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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/Isenkram_updated_with_a_lot_more_hardware_package_mappings.html">Isenkram updated with a lot more hardware-package mappings</a>
  26       </div>
  27       <div class="date">
  28         20th December 2016
  29       </div>
  30       <div class="body">
  31         <p><a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/isenkram">The Isenkram
  32 system</a> I wrote two years ago to make it easier in Debian to find
  33 and install packages to get your hardware dongles to work, is still
  34 going strong.  It is a system to look up the hardware present on or
  35 connected to the current system, and map the hardware to Debian
  36 packages.  It can either be done using the tools in isenkram-cli or
  37 using the user space daemon in the isenkram package.  The latter will
  38 notify you when new hardware about the packages to install to get it
  39 working, and even provide a button to click on to ask packagekit to
  40 install the packages.  Here is an command line example from my
  41 Thinkpad laptop:</p>
  42
  43 <p><pre>
  44 % isenkram-lookup
  45 bluez
  46 cheese
  47 ethtool
  48 fprintd
  49 fprintd-demo
  50 gkrellm-thinkbat
  51 hdapsd
  52 libpam-fprintd
  53 pidgin-blinklight
  54 thinkfan
  55 tlp
  56 tp-smapi-dkms
  57 tp-smapi-source
  58 tpb
  59 %
  60 </pre></p>
  61
  62 <p>It can also list the firware package providing firmware requested
  63 by the load kernel modules, which in my case is an empty list because
  64 I have all the firmware my machine need:
  65
  66 <p><pre>
  67 % /usr/sbin/isenkram-autoinstall-firmware -l
  68 info: did not find any firmware files requested by loaded kernel modules.  exiting
  69 %
  70 </pre></p>
  71
  72 <p>The last few days I had a look at several of the around 250
  73 packages in Debian with udev rules.  These seem like good candidates
  74 to install when a given hardware dongle is inserted, and I found
  75 several that should be proposed by isenkram.  I have not had time to
  76 check all of them, but am happy to report that now there are 97
  77 packages packages mapped to hardware by Isenkram.  11 of these
  78 packages provide hardware mapping using AppStream, while the rest are
  79 listed in the modaliases file provided in isenkram.</p>
  80
  81 <p>These are the packages with hardware mappings at the moment.  The
  82 <strong>marked packages</strong> are also announcing their hardware
  83 support using AppStream, for everyone to use:</p>
  84
  85 <p>air-quality-sensor, alsa-firmware-loaders, argyll,
  86 <strong>array-info</strong>, avarice, avrdude, b43-fwcutter,
  87 bit-babbler, bluez, bluez-firmware, <strong>brltty</strong>,
  88 <strong>broadcom-sta-dkms</strong>, calibre, cgminer, cheese, colord,
  89 <strong>colorhug-client</strong>, dahdi-firmware-nonfree, dahdi-linux,
  90 dfu-util, dolphin-emu, ekeyd, ethtool, firmware-ipw2x00, fprintd,
  91 fprintd-demo, <strong>galileo</strong>, gkrellm-thinkbat, gphoto2,
  92 gpsbabel, gpsbabel-gui, gpsman, gpstrans, gqrx-sdr, gr-fcdproplus,
  93 gr-osmosdr, gtkpod, hackrf, hdapsd, hdmi2usb-udev, hpijs-ppds, hplip,
  94 ipw3945-source, ipw3945d, kde-config-tablet, kinect-audio-setup,
  95 <strong>libnxt</strong>, libpam-fprintd, <strong>lomoco</strong>,
  96 madwimax, minidisc-utils, mkgmap, msi-keyboard, mtkbabel,
  97 <strong>nbc</strong>, <strong>nqc</strong>, nut-hal-drivers, ola,
  98 open-vm-toolbox, open-vm-tools, openambit, pcgminer, pcmciautils,
  99 pcscd, pidgin-blinklight, printer-driver-splix,
 100 <strong>pymissile</strong>, python-nxt, qlandkartegt,
 101 qlandkartegt-garmin, rosegarden, rt2x00-source, sispmctl,
 102 soapysdr-module-hackrf, solaar, squeak-plugins-scratch, sunxi-tools,
 103 <strong>t2n</strong>, thinkfan, thinkfinger-tools, tlp, tp-smapi-dkms,
 104 tp-smapi-source, tpb, tucnak, uhd-host, usbmuxd, viking,
 105 virtualbox-ose-guest-x11, w1retap, xawtv, xserver-xorg-input-vmmouse,
 106 xserver-xorg-input-wacom, xserver-xorg-video-qxl,
 107 xserver-xorg-video-vmware, yubikey-personalization and
 108 zd1211-firmware</p>
 109
 110 <p>If you know of other packages, please let me know with a wishlist
 111 bug report against the isenkram-cli package, and ask the package
 112 maintainer to
 113 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/AppStream/Guidelines">add AppStream
 114 metadata according to the guidelines</a> to provide the information
 115 for everyone.  In time, I hope to get rid of the isenkram specific
 116 hardware mapping and depend exclusively on AppStream.</p>
 117
 118 <p>Note, the AppStream metadata for broadcom-sta-dkms is matching too
 119 much hardware, and suggest that the package with with any ethernet
 120 card.  See <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/838735">bug #838735</a> for
 121 the details.  I hope the maintainer find time to address it soon.  In
 122 the mean time I provide an override in isenkram.</p>
 123
 124       </div>
 125       <div class="tags">
 126
 127
 128         Tags: <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>.
 129
 130
 131       </div>
 132     </div>
 133     <div class="padding"></div>
 134
 135     <div class="entry">
 136       <div class="title">
 137         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Oolite__a_life_in_space_as_vagabond_and_mercenary___nice_free_software.html">Oolite, a life in space as vagabond and mercenary - nice free software</a>
 138       </div>
 139       <div class="date">
 140         11th December 2016
 141       </div>
 142       <div class="body">
 143         <p align="center"><img width="70%" src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2016-12-11-nice-oolite.png"/></p>
 144
 145 <p>In my early years, I played
 146 <a href="http://wiki.alioth.net/index.php/Classic_Elite">the epic game
 147 Elite</a> on my PC.  I spent many months trading and fighting in
 148 space, and reached the 'elite' fighting status before I moved on.  The
 149 original Elite game was available on Commodore 64 and the IBM PC
 150 edition I played had a 64 KB executable.  I am still impressed today
 151 that the authors managed to squeeze both a 3D engine and details about
 152 more than 2000 planet systems across 7 galaxies into a binary so
 153 small.</p>
 154
 155 <p>I have known about <a href="http://www.oolite.org/">the free
 156 software game Oolite inspired by Elite</a> for a while, but did not
 157 really have time to test it properly until a few days ago.  It was
 158 great to discover that my old knowledge about trading routes were
 159 still valid.  But my fighting and flying abilities were gone, so I had
 160 to retrain to be able to dock on a space station.  And I am still not
 161 able to make much resistance when I am attacked by pirates, so I
 162 bougth and mounted the most powerful laser in the rear to be able to
 163 put up at least some resistance while fleeing for my life. :)</p>
 164
 165 <p>When playing Elite in the late eighties, I had to discover
 166 everything on my own, and I had long lists of prices seen on different
 167 planets to be able to decide where to trade what.  This time I had the
 168 advantages of the
 169 <a href="http://wiki.alioth.net/index.php/Main_Page">Elite wiki</a>,
 170 where information about each planet is easily available with common
 171 price ranges and suggested trading routes.  This improved my ability
 172 to earn money and I have been able to earn enough to buy a lot of
 173 useful equipent in a few days.  I believe I originally played for
 174 months before I could get a docking computer, while now I could get it
 175 after less then a week.</p>
 176
 177 <p>If you like science fiction and dreamed of a life as a vagabond in
 178 space, you should try out Oolite.  It is available for Linux, MacOSX
 179 and Windows, and is included in Debian and derivatives since 2011.</p>
 180
 181 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
 182 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
 183 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b&label=PetterReinholdtsenBlog">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
 184
 185       </div>
 186       <div class="tags">
 187
 188
 189         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nice free software">nice free software</a>.
 190
 191
 192       </div>
 193     </div>
 194     <div class="padding"></div>
 195
 196     <div class="entry">
 197       <div class="title">
 198         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Quicker_Debian_installations_using_eatmydata.html">Quicker Debian installations using eatmydata</a>
 199       </div>
 200       <div class="date">
 201         25th November 2016
 202       </div>
 203       <div class="body">
 204         <p>Two years ago, I did some experiments with eatmydata and the Debian
 205 installation system, observing how using
 206 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Speeding_up_the_Debian_installer_using_eatmydata_and_dpkg_divert.html">eatmydata
 207 could speed up the installation</a> quite a bit.  My testing measured
 208 speedup around 20-40 percent for Debian Edu, where we install around
 209 1000 packages from within the installer.  The eatmydata package
 210 provide a way to disable/delay file system flushing.  This is a bit
 211 risky in the general case, as files that should be stored on disk will
 212 stay only in memory a bit longer than expected, causing problems if a
 213 machine crashes at an inconvenient time.  But for an installation, if
 214 the machine crashes during installation the process is normally
 215 restarted, and avoiding disk operations as much as possible to speed
 216 up the process make perfect sense.
 217
 218 <p>I added code in the Debian Edu specific installation code to enable
 219 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/libeatmydata">eatmydata</a>,
 220 but did not have time to push it any further.  But a few months ago I
 221 picked it up again and worked with the libeatmydata package maintainer
 222 Mattia Rizzolo to make it easier for everyone to get this installation
 223 speedup in Debian.  Thanks to our cooperation There is now an
 224 eatmydata-udeb package in Debian testing and unstable, and simply
 225 enabling/installing it in debian-installer (d-i) is enough to get the
 226 quicker installations.  It can be enabled using preseeding.  The
 227 following untested kernel argument should do the trick:</p>
 228
 229 <blockquote><pre>
 230 preseed/early_command="anna-install eatmydata-udeb"
 231 </pre></blockquote>
 232
 233 <p>This should ask d-i to install the package inside the d-i
 234 environment early in the installation sequence.  Having it installed
 235 in d-i in turn will make sure the relevant scripts are called just
 236 after debootstrap filled /target/ with the freshly installed Debian
 237 system to configure apt to run dpkg with eatmydata.  This is enough to
 238 speed up the installation process.  There is a proposal to
 239 <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/841153">extend the idea a bit further
 240 by using /etc/ld.so.preload instead of apt.conf</a>, but I have not
 241 tested its impact.</p>
 242
 243
 244       </div>
 245       <div class="tags">
 246
 247
 248         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>.
 249
 250
 251       </div>
 252     </div>
 253     <div class="padding"></div>
 254
 255     <div class="entry">
 256       <div class="title">
 257         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Oversette_bokm_l_til_nynorsk__enklere_enn_du_tror_takket_v_re_Apertium.html">Oversette bokmål til nynorsk, enklere enn du tror takket være Apertium</a>
 258       </div>
 259       <div class="date">
 260         24th November 2016
 261       </div>
 262       <div class="body">
 263         <p>I Norge er det mange som trenger å skrive både bokmål og nynorsk.
 264 Eksamensoppgaver, offentlige brev og nyheter er eksempler på tekster
 265 der det er krav om skriftspråk.  I tillegg til alle skoleoppgavene som
 266 elever over det ganske land skal levere inn hvert år.  Det mange ikke
 267 vet er at selv om de kommersielle alternativene
 268 <a href="https://translate.google.com/">Google Translate</a> og
 269 <a href="https://www.bing.com/translator/">Bing Translator</a> ikke kan
 270 bidra med å oversette mellom bokmål og nynorsk, så finnes det et
 271 utmerket fri programvarealternativ som kan.  Oversetterverktøyet
 272 Apertium har støtte for en rekke språkkombinasjoner, og takket være
 273 den utrettelige innsatsen til blant annet Kevin Brubeck Unhammer, kan
 274 en bruke webtjenesten til å fylle inn en tekst på bokmål eller
 275 nynorsk, og få den automatoversatt til det andre skriftspråket.
 276 Resultatet er ikke perfekt, men et svært godt utgangspunkt.  Av og til
 277 er resultatet så bra at det kan benyttes uten endringer.  Jeg vet
 278 f.eks. at store deler av Joomla ble oversatt til nynorsk ved hjelp
 279 Apertium.  Høres det ut som noe du kan ha bruk for?  Besøk i så fall
 280 <a href="https://www.apertium.org/">Apertium.org</a> og fyll inn
 281 teksten din i webskjemaet der.
 282
 283 <p>Hvis du trenger maskinell tilgang til den bakenforliggende
 284 teknologien kan du enten installere pakken
 285 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/apertium-nno-nob">apertium-nno-nob</a>
 286 på en Debian-maskin eller bruke web-API-et tilgjengelig fra
 287 api.apertium.org.  Se
 288 <a href="http://wiki.apertium.org/wiki/Apertium-apy">API-dokumentasjonen</a>
 289 for detaljer om web-API-et.  Her kan du se hvordan resultatet blir for
 290 denne teksten som ble skrevet på bokmål over maskinoversatt til
 291 nynorsk.</p>
 292
 293 <hr/>
 294
 295 <p>I Noreg er det mange som treng å skriva både bokmål og nynorsk.
 296 Eksamensoppgåver, offentlege brev og nyhende er døme på tekster der
 297 det er krav om skriftspråk.  I tillegg til alle skuleoppgåvene som
 298 elevar over det ganske land skal levera inn kvart år.  Det mange ikkje
 299 veit er at sjølv om dei kommersielle alternativa
 300 <a href="https://translate.google.com/">Google *Translate</a> og
 301 <a href="https://www.bing.com/translator/">Bing *Translator</a> ikkje
 302 kan bidra med å omsetja mellom bokmål og nynorsk, så finst det eit
 303 utmerka fri programvarealternativ som kan.  Omsetjarverktøyet
 304 *Apertium har støtte for ei rekkje språkkombinasjonar, og takka vera
 305 den utrøyttelege innsatsen til blant anna Kevin Brubeck Unhammer, kan
 306 ein bruka *webtjenesten til å fylla inn ei tekst på bokmål eller
 307 nynorsk, og få den *automatoversatt til det andre skriftspråket.
 308 Resultatet er ikkje perfekt, men eit svært godt utgangspunkt.  Av og
 309 til er resultatet så bra at det kan nyttast utan endringar.  Eg veit
 310 t.d. at store delar av *Joomla vart omsett til nynorsk ved hjelp
 311 *Apertium.  Høyrast det ut som noko du kan ha bruk for?  Besøk i så
 312 fall <a href="https://www.apertium.org/">*Apertium.org</a> og fyll inn
 313 teksta di i *webskjemaet der.
 314
 315 <p>Viss du treng *maskinell tilgjenge til den *bakenforliggende
 316 teknologien kan du anten installera pakken
 317 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/apertium-nno-nob">*apertium-*nno-*nob</a>
 318 på ein *Debian-maskin eller bruka *web-*API-eit tilgjengeleg frå
 319 *api.*apertium.org.  Sjå
 320 <a href="http://wiki.apertium.org/wiki/Apertium-apy">*API-dokumentasjonen</a>
 321 for detaljar om *web-*API-eit.  Her kan du sjå korleis resultatet vert
 322 for denne teksta som vart skreva på bokmål over *maskinoversatt til
 323 nynorsk.</p>
 324
 325       </div>
 326       <div class="tags">
 327
 328
 329         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/norsk">norsk</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/stavekontroll">stavekontroll</a>.
 330
 331
 332       </div>
 333     </div>
 334     <div class="padding"></div>
 335
 336     <div class="entry">
 337       <div class="title">
 338         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Coz_profiler_for_multi_threaded_software_is_now_in_Debian.html">Coz profiler for multi-threaded software is now in Debian</a>
 339       </div>
 340       <div class="date">
 341         13th November 2016
 342       </div>
 343       <div class="body">
 344         <p><a href="http://coz-profiler.org/">The Coz profiler</a>, a nice
 345 profiler able to run benchmarking experiments on the instrumented
 346 multi-threaded program, finally
 347 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/coz-profiler">made it into
 348 Debian unstable yesterday</A>.  Lluís Vilanova and I have spent many
 349 months since
 350 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Coz_can_help_you_find_bottlenecks_in_multi_threaded_software___nice_free_software.html">I
 351 blogged about the coz tool</a> in August working with upstream to make
 352 it suitable for Debian.  There are still issues with clang
 353 compatibility, inline assembly only working x86 and minimized
 354 JavaScript libraries.</p>
 355
 356 <p>To test it, install 'coz-profiler' using apt and run it like this:</p>
 357
 358 <p><blockquote>
 359 <tt>coz run --- /path/to/binary-with-debug-info</tt>
 360 </blockquote></p>
 361
 362 <p>This will produce a profile.coz file in the current working
 363 directory with the profiling information.  This is then given to a
 364 JavaScript application provided in the package and available from
 365 <a href="http://plasma-umass.github.io/coz/">a project web page</a>.
 366 To start the local copy, invoke it in a browser like this:</p>
 367
 368 <p><blockquote>
 369 <tt>sensible-browser /usr/share/coz-profiler/viewer/index.htm</tt>
 370 </blockquote></p>
 371
 372 <p>See the project home page and the
 373 <a href="https://www.usenix.org/publications/login/summer2016/curtsinger">USENIX
 374 ;login: article on Coz</a> for more information on how it is
 375 working.</p>
 376
 377       </div>
 378       <div class="tags">
 379
 380
 381         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
 382
 383
 384       </div>
 385     </div>
 386     <div class="padding"></div>
 387
 388     <div class="entry">
 389       <div class="title">
 390         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/My_own_self_balancing_Lego_Segway.html">My own self balancing Lego Segway</a>
 391       </div>
 392       <div class="date">
 393          4th November 2016
 394       </div>
 395       <div class="body">
 396         <p>A while back I received a Gyro sensor for the NXT
 397 <a href="mindstorms.lego.com">Mindstorms</a> controller as a birthday
 398 present.  It had been on my wishlist for a while, because I wanted to
 399 build a Segway like balancing lego robot.  I had already built
 400 <a href="http://www.nxtprograms.com/NXT2/segway/">a simple balancing
 401 robot</a> with the kids, using the light/color sensor included in the
 402 NXT kit as the balance sensor, but it was not working very well.  It
 403 could balance for a while, but was very sensitive to the light
 404 condition in the room and the reflective properties of the surface and
 405 would fall over after a short while.  I wanted something more robust,
 406 and had
 407 <a href="https://www.hitechnic.com/cgi-bin/commerce.cgi?preadd=action&key=NGY1044">the
 408 gyro sensor from HiTechnic</a> I believed would solve it on my
 409 wishlist for some years before it suddenly showed up as a gift from my
 410 loved ones. :)</p>
 411
 412 <p>Unfortunately I have not had time to sit down and play with it
 413 since then.  But that changed some days ago, when I was searching for
 414 lego segway information and came across a recipe from HiTechnic for
 415 building
 416 <a href="http://www.hitechnic.com/blog/gyro-sensor/htway/">the
 417 HTWay</a>, a segway like balancing robot.  Build instructions and
 418 <a href="https://www.hitechnic.com/upload/786-HTWayC.nxc">source
 419 code</a> was included, so it was just a question of putting it all
 420 together.  And thanks to the great work of many Debian developers, the
 421 compiler needed to build the source for the NXT is already included in
 422 Debian, so I was read to go in less than an hour.  The resulting robot
 423 do not look very impressive in its simplicity:</p>
 424
 425 <p align="center"><img width="70%" src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2016-11-04-lego-htway-robot.jpeg"></p>
 426
 427 <p>Because I lack the infrared sensor used to control the robot in the
 428 design from HiTechnic, I had to comment out the last task
 429 (taskControl).  I simply placed /* and */ around it get the program
 430 working without that sensor present.  Now it balances just fine until
 431 the battery status run low:</p>
 432
 433 <p align="center"><video width="70%" controls="true">
 434    <source src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2016-11-04-lego-htway-balancing.ogv" type="video/ogg">
 435 </video></p>
 436
 437 <p>Now we would like to teach it how to follow a line and take remote
 438 control instructions using the included Bluetooth receiver in the NXT.</p>
 439
 440 <p>If you, like me, love LEGO and want to make sure we find the tools
 441 they need to work with LEGO in Debian and all our derivative
 442 distributions like Ubuntu, check out
 443 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/LegoDesigners">the LEGO designers
 444 project page</a> and join the Debian LEGO team.  Personally I own a
 445 RCX and NXT controller (no EV3), and would like to make sure the
 446 Debian tools needed to program the systems I own work as they
 447 should.</p>
 448
 449       </div>
 450       <div class="tags">
 451
 452
 453         Tags: <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>.
 454
 455
 456       </div>
 457     </div>
 458     <div class="padding"></div>
 459
 460     <div class="entry">
 461       <div class="title">
 462         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Experience_and_updated_recipe_for_using_the_Signal_app_without_a_mobile_phone.html">Experience and updated recipe for using the Signal app without a mobile phone</a>
 463       </div>
 464       <div class="date">
 465         10th October 2016
 466       </div>
 467       <div class="body">
 468         <p>In July
 469 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_use_the_Signal_app_if_you_only_have_a_land_line__ie_no_mobile_phone_.html">I
 470 wrote how to get the Signal Chrome/Chromium app working</a> without
 471 the ability to receive SMS messages (aka without a cell phone).  It is
 472 time to share some experiences and provide an updated setup.</p>
 473
 474 <p>The Signal app have worked fine for several months now, and I use
 475 it regularly to chat with my loved ones.  I had a major snag at the
 476 end of my summer vacation, when the the app completely forgot my
 477 setup, identity and keys.  The reason behind this major mess was
 478 running out of disk space.  To avoid that ever happening again I have
 479 started storing everything in <tt>userdata/</tt> in git, to be able to
 480 roll back to an earlier version if the files are wiped by mistake.  I
 481 had to use it once after introducing the git backup.  When rolling
 482 back to an earlier version, one need to use the 'reset session' option
 483 in Signal to get going, and notify the people you talk with about the
 484 problem.  I assume there is some sequence number tracking in the
 485 protocol to detect rollback attacks.  The git repository is rather big
 486 (674 MiB so far), but I have not tried to figure out if some of the
 487 content can be added to a .gitignore file due to lack of spare
 488 time.</p>
 489
 490 <p>I've also hit the 90 days timeout blocking, and noticed that this
 491 make it impossible to send messages using Signal.  I could still
 492 receive them, but had to patch the code with a new timestamp to send.
 493 I believe the timeout is added by the developers to force people to
 494 upgrade to the latest version of the app, even when there is no
 495 protocol changes, to reduce the version skew among the user base and
 496 thus try to keep the number of support requests down.</p>
 497
 498 <p>Since my original recipe, the Signal source code changed slightly,
 499 making the old patch fail to apply cleanly.  Below is an updated
 500 patch, including the shell wrapper I use to start Signal.  The
 501 original version required a new user to locate the JavaScript console
 502 and call a function from there.  I got help from a friend with more
 503 JavaScript knowledge than me to modify the code to provide a GUI
 504 button instead.  This mean that to get started you just need to run
 505 the wrapper and click the 'Register without mobile phone' to get going
 506 now.  I've also modified the timeout code to always set it to 90 days
 507 in the future, to avoid having to patch the code regularly.</p>
 508
 509 <p>So, the updated recipe for Debian Jessie:</p>
 510
 511 <ol>
 512
 513 <li>First, install required packages to get the source code and the
 514 browser you need.  Signal only work with Chrome/Chromium, as far as I
 515 know, so you need to install it.
 516
 517 <pre>
 518 apt install git tor chromium
 519 git clone https://github.com/WhisperSystems/Signal-Desktop.git
 520 </pre></li>
 521
 522 <li>Modify the source code using command listed in the the patch
 523 block below.</li>
 524
 525 <li>Start Signal using the run-signal-app wrapper (for example using
 526 <tt>`pwd`/run-signal-app</tt>).
 527
 528 <li>Click on the 'Register without mobile phone', will in a phone
 529 number you can receive calls to the next minute, receive the
 530 verification code and enter it into the form field and press
 531 'Register'.  Note, the phone number you use will be user Signal
 532 username, ie the way others can find you on Signal.</li>
 533
 534 <li>You can now use Signal to contact others.  Note, new contacts do
 535 not show up in the contact list until you restart Signal, and there is
 536 no way to assign names to Contacts.  There is also no way to create or
 537 update chat groups.  I suspect this is because the web app do not have
 538 a associated contact database.</li>
 539
 540 </ol>
 541
 542 <p>I am still a bit uneasy about using Signal, because of the way its
 543 main author moxie0 reject federation and accept dependencies to major
 544 corporations like Google (part of the code is fetched from Google) and
 545 Amazon (the central coordination point is owned by Amazon).  See for
 546 example
 547 <a href="https://github.com/LibreSignal/LibreSignal/issues/37">the
 548 LibreSignal issue tracker</a> for a thread documenting the authors
 549 view on these issues.  But the network effect is strong in this case,
 550 and several of the people I want to communicate with already use
 551 Signal.  Perhaps we can all move to <a href="https://ring.cx/">Ring</a>
 552 once it <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/830265">work on my
 553 laptop</a>?  It already work on Windows and Android, and is included
 554 in <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/ring">Debian</a> and
 555 <a href="https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/ring">Ubuntu</a>, but not
 556 working on Debian Stable.</p>
 557
 558 <p>Anyway, this is the patch I apply to the Signal code to get it
 559 working.  It switch to the production servers, disable to timeout,
 560 make registration easier and add the shell wrapper:</p>
 561
 562 <pre>
 563 cd Signal-Desktop; cat &lt;&lt;EOF | patch -p1
 564 diff --git a/js/background.js b/js/background.js
 565 index 24b4c1d..579345f 100644
 566 --- a/js/background.js
 567 +++ b/js/background.js
 568 @@ -33,9 +33,9 @@
 569          });
 570      });
 571
 572 -    var SERVER_URL = 'https://textsecure-service-staging.whispersystems.org';
 573 +    var SERVER_URL = 'https://textsecure-service-ca.whispersystems.org';
 574      var SERVER_PORTS = [80, 4433, 8443];
 575 -    var ATTACHMENT_SERVER_URL = 'https://whispersystems-textsecure-attachments-staging.s3.amazonaws.com';
 576 +    var ATTACHMENT_SERVER_URL = 'https://whispersystems-textsecure-attachments.s3.amazonaws.com';
 577      var messageReceiver;
 578      window.getSocketStatus = function() {
 579          if (messageReceiver) {
 580 diff --git a/js/expire.js b/js/expire.js
 581 index 639aeae..beb91c3 100644
 582 --- a/js/expire.js
 583 +++ b/js/expire.js
 584 @@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 585  ;(function() {
 586      'use strict';
 587 -    var BUILD_EXPIRATION = 0;
 588 +    var BUILD_EXPIRATION = Date.now() + (90 * 24 * 60 * 60 * 1000);
 589
 590      window.extension = window.extension || {};
 591
 592 diff --git a/js/views/install_view.js b/js/views/install_view.js
 593 index 7816f4f..1d6233b 100644
 594 --- a/js/views/install_view.js
 595 +++ b/js/views/install_view.js
 596 @@ -38,7 +38,8 @@
 597              return {
 598                  'click .step1': this.selectStep.bind(this, 1),
 599                  'click .step2': this.selectStep.bind(this, 2),
 600 -                'click .step3': this.selectStep.bind(this, 3)
 601 +                'click .step3': this.selectStep.bind(this, 3),
 602 +                'click .callreg': function() { extension.install('standalone') },
 603              };
 604          },
 605          clearQR: function() {
 606 diff --git a/options.html b/options.html
 607 index dc0f28e..8d709f6 100644
 608 --- a/options.html
 609 +++ b/options.html
 610 @@ -14,7 +14,10 @@
 611          &lt;div class='nav'>
 612            &lt;h1>{{ installWelcome }}&lt;/h1>
 613            &lt;p>{{ installTagline }}&lt;/p>
 614 -          &lt;div> &lt;a class='button step2'>{{ installGetStartedButton }}&lt;/a> &lt;/div>
 615 +          &lt;div> &lt;a class='button step2'>{{ installGetStartedButton }}&lt;/a>
 616 +           &lt;br> &lt;a class="button callreg">Register without mobile phone&lt;/a>
 617 +
 618 +         &lt;/div>
 619            &lt;span class='dot step1 selected'>&lt;/span>
 620            &lt;span class='dot step2'>&lt;/span>
 621            &lt;span class='dot step3'>&lt;/span>
 622 --- /dev/null   2016-10-07 09:55:13.730181472 +0200
 623 +++ b/run-signal-app   2016-10-10 08:54:09.434172391 +0200
 624 @@ -0,0 +1,12 @@
 625 +#!/bin/sh
 626 +set -e
 627 +cd $(dirname $0)
 628 +mkdir -p userdata
 629 +userdata="`pwd`/userdata"
 630 +if [ -d "$userdata" ] && [ ! -d "$userdata/.git" ] ; then
 631 +    (cd $userdata && git init)
 632 +fi
 633 +(cd $userdata && git add . && git commit -m "Current status." || true)
 634 +exec chromium \
 635 +  --proxy-server="socks://localhost:9050" \
 636 +  --user-data-dir=$userdata --load-and-launch-app=`pwd`
 637 EOF
 638 chmod a+rx run-signal-app
 639 </pre>
 640
 641 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
 642 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
 643 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b&label=PetterReinholdtsenBlog">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
 644
 645       </div>
 646       <div class="tags">
 647
 648
 649         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance</a>.
 650
 651
 652       </div>
 653     </div>
 654     <div class="padding"></div>
 655
 656     <div class="entry">
 657       <div class="title">
 658         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Isenkram__Appstream_and_udev_make_life_as_a_LEGO_builder_easier.html">Isenkram, Appstream and udev make life as a LEGO builder easier</a>
 659       </div>
 660       <div class="date">
 661          7th October 2016
 662       </div>
 663       <div class="body">
 664         <p><a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/isenkram">The Isenkram
 665 system</a> provide a practical and easy way to figure out which
 666 packages support the hardware in a given machine.  The command line
 667 tool <tt>isenkram-lookup</tt> and the tasksel options provide a
 668 convenient way to list and install packages relevant for the current
 669 hardware during system installation, both user space packages and
 670 firmware packages. The GUI background daemon on the other hand provide
 671 a pop-up proposing to install packages when a new dongle is inserted
 672 while using the computer.  For example, if you plug in a smart card
 673 reader, the system will ask if you want to install <tt>pcscd</tt> if
 674 that package isn't already installed, and if you plug in a USB video
 675 camera the system will ask if you want to install <tt>cheese</tt> if
 676 cheese is currently missing.  This already work just fine.</p>
 677
 678 <p>But Isenkram depend on a database mapping from hardware IDs to
 679 package names.  When I started no such database existed in Debian, so
 680 I made my own data set and included it with the isenkram package and
 681 made isenkram fetch the latest version of this database from git using
 682 http.  This way the isenkram users would get updated package proposals
 683 as soon as I learned more about hardware related packages.</p>
 684
 685 <p>The hardware is identified using modalias strings.  The modalias
 686 design is from the Linux kernel where most hardware descriptors are
 687 made available as a strings that can be matched using filename style
 688 globbing.  It handle USB, PCI, DMI and a lot of other hardware related
 689 identifiers.</p>
 690
 691 <p>The downside to the Isenkram specific database is that there is no
 692 information about relevant distribution / Debian version, making
 693 isenkram propose obsolete packages too.  But along came AppStream, a
 694 cross distribution mechanism to store and collect metadata about
 695 software packages.  When I heard about the proposal, I contacted the
 696 people involved and suggested to add a hardware matching rule using
 697 modalias strings in the specification, to be able to use AppStream for
 698 mapping hardware to packages.  This idea was accepted and AppStream is
 699 now a great way for a package to announce the hardware it support in a
 700 distribution neutral way.  I wrote
 701 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Using_appstream_with_isenkram_to_install_hardware_related_packages_in_Debian.html">a
 702 recipe on how to add such meta-information</a> in a blog post last
 703 December.  If you have a hardware related package in Debian, please
 704 announce the relevant hardware IDs using AppStream.</p>
 705
 706 <p>In Debian, almost all packages that can talk to a LEGO Mindestorms
 707 RCX or NXT unit, announce this support using AppStream.  The effect is
 708 that when you insert such LEGO robot controller into your Debian
 709 machine, Isenkram will propose to install the packages needed to get
 710 it working.  The intention is that this should allow the local user to
 711 start programming his robot controller right away without having to
 712 guess what packages to use or which permissions to fix.</p>
 713
 714 <p>But when I sat down with my son the other day to program our NXT
 715 unit using his Debian Stretch computer, I discovered something
 716 annoying.  The local console user (ie my son) did not get access to
 717 the USB device for programming the unit.  This used to work, but no
 718 longer in Jessie and Stretch.  After some investigation and asking
 719 around on #debian-devel, I discovered that this was because udev had
 720 changed the mechanism used to grant access to local devices.  The
 721 ConsoleKit mechanism from <tt>/lib/udev/rules.d/70-udev-acl.rules</tt>
 722 no longer applied, because LDAP users no longer was added to the
 723 plugdev group during login.  Michael Biebl told me that this method
 724 was obsolete and the new method used ACLs instead.  This was good
 725 news, as the plugdev mechanism is a mess when using a remote user
 726 directory like LDAP.  Using ACLs would make sure a user lost device
 727 access when she logged out, even if the user left behind a background
 728 process which would retain the plugdev membership with the ConsoleKit
 729 setup.  Armed with this knowledge I moved on to fix the access problem
 730 for the LEGO Mindstorms related packages.</p>
 731
 732 <p>The new system uses a udev tag, 'uaccess'.  It can either be
 733 applied directly for a device, or is applied in
 734 /lib/udev/rules.d/70-uaccess.rules for classes of devices.  As the
 735 LEGO Mindstorms udev rules did not have a class, I decided to add the
 736 tag directly in the udev rules files included in the packages.  Here
 737 is one example.  For the nqc C compiler for the RCX, the
 738 <tt>/lib/udev/rules.d/60-nqc.rules</tt> file now look like this:
 739
 740 <p><pre>
 741 SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ACTION=="add", ATTR{idVendor}=="0694", ATTR{idProduct}=="0001", \
 742     SYMLINK+="rcx-%k", TAG+="uaccess"
 743 </pre></p>
 744
 745 <p>The key part is the 'TAG+="uaccess"' at the end.  I suspect all
 746 packages using plugdev in their /lib/udev/rules.d/ files should be
 747 changed to use this tag (either directly or indirectly via
 748 <tt>70-uaccess.rules</tt>).  Perhaps a lintian check should be created
 749 to detect this?</p>
 750
 751 <p>I've been unable to find good documentation on the uaccess feature.
 752 It is unclear to me if the uaccess tag is an internal implementation
 753 detail like the udev-acl tag used by
 754 <tt>/lib/udev/rules.d/70-udev-acl.rules</tt>.  If it is, I guess the
 755 indirect method is the preferred way.  Michael
 756 <a href="https://github.com/systemd/systemd/issues/4288">asked for more
 757 documentation from the systemd project</a> and I hope it will make
 758 this clearer.  For now I use the generic classes when they exist and
 759 is already handled by <tt>70-uaccess.rules</tt>, and add the tag
 760 directly if no such class exist.</p>
 761
 762 <p>To learn more about the isenkram system, please check out
 763 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram/">my
 764 blog posts tagged isenkram</a>.</p>
 765
 766 <p>To help out making life for LEGO constructors in Debian easier,
 767 please join us on our IRC channel
 768 <a href="irc://irc.debian.org/%23debian-lego">#debian-lego</a> and join
 769 the <a href="https://alioth.debian.org/projects/debian-lego/">Debian
 770 LEGO team</a> in the Alioth project we created yesterday.  A mailing
 771 list is not yet created, but we are working on it. :)</p>
 772
 773 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
 774 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
 775 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b&label=PetterReinholdtsenBlog">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
 776
 777       </div>
 778       <div class="tags">
 779
 780
 781         Tags: <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>.
 782
 783
 784       </div>
 785     </div>
 786     <div class="padding"></div>
 787
 788     <div class="entry">
 789       <div class="title">
 790         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/First_draft_Norwegian_Bokm_l_edition_of_The_Debian_Administrator_s_Handbook_now_public.html">First draft Norwegian Bokmål edition of The Debian Administrator's Handbook now public</a>
 791       </div>
 792       <div class="date">
 793         30th August 2016
 794       </div>
 795       <div class="body">
 796         <p>In April we
 797 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lets_make_a_Norwegian_Bokm_l_edition_of_The_Debian_Administrator_s_Handbook.html">started
 798 to work</a> on a Norwegian Bokmål edition of the "open access" book on
 799 how to set up and administrate a Debian system.  Today I am happy to
 800 report that the first draft is now publicly available.  You can find
 801 it on <a href="https://debian-handbook.info/get/">get the Debian
 802 Administrator's Handbook page</a> (under Other languages).  The first
 803 eight chapters have a first draft translation, and we are working on
 804 proofreading the content.  If you want to help out, please start
 805 contributing using
 806 <a href="https://hosted.weblate.org/projects/debian-handbook/">the
 807 hosted weblate project page</a>, and get in touch using
 808 <a href="http://lists.alioth.debian.org/mailman/listinfo/debian-handbook-translators">the
 809 translators mailing list</a>.  Please also check out
 810 <a href="https://debian-handbook.info/contribute/">the instructions for
 811 contributors</a>.  A good way to contribute is to proofread the text
 812 and update weblate if you find errors.</p>
 813
 814 <p>Our goal is still to make the Norwegian book available on paper as well as
 815 electronic form.</p>
 816
 817       </div>
 818       <div class="tags">
 819
 820
 821         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
 822
 823
 824       </div>
 825     </div>
 826     <div class="padding"></div>
 827
 828     <div class="entry">
 829       <div class="title">
 830         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Coz_can_help_you_find_bottlenecks_in_multi_threaded_software___nice_free_software.html">Coz can help you find bottlenecks in multi-threaded software - nice free software</a>
 831       </div>
 832       <div class="date">
 833         11th August 2016
 834       </div>
 835       <div class="body">
 836         <p>This summer, I read a great article
 837 "<a href="https://www.usenix.org/publications/login/summer2016/curtsinger">coz:
 838 This Is the Profiler You're Looking For</a>" in USENIX ;login: about
 839 how to profile multi-threaded programs.  It presented a system for
 840 profiling software by running experiences in the running program,
 841 testing how run time performance is affected by "speeding up" parts of
 842 the code to various degrees compared to a normal run.  It does this by
 843 slowing down parallel threads while the "faster up" code is running
 844 and measure how this affect processing time.  The processing time is
 845 measured using probes inserted into the code, either using progress
 846 counters (COZ_PROGRESS) or as latency meters (COZ_BEGIN/COZ_END).  It
 847 can also measure unmodified code by measuring complete the program
 848 runtime and running the program several times instead.</p>
 849
 850 <p>The project and presentation was so inspiring that I would like to
 851 get the system into Debian.  I
 852 <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=830708">created
 853 a WNPP request for it</a> and contacted upstream to try to make the
 854 system ready for Debian by sending patches.  The build process need to
 855 be changed a bit to avoid running 'git clone' to get dependencies, and
 856 to include the JavaScript web page used to visualize the collected
 857 profiling information included in the source package.
 858 But I expect that should work out fairly soon.</p>
 859
 860 <p>The way the system work is fairly simple.  To run an coz experiment
 861 on a binary with debug symbols available, start the program like this:
 862
 863 <p><blockquote><pre>
 864 coz run --- program-to-run
 865 </pre></blockquote></p>
 866
 867 <p>This will create a text file profile.coz with the instrumentation
 868 information.  To show what part of the code affect the performance
 869 most, use a web browser and either point it to
 870 <a href="http://plasma-umass.github.io/coz/">http://plasma-umass.github.io/coz/</a>
 871 or use the copy from git (in the gh-pages branch).  Check out this web
 872 site to have a look at several example profiling runs and get an idea what the end result from the profile runs look like.  To make the
 873 profiling more useful you include &lt;coz.h&gt; and insert the
 874 COZ_PROGRESS or COZ_BEGIN and COZ_END at appropriate places in the
 875 code, rebuild and run the profiler.  This allow coz to do more
 876 targeted experiments.</p>
 877
 878 <p>A video published by ACM
 879 <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jE0V-p1odPg">presenting the
 880 Coz profiler</a> is available from Youtube.  There is also a paper
 881 from the 25th Symposium on Operating Systems Principles available
 882 titled
 883 <a href="https://www.usenix.org/conference/atc16/technical-sessions/presentation/curtsinger">Coz:
 884 finding code that counts with causal profiling</a>.</p>
 885
 886 <p><a href="https://github.com/plasma-umass/coz">The source code</a>
 887 for Coz is available from github.  It will only build with clang
 888 because it uses a
 889 <a href="https://gcc.gnu.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=55606">C++
 890 feature missing in GCC</a>, but I've submitted
 891 <a href="https://github.com/plasma-umass/coz/pull/67">a patch to solve
 892 it</a> and hope it will be included in the upstream source soon.</p>
 893
 894 <p>Please get in touch if you, like me, would like to see this piece
 895 of software in Debian.  I would very much like some help with the
 896 packaging effort, as I lack the in depth knowledge on how to package
 897 C++ libraries.</p>
 898
 899       </div>
 900       <div class="tags">
 901
 902
 903         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nice free software">nice free software</a>.
 904
 905
 906       </div>
 907     </div>
 908     <div class="padding"></div>
 909
 910     <div class="entry">
 911       <div class="title">
 912         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Unlocking_HTC_Desire_HD_on_Linux_using_unruu_and_fastboot.html">Unlocking HTC Desire HD on Linux using unruu and fastboot</a>
 913       </div>
 914       <div class="date">
 915          7th July 2016
 916       </div>
 917       <div class="body">
 918         <p>Yesterday, I tried to unlock a HTC Desire HD phone, and it proved
 919 to be a slight challenge.  Here is the recipe if I ever need to do it
 920 again.  It all started by me wanting to try the recipe to set up
 921 <a href="https://blog.torproject.org/blog/mission-impossible-hardening-android-security-and-privacy">an
 922 hardened Android installation</a> from the Tor project blog on a
 923 device I had access to.  It is a old mobile phone with a broken
 924 microphone The initial idea had been to just
 925 <a href="http://wiki.cyanogenmod.org/w/Install_CM_for_ace">install
 926 CyanogenMod on it</a>, but did not quite find time to start on it
 927 until a few days ago.</p>
 928
 929 <p>The unlock process is supposed to be simple: (1) Boot into the boot
 930 loader (press volume down and power at the same time), (2) select
 931 'fastboot' before (3) connecting the device via USB to a Linux
 932 machine, (4) request the device identifier token by running 'fastboot
 933 oem get_identifier_token', (5) request the device unlocking key using
 934 the <a href="http://www.htcdev.com/bootloader/">HTC developer web
 935 site</a> and unlock the phone using the key file emailed to you.</p>
 936
 937 <p>Unfortunately, this only work fi you have hboot version 2.00.0029
 938 or newer, and the device I was working on had 2.00.0027.  This
 939 apparently can be easily fixed by downloading a Windows program and
 940 running it on your Windows machine, if you accept the terms Microsoft
 941 require you to accept to use Windows - which I do not.  So I had to
 942 come up with a different approach.  I got a lot of help from AndyCap
 943 on #nuug, and would not have been able to get this working without
 944 him.</p>
 945
 946 <p>First I needed to extract the hboot firmware from
 947 <a href="http://www.htcdev.com/ruu/PD9810000_Ace_Sense30_S_hboot_2.00.0029.exe">the
 948 windows binary for HTC Desire HD</a> downloaded as 'the RUU' from HTC.
 949 For this there is is <a href="https://github.com/kmdm/unruu/">a github
 950 project named unruu</a> using libunshield.  The unshield tool did not
 951 recognise the file format, but unruu worked and extracted rom.zip,
 952 containing the new hboot firmware and a text file describing which
 953 devices it would work for.</p>
 954
 955 <p>Next, I needed to get the new firmware into the device.  For this I
 956 followed some instructions
 957 <a href="http://www.htc1guru.com/2013/09/new-ruu-zips-posted/">available
 958 from HTC1Guru.com</a>, and ran these commands as root on a Linux
 959 machine with Debian testing:</p>
 960
 961 <p><pre>
 962 adb reboot-bootloader
 963 fastboot oem rebootRUU
 964 fastboot flash zip rom.zip
 965 fastboot flash zip rom.zip
 966 fastboot reboot
 967 </pre></p>
 968
 969 <p>The flash command apparently need to be done twice to take effect,
 970 as the first is just preparations and the second one do the flashing.
 971 The adb command is just to get to the boot loader menu, so turning the
 972 device on while holding volume down and the power button should work
 973 too.</p>
 974
 975 <p>With the new hboot version in place I could start following the
 976 instructions on the HTC developer web site.  I got the device token
 977 like this:</p>
 978
 979 <p><pre>
 980 fastboot oem get_identifier_token 2>&1 | sed 's/(bootloader) //'
 981 </pre>
 982
 983 <p>And once I got the unlock code via email, I could use it like
 984 this:</p>
 985
 986 <p><pre>
 987 fastboot flash unlocktoken Unlock_code.bin
 988 </pre></p>
 989
 990 <p>And with that final step in place, the phone was unlocked and I
 991 could start stuffing the software of my own choosing into the device.
 992 So far I only inserted a replacement recovery image to wipe the phone
 993 before I start.  We will see what happen next.  Perhaps I should
 994 install <a href="https://www.debian.org/">Debian</a> on it. :)</p>
 995
 996       </div>
 997       <div class="tags">
 998
 999
1000         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bootsystem">bootsystem</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/opphavsrett">opphavsrett</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet</a>.
1001
1002
1003       </div>
1004     </div>
1005     <div class="padding"></div>
1006
1007     <div class="entry">
1008       <div class="title">
1009         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_use_the_Signal_app_if_you_only_have_a_land_line__ie_no_mobile_phone_.html">How to use the Signal app if you only have a land line (ie no mobile phone)</a>
1010       </div>
1011       <div class="date">
1012          3rd July 2016
1013       </div>
1014       <div class="body">
1015         <p>For a while now, I have wanted to test
1016 <a href="https://whispersystems.org/">the Signal app</a>, as it is
1017 said to provide end to end encrypted communication and several of my
1018 friends and family are already using it.  As I by choice do not own a
1019 mobile phone, this proved to be harder than expected.  And I wanted to
1020 have the source of the client and know that it was the code used on my
1021 machine.  But yesterday I managed to get it working.  I used the
1022 Github source, compared it to the source in
1023 <a href="https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/signal-private-messenger/bikioccmkafdpakkkcpdbppfkghcmihk?hl=en-US">the
1024 Signal Chrome app</a> available from the Chrome web store, applied
1025 patches to use the production Signal servers, started the app and
1026 asked for the hidden "register without a smart phone" form.  Here is
1027 the recipe how I did it.</p>
1028
1029 <p>First, I fetched the Signal desktop source from Github, using
1030
1031 <pre>
1032 git clone https://github.com/WhisperSystems/Signal-Desktop.git
1033 </pre>
1034
1035 <p>Next, I patched the source to use the production servers, to be
1036 able to talk to other Signal users:</p>
1037
1038 <pre>
1039 cat &lt;&lt;EOF | patch -p0
1040 diff -ur ./js/background.js userdata/Default/Extensions/bikioccmkafdpakkkcpdbppfkghcmihk/0.15.0_0/js/background.js
1041 --- ./js/background.js  2016-06-29 13:43:15.630344628 +0200
1042 +++ userdata/Default/Extensions/bikioccmkafdpakkkcpdbppfkghcmihk/0.15.0_0/js/background.js    2016-06-29 14:06:29.530300934 +0200
1043 @@ -47,8 +47,8 @@
1044          });
1045      });
1046
1047 -    var SERVER_URL = 'https://textsecure-service-staging.whispersystems.org';
1048 -    var ATTACHMENT_SERVER_URL = 'https://whispersystems-textsecure-attachments-staging.s3.amazonaws.com';
1049 +    var SERVER_URL = 'https://textsecure-service-ca.whispersystems.org:4433';
1050 +    var ATTACHMENT_SERVER_URL = 'https://whispersystems-textsecure-attachments.s3.amazonaws.com';
1051      var messageReceiver;
1052      window.getSocketStatus = function() {
1053          if (messageReceiver) {
1054 diff -ur ./js/expire.js userdata/Default/Extensions/bikioccmkafdpakkkcpdbppfkghcmihk/0.15.0_0/js/expire.js
1055 --- ./js/expire.js      2016-06-29 13:43:15.630344628 +0200
1056 +++ userdata/Default/Extensions/bikioccmkafdpakkkcpdbppfkghcmihk/0.15.0_0/js/expire.js2016-06-29 14:06:29.530300934 +0200
1057 @@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
1058  ;(function() {
1059      'use strict';
1060 -    var BUILD_EXPIRATION = 0;
1061 +    var BUILD_EXPIRATION = 1474492690000;
1062
1063      window.extension = window.extension || {};
1064
1065 EOF
1066 </pre>
1067
1068 <p>The first part is changing the servers, and the second is updating
1069 an expiration timestamp.  This timestamp need to be updated regularly.
1070 It is set 90 days in the future by the build process (Gruntfile.js).
1071 The value is seconds since 1970 times 1000, as far as I can tell.</p>
1072
1073 <p>Based on a tip and good help from the #nuug IRC channel, I wrote a
1074 script to launch Signal in Chromium.</p>
1075
1076 <pre>
1077 #!/bin/sh
1078 cd $(dirname $0)
1079 mkdir -p userdata
1080 exec chromium \
1081   --proxy-server="socks://localhost:9050" \
1082   --user-data-dir=`pwd`/userdata --load-and-launch-app=`pwd`
1083 </pre>
1084
1085 <p> The script start the app and configure Chromium to use the Tor
1086 SOCKS5 proxy to make sure those controlling the Signal servers (today
1087 Amazon and Whisper Systems) as well as those listening on the lines
1088 will have a harder time location my laptop based on the Signal
1089 connections if they use source IP address.</p>
1090
1091 <p>When the script starts, one need to follow the instructions under
1092 "Standalone Registration" in the CONTRIBUTING.md file in the git
1093 repository.  I right clicked on the Signal window to get up the
1094 Chromium debugging tool, visited the 'Console' tab and wrote
1095 'extension.install("standalone")' on the console prompt to get the
1096 registration form.  Then I entered by land line phone number and
1097 pressed 'Call'.  5 seconds later the phone rang and a robot voice
1098 repeated the verification code three times.  After entering the number
1099 into the verification code field in the form, I could start using
1100 Signal from my laptop.
1101
1102 <p>As far as I can tell, The Signal app will leak who is talking to
1103 whom and thus who know who to those controlling the central server,
1104 but such leakage is hard to avoid with a centrally controlled server
1105 setup.  It is something to keep in mind when using Signal - the
1106 content of your chats are harder to intercept, but the meta data
1107 exposing your contact network is available to people you do not know.
1108 So better than many options, but not great.  And sadly the usage is
1109 connected to my land line, thus allowing those controlling the server
1110 to associate it to my home and person.  I would prefer it if only
1111 those I knew could tell who I was on Signal.  There are options
1112 avoiding such information leakage, but most of my friends are not
1113 using them, so I am stuck with Signal for now.</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/sikkerhet">sikkerhet</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance</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/The_new__best__multimedia_player_in_Debian_.html">The new "best" multimedia player in Debian?</a>
1129       </div>
1130       <div class="date">
1131          6th June 2016
1132       </div>
1133       <div class="body">
1134         <p>When I set out a few weeks ago to figure out
1135 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/What_is_the_best_multimedia_player_in_Debian_.html">which
1136 multimedia player in Debian claimed to support most file formats /
1137 MIME types</a>, I was a bit surprised how varied the sets of MIME types
1138 the various players claimed support for.  The range was from 55 to 130
1139 MIME types.  I suspect most media formats are supported by all
1140 players, but this is not really reflected in the MimeTypes values in
1141 their desktop files.  There are probably also some bogus MIME types
1142 listed, but it is hard to identify which one this is.</p>
1143
1144 <p>Anyway, in the mean time I got in touch with upstream for some of
1145 the players suggesting to add more MIME types to their desktop files,
1146 and decided to spend some time myself improving the situation for my
1147 favorite media player VLC.  The fixes for VLC entered Debian unstable
1148 yesterday. The complete list of MIME types can be seen on the
1149 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/DebianMultimedia/PlayerSupport">Multimedia
1150 player MIME type support status</a> Debian wiki page.</p>
1151
1152 <p>The new "best" multimedia player in Debian?  It is VLC, followed by
1153 totem, parole, kplayer, gnome-mpv, mpv, smplayer, mplayer-gui and
1154 kmplayer.  I am sure some of the other players desktop files support
1155 several of the formats currently listed as working only with vlc,
1156 toten and parole.</p>
1157
1158 <p>A sad observation is that only 14 MIME types are listed as
1159 supported by all the tested multimedia players in Debian in their
1160 desktop files: audio/mpeg, audio/vnd.rn-realaudio, audio/x-mpegurl,
1161 audio/x-ms-wma, audio/x-scpls, audio/x-wav, video/mp4, video/mpeg,
1162 video/quicktime, video/vnd.rn-realvideo, video/x-matroska,
1163 video/x-ms-asf, video/x-ms-wmv and video/x-msvideo.  Personally I find
1164 it sad that video/ogg and video/webm is not supported by all the media
1165 players in Debian.  As far as I can tell, all of them can handle both
1166 formats.</p>
1167
1168       </div>
1169       <div class="tags">
1170
1171
1172         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>.
1173
1174
1175       </div>
1176     </div>
1177     <div class="padding"></div>
1178
1179     <div class="entry">
1180       <div class="title">
1181         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/A_program_should_be_able_to_open_its_own_files_on_Linux.html">A program should be able to open its own files on Linux</a>
1182       </div>
1183       <div class="date">
1184          5th June 2016
1185       </div>
1186       <div class="body">
1187         <p>Many years ago, when koffice was fresh and with few users, I
1188 decided to test its presentation tool when making the slides for a
1189 talk I was giving for NUUG on Japhar, a free Java virtual machine.  I
1190 wrote the first draft of the slides, saved the result and went to bed
1191 the day before I would give the talk.  The next day I took a plane to
1192 the location where the meeting should take place, and on the plane I
1193 started up koffice again to polish the talk a bit, only to discover
1194 that kpresenter refused to load its own data file.  I cursed a bit and
1195 started making the slides again from memory, to have something to
1196 present when I arrived.  I tested that the saved files could be
1197 loaded, and the day seemed to be rescued.  I continued to polish the
1198 slides until I suddenly discovered that the saved file could no longer
1199 be loaded into kpresenter.  In the end I had to rewrite the slides
1200 three times, condensing the content until the talk became shorter and
1201 shorter.  After the talk I was able to pinpoint the problem &ndash;
1202 kpresenter wrote inline images in a way itself could not understand.
1203 Eventually that bug was fixed and kpresenter ended up being a great
1204 program to make slides.  The point I'm trying to make is that we
1205 expect a program to be able to load its own data files, and it is
1206 embarrassing to its developers if it can't.</p>
1207
1208 <p>Did you ever experience a program failing to load its own data
1209 files from the desktop file browser?  It is not a uncommon problem.  A
1210 while back I discovered that the screencast recorder
1211 gtk-recordmydesktop would save an Ogg Theora video file the KDE file
1212 browser would refuse to open.  No video player claimed to understand
1213 such file.  I tracked down the cause being <tt>file --mime-type</tt>
1214 returning the application/ogg MIME type, which no video player I had
1215 installed listed as a MIME type they would understand.  I asked for
1216 <a href="http://bugs.gw.com/view.php?id=382">file to change its
1217 behavour</a> and use the MIME type video/ogg instead.  I also asked
1218 several video players to add video/ogg to their desktop files, to give
1219 the file browser an idea what to do about Ogg Theora files.  After a
1220 while, the desktop file browsers in Debian started to handle the
1221 output from gtk-recordmydesktop properly.</p>
1222
1223 <p>But history repeats itself.  A few days ago I tested the music
1224 system Rosegarden again, and I discovered that the KDE and xfce file
1225 browsers did not know what to do with the Rosegarden project files
1226 (*.rg).  I've reported <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/825993">the
1227 rosegarden problem to BTS</a> and a fix is commited to git and will be
1228 included in the next upload.  To increase the chance of me remembering
1229 how to fix the problem next time some program fail to load its files
1230 from the file browser, here are some notes on how to fix it.</p>
1231
1232 <p>The file browsers in Debian in general operates on MIME types.
1233 There are two sources for the MIME type of a given file.  The output from
1234 <tt>file --mime-type</tt> mentioned above, and the content of the
1235 shared MIME type registry (under /usr/share/mime/).  The file MIME
1236 type is mapped to programs supporting the MIME type, and this
1237 information is collected from
1238 <a href="https://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Specifications/desktop-entry-spec/">the
1239 desktop files</a> available in /usr/share/applications/.  If there is
1240 one desktop file claiming support for the MIME type of the file, it is
1241 activated when asking to open a given file.  If there are more, one
1242 can normally select which one to use by right-clicking on the file and
1243 selecting the wanted one using 'Open with' or similar.  In general
1244 this work well.  But it depend on each program picking a good MIME
1245 type (preferably
1246 <a href="http://www.iana.org/assignments/media-types/media-types.xhtml">a
1247 MIME type registered with IANA</a>), file and/or the shared MIME
1248 registry recognizing the file and the desktop file to list the MIME
1249 type in its list of supported MIME types.</p>
1250
1251 <p>The <tt>/usr/share/mime/packages/rosegarden.xml</tt> entry for
1252 <a href="http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Specifications/shared-mime-info-spec">the
1253 Shared MIME database</a> look like this:</p>
1254
1255 <p><blockquote><pre>
1256 &lt;?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?&gt;
1257 &lt;mime-info xmlns="http://www.freedesktop.org/standards/shared-mime-info"&gt;
1258   &lt;mime-type type="audio/x-rosegarden"&gt;
1259     &lt;sub-class-of type="application/x-gzip"/&gt;
1260     &lt;comment&gt;Rosegarden project file&lt;/comment&gt;
1261     &lt;glob pattern="*.rg"/&gt;
1262   &lt;/mime-type&gt;
1263 &lt;/mime-info&gt;
1264 </pre></blockquote></p>
1265
1266 <p>This states that audio/x-rosegarden is a kind of application/x-gzip
1267 (it is a gzipped XML file).  Note, it is much better to use an
1268 official MIME type registered with IANA than it is to make up ones own
1269 unofficial ones like the x-rosegarden type used by rosegarden.</p>
1270
1271 <p>The desktop file of the rosegarden program failed to list
1272 audio/x-rosegarden in its list of supported MIME types, causing the
1273 file browsers to have no idea what to do with *.rg files:</p>
1274
1275 <p><blockquote><pre>
1276 % grep Mime /usr/share/applications/rosegarden.desktop
1277 MimeType=audio/x-rosegarden-composition;audio/x-rosegarden-device;audio/x-rosegarden-project;audio/x-rosegarden-template;audio/midi;
1278 X-KDE-NativeMimeType=audio/x-rosegarden-composition
1279 %
1280 </pre></blockquote></p>
1281
1282 <p>The fix was to add "audio/x-rosegarden;" at the end of the
1283 MimeType= line.</p>
1284
1285 <p>If you run into a file which fail to open the correct program when
1286 selected from the file browser, please check out the output from
1287 <tt>file --mime-type</tt> for the file, ensure the file ending and
1288 MIME type is registered somewhere under /usr/share/mime/ and check
1289 that some desktop file under /usr/share/applications/ is claiming
1290 support for this MIME type.  If not, please report a bug to have it
1291 fixed. :)</p>
1292
1293       </div>
1294       <div class="tags">
1295
1296
1297         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
1298
1299
1300       </div>
1301     </div>
1302     <div class="padding"></div>
1303
1304     <div class="entry">
1305       <div class="title">
1306         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Isenkram_with_PackageKit_support___new_version_0_23_available_in_Debian_unstable.html">Isenkram with PackageKit support - new version 0.23 available in Debian unstable</a>
1307       </div>
1308       <div class="date">
1309         25th May 2016
1310       </div>
1311       <div class="body">
1312         <p><a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/isenkram">The isenkram
1313 system</a> is a user-focused solution in Debian for handling hardware
1314 related packages.  The idea is to have a database of mappings between
1315 hardware and packages, and pop up a dialog suggesting for the user to
1316 install the packages to use a given hardware dongle.  Some use cases
1317 are when you insert a Yubikey, it proposes to install the software
1318 needed to control it; when you insert a braille reader list it
1319 proposes to install the packages needed to send text to the reader;
1320 and when you insert a ColorHug screen calibrator it suggests to
1321 install the driver for it.  The system work well, and even have a few
1322 command line tools to install firmware packages and packages for the
1323 hardware already in the machine (as opposed to hotpluggable hardware).</p>
1324
1325 <p>The system was initially written using aptdaemon, because I found
1326 good documentation and example code on how to use it.  But aptdaemon
1327 is going away and is generally being replaced by
1328 <a href="http://www.freedesktop.org/software/PackageKit/">PackageKit</a>,
1329 so Isenkram needed a rewrite.  And today, thanks to the great patch
1330 from my college Sunil Mohan Adapa in the FreedomBox project, the
1331 rewrite finally took place.  I've just uploaded a new version of
1332 Isenkram into Debian Unstable with the patch included, and the default
1333 for the background daemon is now to use PackageKit.  To check it out,
1334 install the <tt>isenkram</tt> package and insert some hardware dongle
1335 and see if it is recognised.</p>
1336
1337 <p>If you want to know what kind of packages isenkram would propose for
1338 the machine it is running on, you can check out the isenkram-lookup
1339 program.  This is what it look like on a Thinkpad X230:</p>
1340
1341 <p><blockquote><pre>
1342 % isenkram-lookup
1343 bluez
1344 cheese
1345 fprintd
1346 fprintd-demo
1347 gkrellm-thinkbat
1348 hdapsd
1349 libpam-fprintd
1350 pidgin-blinklight
1351 thinkfan
1352 tleds
1353 tp-smapi-dkms
1354 tp-smapi-source
1355 tpb
1356 %p
1357 </pre></blockquote></p>
1358
1359 <p>The hardware mappings come from several places.  The preferred way
1360 is for packages to announce their hardware support using
1361 <a href="https://www.freedesktop.org/software/appstream/docs/">the
1362 cross distribution appstream system</a>.
1363 See
1364 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram/">previous
1365 blog posts about isenkram</a> to learn how to do that.</p>
1366
1367       </div>
1368       <div class="tags">
1369
1370
1371         Tags: <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>.
1372
1373
1374       </div>
1375     </div>
1376     <div class="padding"></div>
1377
1378     <div class="entry">
1379       <div class="title">
1380         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Discharge_rate_estimate_in_new_battery_statistics_collector_for_Debian.html">Discharge rate estimate in new battery statistics collector for Debian</a>
1381       </div>
1382       <div class="date">
1383         23rd May 2016
1384       </div>
1385       <div class="body">
1386         <p>Yesterday I updated the
1387 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/battery-stats">battery-stats
1388 package in Debian</a> with a few patches sent to me by skilled and
1389 enterprising users.  There were some nice user and visible changes.
1390 First of all, both desktop menu entries now work.  A design flaw in
1391 one of the script made the history graph fail to show up (its PNG was
1392 dumped in ~/.xsession-errors) if no controlling TTY was available.
1393 The script worked when called from the command line, but not when
1394 called from the desktop menu.  I changed this to look for a DISPLAY
1395 variable or a TTY before deciding where to draw the graph, and now the
1396 graph window pop up as expected.</p>
1397
1398 <p>The next new feature is a discharge rate estimator in one of the
1399 graphs (the one showing the last few hours).  New is also the user of
1400 colours showing charging in blue and discharge in red.  The percentages
1401 of this graph is relative to last full charge, not battery design
1402 capacity.</p>
1403
1404 <p align="center"><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2016-05-23-battery-stats-rate.png"/></p>
1405
1406 <p>The other graph show the entire history of the collected battery
1407 statistics, comparing it to the design capacity of the battery to
1408 visualise how the battery life time get shorter over time.  The red
1409 line in this graph is what the previous graph considers 100 percent:
1410
1411 <p align="center"><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2016-05-23-battery-stats-history.png"/></p>
1412
1413 <p>In this graph you can see that I only charge the battery to 80
1414 percent of last full capacity, and how the capacity of the battery is
1415 shrinking. :(</p>
1416
1417 <p>The last new feature is in the collector, which now will handle
1418 more hardware models.  On some hardware, Linux power supply
1419 information is stored in /sys/class/power_supply/ACAD/, while the
1420 collector previously only looked in /sys/class/power_supply/AC/.  Now
1421 both are checked to figure if there is power connected to the
1422 machine.</p>
1423
1424 <p>If you are interested in how your laptop battery is doing, please
1425 check out the
1426 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/battery-stats">battery-stats</a>
1427 in Debian unstable, or rebuild it on Jessie to get it working on
1428 Debian stable. :) The upstream source is available from <a
1429 href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/battery-stats">github</a>.
1430 Patches are very welcome.</p>
1431
1432 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
1433 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
1434 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
1435
1436       </div>
1437       <div class="tags">
1438
1439
1440         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
1441
1442
1443       </div>
1444     </div>
1445     <div class="padding"></div>
1446
1447     <div class="entry">
1448       <div class="title">
1449         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_now_with_ZFS_on_Linux_included.html">Debian now with ZFS on Linux included</a>
1450       </div>
1451       <div class="date">
1452         12th May 2016
1453       </div>
1454       <div class="body">
1455         <p>Today, after many years of hard work from many people,
1456 <a href="http://zfsonlinux.org/">ZFS for Linux</a> finally entered
1457 Debian.  The package status can be seen on
1458 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/zfs-linux">the package tracker
1459 for zfs-linux</a>.  and
1460 <a href="https://qa.debian.org/developer.php?login=pkg-zfsonlinux-devel@lists.alioth.debian.org">the
1461 team status page</a>. If you want to help out, please join us.
1462 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/gitweb/?p=pkg-zfsonlinux/zfs.git">The
1463 source code</a> is available via git on Alioth.  It would also be
1464 great if you could help out with
1465 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/dkms">the dkms package</a>, as
1466 it is an important piece of the puzzle to get ZFS working.</p>
1467
1468       </div>
1469       <div class="tags">
1470
1471
1472         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
1473
1474
1475       </div>
1476     </div>
1477     <div class="padding"></div>
1478
1479     <div class="entry">
1480       <div class="title">
1481         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/What_is_the_best_multimedia_player_in_Debian_.html">What is the best multimedia player in Debian?</a>
1482       </div>
1483       <div class="date">
1484          8th May 2016
1485       </div>
1486       <div class="body">
1487         <p><strong>Where I set out to figure out which multimedia player in
1488 Debian claim support for most file formats.</strong></p>
1489
1490 <p>A few years ago, I had a look at the media support for Browser
1491 plugins in Debian, to get an idea which plugins to include in Debian
1492 Edu.  I created a script to extract the set of supported MIME types
1493 for each plugin, and used this to find out which multimedia browser
1494 plugin supported most file formats / media types.
1495 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/BrowserMultimedia">The
1496 result</a> can still be seen on the Debian wiki, even though it have
1497 not been updated for a while.  But browser plugins are less relevant
1498 these days, so I thought it was time to look at standalone
1499 players.</p>
1500
1501 <p>A few days ago I was tired of VLC not being listed as a viable
1502 player when I wanted to play videos from the Norwegian National
1503 Broadcasting Company, and decided to investigate why.  The cause is a
1504 <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/822245">missing MIME type in the VLC
1505 desktop file</a>.  In the process I wrote a script to compare the set
1506 of MIME types announced in the desktop file and the browser plugin,
1507 only to discover that there is quite a large difference between the
1508 two for VLC.  This discovery made me dig up the script I used to
1509 compare browser plugins, and adjust it to compare desktop files
1510 instead, to try to figure out which multimedia player in Debian
1511 support most file formats.</p>
1512
1513 <p>The result can be seen on the Debian Wiki, as
1514 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/DebianMultimedia/PlayerSupport">a
1515 table listing all MIME types supported by one of the packages included
1516 in the table</a>, with the package supporting most MIME types being
1517 listed first in the table.</p>
1518
1519 </p>The best multimedia player in Debian?  It is totem, followed by
1520 parole, kplayer, mpv, vlc, smplayer mplayer-gui gnome-mpv and
1521 kmplayer.  Time for the other players to update their announced MIME
1522 support?</p>
1523
1524       </div>
1525       <div class="tags">
1526
1527
1528         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>.
1529
1530
1531       </div>
1532     </div>
1533     <div class="padding"></div>
1534
1535     <div class="entry">
1536       <div class="title">
1537         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_Pyra___handheld_computer_with_Debian_preinstalled.html">The Pyra - handheld computer with Debian preinstalled</a>
1538       </div>
1539       <div class="date">
1540          4th May 2016
1541       </div>
1542       <div class="body">
1543         A friend of mine made me aware of
1544 <a href="https://pyra-handheld.com/boards/pages/pyra/">The Pyra</a>, a
1545 handheld computer which will be delivered with Debian preinstalled.  I
1546 would love to get one of those for my birthday. :)</p>
1547
1548 <p>The machine is a complete ARM-based PC with micro HDMI, SATA, USB
1549 plugs and many others connectors, and include a full keyboard and a 5"
1550 LCD touch screen.  The 6000mAh battery is claimed to provide a whole
1551 day of battery life time, but I have not seen any independent tests
1552 confirming this.  The vendor is still collecting preorders, and the
1553 last I heard last night was that 22 more orders were needed before
1554 production started.</p>
1555
1556 <p>As far as I know, this is the first handheld preinstalled with
1557 Debian.  Please let me know if you know of any others.  Is it the
1558 first computer being sold with Debian preinstalled?</p>
1559
1560       </div>
1561       <div class="tags">
1562
1563
1564         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
1565
1566
1567       </div>
1568     </div>
1569     <div class="padding"></div>
1570
1571     <div class="entry">
1572       <div class="title">
1573         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lets_make_a_Norwegian_Bokm_l_edition_of_The_Debian_Administrator_s_Handbook.html">Lets make a Norwegian Bokmål edition of The Debian Administrator's Handbook</a>
1574       </div>
1575       <div class="date">
1576         10th April 2016
1577       </div>
1578       <div class="body">
1579         <p>During this weekends
1580 <a href="http://www.nuug.no/news/Oslo__Takk_for_feilfiksingsfesten.shtml">bug
1581 squashing party and developer gathering</a>, we decided to do our part
1582 to make sure there are good books about Debian available in Norwegian
1583 Bokmål, and got in touch with the people behind the
1584 <a href="http://debian-handbook.info/">Debian Administrator's Handbook
1585 project</a> to get started.  If you want to help out, please start
1586 contributing using
1587 <a href="https://hosted.weblate.org/projects/debian-handbook/">the
1588 hosted weblate project page</a>, and get in touch using
1589 <a href="http://lists.alioth.debian.org/mailman/listinfo/debian-handbook-translators">the
1590 translators mailing list</a>.  Please also check out
1591 <a href="https://debian-handbook.info/contribute/">the instructions for
1592 contributors</a>.</p>
1593
1594 <p>The book is already available on paper in English, French and
1595 Japanese, and our goal is to get it available on paper in Norwegian
1596 Bokmål too.  In addition to the paper edition, there are also EPUB and
1597 Mobi versions available.  And there are incomplete translations
1598 available for many more languages.</p>
1599
1600       </div>
1601       <div class="tags">
1602
1603
1604         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
1605
1606
1607       </div>
1608     </div>
1609     <div class="padding"></div>
1610
1611     <div class="entry">
1612       <div class="title">
1613         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/One_in_two_hundred_Debian_users_using_ZFS_on_Linux_.html">One in two hundred Debian users using ZFS on Linux?</a>
1614       </div>
1615       <div class="date">
1616          7th April 2016
1617       </div>
1618       <div class="body">
1619         <p>Just for fun I had a look at the popcon number of ZFS related
1620 packages in Debian, and was quite surprised with what I found.  I use
1621 ZFS myself at home, but did not really expect many others to do so.
1622 But I might be wrong.</p>
1623
1624 <p>According to
1625 <a href="https://qa.debian.org/popcon.php?package=spl-linux">the popcon
1626 results for spl-linux</a>, there are 1019 Debian installations, or
1627 0.53% of the population, with the package installed.  As far as I know
1628 the only use of the spl-linux package is as a support library for ZFS
1629 on Linux, so I use it here as proxy for measuring the number of ZFS
1630 installation on Linux in Debian.  In the kFreeBSD variant of Debian
1631 the ZFS feature is already available, and there
1632 <a href="https://qa.debian.org/popcon.php?package=zfsutils">the popcon
1633 results for zfsutils</a> show 1625 Debian installations or 0.84% of
1634 the population.  So I guess I am not alone in using ZFS on Debian.</p>
1635
1636 <p>But even though the Debian project leader Lucas Nussbaum
1637 <a href="https://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce/2015/04/msg00006.html">announced
1638 in April 2015</a> that the legal obstacles blocking ZFS on Debian were
1639 cleared, the package is still not in Debian.  The package is again in
1640 the NEW queue.  Several uploads have been rejected so far because the
1641 debian/copyright file was incomplete or wrong, but there is no reason
1642 to give up.  The current status can be seen on
1643 <a href="https://qa.debian.org/developer.php?login=pkg-zfsonlinux-devel@lists.alioth.debian.org">the
1644 team status page</a>, and
1645 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/gitweb/?p=pkg-zfsonlinux/zfs.git">the
1646 source code</a> is available on Alioth.</p>
1647
1648 <p>As I want ZFS to be included in next version of Debian to make sure
1649 my home server can function in the future using only official Debian
1650 packages, and the current blocker is to get the debian/copyright file
1651 accepted by the FTP masters in Debian, I decided a while back to try
1652 to help out the team.  This was the background for my blog post about
1653 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Creating__updating_and_checking_debian_copyright_semi_automatically.html">creating,
1654 updating and checking debian/copyright semi-automatically</a>, and I
1655 used the techniques I explored there to try to find any errors in the
1656 copyright file.  It is not very easy to check every one of the around
1657 2000 files in the source package, but I hope we this time got it
1658 right.  If you want to help out, check out the git source and try to
1659 find missing entries in the debian/copyright file.</p>
1660
1661       </div>
1662       <div class="tags">
1663
1664
1665         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
1666
1667
1668       </div>
1669     </div>
1670     <div class="padding"></div>
1671
1672     <div class="entry">
1673       <div class="title">
1674         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Full_battery_stats_collector_is_now_available_in_Debian.html">Full battery stats collector is now available in Debian</a>
1675       </div>
1676       <div class="date">
1677         23rd March 2016
1678       </div>
1679       <div class="body">
1680         <p>Since this morning, the battery-stats package in Debian include an
1681 extended collector that will collect the complete battery history for
1682 later processing and graphing.  The original collector store the
1683 battery level as percentage of last full level, while the new
1684 collector also record battery vendor, model, serial number, design
1685 full level, last full level and current battery level.  This make it
1686 possible to predict the lifetime of the battery as well as visualise
1687 the energy flow when the battery is charging or discharging.</p>
1688
1689 <p>The new tools are available in <tt>/usr/share/battery-stats/</tt>
1690 in the version 0.5.1 package in unstable.  Get the new battery level graph
1691 and lifetime prediction by running:
1692
1693 <p><pre>
1694 /usr/share/battery-stats/battery-stats-graph /var/log/battery-stats.csv
1695 </pre></p>
1696
1697 <p>Or select the 'Battery Level Graph' from your application menu.</p>
1698
1699 <p>The flow in/out of the battery can be seen by running (no menu
1700 entry yet):</p>
1701
1702 <p><pre>
1703 /usr/share/battery-stats/battery-stats-graph-flow
1704 </pre></p>
1705
1706 <p>I'm not quite happy with the way the data is visualised, at least
1707 when there are few data points.  The graphs look a bit better with a
1708 few years of data.</p>
1709
1710 <p>A while back one important feature I use in the battery stats
1711 collector broke in Debian.  The scripts in
1712 <tt>/usr/lib/pm-utils/power.d/</tt> were no longer executed.  I
1713 suspect it happened when Jessie started using systemd, but I do not
1714 know.  The issue is reported as
1715 <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/818649">bug #818649</a> against
1716 pm-utils.  I managed to work around it by adding an udev rule to call
1717 the collector script every time the power connector is connected and
1718 disconnected.  With this fix in place it was finally time to make a
1719 new release of the package, and get it into Debian.</p>
1720
1721 <p>If you are interested in how your laptop battery is doing, please
1722 check out the
1723 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/battery-stats">battery-stats</a>
1724 in Debian unstable, or rebuild it on Jessie to get it working on
1725 Debian stable. :) The upstream source is available from
1726 <a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/battery-stats">github</a>.
1727 As always, patches are very welcome.</p>
1728
1729       </div>
1730       <div class="tags">
1731
1732
1733         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
1734
1735
1736       </div>
1737     </div>
1738     <div class="padding"></div>
1739
1740     <div class="entry">
1741       <div class="title">
1742         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Making_battery_measurements_a_little_easier_in_Debian.html">Making battery measurements a little easier in Debian</a>
1743       </div>
1744       <div class="date">
1745         15th March 2016
1746       </div>
1747       <div class="body">
1748         <p>Back in September, I blogged about
1749 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_life_and_death_of_a_laptop_battery.html">the
1750 system I wrote to collect statistics about my laptop battery</a>, and
1751 how it showed the decay and death of this battery (now replaced).  I
1752 created a simple deb package to handle the collection and graphing,
1753 but did not want to upload it to Debian as there were already
1754 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/battery-stats">a battery-stats
1755 package in Debian</a> that should do the same thing, and I did not see
1756 a point of uploading a competing package when battery-stats could be
1757 fixed instead.  I reported a few bugs about its non-function, and
1758 hoped someone would step in and fix it.  But no-one did.</p>
1759
1760 <p>I got tired of waiting a few days ago, and took matters in my own
1761 hands.  The end result is that I am now the new upstream developer of
1762 battery stats (<a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/battery-stats">available from github</a>) and part of the team maintaining
1763 battery-stats in Debian, and the package in Debian unstable is finally
1764 able to collect battery status using the <tt>/sys/class/power_supply/</tt>
1765 information provided by the Linux kernel.  If you install the
1766 battery-stats package from unstable now, you will be able to get a
1767 graph of the current battery fill level, to get some idea about the
1768 status of the battery.  The source package build and work just fine in
1769 Debian testing and stable (and probably oldstable too, but I have not
1770 tested).  The default graph you get for that system look like this:</p>
1771
1772 <p align="center"><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2016-03-15-battery-stats-graph-example.png" width="70%" align="center"></p>
1773
1774 <p>My plans for the future is to merge my old scripts into the
1775 battery-stats package, as my old scripts collected a lot more details
1776 about the battery.  The scripts are merged into the upstream
1777 battery-stats git repository already, but I am not convinced they work
1778 yet, as I changed a lot of paths along the way.  Will have to test a
1779 bit more before I make a new release.</p>
1780
1781 <p>I will also consider changing the file format slightly, as I
1782 suspect the way I combine several values into one field might make it
1783 impossible to know the type of the value when using it for processing
1784 and graphing.</p>
1785
1786 <p>If you would like I would like to keep an close eye on your laptop
1787 battery, check out the battery-stats package in
1788 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/battery-stats">Debian</a> and
1789 on
1790 <a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/battery-stats">github</a>.
1791 I would love some help to improve the system further.</p>
1792
1793       </div>
1794       <div class="tags">
1795
1796
1797         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
1798
1799
1800       </div>
1801     </div>
1802     <div class="padding"></div>
1803
1804     <div class="entry">
1805       <div class="title">
1806         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Creating__updating_and_checking_debian_copyright_semi_automatically.html">Creating, updating and checking debian/copyright semi-automatically</a>
1807       </div>
1808       <div class="date">
1809         19th February 2016
1810       </div>
1811       <div class="body">
1812         <p>Making packages for Debian requires quite a lot of attention to
1813 details.  And one of the details is the content of the
1814 debian/copyright file, which should list all relevant licenses used by
1815 the code in the package in question, preferably in
1816 <a href="https://www.debian.org/doc/packaging-manuals/copyright-format/1.0/">machine
1817 readable DEP5 format</a>.</p>
1818
1819 <p>For large packages with lots of contributors it is hard to write
1820 and update this file manually, and if you get some detail wrong, the
1821 package is normally rejected by the ftpmasters.  So getting it right
1822 the first time around get the package into Debian faster, and save
1823 both you and the ftpmasters some work..  Today, while trying to figure
1824 out what was wrong with
1825 <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=686447">the
1826 zfsonlinux copyright file</a>, I decided to spend some time on
1827 figuring out the options for doing this job automatically, or at least
1828 semi-automatically.</p>
1829
1830 <p>Lucikly, there are at least two tools available for generating the
1831 file based on the code in the source package,
1832 <tt><a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/debmake">debmake</a></tt>
1833 and <tt><a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/cme">cme</a></tt>.  I'm
1834 not sure which one of them came first, but both seem to be able to
1835 create a sensible draft file.  As far as I can tell, none of them can
1836 be trusted to get the result just right, so the content need to be
1837 polished a bit before the file is OK to upload.  I found the debmake
1838 option in
1839 <a href="http://goofying-with-debian.blogspot.com/2014/07/debmake-checking-source-against-dep-5.html">a
1840 blog posts from 2014</a>.
1841
1842 <p>To generate using debmake, use the -cc option:
1843
1844 <p><pre>
1845 debmake -cc > debian/copyright
1846 </pre></p>
1847
1848 <p>Note there are some problems with python and non-ASCII names, so
1849 this might not be the best option.</p>
1850
1851 <p>The cme option is based on a config parsing library, and I found
1852 this approach in
1853 <a href="https://ddumont.wordpress.com/2015/04/05/improving-creation-of-debian-copyright-file/">a
1854 blog post from 2015</a>.  To generate using cme, use the 'update
1855 dpkg-copyright' option:
1856
1857 <p><pre>
1858 cme update dpkg-copyright
1859 </pre></p>
1860
1861 <p>This will create or update debian/copyright.  The cme tool seem to
1862 handle UTF-8 names better than debmake.</p>
1863
1864 <p>When the copyright file is created, I would also like some help to
1865 check if the file is correct.  For this I found two good options,
1866 <tt>debmake -k</tt> and <tt>license-reconcile</tt>.  The former seem
1867 to focus on license types and file matching, and is able to detect
1868 ineffective blocks in the copyright file.  The latter reports missing
1869 copyright holders and years, but was confused by inconsistent license
1870 names (like CDDL vs. CDDL-1.0).  I suspect it is good to use both and
1871 fix all issues reported by them before uploading.  But I do not know
1872 if the tools and the ftpmasters agree on what is important to fix in a
1873 copyright file, so the package might still be rejected.</p>
1874
1875 <p>The devscripts tool <tt>licensecheck</tt> deserve mentioning.  It
1876 will read through the source and try to find all copyright statements.
1877 It is not comparing the result to the content of debian/copyright, but
1878 can be useful when verifying the content of the copyright file.</p>
1879
1880 <p>Are you aware of better tools in Debian to create and update
1881 debian/copyright file.  Please let me know, or blog about it on
1882 planet.debian.org.</p>
1883
1884 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
1885 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
1886 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
1887
1888 <p><strong>Update 2016-02-20</strong>: I got a tip from Mike Gabriel
1889 on how to use licensecheck and cdbs to create a draft copyright file
1890
1891 <p><pre>
1892 licensecheck --copyright -r `find * -type f` | \
1893   /usr/lib/cdbs/licensecheck2dep5 > debian/copyright.auto
1894 </pre></p>
1895
1896 <p>He mentioned that he normally check the generated file into the
1897 version control system to make it easier to discover license and
1898 copyright changes in the upstream source.  I will try to do the same
1899 with my packages in the future.</p>
1900
1901 <p><strong>Update 2016-02-21</strong>: The cme author recommended
1902 against using -quiet for new users, so I removed it from the proposed
1903 command line.</p>
1904
1905       </div>
1906       <div class="tags">
1907
1908
1909         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
1910
1911
1912       </div>
1913     </div>
1914     <div class="padding"></div>
1915
1916     <div class="entry">
1917       <div class="title">
1918         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Using_appstream_in_Debian_to_locate_packages_with_firmware_and_mime_type_support.html">Using appstream in Debian to locate packages with firmware and mime type support</a>
1919       </div>
1920       <div class="date">
1921          4th February 2016
1922       </div>
1923       <div class="body">
1924         <p>The <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/DEP-11">appstream system</a>
1925 is taking shape in Debian, and one provided feature is a very
1926 convenient way to tell you which package to install to make a given
1927 firmware file available when the kernel is looking for it.  This can
1928 be done using apt-file too, but that is for someone else to blog
1929 about. :)</p>
1930
1931 <p>Here is a small recipe to find the package with a given firmware
1932 file, in this example I am looking for ctfw-3.2.3.0.bin, randomly
1933 picked from the set of firmware announced using appstream in Debian
1934 unstable.  In general you would be looking for the firmware requested
1935 by the kernel during kernel module loading.  To find the package
1936 providing the example file, do like this:</p>
1937
1938 <blockquote><pre>
1939 % apt install appstream
1940 [...]
1941 % apt update
1942 [...]
1943 % appstreamcli what-provides firmware:runtime ctfw-3.2.3.0.bin | \
1944   awk '/Package:/ {print $2}'
1945 firmware-qlogic
1946 %
1947 </pre></blockquote>
1948
1949 <p>See <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/AppStream/Guidelines">the
1950 appstream wiki</a> page to learn how to embed the package metadata in
1951 a way appstream can use.</p>
1952
1953 <p>This same approach can be used to find any package supporting a
1954 given MIME type.  This is very useful when you get a file you do not
1955 know how to handle.  First find the mime type using <tt>file
1956 --mime-type</tt>, and next look up the package providing support for
1957 it.  Lets say you got an SVG file.  Its MIME type is image/svg+xml,
1958 and you can find all packages handling this type like this:</p>
1959
1960 <blockquote><pre>
1961 % apt install appstream
1962 [...]
1963 % apt update
1964 [...]
1965 % appstreamcli what-provides mimetype image/svg+xml | \
1966   awk '/Package:/ {print $2}'
1967 bkchem
1968 phototonic
1969 inkscape
1970 shutter
1971 tetzle
1972 geeqie
1973 xia
1974 pinta
1975 gthumb
1976 karbon
1977 comix
1978 mirage
1979 viewnior
1980 postr
1981 ristretto
1982 kolourpaint4
1983 eog
1984 eom
1985 gimagereader
1986 midori
1987 %
1988 </pre></blockquote>
1989
1990 <p>I believe the MIME types are fetched from the desktop file for
1991 packages providing appstream metadata.</p>
1992
1993       </div>
1994       <div class="tags">
1995
1996
1997         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
1998
1999
2000       </div>
2001     </div>
2002     <div class="padding"></div>
2003
2004     <div class="entry">
2005       <div class="title">
2006         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Creepy__visualise_geotagged_social_media_information___nice_free_software.html">Creepy, visualise geotagged social media information - nice free software</a>
2007       </div>
2008       <div class="date">
2009         24th January 2016
2010       </div>
2011       <div class="body">
2012         <p>Most people seem not to realise that every time they walk around
2013 with the computerised radio beacon known as a mobile phone their
2014 position is tracked by the phone company and often stored for a long
2015 time (like every time a SMS is received or sent).  And if their
2016 computerised radio beacon is capable of running programs (often called
2017 mobile apps) downloaded from the Internet, these programs are often
2018 also capable of tracking their location (if the app requested access
2019 during installation).  And when these programs send out information to
2020 central collection points, the location is often included, unless
2021 extra care is taken to not send the location.  The provided
2022 information is used by several entities, for good and bad (what is
2023 good and bad, depend on your point of view).  What is certain, is that
2024 the private sphere and the right to free movement is challenged and
2025 perhaps even eradicated for those announcing their location this way,
2026 when they share their whereabouts with private and public
2027 entities.</p>
2028
2029 <p align="center"><img width="70%" src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2016-01-24-nice-creepy-desktop-window.png"></p>
2030
2031 <p>The phone company logs provide a register of locations to check out
2032 when one want to figure out what the tracked person was doing.  It is
2033 unavailable for most of us, but provided to selected government
2034 officials, company staff, those illegally buying information from
2035 unfaithful servants and crackers stealing the information.  But the
2036 public information can be collected and analysed, and a free software
2037 tool to do so is called
2038 <a href="http://www.geocreepy.com/">Creepy or Cree.py</a>.  I
2039 discovered it when I read
2040 <a href="http://www.aftenposten.no/kultur/Slik-kan-du-bli-overvaket-pa-Twitter-og-Instagram-uten-a-ane-det-7787884.html">an
2041 article about Creepy</a> in the Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten i
2042 November 2014, and decided to check if it was available in Debian.
2043 The python program was in Debian, but
2044 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/creepy">the version in
2045 Debian</a> was completely broken and practically unmaintained.  I
2046 uploaded a new version which did not work quite right, but did not
2047 have time to fix it then.  This Christmas I decided to finally try to
2048 get Creepy operational in Debian.  Now a fixed version is available in
2049 Debian unstable and testing, and almost all Debian specific patches
2050 are now included
2051 <a href="https://github.com/jkakavas/creepy">upstream</a>.</p>
2052
2053 <p>The Creepy program visualises geolocation information fetched from
2054 Twitter, Instagram, Flickr and Google+, and allow one to get a
2055 complete picture of every social media message posted recently in a
2056 given area, or track the movement of a given individual across all
2057 these services.  Earlier it was possible to use the search API of at
2058 least some of these services without identifying oneself, but these
2059 days it is impossible.  This mean that to use Creepy, you need to
2060 configure it to log in as yourself on these services, and provide
2061 information to them about your search interests.  This should be taken
2062 into account when using Creepy, as it will also share information
2063 about yourself with the services.</p>
2064
2065 <p>The picture above show the twitter messages sent from (or at least
2066 geotagged with a position from) the city centre of Oslo, the capital
2067 of Norway.  One useful way to use Creepy is to first look at
2068 information tagged with an area of interest, and next look at all the
2069 information provided by one or more individuals who was in the area.
2070 I tested it by checking out which celebrity provide their location in
2071 twitter messages by checkout out who sent twitter messages near a
2072 Norwegian TV station, and next could track their position over time,
2073 making it possible to locate their home and work place, among other
2074 things.  A similar technique have been
2075 <a href="http://www.buzzfeed.com/maxseddon/does-this-soldiers-instagram-account-prove-russia-is-covertl">used
2076 to locate Russian soldiers in Ukraine</a>, and it is both a powerful
2077 tool to discover lying governments, and a useful tool to help people
2078 understand the value of the private information they provide to the
2079 public.</p>
2080
2081 <p>The package is not trivial to backport to Debian Stable/Jessie, as
2082 it depend on several python modules currently missing in Jessie (at
2083 least python-instagram, python-flickrapi and
2084 python-requests-toolbelt).</p>
2085
2086 <p>(I have uploaded
2087 <a href="https://screenshots.debian.net/package/creepy">the image to
2088 screenshots.debian.net</a> and licensed it under the same terms as the
2089 Creepy program in Debian.)</p>
2090
2091       </div>
2092       <div class="tags">
2093
2094
2095         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nice free software">nice free software</a>.
2096
2097
2098       </div>
2099     </div>
2100     <div class="padding"></div>
2101
2102     <div class="entry">
2103       <div class="title">
2104         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Always_download_Debian_packages_using_Tor___the_simple_recipe.html">Always download Debian packages using Tor - the simple recipe</a>
2105       </div>
2106       <div class="date">
2107         15th January 2016
2108       </div>
2109       <div class="body">
2110         <p>During his DebConf15 keynote, Jacob Appelbaum
2111 <a href="https://summit.debconf.org/debconf15/meeting/331/what-is-to-be-done/">observed
2112 that those listening on the Internet lines would have good reason to
2113 believe a computer have a given security hole</a> if it download a
2114 security fix from a Debian mirror.  This is a good reason to always
2115 use encrypted connections to the Debian mirror, to make sure those
2116 listening do not know which IP address to attack.  In August, Richard
2117 Hartmann observed that encryption was not enough, when it was possible
2118 to interfere download size to security patches or the fact that
2119 download took place shortly after a security fix was released, and
2120 <a href="http://richardhartmann.de/blog/posts/2015/08/24-Tor-enabled_Debian_mirror/">proposed
2121 to always use Tor to download packages from the Debian mirror</a>.  He
2122 was not the first to propose this, as the
2123 <tt><a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/apt-transport-tor">apt-transport-tor</a></tt>
2124 package by Tim Retout already existed to make it easy to convince apt
2125 to use <a href="https://www.torproject.org/">Tor</a>, but I was not
2126 aware of that package when I read the blog post from Richard.</p>
2127
2128 <p>Richard discussed the idea with Peter Palfrader, one of the Debian
2129 sysadmins, and he set up a Tor hidden service on one of the central
2130 Debian mirrors using the address vwakviie2ienjx6t.onion, thus making
2131 it possible to download packages directly between two tor nodes,
2132 making sure the network traffic always were encrypted.</p>
2133
2134 <p>Here is a short recipe for enabling this on your machine, by
2135 installing <tt>apt-transport-tor</tt> and replacing http and https
2136 urls with tor+http and tor+https, and using the hidden service instead
2137 of the official Debian mirror site.  I recommend installing
2138 <tt>etckeeper</tt> before you start to have a history of the changes
2139 done in /etc/.</p>
2140
2141 <blockquote><pre>
2142 apt install apt-transport-tor
2143 sed -i 's% http://ftp.debian.org/% tor+http://vwakviie2ienjx6t.onion/%' /etc/apt/sources.list
2144 sed -i 's% http% tor+http%' /etc/apt/sources.list
2145 </pre></blockquote>
2146
2147 <p>If you have more sources listed in /etc/apt/sources.list.d/, run
2148 the sed commands for these too.  The sed command is assuming your are
2149 using the ftp.debian.org Debian mirror.  Adjust the command (or just
2150 edit the file manually) to match your mirror.</p>
2151
2152 <p>This work in Debian Jessie and later.  Note that tools like
2153 <tt>apt-file</tt> only recently started using the apt transport
2154 system, and do not work with these tor+http URLs.  For
2155 <tt>apt-file</tt> you need the version currently in experimental,
2156 which need a recent apt version currently only in unstable.  So if you
2157 need a working <tt>apt-file</tt>, this is not for you.</p>
2158
2159 <p>Another advantage from this change is that your machine will start
2160 using Tor regularly and at fairly random intervals (every time you
2161 update the package lists or upgrade or install a new package), thus
2162 masking other Tor traffic done from the same machine.  Using Tor will
2163 become normal for the machine in question.</p>
2164
2165 <p>On <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/FreedomBox">Freedombox</a>, APT
2166 is set up by default to use <tt>apt-transport-tor</tt> when Tor is
2167 enabled.  It would be great if it was the default on any Debian
2168 system.</p>
2169
2170       </div>
2171       <div class="tags">
2172
2173
2174         Tags: <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>.
2175
2176
2177       </div>
2178     </div>
2179     <div class="padding"></div>
2180
2181     <div class="entry">
2182       <div class="title">
2183         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/OpenALPR__find_car_license_plates_in_video_streams___nice_free_software.html">OpenALPR, find car license plates in video streams - nice free software</a>
2184       </div>
2185       <div class="date">
2186         23rd December 2015
2187       </div>
2188       <div class="body">
2189         <p>When I was a kid, we used to collect "car numbers", as we used to
2190 call the car license plate numbers in those days.  I would write the
2191 numbers down in my little book and compare notes with the other kids
2192 to see how many region codes we had seen and if we had seen some
2193 exotic or special region codes and numbers.  It was a fun game to pass
2194 time, as we kids have plenty of it.</p>
2195
2196 <p>A few days I came across
2197 <a href="https://github.com/openalpr/openalpr">the OpenALPR
2198 project</a>, a free software project to automatically discover and
2199 report license plates in images and video streams, and provide the
2200 "car numbers" in a machine readable format.  I've been looking for
2201 such system for a while now, because I believe it is a bad idea that the
2202 <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automatic_number_plate_recognition">automatic
2203 number plate recognition</a> tool only is available in the hands of
2204 the powerful, and want it to be available also for the powerless to
2205 even the score when it comes to surveillance and sousveillance.  I
2206 discovered the developer
2207 <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/747509">wanted to get the tool into
2208 Debian</a>, and as I too wanted it to be in Debian, I volunteered to
2209 help him get it into shape to get the package uploaded into the Debian
2210 archive.</p>
2211
2212 <p>Today we finally managed to get the package into shape and uploaded
2213 it into Debian, where it currently
2214 <a href="https://ftp-master.debian.org//new/openalpr_2.2.1-1.html">waits
2215 in the NEW queue</a> for review by the Debian ftpmasters.</p>
2216
2217 <p>I guess you are wondering why on earth such tool would be useful
2218 for the common folks, ie those not running a large government
2219 surveillance system?  Well, I plan to put it in a computer on my bike
2220 and in my car, tracking the cars nearby and allowing me to be notified
2221 when number plates on my watch list are discovered.  Another use case
2222 was suggested by a friend of mine, who wanted to set it up at his home
2223 to open the car port automatically when it discovered the plate on his
2224 car.  When I mentioned it perhaps was a bit foolhardy to allow anyone
2225 capable of placing his license plate number of a piece of cardboard to
2226 open his car port, men replied that it was always unlocked anyway.  I
2227 guess for such use case it make sense.  I am sure there are other use
2228 cases too, for those with imagination and a vision.</p>
2229
2230 <p>If you want to build your own version of the Debian package, check
2231 out the upstream git source and symlink ./distros/debian to ./debian/
2232 before running "debuild" to build the source.  Or wait a bit until the
2233 package show up in unstable.</p>
2234
2235       </div>
2236       <div class="tags">
2237
2238
2239         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nice free software">nice free software</a>.
2240
2241
2242       </div>
2243     </div>
2244     <div class="padding"></div>
2245
2246     <div class="entry">
2247       <div class="title">
2248         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Using_appstream_with_isenkram_to_install_hardware_related_packages_in_Debian.html">Using appstream with isenkram to install hardware related packages in Debian</a>
2249       </div>
2250       <div class="date">
2251         20th December 2015
2252       </div>
2253       <div class="body">
2254         <p>Around three years ago, I created
2255 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/isenkram">the isenkram
2256 system</a> to get a more practical solution in Debian for handing
2257 hardware related packages.  A GUI system in the isenkram package will
2258 present a pop-up dialog when some hardware dongle supported by
2259 relevant packages in Debian is inserted into the machine.  The same
2260 lookup mechanism to detect packages is available as command line
2261 tools in the isenkram-cli package.  In addition to mapping hardware,
2262 it will also map kernel firmware files to packages and make it easy to
2263 install needed firmware packages automatically.  The key for this
2264 system to work is a good way to map hardware to packages, in other
2265 words, allow packages to announce what hardware they will work
2266 with.</p>
2267
2268 <p>I started by providing data files in the isenkram source, and
2269 adding code to download the latest version of these data files at run
2270 time, to ensure every user had the most up to date mapping available.
2271 I also added support for storing the mapping in the Packages file in
2272 the apt repositories, but did not push this approach because while I
2273 was trying to figure out how to best store hardware/package mappings,
2274 <a href="http://www.freedesktop.org/software/appstream/docs/">the
2275 appstream system</a> was announced.  I got in touch and suggested to
2276 add the hardware mapping into that data set to be able to use
2277 appstream as a data source, and this was accepted at least for the
2278 Debian version of appstream.</p>
2279
2280 <p>A few days ago using appstream in Debian for this became possible,
2281 and today I uploaded a new version 0.20 of isenkram adding support for
2282 appstream as a data source for mapping hardware to packages.  The only
2283 package so far using appstream to announce its hardware support is my
2284 pymissile package.  I got help from Matthias Klumpp with figuring out
2285 how do add the required
2286 <a href="https://appstream.debian.org/html/sid/main/metainfo/pymissile.html">metadata
2287 in pymissile</a>.  I added a file debian/pymissile.metainfo.xml with
2288 this content:</p>
2289
2290 <blockquote><pre>
2291 &lt;?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?&gt;
2292 &lt;component&gt;
2293   &lt;id&gt;pymissile&lt;/id&gt;
2294   &lt;metadata_license&gt;MIT&lt;/metadata_license&gt;
2295   &lt;name&gt;pymissile&lt;/name&gt;
2296   &lt;summary&gt;Control original Striker USB Missile Launcher&lt;/summary&gt;
2297   &lt;description&gt;
2298     &lt;p&gt;
2299       Pymissile provides a curses interface to control an original
2300       Marks and Spencer / Striker USB Missile Launcher, as well as a
2301       motion control script to allow a webcamera to control the
2302       launcher.
2303     &lt;/p&gt;
2304   &lt;/description&gt;
2305   &lt;provides&gt;
2306     &lt;modalias&gt;usb:v1130p0202d*&lt;/modalias&gt;
2307   &lt;/provides&gt;
2308 &lt;/component&gt;
2309 </pre></blockquote>
2310
2311 <p>The key for isenkram is the component/provides/modalias value,
2312 which is a glob style match rule for hardware specific strings
2313 (modalias strings) provided by the Linux kernel.  In this case, it
2314 will map to all USB devices with vendor code 1130 and product code
2315 0202.</p>
2316
2317 <p>Note, it is important that the license of all the metadata files
2318 are compatible to have permissions to aggregate them into archive wide
2319 appstream files.  Matthias suggested to use MIT or BSD licenses for
2320 these files.  A challenge is figuring out a good id for the data, as
2321 it is supposed to be globally unique and shared across distributions
2322 (in other words, best to coordinate with upstream what to use).  But
2323 it can be changed later or, so we went with the package name as
2324 upstream for this project is dormant.</p>
2325
2326 <p>To get the metadata file installed in the correct location for the
2327 mirror update scripts to pick it up and include its content the
2328 appstream data source, the file must be installed in the binary
2329 package under /usr/share/appdata/.  I did this by adding the following
2330 line to debian/pymissile.install:</p>
2331
2332 <blockquote><pre>
2333 debian/pymissile.metainfo.xml usr/share/appdata
2334 </pre></blockquote>
2335
2336 <p>With that in place, the command line tool isenkram-lookup will list
2337 all packages useful on the current computer automatically, and the GUI
2338 pop-up handler will propose to install the package not already
2339 installed if a hardware dongle is inserted into the machine in
2340 question.</p>
2341
2342 <p>Details of the modalias field in appstream is available from the
2343 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/DEP-11">DEP-11</a> proposal.</p>
2344
2345 <p>To locate the modalias values of all hardware present in a machine,
2346 try running this command on the command line:</p>
2347
2348 <blockquote><pre>
2349 cat $(find /sys/devices/|grep modalias)
2350 </pre></blockquote>
2351
2352 <p>To learn more about the isenkram system, please check out
2353 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram/">my
2354 blog posts tagged isenkram</a>.</p>
2355
2356       </div>
2357       <div class="tags">
2358
2359
2360         Tags: <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>.
2361
2362
2363       </div>
2364     </div>
2365     <div class="padding"></div>
2366
2367     <div class="entry">
2368       <div class="title">
2369         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_GNU_General_Public_License_is_not_magic_pixie_dust.html">The GNU General Public License is not magic pixie dust</a>
2370       </div>
2371       <div class="date">
2372         30th November 2015
2373       </div>
2374       <div class="body">
2375         <p>A blog post from my fellow Debian developer Paul Wise titled
2376 "<a href="http://bonedaddy.net/pabs3/log/2015/11/27/sfc-supporter/">The
2377 GPL is not magic pixie dust</a>" explain the importance of making sure
2378 the <a href="http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html">GPL</a> is enforced.
2379 I quote the blog post from Paul in full here with his permission:<p>
2380
2381 <blockquote>
2382
2383 <p><a href="https://sfconservancy.org/supporter/"><img src="https://sfconservancy.org/img/supporter-badge.png" width="194" height="90" alt="Become a Software Freedom Conservancy Supporter!" align="right" border="0" /></a></p>
2384
2385 <blockquote>
2386 The GPL is not magic pixie dust. It does not work by itself.<br/>
2387
2388 The first step is to choose a
2389 <a href="https://copyleft.org/">copyleft</a> license for your
2390 code.<br/>
2391
2392 The next step is, when someone fails to follow that copyleft license,
2393 <b>it must be enforced</b><br/>
2394
2395 and its a simple fact of our modern society that such type of
2396 work<br/>
2397
2398 is incredibly expensive to do and incredibly difficult to do.
2399 </blockquote>
2400
2401 <p><small>-- <a href="http://ebb.org/bkuhn/">Bradley Kuhn</a>, in
2402 <a href="http://faif.us/" title="Free as in Freedom">FaiF</a>
2403 <a href="http://faif.us/cast/2015/nov/24/0x57/">episode
2404 0x57</a></small></p>
2405
2406 <p>As the Debian Website
2407 <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/794116">used</a>
2408 <a href="https://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/webwml/webwml/english/intro/free.wml?r1=1.24&amp;r2=1.25">to</a>
2409 imply, public domain and permissively licensed software can lead to
2410 the production of more proprietary software as people discover useful
2411 software, extend it and or incorporate it into their hardware or
2412 software products.  Copyleft licenses such as the GNU GPL were created
2413 to close off this avenue to the production of proprietary software but
2414 such licenses are not enough.  With the ongoing adoption of Free
2415 Software by individuals and groups, inevitably the community's
2416 expectations of license compliance are violated, usually out of
2417 ignorance of the way Free Software works, but not always.  As Karen
2418 and Bradley explained in <a href="http://faif.us/" title="Free as in
2419 Freedom">FaiF</a>
2420 <a href="http://faif.us/cast/2015/nov/24/0x57/">episode 0x57</a>,
2421 copyleft is nothing if no-one is willing and able to stand up in court
2422 to protect it.  The reality of today's world is that legal
2423 representation is expensive, difficult and time consuming.  With
2424 <a href="http://gpl-violations.org/">gpl-violations.org</a> in hiatus
2425 <a href="http://gpl-violations.org/news/20151027-homepage-recovers/">until</a>
2426 some time in 2016, the <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/">Software
2427 Freedom Conservancy</a> (a tax-exempt charity) is the major defender
2428 of the Linux project, Debian and other groups against GPL violations.
2429 In March the SFC supported a
2430 <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/news/2015/mar/05/vmware-lawsuit/">lawsuit
2431 by Christoph Hellwig</a> against VMware for refusing to
2432 <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/linux-compliance/vmware-lawsuit-faq.html">comply
2433 with the GPL</a> in relation to their use of parts of the Linux
2434 kernel.  Since then two of their sponsors pulled corporate funding and
2435 conferences
2436 <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/blog/2015/nov/24/faif-carols-fundraiser/">blocked
2437 or cancelled their talks</a>.  As a result they have decided to rely
2438 less on corporate funding and more on the broad community of
2439 individuals who support Free Software and copyleft.  So the SFC has
2440 <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/news/2015/nov/23/2015fundraiser/">launched</a>
2441 a <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/supporter/">campaign</a> to create
2442 a community of folks who stand up for copyleft and the GPL by
2443 supporting their work on promoting and supporting copyleft and Free
2444 Software.</p>
2445
2446 <p>If you support Free Software,
2447 <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/blog/2015/nov/26/like-what-I-do/">like</a>
2448 what the SFC do, agree with their
2449 <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/linux-compliance/principles.html">compliance
2450 principles</a>, are happy about their
2451 <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/supporter/">successes</a> in 2015,
2452 work on a project that is an SFC
2453 <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/members/current/">member</a> and or
2454 just want to stand up for copyleft, please join
2455 <a href="https://identi.ca/cwebber/image/JQGPA4qbTyyp3-MY8QpvuA">Christopher
2456 Allan Webber</a>,
2457 <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/blog/2015/nov/24/faif-carols-fundraiser/">Carol
2458 Smith</a>,
2459 <a href="http://www.jonobacon.org/2015/11/25/supporting-software-freedom-conservancy/">Jono
2460 Bacon</a>, myself and
2461 <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/sponsors/#supporters">others</a> in
2462 becoming a
2463 <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/supporter/">supporter</a>.  For the
2464 next week your donation will be
2465 <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/news/2015/nov/27/black-friday/">matched</a>
2466 by an anonymous donor.  Please also consider asking your employer to
2467 match your donation or become a sponsor of SFC.  Don't forget to
2468 spread the word about your support for SFC via email, your blog and or
2469 social media accounts.</p>
2470
2471 </blockquote>
2472
2473 <p>I agree with Paul on this topic and just signed up as a Supporter
2474 of Software Freedom Conservancy myself.  Perhaps you should be a
2475 supporter too?</p>
2476
2477       </div>
2478       <div class="tags">
2479
2480
2481         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/opphavsrett">opphavsrett</a>.
2482
2483
2484       </div>
2485     </div>
2486     <div class="padding"></div>
2487
2488     <div class="entry">
2489       <div class="title">
2490         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/PGP_key_transition_statement_for_key_EE4E02F9.html">PGP key transition statement for key EE4E02F9</a>
2491       </div>
2492       <div class="date">
2493         17th November 2015
2494       </div>
2495       <div class="body">
2496         <p>I've needed a new OpenPGP key for a while, but have not had time to
2497 set it up properly.  I wanted to generate it offline and have it
2498 available on <a href="http://shop.kernelconcepts.de/#openpgp">a OpenPGP
2499 smart card</a> for daily use, and learning how to do it and finding
2500 time to sit down with an offline machine almost took forever.  But
2501 finally I've been able to complete the process, and have now moved
2502 from my old GPG key to a new GPG key.  See
2503 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2015-11-17-new-gpg-key-transition.txt">the
2504 full transition statement, signed with both my old and new key</a> for
2505 the details.  This is my new key:</p>
2506
2507 <pre>
2508 pub   3936R/<a href="http://pgp.cs.uu.nl/stats/111D6B29EE4E02F9.html">111D6B29EE4E02F9</a> 2015-11-03 [expires: 2019-11-14]
2509       Key fingerprint = 3AC7 B2E3 ACA5 DF87 78F1  D827 111D 6B29 EE4E 02F9
2510 uid                  Petter Reinholdtsen &lt;pere@hungry.com&gt;
2511 uid                  Petter Reinholdtsen &lt;pere@debian.org&gt;
2512 sub   4096R/87BAFB0E 2015-11-03 [expires: 2019-11-02]
2513 sub   4096R/F91E6DE9 2015-11-03 [expires: 2019-11-02]
2514 sub   4096R/A0439BAB 2015-11-03 [expires: 2019-11-02]
2515 </pre>
2516
2517 <p>The key can be downloaded from the OpenPGP key servers, signed by
2518 my old key.</p>
2519
2520 <p>If you signed my old key
2521 (<a href="http://pgp.cs.uu.nl/stats/DB4CCC4B2A30D729.html">DB4CCC4B2A30D729</a>),
2522 I'd very much appreciate a signature on my new key, details and
2523 instructions in the transition statement. I m happy to reciprocate if
2524 you have a similarly signed transition statement to present.</p>
2525
2526       </div>
2527       <div class="tags">
2528
2529
2530         Tags: <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>.
2531
2532
2533       </div>
2534     </div>
2535     <div class="padding"></div>
2536
2537     <div class="entry">
2538       <div class="title">
2539         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_life_and_death_of_a_laptop_battery.html">The life and death of a laptop battery</a>
2540       </div>
2541       <div class="date">
2542         24th September 2015
2543       </div>
2544       <div class="body">
2545         <p>When I get a new laptop, the battery life time at the start is OK.
2546 But this do not last.  The last few laptops gave me a feeling that
2547 within a year, the life time is just a fraction of what it used to be,
2548 and it slowly become painful to use the laptop without power connected
2549 all the time.  Because of this, when I got a new Thinkpad X230 laptop
2550 about two years ago, I decided to monitor its battery state to have
2551 more hard facts when the battery started to fail.</p>
2552
2553 <img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2015-09-24-laptop-battery-graph.png"/>
2554
2555 <p>First I tried to find a sensible Debian package to record the
2556 battery status, assuming that this must be a problem already handled
2557 by someone else.  I found
2558 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/battery-stats">battery-stats</a>,
2559 which collects statistics from the battery, but it was completely
2560 broken.  I sent a few suggestions to the maintainer, but decided to
2561 write my own collector as a shell script while I waited for feedback
2562 from him.  Via
2563 <a href="http://www.ifweassume.com/2013/08/the-de-evolution-of-my-laptop-battery.html">a
2564 blog post about the battery development on a MacBook Air</a> I also
2565 discovered
2566 <a href="https://github.com/jradavenport/batlog.git">batlog</a>, not
2567 available in Debian.</p>
2568
2569 <p>I started my collector 2013-07-15, and it has been collecting
2570 battery stats ever since. Now my
2571 /var/log/hjemmenett-battery-status.log file contain around 115,000
2572 measurements, from the time the battery was working great until now,
2573 when it is unable to charge above 7% of original capacity.  My
2574 collector shell script is quite simple and look like this:</p>
2575
2576 <pre>
2577 #!/bin/sh
2578 # Inspired by
2579 # http://www.ifweassume.com/2013/08/the-de-evolution-of-my-laptop-battery.html
2580 # See also
2581 # http://blog.sleeplessbeastie.eu/2013/01/02/debian-how-to-monitor-battery-capacity/
2582 logfile=/var/log/hjemmenett-battery-status.log
2583
2584 files="manufacturer model_name technology serial_number \
2585     energy_full energy_full_design energy_now cycle_count status"
2586
2587 if [ ! -e "$logfile" ] ; then
2588     (
2589         printf "timestamp,"
2590         for f in $files; do
2591             printf "%s," $f
2592         done
2593         echo
2594     ) > "$logfile"
2595 fi
2596
2597 log_battery() {
2598     # Print complete message in one echo call, to avoid race condition
2599     # when several log processes run in parallel.
2600     msg=$(printf "%s," $(date +%s); \
2601         for f in $files; do \
2602             printf "%s," $(cat $f); \
2603         done)
2604     echo "$msg"
2605 }
2606
2607 cd /sys/class/power_supply
2608
2609 for bat in BAT*; do
2610     (cd $bat && log_battery >> "$logfile")
2611 done
2612 </pre>
2613
2614 <p>The script is called when the power management system detect a
2615 change in the power status (power plug in or out), and when going into
2616 and out of hibernation and suspend.  In addition, it collect a value
2617 every 10 minutes.  This make it possible for me know when the battery
2618 is discharging, charging and how the maximum charge change over time.
2619 The code for the Debian package
2620 <a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/battery-status">is now
2621 available on github</a>.</p>
2622
2623 <p>The collected log file look like this:</p>
2624
2625 <pre>
2626 timestamp,manufacturer,model_name,technology,serial_number,energy_full,energy_full_design,energy_now,cycle_count,status,
2627 1376591133,LGC,45N1025,Li-ion,974,62800000,62160000,39050000,0,Discharging,
2628 [...]
2629 1443090528,LGC,45N1025,Li-ion,974,4900000,62160000,4900000,0,Full,
2630 1443090601,LGC,45N1025,Li-ion,974,4900000,62160000,4900000,0,Full,
2631 </pre>
2632
2633 <p>I wrote a small script to create a graph of the charge development
2634 over time.  This graph depicted above show the slow death of my laptop
2635 battery.</p>
2636
2637 <p>But why is this happening?  Why are my laptop batteries always
2638 dying in a year or two, while the batteries of space probes and
2639 satellites keep working year after year.  If we are to believe
2640 <a href="http://batteryuniversity.com/learn/article/how_to_prolong_lithium_based_batteries">Battery
2641 University</a>, the cause is me charging the battery whenever I have a
2642 chance, and the fix is to not charge the Lithium-ion batteries to 100%
2643 all the time, but to stay below 90% of full charge most of the time.
2644 I've been told that the Tesla electric cars
2645 <a href="http://my.teslamotors.com/de_CH/forum/forums/battery-charge-limit">limit
2646 the charge of their batteries to 80%</a>, with the option to charge to
2647 100% when preparing for a longer trip (not that I would want a car
2648 like Tesla where rights to privacy is abandoned, but that is another
2649 story), which I guess is the option we should have for laptops on
2650 Linux too.</p>
2651
2652 <p>Is there a good and generic way with Linux to tell the battery to
2653 stop charging at 80%, unless requested to charge to 100% once in
2654 preparation for a longer trip?  I found
2655 <a href="http://askubuntu.com/questions/34452/how-can-i-limit-battery-charging-to-80-capacity">one
2656 recipe on askubuntu for Ubuntu to limit charging on Thinkpad to
2657 80%</a>, but could not get it to work (kernel module refused to
2658 load).</p>
2659
2660 <p>I wonder why the battery capacity was reported to be more than 100%
2661 at the start.  I also wonder why the "full capacity" increases some
2662 times, and if it is possible to repeat the process to get the battery
2663 back to design capacity.  And I wonder if the discharge and charge
2664 speed change over time, or if this stay the same.  I did not yet try
2665 to write a tool to calculate the derivative values of the battery
2666 level, but suspect some interesting insights might be learned from
2667 those.</p>
2668
2669 <p>Update 2015-09-24: I got a tip to install the packages
2670 acpi-call-dkms and tlp (unfortunately missing in Debian stable)
2671 packages instead of the tp-smapi-dkms package I had tried to use
2672 initially, and use 'tlp setcharge 40 80' to change when charging start
2673 and stop.  I've done so now, but expect my existing battery is toast
2674 and need to be replaced.  The proposal is unfortunately Thinkpad
2675 specific.</p>
2676
2677       </div>
2678       <div class="tags">
2679
2680
2681         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
2682
2683
2684       </div>
2685     </div>
2686     <div class="padding"></div>
2687
2688     <div class="entry">
2689       <div class="title">
2690         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/New_laptop___some_more_clues_and_ideas_based_on_feedback.html">New laptop - some more clues and ideas based on feedback</a>
2691       </div>
2692       <div class="date">
2693          5th July 2015
2694       </div>
2695       <div class="body">
2696         <p>Several people contacted me after my previous blog post about my
2697 need for a new laptop, and provided very useful feedback.  I wish to
2698 thank every one of these.  Several pointed me to the possibility of
2699 fixing my X230, and I am already in the process of getting Lenovo to
2700 do so thanks to the on site, next day support contract covering the
2701 machine.  But the battery is almost useless (I expect to replace it
2702 with a non-official battery) and I do not expect the machine to live
2703 for many more years, so it is time to plan its replacement.  If I did
2704 not have a support contract, it was suggested to find replacement parts
2705 using <a href="http://www.francecrans.com/">FrancEcrans</a>, but it
2706 might present a language barrier as I do not understand French.</p>
2707
2708 <p>One tip I got was to use the
2709 <a href="https://skinflint.co.uk/?cat=nb">Skinflint</a> web service to
2710 compare laptop models.  It seem to have more models available than
2711 prisjakt.no.  Another tip I got from someone I know have similar
2712 keyboard preferences was that the HP EliteBook 840 keyboard is not
2713 very good, and this matches my experience with earlier EliteBook
2714 keyboards I tested.  Because of this, I will not consider it any further.
2715
2716 <p>When I wrote my blog post, I was not aware of Thinkpad X250, the
2717 newest Thinkpad X model.  The keyboard reintroduces mouse buttons
2718 (which is missing from the X240), and is working fairly well with
2719 Debian Sid/Unstable according to
2720 <a href="http://www.corsac.net/X250/">Corsac.net</a>.  The reports I
2721 got on the keyboard quality are not consistent.  Some say the keyboard
2722 is good, others say it is ok, while others say it is not very good.
2723 Those with experience from X41 and and X60 agree that the X250
2724 keyboard is not as good as those trusty old laptops, and suggest I
2725 keep and fix my X230 instead of upgrading, or get a used X230 to
2726 replace it.  I'm also told that the X250 lack leds for caps lock, disk
2727 activity and battery status, which is very convenient on my X230.  I'm
2728 also told that the CPU fan is running very often, making it a bit
2729 noisy.  In any case, the X250 do not work out of the box with Debian
2730 Stable/Jessie, one of my requirements.</p>
2731
2732 <p>I have also gotten a few vendor proposals, one was
2733 <a href="http://pro-star.com">Pro-Star</a>, another was
2734 <a href="http://shop.gluglug.org.uk/product/libreboot-x200/">Libreboot</a>.
2735 The latter look very attractive to me.</p>
2736
2737 <p>Again, thank you all for the very useful feedback.  It help a lot
2738 as I keep looking for a replacement.</p>
2739
2740 <p>Update 2015-07-06: I was recommended to check out the
2741 <a href="">lapstore.de</a> web shop for used laptops.  They got several
2742 different
2743 <a href="http://www.lapstore.de/f.php/shop/lapstore/f/411/lang/x/kw/Lenovo_ThinkPad_X_Serie/">old
2744 thinkpad X models</a>, and provide one year warranty.</p>
2745
2746       </div>
2747       <div class="tags">
2748
2749
2750         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
2751
2752
2753       </div>
2754     </div>
2755     <div class="padding"></div>
2756
2757     <div class="entry">
2758       <div class="title">
2759         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Time_to_find_a_new_laptop__as_the_old_one_is_broken_after_only_two_years.html">Time to find a new laptop, as the old one is broken after only two years</a>
2760       </div>
2761       <div class="date">
2762          3rd July 2015
2763       </div>
2764       <div class="body">
2765         <p>My primary work horse laptop is failing, and will need a
2766 replacement soon.  The left 5 cm of the screen on my Thinkpad X230
2767 started flickering yesterday, and I suspect the cause is a broken
2768 cable, as changing the angle of the screen some times get rid of the
2769 flickering.</p>
2770
2771 <p>My requirements have not really changed since I bought it, and is
2772 still as
2773 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Thank_you_Thinkpad_X41__for_your_long_and_trustworthy_service.html">I
2774 described them in 2013</a>.  The last time I bought a laptop, I had
2775 good help from
2776 <a href="http://www.prisjakt.no/category.php?k=353">prisjakt.no</a>
2777 where I could select at least a few of the requirements (mouse pin,
2778 wifi, weight) and go through the rest manually.  Three button mouse
2779 and a good keyboard is not available as an option, and all the three
2780 laptop models proposed today (Thinkpad X240, HP EliteBook 820 G1 and
2781 G2) lack three mouse buttons).  It is also unclear to me how good the
2782 keyboard on the HP EliteBooks are.  I hope Lenovo have not messed up
2783 the keyboard, even if the quality and robustness in the X series have
2784 deteriorated since X41.</p>
2785
2786 <p>I wonder how I can find a sensible laptop when none of the options
2787 seem sensible to me?  Are there better services around to search the
2788 set of available laptops for features?  Please send me an email if you
2789 have suggestions.</p>
2790
2791 <p>Update 2015-07-23: I got a suggestion to check out the FSF
2792 <a href="http://www.fsf.org/resources/hw/endorsement/respects-your-freedom">list
2793 of endorsed hardware</a>, which is useful background information.</p>
2794
2795       </div>
2796       <div class="tags">
2797
2798
2799         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
2800
2801
2802       </div>
2803     </div>
2804     <div class="padding"></div>
2805
2806     <div class="entry">
2807       <div class="title">
2808         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_stay_with_sysvinit_in_Debian_Jessie.html">How to stay with sysvinit in Debian Jessie</a>
2809       </div>
2810       <div class="date">
2811         22nd November 2014
2812       </div>
2813       <div class="body">
2814         <p>By now, it is well known that Debian Jessie will not be using
2815 sysvinit as its boot system by default.  But how can one keep using
2816 sysvinit in Jessie?  It is fairly easy, and here are a few recipes,
2817 courtesy of
2818 <a href="http://www.vitavonni.de/blog/201410/2014102101-avoiding-systemd.html">Erich
2819 Schubert</a> and
2820 <a href="http://smcv.pseudorandom.co.uk/2014/still_universal/">Simon
2821 McVittie</a>.
2822
2823 <p>If you already are using Wheezy and want to upgrade to Jessie and
2824 keep sysvinit as your boot system, create a file
2825 <tt>/etc/apt/preferences.d/use-sysvinit</tt> with this content before
2826 you upgrade:</p>
2827
2828 <p><blockquote><pre>
2829 Package: systemd-sysv
2830 Pin: release o=Debian
2831 Pin-Priority: -1
2832 </pre></blockquote><p>
2833
2834 <p>This file content will tell apt and aptitude to not consider
2835 installing systemd-sysv as part of any installation and upgrade
2836 solution when resolving dependencies, and thus tell it to avoid
2837 systemd as a default boot system.  The end result should be that the
2838 upgraded system keep using sysvinit.</p>
2839
2840 <p>If you are installing Jessie for the first time, there is no way to
2841 get sysvinit installed by default (debootstrap used by
2842 debian-installer have no option for this), but one can tell the
2843 installer to switch to sysvinit before the first boot.  Either by
2844 using a kernel argument to the installer, or by adding a line to the
2845 preseed file used.  First, the kernel command line argument:
2846
2847 <p><blockquote><pre>
2848 preseed/late_command="in-target apt-get install --purge -y sysvinit-core"
2849 </pre></blockquote><p>
2850
2851 <p>Next, the line to use in a preseed file:</p>
2852
2853 <p><blockquote><pre>
2854 d-i preseed/late_command string in-target apt-get install -y sysvinit-core
2855 </pre></blockquote><p>
2856
2857 <p>One can of course also do this after the first boot by installing
2858 the sysvinit-core package.</p>
2859
2860 <p>I recommend only using sysvinit if you really need it, as the
2861 sysvinit boot sequence in Debian have several hardware specific bugs
2862 on Linux caused by the fact that it is unpredictable when hardware
2863 devices show up during boot.  But on the other hand, the new default
2864 boot system still have a few rough edges I hope will be fixed before
2865 Jessie is released.</p>
2866
2867 <p>Update 2014-11-26: Inspired by
2868 <ahref="https://www.mirbsd.org/permalinks/wlog-10-tg_e20141125-tg.htm#e20141125-tg_wlog-10-tg">a
2869 blog post by Torsten Glaser</a>, added --purge to the preseed
2870 line.</p>
2871
2872       </div>
2873       <div class="tags">
2874
2875
2876         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>.
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/A_Debian_package_for_SMTP_via_Tor__aka_SMTorP__using_exim4.html">A Debian package for SMTP via Tor (aka SMTorP) using exim4</a>
2886       </div>
2887       <div class="date">
2888         10th November 2014
2889       </div>
2890       <div class="body">
2891         <p>The right to communicate with your friends and family in private,
2892 without anyone snooping, is a right every citicen have in a liberal
2893 democracy.  But this right is under serious attack these days.</p>
2894
2895 <p>A while back it occurred to me that one way to make the dragnet
2896 surveillance conducted by NSA, GCHQ, FRA and others (and confirmed by
2897 the whisleblower Snowden) more expensive for Internet email,
2898 is to deliver all email using SMTP via Tor.  Such SMTP option would be
2899 a nice addition to the FreedomBox project if we could send email
2900 between FreedomBox machines without leaking metadata about the emails
2901 to the people peeking on the wire.  I
2902 <a href="http://lists.alioth.debian.org/pipermail/freedombox-discuss/2014-October/006493.html">proposed
2903 this on the FreedomBox project mailing list in October</a> and got a
2904 lot of useful feedback and suggestions.  It also became obvious to me
2905 that this was not a novel idea, as the same idea was tested and
2906 documented by Johannes Berg as early as 2006, and both
2907 <a href="https://github.com/pagekite/Mailpile/wiki/SMTorP">the
2908 Mailpile</a> and <a href="http://dee.su/cables">the Cables</a> systems
2909 propose a similar method / protocol to pass emails between users.</p>
2910
2911 <p>To implement such system one need to set up a Tor hidden service
2912 providing the SMTP protocol on port 25, and use email addresses
2913 looking like username@hidden-service-name.onion.  With such addresses
2914 the connections to port 25 on hidden-service-name.onion using Tor will
2915 go to the correct SMTP server.  To do this, one need to configure the
2916 Tor daemon to provide the hidden service and the mail server to accept
2917 emails for this .onion domain.  To learn more about Exim configuration
2918 in Debian and test the design provided by Johannes Berg in his FAQ, I
2919 set out yesterday to create a Debian package for making it trivial to
2920 set up such SMTP over Tor service based on Debian.  Getting it to work
2921 were fairly easy, and
2922 <a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/exim4-smtorp">the
2923 source code for the Debian package</a> is available from github.  I
2924 plan to move it into Debian if further testing prove this to be a
2925 useful approach.</p>
2926
2927 <p>If you want to test this, set up a blank Debian machine without any
2928 mail system installed (or run <tt>apt-get purge exim4-config</tt> to
2929 get rid of exim4).  Install tor, clone the git repository mentioned
2930 above, build the deb and install it on the machine.  Next, run
2931 <tt>/usr/lib/exim4-smtorp/setup-exim-hidden-service</tt> and follow
2932 the instructions to get the service up and running.  Restart tor and
2933 exim when it is done, and test mail delivery using swaks like
2934 this:</p>
2935
2936 <p><blockquote><pre>
2937 torsocks swaks --server dutlqrrmjhtfa3vp.onion \
2938   --to fbx@dutlqrrmjhtfa3vp.onion
2939 </pre></blockquote></p>
2940
2941 <p>This will test the SMTP delivery using tor.  Replace the email
2942 address with your own address to test your server. :)</p>
2943
2944 <p>The setup procedure is still to complex, and I hope it can be made
2945 easier and more automatic.  Especially the tor setup need more work.
2946 Also, the package include a tor-smtp tool written in C, but its task
2947 should probably be rewritten in some script language to make the deb
2948 architecture independent.  It would probably also make the code easier
2949 to review.  The tor-smtp tool currently need to listen on a socket for
2950 exim to talk to it and is started using xinetd.  It would be better if
2951 no daemon and no socket is needed.  I suspect it is possible to get
2952 exim to run a command line tool for delivery instead of talking to a
2953 socket, and hope to figure out how in a future version of this
2954 system.</p>
2955
2956 <p>Until I wipe my test machine, I can be reached using the
2957 <tt>fbx@dutlqrrmjhtfa3vp.onion</tt> mail address, deliverable over
2958 SMTorP. :)</p>
2959
2960       </div>
2961       <div class="tags">
2962
2963
2964         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freedombox">freedombox</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/personvern">personvern</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance</a>.
2965
2966
2967       </div>
2968     </div>
2969     <div class="padding"></div>
2970
2971     <div class="entry">
2972       <div class="title">
2973         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/listadmin__the_quick_way_to_moderate_mailman_lists___nice_free_software.html">listadmin, the quick way to moderate mailman lists - nice free software</a>
2974       </div>
2975       <div class="date">
2976         22nd October 2014
2977       </div>
2978       <div class="body">
2979         <p>If you ever had to moderate a mailman list, like the ones on
2980 alioth.debian.org, you know the web interface is fairly slow to
2981 operate.  First you visit one web page, enter the moderation password
2982 and get a new page shown with a list of all the messages to moderate
2983 and various options for each email address.  This take a while for
2984 every list you moderate, and you need to do it regularly to do a good
2985 job as a list moderator.  But there is a quick alternative,
2986 <a href="http://heim.ifi.uio.no/kjetilho/hacks/#listadmin">the
2987 listadmin program</a>.  It allow you to check lists for new messages
2988 to moderate in a fraction of a second.  Here is a test run on two
2989 lists I recently took over:</p>
2990
2991 <p><blockquote><pre>
2992 % time listadmin xiph
2993 fetching data for pkg-xiph-commits@lists.alioth.debian.org ... nothing in queue
2994 fetching data for pkg-xiph-maint@lists.alioth.debian.org ... nothing in queue
2995
2996 real    0m1.709s
2997 user    0m0.232s
2998 sys     0m0.012s
2999 %
3000 </pre></blockquote></p>
3001
3002 <p>In 1.7 seconds I had checked two mailing lists and confirmed that
3003 there are no message in the moderation queue.  Every morning I
3004 currently moderate 68 mailman lists, and it normally take around two
3005 minutes.  When I took over the two pkg-xiph lists above a few days
3006 ago, there were 400 emails waiting in the moderator queue.  It took me
3007 less than 15 minutes to process them all using the listadmin
3008 program.</p>
3009
3010 <p>If you install
3011 <a href="https://tracker.debian.org/pkg/listadmin">the listadmin
3012 package</a> from Debian and create a file <tt>~/.listadmin.ini</tt>
3013 with content like this, the moderation task is a breeze:</p>
3014
3015 <p><blockquote><pre>
3016 username username@example.org
3017 spamlevel 23
3018 default discard
3019 discard_if_reason "Posting restricted to members only. Remove us from your mail list."
3020
3021 password secret
3022 adminurl https://{domain}/mailman/admindb/{list}
3023 mailman-list@lists.example.com
3024
3025 password hidden
3026 other-list@otherserver.example.org
3027 </pre></blockquote></p>
3028
3029 <p>There are other options to set as well.  Check the manual page to
3030 learn the details.</p>
3031
3032 <p>If you are forced to moderate lists on a mailman installation where
3033 the SSL certificate is self signed or not properly signed by a
3034 generally accepted signing authority, you can set a environment
3035 variable when calling listadmin to disable SSL verification:</p>
3036
3037 <p><blockquote><pre>
3038 PERL_LWP_SSL_VERIFY_HOSTNAME=0 listadmin
3039 </pre></blockquote></p>
3040
3041 <p>If you want to moderate a subset of the lists you take care of, you
3042 can provide an argument to the listadmin script like I do in the
3043 initial screen dump (the xiph argument).  Using an argument, only
3044 lists matching the argument string will be processed.  This make it
3045 quick to accept messages if you notice the moderation request in your
3046 email.</p>
3047
3048 <p>Without the listadmin program, I would never be the moderator of 68
3049 mailing lists, as I simply do not have time to spend on that if the
3050 process was any slower. The listadmin program have saved me hours of
3051 time I could spend elsewhere over the years.  It truly is nice free
3052 software.</p>
3053
3054 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
3055 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
3056 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b&label=PetterReinholdtsenBlog">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
3057
3058 <p>Update 2014-10-27: Added missing 'username' statement in
3059 configuration example.  Also, I've been told that the
3060 PERL_LWP_SSL_VERIFY_HOSTNAME=0 setting do not work for everyone.  Not
3061 sure why.</p>
3062
3063       </div>
3064       <div class="tags">
3065
3066
3067         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nice free software">nice free software</a>.
3068
3069
3070       </div>
3071     </div>
3072     <div class="padding"></div>
3073
3074     <div class="entry">
3075       <div class="title">
3076         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Jessie__PXE_and_automatic_firmware_installation.html">Debian Jessie, PXE and automatic firmware installation</a>
3077       </div>
3078       <div class="date">
3079         17th October 2014
3080       </div>
3081       <div class="body">
3082         <p>When PXE installing laptops with Debian, I often run into the
3083 problem that the WiFi card require some firmware to work properly.
3084 And it has been a pain to fix this using preseeding in Debian.
3085 Normally something more is needed.  But thanks to
3086 <a href="https://packages.qa.debian.org/i/isenkram.html">my isenkram
3087 package</a> and its recent tasksel extension, it has now become easy
3088 to do this using simple preseeding.</p>
3089
3090 <p>The isenkram-cli package provide tasksel tasks which will install
3091 firmware for the hardware found in the machine (actually, requested by
3092 the kernel modules for the hardware).  (It can also install user space
3093 programs supporting the hardware detected, but that is not the focus
3094 of this story.)</p>
3095
3096 <p>To get this working in the default installation, two preeseding
3097 values are needed.  First, the isenkram-cli package must be installed
3098 into the target chroot (aka the hard drive) before tasksel is executed
3099 in the pkgsel step of the debian-installer system.  This is done by
3100 preseeding the base-installer/includes debconf value to include the
3101 isenkram-cli package.  The package name is next passed to debootstrap
3102 for installation.  With the isenkram-cli package in place, tasksel
3103 will automatically use the isenkram tasks to detect hardware specific
3104 packages for the machine being installed and install them, because
3105 isenkram-cli contain tasksel tasks.</p>
3106
3107 <p>Second, one need to enable the non-free APT repository, because
3108 most firmware unfortunately is non-free.  This is done by preseeding
3109 the apt-mirror-setup step.  This is unfortunate, but for a lot of
3110 hardware it is the only option in Debian.</p>
3111
3112 <p>The end result is two lines needed in your preseeding file to get
3113 firmware installed automatically by the installer:</p>
3114
3115 <p><blockquote><pre>
3116 base-installer base-installer/includes string isenkram-cli
3117 apt-mirror-setup apt-setup/non-free boolean true
3118 </pre></blockquote></p>
3119
3120 <p>The current version of isenkram-cli in testing/jessie will install
3121 both firmware and user space packages when using this method.  It also
3122 do not work well, so use version 0.15 or later.  Installing both
3123 firmware and user space packages might give you a bit more than you
3124 want, so I decided to split the tasksel task in two, one for firmware
3125 and one for user space programs.  The firmware task is enabled by
3126 default, while the one for user space programs is not.  This split is
3127 implemented in the package currently in unstable.</p>
3128
3129 <p>If you decide to give this a go, please let me know (via email) how
3130 this recipe work for you. :)</p>
3131
3132 <p>So, I bet you are wondering, how can this work.  First and
3133 foremost, it work because tasksel is modular, and driven by whatever
3134 files it find in /usr/lib/tasksel/ and /usr/share/tasksel/.  So the
3135 isenkram-cli package place two files for tasksel to find.  First there
3136 is the task description file (/usr/share/tasksel/descs/isenkram.desc):</p>
3137
3138 <p><blockquote><pre>
3139 Task: isenkram-packages
3140 Section: hardware
3141 Description: Hardware specific packages (autodetected by isenkram)
3142  Based on the detected hardware various hardware specific packages are
3143  proposed.
3144 Test-new-install: show show
3145 Relevance: 8
3146 Packages: for-current-hardware
3147
3148 Task: isenkram-firmware
3149 Section: hardware
3150 Description: Hardware specific firmware packages (autodetected by isenkram)
3151  Based on the detected hardware various hardware specific firmware
3152  packages are proposed.
3153 Test-new-install: mark show
3154 Relevance: 8
3155 Packages: for-current-hardware-firmware
3156 </pre></blockquote></p>
3157
3158 <p>The key parts are Test-new-install which indicate how the task
3159 should be handled and the Packages line referencing to a script in
3160 /usr/lib/tasksel/packages/.  The scripts use other scripts to get a
3161 list of packages to install.  The for-current-hardware-firmware script
3162 look like this to list relevant firmware for the machine:
3163
3164 <p><blockquote><pre>
3165 #!/bin/sh
3166 #
3167 PATH=/usr/sbin:$PATH
3168 export PATH
3169 isenkram-autoinstall-firmware -l
3170 </pre></blockquote></p>
3171
3172 <p>With those two pieces in place, the firmware is installed by
3173 tasksel during the normal d-i run. :)</p>
3174
3175 <p>If you want to test what tasksel will install when isenkram-cli is
3176 installed, run <tt>DEBIAN_PRIORITY=critical tasksel --test
3177 --new-install</tt> to get the list of packages that tasksel would
3178 install.</p>
3179
3180 <p><a href="https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/">Debian Edu</a> will be
3181 pilots in testing this feature, as isenkram is used there now to
3182 install firmware, replacing the earlier scripts.</p>
3183
3184       </div>
3185       <div class="tags">
3186
3187
3188         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram">isenkram</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sysadmin">sysadmin</a>.
3189
3190
3191       </div>
3192     </div>
3193     <div class="padding"></div>
3194
3195     <div class="entry">
3196       <div class="title">
3197         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Ubuntu_used_to_show_the_bread_prizes_at_ICA_Storo.html">Ubuntu used to show the bread prizes at ICA Storo</a>
3198       </div>
3199       <div class="date">
3200          4th October 2014
3201       </div>
3202       <div class="body">
3203         <p>Today I came across an unexpected Ubuntu boot screen.  Above the
3204 bread shelf on the ICA shop at Storo in Oslo, the grub menu of Ubuntu
3205 with Linux kernel 3.2.0-23 (ie probably version 12.04 LTS) was stuck
3206 on a screen normally showing the bread types and prizes:</p>
3207
3208 <p align="center"><img width="70%" src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2014-10-04-ubuntu-ica-storo-crop.jpeg"></p>
3209
3210 <p>If it had booted as it was supposed to, I would never had known
3211 about this hidden Linux installation.  It is interesting what
3212 <a href="http://revealingerrors.com/">errors can reveal</a>.</p>
3213
3214       </div>
3215       <div class="tags">
3216
3217
3218         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
3219
3220
3221       </div>
3222     </div>
3223     <div class="padding"></div>
3224
3225     <div class="entry">
3226       <div class="title">
3227         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/New_lsdvd_release_version_0_17_is_ready.html">New lsdvd release version 0.17 is ready</a>
3228       </div>
3229       <div class="date">
3230          4th October 2014
3231       </div>
3232       <div class="body">
3233         <p>The <a href="https://sourceforge.net/p/lsdvd/">lsdvd project</a>
3234 got a new set of developers a few weeks ago, after the original
3235 developer decided to step down and pass the project to fresh blood.
3236 This project is now maintained by Petter Reinholdtsen and Steve
3237 Dibb.</p>
3238
3239 <p>I just wrapped up
3240 <a href="https://sourceforge.net/p/lsdvd/mailman/message/32896061/">a
3241 new lsdvd release</a>, available in git or from
3242 <a href="https://sourceforge.net/projects/lsdvd/files/lsdvd/">the
3243 download page</a>.  This is the changelog dated 2014-10-03 for version
3244 0.17.</p>
3245
3246 <ul>
3247
3248  <li>Ignore 'phantom' audio, subtitle tracks</li>
3249  <li>Check for garbage in the program chains, which indicate that a track is
3250    non-existant, to work around additional copy protection</li>
3251  <li>Fix displaying content type for audio tracks, subtitles</li>
3252  <li>Fix pallete display of first entry</li>
3253  <li>Fix include orders</li>
3254  <li>Ignore read errors in titles that would not be displayed anyway</li>
3255  <li>Fix the chapter count</li>
3256  <li>Make sure the array size and the array limit used when initialising
3257    the palette size is the same.</li>
3258  <li>Fix array printing.</li>
3259  <li>Correct subsecond calculations.</li>
3260  <li>Add sector information to the output format.</li>
3261  <li>Clean up code to be closer to ANSI C and compile without warnings
3262    with more GCC compiler warnings.</li>
3263
3264 </ul>
3265
3266 <p>This change bring together patches for lsdvd in use in various
3267 Linux and Unix distributions, as well as patches submitted to the
3268 project the last nine years.  Please check it out. :)</p>
3269
3270       </div>
3271       <div class="tags">
3272
3273
3274         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/lsdvd">lsdvd</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/multimedia">multimedia</a>.
3275
3276
3277       </div>
3278     </div>
3279     <div class="padding"></div>
3280
3281     <div class="entry">
3282       <div class="title">
3283         <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>
3284       </div>
3285       <div class="date">
3286         26th September 2014
3287       </div>
3288       <div class="body">
3289         <p>The <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux
3290 project</a> provide a Linux solution for schools, including a
3291 powerful desktop with education software, a central server providing
3292 web pages, user database, user home directories, central login and PXE
3293 boot of both  clients without disk and the installation to install Debian
3294 Edu on machines with disk (and a few other services perhaps to small
3295 to mention here).  We in the Debian Edu team are currently working on
3296 the Jessie based version, trying to get everything in shape before the
3297 freeze, to avoid having to maintain our own package repository in the
3298 future.  The
3299 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Status/Jessie">current
3300 status</a> can be seen on the Debian wiki, and there is still heaps of
3301 work left.  Some fatal problems block testing, breaking the installer,
3302 but it is possible to work around these to get anyway.  Here is a
3303 recipe on how to get the installation limping along.</p>
3304
3305 <p>First, download the test ISO via
3306 <a href="ftp://ftp.skolelinux.no/cd-edu-testing-nolocal-netinst/debian-edu-amd64-i386-NETINST-1.iso">ftp</a>,
3307 <a href="http://ftp.skolelinux.no/cd-edu-testing-nolocal-netinst/debian-edu-amd64-i386-NETINST-1.iso">http</a>
3308 or rsync (use
3309 ftp.skolelinux.org::cd-edu-testing-nolocal-netinst/debian-edu-amd64-i386-NETINST-1.iso).
3310 The ISO build was broken on Tuesday, so we do not get a new ISO every
3311 12 hours or so, but thankfully the ISO we already got we are able to
3312 install with some tweaking.</p>
3313
3314 <p>When you get to the Debian Edu profile question, go to tty2
3315 (use Alt-Ctrl-F2), run</p>
3316
3317 <p><blockquote><pre>
3318 nano /usr/bin/edu-eatmydata-install
3319 </pre></blockquote></p>
3320
3321 <p>and add 'exit 0' as the second line, disabling the eatmydata
3322 optimization.  Return to the installation, select the profile you want
3323 and continue.  Without this change, exim4-config will fail to install
3324 due to a known bug in eatmydata.</p>
3325
3326 <p>When you get the grub question at the end, answer /dev/sda (or if
3327 this do not work, figure out what your correct value would be.  All my
3328 test machines need /dev/sda, so I have no advice if it do not fit
3329 your need.</p>
3330
3331 <p>If you installed a profile including a graphical desktop, log in as
3332 root after the initial boot from hard drive, and install the
3333 education-desktop-XXX metapackage.  XXX can be kde, gnome, lxde, xfce
3334 or mate.  If you want several desktop options, install more than one
3335 metapackage.  Once this is done, reboot and you should have a working
3336 graphical login screen.  This workaround should no longer be needed
3337 once the education-tasks package version 1.801 enter testing in two
3338 days.</p>
3339
3340 <p>I believe the ISO build will start working on two days when the new
3341 tasksel package enter testing and Steve McIntyre get a chance to
3342 update the debian-cd git repository.  The eatmydata, grub and desktop
3343 issues are already fixed in unstable and testing, and should show up
3344 on the ISO as soon as the ISO build start working again.  Well the
3345 eatmydata optimization is really just disabled.  The proper fix
3346 require an upload by the eatmydata maintainer applying the patch
3347 provided in bug <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/702711">#702711</a>.
3348 The rest have proper fixes in unstable.</p>
3349
3350 <p>I hope this get you going with the installation testing, as we are
3351 quickly running out of time trying to get our Jessie based
3352 installation ready before the distribution freeze in a month.</p>
3353
3354       </div>
3355       <div class="tags">
3356
3357
3358         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>.
3359
3360
3361       </div>
3362     </div>
3363     <div class="padding"></div>
3364
3365     <div class="entry">
3366       <div class="title">
3367         <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>
3368       </div>
3369       <div class="date">
3370         25th September 2014
3371       </div>
3372       <div class="body">
3373         <p>I use the <a href="https://sourceforge.net/p/lsdvd/">lsdvd tool</a>
3374 to handle my fairly large DVD collection.  It is a nice command line
3375 tool to get details about a DVD, like title, tracks, track length,
3376 etc, in XML, Perl or human readable format.  But lsdvd have not seen
3377 any new development since 2006 and had a few irritating bugs affecting
3378 its use with some DVDs.  Upstream seemed to be dead, and in January I
3379 sent a small probe asking for a version control repository for the
3380 project, without any reply.  But I use it regularly and would like to
3381 get <a href="https://packages.qa.debian.org/lsdvd">an updated version
3382 into Debian</a>.  So two weeks ago I tried harder to get in touch with
3383 the project admin, and after getting a reply from him explaining that
3384 he was no longer interested in the project, I asked if I could take
3385 over.  And yesterday, I became project admin.</p>
3386
3387 <p>I've been in touch with a Gentoo developer and the Debian
3388 maintainer interested in joining forces to maintain the upstream
3389 project, and I hope we can get a new release out fairly quickly,
3390 collecting the patches spread around on the internet into on place.
3391 I've added the relevant Debian patches to the freshly created git
3392 repository, and expect the Gentoo patches to make it too.  If you got
3393 a DVD collection and care about command line tools, check out
3394 <a href="https://sourceforge.net/p/lsdvd/git/ci/master/tree/">the git source</a> and join
3395 <a href="https://sourceforge.net/p/lsdvd/mailman/">the project mailing
3396 list</a>. :)</p>
3397
3398       </div>
3399       <div class="tags">
3400
3401
3402         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/lsdvd">lsdvd</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/multimedia">multimedia</a>.
3403
3404
3405       </div>
3406     </div>
3407     <div class="padding"></div>
3408
3409     <div class="entry">
3410       <div class="title">
3411         <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>
3412       </div>
3413       <div class="date">
3414         16th September 2014
3415       </div>
3416       <div class="body">
3417         <p>The <a href="https://www.debian.org/">Debian</a> installer could be
3418 a lot quicker.  When we install more than 2000 packages in
3419 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Skolelinux / Debian Edu</a> using
3420 tasksel in the installer, unpacking the binary packages take forever.
3421 A part of the slow I/O issue was discussed in
3422 <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/613428">bug #613428</a> about too
3423 much file system sync-ing done by dpkg, which is the package
3424 responsible for unpacking the binary packages.  Other parts (like code
3425 executed by postinst scripts) might also sync to disk during
3426 installation.  All this sync-ing to disk do not really make sense to
3427 me.  If the machine crash half-way through, I start over, I do not try
3428 to salvage the half installed system.  So the failure sync-ing is
3429 supposed to protect against, hardware or system crash, is not really
3430 relevant while the installer is running.</p>
3431
3432 <p>A few days ago, I thought of a way to get rid of all the file
3433 system sync()-ing in a fairly non-intrusive way, without the need to
3434 change the code in several packages.  The idea is not new, but I have
3435 not heard anyone propose the approach using dpkg-divert before.  It
3436 depend on the small and clever package
3437 <a href="https://packages.qa.debian.org/eatmydata">eatmydata</a>, which
3438 uses LD_PRELOAD to replace the system functions for syncing data to
3439 disk with functions doing nothing, thus allowing programs to live
3440 dangerous while speeding up disk I/O significantly.  Instead of
3441 modifying the implementation of dpkg, apt and tasksel (which are the
3442 packages responsible for selecting, fetching and installing packages),
3443 it occurred to me that we could just divert the programs away, replace
3444 them with a simple shell wrapper calling
3445 "eatmydata&nbsp;$program&nbsp;$@", to get the same effect.
3446 Two days ago I decided to test the idea, and wrapped up a simple
3447 implementation for the Debian Edu udeb.</p>
3448
3449 <p>The effect was stunning.  In my first test it reduced the running
3450 time of the pkgsel step (installing tasks) from 64 to less than 44
3451 minutes (20 minutes shaved off the installation) on an old Dell
3452 Latitude D505 machine.  I am not quite sure what the optimised time
3453 would have been, as I messed up the testing a bit, causing the debconf
3454 priority to get low enough for two questions to pop up during
3455 installation.  As soon as I saw the questions I moved the installation
3456 along, but do not know how long the question were holding up the
3457 installation.  I did some more measurements using Debian Edu Jessie,
3458 and got these results.  The time measured is the time stamp in
3459 /var/log/syslog between the "pkgsel: starting tasksel" and the
3460 "pkgsel: finishing up" lines, if you want to do the same measurement
3461 yourself.  In Debian Edu, the tasksel dialog do not show up, and the
3462 timing thus do not depend on how quickly the user handle the tasksel
3463 dialog.</p>
3464
3465 <p><table>
3466
3467 <tr>
3468 <th>Machine/setup</th>
3469 <th>Original tasksel</th>
3470 <th>Optimised tasksel</th>
3471 <th>Reduction</th>
3472 </tr>
3473
3474 <tr>
3475 <td>Latitude D505 Main+LTSP LXDE</td>
3476 <td>64 min (07:46-08:50)</td>
3477 <td><44 min (11:27-12:11)</td>
3478 <td>>20 min 18%</td>
3479 </tr>
3480
3481 <tr>
3482 <td>Latitude D505 Roaming LXDE</td>
3483 <td>57 min (08:48-09:45)</td>
3484 <td>34 min (07:43-08:17)</td>
3485 <td>23 min 40%</td>
3486 </tr>
3487
3488 <tr>
3489 <td>Latitude D505 Minimal</td>
3490 <td>22 min (10:37-10:59)</td>
3491 <td>11 min (11:16-11:27)</td>
3492 <td>11 min 50%</td>
3493 </tr>
3494
3495 <tr>
3496 <td>Thinkpad X200 Minimal</td>
3497 <td>6 min (08:19-08:25)</td>
3498 <td>4 min (08:04-08:08)</td>
3499 <td>2 min 33%</td>
3500 </tr>
3501
3502 <tr>
3503 <td>Thinkpad X200 Roaming KDE</td>
3504 <td>19 min (09:21-09:40)</td>
3505 <td>15 min (10:25-10:40)</td>
3506 <td>4 min 21%</td>
3507 </tr>
3508
3509 </table></p>
3510
3511 <p>The test is done using a netinst ISO on a USB stick, so some of the
3512 time is spent downloading packages.  The connection to the Internet
3513 was 100Mbit/s during testing, so downloading should not be a
3514 significant factor in the measurement.  Download typically took a few
3515 seconds to a few minutes, depending on the amount of packages being
3516 installed.</p>
3517
3518 <p>The speedup is implemented by using two hooks in
3519 <a href="https://www.debian.org/devel/debian-installer/">Debian
3520 Installer</a>, the pre-pkgsel.d hook to set up the diverts, and the
3521 finish-install.d hook to remove the divert at the end of the
3522 installation.  I picked the pre-pkgsel.d hook instead of the
3523 post-base-installer.d hook because I test using an ISO without the
3524 eatmydata package included, and the post-base-installer.d hook in
3525 Debian Edu can only operate on packages included in the ISO.  The
3526 negative effect of this is that I am unable to activate this
3527 optimization for the kernel installation step in d-i.  If the code is
3528 moved to the post-base-installer.d hook, the speedup would be larger
3529 for the entire installation.</p>
3530
3531 <p>I've implemented this in the
3532 <a href="https://packages.qa.debian.org/debian-edu-install">debian-edu-install</a>
3533 git repository, and plan to provide the optimization as part of the
3534 Debian Edu installation.  If you want to test this yourself, you can
3535 create two files in the installer (or in an udeb).  One shell script
3536 need do go into /usr/lib/pre-pkgsel.d/, with content like this:</p>
3537
3538 <p><blockquote><pre>
3539 #!/bin/sh
3540 set -e
3541 . /usr/share/debconf/confmodule
3542 info() {
3543     logger -t my-pkgsel "info: $*"
3544 }
3545 error() {
3546     logger -t my-pkgsel "error: $*"
3547 }
3548 override_install() {
3549     apt-install eatmydata || true
3550     if [ -x /target/usr/bin/eatmydata ] ; then
3551         for bin in dpkg apt-get aptitude tasksel ; do
3552             file=/usr/bin/$bin
3553             # Test that the file exist and have not been diverted already.
3554             if [ -f /target$file ] ; then
3555                 info "diverting $file using eatmydata"
3556                 printf "#!/bin/sh\neatmydata $bin.distrib \"\$@\"\n" \
3557                     > /target$file.edu
3558                 chmod 755 /target$file.edu
3559                 in-target dpkg-divert --package debian-edu-config \
3560                     --rename --quiet --add $file
3561                 ln -sf ./$bin.edu /target$file
3562             else
3563                 error "unable to divert $file, as it is missing."
3564             fi
3565         done
3566     else
3567         error "unable to find /usr/bin/eatmydata after installing the eatmydata pacage"
3568     fi
3569 }
3570
3571 override_install
3572 </pre></blockquote></p>
3573
3574 <p>To clean up, another shell script should go into
3575 /usr/lib/finish-install.d/ with code like this:
3576
3577 <p><blockquote><pre>
3578 #! /bin/sh -e
3579 . /usr/share/debconf/confmodule
3580 error() {
3581     logger -t my-finish-install "error: $@"
3582 }
3583 remove_install_override() {
3584     for bin in dpkg apt-get aptitude tasksel ; do
3585         file=/usr/bin/$bin
3586         if [ -x /target$file.edu ] ; then
3587             rm /target$file
3588             in-target dpkg-divert --package debian-edu-config \
3589                 --rename --quiet --remove $file
3590             rm /target$file.edu
3591         else
3592             error "Missing divert for $file."
3593         fi
3594     done
3595     sync # Flush file buffers before continuing
3596 }
3597
3598 remove_install_override
3599 </pre></blockquote></p>
3600
3601 <p>In Debian Edu, I placed both code fragments in a separate script
3602 edu-eatmydata-install and call it from the pre-pkgsel.d and
3603 finish-install.d scripts.</p>
3604
3605 <p>By now you might ask if this change should get into the normal
3606 Debian installer too?  I suspect it should, but am not sure the
3607 current debian-installer coordinators find it useful enough.  It also
3608 depend on the side effects of the change.  I'm not aware of any, but I
3609 guess we will see if the change is safe after some more testing.
3610 Perhaps there is some package in Debian depending on sync() and
3611 fsync() having effect?  Perhaps it should go into its own udeb, to
3612 allow those of us wanting to enable it to do so without affecting
3613 everyone.</p>
3614
3615 <p>Update 2014-09-24: Since a few days ago, enabling this optimization
3616 will break installation of all programs using gnutls because of
3617 <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/702711">bug #702711</a>.  An updated
3618 eatmydata package in Debian will solve it.</p>
3619
3620 <p>Update 2014-10-17: The bug mentioned above is fixed in testing and
3621 the optimization work again.  And I have discovered that the
3622 dpkg-divert trick is not really needed and implemented a slightly
3623 simpler approach as part of the debian-edu-install package.  See
3624 tools/edu-eatmydata-install in the source package.</p>
3625
3626 <p>Update 2014-11-11: Unfortunately, a new
3627 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/765738">bug #765738</a> in eatmydata only
3628 triggering on i386 made it into testing, and broke this installation
3629 optimization again.  If <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/768893">unblock
3630 request 768893</a> is accepted, it should be working again.</p>
3631
3632       </div>
3633       <div class="tags">
3634
3635
3636         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>.
3637
3638
3639       </div>
3640     </div>
3641     <div class="padding"></div>
3642
3643     <div class="entry">
3644       <div class="title">
3645         <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>
3646       </div>
3647       <div class="date">
3648         10th September 2014
3649       </div>
3650       <div class="body">
3651         <p>Yesterday, I had the pleasure of attending a talk with the
3652 <a href="http://www.nuug.no/">Norwegian Unix User Group</a> about
3653 <a href="http://www.nuug.no/aktiviteter/20140909-sks-keyservers/">the
3654 OpenPGP keyserver pool sks-keyservers.net</a>, and was very happy to
3655 learn that there is a large set of publicly available key servers to
3656 use when looking for peoples public key.  So far I have used
3657 subkeys.pgp.net, and some times wwwkeys.nl.pgp.net when the former
3658 were misbehaving, but those days are ended.  The servers I have used
3659 up until yesterday have been slow and some times unavailable.  I hope
3660 those problems are gone now.</p>
3661
3662 <p>Behind the round robin DNS entry of the
3663 <a href="https://sks-keyservers.net/">sks-keyservers.net</a> service
3664 there is a pool of more than 100 keyservers which are checked every
3665 day to ensure they are well connected and up to date.  It must be
3666 better than what I have used so far. :)</p>
3667
3668 <p>Yesterdays speaker told me that the service is the default
3669 keyserver provided by the default configuration in GnuPG, but this do
3670 not seem to be used in Debian.  Perhaps it should?</p>
3671
3672 <p>Anyway, I've updated my ~/.gnupg/options file to now include this
3673 line:</p>
3674
3675 <p><blockquote><pre>
3676 keyserver pool.sks-keyservers.net
3677 </pre></blockquote></p>
3678
3679 <p>With GnuPG version 2 one can also locate the keyserver using SRV
3680 entries in DNS.  Just for fun, I did just that at work, so now every
3681 user of GnuPG at the University of Oslo should find a OpenGPG
3682 keyserver automatically should their need it:</p>
3683
3684 <p><blockquote><pre>
3685 % host -t srv _pgpkey-http._tcp.uio.no
3686 _pgpkey-http._tcp.uio.no has SRV record 0 100 11371 pool.sks-keyservers.net.
3687 %
3688 </pre></blockquote></p>
3689
3690 <p>Now if only
3691 <a href="http://ietfreport.isoc.org/idref/draft-shaw-openpgp-hkp/">the
3692 HKP lookup protocol</a> supported finding signature paths, I would be
3693 very happy.  It can look up a given key or search for a user ID, but I
3694 normally do not want that, but to find a trust path from my key to
3695 another key.  Given a user ID or key ID, I would like to find (and
3696 download) the keys representing a signature path from my key to the
3697 key in question, to be able to get a trust path between the two keys.
3698 This is as far as I can tell not possible today.  Perhaps something
3699 for a future version of the protocol?</p>
3700
3701       </div>
3702       <div class="tags">
3703
3704
3705         Tags: <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>.
3706
3707
3708       </div>
3709     </div>
3710     <div class="padding"></div>
3711
3712     <div class="entry">
3713       <div class="title">
3714         <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>
3715       </div>
3716       <div class="date">
3717         17th June 2014
3718       </div>
3719       <div class="body">
3720         <p>The <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux
3721 project</a> provide an instruction manual for teachers, system
3722 administrators and other users that contain useful tips for setting up
3723 and maintaining a Debian Edu installation.  This text is about how the
3724 text processing of this manual is handled in the project.</p>
3725
3726 <p>One goal of the project is to provide information in the native
3727 language of its users, and for this we need to handle translations.
3728 But we also want to make sure each language contain the same
3729 information, so for this we need a good way to keep the translations
3730 in sync.  And we want it to be easy for our users to improve the
3731 documentation, avoiding the need to learn special formats or tools to
3732 contribute, and the obvious way to do this is to make it possible to
3733 edit the documentation using a web browser.  We also want it to be
3734 easy for translators to keep the translation up to date, and give them
3735 help in figuring out what need to be translated. Here is the list of
3736 tools and the process we have found trying to reach all these
3737 goals.</p>
3738
3739 <p>We maintain the authoritative source of our manual in the
3740 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Documentation/Wheezy/">Debian
3741 wiki</a>, as several wiki pages written in English.  It consist of one
3742 front page with references to the different chapters, several pages
3743 for each chapter, and finally one "collection page" gluing all the
3744 chapters together into one large web page (aka
3745 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Documentation/Wheezy/AllInOne">the
3746 AllInOne page</a>).  The AllInOne page is the one used for further
3747 processing and translations.  Thanks to the fact that the
3748 <a href="http://moinmo.in/">MoinMoin</a> installation on
3749 wiki.debian.org support exporting pages in
3750 <a href="http://www.docbook.org/">the Docbook format</a>, we can fetch
3751 the list of pages to export using the raw version of the AllInOne
3752 page, loop over each of them to generate a Docbook XML version of the
3753 manual.  This process also download images and transform image
3754 references to use the locally downloaded images.  The generated
3755 Docbook XML files are slightly broken, so some post-processing is done
3756 using the <tt>documentation/scripts/get_manual</tt> program, and the
3757 result is a nice Docbook XML file (debian-edu-wheezy-manual.xml) and
3758 a handfull of images.  The XML file can now be used to generate PDF, HTML
3759 and epub versions of the English manual.  This is the basic step of
3760 our process, making PDF (using dblatex), HTML (using xsltproc) and
3761 epub (using dbtoepub) version from Docbook XML, and the resulting files
3762 are placed in the debian-edu-doc-en binary package.</p>
3763
3764 <p>But English documentation is not enough for us.  We want translated
3765 documentation too, and we want to make it easy for translators to
3766 track the English original.  For this we use the
3767 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/p/poxml.html">poxml</a> package,
3768 which allow us to transform the English Docbook XML file into a
3769 translation file (a .pot file), usable with the normal gettext based
3770 translation tools used by those translating free software.  The pot
3771 file is used to create and maintain translation files (several .po
3772 files), which the translations update with the native language
3773 translations of all titles, paragraphs and blocks of text in the
3774 original.  The next step is combining the original English Docbook XML
3775 and the translation file (say debian-edu-wheezy-manual.nb.po), to
3776 create a translated Docbook XML file (in this case
3777 debian-edu-wheezy-manual.nb.xml).  This translated (or partly
3778 translated, if the translation is not complete) Docbook XML file can
3779 then be used like the original to create a PDF, HTML and epub version
3780 of the documentation.</p>
3781
3782 <p>The translators use different tools to edit the .po files.  We
3783 recommend using
3784 <a href="http://www.kde.org/applications/development/lokalize/">lokalize</a>,
3785 while some use emacs and vi, others can use web based editors like
3786 <a href="http://pootle.translatehouse.org/">Poodle</a> or
3787 <a href="https://www.transifex.com/">Transifex</a>.  All we care about
3788 is where the .po file end up, in our git repository.  Updated
3789 translations can either be committed directly to git, or submitted as
3790 <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/src:debian-edu-doc">bug reports
3791 against the debian-edu-doc package</a>.</p>
3792
3793 <p>One challenge is images, which both might need to be translated (if
3794 they show translated user applications), and are needed in different
3795 formats when creating PDF and HTML versions (epub is a HTML version in
3796 this regard).  For this we transform the original PNG images to the
3797 needed density and format during build, and have a way to provide
3798 translated images by storing translated versions in
3799 images/$LANGUAGECODE/.  I am a bit unsure about the details here.  The
3800 package maintainers know more.</p>
3801
3802 <p>If you wonder what the result look like, we provide
3803 <a href="http://maintainer.skolelinux.org/debian-edu-doc/">the content
3804 of the documentation packages on the web</a>.  See for example the
3805 <a href="http://maintainer.skolelinux.org/debian-edu-doc/it/debian-edu-wheezy-manual.pdf">Italian
3806 PDF version</a> or the
3807 <a href="http://maintainer.skolelinux.org/debian-edu-doc/de/debian-edu-wheezy-manual.html">German
3808 HTML version</a>.  We do not yet build the epub version by default,
3809 but perhaps it will be done in the future.</p>
3810
3811 <p>To learn more, check out
3812 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/d/debian-edu-doc.html">the
3813 debian-edu-doc package</a>,
3814 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Documentation/Wheezy/">the
3815 manual on the wiki</a> and
3816 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Documentation/Wheezy/Translations">the
3817 translation instructions</a> in the manual.</p>
3818
3819       </div>
3820       <div class="tags">
3821
3822
3823         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>.
3824
3825
3826       </div>
3827     </div>
3828     <div class="padding"></div>
3829
3830     <div class="entry">
3831       <div class="title">
3832         <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>
3833       </div>
3834       <div class="date">
3835         23rd April 2014
3836       </div>
3837       <div class="body">
3838         <p>It would be nice if it was easier in Debian to get all the hardware
3839 related packages relevant for the computer installed automatically.
3840 So I implemented one, using
3841 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/isenkram">my Isenkram
3842 package</a>.  To use it, install the tasksel and isenkram packages and
3843 run tasksel as user root.  You should be presented with a new option,
3844 "Hardware specific packages (autodetected by isenkram)".  When you
3845 select it, tasksel will install the packages isenkram claim is fit for
3846 the current hardware, hot pluggable or not.<p>
3847
3848 <p>The implementation is in two files, one is the tasksel menu entry
3849 description, and the other is the script used to extract the list of
3850 packages to install.  The first part is in
3851 <tt>/usr/share/tasksel/descs/isenkram.desc</tt> and look like
3852 this:</p>
3853
3854 <p><blockquote><pre>
3855 Task: isenkram
3856 Section: hardware
3857 Description: Hardware specific packages (autodetected by isenkram)
3858  Based on the detected hardware various hardware specific packages are
3859  proposed.
3860 Test-new-install: mark show
3861 Relevance: 8
3862 Packages: for-current-hardware
3863 </pre></blockquote></p>
3864
3865 <p>The second part is in
3866 <tt>/usr/lib/tasksel/packages/for-current-hardware</tt> and look like
3867 this:</p>
3868
3869 <p><blockquote><pre>
3870 #!/bin/sh
3871 #
3872 (
3873     isenkram-lookup
3874     isenkram-autoinstall-firmware -l
3875 ) | sort -u
3876 </pre></blockquote></p>
3877
3878 <p>All in all, a very short and simple implementation making it
3879 trivial to install the hardware dependent package we all may want to
3880 have installed on our machines.  I've not been able to find a way to
3881 get tasksel to tell you exactly which packages it plan to install
3882 before doing the installation.  So if you are curious or careful,
3883 check the output from the isenkram-* command line tools first.</p>
3884
3885 <p>The information about which packages are handling which hardware is
3886 fetched either from the isenkram package itself in
3887 /usr/share/isenkram/, from git.debian.org or from the APT package
3888 database (using the Modaliases header).  The APT package database
3889 parsing have caused a nasty resource leak in the isenkram daemon (bugs
3890 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/719837">#719837</a> and
3891 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/730704">#730704</a>).  The cause is in
3892 the python-apt code (bug
3893 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/745487">#745487</a>), but using a
3894 workaround I was able to get rid of the file descriptor leak and
3895 reduce the memory leak from ~30 MiB per hardware detection down to
3896 around 2 MiB per hardware detection.  It should make the desktop
3897 daemon a lot more useful.  The fix is in version 0.7 uploaded to
3898 unstable today.</p>
3899
3900 <p>I believe the current way of mapping hardware to packages in
3901 Isenkram is is a good draft, but in the future I expect isenkram to
3902 use the AppStream data source for this.  A proposal for getting proper
3903 AppStream support into Debian is floating around as
3904 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/DEP-11">DEP-11</a>, and
3905 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/SummerOfCode2014/Projects#SummerOfCode2014.2FProjects.2FAppStreamDEP11Implementation.AppStream.2FDEP-11_for_the_Debian_Archive">GSoC
3906 project</a> will take place this summer to improve the situation.  I
3907 look forward to seeing the result, and welcome patches for isenkram to
3908 start using the information when it is ready.</p>
3909
3910 <p>If you want your package to map to some specific hardware, either
3911 add a "Xb-Modaliases" header to your control file like I did in
3912 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/pymissile">the pymissile
3913 package</a> or submit a bug report with the details to the isenkram
3914 package.  See also
3915 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram/">all my
3916 blog posts tagged isenkram</a> for details on the notation.  I expect
3917 the information will be migrated to AppStream eventually, but for the
3918 moment I got no better place to store it.</p>
3919
3920       </div>
3921       <div class="tags">
3922
3923
3924         Tags: <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>.
3925
3926
3927       </div>
3928     </div>
3929     <div class="padding"></div>
3930
3931     <div class="entry">
3932       <div class="title">
3933         <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>
3934       </div>
3935       <div class="date">
3936         15th April 2014
3937       </div>
3938       <div class="body">
3939         <p>The <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/FreedomBox">Freedombox
3940 project</a> is working on providing the software and hardware to make
3941 it easy for non-technical people to host their data and communication
3942 at home, and being able to communicate with their friends and family
3943 encrypted and away from prying eyes.  It is still going strong, and
3944 today a major mile stone was reached.</p>
3945
3946 <p>Today, the last of the packages currently used by the project to
3947 created the system images were accepted into Debian Unstable.  It was
3948 the freedombox-setup package, which is used to configure the images
3949 during build and on the first boot.  Now all one need to get going is
3950 the build code from the freedom-maker git repository and packages from
3951 Debian.  And once the freedombox-setup package enter testing, we can
3952 build everything directly from Debian. :)</p>
3953
3954 <p>Some key packages used by Freedombox are
3955 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/freedombox-setup">freedombox-setup</a>,
3956 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/plinth">plinth</a>,
3957 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/pagekite">pagekite</a>,
3958 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/tor">tor</a>,
3959 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/privoxy">privoxy</a>,
3960 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/owncloud">owncloud</a> and
3961 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/dnsmasq">dnsmasq</a>.  There
3962 are plans to integrate more packages into the setup.  User
3963 documentation is maintained on the Debian wiki.  Please
3964 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/FreedomBox/Manual/Jessie">check out
3965 the manual</a> and help us improve it.</p>
3966
3967 <p>To test for yourself and create boot images with the FreedomBox
3968 setup, run this on a Debian machine using a user with sudo rights to
3969 become root:</p>
3970
3971 <p><pre>
3972 sudo apt-get install git vmdebootstrap mercurial python-docutils \
3973   mktorrent extlinux virtualbox qemu-user-static binfmt-support \
3974   u-boot-tools
3975 git clone http://anonscm.debian.org/git/freedombox/freedom-maker.git \
3976   freedom-maker
3977 make -C freedom-maker dreamplug-image raspberry-image virtualbox-image
3978 </pre></p>
3979
3980 <p>Root access is needed to run debootstrap and mount loopback
3981 devices.  See the README in the freedom-maker git repo for more
3982 details on the build.  If you do not want all three images, trim the
3983 make line.  Note that the virtualbox-image target is not really
3984 virtualbox specific.  It create a x86 image usable in kvm, qemu,
3985 vmware and any other x86 virtual machine environment.  You might need
3986 the version of vmdebootstrap in Jessie to get the build working, as it
3987 include fixes for a race condition with kpartx.</p>
3988
3989 <p>If you instead want to install using a Debian CD and the preseed
3990 method, boot a Debian Wheezy ISO and use this boot argument to load
3991 the preseed values:</p>
3992
3993 <p><pre>
3994 url=<a href="http://www.reinholdtsen.name/freedombox/preseed-jessie.dat">http://www.reinholdtsen.name/freedombox/preseed-jessie.dat</a>
3995 </pre></p>
3996
3997 <p>I have not tested it myself the last few weeks, so I do not know if
3998 it still work.</p>
3999
4000 <p>If you wonder how to help, one task you could look at is using
4001 systemd as the boot system.  It will become the default for Linux in
4002 Jessie, so we need to make sure it is usable on the Freedombox.  I did
4003 a simple test a few weeks ago, and noticed dnsmasq failed to start
4004 during boot when using systemd.  I suspect there are other problems
4005 too. :) To detect problems, there is a test suite included, which can
4006 be run from the plinth web interface.</p>
4007
4008 <p>Give it a go and let us know how it goes on the mailing list, and help
4009 us get the new release published. :) Please join us on
4010 <a href="irc://irc.debian.org:6667/%23freedombox">IRC (#freedombox on
4011 irc.debian.org)</a> and
4012 <a href="http://lists.alioth.debian.org/mailman/listinfo/freedombox-discuss">the
4013 mailing list</a> if you want to help make this vision come true.</p>
4014
4015       </div>
4016       <div class="tags">
4017
4018
4019         Tags: <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>.
4020
4021
4022       </div>
4023     </div>
4024     <div class="padding"></div>
4025
4026     <div class="entry">
4027       <div class="title">
4028         <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>
4029       </div>
4030       <div class="date">
4031          9th April 2014
4032       </div>
4033       <div class="body">
4034         <p>For a while now, I have been looking for a sensible offsite backup
4035 solution for use at home.  My requirements are simple, it must be
4036 cheap and locally encrypted (in other words, I keep the encryption
4037 keys, the storage provider do not have access to my private files).
4038 One idea me and my friends had many years ago, before the cloud
4039 storage providers showed up, was to use Google mail as storage,
4040 writing a Linux block device storing blocks as emails in the mail
4041 service provided by Google, and thus get heaps of free space.  On top
4042 of this one can add encryption, RAID and volume management to have
4043 lots of (fairly slow, I admit that) cheap and encrypted storage.  But
4044 I never found time to implement such system.  But the last few weeks I
4045 have looked at a system called
4046 <a href="https://bitbucket.org/nikratio/s3ql/">S3QL</a>, a locally
4047 mounted network backed file system with the features I need.</p>
4048
4049 <p>S3QL is a fuse file system with a local cache and cloud storage,
4050 handling several different storage providers, any with Amazon S3,
4051 Google Drive or OpenStack API.  There are heaps of such storage
4052 providers.  S3QL can also use a local directory as storage, which
4053 combined with sshfs allow for file storage on any ssh server.  S3QL
4054 include support for encryption, compression, de-duplication, snapshots
4055 and immutable file systems, allowing me to mount the remote storage as
4056 a local mount point, look at and use the files as if they were local,
4057 while the content is stored in the cloud as well.  This allow me to
4058 have a backup that should survive fire.  The file system can not be
4059 shared between several machines at the same time, as only one can
4060 mount it at the time, but any machine with the encryption key and
4061 access to the storage service can mount it if it is unmounted.</p>
4062
4063 <p>It is simple to use.  I'm using it on Debian Wheezy, where the
4064 package is included already.  So to get started, run <tt>apt-get
4065 install s3ql</tt>.  Next, pick a storage provider.  I ended up picking
4066 Greenqloud, after reading their nice recipe on
4067 <a href="https://greenqloud.zendesk.com/entries/44611757-How-To-Use-S3QL-to-mount-a-StorageQloud-bucket-on-Debian-Wheezy">how
4068 to use S3QL with their Amazon S3 service</a>, because I trust the laws
4069 in Iceland more than those in USA when it come to keeping my personal
4070 data safe and private, and thus would rather spend money on a company
4071 in Iceland.  Another nice recipe is available from the article
4072 <a href="http://www.admin-magazine.com/HPC/Articles/HPC-Cloud-Storage">S3QL
4073 Filesystem for HPC Storage</a> by Jeff Layton in the HPC section of
4074 Admin magazine.  When the provider is picked, figure out how to get
4075 the API key needed to connect to the storage API.  With Greencloud,
4076 the key did not show up until I had added payment details to my
4077 account.</p>
4078
4079 <p>Armed with the API access details, it is time to create the file
4080 system.  First, create a new bucket in the cloud.  This bucket is the
4081 file system storage area.  I picked a bucket name reflecting the
4082 machine that was going to store data there, but any name will do.
4083 I'll refer to it as <tt>bucket-name</tt> below.  In addition, one need
4084 the API login and password, and a locally created password.  Store it
4085 all in ~root/.s3ql/authinfo2 like this:
4086
4087 <p><blockquote><pre>
4088 [s3c]
4089 storage-url: s3c://s.greenqloud.com:443/bucket-name
4090 backend-login: API-login
4091 backend-password: API-password
4092 fs-passphrase: local-password
4093 </pre></blockquote></p>
4094
4095 <p>I create my local passphrase using <tt>pwget 50</tt> or similar,
4096 but any sensible way to create a fairly random password should do it.
4097 Armed with these details, it is now time to run mkfs, entering the API
4098 details and password to create it:</p>
4099
4100 <p><blockquote><pre>
4101 # mkdir -m 700 /var/lib/s3ql-cache
4102 # mkfs.s3ql --cachedir /var/lib/s3ql-cache --authfile /root/.s3ql/authinfo2 \
4103   --ssl s3c://s.greenqloud.com:443/bucket-name
4104 Enter backend login:
4105 Enter backend password:
4106 Before using S3QL, make sure to read the user's guide, especially
4107 the 'Important Rules to Avoid Loosing Data' section.
4108 Enter encryption password:
4109 Confirm encryption password:
4110 Generating random encryption key...
4111 Creating metadata tables...
4112 Dumping metadata...
4113 ..objects..
4114 ..blocks..
4115 ..inodes..
4116 ..inode_blocks..
4117 ..symlink_targets..
4118 ..names..
4119 ..contents..
4120 ..ext_attributes..
4121 Compressing and uploading metadata...
4122 Wrote 0.00 MB of compressed metadata.
4123 # </pre></blockquote></p>
4124
4125 <p>The next step is mounting the file system to make the storage available.
4126
4127 <p><blockquote><pre>
4128 # mount.s3ql --cachedir /var/lib/s3ql-cache --authfile /root/.s3ql/authinfo2 \
4129   --ssl --allow-root s3c://s.greenqloud.com:443/bucket-name /s3ql
4130 Using 4 upload threads.
4131 Downloading and decompressing metadata...
4132 Reading metadata...
4133 ..objects..
4134 ..blocks..
4135 ..inodes..
4136 ..inode_blocks..
4137 ..symlink_targets..
4138 ..names..
4139 ..contents..
4140 ..ext_attributes..
4141 Mounting filesystem...
4142 # df -h /s3ql
4143 Filesystem                              Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
4144 s3c://s.greenqloud.com:443/bucket-name  1.0T     0  1.0T   0% /s3ql
4145 #
4146 </pre></blockquote></p>
4147
4148 <p>The file system is now ready for use.  I use rsync to store my
4149 backups in it, and as the metadata used by rsync is downloaded at
4150 mount time, no network traffic (and storage cost) is triggered by
4151 running rsync.  To unmount, one should not use the normal umount
4152 command, as this will not flush the cache to the cloud storage, but
4153 instead running the umount.s3ql command like this:
4154
4155 <p><blockquote><pre>
4156 # umount.s3ql /s3ql
4157 #
4158 </pre></blockquote></p>
4159
4160 <p>There is a fsck command available to check the file system and
4161 correct any problems detected.  This can be used if the local server
4162 crashes while the file system is mounted, to reset the "already
4163 mounted" flag.  This is what it look like when processing a working
4164 file system:</p>
4165
4166 <p><blockquote><pre>
4167 # fsck.s3ql --force --ssl s3c://s.greenqloud.com:443/bucket-name
4168 Using cached metadata.
4169 File system seems clean, checking anyway.
4170 Checking DB integrity...
4171 Creating temporary extra indices...
4172 Checking lost+found...
4173 Checking cached objects...
4174 Checking names (refcounts)...
4175 Checking contents (names)...
4176 Checking contents (inodes)...
4177 Checking contents (parent inodes)...
4178 Checking objects (reference counts)...
4179 Checking objects (backend)...
4180 ..processed 5000 objects so far..
4181 ..processed 10000 objects so far..
4182 ..processed 15000 objects so far..
4183 Checking objects (sizes)...
4184 Checking blocks (referenced objects)...
4185 Checking blocks (refcounts)...
4186 Checking inode-block mapping (blocks)...
4187 Checking inode-block mapping (inodes)...
4188 Checking inodes (refcounts)...
4189 Checking inodes (sizes)...
4190 Checking extended attributes (names)...
4191 Checking extended attributes (inodes)...
4192 Checking symlinks (inodes)...
4193 Checking directory reachability...
4194 Checking unix conventions...
4195 Checking referential integrity...
4196 Dropping temporary indices...
4197 Backing up old metadata...
4198 Dumping metadata...
4199 ..objects..
4200 ..blocks..
4201 ..inodes..
4202 ..inode_blocks..
4203 ..symlink_targets..
4204 ..names..
4205 ..contents..
4206 ..ext_attributes..
4207 Compressing and uploading metadata...
4208 Wrote 0.89 MB of compressed metadata.
4209 #
4210 </pre></blockquote></p>
4211
4212 <p>Thanks to the cache, working on files that fit in the cache is very
4213 quick, about the same speed as local file access.  Uploading large
4214 amount of data is to me limited by the bandwidth out of and into my
4215 house.  Uploading 685 MiB with a 100 MiB cache gave me 305 kiB/s,
4216 which is very close to my upload speed, and downloading the same
4217 Debian installation ISO gave me 610 kiB/s, close to my download speed.
4218 Both were measured using <tt>dd</tt>.  So for me, the bottleneck is my
4219 network, not the file system code.  I do not know what a good cache
4220 size would be, but suspect that the cache should e larger than your
4221 working set.</p>
4222
4223 <p>I mentioned that only one machine can mount the file system at the
4224 time.  If another machine try, it is told that the file system is
4225 busy:</p>
4226
4227 <p><blockquote><pre>
4228 # mount.s3ql --cachedir /var/lib/s3ql-cache --authfile /root/.s3ql/authinfo2 \
4229   --ssl --allow-root s3c://s.greenqloud.com:443/bucket-name /s3ql
4230 Using 8 upload threads.
4231 Backend reports that fs is still mounted elsewhere, aborting.
4232 #
4233 </pre></blockquote></p>
4234
4235 <p>The file content is uploaded when the cache is full, while the
4236 metadata is uploaded once every 24 hour by default.  To ensure the
4237 file system content is flushed to the cloud, one can either umount the
4238 file system, or ask S3QL to flush the cache and metadata using
4239 s3qlctrl:
4240
4241 <p><blockquote><pre>
4242 # s3qlctrl upload-meta /s3ql
4243 # s3qlctrl flushcache /s3ql
4244 #
4245 </pre></blockquote></p>
4246
4247 <p>If you are curious about how much space your data uses in the
4248 cloud, and how much compression and deduplication cut down on the
4249 storage usage, you can use s3qlstat on the mounted file system to get
4250 a report:</p>
4251
4252 <p><blockquote><pre>
4253 # s3qlstat /s3ql
4254 Directory entries:    9141
4255 Inodes:               9143
4256 Data blocks:          8851
4257 Total data size:      22049.38 MB
4258 After de-duplication: 21955.46 MB (99.57% of total)
4259 After compression:    21877.28 MB (99.22% of total, 99.64% of de-duplicated)
4260 Database size:        2.39 MB (uncompressed)
4261 (some values do not take into account not-yet-uploaded dirty blocks in cache)
4262 #
4263 </pre></blockquote></p>
4264
4265 <p>I mentioned earlier that there are several possible suppliers of
4266 storage.  I did not try to locate them all, but am aware of at least
4267 <a href="https://www.greenqloud.com/">Greenqloud</a>,
4268 <a href="http://drive.google.com/">Google Drive</a>,
4269 <a href="http://aws.amazon.com/s3/">Amazon S3 web serivces</a>,
4270 <a href="http://www.rackspace.com/">Rackspace</a> and
4271 <a href="http://crowncloud.net/">Crowncloud</A>.  The latter even
4272 accept payment in Bitcoin.  Pick one that suit your need.  Some of
4273 them provide several GiB of free storage, but the prize models are
4274 quite different and you will have to figure out what suits you
4275 best.</p>
4276
4277 <p>While researching this blog post, I had a look at research papers
4278 and posters discussing the S3QL file system.  There are several, which
4279 told me that the file system is getting a critical check by the
4280 science community and increased my confidence in using it.  One nice
4281 poster is titled
4282 "<a href="http://www.lanl.gov/orgs/adtsc/publications/science_highlights_2013/docs/pg68_69.pdf">An
4283 Innovative Parallel Cloud Storage System using OpenStack’s SwiftObject
4284 Store and Transformative Parallel I/O Approach</a>" by Hsing-Bung
4285 Chen, Benjamin McClelland, David Sherrill, Alfred Torrez, Parks Fields
4286 and Pamela Smith.  Please  have a look.</p>
4287
4288 <p>Given my problems with different file systems earlier, I decided to
4289 check out the mounted S3QL file system to see if it would be usable as
4290 a home directory (in other word, that it provided POSIX semantics when
4291 it come to locking and umask handling etc).  Running
4292 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Testing_if_a_file_system_can_be_used_for_home_directories___.html">my
4293 test code to check file system semantics</a>, I was happy to discover that
4294 no error was found.  So the file system can be used for home
4295 directories, if one chooses to do so.</p>
4296
4297 <p>If you do not want a locally file system, and want something that
4298 work without the Linux fuse file system, I would like to mention the
4299 <a href="http://www.tarsnap.com/">Tarsnap service</a>, which also
4300 provide locally encrypted backup using a command line client.  It have
4301 a nicer access control system, where one can split out read and write
4302 access, allowing some systems to write to the backup and others to
4303 only read from it.</p>
4304
4305 <p>As usual, if you use Bitcoin and want to show your support of my
4306 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
4307 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b&label=PetterReinholdtsenBlog">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
4308
4309       </div>
4310       <div class="tags">
4311
4312
4313         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nice free software">nice free software</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/personvern">personvern</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet</a>.
4314
4315
4316       </div>
4317     </div>
4318     <div class="padding"></div>
4319
4320     <div class="entry">
4321       <div class="title">
4322         <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>
4323       </div>
4324       <div class="date">
4325         14th March 2014
4326       </div>
4327       <div class="body">
4328         <p>The <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/FreedomBox">Freedombox
4329 project</a> is working on providing the software and hardware for
4330 making it easy for non-technical people to host their data and
4331 communication at home, and being able to communicate with their
4332 friends and family encrypted and away from prying eyes.  It has been
4333 going on for a while, and is slowly progressing towards a new test
4334 release (0.2).</p>
4335
4336 <p>And what day could be better than the Pi day to announce that the
4337 new version will provide "hard drive" / SD card / USB stick images for
4338 Dreamplug, Raspberry Pi and VirtualBox (or any other virtualization
4339 system), and can also be installed using a Debian installer preseed
4340 file.  The Debian based Freedombox is now based on Debian Jessie,
4341 where most of the needed packages used are already present.  Only one,
4342 the freedombox-setup package, is missing.  To try to build your own
4343 boot image to test the current status, fetch the freedom-maker scripts
4344 and build using
4345 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/vmdebootstrap">vmdebootstrap</a>
4346 with a user with sudo access to become root:
4347
4348 <pre>
4349 git clone http://anonscm.debian.org/git/freedombox/freedom-maker.git \
4350   freedom-maker
4351 sudo apt-get install git vmdebootstrap mercurial python-docutils \
4352   mktorrent extlinux virtualbox qemu-user-static binfmt-support \
4353   u-boot-tools
4354 make -C freedom-maker dreamplug-image raspberry-image virtualbox-image
4355 </pre>
4356
4357 <p>Root access is needed to run debootstrap and mount loopback
4358 devices.  See the README for more details on the build. If you do not
4359 want all three images, trim the make line.  But note that thanks to <a
4360 href="https://bugs.debian.org/741407">a race condition in
4361 vmdebootstrap</a>, the build might fail without the patch to the
4362 kpartx call.</p>
4363
4364 <p>If you instead want to install using a Debian CD and the preseed
4365 method, boot a Debian Wheezy ISO and use this boot argument to load
4366 the preseed values:</p>
4367
4368 <pre>
4369 url=<a href="http://www.reinholdtsen.name/freedombox/preseed-jessie.dat">http://www.reinholdtsen.name/freedombox/preseed-jessie.dat</a>
4370 </pre>
4371
4372 <p>But note that due to <a href="https://bugs.debian.org/740673">a
4373 recently introduced bug in apt in Jessie</a>, the installer will
4374 currently hang while setting up APT sources.  Killing the
4375 '<tt>apt-cdrom ident</tt>' process when it hang a few times during the
4376 installation will get the installation going.  This affect all
4377 installations in Jessie, and I expect it will be fixed soon.</p>
4378
4379 <p>Give it a go and let us know how it goes on the mailing list, and help
4380 us get the new release published. :) Please join us on
4381 <a href="irc://irc.debian.org:6667/%23freedombox">IRC (#freedombox on
4382 irc.debian.org)</a> and
4383 <a href="http://lists.alioth.debian.org/mailman/listinfo/freedombox-discuss">the
4384 mailing list</a> if you want to help make this vision come true.</p>
4385
4386       </div>
4387       <div class="tags">
4388
4389
4390         Tags: <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>.
4391
4392
4393       </div>
4394     </div>
4395     <div class="padding"></div>
4396
4397     <div class="entry">
4398       <div class="title">
4399         <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>
4400       </div>
4401       <div class="date">
4402         22nd February 2014
4403       </div>
4404       <div class="body">
4405         <p>Many years ago, I wrote a GPL licensed version of the netgroup and
4406 innetgr tools, because I needed them in
4407 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Skolelinux</a>.  I called the project
4408 ng-utils, and it has served me well.  I placed the project under the
4409 <a href="http://www.hungry.com/">Hungry Programmer</a> umbrella, and it was maintained in our CVS
4410 repository.  But many years ago, the CVS repository was dropped (lost,
4411 not migrated to new hardware, not sure), and the project have lacked a
4412 proper home since then.</p>
4413
4414 <p>Last summer, I had a look at the package and made a new release
4415 fixing a irritating crash bug, but was unable to store the changes in
4416 a proper source control system.  I applied for a project on
4417 <a href="https://alioth.debian.org/">Alioth</a>, but did not have time
4418 to follow up on it.  Until today. :)</p>
4419
4420 <p>After many hours of cleaning and migration, the ng-utils project
4421 now have a new home, and a git repository with the highlight of the
4422 history of the project.  I published all release tarballs and imported
4423 them into the git repository.  As the project is really stable and not
4424 expected to gain new features any time soon, I decided to make a new
4425 release and call it 1.0.  Visit the new project home on
4426 <a href="https://alioth.debian.org/projects/ng-utils/">https://alioth.debian.org/projects/ng-utils/</a>
4427 if you want to check it out.  The new version is also uploaded into
4428 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/n/ng-utils.html">Debian Unstable</a>.</p>
4429
4430       </div>
4431       <div class="tags">
4432
4433
4434         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
4435
4436
4437       </div>
4438     </div>
4439     <div class="padding"></div>
4440
4441     <div class="entry">
4442       <div class="title">
4443         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Testing_sysvinit_from_experimental_in_Debian_Hurd.html">Testing sysvinit from experimental in Debian Hurd</a>
4444       </div>
4445       <div class="date">
4446          3rd February 2014
4447       </div>
4448       <div class="body">
4449         <p>A few days ago I decided to try to help the Hurd people to get
4450 their changes into sysvinit, to allow them to use the normal sysvinit
4451 boot system instead of their old one.  This follow up on the
4452 <a href="https://teythoon.cryptobitch.de//categories/gsoc.html">great
4453 Google Summer of Code work</a> done last summer by Justus Winter to
4454 get Debian on Hurd working more like Debian on Linux.  To get started,
4455 I downloaded a prebuilt hard disk image from
4456 <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>,
4457 and started it using virt-manager.</p>
4458
4459 <p>The first think I had to do after logging in (root without any
4460 password) was to get the network operational.  I followed
4461 <a href="https://www.debian.org/ports/hurd/hurd-install">the
4462 instructions on the Debian GNU/Hurd ports page</a> and ran these
4463 commands as root to get the machine to accept a IP address from the
4464 kvm internal DHCP server:</p>
4465
4466 <p><blockquote><pre>
4467 settrans -fgap /dev/netdde /hurd/netdde
4468 kill $(ps -ef|awk '/[p]finet/ { print $2}')
4469 kill $(ps -ef|awk '/[d]evnode/ { print $2}')
4470 dhclient /dev/eth0
4471 </pre></blockquote></p>
4472
4473 <p>After this, the machine had internet connectivity, and I could
4474 upgrade it and install the sysvinit packages from experimental and
4475 enable it as the default boot system in Hurd.</p>
4476
4477 <p>But before I did that, I set a password on the root user, as ssh is
4478 running on the machine it for ssh login to work a password need to be
4479 set.  Also, note that a bug somewhere in openssh on Hurd block
4480 compression from working.  Remember to turn that off on the client
4481 side.</p>
4482
4483 <p>Run these commands as root to upgrade and test the new sysvinit
4484 stuff:</p>
4485
4486 <p><blockquote><pre>
4487 cat > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/experimental.list &lt;&lt;EOF
4488 deb http://http.debian.net/debian/ experimental main
4489 EOF
4490 apt-get update
4491 apt-get dist-upgrade
4492 apt-get install -t experimental initscripts sysv-rc sysvinit \
4493     sysvinit-core sysvinit-utils
4494 update-alternatives --config runsystem
4495 </pre></blockquote></p>
4496
4497 <p>To reboot after switching boot system, you have to use
4498 <tt>reboot-hurd</tt> instead of just <tt>reboot</tt>, as there is not
4499 yet a sysvinit process able to receive the signals from the normal
4500 'reboot' command.  After switching to sysvinit as the boot system,
4501 upgrading every package and rebooting, the network come up with DHCP
4502 after boot as it should, and the settrans/pkill hack mentioned at the
4503 start is no longer needed.  But for some strange reason, there are no
4504 longer any login prompt in the virtual console, so I logged in using
4505 ssh instead.
4506
4507 <p>Note that there are some race conditions in Hurd making the boot
4508 fail some times.  No idea what the cause is, but hope the Hurd porters
4509 figure it out.  At least Justus said on IRC (#debian-hurd on
4510 irc.debian.org) that they are aware of the problem.  A way to reduce
4511 the impact is to upgrade to the Hurd packages built by Justus by
4512 adding this repository to the machine:</p>
4513
4514 <p><blockquote><pre>
4515 cat > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/hurd-ci.list &lt;&lt;EOF
4516 deb http://darnassus.sceen.net/~teythoon/hurd-ci/ sid main
4517 EOF
4518 </pre></blockquote></p>
4519
4520 <p>At the moment the prebuilt virtual machine get some packages from
4521 http://ftp.debian-ports.org/debian, because some of the packages in
4522 unstable do not yet include the required patches that are lingering in
4523 BTS.  This is the completely list of "unofficial" packages installed:</p>
4524
4525 <p><blockquote><pre>
4526 # aptitude search '?narrow(?version(CURRENT),?origin(Debian Ports))'
4527 i   emacs                   - GNU Emacs editor (metapackage)
4528 i   gdb                     - GNU Debugger
4529 i   hurd-recommended        - Miscellaneous translators
4530 i   isc-dhcp-client         - ISC DHCP client
4531 i   isc-dhcp-common         - common files used by all the isc-dhcp* packages
4532 i   libc-bin                - Embedded GNU C Library: Binaries
4533 i   libc-dev-bin            - Embedded GNU C Library: Development binaries
4534 i   libc0.3                 - Embedded GNU C Library: Shared libraries
4535 i A libc0.3-dbg             - Embedded GNU C Library: detached debugging symbols
4536 i   libc0.3-dev             - Embedded GNU C Library: Development Libraries and Hea
4537 i   multiarch-support       - Transitional package to ensure multiarch compatibilit
4538 i A x11-common              - X Window System (X.Org) infrastructure
4539 i   xorg                    - X.Org X Window System
4540 i A xserver-xorg            - X.Org X server
4541 i A xserver-xorg-input-all  - X.Org X server -- input driver metapackage
4542 #
4543 </pre></blockquote></p>
4544
4545 <p>All in all, testing hurd has been an interesting experience. :)
4546 X.org did not work out of the box and I never took the time to follow
4547 the porters instructions to fix it.  This time I was interested in the
4548 command line stuff.<p>
4549
4550       </div>
4551       <div class="tags">
4552
4553
4554         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>.
4555
4556
4557       </div>
4558     </div>
4559     <div class="padding"></div>
4560
4561     <div class="entry">
4562       <div class="title">
4563         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/New_chrpath_release_0_16.html">New chrpath release 0.16</a>
4564       </div>
4565       <div class="date">
4566         14th January 2014
4567       </div>
4568       <div class="body">
4569         <p><a href="http://www.coverity.com/">Coverity</a> is a nice tool to
4570 find problems in C, C++ and Java code using static source code
4571 analysis.  It can detect a lot of different problems, and is very
4572 useful to find memory and locking bugs in the error handling part of
4573 the source.  The company behind it provide
4574 <a href="https://scan.coverity.com/">check of free software projects as
4575 a community service</a>, and many hundred free software projects are
4576 already checked.  A few days ago I decided to have a closer look at
4577 the Coverity system, and discovered that the
4578 <a href="http://www.gnu.org/software/gnash/">gnash</a> and
4579 <a href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/ipmitool/">ipmitool</a>
4580 projects I am involved with was already registered.  But these are
4581 fairly big, and I would also like to have a small and easy project to
4582 check, and decided to <a href="http://scan.coverity.com/projects/1179">request
4583 checking of the chrpath project</a>.  It was
4584 added to the checker and discovered seven potential defects.  Six of
4585 these were real, mostly resource "leak" when the program detected an
4586 error.  Nothing serious, as the resources would be released a fraction
4587 of a second later when the program exited because of the error, but it
4588 is nice to do it right in case the source of the program some time in
4589 the future end up in a library.  Having fixed all defects and added
4590 <a href="https://lists.alioth.debian.org/mailman/listinfo/chrpath-devel">a
4591 mailing list for the chrpath developers</a>, I decided it was time to
4592 publish a new release.  These are the release notes:</p>
4593
4594 <p>New in 0.16 released 2014-01-14:</p>
4595
4596 <ul>
4597
4598   <li>Fixed all minor bugs discovered by Coverity.</li>
4599   <li>Updated config.sub and config.guess from the GNU project.</li>
4600   <li>Mention new project mailing list in the documentation.</li>
4601
4602 </ul>
4603
4604 <p>You can
4605 <a href="https://alioth.debian.org/frs/?group_id=31052">download the
4606 new version 0.16 from alioth</a>.  Please let us know via the Alioth
4607 project if something is wrong with the new release.  The test suite
4608 did not discover any old errors, so if you find a new one, please also
4609 include a test suite check.</p>
4610
4611       </div>
4612       <div class="tags">
4613
4614
4615         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>.
4616
4617
4618       </div>
4619     </div>
4620     <div class="padding"></div>
4621
4622     <div class="entry">
4623       <div class="title">
4624         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/New_chrpath_release_0_15.html">New chrpath release 0.15</a>
4625       </div>
4626       <div class="date">
4627         24th November 2013
4628       </div>
4629       <div class="body">
4630         <p>After many years break from the package and a vain hope that
4631 development would be continued by someone else, I finally pulled my
4632 acts together this morning and wrapped up a new release of chrpath,
4633 the command line tool to modify the rpath and runpath of already
4634 compiled ELF programs.  The update was triggered by the persistence of
4635 Isha Vishnoi at IBM, which needed a new config.guess file to get
4636 support for the ppc64le architecture (powerpc 64-bit Little Endian) he
4637 is working on.  I checked the
4638 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/chrpath">Debian</a>,
4639 <a href="https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/chrpath">Ubuntu</a> and
4640 <a href="https://admin.fedoraproject.org/pkgdb/acls/name/chrpath">Fedora</a>
4641 packages for interesting patches (failed to find the source from
4642 OpenSUSE and Mandriva packages), and found quite a few nice fixes.
4643 These are the release notes:</p>
4644
4645 <p>New in 0.15 released 2013-11-24:</p>
4646
4647 <ul>
4648
4649   <li>Updated config.sub and config.guess from the GNU project to work
4650    with newer architectures.  Thanks to isha vishnoi for the heads
4651    up.</li>
4652
4653   <li>Updated README with current URLs.</li>
4654
4655   <li>Added byteswap fix found in Ubuntu, credited Jeremy Kerr and
4656    Matthias Klose.</li>
4657
4658   <li>Added missing help for -k|--keepgoing option, using patch by
4659    Petr Machata found in Fedora.</li>
4660
4661   <li>Rewrite removal of RPATH/RUNPATH to make sure the entry in
4662    .dynamic is a NULL terminated string.  Based on patch found in
4663    Fedora credited Axel Thimm and Christian Krause.</li>
4664
4665 </ul>
4666
4667 <p>You can
4668 <a href="https://alioth.debian.org/frs/?group_id=31052">download the
4669 new version 0.15 from alioth</a>.  Please let us know via the Alioth
4670 project if something is wrong with the new release.  The test suite
4671 did not discover any old errors, so if you find a new one, please also
4672 include a testsuite check.</p>
4673
4674       </div>
4675       <div class="tags">
4676
4677
4678         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>.
4679
4680
4681       </div>
4682     </div>
4683     <div class="padding"></div>
4684
4685     <div class="entry">
4686       <div class="title">
4687         <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>
4688       </div>
4689       <div class="date">
4690          2nd November 2013
4691       </div>
4692       <div class="body">
4693         <p>If one of the points of switching to a new init system in Debian is
4694 <a href="http://thomas.goirand.fr/blog/?p=147">to get rid of huge
4695 init.d scripts</a>, I doubt we need to switch away from sysvinit and
4696 init.d scripts at all.  Here is an example init.d script, ie a rewrite
4697 of /etc/init.d/rsyslog:</p>
4698
4699 <p><pre>
4700 #!/lib/init/init-d-script
4701 ### BEGIN INIT INFO
4702 # Provides:          rsyslog
4703 # Required-Start:    $remote_fs $time
4704 # Required-Stop:     umountnfs $time
4705 # X-Stop-After:      sendsigs
4706 # Default-Start:     2 3 4 5
4707 # Default-Stop:      0 1 6
4708 # Short-Description: enhanced syslogd
4709 # Description:       Rsyslog is an enhanced multi-threaded syslogd.
4710 #                    It is quite compatible to stock sysklogd and can be
4711 #                    used as a drop-in replacement.
4712 ### END INIT INFO
4713 DESC="enhanced syslogd"
4714 DAEMON=/usr/sbin/rsyslogd
4715 </pre></p>
4716
4717 <p>Pretty minimalistic to me... For the record, the original sysv-rc
4718 script was 137 lines, and the above is just 15 lines, most of it meta
4719 info/comments.</p>
4720
4721 <p>How to do this, you ask?  Well, one create a new script
4722 /lib/init/init-d-script looking something like this:
4723
4724 <p><pre>
4725 #!/bin/sh
4726
4727 # Define LSB log_* functions.
4728 # Depend on lsb-base (>= 3.2-14) to ensure that this file is present
4729 # and status_of_proc is working.
4730 . /lib/lsb/init-functions
4731
4732 #
4733 # Function that starts the daemon/service
4734
4735 #
4736 do_start()
4737 {
4738         # Return
4739         #   0 if daemon has been started
4740         #   1 if daemon was already running
4741         #   2 if daemon could not be started
4742         start-stop-daemon --start --quiet --pidfile $PIDFILE --exec $DAEMON --test > /dev/null \
4743                 || return 1
4744         start-stop-daemon --start --quiet --pidfile $PIDFILE --exec $DAEMON -- \
4745                 $DAEMON_ARGS \
4746                 || return 2
4747         # Add code here, if necessary, that waits for the process to be ready
4748         # to handle requests from services started subsequently which depend
4749         # on this one.  As a last resort, sleep for some time.
4750 }
4751
4752 #
4753 # Function that stops the daemon/service
4754 #
4755 do_stop()
4756 {
4757         # Return
4758         #   0 if daemon has been stopped
4759         #   1 if daemon was already stopped
4760         #   2 if daemon could not be stopped
4761         #   other if a failure occurred
4762         start-stop-daemon --stop --quiet --retry=TERM/30/KILL/5 --pidfile $PIDFILE --name $NAME
4763         RETVAL="$?"
4764         [ "$RETVAL" = 2 ] && return 2
4765         # Wait for children to finish too if this is a daemon that forks
4766         # and if the daemon is only ever run from this initscript.
4767         # If the above conditions are not satisfied then add some other code
4768         # that waits for the process to drop all resources that could be
4769         # needed by services started subsequently.  A last resort is to
4770         # sleep for some time.
4771         start-stop-daemon --stop --quiet --oknodo --retry=0/30/KILL/5 --exec $DAEMON
4772         [ "$?" = 2 ] && return 2
4773         # Many daemons don't delete their pidfiles when they exit.
4774         rm -f $PIDFILE
4775         return "$RETVAL"
4776 }
4777
4778 #
4779 # Function that sends a SIGHUP to the daemon/service
4780 #
4781 do_reload() {
4782         #
4783         # If the daemon can reload its configuration without
4784         # restarting (for example, when it is sent a SIGHUP),
4785         # then implement that here.
4786         #
4787         start-stop-daemon --stop --signal 1 --quiet --pidfile $PIDFILE --name $NAME
4788         return 0
4789 }
4790
4791 SCRIPTNAME=$1
4792 scriptbasename="$(basename $1)"
4793 echo "SN: $scriptbasename"
4794 if [ "$scriptbasename" != "init-d-library" ] ; then
4795     script="$1"
4796     shift
4797     . $script
4798 else
4799     exit 0
4800 fi
4801
4802 NAME=$(basename $DAEMON)
4803 PIDFILE=/var/run/$NAME.pid
4804
4805 # Exit if the package is not installed
4806 #[ -x "$DAEMON" ] || exit 0
4807
4808 # Read configuration variable file if it is present
4809 [ -r /etc/default/$NAME ] && . /etc/default/$NAME
4810
4811 # Load the VERBOSE setting and other rcS variables
4812 . /lib/init/vars.sh
4813
4814 case "$1" in
4815   start)
4816         [ "$VERBOSE" != no ] && log_daemon_msg "Starting $DESC" "$NAME"
4817         do_start
4818         case "$?" in
4819                 0|1) [ "$VERBOSE" != no ] && log_end_msg 0 ;;
4820                 2) [ "$VERBOSE" != no ] && log_end_msg 1 ;;
4821         esac
4822         ;;
4823   stop)
4824         [ "$VERBOSE" != no ] && log_daemon_msg "Stopping $DESC" "$NAME"
4825         do_stop
4826         case "$?" in
4827                 0|1) [ "$VERBOSE" != no ] && log_end_msg 0 ;;
4828                 2) [ "$VERBOSE" != no ] && log_end_msg 1 ;;
4829         esac
4830         ;;
4831   status)
4832         status_of_proc "$DAEMON" "$NAME" && exit 0 || exit $?
4833         ;;
4834   #reload|force-reload)
4835         #
4836         # If do_reload() is not implemented then leave this commented out
4837         # and leave 'force-reload' as an alias for 'restart'.
4838         #
4839         #log_daemon_msg "Reloading $DESC" "$NAME"
4840         #do_reload
4841         #log_end_msg $?
4842         #;;
4843   restart|force-reload)
4844         #
4845         # If the "reload" option is implemented then remove the
4846         # 'force-reload' alias
4847         #
4848         log_daemon_msg "Restarting $DESC" "$NAME"
4849         do_stop
4850         case "$?" in
4851           0|1)
4852                 do_start
4853                 case "$?" in
4854                         0) log_end_msg 0 ;;
4855                         1) log_end_msg 1 ;; # Old process is still running
4856                         *) log_end_msg 1 ;; # Failed to start
4857                 esac
4858                 ;;
4859           *)
4860                 # Failed to stop
4861                 log_end_msg 1
4862                 ;;
4863         esac
4864         ;;
4865   *)
4866         echo "Usage: $SCRIPTNAME {start|stop|status|restart|force-reload}" >&2
4867         exit 3
4868         ;;
4869 esac
4870
4871 :
4872 </pre></p>
4873
4874 <p>It is based on /etc/init.d/skeleton, and could be improved quite a
4875 lot.  I did not really polish the approach, so it might not always
4876 work out of the box, but you get the idea.  I did not try very hard to
4877 optimize it nor make it more robust either.</p>
4878
4879 <p>A better argument for switching init system in Debian than reducing
4880 the size of init scripts (which is a good thing to do anyway), is to
4881 get boot system that is able to handle the kernel events sensibly and
4882 robustly, and do not depend on the boot to run sequentially.  The boot
4883 and the kernel have not behaved sequentially in years.</p>
4884
4885       </div>
4886       <div class="tags">
4887
4888
4889         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>.
4890
4891
4892       </div>
4893     </div>
4894     <div class="padding"></div>
4895
4896     <div class="entry">
4897       <div class="title">
4898         <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>
4899       </div>
4900       <div class="date">
4901          1st November 2013
4902       </div>
4903       <div class="body">
4904         <p><a href="http://www.spice-space.org/">The SPICE protocol</a> for
4905 remote display access is the preferred solution with oVirt and RedHat
4906 Enterprise Virtualization, and I was sad to discover the other day
4907 that the browser plugin needed to use these systems seamlessly was
4908 missing in Debian.  The <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/668284">request
4909 for a package</a> was from 2012-04-10 with no progress since
4910 2013-04-01, so I decided to wrap up a package based on the great work
4911 from Cajus Pollmeier and put it in a collab-maint maintained git
4912 repository to get a package I could use.  I would very much like
4913 others to help me maintain the package (or just take over, I do not
4914 mind), but as no-one had volunteered so far, I just uploaded it to
4915 NEW.  I hope it will be available in Debian in a few days.</p>
4916
4917 <p>The source is now available from
4918 <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>
4919
4920       </div>
4921       <div class="tags">
4922
4923
4924         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
4925
4926
4927       </div>
4928     </div>
4929     <div class="padding"></div>
4930
4931     <div class="entry">
4932       <div class="title">
4933         <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>
4934       </div>
4935       <div class="date">
4936         27th October 2013
4937       </div>
4938       <div class="body">
4939         <p>The
4940 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/v/vmdebootstrap.html">vmdebootstrap</a>
4941 program is a a very nice system to create virtual machine images.  It
4942 create a image file, add a partition table, mount it and run
4943 debootstrap in the mounted directory to create a Debian system on a
4944 stick.  Yesterday, I decided to try to teach it how to make images for
4945 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/RaspberryPi">Raspberry Pi</a>, as part
4946 of a plan to simplify the build system for
4947 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/FreedomBox">the FreedomBox
4948 project</a>.  The FreedomBox project already uses vmdebootstrap for
4949 the virtualbox images, but its current build system made multistrap
4950 based system for Dreamplug images, and it is lacking support for
4951 Raspberry Pi.</p>
4952
4953 <p>Armed with the knowledge on how to build "foreign" (aka non-native
4954 architecture) chroots for Raspberry Pi, I dived into the vmdebootstrap
4955 code and adjusted it to be able to build armel images on my amd64
4956 Debian laptop.  I ended up giving vmdebootstrap five new options,
4957 allowing me to replicate the image creation process I use to make
4958 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/A_Raspberry_Pi_based_batman_adv_Mesh_network_node.html">Debian
4959 Jessie based mesh node images for the Raspberry Pi</a>.  First, the
4960 <tt>--foreign /path/to/binfm_handler</tt> option tell vmdebootstrap to
4961 call debootstrap with --foreign and to copy the handler into the
4962 generated chroot before running the second stage.  This allow
4963 vmdebootstrap to create armel images on an amd64 host.  Next I added
4964 two new options <tt>--bootsize size</tt> and <tt>--boottype
4965 fstype</tt> to teach it to create a separate /boot/ partition with the
4966 given file system type, allowing me to create an image with a vfat
4967 partition for the /boot/ stuff.  I also added a <tt>--variant
4968 variant</tt> option to allow me to create smaller images without the
4969 Debian base system packages installed.  Finally, I added an option
4970 <tt>--no-extlinux</tt> to tell vmdebootstrap to not install extlinux
4971 as a boot loader.  It is not needed on the Raspberry Pi and probably
4972 most other non-x86 architectures.  The changes were accepted by the
4973 upstream author of vmdebootstrap yesterday and today, and is now
4974 available from
4975 <a href="http://git.liw.fi/cgi-bin/cgit/cgit.cgi/vmdebootstrap/">the
4976 upstream project page</a>.</p>
4977
4978 <p>To use it to build a Raspberry Pi image using Debian Jessie, first
4979 create a small script (the customize script) to add the non-free
4980 binary blob needed to boot the Raspberry Pi and the APT source
4981 list:</p>
4982
4983 <p><pre>
4984 #!/bin/sh
4985 set -e # Exit on first error
4986 rootdir="$1"
4987 cd "$rootdir"
4988 cat &lt;&lt;EOF > etc/apt/sources.list
4989 deb http://http.debian.net/debian/ jessie main contrib non-free
4990 EOF
4991 # Install non-free binary blob needed to boot Raspberry Pi.  This
4992 # install a kernel somewhere too.
4993 wget https://raw.github.com/Hexxeh/rpi-update/master/rpi-update \
4994     -O $rootdir/usr/bin/rpi-update
4995 chmod a+x $rootdir/usr/bin/rpi-update
4996 mkdir -p $rootdir/lib/modules
4997 touch $rootdir/boot/start.elf
4998 chroot $rootdir rpi-update
4999 </pre></p>
5000
5001 <p>Next, fetch the latest vmdebootstrap script and call it like this
5002 to build the image:</p>
5003
5004 <pre>
5005 sudo ./vmdebootstrap \
5006     --variant minbase \
5007     --arch armel \
5008     --distribution jessie \
5009     --mirror http://http.debian.net/debian \
5010     --image test.img \
5011     --size 600M \
5012     --bootsize 64M \
5013     --boottype vfat \
5014     --log-level debug \
5015     --verbose \
5016     --no-kernel \
5017     --no-extlinux \
5018     --root-password raspberry \
5019     --hostname raspberrypi \
5020     --foreign /usr/bin/qemu-arm-static \
5021     --customize `pwd`/customize \
5022     --package netbase \
5023     --package git-core \
5024     --package binutils \
5025     --package ca-certificates \
5026     --package wget \
5027     --package kmod
5028 </pre></p>
5029
5030 <p>The list of packages being installed are the ones needed by
5031 rpi-update to make the image bootable on the Raspberry Pi, with the
5032 exception of netbase, which is needed by debootstrap to find
5033 /etc/hosts with the minbase variant.  I really wish there was a way to
5034 set up an Raspberry Pi using only packages in the Debian archive, but
5035 that is not possible as far as I know, because it boots from the GPU
5036 using a non-free binary blob.</p>
5037
5038 <p>The build host need debootstrap, kpartx and qemu-user-static and
5039 probably a few others installed.  I have not checked the complete
5040 build dependency list.</p>
5041
5042 <p>The resulting image will not use the hardware floating point unit
5043 on the Raspberry PI, because the armel architecture in Debian is not
5044 optimized for that use.  So the images created will be a bit slower
5045 than <a href="http://www.raspbian.org/">Raspbian</a> based images.</p>
5046
5047       </div>
5048       <div class="tags">
5049
5050
5051         Tags: <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>.
5052
5053
5054       </div>
5055     </div>
5056     <div class="padding"></div>
5057
5058     <div class="entry">
5059       <div class="title">
5060         <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>
5061       </div>
5062       <div class="date">
5063         15th October 2013
5064       </div>
5065       <div class="body">
5066         <p>The last few days I came across a few good causes that should get
5067 wider attention.  I recommend signing and donating to each one of
5068 these. :)</p>
5069
5070 <p>Via <a href="http://www.debian.org/News/weekly/2013/18/">Debian
5071 Project News for 2013-10-14</a> I came across the Outreach Program for
5072 Women program which is a Google Summer of Code like initiative to get
5073 more women involved in free software.  One debian sponsor has offered
5074 to match <a href="http://debian.ch/opw2013">any donation done to Debian
5075 earmarked</a> for this initiative.  I donated a few minutes ago, and
5076 hope you will to. :)</p>
5077
5078 <p>And the Electronic Frontier Foundation just announced plans to
5079 create <a href="https://supporters.eff.org/donate/nsa-videos">video
5080 documentaries about the excessive spying</a> on every Internet user that
5081 take place these days, and their need to fund the work.  I've already
5082 donated.  Are you next?</p>
5083
5084 <p>For my Norwegian audience, the organisation Studentenes og
5085 Akademikernes Internasjonale Hjelpefond is collecting signatures for a
5086 statement under the heading
5087 <a href="http://saih.no/Bloggers_United/">Bloggers United for Open
5088 Access</a> for those of us asking for more focus on open access in the
5089 Norwegian government.  So far 499 signatures.  I hope you will sign it
5090 too.</p>
5091
5092       </div>
5093       <div class="tags">
5094
5095
5096         Tags: <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>.
5097
5098
5099       </div>
5100     </div>
5101     <div class="padding"></div>
5102
5103     <div class="entry">
5104       <div class="title">
5105         <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>
5106       </div>
5107       <div class="date">
5108         27th September 2013
5109       </div>
5110       <div class="body">
5111         <p>The <a href="http://www.freedomboxfoundation.org/">Freedombox
5112 project</a> have been going on for a while, and have presented the
5113 vision, ideas and solution several places.  Here is a little
5114 collection of videos of talks and presentation of the project.</p>
5115
5116 <ul>
5117
5118 <li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ukvUz5taxvA">FreedomBox -
5119 2,5 minute marketing film</a> (Youtube)</li>
5120
5121 <li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SzW25QTVWsE">Eben Moglen
5122 discusses the Freedombox on CBS news 2011</a> (Youtube)</li>
5123
5124 <li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ae8SZbxfE0g">Eben Moglen -
5125 Freedom in the Cloud - Software Freedom, Privacy and and Security for
5126 Web 2.0 and Cloud computing at ISOC-NY Public Meeting 2010</a>
5127 (Youtube)</li>
5128
5129 <li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNaIji_3xBE">Fosdem 2011
5130 Keynote by Eben Moglen presenting the Freedombox</a> (Youtube)</li>
5131
5132 <li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bDDUyJSQ9s">Presentation of
5133 the Freedombox by James Vasile at Elevate in Gratz 2011</a> (Youtube)</li>
5134
5135 <li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQTmnk27g9s"> Freedombox -
5136 Discovery, Identity, and Trust by Nick Daly at Freedombox Hackfest New
5137 York City in 2012</a> (Youtube)</li>
5138
5139 <li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tkbSB4Ba7Ck">Introduction
5140 to the Freedombox at Freedombox Hackfest New York City in 2012</a>
5141 (Youtube)</li>
5142
5143 <li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z-P2Jaeg0aQ">Freedom, Out
5144 of the Box! by Bdale Garbee at linux.conf.au Ballarat, 2012</a> (Youtube) </li>
5145
5146 <li><a href="https://archive.fosdem.org/2013/schedule/event/freedombox/">Freedombox
5147 1.0 by Eben Moglen and Bdale Garbee at Fosdem 2013</a> (FOSDEM) </li>
5148
5149 <li><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e1LpYX2zVYg">What is the
5150 FreedomBox today by Bdale Garbee at Debconf13 in Vaumarcus
5151 2013</a> (Youtube)</li>
5152
5153 </ul>
5154
5155 <p>A larger list is available from
5156 <a href="https://wiki.debian.org/FreedomBox/TalksAndPresentations">the
5157 Freedombox Wiki</a>.</p>
5158
5159 <p>On other news, I am happy to report that Freedombox based on Debian
5160 Jessie is coming along quite well, and soon both Owncloud and using
5161 Tor should be available for testers of the Freedombox solution. :) In
5162 a few weeks I hope everything needed to test it is included in Debian.
5163 The withsqlite package is already in Debian, and the plinth package is
5164 pending in NEW.  The third and vital part of that puzzle is the
5165 metapackage/setup framework, which is still pending an upload.  Join
5166 us on <a href="irc://irc.debian.org:6667/%23freedombox">IRC
5167 (#freedombox on irc.debian.org)</a> and
5168 <a href="http://lists.alioth.debian.org/mailman/listinfo/freedombox-discuss">the
5169 mailing list</a> if you want to help make this vision come true.</p>
5170
5171       </div>
5172       <div class="tags">
5173
5174
5175         Tags: <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>.
5176
5177
5178       </div>
5179     </div>
5180     <div class="padding"></div>
5181
5182     <div class="entry">
5183       <div class="title">
5184         <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>
5185       </div>
5186       <div class="date">
5187         10th September 2013
5188       </div>
5189       <div class="body">
5190         <p>I was introduced to the
5191 <a href="http://www.freedomboxfoundation.org/">Freedombox project</a>
5192 in 2010, when Eben Moglen presented his vision about serving the need
5193 of non-technical people to keep their personal information private and
5194 within the legal protection of their own homes.  The idea is to give
5195 people back the power over their network and machines, and return
5196 Internet back to its intended peer-to-peer architecture.  Instead of
5197 depending on a central service, the Freedombox will give everyone
5198 control over their own basic infrastructure.</p>
5199
5200 <p>I've intended to join the effort since then, but other tasks have
5201 taken priority.  But this summers nasty news about the misuse of trust
5202 and privilege exercised by the "western" intelligence gathering
5203 communities increased my eagerness to contribute to a point where I
5204 actually started working on the project a while back.</p>
5205
5206 <p>The <a href="https://alioth.debian.org/projects/freedombox/">initial
5207 Debian initiative</a> based on the vision from Eben Moglen, is to
5208 create a simple and cheap Debian based appliance that anyone can hook
5209 up in their home and get access to secure and private services and
5210 communication.  The initial deployment platform have been the
5211 <a href="http://www.globalscaletechnologies.com/t-dreamplugdetails.aspx">Dreamplug</a>,
5212 which is a piece of hardware I do not own.  So to be able to test what
5213 the current Freedombox setup look like, I had to come up with a way to install
5214 it on some hardware I do have access to.  I have rewritten the
5215 <a href="https://github.com/NickDaly/freedom-maker">freedom-maker</a>
5216 image build framework to use .deb packages instead of only copying
5217 setup into the boot images, and thanks to this rewrite I am able to
5218 set up any machine supported by Debian Wheezy as a Freedombox, using
5219 the previously mentioned deb (and a few support debs for packages
5220 missing in Debian).</p>
5221
5222 <p>The current Freedombox setup consist of a set of bootstrapping
5223 scripts
5224 (<a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/freedombox-setup">freedombox-setup</a>),
5225 and a administrative web interface
5226 (<a href="https://github.com/NickDaly/Plinth">plinth</a> + exmachina +
5227 withsqlite), as well as a privacy enhancing proxy based on
5228 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/privoxy">privoxy</a>
5229 (freedombox-privoxy).  There is also a web/javascript based XMPP
5230 client (<a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/jwchat">jwchat</a>)
5231 trying (unsuccessfully so far) to talk to the XMPP server
5232 (<a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/ejabberd">ejabberd</a>).  The
5233 web interface is pluggable, and the goal is to use it to enable OpenID
5234 services, mesh network connectivity, use of TOR, etc, etc.  Not much of
5235 this is really working yet, see
5236 <a href="https://github.com/NickDaly/freedombox-todos/blob/master/TODO">the
5237 project TODO</a> for links to GIT repositories.  Most of the code is
5238 on github at the moment.  The HTTP proxy is operational out of the
5239 box, and the admin web interface can be used to add/remove plinth
5240 users.  I've not been able to do anything else with it so far, but
5241 know there are several branches spread around github and other places
5242 with lots of half baked features.</p>
5243
5244 <p>Anyway, if you want to have a look at the current state, the
5245 following recipes should work to give you a test machine to poke
5246 at.</p>
5247
5248 <p><strong>Debian Wheezy amd64</strong></p>
5249
5250 <ol>
5251
5252 <li>Fetch normal Debian Wheezy installation ISO.</li>
5253 <li>Boot from it, either as CD or USB stick.</li>
5254 <li><p>Press [tab] on the boot prompt and add this as a boot argument
5255 to the Debian installer:<p>
5256 <pre>url=<a href="http://www.reinholdtsen.name/freedombox/preseed-wheezy.dat">http://www.reinholdtsen.name/freedombox/preseed-wheezy.dat</a></pre></li>
5257
5258 <li>Answer the few language/region/password questions and pick disk to
5259 install on.</li>
5260
5261 <li>When the installation is finished and the machine have rebooted a
5262 few times, your Freedombox is ready for testing.</li>
5263
5264 </ol>
5265
5266 <p><strong>Raspberry Pi Raspbian</strong></p>
5267
5268 <ol>
5269
5270 <li>Fetch a Raspbian SD card image, create SD card.</li>
5271 <li>Boot from SD card, extend file system to fill the card completely.</li>
5272 <li><p>Log in and add this to /etc/sources.list:</p>
5273 <pre>
5274 deb <a href="http://www.reinholdtsen.name/freedombox/">http://www.reinholdtsen.name/freedombox</a> wheezy main
5275 </pre></li>
5276 <li><p>Run this as root:</p>
5277 <pre>
5278 wget -O - http://www.reinholdtsen.name/freedombox/BE1A583D.asc | \
5279    apt-key add -
5280 apt-get update
5281 apt-get install freedombox-setup
5282 /usr/lib/freedombox/setup
5283 </pre></li>
5284 <li>Reboot into your freshly created Freedombox.</li>
5285
5286 </ol>
5287
5288 <p>You can test it on other architectures too, but because the
5289 freedombox-privoxy package is binary, it will only work as intended on
5290 the architectures where I have had time to build the binary and put it
5291 in my APT repository.  But do not let this stop you.  It is only a
5292 short "<tt>apt-get source -b freedombox-privoxy</tt>" away. :)</p>
5293
5294 <p>Note that by default Freedombox is a DHCP server on the
5295 192.168.1.0/24 subnet, so if this is your subnet be careful and turn
5296 off the DHCP server by running "<tt>update-rc.d isc-dhcp-server
5297 disable</tt>" as root.</p>
5298
5299 <p>Please let me know if this works for you, or if you have any
5300 problems.  We gather on the IRC channel
5301 <a href="irc://irc.debian.org:6667/%23freedombox">#freedombox</a> on
5302 irc.debian.org and the
5303 <a href="http://lists.alioth.debian.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/freedombox-discuss">project
5304 mailing list</a>.</p>
5305
5306 <p>Once you get your freedombox operational, you can visit
5307 <tt>http://your-host-name:8001/</tt> to see the state of the plint
5308 welcome screen (dead end - do not be surprised if you are unable to
5309 get past it), and next visit <tt>http://your-host-name:8001/help/</tt>
5310 to look at the rest of plinth.  The default user is 'admin' and the
5311 default password is 'secret'.</p>
5312
5313       </div>
5314       <div class="tags">
5315
5316
5317         Tags: <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>.
5318
5319
5320       </div>
5321     </div>
5322     <div class="padding"></div>
5323
5324     <div class="entry">
5325       <div class="title">
5326         <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>
5327       </div>
5328       <div class="date">
5329         18th August 2013
5330       </div>
5331       <div class="body">
5332         <p>Earlier, I reported about
5333 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_fix_a_Thinkpad_X230_with_a_broken_180_GB_SSD_disk.html">my
5334 problems using an Intel SSD 520 Series 180 GB disk</a>.  Friday I was
5335 told by IBM that the original disk should be thrown away.  And as
5336 there no longer was a problem if I bricked the firmware, I decided
5337 today to try to install Intel firmware to replace the Lenovo firmware
5338 currently on the disk.</p>
5339
5340 <p>I searched the Intel site for firmware, and found
5341 <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>
5342 (aka Intel SATA Solid-State Drive Firmware Update Tool) which
5343 according to the site should contain the latest firmware for SSD
5344 disks.  I inserted the broken disk in one of my spare laptops and
5345 booted the ISO from a USB stick.  The disk was recognized, but the
5346 program claimed the newest firmware already were installed and refused
5347 to insert any Intel firmware.  So no change, and the disk is still
5348 unable to handle write load. :( I guess the only way to get them
5349 working would be if Lenovo releases new firmware.  No idea how likely
5350 that is.  Anyway, just blogging about this test for completeness.  I
5351 got a working Samsung disk, and see no point in spending more time on
5352 the broken disks.</p>
5353
5354       </div>
5355       <div class="tags">
5356
5357
5358         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
5359
5360
5361       </div>
5362     </div>
5363     <div class="padding"></div>
5364
5365     <div class="entry">
5366       <div class="title">
5367         <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>
5368       </div>
5369       <div class="date">
5370         17th July 2013
5371       </div>
5372       <div class="body">
5373         <p>Today I switched to
5374 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_Thinkpad_is_dead__long_live_the_Thinkpad_X230_.html">my
5375 new laptop</a>.  I've previously written about the problems I had with
5376 my new Thinkpad X230, which was delivered with an
5377 <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
5378 GB Intel SSD disk with Lenovo firmware</a> that did not handle
5379 sustained writes.  My hardware supplier have been very forthcoming in
5380 trying to find a solution, and after first trying with another
5381 identical 180 GB disks they decided to send me a 256 GB Samsung SSD
5382 disk instead to fix it once and for all.  The Samsung disk survived
5383 the installation of Debian with encrypted disks (filling the disk with
5384 random data during installation killed the first two), and I thus
5385 decided to trust it with my data.  I have installed it as a Debian Edu
5386 Wheezy roaming workstation hooked up with my Debian Edu Squeeze main
5387 server at home using Kerberos and LDAP, and will use it as my work
5388 station from now on.</p>
5389
5390 <p>As this is a solid state disk with no moving parts, I believe the
5391 Debian Wheezy default installation need to be tuned a bit to increase
5392 performance and increase life time of the disk.  The Linux kernel and
5393 user space applications do not yet adjust automatically to such
5394 environment.  To make it easier for my self, I created a draft Debian
5395 package <tt>ssd-setup</tt> to handle this tuning.  The
5396 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/gitweb/?p=collab-maint/ssd-setup.git">source
5397 for the ssd-setup package</a> is available from collab-maint, and it
5398 is set up to adjust the setup of the machine by just installing the
5399 package.  If there is any non-SSD disk in the machine, the package
5400 will refuse to install, as I did not try to write any logic to sort
5401 file systems in SSD and non-SSD file systems.</p>
5402
5403 <p>I consider the package a draft, as I am a bit unsure how to best
5404 set up Debian Wheezy with an SSD.  It is adjusted to my use case,
5405 where I set up the machine with one large encrypted partition (in
5406 addition to /boot), put LVM on top of this and set up partitions on
5407 top of this again.  See the README file in the package source for the
5408 references I used to pick the settings.  At the moment these
5409 parameters are tuned:</p>
5410
5411 <ul>
5412
5413 <li>Set up cryptsetup to pass TRIM commands to the physical disk
5414     (adding discard to /etc/crypttab)</li>
5415
5416 <li>Set up LVM to pass on TRIM commands to the underlying device (in
5417     this case a cryptsetup partition) by changing issue_discards from
5418     0 to 1 in /etc/lvm/lvm.conf.</li>
5419
5420 <li>Set relatime as a file system option for ext3 and ext4 file
5421     systems.</li>
5422
5423 <li>Tell swap to use TRIM commands by adding 'discard' to
5424     /etc/fstab.</li>
5425
5426 <li>Change I/O scheduler from cfq to deadline using a udev rule.</li>
5427
5428 <li>Run fstrim on every ext3 and ext4 file system every night (from
5429     cron.daily).</li>
5430
5431 <li>Adjust sysctl values vm.swappiness to 1 and vm.vfs_cache_pressure
5432     to 50 to reduce the kernel eagerness to swap out processes.</li>
5433
5434 </ul>
5435
5436 <p>During installation, I cancelled the part where the installer fill
5437 the disk with random data, as this would kill the SSD performance for
5438 little gain.  My goal with the encrypted file system is to ensure
5439 those stealing my laptop end up with a brick and not a working
5440 computer.  I have no hope in keeping the really resourceful people
5441 from getting the data on the disk (see
5442 <a href="http://xkcd.com/538/">XKCD #538</a> for an explanation why).
5443 Thus I concluded that adding the discard option to crypttab is the
5444 right thing to do.</p>
5445
5446 <p>I considered using the noop I/O scheduler, as several recommended
5447 it for SSD, but others recommended deadline and a benchmark I found
5448 indicated that deadline might be better for interactive use.</p>
5449
5450 <p>I also considered using the 'discard' file system option for ext3
5451 and ext4, but read that it would give a performance hit ever time a
5452 file is removed, and thought it best to that that slowdown once a day
5453 instead of during my work.</p>
5454
5455 <p>My package do not set up tmpfs on /var/run, /var/lock and /tmp, as
5456 this is already done by Debian Edu.</p>
5457
5458 <p>I have not yet started on the user space tuning.  I expect
5459 iceweasel need some tuning, and perhaps other applications too, but
5460 have not yet had time to investigate those parts.</p>
5461
5462 <p>The package should work on Ubuntu too, but I have not yet tested it
5463 there.</p>
5464
5465 <p>As for the answer to the question in the title of this blog post,
5466 as far as I know, the only solution I know about is to replace the
5467 disk.  It might be possible to flash it with Intel firmware instead of
5468 the Lenovo firmware.  But I have not tried and did not want to do so
5469 without approval from Lenovo as I wanted to keep the warranty on the
5470 disk until a solution was found and they wanted the broken disks
5471 back.</p>
5472
5473       </div>
5474       <div class="tags">
5475
5476
5477         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
5478
5479
5480       </div>
5481     </div>
5482     <div class="padding"></div>
5483
5484     <div class="entry">
5485       <div class="title">
5486         <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>
5487       </div>
5488       <div class="date">
5489         10th July 2013
5490       </div>
5491       <div class="body">
5492         <p>A few days ago, I wrote about
5493 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_Thinkpad_is_dead__long_live_the_Thinkpad_X230_.html">the
5494 problems I experienced with my new X230 and its SSD disk</a>, which
5495 was dying during installation because it is unable to cope with
5496 sustained write.  My supplier is in contact with
5497 <a href="http://www.lenovo.com/">Lenovo</a>, and they wanted to send a
5498 replacement disk to try to fix the problem.  They decided to send an
5499 identical model, so my hopes for a permanent fix was slim.</p>
5500
5501 <p>Anyway, today I got the replacement disk and tried to install
5502 Debian Edu Wheezy with encrypted disk on it.  The new disk have the
5503 same firmware version as the original.  This time my hope raised
5504 slightly as the installation progressed, as the original disk used to
5505 die after 4-7% of the disk was written to, while this time it kept
5506 going past 10%, 20%, 40% and even past 50%.  But around 60%, the disk
5507 died again and I was back on square one.  I still do not have a new
5508 laptop with a disk I can trust.  I can not live with a disk that might
5509 lock up when I download a new
5510 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux</a> ISO or
5511 other large files.  I look forward to hearing from my supplier with
5512 the next proposal from Lenovo.</p>
5513
5514 <p>The original disk is marked Intel SSD 520 Series 180 GB,
5515 11S0C38722Z1ZNME35X1TR, ISN: CVCV321407HB180EGN, SA: G57560302, FW:
5516 LF1i, 29MAY2013, PBA: G39779-300, LBA 351,651,888, LI P/N: 0C38722,
5517 Pb-free 2LI, LC P/N: 16-200366, WWN: 55CD2E40002756C4, Model:
5518 SSDSC2BW180A3L 2.5" 6Gb/s SATA SSD 180G 5V 1A, ASM P/N 0C38732, FRU
5519 P/N 45N8295, P0C38732.</p>
5520
5521 <p>The replacement disk is marked Intel SSD 520 Series 180 GB,
5522 11S0C38722Z1ZNDE34N0L0, ISN: CVCV315306RK180EGN, SA: G57560-302, FW:
5523 LF1i, 22APR2013, PBA: G39779-300, LBA 351,651,888, LI P/N: 0C38722,
5524 Pb-free 2LI, LC P/N: 16-200366, WWN: 55CD2E40000AB69E, Model:
5525 SSDSC2BW180A3L 2.5" 6Gb/s SATA SSD 180G 5V 1A, ASM P/N 0C38732, FRU
5526 P/N 45N8295, P0C38732.</p>
5527
5528 <p>The only difference is in the first number (serial number?), ISN,
5529 SA, date and WNPP values.  Mentioning all the details here in case
5530 someone is able to use the information to find a way to identify the
5531 failing disk among working ones (if any such working disk actually
5532 exist).</p>
5533
5534       </div>
5535       <div class="tags">
5536
5537
5538         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
5539
5540
5541       </div>
5542     </div>
5543     <div class="padding"></div>
5544
5545     <div class="entry">
5546       <div class="title">
5547         <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>
5548       </div>
5549       <div class="date">
5550          9th July 2013
5551       </div>
5552       <div class="body">
5553         <p>The upcoming Saturday, 2013-07-13, we are organising a combined
5554 Debian Edu developer gathering and Debian and Ubuntu bug squashing
5555 party in Oslo.  It is organised by <a href="http://www.nuug.no/">the
5556 member assosiation NUUG</a> and
5557 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">the Debian Edu / Skolelinux
5558 project</a> together with <a href="http://bitraf.no/">the hack space
5559 Bitraf</a>.</p>
5560
5561 <p>It starts 10:00 and continue until late evening.  Everyone is
5562 welcome, and there is no fee to participate.  There is on the other
5563 hand limited space, and only room for 30 people.  Please put your name
5564 on <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/BSP/2013/07/13/no/Oslo">the event
5565 wiki page</a> if you plan to join us.</p>
5566
5567       </div>
5568       <div class="tags">
5569
5570
5571         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>.
5572
5573
5574       </div>
5575     </div>
5576     <div class="padding"></div>
5577
5578     <div class="entry">
5579       <div class="title">
5580         <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>
5581       </div>
5582       <div class="date">
5583          5th July 2013
5584       </div>
5585       <div class="body">
5586         <p>Half a year ago, I reported that I had to find a
5587 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Thank_you_Thinkpad_X41__for_your_long_and_trustworthy_service.html">replacement
5588 for my trusty old Thinkpad X41</a>.  Unfortunately I did not have much
5589 time to spend on it, and it took a while to find a model I believe
5590 will do the job, but two days ago the replacement finally arrived.  I
5591 ended up picking a
5592 <a href="http://www.linlap.com/lenovo_thinkpad_x230">Thinkpad X230</a>
5593 with SSD disk (NZDAJMN).  I first test installed Debian Edu Wheezy as
5594 a roaming workstation, and it seemed to work flawlessly.  But my
5595 second installation with encrypted disk was not as successful.  More
5596 on that below.</p>
5597
5598 <p>I had a hard time trying to track down a good laptop, as my most
5599 important requirements (robust and with a good keyboard) are never
5600 listed in the feature list.  But I did get good help from the search
5601 feature at <a href="http://www.prisjakt.no/">Prisjakt</a>, which
5602 allowed me to limit the list of interesting laptops based on my other
5603 requirements.  A bit surprising that SSD disk are not disks according
5604 to that search interface, so I had to drop specifying the number of
5605 disks from my search parameters.  I also asked around among friends to
5606 get their impression on keyboards and robustness.</p>
5607
5608 <p>So the new laptop arrived, and it is quite a lot wider than the
5609 X41.  I am not quite convinced about the keyboard, as it is
5610 significantly wider than my old keyboard, and I have to stretch my
5611 hand a lot more to reach the edges.  But the key response is fairly
5612 good and the individual key shape is fairly easy to handle, so I hope
5613 I will get used to it.  My old X40 was starting to fail, and I really
5614 needed a new laptop now. :)</p>
5615
5616 <p>Turning off the touch pad was simple.  All it took was a quick
5617 visit to the BIOS during boot it disable it.</p>
5618
5619 <p>But there is a fatal problem with the laptop.  The 180 GB SSD disk
5620 lock up during load.  And this happen when installing Debian Wheezy
5621 with encrypted disk, while the disk is being filled with random data.
5622 I also tested to install Ubuntu Raring, and it happen there too if I
5623 reenable the code to fill the disk with random data (it is disabled by
5624 default in Ubuntu).  And the bug with is already known.  It was
5625 reported to Debian as <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/691427">BTS
5626 report #691427 2012-10-25</a> (journal commit I/O error on brand-new
5627 Thinkpad T430s ext4 on lvm on SSD).  It is also reported to the Linux
5628 kernel developers as
5629 <a href="https://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=51861">Kernel bugzilla
5630 report #51861 2012-12-20</a> (Intel SSD 520 stops working under load
5631 (SSDSC2BW180A3L in Lenovo ThinkPad T430s)). It is also reported on the
5632 Lenovo forums, both for
5633 <a href="http://forums.lenovo.com/t5/T400-T500-and-newer-T-series/T430s-Intel-SSD-520-180GB-issue/m-p/1070549">T430
5634 2012-11-10</a> and for
5635 <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
5636 03-20-2013</a>.  The problem do not only affect installation.  The
5637 reports state that the disk lock up during use if many writes are done
5638 on the disk, so it is much no use to work around the installation
5639 problem and end up with a computer that can lock up at any moment.
5640 There is even a
5641 <a href="https://git.efficios.com/?p=test-ssd.git">small C program
5642 available</a> that will lock up the hard drive after running a few
5643 minutes by writing to a file.</p>
5644
5645 <p>I've contacted my supplier and asked how to handle this, and after
5646 contacting PCHELP Norway (request 01D1FDP) which handle support
5647 requests for Lenovo, his first suggestion was to upgrade the disk
5648 firmware.  Unfortunately there is no newer firmware available from
5649 Lenovo, as my disk already have the most recent one (version LF1i).  I
5650 hope to hear more from him today and hope the problem can be
5651 fixed. :)</p>
5652
5653       </div>
5654       <div class="tags">
5655
5656
5657         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
5658
5659
5660       </div>
5661     </div>
5662     <div class="padding"></div>
5663
5664     <div class="entry">
5665       <div class="title">
5666         <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>
5667       </div>
5668       <div class="date">
5669          4th July 2013
5670       </div>
5671       <div class="body">
5672         <p>Half a year ago, I reported that I had to find a replacement for my
5673 trusty old Thinkpad X41.  Unfortunately I did not have much time to
5674 spend on it, but today the replacement finally arrived.  I ended up
5675 picking a <a href="http://www.linlap.com/lenovo_thinkpad_x230">Thinkpad
5676 X230</a> with SSD disk (NZDAJMN).  I first test installed Debian Edu
5677 Wheezy as a roaming workstation, and it worked flawlessly.  As I write
5678 this, it is installing what I hope will be a more final installation,
5679 with a encrypted hard drive to ensure any dope head stealing it end up
5680 with an expencive door stop.</p>
5681
5682 <p>I had a hard time trying to track down a good laptop, as my most
5683 important requirements (robust and with a good keyboard) are never
5684 listed in the feature list.  But I did get good help from the search
5685 feature at <ahref="http://www.prisjakt.no/">Prisjakt</a>, which
5686 allowed me to limit the list of interesting laptops based on my other
5687 requirements.  A bit surprising that SSD disk are not disks, so I had
5688 to drop number of disks from my search parameters.</p>
5689
5690 <p>I am not quite convinced about the keyboard, as it is significantly
5691 wider than my old keyboard, and I have to stretch my hand a lot more
5692 to reach the edges.  But the key response is fairly good and the
5693 individual key shape is fairly easy to handle, so I hope I will get
5694 used to it.  My old X40 was starting to fail, and I really needed a
5695 new laptop now. :)</p>
5696
5697 <p>I look forward to figuring out how to turn off the touch pad.</p>
5698
5699       </div>
5700       <div class="tags">
5701
5702
5703         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
5704
5705
5706       </div>
5707     </div>
5708     <div class="padding"></div>
5709
5710     <div class="entry">
5711       <div class="title">
5712         <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>
5713       </div>
5714       <div class="date">
5715         25th June 2013
5716       </div>
5717       <div class="body">
5718         <p>It annoys me when the computer fail to do automatically what it is
5719 perfectly capable of, and I have to do it manually to get things
5720 working.  One such task is to find out what firmware packages are
5721 needed to get the hardware on my computer working.  Most often this
5722 affect the wifi card, but some times it even affect the RAID
5723 controller or the ethernet card.  Today I pushed version 0.4 of the
5724 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/isenkram">Isenkram package</a>
5725 including a new script isenkram-autoinstall-firmware handling the
5726 process of asking all the loaded kernel modules what firmware files
5727 they want, find debian packages providing these files and install the
5728 debian packages.  Here is a test run on my laptop:</p>
5729
5730 <p><pre>
5731 # isenkram-autoinstall-firmware
5732 info: kernel drivers requested extra firmware: ipw2200-bss.fw ipw2200-ibss.fw ipw2200-sniffer.fw
5733 info: fetching http://http.debian.net/debian/dists/squeeze/Contents-i386.gz
5734 info: locating packages with the requested firmware files
5735 info: Updating APT sources after adding non-free APT source
5736 info: trying to install firmware-ipw2x00
5737 firmware-ipw2x00
5738 firmware-ipw2x00
5739 Preconfiguring packages ...
5740 Selecting previously deselected package firmware-ipw2x00.
5741 (Reading database ... 259727 files and directories currently installed.)
5742 Unpacking firmware-ipw2x00 (from .../firmware-ipw2x00_0.28+squeeze1_all.deb) ...
5743 Setting up firmware-ipw2x00 (0.28+squeeze1) ...
5744 #
5745 </pre></p>
5746
5747 <p>When all the requested firmware is present, a simple message is
5748 printed instead:</p>
5749
5750 <p><pre>
5751 # isenkram-autoinstall-firmware
5752 info: did not find any firmware files requested by loaded kernel modules.  exiting
5753 #
5754 </pre></p>
5755
5756 <p>It could use some polish, but it is already working well and saving
5757 me some time when setting up new machines. :)</p>
5758
5759 <p>So, how does it work?  It look at the set of currently loaded
5760 kernel modules, and look up each one of them using modinfo, to find
5761 the firmware files listed in the module meta-information.  Next, it
5762 download the Contents file from a nearby APT mirror, and search for
5763 the firmware files in this file to locate the package with the
5764 requested firmware file.  If the package is in the non-free section, a
5765 non-free APT source is added and the package is installed using
5766 <tt>apt-get install</tt>.  The end result is a slightly better working
5767 machine.</p>
5768
5769 <p>I hope someone find time to implement a more polished version of
5770 this script as part of the hw-detect debian-installer module, to
5771 finally fix <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/655507">BTS report
5772 #655507</a>.  There really is no need to insert USB sticks with
5773 firmware during a PXE install when the packages already are available
5774 from the nearby Debian mirror.</p>
5775
5776       </div>
5777       <div class="tags">
5778
5779
5780         Tags: <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>.
5781
5782
5783       </div>
5784     </div>
5785     <div class="padding"></div>
5786
5787     <div class="entry">
5788       <div class="title">
5789         <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>
5790       </div>
5791       <div class="date">
5792         11th June 2013
5793       </div>
5794       <div class="body">
5795         <p>When installing RedHat, Fedora, Debian and Ubuntu on some machines,
5796 the screen just turn black when Linux boot, either during installation
5797 or on first boot from the hard disk.  I've seen it once in a while the
5798 last few years, but only recently understood the cause.  I've seen it
5799 on HP laptops, and on my latest acquaintance the Packard Bell laptop.
5800 The reason seem to be in the wiring of some laptops.  The system to
5801 control the screen background light is inverted, so when Linux try to
5802 turn the brightness fully on, it end up turning it off instead.  I do
5803 not know which Linux drivers are affected, but this post is about the
5804 i915 driver used by the
5805 <a href="http://www.linlap.com/packard_bell_easynote_lv">Packard Bell
5806 EasyNote LV</a>, Thinkpad X40 and many other laptops.</p>
5807
5808 <p>The problem can be worked around two ways.  Either by adding
5809 i915.invert_brightness=1 as a kernel option, or by adding a file in
5810 /etc/modprobe.d/ to tell modprobe to add the invert_brightness=1
5811 option when it load the i915 kernel module.  On Debian and Ubuntu, it
5812 can be done by running these commands as root:</p>
5813
5814 <pre>
5815 echo options i915 invert_brightness=1 | tee /etc/modprobe.d/i915.conf
5816 update-initramfs -u -k all
5817 </pre>
5818
5819 <p>Since March 2012 there is
5820 <a href="http://git.kernel.org/cgit/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/commit/?id=4dca20efb1a9c2efefc28ad2867e5d6c3f5e1955">a
5821 mechanism in the Linux kernel</a> to tell the i915 driver which
5822 hardware have this problem, and get the driver to invert the
5823 brightness setting automatically.  To use it, one need to add a row in
5824 <a href="http://git.kernel.org/cgit/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/tree/drivers/gpu/drm/i915/intel_display.c">the
5825 intel_quirks array</a> in the driver source
5826 <tt>drivers/gpu/drm/i915/intel_display.c</tt> (look for "<tt>static
5827 struct intel_quirk intel_quirks</tt>"), specifying the PCI device
5828 number (vendor number 8086 is assumed) and subdevice vendor and device
5829 number.</p>
5830
5831 <p>My Packard Bell EasyNote LV got this output from <tt>lspci
5832 -vvnn</tt> for the video card in question:</p>
5833
5834 <p><pre>
5835 00:02.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: Intel Corporation \
5836     3rd Gen Core processor Graphics Controller [8086:0156] \
5837     (rev 09) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
5838  Subsystem: Acer Incorporated [ALI] Device [1025:0688]
5839  Control: I/O+ Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- \
5840     ParErr- Stepping- SE RR- FastB2B- DisINTx+
5841  Status: Cap+ 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B+ ParErr- DEVSEL=fast >TAbort- \
5842     <TAbort- <MAbort->SERR- <PERR- INTx-
5843  Latency: 0
5844  Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 42
5845  Region 0: Memory at c2000000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=4M]
5846  Region 2: Memory at b0000000 (64-bit, prefetchable) [size=256M]
5847  Region 4: I/O ports at 4000 [size=64]
5848  Expansion ROM at <unassigned> [disabled]
5849  Capabilities: <access denied>
5850  Kernel driver in use: i915
5851 </pre></p>
5852
5853 <p>The resulting intel_quirks entry would then look like this:</p>
5854
5855 <p><pre>
5856 struct intel_quirk intel_quirks[] = {
5857        ...
5858         /* Packard Bell EasyNote LV11HC needs invert brightness quirk */
5859         { 0x0156, 0x1025, 0x0688, quirk_invert_brightness },
5860        ...
5861 }
5862 </pre></p>
5863
5864 <p>According to the kernel module instructions (as seen using
5865 <tt>modinfo i915</tt>), information about hardware needing the
5866 invert_brightness flag should be sent to the
5867 <a href="http://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/dri-devel">dri-devel
5868 (at) lists.freedesktop.org</a> mailing list to reach the kernel
5869 developers.  But my email about the laptop sent 2013-06-03 have not
5870 yet shown up in
5871 <a href="http://lists.freedesktop.org/archives/dri-devel/2013-June/thread.html">the
5872 web archive for the mailing list</a>, so I suspect they do not accept
5873 emails from non-subscribers.  Because of this, I sent my patch also to
5874 the Debian bug tracking system instead as
5875 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/710938">BTS report #710938</a>, to make
5876 sure the patch is not lost.</p>
5877
5878 <p>Unfortunately, it is not enough to fix the kernel to get Laptops
5879 with this problem working properly with Linux.  If you use Gnome, your
5880 worries should be over at this point.  But if you use KDE, there is
5881 something in KDE ignoring the invert_brightness setting and turning on
5882 the screen during login.  I've reported it to Debian as
5883 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/711237">BTS report #711237</a>, and
5884 have no idea yet how to figure out exactly what subsystem is doing
5885 this.  Perhaps you can help?  Perhaps you know what the Gnome
5886 developers did to handle this, and this can give a clue to the KDE
5887 developers?  Or you know where in KDE the screen brightness is changed
5888 during login?  If so, please update the BTS report (or get in touch if
5889 you do not know how to update BTS).</p>
5890
5891 <p>Update 2013-07-19: The correct fix for this machine seem to be
5892 acpi_backlight=vendor, to disable ACPI backlight support completely,
5893 as the ACPI information on the machine is trash and it is better to
5894 leave it to the intel video driver to control the screen
5895 backlight.</p>
5896
5897       </div>
5898       <div class="tags">
5899
5900
5901         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
5902
5903
5904       </div>
5905     </div>
5906     <div class="padding"></div>
5907
5908     <div class="entry">
5909       <div class="title">
5910         <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>
5911       </div>
5912       <div class="date">
5913         27th May 2013
5914       </div>
5915       <div class="body">
5916         <p>Two days ago, I asked
5917 <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
5918 I could install Linux on a Packard Bell EasyNote LV computer
5919 preinstalled with Windows 8</a>.  I found a solution, but am horrified
5920 with the obstacles put in the way of Linux users on a laptop with UEFI
5921 and Windows 8.</p>
5922
5923 <p>I never found out if the cause of my problems were the use of UEFI
5924 secure booting or fast boot.  I suspect fast boot was the problem,
5925 causing the firmware to boot directly from HD without considering any
5926 key presses and alternative devices, but do not know UEFI settings
5927 enough to tell.</p>
5928
5929 <p>There is no way to install Linux on the machine in question without
5930 opening the box and disconnecting the hard drive!  This is as far as I
5931 can tell, the only way to get access to the firmware setup menu
5932 without accepting the Windows 8 license agreement.  I am told (and
5933 found description on how to) that it is possible to configure the
5934 firmware setup once booted into Windows 8.  But as I believe the terms
5935 of that agreement are completely unacceptable, accepting the license
5936 was never an alternative.  I do not enter agreements I do not intend
5937 to follow.</p>
5938
5939 <p>I feared I had to return the laptops and ask for a refund, and
5940 waste many hours on this, but luckily there was a way to get it to
5941 work.  But I would not recommend it to anyone planning to run Linux on
5942 it, and I have become sceptical to Windows 8 certified laptops.  Is
5943 this the way Linux will be forced out of the market place, by making
5944 it close to impossible for "normal" users to install Linux without
5945 accepting the Microsoft Windows license terms?  Or at least not
5946 without risking to loose the warranty?</p>
5947
5948 <p>I've updated the
5949 <a href="http://www.linlap.com/packard_bell_easynote_lv">Linux Laptop
5950 wiki page for Packard Bell EasyNote LV</a>, to ensure the next person
5951 do not have to struggle as much as I did to get Linux into the
5952 machine.</p>
5953
5954 <p>Thanks to Bob Rosbag, Florian Weimer, Philipp Kern, Ben Hutching,
5955 Michael Tokarev and others for feedback and ideas.</p>
5956
5957       </div>
5958       <div class="tags">
5959
5960
5961         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
5962
5963
5964       </div>
5965     </div>
5966     <div class="padding"></div>
5967
5968     <div class="entry">
5969       <div class="title">
5970         <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>
5971       </div>
5972       <div class="date">
5973         25th May 2013
5974       </div>
5975       <div class="body">
5976         <p>I've run into quite a problem the last few days.  I bought three
5977 new laptops for my parents and a few others.  I bought Packard Bell
5978 Easynote LV to run Kubuntu on and use as their home computer.  But I
5979 am completely unable to figure out how to install Linux on it.  The
5980 computer is preinstalled with Windows 8, and I suspect it uses UEFI
5981 instead of a BIOS to boot.</p>
5982
5983 <p>The problem is that I am unable to get it to PXE boot, and unable
5984 to get it to boot the Linux installer from my USB stick.  I have yet
5985 to try the DVD install, and still hope it will work.  when I turn on
5986 the computer, there is no information on what buttons to press to get
5987 the normal boot menu.  I expect to get some boot menu to select PXE or
5988 USB stick booting.  When booting, it first ask for the language to
5989 use, then for some regional settings, and finally if I will accept the
5990 Windows 8 terms of use.  As these terms are completely unacceptable to
5991 me, I have no other choice but to turn off the computer and try again
5992 to get it to boot the Linux installer.</p>
5993
5994 <p>I have gathered my findings so far on a Linlap page about the
5995 <a href="http://www.linlap.com/packard_bell_easynote_lv">Packard Bell
5996 EasyNote LV</a> model.  If you have any idea how to get Linux
5997 installed on this machine, please get in touch or update that wiki
5998 page.  If I can't find a way to install Linux, I will have to return
5999 the laptop to the seller and find another machine for my parents.</p>
6000
6001 <p>I wonder, is this the way Linux will be forced out of the market
6002 using UEFI and "secure boot" by making it impossible to install Linux
6003 on new Laptops?</p>
6004
6005       </div>
6006       <div class="tags">
6007
6008
6009         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
6010
6011
6012       </div>
6013     </div>
6014     <div class="padding"></div>
6015
6016     <div class="entry">
6017       <div class="title">
6018         <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>
6019       </div>
6020       <div class="date">
6021         17th May 2013
6022       </div>
6023       <div class="body">
6024         <p><a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux</a> is
6025 an operating system based on Debian intended for use in schools.  It
6026 contain a turn-key solution for the computer network provided to
6027 pupils in the primary schools.  It provide both the central server,
6028 network boot servers and desktop environments with heaps of
6029 educational software.  The project was founded almost 12 years ago,
6030 2001-07-02.  If you want to support the project, which is in need for
6031 cash to fund developer gatherings and other project related activity,
6032 <a href="http://www.linuxiskolen.no/slxdebianlabs/donations.html">please
6033 donate some money</a>.
6034
6035 <p>A topic that come up again and again on the Debian Edu mailing
6036 lists and elsewhere, is the question on how to transform a Debian or
6037 Ubuntu installation into a Debian Edu installation.  It isn't very
6038 hard, and last week I wrote a script to replicate the steps done by
6039 the Debian Edu installer.</p>
6040
6041 <p>The script,
6042 <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/>
6043 in the debian-edu-config package, will go through these six steps and
6044 transform an existing Debian Wheezy or Ubuntu (untested) installation
6045 into a Debian Edu Workstation:</p>
6046
6047 <ol>
6048
6049 <li>Add skolelinux related APT sources.</li>
6050 <li>Create /etc/debian-edu/config with the wanted configuration.</li>
6051 <li>Install debian-edu-install to load preseeding values and pull in
6052     our configuration.</li>
6053 <li>Preseed debconf database with profile setup in
6054     /etc/debian-edu/config, and run tasksel to install packages
6055     according to the profile specified in the config above,
6056     overriding some of the Debian automation machinery.</li>
6057 <li>Run debian-edu-cfengine-D installation to configure everything
6058     that could not be done using preseeding.</li>
6059 <li>Ask for a reboot to enable all the configuration changes.</li>
6060
6061 </ol>
6062
6063 <p>There are some steps in the Debian Edu installation that can not be
6064 replicated like this.  Disk partitioning and LVM setup, for example.
6065 So this script just assume there is enough disk space to install all
6066 the needed packages.</p>
6067
6068 <p>The script was created to help a Debian Edu student working on
6069 setting up <a href="http://www.raspberrypi.org">Raspberry Pi</a> as a
6070 Debian Edu client, and using it he can take the existing
6071 <a href="http://www.raspbian.org/FrontPage‎">Raspbian</a> installation and
6072 transform it into a fully functioning Debian Edu Workstation (or
6073 Roaming Workstation, or whatever :).</p>
6074
6075 <p>The default setting in the script is to create a KDE Workstation.
6076 If a LXDE based Roaming workstation is wanted instead, modify the
6077 PROFILE and DESKTOP values at the top to look like this instead:</p>
6078
6079 <p><pre>
6080 PROFILE="Roaming-Workstation"
6081 DESKTOP="lxde"
6082 </pre></p>
6083
6084 <p>The script could even become useful to set up Debian Edu servers in
6085 the cloud, by starting with a virtual Debian installation at some
6086 virtual hosting service and setting up all the services on first
6087 boot.</p>
6088
6089       </div>
6090       <div class="tags">
6091
6092
6093         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>.
6094
6095
6096       </div>
6097     </div>
6098     <div class="padding"></div>
6099
6100     <div class="entry">
6101       <div class="title">
6102         <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>
6103       </div>
6104       <div class="date">
6105         11th May 2013
6106       </div>
6107       <div class="body">
6108         <P>In January,
6109 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/New_IRC_channel_for_LEGO_designers_using_Debian.html">I
6110 announced a</a> new <a href="irc://irc.debian.org/%23debian-lego">IRC
6111 channel #debian-lego</a>, for those of us in the Debian and Linux
6112 community interested in <a href="http://www.lego.com/">LEGO</a>, the
6113 marvellous construction system from Denmark.  We also created
6114 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/LegoDesigners">a wiki page</a> to have
6115 a place to take notes and write down our plans and hopes.  And several
6116 people showed up to help.  I was very happy to see the effect of my
6117 call.  Since the small start, we have a debtags tag
6118 <a href="http://debtags.debian.net/search/bytag?wl=hardware::hobby:lego">hardware::hobby:lego</a>
6119 tag for LEGO related packages, and now count 10 packages related to
6120 LEGO and <a href="http://mindstorms.lego.com/">Mindstorms</a>:</p>
6121
6122 <p><table>
6123 <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>
6124 <tr><td><a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/leocad">leocad</a></td><td>virtual brick CAD software</td></tr>
6125 <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>
6126 <tr><td><a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/lnpd">lnpd</a></td><td>daemon for LNP communication with BrickOS</td></tr>
6127 <tr><td><a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/nbc">nbc</a></td><td>compiler for LEGO Mindstorms NXT bricks</td></tr>
6128 <tr><td><a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/nqc">nqc</a></td><td>Not Quite C compiler for LEGO Mindstorms RCX</td></tr>
6129 <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>
6130 <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>
6131 <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>
6132 <tr><td><a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/t2n">t2n</a></td><td>simple command-line tool for Lego NXT</td></tr>
6133 </table></p>
6134
6135 <p>Some of these are available in Wheezy, and all but one are
6136 currently available in Jessie/testing.  leocad is so far only
6137 available in experimental.</p>
6138
6139 <p>If you care about LEGO in Debian, please join us on IRC and help
6140 adding the rest of the great free software tools available on Linux
6141 for LEGO designers.</p>
6142
6143       </div>
6144       <div class="tags">
6145
6146
6147         Tags: <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>.
6148
6149
6150       </div>
6151     </div>
6152     <div class="padding"></div>
6153
6154     <div class="entry">
6155       <div class="title">
6156         <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>
6157       </div>
6158       <div class="date">
6159          5th May 2013
6160       </div>
6161       <div class="body">
6162         <p>When I woke up this morning, I was very happy to see that the
6163 <a href="http://www.debian.org/News/2013/20130504">release announcement
6164 for Debian Wheezy</a> was waiting in my mail box.  This is a great
6165 Debian release, and I expect to move my machines at home over to it fairly
6166 soon.</p>
6167
6168 <p>The new debian release contain heaps of new stuff, and one program
6169 in particular make me very happy to see included.  The
6170 <a href="http://scratch.mit.edu/">Scratch</a> program, made famous by
6171 the <a href="http://www.code.org/">Teach kids code</a> movement, is
6172 included for the first time.  Alongside similar programs like
6173 <a href="http://edu.kde.org/kturtle/">kturtle</a> and
6174 <a href="http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Activities/Turtle_Art">turtleart</a>,
6175 it allow for visual programming where syntax errors can not happen,
6176 and a friendly programming environment for learning to control the
6177 computer.  Scratch will also be included in the next release of Debian
6178 Edu.</a>
6179
6180 <p>And now that Wheezy is wrapped up, we can wrap up the next Debian
6181 Edu/Skolelinux release too.  The
6182 <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-edu/2013/04/msg00132.html">first
6183 alpha release</a> went out last week, and the next should soon
6184 follow.<p>
6185
6186       </div>
6187       <div class="tags">
6188
6189
6190         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>.
6191
6192
6193       </div>
6194     </div>
6195     <div class="padding"></div>
6196
6197     <div class="entry">
6198       <div class="title">
6199         <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>
6200       </div>
6201       <div class="date">
6202          3rd April 2013
6203       </div>
6204       <div class="body">
6205         <p>Today the <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/isenkram">Isenkram
6206 package</a> finally made it into the archive, after lingering in NEW
6207 for many months.  I uploaded it to the Debian experimental suite
6208 2013-01-27, and today it was accepted into the archive.</p>
6209
6210 <p>Isenkram is a system for suggesting to users what packages to
6211 install to work with a pluggable hardware device.  The suggestion pop
6212 up when the device is plugged in.  For example if a Lego Mindstorm NXT
6213 is inserted, it will suggest to install the program needed to program
6214 the NXT controller.  Give it a go, and report bugs and suggestions to
6215 BTS. :)</p>
6216
6217       </div>
6218       <div class="tags">
6219
6220
6221         Tags: <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>.
6222
6223
6224       </div>
6225     </div>
6226     <div class="padding"></div>
6227
6228     <div class="entry">
6229       <div class="title">
6230         <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>
6231       </div>
6232       <div class="date">
6233          2nd February 2013
6234       </div>
6235       <div class="body">
6236         <p>My
6237 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_backport_bitcoin_qt_version_0_7_2_2_to_Debian_Squeeze.html">last
6238 bitcoin related blog post</a> mentioned that the new
6239 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/bitcoin">bitcoin package</a> for
6240 Debian was waiting in NEW.  It was accepted by the Debian ftp-masters
6241 2013-01-19, and have been available in unstable since then.  It was
6242 automatically copied to Ubuntu, and is available in their Raring
6243 version too.</p>
6244
6245 <p>But there is a strange problem with the build that block this new
6246 version from being available on the i386 and kfreebsd-i386
6247 architectures.  For some strange reason, the autobuilders in Debian
6248 for these architectures fail to run the test suite on these
6249 architectures (<a href="http://bugs.debian.org/672524">BTS #672524</a>).
6250 We are so far unable to reproduce it when building it manually, and
6251 no-one have been able to propose a fix.  If you got an idea what is
6252 failing, please let us know via the BTS.</p>
6253
6254 <p>One feature that is annoying me with of the bitcoin client, because
6255 I often run low on disk space, is the fact that the client will exit
6256 if it run short on space (<a href="http://bugs.debian.org/696715">BTS
6257 #696715</a>).  So make sure you have enough disk space when you run
6258 it. :)</p>
6259
6260 <p>As usual, if you use bitcoin and want to show your support of my
6261 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
6262 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b&label=PetterReinholdtsenBlog">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
6263
6264       </div>
6265       <div class="tags">
6266
6267
6268         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>.
6269
6270
6271       </div>
6272     </div>
6273     <div class="padding"></div>
6274
6275     <div class="entry">
6276       <div class="title">
6277         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Welcome_to_the_world__Isenkram_.html">Welcome to the world, Isenkram!</a>
6278       </div>
6279       <div class="date">
6280         22nd January 2013
6281       </div>
6282       <div class="body">
6283         <p>Yesterday, I
6284 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/First_prototype_ready_making_hardware_easier_to_use_in_Debian.html">asked
6285 for testers</a> for my prototype for making Debian better at handling
6286 pluggable hardware devices, which I
6287 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lets_make_hardware_dongles_easier_to_use_in_Debian.html">set
6288 out to create</a> earlier this month.  Several valuable testers showed
6289 up, and caused me to really want to to open up the development to more
6290 people.  But before I did this, I want to come up with a sensible name
6291 for this project.  Today I finally decided on a new name, and I have
6292 renamed the project from hw-support-handler to this new name.  In the
6293 process, I moved the source to git and made it available as a
6294 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/gitweb/?p=collab-maint/isenkram.git">collab-maint</a>
6295 repository in Debian.  The new name?  It is <strong>Isenkram</strong>.
6296 To fetch and build the latest version of the source, use</p>
6297
6298 <pre>
6299 git clone http://anonscm.debian.org/git/collab-maint/isenkram.git
6300 cd isenkram && git-buildpackage -us -uc
6301 </pre>
6302
6303 <p>I have not yet adjusted all files to use the new name yet.  If you
6304 want to hack on the source or improve the package, please go ahead.
6305 But please talk to me first on IRC or via email before you do major
6306 changes, to make sure we do not step on each others toes. :)</p>
6307
6308 <p>If you wonder what 'isenkram' is, it is a Norwegian word for iron
6309 stuff, typically meaning tools, nails, screws, etc.  Typical hardware
6310 stuff, in other words.  I've been told it is the Norwegian variant of
6311 the German word eisenkram, for those that are familiar with that
6312 word.</p>
6313
6314 <p><strong>Update 2013-01-26</strong>: Added -us -us to build
6315 instructions, to avoid confusing people with an error from the signing
6316 process.</p>
6317
6318 <p><strong>Update 2013-01-27</strong>: Switch to HTTP URL for the git
6319 clone argument to avoid the need for authentication.</p>
6320
6321       </div>
6322       <div class="tags">
6323
6324
6325         Tags: <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>.
6326
6327
6328       </div>
6329     </div>
6330     <div class="padding"></div>
6331
6332     <div class="entry">
6333       <div class="title">
6334         <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>
6335       </div>
6336       <div class="date">
6337         21st January 2013
6338       </div>
6339       <div class="body">
6340         <p>Early this month I set out to try to
6341 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lets_make_hardware_dongles_easier_to_use_in_Debian.html">improve
6342 the Debian support for pluggable hardware devices</a>.  Now my
6343 prototype is working, and it is ready for a larger audience.  To test
6344 it, fetch the
6345 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/">source
6346 from the Debian Edu subversion repository</a>, build and install the
6347 package.  You might have to log out and in again activate the
6348 autostart script.</p>
6349
6350 <p>The design is simple:</p>
6351
6352 <ul>
6353
6354 <li>Add desktop entry in /usr/share/autostart/ causing a program
6355 hw-support-handlerd to start when the user log in.</li>
6356
6357 <li>This program listen for kernel events about new hardware (directly
6358 from the kernel like udev does), not using HAL dbus events as I
6359 initially did.</li>
6360
6361 <li>When new hardware is inserted, look up the hardware modalias in
6362 the APT database, a database
6363 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/modaliases?view=markup">available
6364 via HTTP</a> and a database available as part of the package.</li>
6365
6366 <li>If a package is mapped to the hardware in question, the package
6367 isn't installed yet and this is the first time the hardware was
6368 plugged in, show a desktop notification suggesting to install the
6369 package or packages.</li>
6370
6371 <li>If the user click on the 'install package now' button, ask
6372 aptdaemon via the PackageKit API to install the requrired package.</li>
6373
6374 <li>aptdaemon ask for root password or sudo password, and install the
6375 package while showing progress information in a window.</li>
6376
6377 </ul>
6378
6379 <p>I still need to come up with a better name for the system.  Here
6380 are some screen shots showing the prototype in action.  First the
6381 notification, then the password request, and finally the request to
6382 approve all the dependencies.  Sorry for the Norwegian Bokmål GUI.</p>
6383
6384 <p><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-01-21-hw-support-1-notification.png">
6385 <br><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-01-21-hw-support-2-password.png">
6386 <br><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-01-21-hw-support-3-dependencies.png">
6387 <br><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-01-21-hw-support-4-installing.png">
6388 <br><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-01-21-hw-support-5-installing-details.png" width="70%"></p>
6389
6390 <p>The prototype still need to be improved with longer timeouts, but
6391 is already useful.  The database of hardware to package mappings also
6392 need more work.  It is currently compatible with the Ubuntu way of
6393 storing such information in the package control file, but could be
6394 changed to use other formats instead or in addition to the current
6395 method.  I've dropped the use of discover for this mapping, as the
6396 modalias approach is more flexible and easier to use on Linux as long
6397 as the Linux kernel expose its modalias strings directly.</p>
6398
6399 <p><strong>Update 2013-01-21 16:50</strong>: Due to popular demand,
6400 here is the command required to check out and build the source: Use
6401 '<tt>svn checkout
6402 svn://svn.debian.org/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/; cd
6403 hw-support-handler; debuild</tt>'.  If you lack debuild, install the
6404 devscripts package.</p>
6405
6406 <p><strong>Update 2013-01-23 12:00</strong>: The project is now
6407 renamed to Isenkram and the source moved from the Debian Edu
6408 subversion repository to a Debian collab-maint git repository.  See
6409 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Welcome_to_the_world__Isenkram_.html">build
6410 instructions</a> for details.</p>
6411
6412       </div>
6413       <div class="tags">
6414
6415
6416         Tags: <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>.
6417
6418
6419       </div>
6420     </div>
6421     <div class="padding"></div>
6422
6423     <div class="entry">
6424       <div class="title">
6425         <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>
6426       </div>
6427       <div class="date">
6428         19th January 2013
6429       </div>
6430       <div class="body">
6431         <p>This Christmas my trusty old laptop died.  It died quietly and
6432 suddenly in bed.  With a quiet whimper, it went completely quiet and
6433 black.  The power button was no longer able to turn it on.  It was a
6434 IBM Thinkpad X41, and the best laptop I ever had.  Better than both
6435 Thinkpads X30, X31, X40, X60, X61 and X61S.  Far better than the
6436 Compaq I had before that.  Now I need to find a replacement.  To keep
6437 going during Christmas, I moved the one year old SSD disk to my old
6438 X40 where it fitted (only one I had left that could use it), but it is
6439 not a durable solution.
6440
6441 <p>My laptop needs are fairly modest.  This is my wishlist from when I
6442 got a new one more than 10 years ago.  It still holds true.:)</p>
6443
6444 <ul>
6445
6446 <li>Lightweight (around 1 kg) and small volume (preferably smaller
6447   than A4).</li>
6448 <li>Robust, it will be in my backpack every day.</li>
6449 <li>Three button mouse and a mouse pin instead of touch pad.</li>
6450 <li>Long battery life time.  Preferable a week.</li>
6451 <li>Internal WIFI network card.</li>
6452 <li>Internal Twisted Pair network card.</li>
6453 <li>Some USB slots (2-3 is plenty)</li>
6454 <li>Good keyboard - similar to the Thinkpad.</li>
6455 <li>Video resolution at least 1024x768, with size around 12" (A4 paper
6456 size).</li>
6457 <li>Hardware supported by Debian Stable, ie the default kernel and
6458   X.org packages.</li>
6459 <li>Quiet, preferably fan free (or at least not using the fan most of
6460   the time).
6461
6462 </ul>
6463
6464 <p>You will notice that there are no RAM and CPU requirements in the
6465 list.  The reason is simply that the specifications on laptops the
6466 last 10-15 years have been sufficient for my needs, and I have to look
6467 at other features to choose my laptop.  But are there still made as
6468 robust laptops as my X41?  The Thinkpad X60/X61 proved to be less
6469 robust, and Thinkpads seem to be heading in the wrong direction since
6470 Lenovo took over.  But I've been told that X220 and X1 Carbon might
6471 still be useful.</p>
6472
6473 <p>Perhaps I should rethink my needs, and look for a pad with an
6474 external keyboard?  I'll have to check the
6475 <a href="http://www.linux-laptop.net/">Linux Laptops site</a> for
6476 well-supported laptops, or perhaps just buy one preinstalled from one
6477 of the vendors listed on the <a href="http://linuxpreloaded.com/">Linux
6478 Pre-loaded site</a>.</p>
6479
6480       </div>
6481       <div class="tags">
6482
6483
6484         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
6485
6486
6487       </div>
6488     </div>
6489     <div class="padding"></div>
6490
6491     <div class="entry">
6492       <div class="title">
6493         <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>
6494       </div>
6495       <div class="date">
6496         18th January 2013
6497       </div>
6498       <div class="body">
6499         <p>Some times I try to figure out which Iceweasel browser plugin to
6500 install to get support for a given MIME type.  Thanks to
6501 <a href="https://wiki.ubuntu.com/MozillaTeam/Plugins">specifications
6502 done by Ubuntu</a> and Mozilla, it is possible to do this in Debian.
6503 Unfortunately, not very many packages provide the needed meta
6504 information, Anyway, here is a small script to look up all browser
6505 plugin packages announcing ther MIME support using this specification:</p>
6506
6507 <pre>
6508 #!/usr/bin/python
6509 import sys
6510 import apt
6511 def pkgs_handling_mimetype(mimetype):
6512     cache = apt.Cache()
6513     cache.open(None)
6514     thepkgs = []
6515     for pkg in cache:
6516         version = pkg.candidate
6517         if version is None:
6518             version = pkg.installed
6519         if version is None:
6520             continue
6521         record = version.record
6522         if not record.has_key('Npp-MimeType'):
6523             continue
6524         mime_types = record['Npp-MimeType'].split(',')
6525         for t in mime_types:
6526             t = t.rstrip().strip()
6527             if t == mimetype:
6528                 thepkgs.append(pkg.name)
6529     return thepkgs
6530 mimetype = "audio/ogg"
6531 if 1 < len(sys.argv):
6532     mimetype = sys.argv[1]
6533 print "Browser plugin packages supporting %s:" % mimetype
6534 for pkg in pkgs_handling_mimetype(mimetype):
6535     print "  %s" %pkg
6536 </pre>
6537
6538 <p>It can be used like this to look up a given MIME type:</p>
6539
6540 <pre>
6541 % ./apt-find-browserplug-for-mimetype
6542 Browser plugin packages supporting audio/ogg:
6543   gecko-mediaplayer
6544 % ./apt-find-browserplug-for-mimetype application/x-shockwave-flash
6545 Browser plugin packages supporting application/x-shockwave-flash:
6546   browser-plugin-gnash
6547 %
6548 </pre>
6549
6550 <p>In Ubuntu this mechanism is combined with support in the browser
6551 itself to query for plugins and propose to install the needed
6552 packages.  It would be great if Debian supported such feature too.  Is
6553 anyone working on adding it?</p>
6554
6555 <p><strong>Update 2013-01-18 14:20</strong>: The Debian BTS
6556 request for icweasel support for this feature is
6557 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/484010">#484010</a> from 2008 (and
6558 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/698426">#698426</a> from today).  Lack
6559 of manpower and wish for a different design is the reason thus feature
6560 is not yet in iceweasel from Debian.</p>
6561
6562       </div>
6563       <div class="tags">
6564
6565
6566         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
6567
6568
6569       </div>
6570     </div>
6571     <div class="padding"></div>
6572
6573     <div class="entry">
6574       <div class="title">
6575         <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>
6576       </div>
6577       <div class="date">
6578         16th January 2013
6579       </div>
6580       <div class="body">
6581         <p>The <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/AppStreamDebianProposal">DEP-11
6582 proposal to add AppStream information to the Debian archive</a>, is a
6583 proposal to make it possible for a Desktop application to propose to
6584 the user some package to install to gain support for a given MIME
6585 type, font, library etc. that is currently missing.  With such
6586 mechanism in place, it would be possible for the desktop to
6587 automatically propose and install leocad if some LDraw file is
6588 downloaded by the browser.</p>
6589
6590 <p>To get some idea about the current content of the archive, I decided
6591 to write a simple program to extract all .desktop files from the
6592 Debian archive and look up the claimed MIME support there.  The result
6593 can be found on the
6594 <a href="http://ftp.skolelinux.org/pub/AppStreamTest">Skolelinux FTP
6595 site</a>.  Using the collected information, it become possible to
6596 answer the question in the title.  Here are the 20 most supported MIME
6597 types in Debian stable (Squeeze), testing (Wheezy) and unstable (Sid).
6598 The complete list is available from the link above.</p>
6599
6600 <p><strong>Debian Stable:</strong></p>
6601
6602 <pre>
6603   count MIME type
6604   ----- -----------------------
6605      32 text/plain
6606      30 audio/mpeg
6607      29 image/png
6608      28 image/jpeg
6609      27 application/ogg
6610      26 audio/x-mp3
6611      25 image/tiff
6612      25 image/gif
6613      22 image/bmp
6614      22 audio/x-wav
6615      20 audio/x-flac
6616      19 audio/x-mpegurl
6617      18 video/x-ms-asf
6618      18 audio/x-musepack
6619      18 audio/x-mpeg
6620      18 application/x-ogg
6621      17 video/mpeg
6622      17 audio/x-scpls
6623      17 audio/ogg
6624      16 video/x-ms-wmv
6625 </pre>
6626
6627 <p><strong>Debian Testing:</strong></p>
6628
6629 <pre>
6630   count MIME type
6631   ----- -----------------------
6632      33 text/plain
6633      32 image/png
6634      32 image/jpeg
6635      29 audio/mpeg
6636      27 image/gif
6637      26 image/tiff
6638      26 application/ogg
6639      25 audio/x-mp3
6640      22 image/bmp
6641      21 audio/x-wav
6642      19 audio/x-mpegurl
6643      19 audio/x-mpeg
6644      18 video/mpeg
6645      18 audio/x-scpls
6646      18 audio/x-flac
6647      18 application/x-ogg
6648      17 video/x-ms-asf
6649      17 text/html
6650      17 audio/x-musepack
6651      16 image/x-xbitmap
6652 </pre>
6653
6654 <p><strong>Debian Unstable:</strong></p>
6655
6656 <pre>
6657   count MIME type
6658   ----- -----------------------
6659      31 text/plain
6660      31 image/png
6661      31 image/jpeg
6662      29 audio/mpeg
6663      28 application/ogg
6664      27 image/gif
6665      26 image/tiff
6666      26 audio/x-mp3
6667      23 audio/x-wav
6668      22 image/bmp
6669      21 audio/x-flac
6670      20 audio/x-mpegurl
6671      19 audio/x-mpeg
6672      18 video/x-ms-asf
6673      18 video/mpeg
6674      18 audio/x-scpls
6675      18 application/x-ogg
6676      17 audio/x-musepack
6677      16 video/x-ms-wmv
6678      16 video/x-msvideo
6679 </pre>
6680
6681 <p>I am told that PackageKit can provide an API to access the kind of
6682 information mentioned in DEP-11.  I have not yet had time to look at
6683 it, but hope the PackageKit people in Debian are on top of these
6684 issues.</p>
6685
6686 <p><strong>Update 2013-01-16 13:35</strong>: Updated numbers after
6687 discovering a typo in my script.</p>
6688
6689       </div>
6690       <div class="tags">
6691
6692
6693         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
6694
6695
6696       </div>
6697     </div>
6698     <div class="padding"></div>
6699
6700     <div class="entry">
6701       <div class="title">
6702         <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>
6703       </div>
6704       <div class="date">
6705         15th January 2013
6706       </div>
6707       <div class="body">
6708         <p>Yesterday, I wrote about the
6709 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Modalias_strings___a_practical_way_to_map__stuff__to_hardware.html">modalias
6710 values provided by the Linux kernel</a> following my hope for
6711 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lets_make_hardware_dongles_easier_to_use_in_Debian.html">better
6712 dongle support in Debian</a>.  Using this knowledge, I have tested how
6713 modalias values attached to package names can be used to map packages
6714 to hardware.  This allow the system to look up and suggest relevant
6715 packages when I plug in some new hardware into my machine, and replace
6716 discover and discover-data as the database used to map hardware to
6717 packages.</p>
6718
6719 <p>I create a modaliases file with entries like the following,
6720 containing package name, kernel module name (if relevant, otherwise
6721 the package name) and globs matching the relevant hardware
6722 modalias.</p>
6723
6724 <p><blockquote>
6725 Package: package-name
6726 <br>Modaliases: module(modaliasglob, modaliasglob, modaliasglob)</p>
6727 </blockquote></p>
6728
6729 <p>It is fairly trivial to write code to find the relevant packages
6730 for a given modalias value using this file.</p>
6731
6732 <p>An entry like this would suggest the video and picture application
6733 cheese for many USB web cameras (interface bus class 0E01):</p>
6734
6735 <p><blockquote>
6736 Package: cheese
6737 <br>Modaliases: cheese(usb:v*p*d*dc*dsc*dp*ic0Eisc01ip*)</p>
6738 </blockquote></p>
6739
6740 <p>An entry like this would suggest the pcmciautils package when a
6741 CardBus bridge (bus class 0607) PCI device is present:</p>
6742
6743 <p><blockquote>
6744 Package: pcmciautils
6745 <br>Modaliases: pcmciautils(pci:v*d*sv*sd*bc06sc07i*)
6746 </blockquote></p>
6747
6748 <p>An entry like this would suggest the package colorhug-client when
6749 plugging in a ColorHug with USB IDs 04D8:F8DA:</p>
6750
6751 <p><blockquote>
6752 Package: colorhug-client
6753 <br>Modaliases: colorhug-client(usb:v04D8pF8DAd*)</p>
6754 </blockquote></p>
6755
6756 <p>I believe the format is compatible with the format of the Packages
6757 file in the Debian archive.  Ubuntu already uses their Packages file
6758 to store their mappings from packages to hardware.</p>
6759
6760 <p>By adding a XB-Modaliases: header in debian/control, any .deb can
6761 announce the hardware it support in a way my prototype understand.
6762 This allow those publishing packages in an APT source outside the
6763 Debian archive as well as those backporting packages to make sure the
6764 hardware mapping are included in the package meta information.  I've
6765 tested such header in the pymissile package, and its modalias mapping
6766 is working as it should with my prototype.  It even made it to Ubuntu
6767 Raring.</p>
6768
6769 <p>To test if it was possible to look up supported hardware using only
6770 the shell tools available in the Debian installer, I wrote a shell
6771 implementation of the lookup code.  The idea is to create files for
6772 each modalias and let the shell do the matching.  Please check out and
6773 try the
6774 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/hw-support-lookup?view=co">hw-support-lookup</a>
6775 shell script.  It run without any extra dependencies and fetch the
6776 hardware mappings from the Debian archive and the subversion
6777 repository where I currently work on my prototype.</p>
6778
6779 <p>When I use it on a machine with a yubikey inserted, it suggest to
6780 install yubikey-personalization:</p>
6781
6782 <p><blockquote>
6783 % ./hw-support-lookup
6784 <br>yubikey-personalization
6785 <br>%
6786 </blockquote></p>
6787
6788 <p>When I run it on my Thinkpad X40 with a PCMCIA/CardBus slot, it
6789 propose to install the pcmciautils package:</p>
6790
6791 <p><blockquote>
6792 % ./hw-support-lookup
6793 <br>pcmciautils
6794 <br>%
6795 </blockquote></p>
6796
6797 <p>If you know of any hardware-package mapping that should be added to
6798 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/modaliases?view=co">my
6799 database</a>, please tell me about it.</p>
6800
6801 <p>It could be possible to generate several of the mappings between
6802 packages and hardware.  One source would be to look at packages with
6803 kernel modules, ie packages with *.ko files in /lib/modules/, and
6804 extract their modalias information.  Another would be to look at
6805 packages with udev rules, ie packages with files in
6806 /lib/udev/rules.d/, and extract their vendor/model information to
6807 generate a modalias matching rule.  I have not tested any of these to
6808 see if it work.</p>
6809
6810 <p>If you want to help implementing a system to let us propose what
6811 packages to install when new hardware is plugged into a Debian
6812 machine, please send me an email or talk to me on
6813 <a href="irc://irc.debian.org/%23debian-devel">#debian-devel</a>.</p>
6814
6815       </div>
6816       <div class="tags">
6817
6818
6819         Tags: <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>.
6820
6821
6822       </div>
6823     </div>
6824     <div class="padding"></div>
6825
6826     <div class="entry">
6827       <div class="title">
6828         <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>
6829       </div>
6830       <div class="date">
6831         14th January 2013
6832       </div>
6833       <div class="body">
6834         <p>While looking into how to look up Debian packages based on hardware
6835 information, to find the packages that support a given piece of
6836 hardware, I refreshed my memory regarding modalias values, and decided
6837 to document the details.  Here are my findings so far, also available
6838 in
6839 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/">the
6840 Debian Edu subversion repository</a>:
6841
6842 <p><strong>Modalias decoded</strong></p>
6843
6844 <p>This document try to explain what the different types of modalias
6845 values stands for.  It is in part based on information from
6846 &lt;URL: <a href="https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Modalias">https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Modalias</a> &gt;,
6847 &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;,
6848 &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
6849 &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;.
6850
6851 <p>The modalias entries for a given Linux machine can be found using
6852 this shell script:</p>
6853
6854 <pre>
6855 find /sys -name modalias -print0 | xargs -0 cat | sort -u
6856 </pre>
6857
6858 <p>The supported modalias globs for a given kernel module can be found
6859 using modinfo:</p>
6860
6861 <pre>
6862 % /sbin/modinfo psmouse | grep alias:
6863 alias:          serio:ty05pr*id*ex*
6864 alias:          serio:ty01pr*id*ex*
6865 %
6866 </pre>
6867
6868 <p><strong>PCI subtype</strong></p>
6869
6870 <p>A typical PCI entry can look like this.  This is an Intel Host
6871 Bridge memory controller:</p>
6872
6873 <p><blockquote>
6874 pci:v00008086d00002770sv00001028sd000001ADbc06sc00i00
6875 </blockquote></p>
6876
6877 <p>This represent these values:</p>
6878
6879 <pre>
6880  v   00008086  (vendor)
6881  d   00002770  (device)
6882  sv  00001028  (subvendor)
6883  sd  000001AD  (subdevice)
6884  bc  06        (bus class)
6885  sc  00        (bus subclass)
6886  i   00        (interface)
6887 </pre>
6888
6889 <p>The vendor/device values are the same values outputted from 'lspci
6890 -n' as 8086:2770.  The bus class/subclass is also shown by lspci as
6891 0600.  The 0600 class is a host bridge.  Other useful bus values are
6892 0300 (VGA compatible card) and 0200 (Ethernet controller).</p>
6893
6894 <p>Not sure how to figure out the interface value, nor what it
6895 means.</p>
6896
6897 <p><strong>USB subtype</strong></p>
6898
6899 <p>Some typical USB entries can look like this.  This is an internal
6900 USB hub in a laptop:</p>
6901
6902 <p><blockquote>
6903 usb:v1D6Bp0001d0206dc09dsc00dp00ic09isc00ip00
6904 </blockquote></p>
6905
6906 <p>Here is the values included in this alias:</p>
6907
6908 <pre>
6909  v    1D6B  (device vendor)
6910  p    0001  (device product)
6911  d    0206  (bcddevice)
6912  dc     09  (device class)
6913  dsc    00  (device subclass)
6914  dp     00  (device protocol)
6915  ic     09  (interface class)
6916  isc    00  (interface subclass)
6917  ip     00  (interface protocol)
6918 </pre>
6919
6920 <p>The 0900 device class/subclass means hub.  Some times the relevant
6921 class is in the interface class section.  For a simple USB web camera,
6922 these alias entries show up:</p>
6923
6924 <p><blockquote>
6925 usb:v0AC8p3420d5000dcEFdsc02dp01ic01isc01ip00
6926 <br>usb:v0AC8p3420d5000dcEFdsc02dp01ic01isc02ip00
6927 <br>usb:v0AC8p3420d5000dcEFdsc02dp01ic0Eisc01ip00
6928 <br>usb:v0AC8p3420d5000dcEFdsc02dp01ic0Eisc02ip00
6929 </blockquote></p>
6930
6931 <p>Interface class 0E01 is video control, 0E02 is video streaming (aka
6932 camera), 0101 is audio control device and 0102 is audio streaming (aka
6933 microphone).  Thus this is a camera with microphone included.</p>
6934
6935 <p><strong>ACPI subtype</strong></p>
6936
6937 <p>The ACPI type is used for several non-PCI/USB stuff.  This is an IR
6938 receiver in a Thinkpad X40:</p>
6939
6940 <p><blockquote>
6941 acpi:IBM0071:PNP0511:
6942 </blockquote></p>
6943
6944 <p>The values between the colons are IDs.</p>
6945
6946 <p><strong>DMI subtype</strong></p>
6947
6948 <p>The DMI table contain lots of information about the computer case
6949 and model.  This is an entry for a IBM Thinkpad X40, fetched from
6950 /sys/devices/virtual/dmi/id/modalias:</p>
6951
6952 <p><blockquote>
6953 dmi:bvnIBM:bvr1UETB6WW(1.66):bd06/15/2005:svnIBM:pn2371H4G:pvrThinkPadX40:rvnIBM:rn2371H4G:rvrNotAvailable:cvnIBM:ct10:cvrNotAvailable:
6954 </blockquote></p>
6955
6956 <p>The values present are</p>
6957
6958 <pre>
6959  bvn  IBM            (BIOS vendor)
6960  bvr  1UETB6WW(1.66) (BIOS version)
6961  bd   06/15/2005     (BIOS date)
6962  svn  IBM            (system vendor)
6963  pn   2371H4G        (product name)
6964  pvr  ThinkPadX40    (product version)
6965  rvn  IBM            (board vendor)
6966  rn   2371H4G        (board name)
6967  rvr  NotAvailable   (board version)
6968  cvn  IBM            (chassis vendor)
6969  ct   10             (chassis type)
6970  cvr  NotAvailable   (chassis version)
6971 </pre>
6972
6973 <p>The chassis type 10 is Notebook.  Other interesting values can be
6974 found in the dmidecode source:</p>
6975
6976 <pre>
6977   3 Desktop
6978   4 Low Profile Desktop
6979   5 Pizza Box
6980   6 Mini Tower
6981   7 Tower
6982   8 Portable
6983   9 Laptop
6984  10 Notebook
6985  11 Hand Held
6986  12 Docking Station
6987  13 All In One
6988  14 Sub Notebook
6989  15 Space-saving
6990  16 Lunch Box
6991  17 Main Server Chassis
6992  18 Expansion Chassis
6993  19 Sub Chassis
6994  20 Bus Expansion Chassis
6995  21 Peripheral Chassis
6996  22 RAID Chassis
6997  23 Rack Mount Chassis
6998  24 Sealed-case PC
6999  25 Multi-system
7000  26 CompactPCI
7001  27 AdvancedTCA
7002  28 Blade
7003  29 Blade Enclosing
7004 </pre>
7005
7006 <p>The chassis type values are not always accurately set in the DMI
7007 table.  For example my home server is a tower, but the DMI modalias
7008 claim it is a desktop.</p>
7009
7010 <p><strong>SerIO subtype</strong></p>
7011
7012 <p>This type is used for PS/2 mouse plugs.  One example is from my
7013 test machine:</p>
7014
7015 <p><blockquote>
7016 serio:ty01pr00id00ex00
7017 </blockquote></p>
7018
7019 <p>The values present are</p>
7020
7021 <pre>
7022   ty  01  (type)
7023   pr  00  (prototype)
7024   id  00  (id)
7025   ex  00  (extra)
7026 </pre>
7027
7028 <p>This type is supported by the psmouse driver.  I am not sure what
7029 the valid values are.</p>
7030
7031 <p><strong>Other subtypes</strong></p>
7032
7033 <p>There are heaps of other modalias subtypes according to
7034 file2alias.c.  There is the rest of the list from that source: amba,
7035 ap, bcma, ccw, css, eisa, hid, i2c, ieee1394, input, ipack, isapnp,
7036 mdio, of, parisc, pcmcia, platform, scsi, sdio, spi, ssb, vio, virtio,
7037 vmbus, x86cpu and zorro.  I did not spend time documenting all of
7038 these, as they do not seem relevant for my intended use with mapping
7039 hardware to packages when new stuff is inserted during run time.</p>
7040
7041 <p><strong>Looking up kernel modules using modalias values</strong></p>
7042
7043 <p>To check which kernel modules provide support for a given modalias,
7044 one can use the following shell script:</p>
7045
7046 <pre>
7047   for id in $(find /sys -name modalias -print0 | xargs -0 cat | sort -u); do \
7048     echo "$id" ; \
7049     /sbin/modprobe --show-depends "$id"|sed 's/^/  /' ; \
7050   done
7051 </pre>
7052
7053 <p>The output can look like this (only the first few entries as the
7054 list is very long on my test machine):</p>
7055
7056 <pre>
7057   acpi:ACPI0003:
7058     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/drivers/acpi/ac.ko
7059   acpi:device:
7060   FATAL: Module acpi:device: not found.
7061   acpi:IBM0068:
7062     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/drivers/char/nvram.ko
7063     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/drivers/leds/led-class.ko
7064     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/net/rfkill/rfkill.ko
7065     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/drivers/platform/x86/thinkpad_acpi.ko
7066   acpi:IBM0071:PNP0511:
7067     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/lib/crc-ccitt.ko
7068     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/net/irda/irda.ko
7069     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/drivers/net/irda/nsc-ircc.ko
7070   [...]
7071 </pre>
7072
7073 <p>If you want to help implementing a system to let us propose what
7074 packages to install when new hardware is plugged into a Debian
7075 machine, please send me an email or talk to me on
7076 <a href="irc://irc.debian.org/%23debian-devel">#debian-devel</a>.</p>
7077
7078 <p><strong>Update 2013-01-15:</strong> Rewrite "cat $(find ...)" to
7079 "find ... -print0 | xargs -0 cat" to make sure it handle directories
7080 in /sys/ with space in them.</p>
7081
7082       </div>
7083       <div class="tags">
7084
7085
7086         Tags: <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>.
7087
7088
7089       </div>
7090     </div>
7091     <div class="padding"></div>
7092
7093     <div class="entry">
7094       <div class="title">
7095         <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>
7096       </div>
7097       <div class="date">
7098         10th January 2013
7099       </div>
7100       <div class="body">
7101         <p>As part of my investigation on how to improve the support in Debian
7102 for hardware dongles, I dug up my old Mark and Spencer USB Rocket
7103 Launcher and updated the Debian package
7104 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/pymissile">pymissile</a> to make
7105 sure udev will fix the device permissions when it is plugged in.  I
7106 also added a "Modaliases" header to test it in the Debian archive and
7107 hopefully make the package be proposed by jockey in Ubuntu when a user
7108 plug in his rocket launcher.  In the process I moved the source to a
7109 git repository under collab-maint, to make it easier for any DD to
7110 contribute.  <a href="http://code.google.com/p/pymissile/">Upstream</a>
7111 is not very active, but the software still work for me even after five
7112 years of relative silence.  The new git repository is not listed in
7113 the uploaded package yet, because I want to test the other changes a
7114 bit more before I upload the new version.  If you want to check out
7115 the new version with a .desktop file included, visit the
7116 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/gitweb/?p=collab-maint/pymissile.git">gitweb
7117 view</a> or use "<tt>git clone
7118 git://anonscm.debian.org/collab-maint/pymissile.git</tt>".</p>
7119
7120       </div>
7121       <div class="tags">
7122
7123
7124         Tags: <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>.
7125
7126
7127       </div>
7128     </div>
7129     <div class="padding"></div>
7130
7131     <div class="entry">
7132       <div class="title">
7133         <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>
7134       </div>
7135       <div class="date">
7136          9th January 2013
7137       </div>
7138       <div class="body">
7139         <p>One thing that annoys me with Debian and Linux distributions in
7140 general, is that there is a great package management system with the
7141 ability to automatically install software packages by downloading them
7142 from the distribution mirrors, but no way to get it to automatically
7143 install the packages I need to use the hardware I plug into my
7144 machine.  Even if the package to use it is easily available from the
7145 Linux distribution.  When I plug in a LEGO Mindstorms NXT, it could
7146 suggest to automatically install the python-nxt, nbc and t2n packages
7147 I need to talk to it.  When I plug in a Yubikey, it could propose the
7148 yubikey-personalization package.  The information required to do this
7149 is available, but no-one have pulled all the pieces together.</p>
7150
7151 <p>Some years ago, I proposed to
7152 <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2010/05/msg01206.html">use
7153 the discover subsystem to implement this</a>.  The idea is fairly
7154 simple:
7155
7156 <ul>
7157
7158 <li>Add a desktop entry in /usr/share/autostart/ pointing to a program
7159   starting when a user log in.</li>
7160
7161 <li>Set this program up to listen for kernel events emitted when new
7162   hardware is inserted into the computer.</li>
7163
7164 <li>When new hardware is inserted, look up the hardware ID in a
7165   database mapping to packages, and take note of any non-installed
7166   packages.</li>
7167
7168 <li>Show a message to the user proposing to install the discovered
7169   package, and make it easy to install it.</li>
7170
7171 </ul>
7172
7173 <p>I am not sure what the best way to implement this is, but my
7174 initial idea was to use dbus events to discover new hardware, the
7175 discover database to find packages and
7176 <a href="http://www.packagekit.org/">PackageKit</a> to install
7177 packages.</p>
7178
7179 <p>Yesterday, I found time to try to implement this idea, and the
7180 draft package is now checked into
7181 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/">the
7182 Debian Edu subversion repository</a>.  In the process, I updated the
7183 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/d/discover-data.html">discover-data</a>
7184 package to map the USB ids of LEGO Mindstorms and Yubikey devices to
7185 the relevant packages in Debian, and uploaded a new version
7186 2.2013.01.09 to unstable.  I also discovered that the current
7187 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/d/discover.html">discover</a>
7188 package in Debian no longer discovered any USB devices, because
7189 /proc/bus/usb/devices is no longer present.  I ported it to use
7190 libusb as a fall back option to get it working.  The fixed package
7191 version 2.1.2-6 is now in experimental (didn't upload it to unstable
7192 because of the freeze).</p>
7193
7194 <p>With this prototype in place, I can insert my Yubikey, and get this
7195 desktop notification to show up (only once, the first time it is
7196 inserted):</p>
7197
7198 <p align="center"><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-01-09-hw-autoinstall.png"></p>
7199
7200 <p>For this prototype to be really useful, some way to automatically
7201 install the proposed packages by pressing the "Please install
7202 program(s)" button should to be implemented.</p>
7203
7204 <p>If this idea seem useful to you, and you want to help make it
7205 happen, please help me update the discover-data database with mappings
7206 from hardware to Debian packages.  Check if 'discover-pkginstall -l'
7207 list the package you would like to have installed when a given
7208 hardware device is inserted into your computer, and report bugs using
7209 reportbug if it isn't.  Or, if you know of a better way to provide
7210 such mapping, please let me know.</p>
7211
7212 <p>This prototype need more work, and there are several questions that
7213 should be considered before it is ready for production use.  Is dbus
7214 the correct way to detect new hardware?  At the moment I look for HAL
7215 dbus events on the system bus, because that is the events I could see
7216 on my Debian Squeeze KDE desktop.  Are there better events to use?
7217 How should the user be notified?  Is the desktop notification
7218 mechanism the best option, or should the background daemon raise a
7219 popup instead?  How should packages be installed?  When should they
7220 not be installed?</p>
7221
7222 <p>If you want to help getting such feature implemented in Debian,
7223 please send me an email. :)</p>
7224
7225       </div>
7226       <div class="tags">
7227
7228
7229         Tags: <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>.
7230
7231
7232       </div>
7233     </div>
7234     <div class="padding"></div>
7235
7236     <div class="entry">
7237       <div class="title">
7238         <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>
7239       </div>
7240       <div class="date">
7241          2nd January 2013
7242       </div>
7243       <div class="body">
7244         <p>During Christmas, I have worked a bit on the Debian support for
7245 <a href="http://mindstorms.lego.com/en-us/Default.aspx">LEGO Mindstorm
7246 NXT</a>.  My son and I have played a bit with my NXT set, and I
7247 discovered I had to build all the tools myself because none were
7248 already in Debian Squeeze.  If Debian support for LEGO is something
7249 you care about, please join me on the IRC channel
7250 <a href="irc://irc.debian.org/%23debian-lego">#debian-lego</a> (server
7251 irc.debian.org).  There is a lot that could be done to improve the
7252 Debian support for LEGO designers.  For example both CAD software
7253 and Mindstorm compilers are missing. :)</p>
7254
7255 <p>Update 2012-01-03: A
7256 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/LegoDesigners">project page</a>
7257 including links to Lego related packages is now available.</p>
7258
7259       </div>
7260       <div class="tags">
7261
7262
7263         Tags: <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>.
7264
7265
7266       </div>
7267     </div>
7268     <div class="padding"></div>
7269
7270     <div class="entry">
7271       <div class="title">
7272         <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>
7273       </div>
7274       <div class="date">
7275         25th December 2012
7276       </div>
7277       <div class="body">
7278         <p>Let me start by wishing you all marry Christmas and a happy new
7279 year!  I hope next year will prove to be a good year.</p>
7280
7281 <p><a href="http://www.bitcoin.org/">Bitcoin</a>, the digital
7282 decentralised "currency" that allow people to transfer bitcoins
7283 between each other with minimal overhead, is a very interesting
7284 experiment.  And as I wrote a few days ago, the bitcoin situation in
7285 <a href="http://www.debian.org/">Debian</a> is about to improve a bit.
7286 The <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/bitcoin">new debian source
7287 package</a> (version 0.7.2-2) was uploaded yesterday, and is waiting
7288 in <a href="http://ftp-master.debian.org/new.html">the NEW queue</A>
7289 for one of the ftpmasters to approve the new bitcoin-qt package
7290 name.</p>
7291
7292 <p>And thanks to the great work of Jonas and the rest of the bitcoin
7293 team in Debian, you can easily test the package in Debian Squeeze
7294 using the following steps to get a set of working packages:</p>
7295
7296 <blockquote><pre>
7297 git clone git://git.debian.org/git/collab-maint/bitcoin
7298 cd bitcoin
7299 DEB_MAINTAINER_MODE=1 DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS=noupnp fakeroot debian/rules clean
7300 DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS=noupnp git-buildpackage --git-ignore-new
7301 </pre></blockquote>
7302
7303 <p>You might have to install some build dependencies as well.  The
7304 list of commands should give you two packages, bitcoind and
7305 bitcoin-qt, ready for use in a Squeeze environment.  Note that the
7306 client will download the complete set of bitcoin "blocks", which need
7307 around 5.6 GiB of data on my machine at the moment.  Make sure your
7308 ~/.bitcoin/ directory have lots of spare room if you want to download
7309 all the blocks.  The client will warn if the disk is getting full, so
7310 there is not really a problem if you got too little room, but you will
7311 not be able to get all the features out of the client.</p>
7312
7313 <p>As usual, if you use bitcoin and want to show your support of my
7314 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
7315 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b&label=PetterReinholdtsenBlog">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
7316
7317       </div>
7318       <div class="tags">
7319
7320
7321         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>.
7322
7323
7324       </div>
7325     </div>
7326     <div class="padding"></div>
7327
7328     <div class="entry">
7329       <div class="title">
7330         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/A_word_on_bitcoin_support_in_Debian.html">A word on bitcoin support in Debian</a>
7331       </div>
7332       <div class="date">
7333         21st December 2012
7334       </div>
7335       <div class="body">
7336         <p>It has been a while since I wrote about
7337 <a href="http://www.bitcoin.org/">bitcoin</a>, the decentralised
7338 peer-to-peer based crypto-currency, and the reason is simply that I
7339 have been busy elsewhere.  But two days ago, I started looking at the
7340 state of <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/bitcoin">bitcoin in
7341 Debian</a> again to try to recover my old bitcoin wallet.  The package
7342 is now maintained by a
7343 <a href="https://alioth.debian.org/projects/pkg-bitcoin/">team of
7344 people</a>, and the grunt work had already been done by this team.  We
7345 owe a huge thank you to all these team members. :)
7346 But I was sad to discover that the bitcoin client is missing in
7347 Wheezy.  It is only available in Sid (and an outdated client from
7348 backports).  The client had several RC bugs registered in BTS blocking
7349 it from entering testing.  To try to help the team and improve the
7350 situation, I spent some time providing patches and triaging the bug
7351 reports.  I also had a look at the bitcoin package available from Matt
7352 Corallo in a
7353 <a href="https://launchpad.net/~bitcoin/+archive/bitcoin">PPA for
7354 Ubuntu</a>, and moved the useful pieces from that version into the
7355 Debian package.</p>
7356
7357 <p>After checking with the main package maintainer Jonas Smedegaard on
7358 IRC, I pushed several patches into the collab-maint git repository to
7359 improve the package.  It now contains fixes for the RC issues (not from
7360 me, but fixed by Scott Howard), build rules for a Qt GUI client
7361 package, konqueror support for the bitcoin: URI and bash completion
7362 setup.  As I work on Debian Squeeze, I also created
7363 <a href="http://lists.alioth.debian.org/pipermail/pkg-bitcoin-devel/Week-of-Mon-20121217/000041.html">a
7364 patch to backport</a> the latest version.  Jonas is going to look at
7365 it and try to integrate it into the git repository before uploading a
7366 new version to unstable.
7367
7368 <p>I would very much like bitcoin to succeed, to get rid of the
7369 centralized control currently exercised in the monetary system.  I
7370 find it completely unacceptable that the USA government is collecting
7371 transaction data for almost all international money transfers (most are done in USD and transaction logs shipped to the spooks), and
7372 that the major credit card companies can block legal money
7373 transactions to Wikileaks.  But for bitcoin to succeed, more people
7374 need to use bitcoins, and more people need to accept bitcoins when
7375 they sell products and services.  Improving the bitcoin support in
7376 Debian is a small step in the right direction, but not enough.
7377 Unfortunately the user experience when browsing the web and wanting to
7378 pay with bitcoin is still not very good.  The bitcoin: URI is a step
7379 in the right direction, but need to work in most or every browser in
7380 use.  Also the bitcoin-qt client is too heavy to fire up to do a
7381 quick transaction.  I believe there are other clients available, but
7382 have not tested them.</p>
7383
7384 <p>My
7385 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Now_accepting_bitcoins___anonymous_and_distributed_p2p_crypto_money.html">experiment
7386 with bitcoins</a> showed that at least some of my readers use bitcoin.
7387 I received 20.15 BTC so far on the address I provided in my blog two
7388 years ago, as can be
7389 <a href="http://blockexplorer.com/address/15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">seen
7390 on the blockexplorer service</a>.  Thank you everyone for your
7391 donation.  The blockexplorer service demonstrates quite well that
7392 bitcoin is not quite anonymous and untracked. :) I wonder if the
7393 number of users have gone up since then.  If you use bitcoin and want
7394 to show your support of my activity, please send Bitcoin donations to
7395 the same address as last time,
7396 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b&label=PetterReinholdtsenBlog">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
7397
7398       </div>
7399       <div class="tags">
7400
7401
7402         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>.
7403
7404
7405       </div>
7406     </div>
7407     <div class="padding"></div>
7408
7409     <div class="entry">
7410       <div class="title">
7411         <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>
7412       </div>
7413       <div class="date">
7414          7th September 2012
7415       </div>
7416       <div class="body">
7417         <p>As I
7418 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Song_book_for_Computer_Scientists.html">mentioned
7419 this summer</a>, I have created a Computer Science song book a few
7420 years ago, and today I finally found time to create a public
7421 <a href="https://gitorious.org/pere-cs-songbook/pere-cs-songbook">Gitorious
7422 repository for the project</a>.</p>
7423
7424 <p>If you want to help out, please clone the source and submit patches
7425 to the HTML version.  To generate the PDF and PostScript version,
7426 please use prince XML, or let me know about a useful free software
7427 processor capable of creating a good looking PDF from the HTML.</p>
7428
7429 <p>Want to sing?  You can still find the song book in HTML, PDF and
7430 PostScript formats at
7431 <a href="http://www.hungry.com/~pere/cs-songbook/">Petter's Computer
7432 Science Songbook</a>.</p>
7433
7434       </div>
7435       <div class="tags">
7436
7437
7438         Tags: <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>.
7439
7440
7441       </div>
7442     </div>
7443     <div class="padding"></div>
7444
7445     <div class="entry">
7446       <div class="title">
7447         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Gratulerer_med_19__rsdagen__Debian_.html">Gratulerer med 19-årsdagen, Debian!</a>
7448       </div>
7449       <div class="date">
7450         16th August 2012
7451       </div>
7452       <div class="body">
7453         <p>I dag fyller
7454 <a href="http://www.debian.org/News/2012/20120813">Debian-prosjektet 19
7455 år</a>.  Jeg har fulgt det de siste 12 årene, og er veldig glad for å kunne
7456 si gratulerer med dagen, Debian!</p>
7457
7458       </div>
7459       <div class="tags">
7460
7461
7462         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>.
7463
7464
7465       </div>
7466     </div>
7467     <div class="padding"></div>
7468
7469     <div class="entry">
7470       <div class="title">
7471         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Song_book_for_Computer_Scientists.html">Song book for Computer Scientists</a>
7472       </div>
7473       <div class="date">
7474         24th June 2012
7475       </div>
7476       <div class="body">
7477         <p>Many years ago, while studying Computer Science at the
7478 <a href="http://www.uit.no/">University of Tromsø</a>, I started
7479 collecting computer related songs for use at parties.  The original
7480 version was written in LaTeX, but a few years ago I got help from
7481 Håkon W. Lie, one of the inventors of W3C CSS, to convert it to HTML
7482 while keeping the ability to create a nice book in PDF format.  I have
7483 not had time to maintain the book for a while now, and guess I should
7484 put it up on some public version control repository where others can
7485 help me extend and update the book.  If anyone is volunteering to help
7486 me with this, send me an email.  Also let me know if there are songs
7487 missing in my book.</p>
7488
7489 <p>I have not mentioned the book on my blog so far, and it occured to
7490 me today that I really should let all my readers share the joys of
7491 singing out load about programming, computers and computer networks.
7492 Especially now that <a href="http://debconf12.debconf.org/">Debconf
7493 12</a> is about to start (and I am not going).  Want to sing?  Check
7494 out <a href="http://www.hungry.com/~pere/cs-songbook/">Petter's
7495 Computer Science Songbook</a>.
7496
7497       </div>
7498       <div class="tags">
7499
7500
7501         Tags: <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>.
7502
7503
7504       </div>
7505     </div>
7506     <div class="padding"></div>
7507
7508     <div class="entry">
7509       <div class="title">
7510         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Automatically_upgrading_server_firmware_on_Dell_PowerEdge.html">Automatically upgrading server firmware on Dell PowerEdge</a>
7511       </div>
7512       <div class="date">
7513         21st November 2011
7514       </div>
7515       <div class="body">
7516         <p>At work we have heaps of servers.  I believe the total count is
7517 around 1000 at the moment.  To be able to get help from the vendors
7518 when something go wrong, we want to keep the firmware on the servers
7519 up to date.  If the firmware isn't the latest and greatest, the
7520 vendors typically refuse to start debugging any problems until the
7521 firmware is upgraded.  So before every reboot, we want to upgrade the
7522 firmware, and we would really like everyone handling servers at the
7523 university to do this themselves when they plan to reboot a machine.
7524 For that to happen we at the unix server admin group need to provide
7525 the tools to do so.</p>
7526
7527 <p>To make firmware upgrading easier, I am working on a script to
7528 fetch and install the latest firmware for the servers we got.  Most of
7529 our hardware are from Dell and HP, so I have focused on these servers
7530 so far.  This blog post is about the Dell part.</P>
7531
7532 <p>On the Dell FTP site I was lucky enough to find
7533 <a href="ftp://ftp.us.dell.com/catalog/Catalog.xml.gz">an XML file</a>
7534 with firmware information for all 11th generation servers, listing
7535 which firmware should be used on a given model and where on the FTP
7536 site I can find it.  Using a simple perl XML parser I can then
7537 download the shell scripts Dell provides to do firmware upgrades from
7538 within Linux and reboot when all the firmware is primed and ready to
7539 be activated on the first reboot.</p>
7540
7541 <p>This is the Dell related fragment of the perl code I am working on.
7542 Are there anyone working on similar tools for firmware upgrading all
7543 servers at a site?  Please get in touch and lets share resources.</p>
7544
7545 <p><pre>
7546 #!/usr/bin/perl
7547 use strict;
7548 use warnings;
7549 use File::Temp qw(tempdir);
7550 BEGIN {
7551     # Install needed RHEL packages if missing
7552     my %rhelmodules = (
7553         'XML::Simple' => 'perl-XML-Simple',
7554         );
7555     for my $module (keys %rhelmodules) {
7556         eval "use $module;";
7557         if ($@) {
7558             my $pkg = $rhelmodules{$module};
7559             system("yum install -y $pkg");
7560             eval "use $module;";
7561         }
7562     }
7563 }
7564 my $errorsto = 'pere@hungry.com';
7565
7566 upgrade_dell();
7567
7568 exit 0;
7569
7570 sub run_firmware_script {
7571     my ($opts, $script) = @_;
7572     unless ($script) {
7573         print STDERR "fail: missing script name\n";
7574         exit 1
7575     }
7576     print STDERR "Running $script\n\n";
7577
7578     if (0 == system("sh $script $opts")) { # FIXME correct exit code handling
7579         print STDERR "success: firmware script ran succcessfully\n";
7580     } else {
7581         print STDERR "fail: firmware script returned error\n";
7582     }
7583 }
7584
7585 sub run_firmware_scripts {
7586     my ($opts, @dirs) = @_;
7587     # Run firmware packages
7588     for my $dir (@dirs) {
7589         print STDERR "info: Running scripts in $dir\n";
7590         opendir(my $dh, $dir) or die "Unable to open directory $dir: $!";
7591         while (my $s = readdir $dh) {
7592             next if $s =~ m/^\.\.?/;
7593             run_firmware_script($opts, "$dir/$s");
7594         }
7595         closedir $dh;
7596     }
7597 }
7598
7599 sub download {
7600     my $url = shift;
7601     print STDERR "info: Downloading $url\n";
7602     system("wget --quiet \"$url\"");
7603 }
7604
7605 sub upgrade_dell {
7606     my @dirs;
7607     my $product = `dmidecode -s system-product-name`;
7608     chomp $product;
7609
7610     if ($product =~ m/PowerEdge/) {
7611
7612         # on RHEL, these pacakges are needed by the firwmare upgrade scripts
7613         system('yum install -y compat-libstdc++-33.i686 libstdc++.i686 libxml2.i686 procmail');
7614
7615         my $tmpdir = tempdir(
7616             CLEANUP => 1
7617             );
7618         chdir($tmpdir);
7619         fetch_dell_fw('catalog/Catalog.xml.gz');
7620         system('gunzip Catalog.xml.gz');
7621         my @paths = fetch_dell_fw_list('Catalog.xml');
7622         # -q is quiet, disabling interactivity and reducing console output
7623         my $fwopts = "-q";
7624         if (@paths) {
7625             for my $url (@paths) {
7626                 fetch_dell_fw($url);
7627             }
7628             run_firmware_scripts($fwopts, $tmpdir);
7629         } else {
7630             print STDERR "error: Unsupported Dell model '$product'.\n";
7631             print STDERR "error: Please report to $errorsto.\n";
7632         }
7633         chdir('/');
7634     } else {
7635         print STDERR "error: Unsupported Dell model '$product'.\n";
7636         print STDERR "error: Please report to $errorsto.\n";
7637     }
7638 }
7639
7640 sub fetch_dell_fw {
7641     my $path = shift;
7642     my $url = "ftp://ftp.us.dell.com/$path";
7643     download($url);
7644 }
7645
7646 # Using ftp://ftp.us.dell.com/catalog/Catalog.xml.gz, figure out which
7647 # firmware packages to download from Dell.  Only work for Linux
7648 # machines and 11th generation Dell servers.
7649 sub fetch_dell_fw_list {
7650     my $filename = shift;
7651
7652     my $product = `dmidecode -s system-product-name`;
7653     chomp $product;
7654     my ($mybrand, $mymodel) = split(/\s+/, $product);
7655
7656     print STDERR "Finding firmware bundles for $mybrand $mymodel\n";
7657
7658     my $xml = XMLin($filename);
7659     my @paths;
7660     for my $bundle (@{$xml->{SoftwareBundle}}) {
7661         my $brand = $bundle->{TargetSystems}->{Brand}->{Display}->{content};
7662         my $model = $bundle->{TargetSystems}->{Brand}->{Model}->{Display}->{content};
7663         my $oscode;
7664         if ("ARRAY" eq ref $bundle->{TargetOSes}->{OperatingSystem}) {
7665             $oscode = $bundle->{TargetOSes}->{OperatingSystem}[0]->{osCode};
7666         } else {
7667             $oscode = $bundle->{TargetOSes}->{OperatingSystem}->{osCode};
7668         }
7669         if ($mybrand eq $brand && $mymodel eq $model && "LIN" eq $oscode)
7670         {
7671             @paths = map { $_->{path} } @{$bundle->{Contents}->{Package}};
7672         }
7673     }
7674     for my $component (@{$xml->{SoftwareComponent}}) {
7675         my $componenttype = $component->{ComponentType}->{value};
7676
7677         # Drop application packages, only firmware and BIOS
7678         next if 'APAC' eq $componenttype;
7679
7680         my $cpath = $component->{path};
7681         for my $path (@paths) {
7682             if ($cpath =~ m%/$path$%) {
7683                 push(@paths, $cpath);
7684             }
7685         }
7686     }
7687     return @paths;
7688 }
7689 </pre>
7690
7691 <p>The code is only tested on RedHat Enterprise Linux, but I suspect
7692 it could work on other platforms with some tweaking.  Anyone know a
7693 index like Catalog.xml is available from HP for HP servers?  At the
7694 moment I maintain a similar list manually and it is quickly getting
7695 outdated.</p>
7696
7697       </div>
7698       <div class="tags">
7699
7700
7701         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
7702
7703
7704       </div>
7705     </div>
7706     <div class="padding"></div>
7707
7708     <div class="entry">
7709       <div class="title">
7710         <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>
7711       </div>
7712       <div class="date">
7713          4th August 2011
7714       </div>
7715       <div class="body">
7716         <p>Wouter Verhelst have some
7717 <a href="http://grep.be/blog/en/retorts/pere_kubuntu_boot">interesting
7718 comments and opinions</a> on my blog post on
7719 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/What_should_start_from__etc_rcS_d__in_Debian____almost_nothing.html">the
7720 need to clean up /etc/rcS.d/ in Debian</a> and my blog post about
7721 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/What_is_missing_in_the_Debian_desktop__or_why_my_parents_use_Kubuntu.html">the
7722 default KDE desktop in Debian</a>.  I only have time to address one
7723 small piece of his comment now, and though it best to address the
7724 misunderstanding he bring forward:</p>
7725
7726 <p><blockquote>
7727 Currently, a system admin has four options: [...] boot to a
7728 single-user system (by adding 'single' to the kernel command line;
7729 this runs rcS and rc1 scripts)
7730 </blockquote></p>
7731
7732 <p>This make me believe Wouter believe booting into single user mode
7733 and booting into runlevel 1 is the same.  I am not surprised he
7734 believe this, because it would make sense and is a quite sensible
7735 thing to believe.  But because the boot in Debian is slightly broken,
7736 runlevel 1 do not work properly and it isn't the same as single user
7737 mode.  I'll try to explain what is actually happing, but it is a bit
7738 hard to explain.</p>
7739
7740 <p>Single user mode is defined like this in /etc/inittab:
7741 "<tt>~~:S:wait:/sbin/sulogin</tt>".  This means the only thing that is
7742 executed in single user mode is sulogin.  Single user mode is a boot
7743 state "between" the runlevels, and when booting into single user mode,
7744 only the scripts in /etc/rcS.d/ are executed before the init process
7745 enters the single user state.  When switching to runlevel 1, the state
7746 is in fact not ending in runlevel 1, but it passes through runlevel 1
7747 and end up in the single user mode (see /etc/rc1.d/S03single, which
7748 runs "init -t1 S" to switch to single user mode at the end of runlevel
7749 1.  It is confusing that the 'S' (single user) init mode is not the
7750 mode enabled by /etc/rcS.d/ (which is more like the initial boot
7751 mode).</p>
7752
7753 <p>This summary might make it clearer.  When booting for the first
7754 time into single user mode, the following commands are executed:
7755 "<tt>/etc/init.d/rc S; /sbin/sulogin</tt>".  When booting into
7756 runlevel 1, the following commands are executed: "<tt>/etc/init.d/rc
7757 S; /etc/init.d/rc 1; /sbin/sulogin</tt>".  A problem show up when
7758 trying to continue after visiting single user mode.  Not all services
7759 are started again as they should, causing the machine to end up in an
7760 unpredicatble state.  This is why Debian admins recommend rebooting
7761 after visiting single user mode.</p>
7762
7763 <p>A similar problem with runlevel 1 is caused by the amount of
7764 scripts executed from /etc/rcS.d/.  When switching from say runlevel 2
7765 to runlevel 1, the services started from /etc/rcS.d/ are not properly
7766 stopped when passing through the scripts in /etc/rc1.d/, and not
7767 started again when switching away from runlevel 1 to the runlevels
7768 2-5.  I believe the problem is best fixed by moving all the scripts
7769 out of /etc/rcS.d/ that are not <strong>required</strong> to get a
7770 functioning single user mode during boot.</p>
7771
7772 <p>I have spent several years investigating the Debian boot system,
7773 and discovered this problem a few years ago.  I suspect it originates
7774 from when sysvinit was introduced into Debian, a long time ago.</p>
7775
7776       </div>
7777       <div class="tags">
7778
7779
7780         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>.
7781
7782
7783       </div>
7784     </div>
7785     <div class="padding"></div>
7786
7787     <div class="entry">
7788       <div class="title">
7789         <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>
7790       </div>
7791       <div class="date">
7792         30th July 2011
7793       </div>
7794       <div class="body">
7795         <p>In the Debian boot system, several packages include scripts that
7796 are started from /etc/rcS.d/.  In fact, there is a bite more of them
7797 than make sense, and this causes a few problems.  What kind of
7798 problems, you might ask.  There are at least two problems.  The first
7799 is that it is not possible to recover a machine after switching to
7800 runlevel 1.  One need to actually reboot to get the machine back to
7801 the expected state.  The other is that single user boot will sometimes
7802 run into problems because some of the subsystems are activated before
7803 the root login is presented, causing problems when trying to recover a
7804 machine from a problem in that subsystem.  A minor additional point is
7805 that moving more scripts out of rcS.d/ and into the other rc#.d/
7806 directories will increase the amount of scripts that can run in
7807 parallel during boot, and thus decrease the boot time.</p>
7808
7809 <p>So, which scripts should start from rcS.d/.  In short, only the
7810 scripts that _have_ to execute before the root login prompt is
7811 presented during a single user boot should go there.  Everything else
7812 should go into the numeric runlevels.  This means things like
7813 lm-sensors, fuse and x11-common should not run from rcS.d, but from
7814 the numeric runlevels.  Today in Debian, there are around 115 init.d
7815 scripts that are started from rcS.d/, and most of them should be moved
7816 out.  Do your package have one of them?  Please help us make single
7817 user and runlevel 1 better by moving it.</p>
7818
7819 <p>Scripts setting up the screen, keyboard, system partitions
7820 etc. should still be started from rcS.d/, but there is for example no
7821 need to have the network enabled before the single user login prompt
7822 is presented.</p>
7823
7824 <p>As always, things are not so easy to fix as they sound.  To keep
7825 Debian systems working while scripts migrate and during upgrades, the
7826 scripts need to be moved from rcS.d/ to rc2.d/ in reverse dependency
7827 order, ie the scripts that nothing in rcS.d/ depend on can be moved,
7828 and the next ones can only be moved when their dependencies have been
7829 moved first.  This migration must be done sequentially while we ensure
7830 that the package system upgrade packages in the right order to keep
7831 the system state correct.  This will require some coordination when it
7832 comes to network related packages, but most of the packages with
7833 scripts that should migrate do not have anything in rcS.d/ depending
7834 on them.  Some packages have already been updated, like the sudo
7835 package, while others are still left to do.  I wish I had time to work
7836 on this myself, but real live constrains make it unlikely that I will
7837 find time to push this forward.</p>
7838
7839       </div>
7840       <div class="tags">
7841
7842
7843         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>.
7844
7845
7846       </div>
7847     </div>
7848     <div class="padding"></div>
7849
7850     <div class="entry">
7851       <div class="title">
7852         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/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>
7853       </div>
7854       <div class="date">
7855         29th July 2011
7856       </div>
7857       <div class="body">
7858         <p>While at Debconf11, I have several times during discussions
7859 mentioned the issues I believe should be improved in Debian for its
7860 desktop to be useful for more people.  The use case for this is my
7861 parents, which are currently running Kubuntu which solve the
7862 issues.</p>
7863
7864 <p>I suspect these four missing features are not very hard to
7865 implement.  After all, they are present in Ubuntu, so if we wanted to
7866 do this in Debian we would have a source.</p>
7867
7868 <ol>
7869
7870 <li><strong>Simple GUI based upgrade of packages.</strong> When there
7871 are new packages available for upgrades, a icon in the KDE status bar
7872 indicate this, and clicking on it will activate the simple upgrade
7873 tool to handle it.  I have no problem guiding both of my parents
7874 through the process over the phone.  If a kernel reboot is required,
7875 this too is indicated by the status bars and the upgrade tool.  Last
7876 time I checked, nothing with the same features was working in KDE in
7877 Debian.</li>
7878
7879 <li><strong>Simple handling of missing Firefox browser
7880 plugins.</strong> When the browser encounter a MIME type it do not
7881 currently have a handler for, it will ask the user if the system
7882 should search for a package that would add support for this MIME type,
7883 and if the user say yes, the APT sources will be searched for packages
7884 advertising the MIME type in their control file (visible in the
7885 Packages file in the APT archive).  If one or more packages are found,
7886 it is a simple click of the mouse to add support for the missing mime
7887 type.  If the package require the user to accept some non-free
7888 license, this is explained to the user.  The entire process make it
7889 more clear to the user why something do not work in the browser, and
7890 make the chances higher for the user to blame the web page authors and
7891 not the browser for any missing features.</li>
7892
7893 <li><strong>Simple handling of missing multimedia codec/format
7894 handlers.</strong> When the media players encounter a format or codec
7895 it is not supporting, a dialog pop up asking the user if the system
7896 should search for a package that would add support for it.  This
7897 happen with things like MP3, Windows Media or H.264.  The selection
7898 and installation procedure is very similar to the Firefox browser
7899 plugin handling.  This is as far as I know implemented using a
7900 gstreamer hook.  The end result is that the user easily get access to
7901 the codecs that are present from the APT archives available, while
7902 explaining more on why a given format is unsupported by Ubuntu.</li>
7903
7904 <li><strong>Better browser handling of some MIME types.</strong> When
7905 displaying a text/plain file in my Debian browser, it will propose to
7906 start emacs to show it.  If I remember correctly, when doing the same
7907 in Kunbutu it show the file as a text file in the browser.  At least I
7908 know Opera will show text files within the browser.  I much prefer the
7909 latter behaviour.</li>
7910
7911 </ol>
7912
7913 <p>There are other nice features as well, like the simplified suite
7914 upgrader, but given that I am the one mostly doing the dist-upgrade,
7915 it do not matter much.</p>
7916
7917 <p>I really hope we could get these features in place for the next
7918 Debian release.  It would require the coordinated effort of several
7919 maintainers, but would make the end user experience a lot better.</p>
7920
7921       </div>
7922       <div class="tags">
7923
7924
7925         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/h264">h264</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/multimedia">multimedia</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/web">web</a>.
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/Perl_modules_used_by_FixMyStreet_which_are_missing_in_Debian_Squeeze.html">Perl modules used by FixMyStreet which are missing in Debian/Squeeze</a>
7935       </div>
7936       <div class="date">
7937         26th July 2011
7938       </div>
7939       <div class="body">
7940         <p>The Norwegian <a href="http://www.fiksgatami.no/">FiksGataMi</A>
7941 site is build on Debian/Squeeze, and this platform was chosen because
7942 I am most familiar with Debian (being a Debian Developer for around 10
7943 years) because it is the latest stable Debian release which should get
7944 security support for a few years.</p>
7945
7946 <p>The web service is written in Perl, and depend on some perl modules
7947 that are missing in Debian at the moment.  It would be great if these
7948 modules were added to the Debian archive, allowing anyone to set up
7949 their own <a href="http://www.fixmystreet.com">FixMyStreet</a> clone
7950 in their own country using only Debian packages.  The list of modules
7951 missing in Debian/Squeeze isn't very long, and I hope the perl group
7952 will find time to package the 12 modules Catalyst::Plugin::SmartURI,
7953 Catalyst::Plugin::Unicode::Encoding, Catalyst::View::TT, Devel::Hide,
7954 Sort::Key, Statistics::Distributions, Template::Plugin::Comma,
7955 Template::Plugin::DateTime::Format, Term::Size::Any, Term::Size::Perl,
7956 URI::SmartURI and Web::Scraper to make the maintenance of FixMyStreet
7957 easier in the future.</p>
7958
7959 <p>Thanks to the great tools in Debian, getting the missing modules
7960 installed on my server was a simple call to 'cpan2deb Module::Name'
7961 and 'dpkg -i' to install the resulting package.  But this leave me
7962 with the responsibility of tracking security problems, which I really
7963 do not have time for.</p>
7964
7965       </div>
7966       <div class="tags">
7967
7968
7969         Tags: <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>.
7970
7971
7972       </div>
7973     </div>
7974     <div class="padding"></div>
7975
7976     <div class="entry">
7977       <div class="title">
7978         <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>
7979       </div>
7980       <div class="date">
7981          3rd April 2011
7982       </div>
7983       <div class="body">
7984         <p>Here is a small update for my English readers.  Most of my blog
7985 posts have been in Norwegian the last few weeks, so here is a short
7986 update in English.</p>
7987
7988 <p>The kids still keep me too busy to get much free software work
7989 done, but I did manage to organise a project to get a Norwegian port
7990 of the British service
7991 <a href="http://www.fixmystreet.com/">FixMyStreet</a> up and running,
7992 and it has been running for a month now.  The entire project has been
7993 organised by me and two others.  Around Christmas we gathered sponsors
7994 to fund the development work.  In January I drafted a contract with
7995 <a href="http://www.mysociety.org/">mySociety</a> on what to develop,
7996 and in February the development took place.  Most of it involved
7997 converting the source to use GPS coordinates instead of British
7998 easting/northing, and the resulting code should be a lot easier to get
7999 running in any country by now.  The Norwegian
8000 <a href="http://www.fiksgatami.no/">FiksGataMi</a> is using
8001 <a href="http://www.openstreetmap.org/">OpenStreetmap</a> as the map
8002 source and the source for administrative borders in Norway, and
8003 support for this had to be added/fixed.</p>
8004
8005 <p>The Norwegian version went live March 3th, and we spent the weekend
8006 polishing the system before we announced it March 7th.  The system is
8007 running on a KVM instance of Debian/Squeeze, and has seen almost 3000
8008 problem reports in a few weeks.  Soon we hope to announce the Android
8009 and iPhone versions making it even easier to report problems with the
8010 public infrastructure.</p>
8011
8012 <p>Perhaps something to consider for those of you in countries without
8013 such service?</p>
8014
8015       </div>
8016       <div class="tags">
8017
8018
8019         Tags: <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>.
8020
8021
8022       </div>
8023     </div>
8024     <div class="padding"></div>
8025
8026     <div class="entry">
8027       <div class="title">
8028         <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>
8029       </div>
8030       <div class="date">
8031         28th January 2011
8032       </div>
8033       <div class="body">
8034         <p>The last few days I have looked at ways to track open security
8035 issues here at my work with the University of Oslo.  My idea is that
8036 it should be possible to use the information about security issues
8037 available on the Internet, and check our locally
8038 maintained/distributed software against this information.  It should
8039 allow us to verify that no known security issues are forgotten.  The
8040 CVE database listing vulnerabilities seem like a great central point,
8041 and by using the package lists from Debian mapped to CVEs provided by
8042 the testing security team, I believed it should be possible to figure
8043 out which security holes were present in our free software
8044 collection.</p>
8045
8046 <p>After reading up on the topic, it became obvious that the first
8047 building block is to be able to name software packages in a unique and
8048 consistent way across data sources.  I considered several ways to do
8049 this, for example coming up with my own naming scheme like using URLs
8050 to project home pages or URLs to the Freshmeat entries, or using some
8051 existing naming scheme.  And it seem like I am not the first one to
8052 come across this problem, as MITRE already proposed and implemented a
8053 solution.  Enter the <a href="http://cpe.mitre.org/index.html">Common
8054 Platform Enumeration</a> dictionary, a vocabulary for referring to
8055 software, hardware and other platform components.  The CPE ids are
8056 mapped to CVEs in the <a href="http://web.nvd.nist.gov/">National
8057 Vulnerability Database</a>, allowing me to look up know security
8058 issues for any CPE name.  With this in place, all I need to do is to
8059 locate the CPE id for the software packages we use at the university.
8060 This is fairly trivial (I google for 'cve cpe $package' and check the
8061 NVD entry if a CVE for the package exist).</p>
8062
8063 <p>To give you an example.  The GNU gzip source package have the CPE
8064 name cpe:/a:gnu:gzip.  If the old version 1.3.3 was the package to
8065 check out, one could look up
8066 <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
8067 in NVD</a> and get a list of 6 security holes with public CVE entries.
8068 The most recent one is
8069 <a href="http://web.nvd.nist.gov/view/vuln/detail?vulnId=CVE-2010-0001">CVE-2010-0001</a>,
8070 and at the bottom of the NVD page for this vulnerability the complete
8071 list of affected versions is provided.</p>
8072
8073 <p>The NVD database of CVEs is also available as a XML dump, allowing
8074 for offline processing of issues.  Using this dump, I've written a
8075 small script taking a list of CPEs as input and list all CVEs
8076 affecting the packages represented by these CPEs.  One give it CPEs
8077 with version numbers as specified above and get a list of open
8078 security issues out.</p>
8079
8080 <p>Of course for this approach to be useful, the quality of the NVD
8081 information need to be high.  For that to happen, I believe as many as
8082 possible need to use and contribute to the NVD database.  I notice
8083 RHEL is providing
8084 <a href="https://www.redhat.com/security/data/metrics/rhsamapcpe.txt">a
8085 map from CVE to CPE</a>, indicating that they are using the CPE
8086 information.  I'm not aware of Debian and Ubuntu doing the same.</p>
8087
8088 <p>To get an idea about the quality for free software, I spent some
8089 time making it possible to compare the CVE database from Debian with
8090 the CVE database in NVD.  The result look fairly good, but there are
8091 some inconsistencies in NVD (same software package having several
8092 CPEs), and some inaccuracies (NVD not mentioning buggy packages that
8093 Debian believe are affected by a CVE).  Hope to find time to improve
8094 the quality of NVD, but that require being able to get in touch with
8095 someone maintaining it.  So far my three emails with questions and
8096 corrections have not seen any reply, but I hope contact can be
8097 established soon.</p>
8098
8099 <p>An interesting application for CPEs is cross platform package
8100 mapping.  It would be useful to know which packages in for example
8101 RHEL, OpenSuSe and Mandriva are missing from Debian and Ubuntu, and
8102 this would be trivial if all linux distributions provided CPE entries
8103 for their packages.</p>
8104
8105       </div>
8106       <div class="tags">
8107
8108
8109         Tags: <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>.
8110
8111
8112       </div>
8113     </div>
8114     <div class="padding"></div>
8115
8116     <div class="entry">
8117       <div class="title">
8118         <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>
8119       </div>
8120       <div class="date">
8121         23rd January 2011
8122       </div>
8123       <div class="body">
8124         <p>In the
8125 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/discover-data">discover-data</a>
8126 package in Debian, there is a script to report useful information
8127 about the running hardware for use when people report missing
8128 information.  One part of this script that I find very useful when
8129 debugging hardware problems, is the part mapping loaded kernel module
8130 to the PCI device it claims.  It allow me to quickly see if the kernel
8131 module I expect is driving the hardware I am struggling with.  To see
8132 the output, make sure discover-data is installed and run
8133 <tt>/usr/share/bug/discover-data 3>&1</tt>.  The relevant output on
8134 one of my machines like this:</p>
8135
8136 <pre>
8137 loaded modules:
8138 10de:03eb i2c_nforce2
8139 10de:03f1 ohci_hcd
8140 10de:03f2 ehci_hcd
8141 10de:03f0 snd_hda_intel
8142 10de:03ec pata_amd
8143 10de:03f6 sata_nv
8144 1022:1103 k8temp
8145 109e:036e bttv
8146 109e:0878 snd_bt87x
8147 11ab:4364 sky2
8148 </pre>
8149
8150 <p>The code in question look like this, slightly modified for
8151 readability and to drop the output to file descriptor 3:</p>
8152
8153 <pre>
8154 if [ -d /sys/bus/pci/devices/ ] ; then
8155     echo loaded pci modules:
8156     (
8157         cd /sys/bus/pci/devices/
8158         for address in * ; do
8159             if [ -d "$address/driver/module" ] ; then
8160                 module=`cd $address/driver/module ; pwd -P | xargs basename`
8161                 if grep -q "^$module " /proc/modules ; then
8162                     address=$(echo $address |sed s/0000://)
8163                     id=`lspci -n -s $address | tail -n 1 | awk '{print $3}'`
8164                     echo "$id $module"
8165                 fi
8166             fi
8167         done
8168     )
8169     echo
8170 fi
8171 </pre>
8172
8173 <p>Similar code could be used to extract USB device module
8174 mappings:</p>
8175
8176 <pre>
8177 if [ -d /sys/bus/usb/devices/ ] ; then
8178     echo loaded usb modules:
8179     (
8180         cd /sys/bus/usb/devices/
8181         for address in * ; do
8182             if [ -d "$address/driver/module" ] ; then
8183                 module=`cd $address/driver/module ; pwd -P | xargs basename`
8184                 if grep -q "^$module " /proc/modules ; then
8185                     address=$(echo $address |sed s/0000://)
8186                     id=$(lsusb -s $address | tail -n 1 | awk '{print $6}')
8187                     if [ "$id" ] ; then
8188                         echo "$id $module"
8189                     fi
8190                 fi
8191             fi
8192         done
8193     )
8194     echo
8195 fi
8196 </pre>
8197
8198 <p>This might perhaps be something to include in other tools as
8199 well.</p>
8200
8201       </div>
8202       <div class="tags">
8203
8204
8205         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
8206
8207
8208       </div>
8209     </div>
8210     <div class="padding"></div>
8211
8212     <div class="entry">
8213       <div class="title">
8214         <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>
8215       </div>
8216       <div class="date">
8217         22nd December 2010
8218       </div>
8219       <div class="body">
8220         <p>The last few days I have spent at work here at the <a
8221 href="http://www.uio.no/">University of Oslo</a> testing if the new
8222 batch of computers will work with Linux.  Every year for the last few
8223 years the university have organised shared bid of a few thousand
8224 computers, and this year HP won the bid.  Two different desktops and
8225 five different laptops are on the list this year.  We in the UNIX
8226 group want to know which one of these computers work well with RHEL
8227 and Ubuntu, the two Linux distributions we currently handle at the
8228 university.</p>
8229
8230 <p>My test method is simple, and I share it here to get feedback and
8231 perhaps inspire others to test hardware as well.  To test, I PXE
8232 install the OS version of choice, and log in as my normal user and run
8233 a few applications and plug in selected pieces of hardware.  When
8234 something fail, I make a note about this in the test matrix and move
8235 on.  If I have some spare time I try to report the bug to the OS
8236 vendor, but as I only have the machines for a short time, I rarely
8237 have the time to do this for all the problems I find.</p>
8238
8239 <p>Anyway, to get to the point of this post.  Here is the simple tests
8240 I perform on a new model.</p>
8241
8242 <ul>
8243
8244 <li>Is PXE installation working?  I'm testing with RHEL6, Ubuntu Lucid
8245 and Ubuntu Maverik at the moment.  If I feel like it, I also test with
8246 RHEL5 and Debian Edu/Squeeze.</li>
8247
8248 <li>Is X.org working?  If the graphical login screen show up after
8249 installation, X.org is working.</li>
8250
8251 <li>Is hardware accelerated OpenGL working?  Running glxgears (in
8252 package mesa-utils on Ubuntu) and writing down the frames per second
8253 reported by the program.</li>
8254
8255 <li>Is sound working?  With Gnome and KDE, a sound is played when
8256 logging in, and if I can hear this the test is successful.  If there
8257 are several audio exits on the machine, I try them all and check if
8258 the Gnome/KDE audio mixer can control where to send the sound.  I
8259 normally test this by playing
8260 <a href="http://www.nuug.no/aktiviteter/20101012-chef/ ">a HTML5
8261 video</a> in Firefox/Iceweasel.</li>
8262
8263 <li>Is the USB subsystem working?  I test this by plugging in a USB
8264 memory stick and see if Gnome/KDE notices this.</li>
8265
8266 <li>Is the CD/DVD player working?  I test this by inserting any CD/DVD
8267 I have lying around, and see if Gnome/KDE notices this.</li>
8268
8269 <li>Is any built in camera working?  Test using cheese, and see if a
8270 picture from the v4l device show up.</li>
8271
8272 <li>Is bluetooth working?  Use the Gnome/KDE browsing tool to see if
8273 any bluetooth devices are discovered.  In my office, I normally see a
8274 few.</li>
8275
8276 <li>For laptops, is the SD or Compaq Flash reader working.  I have
8277 memory modules lying around, and stick them in and see if Gnome/KDE
8278 notice this.</li>
8279
8280 <li>For laptops, is suspend/hibernate working?  I'm testing if the
8281 special button work, and if the laptop continue to work after
8282 resume.</li>
8283
8284 <li>For laptops, is the extra buttons working, like audio level,
8285 adjusting background light, switching on/off external video output,
8286 switching on/off wifi, bluetooth, etc?  The set of buttons differ from
8287 laptop to laptop, so I just write down which are working and which are
8288 not.</li>
8289
8290 <li>Some laptops have smart card readers, finger print readers,
8291 acceleration sensors etc.  I rarely test these, as I do not know how
8292 to quickly test if they are working or not, so I only document their
8293 existence.</li>
8294
8295 </ul>
8296
8297 <p>By now I suspect you are really curious what the test results are
8298 for the HP machines I am testing.  I'm not done yet, so I will report
8299 the test results later.  For now I can report that HP 8100 Elite work
8300 fine, and hibernation fail with HP EliteBook 8440p on Ubuntu Lucid,
8301 and audio fail on RHEL6.  Ubuntu Maverik worked with 8440p.  As you
8302 can see, I have most machines left to test.  One interesting
8303 observation is that Ubuntu Lucid has almost twice the frame rate than
8304 RHEL6 with glxgears.  No idea why.</p>
8305
8306       </div>
8307       <div class="tags">
8308
8309
8310         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>.
8311
8312
8313       </div>
8314     </div>
8315     <div class="padding"></div>
8316
8317     <div class="entry">
8318       <div class="title">
8319         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Some_thoughts_on_BitCoins.html">Some thoughts on BitCoins</a>
8320       </div>
8321       <div class="date">
8322         11th December 2010
8323       </div>
8324       <div class="body">
8325         <p>As I continue to explore
8326 <a href="http://www.bitcoin.org/">BitCoin</a>, I've starting to wonder
8327 what properties the system have, and how it will be affected by laws
8328 and regulations here in Norway.  Here are some random notes.</p>
8329
8330 <p>One interesting thing to note is that since the transactions are
8331 verified using a peer to peer network, all details about a transaction
8332 is known to everyone.  This means that if a BitCoin address has been
8333 published like I did with mine in my initial post about BitCoin, it is
8334 possible for everyone to see how many BitCoins have been transfered to
8335 that address.  There is even a web service to look at the details for
8336 all transactions.  There I can see that my address
8337 <a href="http://blockexplorer.com/address/15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a>
8338 have received 16.06 Bitcoin, the
8339 <a href="http://blockexplorer.com/address/1LfdGnGuWkpSJgbQySxxCWhv8MHqvwst3">1LfdGnGuWkpSJgbQySxxCWhv8MHqvwst3</a>
8340 address of Simon Phipps have received 181.97 BitCoin and the address
8341 <a href="http://blockexplorer.com/address/1MCwBbhNGp5hRm5rC1Aims2YFRe2SXPYKt">1MCwBbhNGp5hRm5rC1Aims2YFRe2SXPYKt</A>
8342 of EFF have received 2447.38 BitCoins so far.  Thank you to each and
8343 every one of you that donated bitcoins to support my activity. The
8344 fact that anyone can see how much money was transfered to a given
8345 address make it more obvious why the BitCoin community recommend to
8346 generate and hand out a new address for each transaction.  I'm told
8347 there is no way to track which addresses belong to a given person or
8348 organisation without the person or organisation revealing it
8349 themselves, as Simon, EFF and I have done.</p>
8350
8351 <p>In Norway, and in most other countries, there are laws and
8352 regulations limiting how much money one can transfer across the border
8353 without declaring it.  There are money laundering, tax and accounting
8354 laws and regulations I would expect to apply to the use of BitCoin.
8355 If the Skolelinux foundation
8356 (<a href="http://linuxiskolen.no/slxdebianlabs/donations.html">SLX
8357 Debian Labs</a>) were to accept donations in BitCoin in addition to
8358 normal bank transfers like EFF is doing, how should this be accounted?
8359 Given that it is impossible to know if money can cross the border or
8360 not, should everything or nothing be declared?  What exchange rate
8361 should be used when calculating taxes?  Would receivers have to pay
8362 income tax if the foundation were to pay Skolelinux contributors in
8363 BitCoin?  I have no idea, but it would be interesting to know.</p>
8364
8365 <p>For a currency to be useful and successful, it must be trusted and
8366 accepted by a lot of users.  It must be possible to get easy access to
8367 the currency (as a wage or using currency exchanges), and it must be
8368 easy to spend it.  At the moment BitCoin seem fairly easy to get
8369 access to, but there are very few places to spend it.  I am not really
8370 a regular user of any of the vendor types currently accepting BitCoin,
8371 so I wonder when my kind of shop would start accepting BitCoins.  I
8372 would like to buy electronics, travels and subway tickets, not herbs
8373 and books. :) The currency is young, and this will improve over time
8374 if it become popular, but I suspect regular banks will start to lobby
8375 to get BitCoin declared illegal if it become popular.  I'm sure they
8376 will claim it is helping fund terrorism and money laundering (which
8377 probably would be true, as is any currency in existence), but I
8378 believe the problems should be solved elsewhere and not by blaming
8379 currencies.</p>
8380
8381 <p>The process of creating new BitCoins is called mining, and it is
8382 CPU intensive process that depend on a bit of luck as well (as one is
8383 competing against all the other miners currently spending CPU cycles
8384 to see which one get the next lump of cash).  The "winner" get 50
8385 BitCoin when this happen.  Yesterday I came across the obvious way to
8386 join forces to increase ones changes of getting at least some coins,
8387 by coordinating the work on mining BitCoins across several machines
8388 and people, and sharing the result if one is lucky and get the 50
8389 BitCoins.  Check out
8390 <a href="http://www.bluishcoder.co.nz/bitcoin-pool/">BitCoin Pool</a>
8391 if this sounds interesting.  I have not had time to try to set up a
8392 machine to participate there yet, but have seen that running on ones
8393 own for a few days have not yield any BitCoins througth mining
8394 yet.</p>
8395
8396 <p>Update 2010-12-15: Found an <a
8397 href="http://inertia.posterous.com/reply-to-the-underground-economist-why-bitcoi">interesting
8398 criticism</a> of bitcoin.  Not quite sure how valid it is, but thought
8399 it was interesting to read.  The arguments presented seem to be
8400 equally valid for gold, which was used as a currency for many years.</p>
8401
8402       </div>
8403       <div class="tags">
8404
8405
8406         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>.
8407
8408
8409       </div>
8410     </div>
8411     <div class="padding"></div>
8412
8413     <div class="entry">
8414       <div class="title">
8415         <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>
8416       </div>
8417       <div class="date">
8418         10th December 2010
8419       </div>
8420       <div class="body">
8421         <p>With this weeks lawless
8422 <a href="http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2010/12/06/wikileaks/index.html">governmental
8423 attacks</a> on Wikileak and
8424 <a href="http://www.salon.com/technology/dan_gillmor/2010/12/06/war_on_speech">free
8425 speech</a>, it has become obvious that PayPal, visa and mastercard can
8426 not be trusted to handle money transactions.
8427 A blog post from
8428 <a href="http://webmink.com/2010/12/06/now-accepting-bitcoin/">Simon
8429 Phipps on bitcoin</a> reminded me about a project that a friend of
8430 mine mentioned earlier.  I decided to follow Simon's example, and get
8431 involved with <a href="http://www.bitcoin.org/">BitCoin</a>.  I got
8432 some help from my friend to get it all running, and he even handed me
8433 some bitcoins to get started.  I even donated a few bitcoins to Simon
8434 for helping me remember BitCoin.</p>
8435
8436 <p>So, what is bitcoins, you probably wonder?  It is a digital
8437 crypto-currency, decentralised and handled using peer-to-peer
8438 networks.  It allows anonymous transactions and prohibits central
8439 control over the transactions, making it impossible for governments
8440 and companies alike to block donations and other transactions.  The
8441 source is free software, and while the key dependency wxWidgets 2.9
8442 for the graphical user interface is missing in Debian, the command
8443 line client builds just fine.  Hopefully Jonas
8444 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/578157">will get the package into
8445 Debian</a> soon.</p>
8446
8447 <p>Bitcoins can be converted to other currencies, like USD and EUR.
8448 There are <a href="http://www.bitcoin.org/trade">companies accepting
8449 bitcoins</a> when selling services and goods, and there are even
8450 currency "stock" markets where the exchange rate is decided.  There
8451 are not many users so far, but the concept seems promising.  If you
8452 want to get started and lack a friend with any bitcoins to spare,
8453 you can even get
8454 <a href="https://freebitcoins.appspot.com/">some for free</a> (0.05
8455 bitcoin at the time of writing).  Use
8456 <a href="http://www.bitcoinwatch.com/">BitcoinWatch</a> to keep an eye
8457 on the current exchange rates.</p>
8458
8459 <p>As an experiment, I have decided to set up bitcoind on one of my
8460 machines.  If you want to support my activity, please send Bitcoin
8461 donations to the address
8462 <b>15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</b>.  Thank you!</p>
8463
8464       </div>
8465       <div class="tags">
8466
8467
8468         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>.
8469
8470
8471       </div>
8472     </div>
8473     <div class="padding"></div>
8474
8475     <div class="entry">
8476       <div class="title">
8477         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Why_isn_t_Debian_Edu_using_VLC_.html">Why isn't Debian Edu using VLC?</a>
8478       </div>
8479       <div class="date">
8480         27th November 2010
8481       </div>
8482       <div class="body">
8483         <p>In the latest issue of Linux Journal, the readers choices were
8484 presented, and the winner among the multimedia player were VLC.
8485 Personally, I like VLC, and it is my player of choice when I first try
8486 to play a video file or stream.  Only if VLC fail will I drag out
8487 gmplayer to see if it can do better.  The reason is mostly the failure
8488 model and trust.  When VLC fail, it normally pop up a error message
8489 reporting the problem.  When mplayer fail, it normally segfault or
8490 just hangs.  The latter failure mode drain my trust in the program.<p>
8491
8492 <p>But even if VLC is my player of choice, we have choosen to use
8493 mplayer in <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian
8494 Edu/Skolelinux</a>.  The reason is simple.  We need a good browser
8495 plugin to play web videos seamlessly, and the VLC browser plugin is
8496 not very good.  For example, it lack in-line control buttons, so there
8497 is no way for the user to pause the video.  Also, when I
8498 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/BrowserMultimedia">last
8499 tested the browser plugins</a> available in Debian, the VLC plugin
8500 failed on several video pages where mplayer based plugins worked.  If
8501 the browser plugin for VLC was as good as the gecko-mediaplayer
8502 package (which uses mplayer), we would switch.</P>
8503
8504 <p>While VLC is a good player, its user interface is slightly
8505 annoying.  The most annoying feature is its inconsistent use of
8506 keyboard shortcuts.  When the player is in full screen mode, its
8507 shortcuts are different from when it is playing the video in a window.
8508 For example, space only work as pause when in full screen mode.  I
8509 wish it had consisten shortcuts and that space also would work when in
8510 window mode.  Another nice shortcut in gmplayer is [enter] to restart
8511 the current video.  It is very nice when playing short videos from the
8512 web and want to restart it when new people arrive to have a look at
8513 what is going on.</p>
8514
8515       </div>
8516       <div class="tags">
8517
8518
8519         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>.
8520
8521
8522       </div>
8523     </div>
8524     <div class="padding"></div>
8525
8526     <div class="entry">
8527       <div class="title">
8528         <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>
8529       </div>
8530       <div class="date">
8531         22nd November 2010
8532       </div>
8533       <div class="body">
8534         <p>Michael Biebl suggested to me on IRC, that I changed my automated
8535 upgrade testing of the
8536 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/~pere/debian-upgrade-testing/">Lenny
8537 Gnome and KDE Desktop</a> to do <tt>apt-get autoremove</tt> when using apt-get.
8538 This seem like a very good idea, so I adjusted by test scripts and
8539 can now present the updated result from today:</p>
8540
8541 <p>This is for Gnome:</p>
8542
8543 <p>Installed using apt-get, missing with aptitude</p>
8544
8545 <blockquote><p>
8546   apache2.2-bin
8547   aptdaemon
8548   baobab
8549   binfmt-support
8550   browser-plugin-gnash
8551   cheese-common
8552   cli-common
8553   cups-pk-helper
8554   dmz-cursor-theme
8555   empathy
8556   empathy-common
8557   freedesktop-sound-theme
8558   freeglut3
8559   gconf-defaults-service
8560   gdm-themes
8561   gedit-plugins
8562   geoclue
8563   geoclue-hostip
8564   geoclue-localnet
8565   geoclue-manual
8566   geoclue-yahoo
8567   gnash
8568   gnash-common
8569   gnome
8570   gnome-backgrounds
8571   gnome-cards-data
8572   gnome-codec-install
8573   gnome-core
8574   gnome-desktop-environment
8575   gnome-disk-utility
8576   gnome-screenshot
8577   gnome-search-tool
8578   gnome-session-canberra
8579   gnome-system-log
8580   gnome-themes-extras
8581   gnome-themes-more
8582   gnome-user-share
8583   gstreamer0.10-fluendo-mp3
8584   gstreamer0.10-tools
8585   gtk2-engines
8586   gtk2-engines-pixbuf
8587   gtk2-engines-smooth
8588   hamster-applet
8589   libapache2-mod-dnssd
8590   libapr1
8591   libaprutil1
8592   libaprutil1-dbd-sqlite3
8593   libaprutil1-ldap
8594   libart2.0-cil
8595   libboost-date-time1.42.0
8596   libboost-python1.42.0
8597   libboost-thread1.42.0
8598   libchamplain-0.4-0
8599   libchamplain-gtk-0.4-0
8600   libcheese-gtk18
8601   libclutter-gtk-0.10-0
8602   libcryptui0
8603   libdiscid0
8604   libelf1
8605   libepc-1.0-2
8606   libepc-common
8607   libepc-ui-1.0-2
8608   libfreerdp-plugins-standard
8609   libfreerdp0
8610   libgconf2.0-cil
8611   libgdata-common
8612   libgdata7
8613   libgdu-gtk0
8614   libgee2
8615   libgeoclue0
8616   libgexiv2-0
8617   libgif4
8618   libglade2.0-cil
8619   libglib2.0-cil
8620   libgmime2.4-cil
8621   libgnome-vfs2.0-cil
8622   libgnome2.24-cil
8623   libgnomepanel2.24-cil
8624   libgpod-common
8625   libgpod4
8626   libgtk2.0-cil
8627   libgtkglext1
8628   libgtksourceview2.0-common
8629   libmono-addins-gui0.2-cil
8630   libmono-addins0.2-cil
8631   libmono-cairo2.0-cil
8632   libmono-corlib2.0-cil
8633   libmono-i18n-west2.0-cil
8634   libmono-posix2.0-cil
8635   libmono-security2.0-cil
8636   libmono-sharpzip2.84-cil
8637   libmono-system2.0-cil
8638   libmtp8
8639   libmusicbrainz3-6
8640   libndesk-dbus-glib1.0-cil
8641   libndesk-dbus1.0-cil
8642   libopal3.6.8
8643   libpolkit-gtk-1-0
8644   libpt2.6.7
8645   libpython2.6
8646   librpm1
8647   librpmio1
8648   libsdl1.2debian
8649   libsrtp0
8650   libssh-4
8651   libtelepathy-farsight0
8652   libtelepathy-glib0
8653   libtidy-0.99-0
8654   media-player-info
8655   mesa-utils
8656   mono-2.0-gac
8657   mono-gac
8658   mono-runtime
8659   nautilus-sendto
8660   nautilus-sendto-empathy
8661   p7zip-full
8662   pkg-config
8663   python-aptdaemon
8664   python-aptdaemon-gtk
8665   python-axiom
8666   python-beautifulsoup
8667   python-bugbuddy
8668   python-clientform
8669   python-coherence
8670   python-configobj
8671   python-crypto
8672   python-cupshelpers
8673   python-elementtree
8674   python-epsilon
8675   python-evolution
8676   python-feedparser
8677   python-gdata
8678   python-gdbm
8679   python-gst0.10
8680   python-gtkglext1
8681   python-gtksourceview2
8682   python-httplib2
8683   python-louie
8684   python-mako
8685   python-markupsafe
8686   python-mechanize
8687   python-nevow
8688   python-notify
8689   python-opengl
8690   python-openssl
8691   python-pam
8692   python-pkg-resources
8693   python-pyasn1
8694   python-pysqlite2
8695   python-rdflib
8696   python-serial
8697   python-tagpy
8698   python-twisted-bin
8699   python-twisted-conch
8700   python-twisted-core
8701   python-twisted-web
8702   python-utidylib
8703   python-webkit
8704   python-xdg
8705   python-zope.interface
8706   remmina
8707   remmina-plugin-data
8708   remmina-plugin-rdp
8709   remmina-plugin-vnc
8710   rhythmbox-plugin-cdrecorder
8711   rhythmbox-plugins
8712   rpm-common
8713   rpm2cpio
8714   seahorse-plugins
8715   shotwell
8716   software-center
8717   system-config-printer-udev
8718   telepathy-gabble
8719   telepathy-mission-control-5
8720   telepathy-salut
8721   tomboy
8722   totem
8723   totem-coherence
8724   totem-mozilla
8725   totem-plugins
8726   transmission-common
8727   xdg-user-dirs
8728   xdg-user-dirs-gtk
8729   xserver-xephyr
8730 </p></blockquote>
8731
8732 <p>Installed using apt-get, removed with aptitude</p>
8733
8734 <blockquote><p>
8735   cheese
8736   ekiga
8737   eog
8738   epiphany-extensions
8739   evolution-exchange
8740   fast-user-switch-applet
8741   file-roller
8742   gcalctool
8743   gconf-editor
8744   gdm
8745   gedit
8746   gedit-common
8747   gnome-games
8748   gnome-games-data
8749   gnome-nettool
8750   gnome-system-tools
8751   gnome-themes
8752   gnuchess
8753   gucharmap
8754   guile-1.8-libs
8755   libavahi-ui0
8756   libdmx1
8757   libgalago3
8758   libgtk-vnc-1.0-0
8759   libgtksourceview2.0-0
8760   liblircclient0
8761   libsdl1.2debian-alsa
8762   libspeexdsp1
8763   libsvga1
8764   rhythmbox
8765   seahorse
8766   sound-juicer
8767   system-config-printer
8768   totem-common
8769   transmission-gtk
8770   vinagre
8771   vino
8772 </p></blockquote>
8773
8774 <p>Installed using aptitude, missing with apt-get</p>
8775
8776 <blockquote><p>
8777   gstreamer0.10-gnomevfs
8778 </p></blockquote>
8779
8780 <p>Installed using aptitude, removed with apt-get</p>
8781
8782 <blockquote><p>
8783 [nothing]
8784 </p></blockquote>
8785
8786 <p>This is for KDE:</p>
8787
8788 <p>Installed using apt-get, missing with aptitude</p>
8789
8790 <blockquote><p>
8791   ksmserver
8792 </p></blockquote>
8793
8794 <p>Installed using apt-get, removed with aptitude</p>
8795
8796 <blockquote><p>
8797   kwin
8798   network-manager-kde
8799 </p></blockquote>
8800
8801 <p>Installed using aptitude, missing with apt-get</p>
8802
8803 <blockquote><p>
8804   arts
8805   dolphin
8806   freespacenotifier
8807   google-gadgets-gst
8808   google-gadgets-xul
8809   kappfinder
8810   kcalc
8811   kcharselect
8812   kde-core
8813   kde-plasma-desktop
8814   kde-standard
8815   kde-window-manager
8816   kdeartwork
8817   kdeartwork-emoticons
8818   kdeartwork-style
8819   kdeartwork-theme-icon
8820   kdebase
8821   kdebase-apps
8822   kdebase-workspace
8823   kdebase-workspace-bin
8824   kdebase-workspace-data
8825   kdeeject
8826   kdelibs
8827   kdeplasma-addons
8828   kdeutils
8829   kdewallpapers
8830   kdf
8831   kfloppy
8832   kgpg
8833   khelpcenter4
8834   kinfocenter
8835   konq-plugins-l10n
8836   konqueror-nsplugins
8837   kscreensaver
8838   kscreensaver-xsavers
8839   ktimer
8840   kwrite
8841   libgle3
8842   libkde4-ruby1.8
8843   libkonq5
8844   libkonq5-templates
8845   libnetpbm10
8846   libplasma-ruby
8847   libplasma-ruby1.8
8848   libqt4-ruby1.8
8849   marble-data
8850   marble-plugins
8851   netpbm
8852   nuvola-icon-theme
8853   plasma-dataengines-workspace
8854   plasma-desktop
8855   plasma-desktopthemes-artwork
8856   plasma-runners-addons
8857   plasma-scriptengine-googlegadgets
8858   plasma-scriptengine-python
8859   plasma-scriptengine-qedje
8860   plasma-scriptengine-ruby
8861   plasma-scriptengine-webkit
8862   plasma-scriptengines
8863   plasma-wallpapers-addons
8864   plasma-widget-folderview
8865   plasma-widget-networkmanagement
8866   ruby
8867   sweeper
8868   update-notifier-kde
8869   xscreensaver-data-extra
8870   xscreensaver-gl
8871   xscreensaver-gl-extra
8872   xscreensaver-screensaver-bsod
8873 </p></blockquote>
8874
8875 <p>Installed using aptitude, removed with apt-get</p>
8876
8877 <blockquote><p>
8878   ark
8879   google-gadgets-common
8880   google-gadgets-qt
8881   htdig
8882   kate
8883   kdebase-bin
8884   kdebase-data
8885   kdepasswd
8886   kfind
8887   klipper
8888   konq-plugins
8889   konqueror
8890   ksysguard
8891   ksysguardd
8892   libarchive1
8893   libcln6
8894   libeet1
8895   libeina-svn-06
8896   libggadget-1.0-0b
8897   libggadget-qt-1.0-0b
8898   libgps19
8899   libkdecorations4
8900   libkephal4
8901   libkonq4
8902   libkonqsidebarplugin4a
8903   libkscreensaver5
8904   libksgrd4
8905   libksignalplotter4
8906   libkunitconversion4
8907   libkwineffects1a
8908   libmarblewidget4
8909   libntrack-qt4-1
8910   libntrack0
8911   libplasma-geolocation-interface4
8912   libplasmaclock4a
8913   libplasmagenericshell4
8914   libprocesscore4a
8915   libprocessui4a
8916   libqalculate5
8917   libqedje0a
8918   libqtruby4shared2
8919   libqzion0a
8920   libruby1.8
8921   libscim8c2a
8922   libsmokekdecore4-3
8923   libsmokekdeui4-3
8924   libsmokekfile3
8925   libsmokekhtml3
8926   libsmokekio3
8927   libsmokeknewstuff2-3
8928   libsmokeknewstuff3-3
8929   libsmokekparts3
8930   libsmokektexteditor3
8931   libsmokekutils3
8932   libsmokenepomuk3
8933   libsmokephonon3
8934   libsmokeplasma3
8935   libsmokeqtcore4-3
8936   libsmokeqtdbus4-3
8937   libsmokeqtgui4-3
8938   libsmokeqtnetwork4-3
8939   libsmokeqtopengl4-3
8940   libsmokeqtscript4-3
8941   libsmokeqtsql4-3
8942   libsmokeqtsvg4-3
8943   libsmokeqttest4-3
8944   libsmokeqtuitools4-3
8945   libsmokeqtwebkit4-3
8946   libsmokeqtxml4-3
8947   libsmokesolid3
8948   libsmokesoprano3
8949   libtaskmanager4a
8950   libtidy-0.99-0
8951   libweather-ion4a
8952   libxklavier16
8953   libxxf86misc1
8954   okteta
8955   oxygencursors
8956   plasma-dataengines-addons
8957   plasma-scriptengine-superkaramba
8958   plasma-widget-lancelot
8959   plasma-widgets-addons
8960   plasma-widgets-workspace
8961   polkit-kde-1
8962   ruby1.8
8963   systemsettings
8964   update-notifier-common
8965 </p></blockquote>
8966
8967 <p>Running apt-get autoremove made the results using apt-get and
8968 aptitude a bit more similar, but there are still quite a lott of
8969 differences.  I have no idea what packages should be installed after
8970 the upgrade, but hope those that do can have a look.</p>
8971
8972       </div>
8973       <div class="tags">
8974
8975
8976         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>.
8977
8978
8979       </div>
8980     </div>
8981     <div class="padding"></div>
8982
8983     <div class="entry">
8984       <div class="title">
8985         <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>
8986       </div>
8987       <div class="date">
8988         22nd November 2010
8989       </div>
8990       <div class="body">
8991         <p>Most of the computers in use by the
8992 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu/Skolelinux project</a>
8993 are virtual machines.  And they have been Xen machines running on a
8994 fairly old IBM eserver xseries 345 machine, and we wanted to migrate
8995 them to KVM on a newer Dell PowerEdge 2950 host machine.  This was a
8996 bit harder that it could have been, because we set up the Xen virtual
8997 machines to get the virtual partitions from LVM, which as far as I
8998 know is not supported by KVM.  So to migrate, we had to convert
8999 several LVM logical volumes to partitions on a virtual disk file.</p>
9000
9001 <p>I found
9002 <a href="http://searchnetworking.techtarget.com.au/articles/35011-Six-steps-for-migrating-Xen-virtual-machines-to-KVM">a
9003 nice recipe</a> to do this, and wrote the following script to do the
9004 migration.  It uses qemu-img from the qemu package to make the disk
9005 image, parted to partition it, losetup and kpartx to present the disk
9006 image partions as devices, and dd to copy the data.  I NFS mounted the
9007 new servers storage area on the old server to do the migration.</p>
9008
9009 <pre>
9010 #!/bin/sh
9011
9012 # Based on
9013 # http://searchnetworking.techtarget.com.au/articles/35011-Six-steps-for-migrating-Xen-virtual-machines-to-KVM
9014
9015 set -e
9016 set -x
9017
9018 if [ -z "$1" ] ; then
9019     echo "Usage: $0 &lt;hostname&gt;"
9020     exit 1
9021 else
9022     host="$1"
9023 fi
9024
9025 if [ ! -e /dev/vg_data/$host-disk ] ; then
9026     echo "error: unable to find LVM volume for $host"
9027     exit 1
9028 fi
9029
9030 # Partitions need to be a bit bigger than the LVM LVs.  not sure why.
9031 disksize=$( lvs --units m | grep $host-disk | awk '{sum = sum + $4} END { print int(sum * 1.05) }')
9032 swapsize=$( lvs --units m | grep $host-swap | awk '{sum = sum + $4} END { print int(sum * 1.05) }')
9033 totalsize=$(( ( $disksize + $swapsize ) ))
9034
9035 img=$host.img
9036 #dd if=/dev/zero of=$img bs=1M count=$(( $disksize + $swapsize ))
9037 qemu-img create $img ${totalsize}MMaking room on the Debian Edu/Sqeeze DVD
9038
9039 parted $img mklabel msdos
9040 parted $img mkpart primary linux-swap 0 $disksize
9041 parted $img mkpart primary ext2 $disksize $totalsize
9042 parted $img set 1 boot on
9043
9044 modprobe dm-mod
9045 losetup /dev/loop0 $img
9046 kpartx -a /dev/loop0
9047
9048 dd if=/dev/vg_data/$host-disk of=/dev/mapper/loop0p1 bs=1M
9049 fsck.ext3 -f /dev/mapper/loop0p1 || true
9050 mkswap /dev/mapper/loop0p2
9051
9052 kpartx -d /dev/loop0
9053 losetup -d /dev/loop0
9054 </pre>
9055
9056 <p>The script is perhaps so simple that it is not copyrightable, but
9057 if it is, it is licenced using GPL v2 or later at your discretion.</p>
9058
9059 <p>After doing this, I booted a Debian CD in rescue mode in KVM with
9060 the new disk image attached, installed grub-pc and linux-image-686 and
9061 set up grub to boot from the disk image.  After this, the KVM machines
9062 seem to work just fine.</p>
9063
9064       </div>
9065       <div class="tags">
9066
9067
9068         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>.
9069
9070
9071       </div>
9072     </div>
9073     <div class="padding"></div>
9074
9075     <div class="entry">
9076       <div class="title">
9077         <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>
9078       </div>
9079       <div class="date">
9080         20th November 2010
9081       </div>
9082       <div class="body">
9083         <p>I'm still running upgrade testing of the
9084 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/~pere/debian-upgrade-testing/">Lenny
9085 Gnome and KDE Desktop</a>, but have not had time to spend on reporting the
9086 status.  Here is a short update based on a test I ran 20101118.</p>
9087
9088 <p>I still do not know what a correct migration should look like, so I
9089 report any differences between apt and aptitude and hope someone else
9090 can see if anything should be changed.</p>
9091
9092 <p>This is for Gnome:</p>
9093
9094 <p>Installed using apt-get, missing with aptitude</p>
9095
9096 <blockquote><p>
9097   apache2.2-bin aptdaemon at-spi baobab binfmt-support
9098   browser-plugin-gnash cheese-common cli-common cpp-4.3 cups-pk-helper
9099   dmz-cursor-theme empathy empathy-common finger
9100   freedesktop-sound-theme freeglut3 gconf-defaults-service gdm-themes
9101   gedit-plugins geoclue geoclue-hostip geoclue-localnet geoclue-manual
9102   geoclue-yahoo gnash gnash-common gnome gnome-backgrounds
9103   gnome-cards-data gnome-codec-install gnome-core
9104   gnome-desktop-environment gnome-disk-utility gnome-screenshot
9105   gnome-search-tool gnome-session-canberra gnome-spell
9106   gnome-system-log gnome-themes-extras gnome-themes-more
9107   gnome-user-share gs-common gstreamer0.10-fluendo-mp3
9108   gstreamer0.10-tools gtk2-engines gtk2-engines-pixbuf
9109   gtk2-engines-smooth hal-info hamster-applet libapache2-mod-dnssd
9110   libapr1 libaprutil1 libaprutil1-dbd-sqlite3 libaprutil1-ldap
9111   libart2.0-cil libatspi1.0-0 libboost-date-time1.42.0
9112   libboost-python1.42.0 libboost-thread1.42.0 libchamplain-0.4-0
9113   libchamplain-gtk-0.4-0 libcheese-gtk18 libclutter-gtk-0.10-0
9114   libcryptui0 libcupsys2 libdiscid0 libeel2-data libelf1 libepc-1.0-2
9115   libepc-common libepc-ui-1.0-2 libfreerdp-plugins-standard
9116   libfreerdp0 libgail-common libgconf2.0-cil libgdata-common libgdata7
9117   libgdl-1-common libgdu-gtk0 libgee2 libgeoclue0 libgexiv2-0 libgif4
9118   libglade2.0-cil libglib2.0-cil libgmime2.4-cil libgnome-vfs2.0-cil
9119   libgnome2.24-cil libgnomepanel2.24-cil libgnomeprint2.2-data
9120   libgnomeprintui2.2-common libgnomevfs2-bin libgpod-common libgpod4
9121   libgtk2.0-cil libgtkglext1 libgtksourceview-common
9122   libgtksourceview2.0-common libmono-addins-gui0.2-cil
9123   libmono-addins0.2-cil libmono-cairo2.0-cil libmono-corlib2.0-cil
9124   libmono-i18n-west2.0-cil libmono-posix2.0-cil
9125   libmono-security2.0-cil libmono-sharpzip2.84-cil
9126   libmono-system2.0-cil libmtp8 libmusicbrainz3-6
9127   libndesk-dbus-glib1.0-cil libndesk-dbus1.0-cil libopal3.6.8
9128   libpolkit-gtk-1-0 libpt-1.10.10-plugins-alsa
9129   libpt-1.10.10-plugins-v4l libpt2.6.7 libpython2.6 librpm1 librpmio1
9130   libsdl1.2debian libservlet2.4-java libsrtp0 libssh-4
9131   libtelepathy-farsight0 libtelepathy-glib0 libtidy-0.99-0
9132   libxalan2-java libxerces2-java media-player-info mesa-utils
9133   mono-2.0-gac mono-gac mono-runtime nautilus-sendto
9134   nautilus-sendto-empathy openoffice.org-writer2latex
9135   openssl-blacklist p7zip p7zip-full pkg-config python-4suite-xml
9136   python-aptdaemon python-aptdaemon-gtk python-axiom
9137   python-beautifulsoup python-bugbuddy python-clientform
9138   python-coherence python-configobj python-crypto python-cupshelpers
9139   python-cupsutils python-eggtrayicon python-elementtree
9140   python-epsilon python-evolution python-feedparser python-gdata
9141   python-gdbm python-gst0.10 python-gtkglext1 python-gtkmozembed
9142   python-gtksourceview2 python-httplib2 python-louie python-mako
9143   python-markupsafe python-mechanize python-nevow python-notify
9144   python-opengl python-openssl python-pam python-pkg-resources
9145   python-pyasn1 python-pysqlite2 python-rdflib python-serial
9146   python-tagpy python-twisted-bin python-twisted-conch
9147   python-twisted-core python-twisted-web python-utidylib python-webkit
9148   python-xdg python-zope.interface remmina remmina-plugin-data
9149   remmina-plugin-rdp remmina-plugin-vnc rhythmbox-plugin-cdrecorder
9150   rhythmbox-plugins rpm-common rpm2cpio seahorse-plugins shotwell
9151   software-center svgalibg1 system-config-printer-udev
9152   telepathy-gabble telepathy-mission-control-5 telepathy-salut tomboy
9153   totem totem-coherence totem-mozilla totem-plugins
9154   transmission-common xdg-user-dirs xdg-user-dirs-gtk xserver-xephyr
9155   zip
9156 </p></blockquote>
9157
9158 Installed using apt-get, removed with aptitude
9159
9160 <blockquote><p>
9161   arj bluez-utils cheese dhcdbd djvulibre-desktop ekiga eog
9162   epiphany-extensions epiphany-gecko evolution-exchange
9163   fast-user-switch-applet file-roller gcalctool gconf-editor gdm gedit
9164   gedit-common gnome-app-install gnome-games gnome-games-data
9165   gnome-nettool gnome-system-tools gnome-themes gnome-utils
9166   gnome-vfs-obexftp gnome-volume-manager gnuchess gucharmap
9167   guile-1.8-libs hal libavahi-compat-libdnssd1 libavahi-core5
9168   libavahi-ui0 libbind9-50 libbluetooth2 libcamel1.2-11 libcdio7
9169   libcucul0 libcurl3 libdirectfb-1.0-0 libdmx1 libdvdread3
9170   libedata-cal1.2-6 libedataserver1.2-9 libeel2-2.20 libepc-1.0-1
9171   libepc-ui-1.0-1 libexchange-storage1.2-3 libfaad0 libgadu3
9172   libgalago3 libgd2-noxpm libgda3-3 libgda3-common libggz2 libggzcore9
9173   libggzmod4 libgksu1.2-0 libgksuui1.0-1 libgmyth0 libgnome-desktop-2
9174   libgnome-pilot2 libgnomecups1.0-1 libgnomeprint2.2-0
9175   libgnomeprintui2.2-0 libgpod3 libgraphviz4 libgtk-vnc-1.0-0
9176   libgtkhtml2-0 libgtksourceview1.0-0 libgtksourceview2.0-0
9177   libgucharmap6 libhesiod0 libicu38 libisccc50 libisccfg50 libiw29
9178   libjaxp1.3-java-gcj libkpathsea4 liblircclient0 libltdl3 liblwres50
9179   libmagick++10 libmagick10 libmalaga7 libmozjs1d libmpfr1ldbl libmtp7
9180   libmysqlclient15off libnautilus-burn4 libneon27 libnm-glib0
9181   libnm-util0 libopal-2.2 libosp5 libparted1.8-10 libpisock9
9182   libpisync1 libpoppler-glib3 libpoppler3 libpt-1.10.10 libraw1394-8
9183   libsdl1.2debian-alsa libsensors3 libsexy2 libsmbios2 libsoup2.2-8
9184   libspeexdsp1 libssh2-1 libsuitesparse-3.1.0 libsvga1
9185   libswfdec-0.6-90 libtalloc1 libtotem-plparser10 libtrackerclient0
9186   libvoikko1 libxalan2-java-gcj libxerces2-java-gcj libxklavier12
9187   libxtrap6 libxxf86misc1 libzephyr3 mysql-common rhythmbox seahorse
9188   sound-juicer swfdec-gnome system-config-printer totem-common
9189   totem-gstreamer transmission-gtk vinagre vino w3c-dtd-xhtml wodim
9190 </p></blockquote>
9191
9192 <p>Installed using aptitude, missing with apt-get</p>
9193
9194 <blockquote><p>
9195   gstreamer0.10-gnomevfs
9196 </p></blockquote>
9197
9198 <p>Installed using aptitude, removed with apt-get</p>
9199
9200 <blockquote><p>
9201 [nothing]
9202 </p></blockquote>
9203
9204 <p>This is for KDE:</p>
9205
9206 <p>Installed using apt-get, missing with aptitude</p>
9207
9208 <blockquote><p>
9209   autopoint bomber bovo cantor cantor-backend-kalgebra cpp-4.3 dcoprss
9210   edict espeak espeak-data eyesapplet fifteenapplet finger gettext
9211   ghostscript-x git gnome-audio gnugo granatier gs-common
9212   gstreamer0.10-pulseaudio indi kaddressbook-plugins kalgebra
9213   kalzium-data kanjidic kapman kate-plugins kblocks kbreakout kbstate
9214   kde-icons-mono kdeaccessibility kdeaddons-kfile-plugins
9215   kdeadmin-kfile-plugins kdeartwork-misc kdeartwork-theme-window
9216   kdeedu kdeedu-data kdeedu-kvtml-data kdegames kdegames-card-data
9217   kdegames-mahjongg-data kdegraphics-kfile-plugins kdelirc
9218   kdemultimedia-kfile-plugins kdenetwork-kfile-plugins
9219   kdepim-kfile-plugins kdepim-kio-plugins kdessh kdetoys kdewebdev
9220   kdiamond kdnssd kfilereplace kfourinline kgeography-data kigo
9221   killbots kiriki klettres-data kmoon kmrml knewsticker-scripts
9222   kollision kpf krosspython ksirk ksmserver ksquares kstars-data
9223   ksudoku kubrick kweather libasound2-plugins libboost-python1.42.0
9224   libcfitsio3 libconvert-binhex-perl libcrypt-ssleay-perl libdb4.6++
9225   libdjvulibre-text libdotconf1.0 liberror-perl libespeak1
9226   libfinance-quote-perl libgail-common libgsl0ldbl libhtml-parser-perl
9227   libhtml-tableextract-perl libhtml-tagset-perl libhtml-tree-perl
9228   libio-stringy-perl libkdeedu4 libkdegames5 libkiten4 libkpathsea5
9229   libkrossui4 libmailtools-perl libmime-tools-perl
9230   libnews-nntpclient-perl libopenbabel3 libportaudio2 libpulse-browse0
9231   libservlet2.4-java libspeechd2 libtiff-tools libtimedate-perl
9232   libunistring0 liburi-perl libwww-perl libxalan2-java libxerces2-java
9233   lirc luatex marble networkstatus noatun-plugins
9234   openoffice.org-writer2latex palapeli palapeli-data parley
9235   parley-data poster psutils pulseaudio pulseaudio-esound-compat
9236   pulseaudio-module-x11 pulseaudio-utils quanta-data rocs rsync
9237   speech-dispatcher step svgalibg1 texlive-binaries texlive-luatex
9238   ttf-sazanami-gothic
9239 </p></blockquote>
9240
9241 <p>Installed using apt-get, removed with aptitude</p>
9242
9243 <blockquote><p>
9244   amor artsbuilder atlantik atlantikdesigner blinken bluez-utils cvs
9245   dhcdbd djvulibre-desktop imlib-base imlib11 kalzium kanagram kandy
9246   kasteroids katomic kbackgammon kbattleship kblackbox kbounce kbruch
9247   kcron kdat kdemultimedia-kappfinder-data kdeprint kdict kdvi kedit
9248   keduca kenolaba kfax kfaxview kfouleggs kgeography kghostview
9249   kgoldrunner khangman khexedit kiconedit kig kimagemapeditor
9250   kitchensync kiten kjumpingcube klatin klettres klickety klines
9251   klinkstatus kmag kmahjongg kmailcvt kmenuedit kmid kmilo kmines
9252   kmousetool kmouth kmplot knetwalk kodo kolf kommander konquest kooka
9253   kpager kpat kpdf kpercentage kpilot kpoker kpovmodeler krec
9254   kregexpeditor kreversi ksame ksayit kshisen ksig ksim ksirc ksirtet
9255   ksmiletris ksnake ksokoban kspaceduel kstars ksvg ksysv kteatime
9256   ktip ktnef ktouch ktron kttsd ktuberling kturtle ktux kuickshow
9257   kverbos kview kviewshell kvoctrain kwifimanager kwin kwin4 kwordquiz
9258   kworldclock kxsldbg libakode2 libarts1-akode libarts1-audiofile
9259   libarts1-mpeglib libarts1-xine libavahi-compat-libdnssd1
9260   libavahi-core5 libavc1394-0 libbind9-50 libbluetooth2
9261   libboost-python1.34.1 libcucul0 libcurl3 libcvsservice0
9262   libdirectfb-1.0-0 libdjvulibre21 libdvdread3 libfaad0 libfreebob0
9263   libgd2-noxpm libgraphviz4 libgsmme1c2a libgtkhtml2-0 libicu38
9264   libiec61883-0 libindex0 libisccc50 libisccfg50 libiw29
9265   libjaxp1.3-java-gcj libk3b3 libkcal2b libkcddb1 libkdeedu3
9266   libkdegames1 libkdepim1a libkgantt0 libkleopatra1 libkmime2
9267   libkpathsea4 libkpimexchange1 libkpimidentities1 libkscan1
9268   libksieve0 libktnef1 liblockdev1 libltdl3 liblwres50 libmagick10
9269   libmimelib1c2a libmodplug0c2 libmozjs1d libmpcdec3 libmpfr1ldbl
9270   libneon27 libnm-util0 libopensync0 libpisock9 libpoppler-glib3
9271   libpoppler-qt2 libpoppler3 libraw1394-8 librss1 libsensors3
9272   libsmbios2 libssh2-1 libsuitesparse-3.1.0 libswfdec-0.6-90
9273   libtalloc1 libxalan2-java-gcj libxerces2-java-gcj libxtrap6 lskat
9274   mpeglib network-manager-kde noatun pmount tex-common texlive-base
9275   texlive-common texlive-doc-base texlive-fonts-recommended tidy
9276   ttf-dustin ttf-kochi-gothic ttf-sjfonts
9277 </p></blockquote>
9278
9279 <p>Installed using aptitude, missing with apt-get</p>
9280
9281 <blockquote><p>
9282   dolphin kde-core kde-plasma-desktop kde-standard kde-window-manager
9283   kdeartwork kdebase kdebase-apps kdebase-workspace
9284   kdebase-workspace-bin kdebase-workspace-data kdeutils kscreensaver
9285   kscreensaver-xsavers libgle3 libkonq5 libkonq5-templates libnetpbm10
9286   netpbm plasma-widget-folderview plasma-widget-networkmanagement
9287   xscreensaver-data-extra xscreensaver-gl xscreensaver-gl-extra
9288   xscreensaver-screensaver-bsod
9289 </p></blockquote>
9290
9291 <p>Installed using aptitude, removed with apt-get</p>
9292
9293 <blockquote><p>
9294   kdebase-bin konq-plugins konqueror
9295 </p></blockquote>
9296
9297       </div>
9298       <div class="tags">
9299
9300
9301         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>.
9302
9303
9304       </div>
9305     </div>
9306     <div class="padding"></div>
9307
9308     <div class="entry">
9309       <div class="title">
9310         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Gnash_buildbot_slave_and_Debian_kfreebsd.html">Gnash buildbot slave and Debian kfreebsd</a>
9311       </div>
9312       <div class="date">
9313         20th November 2010
9314       </div>
9315       <div class="body">
9316         <p>Answering
9317 <a href="http://www.listware.net/201011/gnash-dev/67431-gnash-dev-buildbot-looking-for-slaves.html">the
9318 call from the Gnash project</a> for
9319 <a href="http://www.gnashdev.org:8010">buildbot</a> slaves to test the
9320 current source, I have set up a virtual KVM machine on the Debian
9321 Edu/Skolelinux virtualization host to test the git source on
9322 Debian/Squeeze.  I hope this can help the developers in getting new
9323 releases out more often.</p>
9324
9325 <p>As the developers want less main-stream build platforms tested to,
9326 I have considered setting up a <a
9327 href="http://www.debian.org/ports/kfreebsd-gnu/">Debian/kfreebsd</a>
9328 machine as well.  I have also considered using the kfreebsd
9329 architecture in Debian as a file server in NUUG to get access to the 5
9330 TB zfs volume we currently use to store DV video.  Because of this, I
9331 finally got around to do a test installation of Debian/Squeeze with
9332 kfreebsd.  Installation went fairly smooth, thought I noticed some
9333 visual glitches in the cdebconf dialogs (black cursor left on the
9334 screen at random locations).  Have not gotten very far with the
9335 testing.  Noticed cfdisk did not work, but fdisk did so it was not a
9336 fatal problem.  Have to spend some more time on it to see if it is
9337 useful as a file server for NUUG.  Will try to find time to set up a
9338 gnash buildbot slave on the Debian Edu/Skolelinux this weekend.</p>
9339
9340       </div>
9341       <div class="tags">
9342
9343
9344         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>.
9345
9346
9347       </div>
9348     </div>
9349     <div class="padding"></div>
9350
9351     <div class="entry">
9352       <div class="title">
9353         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_in_3D.html">Debian in 3D</a>
9354       </div>
9355       <div class="date">
9356          9th November 2010
9357       </div>
9358       <div class="body">
9359         <p><img src="http://thingiverse-production.s3.amazonaws.com/renders/23/e0/c4/f9/2b/debswagtdose_preview_medium.jpg"></p>
9360
9361 <p>3D printing is just great.  I just came across this Debian logo in
9362 3D linked in from
9363 <a href="http://blog.thingiverse.com/2010/11/09/participatory-branding/">the
9364 thingiverse blog</a>.</p>
9365
9366       </div>
9367       <div class="tags">
9368
9369
9370         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>.
9371
9372
9373       </div>
9374     </div>
9375     <div class="padding"></div>
9376
9377     <div class="entry">
9378       <div class="title">
9379         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Software_updates_2010_10_24.html">Software updates 2010-10-24</a>
9380       </div>
9381       <div class="date">
9382         24th October 2010
9383       </div>
9384       <div class="body">
9385         <p>Some updates.</p>
9386
9387 <p>My <a href="http://pledgebank.com/gnash-avm2">gnash pledge</a> to
9388 raise money for the project is going well.  The lower limit of 10
9389 signers was reached in 24 hours, and so far 13 people have signed it.
9390 More signers and more funding is most welcome, and I am really curious
9391 how far we can get before the time limit of December 24 is reached.
9392 :)</p>
9393
9394 <p>On the #gnash IRC channel on irc.freenode.net, I was just tipped
9395 about what appear to be a great code coverage tool capable of
9396 generating code coverage stats without any changes to the source code.
9397 It is called
9398 <a href="http://simonkagstrom.github.com/kcov/index.html">kcov</a>,
9399 and can be used using <tt>kcov &lt;directory&gt; &lt;binary&gt;</tt>.
9400 It is missing in Debian, but the git source built just fine in Squeeze
9401 after I installed libelf-dev, libdwarf-dev, pkg-config and
9402 libglib2.0-dev.  Failed to build in Lenny, but suspect that is
9403 solvable.  I hope kcov make it into Debian soon.</p>
9404
9405 <p>Finally found time to wrap up the release notes for <a
9406 href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-edu-announce/2010/10/msg00002.html">a
9407 new alpha release of Debian Edu</a>, and just published the second
9408 alpha test release of the Squeeze based Debian Edu /
9409 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Skolelinux</a>
9410 release.  Give it a try if you need a complete linux solution for your
9411 school, including central infrastructure server, workstations, thin
9412 client servers and diskless workstations.  A nice touch added
9413 yesterday is RDP support on the thin client servers, for windows
9414 clients to get a Linux desktop on request.</p>
9415
9416       </div>
9417       <div class="tags">
9418
9419
9420         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>.
9421
9422
9423       </div>
9424     </div>
9425     <div class="padding"></div>
9426
9427     <div class="entry">
9428       <div class="title">
9429         <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>
9430       </div>
9431       <div class="date">
9432          4th September 2010
9433       </div>
9434       <div class="body">
9435         <p>In the <a href="http://popcon.debian.org/unknown/by_vote">Debian
9436 popularity-contest numbers</a>, the adobe-flashplugin package the
9437 second most popular used package that is missing in Debian.  The sixth
9438 most popular is flashplayer-mozilla.  This is a clear indication that
9439 working flash is important for Debian users.  Around 10 percent of the
9440 users submitting data to popcon.debian.org have this package
9441 installed.</p>
9442
9443 <p>In the report written by Lars Risan in August 2008
9444 («<a href="http://wiki.skolelinux.no/Dokumentasjon/Rapporter?action=AttachFile&do=view&target=Skolelinux_i_bruk_rapport_1.0.pdf">Skolelinux
9445 i bruk – Rapport for Hurum kommune, Universitetet i Agder og
9446 stiftelsen SLX Debian Labs</a>»), one of the most important problems
9447 schools experienced with <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian
9448 Edu/Skolelinux</a> was the lack of working Flash.  A lot of educational
9449 web sites require Flash to work, and lacking working Flash support in
9450 the web browser and the problems with installing it was perceived as a
9451 good reason to stay with Windows.</p>
9452
9453 <p>I once saw a funny and sad comment in a web forum, where Linux was
9454 said to be the retarded cousin that did not really understand
9455 everything you told him but could work fairly well.  This was a
9456 comment regarding the problems Linux have with proprietary formats and
9457 non-standard web pages, and is sad because it exposes a fairly common
9458 understanding of whose fault it is if web pages that only work in for
9459 example Internet Explorer 6 fail to work on Firefox, and funny because
9460 it explain very well how annoying it is for users when Linux
9461 distributions do not work with the documents they receive or the web
9462 pages they want to visit.</p>
9463
9464 <p>This is part of the reason why I believe it is important for Debian
9465 and Debian Edu to have a well working Flash implementation in the
9466 distribution, to get at least popular sites as Youtube and Google
9467 Video to working out of the box.  For Squeeze, Debian have the chance
9468 to include the latest version of Gnash that will make this happen, as
9469 the new release 0.8.8 was published a few weeks ago and is resting in
9470 unstable.  The new version work with more sites that version 0.8.7.
9471 The Gnash maintainers have asked for a freeze exception, but the
9472 release team have not had time to reply to it yet.  I hope they agree
9473 with me that Flash is important for the Debian desktop users, and thus
9474 accept the new package into Squeeze.</p>
9475
9476       </div>
9477       <div class="tags">
9478
9479
9480         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>.
9481
9482
9483       </div>
9484     </div>
9485     <div class="padding"></div>
9486
9487     <div class="entry">
9488       <div class="title">
9489         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Circular_package_dependencies_harms_apt_recovery.html">Circular package dependencies harms apt recovery</a>
9490       </div>
9491       <div class="date">
9492         27th July 2010
9493       </div>
9494       <div class="body">
9495         <p>I discovered this while doing
9496 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Automatic_upgrade_testing_from_Lenny_to_Squeeze.html">automated
9497 testing of upgrades from Debian Lenny to Squeeze</a>.  A few packages
9498 in Debian still got circular dependencies, and it is often claimed
9499 that apt and aptitude should be able to handle this just fine, but
9500 some times these dependency loops causes apt to fail.</p>
9501
9502 <p>An example is from todays
9503 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/~pere/debian-upgrade-testing//test-20100727-lenny-squeeze-kde-aptitude.txt">upgrade
9504 of KDE using aptitude</a>.  In it, a bug in kdebase-workspace-data
9505 causes perl-modules to fail to upgrade.  The cause is simple.  If a
9506 package fail to unpack, then only part of packages with the circular
9507 dependency might end up being unpacked when unpacking aborts, and the
9508 ones already unpacked will fail to configure in the recovery phase
9509 because its dependencies are unavailable.</p>
9510
9511 <p>In this log, the problem manifest itself with this error:</p>
9512
9513 <blockquote><pre>
9514 dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of perl-modules:
9515  perl-modules depends on perl (>= 5.10.1-1); however:
9516   Version of perl on system is 5.10.0-19lenny2.
9517 dpkg: error processing perl-modules (--configure):
9518  dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
9519 </pre></blockquote>
9520
9521 <p>The perl/perl-modules circular dependency is already
9522 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/527917">reported as a bug</a>, and will
9523 hopefully be solved as soon as possible, but it is not the only one,
9524 and each one of these loops in the dependency tree can cause similar
9525 failures.  Of course, they only occur when there are bugs in other
9526 packages causing the unpacking to fail, but it is rather nasty when
9527 the failure of one package causes the problem to become worse because
9528 of dependency loops.</p>
9529
9530 <p>Thanks to
9531 <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2010/06/msg00116.html">the
9532 tireless effort by Bill Allombert</a>, the number of circular
9533 dependencies
9534 <a href="http://debian.semistable.com/debgraph.out.html">left in Debian
9535 is dropping</a>, and perhaps it will reach zero one day. :)</p>
9536
9537 <p>Todays testing also exposed a bug in
9538 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/590605">update-notifier</a> and
9539 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/590604">different behaviour</a> between
9540 apt-get and aptitude, the latter possibly caused by some circular
9541 dependency.  Reported both to BTS to try to get someone to look at
9542 it.</p>
9543
9544       </div>
9545       <div class="tags">
9546
9547
9548         Tags: <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>.
9549
9550
9551       </div>
9552     </div>
9553     <div class="padding"></div>
9554
9555     <div class="entry">
9556       <div class="title">
9557         <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>
9558       </div>
9559       <div class="date">
9560         17th July 2010
9561       </div>
9562       <div class="body">
9563         <p>This is a
9564 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Time_for_new__LDAP_schemas_replacing_RFC_2307_.html">followup</a>
9565 on my
9566 <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
9567 work</a> on
9568 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Combining_PowerDNS_and_ISC_DHCP_LDAP_objects.html">merging
9569 all</a> the computer related LDAP objects in Debian Edu.</p>
9570
9571 <p>As a step to try to see if it possible to merge the DNS and DHCP
9572 LDAP objects, I have had a look at how the packages pdns-backend-ldap
9573 and dhcp3-server-ldap in Debian use the LDAP server.  The two
9574 implementations are quite different in how they use LDAP.</p>
9575
9576 To get this information, I started slapd with debugging enabled and
9577 dumped the debug output to a file to get the LDAP searches performed
9578 on a Debian Edu main-server.  Here is a summary.
9579
9580 <p><strong>powerdns</strong></p>
9581
9582 <a href="http://www.linuxnetworks.de/doc/index.php/PowerDNS_LDAP_Backend">Clues
9583 on how to</a> set up PowerDNS to use a LDAP backend is available on
9584 the web.
9585
9586 <p>PowerDNS have two modes of operation using LDAP as its backend.
9587 One "strict" mode where the forward and reverse DNS lookups are done
9588 using the same LDAP objects, and a "tree" mode where the forward and
9589 reverse entries are in two different subtrees in LDAP with a structure
9590 based on the DNS names, as in tjener.intern and
9591 2.2.0.10.in-addr.arpa.</p>
9592
9593 <p>In tree mode, the server is set up to use a LDAP subtree as its
9594 base, and uses a "base" scoped search for the DNS name by adding
9595 "dc=tjener,dc=intern," to the base with a filter for
9596 "(associateddomain=tjener.intern)" for the forward entry and
9597 "dc=2,dc=2,dc=0,dc=10,dc=in-addr,dc=arpa," with a filter for
9598 "(associateddomain=2.2.0.10.in-addr.arpa)" for the reverse entry.  For
9599 forward entries, it is looking for attributes named dnsttl, arecord,
9600 nsrecord, cnamerecord, soarecord, ptrrecord, hinforecord, mxrecord,
9601 txtrecord, rprecord, afsdbrecord, keyrecord, aaaarecord, locrecord,
9602 srvrecord, naptrrecord, kxrecord, certrecord, dsrecord, sshfprecord,
9603 ipseckeyrecord, rrsigrecord, nsecrecord, dnskeyrecord, dhcidrecord,
9604 spfrecord and modifytimestamp.  For reverse entries it is looking for
9605 the attributes dnsttl, arecord, nsrecord, cnamerecord, soarecord,
9606 ptrrecord, hinforecord, mxrecord, txtrecord, rprecord, aaaarecord,
9607 locrecord, srvrecord, naptrrecord and modifytimestamp.  The equivalent
9608 ldapsearch commands could look like this:</p>
9609
9610 <blockquote><pre>
9611 ldapsearch -h ldap \
9612   -b dc=tjener,dc=intern,ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no \
9613   -s base -x '(associateddomain=tjener.intern)' dNSTTL aRecord nSRecord \
9614   cNAMERecord sOARecord pTRRecord hInfoRecord mXRecord tXTRecord \
9615   rPRecord aFSDBRecord KeyRecord aAAARecord lOCRecord sRVRecord \
9616   nAPTRRecord kXRecord certRecord dSRecord sSHFPRecord iPSecKeyRecord \
9617   rRSIGRecord nSECRecord dNSKeyRecord dHCIDRecord sPFRecord modifyTimestamp
9618
9619 ldapsearch -h ldap \
9620   -b dc=2,dc=2,dc=0,dc=10,dc=in-addr,dc=arpa,ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no \
9621   -s base -x '(associateddomain=2.2.0.10.in-addr.arpa)'
9622   dnsttl, arecord, nsrecord, cnamerecord soarecord ptrrecord \
9623   hinforecord mxrecord txtrecord rprecord aaaarecord locrecord \
9624   srvrecord naptrrecord modifytimestamp
9625 </pre></blockquote>
9626
9627 <p>In Debian Edu/Lenny, the PowerDNS tree mode is used with
9628 ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no as the base, and these are two
9629 example LDAP objects used there.  In addition to these objects, the
9630 parent objects all th way up to ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
9631 also exist.</p>
9632
9633 <blockquote><pre>
9634 dn: dc=tjener,dc=intern,ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
9635 objectclass: top
9636 objectclass: dnsdomain
9637 objectclass: domainrelatedobject
9638 dc: tjener
9639 arecord: 10.0.2.2
9640 associateddomain: tjener.intern
9641
9642 dn: dc=2,dc=2,dc=0,dc=10,dc=in-addr,dc=arpa,ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
9643 objectclass: top
9644 objectclass: dnsdomain2
9645 objectclass: domainrelatedobject
9646 dc: 2
9647 ptrrecord: tjener.intern
9648 associateddomain: 2.2.0.10.in-addr.arpa
9649 </pre></blockquote>
9650
9651 <p>In strict mode, the server behaves differently.  When looking for
9652 forward DNS entries, it is doing a "subtree" scoped search with the
9653 same base as in the tree mode for a object with filter
9654 "(associateddomain=tjener.intern)" and requests the attributes dnsttl,
9655 arecord, nsrecord, cnamerecord, soarecord, ptrrecord, hinforecord,
9656 mxrecord, txtrecord, rprecord, aaaarecord, locrecord, srvrecord,
9657 naptrrecord and modifytimestamp.  For reverse entires it also do a
9658 subtree scoped search but this time the filter is "(arecord=10.0.2.2)"
9659 and the requested attributes are associateddomain, dnsttl and
9660 modifytimestamp.  In short, in strict mode the objects with ptrrecord
9661 go away, and the arecord attribute in the forward object is used
9662 instead.</p>
9663
9664 <p>The forward and reverse searches can be simulated using ldapsearch
9665 like this:</p>
9666
9667 <blockquote><pre>
9668 ldapsearch -h ldap -b ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no -s sub -x \
9669   '(associateddomain=tjener.intern)' dNSTTL aRecord nSRecord \
9670   cNAMERecord sOARecord pTRRecord hInfoRecord mXRecord tXTRecord \
9671   rPRecord aFSDBRecord KeyRecord aAAARecord lOCRecord sRVRecord \
9672   nAPTRRecord kXRecord certRecord dSRecord sSHFPRecord iPSecKeyRecord \
9673   rRSIGRecord nSECRecord dNSKeyRecord dHCIDRecord sPFRecord modifyTimestamp
9674
9675 ldapsearch -h ldap -b ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no -s sub -x \
9676   '(arecord=10.0.2.2)' associateddomain dnsttl modifytimestamp
9677 </pre></blockquote>
9678
9679 <p>In addition to the forward and reverse searches , there is also a
9680 search for SOA records, which behave similar to the forward and
9681 reverse lookups.</p>
9682
9683 <p>A thing to note with the PowerDNS behaviour is that it do not
9684 specify any objectclass names, and instead look for the attributes it
9685 need to generate a DNS reply.  This make it able to work with any
9686 objectclass that provide the needed attributes.</p>
9687
9688 <p>The attributes are normally provided in the cosine (RFC 1274) and
9689 dnsdomain2 schemas.  The latter is used for reverse entries like
9690 ptrrecord and recent DNS additions like aaaarecord and srvrecord.</p>
9691
9692 <p>In Debian Edu, we have created DNS objects using the object classes
9693 dcobject (for dc), dnsdomain or dnsdomain2 (structural, for the DNS
9694 attributes) and domainrelatedobject (for associatedDomain).  The use
9695 of structural object classes make it impossible to combine these
9696 classes with the object classes used by DHCP.</p>
9697
9698 <p>There are other schemas that could be used too, for example the
9699 dnszone structural object class used by Gosa and bind-sdb for the DNS
9700 attributes combined with the domainrelatedobject object class, but in
9701 this case some unused attributes would have to be included as well
9702 (zonename and relativedomainname).</p>
9703
9704 <p>My proposal for Debian Edu would be to switch PowerDNS to strict
9705 mode and not use any of the existing objectclasses (dnsdomain,
9706 dnsdomain2 and dnszone) when one want to combine the DNS information
9707 with DHCP information, and instead create a auxiliary object class
9708 defined something like this (using the attributes defined for
9709 dnsdomain and dnsdomain2 or dnszone):</p>
9710
9711 <blockquote><pre>
9712 objectclass ( some-oid NAME 'dnsDomainAux'
9713     SUP top
9714     AUXILIARY
9715     MAY ( ARecord $ MDRecord $ MXRecord $ NSRecord $ SOARecord $ CNAMERecord $
9716           DNSTTL $ DNSClass $ PTRRecord $ HINFORecord $ MINFORecord $
9717           TXTRecord $ SIGRecord $ KEYRecord $ AAAARecord $ LOCRecord $
9718           NXTRecord $ SRVRecord $ NAPTRRecord $ KXRecord $ CERTRecord $
9719           A6Record $ DNAMERecord
9720     ))
9721 </pre></blockquote>
9722
9723 <p>This will allow any object to become a DNS entry when combined with
9724 the domainrelatedobject object class, and allow any entity to include
9725 all the attributes PowerDNS wants.  I've sent an email to the PowerDNS
9726 developers asking for their view on this schema and if they are
9727 interested in providing such schema with PowerDNS, and I hope my
9728 message will be accepted into their mailing list soon.</p>
9729
9730 <p><strong>ISC dhcp</strong></p>
9731
9732 <p>The DHCP server searches for specific objectclass and requests all
9733 the object attributes, and then uses the attributes it want.  This
9734 make it harder to figure out exactly what attributes are used, but
9735 thanks to the working example in Debian Edu I can at least get an idea
9736 what is needed without having to read the source code.</p>
9737
9738 <p>In the DHCP server configuration, the LDAP base to use and the
9739 search filter to use to locate the correct dhcpServer entity is
9740 stored.  These are the relevant entries from
9741 /etc/dhcp3/dhcpd.conf:</p>
9742
9743 <blockquote><pre>
9744 ldap-base-dn "dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no";
9745 ldap-dhcp-server-cn "dhcp";
9746 </pre></blockquote>
9747
9748 <p>The DHCP server uses this information to nest all the DHCP
9749 configuration it need.  The cn "dhcp" is located using the given LDAP
9750 base and the filter "(&(objectClass=dhcpServer)(cn=dhcp))".  The
9751 search result is this entry:</p>
9752
9753 <blockquote><pre>
9754 dn: cn=dhcp,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
9755 cn: dhcp
9756 objectClass: top
9757 objectClass: dhcpServer
9758 dhcpServiceDN: cn=DHCP Config,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
9759 </pre></blockquote>
9760
9761 <p>The content of the dhcpServiceDN attribute is next used to locate the
9762 subtree with DHCP configuration.  The DHCP configuration subtree base
9763 is located using a base scope search with base "cn=DHCP
9764 Config,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no" and filter
9765 "(&(objectClass=dhcpService)(|(dhcpPrimaryDN=cn=dhcp,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no)(dhcpSecondaryDN=cn=dhcp,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no)))".
9766 The search result is this entry:</p>
9767
9768 <blockquote><pre>
9769 dn: cn=DHCP Config,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
9770 cn: DHCP Config
9771 objectClass: top
9772 objectClass: dhcpService
9773 objectClass: dhcpOptions
9774 dhcpPrimaryDN: cn=dhcp, dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
9775 dhcpStatements: ddns-update-style none
9776 dhcpStatements: authoritative
9777 dhcpOption: smtp-server code 69 = array of ip-address
9778 dhcpOption: www-server code 72 = array of ip-address
9779 dhcpOption: wpad-url code 252 = text
9780 </pre></blockquote>
9781
9782 <p>Next, the entire subtree is processed, one level at the time.  When
9783 all the DHCP configuration is loaded, it is ready to receive requests.
9784 The subtree in Debian Edu contain objects with object classes
9785 top/dhcpService/dhcpOptions, top/dhcpSharedNetwork/dhcpOptions,
9786 top/dhcpSubnet, top/dhcpGroup and top/dhcpHost.  These provide options
9787 and information about netmasks, dynamic range etc.  Leaving out the
9788 details here because it is not relevant for the focus of my
9789 investigation, which is to see if it is possible to merge dns and dhcp
9790 related computer objects.</p>
9791
9792 <p>When a DHCP request come in, LDAP is searched for the MAC address
9793 of the client (00:00:00:00:00:00 in this example), using a subtree
9794 scoped search with "cn=DHCP Config,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no" as
9795 the base and "(&(objectClass=dhcpHost)(dhcpHWAddress=ethernet
9796 00:00:00:00:00:00))" as the filter.  This is what a host object look
9797 like:</p>
9798
9799 <blockquote><pre>
9800 dn: cn=hostname,cn=group1,cn=THINCLIENTS,cn=DHCP Config,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
9801 cn: hostname
9802 objectClass: top
9803 objectClass: dhcpHost
9804 dhcpHWAddress: ethernet 00:00:00:00:00:00
9805 dhcpStatements: fixed-address hostname
9806 </pre></blockquote>
9807
9808 <p>There is less flexiblity in the way LDAP searches are done here.
9809 The object classes need to have fixed names, and the configuration
9810 need to be stored in a fairly specific LDAP structure.  On the
9811 positive side, the invidiual dhcpHost entires can be anywhere without
9812 the DN pointed to by the dhcpServer entries.  The latter should make
9813 it possible to group all host entries in a subtree next to the
9814 configuration entries, and this subtree can also be shared with the
9815 DNS server if the schema proposed above is combined with the dhcpHost
9816 structural object class.
9817
9818 <p><strong>Conclusion</strong></p>
9819
9820 <p>The PowerDNS implementation seem to be very flexible when it come
9821 to which LDAP schemas to use.  While its "tree" mode is rigid when it
9822 come to the the LDAP structure, the "strict" mode is very flexible,
9823 allowing DNS objects to be stored anywhere under the base cn specified
9824 in the configuration.</p>
9825
9826 <p>The DHCP implementation on the other hand is very inflexible, both
9827 regarding which LDAP schemas to use and which LDAP structure to use.
9828 I guess one could implement ones own schema, as long as the
9829 objectclasses and attributes have the names used, but this do not
9830 really help when the DHCP subtree need to have a fairly fixed
9831 structure.</p>
9832
9833 <p>Based on the observed behaviour, I suspect a LDAP structure like
9834 this might work for Debian Edu:</p>
9835
9836 <blockquote><pre>
9837 ou=services
9838   cn=machine-info (dhcpService) - dhcpServiceDN points here
9839     cn=dhcp (dhcpServer)
9840     cn=dhcp-internal (dhcpSharedNetwork/dhcpOptions)
9841       cn=10.0.2.0 (dhcpSubnet)
9842         cn=group1 (dhcpGroup/dhcpOptions)
9843     cn=dhcp-thinclients (dhcpSharedNetwork/dhcpOptions)
9844       cn=192.168.0.0 (dhcpSubnet)
9845         cn=group1 (dhcpGroup/dhcpOptions)
9846     ou=machines - PowerDNS base points here
9847       cn=hostname (dhcpHost/domainrelatedobject/dnsDomainAux)
9848 </pre></blockquote>
9849
9850 <P>This is not tested yet.  If the DHCP server require the dhcpHost
9851 entries to be in the dhcpGroup subtrees, the entries can be stored
9852 there instead of a common machines subtree, and the PowerDNS base
9853 would have to be moved one level up to the machine-info subtree.</p>
9854
9855 <p>The combined object under the machines subtree would look something
9856 like this:</p>
9857
9858 <blockquote><pre>
9859 dn: dc=hostname,ou=machines,cn=machine-info,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
9860 dc: hostname
9861 objectClass: top
9862 objectClass: dhcpHost
9863 objectclass: domainrelatedobject
9864 objectclass: dnsDomainAux
9865 associateddomain: hostname.intern
9866 arecord: 10.11.12.13
9867 dhcpHWAddress: ethernet 00:00:00:00:00:00
9868 dhcpStatements: fixed-address hostname.intern
9869 </pre></blockquote>
9870
9871 </p>One could even add the LTSP configuration associated with a given
9872 machine, as long as the required attributes are available in a
9873 auxiliary object class.</p>
9874
9875       </div>
9876       <div class="tags">
9877
9878
9879         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>.
9880
9881
9882       </div>
9883     </div>
9884     <div class="padding"></div>
9885
9886     <div class="entry">
9887       <div class="title">
9888         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Combining_PowerDNS_and_ISC_DHCP_LDAP_objects.html">Combining PowerDNS and ISC DHCP LDAP objects</a>
9889       </div>
9890       <div class="date">
9891         14th July 2010
9892       </div>
9893       <div class="body">
9894         <p>For a while now, I have wanted to find a way to change the DNS and
9895 DHCP services in Debian Edu to use the same LDAP objects for a given
9896 computer, to avoid the possibility of having a inconsistent state for
9897 a computer in LDAP (as in DHCP but no DNS entry or the other way
9898 around) and make it easier to add computers to LDAP.</p>
9899
9900 <p>I've looked at how powerdns and dhcpd is using LDAP, and using this
9901 information finally found a solution that seem to work.</p>
9902
9903 <p>The old setup required three LDAP objects for a given computer.
9904 One forward DNS entry, one reverse DNS entry and one DHCP entry.  If
9905 we switch powerdns to use its strict LDAP method (ldap-method=strict
9906 in pdns-debian-edu.conf), the forward and reverse DNS entries are
9907 merged into one while making it impossible to transfer the reverse map
9908 to a slave DNS server.</p>
9909
9910 <p>If we also replace the object class used to get the DNS related
9911 attributes to one allowing these attributes to be combined with the
9912 dhcphost object class, we can merge the DNS and DHCP entries into one.
9913 I've written such object class in the dnsdomainaux.schema file (need
9914 proper OIDs, but that is a minor issue), and tested the setup.  It
9915 seem to work.</p>
9916
9917 <p>With this test setup in place, we can get away with one LDAP object
9918 for both DNS and DHCP, and even the LTSP configuration I suggested in
9919 an earlier email.  The combined LDAP object will look something like
9920 this:</p>
9921
9922 <blockquote><pre>
9923   dn: cn=hostname,cn=group1,cn=THINCLIENTS,cn=DHCP Config,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
9924   cn: hostname
9925   objectClass: dhcphost
9926   objectclass: domainrelatedobject
9927   objectclass: dnsdomainaux
9928   associateddomain: hostname.intern
9929   arecord: 10.11.12.13
9930   dhcphwaddress: ethernet 00:00:00:00:00:00
9931   dhcpstatements: fixed-address hostname
9932   ldapconfigsound: Y
9933 </pre></blockquote>
9934
9935 <p>The DNS server uses the associateddomain and arecord entries, while
9936 the DHCP server uses the dhcphwaddress and dhcpstatements entries
9937 before asking DNS to resolve the fixed-adddress.  LTSP will use
9938 dhcphwaddress or associateddomain and the ldapconfig* attributes.</p>
9939
9940 <p>I am not yet sure if I can get the DHCP server to look for its
9941 dhcphost in a different location, to allow us to put the objects
9942 outside the "DHCP Config" subtree, but hope to figure out a way to do
9943 that.  If I can't figure out a way to do that, we can still get rid of
9944 the hosts subtree and move all its content into the DHCP Config tree
9945 (which probably should be renamed to be more related to the new
9946 content.  I suspect cn=dnsdhcp,ou=services or something like that
9947 might be a good place to put it.</p>
9948
9949 <p>If you want to help out with implementing this for Debian Edu,
9950 please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.</p>
9951
9952       </div>
9953       <div class="tags">
9954
9955
9956         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>.
9957
9958
9959       </div>
9960     </div>
9961     <div class="padding"></div>
9962
9963     <div class="entry">
9964       <div class="title">
9965         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Idea_for_storing_LTSP_configuration_in_LDAP.html">Idea for storing LTSP configuration in LDAP</a>
9966       </div>
9967       <div class="date">
9968         11th July 2010
9969       </div>
9970       <div class="body">
9971         <p>Vagrant mentioned on IRC today that ltsp_config now support
9972 sourcing files from /usr/share/ltsp/ltsp_config.d/ on the thin
9973 clients, and that this can be used to fetch configuration from LDAP if
9974 Debian Edu choose to store configuration there.</p>
9975
9976 <p>Armed with this information, I got inspired and wrote a test module
9977 to get configuration from LDAP.  The idea is to look up the MAC
9978 address of the client in LDAP, and look for attributes on the form
9979 ltspconfigsetting=value, and use this to export SETTING=value to the
9980 LTSP clients.</p>
9981
9982 <p>The goal is to be able to store the LTSP configuration attributes
9983 in a "computer" LDAP object used by both DNS and DHCP, and thus
9984 allowing us to store all information about a computer in one place.</p>
9985
9986 <p>This is a untested draft implementation, and I welcome feedback on
9987 this approach.  A real LDAP schema for the ltspClientAux objectclass
9988 need to be written.  Comments, suggestions, etc?</p>
9989
9990 <blockquote><pre>
9991 # Store in /opt/ltsp/$arch/usr/share/ltsp/ltsp_config.d/ldap-config
9992 #
9993 # Fetch LTSP client settings from LDAP based on MAC address
9994 #
9995 # Uses ethernet address as stored in the dhcpHost objectclass using
9996 # the dhcpHWAddress attribute or ethernet address stored in the
9997 # ieee802Device objectclass with the macAddress attribute.
9998 #
9999 # This module is written to be schema agnostic, and only depend on the
10000 # existence of attribute names.
10001 #
10002 # The LTSP configuration variables are saved directly using a
10003 # ltspConfig prefix and uppercasing the rest of the attribute name.
10004 # To set the SERVER variable, set the ltspConfigServer attribute.
10005 #
10006 # Some LDAP schema should be created with all the relevant
10007 # configuration settings.  Something like this should work:
10008 #
10009 # objectclass ( 1.1.2.2 NAME 'ltspClientAux'
10010 #     SUP top
10011 #     AUXILIARY
10012 #     MAY ( ltspConfigServer $ ltsConfigSound $ ... )
10013
10014 LDAPSERVER=$(debian-edu-ldapserver)
10015 if [ "$LDAPSERVER" ] ; then
10016     LDAPBASE=$(debian-edu-ldapserver -b)
10017     for MAC in $(LANG=C ifconfig |grep -i hwaddr| awk '{print $5}'|sort -u) ; do
10018         filter="(|(dhcpHWAddress=ethernet $MAC)(macAddress=$MAC))"
10019         ldapsearch -h "$LDAPSERVER" -b "$LDAPBASE" -v -x "$filter" | \
10020             grep '^ltspConfig' | while read attr value ; do
10021             # Remove prefix and convert to upper case
10022             attr=$(echo $attr | sed 's/^ltspConfig//i' | tr a-z A-Z)
10023             # bass value on to clients
10024             eval "$attr=$value; export $attr"
10025         done
10026     done
10027 fi
10028 </pre></blockquote>
10029
10030 <p>I'm not sure this shell construction will work, because I suspect
10031 the while block might end up in a subshell causing the variables set
10032 there to not show up in ltsp-config, but if that is the case I am sure
10033 the code can be restructured to make sure the variables are passed on.
10034 I expect that can be solved with some testing. :)</p>
10035
10036 <p>If you want to help out with implementing this for Debian Edu,
10037 please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.</p>
10038
10039 <p>Update 2010-07-17: I am aware of another effort to store LTSP
10040 configuration in LDAP that was created around year 2000 by
10041 <a href="http://www.pcxperience.com/thinclient/documentation/ldap.html">PC
10042 Xperience, Inc., 2000</a>.  I found its
10043 <a href="http://people.redhat.com/alikins/ltsp/ldap/">files</a> on a
10044 personal home page over at redhat.com.</p>
10045
10046       </div>
10047       <div class="tags">
10048
10049
10050         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>.
10051
10052
10053       </div>
10054     </div>
10055     <div class="padding"></div>
10056
10057     <div class="entry">
10058       <div class="title">
10059         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/jXplorer__a_very_nice_LDAP_GUI.html">jXplorer, a very nice LDAP GUI</a>
10060       </div>
10061       <div class="date">
10062          9th July 2010
10063       </div>
10064       <div class="body">
10065         <p>Since
10066 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/LUMA__a_very_nice_LDAP_GUI.html">my
10067 last post</a> about available LDAP tools in Debian, I was told about a
10068 LDAP GUI that is even better than luma.  The java application
10069 <a href="http://jxplorer.org/">jXplorer</a> is claimed to be capable of
10070 moving LDAP objects and subtrees using drag-and-drop, and can
10071 authenticate using Kerberos.  I have only tested the Kerberos
10072 authentication, but do not have a LDAP setup allowing me to rewrite
10073 LDAP with my test user yet.  It is
10074 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/j/jxplorer.html">available in
10075 Debian</a> testing and unstable at the moment.  The only problem I
10076 have with it is how it handle errors.  If something go wrong, its
10077 non-intuitive behaviour require me to go through some query work list
10078 and remove the failing query.  Nothing big, but very annoying.</p>
10079
10080       </div>
10081       <div class="tags">
10082
10083
10084         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>.
10085
10086
10087       </div>
10088     </div>
10089     <div class="padding"></div>
10090
10091     <div class="entry">
10092       <div class="title">
10093         <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>
10094       </div>
10095       <div class="date">
10096          3rd July 2010
10097       </div>
10098       <div class="body">
10099         <p>Here is a short update on my <a
10100 href="http://people.skolelinux.org/~pere/debian-upgrade-testing/">my
10101 Debian Lenny->Squeeze upgrade testing</a>.  Here is a summary of the
10102 difference for Gnome when it is upgraded by apt-get and aptitude.  I'm
10103 not reporting the status for KDE, because the upgrade crashes when
10104 aptitude try because of missing conflicts
10105 (<a href="http://bugs.debian.org/584861">#584861</a> and
10106 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/585716">#585716</a>).</p>
10107
10108 <p>At the end of the upgrade test script, dpkg -l is executed to get a
10109 complete list of the installed packages.  Based on this I see these
10110 differences when I did a test run today.  As usual, I do not really
10111 know what the correct set of packages would be, but thought it best to
10112 publish the difference.</p>
10113
10114 <p>Installed using apt-get, missing with aptitude</p>
10115
10116 <blockquote><p>
10117   at-spi cpp-4.3 finger gnome-spell gstreamer0.10-gnomevfs
10118   libatspi1.0-0 libcupsys2 libeel2-data libgail-common libgdl-1-common
10119   libgnomeprint2.2-data libgnomeprintui2.2-common libgnomevfs2-bin
10120   libgtksourceview-common libpt-1.10.10-plugins-alsa
10121   libpt-1.10.10-plugins-v4l libservlet2.4-java libxalan2-java
10122   libxerces2-java openoffice.org-writer2latex openssl-blacklist p7zip
10123   python-4suite-xml python-eggtrayicon python-gtkhtml2
10124   python-gtkmozembed svgalibg1 xserver-xephyr zip
10125 </p></blockquote>
10126
10127 <p>Installed using apt-get, removed with aptitude</p>
10128
10129 <blockquote><p>
10130   bluez-utils dhcdbd djvulibre-desktop epiphany-gecko
10131   gnome-app-install gnome-mount gnome-vfs-obexftp gnome-volume-manager
10132   libao2 libavahi-compat-libdnssd1 libavahi-core5 libbind9-50
10133   libbluetooth2 libcamel1.2-11 libcdio7 libcucul0 libcurl3
10134   libdirectfb-1.0-0 libdvdread3 libedata-cal1.2-6 libedataserver1.2-9
10135   libeel2-2.20 libepc-1.0-1 libepc-ui-1.0-1 libexchange-storage1.2-3
10136   libfaad0 libgd2-noxpm libgda3-3 libgda3-common libggz2 libggzcore9
10137   libggzmod4 libgksu1.2-0 libgksuui1.0-1 libgmyth0 libgnome-desktop-2
10138   libgnome-pilot2 libgnomecups1.0-1 libgnomeprint2.2-0
10139   libgnomeprintui2.2-0 libgpod3 libgraphviz4 libgtkhtml2-0
10140   libgtksourceview1.0-0 libgucharmap6 libhesiod0 libicu38 libisccc50
10141   libisccfg50 libiw29 libkpathsea4 libltdl3 liblwres50 libmagick++10
10142   libmagick10 libmalaga7 libmtp7 libmysqlclient15off libnautilus-burn4
10143   libneon27 libnm-glib0 libnm-util0 libopal-2.2 libosp5
10144   libparted1.8-10 libpisock9 libpisync1 libpoppler-glib3 libpoppler3
10145   libpt-1.10.10 libraw1394-8 libsensors3 libsmbios2 libsoup2.2-8
10146   libssh2-1 libsuitesparse-3.1.0 libswfdec-0.6-90 libtalloc1
10147   libtotem-plparser10 libtrackerclient0 libvoikko1 libxalan2-java-gcj
10148   libxerces2-java-gcj libxklavier12 libxtrap6 libxxf86misc1 libzephyr3
10149   mysql-common swfdec-gnome totem-gstreamer wodim
10150 </p></blockquote>
10151
10152 <p>Installed using aptitude, missing with apt-get</p>
10153
10154 <blockquote><p>
10155   gnome gnome-desktop-environment hamster-applet python-gnomeapplet
10156   python-gnomekeyring python-wnck rhythmbox-plugins xorg
10157   xserver-xorg-input-all xserver-xorg-input-evdev
10158   xserver-xorg-input-kbd xserver-xorg-input-mouse
10159   xserver-xorg-input-synaptics xserver-xorg-video-all
10160   xserver-xorg-video-apm xserver-xorg-video-ark xserver-xorg-video-ati
10161   xserver-xorg-video-chips xserver-xorg-video-cirrus
10162   xserver-xorg-video-dummy xserver-xorg-video-fbdev
10163   xserver-xorg-video-glint xserver-xorg-video-i128
10164   xserver-xorg-video-i740 xserver-xorg-video-mach64
10165   xserver-xorg-video-mga xserver-xorg-video-neomagic
10166   xserver-xorg-video-nouveau xserver-xorg-video-nv
10167   xserver-xorg-video-r128 xserver-xorg-video-radeon
10168   xserver-xorg-video-radeonhd xserver-xorg-video-rendition
10169   xserver-xorg-video-s3 xserver-xorg-video-s3virge
10170   xserver-xorg-video-savage xserver-xorg-video-siliconmotion
10171   xserver-xorg-video-sis xserver-xorg-video-sisusb
10172   xserver-xorg-video-tdfx xserver-xorg-video-tga
10173   xserver-xorg-video-trident xserver-xorg-video-tseng
10174   xserver-xorg-video-vesa xserver-xorg-video-vmware
10175   xserver-xorg-video-voodoo
10176 </p></blockquote>
10177
10178 <p>Installed using aptitude, removed with apt-get</p>
10179
10180 <blockquote><p>
10181   deskbar-applet xserver-xorg xserver-xorg-core
10182   xserver-xorg-input-wacom xserver-xorg-video-intel
10183   xserver-xorg-video-openchrome
10184 </p></blockquote>
10185
10186 <p>I was told on IRC that the xorg-xserver package was
10187 <a href="http://git.debian.org/?p=pkg-xorg/xserver/xorg-server.git;a=commit;h=9c8080d06c457932d3bfec021c69ac000aa60120">changed
10188 in git</a> today to try to get apt-get to not remove xorg completely.
10189 No idea when it hits Squeeze, but when it does I hope it will reduce
10190 the difference somewhat.
10191
10192       </div>
10193       <div class="tags">
10194
10195
10196         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>.
10197
10198
10199       </div>
10200     </div>
10201     <div class="padding"></div>
10202
10203     <div class="entry">
10204       <div class="title">
10205         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/LUMA__a_very_nice_LDAP_GUI.html">LUMA, a very nice LDAP GUI</a>
10206       </div>
10207       <div class="date">
10208         28th June 2010
10209       </div>
10210       <div class="body">
10211         <p>The last few days I have been looking into the status of the LDAP
10212 directory in Debian Edu, and in the process I started to miss a GUI
10213 tool to browse the LDAP tree.  The only one I was able to find in
10214 Debian/Squeeze and Lenny is
10215 <a href="http://luma.sourceforge.net/">LUMA</a>, which has proved to
10216 be a great tool to get a overview of the current LDAP directory
10217 populated by default in Skolelinux.  Thanks to it, I have been able to
10218 find empty and obsolete subtrees, misplaced objects and duplicate
10219 objects.  It will be installed by default in Debian/Squeeze.  If you
10220 are working with LDAP, give it a go. :)</p>
10221
10222 <p>I did notice one problem with it I have not had time to report to
10223 the BTS yet.  There is no .desktop file in the package, so the tool do
10224 not show up in the Gnome and KDE menus, but only deep down in in the
10225 Debian submenu in KDE.  I hope that can be fixed before Squeeze is
10226 released.</p>
10227
10228 <p>I have not yet been able to get it to modify the tree yet.  I would
10229 like to move objects and remove subtrees directly in the GUI, but have
10230 not found a way to do that with LUMA yet.  So in the mean time, I use
10231 <a href="http://www.lichteblau.com/ldapvi/">ldapvi</a> for that.</p>
10232
10233 <p>If you have tips on other GUI tools for LDAP that might be useful
10234 in Debian Edu, please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.</p>
10235
10236 <p>Update 2010-06-29: Ross Reedstrom tipped us about the
10237 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/g/gq.html">gq</a> package as a
10238 useful GUI alternative.  It seem like a good tool, but is unmaintained
10239 in Debian and got a RC bug keeping it out of Squeeze.  Unless that
10240 changes, it will not be an option for Debian Edu based on Squeeze.</p>
10241
10242       </div>
10243       <div class="tags">
10244
10245
10246         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>.
10247
10248
10249       </div>
10250     </div>
10251     <div class="padding"></div>
10252
10253     <div class="entry">
10254       <div class="title">
10255         <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>
10256       </div>
10257       <div class="date">
10258         24th June 2010
10259       </div>
10260       <div class="body">
10261         <p>A while back, I
10262 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Time_for_new__LDAP_schemas_replacing_RFC_2307_.html">complained
10263 about the fact</a> that it is not possible with the provided schemas
10264 for storing DNS and DHCP information in LDAP to combine the two sets
10265 of information into one LDAP object representing a computer.</p>
10266
10267 <p>In the mean time, I discovered that a simple fix would be to make
10268 the dhcpHost object class auxiliary, to allow it to be combined with
10269 the dNSDomain object class, and thus forming one object for one
10270 computer when storing both DHCP and DNS information in LDAP.</p>
10271
10272 <p>If I understand this correctly, it is not safe to do this change
10273 without also changing the assigned number for the object class, and I
10274 do not know enough about LDAP schema design to do that properly for
10275 Debian Edu.</p>
10276
10277 <p>Anyway, for future reference, this is how I believe we could change
10278 the
10279 <a href="http://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-ietf-dhc-ldap-schema-00">DHCP
10280 schema</a> to solve at least part of the problem with the LDAP schemas
10281 available today from IETF.</p>
10282
10283 <pre>
10284 --- dhcp.schema    (revision 65192)
10285 +++ dhcp.schema    (working copy)
10286 @@ -376,7 +376,7 @@
10287  objectclass ( 2.16.840.1.113719.1.203.6.6
10288         NAME 'dhcpHost'
10289         DESC 'This represents information about a particular client'
10290 -       SUP top
10291 +       SUP top AUXILIARY
10292         MUST cn
10293         MAY  (dhcpLeaseDN $ dhcpHWAddress $ dhcpOptionsDN $ dhcpStatements $ dhcpComments $ dhcpOption)
10294         X-NDS_CONTAINMENT ('dhcpService' 'dhcpSubnet' 'dhcpGroup') )
10295 </pre>
10296
10297 <p>I very much welcome clues on how to do this properly for Debian
10298 Edu/Squeeze.  We provide the DHCP schema in our debian-edu-config
10299 package, and should thus be free to rewrite it as we see fit.</p>
10300
10301 <p>If you want to help out with implementing this for Debian Edu,
10302 please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.</p>
10303
10304       </div>
10305       <div class="tags">
10306
10307
10308         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>.
10309
10310
10311       </div>
10312     </div>
10313     <div class="padding"></div>
10314
10315     <div class="entry">
10316       <div class="title">
10317         <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>
10318       </div>
10319       <div class="date">
10320         16th June 2010
10321       </div>
10322       <div class="body">
10323         <p>A few times I have had the need to simulate the way tasksel
10324 installs packages during the normal debian-installer run.  Until now,
10325 I have ended up letting tasksel do the work, with the annoying problem
10326 of not getting any feedback at all when something fails (like a
10327 conffile question from dpkg or a download that fails), using code like
10328 this:
10329
10330 <blockquote><pre>
10331 export DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive
10332 tasksel --new-install
10333 </pre></blockquote>
10334
10335 This would invoke tasksel, let its automatic task selection pick the
10336 tasks to install, and continue to install the requested tasks without
10337 any output what so ever.
10338
10339 Recently I revisited this problem while working on the automatic
10340 package upgrade testing, because tasksel would some times hang without
10341 any useful feedback, and I want to see what is going on when it
10342 happen.  Then it occured to me, I can parse the output from tasksel
10343 when asked to run in test mode, and use that aptitude command line
10344 printed by tasksel then to simulate the tasksel run.  I ended up using
10345 code like this:
10346
10347 <blockquote><pre>
10348 export DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive
10349 cmd="$(in_target tasksel -t --new-install | sed 's/debconf-apt-progress -- //')"
10350 $cmd
10351 </pre></blockquote>
10352
10353 <p>The content of $cmd is typically something like "<tt>aptitude -q
10354 --without-recommends -o APT::Install-Recommends=no -y install
10355 ~t^desktop$ ~t^gnome-desktop$ ~t^laptop$ ~pstandard ~prequired
10356 ~pimportant</tt>", which will install the gnome desktop task, the
10357 laptop task and all packages with priority standard , required and
10358 important, just like tasksel would have done it during
10359 installation.</p>
10360
10361 <p>A better approach is probably to extend tasksel to be able to
10362 install packages without using debconf-apt-progress, for use cases
10363 like this.</p>
10364
10365       </div>
10366       <div class="tags">
10367
10368
10369         Tags: <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>.
10370
10371
10372       </div>
10373     </div>
10374     <div class="padding"></div>
10375
10376     <div class="entry">
10377       <div class="title">
10378         <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>
10379       </div>
10380       <div class="date">
10381         13th June 2010
10382       </div>
10383       <div class="body">
10384         <p>My
10385 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Automatic_upgrade_testing_from_Lenny_to_Squeeze.html">testing
10386 of Debian upgrades</a> from Lenny to Squeeze continues, and I've
10387 finally made the upgrade logs available from
10388 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/debian-upgrade-testing/">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/debian-upgrade-testing/</a>.
10389 I am now testing dist-upgrade of Gnome and KDE in a chroot using both
10390 apt and aptitude, and found their differences interesting.  This time
10391 I will only focus on their removal plans.</p>
10392
10393 <p>After installing a Gnome desktop and the laptop task, apt-get wants
10394 to remove 72 packages when dist-upgrading from Lenny to Squeeze.  The
10395 surprising part is that it want to remove xorg and all
10396 xserver-xorg-video* drivers.  Clearly not a good choice, but I am not
10397 sure why.  When asking aptitude to do the same, it want to remove 129
10398 packages, but most of them are library packages I suspect are no
10399 longer needed.  Both of them want to remove bluetooth packages, which
10400 I do not know.  Perhaps these bluetooth packages are obsolete?</p>
10401
10402 <p>For KDE, apt-get want to remove 82 packages, among them kdebase
10403 which seem like a bad idea and xorg the same way as with Gnome. Asking
10404 aptitude for the same, it wants to remove 192 packages, none which are
10405 too surprising.</p>
10406
10407 <p>I guess the removal of xorg during upgrades should be investigated
10408 and avoided, and perhaps others as well.  Here are the complete list
10409 of planned removals.  The complete logs is available from the URL
10410 above.  Note if you want to repeat these tests, that the upgrade test
10411 for kde+apt-get hung in the tasksel setup because of dpkg asking
10412 conffile questions.  No idea why.  I worked around it by using
10413 '<tt>echo >> /proc/<em>pidofdpkg</em>/fd/0</tt>' to tell dpkg to
10414 continue.</p>
10415
10416 <p><b>apt-get gnome 72</b>
10417 <br>bluez-gnome cupsddk-drivers deskbar-applet gnome
10418   gnome-desktop-environment gnome-network-admin gtkhtml3.14
10419   iceweasel-gnome-support libavcodec51 libdatrie0 libgdl-1-0
10420   libgnomekbd2 libgnomekbdui2 libmetacity0 libslab0 libxcb-xlib0
10421   nautilus-cd-burner python-gnome2-desktop python-gnome2-extras
10422   serpentine swfdec-mozilla update-manager xorg xserver-xorg
10423   xserver-xorg-core xserver-xorg-input-all xserver-xorg-input-evdev
10424   xserver-xorg-input-kbd xserver-xorg-input-mouse
10425   xserver-xorg-input-synaptics xserver-xorg-input-wacom
10426   xserver-xorg-video-all xserver-xorg-video-apm xserver-xorg-video-ark
10427   xserver-xorg-video-ati xserver-xorg-video-chips
10428   xserver-xorg-video-cirrus xserver-xorg-video-cyrix
10429   xserver-xorg-video-dummy xserver-xorg-video-fbdev
10430   xserver-xorg-video-glint xserver-xorg-video-i128
10431   xserver-xorg-video-i740 xserver-xorg-video-imstt
10432   xserver-xorg-video-intel xserver-xorg-video-mach64
10433   xserver-xorg-video-mga xserver-xorg-video-neomagic
10434   xserver-xorg-video-nsc xserver-xorg-video-nv
10435   xserver-xorg-video-openchrome xserver-xorg-video-r128
10436   xserver-xorg-video-radeon xserver-xorg-video-radeonhd
10437   xserver-xorg-video-rendition xserver-xorg-video-s3
10438   xserver-xorg-video-s3virge xserver-xorg-video-savage
10439   xserver-xorg-video-siliconmotion xserver-xorg-video-sis
10440   xserver-xorg-video-sisusb xserver-xorg-video-tdfx
10441   xserver-xorg-video-tga xserver-xorg-video-trident
10442   xserver-xorg-video-tseng xserver-xorg-video-v4l
10443   xserver-xorg-video-vesa xserver-xorg-video-vga
10444   xserver-xorg-video-vmware xserver-xorg-video-voodoo xulrunner-1.9
10445   xulrunner-1.9-gnome-support</p>
10446
10447 <p><b>aptitude gnome 129</b>
10448
10449 <br>bluez-gnome bluez-utils cpp-4.3 cupsddk-drivers dhcdbd
10450   djvulibre-desktop finger gnome-app-install gnome-mount
10451   gnome-network-admin gnome-spell gnome-vfs-obexftp
10452   gnome-volume-manager gstreamer0.10-gnomevfs gtkhtml3.14 libao2
10453   libavahi-compat-libdnssd1 libavahi-core5 libavcodec51 libbluetooth2
10454   libcamel1.2-11 libcdio7 libcucul0 libcupsys2 libcurl3 libdatrie0
10455   libdirectfb-1.0-0 libdvdread3 libedataserver1.2-9 libeel2-2.20
10456   libeel2-data libepc-1.0-1 libepc-ui-1.0-1 libfaad0 libgail-common
10457   libgd2-noxpm libgda3-3 libgda3-common libgdl-1-0 libgdl-1-common
10458   libggz2 libggzcore9 libggzmod4 libgksu1.2-0 libgksuui1.0-1 libgmyth0
10459   libgnomecups1.0-1 libgnomekbd2 libgnomekbdui2 libgnomeprint2.2-0
10460   libgnomeprint2.2-data libgnomeprintui2.2-0 libgnomeprintui2.2-common
10461   libgnomevfs2-bin libgpod3 libgraphviz4 libgtkhtml2-0
10462   libgtksourceview-common libgtksourceview1.0-0 libgucharmap6
10463   libhesiod0 libicu38 libiw29 libkpathsea4 libltdl3 libmagick++10
10464   libmagick10 libmalaga7 libmetacity0 libmtp7 libmysqlclient15off
10465   libnautilus-burn4 libneon27 libnm-glib0 libnm-util0 libopal-2.2
10466   libosp5 libparted1.8-10 libpoppler-glib3 libpoppler3 libpt-1.10.10
10467   libpt-1.10.10-plugins-alsa libpt-1.10.10-plugins-v4l libraw1394-8
10468   libsensors3 libslab0 libsmbios2 libsoup2.2-8 libssh2-1
10469   libsuitesparse-3.1.0 libswfdec-0.6-90 libtalloc1 libtotem-plparser10
10470   libtrackerclient0 libxalan2-java libxalan2-java-gcj libxcb-xlib0
10471   libxerces2-java libxerces2-java-gcj libxklavier12 libxtrap6
10472   libxxf86misc1 libzephyr3 mysql-common nautilus-cd-burner
10473   openoffice.org-writer2latex openssl-blacklist p7zip
10474   python-4suite-xml python-eggtrayicon python-gnome2-desktop
10475   python-gnome2-extras python-gtkhtml2 python-gtkmozembed
10476   python-numeric python-sexy serpentine svgalibg1 swfdec-gnome
10477   swfdec-mozilla totem-gstreamer update-manager wodim
10478   xserver-xorg-video-cyrix xserver-xorg-video-imstt
10479   xserver-xorg-video-nsc xserver-xorg-video-v4l xserver-xorg-video-vga
10480   zip</p>
10481
10482 <p><b>apt-get kde 82</b>
10483
10484 <br>cupsddk-drivers karm kaudiocreator kcoloredit kcontrol kde kde-core
10485   kdeaddons kdeartwork kdebase kdebase-bin kdebase-bin-kde3
10486   kdebase-kio-plugins kdesktop kdeutils khelpcenter kicker
10487   kicker-applets knewsticker kolourpaint konq-plugins konqueror korn
10488   kpersonalizer kscreensaver ksplash libavcodec51 libdatrie0 libkiten1
10489   libxcb-xlib0 quanta superkaramba texlive-base-bin xorg xserver-xorg
10490   xserver-xorg-core xserver-xorg-input-all xserver-xorg-input-evdev
10491   xserver-xorg-input-kbd xserver-xorg-input-mouse
10492   xserver-xorg-input-synaptics xserver-xorg-input-wacom
10493   xserver-xorg-video-all xserver-xorg-video-apm xserver-xorg-video-ark
10494   xserver-xorg-video-ati xserver-xorg-video-chips
10495   xserver-xorg-video-cirrus xserver-xorg-video-cyrix
10496   xserver-xorg-video-dummy xserver-xorg-video-fbdev
10497   xserver-xorg-video-glint xserver-xorg-video-i128
10498   xserver-xorg-video-i740 xserver-xorg-video-imstt
10499   xserver-xorg-video-intel xserver-xorg-video-mach64
10500   xserver-xorg-video-mga xserver-xorg-video-neomagic
10501   xserver-xorg-video-nsc xserver-xorg-video-nv
10502   xserver-xorg-video-openchrome xserver-xorg-video-r128
10503   xserver-xorg-video-radeon xserver-xorg-video-radeonhd
10504   xserver-xorg-video-rendition xserver-xorg-video-s3
10505   xserver-xorg-video-s3virge xserver-xorg-video-savage
10506   xserver-xorg-video-siliconmotion xserver-xorg-video-sis
10507   xserver-xorg-video-sisusb xserver-xorg-video-tdfx
10508   xserver-xorg-video-tga xserver-xorg-video-trident
10509   xserver-xorg-video-tseng xserver-xorg-video-v4l
10510   xserver-xorg-video-vesa xserver-xorg-video-vga
10511   xserver-xorg-video-vmware xserver-xorg-video-voodoo xulrunner-1.9</p>
10512
10513 <p><b>aptitude kde 192</b>
10514 <br>bluez-utils cpp-4.3 cupsddk-drivers cvs dcoprss dhcdbd
10515   djvulibre-desktop dosfstools eyesapplet fifteenapplet finger gettext
10516   ghostscript-x imlib-base imlib11 indi kandy karm kasteroids
10517   kaudiocreator kbackgammon kbstate kcoloredit kcontrol kcron kdat
10518   kdeadmin-kfile-plugins kdeartwork-misc kdeartwork-theme-window
10519   kdebase-bin-kde3 kdebase-kio-plugins kdeedu-data
10520   kdegraphics-kfile-plugins kdelirc kdemultimedia-kappfinder-data
10521   kdemultimedia-kfile-plugins kdenetwork-kfile-plugins
10522   kdepim-kfile-plugins kdepim-kio-plugins kdeprint kdesktop kdessh
10523   kdict kdnssd kdvi kedit keduca kenolaba kfax kfaxview kfouleggs
10524   kghostview khelpcenter khexedit kiconedit kitchensync klatin
10525   klickety kmailcvt kmenuedit kmid kmilo kmoon kmrml kodo kolourpaint
10526   kooka korn kpager kpdf kpercentage kpf kpilot kpoker kpovmodeler
10527   krec kregexpeditor ksayit ksim ksirc ksirtet ksmiletris ksmserver
10528   ksnake ksokoban ksplash ksvg ksysv ktip ktnef kuickshow kverbos
10529   kview kviewshell kvoctrain kwifimanager kwin kwin4 kworldclock
10530   kxsldbg libakode2 libao2 libarts1-akode libarts1-audiofile
10531   libarts1-mpeglib libarts1-xine libavahi-compat-libdnssd1
10532   libavahi-core5 libavc1394-0 libavcodec51 libbluetooth2
10533   libboost-python1.34.1 libcucul0 libcurl3 libcvsservice0 libdatrie0
10534   libdirectfb-1.0-0 libdjvulibre21 libdvdread3 libfaad0 libfreebob0
10535   libgail-common libgd2-noxpm libgraphviz4 libgsmme1c2a libgtkhtml2-0
10536   libicu38 libiec61883-0 libindex0 libiw29 libk3b3 libkcal2b libkcddb1
10537   libkdeedu3 libkdepim1a libkgantt0 libkiten1 libkleopatra1 libkmime2
10538   libkpathsea4 libkpimexchange1 libkpimidentities1 libkscan1
10539   libksieve0 libktnef1 liblockdev1 libltdl3 libmagick10 libmimelib1c2a
10540   libmozjs1d libmpcdec3 libneon27 libnm-util0 libopensync0 libpisock9
10541   libpoppler-glib3 libpoppler-qt2 libpoppler3 libraw1394-8 libsmbios2
10542   libssh2-1 libsuitesparse-3.1.0 libtalloc1 libtiff-tools
10543   libxalan2-java libxalan2-java-gcj libxcb-xlib0 libxerces2-java
10544   libxerces2-java-gcj libxtrap6 mpeglib networkstatus
10545   openoffice.org-writer2latex pmount poster psutils quanta quanta-data
10546   superkaramba svgalibg1 tex-common texlive-base texlive-base-bin
10547   texlive-common texlive-doc-base texlive-fonts-recommended
10548   xserver-xorg-video-cyrix xserver-xorg-video-imstt
10549   xserver-xorg-video-nsc xserver-xorg-video-v4l xserver-xorg-video-vga
10550   xulrunner-1.9</p>
10551
10552
10553       </div>
10554       <div class="tags">
10555
10556
10557         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>.
10558
10559
10560       </div>
10561     </div>
10562     <div class="padding"></div>
10563
10564     <div class="entry">
10565       <div class="title">
10566         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Automatic_upgrade_testing_from_Lenny_to_Squeeze.html">Automatic upgrade testing from Lenny to Squeeze</a>
10567       </div>
10568       <div class="date">
10569         11th June 2010
10570       </div>
10571       <div class="body">
10572         <p>The last few days I have done some upgrade testing in Debian, to
10573 see if the upgrade from Lenny to Squeeze will go smoothly.  A few bugs
10574 have been discovered and reported in the process
10575 (<a href="http://bugs.debian.org/585410">#585410</a> in nagios3-cgi,
10576 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/584879">#584879</a> already fixed in
10577 enscript and <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/584861">#584861</a> in
10578 kdebase-workspace-data), and to get a more regular testing going on, I
10579 am working on a script to automate the test.</p>
10580
10581 <p>The idea is to create a Lenny chroot and use tasksel to install a
10582 Gnome or KDE desktop installation inside the chroot before upgrading
10583 it.  To ensure no services are started in the chroot, a policy-rc.d
10584 script is inserted.  To make sure tasksel believe it is to install a
10585 desktop on a laptop, the tasksel tests are replaced in the chroot
10586 (only acceptable because this is a throw-away chroot).</p>
10587
10588 <p>A naive upgrade from Lenny to Squeeze using aptitude dist-upgrade
10589 currently always fail because udev refuses to upgrade with the kernel
10590 in Lenny, so to avoid that problem the file /etc/udev/kernel-upgrade
10591 is created.  The bug report
10592 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/566000">#566000</a> make me suspect
10593 this problem do not trigger in a chroot, but I touch the file anyway
10594 to make sure the upgrade go well.  Testing on virtual and real
10595 hardware have failed me because of udev so far, and creating this file
10596 do the trick in such settings anyway.  This is a
10597 <a href="http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/debian-26/failed-dist-upgrade-due-to-udev-config_sysfs_deprecated-nonsense-804130/">known
10598 issue</a> and the current udev behaviour is intended by the udev
10599 maintainer because he lack the resources to rewrite udev to keep
10600 working with old kernels or something like that.  I really wish the
10601 udev upstream would keep udev backwards compatible, to avoid such
10602 upgrade problem, but given that they fail to do so, I guess
10603 documenting the way out of this mess is the best option we got for
10604 Debian Squeeze.</p>
10605
10606 <p>Anyway, back to the task at hand, testing upgrades.  This test
10607 script, which I call <tt>upgrade-test</tt> for now, is doing the
10608 trick:</p>
10609
10610 <blockquote><pre>
10611 #!/bin/sh
10612 set -ex
10613
10614 if [ "$1" ] ; then
10615     desktop=$1
10616 else
10617     desktop=gnome
10618 fi
10619
10620 from=lenny
10621 to=squeeze
10622
10623 exec &lt; /dev/null
10624 unset LANG
10625 mirror=http://ftp.skolelinux.org/debian
10626 tmpdir=chroot-$from-upgrade-$to-$desktop
10627 fuser -mv .
10628 debootstrap $from $tmpdir $mirror
10629 chroot $tmpdir aptitude update
10630 cat > $tmpdir/usr/sbin/policy-rc.d &lt;&lt;EOF
10631 #!/bin/sh
10632 exit 101
10633 EOF
10634 chmod a+rx $tmpdir/usr/sbin/policy-rc.d
10635 exit_cleanup() {
10636     umount $tmpdir/proc
10637 }
10638 mount -t proc proc $tmpdir/proc
10639 # Make sure proc is unmounted also on failure
10640 trap exit_cleanup EXIT INT
10641
10642 chroot $tmpdir aptitude -y install debconf-utils
10643
10644 # Make sure tasksel autoselection trigger.  It need the test scripts
10645 # to return the correct answers.
10646 echo tasksel tasksel/desktop multiselect $desktop | \
10647     chroot $tmpdir debconf-set-selections
10648
10649 # Include the desktop and laptop task
10650 for test in desktop laptop ; do
10651     echo > $tmpdir/usr/lib/tasksel/tests/$test &lt;&lt;EOF
10652 #!/bin/sh
10653 exit 2
10654 EOF
10655     chmod a+rx $tmpdir/usr/lib/tasksel/tests/$test
10656 done
10657
10658 DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive
10659 DEBIAN_PRIORITY=critical
10660 export DEBIAN_FRONTEND DEBIAN_PRIORITY
10661 chroot $tmpdir tasksel --new-install
10662
10663 echo deb $mirror $to main > $tmpdir/etc/apt/sources.list
10664 chroot $tmpdir aptitude update
10665 touch $tmpdir/etc/udev/kernel-upgrade
10666 chroot $tmpdir aptitude -y dist-upgrade
10667 fuser -mv
10668 </pre></blockquote>
10669
10670 <p>I suspect it would be useful to test upgrades with both apt-get and
10671 with aptitude, but I have not had time to look at how they behave
10672 differently so far.  I hope to get a cron job running to do the test
10673 regularly and post the result on the web.  The Gnome upgrade currently
10674 work, while the KDE upgrade fail because of the bug in
10675 kdebase-workspace-data</p>
10676
10677 <p>I am not quite sure what kind of extract from the huge upgrade logs
10678 (KDE 167 KiB, Gnome 516 KiB) it make sense to include in this blog
10679 post, so I will refrain from trying.  I can report that for Gnome,
10680 aptitude report 760 packages upgraded, 448 newly installed, 129 to
10681 remove and 1 not upgraded and 1024MB need to be downloaded while for
10682 KDE the same numbers are 702 packages upgraded, 507 newly installed,
10683 193 to remove and 0 not upgraded and 1117MB need to be downloaded</p>
10684
10685 <p>I am very happy to notice that the Gnome desktop + laptop upgrade
10686 is able to migrate to dependency based boot sequencing and parallel
10687 booting without a hitch.  Was unsure if there were still bugs with
10688 packages failing to clean up their obsolete init.d script during
10689 upgrades, and no such problem seem to affect the Gnome desktop+laptop
10690 packages.</p>
10691
10692       </div>
10693       <div class="tags">
10694
10695
10696         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>.
10697
10698
10699       </div>
10700     </div>
10701     <div class="padding"></div>
10702
10703     <div class="entry">
10704       <div class="title">
10705         <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>
10706       </div>
10707       <div class="date">
10708          6th June 2010
10709       </div>
10710       <div class="body">
10711         <p>If Debian is to migrate to upstart on Linux, I expect some init.d
10712 scripts to migrate (some of) their operations to upstart job while
10713 keeping the init.d for hurd and kfreebsd.  The packages with such
10714 needs will need a way to get their init.d scripts to behave
10715 differently when used with sysvinit and with upstart.  Because of
10716 this, I had a look at the environment variables set when a init.d
10717 script is running under upstart, and when it is not.</p>
10718
10719 <p>With upstart, I notice these environment variables are set when a
10720 script is started from rcS.d/ (ignoring some irrelevant ones like
10721 COLUMNS):</p>
10722
10723 <blockquote><pre>
10724 DEFAULT_RUNLEVEL=2
10725 previous=N
10726 PREVLEVEL=
10727 RUNLEVEL=
10728 runlevel=S
10729 UPSTART_EVENTS=startup
10730 UPSTART_INSTANCE=
10731 UPSTART_JOB=rc-sysinit
10732 </pre></blockquote>
10733
10734 <p>With sysvinit, these environment variables are set for the same
10735 script.</p>
10736
10737 <blockquote><pre>
10738 INIT_VERSION=sysvinit-2.88
10739 previous=N
10740 PREVLEVEL=N
10741 RUNLEVEL=S
10742 runlevel=S
10743 </pre></blockquote>
10744
10745 <p>The RUNLEVEL and PREVLEVEL environment variables passed on from
10746 sysvinit are not set by upstart.  Not sure if it is intentional or not
10747 to not be compatible with sysvinit in this regard.</p>
10748
10749 <p>For scripts needing to behave differently when upstart is used,
10750 looking for the UPSTART_JOB environment variable seem to be a good
10751 choice.</p>
10752
10753       </div>
10754       <div class="tags">
10755
10756
10757         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>.
10758
10759
10760       </div>
10761     </div>
10762     <div class="padding"></div>
10763
10764     <div class="entry">
10765       <div class="title">
10766         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/A_manual_for_standards_wars___.html">A manual for standards wars...</a>
10767       </div>
10768       <div class="date">
10769          6th June 2010
10770       </div>
10771       <div class="body">
10772         <p>Via the
10773 <a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/robweir/antic-atom/~3/QzU4RgoAGMg/weekly-links-10.html">blog
10774 of Rob Weir</a> I came across the very interesting essay named
10775 <a href="http://faculty.haas.berkeley.edu/shapiro/wars.pdf">The Art of
10776 Standards Wars</a> (PDF 25 pages).  I recommend it for everyone
10777 following the standards wars of today.</p>
10778
10779       </div>
10780       <div class="tags">
10781
10782
10783         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>.
10784
10785
10786       </div>
10787     </div>
10788     <div class="padding"></div>
10789
10790     <div class="entry">
10791       <div class="title">
10792         <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>
10793       </div>
10794       <div class="date">
10795          3rd June 2010
10796       </div>
10797       <div class="body">
10798         <p>When using sitesummary at a site to track machines, it is possible
10799 to get a list of the machine types in use thanks to the DMI
10800 information extracted from each machine.  The script to do so is
10801 included in the sitesummary package, and here is example output from
10802 the Skolelinux build servers:</p>
10803
10804 <blockquote><pre>
10805 maintainer:~# /usr/lib/sitesummary/hardware-model-summary
10806   vendor                    count
10807   Dell Computer Corporation     1
10808     PowerEdge 1750              1
10809   IBM                           1
10810     eserver xSeries 345 -[8670M1X]-     1
10811   Intel                         2
10812   [no-dmi-info]                 3
10813 maintainer:~#
10814 </pre></blockquote>
10815
10816 <p>The quality of the report depend on the quality of the DMI tables
10817 provided in each machine.  Here there are Intel machines without model
10818 information listed with Intel as vendor and no model, and virtual Xen
10819 machines listed as [no-dmi-info].  One can add -l as a command line
10820 option to list the individual machines.</p>
10821
10822 <p>A larger list is
10823 <a href="http://narvikskolen.no/sitesummary/">available from the the
10824 city of Narvik</a>, which uses Skolelinux on all their shools and also
10825 provide the basic sitesummary report publicly.  In their report there
10826 are ~1400 machines. I know they use both Ubuntu and Skolelinux on
10827 their machines, and as sitesummary is available in both distributions,
10828 it is trivial to get all of them to report to the same central
10829 collector.</p>
10830
10831       </div>
10832       <div class="tags">
10833
10834
10835         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>.
10836
10837
10838       </div>
10839     </div>
10840     <div class="padding"></div>
10841
10842     <div class="entry">
10843       <div class="title">
10844         <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>
10845       </div>
10846       <div class="date">
10847          1st June 2010
10848       </div>
10849       <div class="body">
10850         <p>It is strange to watch how a bug in Debian causing KDM to fail to
10851 start at boot when an NVidia video card is used is handled.  The
10852 problem seem to be that the nvidia X.org driver uses a long time to
10853 initialize, and this duration is longer than kdm is configured to
10854 wait.</p>
10855
10856 <p>I came across two bugs related to this issue,
10857 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/583312">#583312</a> initially filed
10858 against initscripts and passed on to nvidia-glx when it became obvious
10859 that the nvidia drivers were involved, and
10860 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/524751">#524751</a> initially filed against
10861 kdm and passed on to src:nvidia-graphics-drivers for unknown reasons.</p>
10862
10863 <p>To me, it seem that no-one is interested in actually solving the
10864 problem nvidia video card owners experience and make sure the Debian
10865 distribution work out of the box for these users.  The nvidia driver
10866 maintainers expect kdm to be set up to wait longer, while kdm expect
10867 the nvidia driver maintainers to fix the driver to start faster, and
10868 while they wait for each other I guess the users end up switching to a
10869 distribution that work for them.  I have no idea what the solution is,
10870 but I am pretty sure that waiting for each other is not it.</p>
10871
10872 <p>I wonder why we end up handling bugs this way.</p>
10873
10874       </div>
10875       <div class="tags">
10876
10877
10878         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>.
10879
10880
10881       </div>
10882     </div>
10883     <div class="padding"></div>
10884
10885     <div class="entry">
10886       <div class="title">
10887         <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>
10888       </div>
10889       <div class="date">
10890         27th May 2010
10891       </div>
10892       <div class="body">
10893         <p>A few days ago, parallel booting was enabled in Debian/testing.
10894 The feature seem to hold up pretty well, but three fairly serious
10895 issues are known and should be solved:
10896
10897 <p><ul>
10898
10899 <li>The wicd package seen to
10900 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/508289">break NFS mounting</a> and
10901 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/581586">network setup</a> when
10902 parallel booting is enabled.  No idea why, but the wicd maintainer
10903 seem to be on the case.</li>
10904
10905 <li>The nvidia X driver seem to
10906 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/583312">have a race condition</a>
10907 triggered more easily when parallel booting is in effect.  The
10908 maintainer is on the case.</li>
10909
10910 <li>The sysv-rc package fail to properly enable dependency based boot
10911 sequencing (the shutdown is broken) when old file-rc users
10912 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/575080">try to switch back</a> to
10913 sysv-rc.  One way to solve it would be for file-rc to create
10914 /etc/init.d/.legacy-bootordering, and another is to try to make
10915 sysv-rc more robust.  Will investigate some more and probably upload a
10916 workaround in sysv-rc to help those trying to move from file-rc to
10917 sysv-rc get a working shutdown.</li>
10918
10919 </ul></p>
10920
10921 <p>All in all not many surprising issues, and all of them seem
10922 solvable before Squeeze is released.  In addition to these there are
10923 some packages with bugs in their dependencies and run level settings,
10924 which I expect will be fixed in a reasonable time span.</p>
10925
10926 <p>If you report any problems with dependencies in init.d scripts to
10927 the BTS, please usertag the report to get it to show up at
10928 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/pkgreport.cgi?users=initscripts-ng-devel@lists.alioth.debian.org">the
10929 list of usertagged bugs related to this</a>.</p>
10930
10931 <p>Update: Correct bug number to file-rc issue.</p>
10932
10933       </div>
10934       <div class="tags">
10935
10936
10937         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>.
10938
10939
10940       </div>
10941     </div>
10942     <div class="padding"></div>
10943
10944     <div class="entry">
10945       <div class="title">
10946         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/More_flexible_firmware_handling_in_debian_installer.html">More flexible firmware handling in debian-installer</a>
10947       </div>
10948       <div class="date">
10949         22nd May 2010
10950       </div>
10951       <div class="body">
10952         <p>After a long break from debian-installer development, I finally
10953 found time today to return to the project.  Having to spend less time
10954 working dependency based boot in debian, as it is almost complete now,
10955 definitely helped freeing some time.</p>
10956
10957 <p>A while back, I ran into a problem while working on Debian Edu.  We
10958 include some firmware packages on the Debian Edu CDs, those needed to
10959 get disk and network controllers working.  Without having these
10960 firmware packages available during installation, it is impossible to
10961 install Debian Edu on the given machine, and because our target group
10962 are non-technical people, asking them to provide firmware packages on
10963 an external medium is a support pain.  Initially, I expected it to be
10964 enough to include the firmware packages on the CD to get
10965 debian-installer to find and use them.  This proved to be wrong.
10966 Next, I hoped it was enough to symlink the relevant firmware packages
10967 to some useful location on the CD (tried /cdrom/ and
10968 /cdrom/firmware/).  This also proved to not work, and at this point I
10969 found time to look at the debian-installer code to figure out what was
10970 going to work.</p>
10971
10972 <p>The firmware loading code is in the hw-detect package, and a closer
10973 look revealed that it would only look for firmware packages outside
10974 the installation media, so the CD was never checked for firmware
10975 packages.  It would only check USB sticks, floppies and other
10976 "external" media devices.  Today I changed it to also look in the
10977 /cdrom/firmware/ directory on the mounted CD or DVD, which should
10978 solve the problem I ran into with Debian edu.  I also changed it to
10979 look in /firmware/, to make sure the installer also find firmware
10980 provided in the initrd when booting the installer via PXE, to allow us
10981 to provide the same feature in the PXE setup included in Debian
10982 Edu.</p>
10983
10984 <p>To make sure firmware deb packages with a license questions are not
10985 activated without asking if the license is accepted, I extended
10986 hw-detect to look for preinst scripts in the firmware packages, and
10987 run these before activating the firmware during installation.  The
10988 license question is asked using debconf in the preinst, so this should
10989 solve the issue for the firmware packages I have looked at so far.</p>
10990
10991 <p>If you want to discuss the details of these features, please
10992 contact us on debian-boot@lists.debian.org.</p>
10993
10994       </div>
10995       <div class="tags">
10996
10997
10998         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>.
10999
11000
11001       </div>
11002     </div>
11003     <div class="padding"></div>
11004
11005     <div class="entry">
11006       <div class="title">
11007         <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>
11008       </div>
11009       <div class="date">
11010         14th May 2010
11011       </div>
11012       <div class="body">
11013         <p>Since this evening, parallel booting is the default in
11014 Debian/unstable for machines using dependency based boot sequencing.
11015 Apparently the testing of concurrent booting has been wider than
11016 expected, if I am to believe the
11017 <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2010/05/msg00122.html">input
11018 on debian-devel@</a>, and I concluded a few days ago to move forward
11019 with the feature this weekend, to give us some time to detect any
11020 remaining problems before Squeeze is frozen.  If serious problems are
11021 detected, it is simple to change the default back to sequential boot.
11022 The upload of the new sysvinit package also activate a new upstream
11023 version.</p>
11024
11025 More information about
11026 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/LSBInitScripts/DependencyBasedBoot">dependency
11027 based boot sequencing</a> is available from the Debian wiki.  It is
11028 currently possible to disable parallel booting when one run into
11029 problems caused by it, by adding this line to /etc/default/rcS:</p>
11030
11031 <blockquote><pre>
11032 CONCURRENCY=none
11033 </pre></blockquote>
11034
11035 <p>If you report any problems with dependencies in init.d scripts to
11036 the BTS, please usertag the report to get it to show up at
11037 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/pkgreport.cgi?users=initscripts-ng-devel@lists.alioth.debian.org">the
11038 list of usertagged bugs related to this</a>.</p>
11039
11040       </div>
11041       <div class="tags">
11042
11043
11044         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>.
11045
11046
11047       </div>
11048     </div>
11049     <div class="padding"></div>
11050
11051     <div class="entry">
11052       <div class="title">
11053         <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>
11054       </div>
11055       <div class="date">
11056         14th May 2010
11057       </div>
11058       <div class="body">
11059         <p>In the recent Debian Edu versions, the
11060 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/HowTo/SiteSummary">sitesummary
11061 system</a> is used to keep track of the machines in the school
11062 network.  Each machine will automatically report its status to the
11063 central server after boot and once per night.  The network setup is
11064 also reported, and using this information it is possible to get the
11065 MAC address of all network interfaces in the machines.  This is useful
11066 to update the DHCP configuration.</p>
11067
11068 <p>To give some idea how to use sitesummary, here is a one-liner to
11069 ist all MAC addresses of all machines reporting to sitesummary.  Run
11070 this on the collector host:</p>
11071
11072 <blockquote><pre>
11073 perl -MSiteSummary -e 'for_all_hosts(sub { print join(" ", get_macaddresses(shift)), "\n"; });'
11074 </pre></blockquote>
11075
11076 <p>This will list all MAC addresses assosiated with all machine, one
11077 line per machine and with space between the MAC addresses.</p>
11078
11079 <p>To allow system administrators easier job at adding static DHCP
11080 addresses for hosts, it would be possible to extend this to fetch
11081 machine information from sitesummary and update the DHCP and DNS
11082 tables in LDAP using this information.  Such tool is unfortunately not
11083 written yet.</p>
11084
11085       </div>
11086       <div class="tags">
11087
11088
11089         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>.
11090
11091
11092       </div>
11093     </div>
11094     <div class="padding"></div>
11095
11096     <div class="entry">
11097       <div class="title">
11098         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/systemd__an_interesting_alternative_to_upstart.html">systemd, an interesting alternative to upstart</a>
11099       </div>
11100       <div class="date">
11101         13th May 2010
11102       </div>
11103       <div class="body">
11104         <p>The last few days a new boot system called
11105 <a href="http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/systemd">systemd</a>
11106 has been
11107 <a href="http://0pointer.de/blog/projects/systemd.html">introduced</a>
11108
11109 to the free software world.  I have not yet had time to play around
11110 with it, but it seem to be a very interesting alternative to
11111 <a href="http://upstart.ubuntu.com/">upstart</a>, and might prove to be
11112 a good alternative for Debian when we are able to switch to an event
11113 based boot system.  Tollef is
11114 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/580814">in the process</a> of getting
11115 systemd into Debian, and I look forward to seeing how well it work.  I
11116 like the fact that systemd handles init.d scripts with dependency
11117 information natively, allowing them to run in parallel where upstart
11118 at the moment do not.</p>
11119
11120 <p>Unfortunately do systemd have the same problem as upstart regarding
11121 platform support.  It only work on recent Linux kernels, and also need
11122 some new kernel features enabled to function properly.  This means
11123 kFreeBSD and Hurd ports of Debian will need a port or a different boot
11124 system.  Not sure how that will be handled if systemd proves to be the
11125 way forward.</p>
11126
11127 <p>In the mean time, based on the
11128 <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2010/05/msg00122.html">input
11129 on debian-devel@</a> regarding parallel booting in Debian, I have
11130 decided to enable full parallel booting as the default in Debian as
11131 soon as possible (probably this weekend or early next week), to see if
11132 there are any remaining serious bugs in the init.d dependencies.  A
11133 new version of the sysvinit package implementing this change is
11134 already in experimental.  If all go well, Squeeze will be released
11135 with parallel booting enabled by default.</p>
11136
11137       </div>
11138       <div class="tags">
11139
11140
11141         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>.
11142
11143
11144       </div>
11145     </div>
11146     <div class="padding"></div>
11147
11148     <div class="entry">
11149       <div class="title">
11150         <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>
11151       </div>
11152       <div class="date">
11153          6th May 2010
11154       </div>
11155       <div class="body">
11156         <p>These days, the init.d script dependencies in Squeeze are quite
11157 complete, so complete that it is actually possible to run all the
11158 init.d scripts in parallell based on these dependencies.  If you want
11159 to test your Squeeze system, make sure
11160 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/LSBInitScripts/DependencyBasedBoot">dependency
11161 based boot sequencing</a> is enabled, and add this line to
11162 /etc/default/rcS:</p>
11163
11164 <blockquote><pre>
11165 CONCURRENCY=makefile
11166 </pre></blockquote>
11167
11168 <p>That is it.  It will cause sysv-rc to use the startpar tool to run
11169 scripts in parallel using the dependency information stored in
11170 /etc/init.d/.depend.boot, /etc/init.d/.depend.start and
11171 /etc/init.d/.depend.stop to order the scripts.  Startpar is configured
11172 to try to start the kdm and gdm scripts as early as possible, and will
11173 start the facilities required by kdm or gdm as early as possible to
11174 make this happen.</p>
11175
11176 <p>Give it a try, and see if you like the result.  If some services
11177 fail to start properly, it is most likely because they have incomplete
11178 init.d script dependencies in their startup script (or some of their
11179 dependent scripts have incomplete dependencies).  Report bugs and get
11180 the package maintainers to fix it. :)</p>
11181
11182 <p>Running scripts in parallel could be the default in Debian when we
11183 manage to get the init.d script dependencies complete and correct.  I
11184 expect we will get there in Squeeze+1, if we get manage to test and
11185 fix the remaining issues.</p>
11186
11187 <p>If you report any problems with dependencies in init.d scripts to
11188 the BTS, please usertag the report to get it to show up at
11189 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/pkgreport.cgi?users=initscripts-ng-devel@lists.alioth.debian.org">the
11190 list of usertagged bugs related to this</a>.</p>
11191
11192       </div>
11193       <div class="tags">
11194
11195
11196         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>.
11197
11198
11199       </div>
11200     </div>
11201     <div class="padding"></div>
11202
11203     <div class="entry">
11204       <div class="title">
11205         <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>
11206       </div>
11207       <div class="date">
11208         27th July 2009
11209       </div>
11210       <div class="body">
11211         <p>Since this evening, with the upload of sysvinit version 2.87dsf-2,
11212 and the upload of insserv version 1.12.0-10 yesterday, Debian unstable
11213 have been migrated to using dependency based boot sequencing.  This
11214 conclude work me and others have been doing for the last three days.
11215 It feels great to see this finally part of the default Debian
11216 installation.  Now we just need to weed out the last few problems that
11217 are bound to show up, to get everything ready for Squeeze.</p>
11218
11219 <p>The next step is migrating /sbin/init from sysvinit to upstart, and
11220 fixing the more fundamental problem of handing the event based
11221 non-predictable kernel in the early boot.</p>
11222
11223       </div>
11224       <div class="tags">
11225
11226
11227         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>.
11228
11229
11230       </div>
11231     </div>
11232     <div class="padding"></div>
11233
11234     <div class="entry">
11235       <div class="title">
11236         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Taking_over_sysvinit_development.html">Taking over sysvinit development</a>
11237       </div>
11238       <div class="date">
11239         22nd July 2009
11240       </div>
11241       <div class="body">
11242         <p>After several years of frustration with the lack of activity from
11243 the existing sysvinit upstream developer, I decided a few weeks ago to
11244 take over the package and become the new upstream.  The number of
11245 patches to track for the Debian package was becoming a burden, and the
11246 lack of synchronization between the distribution made it hard to keep
11247 the package up to date.</p>
11248
11249 <p>On the new sysvinit team is the SuSe maintainer Dr. Werner Fink,
11250 and my Debian co-maintainer Kel Modderman.  About 10 days ago, I made
11251 a new upstream tarball with version number 2.87dsf (for Debian, SuSe
11252 and Fedora), based on the patches currently in use in these
11253 distributions.  We Debian maintainers plan to move to this tarball as
11254 the new upstream as soon as we find time to do the merge.  Since the
11255 new tarball was created, we agreed with Werner at SuSe to make a new
11256 upstream project at <a href="http://savannah.nongnu.org/">Savannah</a>, and continue
11257 development there.  The project is registered and currently waiting
11258 for approval by the Savannah administrators, and as soon as it is
11259 approved, we will import the old versions from svn and continue
11260 working on the future release.</p>
11261
11262 <p>It is a bit ironic that this is done now, when some of the involved
11263 distributions are moving to upstart as a syvinit replacement.</p>
11264
11265       </div>
11266       <div class="tags">
11267
11268
11269         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>.
11270
11271
11272       </div>
11273     </div>
11274     <div class="padding"></div>
11275
11276     <div class="entry">
11277       <div class="title">
11278         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_boots_quicker_and_quicker.html">Debian boots quicker and quicker</a>
11279       </div>
11280       <div class="date">
11281         24th June 2009
11282       </div>
11283       <div class="body">
11284         <p>I spent Monday and tuesday this week in London with a lot of the
11285 people involved in the boot system on Debian and Ubuntu, to see if we
11286 could find more ways to speed up the boot system.  This was an Ubuntu
11287 funded
11288 <a href="https://wiki.ubuntu.com/FoundationsTeam/BootPerformance/DebianUbuntuSprint">developer
11289 gathering</a>. It was quite productive.  We also discussed the future
11290 of boot systems, and ways to handle the increasing number of boot
11291 issues introduced by the Linux kernel becoming more and more
11292 asynchronous and event base.  The Ubuntu approach using udev and
11293 upstart might be a good way forward.  Time will show.</p>
11294
11295 <p>Anyway, there are a few ways at the moment to speed up the boot
11296 process in Debian.  All of these should be applied to get a quick
11297 boot:</p>
11298
11299 <ul>
11300
11301 <li>Use dash as /bin/sh.</li>
11302
11303 <li>Disable the init.d/hwclock*.sh scripts and make sure the hardware
11304    clock is in UTC.</li>
11305
11306 <li>Install and activate the insserv package to enable
11307    <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/LSBInitScripts/DependencyBasedBoot">dependency
11308    based boot sequencing</a>, and enable concurrent booting.</li>
11309
11310 </ul>
11311
11312 These points are based on the Google summer of code work done by
11313 <a href="http://initscripts-ng.alioth.debian.org/soc2006-bootsystem/">Carlos
11314 Villegas</a>.
11315
11316 <p>Support for makefile-style concurrency during boot was uploaded to
11317 unstable yesterday.  When we tested it, we were able to cut 6 seconds
11318 from the boot sequence.  It depend on very correct dependency
11319 declaration in all init.d scripts, so I expect us to find edge cases
11320 where the dependences in some scripts are slightly wrong when we start
11321 using this.</p>
11322
11323 <p>On our IRC channel for this effort, #pkg-sysvinit, a new idea was
11324 introduced by Raphael Geissert today, one that could affect the
11325 startup speed as well.  Instead of starting some scripts concurrently
11326 from rcS.d/ and another set of scripts from rc2.d/, it would be
11327 possible to run a of them in the same process.  A quick way to test
11328 this would be to enable insserv and run 'mv /etc/rc2.d/S* /etc/rcS.d/;
11329 insserv'.  Will need to test if that work. :)</p>
11330
11331       </div>
11332       <div class="tags">
11333
11334
11335         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>.
11336
11337
11338       </div>
11339     </div>
11340     <div class="padding"></div>
11341
11342     <div class="entry">
11343       <div class="title">
11344         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/BSAs_p_stander_om_piratkopiering_m_ter_motstand.html">BSAs påstander om piratkopiering møter motstand</a>
11345       </div>
11346       <div class="date">
11347         17th May 2009
11348       </div>
11349       <div class="body">
11350         <p>Hvert år de siste årene har BSA, lobbyfronten til de store
11351 programvareselskapene som Microsoft og Apple, publisert en rapport der
11352 de gjetter på hvor mye piratkopiering påfører i tapte inntekter i
11353 ulike land rundt om i verden.  Resultatene er tendensiøse.  For noen
11354 dager siden kom
11355 <a href="http://global.bsa.org/globalpiracy2008/studies/globalpiracy2008.pdf">siste
11356 rapport</a>, og det er flere kritiske kommentarer publisert de siste
11357 dagene.  Et spesielt interessant kommentar fra Sverige,
11358 <a href="http://www.idg.se/2.1085/1.229795/bsa-hoftade-sverigesiffror">BSA
11359 höftade Sverigesiffror</a>, oppsummeres slik:</p>
11360
11361 <blockquote>
11362 I sin senaste rapport slår BSA fast att 25 procent av all mjukvara i
11363 Sverige är piratkopierad. Det utan att ha pratat med ett enda svenskt
11364 företag. "Man bör nog kanske inte se de här siffrorna som helt
11365 exakta", säger BSAs Sverigechef John Hugosson.
11366 </blockquote>
11367
11368 <p>Mon tro om de er like metodiske når de gjetter på andelen piratkopiering i Norge?  To andre kommentarer er <a
11369 href="http://www.vnunet.com/vnunet/comment/2242134/bsa-piracy-figures-shot-reality">BSA
11370 piracy figures need a shot of reality</a> og <a
11371 href="http://www.michaelgeist.ca/content/view/3958/125/">Does The WIPO
11372 Copyright Treaty Work?</a></p>
11373
11374 <p>Fant lenkene via <a
11375 href="http://tech.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/05/17/1632242">oppslag
11376 på Slashdot</a>.</p>
11377
11378       </div>
11379       <div class="tags">
11380
11381
11382         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>.
11383
11384
11385       </div>
11386     </div>
11387     <div class="padding"></div>
11388
11389     <div class="entry">
11390       <div class="title">
11391         <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>
11392       </div>
11393       <div class="date">
11394          7th May 2009
11395       </div>
11396       <div class="body">
11397         <p>Kom over
11398 <a href="http://news.cnet.com/8301-13505_3-10216873-16.html">interessante
11399 tall</a> fra IDG om utviklingen av linuxservermarkedet.  Fikk meg til
11400 å tenke på antall tjenermaskiner ved Universitetet i Oslo der jeg
11401 jobber til daglig.  En rask opptelling forteller meg at vi har 490
11402 (61%) fysiske unix-tjener (mest linux men også noen solaris) og 196
11403 (25%) windowstjenere, samt 112 (14%) virtuelle unix-tjenere.  Med den
11404 bakgrunnskunnskapen kan jeg godt tro at IDG er inne på noe.</p>
11405
11406       </div>
11407       <div class="tags">
11408
11409
11410         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>.
11411
11412
11413       </div>
11414     </div>
11415     <div class="padding"></div>
11416
11417     <div class="entry">
11418       <div class="title">
11419         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Kryptert_harddisk___naturligvis.html">Kryptert harddisk - naturligvis</a>
11420       </div>
11421       <div class="date">
11422          2nd May 2009
11423       </div>
11424       <div class="body">
11425         <p><a href="http://www.dagensit.no/trender/article1658676.ece">Dagens
11426 IT melder</a> at Intel hevder at det er dyrt å miste en datamaskin,
11427 når en tar tap av arbeidstid, fortrolige dokumenter,
11428 personopplysninger og alt annet det innebærer.  Det er ingen tvil om
11429 at det er en kostbar affære å miste sin datamaskin, og det er årsaken
11430 til at jeg har kryptert harddisken på både kontormaskinen og min
11431 bærbare.  Begge inneholder personopplysninger jeg ikke ønsker skal
11432 komme på avveie, den første informasjon relatert til jobben min ved
11433 Universitetet i Oslo, og den andre relatert til blant annet
11434 foreningsarbeide.  Kryptering av diskene gjør at det er lite
11435 sannsynlig at dophoder som kan finne på å rappe maskinene får noe ut
11436 av dem.  Maskinene låses automatisk etter noen minutter uten bruk,
11437 og en reboot vil gjøre at de ber om passord før de vil starte opp.
11438 Jeg bruker Debian på begge maskinene, og installasjonssystemet der
11439 gjør det trivielt å sette opp krypterte disker.  Jeg har LVM på toppen
11440 av krypterte partisjoner, slik at alt av datapartisjoner er kryptert.
11441 Jeg anbefaler alle å kryptere diskene på sine bærbare.  Kostnaden når
11442 det er gjort slik jeg gjør det er minimale, og gevinstene er
11443 betydelige.  En bør dog passe på passordet.  Hvis det går tapt, må
11444 maskinen reinstalleres og alt er tapt.</p>
11445
11446 <p>Krypteringen vil ikke stoppe kompetente angripere som f.eks. kjøler
11447 ned minnebrikkene før maskinen rebootes med programvare for å hente ut
11448 krypteringsnøklene.  Kostnaden med å forsvare seg mot slike angripere
11449 er for min del høyere enn gevinsten.  Jeg tror oddsene for at
11450 f.eks. etteretningsorganisasjoner har glede av å titte på mine
11451 maskiner er minimale, og ulempene jeg ville oppnå ved å forsøke å
11452 gjøre det vanskeligere for angripere med kompetanse og ressurser er
11453 betydelige.</p>
11454
11455       </div>
11456       <div class="tags">
11457
11458
11459         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>.
11460
11461
11462       </div>
11463     </div>
11464     <div class="padding"></div>
11465
11466     <div class="entry">
11467       <div class="title">
11468         <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>
11469       </div>
11470       <div class="date">
11471          2nd May 2009
11472       </div>
11473       <div class="body">
11474         <p>There are two software projects that have had huge influence on the
11475 quality of free software, and I wanted to mention both in case someone
11476 do not yet know them.</p>
11477
11478 <p>The first one is <a href="http://valgrind.org/">valgrind</a>, a
11479 tool to detect and expose errors in the memory handling of programs.
11480 It is easy to use, all one need to do is to run 'valgrind program',
11481 and it will report any problems on stdout.  It is even better if the
11482 program include debug information.  With debug information, it is able
11483 to report the source file name and line number where the problem
11484 occurs.  It can report things like 'reading past memory block in file
11485 X line N, the memory block was allocated in file Y, line M', and
11486 'using uninitialised value in control logic'.  This tool has made it
11487 trivial to investigate reproducible crash bugs in programs, and have
11488 reduced the number of this kind of bugs in free software a lot.
11489
11490 <p>The second one is
11491 <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coverity">Coverity</a> which is
11492 a source code checker.  It is able to process the source of a program
11493 and find problems in the logic without running the program.  It
11494 started out as the Stanford Checker and became well known when it was
11495 used to find bugs in the Linux kernel.  It is now a commercial tool
11496 and the company behind it is running
11497 <a href="http://www.scan.coverity.com/">a community service</a> for the
11498 free software community, where a lot of free software projects get
11499 their source checked for free.  Several thousand defects have been
11500 found and fixed so far.  It can find errors like 'lock L taken in file
11501 X line N is never released if exiting in line M', or 'the code in file
11502 Y lines O to P can never be executed'.  The projects included in the
11503 community service project have managed to get rid of a lot of
11504 reliability problems thanks to Coverity.</p>
11505
11506 <p>I believe tools like this, that are able to automatically find
11507 errors in the source, are vital to improve the quality of software and
11508 make sure we can get rid of the crashing and failing software we are
11509 surrounded by today.</p>
11510
11511       </div>
11512       <div class="tags">
11513
11514
11515         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
11516
11517
11518       </div>
11519     </div>
11520     <div class="padding"></div>
11521
11522     <div class="entry">
11523       <div class="title">
11524         <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>
11525       </div>
11526       <div class="date">
11527         28th April 2009
11528       </div>
11529       <div class="body">
11530         <p>Julien Blache
11531 <a href="http://blog.technologeek.org/2009/04/12/214">claim that no
11532 patch is better than a useless patch</a>.  I completely disagree, as a
11533 patch allow one to discuss a concrete and proposed solution, and also
11534 prove that the issue at hand is important enough for someone to spent
11535 time on fixing it.  No patch do not provide any of these positive
11536 properties.</p>
11537
11538       </div>
11539       <div class="tags">
11540
11541
11542         Tags: <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>.
11543
11544
11545       </div>
11546     </div>
11547     <div class="padding"></div>
11548
11549     <div class="entry">
11550       <div class="title">
11551         <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>
11552       </div>
11553       <div class="date">
11554         30th March 2009
11555       </div>
11556       <div class="body">
11557         <p>Where I work at the University of Oslo, one decision stand out as a
11558 very good one to form a long lived computer infrastructure.  It is the
11559 simple one, lost by many in todays computer industry: Standardize on
11560 open network protocols and open exchange/storage formats, not applications.
11561 Applications come and go, while protocols and files tend to stay, and
11562 thus one want to make it easy to change application and vendor, while
11563 avoiding conversion costs and locking users to a specific platform or
11564 application.</p>
11565
11566 <p>This approach make it possible to replace the client applications
11567 independently of the server applications.  One can even allow users to
11568 use several different applications as long as they handle the selected
11569 protocol and format.  In the normal case, only one client application
11570 is recommended and users only get help if they choose to use this
11571 application, but those that want to deviate from the easy path are not
11572 blocked from doing so.</p>
11573
11574 <p>It also allow us to replace the server side without forcing the
11575 users to replace their applications, and thus allow us to select the
11576 best server implementation at any moment, when scale and resouce
11577 requirements change.</p>
11578
11579 <p>I strongly recommend standardizing - on open network protocols and
11580 open formats, but I would never recommend standardizing on a single
11581 application that do not use open network protocol or open formats.</p>
11582
11583       </div>
11584       <div class="tags">
11585
11586
11587         Tags: <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>.
11588
11589
11590       </div>
11591     </div>
11592     <div class="padding"></div>
11593
11594     <div class="entry">
11595       <div class="title">
11596         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Returning_from_Skolelinux_developer_gathering.html">Returning from Skolelinux developer gathering</a>
11597       </div>
11598       <div class="date">
11599         29th March 2009
11600       </div>
11601       <div class="body">
11602         <p>I'm sitting on the train going home from this weekends Debian
11603 Edu/Skolelinux development gathering.  I got a bit done tuning the
11604 desktop, and looked into the dynamic service location protocol
11605 implementation avahi.  It look like it could be useful for us.  Almost
11606 30 people participated, and I believe it was a great environment to
11607 get to know the Skolelinux system.  Walter Bender, involved in the
11608 development of the Sugar educational platform, presented his stuff and
11609 also helped me improve my OLPC installation.  He also showed me that
11610 his Turtle Art application can be used in standalone mode, and we
11611 agreed that I would help getting it packaged for Debian.  As a
11612 standalone application it would be great for Debian Edu.  We also
11613 tried to get the video conferencing working with two OLPCs, but that
11614 proved to be too hard for us.  The application seem to need more work
11615 before it is ready for me.  I look forward to getting home and relax
11616 now. :)</p>
11617
11618       </div>
11619       <div class="tags">
11620
11621
11622         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>.
11623
11624
11625       </div>
11626     </div>
11627     <div class="padding"></div>
11628
11629     <div class="entry">
11630       <div class="title">
11631         <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>
11632       </div>
11633       <div class="date">
11634         29th March 2009
11635       </div>
11636       <div class="body">
11637         <p>The state of standardized LDAP schemas on Linux is far from
11638 optimal.  There is RFC 2307 documenting one way to store NIS maps in
11639 LDAP, and a modified version of this normally called RFC 2307bis, with
11640 some modifications to be compatible with Active Directory.  The RFC
11641 specification handle the content of a lot of system databases, but do
11642 not handle DNS zones and DHCP configuration.</p>
11643
11644 <p>In <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu/Skolelinux</a>,
11645 we would like to store information about users, SMB clients/hosts,
11646 filegroups, netgroups (users and hosts), DHCP and DNS configuration,
11647 and LTSP configuration in LDAP.  These objects have a lot in common,
11648 but with the current LDAP schemas it is not possible to have one
11649 object per entity.  For example, one need to have at least three LDAP
11650 objects for a given computer, one with the SMB related stuff, one with
11651 DNS information and another with DHCP information.  The schemas
11652 provided for DNS and DHCP are impossible to combine into one LDAP
11653 object.  In addition, it is impossible to implement quick queries for
11654 netgroup membership, because of the way NIS triples are implemented.
11655 It just do not scale.  I believe it is time for a few RFC
11656 specifications to cleam up this mess.</p>
11657
11658 <p>I would like to have one LDAP object representing each computer in
11659 the network, and this object can then keep the SMB (ie host key), DHCP
11660 (mac address/name) and DNS (name/IP address) settings in one place.
11661 It need to be efficently stored to make sure it scale well.</p>
11662
11663 <p>I would also like to have a quick way to map from a user or
11664 computer and to the net group this user or computer is a member.</p>
11665
11666 <p>Active Directory have done a better job than unix heads like myself
11667 in this regard, and the unix side need to catch up.  Time to start a
11668 new IETF work group?</p>
11669
11670       </div>
11671       <div class="tags">
11672
11673
11674         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>.
11675
11676
11677       </div>
11678     </div>
11679     <div class="padding"></div>
11680
11681     <div class="entry">
11682       <div class="title">
11683         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Endelig_er_Debian_Lenny_gitt_ut.html">Endelig er Debian Lenny gitt ut</a>
11684       </div>
11685       <div class="date">
11686         15th February 2009
11687       </div>
11688       <div class="body">
11689         <p>Endelig er <a href="http://www.debian.org/">Debian</a>
11690 <a href="http://www.debian.org/News/2009/20090214">Lenny</a> gitt ut.
11691 Et langt steg videre for Debian-prosjektet, og en rekke nye
11692 programpakker blir nå tilgjengelig for de av oss som bruker den
11693 stabile utgaven av Debian.  Neste steg er nå å få
11694 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Skolelinux</a> /
11695 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/">Debian Edu</a> ferdig
11696 oppdatert for den nye utgaven, slik at en oppdatert versjon kan
11697 slippes løs på skolene.  Takk til alle debian-utviklerne som har
11698 gjort dette mulig.  Endelig er f.eks. fungerende avhengighetsstyrt
11699 bootsekvens tilgjengelig i stabil utgave, vha pakken
11700 <tt>insserv</tt>.</p>
11701
11702       </div>
11703       <div class="tags">
11704
11705
11706         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>.
11707
11708
11709       </div>
11710     </div>
11711     <div class="padding"></div>
11712
11713     <div class="entry">
11714       <div class="title">
11715         <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>
11716       </div>
11717       <div class="date">
11718          7th December 2008
11719       </div>
11720       <div class="body">
11721         <p>This weekend we had a small developer gathering for Debian Edu in
11722 Oslo.  Most of Saturday was used for the general assemly for the
11723 member organization, but the rest of the weekend I used to tune the
11724 LTSP installation.  LTSP now work out of the box on the 10-network.
11725 Acer Aspire One proved to be a very nice thin client, with both
11726 screen, mouse and keybard in a small box.  Was working on getting the
11727 diskless workstation setup configured out of the box, but did not
11728 finish it before the weekend was up.</p>
11729
11730 <p>Did not find time to look at the 4 VGA cards in one box we got from
11731 the Brazilian group, so that will have to wait for the next
11732 development gathering.  Would love to have the Debian Edu installer
11733 automatically detect and configure a multiseat setup when it find one
11734 of these cards.</p>
11735
11736       </div>
11737       <div class="tags">
11738
11739
11740         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>.
11741
11742
11743       </div>
11744     </div>
11745     <div class="padding"></div>
11746
11747     <div class="entry">
11748       <div class="title">
11749         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_sorry_state_of_multimedia_browser_plugins_in_Debian.html">The sorry state of multimedia browser plugins in Debian</a>
11750       </div>
11751       <div class="date">
11752         25th November 2008
11753       </div>
11754       <div class="body">
11755         <p>Recently I have spent some time evaluating the multimedia browser
11756 plugins available in Debian Lenny, to see which one we should use by
11757 default in Debian Edu.  We need an embedded video playing plugin with
11758 control buttons to pause or stop the video, and capable of streaming
11759 all the multimedia content available on the web.  The test results and
11760 notes are available on
11761 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/BrowserMultimedia">the
11762 Debian wiki</a>.  I was surprised how few of the plugins are able to
11763 fill this need.  My personal video player favorite, VLC, has a really
11764 bad plugin which fail on a lot of the test pages.  A lot of the MIME
11765 types I would expect to work with any free software player (like
11766 video/ogg), just do not work.  And simple formats like the
11767 audio/x-mplegurl format (m3u playlists), just isn't supported by the
11768 totem and vlc plugins.  I hope the situation will improve soon.  No
11769 wonder sites use the proprietary Adobe flash to play video.</p>
11770
11771 <p>For Lenny, we seem to end up with the mplayer plugin.  It seem to
11772 be the only one fitting our needs. :/</p>
11773
11774       </div>
11775       <div class="tags">
11776
11777
11778         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>.
11779
11780
11781       </div>
11782     </div>
11783     <div class="padding"></div>
11784
11785     <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>
11786     <div id="sidebar">
11787
11788
11789
11790 <h2>Archive</h2>
11791 <ul>
11792
11793 <li>2016
11794 <ul>
11795
11796 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2016/01/">January (3)</a></li>
11797
11798 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2016/02/">February (2)</a></li>
11799
11800 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2016/03/">March (3)</a></li>
11801
11802 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2016/04/">April (8)</a></li>
11803
11804 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2016/05/">May (8)</a></li>
11805
11806 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2016/06/">June (2)</a></li>
11807
11808 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2016/07/">July (2)</a></li>
11809
11810 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2016/08/">August (5)</a></li>
11811
11812 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2016/09/">September (2)</a></li>
11813
11814 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2016/10/">October (3)</a></li>
11815
11816 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2016/11/">November (8)</a></li>
11817
11818 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2016/12/">December (4)</a></li>
11819
11820 </ul></li>
11821
11822 <li>2015
11823 <ul>
11824
11825 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/01/">January (7)</a></li>
11826
11827 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/02/">February (6)</a></li>
11828
11829 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/03/">March (1)</a></li>
11830
11831 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/04/">April (4)</a></li>
11832
11833 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/05/">May (3)</a></li>
11834
11835 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/06/">June (4)</a></li>
11836
11837 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/07/">July (6)</a></li>
11838
11839 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/08/">August (2)</a></li>
11840
11841 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/09/">September (2)</a></li>
11842
11843 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/10/">October (9)</a></li>
11844
11845 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/11/">November (6)</a></li>
11846
11847 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2015/12/">December (3)</a></li>
11848
11849 </ul></li>
11850
11851 <li>2014
11852 <ul>
11853
11854 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/01/">January (2)</a></li>
11855
11856 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/02/">February (3)</a></li>
11857
11858 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/03/">March (8)</a></li>
11859
11860 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/04/">April (7)</a></li>
11861
11862 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/05/">May (1)</a></li>
11863
11864 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/06/">June (2)</a></li>
11865
11866 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/07/">July (2)</a></li>
11867
11868 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/08/">August (2)</a></li>
11869
11870 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/09/">September (5)</a></li>
11871
11872 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/10/">October (6)</a></li>
11873
11874 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/11/">November (3)</a></li>
11875
11876 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2014/12/">December (5)</a></li>
11877
11878 </ul></li>
11879
11880 <li>2013
11881 <ul>
11882
11883 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/01/">January (11)</a></li>
11884
11885 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/02/">February (9)</a></li>
11886
11887 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/03/">March (9)</a></li>
11888
11889 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/04/">April (6)</a></li>
11890
11891 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/05/">May (9)</a></li>
11892
11893 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/06/">June (10)</a></li>
11894
11895 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/07/">July (7)</a></li>
11896
11897 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/08/">August (3)</a></li>
11898
11899 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/09/">September (5)</a></li>
11900
11901 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/10/">October (7)</a></li>
11902
11903 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/11/">November (9)</a></li>
11904
11905 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/12/">December (3)</a></li>
11906
11907 </ul></li>
11908
11909 <li>2012
11910 <ul>
11911
11912 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/01/">January (7)</a></li>
11913
11914 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/02/">February (10)</a></li>
11915
11916 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/03/">March (17)</a></li>
11917
11918 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/04/">April (12)</a></li>
11919
11920 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/05/">May (12)</a></li>
11921
11922 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/06/">June (20)</a></li>
11923
11924 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/07/">July (17)</a></li>
11925
11926 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/08/">August (6)</a></li>
11927
11928 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/09/">September (9)</a></li>
11929
11930 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/10/">October (17)</a></li>
11931
11932 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/11/">November (10)</a></li>
11933
11934 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/12/">December (7)</a></li>
11935
11936 </ul></li>
11937
11938 <li>2011
11939 <ul>
11940
11941 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/01/">January (16)</a></li>
11942
11943 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/02/">February (6)</a></li>
11944
11945 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/03/">March (6)</a></li>
11946
11947 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/04/">April (7)</a></li>
11948
11949 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/05/">May (3)</a></li>
11950
11951 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/06/">June (2)</a></li>
11952
11953 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/07/">July (7)</a></li>
11954
11955 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/08/">August (6)</a></li>
11956
11957 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/09/">September (4)</a></li>
11958
11959 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/10/">October (2)</a></li>
11960
11961 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/11/">November (3)</a></li>
11962
11963 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/12/">December (1)</a></li>
11964
11965 </ul></li>
11966
11967 <li>2010
11968 <ul>
11969
11970 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/01/">January (2)</a></li>
11971
11972 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/02/">February (1)</a></li>
11973
11974 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/03/">March (3)</a></li>
11975
11976 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/04/">April (3)</a></li>
11977
11978 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/05/">May (9)</a></li>
11979
11980 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/06/">June (14)</a></li>
11981
11982 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/07/">July (12)</a></li>
11983
11984 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/08/">August (13)</a></li>
11985
11986 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/09/">September (7)</a></li>
11987
11988 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/10/">October (9)</a></li>
11989
11990 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/11/">November (13)</a></li>
11991
11992 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/12/">December (12)</a></li>
11993
11994 </ul></li>
11995
11996 <li>2009
11997 <ul>
11998
11999 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/01/">January (8)</a></li>
12000
12001 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/02/">February (8)</a></li>
12002
12003 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/03/">March (12)</a></li>
12004
12005 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/04/">April (10)</a></li>
12006
12007 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/05/">May (9)</a></li>
12008
12009 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/06/">June (3)</a></li>
12010
12011 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/07/">July (4)</a></li>
12012
12013 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/08/">August (3)</a></li>
12014
12015 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/09/">September (1)</a></li>
12016
12017 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/10/">October (2)</a></li>
12018
12019 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/11/">November (3)</a></li>
12020
12021 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/12/">December (3)</a></li>
12022
12023 </ul></li>
12024
12025 <li>2008
12026 <ul>
12027
12028 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2008/11/">November (5)</a></li>
12029
12030 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2008/12/">December (7)</a></li>
12031
12032 </ul></li>
12033
12034 </ul>
12035
12036
12037
12038 <h2>Tags</h2>
12039 <ul>
12040
12041  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/3d-printer">3d-printer (13)</a></li>
12042
12043  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/amiga">amiga (1)</a></li>
12044
12045  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/aros">aros (1)</a></li>
12046
12047  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bankid">bankid (4)</a></li>
12048
12049  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bitcoin">bitcoin (9)</a></li>
12050
12051  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bootsystem">bootsystem (16)</a></li>
12052
12053  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bsa">bsa (2)</a></li>
12054
12055  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/chrpath">chrpath (2)</a></li>
12056
12057  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian (143)</a></li>
12058
12059  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu (158)</a></li>
12060
12061  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/digistan">digistan (10)</a></li>
12062
12063  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/dld">dld (16)</a></li>
12064
12065  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/docbook">docbook (23)</a></li>
12066
12067  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/drivstoffpriser">drivstoffpriser (4)</a></li>
12068
12069  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english (335)</a></li>
12070
12071  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/fiksgatami">fiksgatami (23)</a></li>
12072
12073  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/fildeling">fildeling (12)</a></li>
12074
12075  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freeculture">freeculture (29)</a></li>
12076
12077  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freedombox">freedombox (9)</a></li>
12078
12079  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/frikanalen">frikanalen (18)</a></li>
12080
12081  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/h264">h264 (20)</a></li>
12082
12083  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/intervju">intervju (42)</a></li>
12084
12085  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram">isenkram (14)</a></li>
12086
12087  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/kart">kart (19)</a></li>
12088
12089  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ldap">ldap (9)</a></li>
12090
12091  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/lenker">lenker (8)</a></li>
12092
12093  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/lsdvd">lsdvd (2)</a></li>
12094
12095  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ltsp">ltsp (1)</a></li>
12096
12097  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/mesh network">mesh network (8)</a></li>
12098
12099  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/multimedia">multimedia (39)</a></li>
12100
12101  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nice free software">nice free software (9)</a></li>
12102
12103  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/norsk">norsk (285)</a></li>
12104
12105  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug (182)</a></li>
12106
12107  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/offentlig innsyn">offentlig innsyn (26)</a></li>
12108
12109  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/open311">open311 (2)</a></li>
12110
12111  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/opphavsrett">opphavsrett (62)</a></li>
12112
12113  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/personvern">personvern (96)</a></li>
12114
12115  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/raid">raid (1)</a></li>
12116
12117  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/reactos">reactos (1)</a></li>
12118
12119  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/reprap">reprap (11)</a></li>
12120
12121  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/rfid">rfid (3)</a></li>
12122
12123  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/robot">robot (10)</a></li>
12124
12125  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/rss">rss (1)</a></li>
12126
12127  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ruter">ruter (5)</a></li>
12128
12129  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/scraperwiki">scraperwiki (2)</a></li>
12130
12131  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet (52)</a></li>
12132
12133  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sitesummary">sitesummary (4)</a></li>
12134
12135  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/skepsis">skepsis (5)</a></li>
12136
12137  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/standard">standard (49)</a></li>
12138
12139  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/stavekontroll">stavekontroll (5)</a></li>
12140
12141  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/stortinget">stortinget (10)</a></li>
12142
12143  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance (44)</a></li>
12144
12145  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sysadmin">sysadmin (2)</a></li>
12146
12147  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/usenix">usenix (2)</a></li>
12148
12149  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/valg">valg (8)</a></li>
12150
12151  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/video">video (59)</a></li>
12152
12153  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/vitenskap">vitenskap (4)</a></li>
12154
12155  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/web">web (38)</a></li>
12156
12157 </ul>
12158
12159
12160     </div>
12161     <p style="text-align: right">
12162  Created by <a href="http://steve.org.uk/Software/chronicle">Chronicle v4.6</a>
12163 </p>
12164
12165   </body>
12166 </html>