combine the DNS information
6436 with DHCP information, and instead create a auxiliary object class
6437 defined something like this (using the attributes defined for
6438 dnsdomain and dnsdomain2 or dnszone):</p>
6439
6440 <blockquote><pre>
6441 objectclass ( some-oid NAME 'dnsDomainAux'
6442     SUP top
6443     AUXILIARY
6444     MAY ( ARecord $ MDRecord $ MXRecord $ NSRecord $ SOARecord $ CNAMERecord $
6445           DNSTTL $ DNSClass $ PTRRecord $ HINFORecord $ MINFORecord $
6446           TXTRecord $ SIGRecord $ KEYRecord $ AAAARecord $ LOCRecord $
6447           NXTRecord $ SRVRecord $ NAPTRRecord $ KXRecord $ CERTRecord $
6448           A6Record $ DNAMERecord
6449     ))
6450 </pre></blockquote>
6451
6452 <p>This will allow any object to become a DNS entry when combined with
6453 the domainrelatedobject object class, and allow any entity to include
6454 all the attributes PowerDNS wants.  I've sent an email to the PowerDNS
6455 developers asking for their view on this schema and if they are
6456 interested in providing such schema with PowerDNS, and I hope my
6457 message will be accepted into their mailing list soon.</p>
6458
6459 <p><strong>ISC dhcp</strong></p>
6460
6461 <p>The DHCP server searches for specific objectclass and requests all
6462 the object attributes, and then uses the attributes it want.  This
6463 make it harder to figure out exactly what attributes are used, but
6464 thanks to the working example in Debian Edu I can at least get an idea
6465 what is needed without having to read the source code.</p>
6466
6467 <p>In the DHCP server configuration, the LDAP base to use and the
6468 search filter to use to locate the correct dhcpServer entity is
6469 stored.  These are the relevant entries from
6470 /etc/dhcp3/dhcpd.conf:</p>
6471
6472 <blockquote><pre>
6473 ldap-base-dn "dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no";
6474 ldap-dhcp-server-cn "dhcp";
6475 </pre></blockquote>
6476
6477 <p>The DHCP server uses this information to nest all the DHCP
6478 configuration it need.  The cn "dhcp" is located using the given LDAP
6479 base and the filter "(&(objectClass=dhcpServer)(cn=dhcp))".  The
6480 search result is this entry:</p>
6481
6482 <blockquote><pre>
6483 dn: cn=dhcp,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
6484 cn: dhcp
6485 objectClass: top
6486 objectClass: dhcpServer
6487 dhcpServiceDN: cn=DHCP Config,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
6488 </pre></blockquote>
6489
6490 <p>The content of the dhcpServiceDN attribute is next used to locate the
6491 subtree with DHCP configuration.  The DHCP configuration subtree base
6492 is located using a base scope search with base "cn=DHCP
6493 Config,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no" and filter
6494 "(&(objectClass=dhcpService)(|(dhcpPrimaryDN=cn=dhcp,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no)(dhcpSecondaryDN=cn=dhcp,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no)))".
6495 The search result is this entry:</p>
6496
6497 <blockquote><pre>
6498 dn: cn=DHCP Config,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
6499 cn: DHCP Config
6500 objectClass: top
6501 objectClass: dhcpService
6502 objectClass: dhcpOptions
6503 dhcpPrimaryDN: cn=dhcp, dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
6504 dhcpStatements: ddns-update-style none
6505 dhcpStatements: authoritative
6506 dhcpOption: smtp-server code 69 = array of ip-address
6507 dhcpOption: www-server code 72 = array of ip-address
6508 dhcpOption: wpad-url code 252 = text
6509 </pre></blockquote>
6510
6511 <p>Next, the entire subtree is processed, one level at the time.  When
6512 all the DHCP configuration is loaded, it is ready to receive requests.
6513 The subtree in Debian Edu contain objects with object classes
6514 top/dhcpService/dhcpOptions, top/dhcpSharedNetwork/dhcpOptions,
6515 top/dhcpSubnet, top/dhcpGroup and top/dhcpHost.  These provide options
6516 and information about netmasks, dynamic range etc.  Leaving out the
6517 details here because it is not relevant for the focus of my
6518 investigation, which is to see if it is possible to merge dns and dhcp
6519 related computer objects.</p>
6520
6521 <p>When a DHCP request come in, LDAP is searched for the MAC address
6522 of the client (00:00:00:00:00:00 in this example), using a subtree
6523 scoped search with "cn=DHCP Config,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no" as
6524 the base and "(&(objectClass=dhcpHost)(dhcpHWAddress=ethernet
6525 00:00:00:00:00:00))" as the filter.  This is what a host object look
6526 like:</p>
6527
6528 <blockquote><pre>
6529 dn: cn=hostname,cn=group1,cn=THINCLIENTS,cn=DHCP Config,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
6530 cn: hostname
6531 objectClass: top
6532 objectClass: dhcpHost
6533 dhcpHWAddress: ethernet 00:00:00:00:00:00
6534 dhcpStatements: fixed-address hostname
6535 </pre></blockquote>
6536
6537 <p>There is less flexiblity in the way LDAP searches are done here.
6538 The object classes need to have fixed names, and the configuration
6539 need to be stored in a fairly specific LDAP structure.  On the
6540 positive side, the invidiual dhcpHost entires can be anywhere without
6541 the DN pointed to by the dhcpServer entries.  The latter should make
6542 it possible to group all host entries in a subtree next to the
6543 configuration entries, and this subtree can also be shared with the
6544 DNS server if the schema proposed above is combined with the dhcpHost
6545 structural object class.
6546
6547 <p><strong>Conclusion</strong></p>
6548
6549 <p>The PowerDNS implementation seem to be very flexible when it come
6550 to which LDAP schemas to use.  While its "tree" mode is rigid when it
6551 come to the the LDAP structure, the "strict" mode is very flexible,
6552 allowing DNS objects to be stored anywhere under the base cn specified
6553 in the configuration.</p>
6554
6555 <p>The DHCP implementation on the other hand is very inflexible, both
6556 regarding which LDAP schemas to use and which LDAP structure to use.
6557 I guess one could implement ones own schema, as long as the
6558 objectclasses and attributes have the names used, but this do not
6559 really help when the DHCP subtree need to have a fairly fixed
6560 structure.</p>
6561
6562 <p>Based on the observed behaviour, I suspect a LDAP structure like
6563 this might work for Debian Edu:</p>
6564
6565 <blockquote><pre>
6566 ou=services
6567   cn=machine-info (dhcpService) - dhcpServiceDN points here
6568     cn=dhcp (dhcpServer)
6569     cn=dhcp-internal (dhcpSharedNetwork/dhcpOptions)
6570       cn=10.0.2.0 (dhcpSubnet)
6571         cn=group1 (dhcpGroup/dhcpOptions)
6572     cn=dhcp-thinclients (dhcpSharedNetwork/dhcpOptions)
6573       cn=192.168.0.0 (dhcpSubnet)
6574         cn=group1 (dhcpGroup/dhcpOptions)
6575     ou=machines - PowerDNS base points here
6576       cn=hostname (dhcpHost/domainrelatedobject/dnsDomainAux)
6577 </pre></blockquote>
6578
6579 <P>This is not tested yet.  If the DHCP server require the dhcpHost
6580 entries to be in the dhcpGroup subtrees, the entries can be stored
6581 there instead of a common machines subtree, and the PowerDNS base
6582 would have to be moved one level up to the machine-info subtree.</p>
6583
6584 <p>The combined object under the machines subtree would look something
6585 like this:</p>
6586
6587 <blockquote><pre>
6588 dn: dc=hostname,ou=machines,cn=machine-info,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
6589 dc: hostname
6590 objectClass: top
6591 objectClass: dhcpHost
6592 objectclass: domainrelatedobject
6593 objectclass: dnsDomainAux
6594 associateddomain: hostname.intern
6595 arecord: 10.11.12.13
6596 dhcpHWAddress: ethernet 00:00:00:00:00:00
6597 dhcpStatements: fixed-address hostname.intern
6598 </pre></blockquote>
6599
6600 </p>One could even add the LTSP configuration associated with a given
6601 machine, as long as the required attributes are available in a
6602 auxiliary object class.</p>
6603
6604       </div>
6605       <div class="tags">
6606
6607
6608         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>.
6609
6610
6611       </div>
6612     </div>
6613     <div class="padding"></div>
6614
6615     <div class="entry">
6616       <div class="title">
6617         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Combining_PowerDNS_and_ISC_DHCP_LDAP_objects.html">Combining PowerDNS and ISC DHCP LDAP objects</a>
6618       </div>
6619       <div class="date">
6620         14th July 2010
6621       </div>
6622       <div class="body">
6623         <p>For a while now, I have wanted to find a way to change the DNS and
6624 DHCP services in Debian Edu to use the same LDAP objects for a given
6625 computer, to avoid the possibility of having a inconsistent state for
6626 a computer in LDAP (as in DHCP but no DNS entry or the other way
6627 around) and make it easier to add computers to LDAP.</p>
6628
6629 <p>I've looked at how powerdns and dhcpd is using LDAP, and using this
6630 information finally found a solution that seem to work.</p>
6631
6632 <p>The old setup required three LDAP objects for a given computer.
6633 One forward DNS entry, one reverse DNS entry and one DHCP entry.  If
6634 we switch powerdns to use its strict LDAP method (ldap-method=strict
6635 in pdns-debian-edu.conf), the forward and reverse DNS entries are
6636 merged into one while making it impossible to transfer the reverse map
6637 to a slave DNS server.</p>
6638
6639 <p>If we also replace the object class used to get the DNS related
6640 attributes to one allowing these attributes to be combined with the
6641 dhcphost object class, we can merge the DNS and DHCP entries into one.
6642 I've written such object class in the dnsdomainaux.schema file (need
6643 proper OIDs, but that is a minor issue), and tested the setup.  It
6644 seem to work.</p>
6645
6646 <p>With this test setup in place, we can get away with one LDAP object
6647 for both DNS and DHCP, and even the LTSP configuration I suggested in
6648 an earlier email.  The combined LDAP object will look something like
6649 this:</p>
6650
6651 <blockquote><pre>
6652   dn: cn=hostname,cn=group1,cn=THINCLIENTS,cn=DHCP Config,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
6653   cn: hostname
6654   objectClass: dhcphost
6655   objectclass: domainrelatedobject
6656   objectclass: dnsdomainaux
6657   associateddomain: hostname.intern
6658   arecord: 10.11.12.13
6659   dhcphwaddress: ethernet 00:00:00:00:00:00
6660   dhcpstatements: fixed-address hostname
6661   ldapconfigsound: Y
6662 </pre></blockquote>
6663
6664 <p>The DNS server uses the associateddomain and arecord entries, while
6665 the DHCP server uses the dhcphwaddress and dhcpstatements entries
6666 before asking DNS to resolve the fixed-adddress.  LTSP will use
6667 dhcphwaddress or associateddomain and the ldapconfig* attributes.</p>
6668
6669 <p>I am not yet sure if I can get the DHCP server to look for its
6670 dhcphost in a different location, to allow us to put the objects
6671 outside the "DHCP Config" subtree, but hope to figure out a way to do
6672 that.  If I can't figure out a way to do that, we can still get rid of
6673 the hosts subtree and move all its content into the DHCP Config tree
6674 (which probably should be renamed to be more related to the new
6675 content.  I suspect cn=dnsdhcp,ou=services or something like that
6676 might be a good place to put it.</p>
6677
6678 <p>If you want to help out with implementing this for Debian Edu,
6679 please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.</p>
6680
6681       </div>
6682       <div class="tags">
6683
6684
6685         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>.
6686
6687
6688       </div>
6689     </div>
6690     <div class="padding"></div>
6691
6692     <div class="entry">
6693       <div class="title">
6694         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Idea_for_storing_LTSP_configuration_in_LDAP.html">Idea for storing LTSP configuration in LDAP</a>
6695       </div>
6696       <div class="date">
6697         11th July 2010
6698       </div>
6699       <div class="body">
6700         <p>Vagrant mentioned on IRC today that ltsp_config now support
6701 sourcing files from /usr/share/ltsp/ltsp_config.d/ on the thin
6702 clients, and that this can be used to fetch configuration from LDAP if
6703 Debian Edu choose to store configuration there.</p>
6704
6705 <p>Armed with this information, I got inspired and wrote a test module
6706 to get configuration from LDAP.  The idea is to look up the MAC
6707 address of the client in LDAP, and look for attributes on the form
6708 ltspconfigsetting=value, and use this to export SETTING=value to the
6709 LTSP clients.</p>
6710
6711 <p>The goal is to be able to store the LTSP configuration attributes
6712 in a "computer" LDAP object used by both DNS and DHCP, and thus
6713 allowing us to store all information about a computer in one place.</p>
6714
6715 <p>This is a untested draft implementation, and I welcome feedback on
6716 this approach.  A real LDAP schema for the ltspClientAux objectclass
6717 need to be written.  Comments, suggestions, etc?</p>
6718
6719 <blockquote><pre>
6720 # Store in /opt/ltsp/$arch/usr/share/ltsp/ltsp_config.d/ldap-config
6721 #
6722 # Fetch LTSP client settings from LDAP based on MAC address
6723 #
6724 # Uses ethernet address as stored in the dhcpHost objectclass using
6725 # the dhcpHWAddress attribute or ethernet address stored in the
6726 # ieee802Device objectclass with the macAddress attribute.
6727 #
6728 # This module is written to be schema agnostic, and only depend on the
6729 # existence of attribute names.
6730 #
6731 # The LTSP configuration variables are saved directly using a
6732 # ltspConfig prefix and uppercasing the rest of the attribute name.
6733 # To set the SERVER variable, set the ltspConfigServer attribute.
6734 #
6735 # Some LDAP schema should be created with all the relevant
6736 # configuration settings.  Something like this should work:
6737 #
6738 # objectclass ( 1.1.2.2 NAME 'ltspClientAux'
6739 #     SUP top
6740 #     AUXILIARY
6741 #     MAY ( ltspConfigServer $ ltsConfigSound $ ... )
6742
6743 LDAPSERVER=$(debian-edu-ldapserver)
6744 if [ "$LDAPSERVER" ] ; then
6745     LDAPBASE=$(debian-edu-ldapserver -b)
6746     for MAC in $(LANG=C ifconfig |grep -i hwaddr| awk '{print $5}'|sort -u) ; do
6747         filter="(|(dhcpHWAddress=ethernet $MAC)(macAddress=$MAC))"
6748         ldapsearch -h "$LDAPSERVER" -b "$LDAPBASE" -v -x "$filter" | \
6749             grep '^ltspConfig' | while read attr value ; do
6750             # Remove prefix and convert to upper case
6751             attr=$(echo $attr | sed 's/^ltspConfig//i' | tr a-z A-Z)
6752             # bass value on to clients
6753             eval "$attr=$value; export $attr"
6754         done
6755     done
6756 fi
6757 </pre></blockquote>
6758
6759 <p>I'm not sure this shell construction will work, because I suspect
6760 the while block might end up in a subshell causing the variables set
6761 there to not show up in ltsp-config, but if that is the case I am sure
6762 the code can be restructured to make sure the variables are passed on.
6763 I expect that can be solved with some testing. :)</p>
6764
6765 <p>If you want to help out with implementing this for Debian Edu,
6766 please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.</p>
6767
6768 <p>Update 2010-07-17: I am aware of another effort to store LTSP
6769 configuration in LDAP that was created around year 2000 by
6770 <a href="http://www.pcxperience.com/thinclient/documentation/ldap.html">PC
6771 Xperience, Inc., 2000</a>.  I found its
6772 <a href="http://people.redhat.com/alikins/ltsp/ldap/">files</a> on a
6773 personal home page over at redhat.com.</p>
6774
6775       </div>
6776       <div class="tags">
6777
6778
6779         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>.
6780
6781
6782       </div>
6783     </div>
6784     <div class="padding"></div>
6785
6786     <div class="entry">
6787       <div class="title">
6788         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/jXplorer__a_very_nice_LDAP_GUI.html">jXplorer, a very nice LDAP GUI</a>
6789       </div>
6790       <div class="date">
6791          9th July 2010
6792       </div>
6793       <div class="body">
6794         <p>Since
6795 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/LUMA__a_very_nice_LDAP_GUI.html">my
6796 last post</a> about available LDAP tools in Debian, I was told about a
6797 LDAP GUI that is even better than luma.  The java application
6798 <a href="http://jxplorer.org/">jXplorer</a> is claimed to be capable of
6799 moving LDAP objects and subtrees using drag-and-drop, and can
6800 authenticate using Kerberos.  I have only tested the Kerberos
6801 authentication, but do not have a LDAP setup allowing me to rewrite
6802 LDAP with my test user yet.  It is
6803 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/j/jxplorer.html">available in
6804 Debian</a> testing and unstable at the moment.  The only problem I
6805 have with it is how it handle errors.  If something go wrong, its
6806 non-intuitive behaviour require me to go through some query work list
6807 and remove the failing query.  Nothing big, but very annoying.</p>
6808
6809       </div>
6810       <div class="tags">
6811
6812
6813         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>.
6814
6815
6816       </div>
6817     </div>
6818     <div class="padding"></div>
6819
6820     <div class="entry">
6821       <div class="title">
6822         <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>
6823       </div>
6824       <div class="date">
6825          3rd July 2010
6826       </div>
6827       <div class="body">
6828         <p>Here is a short update on my <a
6829 href="http://people.skolelinux.org/~pere/debian-upgrade-testing/">my
6830 Debian Lenny->Squeeze upgrade testing</a>.  Here is a summary of the
6831 difference for Gnome when it is upgraded by apt-get and aptitude.  I'm
6832 not reporting the status for KDE, because the upgrade crashes when
6833 aptitude try because of missing conflicts
6834 (<a href="http://bugs.debian.org/584861">#584861</a> and
6835 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/585716">#585716</a>).</p>
6836
6837 <p>At the end of the upgrade test script, dpkg -l is executed to get a
6838 complete list of the installed packages.  Based on this I see these
6839 differences when I did a test run today.  As usual, I do not really
6840 know what the correct set of packages would be, but thought it best to
6841 publish the difference.</p>
6842
6843 <p>Installed using apt-get, missing with aptitude</p>
6844
6845 <blockquote><p>
6846   at-spi cpp-4.3 finger gnome-spell gstreamer0.10-gnomevfs
6847   libatspi1.0-0 libcupsys2 libeel2-data libgail-common libgdl-1-common
6848   libgnomeprint2.2-data libgnomeprintui2.2-common libgnomevfs2-bin
6849   libgtksourceview-common libpt-1.10.10-plugins-alsa
6850   libpt-1.10.10-plugins-v4l libservlet2.4-java libxalan2-java
6851   libxerces2-java openoffice.org-writer2latex openssl-blacklist p7zip
6852   python-4suite-xml python-eggtrayicon python-gtkhtml2
6853   python-gtkmozembed svgalibg1 xserver-xephyr zip
6854 </p></blockquote>
6855
6856 <p>Installed using apt-get, removed with aptitude</p>
6857
6858 <blockquote><p>
6859   bluez-utils dhcdbd djvulibre-desktop epiphany-gecko
6860   gnome-app-install gnome-mount gnome-vfs-obexftp gnome-volume-manager
6861   libao2 libavahi-compat-libdnssd1 libavahi-core5 libbind9-50
6862   libbluetooth2 libcamel1.2-11 libcdio7 libcucul0 libcurl3
6863   libdirectfb-1.0-0 libdvdread3 libedata-cal1.2-6 libedataserver1.2-9
6864   libeel2-2.20 libepc-1.0-1 libepc-ui-1.0-1 libexchange-storage1.2-3
6865   libfaad0 libgd2-noxpm libgda3-3 libgda3-common libggz2 libggzcore9
6866   libggzmod4 libgksu1.2-0 libgksuui1.0-1 libgmyth0 libgnome-desktop-2
6867   libgnome-pilot2 libgnomecups1.0-1 libgnomeprint2.2-0
6868   libgnomeprintui2.2-0 libgpod3 libgraphviz4 libgtkhtml2-0
6869   libgtksourceview1.0-0 libgucharmap6 libhesiod0 libicu38 libisccc50
6870   libisccfg50 libiw29 libkpathsea4 libltdl3 liblwres50 libmagick++10
6871   libmagick10 libmalaga7 libmtp7 libmysqlclient15off libnautilus-burn4
6872   libneon27 libnm-glib0 libnm-util0 libopal-2.2 libosp5
6873   libparted1.8-10 libpisock9 libpisync1 libpoppler-glib3 libpoppler3
6874   libpt-1.10.10 libraw1394-8 libsensors3 libsmbios2 libsoup2.2-8
6875   libssh2-1 libsuitesparse-3.1.0 libswfdec-0.6-90 libtalloc1
6876   libtotem-plparser10 libtrackerclient0 libvoikko1 libxalan2-java-gcj
6877   libxerces2-java-gcj libxklavier12 libxtrap6 libxxf86misc1 libzephyr3
6878   mysql-common swfdec-gnome totem-gstreamer wodim
6879 </p></blockquote>
6880
6881 <p>Installed using aptitude, missing with apt-get</p>
6882
6883 <blockquote><p>
6884   gnome gnome-desktop-environment hamster-applet python-gnomeapplet
6885   python-gnomekeyring python-wnck rhythmbox-plugins xorg
6886   xserver-xorg-input-all xserver-xorg-input-evdev
6887   xserver-xorg-input-kbd xserver-xorg-input-mouse
6888   xserver-xorg-input-synaptics xserver-xorg-video-all
6889   xserver-xorg-video-apm xserver-xorg-video-ark xserver-xorg-video-ati
6890   xserver-xorg-video-chips xserver-xorg-video-cirrus
6891   xserver-xorg-video-dummy xserver-xorg-video-fbdev
6892   xserver-xorg-video-glint xserver-xorg-video-i128
6893   xserver-xorg-video-i740 xserver-xorg-video-mach64
6894   xserver-xorg-video-mga xserver-xorg-video-neomagic
6895   xserver-xorg-video-nouveau xserver-xorg-video-nv
6896   xserver-xorg-video-r128 xserver-xorg-video-radeon
6897   xserver-xorg-video-radeonhd xserver-xorg-video-rendition
6898   xserver-xorg-video-s3 xserver-xorg-video-s3virge
6899   xserver-xorg-video-savage xserver-xorg-video-siliconmotion
6900   xserver-xorg-video-sis xserver-xorg-video-sisusb
6901   xserver-xorg-video-tdfx xserver-xorg-video-tga
6902   xserver-xorg-video-trident xserver-xorg-video-tseng
6903   xserver-xorg-video-vesa xserver-xorg-video-vmware
6904   xserver-xorg-video-voodoo
6905 </p></blockquote>
6906
6907 <p>Installed using aptitude, removed with apt-get</p>
6908
6909 <blockquote><p>
6910   deskbar-applet xserver-xorg xserver-xorg-core
6911   xserver-xorg-input-wacom xserver-xorg-video-intel
6912   xserver-xorg-video-openchrome
6913 </p></blockquote>
6914
6915 <p>I was told on IRC that the xorg-xserver package was
6916 <a href="http://git.debian.org/?p=pkg-xorg/xserver/xorg-server.git;a=commit;h=9c8080d06c457932d3bfec021c69ac000aa60120">changed
6917 in git</a> today to try to get apt-get to not remove xorg completely.
6918 No idea when it hits Squeeze, but when it does I hope it will reduce
6919 the difference somewhat.
6920
6921       </div>
6922       <div class="tags">
6923
6924
6925         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>.
6926
6927
6928       </div>
6929     </div>
6930     <div class="padding"></div>
6931
6932     <div class="entry">
6933       <div class="title">
6934         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/LUMA__a_very_nice_LDAP_GUI.html">LUMA, a very nice LDAP GUI</a>
6935       </div>
6936       <div class="date">
6937         28th June 2010
6938       </div>
6939       <div class="body">
6940         <p>The last few days I have been looking into the status of the LDAP
6941 directory in Debian Edu, and in the process I started to miss a GUI
6942 tool to browse the LDAP tree.  The only one I was able to find in
6943 Debian/Squeeze and Lenny is
6944 <a href="http://luma.sourceforge.net/">LUMA</a>, which has proved to
6945 be a great tool to get a overview of the current LDAP directory
6946 populated by default in Skolelinux.  Thanks to it, I have been able to
6947 find empty and obsolete subtrees, misplaced objects and duplicate
6948 objects.  It will be installed by default in Debian/Squeeze.  If you
6949 are working with LDAP, give it a go. :)</p>
6950
6951 <p>I did notice one problem with it I have not had time to report to
6952 the BTS yet.  There is no .desktop file in the package, so the tool do
6953 not show up in the Gnome and KDE menus, but only deep down in in the
6954 Debian submenu in KDE.  I hope that can be fixed before Squeeze is
6955 released.</p>
6956
6957 <p>I have not yet been able to get it to modify the tree yet.  I would
6958 like to move objects and remove subtrees directly in the GUI, but have
6959 not found a way to do that with LUMA yet.  So in the mean time, I use
6960 <a href="http://www.lichteblau.com/ldapvi/">ldapvi</a> for that.</p>
6961
6962 <p>If you have tips on other GUI tools for LDAP that might be useful
6963 in Debian Edu, please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.</p>
6964
6965 <p>Update 2010-06-29: Ross Reedstrom tipped us about the
6966 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/g/gq.html">gq</a> package as a
6967 useful GUI alternative.  It seem like a good tool, but is unmaintained
6968 in Debian and got a RC bug keeping it out of Squeeze.  Unless that
6969 changes, it will not be an option for Debian Edu based on Squeeze.</p>
6970
6971       </div>
6972       <div class="tags">
6973
6974
6975         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>.
6976
6977
6978       </div>
6979     </div>
6980     <div class="padding"></div>
6981
6982     <div class="entry">
6983       <div class="title">
6984         <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>
6985       </div>
6986       <div class="date">
6987         24th June 2010
6988       </div>
6989       <div class="body">
6990         <p>A while back, I
6991 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Time_for_new__LDAP_schemas_replacing_RFC_2307_.html">complained
6992 about the fact</a> that it is not possible with the provided schemas
6993 for storing DNS and DHCP information in LDAP to combine the two sets
6994 of information into one LDAP object representing a computer.</p>
6995
6996 <p>In the mean time, I discovered that a simple fix would be to make
6997 the dhcpHost object class auxiliary, to allow it to be combined with
6998 the dNSDomain object class, and thus forming one object for one
6999 computer when storing both DHCP and DNS information in LDAP.</p>
7000
7001 <p>If I understand this correctly, it is not safe to do this change
7002 without also changing the assigned number for the object class, and I
7003 do not know enough about LDAP schema design to do that properly for
7004 Debian Edu.</p>
7005
7006 <p>Anyway, for future reference, this is how I believe we could change
7007 the
7008 <a href="http://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-ietf-dhc-ldap-schema-00">DHCP
7009 schema</a> to solve at least part of the problem with the LDAP schemas
7010 available today from IETF.</p>
7011
7012 <pre>
7013 --- dhcp.schema    (revision 65192)
7014 +++ dhcp.schema    (working copy)
7015 @@ -376,7 +376,7 @@
7016  objectclass ( 2.16.840.1.113719.1.203.6.6
7017         NAME 'dhcpHost'
7018         DESC 'This represents information about a particular client'
7019 -       SUP top
7020 +       SUP top AUXILIARY
7021         MUST cn
7022         MAY  (dhcpLeaseDN $ dhcpHWAddress $ dhcpOptionsDN $ dhcpStatements $ dhcpComments $ dhcpOption)
7023         X-NDS_CONTAINMENT ('dhcpService' 'dhcpSubnet' 'dhcpGroup') )
7024 </pre>
7025
7026 <p>I very much welcome clues on how to do this properly for Debian
7027 Edu/Squeeze.  We provide the DHCP schema in our debian-edu-config
7028 package, and should thus be free to rewrite it as we see fit.</p>
7029
7030 <p>If you want to help out with implementing this for Debian Edu,
7031 please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.</p>
7032
7033       </div>
7034       <div class="tags">
7035
7036
7037         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>.
7038
7039
7040       </div>
7041     </div>
7042     <div class="padding"></div>
7043
7044     <div class="entry">
7045       <div class="title">
7046         <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>
7047       </div>
7048       <div class="date">
7049         16th June 2010
7050       </div>
7051       <div class="body">
7052         <p>A few times I have had the need to simulate the way tasksel
7053 installs packages during the normal debian-installer run.  Until now,
7054 I have ended up letting tasksel do the work, with the annoying problem
7055 of not getting any feedback at all when something fails (like a
7056 conffile question from dpkg or a download that fails), using code like
7057 this:
7058
7059 <blockquote><pre>
7060 export DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive
7061 tasksel --new-install
7062 </pre></blockquote>
7063
7064 This would invoke tasksel, let its automatic task selection pick the
7065 tasks to install, and continue to install the requested tasks without
7066 any output what so ever.
7067
7068 Recently I revisited this problem while working on the automatic
7069 package upgrade testing, because tasksel would some times hang without
7070 any useful feedback, and I want to see what is going on when it
7071 happen.  Then it occured to me, I can parse the output from tasksel
7072 when asked to run in test mode, and use that aptitude command line
7073 printed by tasksel then to simulate the tasksel run.  I ended up using
7074 code like this:
7075
7076 <blockquote><pre>
7077 export DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive
7078 cmd="$(in_target tasksel -t --new-install | sed 's/debconf-apt-progress -- //')"
7079 $cmd
7080 </pre></blockquote>
7081
7082 <p>The content of $cmd is typically something like "<tt>aptitude -q
7083 --without-recommends -o APT::Install-Recommends=no -y install
7084 ~t^desktop$ ~t^gnome-desktop$ ~t^laptop$ ~pstandard ~prequired
7085 ~pimportant</tt>", which will install the gnome desktop task, the
7086 laptop task and all packages with priority standard , required and
7087 important, just like tasksel would have done it during
7088 installation.</p>
7089
7090 <p>A better approach is probably to extend tasksel to be able to
7091 install packages without using debconf-apt-progress, for use cases
7092 like this.</p>
7093
7094       </div>
7095       <div class="tags">
7096
7097
7098         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
7099
7100
7101       </div>
7102     </div>
7103     <div class="padding"></div>
7104
7105     <div class="entry">
7106       <div class="title">
7107         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lenny__Squeeze_upgrades__removals_by_apt_and_aptitude.html">Lenny->Squeeze upgrades, removals by apt and aptitude</a>
7108       </div>
7109       <div class="date">
7110         13th June 2010
7111       </div>
7112       <div class="body">
7113         <p>My
7114 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Automatic_upgrade_testing_from_Lenny_to_Squeeze.html">testing
7115 of Debian upgrades</a> from Lenny to Squeeze continues, and I've
7116 finally made the upgrade logs available from
7117 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/debian-upgrade-testing/">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/debian-upgrade-testing/</a>.
7118 I am now testing dist-upgrade of Gnome and KDE in a chroot using both
7119 apt and aptitude, and found their differences interesting.  This time
7120 I will only focus on their removal plans.</p>
7121
7122 <p>After installing a Gnome desktop and the laptop task, apt-get wants
7123 to remove 72 packages when dist-upgrading from Lenny to Squeeze.  The
7124 surprising part is that it want to remove xorg and all
7125 xserver-xorg-video* drivers.  Clearly not a good choice, but I am not
7126 sure why.  When asking aptitude to do the same, it want to remove 129
7127 packages, but most of them are library packages I suspect are no
7128 longer needed.  Both of them want to remove bluetooth packages, which
7129 I do not know.  Perhaps these bluetooth packages are obsolete?</p>
7130
7131 <p>For KDE, apt-get want to remove 82 packages, among them kdebase
7132 which seem like a bad idea and xorg the same way as with Gnome. Asking
7133 aptitude for the same, it wants to remove 192 packages, none which are
7134 too surprising.</p>
7135
7136 <p>I guess the removal of xorg during upgrades should be investigated
7137 and avoided, and perhaps others as well.  Here are the complete list
7138 of planned removals.  The complete logs is available from the URL
7139 above.  Note if you want to repeat these tests, that the upgrade test
7140 for kde+apt-get hung in the tasksel setup because of dpkg asking
7141 conffile questions.  No idea why.  I worked around it by using
7142 '<tt>echo >> /proc/<em>pidofdpkg</em>/fd/0</tt>' to tell dpkg to
7143 continue.</p>
7144
7145 <p><b>apt-get gnome 72</b>
7146 <br>bluez-gnome cupsddk-drivers deskbar-applet gnome
7147   gnome-desktop-environment gnome-network-admin gtkhtml3.14
7148   iceweasel-gnome-support libavcodec51 libdatrie0 libgdl-1-0
7149   libgnomekbd2 libgnomekbdui2 libmetacity0 libslab0 libxcb-xlib0
7150   nautilus-cd-burner python-gnome2-desktop python-gnome2-extras
7151   serpentine swfdec-mozilla update-manager xorg xserver-xorg
7152   xserver-xorg-core xserver-xorg-input-all xserver-xorg-input-evdev
7153   xserver-xorg-input-kbd xserver-xorg-input-mouse
7154   xserver-xorg-input-synaptics xserver-xorg-input-wacom
7155   xserver-xorg-video-all xserver-xorg-video-apm xserver-xorg-video-ark
7156   xserver-xorg-video-ati xserver-xorg-video-chips
7157   xserver-xorg-video-cirrus xserver-xorg-video-cyrix
7158   xserver-xorg-video-dummy xserver-xorg-video-fbdev
7159   xserver-xorg-video-glint xserver-xorg-video-i128
7160   xserver-xorg-video-i740 xserver-xorg-video-imstt
7161   xserver-xorg-video-intel xserver-xorg-video-mach64
7162   xserver-xorg-video-mga xserver-xorg-video-neomagic
7163   xserver-xorg-video-nsc xserver-xorg-video-nv
7164   xserver-xorg-video-openchrome xserver-xorg-video-r128
7165   xserver-xorg-video-radeon xserver-xorg-video-radeonhd
7166   xserver-xorg-video-rendition xserver-xorg-video-s3
7167   xserver-xorg-video-s3virge xserver-xorg-video-savage
7168   xserver-xorg-video-siliconmotion xserver-xorg-video-sis
7169   xserver-xorg-video-sisusb xserver-xorg-video-tdfx
7170   xserver-xorg-video-tga xserver-xorg-video-trident
7171   xserver-xorg-video-tseng xserver-xorg-video-v4l
7172   xserver-xorg-video-vesa xserver-xorg-video-vga
7173   xserver-xorg-video-vmware xserver-xorg-video-voodoo xulrunner-1.9
7174   xulrunner-1.9-gnome-support</p>
7175
7176 <p><b>aptitude gnome 129</b>
7177
7178 <br>bluez-gnome bluez-utils cpp-4.3 cupsddk-drivers dhcdbd
7179   djvulibre-desktop finger gnome-app-install gnome-mount
7180   gnome-network-admin gnome-spell gnome-vfs-obexftp
7181   gnome-volume-manager gstreamer0.10-gnomevfs gtkhtml3.14 libao2
7182   libavahi-compat-libdnssd1 libavahi-core5 libavcodec51 libbluetooth2
7183   libcamel1.2-11 libcdio7 libcucul0 libcupsys2 libcurl3 libdatrie0
7184   libdirectfb-1.0-0 libdvdread3 libedataserver1.2-9 libeel2-2.20
7185   libeel2-data libepc-1.0-1 libepc-ui-1.0-1 libfaad0 libgail-common
7186   libgd2-noxpm libgda3-3 libgda3-common libgdl-1-0 libgdl-1-common
7187   libggz2 libggzcore9 libggzmod4 libgksu1.2-0 libgksuui1.0-1 libgmyth0
7188   libgnomecups1.0-1 libgnomekbd2 libgnomekbdui2 libgnomeprint2.2-0
7189   libgnomeprint2.2-data libgnomeprintui2.2-0 libgnomeprintui2.2-common
7190   libgnomevfs2-bin libgpod3 libgraphviz4 libgtkhtml2-0
7191   libgtksourceview-common libgtksourceview1.0-0 libgucharmap6
7192   libhesiod0 libicu38 libiw29 libkpathsea4 libltdl3 libmagick++10
7193   libmagick10 libmalaga7 libmetacity0 libmtp7 libmysqlclient15off
7194   libnautilus-burn4 libneon27 libnm-glib0 libnm-util0 libopal-2.2
7195   libosp5 libparted1.8-10 libpoppler-glib3 libpoppler3 libpt-1.10.10
7196   libpt-1.10.10-plugins-alsa libpt-1.10.10-plugins-v4l libraw1394-8
7197   libsensors3 libslab0 libsmbios2 libsoup2.2-8 libssh2-1
7198   libsuitesparse-3.1.0 libswfdec-0.6-90 libtalloc1 libtotem-plparser10
7199   libtrackerclient0 libxalan2-java libxalan2-java-gcj libxcb-xlib0
7200   libxerces2-java libxerces2-java-gcj libxklavier12 libxtrap6
7201   libxxf86misc1 libzephyr3 mysql-common nautilus-cd-burner
7202   openoffice.org-writer2latex openssl-blacklist p7zip
7203   python-4suite-xml python-eggtrayicon python-gnome2-desktop
7204   python-gnome2-extras python-gtkhtml2 python-gtkmozembed
7205   python-numeric python-sexy serpentine svgalibg1 swfdec-gnome
7206   swfdec-mozilla totem-gstreamer update-manager wodim
7207   xserver-xorg-video-cyrix xserver-xorg-video-imstt
7208   xserver-xorg-video-nsc xserver-xorg-video-v4l xserver-xorg-video-vga
7209   zip</p>
7210
7211 <p><b>apt-get kde 82</b>
7212
7213 <br>cupsddk-drivers karm kaudiocreator kcoloredit kcontrol kde kde-core
7214   kdeaddons kdeartwork kdebase kdebase-bin kdebase-bin-kde3
7215   kdebase-kio-plugins kdesktop kdeutils khelpcenter kicker
7216   kicker-applets knewsticker kolourpaint konq-plugins konqueror korn
7217   kpersonalizer kscreensaver ksplash libavcodec51 libdatrie0 libkiten1
7218   libxcb-xlib0 quanta superkaramba texlive-base-bin xorg xserver-xorg
7219   xserver-xorg-core xserver-xorg-input-all xserver-xorg-input-evdev
7220   xserver-xorg-input-kbd xserver-xorg-input-mouse
7221   xserver-xorg-input-synaptics xserver-xorg-input-wacom
7222   xserver-xorg-video-all xserver-xorg-video-apm xserver-xorg-video-ark
7223   xserver-xorg-video-ati xserver-xorg-video-chips
7224   xserver-xorg-video-cirrus xserver-xorg-video-cyrix
7225   xserver-xorg-video-dummy xserver-xorg-video-fbdev
7226   xserver-xorg-video-glint xserver-xorg-video-i128
7227   xserver-xorg-video-i740 xserver-xorg-video-imstt
7228   xserver-xorg-video-intel xserver-xorg-video-mach64
7229   xserver-xorg-video-mga xserver-xorg-video-neomagic
7230   xserver-xorg-video-nsc xserver-xorg-video-nv
7231   xserver-xorg-video-openchrome xserver-xorg-video-r128
7232   xserver-xorg-video-radeon xserver-xorg-video-radeonhd
7233   xserver-xorg-video-rendition xserver-xorg-video-s3
7234   xserver-xorg-video-s3virge xserver-xorg-video-savage
7235   xserver-xorg-video-siliconmotion xserver-xorg-video-sis
7236   xserver-xorg-video-sisusb xserver-xorg-video-tdfx
7237   xserver-xorg-video-tga xserver-xorg-video-trident
7238   xserver-xorg-video-tseng xserver-xorg-video-v4l
7239   xserver-xorg-video-vesa xserver-xorg-video-vga
7240   xserver-xorg-video-vmware xserver-xorg-video-voodoo xulrunner-1.9</p>
7241
7242 <p><b>aptitude kde 192</b>
7243 <br>bluez-utils cpp-4.3 cupsddk-drivers cvs dcoprss dhcdbd
7244   djvulibre-desktop dosfstools eyesapplet fifteenapplet finger gettext
7245   ghostscript-x imlib-base imlib11 indi kandy karm kasteroids
7246   kaudiocreator kbackgammon kbstate kcoloredit kcontrol kcron kdat
7247   kdeadmin-kfile-plugins kdeartwork-misc kdeartwork-theme-window
7248   kdebase-bin-kde3 kdebase-kio-plugins kdeedu-data
7249   kdegraphics-kfile-plugins kdelirc kdemultimedia-kappfinder-data
7250   kdemultimedia-kfile-plugins kdenetwork-kfile-plugins
7251   kdepim-kfile-plugins kdepim-kio-plugins kdeprint kdesktop kdessh
7252   kdict kdnssd kdvi kedit keduca kenolaba kfax kfaxview kfouleggs
7253   kghostview khelpcenter khexedit kiconedit kitchensync klatin
7254   klickety kmailcvt kmenuedit kmid kmilo kmoon kmrml kodo kolourpaint
7255   kooka korn kpager kpdf kpercentage kpf kpilot kpoker kpovmodeler
7256   krec kregexpeditor ksayit ksim ksirc ksirtet ksmiletris ksmserver
7257   ksnake ksokoban ksplash ksvg ksysv ktip ktnef kuickshow kverbos
7258   kview kviewshell kvoctrain kwifimanager kwin kwin4 kworldclock
7259   kxsldbg libakode2 libao2 libarts1-akode libarts1-audiofile
7260   libarts1-mpeglib libarts1-xine libavahi-compat-libdnssd1
7261   libavahi-core5 libavc1394-0 libavcodec51 libbluetooth2
7262   libboost-python1.34.1 libcucul0 libcurl3 libcvsservice0 libdatrie0
7263   libdirectfb-1.0-0 libdjvulibre21 libdvdread3 libfaad0 libfreebob0
7264   libgail-common libgd2-noxpm libgraphviz4 libgsmme1c2a libgtkhtml2-0
7265   libicu38 libiec61883-0 libindex0 libiw29 libk3b3 libkcal2b libkcddb1
7266   libkdeedu3 libkdepim1a libkgantt0 libkiten1 libkleopatra1 libkmime2
7267   libkpathsea4 libkpimexchange1 libkpimidentities1 libkscan1
7268   libksieve0 libktnef1 liblockdev1 libltdl3 libmagick10 libmimelib1c2a
7269   libmozjs1d libmpcdec3 libneon27 libnm-util0 libopensync0 libpisock9
7270   libpoppler-glib3 libpoppler-qt2 libpoppler3 libraw1394-8 libsmbios2
7271   libssh2-1 libsuitesparse-3.1.0 libtalloc1 libtiff-tools
7272   libxalan2-java libxalan2-java-gcj libxcb-xlib0 libxerces2-java
7273   libxerces2-java-gcj libxtrap6 mpeglib networkstatus
7274   openoffice.org-writer2latex pmount poster psutils quanta quanta-data
7275   superkaramba svgalibg1 tex-common texlive-base texlive-base-bin
7276   texlive-common texlive-doc-base texlive-fonts-recommended
7277   xserver-xorg-video-cyrix xserver-xorg-video-imstt
7278   xserver-xorg-video-nsc xserver-xorg-video-v4l xserver-xorg-video-vga
7279   xulrunner-1.9</p>
7280
7281
7282       </div>
7283       <div class="tags">
7284
7285
7286         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>.
7287
7288
7289       </div>
7290     </div>
7291     <div class="padding"></div>
7292
7293     <div class="entry">
7294       <div class="title">
7295         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Automatic_upgrade_testing_from_Lenny_to_Squeeze.html">Automatic upgrade testing from Lenny to Squeeze</a>
7296       </div>
7297       <div class="date">
7298         11th June 2010
7299       </div>
7300       <div class="body">
7301         <p>The last few days I have done some upgrade testing in Debian, to
7302 see if the upgrade from Lenny to Squeeze will go smoothly.  A few bugs
7303 have been discovered and reported in the process
7304 (<a href="http://bugs.debian.org/585410">#585410</a> in nagios3-cgi,
7305 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/584879">#584879</a> already fixed in
7306 enscript and <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/584861">#584861</a> in
7307 kdebase-workspace-data), and to get a more regular testing going on, I
7308 am working on a script to automate the test.</p>
7309
7310 <p>The idea is to create a Lenny chroot and use tasksel to install a
7311 Gnome or KDE desktop installation inside the chroot before upgrading
7312 it.  To ensure no services are started in the chroot, a policy-rc.d
7313 script is inserted.  To make sure tasksel believe it is to install a
7314 desktop on a laptop, the tasksel tests are replaced in the chroot
7315 (only acceptable because this is a throw-away chroot).</p>
7316
7317 <p>A naive upgrade from Lenny to Squeeze using aptitude dist-upgrade
7318 currently always fail because udev refuses to upgrade with the kernel
7319 in Lenny, so to avoid that problem the file /etc/udev/kernel-upgrade
7320 is created.  The bug report
7321 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/566000">#566000</a> make me suspect
7322 this problem do not trigger in a chroot, but I touch the file anyway
7323 to make sure the upgrade go well.  Testing on virtual and real
7324 hardware have failed me because of udev so far, and creating this file
7325 do the trick in such settings anyway.  This is a
7326 <a href="http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/debian-26/failed-dist-upgrade-due-to-udev-config_sysfs_deprecated-nonsense-804130/">known
7327 issue</a> and the current udev behaviour is intended by the udev
7328 maintainer because he lack the resources to rewrite udev to keep
7329 working with old kernels or something like that.  I really wish the
7330 udev upstream would keep udev backwards compatible, to avoid such
7331 upgrade problem, but given that they fail to do so, I guess
7332 documenting the way out of this mess is the best option we got for
7333 Debian Squeeze.</p>
7334
7335 <p>Anyway, back to the task at hand, testing upgrades.  This test
7336 script, which I call <tt>upgrade-test</tt> for now, is doing the
7337 trick:</p>
7338
7339 <blockquote><pre>
7340 #!/bin/sh
7341 set -ex
7342
7343 if [ "$1" ] ; then
7344     desktop=$1
7345 else
7346     desktop=gnome
7347 fi
7348
7349 from=lenny
7350 to=squeeze
7351
7352 exec &lt; /dev/null
7353 unset LANG
7354 mirror=http://ftp.skolelinux.org/debian
7355 tmpdir=chroot-$from-upgrade-$to-$desktop
7356 fuser -mv .
7357 debootstrap $from $tmpdir $mirror
7358 chroot $tmpdir aptitude update
7359 cat > $tmpdir/usr/sbin/policy-rc.d &lt;&lt;EOF
7360 #!/bin/sh
7361 exit 101
7362 EOF
7363 chmod a+rx $tmpdir/usr/sbin/policy-rc.d
7364 exit_cleanup() {
7365     umount $tmpdir/proc
7366 }
7367 mount -t proc proc $tmpdir/proc
7368 # Make sure proc is unmounted also on failure
7369 trap exit_cleanup EXIT INT
7370
7371 chroot $tmpdir aptitude -y install debconf-utils
7372
7373 # Make sure tasksel autoselection trigger.  It need the test scripts
7374 # to return the correct answers.
7375 echo tasksel tasksel/desktop multiselect $desktop | \
7376     chroot $tmpdir debconf-set-selections
7377
7378 # Include the desktop and laptop task
7379 for test in desktop laptop ; do
7380     echo > $tmpdir/usr/lib/tasksel/tests/$test &lt;&lt;EOF
7381 #!/bin/sh
7382 exit 2
7383 EOF
7384     chmod a+rx $tmpdir/usr/lib/tasksel/tests/$test
7385 done
7386
7387 DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive
7388 DEBIAN_PRIORITY=critical
7389 export DEBIAN_FRONTEND DEBIAN_PRIORITY
7390 chroot $tmpdir tasksel --new-install
7391
7392 echo deb $mirror $to main > $tmpdir/etc/apt/sources.list
7393 chroot $tmpdir aptitude update
7394 touch $tmpdir/etc/udev/kernel-upgrade
7395 chroot $tmpdir aptitude -y dist-upgrade
7396 fuser -mv
7397 </pre></blockquote>
7398
7399 <p>I suspect it would be useful to test upgrades with both apt-get and
7400 with aptitude, but I have not had time to look at how they behave
7401 differently so far.  I hope to get a cron job running to do the test
7402 regularly and post the result on the web.  The Gnome upgrade currently
7403 work, while the KDE upgrade fail because of the bug in
7404 kdebase-workspace-data</p>
7405
7406 <p>I am not quite sure what kind of extract from the huge upgrade logs
7407 (KDE 167 KiB, Gnome 516 KiB) it make sense to include in this blog
7408 post, so I will refrain from trying.  I can report that for Gnome,
7409 aptitude report 760 packages upgraded, 448 newly installed, 129 to
7410 remove and 1 not upgraded and 1024MB need to be downloaded while for
7411 KDE the same numbers are 702 packages upgraded, 507 newly installed,
7412 193 to remove and 0 not upgraded and 1117MB need to be downloaded</p>
7413
7414 <p>I am very happy to notice that the Gnome desktop + laptop upgrade
7415 is able to migrate to dependency based boot sequencing and parallel
7416 booting without a hitch.  Was unsure if there were still bugs with
7417 packages failing to clean up their obsolete init.d script during
7418 upgrades, and no such problem seem to affect the Gnome desktop+laptop
7419 packages.</p>
7420
7421       </div>
7422       <div class="tags">
7423
7424
7425         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>.
7426
7427
7428       </div>
7429     </div>
7430     <div class="padding"></div>
7431
7432     <div class="entry">
7433       <div class="title">
7434         <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>
7435       </div>
7436       <div class="date">
7437          6th June 2010
7438       </div>
7439       <div class="body">
7440         <p>If Debian is to migrate to upstart on Linux, I expect some init.d
7441 scripts to migrate (some of) their operations to upstart job while
7442 keeping the init.d for hurd and kfreebsd.  The packages with such
7443 needs will need a way to get their init.d scripts to behave
7444 differently when used with sysvinit and with upstart.  Because of
7445 this, I had a look at the environment variables set when a init.d
7446 script is running under upstart, and when it is not.</p>
7447
7448 <p>With upstart, I notice these environment variables are set when a
7449 script is started from rcS.d/ (ignoring some irrelevant ones like
7450 COLUMNS):</p>
7451
7452 <blockquote><pre>
7453 DEFAULT_RUNLEVEL=2
7454 previous=N
7455 PREVLEVEL=
7456 RUNLEVEL=
7457 runlevel=S
7458 UPSTART_EVENTS=startup
7459 UPSTART_INSTANCE=
7460 UPSTART_JOB=rc-sysinit
7461 </pre></blockquote>
7462
7463 <p>With sysvinit, these environment variables are set for the same
7464 script.</p>
7465
7466 <blockquote><pre>
7467 INIT_VERSION=sysvinit-2.88
7468 previous=N
7469 PREVLEVEL=N
7470 RUNLEVEL=S
7471 runlevel=S
7472 </pre></blockquote>
7473
7474 <p>The RUNLEVEL and PREVLEVEL environment variables passed on from
7475 sysvinit are not set by upstart.  Not sure if it is intentional or not
7476 to not be compatible with sysvinit in this regard.</p>
7477
7478 <p>For scripts needing to behave differently when upstart is used,
7479 looking for the UPSTART_JOB environment variable seem to be a good
7480 choice.</p>
7481
7482       </div>
7483       <div class="tags">
7484
7485
7486         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>.
7487
7488
7489       </div>
7490     </div>
7491     <div class="padding"></div>
7492
7493     <div class="entry">
7494       <div class="title">
7495         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/A_manual_for_standards_wars___.html">A manual for standards wars...</a>
7496       </div>
7497       <div class="date">
7498          6th June 2010
7499       </div>
7500       <div class="body">
7501         <p>Via the
7502 <a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/robweir/antic-atom/~3/QzU4RgoAGMg/weekly-links-10.html">blog
7503 of Rob Weir</a> I came across the very interesting essay named
7504 <a href="http://faculty.haas.berkeley.edu/shapiro/wars.pdf">The Art of
7505 Standards Wars</a> (PDF 25 pages).  I recommend it for everyone
7506 following the standards wars of today.</p>
7507
7508       </div>
7509       <div class="tags">
7510
7511
7512         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>.
7513
7514
7515       </div>
7516     </div>
7517     <div class="padding"></div>
7518
7519     <div class="entry">
7520       <div class="title">
7521         <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>
7522       </div>
7523       <div class="date">
7524          3rd June 2010
7525       </div>
7526       <div class="body">
7527         <p>When using sitesummary at a site to track machines, it is possible
7528 to get a list of the machine types in use thanks to the DMI
7529 information extracted from each machine.  The script to do so is
7530 included in the sitesummary package, and here is example output from
7531 the Skolelinux build servers:</p>
7532
7533 <blockquote><pre>
7534 maintainer:~# /usr/lib/sitesummary/hardware-model-summary
7535   vendor                    count
7536   Dell Computer Corporation     1
7537     PowerEdge 1750              1
7538   IBM                           1
7539     eserver xSeries 345 -[8670M1X]-     1
7540   Intel                         2
7541   [no-dmi-info]                 3
7542 maintainer:~#
7543 </pre></blockquote>
7544
7545 <p>The quality of the report depend on the quality of the DMI tables
7546 provided in each machine.  Here there are Intel machines without model
7547 information listed with Intel as vendor and no model, and virtual Xen
7548 machines listed as [no-dmi-info].  One can add -l as a command line
7549 option to list the individual machines.</p>
7550
7551 <p>A larger list is
7552 <a href="http://narvikskolen.no/sitesummary/">available from the the
7553 city of Narvik</a>, which uses Skolelinux on all their shools and also
7554 provide the basic sitesummary report publicly.  In their report there
7555 are ~1400 machines. I know they use both Ubuntu and Skolelinux on
7556 their machines, and as sitesummary is available in both distributions,
7557 it is trivial to get all of them to report to the same central
7558 collector.</p>
7559
7560       </div>
7561       <div class="tags">
7562
7563
7564         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>.
7565
7566
7567       </div>
7568     </div>
7569     <div class="padding"></div>
7570
7571     <div class="entry">
7572       <div class="title">
7573         <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>
7574       </div>
7575       <div class="date">
7576          1st June 2010
7577       </div>
7578       <div class="body">
7579         <p>It is strange to watch how a bug in Debian causing KDM to fail to
7580 start at boot when an NVidia video card is used is handled.  The
7581 problem seem to be that the nvidia X.org driver uses a long time to
7582 initialize, and this duration is longer than kdm is configured to
7583 wait.</p>
7584
7585 <p>I came across two bugs related to this issue,
7586 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/583312">#583312</a> initially filed
7587 against initscripts and passed on to nvidia-glx when it became obvious
7588 that the nvidia drivers were involved, and
7589 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/524751">#524751</a> initially filed against
7590 kdm and passed on to src:nvidia-graphics-drivers for unknown reasons.</p>
7591
7592 <p>To me, it seem that no-one is interested in actually solving the
7593 problem nvidia video card owners experience and make sure the Debian
7594 distribution work out of the box for these users.  The nvidia driver
7595 maintainers expect kdm to be set up to wait longer, while kdm expect
7596 the nvidia driver maintainers to fix the driver to start faster, and
7597 while they wait for each other I guess the users end up switching to a
7598 distribution that work for them.  I have no idea what the solution is,
7599 but I am pretty sure that waiting for each other is not it.</p>
7600
7601 <p>I wonder why we end up handling bugs this way.</p>
7602
7603       </div>
7604       <div class="tags">
7605
7606
7607         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>.
7608
7609
7610       </div>
7611     </div>
7612     <div class="padding"></div>
7613
7614     <div class="entry">
7615       <div class="title">
7616         <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>
7617       </div>
7618       <div class="date">
7619         27th May 2010
7620       </div>
7621       <div class="body">
7622         <p>A few days ago, parallel booting was enabled in Debian/testing.
7623 The feature seem to hold up pretty well, but three fairly serious
7624 issues are known and should be solved:
7625
7626 <p><ul>
7627
7628 <li>The wicd package seen to
7629 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/508289">break NFS mounting</a> and
7630 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/581586">network setup</a> when
7631 parallel booting is enabled.  No idea why, but the wicd maintainer
7632 seem to be on the case.</li>
7633
7634 <li>The nvidia X driver seem to
7635 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/583312">have a race condition</a>
7636 triggered more easily when parallel booting is in effect.  The
7637 maintainer is on the case.</li>
7638
7639 <li>The sysv-rc package fail to properly enable dependency based boot
7640 sequencing (the shutdown is broken) when old file-rc users
7641 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/575080">try to switch back</a> to
7642 sysv-rc.  One way to solve it would be for file-rc to create
7643 /etc/init.d/.legacy-bootordering, and another is to try to make
7644 sysv-rc more robust.  Will investigate some more and probably upload a
7645 workaround in sysv-rc to help those trying to move from file-rc to
7646 sysv-rc get a working shutdown.</li>
7647
7648 </ul></p>
7649
7650 <p>All in all not many surprising issues, and all of them seem
7651 solvable before Squeeze is released.  In addition to these there are
7652 some packages with bugs in their dependencies and run level settings,
7653 which I expect will be fixed in a reasonable time span.</p>
7654
7655 <p>If you report any problems with dependencies in init.d scripts to
7656 the BTS, please usertag the report to get it to show up at
7657 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/pkgreport.cgi?users=initscripts-ng-devel@lists.alioth.debian.org">the
7658 list of usertagged bugs related to this</a>.</p>
7659
7660 <p>Update: Correct bug number to file-rc issue.</p>
7661
7662       </div>
7663       <div class="tags">
7664
7665
7666         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>.
7667
7668
7669       </div>
7670     </div>
7671     <div class="padding"></div>
7672
7673     <div class="entry">
7674       <div class="title">
7675         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/More_flexible_firmware_handling_in_debian_installer.html">More flexible firmware handling in debian-installer</a>
7676       </div>
7677       <div class="date">
7678         22nd May 2010
7679       </div>
7680       <div class="body">
7681         <p>After a long break from debian-installer development, I finally
7682 found time today to return to the project.  Having to spend less time
7683 working dependency based boot in debian, as it is almost complete now,
7684 definitely helped freeing some time.</p>
7685
7686 <p>A while back, I ran into a problem while working on Debian Edu.  We
7687 include some firmware packages on the Debian Edu CDs, those needed to
7688 get disk and network controllers working.  Without having these
7689 firmware packages available during installation, it is impossible to
7690 install Debian Edu on the given machine, and because our target group
7691 are non-technical people, asking them to provide firmware packages on
7692 an external medium is a support pain.  Initially, I expected it to be
7693 enough to include the firmware packages on the CD to get
7694 debian-installer to find and use them.  This proved to be wrong.
7695 Next, I hoped it was enough to symlink the relevant firmware packages
7696 to some useful location on the CD (tried /cdrom/ and
7697 /cdrom/firmware/).  This also proved to not work, and at this point I
7698 found time to look at the debian-installer code to figure out what was
7699 going to work.</p>
7700
7701 <p>The firmware loading code is in the hw-detect package, and a closer
7702 look revealed that it would only look for firmware packages outside
7703 the installation media, so the CD was never checked for firmware
7704 packages.  It would only check USB sticks, floppies and other
7705 "external" media devices.  Today I changed it to also look in the
7706 /cdrom/firmware/ directory on the mounted CD or DVD, which should
7707 solve the problem I ran into with Debian edu.  I also changed it to
7708 look in /firmware/, to make sure the installer also find firmware
7709 provided in the initrd when booting the installer via PXE, to allow us
7710 to provide the same feature in the PXE setup included in Debian
7711 Edu.</p>
7712
7713 <p>To make sure firmware deb packages with a license questions are not
7714 activated without asking if the license is accepted, I extended
7715 hw-detect to look for preinst scripts in the firmware packages, and
7716 run these before activating the firmware during installation.  The
7717 license question is asked using debconf in the preinst, so this should
7718 solve the issue for the firmware packages I have looked at so far.</p>
7719
7720 <p>If you want to discuss the details of these features, please
7721 contact us on debian-boot@lists.debian.org.</p>
7722
7723       </div>
7724       <div class="tags">
7725
7726
7727         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>.
7728
7729
7730       </div>
7731     </div>
7732     <div class="padding"></div>
7733
7734     <div class="entry">
7735       <div class="title">
7736         <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>
7737       </div>
7738       <div class="date">
7739         14th May 2010
7740       </div>
7741       <div class="body">
7742         <p>Since this evening, parallel booting is the default in
7743 Debian/unstable for machines using dependency based boot sequencing.
7744 Apparently the testing of concurrent booting has been wider than
7745 expected, if I am to believe the
7746 <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2010/05/msg00122.html">input
7747 on debian-devel@</a>, and I concluded a few days ago to move forward
7748 with the feature this weekend, to give us some time to detect any
7749 remaining problems before Squeeze is frozen.  If serious problems are
7750 detected, it is simple to change the default back to sequential boot.
7751 The upload of the new sysvinit package also activate a new upstream
7752 version.</p>
7753
7754 More information about
7755 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/LSBInitScripts/DependencyBasedBoot">dependency
7756 based boot sequencing</a> is available from the Debian wiki.  It is
7757 currently possible to disable parallel booting when one run into
7758 problems caused by it, by adding this line to /etc/default/rcS:</p>
7759
7760 <blockquote><pre>
7761 CONCURRENCY=none
7762 </pre></blockquote>
7763
7764 <p>If you report any problems with dependencies in init.d scripts to
7765 the BTS, please usertag the report to get it to show up at
7766 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/pkgreport.cgi?users=initscripts-ng-devel@lists.alioth.debian.org">the
7767 list of usertagged bugs related to this</a>.</p>
7768
7769       </div>
7770       <div class="tags">
7771
7772
7773         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>.
7774
7775
7776       </div>
7777     </div>
7778     <div class="padding"></div>
7779
7780     <div class="entry">
7781       <div class="title">
7782         <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>
7783       </div>
7784       <div class="date">
7785         14th May 2010
7786       </div>
7787       <div class="body">
7788         <p>In the recent Debian Edu versions, the
7789 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/HowTo/SiteSummary">sitesummary
7790 system</a> is used to keep track of the machines in the school
7791 network.  Each machine will automatically report its status to the
7792 central server after boot and once per night.  The network setup is
7793 also reported, and using this information it is possible to get the
7794 MAC address of all network interfaces in the machines.  This is useful
7795 to update the DHCP configuration.</p>
7796
7797 <p>To give some idea how to use sitesummary, here is a one-liner to
7798 ist all MAC addresses of all machines reporting to sitesummary.  Run
7799 this on the collector host:</p>
7800
7801 <blockquote><pre>
7802 perl -MSiteSummary -e 'for_all_hosts(sub { print join(" ", get_macaddresses(shift)), "\n"; });'
7803 </pre></blockquote>
7804
7805 <p>This will list all MAC addresses assosiated with all machine, one
7806 line per machine and with space between the MAC addresses.</p>
7807
7808 <p>To allow system administrators easier job at adding static DHCP
7809 addresses for hosts, it would be possible to extend this to fetch
7810 machine information from sitesummary and update the DHCP and DNS
7811 tables in LDAP using this information.  Such tool is unfortunately not
7812 written yet.</p>
7813
7814       </div>
7815       <div class="tags">
7816
7817
7818         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>.
7819
7820
7821       </div>
7822     </div>
7823     <div class="padding"></div>
7824
7825     <div class="entry">
7826       <div class="title">
7827         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/systemd__an_interesting_alternative_to_upstart.html">systemd, an interesting alternative to upstart</a>
7828       </div>
7829       <div class="date">
7830         13th May 2010
7831       </div>
7832       <div class="body">
7833         <p>The last few days a new boot system called
7834 <a href="http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/systemd">systemd</a>
7835 has been
7836 <a href="http://0pointer.de/blog/projects/systemd.html">introduced</a>
7837
7838 to the free software world.  I have not yet had time to play around
7839 with it, but it seem to be a very interesting alternative to
7840 <a href="http://upstart.ubuntu.com/">upstart</a>, and might prove to be
7841 a good alternative for Debian when we are able to switch to an event
7842 based boot system.  Tollef is
7843 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/580814">in the process</a> of getting
7844 systemd into Debian, and I look forward to seeing how well it work.  I
7845 like the fact that systemd handles init.d scripts with dependency
7846 information natively, allowing them to run in parallel where upstart
7847 at the moment do not.</p>
7848
7849 <p>Unfortunately do systemd have the same problem as upstart regarding
7850 platform support.  It only work on recent Linux kernels, and also need
7851 some new kernel features enabled to function properly.  This means
7852 kFreeBSD and Hurd ports of Debian will need a port or a different boot
7853 system.  Not sure how that will be handled if systemd proves to be the
7854 way forward.</p>
7855
7856 <p>In the mean time, based on the
7857 <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2010/05/msg00122.html">input
7858 on debian-devel@</a> regarding parallel booting in Debian, I have
7859 decided to enable full parallel booting as the default in Debian as
7860 soon as possible (probably this weekend or early next week), to see if
7861 there are any remaining serious bugs in the init.d dependencies.  A
7862 new version of the sysvinit package implementing this change is
7863 already in experimental.  If all go well, Squeeze will be released
7864 with parallel booting enabled by default.</p>
7865
7866       </div>
7867       <div class="tags">
7868
7869
7870         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>.
7871
7872
7873       </div>
7874     </div>
7875     <div class="padding"></div>
7876
7877     <div class="entry">
7878       <div class="title">
7879         <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>
7880       </div>
7881       <div class="date">
7882          6th May 2010
7883       </div>
7884       <div class="body">
7885         <p>These days, the init.d script dependencies in Squeeze are quite
7886 complete, so complete that it is actually possible to run all the
7887 init.d scripts in parallell based on these dependencies.  If you want
7888 to test your Squeeze system, make sure
7889 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/LSBInitScripts/DependencyBasedBoot">dependency
7890 based boot sequencing</a> is enabled, and add this line to
7891 /etc/default/rcS:</p>
7892
7893 <blockquote><pre>
7894 CONCURRENCY=makefile
7895 </pre></blockquote>
7896
7897 <p>That is it.  It will cause sysv-rc to use the startpar tool to run
7898 scripts in parallel using the dependency information stored in
7899 /etc/init.d/.depend.boot, /etc/init.d/.depend.start and
7900 /etc/init.d/.depend.stop to order the scripts.  Startpar is configured
7901 to try to start the kdm and gdm scripts as early as possible, and will
7902 start the facilities required by kdm or gdm as early as possible to
7903 make this happen.</p>
7904
7905 <p>Give it a try, and see if you like the result.  If some services
7906 fail to start properly, it is most likely because they have incomplete
7907 init.d script dependencies in their startup script (or some of their
7908 dependent scripts have incomplete dependencies).  Report bugs and get
7909 the package maintainers to fix it. :)</p>
7910
7911 <p>Running scripts in parallel could be the default in Debian when we
7912 manage to get the init.d script dependencies complete and correct.  I
7913 expect we will get there in Squeeze+1, if we get manage to test and
7914 fix the remaining issues.</p>
7915
7916 <p>If you report any problems with dependencies in init.d scripts to
7917 the BTS, please usertag the report to get it to show up at
7918 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/pkgreport.cgi?users=initscripts-ng-devel@lists.alioth.debian.org">the
7919 list of usertagged bugs related to this</a>.</p>
7920
7921       </div>
7922       <div class="tags">
7923
7924
7925         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>.
7926
7927
7928       </div>
7929     </div>
7930     <div class="padding"></div>
7931
7932     <div class="entry">
7933       <div class="title">
7934         <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>
7935       </div>
7936       <div class="date">
7937         27th July 2009
7938       </div>
7939       <div class="body">
7940         <p>Since this evening, with the upload of sysvinit version 2.87dsf-2,
7941 and the upload of insserv version 1.12.0-10 yesterday, Debian unstable
7942 have been migrated to using dependency based boot sequencing.  This
7943 conclude work me and others have been doing for the last three days.
7944 It feels great to see this finally part of the default Debian
7945 installation.  Now we just need to weed out the last few problems that
7946 are bound to show up, to get everything ready for Squeeze.</p>
7947
7948 <p>The next step is migrating /sbin/init from sysvinit to upstart, and
7949 fixing the more fundamental problem of handing the event based
7950 non-predictable kernel in the early boot.</p>
7951
7952       </div>
7953       <div class="tags">
7954
7955
7956         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>.
7957
7958
7959       </div>
7960     </div>
7961     <div class="padding"></div>
7962
7963     <div class="entry">
7964       <div class="title">
7965         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Taking_over_sysvinit_development.html">Taking over sysvinit development</a>
7966       </div>
7967       <div class="date">
7968         22nd July 2009
7969       </div>
7970       <div class="body">
7971         <p>After several years of frustration with the lack of activity from
7972 the existing sysvinit upstream developer, I decided a few weeks ago to
7973 take over the package and become the new upstream.  The number of
7974 patches to track for the Debian package was becoming a burden, and the
7975 lack of synchronization between the distribution made it hard to keep
7976 the package up to date.</p>
7977
7978 <p>On the new sysvinit team is the SuSe maintainer Dr. Werner Fink,
7979 and my Debian co-maintainer Kel Modderman.  About 10 days ago, I made
7980 a new upstream tarball with version number 2.87dsf (for Debian, SuSe
7981 and Fedora), based on the patches currently in use in these
7982 distributions.  We Debian maintainers plan to move to this tarball as
7983 the new upstream as soon as we find time to do the merge.  Since the
7984 new tarball was created, we agreed with Werner at SuSe to make a new
7985 upstream project at <a href="http://savannah.nongnu.org/">Savannah</a>, and continue
7986 development there.  The project is registered and currently waiting
7987 for approval by the Savannah administrators, and as soon as it is
7988 approved, we will import the old versions from svn and continue
7989 working on the future release.</p>
7990
7991 <p>It is a bit ironic that this is done now, when some of the involved
7992 distributions are moving to upstart as a syvinit replacement.</p>
7993
7994       </div>
7995       <div class="tags">
7996
7997
7998         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>.
7999
8000
8001       </div>
8002     </div>
8003     <div class="padding"></div>
8004
8005     <div class="entry">
8006       <div class="title">
8007         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_boots_quicker_and_quicker.html">Debian boots quicker and quicker</a>
8008       </div>
8009       <div class="date">
8010         24th June 2009
8011       </div>
8012       <div class="body">
8013         <p>I spent Monday and tuesday this week in London with a lot of the
8014 people involved in the boot system on Debian and Ubuntu, to see if we
8015 could find more ways to speed up the boot system.  This was an Ubuntu
8016 funded
8017 <a href="https://wiki.ubuntu.com/FoundationsTeam/BootPerformance/DebianUbuntuSprint">developer
8018 gathering</a>. It was quite productive.  We also discussed the future
8019 of boot systems, and ways to handle the increasing number of boot
8020 issues introduced by the Linux kernel becoming more and more
8021 asynchronous and event base.  The Ubuntu approach using udev and
8022 upstart might be a good way forward.  Time will show.</p>
8023
8024 <p>Anyway, there are a few ways at the moment to speed up the boot
8025 process in Debian.  All of these should be applied to get a quick
8026 boot:</p>
8027
8028 <ul>
8029
8030 <li>Use dash as /bin/sh.</li>
8031
8032 <li>Disable the init.d/hwclock*.sh scripts and make sure the hardware
8033    clock is in UTC.</li>
8034
8035 <li>Install and activate the insserv package to enable
8036    <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/LSBInitScripts/DependencyBasedBoot">dependency
8037    based boot sequencing</a>, and enable concurrent booting.</li>
8038
8039 </ul>
8040
8041 These points are based on the Google summer of code work done by
8042 <a href="http://initscripts-ng.alioth.debian.org/soc2006-bootsystem/">Carlos
8043 Villegas</a>.
8044
8045 <p>Support for makefile-style concurrency during boot was uploaded to
8046 unstable yesterday.  When we tested it, we were able to cut 6 seconds
8047 from the boot sequence.  It depend on very correct dependency
8048 declaration in all init.d scripts, so I expect us to find edge cases
8049 where the dependences in some scripts are slightly wrong when we start
8050 using this.</p>
8051
8052 <p>On our IRC channel for this effort, #pkg-sysvinit, a new idea was
8053 introduced by Raphael Geissert today, one that could affect the
8054 startup speed as well.  Instead of starting some scripts concurrently
8055 from rcS.d/ and another set of scripts from rc2.d/, it would be
8056 possible to run a of them in the same process.  A quick way to test
8057 this would be to enable insserv and run 'mv /etc/rc2.d/S* /etc/rcS.d/;
8058 insserv'.  Will need to test if that work. :)</p>
8059
8060       </div>
8061       <div class="tags">
8062
8063
8064         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>.
8065
8066
8067       </div>
8068     </div>
8069     <div class="padding"></div>
8070
8071     <div class="entry">
8072       <div class="title">
8073         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/BSAs_p_stander_om_piratkopiering_m_ter_motstand.html">BSAs påstander om piratkopiering møter motstand</a>
8074       </div>
8075       <div class="date">
8076         17th May 2009
8077       </div>
8078       <div class="body">
8079         <p>Hvert år de siste årene har BSA, lobbyfronten til de store
8080 programvareselskapene som Microsoft og Apple, publisert en rapport der
8081 de gjetter på hvor mye piratkopiering påfører i tapte inntekter i
8082 ulike land rundt om i verden.  Resultatene er tendensiøse.  For noen
8083 dager siden kom
8084 <a href="http://global.bsa.org/globalpiracy2008/studies/globalpiracy2008.pdf">siste
8085 rapport</a>, og det er flere kritiske kommentarer publisert de siste
8086 dagene.  Et spesielt interessant kommentar fra Sverige,
8087 <a href="http://www.idg.se/2.1085/1.229795/bsa-hoftade-sverigesiffror">BSA
8088 höftade Sverigesiffror</a>, oppsummeres slik:</p>
8089
8090 <blockquote>
8091 I sin senaste rapport slår BSA fast att 25 procent av all mjukvara i
8092 Sverige är piratkopierad. Det utan att ha pratat med ett enda svenskt
8093 företag. "Man bör nog kanske inte se de här siffrorna som helt
8094 exakta", säger BSAs Sverigechef John Hugosson.
8095 </blockquote>
8096
8097 <p>Mon tro om de er like metodiske når de gjetter på andelen piratkopiering i Norge?  To andre kommentarer er <a
8098 href="http://www.vnunet.com/vnunet/comment/2242134/bsa-piracy-figures-shot-reality">BSA
8099 piracy figures need a shot of reality</a> og <a
8100 href="http://www.michaelgeist.ca/content/view/3958/125/">Does The WIPO
8101 Copyright Treaty Work?</a></p>
8102
8103 <p>Fant lenkene via <a
8104 href="http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/05/17/1632242">oppslag
8105 på Slashdot</a>.</p>
8106
8107       </div>
8108       <div class="tags">
8109
8110
8111         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>.
8112
8113
8114       </div>
8115     </div>
8116     <div class="padding"></div>
8117
8118     <div class="entry">
8119       <div class="title">
8120         <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>
8121       </div>
8122       <div class="date">
8123          7th May 2009
8124       </div>
8125       <div class="body">
8126         <p>Kom over
8127 <a href="http://news.cnet.com/8301-13505_3-10216873-16.html">interessante
8128 tall</a> fra IDG om utviklingen av linuxservermarkedet.  Fikk meg til
8129 å tenke på antall tjenermaskiner ved Universitetet i Oslo der jeg
8130 jobber til daglig.  En rask opptelling forteller meg at vi har 490
8131 (61%) fysiske unix-tjener (mest linux men også noen solaris) og 196
8132 (25%) windowstjenere, samt 112 (14%) virtuelle unix-tjenere.  Med den
8133 bakgrunnskunnskapen kan jeg godt tro at IDG er inne på noe.</p>
8134
8135       </div>
8136       <div class="tags">
8137
8138
8139         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>.
8140
8141
8142       </div>
8143     </div>
8144     <div class="padding"></div>
8145
8146     <div class="entry">
8147       <div class="title">
8148         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Kryptert_harddisk___naturligvis.html">Kryptert harddisk - naturligvis</a>
8149       </div>
8150       <div class="date">
8151          2nd May 2009
8152       </div>
8153       <div class="body">
8154         <p><a href="http://www.dagensit.no/trender/article1658676.ece">Dagens
8155 IT melder</a> at Intel hevder at det er dyrt å miste en datamaskin,
8156 når en tar tap av arbeidstid, fortrolige dokumenter,
8157 personopplysninger og alt annet det innebærer.  Det er ingen tvil om
8158 at det er en kostbar affære å miste sin datamaskin, og det er årsaken
8159 til at jeg har kryptert harddisken på både kontormaskinen og min
8160 bærbare.  Begge inneholder personopplysninger jeg ikke ønsker skal
8161 komme på avveie, den første informasjon relatert til jobben min ved
8162 Universitetet i Oslo, og den andre relatert til blant annet
8163 foreningsarbeide.  Kryptering av diskene gjør at det er lite
8164 sannsynlig at dophoder som kan finne på å rappe maskinene får noe ut
8165 av dem.  Maskinene låses automatisk etter noen minutter uten bruk,
8166 og en reboot vil gjøre at de ber om passord før de vil starte opp.
8167 Jeg bruker Debian på begge maskinene, og installasjonssystemet der
8168 gjør det trivielt å sette opp krypterte disker.  Jeg har LVM på toppen
8169 av krypterte partisjoner, slik at alt av datapartisjoner er kryptert.
8170 Jeg anbefaler alle å kryptere diskene på sine bærbare.  Kostnaden når
8171 det er gjort slik jeg gjør det er minimale, og gevinstene er
8172 betydelige.  En bør dog passe på passordet.  Hvis det går tapt, må
8173 maskinen reinstalleres og alt er tapt.</p>
8174
8175 <p>Krypteringen vil ikke stoppe kompetente angripere som f.eks. kjøler
8176 ned minnebrikkene før maskinen rebootes med programvare for å hente ut
8177 krypteringsnøklene.  Kostnaden med å forsvare seg mot slike angripere
8178 er for min del høyere enn gevinsten.  Jeg tror oddsene for at
8179 f.eks. etteretningsorganisasjoner har glede av å titte på mine
8180 maskiner er minimale, og ulempene jeg ville oppnå ved å forsøke å
8181 gjøre det vanskeligere for angripere med kompetanse og ressurser er
8182 betydelige.</p>
8183
8184       </div>
8185       <div class="tags">
8186
8187
8188         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>.
8189
8190
8191       </div>
8192     </div>
8193     <div class="padding"></div>
8194
8195     <div class="entry">
8196       <div class="title">
8197         <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>
8198       </div>
8199       <div class="date">
8200          2nd May 2009
8201       </div>
8202       <div class="body">
8203         <p>There are two software projects that have had huge influence on the
8204 quality of free software, and I wanted to mention both in case someone
8205 do not yet know them.</p>
8206
8207 <p>The first one is <a href="http://valgrind.org/">valgrind</a>, a
8208 tool to detect and expose errors in the memory handling of programs.
8209 It is easy to use, all one need to do is to run 'valgrind program',
8210 and it will report any problems on stdout.  It is even better if the
8211 program include debug information.  With debug information, it is able
8212 to report the source file name and line number where the problem
8213 occurs.  It can report things like 'reading past memory block in file
8214 X line N, the memory block was allocated in file Y, line M', and
8215 'using uninitialised value in control logic'.  This tool has made it
8216 trivial to investigate reproducible crash bugs in programs, and have
8217 reduced the number of this kind of bugs in free software a lot.
8218
8219 <p>The second one is
8220 <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coverity">Coverity</a> which is
8221 a source code checker.  It is able to process the source of a program
8222 and find problems in the logic without running the program.  It
8223 started out as the Stanford Checker and became well known when it was
8224 used to find bugs in the Linux kernel.  It is now a commercial tool
8225 and the company behind it is running
8226 <a href="http://www.scan.coverity.com/">a community service</a> for the
8227 free software community, where a lot of free software projects get
8228 their source checked for free.  Several thousand defects have been
8229 found and fixed so far.  It can find errors like 'lock L taken in file
8230 X line N is never released if exiting in line M', or 'the code in file
8231 Y lines O to P can never be executed'.  The projects included in the
8232 community service project have managed to get rid of a lot of
8233 reliability problems thanks to Coverity.</p>
8234
8235 <p>I believe tools like this, that are able to automatically find
8236 errors in the source, are vital to improve the quality of software and
8237 make sure we can get rid of the crashing and failing software we are
8238 surrounded by today.</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>.
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/No_patch_is_not_better_than_a_useless_patch.html">No patch is not better than a useless patch</a>
8254       </div>
8255       <div class="date">
8256         28th April 2009
8257       </div>
8258       <div class="body">
8259         <p>Julien Blache
8260 <a href="http://blog.technologeek.org/2009/04/12/214">claim that no
8261 patch is better than a useless patch</a>.  I completely disagree, as a
8262 patch allow one to discuss a concrete and proposed solution, and also
8263 prove that the issue at hand is important enough for someone to spent
8264 time on fixing it.  No patch do not provide any of these positive
8265 properties.</p>
8266
8267       </div>
8268       <div class="tags">
8269
8270
8271         Tags: <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>.
8272
8273
8274       </div>
8275     </div>
8276     <div class="padding"></div>
8277
8278     <div class="entry">
8279       <div class="title">
8280         <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>
8281       </div>
8282       <div class="date">
8283         30th March 2009
8284       </div>
8285       <div class="body">
8286         <p>Where I work at the University of Oslo, one decision stand out as a
8287 very good one to form a long lived computer infrastructure.  It is the
8288 simple one, lost by many in todays computer industry: Standardize on
8289 open network protocols and open exchange/storage formats, not applications.
8290 Applications come and go, while protocols and files tend to stay, and
8291 thus one want to make it easy to change application and vendor, while
8292 avoiding conversion costs and locking users to a specific platform or
8293 application.</p>
8294
8295 <p>This approach make it possible to replace the client applications
8296 independently of the server applications.  One can even allow users to
8297 use several different applications as long as they handle the selected
8298 protocol and format.  In the normal case, only one client application
8299 is recommended and users only get help if they choose to use this
8300 application, but those that want to deviate from the easy path are not
8301 blocked from doing so.</p>
8302
8303 <p>It also allow us to replace the server side without forcing the
8304 users to replace their applications, and thus allow us to select the
8305 best server implementation at any moment, when scale and resouce
8306 requirements change.</p>
8307
8308 <p>I strongly recommend standardizing - on open network protocols and
8309 open formats, but I would never recommend standardizing on a single
8310 application that do not use open network protocol or open formats.</p>
8311
8312       </div>
8313       <div class="tags">
8314
8315
8316         Tags: <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>.
8317
8318
8319       </div>
8320     </div>
8321     <div class="padding"></div>
8322
8323     <div class="entry">
8324       <div class="title">
8325         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Returning_from_Skolelinux_developer_gathering.html">Returning from Skolelinux developer gathering</a>
8326       </div>
8327       <div class="date">
8328         29th March 2009
8329       </div>
8330       <div class="body">
8331         <p>I'm sitting on the train going home from this weekends Debian
8332 Edu/Skolelinux development gathering.  I got a bit done tuning the
8333 desktop, and looked into the dynamic service location protocol
8334 implementation avahi.  It look like it could be useful for us.  Almost
8335 30 people participated, and I believe it was a great environment to
8336 get to know the Skolelinux system.  Walter Bender, involved in the
8337 development of the Sugar educational platform, presented his stuff and
8338 also helped me improve my OLPC installation.  He also showed me that
8339 his Turtle Art application can be used in standalone mode, and we
8340 agreed that I would help getting it packaged for Debian.  As a
8341 standalone application it would be great for Debian Edu.  We also
8342 tried to get the video conferencing working with two OLPCs, but that
8343 proved to be too hard for us.  The application seem to need more work
8344 before it is ready for me.  I look forward to getting home and relax
8345 now. :)</p>
8346
8347       </div>
8348       <div class="tags">
8349
8350
8351         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>.
8352
8353
8354       </div>
8355     </div>
8356     <div class="padding"></div>
8357
8358     <div class="entry">
8359       <div class="title">
8360         <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>
8361       </div>
8362       <div class="date">
8363         29th March 2009
8364       </div>
8365       <div class="body">
8366         <p>The state of standardized LDAP schemas on Linux is far from
8367 optimal.  There is RFC 2307 documenting one way to store NIS maps in
8368 LDAP, and a modified version of this normally called RFC 2307bis, with
8369 some modifications to be compatible with Active Directory.  The RFC
8370 specification handle the content of a lot of system databases, but do
8371 not handle DNS zones and DHCP configuration.</p>
8372
8373 <p>In <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu/Skolelinux</a>,
8374 we would like to store information about users, SMB clients/hosts,
8375 filegroups, netgroups (users and hosts), DHCP and DNS configuration,
8376 and LTSP configuration in LDAP.  These objects have a lot in common,
8377 but with the current LDAP schemas it is not possible to have one
8378 object per entity.  For example, one need to have at least three LDAP
8379 objects for a given computer, one with the SMB related stuff, one with
8380 DNS information and another with DHCP information.  The schemas
8381 provided for DNS and DHCP are impossible to combine into one LDAP
8382 object.  In addition, it is impossible to implement quick queries for
8383 netgroup membership, because of the way NIS triples are implemented.
8384 It just do not scale.  I believe it is time for a few RFC
8385 specifications to cleam up this mess.</p>
8386
8387 <p>I would like to have one LDAP object representing each computer in
8388 the network, and this object can then keep the SMB (ie host key), DHCP
8389 (mac address/name) and DNS (name/IP address) settings in one place.
8390 It need to be efficently stored to make sure it scale well.</p>
8391
8392 <p>I would also like to have a quick way to map from a user or
8393 computer and to the net group this user or computer is a member.</p>
8394
8395 <p>Active Directory have done a better job than unix heads like myself
8396 in this regard, and the unix side need to catch up.  Time to start a
8397 new IETF work group?</p>
8398
8399       </div>
8400       <div class="tags">
8401
8402
8403         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>.
8404
8405
8406       </div>
8407     </div>
8408     <div class="padding"></div>
8409
8410     <div class="entry">
8411       <div class="title">
8412         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Endelig_er_Debian_Lenny_gitt_ut.html">Endelig er Debian Lenny gitt ut</a>
8413       </div>
8414       <div class="date">
8415         15th February 2009
8416       </div>
8417       <div class="body">
8418         <p>Endelig er <a href="http://www.debian.org/">Debian</a>
8419 <a href="http://www.debian.org/News/2009/20090214">Lenny</a> gitt ut.
8420 Et langt steg videre for Debian-prosjektet, og en rekke nye
8421 programpakker blir nå tilgjengelig for de av oss som bruker den
8422 stabile utgaven av Debian.  Neste steg er nå å få
8423 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Skolelinux</a> /
8424 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/">Debian Edu</a> ferdig
8425 oppdatert for den nye utgaven, slik at en oppdatert versjon kan
8426 slippes løs på skolene.  Takk til alle debian-utviklerne som har
8427 gjort dette mulig.  Endelig er f.eks. fungerende avhengighetsstyrt
8428 bootsekvens tilgjengelig i stabil utgave, vha pakken
8429 <tt>insserv</tt>.</p>
8430
8431       </div>
8432       <div class="tags">
8433
8434
8435         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>.
8436
8437
8438       </div>
8439     </div>
8440     <div class="padding"></div>
8441
8442     <div class="entry">
8443       <div class="title">
8444         <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>
8445       </div>
8446       <div class="date">
8447          7th December 2008
8448       </div>
8449       <div class="body">
8450         <p>This weekend we had a small developer gathering for Debian Edu in
8451 Oslo.  Most of Saturday was used for the general assemly for the
8452 member organization, but the rest of the weekend I used to tune the
8453 LTSP installation.  LTSP now work out of the box on the 10-network.
8454 Acer Aspire One proved to be a very nice thin client, with both
8455 screen, mouse and keybard in a small box.  Was working on getting the
8456 diskless workstation setup configured out of the box, but did not
8457 finish it before the weekend was up.</p>
8458
8459 <p>Did not find time to look at the 4 VGA cards in one box we got from
8460 the Brazilian group, so that will have to wait for the next
8461 development gathering.  Would love to have the Debian Edu installer
8462 automatically detect and configure a multiseat setup when it find one
8463 of these cards.</p>
8464
8465       </div>
8466       <div class="tags">
8467
8468
8469         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>.
8470
8471
8472       </div>
8473     </div>
8474     <div class="padding"></div>
8475
8476     <div class="entry">
8477       <div class="title">
8478         <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>
8479       </div>
8480       <div class="date">
8481         25th November 2008
8482       </div>
8483       <div class="body">
8484         <p>Recently I have spent some time evaluating the multimedia browser
8485 plugins available in Debian Lenny, to see which one we should use by
8486 default in Debian Edu.  We need an embedded video playing plugin with
8487 control buttons to pause or stop the video, and capable of streaming
8488 all the multimedia content available on the web.  The test results and
8489 notes are available on
8490 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/BrowserMultimedia">the
8491 Debian wiki</a>.  I was surprised how few of the plugins are able to
8492 fill this need.  My personal video player favorite, VLC, has a really
8493 bad plugin which fail on a lot of the test pages.  A lot of the MIME
8494 types I would expect to work with any free software player (like
8495 video/ogg), just do not work.  And simple formats like the
8496 audio/x-mplegurl format (m3u playlists), just isn't supported by the
8497 totem and vlc plugins.  I hope the situation will improve soon.  No
8498 wonder sites use the proprietary Adobe flash to play video.</p>
8499
8500 <p>For Lenny, we seem to end up with the mplayer plugin.  It seem to
8501 be the only one fitting our needs. :/</p>
8502
8503       </div>
8504       <div class="tags">
8505
8506
8507         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>.
8508
8509
8510       </div>
8511     </div>
8512     <div class="padding"></div>
8513
8514     <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>
8515     <div id="sidebar">
8516
8517
8518
8519 <h2>Archive</h2>
8520 <ul>
8521
8522 <li>2014
8523 <ul>
8524
8525 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/01/">January (2)</a></li>
8526
8527 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/02/">February (3)</a></li>
8528
8529 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/03/">March (8)</a></li>
8530
8531 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/04/">April (7)</a></li>
8532
8533 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/05/">May (1)</a></li>
8534
8535 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/06/">June (2)</a></li>
8536
8537 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/07/">July (2)</a></li>
8538
8539 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/08/">August (2)</a></li>
8540
8541 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/09/">September (5)</a></li>
8542
8543 </ul></li>
8544
8545 <li>2013
8546 <ul>
8547
8548 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/01/">January (11)</a></li>
8549
8550 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/02/">February (9)</a></li>
8551
8552 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/03/">March (9)</a></li>
8553
8554 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/04/">April (6)</a></li>
8555
8556 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/05/">May (9)</a></li>
8557
8558 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/06/">June (10)</a></li>
8559
8560 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/07/">July (7)</a></li>
8561
8562 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/08/">August (3)</a></li>
8563
8564 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/09/">September (5)</a></li>
8565
8566 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/10/">October (7)</a></li>
8567
8568 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/11/">November (9)</a></li>
8569
8570 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/12/">December (3)</a></li>
8571
8572 </ul></li>
8573
8574 <li>2012
8575 <ul>
8576
8577 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/01/">January (7)</a></li>
8578
8579 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/02/">February (10)</a></li>
8580
8581 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/03/">March (17)</a></li>
8582
8583 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/04/">April (12)</a></li>
8584
8585 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/05/">May (12)</a></li>
8586
8587 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/06/">June (20)</a></li>
8588
8589 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/07/">July (17)</a></li>
8590
8591 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/08/">August (6)</a></li>
8592
8593 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/09/">September (9)</a></li>
8594
8595 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/10/">October (17)</a></li>
8596
8597 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/11/">November (10)</a></li>
8598
8599 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/12/">December (7)</a></li>
8600
8601 </ul></li>
8602
8603 <li>2011
8604 <ul>
8605
8606 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/01/">January (16)</a></li>
8607
8608 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/02/">February (6)</a></li>
8609
8610 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/03/">March (6)</a></li>
8611
8612 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/04/">April (7)</a></li>
8613
8614 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/05/">May (3)</a></li>
8615
8616 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/06/">June (2)</a></li>
8617
8618 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/07/">July (7)</a></li>
8619
8620 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/08/">August (6)</a></li>
8621
8622 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/09/">September (4)</a></li>
8623
8624 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/10/">October (2)</a></li>
8625
8626 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/11/">November (3)</a></li>
8627
8628 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/12/">December (1)</a></li>
8629
8630 </ul></li>
8631
8632 <li>2010
8633 <ul>
8634
8635 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/01/">January (2)</a></li>
8636
8637 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/02/">February (1)</a></li>
8638
8639 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/03/">March (3)</a></li>
8640
8641 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/04/">April (3)</a></li>
8642
8643 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/05/">May (9)</a></li>
8644
8645 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/06/">June (14)</a></li>
8646
8647 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/07/">July (12)</a></li>
8648
8649 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/08/">August (13)</a></li>
8650
8651 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/09/">September (7)</a></li>
8652
8653 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/10/">October (9)</a></li>
8654
8655 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/11/">November (13)</a></li>
8656
8657 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/12/">December (12)</a></li>
8658
8659 </ul></li>
8660
8661 <li>2009
8662 <ul>
8663
8664 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/01/">January (8)</a></li>
8665
8666 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/02/">February (8)</a></li>
8667
8668 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/03/">March (12)</a></li>
8669
8670 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/04/">April (10)</a></li>
8671
8672 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/05/">May (9)</a></li>
8673
8674 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/06/">June (3)</a></li>
8675
8676 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/07/">July (4)</a></li>
8677
8678 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/08/">August (3)</a></li>
8679
8680 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/09/">September (1)</a></li>
8681
8682 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/10/">October (2)</a></li>
8683
8684 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/11/">November (3)</a></li>
8685
8686 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/12/">December (3)</a></li>
8687
8688 </ul></li>
8689
8690 <li>2008
8691 <ul>
8692
8693 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2008/11/">November (5)</a></li>
8694
8695 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2008/12/">December (7)</a></li>
8696
8697 </ul></li>
8698
8699 </ul>
8700
8701
8702
8703 <h2>Tags</h2>
8704 <ul>
8705
8706  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/3d-printer">3d-printer (13)</a></li>
8707
8708  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/amiga">amiga (1)</a></li>
8709
8710  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/aros">aros (1)</a></li>
8711
8712  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bankid">bankid (4)</a></li>
8713
8714  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bitcoin">bitcoin (8)</a></li>
8715
8716  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bootsystem">bootsystem (14)</a></li>
8717
8718  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bsa">bsa (2)</a></li>
8719
8720  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/chrpath">chrpath (2)</a></li>
8721
8722  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian (103)</a></li>
8723
8724  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu (150)</a></li>
8725
8726  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/digistan">digistan (10)</a></li>
8727
8728  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/dld">dld (15)</a></li>
8729
8730  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/docbook">docbook (12)</a></li>
8731
8732  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/drivstoffpriser">drivstoffpriser (4)</a></li>
8733
8734  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english (255)</a></li>
8735
8736  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/fiksgatami">fiksgatami (21)</a></li>
8737
8738  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/fildeling">fildeling (12)</a></li>
8739
8740  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freeculture">freeculture (13)</a></li>
8741
8742  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freedombox">freedombox (8)</a></li>
8743
8744  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/frikanalen">frikanalen (11)</a></li>
8745
8746  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/intervju">intervju (41)</a></li>
8747
8748  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram">isenkram (9)</a></li>
8749
8750  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/kart">kart (19)</a></li>
8751
8752  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ldap">ldap (9)</a></li>
8753
8754  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/lenker">lenker (8)</a></li>
8755
8756  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ltsp">ltsp (1)</a></li>
8757
8758  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/mesh network">mesh network (8)</a></li>
8759
8760  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/multimedia">multimedia (30)</a></li>
8761
8762  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/norsk">norsk (248)</a></li>
8763
8764  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug (162)</a></li>
8765
8766  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/offentlig innsyn">offentlig innsyn (11)</a></li>
8767
8768  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/open311">open311 (2)</a></li>
8769
8770  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/opphavsrett">opphavsrett (48)</a></li>
8771
8772  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/personvern">personvern (75)</a></li>
8773
8774  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/raid">raid (1)</a></li>
8775
8776  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/reactos">reactos (1)</a></li>
8777
8778  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/reprap">reprap (11)</a></li>
8779
8780  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/rfid">rfid (3)</a></li>
8781
8782  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/robot">robot (9)</a></li>
8783
8784  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/rss">rss (1)</a></li>
8785
8786  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ruter">ruter (4)</a></li>
8787
8788  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/scraperwiki">scraperwiki (2)</a></li>
8789
8790  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet (41)</a></li>
8791
8792  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sitesummary">sitesummary (4)</a></li>
8793
8794  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/skepsis">skepsis (4)</a></li>
8795
8796  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/standard">standard (45)</a></li>
8797
8798  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/stavekontroll">stavekontroll (3)</a></li>
8799
8800  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/stortinget">stortinget (9)</a></li>
8801
8802  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance (26)</a></li>
8803
8804  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sysadmin">sysadmin (1)</a></li>
8805
8806  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/valg">valg (8)</a></li>
8807
8808  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/video">video (43)</a></li>
8809
8810  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/vitenskap">vitenskap (4)</a></li>
8811
8812  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/web">web (33)</a></li>
8813
8814 </ul>
8815
8816
8817     </div>
8818     <p style="text-align: right">
8819  Created by <a href="http://steve.org.uk/Software/chronicle">Chronicle v4.6</a>
8820 </p>
8821
8822   </body>
8823 </html>