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  12     <div class="title">
  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 "english".</h3>
  22
  23     <div class="entry">
  24       <div class="title">
  25         <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>
  26       </div>
  27       <div class="date">
  28         17th July 2013
  29       </div>
  30       <div class="body">
  31         <p>Today I switched to
  32 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_Thinkpad_is_dead__long_live_the_Thinkpad_X230_.html">my
  33 new laptop</a>.  I've previously written about the problems I had with
  34 my new Thinkpad X230, which was delivered with an
  35 <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
  36 GB Intel SSD disk with Lenovo firmware</a> that did not handle
  37 sustained writes.  My hardware supplier have been very forthcoming in
  38 trying to find a solution, and after first trying with another
  39 identical 180 GB disks they decided to send me a 256 GB Samsung SSD
  40 disk instead to fix it once and for all.  The Samsung disk survived
  41 the installation of Debian with encrypted disks (filling the disk with
  42 random data during installation killed the first two), and I thus
  43 decided to trust it with my data.  I have installed it as a Debian Edu
  44 Wheezy roaming workstation hooked up with my Debian Edu Squeeze main
  45 server at home using Kerberos and LDAP, and will use it as my work
  46 station from now on.</p>
  47
  48 <p>As this is a solid state disk with no moving parts, I believe the
  49 Debian Wheezy default installation need to be tuned a bit to increase
  50 performance and increase life time of the disk.  The Linux kernel and
  51 user space applications do not yet adjust automatically to such
  52 environment.  To make it easier for my self, I created a draft Debian
  53 package <tt>ssd-setup</tt> to handle this tuning.  The
  54 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/gitweb/?p=collab-maint/ssd-setup.git">source
  55 for the ssd-setup package</a> is available from collab-maint, and it
  56 is set up to adjust the setup of the machine by just installing the
  57 package.  If there is any non-SSD disk in the machine, the package
  58 will refuse to install, as I did not try to write any logic to sort
  59 file systems in SSD and non-SSD file systems.</p>
  60
  61 <p>I consider the package a draft, as I am a bit unsure how to best
  62 set up Debian Wheezy with an SSD.  It is adjusted to my use case,
  63 where I set up the machine with one large encrypted partition (in
  64 addition to /boot), put LVM on top of this and set up partitions on
  65 top of this again.  See the README file in the package source for the
  66 references I used to pick the settings.  At the moment these
  67 parameters are tuned:</p>
  68
  69 <ul>
  70
  71 <li>Set up cryptsetup to pass TRIM commands to the physical disk
  72     (adding discard to /etc/crypttab)</li>
  73
  74 <li>Set up LVM to pass on TRIM commands to the underlying device (in
  75     this case a cryptsetup partition) by changing issue_discards from
  76     0 to 1 in /etc/lvm/lvm.conf.</li>
  77
  78 <li>Set relatime as a file system option for ext3 and ext4 file
  79     systems.</li>
  80
  81 <li>Tell swap to use TRIM commands by adding 'discard' to
  82     /etc/fstab.</li>
  83
  84 <li>Change I/O scheduler from cfq to deadline using a udev rule.</li>
  85
  86 <li>Run fstrim on every ext3 and ext4 file system every night (from
  87     cron.daily).</li>
  88
  89 <li>Adjust sysctl values vm.swappiness to 1 and vm.vfs_cache_pressure
  90     to 50 to reduce the kernel eagerness to swap out processes.</li>
  91
  92 </ul>
  93
  94 <p>During installation, I cancelled the part where the installer fill
  95 the disk with random data, as this would kill the SSD performance for
  96 little gain.  My goal with the encrypted file system is to ensure
  97 those stealing my laptop end up with a brick and not a working
  98 computer.  I have no hope in keeping the really resourceful people
  99 from getting the data on the disk (see
 100 <a href="http://xkcd.com/538/">XKCD #538</a> for an explanation why).
 101 Thus I concluded that adding the discard option to crypttab is the
 102 right thing to do.</p>
 103
 104 <p>I considered using the noop I/O scheduler, as several recommended
 105 it for SSD, but others recommended deadline and a benchmark I found
 106 indicated that deadline might be better for interactive use.</p>
 107
 108 <p>I also considered using the 'discard' file system option for ext3
 109 and ext4, but read that it would give a performance hit ever time a
 110 file is removed, and thought it best to that that slowdown once a day
 111 instead of during my work.</p>
 112
 113 <p>My package do not set up tmpfs on /var/run, /var/lock and /tmp, as
 114 this is already done by Debian Edu.</p>
 115
 116 <p>I have not yet started on the user space tuning.  I expect
 117 iceweasel need some tuning, and perhaps other applications too, but
 118 have not yet had time to investigate those parts.</p>
 119
 120 <p>The package should work on Ubuntu too, but I have not yet tested it
 121 there.</p>
 122
 123 <p>As for the answer to the question in the title of this blog post,
 124 as far as I know, the only solution I know about is to replace the
 125 disk.  It might be possible to flash it with Intel firmware instead of
 126 the Lenovo firmware.  But I have not tried and did not want to do so
 127 without approval from Lenovo as I wanted to keep the warranty on the
 128 disk until a solution was found and they wanted the broken disks
 129 back.</p>
 130
 131       </div>
 132       <div class="tags">
 133
 134
 135         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
 136
 137
 138       </div>
 139     </div>
 140     <div class="padding"></div>
 141
 142     <div class="entry">
 143       <div class="title">
 144         <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>
 145       </div>
 146       <div class="date">
 147         10th July 2013
 148       </div>
 149       <div class="body">
 150         <p>A few days ago, I wrote about
 151 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_Thinkpad_is_dead__long_live_the_Thinkpad_X230_.html">the
 152 problems I experienced with my new X230 and its SSD disk</a>, which
 153 was dying during installation because it is unable to cope with
 154 sustained write.  My supplier is in contact with
 155 <a href="http://www.lenovo.com/">Lenovo</a>, and they wanted to send a
 156 replacement disk to try to fix the problem.  They decided to send an
 157 identical model, so my hopes for a permanent fix was slim.</p>
 158
 159 <p>Anyway, today I got the replacement disk and tried to install
 160 Debian Edu Wheezy with encrypted disk on it.  The new disk have the
 161 same firmware version as the original.  This time my hope raised
 162 slightly as the installation progressed, as the original disk used to
 163 die after 4-7% of the disk was written to, while this time it kept
 164 going past 10%, 20%, 40% and even past 50%.  But around 60%, the disk
 165 died again and I was back on square one.  I still do not have a new
 166 laptop with a disk I can trust.  I can not live with a disk that might
 167 lock up when I download a new
 168 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux</a> ISO or
 169 other large files.  I look forward to hearing from my supplier with
 170 the next proposal from Lenovo.</p>
 171
 172 <p>The original disk is marked Intel SSD 520 Series 180 GB,
 173 11S0C38722Z1ZNME35X1TR, ISN: CVCV321407HB180EGN, SA: G57560302, FW:
 174 LF1i, 29MAY2013, PBA: G39779-300, LBA 351,651,888, LI P/N: 0C38722,
 175 Pb-free 2LI, LC P/N: 16-200366, WWN: 55CD2E40002756C4, Model:
 176 SSDSC2BW180A3L 2.5" 6Gb/s SATA SSD 180G 5V 1A, ASM P/N 0C38732, FRU
 177 P/N 45N8295, P0C38732.</p>
 178
 179 <p>The replacement disk is marked Intel SSD 520 Series 180 GB,
 180 11S0C38722Z1ZNDE34N0L0, ISN: CVCV315306RK180EGN, SA: G57560-302, FW:
 181 LF1i, 22APR2013, PBA: G39779-300, LBA 351,651,888, LI P/N: 0C38722,
 182 Pb-free 2LI, LC P/N: 16-200366, WWN: 55CD2E40000AB69E, Model:
 183 SSDSC2BW180A3L 2.5" 6Gb/s SATA SSD 180G 5V 1A, ASM P/N 0C38732, FRU
 184 P/N 45N8295, P0C38732.</p>
 185
 186 <p>The only difference is in the first number (serial number?), ISN,
 187 SA, date and WNPP values.  Mentioning all the details here in case
 188 someone is able to use the information to find a way to identify the
 189 failing disk among working ones (if any such working disk actually
 190 exist).</p>
 191
 192       </div>
 193       <div class="tags">
 194
 195
 196         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
 197
 198
 199       </div>
 200     </div>
 201     <div class="padding"></div>
 202
 203     <div class="entry">
 204       <div class="title">
 205         <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>
 206       </div>
 207       <div class="date">
 208          9th July 2013
 209       </div>
 210       <div class="body">
 211         <p>The upcoming Saturday, 2013-07-13, we are organising a combined
 212 Debian Edu developer gathering and Debian and Ubuntu bug squashing
 213 party in Oslo.  It is organised by <a href="http://www.nuug.no/">the
 214 member assosiation NUUG</a> and
 215 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">the Debian Edu / Skolelinux
 216 project</a> together with <a href="http://bitraf.no/">the hack space
 217 Bitraf</a>.</p>
 218
 219 <p>It starts 10:00 and continue until late evening.  Everyone is
 220 welcome, and there is no fee to participate.  There is on the other
 221 hand limited space, and only room for 30 people.  Please put your name
 222 on <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/BSP/2013/07/13/no/Oslo">the event
 223 wiki page</a> if you plan to join us.</p>
 224
 225       </div>
 226       <div class="tags">
 227
 228
 229         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>.
 230
 231
 232       </div>
 233     </div>
 234     <div class="padding"></div>
 235
 236     <div class="entry">
 237       <div class="title">
 238         <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>
 239       </div>
 240       <div class="date">
 241          5th July 2013
 242       </div>
 243       <div class="body">
 244         <p>Half a year ago, I reported that I had to find a
 245 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Thank_you_Thinkpad_X41__for_your_long_and_trustworthy_service.html">replacement
 246 for my trusty old Thinkpad X41</a>.  Unfortunately I did not have much
 247 time to spend on it, and it took a while to find a model I believe
 248 will do the job, but two days ago the replacement finally arrived.  I
 249 ended up picking a
 250 <a href="http://www.linlap.com/lenovo_thinkpad_x230">Thinkpad X230</a>
 251 with SSD disk (NZDAJMN).  I first test installed Debian Edu Wheezy as
 252 a roaming workstation, and it seemed to work flawlessly.  But my
 253 second installation with encrypted disk was not as successful.  More
 254 on that below.</p>
 255
 256 <p>I had a hard time trying to track down a good laptop, as my most
 257 important requirements (robust and with a good keyboard) are never
 258 listed in the feature list.  But I did get good help from the search
 259 feature at <a href="http://www.prisjakt.no/">Prisjakt</a>, which
 260 allowed me to limit the list of interesting laptops based on my other
 261 requirements.  A bit surprising that SSD disk are not disks according
 262 to that search interface, so I had to drop specifying the number of
 263 disks from my search parameters.  I also asked around among friends to
 264 get their impression on keyboards and robustness.</p>
 265
 266 <p>So the new laptop arrived, and it is quite a lot wider than the
 267 X41.  I am not quite convinced about the keyboard, as it is
 268 significantly wider than my old keyboard, and I have to stretch my
 269 hand a lot more to reach the edges.  But the key response is fairly
 270 good and the individual key shape is fairly easy to handle, so I hope
 271 I will get used to it.  My old X40 was starting to fail, and I really
 272 needed a new laptop now. :)</p>
 273
 274 <p>Turning off the touch pad was simple.  All it took was a quick
 275 visit to the BIOS during boot it disable it.</p>
 276
 277 <p>But there is a fatal problem with the laptop.  The 180 GB SSD disk
 278 lock up during load.  And this happen when installing Debian Wheezy
 279 with encrypted disk, while the disk is being filled with random data.
 280 I also tested to install Ubuntu Raring, and it happen there too if I
 281 reenable the code to fill the disk with random data (it is disabled by
 282 default in Ubuntu).  And the bug with is already known.  It was
 283 reported to Debian as <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/691427">BTS
 284 report #691427 2012-10-25</a> (journal commit I/O error on brand-new
 285 Thinkpad T430s ext4 on lvm on SSD).  It is also reported to the Linux
 286 kernel developers as
 287 <a href="https://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=51861">Kernel bugzilla
 288 report #51861 2012-12-20</a> (Intel SSD 520 stops working under load
 289 (SSDSC2BW180A3L in Lenovo ThinkPad T430s)). It is also reported on the
 290 Lenovo forums, both for
 291 <a href="http://forums.lenovo.com/t5/T400-T500-and-newer-T-series/T430s-Intel-SSD-520-180GB-issue/m-p/1070549">T430
 292 2012-11-10</a> and for
 293 <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
 294 03-20-2013</a>.  The problem do not only affect installation.  The
 295 reports state that the disk lock up during use if many writes are done
 296 on the disk, so it is much no use to work around the installation
 297 problem and end up with a computer that can lock up at any moment.
 298 There is even a
 299 <a href="https://git.efficios.com/?p=test-ssd.git">small C program
 300 available</a> that will lock up the hard drive after running a few
 301 minutes by writing to a file.</p>
 302
 303 <p>I've contacted my supplier and asked how to handle this, and after
 304 contacting PCHELP Norway (request 01D1FDP) which handle support
 305 requests for Lenovo, his first suggestion was to upgrade the disk
 306 firmware.  Unfortunately there is no newer firmware available from
 307 Lenovo, as my disk already have the most recent one (version LF1i).  I
 308 hope to hear more from him today and hope the problem can be
 309 fixed. :)</p>
 310
 311       </div>
 312       <div class="tags">
 313
 314
 315         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
 316
 317
 318       </div>
 319     </div>
 320     <div class="padding"></div>
 321
 322     <div class="entry">
 323       <div class="title">
 324         <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>
 325       </div>
 326       <div class="date">
 327          4th July 2013
 328       </div>
 329       <div class="body">
 330         <p>Half a year ago, I reported that I had to find a replacement for my
 331 trusty old Thinkpad X41.  Unfortunately I did not have much time to
 332 spend on it, but today the replacement finally arrived.  I ended up
 333 picking a <a href="http://www.linlap.com/lenovo_thinkpad_x230">Thinkpad
 334 X230</a> with SSD disk (NZDAJMN).  I first test installed Debian Edu
 335 Wheezy as a roaming workstation, and it worked flawlessly.  As I write
 336 this, it is installing what I hope will be a more final installation,
 337 with a encrypted hard drive to ensure any dope head stealing it end up
 338 with an expencive door stop.</p>
 339
 340 <p>I had a hard time trying to track down a good laptop, as my most
 341 important requirements (robust and with a good keyboard) are never
 342 listed in the feature list.  But I did get good help from the search
 343 feature at <ahref="http://www.prisjakt.no/">Prisjakt</a>, which
 344 allowed me to limit the list of interesting laptops based on my other
 345 requirements.  A bit surprising that SSD disk are not disks, so I had
 346 to drop number of disks from my search parameters.</p>
 347
 348 <p>I am not quite convinced about the keyboard, as it is significantly
 349 wider than my old keyboard, and I have to stretch my hand a lot more
 350 to reach the edges.  But the key response is fairly good and the
 351 individual key shape is fairly easy to handle, so I hope I will get
 352 used to it.  My old X40 was starting to fail, and I really needed a
 353 new laptop now. :)</p>
 354
 355 <p>I look forward to figuring out how to turn off the touch pad.</p>
 356
 357       </div>
 358       <div class="tags">
 359
 360
 361         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
 362
 363
 364       </div>
 365     </div>
 366     <div class="padding"></div>
 367
 368     <div class="entry">
 369       <div class="title">
 370         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Fourth_alpha_release_of_Debian_Edu_Skolelinux_based_on_Debian_Wheezy.html">Fourth alpha release of Debian Edu/Skolelinux based on Debian Wheezy</a>
 371       </div>
 372       <div class="date">
 373          3rd July 2013
 374       </div>
 375       <div class="body">
 376         <p>The fourth wheezy based alpha release of Debian Edu was wrapped up
 377 today.  This is the release announcement:</p>
 378
 379 <p><strong>New features for Debian Edu 7.1+edu0~alpha3 released
 380 2013-07-03</strong></p>
 381
 382 <p>These are the release notes for for Debian Edu / Skolelinux
 383 7.1+edu0~alpha3, based on Debian with codename "Wheezy".</p>
 384
 385 <p><strong>About Debian Edu and Skolelinux</strong></p>
 386
 387 <p><a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu, also known as
 388 Skolelinux</a>, is a Linux distribution based on Debian providing an
 389 out-of-the box environment of a completely configured school
 390 network. Immediately after installation a school server running all
 391 services needed for a school network is set up just waiting for users
 392 and machines being added via GOsa², a comfortable Web-UI. A netbooting
 393 environment is prepared using PXE, so after initial installation of
 394 the main server from CD, DVD or USB stick all other machines can be
 395 installed via the network. The provided school server provides LDAP
 396 database and Kerberos authentication service, centralized home
 397 directories, DHCP server, web proxy and many other services. The
 398 desktop contains
 399 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Educational_applications_included_in_Debian_Edu___Skolelinux__the_screenshot_collection____.html">more
 400 than 60 educational software packages</a> and more are available from
 401 the Debian archive, and schools can choose between KDE, Gnome, LXDE
 402 and Xfce desktop environment.</p>
 403
 404 <p>This is the fourth test release based on Debian Wheezy. Basically
 405 this is an updated and slightly improved version compared to the
 406 Squeeze release.</p>
 407
 408 <p><strong>Software updates</strong></p>
 409 <ul>
 410   <li>Dropped ispell dictionaries from our default installation.</li>
 411   <li>Dropped menu-xdg from the KDE desktop option, to drop the Debian
 412     submenu.  It was not included with Gnome, LXDE or Xfce, so this
 413     brings KDE in line with the others.</li>
 414   <li>Dropped xdrawchem, xjig and xsok from our default installation as
 415     they don't have a desktop menu entry and thus won't show up in the
 416     menu now that menu-xdg was removed.</li>
 417   <li>Removed the killer system to kill left behind processes on
 418     multi-user machines, as it was no longer able to understand when a
 419     X display was in use and killed the processes of the active users
 420     too.</li>
 421   <li>Dropped the golearn (from goplay) package as the debtags in wheezy
 422     are too few to make the package useful.</li>
 423 </ul>
 424 <p><strong>Other changes</strong></p>
 425 <ul>
 426   <li>Updated artwork matching http://wiki.debian.org/DebianArt/Themes/Joy
 427   <li>Multi-arch i386/amd64 USB stick ISO available.</li>
 428   <li>Got rid of ispell/wordlist related debconf questions that showed
 429     up for some language options.</li>
 430   <li>Switched to using http.debian.net as APT source by default.</li>
 431   <li>Fixed proxy configuration on Main Server installations.</li>
 432   <li>Changed LTSP setup to ask dpkg to use force-unsafe-io the same way
 433     d-i is doing it.</li>
 434   <li>Made sure root and user passwords were not left behind in the
 435     debconf database after installation on Main Server installations.</li>
 436   <li>Made Roaming Workstation dynamic setup more robust and added draft
 437     script setup-ad-client to hook a Roaming Workstation up to a
 438     Active Directory server instead of a Debian Edu Main Server.</li>
 439   <li>Update system to install needed firmware packages during
 440     installation, to work properly in Wheezy.</li>
 441   <li>Update system to handle hardware quirks (debian-edu-hwsetup).</li>
 442   <li>Corrected PXE installation setup to properly pass selected desktop
 443     and keymap settings to PXE installation clients.</li>
 444   <li>LTSP diskless workstations use sshfs by default, allowing them to
 445     work without adding them to DNS and NIS netgroups for NFS access.</li>
 446 </ul>
 447 <p><strong>Known issues</strong></p>
 448 <ul>
 449   <li>No mass import of user account data in GOsa (ldif or csv)
 450     available yet (698840).</li>
 451   <li>Artwork not enabled for all desktops.</li>
 452 </ul>
 453 <p><strong>Where to get it</strong></p>
 454
 455 <p>To download the multiarch netinstall CD release you can use</p>
 456 <ul>
 457   <li><a href="ftp://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~a3-CD.iso">ftp://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~a3-CD.iso</a></li>
 458   <li><a href="http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~a3-CD.iso">http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~a3-CD.iso</a></li>
 459   <li>rsync -avzP ftp.skolelinux.org::skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~a3-CD.iso .</li>
 460 </ul>
 461
 462 <p>The MD5SUM of this image is: 2b161a99d2a848c376d8d04e3854e30c
 463 <br>The SHA1SUM of this image is: 498922e9c508c0a7ee9dbe1dfe5bf830d779c3c8</p>
 464
 465 <p>To download the multiarch USB stick ISO release you can use</p>
 466 <ul>
 467   <li><a href="ftp://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~a3-USB.iso">ftp://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~a3-USB.iso</a></li>
 468   <li><a href="http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~a3-USB.iso">http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~a3-USB.iso</a></li>
 469   <li>rsync -avzP ftp.skolelinux.org::skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.1+edu0~a3-USB.iso .</li>
 470 </ul>
 471
 472 <p>The MD5SUM of this image is: 25e808e403a4c15dbef1d13c37d572ac
 473 <br>The SHA1SUM of this image is: 15ecfc93eb6b4f453b7eb0bc04b6a279262d9721</p>
 474
 475 <p><strong>How to report bugs</strong></p>
 476
 477 <p><a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/HowTo/ReportBugs">http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/HowTo/ReportBugs</a></p>
 478
 479       </div>
 480       <div class="tags">
 481
 482
 483         Tags: <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>.
 484
 485
 486       </div>
 487     </div>
 488     <div class="padding"></div>
 489
 490     <div class="entry">
 491       <div class="title">
 492         <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>
 493       </div>
 494       <div class="date">
 495         25th June 2013
 496       </div>
 497       <div class="body">
 498         <p>It annoys me when the computer fail to do automatically what it is
 499 perfectly capable of, and I have to do it manually to get things
 500 working.  One such task is to find out what firmware packages are
 501 needed to get the hardware on my computer working.  Most often this
 502 affect the wifi card, but some times it even affect the RAID
 503 controller or the ethernet card.  Today I pushed version 0.4 of the
 504 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/isenkram">Isenkram package</a>
 505 including a new script isenkram-autoinstall-firmware handling the
 506 process of asking all the loaded kernel modules what firmware files
 507 they want, find debian packages providing these files and install the
 508 debian packages.  Here is a test run on my laptop:</p>
 509
 510 <p><pre>
 511 # isenkram-autoinstall-firmware
 512 info: kernel drivers requested extra firmware: ipw2200-bss.fw ipw2200-ibss.fw ipw2200-sniffer.fw
 513 info: fetching http://http.debian.net/debian/dists/squeeze/Contents-i386.gz
 514 info: locating packages with the requested firmware files
 515 info: Updating APT sources after adding non-free APT source
 516 info: trying to install firmware-ipw2x00
 517 firmware-ipw2x00
 518 firmware-ipw2x00
 519 Preconfiguring packages ...
 520 Selecting previously deselected package firmware-ipw2x00.
 521 (Reading database ... 259727 files and directories currently installed.)
 522 Unpacking firmware-ipw2x00 (from .../firmware-ipw2x00_0.28+squeeze1_all.deb) ...
 523 Setting up firmware-ipw2x00 (0.28+squeeze1) ...
 524 #
 525 </pre></p>
 526
 527 <p>When all the requested firmware is present, a simple message is
 528 printed instead:</p>
 529
 530 <p><pre>
 531 # isenkram-autoinstall-firmware
 532 info: did not find any firmware files requested by loaded kernel modules.  exiting
 533 #
 534 </pre></p>
 535
 536 <p>It could use some polish, but it is already working well and saving
 537 me some time when setting up new machines. :)</p>
 538
 539 <p>So, how does it work?  It look at the set of currently loaded
 540 kernel modules, and look up each one of them using modinfo, to find
 541 the firmware files listed in the module meta-information.  Next, it
 542 download the Contents file from a nearby APT mirror, and search for
 543 the firmware files in this file to locate the package with the
 544 requested firmware file.  If the package is in the non-free section, a
 545 non-free APT source is added and the package is installed using
 546 <tt>apt-get install</tt>.  The end result is a slightly better working
 547 machine.</p>
 548
 549 <p>I hope someone find time to implement a more polished version of
 550 this script as part of the hw-detect debian-installer module, to
 551 finally fix <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/655507">BTS report
 552 #655507</a>.  There really is no need to insert USB sticks with
 553 firmware during a PXE install when the packages already are available
 554 from the nearby Debian mirror.</p>
 555
 556       </div>
 557       <div class="tags">
 558
 559
 560         Tags: <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>.
 561
 562
 563       </div>
 564     </div>
 565     <div class="padding"></div>
 566
 567     <div class="entry">
 568       <div class="title">
 569         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_value_of_a_good_distro_wide_test_suite___.html">The value of a good distro wide test suite...</a>
 570       </div>
 571       <div class="date">
 572         22nd June 2013
 573       </div>
 574       <div class="body">
 575         <p>In the <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu /
 576 Skolelinux</a> project, we include a post-installation test suite,
 577 which check that services are running, working, and return the
 578 expected results.  It runs automatically just after the first boot on
 579 test installations (using test ISOs), but not on production
 580 installations (using non-test ISOs).  It test that the LDAP service is
 581 operating, Kerberos is responding, DNS is replying, file systems are
 582 online resizable, etc, etc.  And it check that the PXE service is
 583 configured, which is the topic of this post.</p>
 584
 585 <p>The last week I've fixed the DVD and USB stick ISOs for our Debian
 586 Edu Wheezy release.  These ISOs are supposed to be able to install a
 587 complete system without any Internet connection, but for that to
 588 happen all the needed packages need to be on them.  Thanks to our test
 589 suite, I discovered that we had forgotten to adjust our PXE setup to
 590 cope with the new names and paths used by the netboot d-i packages.
 591 When Internet connectivity was available, the installer fall back to
 592 using wget to fetch d-i boot images, but when offline it require
 593 working packages to get it working.  And ad the packages changed name
 594 from debian-installer-6.0-netboot-$arch to
 595 debian-installer-7.0-netboot-$arch, we no longer pulled in the
 596 packages during installation.  Without our test suite, I suspect we
 597 would never have discovered this before release.  Now it is fixed
 598 right after we got the ISOs operational.</p>
 599
 600 <p>Another by-product of the test suite is that we can ask system
 601 administrators with problems getting Debian Edu to work, to run the
 602 test suite using <tt>/usr/sbin/debian-edu-test-install</tt> and see if
 603 any errors are detected.  This usually pinpoint the subsystem causing
 604 the problem.</p>
 605
 606 <p>If you want to help us help kids learn how to share and create,
 607 please join us on
 608 <a href="irc://irc.debian.org/%23debian-edu">#debian-edu on
 609 irc.debian.org</a> and the
 610 <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-edu/">debian-edu@</a> mailing
 611 list.</p>
 612
 613       </div>
 614       <div class="tags">
 615
 616
 617         Tags: <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>.
 618
 619
 620       </div>
 621     </div>
 622     <div class="padding"></div>
 623
 624     <div class="entry">
 625       <div class="title">
 626         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__Victor_Ni_u.html">Debian Edu interview: Victor Nițu</a>
 627       </div>
 628       <div class="date">
 629         17th June 2013
 630       </div>
 631       <div class="body">
 632         <p>The <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu and
 633 Skolelinux</a> distribution have users and contributors all around the
 634 globe.  And a while back, an enterprising young man showed up on
 635 <a href="irc://irc.debian.org/%23debian-edu">our IRC channel
 636 #debian-edu</a> and started asking questions about how Debian Edu
 637 worked.  We answered as good as we could, and even convinced him to
 638 help us with translations.  And today I managed to get an interview
 639 with him, to learn more about him.</p>
 640
 641 <p><strong>Who are you, and how do you spend your days?</strong></p>
 642
 643 <p>I'm a 25 year old free software enthusiast, living in Romania,
 644 which is also my country of origin. Back in 2009, at a New Year's Eve
 645 party, I had a very nice <strike>beer</strike> discussion with a
 646 friend, when we realized we have no organised Debian community in our
 647 country. A few days later, we put together the infrastructure for such
 648 community and even gathered a nice Debian-ish crowd. Since then, I
 649 began my quest as a free software hacker and activist and I am
 650 constantly trying to cover as much ground as possible on that
 651 field.</p>
 652
 653 <p>A few years ago I founded a small web development company, which
 654 provided me the flexible schedule I needed so much for my
 655 activities. For the last 13 months, I have been the Technical Director
 656 of <a href="http://ceata.org/">Fundația Ceata</a>, which is a free
 657 software activist organisation endorsed by the FSF and the FSFE, and
 658 the only one we have in our country.</p>
 659
 660 <p><strong>How did you get in contact with the Skolelinux / Debian Edu
 661 project?</strong></p>
 662
 663 <p>The idea of participating in the Debian Edu project was a surprise
 664 even to me, since I never used it before I began getting involved in
 665 it. This year I had a great opportunity to deliver a talk on
 666 educational software, and I knew immediately where to look. It was a
 667 love at first sight, since I was previously involved with some of the
 668 technologies the project incorporates, and I rapidly found a lot of
 669 ways to contribute.</p>
 670
 671 <p>My first contributions consisted in translating the installer and
 672 configuration dialogs, then I found some bugs to squash (I still
 673 haven't fixed them yet though), and I even got my eyes on some other
 674 areas where I can prove myself helpful. Since the appetite for free
 675 software in my country is pretty low, I'll be happy to be the first
 676 one around here advocating for the project's adoption in educational
 677 environments, and maybe even get my hands dirty in creating a flavour
 678 for our own needs. I am not used to make very advanced plannings, so
 679 from now on, time will tell what I'll be doing next, but I think I
 680 have a pretty consistent starting point.</p>
 681
 682 <p><strong>What do you see as the advantages of Skolelinux/Debian
 683 Edu?</strong></p>
 684
 685 <p>Not a long time ago, I was in the position of configuring and
 686 maintaining a LDAP server on some Debian derivative, and I must say it
 687 took me a while. A long time ago, I was maintaining a bigger
 688 Samba-powered infrastructure, and I must say I spent quite a lot of
 689 time on it. I have similar stories about many of the services included
 690 with Skolelinux, and the main advantage I see about it is the
 691 out-of-the box availability of them, making it quite competitive when
 692 it comes to managing a school's network, for example.</p>
 693
 694 <p>Of course, there is more to say about Skolelinux than the
 695 availability of the software included, its flexibility in various
 696 scenarios is something I can't wait to experiment "into the wild" (I
 697 only played with virtual machines so far). And I am sure there is a
 698 lot more I haven't discovered yet about it, being so new within the
 699 project.</p>
 700
 701 <p><strong>What do you see as the disadvantages of Skolelinux / Debian
 702 Edu?</strong></p>
 703
 704 <p>As usual, when it comes to Debian Blends, I see as the biggest
 705 disadvantage the lack of a numerous team dedicated to the
 706 project. Every day I see the same names in the changelogs, and I have
 707 a constantly fear of the bus factor in this story.  I'd like to see
 708 Debian Edu advertised more as an entry point into the Debian
 709 ecosystem, especially amongst newcomers and students. IMHO there are a
 710 lot low-hanging fruits in terms of bug squashing, and enough
 711 opportunities to get the feeling of the Debian Project's dynamics. Not
 712 to mention it's a very fun blend to work on!</p>
 713
 714 <p>Derived from the previous statement, is the delay in catching up
 715 with the main Debian release and documentation. This is common though
 716 to all blends and derivatives, but it's an issue we can all work
 717 on.</p>
 718
 719 <p><strong>Which free software do you use daily?</strong></p>
 720
 721 <p>I can hardly imagine myself spending a day without Vim, since my
 722 daily routine covers writing code and hacking configuration files. I
 723 am a fan of the Awesome window manager (but I also like the
 724 Enlightenment project a lot!),
 725 <a href="http://www.claws-mail.org/‎">Claws Mail</a> due to its ease of
 726 use and very configurable behaviour. Recently I fell in love with
 727 <a href="https://launchpad.net/redshift">Redshift</a>, which helps me
 728 get through the night without headaches. Of course, there is much more
 729 stuff in this bag, but I'll need a blog on my own for doing this!</p>
 730
 731 <p><strong>Which strategy do you believe is the right one to use to
 732 get schools to use free software?</strong></p>
 733
 734 <p>Well, on this field, I cannot do much more than experiment right
 735 now. So, being far from having a recipe for success, I can only assume
 736 that:</p>
 737
 738 <ul>
 739
 740 <li>schools would like to get rid of proprietary software</li>
 741
 742 <li>students will love the openness of the system, and will want to
 743     experiment with it - maybe we need to harvest the native curiosity
 744     of teenagers more?</li>
 745
 746 <li>there is no "right one" when it comes to strategies, but it would
 747     be useful to have some success stories published somewhere, so
 748     other can get some inspiration from them (I know I'd promote
 749     them!)</li>
 750
 751 <li>more active promotion - talks, conferences, even small school
 752     lectures can do magical things if they encounter at least one
 753     person interested. Who knows who that person might be? ;-)</li>
 754
 755 </ul>
 756
 757 <p>I also see some problems in getting Skolelinux into schools; for
 758 example, in our country we have a great deal of corruption issues, so
 759 it might be hard(er) to fight against proprietary solutions. Also,
 760 people who relied on commercial software for all their lives, would be
 761 very hard to convert against their will.</p>
 762
 763       </div>
 764       <div class="tags">
 765
 766
 767         Tags: <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/intervju">intervju</a>.
 768
 769
 770       </div>
 771     </div>
 772     <div class="padding"></div>
 773
 774     <div class="entry">
 775       <div class="title">
 776         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__Jonathan_Carter.html">Debian Edu interview: Jonathan Carter</a>
 777       </div>
 778       <div class="date">
 779         12th June 2013
 780       </div>
 781       <div class="body">
 782         <p>There is a certain cross-over between the
 783 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux
 784 project</a> and <a href="http://www.edubuntu.org/">the Edubuntu
 785 project</a>, and for example the LTSP packages in Debian are a joint
 786 effort between the projects.  One person with a foot in both camps is
 787 Jonathan Carter, which I am now happy to present to you.</p>
 788
 789 <p><strong>Who are you, and how do you spend your days?</strong></p>
 790
 791 <p>I'm a South-African free software geek who lives in Cape Town. My
 792 days vary quite a bit since I'm involved in too many things. As I'm
 793 getting older I'm learning how to focus a bit more :)</p>
 794
 795 <p>I'm also an Edubuntu contributor and I love when there are
 796 opportunities for the Edubuntu and Debian Edu projects to benefit from
 797 each other.</p>
 798
 799 <p><strong>How did you get in contact with the Skolelinux / Debian Edu
 800 project?</strong></p>
 801
 802 <p>I've been somewhat familiar with the project before, but I think my
 803 first direct exposure to the project was when I met Petter
 804 [Reinholdtsen] and Knut [Yrvin] at the Edubuntu summit in 2005 in
 805 London. They provided great feedback that helped the bootstrapping of
 806 Edubuntu. Back then Edubuntu (and even Ubuntu) was still very new and
 807 it was great getting input from people who have been around longer. I
 808 was also still very excitable and said yes to everything and to this
 809 day I have a big todo list backlog that I'm catching up with. I think
 810 over the years the relationship between Edubuntu and Debian-Edu has
 811 been gradually improving, although I think there's a lot that we could
 812 still improve on in terms of working together on packages. I'm sure
 813 we'll get there one day.</p>
 814
 815 <p><strong>What do you see as the advantages of Skolelinux / Debian
 816 Edu?</strong></p>
 817
 818 <p>Debian itself already has so many advantages. I could go on about
 819 it for pages, but in essence I love that it's a very honest project
 820 that puts its users first with no hidden agendas and also produces
 821 very high quality work.</p>
 822
 823 <p>I think the advantage of Debian Edu is that it makes many common
 824 set-up tasks simpler so that administrators can get up and running
 825 with a lot less effort and frustration. At the same time I think it
 826 helps to standardise installations in schools so that it's easier for
 827 community members and commercial suppliers to support.</p>
 828
 829 <p><strong>What do you see as the disadvantages of Skolelinux / Debian
 830 Edu?</strong></p>
 831
 832 <p>I had to re-type this one a few times because I'm trying to
 833 separate "disadvantages" from "areas that need improvement" (which is
 834 what I originally rambled on about)</p>
 835
 836 <p>The biggest disadvantage I can think of is lack of manpower. The
 837 project could do so much more if there were more good contributors. I
 838 think some of the problems are external too. Free software and free
 839 content in education is a no-brainer but it takes some time to catch
 840 on. When you've been working with the same proprietary eco-system for
 841 years and have gotten used to it, it can be hard to adjust to some
 842 concepts in the free software world. It would be nice if there were
 843 more Debian Edu consultants across the world. I'd love to be one
 844 myself but I'm already so over-committed that it's just not possible
 845 currently.</p>
 846
 847 <p>I think the best short-term solution to that large-scale problem is
 848 for schools to be pro-active and share their experiences and grow
 849 their skills in-house. I'm often saddened to see how much money
 850 educational institutions spend on 3rd party solutions that they don't
 851 have access to after the service has ended and they could've gotten so
 852 much more value otherwise by being more self-sustainable and
 853 autonomous.</p>
 854
 855 <p><strong>Which free software do you use daily?</strong></p>
 856
 857 <p>My main laptop dual-boots between Debian and Windows 7. I was
 858 Windows free for years but started dual-booting again last year for
 859 some games which help me focus and relax (Starcraft II in
 860 particular). Gaming support on Linux is improving in leaps and bounds
 861 so I suppose I'll soon be able to regain that disk space :)</p>
 862
 863 <p>Besides that I rely on Icedove, Chromium, Terminator, Byobu, irssi,
 864 git, Tomboy, KVM, VLC and LibreOffice. Recently I've been torn on
 865 which desktop environment I like and I'm taking some refuge in Xfce
 866 while I figure that out. I like tools that keep things simple. I enjoy
 867 Python and shell scripting. I went to an Arduino workshop recently and
 868 it was awesome seeing how easy and simple the IDE software was to get
 869 up and running in Debian compared to the users running Windows and OS
 870 X.</p>
 871
 872 <p>I also use mc which some people frown upon slightly. I got used to
 873 using Norton Commander in the early 90's and it stuck (I think the
 874 people who sneer at it is just jealous that they don't know how to use
 875 it :p)
 876
 877 <p><strong>Which strategy do you believe is the right one to use to
 878 get schools to use free software?</strong></p>
 879
 880 <p>I think trying to force it is unproductive. I also think that in
 881 many cases it's appropriate for schools to use non-free systems and I
 882 don't think that there's any particular moral or ethical problem with
 883 that.</p>
 884
 885 <p>I do think though that free software can already solve so so many
 886 problems in educational institutions and it's just a shame not taking
 887 advantage of that.</p>
 888
 889 <p>I also think that some curricula need serious review. For example,
 890 some areas of the world rely heavily on very specific versions of MS
 891 Office, teaching students to parrot menu items instead of learning the
 892 general concepts. I think that's very unproductive because firstly, MS
 893 Office's interface changes drastically every few years and on top of
 894 that it also locks in a generation to a product that might not be the
 895 best solution for them.</p>
 896
 897 <p>To answer your question, I believe that the right strategy is to
 898 educate and inform, giving someone the information they require to
 899 make a decision that would work for them.</p>
 900
 901       </div>
 902       <div class="tags">
 903
 904
 905         Tags: <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/intervju">intervju</a>.
 906
 907
 908       </div>
 909     </div>
 910     <div class="padding"></div>
 911
 912     <div class="entry">
 913       <div class="title">
 914         <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>
 915       </div>
 916       <div class="date">
 917         11th June 2013
 918       </div>
 919       <div class="body">
 920         <p>When installing RedHat, Fedora, Debian and Ubuntu on some machines,
 921 the screen just turn black when Linux boot, either during installation
 922 or on first boot from the hard disk.  I've seen it once in a while the
 923 last few years, but only recently understood the cause.  I've seen it
 924 on HP laptops, and on my latest acquaintance the Packard Bell laptop.
 925 The reason seem to be in the wiring of some laptops.  The system to
 926 control the screen background light is inverted, so when Linux try to
 927 turn the brightness fully on, it end up turning it off instead.  I do
 928 not know which Linux drivers are affected, but this post is about the
 929 i915 driver used by the
 930 <a href="http://www.linlap.com/packard_bell_easynote_lv">Packard Bell
 931 EasyNote LV</a>, Thinkpad X40 and many other laptops.</p>
 932
 933 <p>The problem can be worked around two ways.  Either by adding
 934 i915.invert_brightness=1 as a kernel option, or by adding a file in
 935 /etc/modprobe.d/ to tell modprobe to add the invert_brightness=1
 936 option when it load the i915 kernel module.  On Debian and Ubuntu, it
 937 can be done by running these commands as root:</p>
 938
 939 <pre>
 940 echo options i915 invert_brightness=1 | tee /etc/modprobe.d/i915.conf
 941 update-initramfs -u -k all
 942 </pre>
 943
 944 <p>Since March 2012 there is
 945 <a href="http://git.kernel.org/cgit/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/commit/?id=4dca20efb1a9c2efefc28ad2867e5d6c3f5e1955">a
 946 mechanism in the Linux kernel</a> to tell the i915 driver which
 947 hardware have this problem, and get the driver to invert the
 948 brightness setting automatically.  To use it, one need to add a row in
 949 <a href="http://git.kernel.org/cgit/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/tree/drivers/gpu/drm/i915/intel_display.c">the
 950 intel_quirks array</a> in the driver source
 951 <tt>drivers/gpu/drm/i915/intel_display.c</tt> (look for "<tt>static
 952 struct intel_quirk intel_quirks</tt>"), specifying the PCI device
 953 number (vendor number 8086 is assumed) and subdevice vendor and device
 954 number.</p>
 955
 956 <p>My Packard Bell EasyNote LV got this output from <tt>lspci
 957 -vvnn</tt> for the video card in question:</p>
 958
 959 <p><pre>
 960 00:02.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: Intel Corporation \
 961     3rd Gen Core processor Graphics Controller [8086:0156] \
 962     (rev 09) (prog-if 00 [VGA controller])
 963  Subsystem: Acer Incorporated [ALI] Device [1025:0688]
 964  Control: I/O+ Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- \
 965     ParErr- Stepping- SE RR- FastB2B- DisINTx+
 966  Status: Cap+ 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B+ ParErr- DEVSEL=fast >TAbort- \
 967     <TAbort- <MAbort->SERR- <PERR- INTx-
 968  Latency: 0
 969  Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 42
 970  Region 0: Memory at c2000000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=4M]
 971  Region 2: Memory at b0000000 (64-bit, prefetchable) [size=256M]
 972  Region 4: I/O ports at 4000 [size=64]
 973  Expansion ROM at <unassigned> [disabled]
 974  Capabilities: <access denied>
 975  Kernel driver in use: i915
 976 </pre></p>
 977
 978 <p>The resulting intel_quirks entry would then look like this:</p>
 979
 980 <p><pre>
 981 struct intel_quirk intel_quirks[] = {
 982        ...
 983         /* Packard Bell EasyNote LV11HC needs invert brightness quirk */
 984         { 0x0156, 0x1025, 0x0688, quirk_invert_brightness },
 985        ...
 986 }
 987 </pre></p>
 988
 989 <p>According to the kernel module instructions (as seen using
 990 <tt>modinfo i915</tt>), information about hardware needing the
 991 invert_brightness flag should be sent to the
 992 <a href="http://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/dri-devel">dri-devel
 993 (at) lists.freedesktop.org</a> mailing list to reach the kernel
 994 developers.  But my email about the laptop sent 2013-06-03 have not
 995 yet shown up in
 996 <a href="http://lists.freedesktop.org/archives/dri-devel/2013-June/thread.html">the
 997 web archive for the mailing list</a>, so I suspect they do not accept
 998 emails from non-subscribers.  Because of this, I sent my patch also to
 999 the Debian bug tracking system instead as
1000 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/710938">BTS report #710938</a>, to make
1001 sure the patch is not lost.</p>
1002
1003 <p>Unfortunately, it is not enough to fix the kernel to get Laptops
1004 with this problem working properly with Linux.  If you use Gnome, your
1005 worries should be over at this point.  But if you use KDE, there is
1006 something in KDE ignoring the invert_brightness setting and turning on
1007 the screen during login.  I've reported it to Debian as
1008 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/711237">BTS report #711237</a>, and
1009 have no idea yet how to figure out exactly what subsystem is doing
1010 this.  Perhaps you can help?  Perhaps you know what the Gnome
1011 developers did to handle this, and this can give a clue to the KDE
1012 developers?  Or you know where in KDE the screen brightness is changed
1013 during login?  If so, please update the BTS report (or get in touch if
1014 you do not know how to update BTS).</p>
1015
1016       </div>
1017       <div class="tags">
1018
1019
1020         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
1021
1022
1023       </div>
1024     </div>
1025     <div class="padding"></div>
1026
1027     <div class="entry">
1028       <div class="title">
1029         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Third_alpha_release_of_Debian_Edu___Skolelinux_based_on_Debian_Wheezy.html">Third alpha release of Debian Edu / Skolelinux based on Debian Wheezy</a>
1030       </div>
1031       <div class="date">
1032         10th June 2013
1033       </div>
1034       <div class="body">
1035         <p>The third wheezy based alpha release of Debian Edu was wrapped up
1036 today.  This is the release announcement:</p>
1037
1038 <p><strong>New features for Debian Edu 7.0.0 alpha2 released
1039 2013-06-10</strong></p>
1040
1041 <p>This is the release notes for for Debian Edu / Skolelinux 7.0.0 edu
1042 alpha2, based on Debian with codename "Wheezy".</p>
1043
1044 <p><strong>About Debian Edu and Skolelinux</strong></p>
1045
1046 <p><a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu, also known as
1047 Skolelinux</a>, is a Linux distribution based on Debian providing an
1048 out-of-the box environment of a completely configured school
1049 network. Immediately after installation a school server running all
1050 services needed for a school network is set up just waiting for users
1051 and machines being added via GOsa², a comfortable Web-UI. A netbooting
1052 environment is prepared using PXE, so after initial installation of
1053 the main server from CD, DVD or USB stick all other machines can be
1054 installed via the network. The provided school server provides LDAP
1055 database and Kerberos authentication service, centralized home
1056 directories, DHCP server, web proxy and many other services. The
1057 desktop contains
1058 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Educational_applications_included_in_Debian_Edu___Skolelinux__the_screenshot_collection____.html">more
1059 than 60 educational software packages</a> and more are available from
1060 the Debian archive, and schools can choose between KDE, Gnome, LXDE
1061 and Xfce desktop environment.</p>
1062
1063 <p>This is the third test release based on Debian Wheezy. Basically
1064 this is an updated and slightly improved version compared to the
1065 Squeeze release.</p>
1066
1067 <p><strong>Software updates</strong></p>
1068
1069 <ul>
1070
1071 <li>Iceweasel was updated from 10 to 17. (DSA 2699-1)
1072 <li>Updated libxv (DSA-2674), libxvmc (DSA-2675), libxfixes (DSA-2676), libxrender (DSA-2677), mesa (DSA-2678), xserver-xorg-video-openchrome (DSA-2679), libxt (DSA-2680), libxcursor (DSA-2681), libxext (DSA-2682), libxi (DSA-2683), libxrandr (DSA-2684), libxp (DSA-2685), libxcb (DSA-2686), libfs (DSA-2687), libxres (DSA-2688), libxtst (DSA-2689), libxxf86dga (DSA-2690), libxinerama (DSA-2691), libxxf86vm (DSA-2692), libx11 (DSA-2693), chromium-browser (DSA-2695), gnutls26 (DSA-2697), wireshark (DSA-2700), krb5 (DSA-2701), telepathy-gabble (DSA-2702) and subversion (DSA-2703).
1073 <li>Switched xrdp on thin client servers to use tightvncserver instead of xvnc4.
1074 <li>Now install software oscilloscope xoscope by default.
1075 <li>Now install music tools gtick, lingot and pianobooster by default.
1076
1077 </ul>
1078
1079 <p><strong>Other changes</strong></p>
1080
1081 <ul>
1082
1083 <li>The subnet-change script is now able to change all files needing a change on the main-server when changing the IP network used.
1084 <li>Updated translation of the installation.
1085 <li>New Romanian translation.
1086 <li>Fix security problem causing root and first user password to no longer show up in /var/cache/debconf/templates.dat.
1087 <li>Fix roaming workstation setup (Closed in libpam-mklocaluser/0.8, libpam-mklocaluser/0.8~deb7u1: #706753: libpam-mklocaluser: Fail to create local user during first login).
1088 <li>Made roaming workstation setup more robust in non-Debian Edu environments.
1089 <li>New script debian-edu-bless to transform a Debian installation to a Debian Edu profile.
1090 <li>Adjust Iceweasel setup to improve performance when $HOME is on NFS.
1091 <li>More testsuite tests.
1092 <li>Make automatic proxy configuration more robust.
1093 <li>Adjust GOsa² GUI configuration.
1094
1095 <li>Update thin client and diskless workstation setup to work with
1096 LTSP in Wheezy.</li>
1097
1098 <li>Diskless workstations now run out of the box -- no need to set
1099 them up with GOsa².</li>
1100
1101 <li>Update IMAP server setup. </li>
1102
1103 <li>Fix login into Skolelinux Backup Tool (Closed in
1104 slbackup-php/0.4.4-1: #700257: slbackup-php: Fails to submit correctly
1105 entered password). </li>
1106
1107 </ul>
1108
1109 <p><strong>Known issues</strong></p>
1110
1111 <ul>
1112
1113 <li>DVD binary and source images are not yet ready.</li>
1114
1115 <li>No mass import of user account data in GOsa (ldif or csv)
1116 available yet (Open in gosa/2.7.4-4: #698840: gosa-plugin-ldapmanager:
1117 missing import feature).</li>
1118
1119 <li>Missing artwork for the KDE desktop (and probably a few others). </li>
1120
1121 <li>KDE Debian submenu lacks icons (Closed: #502192: menu-xdg: invents
1122 own icon names instead of using existing). This will remain
1123 unfixed.</li>
1124
1125 </ul>
1126
1127 <p><strong>Where to get it</strong></p>
1128
1129 <p>To download the multiarch netinstall CD release you can use</p>
1130
1131 <ul>
1132
1133 <li><a href="ftp://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.0+edu0~a2-CD.iso">ftp://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.0+edu0~a2-CD.iso</a></li>
1134
1135 <li><a href="http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.0+edu0~a2-CD.iso">http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.0+edu0~a2-CD.iso</a></li>
1136
1137 <li>rsync -avzP ftp.skolelinux.org::skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu-7.0+edu0~a2-CD.iso .</li>
1138
1139 </ul>
1140
1141 <p>The MD5SUM of this image is: 27bbcace407743382f3c42c08dbe8178
1142 <br>The SHA1SUM of this image is: e35f7d7908566cd3075375b3721fa10ee420d419</p>
1143
1144 <p><strong>How to report bugs</strong></p>
1145
1146 <p><a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/HowTo/ReportBugs">http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/HowTo/ReportBugs</a>
1147
1148       </div>
1149       <div class="tags">
1150
1151
1152         Tags: <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>.
1153
1154
1155       </div>
1156     </div>
1157     <div class="padding"></div>
1158
1159     <div class="entry">
1160       <div class="title">
1161         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Is_there_a_PHP_expert_in_the_building___Debian_Edu_need_help_.html">Is there a PHP expert in the building?  Debian Edu need help!</a>
1162       </div>
1163       <div class="date">
1164          5th June 2013
1165       </div>
1166       <div class="body">
1167         <p>Here is a call for help from the Debian Edu / Skolelinux project.
1168 We have two problems blocking the release of the Wheezy version we
1169 hope to get released soon.  The two problems require some with PHP
1170 skills, and we seem to lack anyone with both time and PHP skills in
1171 the project:
1172
1173 <ol>
1174
1175 <li>It is impossible to log into the slbackup web interface
1176   (slbackup-php) using the root user and password.  This is
1177   <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/700257">BTS report #700257</a>.
1178   This used to work, but stopped working some time since Squeeze.
1179   Perhaps some obsolete PHP feature was used?</li>
1180
1181 <li>It is not possible to "mass import" user lists in Gosa, neither
1182   using ldif nor using CSV files.  The feature was disabled after a
1183   major rewrite of Gosa, and need to be ported to the new system.
1184   This is <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/698840">BTS report
1185   #698840</a>.</li>
1186
1187 </ol>
1188
1189 <p>If you can help us, please join us on IRC
1190 (<a href="irc://irc.debian.org/%23debian-edu">#debian-edu on
1191 irc.debian.org</a>) and provide patches via the BTS.</p>
1192
1193       </div>
1194       <div class="tags">
1195
1196
1197         Tags: <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>.
1198
1199
1200       </div>
1201     </div>
1202     <div class="padding"></div>
1203
1204     <div class="entry">
1205       <div class="title">
1206         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__C_dric_Boutillier.html">Debian Edu interview: Cédric Boutillier</a>
1207       </div>
1208       <div class="date">
1209          4th June 2013
1210       </div>
1211       <div class="body">
1212         <p>It has been a while since my last English
1213 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu and Skolelinux</a>
1214 interview last November.  But the developers and translators are still
1215 pulling along to get the Wheezy based release out the door, and this
1216 time I managed to get an interview from one of the French translators
1217 in the project, Cédric Boutillier.</p>
1218
1219 <p><strong>Who are you, and how do you spend your days?</strong></p>
1220
1221 <p>I am 34 year old. I live near Paris, France. I am an assistant
1222 professor in probability theory. I spend my daytime teaching
1223 mathematics at the university and doing fundamental research in
1224 probability in connexion with combinatorics and statistical physics.</p>
1225
1226 <p>I have been involved in the Debian project for a couple of years
1227 and became Debian Developer a few months ago. I am working on Ruby
1228 packaging, publicity and translation.</p>
1229
1230 <p><strong>How did you get in contact with the Skolelinux / Debian Edu
1231 project?</strong></p>
1232
1233 <p>I came to the Debian Edu project after a call for translation of
1234 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Documentation/Manuals">the
1235 Debian Edu manual</a> for the release of Debian Edu Squeeze. Since
1236 then, I have been working on updating the French translation of the
1237 manual.
1238
1239 <p>I had the opportunity to make an installation of Debian Edu in a
1240 virtual machine when I was preparing localised version of some screen
1241 shots for the manual. I was amazed to see it worked out of the box and
1242 how comprehensive the list of software installed by default was.</p>
1243
1244 <p>What amazed me was the complete network infrastructure directly
1245 ready to use, which can and the nice administration interface provided
1246 by <a href="https://oss.gonicus.de/labs/gosa/">GOsa²</a>.  What pleased
1247 me also was the fact that among the software installed by default,
1248 there were many "traditional" educative software to learn languages,
1249 to count, to program... but also software to develop creativity and
1250 artistic skills with music (<a href="http://ardour.org/">Ardour</a>,
1251 <a href="http://audacity.sourceforge.net/">Audacity</a>) and
1252 movies/animation (I was especially thinking of
1253 <a href="http://linuxstopmotion.sourceforge.net/">Stopmotion</a>).</p>
1254
1255 <p>I am following the development of Debian Edu and am hanging out on
1256 <a href="irc://irc.debian.org/%23debian-edu">#debian-edu</a>.
1257 Unfortunately, I don't much time to get more involved in this
1258 beautiful project.</p>
1259
1260 <p><strong>What do you see as the advantages of Skolelinux / Debian
1261 Edu?</strong></p>
1262
1263 <p>For me, the main advantages of Skolelinux/Debian Edu are its
1264 community of experts and its precise documentation, as well as the
1265 fact that it provides a solution ready to use.</p>
1266
1267 <p>I would add also the fact that it is based on the rock solid Debian
1268 distribution, which ensures stability and provides a huge collection
1269 of educational free software.</p>
1270
1271 <p><strong>What do you see as the disadvantages of Skolelinux / Debian
1272 Edu?</strong></p>
1273
1274 <p>Maybe the lack of manpower to do lobbying on the
1275 project. Sometimes, people who need to take decisions concerning IT do
1276 not have all the elements to evaluate properly free software
1277 solutions. The fact that support by a company may be difficult to find
1278 is probably a problem if the school does not have IT personnel.</p>
1279
1280 <p>One can find support from a company by looking at
1281 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Help/ProfessionalHelp">the
1282 wiki dokumentation</a>, where some countries already have a number of
1283 companies providing support for Debian Edu, like Germany or
1284 Norway. This list is easy to find readily from the manual. However,
1285 for other countries, like France, the list is empty. I guess that
1286 consultants proposing support for Debian would be able to provide some
1287 support for Debian Edu as well.</p>
1288
1289 <p><strong>Which free software do you use daily?</strong></p>
1290
1291 <p>I am using the KDE Plasma Desktop. But the pieces of software I use
1292 most runs in a terminal: Mutt and OfflineIMAP for emails, latex for
1293 scientific documents, mpd for music. VIM is my editor of choice.  I am
1294 also using the mathematical software
1295 <a href="http://www.scilab.org/en/scilab/about‎">Scilab</a> and
1296 <a href="http://www.sagemath.org/index.html‎">Sage</a> (built from
1297 source as not completely packaged for Debian, yet).
1298
1299 <p><strong>Do you have any suggestions for teachers interested in
1300 using the free software in Debian to teach mathematics and
1301 statistics?</strong></p>
1302
1303 <p>I do not have any "nice" recommendations for statistics. At our
1304 university, we use both <a href="http://www.r-project.org/‎">R</a> and
1305 Scilab to teach statistics and probabilistic simulations. For
1306 geometry, there are nice programs:</p>
1307
1308 <ul>
1309
1310 <li><a href="http://www.drgeo.eu/">drgeo</a> and
1311 <a href="http://edu.kde.org/applications/all/kig‎">kig</a> to do
1312 constructions in planar geometry
1313
1314 <li><a href="http://www.geom.uiuc.edu/software/download/kali.html">kali</a>
1315 to discover symmetry groups (the so-called wallpapers and frieze
1316 groups), although the interface looks a bit old.</li>
1317
1318 </ul>
1319
1320 <p>I like also
1321 <a href="http://edu.kde.org/applications/all/cantor">cantor</a>, which
1322 provides a uniform interface to SciLab, Sage,
1323 <a href="http://directory.fsf.org/wiki/Octave‎">Octave</a>, etc...</p>
1324
1325 <p><strong>Which strategy do you believe is the right one to use to
1326 get schools to use free software?</strong></p>
1327
1328 <p>My suggestions would be to</p>
1329
1330 <ul>
1331
1332 <li>advertise the reduction of costs when free software is used.</li>
1333
1334 <li>communicate about the quality of free software projects, using
1335     well known examples like Firefox, ThunderBird and
1336     OpenOffice.org/LibreOffice.</li>
1337
1338 <li>advertise the living and strong community around the project.</li>
1339
1340 <li>show that it is not more difficult to use than any other
1341     system.</li>
1342
1343 </ul>
1344
1345       </div>
1346       <div class="tags">
1347
1348
1349         Tags: <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/intervju">intervju</a>.
1350
1351
1352       </div>
1353     </div>
1354     <div class="padding"></div>
1355
1356     <div class="entry">
1357       <div class="title">
1358         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Educational_applications_included_in_Debian_Edu___Skolelinux__the_screenshot_collection____.html">Educational applications included in Debian Edu / Skolelinux (the screenshot collection :-)</a>
1359       </div>
1360       <div class="date">
1361          1st June 2013
1362       </div>
1363       <div class="body">
1364         <p>Included in <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu /
1365 Skolelinux</a>, there are quite a lot of educational software.
1366 Created to help teachers teach, and pupils learn.  We have tried to
1367 tag them all using debtags use::learning and role::program, and using
1368 the debtags I was happy to be able to create a collage of the
1369 educational software packages installed by default, sorted by the
1370 debtag field.  Here it is.  Click on a image to learn more about the
1371 program.</p>
1372
1373 <!-- for f in $(debtags tagcat|grep field::|awk '{print $2}'); do   echo; echo "<p><strong>$f</strong></p>"; echo "<p>";   (     for p in $(debtags search --names "use::learning && interface::x11 && role::program && $f"); do img="<img src='http://screenshots.debian.net/thumbnail/$p' alt='$p'>"; if dpkg -s $p > /dev/null 2>&1; then           echo "<a href='http://packages.qa.debian.org/$p'>$img</a>"; fi;     done;   ) | LANG=C sort; echo "</p>"; done -->
1374
1375 <p><strong>field::arts</strong></p>
1376 <p>
1377 <a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=audacity'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/audacity.png' alt='audacity'></a>
1378 <a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=childsplay'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/childsplay.png' alt='childsplay'></a>
1379 <a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=denemo'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/denemo.png' alt='denemo'></a>
1380 <a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=freebirth'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/freebirth.png' alt='freebirth'></a>
1381 <a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=gcompris'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/gcompris.png' alt='gcompris'></a>
1382 <a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=gimp'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/gimp.png' alt='gimp'></a>
1383 <a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=hydrogen'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/hydrogen.png' alt='hydrogen'></a>
1384 <a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=lilypond'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/lilypond.png' alt='lilypond'></a>
1385 <a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=lmms'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/lmms.png' alt='lmms'></a>
1386 <a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=rosegarden'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/rosegarden.png' alt='rosegarden'></a>
1387 <a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=scribus'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/scribus.png' alt='scribus'></a>
1388 <a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=solfege'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/solfege.png' alt='solfege'></a>
1389 <a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=stopmotion'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/stopmotion.png' alt='stopmotion'></a>
1390 <a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=tuxpaint'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/tuxpaint.png' alt='tuxpaint'></a>
1391 </p>
1392
1393 <p><strong>field::astronomy</strong></p>
1394 <p>
1395 <a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=celestia-gnome'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/celestia-gnome.png' alt='celestia-gnome'></a>
1396 <a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=gpredict'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/gpredict.png' alt='gpredict'></a>
1397 <a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=kstars'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/kstars.png' alt='kstars'></a>
1398 <a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=planets'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/planets.png' alt='planets'></a>
1399 <a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=stellarium'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/stellarium.png' alt='stellarium'></a>
1400 <a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=xplanet'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/xplanet.png' alt='xplanet'></a>
1401 </p>
1402
1403 <p><strong>field::biology:structural</strong></p>
1404 <p>
1405 <a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=pymol'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/pymol.png' alt='pymol'></a>
1406 </p>
1407
1408 <p><strong>field::chemistry</strong></p>
1409 <p>
1410 <a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=atomix'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/atomix.png' alt='atomix'></a>
1411 <a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=chemtool'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/chemtool.png' alt='chemtool'></a>
1412 <a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=easychem'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/easychem.png' alt='easychem'></a>
1413 <a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=gchempaint'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/gchempaint.png' alt='gchempaint'></a>
1414 <a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=gdis'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/gdis.png' alt='gdis'></a>
1415 <a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=ghemical'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/ghemical.png' alt='ghemical'></a>
1416 <a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=gperiodic'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/gperiodic.png' alt='gperiodic'></a>
1417 <a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=kalzium'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/kalzium.png' alt='kalzium'></a>
1418 <a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=pymol'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/pymol.png' alt='pymol'></a>
1419 <a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=viewmol'>[viewmol]</a>
1420 <a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=xdrawchem'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/xdrawchem.png' alt='xdrawchem'></a>
1421 </p>
1422
1423 <p><strong>field::electronics</strong></p>
1424 <p>
1425 <a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=gcompris'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/gcompris.png' alt='gcompris'></a>
1426 <a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=gpsim'>[gpsim]</a>
1427 </p>
1428
1429 <p><strong>field::geography</strong></p>
1430 <p>
1431 <a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=kgeography'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/kgeography.png' alt='kgeography'></a>
1432 <a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=marble'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/marble.png' alt='marble'></a>
1433 <a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=xplanet'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/xplanet.png' alt='xplanet'></a>
1434 </p>
1435
1436 <p><strong>field::linguistics</strong></p>
1437 <p>
1438 <a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=gcompris'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/gcompris.png' alt='gcompris'></a>
1439 <a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=kanagram'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/kanagram.png' alt='kanagram'></a>
1440 <a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=khangman'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/khangman.png' alt='khangman'></a>
1441 <a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=klettres'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/klettres.png' alt='klettres'></a>
1442 <a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=parley'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/parley.png' alt='parley'></a>
1443 </p>
1444
1445 <p><strong>field::mathematics</strong></p>
1446 <p>
1447 <a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=childsplay'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/childsplay.png' alt='childsplay'></a>
1448 <a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=drgeo'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/drgeo.png' alt='drgeo'></a>
1449 <a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=gcompris'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/gcompris.png' alt='gcompris'></a>
1450 <a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=geogebra'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/geogebra.png' alt='geogebra'></a>
1451 <a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=geomview'>[geomview]</a>
1452 <a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=grace'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/grace.png' alt='grace'></a>
1453 <a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=graphmonkey'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/graphmonkey.png' alt='graphmonkey'></a>
1454 <a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=graphthing'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/graphthing.png' alt='graphthing'></a>
1455 <a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=kalgebra'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/kalgebra.png' alt='kalgebra'></a>
1456 <a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=kbruch'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/kbruch.png' alt='kbruch'></a>
1457 <a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=kig'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/kig.png' alt='kig'></a>
1458 <a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=kmplot'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/kmplot.png' alt='kmplot'></a>
1459 <a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=mathwar'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/mathwar.png' alt='mathwar'></a>
1460 <a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=rocs'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/rocs.png' alt='rocs'></a>
1461 <a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=scratch'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/scratch.png' alt='scratch'></a>
1462 <a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=tuxmath'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/tuxmath.png' alt='tuxmath'></a>
1463 <a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=xabacus'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/xabacus.png' alt='xabacus'></a>
1464 </p>
1465
1466 <p><strong>field::physics</strong></p>
1467 <p>
1468 <a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=gcompris'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/gcompris.png' alt='gcompris'></a>
1469 <a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=step'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/step.png' alt='step'></a>
1470 </p>
1471
1472 <p><strong>field::TODO</strong></p>
1473 <p>
1474 <a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=blinken'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/blinken.png' alt='blinken'></a>
1475 <a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=cgoban'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/cgoban.png' alt='cgoban'></a>
1476 <a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=childsplay'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/childsplay.png' alt='childsplay'></a>
1477 <a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=gcompris'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/gcompris.png' alt='gcompris'></a>
1478 <a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=gnuchess'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/gnuchess.png' alt='gnuchess'></a>
1479 <a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=gnugo'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/gnugo.png' alt='gnugo'></a>
1480 <a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=gtans'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/gtans.png' alt='gtans'></a>
1481 <a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=ktouch'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/ktouch.png' alt='ktouch'></a>
1482 <a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=librecad'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/librecad.png' alt='librecad'></a>
1483 <a href='http://packages.debian.org/search?searchon=names&exact=1&suite=all&section=all&keywords=scratch'><img src='http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-06-01-debian-edu-apps/scratch.png' alt='scratch'></a>
1484 </p>
1485
1486 <p>In total, 61 applications.  3 of them lacked screen shots on
1487 <a href="http://screenshot.debian.net">screenshot.debian.net</a>.  If
1488 you know of some packages we should install by default, please let us
1489 know on <a href="irc://irc.debian.org/%23debian-edu">IRC, #debian-edu
1490 on irc.debian.org</a>, or our
1491 <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-edu/">mailing list
1492 debian-edu@</a>.</p>
1493
1494       </div>
1495       <div class="tags">
1496
1497
1498         Tags: <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>.
1499
1500
1501       </div>
1502     </div>
1503     <div class="padding"></div>
1504
1505     <div class="entry">
1506       <div class="title">
1507         <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>
1508       </div>
1509       <div class="date">
1510         27th May 2013
1511       </div>
1512       <div class="body">
1513         <p>Two days ago, I asked
1514 <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
1515 I could install Linux on a Packard Bell EasyNote LV computer
1516 preinstalled with Windows 8</a>.  I found a solution, but am horrified
1517 with the obstacles put in the way of Linux users on a laptop with UEFI
1518 and Windows 8.</p>
1519
1520 <p>I never found out if the cause of my problems were the use of UEFI
1521 secure booting or fast boot.  I suspect fast boot was the problem,
1522 causing the firmware to boot directly from HD without considering any
1523 key presses and alternative devices, but do not know UEFI settings
1524 enough to tell.</p>
1525
1526 <p>There is no way to install Linux on the machine in question without
1527 opening the box and disconnecting the hard drive!  This is as far as I
1528 can tell, the only way to get access to the firmware setup menu
1529 without accepting the Windows 8 license agreement.  I am told (and
1530 found description on how to) that it is possible to configure the
1531 firmware setup once booted into Windows 8.  But as I believe the terms
1532 of that agreement are completely unacceptable, accepting the license
1533 was never an alternative.  I do not enter agreements I do not intend
1534 to follow.</p>
1535
1536 <p>I feared I had to return the laptops and ask for a refund, and
1537 waste many hours on this, but luckily there was a way to get it to
1538 work.  But I would not recommend it to anyone planning to run Linux on
1539 it, and I have become sceptical to Windows 8 certified laptops.  Is
1540 this the way Linux will be forced out of the market place, by making
1541 it close to impossible for "normal" users to install Linux without
1542 accepting the Microsoft Windows license terms?  Or at least not
1543 without risking to loose the warranty?</p>
1544
1545 <p>I've updated the
1546 <a href="http://www.linlap.com/packard_bell_easynote_lv">Linux Laptop
1547 wiki page for Packard Bell EasyNote LV</a>, to ensure the next person
1548 do not have to struggle as much as I did to get Linux into the
1549 machine.</p>
1550
1551 <p>Thanks to Bob Rosbag, Florian Weimer, Philipp Kern, Ben Hutching,
1552 Michael Tokarev and others for feedback and ideas.</p>
1553
1554       </div>
1555       <div class="tags">
1556
1557
1558         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
1559
1560
1561       </div>
1562     </div>
1563     <div class="padding"></div>
1564
1565     <div class="entry">
1566       <div class="title">
1567         <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>
1568       </div>
1569       <div class="date">
1570         25th May 2013
1571       </div>
1572       <div class="body">
1573         <p>I've run into quite a problem the last few days.  I bought three
1574 new laptops for my parents and a few others.  I bought Packard Bell
1575 Easynote LV to run Kubuntu on and use as their home computer.  But I
1576 am completely unable to figure out how to install Linux on it.  The
1577 computer is preinstalled with Windows 8, and I suspect it uses UEFI
1578 instead of a BIOS to boot.</p>
1579
1580 <p>The problem is that I am unable to get it to PXE boot, and unable
1581 to get it to boot the Linux installer from my USB stick.  I have yet
1582 to try the DVD install, and still hope it will work.  when I turn on
1583 the computer, there is no information on what buttons to press to get
1584 the normal boot menu.  I expect to get some boot menu to select PXE or
1585 USB stick booting.  When booting, it first ask for the language to
1586 use, then for some regional settings, and finally if I will accept the
1587 Windows 8 terms of use.  As these terms are completely unacceptable to
1588 me, I have no other choice but to turn off the computer and try again
1589 to get it to boot the Linux installer.</p>
1590
1591 <p>I have gathered my findings so far on a Linlap page about the
1592 <a href="http://www.linlap.com/packard_bell_easynote_lv">Packard Bell
1593 EasyNote LV</a> model.  If you have any idea how to get Linux
1594 installed on this machine, please get in touch or update that wiki
1595 page.  If I can't find a way to install Linux, I will have to return
1596 the laptop to the seller and find another machine for my parents.</p>
1597
1598 <p>I wonder, is this the way Linux will be forced out of the market
1599 using UEFI and "secure boot" by making it impossible to install Linux
1600 on new Laptops?</p>
1601
1602       </div>
1603       <div class="tags">
1604
1605
1606         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
1607
1608
1609       </div>
1610     </div>
1611     <div class="padding"></div>
1612
1613     <div class="entry">
1614       <div class="title">
1615         <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>
1616       </div>
1617       <div class="date">
1618         17th May 2013
1619       </div>
1620       <div class="body">
1621         <p><a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux</a> is
1622 an operating system based on Debian intended for use in schools.  It
1623 contain a turn-key solution for the computer network provided to
1624 pupils in the primary schools.  It provide both the central server,
1625 network boot servers and desktop environments with heaps of
1626 educational software.  The project was founded almost 12 years ago,
1627 2001-07-02.  If you want to support the project, which is in need for
1628 cash to fund developer gatherings and other project related activity,
1629 <a href="http://www.linuxiskolen.no/slxdebianlabs/donations.html">please
1630 donate some money</a>.
1631
1632 <p>A topic that come up again and again on the Debian Edu mailing
1633 lists and elsewhere, is the question on how to transform a Debian or
1634 Ubuntu installation into a Debian Edu installation.  It isn't very
1635 hard, and last week I wrote a script to replicate the steps done by
1636 the Debian Edu installer.</p>
1637
1638 <p>The script,
1639 <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/>
1640 in the debian-edu-config package, will go through these six steps and
1641 transform an existing Debian Wheezy or Ubuntu (untested) installation
1642 into a Debian Edu Workstation:</p>
1643
1644 <ol>
1645
1646 <li>Add skolelinux related APT sources.</li>
1647 <li>Create /etc/debian-edu/config with the wanted configuration.</li>
1648 <li>Install debian-edu-install to load preseeding values and pull in
1649     our configuration.</li>
1650 <li>Preseed debconf database with profile setup in
1651     /etc/debian-edu/config, and run tasksel to install packages
1652     according to the profile specified in the config above,
1653     overriding some of the Debian automation machinery.</li>
1654 <li>Run debian-edu-cfengine-D installation to configure everything
1655     that could not be done using preseeding.</li>
1656 <li>Ask for a reboot to enable all the configuration changes.</li>
1657
1658 </ol>
1659
1660 <p>There are some steps in the Debian Edu installation that can not be
1661 replicated like this.  Disk partitioning and LVM setup, for example.
1662 So this script just assume there is enough disk space to install all
1663 the needed packages.</p>
1664
1665 <p>The script was created to help a Debian Edu student working on
1666 setting up <a href="http://www.raspberrypi.org">Raspberry Pi</a> as a
1667 Debian Edu client, and using it he can take the existing
1668 <a href="http://www.raspbian.org/FrontPage‎">Raspbian</a> installation and
1669 transform it into a fully functioning Debian Edu Workstation (or
1670 Roaming Workstation, or whatever :).</p>
1671
1672 <p>The default setting in the script is to create a KDE Workstation.
1673 If a LXDE based Roaming workstation is wanted instead, modify the
1674 PROFILE and DESKTOP values at the top to look like this instead:</p>
1675
1676 <p><pre>
1677 PROFILE="Roaming-Workstation"
1678 DESKTOP="lxde"
1679 </pre></p>
1680
1681 <p>The script could even become useful to set up Debian Edu servers in
1682 the cloud, by starting with a virtual Debian installation at some
1683 virtual hosting service and setting up all the services on first
1684 boot.</p>
1685
1686       </div>
1687       <div class="tags">
1688
1689
1690         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>.
1691
1692
1693       </div>
1694     </div>
1695     <div class="padding"></div>
1696
1697     <div class="entry">
1698       <div class="title">
1699         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Second_alpha_release_of_Debian_Edu___Skolelinux_based_on_Debian_Wheezy.html">Second alpha release of Debian Edu / Skolelinux based on Debian Wheezy</a>
1700       </div>
1701       <div class="date">
1702         14th May 2013
1703       </div>
1704       <div class="body">
1705         <p>The <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux
1706 project</a> is making great progress and made its second Wheezy based
1707 release today.  This is the release announcement:</p>
1708
1709 <p><strong>New features for Debian Edu 7.0.0 alpha1 released
1710 2013-05-14</strong></p>
1711
1712 <p>This is the release notes for for Debian Edu / Skolelinux 7.0.0 edu
1713 alpha1, based on <a href="http://www.debian.org">Debian</a> with
1714 codename "Wheezy".</p>
1715
1716 <p><strong>About Debian Edu and Skolelinux</strong></p>
1717
1718 <p>Debian Edu, also known as Skolelinux, is a Linux distribution based
1719 on Debian providing an out-of-the box environment of a completely
1720 configured school network. Immediatly after installation a school
1721 server running all services needed for a school network is set up just
1722 waiting for users and machines being added via GOsa², a comfortable
1723 Web-UI. A netbooting environment is prepared using PXE, so after
1724 initial installation of the main server from CD, DVD or USB stick all
1725 other machines can be installed via the network.</p>
1726
1727 <p>This is the first test release based on Wheezy (which currently is
1728 not released yet). Basically this is an updated and slightly improved
1729 version compared to the Squeeze release.</p>
1730
1731 <p><strong>Software updates</strong></p>
1732 <ul>
1733   <li>Install freemind (0.9.0) by default, and stop installing vym by
1734     default.</li>
1735   <li>Install chromium (26.0.1410.43) by default.</li>
1736   <li>Install goplay (0.5-1.1) to make golearn available by default.</li>
1737   <li>Updated support for Japanese input methods, now based on
1738     ibus-anthy.</li>
1739 </ul>
1740
1741 <p><strong>Other changes</strong></p>
1742 <ul>
1743
1744   <li>Switched default file system from ext3 to ext4 for speed and
1745     reliability improvements.</li>
1746   <li>Got rid of unwanted winbind daemon and PAM setup activated because
1747     of <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/706434">706434</a>.</li>
1748   <li>Extended and improved the testsuite tests to detect more possible
1749     problems.</li>
1750   <li>Corrected proxy handling to not set http_proxy to a bogus
1751     direct:// URL.</li>
1752   <li>Corrected proxy setup for diskless workstations.</li>
1753   <li>Corrected PXE setup to use our updated udebs during installation.</li>
1754   <li>Made installation handling of low entropy level more robust.</li>
1755   <li>Create larger partitions for Roaming workstations and Thin client
1756     servers, to make room for all the software installed.</li>
1757   <li>Fix bug in Roaming workstation PAM setup, making it impossible to
1758     log in (<a href="http://bugs.debian.org/706753">706753</a>).</li>
1759 </ul>
1760
1761 <p><strong>Known issues</strong></p>
1762 <ul>
1763
1764   <li>IP resolution for the local hostname give useless IPv6 address
1765     (<a href="http://bugs.debian.org/705900">705900</a>).  Only install
1766     libnss-myhostname on roaming workstations until it is fixed.</li>
1767   <li>DVD images are not yet ready.</li>
1768   <li>No mass import of user account data in GOsa (ldif or csv)
1769     available yet (<a href="http://bugs.debian.org/698840">698840</a>).</li>
1770   <li>Missing artwork for the KDE desktop (and probably a few others).</li>
1771   <li>KDE Debian submenu lacks icons.</li>
1772   <li>LXDE menu lacks entry for changing GOsa password
1773     (website). Installing gosa-desktop will be an option.</li>
1774   <li>Backup configuration via web interface is impossible due to
1775     password submission problem
1776     (<a href="http://bugs.debian.org/700257">700257</a>).</li>
1777
1778 </ul>
1779
1780 <p><strong>Where to get it</strong></p>
1781
1782 <p>To download the multiarch netinstall CD release you can use</p>
1783 <ul>
1784
1785   <li><a href="ftp://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu~7.0+edu0~a1-CD.iso">ftp://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu~7.0+edu0~a1-CD.iso</a></li>
1786   <li><a href="http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu~7.0+edu0~a1-CD.iso">http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu~7.0+edu0~a1-CD.iso</a></li>
1787   <li>rsync -avzP ftp.skolelinux.org::skolelinux-cd/wheezy/debian-edu~7.0+edu0~a1-CD.iso debian-edu~7.0+edu0~a1-CD.iso</li>
1788
1789 </ul>
1790
1791 <p>The MD5SUM of this image is: 685ed76c1aa8e44b12d3fde21faf450b</p>
1792
1793 <p>The SHA1SUM of this image is: 6c874de157024da13e115bab29c068080a11ec4c</p>
1794
1795 <p><strong>How to report bugs</strong></p>
1796
1797 <p><a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/HowTo/ReportBugs">http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/HowTo/ReportBugs</a></p>
1798
1799       </div>
1800       <div class="tags">
1801
1802
1803         Tags: <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>.
1804
1805
1806       </div>
1807     </div>
1808     <div class="padding"></div>
1809
1810     <div class="entry">
1811       <div class="title">
1812         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian__the_Linux_distribution_of_choice_for_LEGO_designers_.html">Debian, the Linux distribution of choice for LEGO designers?</a>
1813       </div>
1814       <div class="date">
1815         11th May 2013
1816       </div>
1817       <div class="body">
1818         <P>In January,
1819 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/New_IRC_channel_for_LEGO_designers_using_Debian.html">I
1820 announced a</a> new <a href="irc://irc.debian.org/%23debian-lego">IRC
1821 channel #debian-lego</a>, for those of us in the Debian and Linux
1822 community interested in <a href="http://www.lego.com/">LEGO</a>, the
1823 marvellous construction system from Denmark.  We also created
1824 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/LegoDesigners">a wiki page</a> to have
1825 a place to take notes and write down our plans and hopes.  And several
1826 people showed up to help.  I was very happy to see the effect of my
1827 call.  Since the small start, we have a debtags tag
1828 <a href="http://debtags.debian.net/search/bytag?wl=hardware::hobby:lego">hardware::hobby:lego</a>
1829 tag for LEGO related packages, and now count 10 packages related to
1830 LEGO and <a href="http://mindstorms.lego.com/">Mindstorms</a>:</p>
1831
1832 <p><table>
1833 <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>
1834 <tr><td><a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/leocad">leocad</a></td><td>virtual brick CAD software</td></tr>
1835 <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>
1836 <tr><td><a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/lnpd">lnpd</a></td><td>daemon for LNP communication with BrickOS</td></tr>
1837 <tr><td><a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/nbc">nbc</a></td><td>compiler for LEGO Mindstorms NXT bricks</td></tr>
1838 <tr><td><a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/nqc">nqc</a></td><td>Not Quite C compiler for LEGO Mindstorms RCX</td></tr>
1839 <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>
1840 <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>
1841 <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>
1842 <tr><td><a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/t2n">t2n</a></td><td>simple command-line tool for Lego NXT</td></tr>
1843 </table></p>
1844
1845 <p>Some of these are available in Wheezy, and all but one are
1846 currently available in Jessie/testing.  leocad is so far only
1847 available in experimental.</p>
1848
1849 <p>If you care about LEGO in Debian, please join us on IRC and help
1850 adding the rest of the great free software tools available on Linux
1851 for LEGO designers.</p>
1852
1853       </div>
1854       <div class="tags">
1855
1856
1857         Tags: <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>.
1858
1859
1860       </div>
1861     </div>
1862     <div class="padding"></div>
1863
1864     <div class="entry">
1865       <div class="title">
1866         <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>
1867       </div>
1868       <div class="date">
1869          5th May 2013
1870       </div>
1871       <div class="body">
1872         <p>When I woke up this morning, I was very happy to see that the
1873 <a href="http://www.debian.org/News/2013/20130504">release announcement
1874 for Debian Wheezy</a> was waiting in my mail box.  This is a great
1875 Debian release, and I expect to move my machines at home over to it fairly
1876 soon.</p>
1877
1878 <p>The new debian release contain heaps of new stuff, and one program
1879 in particular make me very happy to see included.  The
1880 <a href="http://scratch.mit.edu/">Scratch</a> program, made famous by
1881 the <a href="http://www.code.org/">Teach kids code</a> movement, is
1882 included for the first time.  Alongside similar programs like
1883 <a href="http://edu.kde.org/kturtle/">kturtle</a> and
1884 <a href="http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Activities/Turtle_Art">turtleart</a>,
1885 it allow for visual programming where syntax errors can not happen,
1886 and a friendly programming environment for learning to control the
1887 computer.  Scratch will also be included in the next release of Debian
1888 Edu.</a>
1889
1890 <p>And now that Wheezy is wrapped up, we can wrap up the next Debian
1891 Edu/Skolelinux release too.  The
1892 <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-edu/2013/04/msg00132.html">first
1893 alpha release</a> went out last week, and the next should soon
1894 follow.<p>
1895
1896       </div>
1897       <div class="tags">
1898
1899
1900         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>.
1901
1902
1903       </div>
1904     </div>
1905     <div class="padding"></div>
1906
1907     <div class="entry">
1908       <div class="title">
1909         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/First_alpha_release_of_Debian_Edu___Skolelinux_based_on_Debian_Wheezy.html">First alpha release of Debian Edu / Skolelinux based on Debian Wheezy</a>
1910       </div>
1911       <div class="date">
1912         26th April 2013
1913       </div>
1914       <div class="body">
1915         <p>The Debian Edu / Skolelinux project is still going strong and made
1916 its first Wheezy based release today.  This is the release
1917 announcement:</p>
1918
1919 <p><strong>New features for Debian Edu ~7.0.0 alpha0 released
1920 2013-04-26</strong></p>
1921
1922 <p>This is the release notes for for Debian Edu / Skolelinux ~7.0.0
1923 edu alpha0, based on Debian with codename "Wheezy".</p>
1924
1925 <p><strong>About Debian Edu and Skolelinux</strong></p>
1926
1927 <p><a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu, also known as
1928 Skolelinux</a>, is a Linux distribution based on Debian providing an
1929 out-of-the box environment of a completely configured school
1930 network. Immediatly after installation a school server running all
1931 services needed for a school network is set up just waiting for users
1932 and machines being added via GOsa², a comfortable Web-UI. A netbooting
1933 environment is prepared using PXE, so after initial installation of
1934 the main server from CD, DVD or USB stick all other machines can be
1935 installed via the network.</p>
1936
1937 <p>This is the first test release based on Wheezy (which currently is
1938 not released yet). Basically this is an updated and slightly improved
1939 version compared to the Squeeze release.</p>
1940
1941 <p><strong>Software updates</strong></p>
1942
1943 <ul>
1944 <li>Everything which is new in Debian Wheezy, eg:
1945   <ul>
1946      <li>Linux kernel 3.2.x</li>
1947      <li>Desktop environments KDE "Plasma" 4.8.4, GNOME 3.4, and LXDE 4
1948          (KDE is installed by default; to choose GNOME or LXDE: see
1949          manual.)</li>
1950      <li>Web browser Iceweasel 10 ESR</li>
1951      <li>LibreOffice 3.5.4</li>
1952      <li>LTSP 5.4.2</li>
1953      <li>GOsa 2.7.4</li>
1954      <li>CUPS print system 1.5.3</li>
1955      <li>Educational toolbox GCompris 12.01</li>
1956      <li>Music creator Rosegarden 12.04</li>
1957      <li>Image editor Gimp 2.8.2</li>
1958      <li>Virtual universe Celestia 1.6.1</li>
1959      <li>Virtual stargazer Stellarium 0.11.3</li>
1960      <li>Scratch visual programming environment 1.4.0.6</li>
1961      <li>New version of debian-installer from Debian Wheezy, see
1962          <a href="http://www.debian.org/releases/wheezy/installmanual">installation
1963          manual</a> for more details.</li>
1964      <li>Debian Wheezy includes about 37000 packages available for
1965          installation.</li>
1966      <li>More information about Debian Wheezy 7.0 is provided in the
1967          <a href="http://www.debian.org/releases/wheezy/releasenotes">release notes</a> and the <a href="http://www.debian.org/releases/wheezy/installmanual">installation manual</a>.</li>
1968   </ul></li>
1969 </ul>
1970
1971 <p><strong>Documentation</strong></p>
1972 <ul>
1973 <li>The (<a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Documentation/Wheezy">English</a>) Debian Edu Wheezy Manual is fully translated to
1974     German, French, Italian and Danish. Partly translated versions exist
1975     for Norwegian Bokmal and Spanish.</li>
1976 </ul>
1977
1978 <p><Strong>LDAP related changes</strong></p>
1979 <ul>
1980 <li>Slight changes to some objects and acls to have more types to
1981     choose from when adding systems in GOsa. Now systems can be of type
1982     server, workstation, printer, terminal or netdevice.</li>
1983 </ul>
1984
1985 <p><strong>Other changes</strong></p>
1986 <ul>
1987 <li>LTSP clients start as diskless workstation / thin client can be
1988     configured via command line argument -- or individually adding an
1989     entry in lts.conf or LDAP.<li>
1990 <li>GOsa gui: Now some options that seemed to be available, but are non
1991     functional, are greyed out (or are not clickable). Some tabs are
1992     completely hidden to the end user, others even to the GOsa admin.</li>
1993 </ul>
1994
1995 <p><strong>Regressions</strong></p>
1996 <ul>
1997 <li>No mass import of user account data in GOsa (ldif or csv) available
1998     yet.</li>
1999 </ul>
2000
2001 <p><strong>No updated artwork</strong></p>
2002
2003 <ul>
2004 <li>Updated artwork which is visible during installation, in the login
2005     screen and as desktop wallpaper is still missing or the same as we
2006     had for our Squeeze based release.</li>
2007 </ul>
2008
2009 <p><strong>Where to get it</strong></p>
2010
2011 To download the multiarch netinstall CD release you can use
2012 <ul>
2013 <li><a href="ftp://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/">ftp://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/</a></li>
2014 <li><a href="http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/">http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/wheezy/</a></li>
2015 <li>rsync -avzP ftp.skolelinux.org::skolelinux-cd/wheezy/</li>
2016 </ul>
2017
2018 <p>The MD5SUM of this image is: c5e773ddafdaa4f48c409c682f598b6c</p>
2019
2020 <p>The SHA1SUM of this image is: 25934fabb9b7d20235499a0a51f08ce6c54215f2</p>
2021
2022 <p><strong>How to report bugs</strong></p>
2023
2024 <p><a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/HowTo/ReportBugs">http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/HowTo/ReportBugs</a></p>
2025
2026       </div>
2027       <div class="tags">
2028
2029
2030         Tags: <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>.
2031
2032
2033       </div>
2034     </div>
2035     <div class="padding"></div>
2036
2037     <div class="entry">
2038       <div class="title">
2039         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/First_Debian_Edu___Skolelinux_developer_gathering_in_2013_take_place_in_Trondheim.html">First Debian Edu / Skolelinux developer gathering in 2013 take place in Trondheim</a>
2040       </div>
2041       <div class="date">
2042         16th April 2013
2043       </div>
2044       <div class="body">
2045         <p>This years first <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Skolelinux /
2046 Debian Edu</a> developer gathering take place the coming weekend in Trondheim.
2047 Details about the gathering can be found
2048 <a href="http://www.friprogramvareiskolen.no/Gathering/2013-04-19-21-Trondheim">on
2049 the FRiSK wiki</a>.  The dates are 19-21th of April 2013, and online
2050 participation for those unable to make it in person is very welcome,
2051 and I plan to participate online myself as I could not leave Oslo this
2052 weekend.</p>
2053
2054 <p>The focus of the gathering is to work on the web pages and project
2055 infrastructure, and to continue the work on the Wheezy based Debian
2056 Edu release.</p>
2057
2058 <p>See you on <a href="irc://irc.debian.org/%23debian-edu">IRC, #debian-edu on irc.debian.org,</a> then?</p>
2059
2060       </div>
2061       <div class="tags">
2062
2063
2064         Tags: <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>.
2065
2066
2067       </div>
2068     </div>
2069     <div class="padding"></div>
2070
2071     <div class="entry">
2072       <div class="title">
2073         <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>
2074       </div>
2075       <div class="date">
2076          3rd April 2013
2077       </div>
2078       <div class="body">
2079         <p>Today the <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/isenkram">Isenkram
2080 package</a> finally made it into the archive, after lingering in NEW
2081 for many months.  I uploaded it to the Debian experimental suite
2082 2013-01-27, and today it was accepted into the archive.</p>
2083
2084 <p>Isenkram is a system for suggesting to users what packages to
2085 install to work with a pluggable hardware device.  The suggestion pop
2086 up when the device is plugged in.  For example if a Lego Mindstorm NXT
2087 is inserted, it will suggest to install the program needed to program
2088 the NXT controller.  Give it a go, and report bugs and suggestions to
2089 BTS. :)</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/isenkram">isenkram</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/Change_the_font__save_the_world__and_save_some_money_in_the_process_.html">Change the font, save the world (and save some money in the process)</a>
2105       </div>
2106       <div class="date">
2107         26th March 2013
2108       </div>
2109       <div class="body">
2110         <p>Would you like to help the environment and save money at the same
2111 time, without much sacrifice?  A small step could be to change the
2112 font you use when printing.</p>
2113
2114 <p>Three years ago,
2115 <a href="http://arstechnica.com/business/2010/04/last-year-printer-comparison-website/">Ars
2116 Technica</a> reported how the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay
2117 changed their default front from
2118 <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arial">Arial</a> to
2119 <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Century_Gothic">Century
2120 Gothic</a> to save money.  The Century Gothic font uses 30% less toner
2121 than Arial to print the same text.  In other word, you could cut your
2122 toner costs by 30% (or actually, increase your toner supply life time
2123 by more than 30%), by simply changing the default font used in your
2124 prints.</p>
2125
2126 <p>But it is not quite obvious how much one will save by switching.
2127 The University of Wisconsin-Green Bay said it used $100,000 per year
2128 on ink and toner cartridges, according to
2129 <a href="http://www.twincities.com/ci_14833097">a report from
2130 TwinCities.com</a>, and expected to save between $5,000 and $10,000
2131 per year by asking staff and students to use a different font.  Not
2132 all PDFs and documents are created internally, and those from external
2133 sources will most likely still use a different font.  Also, the
2134 Century Gothic font is slightly wider than Arial, and thus might use
2135 more sheets of paper to print the same text, so the total saving
2136 depend on the documents printed.</p>
2137
2138 <p>But it is definitely something to consider, if you want to reduce
2139 the amount of trash, decrease the amount of toner used in the world,
2140 and save some money in the process.</p>
2141
2142 <p>Update 2013-04-10: If you want to know how much ink/toner could be
2143 saved when switching between fonts, Inkfarm got a
2144 <a href="http://www.inkfarm.com/What-the-Font">service to calculate the
2145 difference between font pairs</a>.  They also
2146 <a href="http://www.inkfarm.com/Recommended-Ink-Saving-Fonts---">recommend
2147 which fonts to use</a> to save ink.  Check it out. :) While updating
2148 this blog post, I also came across a blog post from InkCloners,
2149 <a href="http://inkcloners.com/blog/ink-cartridges/change-fonts-to-save-ink-costs/">listing
2150 the fonts they recommend</a>, with Centory Gothic at the top.</p>
2151
2152       </div>
2153       <div class="tags">
2154
2155
2156         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
2157
2158
2159       </div>
2160     </div>
2161     <div class="padding"></div>
2162
2163     <div class="entry">
2164       <div class="title">
2165         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Typesetting_a_short_story_using_docbook_for_PDF__HTML_and_EPUB.html">Typesetting a short story using docbook for PDF, HTML and EPUB</a>
2166       </div>
2167       <div class="date">
2168         24th March 2013
2169       </div>
2170       <div class="body">
2171         <p>A few days ago, during a discussion in
2172 <a href="http://www.efn.no/">EFN</a> about interesting books to read
2173 about copyright and the data retention directive, a suggestion to read
2174 the 1968 short story Kodémus by
2175 <a href="http://web2.gyldendal.no/toraage/">Tore Åge Bringsværd</a>
2176 came up.  The text was only available in old paper books, and thus not
2177 easily available for current and future generations.  Some of the
2178 people participating in the discussion contacted the author, and
2179 reported back 2013-03-19 that the author was OK with releasing the
2180 short story using a <a href="http://www.creativecommons.org/">Creative
2181 Commons</a> license.  The text was quickly scanned and OCR-ed, and we
2182 were ready to start on the editing and typesetting.</p>
2183
2184 <p>As I already had some experience formatting text in my project to
2185 provide a Norwegian version of the Free Culture book by Lawrence
2186 Lessig, I chipped in and set up a
2187 <a href="http://www.docbook.org/">DocBook</a> processing framework to
2188 generate PDF, HTML and EPUB version of the short story.  The tools to
2189 transform DocBook to different formats are already in my Linux
2190 distribution of choice, <a href="http://www.debian.org/">Debian</a>, so
2191 all I had to do was to use the
2192 <a href="http://dblatex.sourceforge.net/">dblatex</a>,
2193 <a href="http://docbook.sourceforge.net/release/xsl/current/epub/README">dbtoepub</a>
2194 and <a href="https://fedorahosted.org/xmlto/">xmlto</a> tools to do the
2195 conversion.  After a few days, we decided to replace dblatex with
2196 xsltproc/fop (aka
2197 <a href="http://wiki.docbook.org/DocBookXslStylesheets">docbook-xsl</a>),
2198 to get the copyright information to show up in the PDF and to get a
2199 nicer &lt;variablelist&gt; typesetting, but that is just a minor
2200 technical detail.</p>
2201
2202 <p>There were a few challenges, of course.  We want to typeset the
2203 short story to look like the original, and that require fairly good
2204 control over the layout.  The original short story have three
2205 parts/scenes separated by a single horizontally centred star (*), and
2206 the paragraphs do not contain only flowing text, but dialogs and text
2207 that started on a new line in the middle of the paragraph.</p>
2208
2209 <p>I initially solved the first challenge by using a paragraph with a
2210 single star in it, ie &lt;para&gt;*&lt;/para&gt;, but it made sure a
2211 placeholder indicated where the scene shifted.  This did not look too
2212 good without the centring.  The next approach was to create a new
2213 preprocessor directive &lt;?newscene?&gt;, mapping to "&lt;hr/&gt;"
2214 for HTML and "&lt;fo:block text-align="center"&gt;&lt;fo:leader
2215 leader-pattern="rule" rule-thickness="0.5pt"/&gt;&lt;/fo:block&gt;"
2216 for FO/PDF output (did not try to implement this in dblatex, as we had
2217 switched at this time).  The HTML XSL file looked like this:</p>
2218
2219 <p><blockquote><pre>
2220 &lt;?xml version='1.0'?&gt;
2221 &lt;xsl:stylesheet xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform" version='1.0'&gt;
2222   &lt;xsl:template match="processing-instruction('newscene')"&gt;
2223     &lt;hr/&gt;
2224   &lt;/xsl:template&gt;
2225 &lt;/xsl:stylesheet&gt;
2226 </pre></blockquote></p>
2227
2228 <p>And the FO/PDF XSL file looked like this:</p>
2229
2230 <p><blockquote><pre>
2231 &lt;?xml version='1.0'?&gt;
2232 &lt;xsl:stylesheet xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform" version='1.0'&gt;
2233   &lt;xsl:template match="processing-instruction('newscene')"&gt;
2234     &lt;fo:block text-align="center"&gt;
2235       &lt;fo:leader leader-pattern="rule" rule-thickness="0.5pt"/&gt;
2236     &lt;/fo:block&gt;
2237   &lt;/xsl:template&gt;
2238 &lt;/xsl:stylesheet&gt;
2239 </pre></blockquote></p>
2240
2241 <p>Finally, I came across the &lt;bridgehead&gt; tag, which seem to be
2242 a good fit for the task at hand, and I replaced &lt;?newscene?&gt;
2243 with &lt;bridgehead&gt;*&lt;/bridgehead&gt;.  It isn't centred, but we
2244 can fix it with some XSL rule if the current visual layout isn't
2245 enough.</p>
2246
2247 <p>I did not find a good DocBook compliant way to solve the
2248 linebreak/paragraph challenge, so I ended up creating a new processor
2249 directive &lt;?linebreak?&gt;, mapping to &lt;br/&gt; in HTML, and
2250 &lt;fo:block/&gt; in FO/PDF.  I suspect there are better ways to do
2251 this, and welcome ideas and patches on github.  The HTML XSL file now
2252 look like this:</p>
2253
2254 <p><blockquote><pre>
2255 &lt;?xml version='1.0'?&gt;
2256 &lt;xsl:stylesheet xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform" version='1.0'&gt;
2257   &lt;xsl:template match="processing-instruction('linebreak)"&gt;
2258     &lt;br/&gt;
2259   &lt;/xsl:template&gt;
2260 &lt;/xsl:stylesheet&gt;
2261 </pre></blockquote></p>
2262
2263 <p>And the FO/PDF XSL file looked like this:</p>
2264
2265 <p><blockquote><pre>
2266 &lt;?xml version='1.0'?&gt;
2267 &lt;xsl:stylesheet xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform" version='1.0'
2268   xmlns:fo="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Format"&gt;
2269   &lt;xsl:template match="processing-instruction('linebreak)"&gt;
2270     &lt;fo:block/&gt;
2271   &lt;/xsl:template&gt;
2272 &lt;/xsl:stylesheet&gt;
2273 </pre></blockquote></p>
2274
2275 <p>One unsolved challenge is our wish to expose different ISBN numbers
2276 per publication format, while keeping all of them in some conditional
2277 structure in the DocBook source.  No idea how to do this, so we ended
2278 up listing all the ISBN numbers next to their format in the colophon
2279 page.</p>
2280
2281 <p>If you want to check out the finished result, check out the
2282 <a href="https://github.com/sickel/kodemus">source repository at
2283 github</a>
2284 (<a href="https://github.com/EFN/kodemus">future/new/official
2285 repository</a>).  We expect it to be ready and announced in a few
2286 days.</p>
2287
2288       </div>
2289       <div class="tags">
2290
2291
2292         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/docbook">docbook</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freeculture">freeculture</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/opphavsrett">opphavsrett</a>.
2293
2294
2295       </div>
2296     </div>
2297     <div class="padding"></div>
2298
2299     <div class="entry">
2300       <div class="title">
2301         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Skolelinux_6_got_a_video_review_from_Pcwizz.html">Skolelinux 6 got a video review from Pcwizz</a>
2302       </div>
2303       <div class="date">
2304         17th March 2013
2305       </div>
2306       <div class="body">
2307         <p>Via
2308 <a href="https://twitter.com/pcwizz/status/313044373262716930">twitter</a>
2309 I just discovered that <a href="http://pcwizz.net/">Pcwizz</a> have
2310 done a <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wPzTZ61Pcuc">video
2311 review</a> on Youtube of <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Skolelinux
2312 / Debian Edu</a> version 6.  He installed the standalone profile and
2313 the video show a walk-through of of the menu content, demonstration of
2314 a few programs and his view of our distribution.</p>
2315
2316 <p>There is also some really nice quotes (transcribed by me, might
2317 have heard wrong).  While looking thought the Graphics menu:</p>
2318
2319 <blockquote>
2320 "Basically everything you ever need in a school environment."
2321 </blockquote>
2322
2323 <p>And as a general evaluation of the entire distribution:</p>
2324
2325 <blockquote>
2326 "So, yeah, a bit bloated.  It kept all the Debian stuff in there, just
2327 to keep it nice and GNU.  So, I do not want to go on about it, but
2328 lets give it 7 out of 10.  I am not going to use it.  That is because
2329 I am not deploying a school network.  There may be some mythical
2330 feature to help you deploy Skolelinux on a school network."
2331 </blockquote>
2332
2333 <p>To bad he did not test the server profile, and discovered the PXE
2334 installation option.  It make it possible to install only the main
2335 server from CD, and the rest of the machines via the net, and might be
2336 considered the mythical feature he talk about. :)</p>
2337
2338 <p>While looking through the menus, there is also this funny comment
2339 about the part of the K menu generated from the Debian menu subsystem:
2340
2341 <blockquote>
2342 "[The K menu] have a special Debian section for software that no-one
2343 is going to look at, because it contain lots of junky stuff that you
2344 actually don't need in the education distribution, but have just been
2345 included because it isn't stripped out for some reason."
2346 </blockquote>
2347
2348 <p>I guess it is yet another argument for merging the Debian menu and
2349 Gnome/KDE desktop menu entries into
2350 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/Proposals/DebianMenuUsingDesktopEntries">one
2351 consistent menu system</a> instead of two incomplete and partly
2352 inconsistent menu systems.</p>
2353
2354 <p>The entire video is available below for those accepting iframe
2355 embedding:</p>
2356
2357 <iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/wPzTZ61Pcuc" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
2358
2359       </div>
2360       <div class="tags">
2361
2362
2363         Tags: <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/video">video</a>.
2364
2365
2366       </div>
2367     </div>
2368     <div class="padding"></div>
2369
2370     <div class="entry">
2371       <div class="title">
2372         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/First_Skolelinux___Debian_Edu_Squeeze_update_released.html">First Skolelinux / Debian Edu Squeeze update released</a>
2373       </div>
2374       <div class="date">
2375          8th March 2013
2376       </div>
2377       <div class="body">
2378         <p>Last Sunday, 2013-03-03,, Holger Levsen announced the first update
2379 of <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Skolelinux / Debian Edu</a>
2380 based on Debian Squeeze.  This is the first update since
2381 <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-edu-announce/2012/03/msg00001.html">the
2382 initial release 2012-03-11</a>.  This is the
2383 <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-edu-announce/2013/03/msg00000.html">release
2384 announcement email from Holger</a>:</p>
2385
2386 <blockquote><p>Hi,</p>
2387
2388 <p>it's my pleasure to announce the immediate availability of Debian
2389 Edu 6.0.7+r1 ("Debian Edu Squeeze").</p>
2390
2391 <p>Debian Edu 6.0.7+r1 is an incremental update to Debian Edu
2392 6.0.4+r0, containing all the changes between Debian 6.0.4 and 6.0.7 as
2393 well Debian Edu specific bugfixes and enhancements. See below (in this
2394 mail) for the full list of (edu) changes.  Please see
2395 <a href="http://www.debian.org/News/2012/20120311">http://www.debian.org/News/2012/20120311</a>
2396 for more information on "Debian Edu Squeeze".</p>
2397
2398 <p>Images are available for download at
2399 <a href="http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/">http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/</a></p>
2400
2401 <p>md5sums:
2402 <br>1fe79eb4f0f9ae1c58fc318e26cc1e2e  debian-edu-6.0.7+r1-CD.iso
2403 <br>a6ddd924a8bd9a1b5ca122e8fe1c34ec  debian-edu-6.0.7+r1-DVD.iso
2404 <br>ac6c72cd7925ccec51bfbf58e2a7c69c  debian-edu-6.0.7+r1-source-DVD.iso</p>
2405
2406 <p>sha1sums:
2407 <br>a4b58233b672a99c7df8dc24fb6de3327654a5c3  debian-edu-6.0.7+r1-CD.iso
2408 <br>9b524915e0ff2aa793f13d93123e5bd2bab2dbaa  debian-edu-6.0.7+r1-DVD.iso
2409 <br>43997614893fc5e9e59ad6ce066b05d07fd836fa  debian-edu-6.0.7+r1-source-DVD.iso</p>
2410
2411 <p>These images are suitable for amd64+i386.</p>
2412
2413 <p>Changes for Debian Edu 6.0.7+r1 Codename "Squeeze", released
2414 2013-03-03:</p>
2415
2416 <ul>
2417   <li>sitesummary was updated from 0.1.3 to 0.1.8
2418   <ul>
2419         <li>Make Nagios configuration more robust and efficient</li>
2420         <li>Comply with 3.X kernel</li>
2421   </ul></li>
2422   <li>debian-edu-doc from 1.4~20120310~6.0.4+r0 to 1.4~20130228~6.0.7+r1
2423   <ul>
2424         <li>Minor updates from the wiki</li>
2425         <li>Danish translation now complete</li>
2426   </ul></li>
2427   <li>debian-edu-config from 1.453 to 1.455
2428      <ul>
2429         <li>Fix /etc/hosts for LTSP diskless workstations. Closes: #699880</li>
2430         <li>Make ltsp_local_mount script work for multiple devices.</li>
2431         <li>Correct Kerberos user policy: don't expire password after 2 days.
2432                 Closes: #664596</li>
2433         <li>Handle '#' characters in the root or first users password.
2434                 Closes: #664976</li>
2435         <li>Fixes for gosa-sync:
2436            <ul>
2437                 <li>Don't fail if password contains "</li>
2438                 <li>Don't disclose new password string in syslog</li>
2439            </ul></li>
2440         <li>Fixes for gosa-create:
2441            <ul>
2442                 <li>Invalidate libnss cache before applying changes</li>
2443                 <li>Multiple failures during mass user import into GOsa²</li>
2444                 <li>gosa-netgroups plugin: don't erase entries of attribute type
2445                          "memberNisNetgroup". Closes: #687256</li>
2446                 <li>First user now uses the same Kerberos policy as all other users</li>
2447            </ul></li>
2448         <li>Add Danish web page</li>
2449     </ul>
2450   <li>debian-edu-install from 1.528 to 1.530
2451     <ul>
2452         <li>Improve preseeding support and documentation</li>
2453     </ul></li>
2454 </ul>
2455
2456 <p>End-user documentation in English is available at
2457 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Documentation/Squeeze/">http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Documentation/Squeeze/</a>
2458 - translations to French, Italian, Danish and German are available in
2459 the debian-edu-doc package. (Other languages could use your help!)</p>
2460
2461 <p>If you want to contribute to Debian Edu, please join our
2462 mailinglist
2463 <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-edu/">debian-edu@lists.debian.org</a>!
2464 </p></blockquote>
2465
2466 <p>I am very happy to see the fruits of a year of hard work. :)</p>
2467
2468       </div>
2469       <div class="tags">
2470
2471
2472         Tags: <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>.
2473
2474
2475       </div>
2476     </div>
2477     <div class="padding"></div>
2478
2479     <div class="entry">
2480       <div class="title">
2481         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Frikanalen___Complete_TV_station_organised_using_the_web.html">Frikanalen - Complete TV station organised using the web</a>
2482       </div>
2483       <div class="date">
2484          3rd March 2013
2485       </div>
2486       <div class="body">
2487         <p>Do you want to set up your own TV station, schedule videos and
2488 broadcast them on the air?  Using free software?  With video on demand
2489 support using
2490 <a href="http://www.digistan.org/open-standard:definition">free and
2491 open standards</a>?  Included a web based video stream as well?  And
2492 administrate it all in your web browser from anywhere in the world?  A
2493 few years now the Norwegian public access TV-channel
2494 <a href="http://www.frikanalen.no/">Frikanalen</a> have been building a
2495 system to do just this.  The source code for the solution is licensed
2496 using the GNU LGPL, and
2497 <a href="http://github.com/Frikanalen">available from github</a>.</p>
2498
2499 <p>The idea is simple.  You upload a video file over the web, and
2500 attach meta information to the file.  You select a time slot in the
2501 program schedule, and when the time come it is played on the air and
2502 in the web stream.  It is also made available in a video on demand
2503 solution for anyone to see it also outside its scheduled time.  All
2504 you need to run a TV station - using your web browser.</p>
2505
2506 <p>There are several parts to this web based solution.  I'll mention
2507 the three most important ones.  The first part is the database of
2508 videos and the schedule.  This is written in Django and include a REST
2509 API.  The current database is SQLite, but the plan is to migrate it to
2510 PostgreSQL.  At the moment this system can be tested on
2511 <a href="http://beta.frikanalen.tv/">beta.frikanalen.tv</a>.  The
2512 second part is the video playout, taking the schedule information from
2513 the database and providing a video stream to broadcast.  This is done
2514 using <a href="http://www.casparcg.com/">CasparCG from SVT</a> and
2515 <a href="http://www.mltframework.org/">Media Lovin' Toolkit</a>.  Video
2516 signal distribution is handled using
2517 <a href="http://www.ob-encoder.com/">Open Broadcast Encoder</a>.  The
2518 third part is the converter, handling the transformation of uploaded
2519 video files to a format useful for broadcasting, streaming and video
2520 on demand.  It is still very much work in progress, so it is not yet
2521 decided what it will end up using.  Note that the source of the latter
2522 two parts are not yet pushed to github.  The lead author want to clean
2523 them up a bit more first.</p>
2524
2525 <p>The development is coordinated on the
2526 <a href="irc://irc.freenode.net/%23frikanalen">#frikanalen IRC
2527 channel</a> (irc.freenode.net), and discussed on
2528 <a href="http://lists.nuug.no/mailman/listinfo/frikanalen">the
2529 frikanalen mailing list</a>. The lead developer is Benjamin Bruheim
2530 (phed on IRC).  Anyone is welcome to participate in the
2531 development.</p>
2532
2533       </div>
2534       <div class="tags">
2535
2536
2537         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/frikanalen">frikanalen</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/video">video</a>.
2538
2539
2540       </div>
2541     </div>
2542     <div class="padding"></div>
2543
2544     <div class="entry">
2545       <div class="title">
2546         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Dr__Richard_Stallman__founder_of_Free_Software_Foundation__give_a_talk_in_Oslo_March_1st_2013.html">Dr. Richard Stallman, founder of Free Software Foundation, give a talk in Oslo March 1st 2013</a>
2547       </div>
2548       <div class="date">
2549         27th February 2013
2550       </div>
2551       <div class="body">
2552         <p>Dr. <a href="http://www.stallman.org/">Richard Stallman</a>,
2553 founder of <a href="http://www.fsf.org/">Free Software Foundation</a>,
2554 is giving <a href="http://www.nuug.no/aktiviteter/20130301-rms/">a
2555 talk in Oslo March 1st 2013 17:00 to 19:00</a>.  The event is public
2556 and organised by <a href="">Norwegian Unix Users Group (NUUG)</a>
2557 (where I am the chair of the board) and
2558 <a href="http://www.friprog.no/">The Norwegian Open Source Competence
2559 Center</a>.  The title of the talk is «The Free Software Movement and
2560 GNU», with this description:
2561
2562 <p><blockquote>
2563 The Free Software Movement campaigns for computer users' freedom to
2564 cooperate and control their own computing. The Free Software Movement
2565 developed the GNU operating system, typically used together with the
2566 kernel Linux, specifically to make these freedoms possible.
2567 </blockquote></p>
2568
2569 <p>The meeting is open for everyone.  Due to space limitations, the
2570 doors opens for NUUG members at 16:15, and everyone else at 16:45.  I
2571 am really curious how many will show up.  See
2572 <a href="http://www.nuug.no/aktiviteter/20130301-rms/">the event
2573 page</a> for the location details.</p>
2574
2575       </div>
2576       <div class="tags">
2577
2578
2579         Tags: <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/personvern">personvern</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>.
2580
2581
2582       </div>
2583     </div>
2584     <div class="padding"></div>
2585
2586     <div class="entry">
2587       <div class="title">
2588         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Frikart___Free_Garmin_maps_for_European_countries_based_on_OpenStreetmap.html">Frikart - Free Garmin maps for European countries based on OpenStreetmap</a>
2589       </div>
2590       <div class="date">
2591         15th February 2013
2592       </div>
2593       <div class="body">
2594         <p>If you, like me, want an updated a map for your Garmin GPS, there is
2595 now a great source of free maps available from
2596 <a href="http://www.frikart.no/garmin/index.html">Frikart</a>.  To
2597 download a map, just click on the country you are interested in, and
2598 download the map type you want.  There are 8 different maps available,
2599 using different colours and data selection.  Pick one of Roadmap, Topo
2600 Summer, Topo Winter, Roadmap II, Topo Summer II, Topo Winter II,
2601 "Trails - overlay map" and "Cross country - overlay map" (see the web
2602 page for descriptions).</p>
2603
2604 <p>The maps are updated weekly, so if you find something wrong in the
2605 map you can just edit the
2606 <a href="http://www.openstreetmap.org/">OpenStreetmap</a> map source
2607 (anyone can contribute) and fetch a fixed map a week later. :)</p>
2608
2609       </div>
2610       <div class="tags">
2611
2612
2613         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/kart">kart</a>.
2614
2615
2616       </div>
2617     </div>
2618     <div class="padding"></div>
2619
2620     <div class="entry">
2621       <div class="title">
2622         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/_Electronic__paper_invoices___using_vCard_in_a_QR_code.html">"Electronic" paper invoices - using vCard in a QR code</a>
2623       </div>
2624       <div class="date">
2625         12th February 2013
2626       </div>
2627       <div class="body">
2628         <p>Here in Norway, electronic invoices are spreading, and the
2629 <a href="http://www.anskaffelser.no/e-handel/faktura">solution promoted
2630 by the Norwegian government</a> require that invoices are sent through
2631 one of the approved facilitators, and it is not possible to send
2632 electronic invoices without an agreement with one of these
2633 facilitators.  This seem like a needless limitation to be able to
2634 transfer invoice information between buyers and sellers.  My preferred
2635 solution would be to just transfer the invoice information directly
2636 between seller and buyer, for example using SMTP, or some HTTP based
2637 protocol like REST or SOAP.  But this might also be overkill, as the
2638 "electronic" information can be transferred using paper invoices too,
2639 using a simple bar code.  My bar code encoding of choice would be QR
2640 codes, as this encoding can be read by any smart phone out there.  The
2641 content of the code could be anything, but I would go with
2642 <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VCard">the vCard format</a>, as
2643 it too is supported by a lot of computer equipment these days.</p>
2644
2645 <p>The vCard format support extentions, and the invoice specific
2646 information can be included using such extentions.  For example an
2647 invoice from SLX Debian Labs (picked because we
2648 <a href="http://www.linuxiskolen.no/slxdebianlabs/donations.html">ask
2649 for donations to the Debian Edu project</a> and thus have bank account
2650 information publicly available) for NOK 1000.00 could have these extra
2651 fields:</p>
2652
2653 <p><pre>
2654 X-INVOICE-NUMBER:1
2655 X-INVOICE-AMOUNT:NOK1000.00
2656 X-INVOICE-KID:123412341234
2657 X-INVOICE-MSG:Donation to Debian Edu
2658 X-BANK-ACCOUNT-NUMBER:16040884339
2659 X-BANK-IBAN-NUMBER:NO8516040884339
2660 X-BANK-SWIFT-NUMBER:DNBANOKKXXX
2661 </pre></p>
2662
2663 <p>The X-BANK-ACCOUNT-NUMBER field was proposed in a stackoverflow
2664 answer regarding
2665 <a href="http://stackoverflow.com/questions/10045664/storing-bank-account-in-vcard-file">how
2666 to put bank account information into a vCard</a>.  For payments in
2667 Norway, either X-INVOICE-KID (payment ID) or X-INVOICE-MSG could be
2668 used to pass on information to the seller when paying the invoice.</p>
2669
2670 <p>The complete vCard could look like this:</p>
2671
2672 <p><pre>
2673 BEGIN:VCARD
2674 VERSION:2.1
2675 ORG:SLX Debian Labs Foundation
2676 ADR;WORK:;;Gunnar Schjelderups vei 29D;OSLO;;0485;Norway
2677 URL;WORK:http://www.linuxiskolen.no/slxdebianlabs/
2678 EMAIL;PREF;INTERNET:sdl-styret@rt.nuug.no
2679 REV:20130212T095000Z
2680 X-INVOICE-NUMBER:1
2681 X-INVOICE-AMOUNT:NOK1000.00
2682 X-INVOICE-MSG:Donation to Debian Edu
2683 X-BANK-ACCOUNT-NUMBER:16040884339
2684 X-BANK-IBAN-NUMBER:NO8516040884339
2685 X-BANK-SWIFT-NUMBER:DNBANOKKXXX
2686 END:VCARD
2687 </pre></p>
2688
2689 <p>The resulting QR code created using
2690 <a href="http://fukuchi.org/works/qrencode/">qrencode</a> would look
2691 like this, and should be readable (and thus checkable) by any smart
2692 phone, or for example the <a href="http://zbar.sourceforge.net/">zbar
2693 bar code reader</a> and feed right into the approval and accounting
2694 system.</p>
2695
2696 <p><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-02-12-qr-invoice.png"></p>
2697
2698 <p>The extension fields will most likely not show up in any normal
2699 vCard reader, so those parts would have to go directly into a system
2700 handling invoices.  I am a bit unsure how vCards without name parts
2701 are handled, but a simple test indicate that this work just fine.</p>
2702
2703 <p><strong>Update 2013-02-12 11:30</strong>: Added KID to the proposal
2704 based on feedback from Sturle Sunde.</p>
2705
2706       </div>
2707       <div class="tags">
2708
2709
2710         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/standard">standard</a>.
2711
2712
2713       </div>
2714     </div>
2715     <div class="padding"></div>
2716
2717     <div class="entry">
2718       <div class="title">
2719         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Sleep_until_morning___home_automation_for_the_kids.html">Sleep until morning - home automation for the kids</a>
2720       </div>
2721       <div class="date">
2722         10th February 2013
2723       </div>
2724       <div class="body">
2725         <p><img align="left" style="margin-right:25px;" src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-02-10-morning-light.jpeg"></p>
2726
2727 <p>With kids in the house, one challenge is getting them to sleep
2728 during the night and wake up when it is morning.  I mean, when I
2729 believe it is morning, and not two hours earlier.  In our household we
2730 have decided that 07:00 is the turning point, but getting the kids to
2731 sleep until 07:00 is a small challenge every day.  They have adapted
2732 quite well, and rarely wake up at 05:00 any more, but some times wake
2733 up at times like 05:50, 06:15, 06:30 or 06:45, and it is hard to put
2734 the awake one to bed again without disturbing and waking the rest.
2735 And I understand perfectly well that they fail to sleep until 07:00
2736 some times, as there is no way for them to know if it is before or
2737 after the magic moment without coming and asking us parents.</p>
2738
2739 <p>But yesterday I came up with a method to solve this problem.  It
2740 involve home automation.  A few years ago I bought a
2741 <a href="http://www.telldus.se/products/tellstick">Tellstick</a> and RF
2742 switches at the local <a href="http://www.clasohlson.com/">Clas
2743 Ohlson</a> shop, allowing me to control lights and other electrical
2744 gadgets using my Linux server.  When I moved from the old flat to a
2745 small house, I put away all this equipment as most of the lighting in
2746 the house was not using wall sockets and thus not easy to connect to
2747 the gadgets I had.  But recently I bought a
2748 <a href="http://www.telldus.se/products/tellstick_net">Tellstick
2749 Net</a> to be able to read sensor input as well as control power
2750 sockets.  I want to control ovens in the basement to avoid the pipes
2751 to freeze, and monitor the humidity to detect flooding.  The default
2752 setup for Tellstick Net is to be controlled by the vendor web service,
2753 which to me is a security problem, but it is also possible to build
2754 ones own
2755 <a href="http://developer.telldus.com/blog/2012/03/02/help-us-develop-local-access-using-tellstick-net-build-your-own-firmware">firmware
2756 with local access</A> instead of being controlled by a Swedish
2757 company, thanks to the release of the GPL licensed firmware source
2758 code.  I plan to get that running before I let it control anything
2759 important.  But while working on this, one idea to make it easier for
2760 the kids came to me yesterday.  We can set up a night light controlled
2761 by the computer, and turn it automatically on at 07:00.  The kids can
2762 then check the light in the morning to know if they are supposed to
2763 get up or not.  They joined me in setting everything up, and I
2764 repeated the concept several times before bed times to make sure they
2765 remembered to check the light before getting up in the morning.</p>
2766
2767 <p>We tested it this morning, and all the kids stayed in bed until
2768 after 07:00, and every one of them commented on the fact that the
2769 "morning light" was turned on and signalled that the morning had
2770 arrived.  So this look like a success, and I am excited to see how
2771 this develops the next few days. :) I really hope this can allow us
2772 all to sleep a bit longer in the morning.</p>
2773
2774 <p>A nice advantage of this setup is that we can remote control when
2775 to tell the kids to get up.  We do not have to wait until 07:00, and
2776 can also delay it if we want to.</p>
2777
2778       </div>
2779       <div class="tags">
2780
2781
2782         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
2783
2784
2785       </div>
2786     </div>
2787     <div class="padding"></div>
2788
2789     <div class="entry">
2790       <div class="title">
2791         <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>
2792       </div>
2793       <div class="date">
2794          2nd February 2013
2795       </div>
2796       <div class="body">
2797         <p>My
2798 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_backport_bitcoin_qt_version_0_7_2_2_to_Debian_Squeeze.html">last
2799 bitcoin related blog post</a> mentioned that the new
2800 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/bitcoin">bitcoin package</a> for
2801 Debian was waiting in NEW.  It was accepted by the Debian ftp-masters
2802 2013-01-19, and have been available in unstable since then.  It was
2803 automatically copied to Ubuntu, and is available in their Raring
2804 version too.</p>
2805
2806 <p>But there is a strange problem with the build that block this new
2807 version from being available on the i386 and kfreebsd-i386
2808 architectures.  For some strange reason, the autobuilders in Debian
2809 for these architectures fail to run the test suite on these
2810 architectures (<a href="http://bugs.debian.org/672524">BTS #672524</a>).
2811 We are so far unable to reproduce it when building it manually, and
2812 no-one have been able to propose a fix.  If you got an idea what is
2813 failing, please let us know via the BTS.</p>
2814
2815 <p>One feature that is annoying me with of the bitcoin client, because
2816 I often run low on disk space, is the fact that the client will exit
2817 if it run short on space (<a href="http://bugs.debian.org/696715">BTS
2818 #696715</a>).  So make sure you have enough disk space when you run
2819 it. :)</p>
2820
2821 <p>As usual, if you use bitcoin and want to show your support of my
2822 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
2823 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b&label=PetterReinholdtsenBlog">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
2824
2825       </div>
2826       <div class="tags">
2827
2828
2829         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>.
2830
2831
2832       </div>
2833     </div>
2834     <div class="padding"></div>
2835
2836     <div class="entry">
2837       <div class="title">
2838         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Welcome_to_the_world__Isenkram_.html">Welcome to the world, Isenkram!</a>
2839       </div>
2840       <div class="date">
2841         22nd January 2013
2842       </div>
2843       <div class="body">
2844         <p>Yesterday, I
2845 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/First_prototype_ready_making_hardware_easier_to_use_in_Debian.html">asked
2846 for testers</a> for my prototype for making Debian better at handling
2847 pluggable hardware devices, which I
2848 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lets_make_hardware_dongles_easier_to_use_in_Debian.html">set
2849 out to create</a> earlier this month.  Several valuable testers showed
2850 up, and caused me to really want to to open up the development to more
2851 people.  But before I did this, I want to come up with a sensible name
2852 for this project.  Today I finally decided on a new name, and I have
2853 renamed the project from hw-support-handler to this new name.  In the
2854 process, I moved the source to git and made it available as a
2855 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/gitweb/?p=collab-maint/isenkram.git">collab-maint</a>
2856 repository in Debian.  The new name?  It is <strong>Isenkram</strong>.
2857 To fetch and build the latest version of the source, use</p>
2858
2859 <pre>
2860 git clone http://anonscm.debian.org/git/collab-maint/isenkram.git
2861 cd isenkram && git-buildpackage -us -uc
2862 </pre>
2863
2864 <p>I have not yet adjusted all files to use the new name yet.  If you
2865 want to hack on the source or improve the package, please go ahead.
2866 But please talk to me first on IRC or via email before you do major
2867 changes, to make sure we do not step on each others toes. :)</p>
2868
2869 <p>If you wonder what 'isenkram' is, it is a Norwegian word for iron
2870 stuff, typically meaning tools, nails, screws, etc.  Typical hardware
2871 stuff, in other words.  I've been told it is the Norwegian variant of
2872 the German word eisenkram, for those that are familiar with that
2873 word.</p>
2874
2875 <p><strong>Update 2013-01-26</strong>: Added -us -us to build
2876 instructions, to avoid confusing people with an error from the signing
2877 process.</p>
2878
2879 <p><strong>Update 2013-01-27</strong>: Switch to HTTP URL for the git
2880 clone argument to avoid the need for authentication.</p>
2881
2882       </div>
2883       <div class="tags">
2884
2885
2886         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram">isenkram</a>.
2887
2888
2889       </div>
2890     </div>
2891     <div class="padding"></div>
2892
2893     <div class="entry">
2894       <div class="title">
2895         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/First_prototype_ready_making_hardware_easier_to_use_in_Debian.html">First prototype ready making hardware easier to use in Debian</a>
2896       </div>
2897       <div class="date">
2898         21st January 2013
2899       </div>
2900       <div class="body">
2901         <p>Early this month I set out to try to
2902 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lets_make_hardware_dongles_easier_to_use_in_Debian.html">improve
2903 the Debian support for pluggable hardware devices</a>.  Now my
2904 prototype is working, and it is ready for a larger audience.  To test
2905 it, fetch the
2906 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/">source
2907 from the Debian Edu subversion repository</a>, build and install the
2908 package.  You might have to log out and in again activate the
2909 autostart script.</p>
2910
2911 <p>The design is simple:</p>
2912
2913 <ul>
2914
2915 <li>Add desktop entry in /usr/share/autostart/ causing a program
2916 hw-support-handlerd to start when the user log in.</li>
2917
2918 <li>This program listen for kernel events about new hardware (directly
2919 from the kernel like udev does), not using HAL dbus events as I
2920 initially did.</li>
2921
2922 <li>When new hardware is inserted, look up the hardware modalias in
2923 the APT database, a database
2924 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/modaliases?view=markup">available
2925 via HTTP</a> and a database available as part of the package.</li>
2926
2927 <li>If a package is mapped to the hardware in question, the package
2928 isn't installed yet and this is the first time the hardware was
2929 plugged in, show a desktop notification suggesting to install the
2930 package or packages.</li>
2931
2932 <li>If the user click on the 'install package now' button, ask
2933 aptdaemon via the PackageKit API to install the requrired package.</li>
2934
2935 <li>aptdaemon ask for root password or sudo password, and install the
2936 package while showing progress information in a window.</li>
2937
2938 </ul>
2939
2940 <p>I still need to come up with a better name for the system.  Here
2941 are some screen shots showing the prototype in action.  First the
2942 notification, then the password request, and finally the request to
2943 approve all the dependencies.  Sorry for the Norwegian Bokmål GUI.</p>
2944
2945 <p><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-01-21-hw-support-1-notification.png">
2946 <br><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-01-21-hw-support-2-password.png">
2947 <br><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-01-21-hw-support-3-dependencies.png">
2948 <br><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-01-21-hw-support-4-installing.png">
2949 <br><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-01-21-hw-support-5-installing-details.png" width="70%"></p>
2950
2951 <p>The prototype still need to be improved with longer timeouts, but
2952 is already useful.  The database of hardware to package mappings also
2953 need more work.  It is currently compatible with the Ubuntu way of
2954 storing such information in the package control file, but could be
2955 changed to use other formats instead or in addition to the current
2956 method.  I've dropped the use of discover for this mapping, as the
2957 modalias approach is more flexible and easier to use on Linux as long
2958 as the Linux kernel expose its modalias strings directly.</p>
2959
2960 <p><strong>Update 2013-01-21 16:50</strong>: Due to popular demand,
2961 here is the command required to check out and build the source: Use
2962 '<tt>svn checkout
2963 svn://svn.debian.org/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/; cd
2964 hw-support-handler; debuild</tt>'.  If you lack debuild, install the
2965 devscripts package.</p>
2966
2967 <p><strong>Update 2013-01-23 12:00</strong>: The project is now
2968 renamed to Isenkram and the source moved from the Debian Edu
2969 subversion repository to a Debian collab-maint git repository.  See
2970 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Welcome_to_the_world__Isenkram_.html">build
2971 instructions</a> for details.</p>
2972
2973       </div>
2974       <div class="tags">
2975
2976
2977         Tags: <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>.
2978
2979
2980       </div>
2981     </div>
2982     <div class="padding"></div>
2983
2984     <div class="entry">
2985       <div class="title">
2986         <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>
2987       </div>
2988       <div class="date">
2989         19th January 2013
2990       </div>
2991       <div class="body">
2992         <p>This Christmas my trusty old laptop died.  It died quietly and
2993 suddenly in bed.  With a quiet whimper, it went completely quiet and
2994 black.  The power button was no longer able to turn it on.  It was a
2995 IBM Thinkpad X41, and the best laptop I ever had.  Better than both
2996 Thinkpads X30, X31, X40, X60, X61 and X61S.  Far better than the
2997 Compaq I had before that.  Now I need to find a replacement.  To keep
2998 going during Christmas, I moved the one year old SSD disk to my old
2999 X40 where it fitted (only one I had left that could use it), but it is
3000 not a durable solution.
3001
3002 <p>My laptop needs are fairly modest.  This is my wishlist from when I
3003 got a new one more than 10 years ago.  It still holds true.:)</p>
3004
3005 <ul>
3006
3007 <li>Lightweight (around 1 kg) and small volume (preferably smaller
3008   than A4).</li>
3009 <li>Robust, it will be in my backpack every day.</li>
3010 <li>Three button mouse and a mouse pin instead of touch pad.</li>
3011 <li>Long battery life time.  Preferable a week.</li>
3012 <li>Internal WIFI network card.</li>
3013 <li>Internal Twisted Pair network card.</li>
3014 <li>Some USB slots (2-3 is plenty)</li>
3015 <li>Good keyboard - similar to the Thinkpad.</li>
3016 <li>Video resolution at least 1024x768, with size around 12" (A4 paper
3017 size).</li>
3018 <li>Hardware supported by Debian Stable, ie the default kernel and
3019   X.org packages.</li>
3020 <li>Quiet, preferably fan free (or at least not using the fan most of
3021   the time).
3022
3023 </ul>
3024
3025 <p>You will notice that there are no RAM and CPU requirements in the
3026 list.  The reason is simply that the specifications on laptops the
3027 last 10-15 years have been sufficient for my needs, and I have to look
3028 at other features to choose my laptop.  But are there still made as
3029 robust laptops as my X41?  The Thinkpad X60/X61 proved to be less
3030 robust, and Thinkpads seem to be heading in the wrong direction since
3031 Lenovo took over.  But I've been told that X220 and X1 Carbon might
3032 still be useful.</p>
3033
3034 <p>Perhaps I should rethink my needs, and look for a pad with an
3035 external keyboard?  I'll have to check the
3036 <a href="http://www.linux-laptop.net/">Linux Laptops site</a> for
3037 well-supported laptops, or perhaps just buy one preinstalled from one
3038 of the vendors listed on the <a href="http://linuxpreloaded.com/">Linux
3039 Pre-loaded site</a>.</p>
3040
3041       </div>
3042       <div class="tags">
3043
3044
3045         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
3046
3047
3048       </div>
3049     </div>
3050     <div class="padding"></div>
3051
3052     <div class="entry">
3053       <div class="title">
3054         <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>
3055       </div>
3056       <div class="date">
3057         18th January 2013
3058       </div>
3059       <div class="body">
3060         <p>Some times I try to figure out which Iceweasel browser plugin to
3061 install to get support for a given MIME type.  Thanks to
3062 <a href="https://wiki.ubuntu.com/MozillaTeam/Plugins">specifications
3063 done by Ubuntu</a> and Mozilla, it is possible to do this in Debian.
3064 Unfortunately, not very many packages provide the needed meta
3065 information, Anyway, here is a small script to look up all browser
3066 plugin packages announcing ther MIME support using this specification:</p>
3067
3068 <pre>
3069 #!/usr/bin/python
3070 import sys
3071 import apt
3072 def pkgs_handling_mimetype(mimetype):
3073     cache = apt.Cache()
3074     cache.open(None)
3075     thepkgs = []
3076     for pkg in cache:
3077         version = pkg.candidate
3078         if version is None:
3079             version = pkg.installed
3080         if version is None:
3081             continue
3082         record = version.record
3083         if not record.has_key('Npp-MimeType'):
3084             continue
3085         mime_types = record['Npp-MimeType'].split(',')
3086         for t in mime_types:
3087             t = t.rstrip().strip()
3088             if t == mimetype:
3089                 thepkgs.append(pkg.name)
3090     return thepkgs
3091 mimetype = "audio/ogg"
3092 if 1 < len(sys.argv):
3093     mimetype = sys.argv[1]
3094 print "Browser plugin packages supporting %s:" % mimetype
3095 for pkg in pkgs_handling_mimetype(mimetype):
3096     print "  %s" %pkg
3097 </pre>
3098
3099 <p>It can be used like this to look up a given MIME type:</p>
3100
3101 <pre>
3102 % ./apt-find-browserplug-for-mimetype
3103 Browser plugin packages supporting audio/ogg:
3104   gecko-mediaplayer
3105 % ./apt-find-browserplug-for-mimetype application/x-shockwave-flash
3106 Browser plugin packages supporting application/x-shockwave-flash:
3107   browser-plugin-gnash
3108 %
3109 </pre>
3110
3111 <p>In Ubuntu this mechanism is combined with support in the browser
3112 itself to query for plugins and propose to install the needed
3113 packages.  It would be great if Debian supported such feature too.  Is
3114 anyone working on adding it?</p>
3115
3116 <p><strong>Update 2013-01-18 14:20</strong>: The Debian BTS
3117 request for icweasel support for this feature is
3118 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/484010">#484010</a> from 2008 (and
3119 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/698426">#698426</a> from today).  Lack
3120 of manpower and wish for a different design is the reason thus feature
3121 is not yet in iceweasel from Debian.</p>
3122
3123       </div>
3124       <div class="tags">
3125
3126
3127         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
3128
3129
3130       </div>
3131     </div>
3132     <div class="padding"></div>
3133
3134     <div class="entry">
3135       <div class="title">
3136         <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>
3137       </div>
3138       <div class="date">
3139         16th January 2013
3140       </div>
3141       <div class="body">
3142         <p>The <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/AppStreamDebianProposal">DEP-11
3143 proposal to add AppStream information to the Debian archive</a>, is a
3144 proposal to make it possible for a Desktop application to propose to
3145 the user some package to install to gain support for a given MIME
3146 type, font, library etc. that is currently missing.  With such
3147 mechanism in place, it would be possible for the desktop to
3148 automatically propose and install leocad if some LDraw file is
3149 downloaded by the browser.</p>
3150
3151 <p>To get some idea about the current content of the archive, I decided
3152 to write a simple program to extract all .desktop files from the
3153 Debian archive and look up the claimed MIME support there.  The result
3154 can be found on the
3155 <a href="http://ftp.skolelinux.org/pub/AppStreamTest">Skolelinux FTP
3156 site</a>.  Using the collected information, it become possible to
3157 answer the question in the title.  Here are the 20 most supported MIME
3158 types in Debian stable (Squeeze), testing (Wheezy) and unstable (Sid).
3159 The complete list is available from the link above.</p>
3160
3161 <p><strong>Debian Stable:</strong></p>
3162
3163 <pre>
3164   count MIME type
3165   ----- -----------------------
3166      32 text/plain
3167      30 audio/mpeg
3168      29 image/png
3169      28 image/jpeg
3170      27 application/ogg
3171      26 audio/x-mp3
3172      25 image/tiff
3173      25 image/gif
3174      22 image/bmp
3175      22 audio/x-wav
3176      20 audio/x-flac
3177      19 audio/x-mpegurl
3178      18 video/x-ms-asf
3179      18 audio/x-musepack
3180      18 audio/x-mpeg
3181      18 application/x-ogg
3182      17 video/mpeg
3183      17 audio/x-scpls
3184      17 audio/ogg
3185      16 video/x-ms-wmv
3186 </pre>
3187
3188 <p><strong>Debian Testing:</strong></p>
3189
3190 <pre>
3191   count MIME type
3192   ----- -----------------------
3193      33 text/plain
3194      32 image/png
3195      32 image/jpeg
3196      29 audio/mpeg
3197      27 image/gif
3198      26 image/tiff
3199      26 application/ogg
3200      25 audio/x-mp3
3201      22 image/bmp
3202      21 audio/x-wav
3203      19 audio/x-mpegurl
3204      19 audio/x-mpeg
3205      18 video/mpeg
3206      18 audio/x-scpls
3207      18 audio/x-flac
3208      18 application/x-ogg
3209      17 video/x-ms-asf
3210      17 text/html
3211      17 audio/x-musepack
3212      16 image/x-xbitmap
3213 </pre>
3214
3215 <p><strong>Debian Unstable:</strong></p>
3216
3217 <pre>
3218   count MIME type
3219   ----- -----------------------
3220      31 text/plain
3221      31 image/png
3222      31 image/jpeg
3223      29 audio/mpeg
3224      28 application/ogg
3225      27 image/gif
3226      26 image/tiff
3227      26 audio/x-mp3
3228      23 audio/x-wav
3229      22 image/bmp
3230      21 audio/x-flac
3231      20 audio/x-mpegurl
3232      19 audio/x-mpeg
3233      18 video/x-ms-asf
3234      18 video/mpeg
3235      18 audio/x-scpls
3236      18 application/x-ogg
3237      17 audio/x-musepack
3238      16 video/x-ms-wmv
3239      16 video/x-msvideo
3240 </pre>
3241
3242 <p>I am told that PackageKit can provide an API to access the kind of
3243 information mentioned in DEP-11.  I have not yet had time to look at
3244 it, but hope the PackageKit people in Debian are on top of these
3245 issues.</p>
3246
3247 <p><strong>Update 2013-01-16 13:35</strong>: Updated numbers after
3248 discovering a typo in my script.</p>
3249
3250       </div>
3251       <div class="tags">
3252
3253
3254         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
3255
3256
3257       </div>
3258     </div>
3259     <div class="padding"></div>
3260
3261     <div class="entry">
3262       <div class="title">
3263         <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>
3264       </div>
3265       <div class="date">
3266         15th January 2013
3267       </div>
3268       <div class="body">
3269         <p>Yesterday, I wrote about the
3270 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Modalias_strings___a_practical_way_to_map__stuff__to_hardware.html">modalias
3271 values provided by the Linux kernel</a> following my hope for
3272 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Lets_make_hardware_dongles_easier_to_use_in_Debian.html">better
3273 dongle support in Debian</a>.  Using this knowledge, I have tested how
3274 modalias values attached to package names can be used to map packages
3275 to hardware.  This allow the system to look up and suggest relevant
3276 packages when I plug in some new hardware into my machine, and replace
3277 discover and discover-data as the database used to map hardware to
3278 packages.</p>
3279
3280 <p>I create a modaliases file with entries like the following,
3281 containing package name, kernel module name (if relevant, otherwise
3282 the package name) and globs matching the relevant hardware
3283 modalias.</p>
3284
3285 <p><blockquote>
3286 Package: package-name
3287 <br>Modaliases: module(modaliasglob, modaliasglob, modaliasglob)</p>
3288 </blockquote></p>
3289
3290 <p>It is fairly trivial to write code to find the relevant packages
3291 for a given modalias value using this file.</p>
3292
3293 <p>An entry like this would suggest the video and picture application
3294 cheese for many USB web cameras (interface bus class 0E01):</p>
3295
3296 <p><blockquote>
3297 Package: cheese
3298 <br>Modaliases: cheese(usb:v*p*d*dc*dsc*dp*ic0Eisc01ip*)</p>
3299 </blockquote></p>
3300
3301 <p>An entry like this would suggest the pcmciautils package when a
3302 CardBus bridge (bus class 0607) PCI device is present:</p>
3303
3304 <p><blockquote>
3305 Package: pcmciautils
3306 <br>Modaliases: pcmciautils(pci:v*d*sv*sd*bc06sc07i*)
3307 </blockquote></p>
3308
3309 <p>An entry like this would suggest the package colorhug-client when
3310 plugging in a ColorHug with USB IDs 04D8:F8DA:</p>
3311
3312 <p><blockquote>
3313 Package: colorhug-client
3314 <br>Modaliases: colorhug-client(usb:v04D8pF8DAd*)</p>
3315 </blockquote></p>
3316
3317 <p>I believe the format is compatible with the format of the Packages
3318 file in the Debian archive.  Ubuntu already uses their Packages file
3319 to store their mappings from packages to hardware.</p>
3320
3321 <p>By adding a XB-Modaliases: header in debian/control, any .deb can
3322 announce the hardware it support in a way my prototype understand.
3323 This allow those publishing packages in an APT source outside the
3324 Debian archive as well as those backporting packages to make sure the
3325 hardware mapping are included in the package meta information.  I've
3326 tested such header in the pymissile package, and its modalias mapping
3327 is working as it should with my prototype.  It even made it to Ubuntu
3328 Raring.</p>
3329
3330 <p>To test if it was possible to look up supported hardware using only
3331 the shell tools available in the Debian installer, I wrote a shell
3332 implementation of the lookup code.  The idea is to create files for
3333 each modalias and let the shell do the matching.  Please check out and
3334 try the
3335 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/hw-support-lookup?view=co">hw-support-lookup</a>
3336 shell script.  It run without any extra dependencies and fetch the
3337 hardware mappings from the Debian archive and the subversion
3338 repository where I currently work on my prototype.</p>
3339
3340 <p>When I use it on a machine with a yubikey inserted, it suggest to
3341 install yubikey-personalization:</p>
3342
3343 <p><blockquote>
3344 % ./hw-support-lookup
3345 <br>yubikey-personalization
3346 <br>%
3347 </blockquote></p>
3348
3349 <p>When I run it on my Thinkpad X40 with a PCMCIA/CardBus slot, it
3350 propose to install the pcmciautils package:</p>
3351
3352 <p><blockquote>
3353 % ./hw-support-lookup
3354 <br>pcmciautils
3355 <br>%
3356 </blockquote></p>
3357
3358 <p>If you know of any hardware-package mapping that should be added to
3359 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/modaliases?view=co">my
3360 database</a>, please tell me about it.</p>
3361
3362 <p>It could be possible to generate several of the mappings between
3363 packages and hardware.  One source would be to look at packages with
3364 kernel modules, ie packages with *.ko files in /lib/modules/, and
3365 extract their modalias information.  Another would be to look at
3366 packages with udev rules, ie packages with files in
3367 /lib/udev/rules.d/, and extract their vendor/model information to
3368 generate a modalias matching rule.  I have not tested any of these to
3369 see if it work.</p>
3370
3371 <p>If you want to help implementing a system to let us propose what
3372 packages to install when new hardware is plugged into a Debian
3373 machine, please send me an email or talk to me on
3374 <a href="irc://irc.debian.org/%23debian-devel">#debian-devel</a>.</p>
3375
3376       </div>
3377       <div class="tags">
3378
3379
3380         Tags: <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>.
3381
3382
3383       </div>
3384     </div>
3385     <div class="padding"></div>
3386
3387     <div class="entry">
3388       <div class="title">
3389         <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>
3390       </div>
3391       <div class="date">
3392         14th January 2013
3393       </div>
3394       <div class="body">
3395         <p>While looking into how to look up Debian packages based on hardware
3396 information, to find the packages that support a given piece of
3397 hardware, I refreshed my memory regarding modalias values, and decided
3398 to document the details.  Here are my findings so far, also available
3399 in
3400 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/">the
3401 Debian Edu subversion repository</a>:
3402
3403 <p><strong>Modalias decoded</strong></p>
3404
3405 <p>This document try to explain what the different types of modalias
3406 values stands for.  It is in part based on information from
3407 &lt;URL: <a href="https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Modalias">https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Modalias</a> &gt;,
3408 &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;,
3409 &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
3410 &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;.
3411
3412 <p>The modalias entries for a given Linux machine can be found using
3413 this shell script:</p>
3414
3415 <pre>
3416 find /sys -name modalias -print0 | xargs -0 cat | sort -u
3417 </pre>
3418
3419 <p>The supported modalias globs for a given kernel module can be found
3420 using modinfo:</p>
3421
3422 <pre>
3423 % /sbin/modinfo psmouse | grep alias:
3424 alias:          serio:ty05pr*id*ex*
3425 alias:          serio:ty01pr*id*ex*
3426 %
3427 </pre>
3428
3429 <p><strong>PCI subtype</strong></p>
3430
3431 <p>A typical PCI entry can look like this.  This is an Intel Host
3432 Bridge memory controller:</p>
3433
3434 <p><blockquote>
3435 pci:v00008086d00002770sv00001028sd000001ADbc06sc00i00
3436 </blockquote></p>
3437
3438 <p>This represent these values:</p>
3439
3440 <pre>
3441  v   00008086  (vendor)
3442  d   00002770  (device)
3443  sv  00001028  (subvendor)
3444  sd  000001AD  (subdevice)
3445  bc  06        (bus class)
3446  sc  00        (bus subclass)
3447  i   00        (interface)
3448 </pre>
3449
3450 <p>The vendor/device values are the same values outputted from 'lspci
3451 -n' as 8086:2770.  The bus class/subclass is also shown by lspci as
3452 0600.  The 0600 class is a host bridge.  Other useful bus values are
3453 0300 (VGA compatible card) and 0200 (Ethernet controller).</p>
3454
3455 <p>Not sure how to figure out the interface value, nor what it
3456 means.</p>
3457
3458 <p><strong>USB subtype</strong></p>
3459
3460 <p>Some typical USB entries can look like this.  This is an internal
3461 USB hub in a laptop:</p>
3462
3463 <p><blockquote>
3464 usb:v1D6Bp0001d0206dc09dsc00dp00ic09isc00ip00
3465 </blockquote></p>
3466
3467 <p>Here is the values included in this alias:</p>
3468
3469 <pre>
3470  v    1D6B  (device vendor)
3471  p    0001  (device product)
3472  d    0206  (bcddevice)
3473  dc     09  (device class)
3474  dsc    00  (device subclass)
3475  dp     00  (device protocol)
3476  ic     09  (interface class)
3477  isc    00  (interface subclass)
3478  ip     00  (interface protocol)
3479 </pre>
3480
3481 <p>The 0900 device class/subclass means hub.  Some times the relevant
3482 class is in the interface class section.  For a simple USB web camera,
3483 these alias entries show up:</p>
3484
3485 <p><blockquote>
3486 usb:v0AC8p3420d5000dcEFdsc02dp01ic01isc01ip00
3487 <br>usb:v0AC8p3420d5000dcEFdsc02dp01ic01isc02ip00
3488 <br>usb:v0AC8p3420d5000dcEFdsc02dp01ic0Eisc01ip00
3489 <br>usb:v0AC8p3420d5000dcEFdsc02dp01ic0Eisc02ip00
3490 </blockquote></p>
3491
3492 <p>Interface class 0E01 is video control, 0E02 is video streaming (aka
3493 camera), 0101 is audio control device and 0102 is audio streaming (aka
3494 microphone).  Thus this is a camera with microphone included.</p>
3495
3496 <p><strong>ACPI subtype</strong></p>
3497
3498 <p>The ACPI type is used for several non-PCI/USB stuff.  This is an IR
3499 receiver in a Thinkpad X40:</p>
3500
3501 <p><blockquote>
3502 acpi:IBM0071:PNP0511:
3503 </blockquote></p>
3504
3505 <p>The values between the colons are IDs.</p>
3506
3507 <p><strong>DMI subtype</strong></p>
3508
3509 <p>The DMI table contain lots of information about the computer case
3510 and model.  This is an entry for a IBM Thinkpad X40, fetched from
3511 /sys/devices/virtual/dmi/id/modalias:</p>
3512
3513 <p><blockquote>
3514 dmi:bvnIBM:bvr1UETB6WW(1.66):bd06/15/2005:svnIBM:pn2371H4G:pvrThinkPadX40:rvnIBM:rn2371H4G:rvrNotAvailable:cvnIBM:ct10:cvrNotAvailable:
3515 </blockquote></p>
3516
3517 <p>The values present are</p>
3518
3519 <pre>
3520  bvn  IBM            (BIOS vendor)
3521  bvr  1UETB6WW(1.66) (BIOS version)
3522  bd   06/15/2005     (BIOS date)
3523  svn  IBM            (system vendor)
3524  pn   2371H4G        (product name)
3525  pvr  ThinkPadX40    (product version)
3526  rvn  IBM            (board vendor)
3527  rn   2371H4G        (board name)
3528  rvr  NotAvailable   (board version)
3529  cvn  IBM            (chassis vendor)
3530  ct   10             (chassis type)
3531  cvr  NotAvailable   (chassis version)
3532 </pre>
3533
3534 <p>The chassis type 10 is Notebook.  Other interesting values can be
3535 found in the dmidecode source:</p>
3536
3537 <pre>
3538   3 Desktop
3539   4 Low Profile Desktop
3540   5 Pizza Box
3541   6 Mini Tower
3542   7 Tower
3543   8 Portable
3544   9 Laptop
3545  10 Notebook
3546  11 Hand Held
3547  12 Docking Station
3548  13 All In One
3549  14 Sub Notebook
3550  15 Space-saving
3551  16 Lunch Box
3552  17 Main Server Chassis
3553  18 Expansion Chassis
3554  19 Sub Chassis
3555  20 Bus Expansion Chassis
3556  21 Peripheral Chassis
3557  22 RAID Chassis
3558  23 Rack Mount Chassis
3559  24 Sealed-case PC
3560  25 Multi-system
3561  26 CompactPCI
3562  27 AdvancedTCA
3563  28 Blade
3564  29 Blade Enclosing
3565 </pre>
3566
3567 <p>The chassis type values are not always accurately set in the DMI
3568 table.  For example my home server is a tower, but the DMI modalias
3569 claim it is a desktop.</p>
3570
3571 <p><strong>SerIO subtype</strong></p>
3572
3573 <p>This type is used for PS/2 mouse plugs.  One example is from my
3574 test machine:</p>
3575
3576 <p><blockquote>
3577 serio:ty01pr00id00ex00
3578 </blockquote></p>
3579
3580 <p>The values present are</p>
3581
3582 <pre>
3583   ty  01  (type)
3584   pr  00  (prototype)
3585   id  00  (id)
3586   ex  00  (extra)
3587 </pre>
3588
3589 <p>This type is supported by the psmouse driver.  I am not sure what
3590 the valid values are.</p>
3591
3592 <p><strong>Other subtypes</strong></p>
3593
3594 <p>There are heaps of other modalias subtypes according to
3595 file2alias.c.  There is the rest of the list from that source: amba,
3596 ap, bcma, ccw, css, eisa, hid, i2c, ieee1394, input, ipack, isapnp,
3597 mdio, of, parisc, pcmcia, platform, scsi, sdio, spi, ssb, vio, virtio,
3598 vmbus, x86cpu and zorro.  I did not spend time documenting all of
3599 these, as they do not seem relevant for my intended use with mapping
3600 hardware to packages when new stuff is inserted during run time.</p>
3601
3602 <p><strong>Looking up kernel modules using modalias values</strong></p>
3603
3604 <p>To check which kernel modules provide support for a given modalias,
3605 one can use the following shell script:</p>
3606
3607 <pre>
3608   for id in $(find /sys -name modalias -print0 | xargs -0 cat | sort -u); do \
3609     echo "$id" ; \
3610     /sbin/modprobe --show-depends "$id"|sed 's/^/  /' ; \
3611   done
3612 </pre>
3613
3614 <p>The output can look like this (only the first few entries as the
3615 list is very long on my test machine):</p>
3616
3617 <pre>
3618   acpi:ACPI0003:
3619     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/drivers/acpi/ac.ko
3620   acpi:device:
3621   FATAL: Module acpi:device: not found.
3622   acpi:IBM0068:
3623     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/drivers/char/nvram.ko
3624     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/drivers/leds/led-class.ko
3625     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/net/rfkill/rfkill.ko
3626     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/drivers/platform/x86/thinkpad_acpi.ko
3627   acpi:IBM0071:PNP0511:
3628     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/lib/crc-ccitt.ko
3629     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/net/irda/irda.ko
3630     insmod /lib/modules/2.6.32-5-686/kernel/drivers/net/irda/nsc-ircc.ko
3631   [...]
3632 </pre>
3633
3634 <p>If you want to help implementing a system to let us propose what
3635 packages to install when new hardware is plugged into a Debian
3636 machine, please send me an email or talk to me on
3637 <a href="irc://irc.debian.org/%23debian-devel">#debian-devel</a>.</p>
3638
3639 <p><strong>Update 2013-01-15:</strong> Rewrite "cat $(find ...)" to
3640 "find ... -print0 | xargs -0 cat" to make sure it handle directories
3641 in /sys/ with space in them.</p>
3642
3643       </div>
3644       <div class="tags">
3645
3646
3647         Tags: <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>.
3648
3649
3650       </div>
3651     </div>
3652     <div class="padding"></div>
3653
3654     <div class="entry">
3655       <div class="title">
3656         <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>
3657       </div>
3658       <div class="date">
3659         10th January 2013
3660       </div>
3661       <div class="body">
3662         <p>As part of my investigation on how to improve the support in Debian
3663 for hardware dongles, I dug up my old Mark and Spencer USB Rocket
3664 Launcher and updated the Debian package
3665 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/pymissile">pymissile</a> to make
3666 sure udev will fix the device permissions when it is plugged in.  I
3667 also added a "Modaliases" header to test it in the Debian archive and
3668 hopefully make the package be proposed by jockey in Ubuntu when a user
3669 plug in his rocket launcher.  In the process I moved the source to a
3670 git repository under collab-maint, to make it easier for any DD to
3671 contribute.  <a href="http://code.google.com/p/pymissile/">Upstream</a>
3672 is not very active, but the software still work for me even after five
3673 years of relative silence.  The new git repository is not listed in
3674 the uploaded package yet, because I want to test the other changes a
3675 bit more before I upload the new version.  If you want to check out
3676 the new version with a .desktop file included, visit the
3677 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/gitweb/?p=collab-maint/pymissile.git">gitweb
3678 view</a> or use "<tt>git clone
3679 git://anonscm.debian.org/collab-maint/pymissile.git</tt>".</p>
3680
3681       </div>
3682       <div class="tags">
3683
3684
3685         Tags: <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>.
3686
3687
3688       </div>
3689     </div>
3690     <div class="padding"></div>
3691
3692     <div class="entry">
3693       <div class="title">
3694         <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>
3695       </div>
3696       <div class="date">
3697          9th January 2013
3698       </div>
3699       <div class="body">
3700         <p>One thing that annoys me with Debian and Linux distributions in
3701 general, is that there is a great package management system with the
3702 ability to automatically install software packages by downloading them
3703 from the distribution mirrors, but no way to get it to automatically
3704 install the packages I need to use the hardware I plug into my
3705 machine.  Even if the package to use it is easily available from the
3706 Linux distribution.  When I plug in a LEGO Mindstorms NXT, it could
3707 suggest to automatically install the python-nxt, nbc and t2n packages
3708 I need to talk to it.  When I plug in a Yubikey, it could propose the
3709 yubikey-personalization package.  The information required to do this
3710 is available, but no-one have pulled all the pieces together.</p>
3711
3712 <p>Some years ago, I proposed to
3713 <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2010/05/msg01206.html">use
3714 the discover subsystem to implement this</a>.  The idea is fairly
3715 simple:
3716
3717 <ul>
3718
3719 <li>Add a desktop entry in /usr/share/autostart/ pointing to a program
3720   starting when a user log in.</li>
3721
3722 <li>Set this program up to listen for kernel events emitted when new
3723   hardware is inserted into the computer.</li>
3724
3725 <li>When new hardware is inserted, look up the hardware ID in a
3726   database mapping to packages, and take note of any non-installed
3727   packages.</li>
3728
3729 <li>Show a message to the user proposing to install the discovered
3730   package, and make it easy to install it.</li>
3731
3732 </ul>
3733
3734 <p>I am not sure what the best way to implement this is, but my
3735 initial idea was to use dbus events to discover new hardware, the
3736 discover database to find packages and
3737 <a href="http://www.packagekit.org/">PackageKit</a> to install
3738 packages.</p>
3739
3740 <p>Yesterday, I found time to try to implement this idea, and the
3741 draft package is now checked into
3742 <a href="http://anonscm.debian.org/viewvc/debian-edu/trunk/src/hw-support-handler/">the
3743 Debian Edu subversion repository</a>.  In the process, I updated the
3744 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/d/discover-data.html">discover-data</a>
3745 package to map the USB ids of LEGO Mindstorms and Yubikey devices to
3746 the relevant packages in Debian, and uploaded a new version
3747 2.2013.01.09 to unstable.  I also discovered that the current
3748 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/d/discover.html">discover</a>
3749 package in Debian no longer discovered any USB devices, because
3750 /proc/bus/usb/devices is no longer present.  I ported it to use
3751 libusb as a fall back option to get it working.  The fixed package
3752 version 2.1.2-6 is now in experimental (didn't upload it to unstable
3753 because of the freeze).</p>
3754
3755 <p>With this prototype in place, I can insert my Yubikey, and get this
3756 desktop notification to show up (only once, the first time it is
3757 inserted):</p>
3758
3759 <p align="center"><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/2013-01-09-hw-autoinstall.png"></p>
3760
3761 <p>For this prototype to be really useful, some way to automatically
3762 install the proposed packages by pressing the "Please install
3763 program(s)" button should to be implemented.</p>
3764
3765 <p>If this idea seem useful to you, and you want to help make it
3766 happen, please help me update the discover-data database with mappings
3767 from hardware to Debian packages.  Check if 'discover-pkginstall -l'
3768 list the package you would like to have installed when a given
3769 hardware device is inserted into your computer, and report bugs using
3770 reportbug if it isn't.  Or, if you know of a better way to provide
3771 such mapping, please let me know.</p>
3772
3773 <p>This prototype need more work, and there are several questions that
3774 should be considered before it is ready for production use.  Is dbus
3775 the correct way to detect new hardware?  At the moment I look for HAL
3776 dbus events on the system bus, because that is the events I could see
3777 on my Debian Squeeze KDE desktop.  Are there better events to use?
3778 How should the user be notified?  Is the desktop notification
3779 mechanism the best option, or should the background daemon raise a
3780 popup instead?  How should packages be installed?  When should they
3781 not be installed?</p>
3782
3783 <p>If you want to help getting such feature implemented in Debian,
3784 please send me an email. :)</p>
3785
3786       </div>
3787       <div class="tags">
3788
3789
3790         Tags: <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>.
3791
3792
3793       </div>
3794     </div>
3795     <div class="padding"></div>
3796
3797     <div class="entry">
3798       <div class="title">
3799         <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>
3800       </div>
3801       <div class="date">
3802          2nd January 2013
3803       </div>
3804       <div class="body">
3805         <p>During Christmas, I have worked a bit on the Debian support for
3806 <a href="http://mindstorms.lego.com/en-us/Default.aspx">LEGO Mindstorm
3807 NXT</a>.  My son and I have played a bit with my NXT set, and I
3808 discovered I had to build all the tools myself because none were
3809 already in Debian Squeeze.  If Debian support for LEGO is something
3810 you care about, please join me on the IRC channel
3811 <a href="irc://irc.debian.org/%23debian-lego">#debian-lego</a> (server
3812 irc.debian.org).  There is a lot that could be done to improve the
3813 Debian support for LEGO designers.  For example both CAD software
3814 and Mindstorm compilers are missing. :)</p>
3815
3816 <p>Update 2012-01-03: A
3817 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/LegoDesigners">project page</a>
3818 including links to Lego related packages is now available.</p>
3819
3820       </div>
3821       <div class="tags">
3822
3823
3824         Tags: <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>.
3825
3826
3827       </div>
3828     </div>
3829     <div class="padding"></div>
3830
3831     <div class="entry">
3832       <div class="title">
3833         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/A_Christmas_present_for_Skolelinux___Debian_Edu.html">A Christmas present for Skolelinux / Debian Edu</a>
3834       </div>
3835       <div class="date">
3836         28th December 2012
3837       </div>
3838       <div class="body">
3839         <p>I was happy to discover a few days ago that the
3840 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Skolelinux / Debian Edu</a>
3841 project also this year received a Christmas present from Another
3842 Agency in Trondheim.  NOK 1000,- showed up on our donation account
3843 December 24th.  I want to express our thanks for this very welcome
3844 present.  As the Debian Edu / Skolelinux project is very short on
3845 funding these days, and thus lack the money to do regular developer
3846 gatherings, this donation was most welcome.  One developer gathering
3847 cost around NOK 15&nbsp;000,-, so we need quite a lot more to keep the
3848 development pace we want.  Thus, I hope their example this year is
3849 followed by many others. :)</p>
3850
3851 <p>The public list of donors can be found on
3852 <a href="http://www.linuxiskolen.no/slxdebianlabs/donations.html">the
3853 donation page</a> for the project, which also contain instructions if
3854 you want to donate to the project.</p>
3855
3856       </div>
3857       <div class="tags">
3858
3859
3860         Tags: <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>.
3861
3862
3863       </div>
3864     </div>
3865     <div class="padding"></div>
3866
3867     <div class="entry">
3868       <div class="title">
3869         <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>
3870       </div>
3871       <div class="date">
3872         25th December 2012
3873       </div>
3874       <div class="body">
3875         <p>Let me start by wishing you all marry Christmas and a happy new
3876 year!  I hope next year will prove to be a good year.</p>
3877
3878 <p><a href="http://www.bitcoin.org/">Bitcoin</a>, the digital
3879 decentralised "currency" that allow people to transfer bitcoins
3880 between each other with minimal overhead, is a very interesting
3881 experiment.  And as I wrote a few days ago, the bitcoin situation in
3882 <a href="http://www.debian.org/">Debian</a> is about to improve a bit.
3883 The <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/bitcoin">new debian source
3884 package</a> (version 0.7.2-2) was uploaded yesterday, and is waiting
3885 in <a href="http://ftp-master.debian.org/new.html">the NEW queue</A>
3886 for one of the ftpmasters to approve the new bitcoin-qt package
3887 name.</p>
3888
3889 <p>And thanks to the great work of Jonas and the rest of the bitcoin
3890 team in Debian, you can easily test the package in Debian Squeeze
3891 using the following steps to get a set of working packages:</p>
3892
3893 <blockquote><pre>
3894 git clone git://git.debian.org/git/collab-maint/bitcoin
3895 cd bitcoin
3896 DEB_MAINTAINER_MODE=1 DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS=noupnp fakeroot debian/rules clean
3897 DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS=noupnp git-buildpackage --git-ignore-new
3898 </pre></blockquote>
3899
3900 <p>You might have to install some build dependencies as well.  The
3901 list of commands should give you two packages, bitcoind and
3902 bitcoin-qt, ready for use in a Squeeze environment.  Note that the
3903 client will download the complete set of bitcoin "blocks", which need
3904 around 5.6 GiB of data on my machine at the moment.  Make sure your
3905 ~/.bitcoin/ directory have lots of spare room if you want to download
3906 all the blocks.  The client will warn if the disk is getting full, so
3907 there is not really a problem if you got too little room, but you will
3908 not be able to get all the features out of the client.</p>
3909
3910 <p>As usual, if you use bitcoin and want to show your support of my
3911 activities, please send Bitcoin donations to my address
3912 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b&label=PetterReinholdtsenBlog">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
3913
3914       </div>
3915       <div class="tags">
3916
3917
3918         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>.
3919
3920
3921       </div>
3922     </div>
3923     <div class="padding"></div>
3924
3925     <div class="entry">
3926       <div class="title">
3927         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/A_word_on_bitcoin_support_in_Debian.html">A word on bitcoin support in Debian</a>
3928       </div>
3929       <div class="date">
3930         21st December 2012
3931       </div>
3932       <div class="body">
3933         <p>It has been a while since I wrote about
3934 <a href="http://www.bitcoin.org/">bitcoin</a>, the decentralised
3935 peer-to-peer based crypto-currency, and the reason is simply that I
3936 have been busy elsewhere.  But two days ago, I started looking at the
3937 state of <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/bitcoin">bitcoin in
3938 Debian</a> again to try to recover my old bitcoin wallet.  The package
3939 is now maintained by a
3940 <a href="https://alioth.debian.org/projects/pkg-bitcoin/">team of
3941 people</a>, and the grunt work had already been done by this team.  We
3942 owe a huge thank you to all these team members. :)
3943 But I was sad to discover that the bitcoin client is missing in
3944 Wheezy.  It is only available in Sid (and an outdated client from
3945 backports).  The client had several RC bugs registered in BTS blocking
3946 it from entering testing.  To try to help the team and improve the
3947 situation, I spent some time providing patches and triaging the bug
3948 reports.  I also had a look at the bitcoin package available from Matt
3949 Corallo in a
3950 <a href="https://launchpad.net/~bitcoin/+archive/bitcoin">PPA for
3951 Ubuntu</a>, and moved the useful pieces from that version into the
3952 Debian package.</p>
3953
3954 <p>After checking with the main package maintainer Jonas Smedegaard on
3955 IRC, I pushed several patches into the collab-maint git repository to
3956 improve the package.  It now contains fixes for the RC issues (not from
3957 me, but fixed by Scott Howard), build rules for a Qt GUI client
3958 package, konqueror support for the bitcoin: URI and bash completion
3959 setup.  As I work on Debian Squeeze, I also created
3960 <a href="http://lists.alioth.debian.org/pipermail/pkg-bitcoin-devel/Week-of-Mon-20121217/000041.html">a
3961 patch to backport</a> the latest version.  Jonas is going to look at
3962 it and try to integrate it into the git repository before uploading a
3963 new version to unstable.
3964
3965 <p>I would very much like bitcoin to succeed, to get rid of the
3966 centralized control currently exercised in the monetary system.  I
3967 find it completely unacceptable that the USA government is collecting
3968 transaction data for almost all international money transfers (most are done in USD and transaction logs shipped to the spooks), and
3969 that the major credit card companies can block legal money
3970 transactions to Wikileaks.  But for bitcoin to succeed, more people
3971 need to use bitcoins, and more people need to accept bitcoins when
3972 they sell products and services.  Improving the bitcoin support in
3973 Debian is a small step in the right direction, but not enough.
3974 Unfortunately the user experience when browsing the web and wanting to
3975 pay with bitcoin is still not very good.  The bitcoin: URI is a step
3976 in the right direction, but need to work in most or every browser in
3977 use.  Also the bitcoin-qt client is too heavy to fire up to do a
3978 quick transaction.  I believe there are other clients available, but
3979 have not tested them.</p>
3980
3981 <p>My
3982 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Now_accepting_bitcoins___anonymous_and_distributed_p2p_crypto_money.html">experiment
3983 with bitcoins</a> showed that at least some of my readers use bitcoin.
3984 I received 20.15 BTC so far on the address I provided in my blog two
3985 years ago, as can be
3986 <a href="http://blockexplorer.com/address/15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">seen
3987 on the blockexplorer service</a>.  Thank you everyone for your
3988 donation.  The blockexplorer service demonstrates quite well that
3989 bitcoin is not quite anonymous and untracked. :) I wonder if the
3990 number of users have gone up since then.  If you use bitcoin and want
3991 to show your support of my activity, please send Bitcoin donations to
3992 the same address as last time,
3993 <b><a href="bitcoin:15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b&label=PetterReinholdtsenBlog">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a></b>.</p>
3994
3995       </div>
3996       <div class="tags">
3997
3998
3999         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>.
4000
4001
4002       </div>
4003     </div>
4004     <div class="padding"></div>
4005
4006     <div class="entry">
4007       <div class="title">
4008         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Ledger___double_entry_accounting_using_text_based_storage_format.html">Ledger - double-entry accounting using text based storage format</a>
4009       </div>
4010       <div class="date">
4011         18th December 2012
4012       </div>
4013       <div class="body">
4014         <p>A few days ago I came across
4015 <a href="http://joeyh.name/blog/entry/hledger/">a blog post from Joey
4016 Hess</a> describing <a href="http://ledger-cli.org/">ledger</a> and
4017 hledger, a text based system for double-entry accounting.  I found it
4018 interesting, as I am involved with several organizations where
4019 accounting is an issue, and I have not really become too friendly with
4020 the different web based systems we use.  I find it hard to find what I
4021 look for in the menus and even harder try to get sensible data out of
4022 the systems.  Ledger seem different.  The accounting data is kept in
4023 text files that can be stored in a version control system, and there
4024
4025 are at least <a href="https://github.com/ledger/ledger/wiki/Ports">five
4026 different implementations</a> able to read the format.  An example
4027 entry look like this, and is simple enough that it will be trivial to
4028 generate entries based on CVS files fetched from the bank:</p>
4029
4030 <blockquote><pre>
4031 2004-05-27 Book Store
4032       Expenses:Books                 $20.00
4033       Liabilities:Visa
4034 </pre></blockquote>
4035
4036 <p>The concept seemed interesting enough for me to check it out and
4037 look for others using it.  I found blog posts from
4038 <a href="http://blog.spang.cc/posts/hledger_rocks_my_world/">Christine
4039 Spang</a>,
4040 <a href="http://bugsplat.info/2010-05-23-keeping-finances-with-ledger.html">Pete
4041 Keen</a>,
4042 <a href="http://blog.andrewcantino.com/blog/2010/11/06/command-line-accounting-with-ledger-and-reckon/">Andrew
4043 Cantino</a> and
4044 <a href="http://blog.iphoting.com/blog/2012/11/29/command-line-double-entry-accounting/">Ronald
4045 Ip</a> describing how they use it, as well as a post from
4046 <a href="https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups=#!topic/ledger-cli/r0oWjwbQ9Bo">Bradley
4047 M. Kuhn</a> at the Software Freedom Conservancy.  All seemed like good
4048 recommendations fitting my need.</p>
4049
4050 <p>The <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/l/ledger.html">ledger</a>
4051 package is available in Debian Squeeze, while the
4052 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/h/haskell-hledger.html">hledger</a>
4053 package only is available in Debian Sid.  As I use Squeeze, ledger
4054 seemed the best choice to get started.</p>
4055
4056 <p>To get some real data to test on, I wrote a
4057 <a href="http://www.nuug.no/tools/lodo2ledger">web scraper</a> for
4058 <a href="http://www.lodo.no/">LODO</a>, the accounting system used by
4059 the <a href="http://www.nuug.no/">NUUG</a> association, and started to
4060 play with the data set.  I'm not really deeply into accounting, but I
4061 am able to get a simple balance and accounting status for example
4062 using the "<tt>ledger balance</tt>" command.  But I will have to
4063 gather more experience before I know if the ledger way is a good fit
4064 for the organisations I am involved in.</p>
4065
4066       </div>
4067       <div class="tags">
4068
4069
4070         Tags: <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>.
4071
4072
4073       </div>
4074     </div>
4075     <div class="padding"></div>
4076
4077     <div class="entry">
4078       <div class="title">
4079         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Scripting_the_Cerebrum_bofhd_user_administration_system_using_XML_RPC.html">Scripting the Cerebrum/bofhd user administration system using XML-RPC</a>
4080       </div>
4081       <div class="date">
4082          6th December 2012
4083       </div>
4084       <div class="body">
4085         <p>Where I work at the <a href="http://www.uio.no/">University of
4086 Oslo</a>, we use the
4087 <a href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/cerebrum/">Cerebrum user
4088 administration system</a> to maintain users, groups, DNS, DHCP, etc.
4089 I've known since the system was written that the server is providing
4090 an <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XML-RPC">XML-RPC</a> API, but
4091 I have never spent time to try to figure out how to use it, as we
4092 always use the bofh command line client at work.  Until today.  I want
4093 to script the updating of DNS and DHCP to make it easier to set up
4094 virtual machines.  Here are a few notes on how to use it with
4095 Python.</p>
4096
4097 <p>I started by looking at the source of the Java
4098 <a href="http://cerebrum.svn.sourceforge.net/viewvc/cerebrum/trunk/cerebrum/clients/jbofh/">bofh
4099 client</a>, to figure out how it connected to the API server.  I also
4100 googled for python examples on how to use XML-RPC, and found
4101 <a href="http://tldp.org/HOWTO/XML-RPC-HOWTO/xmlrpc-howto-python.html">a
4102 simple example in</a> the XML-RPC howto.</p>
4103
4104 <p>This simple example code show how to connect, get the list of
4105 commands (as a JSON dump), and how to get the information about the
4106 user currently logged in:</p>
4107
4108 <blockquote><pre>
4109 #!/usr/bin/env python
4110 import getpass
4111 import xmlrpclib
4112 server_url = 'https://cerebrum-uio.uio.no:8000';
4113 username = getpass.getuser()
4114 password = getpass.getpass()
4115 server = xmlrpclib.Server(server_url);
4116 #print server.get_commands(sessionid)
4117 sessionid = server.login(username, password)
4118 print server.run_command(sessionid, "user_info", username)
4119 result = server.logout(sessionid)
4120 print result
4121 </pre></blockquote>
4122
4123 <p>Armed with this knowledge I can now move forward and script the DNS
4124 and DHCP updates I wanted to do.</p>
4125
4126       </div>
4127       <div class="tags">
4128
4129
4130         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sysadmin">sysadmin</a>.
4131
4132
4133       </div>
4134     </div>
4135     <div class="padding"></div>
4136
4137     <div class="entry">
4138       <div class="title">
4139         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Why_isn_t_the_value_of_copyright_taxed_.html">Why isn't the value of copyright taxed?</a>
4140       </div>
4141       <div class="date">
4142         17th November 2012
4143       </div>
4144       <div class="body">
4145         <p>While working on a
4146 <a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/free-culture-lessig">Norwegian
4147 translation of the Free Culture by Lawrence Lessig</a> (76% done),
4148 which cover the problems with todays copyright law and how it stifles
4149 creativity, one idea occurred to me.  The idea is to get the tax
4150 office to help make more works enter the public domain and also help
4151 make it easier to clear rights for using copyrighted works.</p>
4152
4153 <p>I mentioned this idea briefly during Yesterdays
4154 <a href="http://www.farmann.no/2012/11/14/john-perry-barlow-in-oslo-friday-nov-16
4155 -15-30-19-00/">presentation
4156 by John Perry Barlow</a>, and concluded that it was best to put it
4157 in writing for a wider audience.  The idea is not really based on the
4158 argument that copyrighted works are "intellectual property", as the
4159 core requirement is that copyrighted work have value for the copyright
4160 holder and the tax office like to collect their share from any value
4161 controlled by the citizens in a country.  I'm sharing the idea here to
4162 let others consider it and perhaps shoot it down with a fresh set of
4163 arguments.</p>
4164
4165 <p>Most valuables are taxed by the government.  At least here in
4166 Norway, the amount of money you have, the value of our land property,
4167 the value of your house, the value of your car, the value of our
4168 stocks and other valuables are all added together.  If the tax value
4169 of these values exceed your debt, you have to pay the tax office some
4170 taxes for these values.  And copyrighted work have value.  It have
4171 value for the rights holder, who can earn money selling access to the
4172 work.  But it is not included in the tax calculations?  Why not?</p>
4173
4174 <p>If the government want to tax copyrighted works, it would want to
4175 maintain a database of all the copyrighted works and who are the
4176 rights holders for a given works, to be able to associate the works
4177 value to the right citizen or company for tax purposes.  If such
4178 database exist, it will become a lot easier to find out who to talk to
4179 for clearing permissions to use a copyrighted work, which is a very
4180 hard operation with todays copyright law.  To ensure that copyright
4181 holders keep the database up-to-date, it would have to become a
4182 requirement to be able to collect money for granting access to
4183 copyrighted works that the work is listed in the database with the
4184 correct right holder.</p>
4185
4186 <p>If copyright causes copyright holders to have to pay more taxes,
4187 they will have a small incentive to "disown" their copyright, and let
4188 the work enter the public domain. For works with several right holders
4189 one of the right holders could state (and get it registered in the
4190 database) that she do not need to be consulted when clearing rights to
4191 use the work in question and thus will not get any income from that
4192 work.  Stating this would have to be impossible to revert and stop the
4193 tax office from adding the value of that work to the given citizens
4194 tax calculation.  I assume the copyright law would stay the same,
4195 allowing creators to pick a license of their choosing, and also
4196 allowing them to put their work directly in the public domain.  The
4197 existence of such database will make it even easier to clear rights,
4198 and if the right holders listed in the database is taxed, this system
4199 would increase the amount of works that enter the public domain.</p>
4200
4201 <p>The effect would be that the tax office help to make it easier to
4202 get rights to use the works that have not yet entered the public
4203 domain and help to get more work into the public domain and .</p>
4204
4205 <p>Why have such taxing not happened yet?  I am sure the tax office
4206 would like to tax copyrighted work values if they could.</p>
4207
4208       </div>
4209       <div class="tags">
4210
4211
4212         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freeculture">freeculture</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/opphavsrett">opphavsrett</a>.
4213
4214
4215       </div>
4216     </div>
4217     <div class="padding"></div>
4218
4219     <div class="entry">
4220       <div class="title">
4221         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__Angela_Fu_.html">Debian Edu interview: Angela Fuß</a>
4222       </div>
4223       <div class="date">
4224         14th November 2012
4225       </div>
4226       <div class="body">
4227         <p>Here is another interview with one of the people in the <a
4228 href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu and Skolelinux</a>
4229 community.  I am running short on people willing to be interviewed, so
4230 if you know about someone I should interview, Please send me an email.
4231 After asking for many months, I finally managed to lure another one of
4232 the people behind the German
4233 "<a href="http://wiki.it-zukunft-schule.de/">IT-Zukunft Schule</a>"
4234 project out from maternity leave to conduct an interview.  Give a warm
4235 welcome to Angela Fuß. :)</p>
4236
4237 <p><strong>Who are you, and how do you spend your days?</strong></p>
4238
4239 <p>I am a 39-year-old woman living in the very north of Germany near
4240 Denmark. I live in a patchwork family with "my man" Mike Gabriel, my
4241 two daughters, Mikes daughter and Mikes and my rather newborn son.
4242
4243 <p>At the moment - because of our little baby - I am spending most of
4244 the day by being a caring and organising mom for all the kids.
4245 Besides that I am really involved into and occupied with several inner
4246 growth processes: New born souls always bring the whole familiar
4247 system into movement and that needs time and focus ;-).  We are also
4248 in the middle of buying a house and moving to it.</p>
4249
4250 <p>In 2013 I will work again in my job in a German foundation for
4251 nature conservation. I am doing public relation work there.  Besides
4252 that - and that is the connection to Skolelinux / Debian Edu - I am
4253 working in our own school project "IT-Zukunft Schule" in North
4254 Germany. I am responsible for the quality assurance, the customer
4255 relationship management and the communication processes in the
4256 project.</p>
4257
4258 <p>Since 2001 I constantly have been training myself in communication
4259 and leadership. Besides that I am a forester, a landscaping gardener
4260 and a yoga teacher.</p>
4261
4262 <p><strong>How did you get in contact with the Skolelinux / Debian Edu
4263 project?</strong></p>
4264
4265 <p>I fell in love with Mike ;-).</p>
4266
4267 <p>Very soon after getting to know him I was completely enrolled into
4268 Free Software.  At this time Mike did IT-services for one newly
4269 founded school in Kiel. Other schools in Kiel needed concepts for
4270 their IT environment.  Often when Mike came home from working at the
4271 newly founded school I found myself listening to his complaints about
4272 several points where the communication with the schools head or the
4273 teachers did not work.  So we were clear that he would not work for
4274 one more school if we did not set up a structure for communication
4275 between him, the schools head, the teachers, the students and the
4276 parents.</p>
4277
4278 <p>Together with our friend and hardware supplier Andreas Buchholz we
4279 started to get an overview of free software solutions suitable for
4280 schools. One day before Christmas 2010 Mike and I had a date with Kurt
4281 Gramlich in Gütersloh. As Kurt and I are really interested in building
4282 networks of people and in being in communication we dived into
4283 Skolelinux and brought it to the first grammar schools in Northern
4284 Germany.</p>
4285
4286 <p>For information about our school project you can read
4287 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__Mike_Gabriel.html">the
4288 interview with Mike Gabriel</a>.</p>
4289
4290 <p><strong>What do you see as the advantages of Skolelinux / Debian
4291 Edu?</strong></p>
4292
4293 <p>First I have to say: I cannot answer this question technically. My
4294 answer comes rather from a social point of view.</p>
4295
4296 <p>The biggest advantage of Skolelinux / Debian Edu I see is the large
4297 and strong international community of Debian Developers in the
4298 background which is very alive and connected over mailinglists, blogs
4299 and meetings. My constant feeling for the Debian Community is: If
4300 something does not work they will somehow fix it. All is well
4301 ;-). This is of course a user experience.  What I also get as a big
4302 advantage of Skolelinux / Debian Edu is that everybody who uses it and
4303 works with it can also contribute to it - that includes students,
4304 teachers, parents...</p>
4305
4306 <p><strong>What do you see as the disadvantages of Skolelinux / Debian
4307 Edu?</strong></p>
4308
4309 <p>I will answer this question relating to the internal structure of
4310 Skolelinux / Debian Edu.</p>
4311
4312 <p>What I see as a major disadvantage is that there is a gap between
4313 the group of developers for Debian Edu and the people who make the
4314 marketing, that means the people that bring Skolelinux to the
4315 schools. There is a lack of communication between these two groups and
4316 I think that does not really work for Skolelinux / Debian Edu.</p>
4317
4318 <p>Further I appreciate that Skolelinux / Debian Edu is known as a
4319 do-ocracy. Nevertheless I keep asking myself if at some points a
4320 democracy or some kind of hierarchical project structure would be good
4321 and helpful.  I am also missing some kind of contact between the
4322 Skolelinux / Debian Edu communities in Europe or on an international
4323 level. I think it would be good if there was more sharing between the
4324 different countries using Skolelinux / Debian Edu.</p>
4325
4326 <p><strong>Which free software do you use daily?</strong></p>
4327
4328 <p>On my laptop I am still using an Ubuntu 10.04 with a Gnome Desktop
4329 on.  As applications I use Openoffice.org, Gedit, Firefox, Pidgin,
4330 LaTeX and GnuCash. For mails I am using Horde. And I am really fond of
4331 my N900 running with Maemo.</p>
4332
4333 <p><strong>Which strategy do you believe is the right one to use to
4334 get schools to use free software?</strong></p>
4335
4336 <p>I am really convinced that in our school project "IT-Zukunft
4337 Schule" we have developed (and keep developing) a great way to get
4338 schools to use Free Software. We have written a detailed concept for
4339 that so I cannot explain the whole thing here. But in a nutshell the
4340 strategy has three crucial pillars:</p>
4341
4342 <ul>
4343
4344 <li>We really take time to get what sort of stories, questions and
4345 concerns the schools head and the teachers have about using different
4346 kinds of IT and we take time to enrol them into Free Software.</li>
4347
4348 <li>Our solution for schools is never just technical. In the centre
4349 are always the people who are going to use the software. From the very
4350 beginning of the planning for a school, we tell the schools head that
4351 they are paying us not only for a technical solution for their school,
4352 they also pay us for leading all the communication processes
4353 needed. If they do not want that, we are not working with them because
4354 we cannot give a guarantee for the quality of our work then.</li>
4355
4356 <li>Another focus lies in the training of teachers and students in
4357 co-administrating the IT-System at their school. They start getting in
4358 contact with the Skolelinux / Debian Edu community and they get the
4359 offer to become more and more independent from us.</li>
4360
4361 </ul>
4362
4363       </div>
4364       <div class="tags">
4365
4366
4367         Tags: <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/intervju">intervju</a>.
4368
4369
4370       </div>
4371     </div>
4372     <div class="padding"></div>
4373
4374     <div class="entry">
4375       <div class="title">
4376         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_European_Central_Bank__ECB__take_a_look_at_bitcoin.html">The European Central Bank (ECB) take a look at bitcoin</a>
4377       </div>
4378       <div class="date">
4379          4th November 2012
4380       </div>
4381       <div class="body">
4382         <p>Slashdot just ran a story about the European Central Bank (ECB)
4383 <a href="http://www.ecb.europa.eu/pub/pdf/other/virtualcurrencyschemes201210en.pdf">releasing
4384 a report (PDF)</a> about virtual currencies and
4385 <a href="http://www.bitcoin.org/">bitcoin</a>.  It is interesting to
4386 see how a member of the bitcoin community
4387 <a href="http://blog.bitinstant.com/blog/2012/10/30/the-ecb-report-on-bitcoin-and-virtual-currencies.html">receive
4388 the report</a>.  As for the future, I suspect the central banks and
4389 the governments will outlaw bitcoin if it gain any popularity, to avoid
4390 competition.  My thoughts go to the
4391 <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wörgl">Wörgl experiment</a> with
4392 negative inflation on cash which was such a success that it was
4393 terminated by the Austrian National Bank in 1933.  A successful
4394 alternative would be a threat to the current money system and gain
4395 powerful forces to work against it.</p>
4396
4397 <p>While checking out the current status of bitcoin, I also discovered
4398 that the community already seem to have
4399 <a href="http://www.theverge.com/2012/8/27/3271637/bitcoin-savings-trust-pyramid-scheme-shuts-down">experienced
4400 its first pyramid game / Ponzi scheme</a>.  Not very surprising, given
4401 how members of "small" communities tend to trust each other.  I guess
4402 enterprising crocks will try again and again, as they do anywhere
4403 wealth is available.</p>
4404
4405       </div>
4406       <div class="tags">
4407
4408
4409         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bitcoin">bitcoin</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>.
4410
4411
4412       </div>
4413     </div>
4414     <div class="padding"></div>
4415
4416     <div class="entry">
4417       <div class="title">
4418         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/12_years_of_outages___summarised_by_Stuart_Kendrick.html">12 years of outages - summarised by Stuart Kendrick</a>
4419       </div>
4420       <div class="date">
4421         26th October 2012
4422       </div>
4423       <div class="body">
4424         <p>I work at the <a href="http://www.uio.no/">University of Oslo</a>
4425 looking after the computers, mostly on the unix side, but in general
4426 all over the place.  I am also a member (and currently leader) of
4427 <a href="http://www.nuug.no/">the NUUG association</a>, which in turn
4428 make me a member of <a href="http://www.usenix.org/">USENIX</a>.  NUUG
4429 is an member organisation for us in Norway interested in free
4430 software, open standards and unix like operating systems, and USENIX
4431 is a US based member organisation with similar targets.  And thanks to
4432 these memberships, I get all issues of the great USENIX magazine
4433 <a href="https://www.usenix.org/publications/login">;login:</a> in the
4434 mail several times a year.  The magazine is great, and I read most of
4435 it every time.</p>
4436
4437 <p>In the last issue of the USENIX magazine ;login:, there is an
4438 article by <a href="http://www.skendric.com/">Stuart Kendrick</a> from
4439 Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center titled
4440 "<a href="https://www.usenix.org/publications/login/october-2012-volume-37-number-5/what-takes-us-down">What
4441 Takes Us Down</a>" (longer version also
4442 <a href="http://www.skendric.com/problem/incident-analysis/2012-06-30/What-Takes-Us-Down.pdf">available
4443 from his own site</a>), where he report what he found when he
4444 processed the outage reports (both planned and unplanned) from the
4445 last twelve years and classified them according to cause, time of day,
4446 etc etc.  The article is a good read to get some empirical data on
4447 what kind of problems affect a data centre, but what really inspired
4448 me was the kind of reporting they had put in place since 2000.<p>
4449
4450 <p>The centre set up a mailing list, and started to send fairly
4451 standardised messages to this list when a outage was planned or when
4452 it already occurred, to announce the plan and get feedback on the
4453 assumtions on scope and user impact.  Here is the two example from the
4454 article: First the unplanned outage:
4455
4456 <blockquote><pre>
4457 Subject:     Exchange 2003 Cluster Issues
4458 Severity:    Critical (Unplanned)
4459 Start:       Monday, May 7, 2012, 11:58
4460 End:         Monday, May 7, 2012, 12:38
4461 Duration:    40 minutes
4462 Scope:       Exchange 2003
4463 Description: The HTTPS service on the Exchange cluster crashed, triggering
4464              a cluster failover.
4465
4466 User Impact: During this period, all Exchange users were unable to
4467              access e-mail. Zimbra users were unaffected.
4468 Technician:  [xxx]
4469 </pre></blockquote>
4470
4471 Next the planned outage:
4472
4473 <blockquote><pre>
4474 Subject:     H Building Switch Upgrades
4475 Severity:    Major (Planned)
4476 Start:       Saturday, June 16, 2012, 06:00
4477 End:         Saturday, June 16, 2012, 16:00
4478 Duration:    10 hours
4479 Scope:       H2 Transport
4480 Description: Currently, Catalyst 4006s provide 10/100 Ethernet to end-
4481              stations. We will replace these with newer Catalyst
4482              4510s.
4483 User Impact: All users on H2 will be isolated from the network during
4484              this work. Afterward, they will have gigabit
4485              connectivity.
4486 Technician:  [xxx]
4487 </pre></blockquote>
4488
4489 <p>He notes in his article that the date formats and other fields have
4490 been a bit too free form to make it easy to automatically process them
4491 into a database for further analysis, and I would have used ISO 8601
4492 dates myself to make it easier to process (in other words I would ask
4493 people to write '2012-06-16 06:00 +0000' instead of the start time
4494 format listed above).  There are also other issues with the format
4495 that could be improved, read the article for the details.</p>
4496
4497 <p>I find the idea of standardising outage messages seem to be such a
4498 good idea that I would like to get it implemented here at the
4499 university too.  We do register
4500 <a href="http://www.uio.no/tjenester/it/aktuelt/planlagte-tjenesteavbrudd/">planned
4501 changes and outages in a calendar</a>, and report the to a mailing
4502 list, but we do not do so in a structured format and there is not a
4503 report to the same location for unplanned outages.  Perhaps something
4504 for other sites to consider too?</p>
4505
4506       </div>
4507       <div class="tags">
4508
4509
4510         Tags: <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>.
4511
4512
4513       </div>
4514     </div>
4515     <div class="padding"></div>
4516
4517     <div class="entry">
4518       <div class="title">
4519         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Amazon_steal_books_from_customer_and_throw_out_her_out_without_any_explanation.html">Amazon steal books from customer and throw out her out without any explanation</a>
4520       </div>
4521       <div class="date">
4522         22nd October 2012
4523       </div>
4524       <div class="body">
4525         <p>A blog post from Martin Bekkelund today tell the story of
4526 <a href="http://www.bekkelund.net/2012/10/22/outlawed-by-amazon-drm/">how
4527 Amazon erased the books from a customer's kindle, locked the account
4528 and refuse to tell the customer why</a>.  If a real book store did
4529 this to a customer, it would be called breaking into private property
4530 and theft.  The story has spread around the net today.  A bit more
4531 background information is available in Norwegian from
4532 <a href="http://www.digi.no/904658/hun-ble-kastet-ut-av-amazon">digi.no</a>.
4533 It is no surprise that digital restriction mechanisms (DRM) are used
4534 this way, as it has been warned about such abuse since DRM was
4535 introduced many years back.  And Amazon proved in 2009 that it was
4536 willing to
4537 <a href="http://boingboing.net/2009/07/20/amazons-orwellian-de.html">
4538 break into customers equipment and remove the books</a> people had
4539 bought, when it removed the book 1984 by George Orwell from all the
4540 customers who had bought it.  From the official comments, it even
4541 sounded like
4542 <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/18/technology/companies/18amazon.html">Amazon
4543 would never do that again</a>.  And here we are, three years
4544 later.</p>
4545
4546 <p>And thought this action is
4547 <a href="http://www.itavisen.no/904648/forbrukerraadet-helt-haarreisende">against
4548 Norwegian regulations and law</a>, it is according to the terms of use
4549 as written by Amazon, and it is hard to hold Amazon accountable to
4550 Norwegian laws.  It is just yet another example of unacceptable terms
4551 of use on the web, and how they are used to remove customer
4552 rights.</p>
4553
4554 <p>Luckily for electronic books, there are alternatives without
4555 unacceptable terms.  For example
4556 <a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/">Project Gutenberg</a> (about 40,000
4557 books), <a href="http://runeberg.org/">Project Runenberg</a> (1,652
4558 books) and <a href="http://www.archive.org/details/texts">The Internet
4559 Archive</a> (3,641,797 books) have heaps of books without DRM, which
4560 can read by anyone and shared with anyone.</p>
4561
4562 <p>Update 2012-10-23: This story broke in the morning on Monday. In
4563 the evening after the story had spread all across the Internet, Amazon
4564 restored the account of the user, as reported by
4565 <a href="http://www.digi.no/904675/helomvending-fra-amazon">digi.no</a>
4566 and <a href="http://nrk.no/kultur-og-underholdning/1.8368487">NRK</a>.
4567 Apparently public pressure work.  The story from Martin have seen
4568 several twitter messages per minute the last 24 hours, which is quite
4569 a lot, and is still drawing a lot of attention.  But even when the
4570 account is restored, the fundamental problem still exist.  I recommend
4571 reading two opinions from
4572 <a href="http://blogs.computerworlduk.com/simon-says/2012/10/rights-you-have-no-right-to-your-ebooks/index.htm">Simon
4573 Phipps</a> and
4574 <a href="http://blogs.computerworlduk.com/open-enterprise/2012/10/is-amazon-playing-fair/index.htm">Glen
4575 Moody</a> if you want to learn more about the fundamentals and more
4576 details about the original story.</p>
4577
4578       </div>
4579       <div class="tags">
4580
4581
4582         Tags: <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/personvern">personvern</a>.
4583
4584
4585       </div>
4586     </div>
4587     <div class="padding"></div>
4588
4589     <div class="entry">
4590       <div class="title">
4591         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_fight_for_freedom_and_privacy.html">The fight for freedom and privacy</a>
4592       </div>
4593       <div class="date">
4594         18th October 2012
4595       </div>
4596       <div class="body">
4597         <p>Civil liberties and privacy in the western world are going down the
4598 drain, and it is hard to fight against it.  I try to do my best, but
4599 time is limited.  I hope you do your best too.  A few years ago I came
4600 across a marvellous drawing by
4601 <a href="http://www.claybennett.com/about.html">Clay Bennett</a>
4602 visualising some of what is going on.
4603
4604 <p><a href="http://www.claybennett.com/pages/security_fence.html">
4605 <img src="http://www.claybennett.com/images/archivetoons/security_fence.jpg"></a></p>
4606
4607 <blockquote>
4608 «They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary
4609 safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.» - Benjamin Franklin
4610 </blockquote>
4611
4612 <p>Do you feel safe at the airport?  I do not.  Do you feel safe when
4613 you see a surveillance camera?  I do not.  Do you feel safe when you
4614 leave electronic traces of your behaviour and opinions?  I do not.  I
4615 just remember <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panopticon">the
4616 Panopticon</a>, and can not help to think that we are slowly
4617 transforming our society to a huge Panopticon on our own.</p>
4618
4619       </div>
4620       <div class="tags">
4621
4622
4623         Tags: <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>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance</a>.
4624
4625
4626       </div>
4627     </div>
4628     <div class="padding"></div>
4629
4630     <div class="entry">
4631       <div class="title">
4632         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/ColonHelp_produser_sue_WordPress_to_silence_critic.html">ColonHelp produser sue WordPress to silence critic</a>
4633       </div>
4634       <div class="date">
4635         12th October 2012
4636       </div>
4637       <div class="body">
4638         <p>Thanks to a blog post by
4639 <a href="http://ramblingfoo.blogspot.no/2012/10/a-shitstorm-is-comming.html">Eddy
4640 Petrișor</a>, I became aware of yet another "alternative medicine"
4641 company using legal intimidation tactics to scare off critics.
4642 According to the originating blog post about the detox "cure"
4643 <a href="http://insulaindoielii.wordpress.com/2012/10/11/colon-help-sues-wordpress/">ColonHelp
4644 and its producers Zenyth Pharmaceuticals actions</a>, the producer
4645 sues Wordpress to get rid of the critical information.  To check if
4646 the story was for real, I contacted Automattic, the company behind
4647 wordpress.com, and they reply was "We can confirm that Zenyth is
4648 seeking a court order against WordPress / Automattic.  However, we
4649 don't believe the Terms of Service have been violated in this
4650 matter".</p>
4651
4652 <p>The story seem to be simply that a blogger checked the scientific
4653 foundation for a popular health product in Rumania, ColonHelp, and
4654 reported that there was no reason at all to believe it improved the
4655 health of its users.  This caused the company behind the product,
4656 Zenyth Pharmaceuticals, to use legal intimidation to try to silence
4657 the critic, instead of presenting its views and scientific foundation
4658 to argue its side.</p>
4659
4660 <p>This is the usual story, and the Zenyth Pharmaceuticals company
4661 deserve everyone to know how it failed to act properly.  Lets hope the
4662 <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Streisand_effect">Streisand
4663 effect</a> can make it rethink its strategy.</p>
4664
4665 <p>What is the harm, you might think.  I suggest you take a look at
4666 <a href="http://www.whatstheharm.net/detoxification.html">a list of
4667 victims of detoxification</a>.</p>
4668
4669       </div>
4670       <div class="tags">
4671
4672
4673         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/skepsis">skepsis</a>.
4674
4675
4676       </div>
4677     </div>
4678     <div class="padding"></div>
4679
4680     <div class="entry">
4681       <div class="title">
4682         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Why_is_your_local_library_collecting_the__wrong__computer_books_.html">Why is your local library collecting the "wrong" computer books?</a>
4683       </div>
4684       <div class="date">
4685          3rd October 2012
4686       </div>
4687       <div class="body">
4688         <p>I just read the blog post from Tim Retout
4689 <a href="http://retout.co.uk/blog/2012/10/02/the-library-challenge">about
4690 the computer science book collection available in his local
4691 library</a>, and just wanted to share my comment on his theory about
4692 computer books becoming obsolete so soon.  That is part of the reason
4693 why the selection is so sad in almost any local library (it is in mine
4694 too), but I believe the major contributing factor is that the people
4695 buying books to the library have no way to know a good and future
4696 computer classic from trash.  And they need to know which one will
4697 become a classic in the future, as they would normally buy one of the
4698 recently published books.</p>
4699
4700 <p>During my university years, I worked for a while at the university
4701 library, and even there the person in charge of buying computer
4702 related books (and in fact any natural science related book), did not
4703 know enough about computers to make a good educated guess.  Once, just
4704 before Christmas, they had some leftover money on the book budget and
4705 I was asked if I could pick out a lot of computer books in the
4706 university book store, for the library to buy for their collection.  I
4707 had a great time picking all the books I dreamt of buying and reading,
4708 and the books I knew were classics (like most of the
4709 <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W._Richard_Stevens">Stevens
4710 collection</a>).  I picked several of the generic O'Reilly books (ie
4711 documenting protocols, formats and systems, not specific versions of
4712 products) and stayed away from the 'teach yourself X in N days' class.
4713 I had a great time, and probably picked out more than a hundred books
4714 for the library that evening.</p>
4715
4716 <p>The sad fact is that there is no way a overworked librarian is
4717 going to know that for example
4718 <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Practice_of_Programming">The
4719 Practice of Programming</a> is a must-have in any computer library,
4720 and they will most of the time end up picking the wrong books to buy.
4721 Perhaps you can help your local library make better choices by giving
4722 the suggestions for books to get?  I know they would love to hear from
4723 you, even if their budget might block them from getting your favourite
4724 book right away.</p>
4725
4726       </div>
4727       <div class="tags">
4728
4729
4730         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
4731
4732
4733       </div>
4734     </div>
4735     <div class="padding"></div>
4736
4737     <div class="entry">
4738       <div class="title">
4739         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Seventy_percent_done_with_Norwegian_docbook_version_of_Free_Culture.html">Seventy percent done with Norwegian docbook version of Free Culture</a>
4740       </div>
4741       <div class="date">
4742         23rd September 2012
4743       </div>
4744       <div class="body">
4745         <p>Since this summer, I have worked in my spare time on a Norwegian <a
4746 href="http://www.docbook.org/">docbook</a> version of the 2004 book <a
4747 href="http://free-culture.cc/">Free Culture</a> by Lawrence Lessig.
4748 The reason is that this book is a great primer on what problems exist
4749 in the current copyright laws, and I want it to be available also for
4750 those that are reluctant do read an English book.
4751
4752 When I started, I
4753 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Dugnad_for___sende_norsk_versjon_av_Free_Culture_til_stortingets_representanter_.html">called
4754 for volunteers</a> to help me, but too few have volunteered so far,
4755 and progress is a bit slow.  Anyway, today I broken the 70 percent
4756 mark for the first rough translation.  At the moment, less than 700
4757 strings (paragraphs, index terms, titles) are left to translate.  With
4758 my current progress of 10-20 strings per day, it will take a while to
4759 complete the translation.  This graph show the updated progress:</p>
4760
4761 <img width="80%" align="center" src="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/free-culture-lessig/raw/master/progress.png">
4762
4763 <p>Progress have slowed down lately due to family and work
4764 commitments.  If you want to help, please get in touch, and check out
4765 the project files currently available from
4766 <a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/free-culture-lessig">github</a>.</p>
4767
4768 <p>If you are curious what the translated book currently look like,
4769 the updated
4770 <a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/free-culture-lessig/blob/master/archive/freeculture.nb.pdf?raw=true">PDF</a>
4771 and
4772 <a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/free-culture-lessig/blob/master/archive/freeculture.nb.epub?raw=true">EPUB</a>
4773 are published on github.  The HTML version is published as well, but
4774 github hand it out with MIME type text/plain, confusing browsers, so I
4775 saw no point in linking to that version.</p>
4776
4777       </div>
4778       <div class="tags">
4779
4780
4781         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/docbook">docbook</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freeculture">freeculture</a>.
4782
4783
4784       </div>
4785     </div>
4786     <div class="padding"></div>
4787
4788     <div class="entry">
4789       <div class="title">
4790         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__Giorgio_Pioda.html">Debian Edu interview: Giorgio Pioda</a>
4791       </div>
4792       <div class="date">
4793         17th September 2012
4794       </div>
4795       <div class="body">
4796         <p>After a long break in my row of interviews with people in the
4797 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu and Skolelinux</a>
4798 community, I finally found time to wrap up another.  This time it is
4799 Giorgio Pioda, which showed up on the mailing list at the start of
4800 this year, asking questions and inspiring us to improve the first time
4801 administrators experience with Skolelinux. :) The interview was
4802 conduced in May, but I only found time to publish it now.</p>
4803
4804 <p><strong>Who are you, and how do you spend your days?</strong></p>
4805
4806 <p>I have a PhD in chemistry but since several years I work as teacher
4807 in secondary (15-18 year old students) and tertiary (a kind of "light"
4808 university) schools. Five years ago I started to manage a Learning
4809 Management Service server and slowly I got more and more involved with
4810 IT. 3 years ago the graduating schools moved completely to Linux and I
4811 got the head of the IT for this. The experience collected in chemistry
4812 labs computers (for example NMR analysis of protein folding) and in
4813 the IT-courses during university where sufficient to start. Self
4814 training is anyway very important</p>
4815
4816 <p>I live in the Italian speaking part of Switzerland, and the
4817 <a href="http://www.spse.ch/">SPSE school</a> (secondary) is a very
4818 special sport school for young people who try to became sport pro (for
4819 all sports, we have dozens of disciplines represented) and we are
4820 recognised by the Olympic Swiss Organisation.
4821
4822 <p><strong>How did you get in contact with the Skolelinux/Debian Edu
4823 project?</strong></p>
4824
4825 <p>Looking for Linux / Primary Domain Controller (PDC) I found it
4826 already several years ago. But since the system was still not
4827 Kerberized and since our schools relies strongly on laptops I didn't
4828 use it. I plan to introduce it in the next future, probably for the
4829 next school year, since the squeeze release solved this security
4830 hole.</p>
4831
4832 <p><strong>What do you see as the advantages of Skolelinux/Debian
4833 Edu?</strong></p>
4834
4835 <p>Many. First of all there is a strong and living community that is
4836 very generous for help and hints.  Chat help is crucial, together with
4837 the mailing list.  Second. With Skolelinux you get an already well
4838 engineered platform and you don't have to start to build up your PDC
4839 and your clients from GNU/scratch; I've already done this once and I
4840 can tell it, it is hard. Third, since Skolelinux is a standard
4841 platform, it is way easier to educate other IT people and even if the
4842 head IT is sick another one could pick up the task without too much
4843 hassle.</p>
4844
4845 <p><strong>What do you see as the disadvantages of Skolelinux/Debian
4846 Edu?</strong></p>
4847
4848 <p>The only real problem I see is that it is a little too less
4849 flexible at client level. Debian stable is rocky and desirable, but
4850 there are many reasons that force for another choice. For example the
4851 need of new drivers for new PC, or the need for a specific OS for some
4852 devices that have specific software packages for another specific
4853 distribution (I have such a case for whiteboards that have only
4854 Ubuntu packages). Thus, I prepared compatibility packages educlient
4855 and eduroaming, hoping not to use them ;-)</p>
4856
4857 <p><strong>Which free software do you use daily?</strong></p>
4858
4859 <p>I have a Debian Stable PDC at school (Kerberos, NIS, NFS) with
4860 mixed Debian and Ubuntu clients. If you think that this triad
4861 combination is exotic... well I discovered right yesterday that
4862 <a href="http://moo.nac.uci.edu/~hjm/Perceus-Report.html">Perceus</a>
4863 has the same...</p>
4864
4865 <p>For myself I run Debian wheezy/sid, but this combination is good
4866 only I you have enough competence to fix stuff for yourself, if
4867 something breaks.  Daily I use texmacs, gnumeric, a little bit of R
4868 statistics, kmplot, and less frequently OpenOffice.org.</p>
4869
4870 <p><strong>Which strategy do you believe is the right one to use to
4871 get schools to use free software?</strong></p>
4872
4873 <P>I think that the only real argument that school managers "hear" is
4874 cost reduction. They don't give too much weight on quality, stability,
4875 just because they are normally not open to change.</p>
4876
4877 <p>Students adapts very quickly to GNU/Linux (and for them being able
4878 to switch between different OS is a plus value); teachers and managers
4879 don't.</p>
4880
4881 <p>We decided to move to Linux because students at our school have own
4882 laptop and we have the responsibility to keep the laptop ready to use;
4883 we were really unsatisfied with Microsoft since every Monday we had 20
4884 machine to fix for viral infections... With Linux this has been
4885 reduced to zero, since people installs almost only from official
4886 repositories. I think that our special needs brought us to Linux.
4887 Those who don't have such needs will hardly move to Linux.</p>
4888
4889       </div>
4890       <div class="tags">
4891
4892
4893         Tags: <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/intervju">intervju</a>.
4894
4895
4896       </div>
4897     </div>
4898     <div class="padding"></div>
4899
4900     <div class="entry">
4901       <div class="title">
4902         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/IETF_activity_to_standardise_video_codec.html">IETF activity to standardise video codec</a>
4903       </div>
4904       <div class="date">
4905         15th September 2012
4906       </div>
4907       <div class="body">
4908         <p>After the
4909 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/IETF_standardize_its_first_multimedia_codec__Opus.html">Opus
4910 codec made</a> it into <a href="http://www.ietf.org/">IETF</a> as
4911 <a href="http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc6716">RFC 6716</a>, I had a look
4912 to see if there is any activity in IETF to standardise a video codec
4913 too, and I was happy to discover that there is some activity in this
4914 area.  A non-"working group" mailing list
4915 <a href="https://www.ietf.org/mailman/listinfo/video-codec">video-codec</a>
4916 was
4917 <a href="http://ietf.10.n7.nabble.com/New-Non-WG-Mailing-List-video-codec-Video-codec-BoF-discussion-list-td119548.html">created 2012-08-20</a>.  It is intended to discuss the topic and if a
4918 formal working group should be formed.</p>
4919
4920 <p>I look forward to see how this plays out.  There is already
4921 <a href="http://www.ietf.org/mail-archive/web/video-codec/current/msg00003.html">an
4922 email from someone</a> in the MPEG group at ISO asking people to
4923 participate in the ISO group.  Given how ISO failed with OOXML and given
4924 that it so far (as far as I can remember) only have produced
4925 multimedia formats requiring royalty payments, I suspect
4926 joining the ISO group would be a complete waste of time, but I am not
4927 involved in any codec work and my opinion will not matter much.</p>
4928
4929 <p>If one of my readers is involved with codec work, I hope she will
4930 join this work to standardise a royalty free video codec within
4931 IETF.</p>
4932
4933       </div>
4934       <div class="tags">
4935
4936
4937         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/frikanalen">frikanalen</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>.
4938
4939
4940       </div>
4941     </div>
4942     <div class="padding"></div>
4943
4944     <div class="entry">
4945       <div class="title">
4946         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/IETF_standardize_its_first_multimedia_codec__Opus.html">IETF standardize its first multimedia codec: Opus</a>
4947       </div>
4948       <div class="date">
4949         12th September 2012
4950       </div>
4951       <div class="body">
4952         <p>Yesterday, <a href="http://www.ietf.org/">IETF</a> announced the
4953 publication of of
4954 <a href="http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc6716">RFC 6716, the Definition
4955 of the Opus Audio Codec</a>, a low latency, variable bandwidth, codec
4956 intended for both VoIP, film and music.  This is the first time, as
4957 far as I know, that IETF have standardized a multimedia codec.  In
4958 <a href="http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc3533">RFC 3533</a>, IETF
4959 standardized the OGG container format, and it has proven to be a great
4960 royalty free container for audio, video and movies.  I hope IETF will
4961 continue to standardize more royalty free codeces, after ISO and MPEG
4962 have proven incapable of securing everyone equal rights to publish
4963 multimedia content on the Internet.</p>
4964
4965 <p>IETF require two interoperating independent implementations to
4966 ratify a standard, and have so far ensured to only standardize royalty
4967 free specifications.  Both are key factors to allow everyone (rich and
4968 poor), to compete on equal terms on the Internet.</p>
4969
4970 <p>Visit the <a href="http://opus-codec.org/">Opus project page</a> if
4971 you want to learn more about the solution.</p>
4972
4973       </div>
4974       <div class="tags">
4975
4976
4977         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/frikanalen">frikanalen</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>.
4978
4979
4980       </div>
4981     </div>
4982     <div class="padding"></div>
4983
4984     <div class="entry">
4985       <div class="title">
4986         <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>
4987       </div>
4988       <div class="date">
4989          7th September 2012
4990       </div>
4991       <div class="body">
4992         <p>As I
4993 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Song_book_for_Computer_Scientists.html">mentioned
4994 this summer</a>, I have created a Computer Science song book a few
4995 years ago, and today I finally found time to create a public
4996 <a href="https://gitorious.org/pere-cs-songbook/pere-cs-songbook">Gitorious
4997 repository for the project</a>.</p>
4998
4999 <p>If you want to help out, please clone the source and submit patches
5000 to the HTML version.  To generate the PDF and PostScript version,
5001 please use prince XML, or let me know about a useful free software
5002 processor capable of creating a good looking PDF from the HTML.</p>
5003
5004 <p>Want to sing?  You can still find the song book in HTML, PDF and
5005 PostScript formats at
5006 <a href="http://www.hungry.com/~pere/cs-songbook/">Petter's Computer
5007 Science Songbook</a>.</p>
5008
5009       </div>
5010       <div class="tags">
5011
5012
5013         Tags: <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>.
5014
5015
5016       </div>
5017     </div>
5018     <div class="padding"></div>
5019
5020     <div class="entry">
5021       <div class="title">
5022         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Free_software_forced_Microsoft_to_open_Office__and_don_t_forget_Officeshots_.html">Free software forced Microsoft to open Office (and don't forget Officeshots)</a>
5023       </div>
5024       <div class="date">
5025         23rd August 2012
5026       </div>
5027       <div class="body">
5028         <p>I came across a great comment from Simon Phipps today, about how
5029 <a href="http://www.infoworld.com/d/open-source-software/how-microsoft-was-forced-open-office-200233">Microsoft
5030 have been forced to open Office</a>, and it made me remember and
5031 revisit the great site
5032 <a href="http://www.officeshots.org/">officeshots</a> which allow you
5033 to check out how different programs present the ODF file format.  I
5034 recommend both to those of my readers interested in ODF. :)</p>
5035
5036       </div>
5037       <div class="tags">
5038
5039
5040         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/standard">standard</a>.
5041
5042
5043       </div>
5044     </div>
5045     <div class="padding"></div>
5046
5047     <div class="entry">
5048       <div class="title">
5049         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Half_way_there_with_translated_docbook_version_of_Free_Culture.html">Half way there with translated docbook version of Free Culture</a>
5050       </div>
5051       <div class="date">
5052         17th August 2012
5053       </div>
5054       <div class="body">
5055         <p>In my spare time, I currently work on a Norwegian
5056 <a href="http://www.docbook.org/">docbook</a> version of the 2004 book
5057 <a href="http://free-culture.cc/">Free Culture</a> by Lawrence Lessig,
5058 to get a Norwegian text explaining the problems with the copyright law
5059 I can give to my parents and others that are reluctant to read an
5060 English book.  It is a marvellous set of examples on how the ever
5061 expanding copyright regulations hurt culture and society.  When the
5062 translation is done, I hope to find funding to print and ship a copy
5063 to all the members of the Norwegian parliament, before they sit down
5064 to debate the latest revisions to the Norwegian copyright law.  This
5065 summer I
5066 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Dugnad_for___sende_norsk_versjon_av_Free_Culture_til_stortingets_representanter_.html">called
5067 for volunteers</a> to help me, and I have been able to secure the
5068 valuable contribution from at least one other Norwegian.</p>
5069
5070 <p>Two days ago, we finally broke the 50% mark.  Then more than 50% of
5071 the number of strings to translate (normally paragraphs, but also
5072 titles and index entries are also counted).  All parts from the
5073 beginning up to and including chapter four is translated.  So is
5074 chapters six, seven and the conclusion.  I created a graph to show the
5075 progress:</p>
5076
5077 <img width="80%" align="center" src="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/free-culture-lessig/raw/master/progress.png">
5078
5079 <p>The number of strings to translate increase as I insert the index
5080 entries into the docbook.  They were missing with the docbook version
5081 I initially started with.  There are still quite a few index entries
5082 missing, but everyone starting with A, B, O, Z and Y are done.  I
5083 currently focus on completing the index entries, to get a complete
5084 english version of the docbook source.</p>
5085
5086 <p>There is still need for translators and people with docbook
5087 knowledge, to be able to get a good looking book (I still struggle
5088 with dblatex, xmlto and docbook-xsl) as well as to do the draft
5089 translation and proof reading.  And I would like the figures to be
5090 redrawn as SVGs to make it easy to translate them.  Any SVG master
5091 around?  I am sure there are some legal terms that are unfamiliar to
5092 me.  If you want to help, please get in touch, and check out the
5093 project files currently available from <a
5094 href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/free-culture-lessig">github</a>.</p>
5095
5096 <p>If you are curious what the translated book currently look like,
5097 the updated
5098 <a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/free-culture-lessig/blob/master/archive/freeculture.nb.pdf?raw=true">PDF</a>
5099 and
5100 <a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/free-culture-lessig/blob/master/archive/freeculture.nb.epub?raw=true">EPUB</a>
5101 are published on github.  The HTML version is published as well, but
5102 github hand it out with MIME type text/plain, confusing browsers, so I
5103 saw no point in linking to that version.</p>
5104
5105       </div>
5106       <div class="tags">
5107
5108
5109         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/docbook">docbook</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freeculture">freeculture</a>.
5110
5111
5112       </div>
5113     </div>
5114     <div class="padding"></div>
5115
5116     <div class="entry">
5117       <div class="title">
5118         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Notes_on_language_codes_for_Norwegian_docbook_processing___.html">Notes on language codes for Norwegian docbook processing...</a>
5119       </div>
5120       <div class="date">
5121         10th August 2012
5122       </div>
5123       <div class="body">
5124         <p>In <a href="http://www.docbook.org/">docbook</a> one can specify
5125 the language used at the top, and the processing pipeline will use
5126 this information to pick the correct translations for 'chapter', 'see
5127 also', 'index' etc.  And for most languages used with docbook, I guess
5128 this work just fine.  For example a German user can start the document
5129 with &lt;book lang="de"&gt;, and the document will show up with the
5130 correct content with any of the docbook processors.  This is not the
5131 case for the language
5132 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Free_Culture_in_Norwegian___5_chapters_done__74_percent_left_to_do.html">I
5133 am working with at the moment</a>, Norwegian Bokmål.</p>
5134
5135 <p>For a while, I was confused about which language code to use,
5136 because I was unable to find any language code that would work across
5137 all tools.  I am currently testing dblatex, xmlto, docbook-xsl, and
5138 dbtoepub, and they do not handle Norwegian Bokmål the same way.  Some
5139 of them do not handle it at all.</p>
5140
5141 <p>A bit of background information is probably needed to understand
5142 this mess.  Norwegian is not one, but two written variants.  The
5143 variants are Norwegian Nynorsk and Norwegian Bokmål.  There are three
5144 two letter language codes associated with these languages, Norwegian
5145 is 'no', Norwegian Nynorsk is 'nn' and Norwegian Bokmål is 'nb'.
5146 Historically the 'no' language code was used for Norwegian Bokmål, but
5147 many years ago this was found to be å bad idea, and the recommendation
5148 is to use the most specific language code instead, to avoid confusion.
5149 In the transition period it is a good idea to make sure 'no' was an
5150 alias for 'nb'.</p>
5151
5152 <p>Back to docbook processing tools in Debian.  The dblatex tool only
5153 understand 'nn'.  There are translations for 'no', but not 'nb' (BTS
5154 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/684391">#684391</a>), but due to a bug
5155 (BTS <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/682936">#682936</a>) the 'no'
5156 language code is not recognised.  The docbook-xsl tool chain only
5157 recognise 'nn' and 'nb', but not 'no'.  The xmlto tool only recognise
5158 'nn' and 'nb', but not 'no'.  The end result that there is no language
5159 code I can use to get the docbook file working with all of these tools
5160 at the same time. :(</p>
5161
5162 <p>The correct solution is to use &lt;book lang="nb"&gt;, but it will
5163 take time before that will work with all the free software docbook
5164 processors. :(</p>
5165
5166 <p>Oh, the joy of well integrated tools. :/</p>
5167
5168       </div>
5169       <div class="tags">
5170
5171
5172         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/docbook">docbook</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freeculture">freeculture</a>.
5173
5174
5175       </div>
5176     </div>
5177     <div class="padding"></div>
5178
5179     <div class="entry">
5180       <div class="title">
5181         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Best_way_to_create_a_docbook_book_.html">Best way to create a docbook book?</a>
5182       </div>
5183       <div class="date">
5184         31st July 2012
5185       </div>
5186       <div class="body">
5187         <p>I tried to send this text to the
5188 <a href="https://lists.oasis-open.org/archives/docbook-apps/">docbook-apps
5189 mailing list at lists.oasis-open.org</a>, but it only accept messages
5190 from subscribers and rejected my post, and I completely lack the
5191 bandwidth required to subscribe to another mailing list, so instead I
5192 try to post my message here and hope my blog readers can help me
5193 out.</p>
5194
5195 <p>I am quite new to docbook processing, and am climbing a steep
5196 learning curve at the moment.</p>
5197
5198 <p>To give you some background, I am working on a Norwegian
5199 translation of the book Free Culture by Lawrence Lessig, and I use
5200 docbook to handle the process.  The files to build the book are
5201 available from
5202 <a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/free-culture-lessig">github</a>.
5203 The book got around 400 pages with parts, images, footnotes, tables,
5204 index entries etc, which has proven to be a challenge for the free
5205 software docbook processors.  My build platform is Debian GNU/Linux
5206 Squeeze.</p>
5207
5208 <p>I want to build PDF, EPUB and HTML version of the book, and have
5209 tried different tool chains to do the conversion from docbook to these
5210 formats.  I am currently focusing on the PDF version, and have a few
5211 problems.</p>
5212
5213 <ul>
5214
5215 <li>Using dblatex, the &lt;part&gt; handling is not the way I want to,
5216    as &lt;/part&gt; do not really end the &lt;part&gt;. (See
5217    <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/683166">BTS report #683166</a>), the
5218    xetex backend (needed to process UTF-8) give incorrect hyphens in
5219    index references spanning several pages (See
5220    <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/682901">BTS report #682901</a>), and
5221    I am unable to get the norwegian template texts (See
5222    <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/682936">BTS report #682936</a>).</li>
5223
5224 <li>Using straight xmlto fail with some latex error (See
5225    <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/683163">BTS report
5226    #683163</a>).</li>
5227
5228 <li>Using xmlto with the fop backend fail to handle images (do not
5229    show up in the PDF), fail to handle a long footnote (overlap
5230    footnote and text body, see
5231    <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/683197">BTS report #683197</a>), and
5232    fail to create a correct index (some lack page ref, and the page
5233    refs listed are not right).</li>
5234
5235 <li>Using xmlto with the dblatex backend behave like dblatex.</li>
5236
5237 <li>Using docbook-xls with xsltproc + fop have the same footnote and
5238    index problems the xmlto + fop processing.</li>
5239
5240 </ul>
5241
5242 <p>So I wonder, what would be the best way to create the PDF version
5243 of this book?  Are some of the bugs found above solved in new or
5244 experimental versions of some docbook tool chain?</p>
5245
5246 <p>What about HTML and EPUB versions?</p>
5247
5248       </div>
5249       <div class="tags">
5250
5251
5252         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/docbook">docbook</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freeculture">freeculture</a>.
5253
5254
5255       </div>
5256     </div>
5257     <div class="padding"></div>
5258
5259     <div class="entry">
5260       <div class="title">
5261         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Free_Culture_in_Norwegian___5_chapters_done__74_percent_left_to_do.html">Free Culture in Norwegian - 5 chapters done, 74 percent left to do</a>
5262       </div>
5263       <div class="date">
5264         21st July 2012
5265       </div>
5266       <div class="body">
5267         <p>I reported earlier that I am working on
5268 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Dugnad_for___sende_norsk_versjon_av_Free_Culture_til_stortingets_representanter_.html">a
5269 norwegian version</a> of the book
5270 <a href="http://free-culture.cc/">Free Culture</a> by Lawrence Lessig.
5271 Progress is good, and yesterday I got a major contribution from Anders
5272 Hagen Jarmund completing chapter six.  The source files as well as a
5273 PDF and EPUB version of this book are available from
5274 <a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/free-culture-lessig">github</a>.</p>
5275
5276 <p>I am happy to report that the draft for the first two chapters
5277 (preface, introduction) is complete, and three other chapters are also
5278 completely translated.  This completes 26 percent of the number of
5279 strings (equivalent to paragraphs) in the book, and there is thus 74
5280 percent left to translate.  A graph of the progress is present at the
5281 bottom of the github project page.  There is still room for more
5282 contributors.  Get in touch or send github pull requests with fixes if
5283 you got time and are willing to help make this book make it to
5284 print. :)</p>
5285
5286 <p>The book translation framework could also be a good basis for other
5287 translations, if you want the book to be available in your
5288 language.</p>
5289
5290       </div>
5291       <div class="tags">
5292
5293
5294         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/docbook">docbook</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freeculture">freeculture</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>.
5295
5296
5297       </div>
5298     </div>
5299     <div class="padding"></div>
5300
5301     <div class="entry">
5302       <div class="title">
5303         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Call_for_help_from_docbook_expert_to_tag_Free_Culture_by_Lawrence_Lessig.html">Call for help from docbook expert to tag Free Culture by Lawrence Lessig</a>
5304       </div>
5305       <div class="date">
5306         16th July 2012
5307       </div>
5308       <div class="body">
5309         <p>I am currently working on a
5310 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Dugnad_for___sende_norsk_versjon_av_Free_Culture_til_stortingets_representanter_.html">project
5311 to translate</a> the book
5312 <a href="http://free-culture.cc/">Free Culture</a> by Lawrence Lessig
5313 to Norwegian.  And the source we base our translation on is the
5314 <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DocBook">docbook</a> version, to
5315 allow us to use po4a and .po files to handle the translation, and for
5316 this to work well the docbook source document need to be properly
5317 tagged.  The source files of this project is available from
5318 <a href="https://github.com/petterreinholdtsen/free-culture-lessig">github</a>.</p>
5319
5320 <p>The problem is that the docbook source have flaws, and we have
5321 no-one involved in the project that is a docbook expert.  Is there a
5322 docbook expert somewhere that is interested in helping us create a
5323 well tagged docbook version of the book, and adjust our build process
5324 for the PDF, EPUB and HTML version of the book?  This will provide a
5325 well tagged English version (our source document), and make it a lot
5326 easier for us to create a good Norwegian version.  If you can and want
5327 to help, please get in touch with me or fork the github project and
5328 send pull requests with fixes. :)</p>
5329
5330       </div>
5331       <div class="tags">
5332
5333
5334         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/docbook">docbook</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freeculture">freeculture</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>.
5335
5336
5337       </div>
5338     </div>
5339     <div class="padding"></div>
5340
5341     <div class="entry">
5342       <div class="title">
5343         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__George_Bredberg.html">Debian Edu interview: George Bredberg</a>
5344       </div>
5345       <div class="date">
5346          9th July 2012
5347       </div>
5348       <div class="body">
5349         <p>The <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu /
5350 Skolelinux</a> project have users all over the globe, but until
5351 recently we have not known about any users in Norway's neighbour
5352 country Sweden.  This changed when George Bredberg showed up in March
5353 this year on the mailing list, asking interesting questions about how
5354 to adjust and scale the just released
5355 <a href="http://www.debian.org/News/2012/20120311.html">Debian Edu
5356 Wheezy</a> setup to his liking.  He granted me an interview, and I am
5357 happy to share his answers with you here.</p>
5358
5359 <p><strong>Who are you, and how do you spend your days?</strong></p>
5360
5361 <p>I'm a 44 year old country guy that have been working 12 years at
5362 the same school as 50% IT-manager and 50% Teacher. My educational
5363 background is fil.kand in history and religious beliefs, an exam as a
5364 "folkhighschool" teacher, that is, for teaching grownups.  In
5365 Norwegian I believe it's called "Vuxenupplaring". I also have a master
5366 in "Technology and social change". So I'm not really a tech guy, I
5367 just like to study how humans and technology interact and that is my
5368 perspective when working with IT.</p>
5369
5370 <p><strong>How did you get in contact with the Skolelinux/Debian Edu
5371 project?</strong></p>
5372
5373 I have followed the Skolelinux project for quite some time by
5374 now. Earlier I tested out the K12-LTSP project, which we used for some
5375 time, but I really like the idea of having a distribution aimed to be
5376 a complete solution for schools with necessary tools integrated. When
5377 K12-LTSP abandoned that idea some years ago, I started to look more
5378 seriously into Skolelinux instead.
5379
5380 <p><strong>What do you see as the advantages of Skolelinux/Debian
5381 Edu?</strong></p>
5382
5383 The big point of Skolelinux to me is that it is a complete
5384 distribution, ready to install. It has LDAP-support, MS Windows
5385 integration tools and so forth already configured, saving an
5386 administrator a lot of time and headache. We were using another Linux
5387 based thin-client system called Thinlinc, that has served us very
5388 well. But that Skolelinux is based on VNC and LTSP, to me, is better
5389 when it comes to the kind of multimedia used in schools. That is
5390 showing videos from Youtube or educational TV. It is also easier to
5391 mix thin clients with workstations, since the user settings will be the
5392 same. In our VNC-based solution you had to "beat around the bush" by
5393 setting up a second, hidden, home-directory for user settings for the
5394 workstations, because they will be different from the ones used on the
5395 thin clients. Skolelinux support for diskless workstations are very
5396 convenient since a school today often need to use a class room
5397 projector showing videos in full screen. That is easily done with a
5398 small integrated media computer running as a diskless workstation. You
5399 have only two installs to update and configure. One for the thin
5400 clients and one for the workstations. Also saving a lot of time.  Our
5401 old system was also based on Redhat and CentOS. They are both very
5402 nice distributions, but they are sometimes painfully slow when it
5403 comes to updating multimedia support and multimedia programs (even
5404 such as Gimp), leaving us with a bit "oldish" applications. Debian is
5405 quicker to update.
5406
5407 <p><strong>What do you see as the disadvantages of Skolelinux/Debian
5408 Edu?</strong></p>
5409
5410 <p>Debian is a bit too quick when it comes to updating. As an example
5411 we use old HP terminals as thinclients, and two times already this
5412 year (2012) the updates you get from the repositories has stopped
5413 sound from working with them.  It's a kernel/ALSA issue. So you have
5414 to be more careful properly testing the updates before you run them in
5415 a production environment. This has never happened with CentOS.</p>
5416
5417 <p>I also would like to be able to set my own domain-settings at
5418 install time.  In Skolelinux they are kind of hard coded into the
5419 distribution, when it comes to LDAP and at least samba integration.
5420 That is more a cosmetic/translation issue, and not a real problem.
5421 Running MS Windows applications within the Skolelinux environment needs
5422 to be better supported. That is, running them seamlessly via RDP, and
5423 support for single-sign on.  That will make the transition to free
5424 software easier, because you can keep the applications you really
5425 need.  No support will make it impossible if you work in a school where
5426 some applications can't be open source. As for us we really need to
5427 run Adobe InDesign in our journalist classes.  We run a journalist
5428 education, and is one of the very few non university ones that is ok:d
5429 by Svenska journalistförbundet (Swedish journalist association).  Our
5430 education gives the pupils the right of membership there, once they
5431 are done.  This is important if you want to get a job.</p>
5432
5433 <p>Adobe InDesign is the program most commonly used in newspapers and
5434 magazines.  We used Quark Express before, but they seem to loose there
5435 market to Adobe. The only "equivalent" to InDesign in the opensource
5436 world is Scribus, and its not advanced enough. At least not according
5437 to the teacher. I think it would be possible to use it, because they
5438 are not supposed to learn a program, they are supposed to learn how to
5439 edit and compile a newspaper.  But politically at our school we are not
5440 there yet.  And Scribus lacks a lot of things you find i InDesign.</p>
5441
5442 <p>We used even a windows program for sound editing when it comes to
5443 the radio-journalist part. The year to come we are going to try
5444 Audacity. That software has the same kind of limitations compared to
5445 Adobe Audition, but that teacher is a bit more open minded. We have
5446 tried Ardour also, but that instead is more like a music studio
5447 program, not intended for the kind of editing taking place in a radio
5448 studio. Its way to complex and the GUI is to scattered when you only
5449 want to cut, make pass-overs, add extra channels and normalise.  Those
5450 things you can do in Audacity, but its not as easy as in Audition. You
5451 have to do more things manually with envelopes, and that is a bit old
5452 fashion and timewasting. Its also harder to cut and move sound from
5453 one channel to another, which is a thing that you do frequently
5454 because you often find yourself needing to rearrange parts of the
5455 sound file.</p>
5456
5457 <p>So, I am not sure we will succeed in replacing even Audition, but we
5458 will try.  The problem is the students have certain expectations when
5459 they start an education towards a profession.  So the programs has to
5460 look and feel professional.  Good thing with radio, there are many
5461 programs out there, that radio studios use, so its not as standardised
5462 as Newspaper editing. That means, it does not really matter what
5463 program they learn, because once they start working they still have to
5464 learn the program the studio uses, so instead focus has to be to learn
5465 the editing part without to much focus on a specific software.</p>
5466
5467 <p><strong>Which free software do you use daily?</strong></p>
5468
5469 <p>Myself I'm running Linux Mint, or Ubuntu these days.  I use almost
5470 only open source software, and preferably Linux based. When it comes
5471 to most used applications its OpenOffice, and Firefox (of course ;)
5472 )</p>
5473
5474 <p><strong>Which strategy do you believe is the right one to use to
5475 get schools to use free software?</strong></p>
5476
5477 <p>To get schools to use free software there has to be good open
5478 source software that are windows based, to ease the transition. But
5479 it's also very important that the multimedia support is working
5480 flawlessly.  The problems with Youtube, Twitter, Facebook and whatever
5481 will create problems when it comes to both teachers and
5482 students. Economy are also important for schools, so using thin
5483 clients, as long as they have good multimedia support, is a very good
5484 idea. It's also important that the open source software works even for
5485 the administration.  It's hard to convince the teachers to stick with
5486 open source, if the principal has to run Windows.  It also creates a
5487 problem if some classes has to use Windows for there tasks, since that
5488 will create a difference in "status" between classes, so a good
5489 support for running windows applications via the thin client (Linux)
5490 desktop is essential.  At least at our school, where we have mixed
5491 level of educations, from high-school to journalist-school.</p>
5492
5493 <p>Update 2012-07-09 08:30: Paul Wise tipped me on IRC about three
5494 useful sources related to Free Software for radio stations: the LWN
5495 article <a href="https://lwn.net/Articles/481607/">Radio station
5496 management with Airtime</a>,
5497 <a href="http://www.sourcefabric.org/en/airtime/">Airtime</a> which
5498 claim to be a Free open source radio automation software and
5499 <a href="http://www.rivendellaudio.org/">Rivendell</a> which claim to
5500 be complete radio broadcast automation solution.  All of them seem
5501 useful to the aspiring radio producer.</p>
5502
5503       </div>
5504       <div class="tags">
5505
5506
5507         Tags: <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/intervju">intervju</a>.
5508
5509
5510       </div>
5511     </div>
5512     <div class="padding"></div>
5513
5514     <div class="entry">
5515       <div class="title">
5516         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Why_do_schools_waste_money_on_IT_.html">Why do schools waste money on IT?</a>
5517       </div>
5518       <div class="date">
5519          8th July 2012
5520       </div>
5521       <div class="body">
5522         <p>In the Debian Edu / Skolelinux project, we have realised that one
5523 of the major blockers for the project success is the purchasing skills
5524 in schools and municipalities.  We provide what the happy users of
5525 Debian Edu / Skolelinux say they need and to a lower cost than the
5526 alternatives, and yet so few schools decide to use our solution.  I
5527 was pleased to discover the same observation done by mySociety and Tom
5528 Steinberg in his blog post
5529 "<a href="http://www.mysociety.org/2012/06/19/can-you-recognize-the-million-pound-chair/">Can
5530 you recognize the million pound chair?</a>".  Read it and weep for the
5531 spending of your tax money.</p>
5532
5533 <p>Of course there are other factors involved as well, like our
5534 projects bad marketing skills and the Linux community fragmentation
5535 causing worry with the people on the outside, so we as a project need
5536 to keep working hard to gain users, but it is a up-hill battle when
5537 public decision makers are unable to understand computer system
5538 purchases.</p>
5539
5540       </div>
5541       <div class="tags">
5542
5543
5544         Tags: <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>.
5545
5546
5547       </div>
5548     </div>
5549     <div class="padding"></div>
5550
5551     <div class="entry">
5552       <div class="title">
5553         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Free_Timetabling_Software___nice_free_software.html">Free Timetabling Software - nice free software</a>
5554       </div>
5555       <div class="date">
5556          7th July 2012
5557       </div>
5558       <div class="body">
5559         <p>Included in <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu /
5560 Skolelinux</a> is a large collection of end user and school specific
5561 software.  It is one of the packages not installed by default but
5562 provided in the Debian archive for schools to install if they want to,
5563 is a system to automatically plan the school time table using
5564 information about available teachers, classes and rooms, combined with
5565 the list of required courses and how many hours each topic should
5566 receive.  The software is
5567
5568 <a href="http://lalescu.ro/liviu/fet/">named FET</a>, and it provide a
5569 graphical user interface to input the required information, save the
5570 result in a fairly simple XML format, and generate time tables for
5571 both teachers and students.  It is available both for
5572 <a href="http://lalescu.ro/liviu/fet/download.html">Linux, MacOSX and
5573 Windows</a>.</p>
5574
5575 <p>This is <a href="http://lalescu.ro/liviu/fet/features.html">the
5576 feature list</a>, liftet from the project web site:</p>
5577
5578 <p><ul>
5579
5580   <li>FET is free software, licensed under the GNU GPL v2 or later.
5581     You can freely use, copy, modify and redistribute it </li>
5582
5583   <li>Localized to en_US (US English, default), ar (Arabic), ca
5584     (Catalan), da (Danish), de (German), el (Greek), es (Spanish), fa
5585     (Persian), fr (French), gl (Galician), he (Hebrew), hu
5586     (Hungarian), id (Indonesian), it (Italian), lt (Lithuanian), mk
5587     (Macedonian), ms (Malay), nl (Dutch), pl (Polish), pt_BR
5588     (Brazilian Portuguese), ro (Romanian), ru (Russian), si (Sinhala),
5589     sk (Slovak), sr (Serbian), tr (Turkish), uk (Ukrainian), uz
5590     (Uzbek) and vi (Vietnamese) (incompletely for some languages)
5591     </li>
5592
5593   <li>Fully automatic generation algorithm, allowing also
5594     semi-automatic or manual allocation</li>
5595
5596   <li>Platform independent implementation, allowing running on
5597     GNU/Linux, Windows, Mac and any system that Qt supports </li>
5598
5599   <li>Flexible modular XML format for the input file, allowing editing
5600     with an XML editor or by hand (besides FET interface)</li>
5601
5602   <li>Import/export from CSV format</li>
5603
5604   <li>The resulted timetables are exported into HTML, XML and CSV
5605     formats </li>
5606
5607   <li>Flexible students structure, organized into sets: years, groups
5608     and subgroups. FET allows overlapping years and groups and
5609     non-overlapping subgroups. You can even define individual students
5610     (as separate sets)</li>
5611
5612   <li>Each constraint has a weight percentage, from 0.0% to 100.0%
5613     (but some special constraints are allowed to have only 100% weight
5614     percentage)</li>
5615
5616   <li>Limits for the algorithm (all these limits can be increased on
5617     demand, as a custom version, because this would require a bit more
5618     memory):
5619     <ul>
5620       <li>Maximum total number of hours (periods) per day: 60</li>
5621       <li>Maximum number of working days per week: 35</li>
5622       <li>Maximum total number of teachers: 6000</li>
5623       <li>Maximum total number of sets of students: 30000</li>
5624       <li>Maximum total number of subjects: 6000</li>
5625       <li>Virtually unlimited number of activity tags</li>
5626       <li>Maximum number of activities: 30000</li>
5627       <li>Maximum number of rooms: 6000</li>
5628       <li>Maximum number of buildings: 6000</li>
5629       <li>Possibility of adding multiple teachers and
5630           students sets for each activity.  (it is possible
5631           also to have no teachers or no students sets for an
5632           activity)</li>
5633       <li>Virtually unlimited number of time constraints</li>
5634       <li>Virtually unlimited number of space constraints</li>
5635     </ul></li>
5636
5637   <li>A large and flexible palette of time constraints:
5638     <ul>
5639       <li>Break periods</li>
5640       <li>For teacher(s):
5641         <ul>
5642           <li>Not available periods</li>
5643           <li>Max/min days per week</li>
5644           <li>Max gaps per day/week</li>
5645           <li>Max hours daily/continuously</li>
5646           <li>Min hours daily</li>
5647           <li>Max hours daily/continuously with an activity tag</li>
5648
5649           <li>Respect working in an hourly interval a max number of
5650             days per week</li>
5651         </ul></li>
5652       <li>For students (sets):
5653         <ul>
5654           <li>Not available periods</li>
5655           <li>Begins early (specify max allowed beginnings at second hour)</li>
5656           <li>Max gaps per day/week</li>
5657           <li>Max hours daily/continuously</li>
5658           <li>Min hours daily</li>
5659           <li>Max hours daily/continuously with an activity tag</li>
5660
5661           <li>Respect working in an hourly interval a max number of
5662             days per week</li>
5663         </ul></li>
5664       <li>For an activity or a set of activities/subactivities:
5665         <ul>
5666           <li>A single preferred starting time</li>
5667           <li>A set of preferred starting times</li>
5668           <li>A set of preferred time slots</li>
5669           <li>Min/max days between them</li>
5670           <li>End(s) students day</li>
5671           <li>Same starting time/day/hour</li>
5672           <li>Occupy max time slots from selection (a complex and
5673             flexible constraint, useful in many situations)</li>
5674           <li>Consecutive, ordered, grouped (for 2 or 3 (sub)activities)</li>
5675           <li>Not overlapping</li>
5676           <li>Max simultaneous in selected time slots</li>
5677           <li>Min gaps between a set of (sub)activities</li>
5678         </ul></li>
5679     </ul></li>
5680
5681   <li>A large and flexible palette of space constraints:
5682     <ul>
5683       <li>Room not available periods</li>
5684       <li>For teacher(s):
5685         <ul>
5686           <li>Home room(s)</li>
5687           <li>Max building changes per day/week</li>
5688           <li>Min gaps between building changes</li>
5689         </ul>
5690       </li>
5691
5692       <li>For students (sets):
5693         <ul>
5694           <li>Home room(s)</li>
5695           <li>Max building changes per day/week</li>
5696           <li>Min gaps between building changes</li>
5697         </ul>
5698       </li>
5699       <li>Preferred room(s):
5700         <ul>
5701           <li>For a subject</li>
5702           <li>For an activity tag</li>
5703           <li>For a subject and an activity tag</li>
5704           <li>Individually for a (sub)activity</li>
5705         </ul>
5706       </li>
5707
5708       <li>For a set of activities:
5709         <ul>
5710           <li>Occupy a maximum number of different rooms</li>
5711         </ul>
5712       </li>
5713     </ul>
5714   </li>
5715 </ul></p>
5716
5717 <p>I have not used it myself, as I am not involved in time table
5718 planning at a school, but it seem to work fine when I test it.  If you
5719 need to set up your schools time table, and is tired of doing it
5720 manually, check it out.
5721
5722 A quick summary on how to use it can be found in
5723 <a href="http://marvelsoft.co.in/wp/2012/03/generate-timetable-for-state-cbse-icse-igcse-schools-free/">a
5724 blog post from MarvelSoft</a>.  If you find FET useful, please provide
5725 a recipe for the Debian Edu project in the
5726 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu#Howtos">Debian Edu HowTo
5727 section</a>.</p>
5728
5729       </div>
5730       <div class="tags">
5731
5732
5733         Tags: <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>.
5734
5735
5736       </div>
5737     </div>
5738     <div class="padding"></div>
5739
5740     <div class="entry">
5741       <div class="title">
5742         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Can_Zimbra_be_told_to_send_autoreplies_to_the_From__address_.html">Can Zimbra be told to send autoreplies to the From: address?</a>
5743       </div>
5744       <div class="date">
5745          3rd July 2012
5746       </div>
5747       <div class="body">
5748         <p>In the NUUG <a href="http://www.fiksgatami.no/">FiksGataMi</a>
5749 project (Norwegian version of
5750 <a href="http://www.fixmystreet.com/">FixMyStreet</a> from
5751 <a href="http://www.mysociety.org/">mySociety</a>), we have discovered
5752 a problem with the municipalities using
5753 <a href="http://www.zimbra.com/">Zimbra</a>.  When FiksGataMi send a
5754 problem report to the government, the email From: address is set to
5755 the address of the person reporting the problem, while envelope sender
5756 is set to the FiksGataMi contact address.  The intention is to make
5757 sure the municipality send any replies to the person reporting the
5758 problem, while any email delivery problems are sent to us in NUUG.
5759 This work well in most cases, but not for Karmøy municipality using
5760 Zimbra.  Karmøy is using the vacation message function in Zimbra to
5761 send an automatic reply to report that the message has been received,
5762 and this message is sent to the envelope sender and not the address in
5763 the From: header.</p>
5764
5765 <p>This causes the automatic message from Karmøy to go to NUUGs
5766 request-tracker instance instead of to the person reporting the
5767 problem.  We can not really change the envelope sender address, as
5768 this would make it impossible for us to discover when there are
5769 problems with the MTAs receiving problem reports.  We have been in
5770 contact with the people at Karmøy municipality, and they are willing
5771 to adjust Zimbra if something can be changed there to get a better
5772 behaviour.</p>
5773
5774 <p>The default behaviour of Zimbra is as far as I can tell according
5775 to the specification in RFC 3834, which recommend that vacation
5776 messages are sent to the envelope sender and not to the From: address.
5777 But I wonder if it is possible to adjust or configure Zimbra to behave
5778 differently.  Anyone know?  Please let us know at
5779 <a href="http://lists.nuug.no/mailman/listinfo/fiksgatami">fiksgatami
5780 (at) nuug.no</a>.</p>
5781
5782       </div>
5783       <div class="tags">
5784
5785
5786         Tags: <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/nuug">nuug</a>.
5787
5788
5789       </div>
5790     </div>
5791     <div class="padding"></div>
5792
5793     <div class="entry">
5794       <div class="title">
5795         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__Jos__Luis_Redrejo_Rodr_guez.html">Debian Edu interview: José Luis Redrejo Rodríguez</a>
5796       </div>
5797       <div class="date">
5798         26th June 2012
5799       </div>
5800       <div class="body">
5801         <p>I've been too busy at home, but finally I found time to wrap up
5802 another interview with the people behind
5803 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu and Skolelinux</a>.
5804 This time we get to know José Luis Redrejo Rodríguez, one of our great
5805 helpers from Spain.  His effort was the reason we added support for
5806 several desktop types (KDE, Gnome and most recently LXDE) in Debian
5807 Edu, and have all of these available in the recently published
5808 <a href="http://www.debian.org/News/2012/20120311.html">Debian Edu
5809 Squeeze</a> version.</p>
5810
5811 <p><strong>Who are you, and how do you spend your days?</strong></p>
5812
5813 <p>I'm a father, teacher and engineer who is working for the Education
5814 ministry of the Region of Extremadura (Spain) in the implementation of
5815 ICT in schools</p>
5816
5817 <p><strong>How did you get in contact with the Skolelinux/Debian Edu
5818 project?</strong></p>
5819
5820 <p>At 2006, I verified that both, we in Extremadura and Skolelinux
5821 project, had been working in parallel for some years, doing very
5822 similar things, using very similar tools and with similar targets, so
5823 I decided it was time to join forces as much as possible.</p>
5824
5825 <p><strong>What do you see as the advantages of Skolelinux/Debian
5826 Edu?</strong></p>
5827
5828 <p>A community of highly skilled experts working together, with a
5829 really open schema of collaboration and work. I really love the
5830 concepts of Do-ocracy and Merit-ocracy and the way these concepts are
5831 been used everyday inside Debian Edu.</p>
5832
5833 <p><strong>What do you see as the disadvantages of Skolelinux/Debian
5834 Edu?</strong></p>
5835
5836 <p>Sometimes the differences in the implementations, laws or
5837 economical and technical resources in the different countries don't
5838 allow us to agree in the same solution for all of us, and several
5839 approaches are needed, what is a waste of effort. Also, there is a
5840 lack of more man power to be able to follow the fast evolution of the
5841 technologies in school.</p>
5842
5843 <p><strong>Which free software do you use daily?</strong></p>
5844
5845 <p>Debian, of course, and due to my kind of job I am most of my time
5846 between Iceweasel, <a href="http://www.geany.org/">Geany</a> and
5847 <a href="http://www.ohloh.net/p/gnome-terminator">Terminator</a>.</p>
5848
5849 <p><strong>Which strategy do you believe is the right one to use to
5850 get schools to use free software?</strong></p>
5851
5852 <p>I think there is not a single strategy because there are very
5853 different scenarios: schools with mixed proprietary and free
5854 environments, schools using only workstations, other schools using
5855 laptops, netbooks, tablets, interactive white-boards, etc.</p>
5856
5857 <p>Also the range of ages of the students is very broad and you can
5858 not use the same solutions for primary schools and secondary or even
5859 universities. So different strategies are needed.</p>
5860
5861 <p>But, looking at these differences, and looking back to the things
5862 we've done and implemented, and the places were we have spent most of
5863 our forces, I think we should focus as much as possible in free
5864 multi-platform environments, using only standards tools, and moving
5865 more and more to Internet or network solutions that could be deployed
5866 using wireless. I think we'll see more and more personal devices in
5867 the schools, devices the students and teachers will take home with
5868 them, so the solutions must be able to be taken at home and continue
5869 working there.</p>
5870
5871       </div>
5872       <div class="tags">
5873
5874
5875         Tags: <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/intervju">intervju</a>.
5876
5877
5878       </div>
5879     </div>
5880     <div class="padding"></div>
5881
5882     <div class="entry">
5883       <div class="title">
5884         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Song_book_for_Computer_Scientists.html">Song book for Computer Scientists</a>
5885       </div>
5886       <div class="date">
5887         24th June 2012
5888       </div>
5889       <div class="body">
5890         <p>Many years ago, while studying Computer Science at the
5891 <a href="http://www.uit.no/">University of Tromsø</a>, I started
5892 collecting computer related songs for use at parties.  The original
5893 version was written in LaTeX, but a few years ago I got help from
5894 Håkon W. Lie, one of the inventors of W3C CSS, to convert it to HTML
5895 while keeping the ability to create a nice book in PDF format.  I have
5896 not had time to maintain the book for a while now, and guess I should
5897 put it up on some public version control repository where others can
5898 help me extend and update the book.  If anyone is volunteering to help
5899 me with this, send me an email.  Also let me know if there are songs
5900 missing in my book.</p>
5901
5902 <p>I have not mentioned the book on my blog so far, and it occured to
5903 me today that I really should let all my readers share the joys of
5904 singing out load about programming, computers and computer networks.
5905 Especially now that <a href="http://debconf12.debconf.org/">Debconf
5906 12</a> is about to start (and I am not going).  Want to sing?  Check
5907 out <a href="http://www.hungry.com/~pere/cs-songbook/">Petter's
5908 Computer Science Songbook</a>.
5909
5910       </div>
5911       <div class="tags">
5912
5913
5914         Tags: <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>.
5915
5916
5917       </div>
5918     </div>
5919     <div class="padding"></div>
5920
5921     <div class="entry">
5922       <div class="title">
5923         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu___some_ideas_for_the_future_versions.html">Debian Edu - some ideas for the future versions</a>
5924       </div>
5925       <div class="date">
5926         11th June 2012
5927       </div>
5928       <div class="body">
5929         <p>During my work on
5930 <a href="http://www.debian.org/News/2012/20120311.nb.html">Debian Edu
5931 based on Squeeze</a>, I came across some issues that should be
5932 addressed in the Wheezy release.  I finally found time to wrap up my
5933 notes and provide quick summary of what I found, with a bit
5934 explanation.</p>
5935
5936 <p><ul>
5937
5938 <li>We need to rewrite our package installation framework, as tasksel
5939 changed from using tasksel tasks to using meta packages (aka packages
5940 with dependencies like our education-* packages), and our installation
5941 system depend on tasksel tasks in
5942 /usr/share/tasksel/debian-edu-tasks.desc for package
5943 installation.</li>
5944
5945 <li>Enable Kerberos login for more services.  Now with the Kerberos
5946 foundation in place, we should use it to get single sign on with more
5947 services, and avoiding unneeded password / login questions.  We should
5948 at least try to enable it for these services:
5949 <ul>
5950
5951   <li>CUPS for admins to add/configure printers and users when using
5952     quotas.</li>
5953   <li>Nagios for admins checking the system status.</li>
5954   <li>GOsa for admins updating LDAP and users changing their passwords.</li>
5955   <li>LDAP for admins updating LDAP.</li>
5956   <li>Squid for users when exam mode / filtering is active.</li>
5957   <li>ssh for admins and users to save a password prompt.</li>
5958
5959 </ul></li>
5960
5961 <li>When we move GOsa to use Kerberos instead of LDAP bind to
5962 authenticate users, we should try to block or at least limit access to
5963 use LDAP bind for authentication, to ensure Kerberos is used when it
5964 is intended, and nothing fall back to using the less safe LDAP bind</li>
5965
5966 <li>Merge debian-edu-config and debian-edu-install.  The split made
5967 sense when d-e-install did a lot more, but these days it is just an
5968 inconvenience when we update the debconf preseeding values.</li>
5969
5970 <li>Fix partman-auto to allow us to abort the installation before
5971 touching the disk if the disk is too small.  This is
5972 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/653305">BTS report #653305</a> and the
5973 d-i developers are fine with the patch and someone just need to apply
5974 it and upload.  After this is done we need to adjust
5975 debian-edu-install to use this new hook.</li>
5976
5977 <li>Adjust to new LTSP framework (boot time config instead of install
5978 time config).  LTSP changed its design, and our hooks to install
5979 packages and update the configuration is most likely not going to work
5980 in Wheezy.
5981
5982 <li>Consider switching to NBD instead of NFS for LTSP root, to allow
5983 the Kernel to cache files in its normal file cache, possibly speeding
5984 up KDE login on slow networks.</li>
5985
5986 <li>Make it possible to create expired user passwords that need to
5987 change on first login.  This is useful when handing out password on
5988 paper, to make sure only the user know the password.  This require
5989 fixes to the PAM handling of kdm and gdm.</li>
5990
5991 <li>Make GUI for adding new machines automatically from sitesummary.
5992 The current command line script is not very friendly to people most
5993 familiar with GUIs.  This should probably be integrated into GOsa to
5994 have it available where the admin will be looking for it..</li>
5995
5996 <li>We should find way for Nagios to check that the DHCP service
5997 actually is working (as in handling out IP addresses).  None of the
5998 Nagios checks I have found so far have been working for me.</li>
5999
6000 <li>We should switch from libpam-nss-ldapd to sssd for all profiles
6001 using LDAP, and not only on for roaming workstations, to have less
6002 packages to configure and consistent setup across all profiles.</li>
6003
6004 <li>We should configure Kerberos to update LDAP and Samba password
6005 when changing password using the Kerberos protocol.  The hook was
6006 requested in <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/588968">BTS report
6007 #588968</a> and is now available in Wheezy.  We might need to write a
6008 MIT Kerberos plugin in C to get this.</li>
6009
6010 <li>We should clean up the set of applications installed by default.
6011 <ul>
6012
6013 <li>reduce the number of chemistry visualisers</li>
6014 <li>consider dropping xpaint</li>
6015 <li>and probably more?</li>
6016 </ul></li>
6017
6018 <li>Some hardware need external firmware to work properly.  This is
6019 mostly the case for WiFi network cards, but there are some other
6020 examples too.  For popular laptops to work out of the box, such
6021 firmware need to be installed from non-free, and we should provide
6022 some GUI to do this.  Ubuntu already have this implemented, and we
6023 could consider using their packages.  At the moment we have some
6024 command line script to do this (one for the running system, another
6025 for the LTSP chroot).</li>
6026
6027
6028 <li>In Squeeze, we provide KDE, Gnome and LXDE as desktop options.  We
6029 should extend the list to Xfce and Sugar, and preferably find a way to
6030 install several and allow the admin or the user to select which one to
6031 use.</li>
6032
6033 <li>The golearn tool from the goplay package make it easy to check out
6034 interesting educational packages.  We should work on the package
6035 tagging in Debian to ensure it represent all the useful educational
6036 packages, and extend the tool to allow it to use packagekit to install
6037 new applications with a simple mouse click.</li>
6038
6039 <li>The Squeeze version got half a exam solution already in place,
6040 with the introduction of iptable based network blocking, but for it to
6041 be a complete exam solution the Squid proxy need to enable
6042 filtering/blocking as well when the exam mode is enabled.  We should
6043 implement a way to easily enable this for the schools that want it,
6044 instead of the "it is documented" method of today.</li>
6045
6046 <li>A feature used in several schools is the ability for a teacher to
6047 "take over" the desktop of individual or all computers in the room.
6048 There are at least three implementations,
6049 <a href="italc.sourceforge.net/">italc</a>,
6050 <a href="http://www.itais.net/help/en/">controlaula</a> og
6051 <a href="http://www.epoptes.org/">epoptes</a> and we should pick one of
6052 them and make it trivial to set it up in a school.  The challenges is
6053 how to distribute crypto keys and how to group computers in one room
6054 and how to set up which machine/user can control the machines in a
6055 given room.</li>
6056
6057 <li>Tablets and surf boards are getting more and more popular, and we
6058 should look into providing a good solution for integrating these into
6059 the Debian Edu network.  Not quite sure how.  Perhaps we should
6060 provide a installation profile with better touch screen support for
6061 them, or add some sync services to allow them to exchange
6062 configuration and data with the central server.  This should be
6063 investigated.</li>
6064
6065 </ul></p>
6066
6067 <p>I guess we will discover more as we continue to work on the Wheezy
6068 version.</p>
6069
6070       </div>
6071       <div class="tags">
6072
6073
6074         Tags: <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>.
6075
6076
6077       </div>
6078     </div>
6079     <div class="padding"></div>
6080
6081     <div class="entry">
6082       <div class="title">
6083         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/TV_with_face_recognition__for_improved_viewer_experience.html">TV with face recognition, for improved viewer experience</a>
6084       </div>
6085       <div class="date">
6086          9th June 2012
6087       </div>
6088       <div class="body">
6089         <p>Slashdot got a story about Intel planning a
6090 <a href="http://entertainment.slashdot.org/story/12/06/09/0012247/intel-to-launch-tv-service-with-facial-recognition-by-end-of-the-year">TV
6091 with face recognition</a> to recognise the viewer, and it occurred to
6092 me that it would be more interesting to turn it around, and do face
6093 recognition on the TV image itself.  It could let the viewer know who
6094 is present on the screen, and perhaps look up their credibility,
6095 company affiliation, previous appearances etc for the viewer to better
6096 evaluate what is being said and done.  That would be a feature I would
6097 be willing to pay for.</p>
6098
6099 <p>I would not be willing to pay for a TV that point a camera on my
6100 household, like the big brother feature apparently proposed by Intel.
6101 It is the telescreen idea fetched straight out of the book
6102 <a href="http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks01/0100021.txt">1984 by George
6103 Orwell</a>.</p>
6104
6105       </div>
6106       <div class="tags">
6107
6108
6109         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance</a>.
6110
6111
6112       </div>
6113     </div>
6114     <div class="padding"></div>
6115
6116     <div class="entry">
6117       <div class="title">
6118         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Web_service_to_look_up_HP_and_Dell_computer_hardware_support_status.html">Web service to look up HP and Dell computer hardware support status</a>
6119       </div>
6120       <div class="date">
6121          6th June 2012
6122       </div>
6123       <div class="body">
6124         <p>A few days ago
6125 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/SOAP_based_webservice_from_Dell_to_check_server_support_status.html">I
6126 reported how to get</a> the support status out of Dell using an
6127 unofficial and undocumented SOAP API, which I since have found out was
6128 <a href="http://lists.us.dell.com/pipermail/linux-poweredge/2012-February/045959.html">discovered
6129 by Daniel De Marco in february</a>.  Combined with my web scraping
6130 code for HP, Dell and IBM
6131 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Checking_server_hardware_support_status_for_Dell__HP_and_IBM_servers.html">from
6132 2009</a>, I got inspired and wrote
6133 <a href="https://views.scraperwiki.com/run/computer-hardware-support-status/">a
6134 web service</a> based on Scraperwiki to make it easy to look up the
6135 support status and get a machine readable result back.</p>
6136
6137 <p>This is what it look like at the moment when asking for the JSON
6138 output:
6139
6140 <blockquote><pre>
6141 % GET <a href="https://views.scraperwiki.com/run/computer-hardware-support-status/?format=json&vendor=Dell&servicetag=2v1xwn1">https://views.scraperwiki.com/run/computer-hardware-support-status/?format=json&vendor=Dell&servicetag=2v1xwn1</a>
6142 supportstatus({"servicetag": "2v1xwn1", "warrantyend": "2013-11-24", "shipped": "2010-11-24", "scrapestamputc": "2012-06-06T20:26:56.965847", "scrapedurl": "http://143.166.84.118/services/assetservice.asmx?WSDL", "vendor": "Dell", "productid": ""})
6143 %
6144 </pre></blockquote>
6145
6146 <p>It currently support Dell and HP, and I am hoping for help to add
6147 support for other vendors.  The python source is available on
6148 Scraperwiki and I welcome help with adding more features.</p>
6149
6150       </div>
6151       <div class="tags">
6152
6153
6154         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
6155
6156
6157       </div>
6158     </div>
6159     <div class="padding"></div>
6160
6161     <div class="entry">
6162       <div class="title">
6163         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__Mike_Gabriel.html">Debian Edu interview: Mike Gabriel</a>
6164       </div>
6165       <div class="date">
6166          2nd June 2012
6167       </div>
6168       <div class="body">
6169         <p>Back in 2010, Mike Gabriel showed up on the
6170 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu and Skolelinux</a>
6171 mailing list.  He quickly proved to be a valuable developer, and
6172 thanks to his tireless effort we now have Kerberos integrated into the
6173 <a href="http://www.debian.org/News/2012/20120311.html">Debian Edu
6174 Squeeze</a> version.</p>
6175
6176 <p><strong>Who are you, and how do you spend your days?</strong></p>
6177
6178 <p>My name is Mike Gabriel, I am 38 years old and live near Kiel,
6179 Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. I live together with a wonderful partner
6180 (Angela Fuß) and two own children and two bonus children (contributed
6181 by Angela).</p>
6182
6183 <p>During the day I am part-time employed as a system administrator
6184 and part-time working as an IT consultant. The consultancy work
6185 touches free software topics wherever and whenever possible. During
6186 the nights I am a free software developer. In the gaps I also train in
6187 becoming an osteopath.</p>
6188
6189 <p>Starting in 2010 we (Andreas Buchholz, Angela Fuß, Mike Gabriel)
6190 have set up a free software project in the area of Kiel that aims at
6191 introducing free software into schools. The project's name is
6192 "IT-Zukunft Schule" (IT future for schools). The project links IT
6193 skills with communication skills.</p>
6194
6195 <p><strong>How did you get in contact with the Skolelinux/Debian Edu
6196 project?</strong></p>
6197
6198 <p>While preparing our own customised Linux distribution for
6199 "IT-Zukunft Schule" we were repeatedly asked if we really wanted to
6200 reinvent the wheel. What schools really need is already available,
6201 people said.  From this impulse we started evaluating other Linux
6202 distributions that target being used for school networks.</p>
6203
6204 <p>At the end we short-listed two approaches and compared them: a
6205 commercial Linux distribution developed by a company in Bremen,
6206 Germany, and Skolelinux / Debian Edu. Between 12/2010 and 03/2011 we
6207 went to several events and met people being responsible for marketing
6208 and development of either of the distributions. Skolelinux / Debian
6209 Edu was by far much more convincing compared to the other product that
6210 got short-listed beforehand--across the full spectrum. What was most
6211 attractive for me personally: the perspective of collaboration within
6212 the developmental branch of the Debian Edu project itself.</p>
6213
6214 <p>In parallel with this, we talked to many local and not-so-local
6215 people.  People teaching at schools, headmasters, politicians, data
6216 protection experts, other IT professionals.</p>
6217
6218 <p>We came to two conclusions:</p>
6219
6220 <p>First, a technical conclusion: What schools need is available in
6221 bits and pieces here and there, and none of the solutions really fit
6222 by 100%. Any school we have seen has a very individual IT setup
6223 whereas most of each school's requirements could mapped by a standard
6224 IT solution.  The requirement to this IT solution is flexibility and
6225 customisability, so that individual adaptations here and there are
6226 possible.  In terms of re-distributing and rolling out such a
6227 standardised IT system for schools (a system that is still to some
6228 degree customisable) there is still a lot of work to do here
6229 locally. Debian Edu / Skolelinux has been our choice as the starting
6230 point.</p>
6231
6232 <p>Second, a holistic conclusion: What schools need does not exist at
6233 all (or we missed it so far). There are several technical solutions
6234 for handling IT at schools that tend to make a good impression. What
6235 has been missing completely here in Germany, though, is the enrolment
6236 of people into using IT and teaching with IT. "IT-Zukunft Schule"
6237 tries to provide an approach for this.</p>
6238
6239 <p>Only some schools have some sort of a media concept which explains,
6240 defines and gives guidance on how to use IT in class. Most schools in
6241 Northern Germany do not have an IT service provider, the school's IT
6242 equipment is managed by one or (if the school is lucky) two (admin)
6243 teachers, most of the workload these admin teachers get done in there
6244 spare time.</p>
6245
6246 <p>We were surprised that only a very few admin teachers were
6247 networked with colleagues from other schools. Basically, every school
6248 here around has its individual approach of providing IT equipment to
6249 teachers and students and the exchange of ideas has been quasi
6250 non-existent until 2010/2011.</p>
6251
6252 <p>Quite some (non-admin) teachers try to avoid using IT technology in
6253 class as a learning medium completely. Several reasons for this
6254 avoidance do exist.</p>
6255
6256 <p>We discovered that no-one has ever taken a closer look at this
6257 social part of IT management in schools, so far. On our quest journey
6258 for a technical IT solution for schools, we discussed this issue with
6259 several teachers, headmasters, politicians, other IT professionals and
6260 they all confirmed: a holistic approach of considering IT management
6261 at schools, an approach that includes the people in place, will be new
6262 and probably a gain for all.</p>
6263
6264 <p><strong>What do you see as the advantages of Skolelinux/Debian
6265 Edu?</strong></p>
6266
6267 <p>There is a list of advantages: international context, openness to
6268 any kind of contributions, do-ocracy policy, the closeness to Debian,
6269 the different installation scenarios possible (from stand-alone
6270 workstation to complex multi-server sites), the transparency within
6271 project communication, honest communication within the group of
6272 developers, etc.</p>
6273
6274 <p><strong>What do you see as the disadvantages of Skolelinux/Debian
6275 Edu?</strong></p>
6276
6277 <p>Every coin has two sides:</p>
6278
6279 <p>Technically: <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/311188">BTS issue
6280 #311188</a>, tricky upgradability of a Debian Edu main server, network
6281 client installations on top of a plain vanilla Debian installation
6282 should become possible sometime in the near future, one could think
6283 about splitting the very complex package debian-edu-config into
6284 several portions (to make it easier for new developers to
6285 contribute).</p>
6286
6287 <p>Another issue I see is that we (as Debian Edu developers) should
6288 find out more about the network of people who do the marketing for
6289 Debian Edu / Skolelinux. There is a very active group in Germany
6290 promoting Skolelinux on the bigger Linux Days within Germany. Are
6291 there other groups like that in other countries? How can we bring
6292 these marketing people together (marketing group A with group B and
6293 all of them with the group of Debian Edu developers)? During the last
6294 meeting of the German Skolelinux group, I got the impression of people
6295 there being rather disconnected from the development department of
6296 Debian Edu / Skolelinux.</p>
6297
6298 <p><strong>Which free software do you use daily?</strong></p>
6299
6300 <p>For my daily business, I do not use commercial software at all.</p>
6301
6302 <p>For normal stuff I use Iceweasel/Firefox, Libreoffice.org. For
6303 serious text writing I prefer LaTeX. I use gimp, inkscape, scribus for
6304 more artistic tasks. I run virtual machines in KVM and Virtualbox.</p>
6305
6306 <p>I am one of the upstream developers of X2Go. In 2010 I started the
6307 development of a Python based X2Go Client, called PyHoca-GUI.
6308 PyHoca-GUI has brought forth a Python X2Go Client API that currently
6309 is being integrated in Ubuntu's software center.</p>
6310
6311 <p>For communications I have my own Kolab server running using Horde
6312 as web-based groupware client. For IRC I love to use irssi, for Jabber
6313 I have several clients that I use, mostly pidgin, though. I am also
6314 the Debian maintainer of Coccinella, a Jabber-based interactive
6315 whiteboard.</p>
6316
6317 <p>My favourite terminal emulator is KDE's Yakuake.</p>
6318
6319 <p><strong>Which strategy do you believe is the right one to use to
6320 get schools to use free software?</strong></p>
6321
6322 <p>Communicate, communicate, communicate. Enrol people, enrol people,
6323 enrol people.</p>
6324
6325       </div>
6326       <div class="tags">
6327
6328
6329         Tags: <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/intervju">intervju</a>.
6330
6331
6332       </div>
6333     </div>
6334     <div class="padding"></div>
6335
6336     <div class="entry">
6337       <div class="title">
6338         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/SOAP_based_webservice_from_Dell_to_check_server_support_status.html">SOAP based webservice from Dell to check server support status</a>
6339       </div>
6340       <div class="date">
6341          1st June 2012
6342       </div>
6343       <div class="body">
6344         <p>A few years ago I wrote
6345 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Checking_server_hardware_support_status_for_Dell__HP_and_IBM_servers.html">how
6346 to extract support status</a> for your Dell and HP servers.  Recently
6347 I have learned from colleges here at the
6348 <a href="http://www.uio.no/">University of Oslo</a> that Dell have
6349 made this even easier, by providing a SOAP based web service.  Given
6350 the service tag, one can now query the Dell servers and get machine
6351 readable information about the support status.  This perl code
6352 demonstrate how to do it:</p>
6353
6354 <p><pre>
6355 use strict;
6356 use warnings;
6357 use SOAP::Lite;
6358 use Data::Dumper;
6359 my $GUID = '11111111-1111-1111-1111-111111111111';
6360 my $App = 'test';
6361 my $servicetag = $ARGV[0] or die "Please supply a servicetag. $!\n";
6362 my ($deal, $latest, @dates);
6363 my $s = SOAP::Lite
6364     -> uri('http://support.dell.com/WebServices/')
6365     -> on_action( sub { join '', @_ } )
6366     -> proxy('http://xserv.dell.com/services/assetservice.asmx')
6367     ;
6368 my $a = $s->GetAssetInformation(
6369     SOAP::Data->name('guid')->value($GUID)->type(''),
6370     SOAP::Data->name('applicationName')->value($App)->type(''),
6371     SOAP::Data->name('serviceTags')->value($servicetag)->type(''),
6372 );
6373 print Dumper($a -> result) ;
6374 </pre></p>
6375
6376 <p>The output can look like this:</p>
6377
6378 <p><pre>
6379 $VAR1 = {
6380           'Asset' => {
6381                      'Entitlements' => {
6382                                        'EntitlementData' => [
6383                                                             {
6384                                                               'EntitlementType' => 'Expired',
6385                                                               'EndDate' => '2009-07-29T00:00:00',
6386                                                               'Provider' => '',
6387                                                               'StartDate' => '2006-07-29T00:00:00',
6388                                                               'DaysLeft' => '0'
6389                                                             },
6390                                                             {
6391                                                               'EntitlementType' => 'Expired',
6392                                                               'EndDate' => '2009-07-29T00:00:00',
6393                                                               'Provider' => '',
6394                                                               'StartDate' => '2006-07-29T00:00:00',
6395                                                               'DaysLeft' => '0'
6396                                                             },
6397                                                             {
6398                                                               'EntitlementType' => 'Expired',
6399                                                               'EndDate' => '2007-07-29T00:00:00',
6400                                                               'Provider' => '',
6401                                                               'StartDate' => '2006-07-29T00:00:00',
6402                                                               'DaysLeft' => '0'
6403                                                             }
6404                                                           ]
6405                                      },
6406                      'AssetHeaderData' => {
6407                                           'SystemModel' => 'GX620',
6408                                           'ServiceTag' => '8DSGD2J',
6409                                           'SystemShipDate' => '2006-07-29T19:00:00-05:00',
6410                                           'Buid' => '2323',
6411                                           'Region' => 'Europe',
6412                                           'SystemID' => 'PLX_GX620',
6413                                           'SystemType' => 'OptiPlex'
6414                                         }
6415                    }
6416         };
6417 </pre></p>
6418
6419 <p>I have not been able to find any documentation from Dell about this
6420 service outside the
6421 <a href="http://xserv.dell.com/services/assetservice.asmx?op=GetAssetInformation">inline
6422 documentation</a>, and according to
6423 <a href="http://iboyd.net/index.php/2012/02/14/updated-dell-warranty-information-script/">one
6424 comment</a> it can have stability issues, but it is a lot better than
6425 scraping HTML pages. :)</p>
6426
6427 <p>Wonder if HP and other server vendors have a similar service.  If
6428 you know of one, drop me an email. :)</p>
6429
6430       </div>
6431       <div class="tags">
6432
6433
6434         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
6435
6436
6437       </div>
6438     </div>
6439     <div class="padding"></div>
6440
6441     <div class="entry">
6442       <div class="title">
6443         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/First_monitor_calibration_using_ColorHug.html">First monitor calibration using ColorHug</a>
6444       </div>
6445       <div class="date">
6446         31st May 2012
6447       </div>
6448       <div class="body">
6449         <p>A few days ago my color calibration gadget
6450 <a href="http://www.hughski.com/index.html">ColorHug</a> arrived in the
6451 mail, and I've had a few days to test it.  As all my machines are
6452 running Debian Squeeze, where
6453 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/c/colorhug-client.html">the
6454 calibration software</a> is missing (it is present in Wheezy and Sid),
6455 I ran the calibration using the Fedora based live CD.  This worked
6456 just fine.  So far I have only done the quick calibration.  It was
6457 slow enough for me, so I will leave the more extensive calibration for
6458 another day.</p>
6459
6460 <p>After calibration, I get a
6461 <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ICC_profile">ICC color
6462 profile</a> file that can be passed to programs understanding such
6463 tools.  KDE do not seem to understand it out of the box, so I searched
6464 for command line tools to use to load the color profile into X.
6465 xcalib was the first one I found, and it seem to work fine for single
6466 monitor setups.  But for my video player, a laptop with a flat screen
6467 attached, it was unable to load the color profile for the correct
6468 monitor.  After searching a bit, I
6469 <a href="http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1347896">discovered</a>
6470 that the dispwin tool from the argyll package would do what I wanted,
6471 and a simple</p>
6472
6473 <p><pre>
6474 dispwin -d 1 profile.icc
6475 </pre></p>
6476
6477 <p>later I had the color profile loaded for the correct monitor.  The
6478 result was a bit more pink than I expected.  I guess I picked the
6479 wrong monitor type for the "led" monitor I got, but the result is good
6480 enough for now.</p>
6481
6482       </div>
6483       <div class="tags">
6484
6485
6486         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
6487
6488
6489       </div>
6490     </div>
6491     <div class="padding"></div>
6492
6493     <div class="entry">
6494       <div class="title">
6495         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__Ralf_Gesellensetter.html">Debian Edu interview: Ralf Gesellensetter</a>
6496       </div>
6497       <div class="date">
6498         27th May 2012
6499       </div>
6500       <div class="body">
6501         <p>In 2003, a German teacher showed up on the
6502 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu and Skolelinux</a>
6503 mailing list with interesting problems and reports proving he setting
6504 up Linux for a (for us at the time) lot of pupils.  His name was Ralf
6505 Gesellensetter, and he has been an important tester and contributor
6506 since then, helping to make sure the
6507 <a href="http://www.debian.org/News/2012/20120311.html">Debian Edu
6508 Squeeze</a> release became as good as it is..</p>
6509
6510 <p><strong>Who are you, and how do you spend your days?</strong></p>
6511
6512 <p>I am a teacher from Germany, and my subjects are Geography,
6513 Mathematics, and Computer Science ("Informatik"). During the past 12
6514 years (since 2000), I have been working for a comprehensive (and soon,
6515 also inclusive) school leading to all kind of general levels, such as
6516 O- or A-level ("Abitur").  For quite as long, I've been taking care of
6517 our computer network.</p>
6518
6519 <p>Now, in my early 40s, I enjoy the privilege of spending a lot of my
6520 spare time together with my wife, our son (3 years) and our daughter
6521 (4 months).</p>
6522
6523 <p><strong>How did you get in contact with the Skolelinux/Debian Edu
6524 project?</strong></p>
6525
6526 <p>We had tried different Linux based school servers, when members of
6527 my local Linux User Group (LUG OWL) detected Skolelinux. I remember
6528 very well, being part of a party celebrating the Linux New Media Award
6529 ("Best Newcomer Distribution", also nominated: Ubuntu) that was given
6530 to Skolelinux at Linux World Exposition in Frankfurt, 2005 (IIRC). Few
6531 months later, I had the chance to join a developer meeting in Ulsrud
6532 (Oslo) and to hand out the award to Knut Yrvin and others.  For more
6533 than 7 years, Skolelinux is part of our schools infrastructure, namely
6534 our main server (tjener), one LTSP (today without thin clients), and
6535 approximately 50 work stations. Most of these have the option to boot a
6536 locally installed Skolelinux image.  As a consequence, I joined quite
6537 a few events dealing with free software or Linux, and met many Debian
6538 (Edu) developers. All of them seemed quite nice and competent to me,
6539 one more reason to stick to Skolelinux.</p>
6540
6541 <p><strong>What do you see as the advantages of Skolelinux/Debian
6542 Edu?</strong></p>
6543
6544 <p>Debian driven, you are given all the advantages of a community
6545 project including well maintained updates. Once, you are familiar with
6546 the network layout, you can easily roll out an entire educational
6547 computer infrastructure, from just one installation media. As only
6548 free software (FOSS) is used, that supports even elderly hardware,
6549 up-sizing your IT equipment is only limited by space (i.e. available
6550 labs).  Especially if you run a LTSP thin client server, your
6551 administration costs tend towards zero.</p>
6552
6553 <p><strong>What do you see as the disadvantages of Skolelinux/Debian
6554 Edu?</strong></p>
6555
6556 <p>While Debian's stability has loads of advantages for servers, this
6557 might be different in some cases for clients: Schools with unlimited
6558 budget might buy new hardware with components that are not yet
6559 supported by Debian stable, or wish to use more recent versions of
6560 office packages or desktop environments.  These schools have the
6561 option to run Debian testing or other distributions - if they have the
6562 capacity to do so.  Another issue is that Debian release cycles
6563 include a wide range of changes; therefor a high percentage of human
6564 power seems to be absorbed by just keeping the features of Skolelinux
6565 within the new setting of the version to come. During this process,
6566 the cogs of Debian Edu are getting more and more professional,
6567 i.e. harder to understand for novices.</p>
6568
6569 <p><strong>Which free software do you use daily?</strong></p>
6570
6571 <p>LibreOffice, Wikipedia, Openstreetmap, Iceweasel (Mozilla Firefox),
6572 KMail, Gimp, Inkscape - and of course the Linux Kernel (not only on
6573 PC, Laptop, Mobile, but also our SAT receiver)</p>
6574
6575 <p><strong>Which strategy do you believe is the right one to use to
6576 get schools to use free software?</strong></p>
6577
6578 <p><ol>
6579
6580 <li>Support computer science as regular subject in schools to make
6581 people really "own" their hardware, to make them understand the
6582 difference between proprietary software products, and free software
6583 developing.</li>
6584
6585 <li>Make budget baskets corresponding: In Germany's public schools
6586 there are more or less fixed budgets for IT equipment (including
6587 licenses), so schools won't benefit from any savings here. This
6588 privilege is left to private schools which have consequently a large
6589 share among German Skolelinux schools.</li>
6590
6591 <li>Get free software in the seminars where would-be teachers are
6592 trained. In many cases, teachers' software customs are respected by
6593 decision makers rather than the expertise of any IT experts.</li>
6594
6595 <li>Don't limit ourself to free software run natively. Everybody uses
6596 free software or free licenses (for instance Wikipedia), and this
6597 general concept should get expanded to free educational content to be
6598 shared world wide (school books e.g.).</li>
6599
6600 <li>Make clear where ever you can that the market share of free (libre)
6601 office suites is much above 20 p.c. today, and that you pupils don't
6602 need to know the "ribbon menu" in order to get employed.</li>
6603
6604 <li>Talk about the difference between freeware and free software.</li>
6605
6606 <li>Spread free software, or even collections of portable free apps
6607 for USB pen drives. Endorse students to get a legal copy of
6608 Libreoffice rather than accepting them to use illegal serials.  And
6609 keep sending documents in ODF formats.</li>
6610
6611 </ol></p>
6612
6613       </div>
6614       <div class="tags">
6615
6616
6617         Tags: <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/intervju">intervju</a>.
6618
6619
6620       </div>
6621     </div>
6622     <div class="padding"></div>
6623
6624     <div class="entry">
6625       <div class="title">
6626         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_cost_of_ODF_and_OOXML.html">The cost of ODF and OOXML</a>
6627       </div>
6628       <div class="date">
6629         26th May 2012
6630       </div>
6631       <div class="body">
6632         <p>I just come across a blog post from Glyn Moody reporting the
6633 claimed cost from Microsoft on requiring ODF to be used by the UK
6634 government.  I just sent him an email to let him know that his
6635 assumption are most likely wrong.  Sharing it here in case some of my
6636 blog readers have seem the same numbers float around in the UK.</p>
6637
6638 <p><blockquote> <p>Hi.  I just noted your
6639 <a href="http://blogs.computerworlduk.com/open-enterprise/2012/04/does-microsoft-office-lock-in-cost-the-uk-government-500-million/index.htm">http://blogs.computerworlduk.com/open-enterprise/2012/04/does-microsoft-office-lock-in-cost-the-uk-government-500-million/index.htm</a>
6640 comment:</p>
6641
6642 <p><blockquote>"They're all in Danish, not unreasonably, but even
6643 with the help of Google Translate I can't find any figures about the
6644 savings of "moving to a flexible two standard" as claimed by the
6645 Microsoft email. But I assume it is backed up somewhere, so let's take
6646 it, and the £500 million figure for the UK, on trust."
6647 </blockquote></p>
6648
6649 <p>I can tell you that the Danish reports are inflated.  I believe it is
6650 the same reports that were used in the Norwegian debate around 2007,
6651 and Gisle Hannemyr (a well known IT commentator in Norway) had a look
6652 at the content.  In short, the reason it is claimed that using ODF
6653 will be so costly, is based on the assumption that this mean every
6654 existing document need to be converted from one of the MS Office
6655 formats to ODF, transferred to the receiver, and converted back from
6656 ODF to one of the MS Office formats, and that the conversion will cost
6657 10 minutes of work time for both the sender and the receiver.  In
6658 reality the sender would have a tool capable of saving to ODF, and the
6659 receiver would have a tool capable of reading it, and the time spent
6660 would at most be a few seconds for saving and loading, not 20 minutes
6661 of wasted effort.</p>
6662
6663 <p>Microsoft claimed all these costs were saved by allowing people to
6664 transfer the original files from MS Office instead of spending 10
6665 minutes converting to ODF. :)</p>
6666
6667 <p>See
6668 <a href="http://hannemyr.com/no/ms12_vl02.php">http://hannemyr.com/no/ms12_vl02.php</a>
6669 and
6670 <a href="http://hannemyr.com/no/ms12.php">http://hannemyr.com/no/ms12.php</a>
6671 for background information.  Norwegian only, sorry. :)</p>
6672 </blockquote></p>
6673
6674       </div>
6675       <div class="tags">
6676
6677
6678         Tags: <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>.
6679
6680
6681       </div>
6682     </div>
6683     <div class="padding"></div>
6684
6685     <div class="entry">
6686       <div class="title">
6687         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/ColorHug___USB_and_free_software_based_screen_color_calibration.html">ColorHug - USB and free software based screen color calibration</a>
6688       </div>
6689       <div class="date">
6690         18th May 2012
6691       </div>
6692       <div class="body">
6693         <p>In january, I
6694 <a href="http://blog.cihar.com/archives/2012/01/17/colorhug-has-arrived/">discovered
6695 the ColorHug</a>, a USB dongle from
6696 <a href="http://www.hughski.com/index.html">Hughski</a> to calibrate
6697 the color on a computer screen.  The software required is
6698 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/c/colorhug-client.html">included
6699 in Debian</a>, and I decided back then to preorder from the next
6700 batch.  Yesterday I finally heard back from them, and got the
6701 opportunity to order.  Today I ordered mine, and eagerly await the
6702 delivery.  I hope it arrive next week, as I got a confirmation that it
6703 should go in the mail on monday. :)</p>
6704
6705 <p>If you want to ensure the colors on the screen match the intended
6706 colors, I suggest you check out this cheap tool with free software
6707 drivers. :)</p>
6708
6709       </div>
6710       <div class="tags">
6711
6712
6713         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
6714
6715
6716       </div>
6717     </div>
6718     <div class="padding"></div>
6719
6720     <div class="entry">
6721       <div class="title">
6722         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__J_rgen_Leibner.html">Debian Edu interview: Jürgen Leibner</a>
6723       </div>
6724       <div class="date">
6725         13th May 2012
6726       </div>
6727       <div class="body">
6728         <p>It has been a few busy weeks for me, but I am finally back to
6729 publish another interview with the people behind
6730 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu and Skolelinux</a>.
6731 This time it is one of our German developers, who have helped out over the
6732 years to make sure both a lot of major but also a lot of the minor
6733 details get right before release.
6734
6735 <p><strong>Who are you, and how do you spend your days?</strong></p>
6736
6737 <p>My name is Jürgen Leibner, I'm 49 years old and living in
6738 Bielefeld, a town in northern Germany.  I worked nearly 20 years as
6739 certified engineer in the department for plant design and layout of an
6740 international company for machinery and equipment.  Since 2011 I'm a
6741 certified technical writer (tekom e.V.) and doing technical
6742 documentations for a steam turbine manufacturer.  From April this year
6743 I will manage the department of technical documentation at a
6744 manufacturer of automation and assembly line engineering.</p>
6745
6746 <p>My first contact with linux was around 1993. Since that time I used
6747 it at work and at home repeatedly but not exclusively as I do now at
6748 home since 2006.</p>
6749
6750 <p><strong>How did you get in contact with the Skolelinux/Debian Edu
6751 project?</strong></p>
6752
6753 <p>Once a day in the early year of 2001 when I wanted to fetch my
6754 daughter from primary school, there was a teacher sitting in the
6755 middle of 20 old computers trying to boot them and he failed. I helped
6756 him to get them booting. That was seen by the school director and she
6757 asked me if I would like to manage that the school gets all that old
6758 computers in use. I answered: "Yes".</p>
6759
6760 <p>Some weeks later every of the 10 classrooms had one computer
6761 running Windows98. I began to collect old computers and equipment as
6762 gifts and installed the first computer room with a peer-to-peer
6763 network. I did my work at school without being payed in my spare time
6764 and with a lot of fun.  About one year later the school was connected
6765 to Internet and a local area network was installed in the school
6766 building.  That was the time to have a server and I knew it must be a
6767 Linux server to be able to fulfil all the wishes of the teachers and
6768 being able to do this in a transparent and economic way, without extra
6769 costs for things like licence and software.  So I searched for a
6770 school server system running under Linux and I found a couple of
6771 people nearby who founded 'skolelinux.de'. It was the Skolelinux
6772 prerelease 32 I first tried out for being used at the school.  I
6773 managed the IT of that school until the municipal authority took over
6774 the IT management and centralised the services for all schools in
6775 Bielefeld in December of 2006.</p>
6776
6777 <p><strong>What do you see as the advantages of Skolelinux/Debian
6778 Edu?</strong></p>
6779
6780 <p>When I'm looking back to the beginning, there were other advantages
6781 for me as today.</p>
6782
6783 <p>In the past there were advantages like:</p>
6784
6785 <p><ul>
6786
6787 <li>I don't need to buy it so it generates no costs to the school as
6788 they had little money to spent for computers and software.</li>
6789
6790 <li>It has a licence which grands all rights to use it without
6791 cost.</li>
6792
6793 <li>It was more able to fit all requirements of a server system for
6794 schools than a Microsoft server system, even if there are only Windows
6795 clients because of it's preconfigured overall concept of being a
6796 infrastructure solution and community for schools, not only a
6797 server</li>
6798
6799 <li>I was able to configure the server to the needs of the
6800 school.</li>
6801
6802 </ul></p>
6803
6804 <p>Today some of the advantages has been lost, changed or new ones
6805 came up in this way:</p>
6806
6807 <p><ul>
6808
6809 <li>Most schools here do have money to buy hardware and software
6810 now.</li>
6811
6812 <li>They are today mostly managed from central IT departments which
6813 have own concepts which often do not fit to Debian Edu concepts
6814 because they are to close to Microsoft ideology.</li>
6815
6816 <li>With the Squeeze version of Debian Edu which now uses GOsa² for
6817 management I feel more able to manage the daily tasks than with the
6818 interfaces used in the past.</li>
6819
6820 <li>It is more modular than in the past and fits even better to the
6821 different needs.</li>
6822
6823 <li>The documentation is usable and gets better every day.</li>
6824
6825 <li>More people than ever before are using Debian Edu all over the
6826 world and so the community, which is an very important part I think,
6827 is sharing knowledge and minds.</li>
6828
6829 <li>Most, maybe all, of the technical requirements for schools are
6830 solved today by Debian Edu. </li>
6831
6832 </ul></p>
6833
6834 <p><strong>What do you see as the disadvantages of Skolelinux/Debian
6835 Edu?</strong></p>
6836
6837 <p><ul>
6838
6839 <li>There are too few IT companies able to integrate Debian Edu into
6840 their product portfolio for serving schools with concepts or even
6841 whole municipality areas.</li>
6842
6843 <li>Debian Edu has beside other free and open software projects not
6844 enough lobbyists which promote free and open software to
6845 politicians.</li>
6846
6847 <li>Technically there are no disadvantages I'm aware of.</li>
6848
6849 </ul></p>
6850
6851 <p><strong>Which free software do you use daily?</strong></p>
6852
6853 <p>I use Debian stable on my home server and on my little desktop
6854 computer. On my laptop I use Debian testing/sid. The applications I
6855 use on my laptop and my desktop are Open/Libre-office, Iceweasel,
6856 KMail, DigiKam, Amarok, Dolphin, okular and all the other programs I
6857 need from the KDE environment.  On console I use newsbeuter, mutt,
6858 screen, irssi and all the other famous and useful tools.</p>
6859
6860 <p>My home server provides mail services with exim, dovecot, roundcube
6861 and mutt over ssh on the console, file services with samba, NFS,
6862 rsync, web services with apache, moinmoin-wiki, multimedia services
6863 with gallery2 and mediatomb and database services with MySQL for me
6864 and the whole family.  I probably forgot something.</p>
6865
6866 <p><strong>Which strategy do you believe is the right one to use to
6867 get schools to use free software?</strong></p>
6868
6869 <p>I believe, we should provide concepts for IT companies to integrate
6870 Debian Edu into their product portfolio with use cases for different
6871 countries and areas all over the world.</p>
6872
6873       </div>
6874       <div class="tags">
6875
6876
6877         Tags: <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/intervju">intervju</a>.
6878
6879
6880       </div>
6881     </div>
6882     <div class="padding"></div>
6883
6884     <div class="entry">
6885       <div class="title">
6886         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Cutting_it_short___and_picking_the_right_tool_for_the_job.html">Cutting it short - and picking the right tool for the job</a>
6887       </div>
6888       <div class="date">
6889         30th April 2012
6890       </div>
6891       <div class="body">
6892         <p><!-- IMG_5869.JPG -->
6893 <img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/images/panasonic-er-1611.jpeg"></p>
6894
6895 <p>I normally cut my hair short, and my tool of choice has been a
6896 common hair/beard cutter, bought in a electrical shop here in Norway.
6897 But the last ones have not really been up to the task.  My last
6898 cutter, some model from Braun, could only cut a few of my hairs at the
6899 time, and cutting my head took forever.  And the one before that did
6900 not work very well either.  We have looked for something better for a
6901 while, but it was not until I ended up visiting a hairdresser that we
6902 discovered that there are indeed better tools available.  But these
6903 are not marketed and sold to "regular consumers".  The hair saloons
6904 can get them through their suppliers, but their suppliers only sell
6905 companies.  The models they sell, are very different from the ones
6906 available from Elkjøp and Lefdal.  The main difference is their
6907 efficiency.  It would cut my hair in 5 minutes, instead of the 30-40
6908 minutes required by my impotent Braun.  The hairdresser I visited had
6909 a Panasonic ER160, which unfortunately is no longer available from the
6910 producer.  But I found it had a successor, the Panasonic ER1611.</p>
6911
6912 <p>The next step was to find somewhere to buy it.  This was not
6913 straight forward.  The list of suppliers I got from the hairdresser
6914 did not want to sell anything to me.  But searching for the model on
6915 the web we found a supplier in Norway willing to sell it to us for
6916 around NOK 4000,-.  This was a bit much.  We kept searching and
6917 finally found a Danish supplier
6918 <a href="http://nicehair.dk/panasonic-er-1611-professionel-hartrimmer.html">selling
6919 it for around NOK 1800,-</a>.  We ordered one, and it arrived a few
6920 days ago.</p>
6921
6922 <p>The instructions said it had to charge for 8 hours when we started
6923 to use it, so we left it charging over night.  Normally it will only
6924 need one hour to charge.  The following evening we successfully tested
6925 it, and I can warmly recommend it to anyone looking for a real hair
6926 cutter.  The ones we have used until now have been hair cutter
6927 toys.</p>
6928
6929       </div>
6930       <div class="tags">
6931
6932
6933         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
6934
6935
6936       </div>
6937     </div>
6938     <div class="padding"></div>
6939
6940     <div class="entry">
6941       <div class="title">
6942         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/HTC_One_X___Your_video___What_do_you_mean_.html">HTC One X - Your video?  What do you mean?</a>
6943       </div>
6944       <div class="date">
6945         26th April 2012
6946       </div>
6947       <div class="body">
6948         <p>In <a href="http://www.idg.no/computerworld/article243690.ece">an
6949 article today</a> published by Computerworld Norway, the photographer
6950 <a href="http://www.urke.com/eirik/">Eirik Helland Urke</a> reports
6951 that the video editor application included with
6952 <a href="http://www.htc.com/www/smartphones/htc-one-x/#specs">HTC One
6953 X</a> have some quite surprising terms of use.  The article is mostly
6954 based on the twitter message from mister Urke, stating:
6955
6956 <p><blockquote>
6957 "<a href="http://twitter.com/urke/status/194062269724897280">Drøy
6958 brukeravtale: HTC kan bruke MINE redigerte videoer kommersielt. Selv
6959 kan jeg KUN bruke dem privat.</a>"
6960 </blockquote></p>
6961
6962 <p>I quickly translated it to this English message:</p>
6963
6964 <p><blockquote>
6965 "Arrogant user agreement: HTC can use MY edited videos
6966 commercially.  Although I can ONLY use them privately."
6967 </blockquote></p>
6968
6969 <p>I've been unable to find the text of the license term myself, but
6970 suspect it is a variation of the MPEG-LA terms I
6971 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Terms_of_use_for_video_produced_by_a_Canon_IXUS_130_digital_camera.html">discovered
6972 with my Canon IXUS 130</a>.  The HTC One X specification specifies that
6973 the recording format of the phone is .amr for audio and .mp3 for
6974 video.  AMR is
6975 <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adaptive_Multi-Rate_audio_codec#Licensing_and_patent_issues">Adaptive
6976 Multi-Rate audio codec</a> with patents which according to the
6977 Wikipedia article require an license agreement with
6978 <a href="http://www.voiceage.com/">VoiceAge</a>.  MP4 is
6979 <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H.264/MPEG-4_AVC#Patent_licensing">MPEG4 with
6980 H.264</a>, which according to Wikipedia require a licence agreement
6981 with <a href="http://www.mpegla.com/">MPEG-LA</a>.</p>
6982
6983 <p>I know why I prefer
6984 <a href="http://www.digistan.org/open-standard:definition">free and open
6985 standards</a> also for video.</p>
6986
6987       </div>
6988       <div class="tags">
6989
6990
6991         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/digistan">digistan</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/personvern">personvern</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/standard">standard</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>.
6992
6993
6994       </div>
6995     </div>
6996     <div class="padding"></div>
6997
6998     <div class="entry">
6999       <div class="title">
7000         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/RAND_terms___non_reasonable_and_discriminatory.html">RAND terms - non-reasonable and discriminatory</a>
7001       </div>
7002       <div class="date">
7003         19th April 2012
7004       </div>
7005       <div class="body">
7006         <p>Here in Norway, the
7007 <a href="http://www.regjeringen.no/nb/dep/fad.html?id=339"> Ministry of
7008 Government Administration, Reform and Church Affairs</a> is behind
7009 a <a href="http://standard.difi.no/forvaltningsstandarder">directory of
7010 standards</a> that are recommended or mandatory for use by the
7011 government.  When the directory was created, the people behind it made
7012 an effort to ensure that everyone would be able to implement the
7013 standards and compete on equal terms to supply software and solutions
7014 to the government.  Free software and non-free software could compete
7015 on the same level.</p>
7016
7017 <p>But recently, some standards with RAND
7018 (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reasonable_and_non-discriminatory_licensing">Reasonable
7019 And Non-Discriminatory</a>) terms have made their way into the
7020 directory.  And while this might not sound too bad, the fact is that
7021 standard specifications with RAND terms often block free software from
7022 implementing them.  The reasonable part of RAND mean that the cost per
7023 user/unit is low,and the non-discriminatory part mean that everyone
7024 willing to pay will get a license.  Both sound great in theory.  In
7025 practice, to get such license one need to be able to count users, and
7026 be able to pay a small amount of money per unit or user.  By
7027 definition, users of free software do not need to register their use.
7028 So counting users or units is not possible for free software projects.
7029 And given that people will use the software without handing any money
7030 to the author, it is not really economically possible for a free
7031 software author to pay a small amount of money to license the rights
7032 to implement a standard when the income available is zero.  The result
7033 in these situations is that free software are locked out from
7034 implementing standards with RAND terms.</p>
7035
7036 <p>Because of this, when I see someone claiming the terms of a
7037 standard is reasonable and non-discriminatory, all I can think of is
7038 how this really is non-reasonable and discriminatory.  Because free
7039 software developers are working in a global market, it does not really
7040 help to know that software patents are not supposed to be enforceable
7041 in Norway.  The patent regimes in other countries affect us even here.
7042 I really hope the people behind the standard directory will pay more
7043 attention to these issues in the future.</p>
7044
7045 <p>You can find more on the issues with RAND, FRAND and RAND-Z terms
7046 from Simon Phipps
7047 (<a href="http://blogs.computerworlduk.com/simon-says/2010/11/rand-not-so-reasonable/">RAND:
7048 Not So Reasonable?</a>).</p>
7049
7050 <p>Update 2012-04-21: Just came across a
7051 <a href="http://blogs.computerworlduk.com/open-enterprise/2012/04/of-microsoft-netscape-patents-and-open-standards/index.htm">blog
7052 post from Glyn Moody</a> over at Computer World UK warning about the
7053 same issue, and urging people to speak out to the UK government.  I
7054 can only urge Norwegian users to do the same for
7055 <a href="http://www.standard.difi.no/hoyring/hoyring-om-nye-anbefalte-it-standarder">the
7056 hearing taking place at the moment</a> (respond before 2012-04-27).
7057 It proposes to require video conferencing standards including
7058 specifications with RAND terms.</p>
7059
7060       </div>
7061       <div class="tags">
7062
7063
7064         Tags: <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/nuug">nuug</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/standard">standard</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/video">video</a>.
7065
7066
7067       </div>
7068     </div>
7069     <div class="padding"></div>
7070
7071     <div class="entry">
7072       <div class="title">
7073         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__Andreas_Mundt.html">Debian Edu interview: Andreas Mundt</a>
7074       </div>
7075       <div class="date">
7076         15th April 2012
7077       </div>
7078       <div class="body">
7079         <p>Behind <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu and
7080 Skolelinux</a> there are a lot of people doing the hard work of
7081 setting together all the pieces.  This time I present to you Andreas
7082 Mundt, who have been part of the technical development team several
7083 years.  He was also a key contributor in getting GOsa and Kerberos set
7084 up in the recently released
7085 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Documentation/Squeeze">Debian
7086 Edu Squeeze</a> version.</p>
7087
7088 <p><strong>Who are you, and how do you spend your days?</strong></p>
7089
7090 <p>My name is Andreas Mundt, I grew up in south Germany.  After
7091 studying Physics I spent several years at university doing research in
7092 Quantum Optics.  After that I worked some years in an optics company.
7093 Finally I decided to turn over a new leaf in my life and started
7094 teaching 10 to 19 years old kids at school.  I teach math, physics,
7095 information technology and science/technology.</p>
7096
7097 <p><strong>How did you get in contact with the Skolelinux/Debian Edu
7098 project?</strong></p>
7099
7100 <p>Already before I switched to teaching, I followed the Debian Edu
7101 project because of my interest in education and Debian.  Within the
7102 qualification/training period for the teaching, I started
7103 contributing.</p>
7104
7105 <p><strong>What do you see as the advantages of Skolelinux/Debian
7106 Edu?</strong></p>
7107
7108 <p>The advantages of Debian Edu are the well known name, the
7109 out-of-the-box philosophy and of course the great free software of the
7110 Debian Project!</p>
7111
7112 <p><strong>What do you see as the disadvantages of Skolelinux/Debian
7113 Edu?</strong></p>
7114
7115 <p>As every coin has two sides, the out-of-the-box philosophy has its
7116 downside, too.  In my opinion, it is hard to modify and tweak the
7117 setup, if you need or want that.  Further more, it is not easily
7118 possible to upgrade the system to a new release.  It takes much too
7119 long after a Debian release to prepare the -Edu release, perhaps
7120 because the number of developers working on the core of the code is
7121 rather small and often busy elsewhere.</p>
7122
7123 <p>The <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianLAN">Debian LAN</a>
7124 project might fill the use case of a more flexible system.</p>
7125
7126 <p><strong>Which free software do you use daily?</strong></p>
7127
7128 <p>I am only using non-free software if I am forced to and run Debian
7129 on all my machines.  For documents I prefer LaTeX and PGF/TikZ, then
7130 mutt and iceweasel for email respectively web browsing.  At school I
7131 have Arduino and Fritzing in use for a micro controller project.</p>
7132
7133 <p><strong>Which strategy do you believe is the right one to use to
7134 get schools to use free software?</strong></p>
7135
7136 <p>One of the major problems is the vendor lock-in from top to bottom:
7137 Especially in combination with ignorant government employees and
7138 politicians, this works out great for the "market-leader".  The school
7139 administration here in Baden-Wuerttemberg is occupied by that vendor.
7140 Documents have to be prepared in non-free, proprietary formats.  Even
7141 free browsers do not work for the school administration.  Publishers
7142 of school books provide software only for proprietary platforms.</p>
7143
7144 <p>To change this, political work is very important.  Parts of the
7145 political spectrum have become aware of the problem in the last years.
7146 However it takes quite some time and courageous politicians to 'free'
7147 the system.  There is currently some discussion about "Open Data" and
7148 "Free/Open Standards".  I am not sure if all the involved parties have
7149 a clue about the potential of these ideas, and probably only a
7150 fraction takes them seriously.  However it might slowly make free
7151 software and the philosophy behind it more known and popular.</p>
7152
7153       </div>
7154       <div class="tags">
7155
7156
7157         Tags: <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/intervju">intervju</a>.
7158
7159
7160       </div>
7161     </div>
7162     <div class="padding"></div>
7163
7164     <div class="entry">
7165       <div class="title">
7166         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__Justin_B__Rye.html">Debian Edu interview: Justin B. Rye</a>
7167       </div>
7168       <div class="date">
7169          8th April 2012
7170       </div>
7171       <div class="body">
7172         <p>It take all kind of contributions to create a Linux distribution
7173 like <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux</a>,
7174 and this time I lend the ear to Justin B. Rye, who is listed as a big
7175 contributor to the
7176 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Documentation/Squeeze">Debian
7177 Edu Squeeze release manual</a>.
7178
7179 <p><strong>Who are you, and how do you spend your days?</strong></p>
7180
7181 <p>I'm a 44-year-old linguistics graduate living in Edinburgh who has
7182 occasionally been employed as a sysadmin.</p>
7183
7184 <p><strong>How did you get in contact with the Skolelinux/Debian Edu
7185 project?</strong></p>
7186
7187 <p>I'm neither a developer nor a Skolelinux/Debian Edu user!  The only
7188 reason my name's in the credits for the documentation is that I hang
7189 around on debian-l10n-english waiting for people to mention things
7190 they'd like a native English speaker to proofread...  So I did a sweep
7191 through the wiki for typos and Norglish and inconsistent spellings of
7192 "localisation".</p>
7193
7194 <p><strong>What do you see as the advantages of Skolelinux/Debian
7195 Edu?</strong></p>
7196
7197 <p><strong>What do you see as the disadvantages of Skolelinux/Debian
7198 Edu?</strong></p>
7199
7200 <p>These questions are too hard for me - I don't use it!  In fact I
7201 had hardly any contact with I.T. until long after I'd got out of the
7202 education system.</p>
7203
7204 <p>I can tell you the advantages of Debian for me though: it soaks up
7205 as much of my free time as I want and no more, and lets me do
7206 everything I want a computer for without ever forcing me to spend
7207 money on the latest hardware.</p>
7208
7209 <p><strong>Which free software do you use daily?</strong></p>
7210
7211 <p>I've been using Debian since Rex; popularity-contest says the
7212 software that I use most is xinit, xterm, and xulrunner (in other
7213 words, I use a distinctly retro sort of desktop).</p>
7214
7215 <p><strong>Which strategy do you believe is the right one to use to
7216 get schools to use free software?</strong></p>
7217
7218 <p>Well, I don't know.  I suppose I'd be inclined to try reasoning
7219 with the people who make the decisions, but obviously if that worked
7220 you would hardly need a strategy.</p>
7221
7222       </div>
7223       <div class="tags">
7224
7225
7226         Tags: <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/intervju">intervju</a>.
7227
7228
7229       </div>
7230     </div>
7231     <div class="padding"></div>
7232
7233     <div class="entry">
7234       <div class="title">
7235         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Why_the_KDE_menu_is_slow_when__usr__is_NFS_mounted___and_a_workaround.html">Why the KDE menu is slow when /usr/ is NFS mounted - and a workaround</a>
7236       </div>
7237       <div class="date">
7238          6th April 2012
7239       </div>
7240       <div class="body">
7241         <p>Recently I have spent time with
7242 <a href="http://www.slxdrift.no/">Skolelinux Drift AS</a> on speeding
7243 up a <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux</a>
7244 Lenny installation using LTSP diskless workstations, and in the
7245 process I discovered something very surprising.  The reason the KDE
7246 menu was responding slow when using it for the first time, was mostly
7247 due to the way KDE find application icons.  I discovered that showing
7248 the Multimedia menu would cause more than 20 000 IP packages to be
7249 passed between the LTSP client and the NFS server.  Most of these were
7250
7251 NFS LOOKUP calls, resulting in a NFS3ERR_NOENT response.  Because the
7252 ping times between the client and the server were in the range 2-20
7253 ms, the menus would be very slow.  Looking at the strace of kicker in
7254 Lenny (or plasma-desktop i Squeeze - same problem there), I see that
7255 the source of these NFS calls are access(2) system calls for
7256 non-existing files.  KDE can do hundreds of access(2) calls to find
7257 one icon file.  In my example, just finding the mplayer icon required
7258 around 230 access(2) calls.</p>
7259
7260 <p>The KDE code seem to search for icons using a list of icon
7261 directories, and the list of possible directories is large.  In
7262 (almost) each directory, it look for files ending in .png, .svgz, .svg
7263 and .xpm.  The result is a very slow KDE menu when /usr/ is NFS
7264 mounted.  Showing a single sub menu may result in thousands of NFS
7265 requests.  I am not the first one to discover this.  I found a
7266 <a href="https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=211416">KDE bug report
7267 from 2009</a> about this problem, and it is still unsolved.</p>
7268
7269 <p>My solution to speed up the KDE menu was to create a package
7270 kde-icon-cache that upon installation will look at all .desktop files
7271 used to generate the KDE menu, find their icons, search the icon paths
7272 for the file that KDE will end up finding at run time, and copying the
7273 icon file to /var/lib/kde-icon-cache/.  Finally, I add symlinks to
7274 these icon files in one of the first directories where KDE will look
7275 for them.  This cut down the number of file accesses required to find
7276 one icon from several hundred to less than 5, and make the KDE menu
7277 almost instantaneous.  I'm not quite sure where to make the package
7278 publicly available, so for now it is only available on request.</p>
7279
7280 <p>The bug report mention that this do not only affect the KDE menu
7281 and icon handling, but also the login process.  Not quite sure how to
7282 speed up that part without replacing NFS with for example NBD, and
7283 that is not really an option at the moment.</p>
7284
7285 <p>If you got feedback on this issue, please let us know on debian-edu
7286 (at) lists.debian.org.</p>
7287
7288       </div>
7289       <div class="tags">
7290
7291
7292         Tags: <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>.
7293
7294
7295       </div>
7296     </div>
7297     <div class="padding"></div>
7298
7299     <div class="entry">
7300       <div class="title">
7301         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_in_the_Linux_Weekly_News.html">Debian Edu in the Linux Weekly News</a>
7302       </div>
7303       <div class="date">
7304          5th April 2012
7305       </div>
7306       <div class="body">
7307         <p>About two weeks ago, I was interviewed via email about
7308 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu and Skolelinux</a> by
7309 Bruce Byfield in Linux Weekly News.  The result was made public for
7310 non-subscribers today.  I am pleased to see liked our Linux solution
7311 for schools.  Check out his article
7312 <a href="https://lwn.net/Articles/488805/">Debian Edu/Skolelinux: A
7313 distribution for education</a> if you want to learn more.</p>
7314
7315       </div>
7316       <div class="tags">
7317
7318
7319         Tags: <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>.
7320
7321
7322       </div>
7323     </div>
7324     <div class="padding"></div>
7325
7326     <div class="entry">
7327       <div class="title">
7328         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__Wolfgang_Schweer.html">Debian Edu interview: Wolfgang Schweer</a>
7329       </div>
7330       <div class="date">
7331          1st April 2012
7332       </div>
7333       <div class="body">
7334         <p>Germany is a core area for the
7335 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu and Skolelinux</a>
7336 user community, and this time I managed to get hold of Wolfgang
7337 Schweer, a valuable contributor to the project from Germany.
7338
7339 <p><strong>Who are you, and how do you spend your days?</strong></p>
7340
7341 <p>I've studied Mathematics at the university 'Ruhr-Universität' in
7342 Bochum, Germany. Since 1981 I'm working as a teacher at the school
7343 "<a href="http://www.westfalenkolleg-dortmund.de/">Westfalen-Kolleg
7344 Dortmund</a>", a second chance school.  Here, young adults is given
7345 the opportunity to get further education in order to do the school
7346 examination 'Abitur', which will allow to study at a university. This
7347 second chance is of value for those who want a better job perspective
7348 or failed to get a higher school examination being teens.</p>
7349
7350 <p>Besides teaching I was involved in developing online courses for a
7351 blended learning project called 'abitur-online.nrw' and in some other
7352 information technology related projects. For about ten years I've been
7353 teacher and coordinator for the 'abitur-online' project at my
7354 school. Being now in my early sixties, I've decided to leave school at
7355 the end of April this year.</p>
7356
7357 <p><strong>How did you get in contact with the Skolelinux/Debian Edu
7358 project?</strong></p>
7359
7360 <p>The first information about Skolelinux must have come to my
7361 attention years ago and somehow related to LTSP (Linux Terminal Server
7362 Project).  At school, we had set up a network at the beginning of 1997
7363 using Suse Linux on the desktop, replacing a Novell network. Since
7364 2002, we used old machines from the city council of Dortmund as thin
7365 clients (LTSP, later Ubuntu/Lessdisks) cause new hardware was out of
7366 reach. At home I'm using Debian since years and - subscribed to the
7367 Debian news letter - heard from time to time about Skolelinux. About
7368 two years ago I proposed to replace the (somehow undocumented and only
7369 known to me) system at school by a well known Debian based system:
7370 Skolelinux.</p>
7371
7372 <p>Students and teachers appreciated the new system because of a
7373 better look and feel and an enhanced access to local media on thin
7374 clients.  The possibility to alter and/or reset passwords using a GUI
7375 was welcomed, too. Being able to do administrative tasks using a GUI
7376 and to easily set up workstations using PXE was of very high value for
7377 the admin teachers.</p>
7378
7379 <p><strong>What do you see as the advantages of Skolelinux/Debian
7380 Edu?</strong></p>
7381
7382 <p>It's open source, easy to set up, stable and flexible due to it's
7383 Debian base. It integrates LTSP out-of-the-box. And it is documented!
7384 So it was a perfect choice.</p>
7385
7386 <p>Being open source, there are no license problems and so it's
7387 possible to point teachers and students to programs like
7388 OpenOffice.org, ViewYourMind (mind mapping) and The Gimp.  It's of
7389 high value to be able to adapt parts of the system to special needs of
7390 a school and to choose where to get support for this.</p>
7391
7392 <p><strong>What do you see as the disadvantages of Skolelinux/Debian
7393 Edu?</strong></p>
7394
7395 <p>Nothing yet.</p>
7396
7397 <p><strong>Which free software do you use daily?</strong></p>
7398
7399 <p>At home (Debian Sid with Gnome Desktop): Iceweasel, LibreOffice,
7400 Mutt, Gedit, Document Viewer, Midnight Commander, flpsed (PDF
7401 Annotator).  At school (Skolelinux Lenny): Iceweasel, Gedit,
7402 LibreOffice.</p>
7403
7404 <p><strong>Which strategy do you believe is the right one to use to
7405 get schools to use free software?</strong></p>
7406
7407 <p>Some time ago I thought it was enough to tell people about it. But
7408 that doesn't seem to work quite well. Now I concentrate on those more
7409 interested and hope to get multiplicators that way.</p>
7410
7411       </div>
7412       <div class="tags">
7413
7414
7415         Tags: <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/intervju">intervju</a>.
7416
7417
7418       </div>
7419     </div>
7420     <div class="padding"></div>
7421
7422     <div class="entry">
7423       <div class="title">
7424         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_screencast__Checking_email_with_kmail_using_Kerberos_authentication.html">Debian Edu screencast: Checking email with kmail using Kerberos authentication</a>
7425       </div>
7426       <div class="date">
7427         25th March 2012
7428       </div>
7429       <div class="body">
7430         <!-- Video HTML based on http://www.diveintohtml5.net/video.html -->
7431
7432 <p>The same Debian Edu developer that did the last screen cast I
7433 published, Wolfgang Schweer, has created a new screen cast showing how
7434 to set up Kmail in Debian Edu Squeze to authenticate using Kerberos,
7435 allowing users to check their local email account without providing
7436 any password. The video is embedded here in quarter size,
7437 and also available from <a href="https://vimeo.com/38601767">vimeo</a>
7438 and download as a
7439 <a href="http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux/press/screencasts/2012-03-14-Debian-Edu_Configure_Kmail_for_internal_usage.ogv">Ogg
7440 Theora</a> file.  Check it out below.</p>
7441
7442 <p><video id="kmail-kerberos-movie" width="256" height="184" preload controls>
7443   <source src="http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux/press/screencasts/2012-03-14-Debian-Edu_Configure_Kmail_for_internal_usage.ogv" type='video/ogg; codecs="theora, vorbis"' />
7444     <p>Download video as
7445       <a href="http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux/press/screencasts/2012-03-14-Debian-Edu_Configure_Kmail_for_internal_usage.ogv">Ogg</a>.</p>
7446 </video></p>
7447
7448       </div>
7449       <div class="tags">
7450
7451
7452         Tags: <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>.
7453
7454
7455       </div>
7456     </div>
7457     <div class="padding"></div>
7458
7459     <div class="entry">
7460       <div class="title">
7461         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__John_Ingleby.html">Debian Edu interview: John Ingleby</a>
7462       </div>
7463       <div class="date">
7464         19th March 2012
7465       </div>
7466       <div class="body">
7467         <p><a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux</a>
7468 users are spread all across the globe.  The second inteview after
7469 <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-edu-announce/2012/03/msg00001.html">the
7470 Squeeze release</a> was publised is with John Ingleby, a teacher and
7471 long time Linux user in United Kingdom.</p>
7472
7473 <p><strong>Who are you, and how do you spend your days?</strong></p>
7474
7475 <p>I teach ICT part time at the Rudolf Steiner School in Kings
7476 Langley, near London, UK. Previously I worked as a technical
7477 author/trainer while my children attended the school, and I also
7478 contributed to the Schoolforge UK community with the aim of
7479 encouraging UK schools to adopt free/open source software. Five or six
7480 years ago we had about 50 schools interested in some way, but we
7481 weren't able to convert many of them into sustainable
7482 installations.</p>
7483
7484 <p><strong>How did you get in contact with the Skolelinux/Debian Edu
7485 project?</strong></p>
7486
7487 <p>Skolelinux had two representatives at an early Edubuntu meeting in
7488 London which I attended. However at that time our school network had
7489 just been installed using CentOS, LTSP 4 and GNOME. When LTSP 5 came
7490 along we switched to Edubuntu thin client servers so now we have a
7491 mixed environment which includes Windows PCs and student laptops, as
7492 well as their MacBooks and iPads. However, the proprietary systems
7493 have always been rather problematic, and we never built a GUI for the
7494 LDAP server, so when I discovered Skolelinux is configured for all
7495 these things we decided to try it.</p>
7496
7497 <p><strong>What do you see as the advantages of Skolelinux/Debian
7498 Edu?</strong></p>
7499
7500 <p>By far the biggest advantage is the Debian Edu community. Apart
7501 from that I have always believed in the same "sustainable computing"
7502 goals that Skolelinux is built on: installing Linux on computers which
7503 would otherwise be thrown away, to provide a reliable, secure and
7504 low-cost IT environment for schools. From my own experience I know
7505 that a part-time person can teach and manage a network of about 25
7506 Linux computers, but it would take much more of my time if we had
7507 proprietary software everywhere.</p>
7508
7509 <p><strong>What do you see as the disadvantages of Skolelinux/Debian
7510 Edu?</strong></p>
7511
7512 <p>As a newcomer I'm just finding out who's who in the community and
7513 how you're organised, and what your procedures are for dealing with
7514 various things such as editing manual pages and so-on. The only
7515 English language mailing list seems to be for developers as well as
7516 users, so my inbox needs heavy pruning each day!</p>
7517
7518 <p><strong>Which free software do you use daily?</strong></p>
7519
7520 <p>Besides the software already mentioned at school we use Samba,
7521 OpenLDAP, CUPS, Nagios and Dansguardian for the network, and on the
7522 desktops we have LibreOffice, Firefox, GIMP and Inkscape. At home I
7523 use Ubuntu and an Android 4 eePad Transformer (but I'm not sure if
7524 that counts...)</p>
7525
7526 <p><strong>Which strategy do you believe is the right one to use to
7527 get schools to use free software?</strong></p>
7528
7529 <p>That's a tough question! For very many years UK schools installed
7530 and taught only proprietary software, so that at the highest levels
7531 the notion of "computer" means simply "proprietary office
7532 applications".  However, schools today are experiencing budget
7533 constraints, and many are having to think hard about upgrading Windows
7534 XP.  At the same time, we have students showing teachers how to use
7535 iPads, MacBooks and Android, so the choice of operating system is no
7536 longer quite so automatic. What is more, our government at last
7537 realised that we need people with programming skills, so they're
7538 putting coding back in the curriculum! And it's encouraging that the
7539 first 10,000 Raspberry Pi units sold out in 2 hours.</p>
7540
7541 <p>I don't really know what strategy is going to get UK schools to use
7542 free software, but building an active community of Skolelinux/Debian
7543 Edu users in this country has to be part of it.</p>
7544
7545       </div>
7546       <div class="tags">
7547
7548
7549         Tags: <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/intervju">intervju</a>.
7550
7551
7552       </div>
7553     </div>
7554     <div class="padding"></div>
7555
7556     <div class="entry">
7557       <div class="title">
7558         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Writing_and_translating_documentation_in_Debian_Edu.html">Writing and translating documentation in Debian Edu</a>
7559       </div>
7560       <div class="date">
7561         16th March 2012
7562       </div>
7563       <div class="body">
7564         <p>Documentation in Debian Edu is provided in several languages, and
7565 it is important to make it both easy to contribute and to keep the
7566 translated versions in sync.  To do this we have come up with what we
7567 believe is a very efficient work flow.</p>
7568
7569 <ol>
7570
7571 <li>The documentation is written in a
7572 <a href="http://moinmo.in">moinmoin wiki</a> (see for example
7573 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Documentation/Squeeze">the
7574 Squeeze release manual</a>) with support for exporting the content as
7575 docbook XML.</li>
7576
7577 <li>This docbook document is given to po4a to extract a gettext style
7578 .pot file with the content, which in turn is used to create .po files
7579 with the translated text.</li>
7580
7581 <li>The .po files are given to translators, and they can always tell
7582 which part of the original wiki document is new or changed.  They can
7583 use their normal translation tools like lokalize or poedit to write
7584 the translation.  There is even a system in place to handle translated
7585 images.</li>
7586
7587 <li>The translated .po files are combined with the original docbook
7588 XML document using po4a to create a translated docbook document.</li>
7589
7590 <li>The final step is to use all the generated docbook files and
7591 create PDF and HTML version of the original and translated documents.</li>
7592
7593 </ol>
7594
7595 <p>This setup work very well, but have a few issues.  The biggest
7596 issue is that <a href="http://moinmo.in/DocBook">the docbook support
7597 we use in moinmoin</a> is not actively maintained.  The docbook
7598 support is also buggy, and our build system contain workarounds to
7599 make sure the generated docbook is usable despite these bugs.</p>
7600
7601 <p>If you want to have a look at our setup, it is all there in the
7602 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/debian-edu-doc">debian-edu-doc
7603 package</a>.</p>
7604
7605       </div>
7606       <div class="tags">
7607
7608
7609         Tags: <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>.
7610
7611
7612       </div>
7613     </div>
7614     <div class="padding"></div>
7615
7616     <div class="entry">
7617       <div class="title">
7618         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Skolelinux___Debian_Edu_Squeeze_is_out_.html">Skolelinux / Debian Edu Squeeze is out!</a>
7619       </div>
7620       <div class="date">
7621         11th March 2012
7622       </div>
7623       <div class="body">
7624         <p>This weekend we finally published the first stable release of
7625 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Skolelinux / Debian Edu</a> based
7626 on Debian/Squeeze.  The full announcement is
7627 <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-edu-announce/2012/03/msg00001.html">available</a>
7628 from the project announcement list.  Now is a good time to test if it
7629 you have not done so already.</p>
7630
7631 <p>I plan to present the new version at
7632 <a href="http://www.nuug.no/aktiviteter/20120313-skolelinux/">a NUUG
7633 meeting</a> on tuesday.  I look forward to seeing you there if you are
7634 in Oslo, Norway.</p>
7635
7636       </div>
7637       <div class="tags">
7638
7639
7640         Tags: <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>.
7641
7642
7643       </div>
7644     </div>
7645     <div class="padding"></div>
7646
7647     <div class="entry">
7648       <div class="title">
7649         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_interview__Nigel_Barker.html">Debian Edu interview: Nigel Barker</a>
7650       </div>
7651       <div class="date">
7652          9th March 2012
7653       </div>
7654       <div class="body">
7655         <p>Inspired by <a href="http://raphaelhertzog.com/tag/interview/">the
7656 interview series</a> conducted by Raphael, I started a Norwegian
7657 interview series with people involved in the Debian Edu / Skolelinux
7658 community.  This was so popular that I believe it is time to move to a
7659 more international audience.</p>
7660
7661 <p>While <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu and
7662 Skolelinux</a> originated in France and Norway, and have most users in
7663 Europe, there are users all around the globe.  One of those far away
7664 from me is Nigel Barker, a long time Debian Edu system administrator
7665 and contributor.  It is thanks to him that Debian Edu is adjusted to
7666 work out of the box in Japan.  I got him to answer a few questions,
7667 and am happy to share the response with you. :)
7668
7669
7670 <p><strong>Who are you, and how do you spend your days?</strong></p>
7671
7672 <p>My name is Nigel Barker, and I am British. I am married to Yumiko,
7673 and we have three lovely children, aged 15, 14 and 4(!) I am the IT
7674 Coordinator at Hiroshima International School, Japan. I am also a
7675 teacher, and in fact I spend most of my day teaching Mathematics,
7676 Science, IT, and Chemistry. I was originally a Chemistry teacher, but
7677 I have always had an interest in computers. Another teacher teaches
7678 primary school IT, but apart from that I am the only computer person,
7679 so that means I am the network manager, technician and webmaster,
7680 also, and I help people with their computer problems. I teach python
7681 to beginners in an after-school club. I am way too busy, so I really
7682 appreciate the simplicity of Skolelinux.</p>
7683
7684 <p><strong>How did you get in contact with the Skolelinux/Debian Edu
7685 project?</strong></p>
7686
7687 <p>In around 2004 or 5 I discovered the ltsp project, and set up a
7688 server in the IT lab. I wanted some way to connect it to our central
7689 samba server, which I was also quite poor at configuring. I discovered
7690 Edubuntu when it came out, but it didn't really improve my setup. I
7691 did various desperate searches for things like "school Linux server"
7692 and ended up in a document called "Drift" something or other. Reading
7693 there it became clear that Skolelinux was going to solve all my
7694 problems in one go. I was very excited, but apprehensive, because my
7695 previous attempts to install Debian had ended in failure (I used
7696 Mandrake for everything - ltsp, samba, apache, mail, ns...). I
7697 downloaded a beta version, had some problems, so subscribed to the
7698 Debian Edu list for help. I have remained subscribed ever since, and
7699 my school has run a Skolelinux network since Sarge.</p>
7700
7701 <p><strong>What do you see as the advantages of Skolelinux/Debian
7702 Edu?</strong></p>
7703
7704 <p>For me the integrated setup. This is not just the server, or the
7705 workstation, or the ltsp. Its all of them, and its all configured
7706 ready to go. I read somewhere in the early documentation that it is
7707 designed to be setup and managed by the Maths or Science teacher, who
7708 doesn't necessarily know much about computers, in a small Norwegian
7709 school. That describes me perfectly if you replace Norway with
7710 Japan.</p>
7711
7712 <p><strong>What do you see as the disadvantages of Skolelinux/Debian
7713 Edu?</strong></p>
7714
7715 <p>The desktop is fairly plain. If you compare it with Edubuntu, who
7716 have fun themes for children, or with distributions such as Mint, who
7717 make the desktop beautiful. They create a good impression on people
7718 who don't need to understand how to use any of it, but who might be
7719 important to the school. School administrators or directors, for
7720 instance, or parents. Even kids. Debian itself usually has ugly
7721 default theme settings. It was my dream a few years back that some
7722 kind of integration would allow Edubuntu to do the desktop stuff and
7723 Debian Edu the servers, but now I realise how impossible that is.  A
7724 second disadvantage is that if something goes wrong, or you need to
7725 customise something, then suddenly the level of expertise required
7726 multiplies. For example, backup wasn't working properly in Lenny. It
7727 took me ages to learn how to set up my own server to do rsync backups.
7728 I am afraid of anything to do with ldap, but perhaps Gosa will
7729 help.</p>
7730
7731 <p><strong>Which free software do you use daily?</strong></p>
7732
7733 <p>Nowadays I only use Debian on my personal computers. I have one for
7734 studio work (I play guitar and write songs), running AV Linux
7735 (customised Debian) a netbook running Squeeze, and a bigger laptop
7736 still running Skolelinux Lenny workstation. I have a Tjener in my
7737 house, that's very useful for the family photos and music.  At school
7738 the students only use Skolelinux. (Some teachers and the office still
7739 have windows). So that means we only use free software all day every
7740 day. Open office, The GIMP, Firefox/Iceweasel, VLC and Audacity are
7741 installed on every computer in school, irrespective of OS.  We also
7742 have Koha on Debian for the library, and Apache, Moodle, b2evolution
7743 and Etomite on Debian for the www. The firewall is Untangle.</p>
7744
7745 <p><strong>Which strategy do you believe is the right one to use to
7746 get schools to use free software?</strong></p>
7747
7748 <p>Current trends are in our favour. Open source is big in industry,
7749 and ordinary people have heard of it. The spread of Android and the
7750 popularity of Apple have helped to weaken the impression that you have
7751 to have Microsoft on everything. People complain to me much less about
7752 file formats and Word than they did 5 years ago.  The Edu aspect is
7753 also a selling point. This is all customised for schools. Where is the
7754 Windows-edu, or the Mac-edu?  But of course the main attraction is
7755 budget.The trick is to convince people that the quality is not
7756 compromised when you stop paying and use free software instead. That
7757 is one reason why I say the desktop experience is a weakness. People
7758 are not impressed when their USB drive doesn't work, or their browser
7759 doesn't play flash, for example.</p>
7760
7761       </div>
7762       <div class="tags">
7763
7764
7765         Tags: <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/intervju">intervju</a>.
7766
7767
7768       </div>
7769     </div>
7770     <div class="padding"></div>
7771
7772     <div class="entry">
7773       <div class="title">
7774         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_screencast__Mass_creation_of_user_accounts_in_Squeeze.html">Debian Edu screencast: Mass creation of user accounts in Squeeze</a>
7775       </div>
7776       <div class="date">
7777          7th March 2012
7778       </div>
7779       <div class="body">
7780         <!-- Video HTML based on http://www.diveintohtml5.net/video.html -->
7781
7782 <p>One of the Debian Edu developers, Wolfgang Schweer, just created a
7783 screen cast documenting how to create a lot of new users in LDAP on
7784 Debian Edu Squeeze.  The video is embedded here in quarter size, and
7785 also available from <a href="http://vimeo.com/37675399">vimeo</a> and
7786 download as a
7787 <a href="http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux/press/screencasts/2012-02-29-debian_edu_mass_create_user_accounts.ogv">Ogg
7788 Theora</a> file.  Check it out below.</p>
7789
7790 <p><video id="gosa-mass-user-create-movie" width="256" height="184" preload controls>
7791   <source src="http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux/press/screencasts/2012-02-29-debian_edu_mass_create_user_accounts.ogv" type='video/ogg; codecs="theora, vorbis"' />
7792     <p>Download video as
7793       <a href="http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux/press/screencasts/2012-02-29-debian_edu_mass_create_user_accounts.ogv">Ogg</a>.</p>
7794 </video></p>
7795
7796       </div>
7797       <div class="tags">
7798
7799
7800         Tags: <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>.
7801
7802
7803       </div>
7804     </div>
7805     <div class="padding"></div>
7806
7807     <div class="entry">
7808       <div class="title">
7809         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Third_release_candidate_of_Debian_Edu___Skolelinux_based_on_Squeeze.html">Third release candidate of Debian Edu / Skolelinux based on Squeeze</a>
7810       </div>
7811       <div class="date">
7812          4th March 2012
7813       </div>
7814       <div class="body">
7815         <p>This weekend we wrapped up and published the third release
7816 candidate for <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu /
7817 Skolelinux</a> based on Squeeze.  The full announcement is
7818 <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-edu-announce/2012/03/msg00000.html">available</a>
7819 from the project announcement list.  Check it out if you
7820 need a software solution for your school.</p>
7821
7822       </div>
7823       <div class="tags">
7824
7825
7826         Tags: <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>.
7827
7828
7829       </div>
7830     </div>
7831     <div class="padding"></div>
7832
7833     <div class="entry">
7834       <div class="title">
7835         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Stopmotion_for_making_stop_motion_animations_on_Linux___reloaded.html">Stopmotion for making stop motion animations on Linux - reloaded</a>
7836       </div>
7837       <div class="date">
7838          3rd March 2012
7839       </div>
7840       <div class="body">
7841         <p>Many years ago, the <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Skolelinux
7842 / Debian Edu project</a> initiated a student project to create a tool
7843 for making stop motion movies.  The proposal came from a teacher
7844 needing such tool on Skolelinux.  The project, called "stopmotion",
7845 was manned by two extraordinary students and won a school award and a
7846 national aware with this great project.  The project was initiated and
7847 mentored by Herman Robak, and manned by the students Bjørn Erik Nilsen
7848 and Fredrik Berg Kjølstad.  They got in touch with people at Aardman
7849 Animation studio and received feedback on how professionals would like
7850 such stopmotion tool to work, and the end result was and is used by
7851 animators around the globe.  But as is usual after studying, both got
7852 jobs and went elsewhere, and did not have time to properly tend to the
7853 project, and it has been lingering for a few years now.  Until last
7854 year...</p>
7855
7856 <p>Last year some of the users got together with Herman, and moved the
7857 project to Sourceforge and in effect restarted the project under a new
7858 name,
7859 <a href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/linuxstopmotion/">linuxstopmotion</a>.
7860 The name change was done to make it possible to find the project using
7861 Internet search engines (try to search for 'stopmotion' to see what I
7862 mean). I've been following
7863 <a href="https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/linuxstopmotion-community">the
7864 mailing list</a> and the improvement already in place and planned for
7865 the future is encouraging.  If you want to make stop motion movies.
7866 Check it out. :)</p>
7867
7868       </div>
7869       <div class="tags">
7870
7871
7872         Tags: <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/video">video</a>.
7873
7874
7875       </div>
7876     </div>
7877     <div class="padding"></div>
7878
7879     <div class="entry">
7880       <div class="title">
7881         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Second_release_candidate_of_Debian_Edu___Skolelinux_based_on_Squeeze.html">Second release candidate of Debian Edu / Skolelinux based on Squeeze</a>
7882       </div>
7883       <div class="date">
7884         27th February 2012
7885       </div>
7886       <div class="body">
7887         <p>This weekend we wrapped up and published the second release
7888 candidate for <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu /
7889 Skolelinux</a> based on Squeeze.  The full announcement did for some
7890 reason not make it the project announcement list, but is
7891 <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel-announce/2012/02/msg00015.html">available</a>
7892 from the Debian development announcement list.  Check it out if you
7893 need a software solution for your school.</p>
7894
7895       </div>
7896       <div class="tags">
7897
7898
7899         Tags: <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>.
7900
7901
7902       </div>
7903     </div>
7904     <div class="padding"></div>
7905
7906     <div class="entry">
7907       <div class="title">
7908         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/First_release_candidate_of_Debian_Edu___Skolelinux_based_on_Squeeze.html">First release candidate of Debian Edu / Skolelinux based on Squeeze</a>
7909       </div>
7910       <div class="date">
7911         19th February 2012
7912       </div>
7913       <div class="body">
7914         <p>One week delayed due to DVD build problems, we managed today to
7915 wrap up and publish the first release candidate for
7916 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux</a> based
7917 on Squeeze.  The full announcement is
7918 <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-edu-announce/2012/02/msg00001.html">available</a>
7919 on the project announcement list.  Check it out if you need a software
7920 solution for your school.</p>
7921
7922       </div>
7923       <div class="tags">
7924
7925
7926         Tags: <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>.
7927
7928
7929       </div>
7930     </div>
7931     <div class="padding"></div>
7932
7933     <div class="entry">
7934       <div class="title">
7935         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/How_to_figure_out_which_RAID_disk_to_replace_when_it_fail.html">How to figure out which RAID disk to replace when it fail</a>
7936       </div>
7937       <div class="date">
7938         14th February 2012
7939       </div>
7940       <div class="body">
7941         <p>Once in a while my home server have disk problems.  Thanks to Linux
7942 Software RAID, I have not lost data yet (but
7943 <a href="http://comments.gmane.org/gmane.linux.raid/34532">I was
7944 close</a> this summer :).  But once a disk is starting to behave
7945 funny, a practical problem present itself.  How to get from the Linux
7946 device name (like /dev/sdd) to something that can be used to identify
7947 the disk when the computer is turned off?  In my case I have SATA
7948 disks with a unique ID printed on the label.  All I need is a way to
7949 figure out how to query the disk to get the ID out.</p>
7950
7951 <p>After fumbling a bit, I
7952 <a href="http://www.cyberciti.biz/faq/linux-getting-scsi-ide-harddisk-information/">found
7953 that hdparm -I</a> will report the disk serial number, which is
7954 printed on the disk label.  The following (almost) one-liner can be
7955 used to look up the ID of all the failed disks:</p>
7956
7957 <blockquote><pre>
7958 for d in $(cat /proc/mdstat |grep '(F)'|tr ' ' "\n"|grep '(F)'|cut -d\[ -f1|sort -u);
7959 do
7960     printf "Failed disk $d: "
7961     hdparm -I /dev/$d |grep 'Serial Num'
7962 done
7963 </blockquote></pre>
7964
7965 <p>Putting it here to make sure I do not have to search for it the
7966 next time, and in case other find it useful.</p>
7967
7968 <p>At the moment I have two failing disk. :(</p>
7969
7970 <blockquote><pre>
7971 Failed disk sdd1:       Serial Number:      WD-WCASJ1860823
7972 Failed disk sdd2:       Serial Number:      WD-WCASJ1860823
7973 Failed disk sde2:       Serial Number:      WD-WCASJ1840589
7974 </blockquote></pre>
7975
7976 <p>The last time I had failing disks, I added the serial number on
7977 labels I printed and stuck on the short sides of each disk, to be able
7978 to figure out which disk to take out of the box without having to
7979 remove each disk to look at the physical vendor label.  The vendor
7980 label is at the top of the disk, which is hidden when the disks are
7981 mounted inside my box.</p>
7982
7983 <p>I really wish the check_linux_raid Nagios plugin for checking Linux
7984 Software RAID in the
7985 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/n/nagios-plugins.html">nagios-plugins-standard</a>
7986 debian package would look up this value automatically, as it would
7987 make the plugin a lot more useful when my disks fail.  At the moment
7988 it only report a failure when there are no more spares left (it really
7989 should warn as soon as a disk is failing), and it do not tell me which
7990 disk(s) is failing when the RAID is running short on disks.</p>
7991
7992       </div>
7993       <div class="tags">
7994
7995
7996         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/raid">raid</a>.
7997
7998
7999       </div>
8000     </div>
8001     <div class="padding"></div>
8002
8003     <div class="entry">
8004       <div class="title">
8005         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Automatic_proxy_configuration_with_Debian_Edu___Skolelinux.html">Automatic proxy configuration with Debian Edu / Skolelinux</a>
8006       </div>
8007       <div class="date">
8008         13th February 2012
8009       </div>
8010       <div class="body">
8011         <p>New in the Squeeze version of
8012 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux</a> is the
8013 ability for clients to automatically configure their proxy settings
8014 based on their environment.  We want all systems on the client to use
8015 the WPAD based proxy definition fetched from <tt>http://wpad/wpad.dat</tt>, to
8016 allow sites to control the proxy setting from a central place and make
8017 sure clients do not have hard coded proxy settings.  The schools can
8018 change the global proxy setting by editing
8019 <tt>tjener:/etc/debian-edu/www/wpad.dat</tt> and the change propagate
8020 to all Debian Edu clients in the network.</p>
8021
8022 <p>The problem is that some systems do not understand the WPAD system.
8023 In other words, how do one get from a WPAD file like this (this is a
8024 simple one, they can run arbitrary code):</p>
8025
8026 <blockquote><pre>
8027 function FindProxyForURL(url, host)
8028 {
8029    if (!isResolvable(host) ||
8030        isPlainHostName(host) ||
8031        dnsDomainIs(host, ".intern"))
8032       return "DIRECT";
8033    else
8034       return "PROXY webcache:3128; DIRECT";
8035 }
8036 </pre></blockquote>
8037
8038 <p>to a proxy setting in the process environment looking like this:</p>
8039
8040 <blockquote><pre>
8041 http_proxy=http://webcache:3128/
8042 ftp_proxy=http://webcache:3128/
8043 </pre></blockquote>
8044
8045 <p>To do this conversion I developed a perl script that will execute
8046 the javascript fragment in the WPAD file and return the proxy that
8047 would be used for
8048 <tt><a href="http://www.debian.org/">http://www.debian.org/</a></tt>,
8049 and insert this extracted proxy URL in <tt>/etc/environment</tt> and
8050 <tt>/etc/apt/apt.conf</tt>.  The perl script wpad-extract work just
8051 fine in Squeeze, but in Wheezy the library it need to run the
8052 javascript code is <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/631045">no longer
8053 able to build</a> because the C library it depended on is now a C++
8054 library.  I hope someone find a solution to that problem before Wheezy
8055 is frozen.  An alternative would be for us to rewrite wpad-extract to
8056 use some other javascript library currently working in Wheezy, but no
8057 known alternative is known at the moment.</p>
8058
8059 <p>This automatic proxy system allow the roaming workstation (aka
8060 laptop) setup in Debian Edu/Squeeze to use the proxy when the laptop
8061 is connected to the backbone network in a Debian Edu setup, and to
8062 automatically use any proxy present and announced using the WPAD
8063 feature when it is connected to other networks.  And if no proxy is
8064 announced, direct connections will be used instead.</p>
8065
8066 <p>Silently using a proxy announced on the network might be a privacy
8067 or security problem.  But those controlling DHCP and DNS on a network
8068 could just as easily set up a transparent proxy, and force all HTTP
8069 and FTP connections to use a proxy anyway, so I consider that
8070 distinction to be academic.  If you are afraid of using the wrong
8071 proxy, you should avoid connecting to the network in question in the
8072 first place.  In Debian Edu, the proxy setup is updated using dhcp and
8073 ifupdown hooks, to make sure the configuration is updated every time
8074 the network setup changes.</p>
8075
8076 <p>The WPAD system is documented in a
8077 <a href="http://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-ietf-wrec-wpad-01">IETF
8078 draft</a> and a
8079 <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_Proxy_Autodiscovery_Protocol">Wikipedia
8080 page</a> for those that want to learn more.</p>
8081
8082       </div>
8083       <div class="tags">
8084
8085
8086         Tags: <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>.
8087
8088
8089       </div>
8090     </div>
8091     <div class="padding"></div>
8092
8093     <div class="entry">
8094       <div class="title">
8095         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Saving_power_with_Debian_Edu___Skolelinux_using_shutdown_at_night.html">Saving power with Debian Edu / Skolelinux using shutdown-at-night</a>
8096       </div>
8097       <div class="date">
8098          5th February 2012
8099       </div>
8100       <div class="body">
8101         <p>Since the Lenny version of
8102 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux</a>, a
8103 feature to save power have been included.  It is as simple as it is
8104 practical: Shut down unused clients at night, and turn them on again
8105 in the morning.  This is done using the
8106 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/s/shutdown-at-night.html">shutdown-at-night</a> Debian package.</p>
8107
8108 <p>To enable this feature on a client, the machine need to be added to
8109 the netgroup shutdown-at-night-hosts.  For Debian Edu, this is done in
8110 LDAP, and once this is in place, the machine in question will check
8111 every hour from 16:00 until 06:00 to see if the machine is unused, and
8112 shut it down if it is.  If the hardware in question is supported by
8113 the
8114 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/n/nvram-wakeup.html">nvram-wakeup</a>
8115 package, the BIOS is told to turn the machine back on around 07:00 +-
8116 10 minutes.  If this isn't working, one can configure wake-on-lan to
8117 try to turn on the client.  The wake-on-lan option is only documented
8118 and not enabled by default in Debian Edu.</p>
8119
8120 <p>It is important to not turn all machines on at once, as this can
8121 blow a fuse if several computers are connected to the same fuse like
8122 the common setup for a classroom.  The nvram-wakeup method only work
8123 for machines with a functioning hardware/BIOS clock.  I've seen old
8124 machines where the BIOS battery were dead and the hardware clock were
8125 starting from 0 (or was it 1990?) every boot.  If you have one of
8126 those, you have to turn on the computer manually.</p>
8127
8128 <p>The shutdown-at-night package is completely self contained, and can
8129 also be used outside the Debian Edu environment.  For those without a
8130 central LDAP server with netgroups, one can instead touch the file
8131 <tt>/etc/shutdown-at-night/shutdown-at-night</tt> to enable it.
8132 Perhaps you too can use it to save some power?</p>
8133
8134       </div>
8135       <div class="tags">
8136
8137
8138         Tags: <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>.
8139
8140
8141       </div>
8142     </div>
8143     <div class="padding"></div>
8144
8145     <div class="entry">
8146       <div class="title">
8147         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Third_beta_version_of_Debian_Edu___Skolelinux_based_on_Squeeze.html">Third beta version of Debian Edu / Skolelinux based on Squeeze</a>
8148       </div>
8149       <div class="date">
8150          4th February 2012
8151       </div>
8152       <div class="body">
8153         <p>I am happy to announce that finally we managed today to wrap up and
8154 publish the third beta version of
8155 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux</a> based
8156 on Squeeze.  If you want to test a LDAP backed Kerberos server with
8157 out of the box PXE configuration for running diskless machines and
8158 installing new machines, check it out.  If you need a software
8159 solution for your school, check it out too.  The full announcement is
8160 <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-edu-announce/2012/02/msg00000.html">available</a>
8161 on the project announcement list.</p>
8162
8163 <p>I am very happy to report these changes and improvements since
8164 beta2 (there are more, see announcement for full list):</p>
8165
8166 <ul>
8167
8168 <li>It is now possible to change the pre-configured IP subnet from
8169   10.0.0.0/8 to something else by using the subnet-change tool after
8170   the installation.</li>
8171
8172 <li>Too full partitions are now automatically extended on the Main
8173   Server, based on the rules specified in /etc/fsautoresizetab.</li>
8174
8175 <li>The CUPS queues are now automatically flushed every night, and all
8176   disabled queues are restarted every hour.  This should cut down on
8177   the amount of manual administration needed for printers.</li>
8178
8179 <li>The set of initial users have been changed.  Now a personal user
8180   for the local system administrator is created during installation
8181   instead of the previously created localadmin and super-admin users,
8182   and this user is granted administrative privileges using group
8183   membership.  This reduces the number of passwords one need to keep
8184   up to date on the system.</li>
8185
8186 </ul>
8187
8188 <p>The new main server seem to work so well that I am testing it as my
8189 private DNS/LDAP/Kerberos/PXE/LTSP server at home.  I will use it look
8190 for issues we could fix to polish Debian Edu even further before the
8191 final Squeeze release is published.</p>
8192
8193 <p>Next weekend the project organise a
8194 <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-edu-announce/2012/01/msg00001.html">developer
8195 gathering</a> in Oslo.  We will continue the work on the Squeeze
8196 version, and start initial planning for the Wheezy version.  Perhaps I
8197 will see you there?</p>
8198
8199       </div>
8200       <div class="tags">
8201
8202
8203         Tags: <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>.
8204
8205
8206       </div>
8207     </div>
8208     <div class="padding"></div>
8209
8210     <div class="entry">
8211       <div class="title">
8212         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Handling_non_free_firmware_in_Debian_Edu_Squeeze.html">Handling non-free firmware in Debian Edu/Squeeze</a>
8213       </div>
8214       <div class="date">
8215         27th January 2012
8216       </div>
8217       <div class="body">
8218         <p>With some computer hardware, one need non-free firmware blobs.
8219 This is the sad fact of todays computers.  In the next version of
8220 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux</a> based
8221 on Squeeze, we provide several scripts and modifications to make
8222 firmware blobs easier to handle.  The common use case I run into is a
8223 laptop with a wireless network card requiring non-free firmware to
8224 work, but there are other use cases as well.</p>
8225
8226 <p>First and foremost, Debian Edu provide ISO images for DVD and CD
8227 with all firmware packages in the Debian sections main and non-free
8228 included, to ensure debian-installer find and can install all of them
8229 during installation.  This take care firmware for network devices used
8230 by the installer when installing from from local media.  But for
8231 example multimedia devices are not activated in the installer and are
8232 not taken care of by this.</p>
8233
8234 <p>For non-network devices, we provide the script
8235 <tt>/usr/share/debian-edu-config/tools/auto-addfirmware</tt> which
8236 search through the <tt>dmesg</tt> output for drivers requesting extra
8237 firmware.  The firmware file name is looked up in the Contents-ARCH.gz
8238 file available in the package repository, and the packages providing
8239 the requested firmware file(s) is installed.  I have proposed to do
8240 something similar in debian-installer (BTS report
8241 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/655507">#655507</a>), to allow PXE
8242 installs of Debian to handle firmware installation better.  Run the
8243 script as root from the command line to fetch and install the needed
8244 firmware packages.</p>
8245
8246 <p>Debian Edu provide PXE installation of Debian out of the box, and
8247 because some machines need firmware to get their network cards
8248 working, the installation initrd some times need extra firmware
8249 included to be able to install at all.  To fill the PXE installation
8250 initrd with extra firmware, the
8251 <tt>/usr/share/debian-edu-config/tools/pxe-addfirmware</tt> script is
8252 provided.  Again, just run it as root on the command line to fill the
8253 PXE initrd with firmware packages.</p>
8254
8255 <p>Last, some LTSP clients might also need firmware to get their
8256 network cards working.  For this,
8257 <tt>/usr/share/debian-edu-config/tools/ltsp-addfirmware</tt> is
8258 provided to update the LTSP initrd with firmware blobs.  It is used
8259 the same way as the other firmware related tools.</p>
8260
8261 <p>At the moment, we do not run any of these during installation.  We
8262 do not know if this is acceptable for the local administrator to use
8263 non-free software, and it is their choice.</p>
8264
8265 <p>We plan to release beta3 this weekend.  You might want to give it a
8266 try.</p>
8267
8268       </div>
8269       <div class="tags">
8270
8271
8272         Tags: <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>.
8273
8274
8275       </div>
8276     </div>
8277     <div class="padding"></div>
8278
8279     <div class="entry">
8280       <div class="title">
8281         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Setting_up_a_new_school_with_Debian_Edu_Squeeze.html">Setting up a new school with Debian Edu/Squeeze</a>
8282       </div>
8283       <div class="date">
8284         25th January 2012
8285       </div>
8286       <div class="body">
8287         <p>The next version of <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu
8288 / Skolelinux</a> will include a new tool
8289 <tt>sitesummary2ldapdhcp</tt>, which can be used to quickly set up all
8290 the computers in a school without much manual labour.  Here is a short
8291 summary on how to use it to set up a new school.</p>
8292
8293 <p>First, install a combined Main Server and Thin Client Server as the
8294 central server in the network.  Next, PXE boot all the client machines
8295 as thin clients and wait 5 minutes after the last client booted to
8296 allow the clients to report their existence to the central server.  When
8297 this is done, log on to the central server and run
8298 <tt>sitesummary2ldapdhcp -a</tt> in the <tt>konsole</tt> to use the
8299 collected information to generate system objects in LDAP.  The output
8300 will look similar to this:</p>
8301
8302 <p><blockquote><pre>
8303 % sitesummary2ldapdhcp -a
8304 info: Updating machine tjener.intern [10.0.2.2] id ether-00:01:02:03:04:05.
8305 info: Create GOsa machine for auto-mac-00-01-02-03-04-06 [10.0.16.20] id ether-00:01:02:03:04:06.
8306
8307 Enter password if you want to activate these changes, and ^c to abort.
8308
8309 Connecting to LDAP as cn=admin,ou=ldap-access,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
8310 enter password: *******
8311 %
8312 </pre></blockquote></p>
8313
8314 <p>After providing the LDAP administrative password (the same as the
8315 root password set during installation), the LDAP database will be
8316 populated with system objects for each PXE booted machine with
8317 automatically generated names.  The final step to set up the school is
8318 then to log into <a href="https://oss.gonicus.de/labs/gosa/">GOsa</a>,
8319 the web based user, group and system administration system to change
8320 system names, add systems to the correct host groups and finally
8321 enable DHCP and DNS for the systems.  All clients that should be used
8322 as diskless workstations should be added to the workstation-hosts
8323 group.  After this is done, all computers can be booted again via PXE
8324 and get their assigned names and group based configuration
8325 automatically.</p>
8326
8327 <p>We plan to release beta3 with the updated version of this feature
8328 enabled this weekend.  You might want to give it a try.</p>
8329
8330 <p>Update 2012-01-28: When calling sitesummary2ldapdhcp to add new
8331 hosts, one need to add the option -a.  I forgot to mention this in my
8332 original text, and have added it to the text now.</p>
8333
8334       </div>
8335       <div class="tags">
8336
8337
8338         Tags: <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>.
8339
8340
8341       </div>
8342     </div>
8343     <div class="padding"></div>
8344
8345     <div class="entry">
8346       <div class="title">
8347         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Changing_the_default_Iceweasel_start_page_in_Debian_Edu_Squeeze.html">Changing the default Iceweasel start page in Debian Edu/Squeeze</a>
8348       </div>
8349       <div class="date">
8350         10th January 2012
8351       </div>
8352       <div class="body">
8353         <p>In the Squeeze version of
8354 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux</a> soon
8355 to be released, users of the system will get their default browser
8356 start page set from LDAP, allowing the system administrator to point
8357 all users to the school web page by updating one setting in LDAP.  In
8358 addition to setting the default start page when a machine boots, users
8359 are shown the same page as a welcome page when they log in for the
8360 first time.</p>
8361
8362 <p>The LDAP object dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no have an attribute
8363 labeledURI with "http://www/ LDAP for Debian Edu/Skolelinux" as the
8364 default content.  By changing this value to another URL, all users get
8365 to see the page behind this new URL.</p>
8366
8367 <p>An easy way to update it is by using the ldapvi tool.  It can be
8368 called as "<tt>ldapvi -ZD '(cn=admin)'</tt>' to update LDAP with the
8369 new setting.</p>
8370
8371 <p>We have written the code to adjust the default start page and show
8372 the welcome page, and I wonder if there is an easier way to do this
8373 from within Iceweasel instead.</p>
8374
8375       </div>
8376       <div class="tags">
8377
8378
8379         Tags: <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/web">web</a>.
8380
8381
8382       </div>
8383     </div>
8384     <div class="padding"></div>
8385
8386     <div class="entry">
8387       <div class="title">
8388         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Second_beta_version_of_Debian_Edu___Skolelinux_based_on_Squeeze.html">Second beta version of Debian Edu / Skolelinux based on Squeeze</a>
8389       </div>
8390       <div class="date">
8391          7th January 2012
8392       </div>
8393       <div class="body">
8394         <p>I am happy to announce that today we managed to wrap up and publish
8395 the second beta version of
8396 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux</a>.  If
8397 you want to test a LDAP backed Kerberos server with out of the box PXE
8398 configuration for running diskless machines and installing new
8399 machines, check it out.  If you need a software solution for your
8400 school, check it out too.  The full announcement is
8401 <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-edu-announce/2012/01/msg00000.html">available</a>
8402 on the project announcement list.</p>
8403
8404       </div>
8405       <div class="tags">
8406
8407
8408         Tags: <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>.
8409
8410
8411       </div>
8412     </div>
8413     <div class="padding"></div>
8414
8415     <div class="entry">
8416       <div class="title">
8417         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Fixing_an_hanging_debian_installer_for_Debian_Edu.html">Fixing an hanging debian installer for Debian Edu</a>
8418       </div>
8419       <div class="date">
8420          3rd January 2012
8421       </div>
8422       <div class="body">
8423         <p>During christmas, I have been working getting the next version of
8424 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu / Skolelinux</a> ready
8425 for release.  The initial problem I looked at was particularly
8426 interesting.</p>
8427
8428 <P>The installer would hang at the end when it was doing it
8429 post-installation configuration, and whatevery I did to try to find
8430 the cause and fix it always worked while I tested it, but never when I
8431 integrated it into the installer and ran the installation from
8432 scratch.  I would try to restart processes, close file descriptors,
8433 remove or create files, and the installer would always unblock and
8434 wrap up its tasks.</p>
8435
8436 <p>Eventually the cause was found.  The kernel was simply running out
8437 of entropy, causing the Kerberos setup to hang waiting for more.
8438 Pressing keys was adding entropy to the kernel, and thus all my tries
8439 to fix the problem worked not because what I was typing to fix it, but
8440 because I was typing.</P>
8441
8442 <p>The fix I implemented was to add a background process looking at
8443 the level of entropy in the kernel (by checking
8444 /proc/sys/kernel/random/entropy_avail), and if it was too small, the
8445 installer will flush the kernel file buffers and do 'find /' to
8446 generate some disk IO.  Disk IO generate entropy in the kernel, and is
8447 one of the few things that can be initated from within the system to
8448 generate entropy.</p>
8449
8450 <p>The fix is in
8451 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Documentation/Squeeze/Installation">beta1
8452 of the Debian Edu/Squeeze</a> version, and we
8453 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu">welcome more testers and
8454 developers</a>.  We plan to release beta2 this weekend.</p>
8455
8456       </div>
8457       <div class="tags">
8458
8459
8460         Tags: <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>.
8461
8462
8463       </div>
8464     </div>
8465     <div class="padding"></div>
8466
8467     <div class="entry">
8468       <div class="title">
8469         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Automatically_upgrading_server_firmware_on_Dell_PowerEdge.html">Automatically upgrading server firmware on Dell PowerEdge</a>
8470       </div>
8471       <div class="date">
8472         21st November 2011
8473       </div>
8474       <div class="body">
8475         <p>At work we have heaps of servers.  I believe the total count is
8476 around 1000 at the moment.  To be able to get help from the vendors
8477 when something go wrong, we want to keep the firmware on the servers
8478 up to date.  If the firmware isn't the latest and greatest, the
8479 vendors typically refuse to start debugging any problems until the
8480 firmware is upgraded.  So before every reboot, we want to upgrade the
8481 firmware, and we would really like everyone handling servers at the
8482 university to do this themselves when they plan to reboot a machine.
8483 For that to happen we at the unix server admin group need to provide
8484 the tools to do so.</p>
8485
8486 <p>To make firmware upgrading easier, I am working on a script to
8487 fetch and install the latest firmware for the servers we got.  Most of
8488 our hardware are from Dell and HP, so I have focused on these servers
8489 so far.  This blog post is about the Dell part.</P>
8490
8491 <p>On the Dell FTP site I was lucky enough to find
8492 <a href="ftp://ftp.us.dell.com/catalog/Catalog.xml.gz">an XML file</a>
8493 with firmware information for all 11th generation servers, listing
8494 which firmware should be used on a given model and where on the FTP
8495 site I can find it.  Using a simple perl XML parser I can then
8496 download the shell scripts Dell provides to do firmware upgrades from
8497 within Linux and reboot when all the firmware is primed and ready to
8498 be activated on the first reboot.</p>
8499
8500 <p>This is the Dell related fragment of the perl code I am working on.
8501 Are there anyone working on similar tools for firmware upgrading all
8502 servers at a site?  Please get in touch and lets share resources.</p>
8503
8504 <p><pre>
8505 #!/usr/bin/perl
8506 use strict;
8507 use warnings;
8508 use File::Temp qw(tempdir);
8509 BEGIN {
8510     # Install needed RHEL packages if missing
8511     my %rhelmodules = (
8512         'XML::Simple' => 'perl-XML-Simple',
8513         );
8514     for my $module (keys %rhelmodules) {
8515         eval "use $module;";
8516         if ($@) {
8517             my $pkg = $rhelmodules{$module};
8518             system("yum install -y $pkg");
8519             eval "use $module;";
8520         }
8521     }
8522 }
8523 my $errorsto = 'pere@hungry.com';
8524
8525 upgrade_dell();
8526
8527 exit 0;
8528
8529 sub run_firmware_script {
8530     my ($opts, $script) = @_;
8531     unless ($script) {
8532         print STDERR "fail: missing script name\n";
8533         exit 1
8534     }
8535     print STDERR "Running $script\n\n";
8536
8537     if (0 == system("sh $script $opts")) { # FIXME correct exit code handling
8538         print STDERR "success: firmware script ran succcessfully\n";
8539     } else {
8540         print STDERR "fail: firmware script returned error\n";
8541     }
8542 }
8543
8544 sub run_firmware_scripts {
8545     my ($opts, @dirs) = @_;
8546     # Run firmware packages
8547     for my $dir (@dirs) {
8548         print STDERR "info: Running scripts in $dir\n";
8549         opendir(my $dh, $dir) or die "Unable to open directory $dir: $!";
8550         while (my $s = readdir $dh) {
8551             next if $s =~ m/^\.\.?/;
8552             run_firmware_script($opts, "$dir/$s");
8553         }
8554         closedir $dh;
8555     }
8556 }
8557
8558 sub download {
8559     my $url = shift;
8560     print STDERR "info: Downloading $url\n";
8561     system("wget --quiet \"$url\"");
8562 }
8563
8564 sub upgrade_dell {
8565     my @dirs;
8566     my $product = `dmidecode -s system-product-name`;
8567     chomp $product;
8568
8569     if ($product =~ m/PowerEdge/) {
8570
8571         # on RHEL, these pacakges are needed by the firwmare upgrade scripts
8572         system('yum install -y compat-libstdc++-33.i686 libstdc++.i686 libxml2.i686 procmail');
8573
8574         my $tmpdir = tempdir(
8575             CLEANUP => 1
8576             );
8577         chdir($tmpdir);
8578         fetch_dell_fw('catalog/Catalog.xml.gz');
8579         system('gunzip Catalog.xml.gz');
8580         my @paths = fetch_dell_fw_list('Catalog.xml');
8581         # -q is quiet, disabling interactivity and reducing console output
8582         my $fwopts = "-q";
8583         if (@paths) {
8584             for my $url (@paths) {
8585                 fetch_dell_fw($url);
8586             }
8587             run_firmware_scripts($fwopts, $tmpdir);
8588         } else {
8589             print STDERR "error: Unsupported Dell model '$product'.\n";
8590             print STDERR "error: Please report to $errorsto.\n";
8591         }
8592         chdir('/');
8593     } else {
8594         print STDERR "error: Unsupported Dell model '$product'.\n";
8595         print STDERR "error: Please report to $errorsto.\n";
8596     }
8597 }
8598
8599 sub fetch_dell_fw {
8600     my $path = shift;
8601     my $url = "ftp://ftp.us.dell.com/$path";
8602     download($url);
8603 }
8604
8605 # Using ftp://ftp.us.dell.com/catalog/Catalog.xml.gz, figure out which
8606 # firmware packages to download from Dell.  Only work for Linux
8607 # machines and 11th generation Dell servers.
8608 sub fetch_dell_fw_list {
8609     my $filename = shift;
8610
8611     my $product = `dmidecode -s system-product-name`;
8612     chomp $product;
8613     my ($mybrand, $mymodel) = split(/\s+/, $product);
8614
8615     print STDERR "Finding firmware bundles for $mybrand $mymodel\n";
8616
8617     my $xml = XMLin($filename);
8618     my @paths;
8619     for my $bundle (@{$xml->{SoftwareBundle}}) {
8620         my $brand = $bundle->{TargetSystems}->{Brand}->{Display}->{content};
8621         my $model = $bundle->{TargetSystems}->{Brand}->{Model}->{Display}->{content};
8622         my $oscode;
8623         if ("ARRAY" eq ref $bundle->{TargetOSes}->{OperatingSystem}) {
8624             $oscode = $bundle->{TargetOSes}->{OperatingSystem}[0]->{osCode};
8625         } else {
8626             $oscode = $bundle->{TargetOSes}->{OperatingSystem}->{osCode};
8627         }
8628         if ($mybrand eq $brand && $mymodel eq $model && "LIN" eq $oscode)
8629         {
8630             @paths = map { $_->{path} } @{$bundle->{Contents}->{Package}};
8631         }
8632     }
8633     for my $component (@{$xml->{SoftwareComponent}}) {
8634         my $componenttype = $component->{ComponentType}->{value};
8635
8636         # Drop application packages, only firmware and BIOS
8637         next if 'APAC' eq $componenttype;
8638
8639         my $cpath = $component->{path};
8640         for my $path (@paths) {
8641             if ($cpath =~ m%/$path$%) {
8642                 push(@paths, $cpath);
8643             }
8644         }
8645     }
8646     return @paths;
8647 }
8648 </pre>
8649
8650 <p>The code is only tested on RedHat Enterprise Linux, but I suspect
8651 it could work on other platforms with some tweaking.  Anyone know a
8652 index like Catalog.xml is available from HP for HP servers?  At the
8653 moment I maintain a similar list manually and it is quickly getting
8654 outdated.</p>
8655
8656       </div>
8657       <div class="tags">
8658
8659
8660         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
8661
8662
8663       </div>
8664     </div>
8665     <div class="padding"></div>
8666
8667     <div class="entry">
8668       <div class="title">
8669         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Free_e_book_kiosk_for_the_public_libraries_.html">Free e-book kiosk for the public libraries?</a>
8670       </div>
8671       <div class="date">
8672          7th October 2011
8673       </div>
8674       <div class="body">
8675         <p>Here in Norway the public libraries are debating with the
8676 publishing houses how to handle electronic books.  Surprisingly, the
8677 libraries seem to be willing to accept digital restriction mechanisms
8678 (DRM) on books and renting e-books with artificial scarcity from the
8679 publishing houses.  Time limited renting (2-3 years) is one proposed
8680 model, and only allowing X borrowers for each book is another.
8681 Personally I find it amazing that libraries are even considering such
8682 models.</p>
8683
8684 <p>Anyway, while reading <a href="http://boklaben.no/?p=220">part of
8685 this debate</a>, it occurred to me that someone should present a more
8686 sensible approach to the libraries, to allow its borrowers to get used
8687 to a better model.  The idea is simple:</p>
8688
8689 <p>Create a computer system for the libraries, either in the form of a
8690 Live DVD or a installable distribution, that provide a simple kiosk
8691 solution to hand out free e-books.  As a start, the books distributed
8692 by <a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/">Project Gutenberg</a> (about
8693 36,000 books), <a href="http://runeberg.org/">Project Runenberg</a>
8694 (1149 books) and <a href="http://www.archive.org/details/texts">The
8695 Internet Archive</a> (3,033,748 books) could be included, but any book
8696 where the copyright has expired or with a free licence could be
8697 distributed.</p>
8698
8699 <p>The computer system would make it easy to:</p>
8700
8701 <ul>
8702
8703 <li>Copy e-books into a USB stick, reading tablets, cell phones and
8704   other relevant equipment.</li>
8705
8706 <li>Show the books for reading on the the screen in the library.</li>
8707
8708 </ul>
8709
8710 <p>In addition to such kiosk solution, there should probably be a web
8711 site as well to allow people easy access to these books without
8712 visiting the library.  The site would be the distribution point for
8713 the kiosk systems, which would connect regularly to fetch any new
8714 books available.</p>
8715
8716 <p>Are there anyone working on a system like this?  I guess it would
8717 fit any library in the world, and not just the Norwegian public
8718 libraries. :)</p>
8719
8720       </div>
8721       <div class="tags">
8722
8723
8724         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/opphavsrett">opphavsrett</a>.
8725
8726
8727       </div>
8728     </div>
8729     <div class="padding"></div>
8730
8731     <div class="entry">
8732       <div class="title">
8733         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Ripping_problematic_DVDs_using_dvdbackup_and_genisoimage.html">Ripping problematic DVDs using dvdbackup and genisoimage</a>
8734       </div>
8735       <div class="date">
8736         17th September 2011
8737       </div>
8738       <div class="body">
8739         <p>For convenience, I want to store copies of all my DVDs on my file
8740 server.  It allow me to save shelf space flat while still having my
8741 movie collection easily available.  It also make it possible to let
8742 the kids see their favourite DVDs without wearing the physical copies
8743 down.  I prefer to store the DVDs as ISOs to keep the DVD menu and
8744 subtitle options intact.  It also ensure that the entire film is one
8745 file on the disk.  As this is for personal use, the ripping is
8746 perfectly legal here in Norway.</p>
8747
8748 <p>Normally I rip the DVDs using dd like this:</p>
8749
8750 <blockquote><pre>
8751 #!/bin/sh
8752 # apt-get install lsdvd
8753 title=$(lsdvd 2>/dev/null|awk '/Disc Title: / {print $3}')
8754 dd if=/dev/dvd of=/storage/dvds/$title.iso bs=1M
8755 </pre></blockquote>
8756
8757 <p>But some DVDs give a input/output error when I read it, and I have
8758 been looking for a better alternative.  I have no idea why this I/O
8759 error occur, but suspect my DVD drive, the Linux kernel driver or
8760 something fishy with the DVDs in question.  Or perhaps all three.</p>
8761
8762 <p>Anyway, I believe I found a solution today using dvdbackup and
8763 genisoimage.  This script gave me a working ISO for a problematic
8764 movie by first extracting the DVD file system and then re-packing it
8765 back as an ISO.
8766
8767 <blockquote><pre>
8768 #!/bin/sh
8769 # apt-get install lsdvd dvdbackup genisoimage
8770 set -e
8771 tmpdir=/storage/dvds/
8772 title=$(lsdvd 2>/dev/null|awk '/Disc Title: / {print $3}')
8773 dvdbackup -i /dev/dvd -M -o $tmpdir -n$title
8774 genisoimage -dvd-video -o $tmpdir/$title.iso $tmpdir/$title
8775 rm -rf $tmpdir/$title
8776 </pre></blockquote>
8777
8778 <p>Anyone know of a better way available in Debian/Squeeze?</p>
8779
8780 <p>Update 2011-09-18: I got a tip from Konstantin Khomoutov about the
8781 readom program from the wodim package.  It is specially written to
8782 read optical media, and is called like this: <tt>readom dev=/dev/dvd
8783 f=image.iso</tt>.  It got 6 GB along with the problematic Cars DVD
8784 before it failed, and failed right away with a Timmy Time DVD.</p>
8785
8786 <p>Next, I got a tip from Bastian Blank about
8787 <a href="http://bblank.thinkmo.de/blog/new-software-python-dvdvideo">his
8788 program python-dvdvideo</a>, which seem to be just what I am looking
8789 for.  Tested it with my problematic Timmy Time DVD, and it succeeded
8790 creating a ISO image.  The git source built and installed just fine in
8791 Squeeze, so I guess this will be my tool of choice in the future.</p>
8792
8793       </div>
8794       <div class="tags">
8795
8796
8797         Tags: <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/video">video</a>.
8798
8799
8800       </div>
8801     </div>
8802     <div class="padding"></div>
8803
8804     <div class="entry">
8805       <div class="title">
8806         <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>
8807       </div>
8808       <div class="date">
8809          4th August 2011
8810       </div>
8811       <div class="body">
8812         <p>Wouter Verhelst have some
8813 <a href="http://grep.be/blog/en/retorts/pere_kubuntu_boot">interesting
8814 comments and opinions</a> on my blog post on
8815 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/What_should_start_from__etc_rcS_d__in_Debian____almost_nothing.html">the
8816 need to clean up /etc/rcS.d/ in Debian</a> and my blog post about
8817 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/What_is_missing_in_the_Debian_desktop__or_why_my_parents_use_Kubuntu.html">the
8818 default KDE desktop in Debian</a>.  I only have time to address one
8819 small piece of his comment now, and though it best to address the
8820 misunderstanding he bring forward:</p>
8821
8822 <p><blockquote>
8823 Currently, a system admin has four options: [...] boot to a
8824 single-user system (by adding 'single' to the kernel command line;
8825 this runs rcS and rc1 scripts)
8826 </blockquote></p>
8827
8828 <p>This make me believe Wouter believe booting into single user mode
8829 and booting into runlevel 1 is the same.  I am not surprised he
8830 believe this, because it would make sense and is a quite sensible
8831 thing to believe.  But because the boot in Debian is slightly broken,
8832 runlevel 1 do not work properly and it isn't the same as single user
8833 mode.  I'll try to explain what is actually happing, but it is a bit
8834 hard to explain.</p>
8835
8836 <p>Single user mode is defined like this in /etc/inittab:
8837 "<tt>~~:S:wait:/sbin/sulogin</tt>".  This means the only thing that is
8838 executed in single user mode is sulogin.  Single user mode is a boot
8839 state "between" the runlevels, and when booting into single user mode,
8840 only the scripts in /etc/rcS.d/ are executed before the init process
8841 enters the single user state.  When switching to runlevel 1, the state
8842 is in fact not ending in runlevel 1, but it passes through runlevel 1
8843 and end up in the single user mode (see /etc/rc1.d/S03single, which
8844 runs "init -t1 S" to switch to single user mode at the end of runlevel
8845 1.  It is confusing that the 'S' (single user) init mode is not the
8846 mode enabled by /etc/rcS.d/ (which is more like the initial boot
8847 mode).</p>
8848
8849 <p>This summary might make it clearer.  When booting for the first
8850 time into single user mode, the following commands are executed:
8851 "<tt>/etc/init.d/rc S; /sbin/sulogin</tt>".  When booting into
8852 runlevel 1, the following commands are executed: "<tt>/etc/init.d/rc
8853 S; /etc/init.d/rc 1; /sbin/sulogin</tt>".  A problem show up when
8854 trying to continue after visiting single user mode.  Not all services
8855 are started again as they should, causing the machine to end up in an
8856 unpredicatble state.  This is why Debian admins recommend rebooting
8857 after visiting single user mode.</p>
8858
8859 <p>A similar problem with runlevel 1 is caused by the amount of
8860 scripts executed from /etc/rcS.d/.  When switching from say runlevel 2
8861 to runlevel 1, the services started from /etc/rcS.d/ are not properly
8862 stopped when passing through the scripts in /etc/rc1.d/, and not
8863 started again when switching away from runlevel 1 to the runlevels
8864 2-5.  I believe the problem is best fixed by moving all the scripts
8865 out of /etc/rcS.d/ that are not <strong>required</strong> to get a
8866 functioning single user mode during boot.</p>
8867
8868 <p>I have spent several years investigating the Debian boot system,
8869 and discovered this problem a few years ago.  I suspect it originates
8870 from when sysvinit was introduced into Debian, a long time ago.</p>
8871
8872       </div>
8873       <div class="tags">
8874
8875
8876         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>.
8877
8878
8879       </div>
8880     </div>
8881     <div class="padding"></div>
8882
8883     <div class="entry">
8884       <div class="title">
8885         <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>
8886       </div>
8887       <div class="date">
8888         30th July 2011
8889       </div>
8890       <div class="body">
8891         <p>In the Debian boot system, several packages include scripts that
8892 are started from /etc/rcS.d/.  In fact, there is a bite more of them
8893 than make sense, and this causes a few problems.  What kind of
8894 problems, you might ask.  There are at least two problems.  The first
8895 is that it is not possible to recover a machine after switching to
8896 runlevel 1.  One need to actually reboot to get the machine back to
8897 the expected state.  The other is that single user boot will sometimes
8898 run into problems because some of the subsystems are activated before
8899 the root login is presented, causing problems when trying to recover a
8900 machine from a problem in that subsystem.  A minor additional point is
8901 that moving more scripts out of rcS.d/ and into the other rc#.d/
8902 directories will increase the amount of scripts that can run in
8903 parallel during boot, and thus decrease the boot time.</p>
8904
8905 <p>So, which scripts should start from rcS.d/.  In short, only the
8906 scripts that _have_ to execute before the root login prompt is
8907 presented during a single user boot should go there.  Everything else
8908 should go into the numeric runlevels.  This means things like
8909 lm-sensors, fuse and x11-common should not run from rcS.d, but from
8910 the numeric runlevels.  Today in Debian, there are around 115 init.d
8911 scripts that are started from rcS.d/, and most of them should be moved
8912 out.  Do your package have one of them?  Please help us make single
8913 user and runlevel 1 better by moving it.</p>
8914
8915 <p>Scripts setting up the screen, keyboard, system partitions
8916 etc. should still be started from rcS.d/, but there is for example no
8917 need to have the network enabled before the single user login prompt
8918 is presented.</p>
8919
8920 <p>As always, things are not so easy to fix as they sound.  To keep
8921 Debian systems working while scripts migrate and during upgrades, the
8922 scripts need to be moved from rcS.d/ to rc2.d/ in reverse dependency
8923 order, ie the scripts that nothing in rcS.d/ depend on can be moved,
8924 and the next ones can only be moved when their dependencies have been
8925 moved first.  This migration must be done sequentially while we ensure
8926 that the package system upgrade packages in the right order to keep
8927 the system state correct.  This will require some coordination when it
8928 comes to network related packages, but most of the packages with
8929 scripts that should migrate do not have anything in rcS.d/ depending
8930 on them.  Some packages have already been updated, like the sudo
8931 package, while others are still left to do.  I wish I had time to work
8932 on this myself, but real live constrains make it unlikely that I will
8933 find time to push this forward.</p>
8934
8935       </div>
8936       <div class="tags">
8937
8938
8939         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>.
8940
8941
8942       </div>
8943     </div>
8944     <div class="padding"></div>
8945
8946     <div class="entry">
8947       <div class="title">
8948         <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>
8949       </div>
8950       <div class="date">
8951         29th July 2011
8952       </div>
8953       <div class="body">
8954         <p>While at Debconf11, I have several times during discussions
8955 mentioned the issues I believe should be improved in Debian for its
8956 desktop to be useful for more people.  The use case for this is my
8957 parents, which are currently running Kubuntu which solve the
8958 issues.</p>
8959
8960 <p>I suspect these four missing features are not very hard to
8961 implement.  After all, they are present in Ubuntu, so if we wanted to
8962 do this in Debian we would have a source.</p>
8963
8964 <ol>
8965
8966 <li><strong>Simple GUI based upgrade of packages.</strong> When there
8967 are new packages available for upgrades, a icon in the KDE status bar
8968 indicate this, and clicking on it will activate the simple upgrade
8969 tool to handle it.  I have no problem guiding both of my parents
8970 through the process over the phone.  If a kernel reboot is required,
8971 this too is indicated by the status bars and the upgrade tool.  Last
8972 time I checked, nothing with the same features was working in KDE in
8973 Debian.</li>
8974
8975 <li><strong>Simple handling of missing Firefox browser
8976 plugins.</strong> When the browser encounter a MIME type it do not
8977 currently have a handler for, it will ask the user if the system
8978 should search for a package that would add support for this MIME type,
8979 and if the user say yes, the APT sources will be searched for packages
8980 advertising the MIME type in their control file (visible in the
8981 Packages file in the APT archive).  If one or more packages are found,
8982 it is a simple click of the mouse to add support for the missing mime
8983 type.  If the package require the user to accept some non-free
8984 license, this is explained to the user.  The entire process make it
8985 more clear to the user why something do not work in the browser, and
8986 make the chances higher for the user to blame the web page authors and
8987 not the browser for any missing features.</li>
8988
8989 <li><strong>Simple handling of missing multimedia codec/format
8990 handlers.</strong> When the media players encounter a format or codec
8991 it is not supporting, a dialog pop up asking the user if the system
8992 should search for a package that would add support for it.  This
8993 happen with things like MP3, Windows Media or H.264.  The selection
8994 and installation procedure is very similar to the Firefox browser
8995 plugin handling.  This is as far as I know implemented using a
8996 gstreamer hook.  The end result is that the user easily get access to
8997 the codecs that are present from the APT archives available, while
8998 explaining more on why a given format is unsupported by Ubuntu.</li>
8999
9000 <li><strong>Better browser handling of some MIME types.</strong> When
9001 displaying a text/plain file in my Debian browser, it will propose to
9002 start emacs to show it.  If I remember correctly, when doing the same
9003 in Kunbutu it show the file as a text file in the browser.  At least I
9004 know Opera will show text files within the browser.  I much prefer the
9005 latter behaviour.</li>
9006
9007 </ol>
9008
9009 <p>There are other nice features as well, like the simplified suite
9010 upgrader, but given that I am the one mostly doing the dist-upgrade,
9011 it do not matter much.</p>
9012
9013 <p>I really hope we could get these features in place for the next
9014 Debian release.  It would require the coordinated effort of several
9015 maintainers, but would make the end user experience a lot better.</p>
9016
9017       </div>
9018       <div class="tags">
9019
9020
9021         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/multimedia">multimedia</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/web">web</a>.
9022
9023
9024       </div>
9025     </div>
9026     <div class="padding"></div>
9027
9028     <div class="entry">
9029       <div class="title">
9030         <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>
9031       </div>
9032       <div class="date">
9033         26th July 2011
9034       </div>
9035       <div class="body">
9036         <p>The Norwegian <a href="http://www.fiksgatami.no/">FiksGataMi</A>
9037 site is build on Debian/Squeeze, and this platform was chosen because
9038 I am most familiar with Debian (being a Debian Developer for around 10
9039 years) because it is the latest stable Debian release which should get
9040 security support for a few years.</p>
9041
9042 <p>The web service is written in Perl, and depend on some perl modules
9043 that are missing in Debian at the moment.  It would be great if these
9044 modules were added to the Debian archive, allowing anyone to set up
9045 their own <a href="http://www.fixmystreet.com">FixMyStreet</a> clone
9046 in their own country using only Debian packages.  The list of modules
9047 missing in Debian/Squeeze isn't very long, and I hope the perl group
9048 will find time to package the 12 modules Catalyst::Plugin::SmartURI,
9049 Catalyst::Plugin::Unicode::Encoding, Catalyst::View::TT, Devel::Hide,
9050 Sort::Key, Statistics::Distributions, Template::Plugin::Comma,
9051 Template::Plugin::DateTime::Format, Term::Size::Any, Term::Size::Perl,
9052 URI::SmartURI and Web::Scraper to make the maintenance of FixMyStreet
9053 easier in the future.</p>
9054
9055 <p>Thanks to the great tools in Debian, getting the missing modules
9056 installed on my server was a simple call to 'cpan2deb Module::Name'
9057 and 'dpkg -i' to install the resulting package.  But this leave me
9058 with the responsibility of tracking security problems, which I really
9059 do not have time for.</p>
9060
9061       </div>
9062       <div class="tags">
9063
9064
9065         Tags: <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>.
9066
9067
9068       </div>
9069     </div>
9070     <div class="padding"></div>
9071
9072     <div class="entry">
9073       <div class="title">
9074         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Free_Software_vs__proprietary_softare___.html">Free Software vs. proprietary softare...</a>
9075       </div>
9076       <div class="date">
9077         20th June 2011
9078       </div>
9079       <div class="body">
9080         <p>Reading
9081 <a href="http://blog.thingiverse.com/2011/06/20/open-source-vs-closed-source-eulas/">the
9082 thingiverse blog</a>, I came across two highlights of interesting
9083 parts of the
9084 <a href="http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Autodesk_EULA">Autodesk</a>
9085 and
9086 <a href="http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2011/06/things-you-cant-do-with-the-microsoft-kinect-sdk.html">Microsoft
9087 Kinect</a> End User License Agreements (EULAs), which illustrates
9088 quite well why I stay away from software with EULAs.  Whenever I take
9089 the time to read their content, the terms are simply unacceptable.</p>
9090
9091       </div>
9092       <div class="tags">
9093
9094
9095         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/opphavsrett">opphavsrett</a>.
9096
9097
9098       </div>
9099     </div>
9100     <div class="padding"></div>
9101
9102     <div class="entry">
9103       <div class="title">
9104         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Experimental_Open311_API_for_the_mySociety_fixmystreet_system.html">Experimental Open311 API for the mySociety fixmystreet system</a>
9105       </div>
9106       <div class="date">
9107         30th April 2011
9108       </div>
9109       <div class="body">
9110         <p>Today, the first draft implementation of an
9111 <a href="http://www.open311.org/">Open311 API</a> for the Norwegian
9112 service <a href="http://www.fiksgatami.no/">FiksGataMi</a> started to
9113 work.  It is only available on the developer server for now, and I
9114 have not tested it using any existing Open311 client (I lack the
9115 platforms needed to run the clients I have found so far), but it is
9116 able to query the database and extract a list of open and closed
9117 requests within a given category and reported to a given municipality.
9118 I believe that is a good start to create a useful service for those
9119 that want to do data mining on the requests submitted so far.</p>
9120
9121 <p>Where is it?  Visit
9122 <a href="http://fiksgatami-dev.nuug.no/open311.cgi/v2/">http://fiksgatami-dev.nuug.no/open311.cgi/v2/</a>
9123 to have a look.  Please send feedback to the
9124 <a href="http://lists.nuug.no/mailman/listinfo/fiksgatami">fiksgatami
9125 (at) nuug.no</a> mailing list.</p>
9126
9127       </div>
9128       <div class="tags">
9129
9130
9131         Tags: <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/open311">open311</a>.
9132
9133
9134       </div>
9135     </div>
9136     <div class="padding"></div>
9137
9138     <div class="entry">
9139       <div class="title">
9140         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Initial_notes_on_adding_Open311_server_API_on_FixMyStreet.html">Initial notes on adding Open311 server API on FixMyStreet</a>
9141       </div>
9142       <div class="date">
9143         29th April 2011
9144       </div>
9145       <div class="body">
9146         <p>The last few days I have spent some time trying to add support for
9147 the <a href="http://www.open311.org/">Open311 API</a> in the
9148 <a href="http://www.fiksgatami.no/">Norwegian FixMyStreet service</a>.
9149 Earlier I believed Open311 would be a useful API to use to submit
9150 reports to the municipalities, but when I noticed that the
9151 <a href="http://fixmystreet.org.nz/">New Zealand version</a> of
9152 FixMyStreet had implemented Open311 on the server side, it occurred to
9153 me that this was a nice way to allow the public, press and
9154 municipalities to do data mining directly in the FixMyStreet service.
9155 Thus I went to work implementing the Open311 specification for
9156 FixMyStreet.  The implementation is not yet ready, but I am starting
9157 to get a draft limping along.  In the process, I have discovered a few
9158 issues with the Open311 specification.</p>
9159
9160 <p>One obvious missing feature is the lack of natural language
9161 handling in the specification.  The specification seem to assume all
9162 reports will be written in English, and do not provide a way for the
9163 receiving end to specify which languages are understood there.  To be
9164 able to use the same client and submit to several Open311 receivers,
9165 it would be useful to know which language to use when writing reports.
9166 I believe the specification should be extended to allow the receivers
9167 of problem reports to specify which language they accept, and the
9168 submitter to specify which language the report is written in.
9169 Language of a text can also be automatically guessed using statistical
9170 methods, but for multi-lingual persons like myself, it is useful to
9171 know which language to use when writing a problem report.  I suspect
9172 some lang=nb,nn kind of attribute would solve it.</p>
9173
9174 <p>A key part of the Open311 API is the list of services provided,
9175 which is similar to the categories used by FixMyStreet.  One issue I
9176 run into is the need to specify both name and unique identifier for
9177 each category.  The specification do not state that the identifier
9178 should be numeric, but all example implementations have used numbers
9179 here.  In FixMyStreet, there is no number associated with each
9180 category.  As the specification do not forbid it, I will use the name
9181 as the unique identifier for now and see how open311 clients handle
9182 it.</p>
9183
9184 <p>The report format in open311 and the report format in FixMyStreet
9185 differ in a key part.  FixMyStreet have a title and a description,
9186 while Open311 only have a description and lack the title.  I'm not
9187 quite sure how to best handle this yet.  When asking for a FixMyStreet
9188 report in Open311 format, I just merge title an description into the
9189 open311 description, but this is not going to work if the open311 API
9190 should be used for submitting new reports to FixMyStreet.</p>
9191
9192 <p>The search feature in Open311 is missing a way to ask for problems
9193 near a geographic location.  I believe this is important if one is to
9194 use Open311 as the query language for mobile units.  The specification
9195 should be extended to handle this, probably using some new lat=, lon=
9196 and range= options.</p>
9197
9198 <p>The final challenge I see is that the FixMyStreet code handle
9199 several administrations in one interface, while the Open311 API seem
9200 to assume only one administration.  For FixMyStreet, this mean a
9201 report can be sent to several administrations, and the categories
9202 available depend on the location of the problem.  Not quite sure how
9203 to best handle this.  I've noticed
9204 <a href="http://seeclickfix.com/open311/">SeeClickFix</a> added
9205 latitude and longitude options to the services request, but it do not
9206 solve the problem of what to return when no location is specified.
9207 Will have to investigate this a bit more.</p>
9208
9209 <p>My distaste for web forums have kept me from bringing these issues
9210 up with the open311 developer group.  I really wish they had a email
9211 list available via <a href="http://www.gmane.org/">Gmane</a> to use for
9212 discussions instead of only
9213 <a href="http://lists.open311.org/groups/discuss">a forum<a/>.  Oh,
9214 well.  That will probably resolve itself, one way or another.  I've
9215 also tried visiting the IRC channel #open311 on FreeNode, but no-one
9216 seem to reply to my questions there.  This make me wonder if I just
9217 fail to understand how the open311 community work.  It sure do not
9218 work like the free software project communities I am used to.</p>
9219
9220       </div>
9221       <div class="tags">
9222
9223
9224         Tags: <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/open311">open311</a>.
9225
9226
9227       </div>
9228     </div>
9229     <div class="padding"></div>
9230
9231     <div class="entry">
9232       <div class="title">
9233         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Gnash_enteres_Google_Summer_of_Code_2011.html">Gnash enteres Google Summer of Code 2011</a>
9234       </div>
9235       <div class="date">
9236          6th April 2011
9237       </div>
9238       <div class="body">
9239         <p><a href="http://www.getgnash.org/">The Gnash project</a> is still
9240 the most promising solution for a Free Software Flash implementation.
9241 A few days ago the project
9242 <a href="http://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/gnash-dev/2011-04/msg00011.html">announced</a>
9243 that it will participate in Google Summer of Code.  I hope many
9244 students apply, and that some of them succeed in getting AVM2 support
9245 into Gnash.</p>
9246
9247       </div>
9248       <div class="tags">
9249
9250
9251         Tags: <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>.
9252
9253
9254       </div>
9255     </div>
9256     <div class="padding"></div>
9257
9258     <div class="entry">
9259       <div class="title">
9260         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/A_Norwegian_FixMyStreet_have_kept_me_busy_the_last_few_weeks.html">A Norwegian FixMyStreet have kept me busy the last few weeks</a>
9261       </div>
9262       <div class="date">
9263          3rd April 2011
9264       </div>
9265       <div class="body">
9266         <p>Here is a small update for my English readers.  Most of my blog
9267 posts have been in Norwegian the last few weeks, so here is a short
9268 update in English.</p>
9269
9270 <p>The kids still keep me too busy to get much free software work
9271 done, but I did manage to organise a project to get a Norwegian port
9272 of the British service
9273 <a href="http://www.fixmystreet.com/">FixMyStreet</a> up and running,
9274 and it has been running for a month now.  The entire project has been
9275 organised by me and two others.  Around Christmas we gathered sponsors
9276 to fund the development work.  In January I drafted a contract with
9277 <a href="http://www.mysociety.org/">mySociety</a> on what to develop,
9278 and in February the development took place.  Most of it involved
9279 converting the source to use GPS coordinates instead of British
9280 easting/northing, and the resulting code should be a lot easier to get
9281 running in any country by now.  The Norwegian
9282 <a href="http://www.fiksgatami.no/">FiksGataMi</a> is using
9283 <a href="http://www.openstreetmap.org/">OpenStreetmap</a> as the map
9284 source and the source for administrative borders in Norway, and
9285 support for this had to be added/fixed.</p>
9286
9287 <p>The Norwegian version went live March 3th, and we spent the weekend
9288 polishing the system before we announced it March 7th.  The system is
9289 running on a KVM instance of Debian/Squeeze, and has seen almost 3000
9290 problem reports in a few weeks.  Soon we hope to announce the Android
9291 and iPhone versions making it even easier to report problems with the
9292 public infrastructure.</p>
9293
9294 <p>Perhaps something to consider for those of you in countries without
9295 such service?</p>
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/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>.
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/Using_NVD_and_CPE_to_track_CVEs_in_locally_maintained_software.html">Using NVD and CPE to track CVEs in locally maintained software</a>
9311       </div>
9312       <div class="date">
9313         28th January 2011
9314       </div>
9315       <div class="body">
9316         <p>The last few days I have looked at ways to track open security
9317 issues here at my work with the University of Oslo.  My idea is that
9318 it should be possible to use the information about security issues
9319 available on the Internet, and check our locally
9320 maintained/distributed software against this information.  It should
9321 allow us to verify that no known security issues are forgotten.  The
9322 CVE database listing vulnerabilities seem like a great central point,
9323 and by using the package lists from Debian mapped to CVEs provided by
9324 the testing security team, I believed it should be possible to figure
9325 out which security holes were present in our free software
9326 collection.</p>
9327
9328 <p>After reading up on the topic, it became obvious that the first
9329 building block is to be able to name software packages in a unique and
9330 consistent way across data sources.  I considered several ways to do
9331 this, for example coming up with my own naming scheme like using URLs
9332 to project home pages or URLs to the Freshmeat entries, or using some
9333 existing naming scheme.  And it seem like I am not the first one to
9334 come across this problem, as MITRE already proposed and implemented a
9335 solution.  Enter the <a href="http://cpe.mitre.org/index.html">Common
9336 Platform Enumeration</a> dictionary, a vocabulary for referring to
9337 software, hardware and other platform components.  The CPE ids are
9338 mapped to CVEs in the <a href="http://web.nvd.nist.gov/">National
9339 Vulnerability Database</a>, allowing me to look up know security
9340 issues for any CPE name.  With this in place, all I need to do is to
9341 locate the CPE id for the software packages we use at the university.
9342 This is fairly trivial (I google for 'cve cpe $package' and check the
9343 NVD entry if a CVE for the package exist).</p>
9344
9345 <p>To give you an example.  The GNU gzip source package have the CPE
9346 name cpe:/a:gnu:gzip.  If the old version 1.3.3 was the package to
9347 check out, one could look up
9348 <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
9349 in NVD</a> and get a list of 6 security holes with public CVE entries.
9350 The most recent one is
9351 <a href="http://web.nvd.nist.gov/view/vuln/detail?vulnId=CVE-2010-0001">CVE-2010-0001</a>,
9352 and at the bottom of the NVD page for this vulnerability the complete
9353 list of affected versions is provided.</p>
9354
9355 <p>The NVD database of CVEs is also available as a XML dump, allowing
9356 for offline processing of issues.  Using this dump, I've written a
9357 small script taking a list of CPEs as input and list all CVEs
9358 affecting the packages represented by these CPEs.  One give it CPEs
9359 with version numbers as specified above and get a list of open
9360 security issues out.</p>
9361
9362 <p>Of course for this approach to be useful, the quality of the NVD
9363 information need to be high.  For that to happen, I believe as many as
9364 possible need to use and contribute to the NVD database.  I notice
9365 RHEL is providing
9366 <a href="https://www.redhat.com/security/data/metrics/rhsamapcpe.txt">a
9367 map from CVE to CPE</a>, indicating that they are using the CPE
9368 information.  I'm not aware of Debian and Ubuntu doing the same.</p>
9369
9370 <p>To get an idea about the quality for free software, I spent some
9371 time making it possible to compare the CVE database from Debian with
9372 the CVE database in NVD.  The result look fairly good, but there are
9373 some inconsistencies in NVD (same software package having several
9374 CPEs), and some inaccuracies (NVD not mentioning buggy packages that
9375 Debian believe are affected by a CVE).  Hope to find time to improve
9376 the quality of NVD, but that require being able to get in touch with
9377 someone maintaining it.  So far my three emails with questions and
9378 corrections have not seen any reply, but I hope contact can be
9379 established soon.</p>
9380
9381 <p>An interesting application for CPEs is cross platform package
9382 mapping.  It would be useful to know which packages in for example
9383 RHEL, OpenSuSe and Mandriva are missing from Debian and Ubuntu, and
9384 this would be trivial if all linux distributions provided CPE entries
9385 for their packages.</p>
9386
9387       </div>
9388       <div class="tags">
9389
9390
9391         Tags: <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>.
9392
9393
9394       </div>
9395     </div>
9396     <div class="padding"></div>
9397
9398     <div class="entry">
9399       <div class="title">
9400         <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>
9401       </div>
9402       <div class="date">
9403         23rd January 2011
9404       </div>
9405       <div class="body">
9406         <p>In the
9407 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/discover-data">discover-data</a>
9408 package in Debian, there is a script to report useful information
9409 about the running hardware for use when people report missing
9410 information.  One part of this script that I find very useful when
9411 debugging hardware problems, is the part mapping loaded kernel module
9412 to the PCI device it claims.  It allow me to quickly see if the kernel
9413 module I expect is driving the hardware I am struggling with.  To see
9414 the output, make sure discover-data is installed and run
9415 <tt>/usr/share/bug/discover-data 3>&1</tt>.  The relevant output on
9416 one of my machines like this:</p>
9417
9418 <pre>
9419 loaded modules:
9420 10de:03eb i2c_nforce2
9421 10de:03f1 ohci_hcd
9422 10de:03f2 ehci_hcd
9423 10de:03f0 snd_hda_intel
9424 10de:03ec pata_amd
9425 10de:03f6 sata_nv
9426 1022:1103 k8temp
9427 109e:036e bttv
9428 109e:0878 snd_bt87x
9429 11ab:4364 sky2
9430 </pre>
9431
9432 <p>The code in question look like this, slightly modified for
9433 readability and to drop the output to file descriptor 3:</p>
9434
9435 <pre>
9436 if [ -d /sys/bus/pci/devices/ ] ; then
9437     echo loaded pci modules:
9438     (
9439         cd /sys/bus/pci/devices/
9440         for address in * ; do
9441             if [ -d "$address/driver/module" ] ; then
9442                 module=`cd $address/driver/module ; pwd -P | xargs basename`
9443                 if grep -q "^$module " /proc/modules ; then
9444                     address=$(echo $address |sed s/0000://)
9445                     id=`lspci -n -s $address | tail -n 1 | awk '{print $3}'`
9446                     echo "$id $module"
9447                 fi
9448             fi
9449         done
9450     )
9451     echo
9452 fi
9453 </pre>
9454
9455 <p>Similar code could be used to extract USB device module
9456 mappings:</p>
9457
9458 <pre>
9459 if [ -d /sys/bus/usb/devices/ ] ; then
9460     echo loaded usb modules:
9461     (
9462         cd /sys/bus/usb/devices/
9463         for address in * ; do
9464             if [ -d "$address/driver/module" ] ; then
9465                 module=`cd $address/driver/module ; pwd -P | xargs basename`
9466                 if grep -q "^$module " /proc/modules ; then
9467                     address=$(echo $address |sed s/0000://)
9468                     id=$(lsusb -s $address | tail -n 1 | awk '{print $6}')
9469                     if [ "$id" ] ; then
9470                         echo "$id $module"
9471                     fi
9472                 fi
9473             fi
9474         done
9475     )
9476     echo
9477 fi
9478 </pre>
9479
9480 <p>This might perhaps be something to include in other tools as
9481 well.</p>
9482
9483       </div>
9484       <div class="tags">
9485
9486
9487         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
9488
9489
9490       </div>
9491     </div>
9492     <div class="padding"></div>
9493
9494     <div class="entry">
9495       <div class="title">
9496         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_video_format_most_supported_in_web_browsers_.html">The video format most supported in web browsers?</a>
9497       </div>
9498       <div class="date">
9499         16th January 2011
9500       </div>
9501       <div class="body">
9502         <p>The video format struggle on the web continues, and the three
9503 contenders seem to be Ogg Theora, H.264 and WebM.  Most video sites
9504 seem to use H.264, while others use Ogg Theora.  Interestingly enough,
9505 the comments I see give me the feeling that a lot of people believe
9506 H.264 is the most supported video format in browsers, but according to
9507 the Wikipedia article on
9508 <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTML5_video">HTML5 video</a>,
9509 this is not true.  Check out the nice table of supprted formats in
9510 different browsers there.  The format supported by most browsers is
9511 Ogg Theora, supported by released versions of Mozilla Firefox, Google
9512 Chrome, Chromium, Opera, Konqueror, Epiphany, Origyn Web Browser and
9513 BOLT browser, while not supported by Internet Explorer nor Safari.
9514 The runner up is WebM supported by released versions of Google Chrome
9515 Chromium Opera and Origyn Web Browser, and test versions of Mozilla
9516 Firefox.  H.264 is supported by released versions of Safari, Origyn
9517 Web Browser and BOLT browser, and the test version of Internet
9518 Explorer.  Those wanting Ogg Theora support in Internet Explorer and
9519 Safari can install plugins to get it.</p>
9520
9521 <p>To me, the simple conclusion from this is that to reach most users
9522 without any extra software installed, one uses Ogg Theora with the
9523 HTML5 video tag.   Of course to reach all those without a browser
9524 handling HTML5, one need fallback mechanisms.  In
9525 <a href="http://www.nuug.no/">NUUG</a>, we provide first fallback to a
9526 plugin capable of playing MPEG1 video, and those without such support
9527 we have a second fallback to the Cortado java applet playing Ogg
9528 Theora.  This seem to work quite well, as can be seen in an <a
9529 href="http://www.nuug.no/aktiviteter/20110111-semantic-web/">example
9530 from last week</a>.</p>
9531
9532 <p>The reason Ogg Theora is the most supported format, and H.264 is
9533 the least supported is simple.  Implementing and using H.264
9534 require royalty payment to MPEG-LA, and the terms of use from MPEG-LA
9535 are incompatible with free software licensing.  If you believed H.264
9536 was without royalties and license terms, check out
9537 "<a href="http://webmink.com/essays/h-264/">H.264 – Not The Kind Of
9538 Free That Matters</a>" by Simon Phipps.</p>
9539
9540 <p>A incomplete list of sites providing video in Ogg Theora is
9541 available from
9542 <a href="http://wiki.xiph.org/index.php/List_of_Theora_videos">the
9543 Xiph.org wiki</a>, if you want to have a look.  I'm not aware of a
9544 similar list for WebM nor H.264.</p>
9545
9546 <p>Update 2011-01-16 09:40: A question from Tollef on IRC made me
9547 realise that I failed to make it clear enough this text is about the
9548 &lt;video&gt; tag support in browsers and not the video support
9549 provided by external plugins like the Flash plugins.</p>
9550
9551       </div>
9552       <div class="tags">
9553
9554
9555         Tags: <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>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/video">video</a>.
9556
9557
9558       </div>
9559     </div>
9560     <div class="padding"></div>
9561
9562     <div class="entry">
9563       <div class="title">
9564         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Chrome_plan_to_drop_H_264_support_for_HTML5__lt_video_gt_.html">Chrome plan to drop H.264 support for HTML5 &lt;video&gt;</a>
9565       </div>
9566       <div class="date">
9567         12th January 2011
9568       </div>
9569       <div class="body">
9570         <p>Today I discovered
9571 <a href="http://www.digi.no/860070/google-dropper-h264-stotten-i-chrome">via
9572 digi.no</a> that the Chrome developers, in a surprising announcement,
9573 <a href="http://blog.chromium.org/2011/01/html-video-codec-support-in-chrome.html">yesterday
9574 announced</a> plans to drop H.264 support for HTML5 &lt;video&gt; in
9575 the browser.  The argument used is that H.264 is not a "completely
9576 open" codec technology.  If you believe H.264 was free for everyone
9577 to use, I recommend having a look at the essay
9578 "<a href="http://webmink.com/essays/h-264/">H.264 – Not The Kind Of
9579 Free That Matters</a>".  It is not free of cost for creators of video
9580 tools, nor those of us that want to publish on the Internet, and the
9581 terms provided by MPEG-LA excludes free software projects from
9582 licensing the patents needed for H.264.  Some background information
9583 on the Google announcement is available from
9584 <a href="http://www.osnews.com/story/24243/Google_To_Drop_H264_Support_from_Chrome">OSnews</a>.
9585 A good read. :)</p>
9586
9587 <p>Personally, I believe it is great that Google is taking a stand to
9588 promote equal terms for everyone when it comes to video publishing on
9589 the Internet.  This can only be done by publishing using free and open
9590 standards, which is only possible if the web browsers provide support
9591 for these free and open standards.  At the moment there seem to be two
9592 camps in the web browser world when it come to video support.  Some
9593 browsers support H.264, and others support
9594 <a href="http://www.theora.org/">Ogg Theora</a> and
9595 <a href="http://www.webmproject.org/">WebM</a>
9596 (<a href="http://www.diracvideo.org/">Dirac</a> is not really an option
9597 yet), forcing those of us that want to publish video on the Internet
9598 and which can not accept the terms of use presented by MPEG-LA for
9599 H.264 to not reach all potential viewers.
9600 Wikipedia keep <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTML5_video">an
9601 updated summary</a> of the current browser support.</p>
9602
9603 <p>Not surprising, several people would prefer Google to keep
9604 promoting H.264, and John Gruber
9605 <a href="http://daringfireball.net/2011/01/simple_questions">presents
9606 the mind set</a> of these people quite well.  His rhetorical questions
9607 provoked a reply from Thom Holwerda with another set of questions
9608 <a href="http://www.osnews.com/story/24245/10_Questions_for_John_Gruber_Regarding_H_264_WebM">presenting
9609 the issues with H.264</a>. Both are worth a read.</p>
9610
9611 <p>Some argue that if Google is dropping H.264 because it isn't free,
9612 they should also drop support for the Adobe Flash plugin.  This
9613 argument was covered by Simon Phipps in
9614 <a href="http://blogs.computerworlduk.com/simon-says/2011/01/google-and-h264---far-from-hypocritical/index.htm">todays
9615 blog post</a>, which I find to put the issue in context.  To me it
9616 make perfect sense to drop native H.264 support for HTML5 in the
9617 browser while still allowing plugins.</p>
9618
9619 <p>I suspect the reason this announcement make so many people protest,
9620 is that all the users and promoters of H.264 suddenly get an uneasy
9621 feeling that they might be backing the wrong horse.  A lot of TV
9622 broadcasters have been moving to H.264 the last few years, and a lot
9623 of money has been invested in hardware based on the belief that they
9624 could use the same video format for both broadcasting and web
9625 publishing.  Suddenly this belief is shaken.</p>
9626
9627 <p>An interesting question is why Google is doing this.  While the
9628 presented argument might be true enough, I believe Google would only
9629 present the argument if the change make sense from a business
9630 perspective.  One reason might be that they are currently negotiating
9631 with MPEG-LA over royalties or usage terms, and giving MPEG-LA the
9632 feeling that dropping H.264 completely from Chroome, Youtube and
9633 Google Video would improve the negotiation position of Google.
9634 Another reason might be that Google want to save money by not having
9635 to pay the video tax to MPEG-LA at all, and thus want to move to a
9636 video format not requiring royalties at all.  A third reason might be
9637 that the Chrome development team simply want to avoid the
9638 Chrome/Chromium split to get more help with the development of Chrome.
9639 I guess time will tell.</p>
9640
9641 <p>Update 2011-01-15: The Google Chrome team provided
9642 <a href="http://blog.chromium.org/2011/01/more-about-chrome-html-video-codec.html">more
9643 background and information on the move</a> it a blog post yesterday.</p>
9644
9645       </div>
9646       <div class="tags">
9647
9648
9649         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/standard">standard</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/video">video</a>.
9650
9651
9652       </div>
9653     </div>
9654     <div class="padding"></div>
9655
9656     <div class="entry">
9657       <div class="title">
9658         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/What_standards_are_Free_and_Open_as_defined_by_Digistan_.html">What standards are Free and Open as defined by Digistan?</a>
9659       </div>
9660       <div class="date">
9661         30th December 2010
9662       </div>
9663       <div class="body">
9664         <p>After trying to
9665 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Is_Ogg_Theora_a_free_and_open_standard_.html">compare
9666 Ogg Theora</a> to
9667 <a href="http://www.digistan.org/open-standard:definition">the Digistan
9668 definition</a> of a free and open standard, I concluded that this need
9669 to be done for more standards and started on a framework for doing
9670 this.  As a start, I want to get the status for all the standards in
9671 the Norwegian reference directory, which include UTF-8, HTML, PDF, ODF,
9672 JPEG, PNG, SVG and others.  But to be able to complete this in a
9673 reasonable time frame, I will need help.</p>
9674
9675 <p>If you want to help out with this work, please visit
9676 <a href="http://wiki.nuug.no/grupper/standard/digistan-analyse">the
9677 wiki pages I have set up for this</a>, and let me know that you want
9678 to help out.  The IRC channel #nuug on irc.freenode.net is a good
9679 place to coordinate this for now, as it is the IRC channel for the
9680 NUUG association where I have created the framework (I am the leader
9681 of the Norwegian Unix User Group).</p>
9682
9683 <p>The framework is still forming, and a lot is left to do.  Do not be
9684 scared by the sketchy form of the current pages. :)</p>
9685
9686       </div>
9687       <div class="tags">
9688
9689
9690         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/digistan">digistan</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>.
9691
9692
9693       </div>
9694     </div>
9695     <div class="padding"></div>
9696
9697     <div class="entry">
9698       <div class="title">
9699         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_many_definitions_of_a_open_standard.html">The many definitions of a open standard</a>
9700       </div>
9701       <div class="date">
9702         27th December 2010
9703       </div>
9704       <div class="body">
9705         <p>One of the reasons I like the Digistan definition of
9706 "<a href="http://www.digistan.org/open-standard:definition">Free and
9707 Open Standard</a>" is that this is a new term, and thus the meaning of
9708 the term has been decided by Digistan.  The term "Open Standard" has
9709 become so misunderstood that it is no longer very useful when talking
9710 about standards.  One end up discussing which definition is the best
9711 one and with such frame the only one gaining are the proponents of
9712 de-facto standards and proprietary solutions.</p>
9713
9714 <p>But to give us an idea about the diversity of definitions of open
9715 standards, here are a few that I know about.  This list is not
9716 complete, but can be a starting point for those that want to do a
9717 complete survey.  More definitions are available on the
9718 <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_standard">wikipedia
9719 page</a>.</p>
9720
9721 <p>First off is my favourite, the definition from the European
9722 Interoperability Framework version 1.0.  Really sad to notice that BSA
9723 and others has succeeded in getting it removed from version 2.0 of the
9724 framework by stacking the committee drafting the new version with
9725 their own people.  Anyway, the definition is still available and it
9726 include the key properties needed to make sure everyone can use a
9727 specification on equal terms.</p>
9728
9729 <blockquote>
9730
9731 <p>The following are the minimal characteristics that a specification
9732 and its attendant documents must have in order to be considered an
9733 open standard:</p>
9734
9735 <ul>
9736
9737 <li>The standard is adopted and will be maintained by a not-for-profit
9738 organisation, and its ongoing development occurs on the basis of an
9739 open decision-making procedure available to all interested parties
9740 (consensus or majority decision etc.).</li>
9741
9742 <li>The standard has been published and the standard specification
9743 document is available either freely or at a nominal charge. It must be
9744 permissible to all to copy, distribute and use it for no fee or at a
9745 nominal fee.</li>
9746
9747 <li>The intellectual property - i.e. patents possibly present - of
9748 (parts of) the standard is made irrevocably available on a royalty-
9749 free basis.</li>
9750
9751 <li>There are no constraints on the re-use of the standard.</li>
9752
9753 </ul>
9754 </blockquote>
9755
9756 <p>Another one originates from my friends over at
9757 <a href="http://www.dkuug.dk/">DKUUG</a>, who coined and gathered
9758 support for <a href="http://www.aaben-standard.dk/">this
9759 definition</a> in 2004.  It even made it into the Danish parlament as
9760 <a href="http://www.ft.dk/dokumenter/tingdok.aspx?/samling/20051/beslutningsforslag/B103/som_fremsat.htm">their
9761 definition of a open standard</a>.  Another from a different part of
9762 the Danish government is available from the wikipedia page.</p>
9763
9764 <blockquote>
9765
9766 <p>En åben standard opfylder følgende krav:</p>
9767
9768 <ol>
9769
9770 <li>Veldokumenteret med den fuldstændige specifikation offentligt
9771 tilgængelig.</li>
9772
9773 <li>Frit implementerbar uden økonomiske, politiske eller juridiske
9774 begrænsninger på implementation og anvendelse.</li>
9775
9776 <li>Standardiseret og vedligeholdt i et åbent forum (en såkaldt
9777 "standardiseringsorganisation") via en åben proces.</li>
9778
9779 </ol>
9780
9781 </blockquote>
9782
9783 <p>Then there is <a href="http://www.fsfe.org/projects/os/def.html">the
9784 definition</a> from Free Software Foundation Europe.</p>
9785
9786 <blockquote>
9787
9788 <p>An Open Standard refers to a format or protocol that is</p>
9789
9790 <ol>
9791
9792 <li>subject to full public assessment and use without constraints in a
9793 manner equally available to all parties;</li>
9794
9795 <li>without any components or extensions that have dependencies on
9796 formats or protocols that do not meet the definition of an Open
9797 Standard themselves;</li>
9798
9799 <li>free from legal or technical clauses that limit its utilisation by
9800 any party or in any business model;</li>
9801
9802 <li>managed and further developed independently of any single vendor
9803 in a process open to the equal participation of competitors and third
9804 parties;</li>
9805
9806 <li>available in multiple complete implementations by competing
9807 vendors, or as a complete implementation equally available to all
9808 parties.</li>
9809
9810 </ol>
9811
9812 </blockquote>
9813
9814 <p>A long time ago, SUN Microsystems, now bought by Oracle, created
9815 its
9816 <a href="http://blogs.sun.com/dennisding/resource/Open%20Standard%20Definition.pdf">Open
9817 Standards Checklist</a> with a fairly detailed description.</p>
9818
9819 <blockquote>
9820 <p>Creation and Management of an Open Standard
9821
9822 <ul>
9823
9824 <li>Its development and management process must be collaborative and
9825   democratic:
9826
9827          <ul>
9828
9829          <li>Participation must be accessible to all those who wish to
9830             participate and can meet fair and reasonable criteria
9831             imposed by the organization under which it is developed
9832             and managed.</li>
9833
9834          <li>The processes must be documented and, through a known
9835             method, can be changed through input from all
9836             participants.</li>
9837
9838          <li>The process must be based on formal and binding commitments for
9839             the disclosure and licensing of intellectual property rights.</li>
9840
9841          <li>Development and management should strive for consensus,
9842             and an appeals process must be clearly outlined.</li>
9843
9844          <li>The standard specification must be open to extensive
9845             public review at least once in its life-cycle, with
9846             comments duly discussed and acted upon, if required.</li>
9847
9848          </ul>
9849
9850 </li>
9851
9852 </ul>
9853
9854 <p>Use and Licensing of an Open Standard</p>
9855 <ul>
9856
9857 <li>The standard must describe an interface, not an implementation,
9858   and the industry must be capable of creating multiple, competing
9859   implementations to the interface described in the standard without
9860   undue or restrictive constraints.  Interfaces include APIs,
9861   protocols, schemas, data formats and their encoding.</li>
9862
9863 <li> The standard must not contain any proprietary "hooks" that create
9864   a technical or economic barriers</li>
9865
9866 <li>Faithful implementations of the standard must
9867   interoperate. Interoperability means the ability of a computer
9868   program to communicate and exchange information with other computer
9869   programs and mutually to use the information which has been
9870   exchanged. This includes the ability to use, convert, or exchange
9871   file formats, protocols, schemas, interface information or
9872   conventions, so as to permit the computer program to work with other
9873   computer programs and users in all the ways in which they are
9874   intended to function.</li>
9875
9876 <li>It must be permissible for anyone to copy, distribute and read the
9877   standard for a nominal fee, or even no fee. If there is a fee, it
9878   must be low enough to not preclude widespread use.</li>
9879
9880 <li>It must be possible for anyone to obtain free (no royalties or
9881   fees; also known as "royalty free"), worldwide, non-exclusive and
9882   perpetual licenses to all essential patent claims to make, use and
9883   sell products based on the standard.  The only exceptions are
9884   terminations per the reciprocity and defensive suspension terms
9885   outlined below. Essential patent claims include pending, unpublished
9886   patents, published patents, and patent applications. The license is
9887   only for the exact scope of the standard in question.
9888
9889       <ul>
9890
9891       <li> May be conditioned only on reciprocal licenses to any of
9892         licensees' patent claims essential to practice that standard
9893         (also known as a reciprocity clause)</li>
9894
9895       <li> May be terminated as to any licensee who sues the licensor
9896         or any other licensee for infringement of patent claims
9897         essential to practice that standard (also known as a
9898         "defensive suspension" clause)</li>
9899
9900       <li> The same licensing terms are available to every potential
9901         licensor</li>
9902
9903       </ul>
9904 </li>
9905
9906 <li>The licensing terms of an open standards must not preclude
9907   implementations of that standard under open source licensing terms
9908   or restricted licensing terms</li>
9909
9910 </ul>
9911
9912 </blockquote>
9913
9914 <p>It is said that one of the nice things about standards is that
9915 there are so many of them.  As you can see, the same holds true for
9916 open standard definitions.  Most of the definitions have a lot in
9917 common, and it is not really controversial what properties a open
9918 standard should have, but the diversity of definitions have made it
9919 possible for those that want to avoid a level marked field and real
9920 competition to downplay the significance of open standards.  I hope we
9921 can turn this tide by focusing on the advantages of Free and Open
9922 Standards.</p>
9923
9924       </div>
9925       <div class="tags">
9926
9927
9928         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/digistan">digistan</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>.
9929
9930
9931       </div>
9932     </div>
9933     <div class="padding"></div>
9934
9935     <div class="entry">
9936       <div class="title">
9937         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Is_Ogg_Theora_a_free_and_open_standard_.html">Is Ogg Theora a free and open standard?</a>
9938       </div>
9939       <div class="date">
9940         25th December 2010
9941       </div>
9942       <div class="body">
9943         <p><a href="http://www.digistan.org/open-standard:definition">The
9944 Digistan definition</a> of a free and open standard reads like this:</p>
9945
9946 <blockquote>
9947
9948 <p>The Digital Standards Organization defines free and open standard
9949 as follows:</p>
9950
9951 <ol>
9952
9953 <li>A free and open standard is immune to vendor capture at all stages
9954 in its life-cycle. Immunity from vendor capture makes it possible to
9955 freely use, improve upon, trust, and extend a standard over time.</li>
9956
9957 <li>The standard is adopted and will be maintained by a not-for-profit
9958 organisation, and its ongoing development occurs on the basis of an
9959 open decision-making procedure available to all interested
9960 parties.</li>
9961
9962 <li>The standard has been published and the standard specification
9963 document is available freely. It must be permissible to all to copy,
9964 distribute, and use it freely.</li>
9965
9966 <li>The patents possibly present on (parts of) the standard are made
9967 irrevocably available on a royalty-free basis.</li>
9968
9969 <li>There are no constraints on the re-use of the standard.</li>
9970
9971 </ol>
9972
9973 <p>The economic outcome of a free and open standard, which can be
9974 measured, is that it enables perfect competition between suppliers of
9975 products based on the standard.</p>
9976 </blockquote>
9977
9978 <p>For a while now I have tried to figure out of Ogg Theora is a free
9979 and open standard according to this definition.  Here is a short
9980 writeup of what I have been able to gather so far.  I brought up the
9981 topic on the Xiph advocacy mailing list
9982 <a href="http://lists.xiph.org/pipermail/advocacy/2009-July/001632.html">in
9983 July 2009</a>, for those that want to see some background information.
9984 According to Ivo Emanuel Gonçalves and Monty Montgomery on that list
9985 the Ogg Theora specification fulfils the Digistan definition.</p>
9986
9987 <p><strong>Free from vendor capture?</strong></p>
9988
9989 <p>As far as I can see, there is no single vendor that can control the
9990 Ogg Theora specification.  It can be argued that the
9991 <a href="http://www.xiph.org/">Xiph foundation</A> is such vendor, but
9992 given that it is a non-profit foundation with the expressed goal
9993 making free and open protocols and standards available, it is not
9994 obvious that this is a real risk.  One issue with the Xiph
9995 foundation is that its inner working (as in board member list, or who
9996 control the foundation) are not easily available on the web.  I've
9997 been unable to find out who is in the foundation board, and have not
9998 seen any accounting information documenting how money is handled nor
9999 where is is spent in the foundation.  It is thus not obvious for an
10000 external observer who control The Xiph foundation, and for all I know
10001 it is possible for a single vendor to take control over the
10002 specification.  But it seem unlikely.</p>
10003
10004 <p><strong>Maintained by open not-for-profit organisation?</strong></p>
10005
10006 <p>Assuming that the Xiph foundation is the organisation its web pages
10007 claim it to be, this point is fulfilled.  If Xiph foundation is
10008 controlled by a single vendor, it isn't, but I have not found any
10009 documentation indicating this.</p>
10010
10011 <p>According to
10012 <a href="http://media.hiof.no/diverse/fad/rapport_4.pdf">a report</a>
10013 prepared by Audun Vaaler og Børre Ludvigsen for the Norwegian
10014 government, the Xiph foundation is a non-commercial organisation and
10015 the development process is open, transparent and non-Discrimatory.
10016 Until proven otherwise, I believe it make most sense to believe the
10017 report is correct.</p>
10018
10019 <p><strong>Specification freely available?</strong></p>
10020
10021 <p>The specification for the <a href="http://www.xiph.org/ogg/doc/">Ogg
10022 container format</a> and both the
10023 <a href="http://www.xiph.org/vorbis/doc/">Vorbis</a> and
10024 <a href="http://theora.org/doc/">Theora</a> codeces are available on
10025 the web.  This are the terms in the Vorbis and Theora specification:
10026
10027 <blockquote>
10028
10029 Anyone may freely use and distribute the Ogg and [Vorbis/Theora]
10030 specifications, whether in private, public, or corporate
10031 capacity. However, the Xiph.Org Foundation and the Ogg project reserve
10032 the right to set the Ogg [Vorbis/Theora] specification and certify
10033 specification compliance.
10034
10035 </blockquote>
10036
10037 <p>The Ogg container format is specified in IETF
10038 <a href="http://www.xiph.org/ogg/doc/rfc3533.txt">RFC 3533</a>, and
10039 this is the term:<p>
10040
10041 <blockquote>
10042
10043 <p>This document and translations of it may be copied and furnished to
10044 others, and derivative works that comment on or otherwise explain it
10045 or assist in its implementation may be prepared, copied, published and
10046 distributed, in whole or in part, without restriction of any kind,
10047 provided that the above copyright notice and this paragraph are
10048 included on all such copies and derivative works.  However, this
10049 document itself may not be modified in any way, such as by removing
10050 the copyright notice or references to the Internet Society or other
10051 Internet organizations, except as needed for the purpose of developing
10052 Internet standards in which case the procedures for copyrights defined
10053 in the Internet Standards process must be followed, or as required to
10054 translate it into languages other than English.</p>
10055
10056 <p>The limited permissions granted above are perpetual and will not be
10057 revoked by the Internet Society or its successors or assigns.</p>
10058 </blockquote>
10059
10060 <p>All these terms seem to allow unlimited distribution and use, an
10061 this term seem to be fulfilled.  There might be a problem with the
10062 missing permission to distribute modified versions of the text, and
10063 thus reuse it in other specifications.  Not quite sure if that is a
10064 requirement for the Digistan definition.</p>
10065
10066 <p><strong>Royalty-free?</strong></p>
10067
10068 <p>There are no known patent claims requiring royalties for the Ogg
10069 Theora format.
10070 <a href="http://www.streamingmedia.com/Articles/ReadArticle.aspx?ArticleID=65782">MPEG-LA</a>
10071 and
10072 <a href="http://yro.slashdot.org/story/10/04/30/237238/Steve-Jobs-Hints-At-Theora-Lawsuit">Steve
10073 Jobs</a> in Apple claim to know about some patent claims (submarine
10074 patents) against the Theora format, but no-one else seem to believe
10075 them.  Both Opera Software and the Mozilla Foundation have looked into
10076 this and decided to implement Ogg Theora support in their browsers
10077 without paying any royalties.  For now the claims from MPEG-LA and
10078 Steve Jobs seem more like FUD to scare people to use the H.264 codec
10079 than any real problem with Ogg Theora.</p>
10080
10081 <p><strong>No constraints on re-use?</strong></p>
10082
10083 <p>I am not aware of any constraints on re-use.</p>
10084
10085 <p><strong>Conclusion</strong></p>
10086
10087 <p>3 of 5 requirements seem obviously fulfilled, and the remaining 2
10088 depend on the governing structure of the Xiph foundation.  Given the
10089 background report used by the Norwegian government, I believe it is
10090 safe to assume the last two requirements are fulfilled too, but it
10091 would be nice if the Xiph foundation web site made it easier to verify
10092 this.</p>
10093
10094 <p>It would be nice to see other analysis of other specifications to
10095 see if they are free and open standards.</p>
10096
10097       </div>
10098       <div class="tags">
10099
10100
10101         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/digistan">digistan</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>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/video">video</a>.
10102
10103
10104       </div>
10105     </div>
10106     <div class="padding"></div>
10107
10108     <div class="entry">
10109       <div class="title">
10110         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/The_reply_from_Edgar_Villanueva_to_Microsoft_in_Peru.html">The reply from Edgar Villanueva to Microsoft in Peru</a>
10111       </div>
10112       <div class="date">
10113         25th December 2010
10114       </div>
10115       <div class="body">
10116         <p>A few days ago
10117 <a href="http://www.idg.no/computerworld/article189879.ece">an
10118 article</a> in the Norwegian Computerworld magazine about how version
10119 2.0 of
10120 <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Interoperability_Framework">European
10121 Interoperability Framework</a> has been successfully lobbied by the
10122 proprietary software industry to remove the focus on free software.
10123 Nothing very surprising there, given
10124 <a href="http://news.slashdot.org/story/10/03/29/2115235/Open-Source-Open-Standards-Under-Attack-In-Europe">earlier
10125 reports</a> on how Microsoft and others have stacked the committees in
10126 this work.  But I find this very sad.   The definition of
10127 <a href="http://www.nuug.no/dokumenter/standard-presse-def-200506.txt">an
10128 open standard from version 1</a> was very good, and something I
10129 believe should be used also in the future, alongside
10130 <a href="http://www.digistan.org/open-standard:definition">the
10131 definition from Digistan</A>.  Version 2 have removed the open
10132 standard definition from its content.</p>
10133
10134 <p>Anyway, the news reminded me of the great reply sent by Dr. Edgar
10135 Villanueva, congressman in Peru at the time, to Microsoft as a reply
10136 to Microsofts attack on his proposal regarding the use of free software
10137 in the public sector in Peru.  As the text was not available from a
10138 few of the URLs where it used to be available, I copy it here from
10139 <a href="http://gnuwin.epfl.ch/articles/en/reponseperou/villanueva_to_ms.html">my
10140 source</a> to ensure it is available also in the future.  Some
10141 background information about that story is available in
10142 <a href="http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/6099">an article</a> from
10143 Linux Journal in 2002.</p>
10144
10145 <blockquote>
10146 <p>Lima, 8th of April, 2002<br>
10147 To: Señor JUAN ALBERTO GONZÁLEZ<br>
10148 General Manager of Microsoft Perú</p>
10149
10150 <p>Dear Sir:</p>
10151
10152 <p>First of all, I thank you for your letter of March 25, 2002 in which you state the official position of Microsoft relative to Bill Number 1609, Free Software in Public Administration, which is indubitably inspired by the desire for Peru to find a suitable place in the global technological context. In the same spirit, and convinced that we will find the best solutions through an exchange of clear and open ideas, I will take this opportunity to reply to the commentaries included in your letter.</p>
10153
10154 <p>While acknowledging that opinions such as yours constitute a significant contribution, it would have been even more worthwhile for me if, rather than formulating objections of a general nature (which we will analyze in detail later) you had gathered solid arguments for the advantages that proprietary software could bring to the Peruvian State, and to its citizens in general, since this would have allowed a more enlightening exchange in respect of each of our positions.</p>
10155
10156 <p>With the aim of creating an orderly debate, we will assume that what you call "open source software" is what the Bill defines as "free software", since there exists software for which the source code is distributed together with the program, but which does not fall within the definition established by the Bill; and that what you call "commercial software" is what the Bill defines as "proprietary" or "unfree", given that there exists free software which is sold in the market for a price like any other good or service.</p>
10157
10158 <p>It is also necessary to make it clear that the aim of the Bill we are discussing is not directly related to the amount of direct savings that can by made by using free software in state institutions. That is in any case a marginal aggregate value, but in no way is it the chief focus of the Bill. The basic principles which inspire the Bill are linked to the basic guarantees of a state of law, such as:</p>
10159
10160 <p>
10161 <ul>
10162 <li>Free access to public information by the citizen. </li>
10163 <li>Permanence of public data. </li>
10164 <li>Security of the State and citizens.</li>
10165 </ul>
10166 </p>
10167
10168 <p>To guarantee the free access of citizens to public information, it is indispensable that the encoding of data is not tied to a single provider. The use of standard and open formats gives a guarantee of this free access, if necessary through the creation of compatible free software.</p>
10169
10170 <p>To guarantee the permanence of public data, it is necessary that the usability and maintenance of the software does not depend on the goodwill of the suppliers, or on the monopoly conditions imposed by them. For this reason the State needs systems the development of which can be guaranteed due to the availability of the source code.</p>
10171
10172 <p>To guarantee national security or the security of the State, it is indispensable to be able to rely on systems without elements which allow control from a distance or the undesired transmission of information to third parties. Systems with source code freely accessible to the public are required to allow their inspection by the State itself, by the citizens, and by a large number of independent experts throughout the world. Our proposal brings further security, since the knowledge of the source code will eliminate the growing number of programs with *spy code*. </p>
10173
10174 <p>In the same way, our proposal strengthens the security of the citizens, both in their role as legitimate owners of information managed by the state, and in their role as consumers. In this second case, by allowing the growth of a widespread availability of free software not containing *spy code* able to put at risk privacy and individual freedoms.</p>
10175
10176 <p>In this sense, the Bill is limited to establishing the conditions under which the state bodies will obtain software in the future, that is, in a way compatible with these basic principles.</p>
10177
10178
10179 <p>From reading the Bill it will be clear that once passed:<br>
10180 <li>the law does not forbid the production of proprietary software</li>
10181 <li>the law does not forbid the sale of proprietary software</li>
10182 <li>the law does not specify which concrete software to use</li>
10183 <li>the law does not dictate the supplier from whom software will be bought</li>
10184 <li>the law does not limit the terms under which a software product can be licensed.</li>
10185
10186 </p>
10187
10188 <p>What the Bill does express clearly, is that, for software to be acceptable for the state it is not enough that it is technically capable of fulfilling a task, but that further the contractual conditions must satisfy a series of requirements regarding the license, without which the State cannot guarantee the citizen adequate processing of his data, watching over its integrity, confidentiality, and accessibility throughout time, as these are very critical aspects for its normal functioning.</p>
10189
10190 <p>We agree, Mr. Gonzalez, that information and communication technology have a significant impact on the quality of life of the citizens (whether it be positive or negative). We surely also agree that the basic values I have pointed out above are fundamental in a democratic state like Peru. So we are very interested to know of any other way of guaranteeing these principles, other than through the use of free software in the terms defined by the Bill.</p>
10191
10192 <p>As for the observations you have made, we will now go on to analyze them in detail:</p>
10193
10194 <p>Firstly, you point out that: "1. The bill makes it compulsory for all public bodies to use only free software, that is to say open source software, which breaches the principles of equality before the law, that of non-discrimination and the right of free private enterprise, freedom of industry and of contract, protected by the constitution."</p>
10195
10196 <p>This understanding is in error. The Bill in no way affects the rights you list; it limits itself entirely to establishing conditions for the use of software on the part of state institutions, without in any way meddling in private sector transactions. It is a well established principle that the State does not enjoy the wide spectrum of contractual freedom of the private sector, as it is limited in its actions precisely by the requirement for transparency of public acts; and in this sense, the preservation of the greater common interest must prevail when legislating on the matter.</p>
10197
10198 <p>The Bill protects equality under the law, since no natural or legal person is excluded from the right of offering these goods to the State under the conditions defined in the Bill and without more limitations than those established by the Law of State Contracts and Purchasing (T.U.O. by Supreme Decree No. 012-2001-PCM).</p>
10199
10200 <p>The Bill does not introduce any discrimination whatever, since it only establishes *how* the goods have to be provided (which is a state power) and not *who* has to provide them (which would effectively be discriminatory, if restrictions based on national origin, race religion, ideology, sexual preference etc. were imposed). On the contrary, the Bill is decidedly antidiscriminatory. This is so because by defining with no room for doubt the conditions for the provision of software, it prevents state bodies from using software which has a license including discriminatory conditions.</p>
10201
10202 <p>It should be obvious from the preceding two paragraphs that the Bill does not harm free private enterprise, since the latter can always choose under what conditions it will produce software; some of these will be acceptable to the State, and others will not be since they contradict the guarantee of the basic principles listed above. This free initiative is of course compatible with the freedom of industry and freedom of contract (in the limited form in which the State can exercise the latter). Any private subject can produce software under the conditions which the State requires, or can refrain from doing so. Nobody is forced to adopt a model of production, but if they wish to provide software to the State, they must provide the mechanisms which guarantee the basic principles, and which are those described in the Bill.</p>
10203
10204 <p>By way of an example: nothing in the text of the Bill would prevent your company offering the State bodies an office "suite", under the conditions defined in the Bill and setting the price that you consider satisfactory. If you did not, it would not be due to restrictions imposed by the law, but to business decisions relative to the method of commercializing your products, decisions with which the State is not involved.</p>
10205
10206 <p>To continue; you note that:" 2. The bill, by making the use of open source software compulsory, would establish discriminatory and non competitive practices in the contracting and purchasing by public bodies..."</p>
10207
10208 <p>This statement is just a reiteration of the previous one, and so the response can be found above. However, let us concern ourselves for a moment with your comment regarding "non-competitive ... practices."</p>
10209
10210 <p>Of course, in defining any kind of purchase, the buyer sets conditions which relate to the proposed use of the good or service. From the start, this excludes certain manufacturers from the possibility of competing, but does not exclude them "a priori", but rather based on a series of principles determined by the autonomous will of the purchaser, and so the process takes place in conformance with the law. And in the Bill it is established that *no one* is excluded from competing as far as he guarantees the fulfillment of the basic principles.</p>
10211
10212 <p>Furthermore, the Bill *stimulates* competition, since it tends to generate a supply of software with better conditions of usability, and to better existing work, in a model of continuous improvement.</p>
10213
10214 <p>On the other hand, the central aspect of competivity is the chance to provide better choices to the consumer. Now, it is impossible to ignore the fact that marketing does not play a neutral role when the product is offered on the market (since accepting the opposite would lead one to suppose that firms' expenses in marketing lack any sense), and that therefore a significant expense under this heading can influence the decisions of the purchaser. This influence of marketing is in large measure reduced by the bill that we are backing, since the choice within the framework proposed is based on the *technical merits* of the product and not on the effort put into commercialization by the producer; in this sense, competitiveness is increased, since the smallest software producer can compete on equal terms with the most powerful corporations.</p>
10215
10216 <p>It is necessary to stress that there is no position more anti-competitive than that of the big software producers, which frequently abuse their dominant position, since in innumerable cases they propose as a solution to problems raised by users: "update your software to the new version" (at the user's expense, naturally); furthermore, it is common to find arbitrary cessation of technical help for products, which, in the provider's judgment alone, are "old"; and so, to receive any kind of technical assistance, the user finds himself forced to migrate to new versions (with non-trivial costs, especially as changes in hardware platform are often involved). And as the whole infrastructure is based on proprietary data formats, the user stays "trapped" in the need to continue using products from the same supplier, or to make the huge effort to change to another environment (probably also proprietary).</p>
10217
10218 <p>You add: "3. So, by compelling the State to favor a business model based entirely on open source, the bill would only discourage the local and international manufacturing companies, which are the ones which really undertake important expenditures, create a significant number of direct and indirect jobs, as well as contributing to the GNP, as opposed to a model of open source software which tends to have an ever weaker economic impact, since it mainly creates jobs in the service sector."</p>
10219
10220 <p>I do not agree with your statement. Partly because of what you yourself point out in paragraph 6 of your letter, regarding the relative weight of services in the context of software use. This contradiction alone would invalidate your position. The service model, adopted by a large number of companies in the software industry, is much larger in economic terms, and with a tendency to increase, than the licensing of programs.</p>
10221
10222 <p>On the other hand, the private sector of the economy has the widest possible freedom to choose the economic model which best suits its interests, even if this freedom of choice is often obscured subliminally by the disproportionate expenditure on marketing by the producers of proprietary software.</p>
10223
10224 <p>In addition, a reading of your opinion would lead to the conclusion that the State market is crucial and essential for the proprietary software industry, to such a point that the choice made by the State in this bill would completely eliminate the market for these firms. If that is true, we can deduce that the State must be subsidizing the proprietary software industry. In the unlikely event that this were true, the State would have the right to apply the subsidies in the area it considered of greatest social value; it is undeniable, in this improbable hypothesis, that if the State decided to subsidize software, it would have to do so choosing the free over the proprietary, considering its social effect and the rational use of taxpayers money.</p>
10225
10226 <p>In respect of the jobs generated by proprietary software in countries like ours, these mainly concern technical tasks of little aggregate value; at the local level, the technicians who provide support for proprietary software produced by transnational companies do not have the possibility of fixing bugs, not necessarily for lack of technical capability or of talent, but because they do not have access to the source code to fix it. With free software one creates more technically qualified employment and a framework of free competence where success is only tied to the ability to offer good technical support and quality of service, one stimulates the market, and one increases the shared fund of knowledge, opening up alternatives to generate services of greater total value and a higher quality level, to the benefit of all involved: producers, service organizations, and consumers.</p>
10227
10228 <p>It is a common phenomenon in developing countries that local software industries obtain the majority of their takings in the service sector, or in the creation of "ad hoc" software. Therefore, any negative impact that the application of the Bill might have in this sector will be more than compensated by a growth in demand for services (as long as these are carried out to high quality standards). If the transnational software companies decide not to compete under these new rules of the game, it is likely that they will undergo some decrease in takings in terms of payment for licenses; however, considering that these firms continue to allege that much of the software used by the State has been illegally copied, one can see that the impact will not be very serious. Certainly, in any case their fortune will be determined by market laws, changes in which cannot be avoided; many firms traditionally associated with proprietary software have already set out on the road (supported by copious expense) of providing services associated with free software, which shows that the models are not mutually exclusive.</p>
10229
10230 <p>With this bill the State is deciding that it needs to preserve certain fundamental values. And it is deciding this based on its sovereign power, without affecting any of the constitutional guarantees. If these values could be guaranteed without having to choose a particular economic model, the effects of the law would be even more beneficial. In any case, it should be clear that the State does not choose an economic model; if it happens that there only exists one economic model capable of providing software which provides the basic guarantee of these principles, this is because of historical circumstances, not because of an arbitrary choice of a given model.</p>
10231
10232 <p>Your letter continues: "4. The bill imposes the use of open source software without considering the dangers that this can bring from the point of view of security, guarantee, and possible violation of the intellectual property rights of third parties."</p>
10233
10234 <p>Alluding in an abstract way to "the dangers this can bring", without specifically mentioning a single one of these supposed dangers, shows at the least some lack of knowledge of the topic. So, allow me to enlighten you on these points.</p>
10235
10236 <p>On security:</p>
10237
10238 <p>National security has already been mentioned in general terms in the initial discussion of the basic principles of the bill. In more specific terms, relative to the security of the software itself, it is well known that all software (whether proprietary or free) contains errors or "bugs" (in programmers' slang). But it is also well known that the bugs in free software are fewer, and are fixed much more quickly, than in proprietary software. It is not in vain that numerous public bodies responsible for the IT security of state systems in developed countries require the use of free software for the same conditions of security and efficiency.</p>
10239
10240 <p>What is impossible to prove is that proprietary software is more secure than free, without the public and open inspection of the scientific community and users in general. This demonstration is impossible because the model of proprietary software itself prevents this analysis, so that any guarantee of security is based only on promises of good intentions (biased, by any reckoning) made by the producer itself, or its contractors.</p>
10241
10242 <p>It should be remembered that in many cases, the licensing conditions include Non-Disclosure clauses which prevent the user from publicly revealing security flaws found in the licensed proprietary product.</p>
10243
10244 <p>In respect of the guarantee:</p>
10245
10246 <p>As you know perfectly well, or could find out by reading the "End User License Agreement" of the products you license, in the great majority of cases the guarantees are limited to replacement of the storage medium in case of defects, but in no case is compensation given for direct or indirect damages, loss of profits, etc... If as a result of a security bug in one of your products, not fixed in time by yourselves, an attacker managed to compromise crucial State systems, what guarantees, reparations and compensation would your company make in accordance with your licensing conditions? The guarantees of proprietary software, inasmuch as programs are delivered ``AS IS'', that is, in the state in which they are, with no additional responsibility of the provider in respect of function, in no way differ from those normal with free software.</p>
10247
10248 <p>On Intellectual Property:</p>
10249
10250 <p>Questions of intellectual property fall outside the scope of this bill, since they are covered by specific other laws. The model of free software in no way implies ignorance of these laws, and in fact the great majority of free software is covered by copyright. In reality, the inclusion of this question in your observations shows your confusion in respect of the legal framework in which free software is developed. The inclusion of the intellectual property of others in works claimed as one's own is not a practice that has been noted in the free software community; whereas, unfortunately, it has been in the area of proprietary software. As an example, the condemnation by the Commercial Court of Nanterre, France, on 27th September 2001 of Microsoft Corp. to a penalty of 3 million francs in damages and interest, for violation of intellectual property (piracy, to use the unfortunate term that your firm commonly uses in its publicity).</p>
10251
10252 <p>You go on to say that: "The bill uses the concept of open source software incorrectly, since it does not necessarily imply that the software is free or of zero cost, and so arrives at mistaken conclusions regarding State savings, with no cost-benefit analysis to validate its position."</p>
10253
10254 <p>This observation is wrong; in principle, freedom and lack of cost are orthogonal concepts: there is software which is proprietary and charged for (for example, MS Office), software which is proprietary and free of charge (MS Internet Explorer), software which is free and charged for (Red Hat, SuSE etc GNU/Linux distributions), software which is free and not charged for (Apache, Open Office, Mozilla), and even software which can be licensed in a range of combinations (MySQL).</p>
10255
10256 <p>Certainly free software is not necessarily free of charge. And the text of the bill does not state that it has to be so, as you will have noted after reading it. The definitions included in the Bill state clearly *what* should be considered free software, at no point referring to freedom from charges. Although the possibility of savings in payments for proprietary software licenses are mentioned, the foundations of the bill clearly refer to the fundamental guarantees to be preserved and to the stimulus to local technological development. Given that a democratic State must support these principles, it has no other choice than to use software with publicly available source code, and to exchange information only in standard formats.</p>
10257
10258 <p>If the State does not use software with these characteristics, it will be weakening basic republican principles. Luckily, free software also implies lower total costs; however, even given the hypothesis (easily disproved) that it was more expensive than proprietary software, the simple existence of an effective free software tool for a particular IT function would oblige the State to use it; not by command of this Bill, but because of the basic principles we enumerated at the start, and which arise from the very essence of the lawful democratic State.</p>
10259
10260 <p>You continue: "6. It is wrong to think that Open Source Software is free of charge. Research by the Gartner Group (an important investigator of the technological market recognized at world level) has shown that the cost of purchase of software (operating system and applications) is only 8% of the total cost which firms and institutions take on for a rational and truly beneficial use of the technology. The other 92% consists of: installation costs, enabling, support, maintenance, administration, and down-time."</p>
10261
10262 <p>This argument repeats that already given in paragraph 5 and partly contradicts paragraph 3. For the sake of brevity we refer to the comments on those paragraphs. However, allow me to point out that your conclusion is logically false: even if according to Gartner Group the cost of software is on average only 8% of the total cost of use, this does not in any way deny the existence of software which is free of charge, that is, with a licensing cost of zero.</p>
10263
10264 <p>In addition, in this paragraph you correctly point out that the service components and losses due to down-time make up the largest part of the total cost of software use, which, as you will note, contradicts your statement regarding the small value of services suggested in paragraph 3. Now the use of free software contributes significantly to reduce the remaining life-cycle costs. This reduction in the costs of installation, support etc. can be noted in several areas: in the first place, the competitive service model of free software, support and maintenance for which can be freely contracted out to a range of suppliers competing on the grounds of quality and low cost. This is true for installation, enabling, and support, and in large part for maintenance. In the second place, due to the reproductive characteristics of the model, maintenance carried out for an application is easily replicable, without incurring large costs (that is, without paying more than once for the same thing) since modifications, if one wishes, can be incorporated in the common fund of knowledge. Thirdly, the huge costs caused by non-functioning software ("blue screens of death", malicious code such as virus, worms, and trojans, exceptions, general protection faults and other well-known problems) are reduced considerably by using more stable software; and it is well known that one of the most notable virtues of free software is its stability.</p>
10265
10266 <p>You further state that: "7. One of the arguments behind the bill is the supposed freedom from costs of open-source software, compared with the costs of commercial software, without taking into account the fact that there exist types of volume licensing which can be highly advantageous for the State, as has happened in other countries."</p>
10267
10268 <p>I have already pointed out that what is in question is not the cost of the software but the principles of freedom of information, accessibility, and security. These arguments have been covered extensively in the preceding paragraphs to which I would refer you.</p>
10269
10270 <p>On the other hand, there certainly exist types of volume licensing (although unfortunately proprietary software does not satisfy the basic principles). But as you correctly pointed out in the immediately preceding paragraph of your letter, they only manage to reduce the impact of a component which makes up no more than 8% of the total.</p>
10271
10272 <p>You continue: "8. In addition, the alternative adopted by the bill (I) is clearly more expensive, due to the high costs of software migration, and (II) puts at risk compatibility and interoperability of the IT platforms within the State, and between the State and the private sector, given the hundreds of versions of open source software on the market."</p>
10273
10274 <p>Let us analyze your statement in two parts. Your first argument, that migration implies high costs, is in reality an argument in favor of the Bill. Because the more time goes by, the more difficult migration to another technology will become; and at the same time, the security risks associated with proprietary software will continue to increase. In this way, the use of proprietary systems and formats will make the State ever more dependent on specific suppliers. Once a policy of using free software has been established (which certainly, does imply some cost) then on the contrary migration from one system to another becomes very simple, since all data is stored in open formats. On the other hand, migration to an open software context implies no more costs than migration between two different proprietary software contexts, which invalidates your argument completely.</p>
10275
10276 <p>The second argument refers to "problems in interoperability of the IT platforms within the State, and between the State and the private sector" This statement implies a certain lack of knowledge of the way in which free software is built, which does not maximize the dependence of the user on a particular platform, as normally happens in the realm of proprietary software. Even when there are multiple free software distributions, and numerous programs which can be used for the same function, interoperability is guaranteed as much by the use of standard formats, as required by the bill, as by the possibility of creating interoperable software given the availability of the source code.</p>
10277
10278 <p>You then say that: "9. The majority of open source code does not offer adequate levels of service nor the guarantee from recognized manufacturers of high productivity on the part of the users, which has led various public organizations to retract their decision to go with an open source software solution and to use commercial software in its place."</p>
10279
10280 <p>This observation is without foundation. In respect of the guarantee, your argument was rebutted in the response to paragraph 4. In respect of support services, it is possible to use free software without them (just as also happens with proprietary software), but anyone who does need them can obtain support separately, whether from local firms or from international corporations, again just as in the case of proprietary software.</p>
10281
10282 <p>On the other hand, it would contribute greatly to our analysis if you could inform us about free software projects *established* in public bodies which have already been abandoned in favor of proprietary software. We know of a good number of cases where the opposite has taken place, but not know of any where what you describe has taken place.</p>
10283
10284 <p>You continue by observing that: "10. The bill discourages the creativity of the Peruvian software industry, which invoices 40 million US$/year, exports 4 million US$ (10th in ranking among non-traditional exports, more than handicrafts) and is a source of highly qualified employment. With a law that encourages the use of open source, software programmers lose their intellectual property rights and their main source of payment."</p>
10285
10286 <p>It is clear enough that nobody is forced to commercialize their code as free software. The only thing to take into account is that if it is not free software, it cannot be sold to the public sector. This is not in any case the main market for the national software industry. We covered some questions referring to the influence of the Bill on the generation of employment which would be both highly technically qualified and in better conditions for competition above, so it seems unnecessary to insist on this point.</p>
10287
10288 <p>What follows in your statement is incorrect. On the one hand, no author of free software loses his intellectual property rights, unless he expressly wishes to place his work in the public domain. The free software movement has always been very respectful of intellectual property, and has generated widespread public recognition of its authors. Names like those of Richard Stallman, Linus Torvalds, Guido van Rossum, Larry Wall, Miguel de Icaza, Andrew Tridgell, Theo de Raadt, Andrea Arcangeli, Bruce Perens, Darren Reed, Alan Cox, Eric Raymond, and many others, are recognized world-wide for their contributions to the development of software that is used today by millions of people throughout the world. On the other hand, to say that the rewards for authors rights make up the main source of payment of Peruvian programmers is in any case a guess, in particular since there is no proof to this effect, nor a demonstration of how the use of free software by the State would influence these payments.</p>
10289
10290 <p>You go on to say that: "11. Open source software, since it can be distributed without charge, does not allow the generation of income for its developers through exports. In this way, the multiplier effect of the sale of software to other countries is weakened, and so in turn is the growth of the industry, while Government rules ought on the contrary to stimulate local industry."</p>
10291
10292 <p>This statement shows once again complete ignorance of the mechanisms of and market for free software. It tries to claim that the market of sale of non- exclusive rights for use (sale of licenses) is the only possible one for the software industry, when you yourself pointed out several paragraphs above that it is not even the most important one. The incentives that the bill offers for the growth of a supply of better qualified professionals, together with the increase in experience that working on a large scale with free software within the State will bring for Peruvian technicians, will place them in a highly competitive position to offer their services abroad.</p>
10293
10294 <p>You then state that: "12. In the Forum, the use of open source software in education was discussed, without mentioning the complete collapse of this initiative in a country like Mexico, where precisely the State employees who founded the project now state that open source software did not make it possible to offer a learning experience to pupils in the schools, did not take into account the capability at a national level to give adequate support to the platform, and that the software did not and does not allow for the levels of platform integration that now exist in schools."</p>
10295
10296 <p>In fact Mexico has gone into reverse with the Red Escolar (Schools Network) project. This is due precisely to the fact that the driving forces behind the Mexican project used license costs as their main argument, instead of the other reasons specified in our project, which are far more essential. Because of this conceptual mistake, and as a result of the lack of effective support from the SEP (Secretary of State for Public Education), the assumption was made that to implant free software in schools it would be enough to drop their software budget and send them a CD ROM with Gnu/Linux instead. Of course this failed, and it couldn't have been otherwise, just as school laboratories fail when they use proprietary software and have no budget for implementation and maintenance. That's exactly why our bill is not limited to making the use of free software mandatory, but recognizes the need to create a viable migration plan, in which the State undertakes the technical transition in an orderly way in order to then enjoy the advantages of free software.</p>
10297
10298 <p>You end with a rhetorical question: "13. If open source software satisfies all the requirements of State bodies, why do you need a law to adopt it? Shouldn't it be the market which decides freely which products give most benefits or value?"</p>
10299
10300 <p>We agree that in the private sector of the economy, it must be the market that decides which products to use, and no state interference is permissible there. However, in the case of the public sector, the reasoning is not the same: as we have already established, the state archives, handles, and transmits information which does not belong to it, but which is entrusted to it by citizens, who have no alternative under the rule of law. As a counterpart to this legal requirement, the State must take extreme measures to safeguard the integrity, confidentiality, and accessibility of this information. The use of proprietary software raises serious doubts as to whether these requirements can be fulfilled, lacks conclusive evidence in this respect, and so is not suitable for use in the public sector.</p>
10301
10302 <p>The need for a law is based, firstly, on the realization of the fundamental principles listed above in the specific area of software; secondly, on the fact that the State is not an ideal homogeneous entity, but made up of multiple bodies with varying degrees of autonomy in decision making. Given that it is inappropriate to use proprietary software, the fact of establishing these rules in law will prevent the personal discretion of any state employee from putting at risk the information which belongs to citizens. And above all, because it constitutes an up-to-date reaffirmation in relation to the means of management and communication of information used today, it is based on the republican principle of openness to the public.</p>
10303
10304 <p>In conformance with this universally accepted principle, the citizen has the right to know all information held by the State and not covered by well- founded declarations of secrecy based on law. Now, software deals with information and is itself information. Information in a special form, capable of being interpreted by a machine in order to execute actions, but crucial information all the same because the citizen has a legitimate right to know, for example, how his vote is computed or his taxes calculated. And for that he must have free access to the source code and be able to prove to his satisfaction the programs used for electoral computations or calculation of his taxes.</p>
10305
10306 <p>I wish you the greatest respect, and would like to repeat that my office will always be open for you to expound your point of view to whatever level of detail you consider suitable.</p>
10307
10308 <p>Cordially,<br>
10309 DR. EDGAR DAVID VILLANUEVA NUÑEZ<br>
10310 Congressman of the Republic of Perú.</p>
10311 </blockquote>
10312
10313       </div>
10314       <div class="tags">
10315
10316
10317         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/digistan">digistan</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>.
10318
10319
10320       </div>
10321     </div>
10322     <div class="padding"></div>
10323
10324     <div class="entry">
10325       <div class="title">
10326         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Officeshots_still_going_strong.html">Officeshots still going strong</a>
10327       </div>
10328       <div class="date">
10329         25th December 2010
10330       </div>
10331       <div class="body">
10332         <p>Half a year ago I
10333 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Officeshots_taking_shape.html">wrote
10334 a bit</a> about <a href="http://www.officeshots.org/">OfficeShots</a>,
10335 a web service to allow anyone to test how ODF documents are handled by
10336 the different programs reading and writing the ODF format.</p>
10337
10338 <p>I just had a look at the service, and it seem to be going strong.
10339 Very interesting to see the results reported in the gallery, how
10340 different Office implementations handle different ODF features.  Sad
10341 to see that KOffice was not doing it very well, and happy to see that
10342 LibreOffice has been tested already (but sadly not listed as a option
10343 for OfficeShots users yet).  I am glad to see that the ODF community
10344 got such a great test tool available.</p>
10345
10346       </div>
10347       <div class="tags">
10348
10349
10350         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/standard">standard</a>.
10351
10352
10353       </div>
10354     </div>
10355     <div class="padding"></div>
10356
10357     <div class="entry">
10358       <div class="title">
10359         <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>
10360       </div>
10361       <div class="date">
10362         22nd December 2010
10363       </div>
10364       <div class="body">
10365         <p>The last few days I have spent at work here at the <a
10366 href="http://www.uio.no/">University of Oslo</a> testing if the new
10367 batch of computers will work with Linux.  Every year for the last few
10368 years the university have organised shared bid of a few thousand
10369 computers, and this year HP won the bid.  Two different desktops and
10370 five different laptops are on the list this year.  We in the UNIX
10371 group want to know which one of these computers work well with RHEL
10372 and Ubuntu, the two Linux distributions we currently handle at the
10373 university.</p>
10374
10375 <p>My test method is simple, and I share it here to get feedback and
10376 perhaps inspire others to test hardware as well.  To test, I PXE
10377 install the OS version of choice, and log in as my normal user and run
10378 a few applications and plug in selected pieces of hardware.  When
10379 something fail, I make a note about this in the test matrix and move
10380 on.  If I have some spare time I try to report the bug to the OS
10381 vendor, but as I only have the machines for a short time, I rarely
10382 have the time to do this for all the problems I find.</p>
10383
10384 <p>Anyway, to get to the point of this post.  Here is the simple tests
10385 I perform on a new model.</p>
10386
10387 <ul>
10388
10389 <li>Is PXE installation working?  I'm testing with RHEL6, Ubuntu Lucid
10390 and Ubuntu Maverik at the moment.  If I feel like it, I also test with
10391 RHEL5 and Debian Edu/Squeeze.</li>
10392
10393 <li>Is X.org working?  If the graphical login screen show up after
10394 installation, X.org is working.</li>
10395
10396 <li>Is hardware accelerated OpenGL working?  Running glxgears (in
10397 package mesa-utils on Ubuntu) and writing down the frames per second
10398 reported by the program.</li>
10399
10400 <li>Is sound working?  With Gnome and KDE, a sound is played when
10401 logging in, and if I can hear this the test is successful.  If there
10402 are several audio exits on the machine, I try them all and check if
10403 the Gnome/KDE audio mixer can control where to send the sound.  I
10404 normally test this by playing
10405 <a href="http://www.nuug.no/aktiviteter/20101012-chef/ ">a HTML5
10406 video</a> in Firefox/Iceweasel.</li>
10407
10408 <li>Is the USB subsystem working?  I test this by plugging in a USB
10409 memory stick and see if Gnome/KDE notices this.</li>
10410
10411 <li>Is the CD/DVD player working?  I test this by inserting any CD/DVD
10412 I have lying around, and see if Gnome/KDE notices this.</li>
10413
10414 <li>Is any built in camera working?  Test using cheese, and see if a
10415 picture from the v4l device show up.</li>
10416
10417 <li>Is bluetooth working?  Use the Gnome/KDE browsing tool to see if
10418 any bluetooth devices are discovered.  In my office, I normally see a
10419 few.</li>
10420
10421 <li>For laptops, is the SD or Compaq Flash reader working.  I have
10422 memory modules lying around, and stick them in and see if Gnome/KDE
10423 notice this.</li>
10424
10425 <li>For laptops, is suspend/hibernate working?  I'm testing if the
10426 special button work, and if the laptop continue to work after
10427 resume.</li>
10428
10429 <li>For laptops, is the extra buttons working, like audio level,
10430 adjusting background light, switching on/off external video output,
10431 switching on/off wifi, bluetooth, etc?  The set of buttons differ from
10432 laptop to laptop, so I just write down which are working and which are
10433 not.</li>
10434
10435 <li>Some laptops have smart card readers, finger print readers,
10436 acceleration sensors etc.  I rarely test these, as I do not know how
10437 to quickly test if they are working or not, so I only document their
10438 existence.</li>
10439
10440 </ul>
10441
10442 <p>By now I suspect you are really curious what the test results are
10443 for the HP machines I am testing.  I'm not done yet, so I will report
10444 the test results later.  For now I can report that HP 8100 Elite work
10445 fine, and hibernation fail with HP EliteBook 8440p on Ubuntu Lucid,
10446 and audio fail on RHEL6.  Ubuntu Maverik worked with 8440p.  As you
10447 can see, I have most machines left to test.  One interesting
10448 observation is that Ubuntu Lucid has almost twice the frame rate than
10449 RHEL6 with glxgears.  No idea why.</p>
10450
10451       </div>
10452       <div class="tags">
10453
10454
10455         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
10456
10457
10458       </div>
10459     </div>
10460     <div class="padding"></div>
10461
10462     <div class="entry">
10463       <div class="title">
10464         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Some_thoughts_on_BitCoins.html">Some thoughts on BitCoins</a>
10465       </div>
10466       <div class="date">
10467         11th December 2010
10468       </div>
10469       <div class="body">
10470         <p>As I continue to explore
10471 <a href="http://www.bitcoin.org/">BitCoin</a>, I've starting to wonder
10472 what properties the system have, and how it will be affected by laws
10473 and regulations here in Norway.  Here are some random notes.</p>
10474
10475 <p>One interesting thing to note is that since the transactions are
10476 verified using a peer to peer network, all details about a transaction
10477 is known to everyone.  This means that if a BitCoin address has been
10478 published like I did with mine in my initial post about BitCoin, it is
10479 possible for everyone to see how many BitCoins have been transfered to
10480 that address.  There is even a web service to look at the details for
10481 all transactions.  There I can see that my address
10482 <a href="http://blockexplorer.com/address/15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b">15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</a>
10483 have received 16.06 Bitcoin, the
10484 <a href="http://blockexplorer.com/address/1LfdGnGuWkpSJgbQySxxCWhv8MHqvwst3">1LfdGnGuWkpSJgbQySxxCWhv8MHqvwst3</a>
10485 address of Simon Phipps have received 181.97 BitCoin and the address
10486 <a href="http://blockexplorer.com/address/1MCwBbhNGp5hRm5rC1Aims2YFRe2SXPYKt">1MCwBbhNGp5hRm5rC1Aims2YFRe2SXPYKt</A>
10487 of EFF have received 2447.38 BitCoins so far.  Thank you to each and
10488 every one of you that donated bitcoins to support my activity. The
10489 fact that anyone can see how much money was transfered to a given
10490 address make it more obvious why the BitCoin community recommend to
10491 generate and hand out a new address for each transaction.  I'm told
10492 there is no way to track which addresses belong to a given person or
10493 organisation without the person or organisation revealing it
10494 themselves, as Simon, EFF and I have done.</p>
10495
10496 <p>In Norway, and in most other countries, there are laws and
10497 regulations limiting how much money one can transfer across the border
10498 without declaring it.  There are money laundering, tax and accounting
10499 laws and regulations I would expect to apply to the use of BitCoin.
10500 If the Skolelinux foundation
10501 (<a href="http://linuxiskolen.no/slxdebianlabs/donations.html">SLX
10502 Debian Labs</a>) were to accept donations in BitCoin in addition to
10503 normal bank transfers like EFF is doing, how should this be accounted?
10504 Given that it is impossible to know if money can cross the border or
10505 not, should everything or nothing be declared?  What exchange rate
10506 should be used when calculating taxes?  Would receivers have to pay
10507 income tax if the foundation were to pay Skolelinux contributors in
10508 BitCoin?  I have no idea, but it would be interesting to know.</p>
10509
10510 <p>For a currency to be useful and successful, it must be trusted and
10511 accepted by a lot of users.  It must be possible to get easy access to
10512 the currency (as a wage or using currency exchanges), and it must be
10513 easy to spend it.  At the moment BitCoin seem fairly easy to get
10514 access to, but there are very few places to spend it.  I am not really
10515 a regular user of any of the vendor types currently accepting BitCoin,
10516 so I wonder when my kind of shop would start accepting BitCoins.  I
10517 would like to buy electronics, travels and subway tickets, not herbs
10518 and books. :) The currency is young, and this will improve over time
10519 if it become popular, but I suspect regular banks will start to lobby
10520 to get BitCoin declared illegal if it become popular.  I'm sure they
10521 will claim it is helping fund terrorism and money laundering (which
10522 probably would be true, as is any currency in existence), but I
10523 believe the problems should be solved elsewhere and not by blaming
10524 currencies.</p>
10525
10526 <p>The process of creating new BitCoins is called mining, and it is
10527 CPU intensive process that depend on a bit of luck as well (as one is
10528 competing against all the other miners currently spending CPU cycles
10529 to see which one get the next lump of cash).  The "winner" get 50
10530 BitCoin when this happen.  Yesterday I came across the obvious way to
10531 join forces to increase ones changes of getting at least some coins,
10532 by coordinating the work on mining BitCoins across several machines
10533 and people, and sharing the result if one is lucky and get the 50
10534 BitCoins.  Check out
10535 <a href="http://www.bluishcoder.co.nz/bitcoin-pool/">BitCoin Pool</a>
10536 if this sounds interesting.  I have not had time to try to set up a
10537 machine to participate there yet, but have seen that running on ones
10538 own for a few days have not yield any BitCoins througth mining
10539 yet.</p>
10540
10541 <p>Update 2010-12-15: Found an <a
10542 href="http://inertia.posterous.com/reply-to-the-underground-economist-why-bitcoi">interesting
10543 criticism</a> of bitcoin.  Not quite sure how valid it is, but thought
10544 it was interesting to read.  The arguments presented seem to be
10545 equally valid for gold, which was used as a currency for many years.</p>
10546
10547       </div>
10548       <div class="tags">
10549
10550
10551         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>.
10552
10553
10554       </div>
10555     </div>
10556     <div class="padding"></div>
10557
10558     <div class="entry">
10559       <div class="title">
10560         <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>
10561       </div>
10562       <div class="date">
10563         10th December 2010
10564       </div>
10565       <div class="body">
10566         <p>With this weeks lawless
10567 <a href="http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2010/12/06/wikileaks/index.html">governmental
10568 attacks</a> on Wikileak and
10569 <a href="http://www.salon.com/technology/dan_gillmor/2010/12/06/war_on_speech">free
10570 speech</a>, it has become obvious that PayPal, visa and mastercard can
10571 not be trusted to handle money transactions.
10572 A blog post from
10573 <a href="http://webmink.com/2010/12/06/now-accepting-bitcoin/">Simon
10574 Phipps on bitcoin</a> reminded me about a project that a friend of
10575 mine mentioned earlier.  I decided to follow Simon's example, and get
10576 involved with <a href="http://www.bitcoin.org/">BitCoin</a>.  I got
10577 some help from my friend to get it all running, and he even handed me
10578 some bitcoins to get started.  I even donated a few bitcoins to Simon
10579 for helping me remember BitCoin.</p>
10580
10581 <p>So, what is bitcoins, you probably wonder?  It is a digital
10582 crypto-currency, decentralised and handled using peer-to-peer
10583 networks.  It allows anonymous transactions and prohibits central
10584 control over the transactions, making it impossible for governments
10585 and companies alike to block donations and other transactions.  The
10586 source is free software, and while the key dependency wxWidgets 2.9
10587 for the graphical user interface is missing in Debian, the command
10588 line client builds just fine.  Hopefully Jonas
10589 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/578157">will get the package into
10590 Debian</a> soon.</p>
10591
10592 <p>Bitcoins can be converted to other currencies, like USD and EUR.
10593 There are <a href="http://www.bitcoin.org/trade">companies accepting
10594 bitcoins</a> when selling services and goods, and there are even
10595 currency "stock" markets where the exchange rate is decided.  There
10596 are not many users so far, but the concept seems promising.  If you
10597 want to get started and lack a friend with any bitcoins to spare,
10598 you can even get
10599 <a href="https://freebitcoins.appspot.com/">some for free</a> (0.05
10600 bitcoin at the time of writing).  Use
10601 <a href="http://www.bitcoinwatch.com/">BitcoinWatch</a> to keep an eye
10602 on the current exchange rates.</p>
10603
10604 <p>As an experiment, I have decided to set up bitcoind on one of my
10605 machines.  If you want to support my activity, please send Bitcoin
10606 donations to the address
10607 <b>15oWEoG9dUPovwmUL9KWAnYRtNJEkP1u1b</b>.  Thank you!</p>
10608
10609       </div>
10610       <div class="tags">
10611
10612
10613         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>.
10614
10615
10616       </div>
10617     </div>
10618     <div class="padding"></div>
10619
10620     <div class="entry">
10621       <div class="title">
10622         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Student_group_continue_the_work_on_my_Reprap_3D_printer.html">Student group continue the work on my Reprap 3D printer</a>
10623       </div>
10624       <div class="date">
10625          9th December 2010
10626       </div>
10627       <div class="body">
10628         <p>A few days ago, I was introduces to some students in the robot
10629 student assosiation <a href="http://www.robotica.no/">Robotica
10630 Osloensis</a> at the University of Oslo where I work, who planned to
10631 get their own 3D printer.  They wanted to learn from me based on my
10632 work in the area.  After having a short lunch meeting with them, I
10633 offered them to borrow my reprap kit, as I never had time to complete
10634 the build and this seem unlike to change any time soon.  I look
10635 forward to see how this goes.  This monday their volunteer driver
10636 picked up my kit and drove it to their lab, and tomorrow I am told the
10637 last exam is over so they can start work on getting the 3D printer
10638 operational.</p>
10639
10640 <p>The robotic group have already build several robots on their own,
10641 and seem capable of getting the reprap operational.  I really look
10642 forward to being able to print all the cool 3D designs published on
10643 <a href="http://www.thingiverse.com/">Thingiverse</a>.  I even got
10644 some 3D scans I got made during Dagen@IFI when one of the groups at
10645 the computer science department at the university demonstrated their
10646 very cool 3D scanner.</p>
10647
10648       </div>
10649       <div class="tags">
10650
10651
10652         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/3d-printer">3d-printer</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/reprap">reprap</a>.
10653
10654
10655       </div>
10656     </div>
10657     <div class="padding"></div>
10658
10659     <div class="entry">
10660       <div class="title">
10661         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_development_gathering_and_General_Assembly_for_FRiSK.html">Debian Edu development gathering and General Assembly for FRiSK</a>
10662       </div>
10663       <div class="date">
10664         29th November 2010
10665       </div>
10666       <div class="body">
10667         <p>On friday, the first Debian Edu / Skolelinux
10668 <a href="http://www.friprogramvareiskolen.no/Gathering/2010-12-03-05-Oslo">development
10669 gathering</a> in a long time take place here in Oslo, Norway.  I
10670 really look forward to seeing all the good people working on the
10671 Squeeze release.  The gathering is open for everyone interested in
10672 learning more about Debian Edu / Skolelinux.</p>
10673
10674 <p>On Saturday, the Norwegian member organization taking care of
10675 organizing these development gatherings, Fri Programvare i Skolen,
10676 will hold its
10677 <a href="http://friprogramvareiskolen.no/Genfors/2010">General Assembly
10678 for 2010</a>.  Membership is open for all, and currently there are 388
10679 people registered as members.  Last year 32 members cast their vote in
10680 the memberdb based election system.  I hope more people find time to
10681 vote this year.</p>
10682
10683       </div>
10684       <div class="tags">
10685
10686
10687         Tags: <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>.
10688
10689
10690       </div>
10691     </div>
10692     <div class="padding"></div>
10693
10694     <div class="entry">
10695       <div class="title">
10696         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Why_isn_t_Debian_Edu_using_VLC_.html">Why isn't Debian Edu using VLC?</a>
10697       </div>
10698       <div class="date">
10699         27th November 2010
10700       </div>
10701       <div class="body">
10702         <p>In the latest issue of Linux Journal, the readers choices were
10703 presented, and the winner among the multimedia player were VLC.
10704 Personally, I like VLC, and it is my player of choice when I first try
10705 to play a video file or stream.  Only if VLC fail will I drag out
10706 gmplayer to see if it can do better.  The reason is mostly the failure
10707 model and trust.  When VLC fail, it normally pop up a error message
10708 reporting the problem.  When mplayer fail, it normally segfault or
10709 just hangs.  The latter failure mode drain my trust in the program.<p>
10710
10711 <p>But even if VLC is my player of choice, we have choosen to use
10712 mplayer in <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian
10713 Edu/Skolelinux</a>.  The reason is simple.  We need a good browser
10714 plugin to play web videos seamlessly, and the VLC browser plugin is
10715 not very good.  For example, it lack in-line control buttons, so there
10716 is no way for the user to pause the video.  Also, when I
10717 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/BrowserMultimedia">last
10718 tested the browser plugins</a> available in Debian, the VLC plugin
10719 failed on several video pages where mplayer based plugins worked.  If
10720 the browser plugin for VLC was as good as the gecko-mediaplayer
10721 package (which uses mplayer), we would switch.</P>
10722
10723 <p>While VLC is a good player, its user interface is slightly
10724 annoying.  The most annoying feature is its inconsistent use of
10725 keyboard shortcuts.  When the player is in full screen mode, its
10726 shortcuts are different from when it is playing the video in a window.
10727 For example, space only work as pause when in full screen mode.  I
10728 wish it had consisten shortcuts and that space also would work when in
10729 window mode.  Another nice shortcut in gmplayer is [enter] to restart
10730 the current video.  It is very nice when playing short videos from the
10731 web and want to restart it when new people arrive to have a look at
10732 what is going on.</p>
10733
10734       </div>
10735       <div class="tags">
10736
10737
10738         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>.
10739
10740
10741       </div>
10742     </div>
10743     <div class="padding"></div>
10744
10745     <div class="entry">
10746       <div class="title">
10747         <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>
10748       </div>
10749       <div class="date">
10750         22nd November 2010
10751       </div>
10752       <div class="body">
10753         <p>Michael Biebl suggested to me on IRC, that I changed my automated
10754 upgrade testing of the
10755 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/~pere/debian-upgrade-testing/">Lenny
10756 Gnome and KDE Desktop</a> to do <tt>apt-get autoremove</tt> when using apt-get.
10757 This seem like a very good idea, so I adjusted by test scripts and
10758 can now present the updated result from today:</p>
10759
10760 <p>This is for Gnome:</p>
10761
10762 <p>Installed using apt-get, missing with aptitude</p>
10763
10764 <blockquote><p>
10765   apache2.2-bin
10766   aptdaemon
10767   baobab
10768   binfmt-support
10769   browser-plugin-gnash
10770   cheese-common
10771   cli-common
10772   cups-pk-helper
10773   dmz-cursor-theme
10774   empathy
10775   empathy-common
10776   freedesktop-sound-theme
10777   freeglut3
10778   gconf-defaults-service
10779   gdm-themes
10780   gedit-plugins
10781   geoclue
10782   geoclue-hostip
10783   geoclue-localnet
10784   geoclue-manual
10785   geoclue-yahoo
10786   gnash
10787   gnash-common
10788   gnome
10789   gnome-backgrounds
10790   gnome-cards-data
10791   gnome-codec-install
10792   gnome-core
10793   gnome-desktop-environment
10794   gnome-disk-utility
10795   gnome-screenshot
10796   gnome-search-tool
10797   gnome-session-canberra
10798   gnome-system-log
10799   gnome-themes-extras
10800   gnome-themes-more
10801   gnome-user-share
10802   gstreamer0.10-fluendo-mp3
10803   gstreamer0.10-tools
10804   gtk2-engines
10805   gtk2-engines-pixbuf
10806   gtk2-engines-smooth
10807   hamster-applet
10808   libapache2-mod-dnssd
10809   libapr1
10810   libaprutil1
10811   libaprutil1-dbd-sqlite3
10812   libaprutil1-ldap
10813   libart2.0-cil
10814   libboost-date-time1.42.0
10815   libboost-python1.42.0
10816   libboost-thread1.42.0
10817   libchamplain-0.4-0
10818   libchamplain-gtk-0.4-0
10819   libcheese-gtk18
10820   libclutter-gtk-0.10-0
10821   libcryptui0
10822   libdiscid0
10823   libelf1
10824   libepc-1.0-2
10825   libepc-common
10826   libepc-ui-1.0-2
10827   libfreerdp-plugins-standard
10828   libfreerdp0
10829   libgconf2.0-cil
10830   libgdata-common
10831   libgdata7
10832   libgdu-gtk0
10833   libgee2
10834   libgeoclue0
10835   libgexiv2-0
10836   libgif4
10837   libglade2.0-cil
10838   libglib2.0-cil
10839   libgmime2.4-cil
10840   libgnome-vfs2.0-cil
10841   libgnome2.24-cil
10842   libgnomepanel2.24-cil
10843   libgpod-common
10844   libgpod4
10845   libgtk2.0-cil
10846   libgtkglext1
10847   libgtksourceview2.0-common
10848   libmono-addins-gui0.2-cil
10849   libmono-addins0.2-cil
10850   libmono-cairo2.0-cil
10851   libmono-corlib2.0-cil
10852   libmono-i18n-west2.0-cil
10853   libmono-posix2.0-cil
10854   libmono-security2.0-cil
10855   libmono-sharpzip2.84-cil
10856   libmono-system2.0-cil
10857   libmtp8
10858   libmusicbrainz3-6
10859   libndesk-dbus-glib1.0-cil
10860   libndesk-dbus1.0-cil
10861   libopal3.6.8
10862   libpolkit-gtk-1-0
10863   libpt2.6.7
10864   libpython2.6
10865   librpm1
10866   librpmio1
10867   libsdl1.2debian
10868   libsrtp0
10869   libssh-4
10870   libtelepathy-farsight0
10871   libtelepathy-glib0
10872   libtidy-0.99-0
10873   media-player-info
10874   mesa-utils
10875   mono-2.0-gac
10876   mono-gac
10877   mono-runtime
10878   nautilus-sendto
10879   nautilus-sendto-empathy
10880   p7zip-full
10881   pkg-config
10882   python-aptdaemon
10883   python-aptdaemon-gtk
10884   python-axiom
10885   python-beautifulsoup
10886   python-bugbuddy
10887   python-clientform
10888   python-coherence
10889   python-configobj
10890   python-crypto
10891   python-cupshelpers
10892   python-elementtree
10893   python-epsilon
10894   python-evolution
10895   python-feedparser
10896   python-gdata
10897   python-gdbm
10898   python-gst0.10
10899   python-gtkglext1
10900   python-gtksourceview2
10901   python-httplib2
10902   python-louie
10903   python-mako
10904   python-markupsafe
10905   python-mechanize
10906   python-nevow
10907   python-notify
10908   python-opengl
10909   python-openssl
10910   python-pam
10911   python-pkg-resources
10912   python-pyasn1
10913   python-pysqlite2
10914   python-rdflib
10915   python-serial
10916   python-tagpy
10917   python-twisted-bin
10918   python-twisted-conch
10919   python-twisted-core
10920   python-twisted-web
10921   python-utidylib
10922   python-webkit
10923   python-xdg
10924   python-zope.interface
10925   remmina
10926   remmina-plugin-data
10927   remmina-plugin-rdp
10928   remmina-plugin-vnc
10929   rhythmbox-plugin-cdrecorder
10930   rhythmbox-plugins
10931   rpm-common
10932   rpm2cpio
10933   seahorse-plugins
10934   shotwell
10935   software-center
10936   system-config-printer-udev
10937   telepathy-gabble
10938   telepathy-mission-control-5
10939   telepathy-salut
10940   tomboy
10941   totem
10942   totem-coherence
10943   totem-mozilla
10944   totem-plugins
10945   transmission-common
10946   xdg-user-dirs
10947   xdg-user-dirs-gtk
10948   xserver-xephyr
10949 </p></blockquote>
10950
10951 <p>Installed using apt-get, removed with aptitude</p>
10952
10953 <blockquote><p>
10954   cheese
10955   ekiga
10956   eog
10957   epiphany-extensions
10958   evolution-exchange
10959   fast-user-switch-applet
10960   file-roller
10961   gcalctool
10962   gconf-editor
10963   gdm
10964   gedit
10965   gedit-common
10966   gnome-games
10967   gnome-games-data
10968   gnome-nettool
10969   gnome-system-tools
10970   gnome-themes
10971   gnuchess
10972   gucharmap
10973   guile-1.8-libs
10974   libavahi-ui0
10975   libdmx1
10976   libgalago3
10977   libgtk-vnc-1.0-0
10978   libgtksourceview2.0-0
10979   liblircclient0
10980   libsdl1.2debian-alsa
10981   libspeexdsp1
10982   libsvga1
10983   rhythmbox
10984   seahorse
10985   sound-juicer
10986   system-config-printer
10987   totem-common
10988   transmission-gtk
10989   vinagre
10990   vino
10991 </p></blockquote>
10992
10993 <p>Installed using aptitude, missing with apt-get</p>
10994
10995 <blockquote><p>
10996   gstreamer0.10-gnomevfs
10997 </p></blockquote>
10998
10999 <p>Installed using aptitude, removed with apt-get</p>
11000
11001 <blockquote><p>
11002 [nothing]
11003 </p></blockquote>
11004
11005 <p>This is for KDE:</p>
11006
11007 <p>Installed using apt-get, missing with aptitude</p>
11008
11009 <blockquote><p>
11010   ksmserver
11011 </p></blockquote>
11012
11013 <p>Installed using apt-get, removed with aptitude</p>
11014
11015 <blockquote><p>
11016   kwin
11017   network-manager-kde
11018 </p></blockquote>
11019
11020 <p>Installed using aptitude, missing with apt-get</p>
11021
11022 <blockquote><p>
11023   arts
11024   dolphin
11025   freespacenotifier
11026   google-gadgets-gst
11027   google-gadgets-xul
11028   kappfinder
11029   kcalc
11030   kcharselect
11031   kde-core
11032   kde-plasma-desktop
11033   kde-standard
11034   kde-window-manager
11035   kdeartwork
11036   kdeartwork-emoticons
11037   kdeartwork-style
11038   kdeartwork-theme-icon
11039   kdebase
11040   kdebase-apps
11041   kdebase-workspace
11042   kdebase-workspace-bin
11043   kdebase-workspace-data
11044   kdeeject
11045   kdelibs
11046   kdeplasma-addons
11047   kdeutils
11048   kdewallpapers
11049   kdf
11050   kfloppy
11051   kgpg
11052   khelpcenter4
11053   kinfocenter
11054   konq-plugins-l10n
11055   konqueror-nsplugins
11056   kscreensaver
11057   kscreensaver-xsavers
11058   ktimer
11059   kwrite
11060   libgle3
11061   libkde4-ruby1.8
11062   libkonq5
11063   libkonq5-templates
11064   libnetpbm10
11065   libplasma-ruby
11066   libplasma-ruby1.8
11067   libqt4-ruby1.8
11068   marble-data
11069   marble-plugins
11070   netpbm
11071   nuvola-icon-theme
11072   plasma-dataengines-workspace
11073   plasma-desktop
11074   plasma-desktopthemes-artwork
11075   plasma-runners-addons
11076   plasma-scriptengine-googlegadgets
11077   plasma-scriptengine-python
11078   plasma-scriptengine-qedje
11079   plasma-scriptengine-ruby
11080   plasma-scriptengine-webkit
11081   plasma-scriptengines
11082   plasma-wallpapers-addons
11083   plasma-widget-folderview
11084   plasma-widget-networkmanagement
11085   ruby
11086   sweeper
11087   update-notifier-kde
11088   xscreensaver-data-extra
11089   xscreensaver-gl
11090   xscreensaver-gl-extra
11091   xscreensaver-screensaver-bsod
11092 </p></blockquote>
11093
11094 <p>Installed using aptitude, removed with apt-get</p>
11095
11096 <blockquote><p>
11097   ark
11098   google-gadgets-common
11099   google-gadgets-qt
11100   htdig
11101   kate
11102   kdebase-bin
11103   kdebase-data
11104   kdepasswd
11105   kfind
11106   klipper
11107   konq-plugins
11108   konqueror
11109   ksysguard
11110   ksysguardd
11111   libarchive1
11112   libcln6
11113   libeet1
11114   libeina-svn-06
11115   libggadget-1.0-0b
11116   libggadget-qt-1.0-0b
11117   libgps19
11118   libkdecorations4
11119   libkephal4
11120   libkonq4
11121   libkonqsidebarplugin4a
11122   libkscreensaver5
11123   libksgrd4
11124   libksignalplotter4
11125   libkunitconversion4
11126   libkwineffects1a
11127   libmarblewidget4
11128   libntrack-qt4-1
11129   libntrack0
11130   libplasma-geolocation-interface4
11131   libplasmaclock4a
11132   libplasmagenericshell4
11133   libprocesscore4a
11134   libprocessui4a
11135   libqalculate5
11136   libqedje0a
11137   libqtruby4shared2
11138   libqzion0a
11139   libruby1.8
11140   libscim8c2a
11141   libsmokekdecore4-3
11142   libsmokekdeui4-3
11143   libsmokekfile3
11144   libsmokekhtml3
11145   libsmokekio3
11146   libsmokeknewstuff2-3
11147   libsmokeknewstuff3-3
11148   libsmokekparts3
11149   libsmokektexteditor3
11150   libsmokekutils3
11151   libsmokenepomuk3
11152   libsmokephonon3
11153   libsmokeplasma3
11154   libsmokeqtcore4-3
11155   libsmokeqtdbus4-3
11156   libsmokeqtgui4-3
11157   libsmokeqtnetwork4-3
11158   libsmokeqtopengl4-3
11159   libsmokeqtscript4-3
11160   libsmokeqtsql4-3
11161   libsmokeqtsvg4-3
11162   libsmokeqttest4-3
11163   libsmokeqtuitools4-3
11164   libsmokeqtwebkit4-3
11165   libsmokeqtxml4-3
11166   libsmokesolid3
11167   libsmokesoprano3
11168   libtaskmanager4a
11169   libtidy-0.99-0
11170   libweather-ion4a
11171   libxklavier16
11172   libxxf86misc1
11173   okteta
11174   oxygencursors
11175   plasma-dataengines-addons
11176   plasma-scriptengine-superkaramba
11177   plasma-widget-lancelot
11178   plasma-widgets-addons
11179   plasma-widgets-workspace
11180   polkit-kde-1
11181   ruby1.8
11182   systemsettings
11183   update-notifier-common
11184 </p></blockquote>
11185
11186 <p>Running apt-get autoremove made the results using apt-get and
11187 aptitude a bit more similar, but there are still quite a lott of
11188 differences.  I have no idea what packages should be installed after
11189 the upgrade, but hope those that do can have a look.</p>
11190
11191       </div>
11192       <div class="tags">
11193
11194
11195         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>.
11196
11197
11198       </div>
11199     </div>
11200     <div class="padding"></div>
11201
11202     <div class="entry">
11203       <div class="title">
11204         <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>
11205       </div>
11206       <div class="date">
11207         22nd November 2010
11208       </div>
11209       <div class="body">
11210         <p>Most of the computers in use by the
11211 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu/Skolelinux project</a>
11212 are virtual machines.  And they have been Xen machines running on a
11213 fairly old IBM eserver xseries 345 machine, and we wanted to migrate
11214 them to KVM on a newer Dell PowerEdge 2950 host machine.  This was a
11215 bit harder that it could have been, because we set up the Xen virtual
11216 machines to get the virtual partitions from LVM, which as far as I
11217 know is not supported by KVM.  So to migrate, we had to convert
11218 several LVM logical volumes to partitions on a virtual disk file.</p>
11219
11220 <p>I found
11221 <a href="http://searchnetworking.techtarget.com.au/articles/35011-Six-steps-for-migrating-Xen-virtual-machines-to-KVM">a
11222 nice recipe</a> to do this, and wrote the following script to do the
11223 migration.  It uses qemu-img from the qemu package to make the disk
11224 image, parted to partition it, losetup and kpartx to present the disk
11225 image partions as devices, and dd to copy the data.  I NFS mounted the
11226 new servers storage area on the old server to do the migration.</p>
11227
11228 <pre>
11229 #!/bin/sh
11230
11231 # Based on
11232 # http://searchnetworking.techtarget.com.au/articles/35011-Six-steps-for-migrating-Xen-virtual-machines-to-KVM
11233
11234 set -e
11235 set -x
11236
11237 if [ -z "$1" ] ; then
11238     echo "Usage: $0 &lt;hostname&gt;"
11239     exit 1
11240 else
11241     host="$1"
11242 fi
11243
11244 if [ ! -e /dev/vg_data/$host-disk ] ; then
11245     echo "error: unable to find LVM volume for $host"
11246     exit 1
11247 fi
11248
11249 # Partitions need to be a bit bigger than the LVM LVs.  not sure why.
11250 disksize=$( lvs --units m | grep $host-disk | awk '{sum = sum + $4} END { print int(sum * 1.05) }')
11251 swapsize=$( lvs --units m | grep $host-swap | awk '{sum = sum + $4} END { print int(sum * 1.05) }')
11252 totalsize=$(( ( $disksize + $swapsize ) ))
11253
11254 img=$host.img
11255 #dd if=/dev/zero of=$img bs=1M count=$(( $disksize + $swapsize ))
11256 qemu-img create $img ${totalsize}MMaking room on the Debian Edu/Sqeeze DVD
11257
11258 parted $img mklabel msdos
11259 parted $img mkpart primary linux-swap 0 $disksize
11260 parted $img mkpart primary ext2 $disksize $totalsize
11261 parted $img set 1 boot on
11262
11263 modprobe dm-mod
11264 losetup /dev/loop0 $img
11265 kpartx -a /dev/loop0
11266
11267 dd if=/dev/vg_data/$host-disk of=/dev/mapper/loop0p1 bs=1M
11268 fsck.ext3 -f /dev/mapper/loop0p1 || true
11269 mkswap /dev/mapper/loop0p2
11270
11271 kpartx -d /dev/loop0
11272 losetup -d /dev/loop0
11273 </pre>
11274
11275 <p>The script is perhaps so simple that it is not copyrightable, but
11276 if it is, it is licenced using GPL v2 or later at your discretion.</p>
11277
11278 <p>After doing this, I booted a Debian CD in rescue mode in KVM with
11279 the new disk image attached, installed grub-pc and linux-image-686 and
11280 set up grub to boot from the disk image.  After this, the KVM machines
11281 seem to work just fine.</p>
11282
11283       </div>
11284       <div class="tags">
11285
11286
11287         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>.
11288
11289
11290       </div>
11291     </div>
11292     <div class="padding"></div>
11293
11294     <div class="entry">
11295       <div class="title">
11296         <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>
11297       </div>
11298       <div class="date">
11299         20th November 2010
11300       </div>
11301       <div class="body">
11302         <p>I'm still running upgrade testing of the
11303 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/~pere/debian-upgrade-testing/">Lenny
11304 Gnome and KDE Desktop</a>, but have not had time to spend on reporting the
11305 status.  Here is a short update based on a test I ran 20101118.</p>
11306
11307 <p>I still do not know what a correct migration should look like, so I
11308 report any differences between apt and aptitude and hope someone else
11309 can see if anything should be changed.</p>
11310
11311 <p>This is for Gnome:</p>
11312
11313 <p>Installed using apt-get, missing with aptitude</p>
11314
11315 <blockquote><p>
11316   apache2.2-bin aptdaemon at-spi baobab binfmt-support
11317   browser-plugin-gnash cheese-common cli-common cpp-4.3 cups-pk-helper
11318   dmz-cursor-theme empathy empathy-common finger
11319   freedesktop-sound-theme freeglut3 gconf-defaults-service gdm-themes
11320   gedit-plugins geoclue geoclue-hostip geoclue-localnet geoclue-manual
11321   geoclue-yahoo gnash gnash-common gnome gnome-backgrounds
11322   gnome-cards-data gnome-codec-install gnome-core
11323   gnome-desktop-environment gnome-disk-utility gnome-screenshot
11324   gnome-search-tool gnome-session-canberra gnome-spell
11325   gnome-system-log gnome-themes-extras gnome-themes-more
11326   gnome-user-share gs-common gstreamer0.10-fluendo-mp3
11327   gstreamer0.10-tools gtk2-engines gtk2-engines-pixbuf
11328   gtk2-engines-smooth hal-info hamster-applet libapache2-mod-dnssd
11329   libapr1 libaprutil1 libaprutil1-dbd-sqlite3 libaprutil1-ldap
11330   libart2.0-cil libatspi1.0-0 libboost-date-time1.42.0
11331   libboost-python1.42.0 libboost-thread1.42.0 libchamplain-0.4-0
11332   libchamplain-gtk-0.4-0 libcheese-gtk18 libclutter-gtk-0.10-0
11333   libcryptui0 libcupsys2 libdiscid0 libeel2-data libelf1 libepc-1.0-2
11334   libepc-common libepc-ui-1.0-2 libfreerdp-plugins-standard
11335   libfreerdp0 libgail-common libgconf2.0-cil libgdata-common libgdata7
11336   libgdl-1-common libgdu-gtk0 libgee2 libgeoclue0 libgexiv2-0 libgif4
11337   libglade2.0-cil libglib2.0-cil libgmime2.4-cil libgnome-vfs2.0-cil
11338   libgnome2.24-cil libgnomepanel2.24-cil libgnomeprint2.2-data
11339   libgnomeprintui2.2-common libgnomevfs2-bin libgpod-common libgpod4
11340   libgtk2.0-cil libgtkglext1 libgtksourceview-common
11341   libgtksourceview2.0-common libmono-addins-gui0.2-cil
11342   libmono-addins0.2-cil libmono-cairo2.0-cil libmono-corlib2.0-cil
11343   libmono-i18n-west2.0-cil libmono-posix2.0-cil
11344   libmono-security2.0-cil libmono-sharpzip2.84-cil
11345   libmono-system2.0-cil libmtp8 libmusicbrainz3-6
11346   libndesk-dbus-glib1.0-cil libndesk-dbus1.0-cil libopal3.6.8
11347   libpolkit-gtk-1-0 libpt-1.10.10-plugins-alsa
11348   libpt-1.10.10-plugins-v4l libpt2.6.7 libpython2.6 librpm1 librpmio1
11349   libsdl1.2debian libservlet2.4-java libsrtp0 libssh-4
11350   libtelepathy-farsight0 libtelepathy-glib0 libtidy-0.99-0
11351   libxalan2-java libxerces2-java media-player-info mesa-utils
11352   mono-2.0-gac mono-gac mono-runtime nautilus-sendto
11353   nautilus-sendto-empathy openoffice.org-writer2latex
11354   openssl-blacklist p7zip p7zip-full pkg-config python-4suite-xml
11355   python-aptdaemon python-aptdaemon-gtk python-axiom
11356   python-beautifulsoup python-bugbuddy python-clientform
11357   python-coherence python-configobj python-crypto python-cupshelpers
11358   python-cupsutils python-eggtrayicon python-elementtree
11359   python-epsilon python-evolution python-feedparser python-gdata
11360   python-gdbm python-gst0.10 python-gtkglext1 python-gtkmozembed
11361   python-gtksourceview2 python-httplib2 python-louie python-mako
11362   python-markupsafe python-mechanize python-nevow python-notify
11363   python-opengl python-openssl python-pam python-pkg-resources
11364   python-pyasn1 python-pysqlite2 python-rdflib python-serial
11365   python-tagpy python-twisted-bin python-twisted-conch
11366   python-twisted-core python-twisted-web python-utidylib python-webkit
11367   python-xdg python-zope.interface remmina remmina-plugin-data
11368   remmina-plugin-rdp remmina-plugin-vnc rhythmbox-plugin-cdrecorder
11369   rhythmbox-plugins rpm-common rpm2cpio seahorse-plugins shotwell
11370   software-center svgalibg1 system-config-printer-udev
11371   telepathy-gabble telepathy-mission-control-5 telepathy-salut tomboy
11372   totem totem-coherence totem-mozilla totem-plugins
11373   transmission-common xdg-user-dirs xdg-user-dirs-gtk xserver-xephyr
11374   zip
11375 </p></blockquote>
11376
11377 Installed using apt-get, removed with aptitude
11378
11379 <blockquote><p>
11380   arj bluez-utils cheese dhcdbd djvulibre-desktop ekiga eog
11381   epiphany-extensions epiphany-gecko evolution-exchange
11382   fast-user-switch-applet file-roller gcalctool gconf-editor gdm gedit
11383   gedit-common gnome-app-install gnome-games gnome-games-data
11384   gnome-nettool gnome-system-tools gnome-themes gnome-utils
11385   gnome-vfs-obexftp gnome-volume-manager gnuchess gucharmap
11386   guile-1.8-libs hal libavahi-compat-libdnssd1 libavahi-core5
11387   libavahi-ui0 libbind9-50 libbluetooth2 libcamel1.2-11 libcdio7
11388   libcucul0 libcurl3 libdirectfb-1.0-0 libdmx1 libdvdread3
11389   libedata-cal1.2-6 libedataserver1.2-9 libeel2-2.20 libepc-1.0-1
11390   libepc-ui-1.0-1 libexchange-storage1.2-3 libfaad0 libgadu3
11391   libgalago3 libgd2-noxpm libgda3-3 libgda3-common libggz2 libggzcore9
11392   libggzmod4 libgksu1.2-0 libgksuui1.0-1 libgmyth0 libgnome-desktop-2
11393   libgnome-pilot2 libgnomecups1.0-1 libgnomeprint2.2-0
11394   libgnomeprintui2.2-0 libgpod3 libgraphviz4 libgtk-vnc-1.0-0
11395   libgtkhtml2-0 libgtksourceview1.0-0 libgtksourceview2.0-0
11396   libgucharmap6 libhesiod0 libicu38 libisccc50 libisccfg50 libiw29
11397   libjaxp1.3-java-gcj libkpathsea4 liblircclient0 libltdl3 liblwres50
11398   libmagick++10 libmagick10 libmalaga7 libmozjs1d libmpfr1ldbl libmtp7
11399   libmysqlclient15off libnautilus-burn4 libneon27 libnm-glib0
11400   libnm-util0 libopal-2.2 libosp5 libparted1.8-10 libpisock9
11401   libpisync1 libpoppler-glib3 libpoppler3 libpt-1.10.10 libraw1394-8
11402   libsdl1.2debian-alsa libsensors3 libsexy2 libsmbios2 libsoup2.2-8
11403   libspeexdsp1 libssh2-1 libsuitesparse-3.1.0 libsvga1
11404   libswfdec-0.6-90 libtalloc1 libtotem-plparser10 libtrackerclient0
11405   libvoikko1 libxalan2-java-gcj libxerces2-java-gcj libxklavier12
11406   libxtrap6 libxxf86misc1 libzephyr3 mysql-common rhythmbox seahorse
11407   sound-juicer swfdec-gnome system-config-printer totem-common
11408   totem-gstreamer transmission-gtk vinagre vino w3c-dtd-xhtml wodim
11409 </p></blockquote>
11410
11411 <p>Installed using aptitude, missing with apt-get</p>
11412
11413 <blockquote><p>
11414   gstreamer0.10-gnomevfs
11415 </p></blockquote>
11416
11417 <p>Installed using aptitude, removed with apt-get</p>
11418
11419 <blockquote><p>
11420 [nothing]
11421 </p></blockquote>
11422
11423 <p>This is for KDE:</p>
11424
11425 <p>Installed using apt-get, missing with aptitude</p>
11426
11427 <blockquote><p>
11428   autopoint bomber bovo cantor cantor-backend-kalgebra cpp-4.3 dcoprss
11429   edict espeak espeak-data eyesapplet fifteenapplet finger gettext
11430   ghostscript-x git gnome-audio gnugo granatier gs-common
11431   gstreamer0.10-pulseaudio indi kaddressbook-plugins kalgebra
11432   kalzium-data kanjidic kapman kate-plugins kblocks kbreakout kbstate
11433   kde-icons-mono kdeaccessibility kdeaddons-kfile-plugins
11434   kdeadmin-kfile-plugins kdeartwork-misc kdeartwork-theme-window
11435   kdeedu kdeedu-data kdeedu-kvtml-data kdegames kdegames-card-data
11436   kdegames-mahjongg-data kdegraphics-kfile-plugins kdelirc
11437   kdemultimedia-kfile-plugins kdenetwork-kfile-plugins
11438   kdepim-kfile-plugins kdepim-kio-plugins kdessh kdetoys kdewebdev
11439   kdiamond kdnssd kfilereplace kfourinline kgeography-data kigo
11440   killbots kiriki klettres-data kmoon kmrml knewsticker-scripts
11441   kollision kpf krosspython ksirk ksmserver ksquares kstars-data
11442   ksudoku kubrick kweather libasound2-plugins libboost-python1.42.0
11443   libcfitsio3 libconvert-binhex-perl libcrypt-ssleay-perl libdb4.6++
11444   libdjvulibre-text libdotconf1.0 liberror-perl libespeak1
11445   libfinance-quote-perl libgail-common libgsl0ldbl libhtml-parser-perl
11446   libhtml-tableextract-perl libhtml-tagset-perl libhtml-tree-perl
11447   libio-stringy-perl libkdeedu4 libkdegames5 libkiten4 libkpathsea5
11448   libkrossui4 libmailtools-perl libmime-tools-perl
11449   libnews-nntpclient-perl libopenbabel3 libportaudio2 libpulse-browse0
11450   libservlet2.4-java libspeechd2 libtiff-tools libtimedate-perl
11451   libunistring0 liburi-perl libwww-perl libxalan2-java libxerces2-java
11452   lirc luatex marble networkstatus noatun-plugins
11453   openoffice.org-writer2latex palapeli palapeli-data parley
11454   parley-data poster psutils pulseaudio pulseaudio-esound-compat
11455   pulseaudio-module-x11 pulseaudio-utils quanta-data rocs rsync
11456   speech-dispatcher step svgalibg1 texlive-binaries texlive-luatex
11457   ttf-sazanami-gothic
11458 </p></blockquote>
11459
11460 <p>Installed using apt-get, removed with aptitude</p>
11461
11462 <blockquote><p>
11463   amor artsbuilder atlantik atlantikdesigner blinken bluez-utils cvs
11464   dhcdbd djvulibre-desktop imlib-base imlib11 kalzium kanagram kandy
11465   kasteroids katomic kbackgammon kbattleship kblackbox kbounce kbruch
11466   kcron kdat kdemultimedia-kappfinder-data kdeprint kdict kdvi kedit
11467   keduca kenolaba kfax kfaxview kfouleggs kgeography kghostview
11468   kgoldrunner khangman khexedit kiconedit kig kimagemapeditor
11469   kitchensync kiten kjumpingcube klatin klettres klickety klines
11470   klinkstatus kmag kmahjongg kmailcvt kmenuedit kmid kmilo kmines
11471   kmousetool kmouth kmplot knetwalk kodo kolf kommander konquest kooka
11472   kpager kpat kpdf kpercentage kpilot kpoker kpovmodeler krec
11473   kregexpeditor kreversi ksame ksayit kshisen ksig ksim ksirc ksirtet
11474   ksmiletris ksnake ksokoban kspaceduel kstars ksvg ksysv kteatime
11475   ktip ktnef ktouch ktron kttsd ktuberling kturtle ktux kuickshow
11476   kverbos kview kviewshell kvoctrain kwifimanager kwin kwin4 kwordquiz
11477   kworldclock kxsldbg libakode2 libarts1-akode libarts1-audiofile
11478   libarts1-mpeglib libarts1-xine libavahi-compat-libdnssd1
11479   libavahi-core5 libavc1394-0 libbind9-50 libbluetooth2
11480   libboost-python1.34.1 libcucul0 libcurl3 libcvsservice0
11481   libdirectfb-1.0-0 libdjvulibre21 libdvdread3 libfaad0 libfreebob0
11482   libgd2-noxpm libgraphviz4 libgsmme1c2a libgtkhtml2-0 libicu38
11483   libiec61883-0 libindex0 libisccc50 libisccfg50 libiw29
11484   libjaxp1.3-java-gcj libk3b3 libkcal2b libkcddb1 libkdeedu3
11485   libkdegames1 libkdepim1a libkgantt0 libkleopatra1 libkmime2
11486   libkpathsea4 libkpimexchange1 libkpimidentities1 libkscan1
11487   libksieve0 libktnef1 liblockdev1 libltdl3 liblwres50 libmagick10
11488   libmimelib1c2a libmodplug0c2 libmozjs1d libmpcdec3 libmpfr1ldbl
11489   libneon27 libnm-util0 libopensync0 libpisock9 libpoppler-glib3
11490   libpoppler-qt2 libpoppler3 libraw1394-8 librss1 libsensors3
11491   libsmbios2 libssh2-1 libsuitesparse-3.1.0 libswfdec-0.6-90
11492   libtalloc1 libxalan2-java-gcj libxerces2-java-gcj libxtrap6 lskat
11493   mpeglib network-manager-kde noatun pmount tex-common texlive-base
11494   texlive-common texlive-doc-base texlive-fonts-recommended tidy
11495   ttf-dustin ttf-kochi-gothic ttf-sjfonts
11496 </p></blockquote>
11497
11498 <p>Installed using aptitude, missing with apt-get</p>
11499
11500 <blockquote><p>
11501   dolphin kde-core kde-plasma-desktop kde-standard kde-window-manager
11502   kdeartwork kdebase kdebase-apps kdebase-workspace
11503   kdebase-workspace-bin kdebase-workspace-data kdeutils kscreensaver
11504   kscreensaver-xsavers libgle3 libkonq5 libkonq5-templates libnetpbm10
11505   netpbm plasma-widget-folderview plasma-widget-networkmanagement
11506   xscreensaver-data-extra xscreensaver-gl xscreensaver-gl-extra
11507   xscreensaver-screensaver-bsod
11508 </p></blockquote>
11509
11510 <p>Installed using aptitude, removed with apt-get</p>
11511
11512 <blockquote><p>
11513   kdebase-bin konq-plugins konqueror
11514 </p></blockquote>
11515
11516       </div>
11517       <div class="tags">
11518
11519
11520         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>.
11521
11522
11523       </div>
11524     </div>
11525     <div class="padding"></div>
11526
11527     <div class="entry">
11528       <div class="title">
11529         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Gnash_buildbot_slave_and_Debian_kfreebsd.html">Gnash buildbot slave and Debian kfreebsd</a>
11530       </div>
11531       <div class="date">
11532         20th November 2010
11533       </div>
11534       <div class="body">
11535         <p>Answering
11536 <a href="http://www.listware.net/201011/gnash-dev/67431-gnash-dev-buildbot-looking-for-slaves.html">the
11537 call from the Gnash project</a> for
11538 <a href="http://www.gnashdev.org:8010">buildbot</a> slaves to test the
11539 current source, I have set up a virtual KVM machine on the Debian
11540 Edu/Skolelinux virtualization host to test the git source on
11541 Debian/Squeeze.  I hope this can help the developers in getting new
11542 releases out more often.</p>
11543
11544 <p>As the developers want less main-stream build platforms tested to,
11545 I have considered setting up a <a
11546 href="http://www.debian.org/ports/kfreebsd-gnu/">Debian/kfreebsd</a>
11547 machine as well.  I have also considered using the kfreebsd
11548 architecture in Debian as a file server in NUUG to get access to the 5
11549 TB zfs volume we currently use to store DV video.  Because of this, I
11550 finally got around to do a test installation of Debian/Squeeze with
11551 kfreebsd.  Installation went fairly smooth, thought I noticed some
11552 visual glitches in the cdebconf dialogs (black cursor left on the
11553 screen at random locations).  Have not gotten very far with the
11554 testing.  Noticed cfdisk did not work, but fdisk did so it was not a
11555 fatal problem.  Have to spend some more time on it to see if it is
11556 useful as a file server for NUUG.  Will try to find time to set up a
11557 gnash buildbot slave on the Debian Edu/Skolelinux this weekend.</p>
11558
11559       </div>
11560       <div class="tags">
11561
11562
11563         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>.
11564
11565
11566       </div>
11567     </div>
11568     <div class="padding"></div>
11569
11570     <div class="entry">
11571       <div class="title">
11572         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_in_3D.html">Debian in 3D</a>
11573       </div>
11574       <div class="date">
11575          9th November 2010
11576       </div>
11577       <div class="body">
11578         <p><img src="http://thingiverse-production.s3.amazonaws.com/renders/23/e0/c4/f9/2b/debswagtdose_preview_medium.jpg"></p>
11579
11580 <p>3D printing is just great.  I just came across this Debian logo in
11581 3D linked in from
11582 <a href="http://blog.thingiverse.com/2010/11/09/participatory-branding/">the
11583 thingiverse blog</a>.</p>
11584
11585       </div>
11586       <div class="tags">
11587
11588
11589         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>.
11590
11591
11592       </div>
11593     </div>
11594     <div class="padding"></div>
11595
11596     <div class="entry">
11597       <div class="title">
11598         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Making_room_on_the_Debian_Edu_Sqeeze_DVD.html">Making room on the Debian Edu/Sqeeze DVD</a>
11599       </div>
11600       <div class="date">
11601          7th November 2010
11602       </div>
11603       <div class="body">
11604         <p>Prioritising packages for the Debian Edu /
11605 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Skolelinux</a> DVD, which is
11606 supposed provide a school with all the services and user applications
11607 needed on the pupils computer network has always been hard.  Even
11608 schools without Internet connections should be able to get Debian Edu
11609 working using this DVD.</p>
11610
11611 <p>The job became a lot harder when apt and aptitude started
11612 installing recommended packages by default.  We want the same set of
11613 packages to be installed when using the DVD and the netinst CD, and
11614 that means all recommended packages need to be on the DVD.  I created
11615 a patch for debian-cd in <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/601203">BTS
11616 report #601203</a> to do this, and since this change was applied to
11617 the Debian Edu DVD build, we have been seriously short on space.</p>
11618
11619 <p>A few days ago we decided to drop blender, wxmaxima and kicad from
11620 the default installation to save space on the DVD, believing that
11621 those needing these applications are few and can get them from the
11622 Debian archive.</p>
11623
11624 <p>Yesterday, I had a look what source packages to see which packages
11625 were using most space.  A few large packages are well know;
11626 openoffice.org, openclipart and fluid-soundfont.  But I also
11627 discovered that lilypond used 106 MiB and fglrx-driver used 53 MiB.
11628 The lilypond package is pulled in as a dependency for rosegarden, and
11629 when looking a bit closer I discovered that 99 MiB of the 106 MiB were
11630 the documentation package, which is recommended by the binary package.
11631 I decided to drop this documentation package from our DVD, as most of
11632 our users will use the GUI front-ends and do not need the lilypond
11633 documentation.  Similarly, I dropped the non-free fglrx-driver package
11634 which might be installed by d-i when its hardware is detected, as the
11635 free X driver should work.</p>
11636
11637 <p>With this change, we finally got space for the LXDE and Gnome
11638 desktop packages as well as the language specific packages making the
11639 DVD more useful again.</p>
11640
11641       </div>
11642       <div class="tags">
11643
11644
11645         Tags: <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>.
11646
11647
11648       </div>
11649     </div>
11650     <div class="padding"></div>
11651
11652     <div class="entry">
11653       <div class="title">
11654         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Software_updates_2010_10_24.html">Software updates 2010-10-24</a>
11655       </div>
11656       <div class="date">
11657         24th October 2010
11658       </div>
11659       <div class="body">
11660         <p>Some updates.</p>
11661
11662 <p>My <a href="http://pledgebank.com/gnash-avm2">gnash pledge</a> to
11663 raise money for the project is going well.  The lower limit of 10
11664 signers was reached in 24 hours, and so far 13 people have signed it.
11665 More signers and more funding is most welcome, and I am really curious
11666 how far we can get before the time limit of December 24 is reached.
11667 :)</p>
11668
11669 <p>On the #gnash IRC channel on irc.freenode.net, I was just tipped
11670 about what appear to be a great code coverage tool capable of
11671 generating code coverage stats without any changes to the source code.
11672 It is called
11673 <a href="http://simonkagstrom.github.com/kcov/index.html">kcov</a>,
11674 and can be used using <tt>kcov &lt;directory&gt; &lt;binary&gt;</tt>.
11675 It is missing in Debian, but the git source built just fine in Squeeze
11676 after I installed libelf-dev, libdwarf-dev, pkg-config and
11677 libglib2.0-dev.  Failed to build in Lenny, but suspect that is
11678 solvable.  I hope kcov make it into Debian soon.</p>
11679
11680 <p>Finally found time to wrap up the release notes for <a
11681 href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-edu-announce/2010/10/msg00002.html">a
11682 new alpha release of Debian Edu</a>, and just published the second
11683 alpha test release of the Squeeze based Debian Edu /
11684 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Skolelinux</a>
11685 release.  Give it a try if you need a complete linux solution for your
11686 school, including central infrastructure server, workstations, thin
11687 client servers and diskless workstations.  A nice touch added
11688 yesterday is RDP support on the thin client servers, for windows
11689 clients to get a Linux desktop on request.</p>
11690
11691       </div>
11692       <div class="tags">
11693
11694
11695         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>.
11696
11697
11698       </div>
11699     </div>
11700     <div class="padding"></div>
11701
11702     <div class="entry">
11703       <div class="title">
11704         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Pledge_for_funding_to_the_Gnash_project_to_get_AVM2_support.html">Pledge for funding to the Gnash project to get AVM2 support</a>
11705       </div>
11706       <div class="date">
11707         19th October 2010
11708       </div>
11709       <div class="body">
11710         <p><a href="http://www.getgnash.org/">The Gnash project</a> is the
11711 most promising solution for a Free Software Flash implementation. It
11712 has done great so far, but there is still far to go, and recently its
11713 funding has dried up.  I believe AVM2 support in Gnash is vital to the
11714 continued progress of the project, as more and more sites show up with
11715 AVM2 flash files.</p>
11716
11717 <p>To try to get funding for developing such support, I have started
11718 <a href="http://www.pledgebank.com/gnash-avm2">a pledge</a> with the
11719 following text:</P>
11720
11721 <p><blockquote>
11722
11723   <p>"I will pay 100$ to the Gnash project to develop AVM2 support but
11724   only if 10 other people will do the same."</p>
11725
11726   <p>- Petter Reinholdtsen, free software developer</p>
11727
11728   <p>Deadline to sign up by: 24th December 2010</p>
11729
11730   <p>The Gnash project need to get support for the new Flash file
11731   format AVM2 to work with a lot of sites using Flash on the
11732   web. Gnash already work with a lot of Flash sites using the old AVM1
11733   format, but more and more sites are using the AVM2 format these
11734   days. The project web page is available from
11735   http://www.getgnash.org/ . Gnash is a free software implementation
11736   of Adobe Flash, allowing those of us that do not accept the terms of
11737   the Adobe Flash license to get access to Flash sites.</p>
11738
11739   <p>The project need funding to get developers to put aside enough
11740   time to develop the AVM2 support, and this pledge is my way to try
11741   to get this to happen.</p>
11742
11743   <p>The project accept donations via the OpenMediaNow foundation,
11744   <a href="http://www.openmedianow.org/?q=node/32">http://www.openmedianow.org/?q=node/32</a> .</p>
11745
11746 </blockquote></p>
11747
11748 <p>I hope you will support this effort too.  I hope more than 10
11749 people will participate to make this happen.  The more money the
11750 project gets, the more features it can develop using these funds.
11751 :)</p>
11752
11753       </div>
11754       <div class="tags">
11755
11756
11757         Tags: <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/nuug">nuug</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>.
11758
11759
11760       </div>
11761     </div>
11762     <div class="padding"></div>
11763
11764     <div class="entry">
11765       <div class="title">
11766         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/First_version_of_a_Perl_library_to_control_the_Spykee_robot.html">First version of a Perl library to control the Spykee robot</a>
11767       </div>
11768       <div class="date">
11769          9th October 2010
11770       </div>
11771       <div class="body">
11772         <p>This summer I got the chance to buy cheap Spykee robots, and since
11773 then I have worked on getting Linux software in place to control them.
11774 The firmware for the robot is available from the producer, and using
11775 that source it was trivial to figure out the protocol specification.
11776 I've started on a perl library to control it, and made some demo
11777 programs using this perl library to allow one to control the
11778 robots.</p>
11779
11780 <p>The library is quite functional already, and capable of controlling
11781 the driving, fetching video, uploading MP3s and play them.  There are
11782 a few less important features too.</p>
11783
11784 <p>Since a few weeks ago, I ran out of time to spend on this project,
11785 but I never got around to releasing the current source.  I decided
11786 today that it was time to do something about it, and uploaded the
11787 source to my Debian package store at people.skolelinux.org.</p>
11788
11789 <p>Because it was simpler for me, I made a Debian package and
11790 published the source and deb.  If you got a spykee robot, grab the
11791 source or binary package:</p>
11792
11793 <p><ul>
11794 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/~pere/debian/packages/lenny/libspykee-perl_0.0.20101009-1.tar.gz">libspykee-perl_0.0.20101009-1.tar.gz</a></li>
11795 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/~pere/debian/packages/lenny/libspykee-perl_0.0.20101009-1.dsc">libspykee-perl_0.0.20101009-1.dsc</a></li>
11796 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/~pere/debian/packages/lenny/libspykee-perl_0.0.20101009-1_all.deb">libspykee-perl_0.0.20101009-1_all.deb</a></li>
11797 </ul></p>
11798
11799 <p>If you are interested in helping out with developing this library,
11800 please let me know.</p>
11801
11802       </div>
11803       <div class="tags">
11804
11805
11806         Tags: <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/robot">robot</a>.
11807
11808
11809       </div>
11810     </div>
11811     <div class="padding"></div>
11812
11813     <div class="entry">
11814       <div class="title">
11815         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Links_for_2010_10_03.html">Links for 2010-10-03</a>
11816       </div>
11817       <div class="date">
11818          3rd October 2010
11819       </div>
11820       <div class="body">
11821         <p><ul>
11822
11823 <li><a href="http://arstechnica.com/business/news/2010/09/there-is-no-plan-b-why-the-ipv4-to-ipv6-transition-will-be-ugly.ars">There
11824 is no Plan B: why the IPv4-to-IPv6 transition will be ugly</a></li>
11825
11826 <li>Scanner looking under clothes
11827 <a href="http://www.dagbladet.no/2010/10/03/nyheter/utenriks/reise/overvakingskamera/flyplasser/13667192/">has
11828 already been misused at Heathrow</a>.</li>
11829
11830 <li><a href="http://wiki.softwarelivre.org/Landell">Landell
11831 Webcasting</a> - interesting alternative for
11832 <ahref="http://dvswitch.alioth.debian.org/wiki/">DVSwitch</a> with
11833 simple setup.
11834
11835 </ul></p>
11836
11837       </div>
11838       <div class="tags">
11839
11840
11841         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/lenker">lenker</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
11842
11843
11844       </div>
11845     </div>
11846     <div class="padding"></div>
11847
11848     <div class="entry">
11849       <div class="title">
11850         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Terms_of_use_for_video_produced_by_a_Canon_IXUS_130_digital_camera.html">Terms of use for video produced by a Canon IXUS 130 digital camera</a>
11851       </div>
11852       <div class="date">
11853          9th September 2010
11854       </div>
11855       <div class="body">
11856         <p>A few days ago I had the mixed pleasure of bying a new digital
11857 camera, a Canon IXUS 130.  It was instructive and very disturbing to
11858 be able to verify that also this camera producer have the nerve to
11859 specify how I can or can not use the videos produced with the camera.
11860 Even thought I was aware of the issue, the options with new cameras
11861 are limited and I ended up bying the camera anyway.  What is the
11862 problem, you might ask?  It is software patents, MPEG-4, H.264 and the
11863 MPEG-LA that is the problem, and our right to record our experiences
11864 without asking for permissions that is at risk.
11865
11866 <p>On page 27 of the Danish instruction manual, this section is
11867 written:</p>
11868
11869 <blockquote>
11870 <p>This product is licensed under AT&T patents for the MPEG-4 standard
11871 and may be used for encoding MPEG-4 compliant video and/or decoding
11872 MPEG-4 compliant video that was encoded only (1) for a personal and
11873 non-commercial purpose or (2) by a video provider licensed under the
11874 AT&T patents to provide MPEG-4 compliant video.</p>
11875
11876 <p>No license is granted or implied for any other use for MPEG-4
11877 standard.</p>
11878 </blockquote>
11879
11880 <p>In short, the camera producer have chosen to use technology
11881 (MPEG-4/H.264) that is only provided if I used it for personal and
11882 non-commercial purposes, or ask for permission from the organisations
11883 holding the knowledge monopoly (patent) for technology used.</p>
11884
11885 <p>This issue has been brewing for a while, and I recommend you to
11886 read
11887 "<a href="http://www.osnews.com/story/23236/Why_Our_Civilization_s_Video_Art_and_Culture_is_Threatened_by_the_MPEG-LA">Why
11888 Our Civilization's Video Art and Culture is Threatened by the
11889 MPEG-LA</a>" by Eugenia Loli-Queru and
11890 "<a href="http://webmink.com/2010/09/03/h-264-and-foss/">H.264 Is Not
11891 The Sort Of Free That Matters</a>" by Simon Phipps to learn more about
11892 the issue.  The solution is to support the
11893 <a href="http://www.digistan.org/open-standard:definition">free and
11894 open standards</a> for video, like <a href="http://www.theora.org/">Ogg
11895 Theora</a>, and avoid MPEG-4 and H.264 if you can.</p>
11896
11897       </div>
11898       <div class="tags">
11899
11900
11901         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/digistan">digistan</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/fildeling">fildeling</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/multimedia">multimedia</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>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/standard">standard</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>.
11902
11903
11904       </div>
11905     </div>
11906     <div class="padding"></div>
11907
11908     <div class="entry">
11909       <div class="title">
11910         <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>
11911       </div>
11912       <div class="date">
11913          4th September 2010
11914       </div>
11915       <div class="body">
11916         <p>In the <a href="http://popcon.debian.org/unknown/by_vote">Debian
11917 popularity-contest numbers</a>, the adobe-flashplugin package the
11918 second most popular used package that is missing in Debian.  The sixth
11919 most popular is flashplayer-mozilla.  This is a clear indication that
11920 working flash is important for Debian users.  Around 10 percent of the
11921 users submitting data to popcon.debian.org have this package
11922 installed.</p>
11923
11924 <p>In the report written by Lars Risan in August 2008
11925 («<a href="http://wiki.skolelinux.no/Dokumentasjon/Rapporter?action=AttachFile&do=view&target=Skolelinux_i_bruk_rapport_1.0.pdf">Skolelinux
11926 i bruk – Rapport for Hurum kommune, Universitetet i Agder og
11927 stiftelsen SLX Debian Labs</a>»), one of the most important problems
11928 schools experienced with <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian
11929 Edu/Skolelinux</a> was the lack of working Flash.  A lot of educational
11930 web sites require Flash to work, and lacking working Flash support in
11931 the web browser and the problems with installing it was perceived as a
11932 good reason to stay with Windows.</p>
11933
11934 <p>I once saw a funny and sad comment in a web forum, where Linux was
11935 said to be the retarded cousin that did not really understand
11936 everything you told him but could work fairly well.  This was a
11937 comment regarding the problems Linux have with proprietary formats and
11938 non-standard web pages, and is sad because it exposes a fairly common
11939 understanding of whose fault it is if web pages that only work in for
11940 example Internet Explorer 6 fail to work on Firefox, and funny because
11941 it explain very well how annoying it is for users when Linux
11942 distributions do not work with the documents they receive or the web
11943 pages they want to visit.</p>
11944
11945 <p>This is part of the reason why I believe it is important for Debian
11946 and Debian Edu to have a well working Flash implementation in the
11947 distribution, to get at least popular sites as Youtube and Google
11948 Video to working out of the box.  For Squeeze, Debian have the chance
11949 to include the latest version of Gnash that will make this happen, as
11950 the new release 0.8.8 was published a few weeks ago and is resting in
11951 unstable.  The new version work with more sites that version 0.8.7.
11952 The Gnash maintainers have asked for a freeze exception, but the
11953 release team have not had time to reply to it yet.  I hope they agree
11954 with me that Flash is important for the Debian desktop users, and thus
11955 accept the new package into Squeeze.</p>
11956
11957       </div>
11958       <div class="tags">
11959
11960
11961         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>.
11962
11963
11964       </div>
11965     </div>
11966     <div class="padding"></div>
11967
11968     <div class="entry">
11969       <div class="title">
11970         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/My_first_perl_GUI_application___controlling_a_Spykee_robot.html">My first perl GUI application - controlling a Spykee robot</a>
11971       </div>
11972       <div class="date">
11973          1st September 2010
11974       </div>
11975       <div class="body">
11976         <p>This evening I made my first Perl GUI application.  The last few
11977 days I have worked on a Perl module for controlling my recently
11978 aquired Spykee robots, and the module is now getting complete enought
11979 that it is possible to use it to control the robot driving at least.
11980 It was now time to figure out how to use it to create some GUI to
11981 allow me to drive the robot around.  I picked PerlQt as I have had
11982 positive experiences with the Qt API before, and spent a few minutes
11983 browsing the web for examples.  Using Qt Designer seemed like a short
11984 cut, so I ended up writing the perl GUI using Qt Designer and
11985 compiling it into a perl program using the puic program from
11986 libqt-perl.  Nothing fancy yet, but it got buttons to connect and
11987 drive around.</p>
11988
11989 <p>The perl module I have written provide a object oriented API for
11990 controlling the robot.  Here is an small example on how to use it:</p>
11991
11992 <p><pre>
11993 use Spykee;
11994 Spykee::discover(sub {$robot{$_[0]} = $_[1]});
11995 my $host = (keys %robot)[0];
11996 my $spykee = Spykee->new();
11997 $spykee->contact($host, "admin", "admin");
11998 $spykee->left();
11999 sleep 2;
12000 $spykee->right();
12001 sleep 2;
12002 $spykee->forward();
12003 sleep 2;
12004 $spykee->back();
12005 sleep 2;
12006 $spykee->stop();
12007 </pre></p>
12008
12009 <p>Thanks to the release of the source of the robot firmware, I could
12010 peek into the implementation at the other end to figure out how to
12011 implement the protocol used by the robot.  I've implemented several of
12012 the commands the robot understand, but is still missing the camera
12013 support to make it possible to control the robot from remote.  First I
12014 want to implement support for uploading new firmware and configuring
12015 the wireless network, to make it possible to bootstrap a Spykee robot
12016 without the producers Windows and MacOSX software (I only have Linux,
12017 so I had to ask a friend to come over to get the robot testing
12018 going. :).</p>
12019
12020 <p>Will release the source to the public soon, but need to figure out
12021 where to make it available first.  I will add a link to
12022 <a href="http://wiki.nuug.no/grupper/robot/">the NUUG wiki</a> for
12023 those that want to check back later to find it.</p>
12024
12025       </div>
12026       <div class="tags">
12027
12028
12029         Tags: <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/robot">robot</a>.
12030
12031
12032       </div>
12033     </div>
12034     <div class="padding"></div>
12035
12036     <div class="entry">
12037       <div class="title">
12038         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Broken_hard_link_handling_with_sshfs.html">Broken hard link handling with sshfs</a>
12039       </div>
12040       <div class="date">
12041         30th August 2010
12042       </div>
12043       <div class="body">
12044         <p>Just got an email from Tobias Gruetzmacher as a followup on my
12045 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Broken_umask_handling_with_sshfs.html">previous
12046 post about sshfs</a>.  He reported another problem with sshfs.  It
12047 fail to handle hard links properly.  A simple way to spot this is to
12048 look at the . and .. entries in the directory tree.  These should have
12049 a link count >1, but on sshfs the count is 1.  I just tested to see
12050 what happen when trying to hardlink, and this fail as well:</p>
12051
12052 <pre>
12053 % ln foo bar
12054 ln: creating hard link `bar' => `foo': Function not implemented
12055 %
12056 </pre>
12057
12058 <p>I have not yet found time to implement a test for this in my file
12059 system test code, but believe having working hard links is useful to
12060 avoid surprised unix programs.  Not as useful as working file locking
12061 and symlinks, which are required to get a working desktop, but useful
12062 nevertheless. :)</p>
12063
12064 <p>The latest version of the file system test code is available via
12065 git from
12066 <a href="http://github.com/gebi/fs-test">http://github.com/gebi/fs-test</a></p>
12067
12068       </div>
12069       <div class="tags">
12070
12071
12072         Tags: <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>.
12073
12074
12075       </div>
12076     </div>
12077     <div class="padding"></div>
12078
12079     <div class="entry">
12080       <div class="title">
12081         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Broken_umask_handling_with_sshfs.html">Broken umask handling with sshfs</a>
12082       </div>
12083       <div class="date">
12084         26th August 2010
12085       </div>
12086       <div class="body">
12087         <p>My file system sematics program
12088 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Testing_if_a_file_system_can_be_used_for_home_directories___.html">presented
12089 a few days ago</a> is very useful to verify that a file system can
12090 work as a unix home directory,and today I had to extend it a bit.  I'm
12091 looking into alternatives for home directory access here at the
12092 University of Oslo, and one of the options is sshfs.  My friend
12093 Finn-Arne mentioned a while back that they had used sshfs with Debian
12094 Edu, but stopped because of problems.  I asked today what the problems
12095 where, and he mentioned that sshfs failed to handle umask properly.
12096 Trying to detect the problem I wrote this addition to my fs testing
12097 script:</p>
12098
12099 <pre>
12100 mode_t touch_get_mode(const char *name, mode_t mode) {
12101   mode_t retval = 0;
12102   int fd = open(name, O_RDWR|O_CREAT|O_LARGEFILE, mode);
12103   if (-1 != fd) {
12104     unlink(name);
12105     struct stat statbuf;
12106     if (-1 != fstat(fd, &statbuf)) {
12107       retval = statbuf.st_mode & 0x1ff;
12108     }
12109     close(fd);
12110   }
12111   return retval;
12112 }
12113
12114 /* Try to detect problem discovered using sshfs */
12115 int test_umask(void) {
12116   printf("info: testing umask effect on file creation\n");
12117
12118   mode_t orig_umask = umask(000);
12119   mode_t newmode;
12120   if (0666 != (newmode = touch_get_mode("foobar", 0666))) {
12121     printf("  error: Wrong file mode %o when creating using mode 666 and umask 000\n",
12122            newmode);
12123   }
12124   umask(007);
12125   if (0660 != (newmode = touch_get_mode("foobar", 0666))) {
12126     printf("  error: Wrong file mode %o when creating using mode 666 and umask 007\n",
12127            newmode);
12128   }
12129
12130   umask (orig_umask);
12131   return 0;
12132 }
12133
12134 int main(int argc, char **argv) {
12135   [...]
12136   test_umask();
12137   return 0;
12138 }
12139 </pre>
12140
12141 <p>Sure enough.  On NFS to a netapp, I get this result:</p>
12142
12143 <pre>
12144 Testing POSIX/Unix sematics on file system
12145 info: testing symlink creation
12146 info: testing subdirectory creation
12147 info: testing fcntl locking
12148   Read-locking 1 byte from 1073741824
12149   Read-locking 510 byte from 1073741826
12150   Unlocking 1 byte from 1073741824
12151   Write-locking 1 byte from 1073741824
12152   Write-locking 510 byte from 1073741826
12153   Unlocking 2 byte from 1073741824
12154 info: testing umask effect on file creation
12155 </pre>
12156
12157 <p>When mounting the same directory using sshfs, I get this
12158 result:</p>
12159
12160 <pre>
12161 Testing POSIX/Unix sematics on file system
12162 info: testing symlink creation
12163 info: testing subdirectory creation
12164 info: testing fcntl locking
12165   Read-locking 1 byte from 1073741824
12166   Read-locking 510 byte from 1073741826
12167   Unlocking 1 byte from 1073741824
12168   Write-locking 1 byte from 1073741824
12169   Write-locking 510 byte from 1073741826
12170   Unlocking 2 byte from 1073741824
12171 info: testing umask effect on file creation
12172   error: Wrong file mode 644 when creating using mode 666 and umask 000
12173   error: Wrong file mode 640 when creating using mode 666 and umask 007
12174 </pre>
12175
12176 <p>So, I can conclude that sshfs is better than smb to a Netapp or a
12177 Windows server, but not good enough to be used as a home
12178 directory.</p>
12179
12180 <p>Update 2010-08-26: Reported the issue in
12181 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/594498">BTS report #594498</a></p>
12182
12183 <p>Update 2010-08-27: Michael Gebetsroither report that he found the
12184 script so useful that he created a GIT repository and stored it in
12185 <a href="http://github.com/gebi/fs-test">http://github.com/gebi/fs-test</a>.</p>
12186
12187       </div>
12188       <div class="tags">
12189
12190
12191         Tags: <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>.
12192
12193
12194       </div>
12195     </div>
12196     <div class="padding"></div>
12197
12198     <div class="entry">
12199       <div class="title">
12200         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Rob_Weir__How_to_Crush_Dissent.html">Rob Weir: How to Crush Dissent</a>
12201       </div>
12202       <div class="date">
12203         15th August 2010
12204       </div>
12205       <div class="body">
12206         <p>I found the notes from Rob Weir on
12207 <a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/robweir/antic-atom/~3/VGb23-kta8c/how-to-crush-dissent.html">how
12208 to crush dissent</a> matching my own thoughts on the matter quite
12209 well.  Highly recommended for those wondering which road our society
12210 should go down.  In my view we have been heading the wrong way for a
12211 long time.</p>
12212
12213       </div>
12214       <div class="tags">
12215
12216
12217         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/lenker">lenker</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/personvern">personvern</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet</a>.
12218
12219
12220       </div>
12221     </div>
12222     <div class="padding"></div>
12223
12224     <div class="entry">
12225       <div class="title">
12226         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/No_hardcoded_config_on_Debian_Edu_clients.html">No hardcoded config on Debian Edu clients</a>
12227       </div>
12228       <div class="date">
12229          9th August 2010
12230       </div>
12231       <div class="body">
12232         <p>As reported earlier, the last few days I have looked at how Debian
12233 Edu clients are configured, and tried to get rid of all hardcoded
12234 configuration settings on the clients.  I believe the work to be
12235 mostly done, and the clients seem to work just fine with dynamically
12236 generated configuration.</p>
12237
12238 <p>What is the point, you might ask?  The point is to allow a Debian
12239 Edu desktop to integrate into an existing network infrastructure
12240 without any manual configuration.</p>
12241
12242 <p>This is what happens when installing a Debian Edu client here at
12243 the University of Oslo using PXE.  With the PXE installation, I am
12244 asked for language (Norwegian Bokmål), locality (Norway) and keyboard
12245 layout (no-latin1), Debian Edu profile (Roaming Workstation), if I
12246 accept to reformat the hard drive (yes), if I want to submit info to
12247 popcon.debian.org (no) and root password (secret).  After answering
12248 these questions, the installer goes ahead and does its thing, and
12249 after around 50 minutes it is done.  I press enter to finish the
12250 installation, and the machine reboots into KDE.  When the machine is
12251 ready and kdm asks for login information, I enter my university
12252 username and password, am told by kdm that a local home directory has
12253 been created and that I must log in again, and finally log in with the
12254 same username and password to the KDE 4.4 desktop.  At no point during
12255 this process did it ask for university specific settings, and all the
12256 required configuration was dynamically detected using information
12257 fetched via DHCP and DNS.  The roaming workstation is now ready for
12258 use.</p>
12259
12260 <p>How was this done, you might wonder?  First of all, here is the
12261 list of things that need to be configured on the client to get it
12262 working properly out of the box:</p>
12263
12264 <ul>
12265 <li>IP address/netmask and DNS server.</li>
12266 <li>Web proxy URL.</li>
12267 <li>LDAP server for NSS directory information (user, group, etc).</li>
12268 <li>Kerberos server for PAM password checking.</li>
12269 <li>SMB mount point to access the network home directory. (*)</li>
12270 <li>Central syslog server to send syslog messages to. (*)</li>
12271 <li>Sitesummary collector URL to submit info to central server. (*)</li>
12272 </ul>
12273
12274 <p>(Hm, did I forget anything?  Let me knew if I did.)</p>
12275
12276 <p>The points marked (*) are not required to be able to use the
12277 machine, but needed to provide central storage and allowing system
12278 administrators to track their machines.  Since yesterday, everything
12279 but the sitesummary collector URL is dynamically discovered at boot
12280 and installation time in the svn version of Debian Edu.</p>
12281
12282 <p>The IP and DNS setup is fetched during boot using DHCP as usual.
12283 When a DHCP update arrives, the proxy setup is updated by looking for
12284 http://wpat/wpad.dat and using the content of this WPAD file to
12285 configure the http and ftp proxy in /etc/environment and
12286 /etc/apt/apt.conf.  I decided to update the proxy setup using a DHCP
12287 hook to ensure that the client stops using the Debian Edu proxy when
12288 it is moved outside the Debian Edu network, and instead uses any local
12289 proxy present on the new network when it moves around.</p>
12290
12291 <p>The DNS names of the LDAP, Kerberos and syslog server and related
12292 configuration are generated using DNS information at boot.  First the
12293 installer looks for a host named ldap in the current DNS domain.  If
12294 not found, it looks for _ldap._tcp SRV records in DNS instead.  If an
12295 LDAP server is found, its root DSE entry is requested and the
12296 attributes namingContexts and defaultNamingContext are used to
12297 determine which LDAP base to use for NSS.  If there are several
12298 namingContexts attibutes and the defaultNamingContext is present, that
12299 LDAP subtree is used as the base.  If defaultNamingContext is missing,
12300 the subtrees listed as namingContexts are searched in sequence for any
12301 object with class posixAccount or posixGroup, and the first one with
12302 such an object is used as the LDAP base.  For Kerberos, a similar
12303 search is done by first looking for a host named kerberos, and then
12304 for the _kerberos._tcp SRV record.  I've been unable to find a way to
12305 look up the Kerberos realm, so for this the upper case string of the
12306 current DNS domain is used.</p>
12307
12308 <p>For the syslog server, the hosts syslog and loghost are searched
12309 for, and the _syslog._udp SRV record is consulted if no such host is
12310 found.  This algorithm works for both Debian Edu and the University of
12311 Oslo.  A similar strategy would work for locating the sitesummary
12312 server, but have not been implemented yet.  I decided to fetch and
12313 save these settings during installation, to make sure moving to a
12314 different network does not change the set of users being allowed to
12315 log in nor the passwords required to log in.  Usernames and passwords
12316 will be cached by sssd when the user logs in on the Debian Edu
12317 network, and will not change as the laptop move around.  For a
12318 non-roaming machine, there is no caching, but given that it is
12319 supposed to stay in place it should not matter much.  Perhaps we
12320 should switch those to use sssd too?</p>
12321
12322 <p>The user's SMB mount point for the network home directory is
12323 located when the user logs in for the first time.  The LDAP server is
12324 consulted to look for the user's LDAP object and the sambaHomePath
12325 attribute is used if found.  If it isn't found, the home directory
12326 path fetched from NSS is used instead.  Assuming the path is of the
12327 form /site/server/directory/username, the second part is looked up in
12328 DNS and used to generate a SMB URL of the form
12329 smb://server.domain/username.  This algorithm works for both Debian
12330 edu and the University of Oslo.  Perhaps there are better attributes
12331 to use or a better algorithm that works for more sites, but this will
12332 do for now. :)</p>
12333
12334 <p>This work should make it easier to integrate the Debian Edu clients
12335 into any LDAP/Kerberos infrastructure, and make the current setup even
12336 more flexible than before.  I suspect it will also work for thin
12337 client servers, allowing one to easily set up LTSP and hook it into a
12338 existing network infrastructure, but I have not had time to test this
12339 yet.</p>
12340
12341 <p>If you want to help out with implementing these things for Debian
12342 Edu, please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.</p>
12343
12344 <p>Update 2010-08-09: Simon Farnsworth gave me a heads-up on how to
12345 detect Kerberos realm from DNS, by looking for _kerberos TXT entries
12346 before falling back to the upper case DNS domain name.  Will have to
12347 implement it for Debian Edu. :)</p>
12348
12349       </div>
12350       <div class="tags">
12351
12352
12353         Tags: <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>.
12354
12355
12356       </div>
12357     </div>
12358     <div class="padding"></div>
12359
12360     <div class="entry">
12361       <div class="title">
12362         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Testing_if_a_file_system_can_be_used_for_home_directories___.html">Testing if a file system can be used for home directories...</a>
12363       </div>
12364       <div class="date">
12365          8th August 2010
12366       </div>
12367       <div class="body">
12368         <p>A few years ago, I was involved in a project planning to use
12369 Windows file servers as home directory servers for Debian
12370 Edu/Skolelinux machines.  This was thought to be no problem, as the
12371 access would be through the SMB network file system protocol, and we
12372 knew other sites used SMB with unix and samba as the file server to
12373 mount home directories without any problems.  But, after months of
12374 struggling, we had to conclude that our goal was impossible.</p>
12375
12376 <p>The reason is simply that while SMB can be used for home
12377 directories when the file server is Samba running on Unix, this only
12378 work because of Samba have some extensions and the fact that the
12379 underlying file system is a unix file system.  When using a Windows
12380 file server, the underlying file system do not have POSIX semantics,
12381 and several programs will fail if the users home directory where they
12382 want to store their configuration lack POSIX semantics.</p>
12383
12384 <p>As part of this work, I wrote a small C program I want to share
12385 with you all, to replicate a few of the problematic applications (like
12386 OpenOffice.org and GCompris) and see if the file system was working as
12387 it should.  If you find yourself in spooky file system land, it might
12388 help you find your way out again.  This is the fs-test.c source:</p>
12389
12390 <pre>
12391 /*
12392  * Some tests to check the file system sematics.  Used to verify that
12393  * CIFS from a windows server do not work properly as a linux home
12394  * directory.
12395  * License: GPL v2 or later
12396  *
12397  * needs libsqlite3-dev and build-essential installed
12398  * compile with: gcc -Wall -lsqlite3 -DTEST_SQLITE fs-test.c -o fs-test
12399 */
12400
12401 #define _FILE_OFFSET_BITS 64
12402 #define _LARGEFILE_SOURCE 1
12403 #define _LARGEFILE64_SOURCE 1
12404
12405 #define _GNU_SOURCE /* for asprintf() */
12406
12407 #include &lt;errno.h>
12408 #include &lt;fcntl.h>
12409 #include &lt;stdio.h>
12410 #include &lt;string.h>
12411 #include &lt;stdlib.h>
12412 #include &lt;sys/file.h>
12413 #include &lt;sys/stat.h>
12414 #include &lt;sys/types.h>
12415 #include &lt;unistd.h>
12416
12417 #ifdef TEST_SQLITE
12418 /*
12419  * Test sqlite open, as done by gcompris require the libsqlite3-dev
12420  * package and linking with -lsqlite3.  A more low level test is
12421  * below.
12422  * See also &lt;URL: http://www.sqlite.org./faq.html#q5 >.
12423  */
12424 #include &lt;sqlite3.h>
12425 #define CREATE_TABLE_USERS                                              \
12426   "CREATE TABLE users (user_id INT UNIQUE, login TEXT, lastname TEXT, firstname TEXT, birthdate TEXT, class_id INT ); "
12427 int test_sqlite_open(void) {
12428   char *zErrMsg;
12429   char *name = "testsqlite.db";
12430   sqlite3 *db=NULL;
12431   unlink(name);
12432   int rc = sqlite3_open(name, &db);
12433   if( rc ){
12434     printf("error: sqlite open of %s failed: %s\n", name, sqlite3_errmsg(db));
12435     sqlite3_close(db);
12436     return -1;
12437   }
12438
12439   /* create tables */
12440   rc = sqlite3_exec(db,CREATE_TABLE_USERS, NULL,  0, &zErrMsg);
12441   if( rc != SQLITE_OK ){
12442     printf("error: sqlite table create failed: %s\n", zErrMsg);
12443     sqlite3_close(db);
12444     return -1;
12445   }
12446   printf("info: sqlite worked\n");
12447   sqlite3_close(db);
12448   return 0;
12449 }
12450 #endif /* TEST_SQLITE */
12451
12452 /*
12453  * Demonstrate locking issue found in gcompris using sqlite3.  This
12454  * work with ext3, but not with cifs server on Windows 2003.  This is
12455  * done in the sqlite3 library.
12456  * See also
12457  * &lt;URL:http://www.cygwin.com/ml/cygwin/2001-08/msg00854.html> and the
12458  * POSIX specification
12459  * &lt;URL:http://www.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/009695399/functions/fcntl.html>.
12460  */
12461 int test_gcompris_locking(void) {
12462   struct flock fl;
12463   char *name = "testsqlite.db";
12464   unlink(name);
12465   int fd = open(name, O_RDWR|O_CREAT|O_LARGEFILE, 0644);
12466   printf("info: testing fcntl locking\n");
12467
12468   fl.l_whence = SEEK_SET;
12469   fl.l_pid    = getpid();
12470   printf("  Read-locking 1 byte from 1073741824");
12471   fl.l_start  = 1073741824;
12472   fl.l_len    = 1;
12473   fl.l_type   = F_RDLCK;
12474   if (0 != fcntl(fd, F_SETLK, &fl) ) printf(" - error!\n"); else printf("\n");
12475
12476   printf("  Read-locking 510 byte from 1073741826");
12477   fl.l_start  = 1073741826;
12478   fl.l_len    = 510;
12479   fl.l_type   = F_RDLCK;
12480   if (0 != fcntl(fd, F_SETLK, &fl) ) printf(" - error!\n"); else printf("\n");
12481
12482   printf("  Unlocking 1 byte from 1073741824");
12483   fl.l_start  = 1073741824;
12484   fl.l_len    = 1;
12485   fl.l_type   = F_UNLCK;
12486   if (0 != fcntl(fd, F_SETLK, &fl) ) printf(" - error!\n"); else printf("\n");
12487
12488   printf("  Write-locking 1 byte from 1073741824");
12489   fl.l_start  = 1073741824;
12490   fl.l_len    = 1;
12491   fl.l_type   = F_WRLCK;
12492   if (0 != fcntl(fd, F_SETLK, &fl) ) printf(" - error!\n"); else printf("\n");
12493
12494   printf("  Write-locking 510 byte from 1073741826");
12495   fl.l_start  = 1073741826;
12496   fl.l_len    = 510;
12497   if (0 != fcntl(fd, F_SETLK, &fl) ) printf(" - error!\n"); else printf("\n");
12498
12499   printf("  Unlocking 2 byte from 1073741824");
12500   fl.l_start  = 1073741824;
12501   fl.l_len    = 2;
12502   fl.l_type   = F_UNLCK;
12503   if (0 != fcntl(fd, F_SETLK, &fl) ) printf(" - error!\n"); else printf("\n");
12504
12505   close(fd);
12506   return 0;
12507 }
12508
12509 /*
12510  * Test if permissions of freshly created directories allow entries
12511  * below them.  This was a problem with OpenOffice.org and gcompris.
12512  * Mounting with option 'sync' seem to solve this problem while
12513  * slowing down file operations.
12514  */
12515 int test_subdirectory_creation(void) {
12516 #define LEVELS 5
12517   char *path = strdup("test");
12518   char *dirs[LEVELS];
12519   int level;
12520   printf("info: testing subdirectory creation\n");
12521   for (level = 0; level &lt; LEVELS; level++) {
12522     char *newpath = NULL;
12523     if (-1 == mkdir(path, 0777)) {
12524       printf("  error: Unable to create directory '%s': %s\n",
12525              path, strerror(errno));
12526       break;
12527     }
12528     asprintf(&newpath, "%s/%s", path, "test");
12529     free(path);
12530     path = newpath;
12531   }
12532   return 0;
12533 }
12534
12535 /*
12536  * Test if symlinks can be created.  This was a problem detected with
12537  * KDE.
12538  */
12539 int test_symlinks(void) {
12540   printf("info: testing symlink creation\n");
12541   unlink("symlink");
12542   if (-1 == symlink("file", "symlink"))
12543     printf("  error: Unable to create symlink\n");
12544   return 0;
12545 }
12546
12547 int main(int argc, char **argv) {
12548   printf("Testing POSIX/Unix sematics on file system\n");
12549   test_symlinks();
12550   test_subdirectory_creation();
12551 #ifdef TEST_SQLITE
12552   test_sqlite_open();
12553 #endif /* TEST_SQLITE */
12554   test_gcompris_locking();
12555   return 0;
12556 }
12557 </pre>
12558
12559 <p>When everything is working, it should print something like
12560 this:</p>
12561
12562 <pre>
12563 Testing POSIX/Unix sematics on file system
12564 info: testing symlink creation
12565 info: testing subdirectory creation
12566 info: sqlite worked
12567 info: testing fcntl locking
12568   Read-locking 1 byte from 1073741824
12569   Read-locking 510 byte from 1073741826
12570   Unlocking 1 byte from 1073741824
12571   Write-locking 1 byte from 1073741824
12572   Write-locking 510 byte from 1073741826
12573   Unlocking 2 byte from 1073741824
12574 </pre>
12575
12576 <p>I do not remember the exact details of the problems we saw, but one
12577 of them was with locking, where if I remember correctly, POSIX allow a
12578 read-only lock to be upgraded to a read-write lock without unlocking
12579 the read-only lock (while Windows do not).  Another was a bug in the
12580 CIFS/SMB client implementation in the Linux kernel where directory
12581 meta information would be wrong for a fraction of a second, making
12582 OpenOffice.org fail to create its deep directory tree because it was
12583 not allowed to create files in its freshly created directory.</p>
12584
12585 <p>Anyway, here is a nice tool for your tool box, might you never need
12586 it. :)</p>
12587
12588 <p>Update 2010-08-27: Michael Gebetsroither report that he found the
12589 script so useful that he created a GIT repository and stored it in
12590 <a href="http://github.com/gebi/fs-test">http://github.com/gebi/fs-test</a>.</p>
12591
12592       </div>
12593       <div class="tags">
12594
12595
12596         Tags: <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>.
12597
12598
12599       </div>
12600     </div>
12601     <div class="padding"></div>
12602
12603     <div class="entry">
12604       <div class="title">
12605         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Autodetecting_Client_setup_for_roaming_workstations_in_Debian_Edu.html">Autodetecting Client setup for roaming workstations in Debian Edu</a>
12606       </div>
12607       <div class="date">
12608          7th August 2010
12609       </div>
12610       <div class="body">
12611         <p>A few days ago, I
12612 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_roaming_workstation___at_the_university_of_Oslo.html">tried
12613 to install</a> a Roaming workation profile from Debian Edu/Squeeze
12614 while on the university network here at the University of Oslo, and
12615 noticed how much had to change to get it operational using the
12616 university infrastructure.  It was fairly easy, but it occured to me
12617 that Debian Edu would improve a lot if I could get the client to
12618 connect without any changes at all, and thus let the client configure
12619 itself during installation and first boot to use the infrastructure
12620 around it.  Now I am a huge step further along that road.</p>
12621
12622 <p>With our current squeeze-test packages, I can select the roaming
12623 workstation profile and get a working laptop connecting to the
12624 university LDAP server for user and group and our active directory
12625 servers for Kerberos authentication.  All this without any
12626 configuration at all during installation.  My users home directory got
12627 a bookmark in the KDE menu to mount it via SMB, with the correct URL.
12628 In short, openldap and sssd is correctly configured.  In addition to
12629 this, the client look for http://wpad/wpad.dat to configure a web
12630 proxy, and when it fail to find it no proxy settings are stored in
12631 /etc/environment and /etc/apt/apt.conf.  Iceweasel and KDE is
12632 configured to look for the same wpad configuration and also do not use
12633 a proxy when at the university network.  If the machine is moved to a
12634 network with such wpad setup, it would automatically use it when DHCP
12635 gave it a IP address.</p>
12636
12637 <p>The LDAP server is located using DNS, by first looking for the DNS
12638 entry ldap.$domain.  If this do not exist, it look for the
12639 _ldap._tcp.$domain SRV records and use the first one as the LDAP
12640 server.  Next, it connects to the LDAP server and search all
12641 namingContexts entries for posixAccount or posixGroup objects, and
12642 pick the first one as the LDAP base.  For Kerberos, a similar
12643 algorithm is used to locate the LDAP server, and the realm is the
12644 uppercase version of $domain.</p>
12645
12646 <p>So, what is not working, you might ask.  SMB mounting my home
12647 directory do not work.  No idea why, but suspected the incorrect
12648 Kerberos settings in /etc/krb5.conf and /etc/samba/smb.conf might be
12649 the cause.  These are not properly configured during installation, and
12650 had to be hand-edited to get the correct Kerberos realm and server,
12651 but SMB mounting still do not work. :(</p>
12652
12653 <p>With this automatic configuration in place, I expect a Debian Edu
12654 roaming profile installation would be able to automatically detect and
12655 connect to any site using LDAP and Kerberos for NSS directory and PAM
12656 authentication.  It should also work out of the box in a Active
12657 Directory environment providing posixAccount and posixGroup objects
12658 with UID and GID values.</p>
12659
12660 <p>If you want to help out with implementing these things for Debian
12661 Edu, please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.</p>
12662
12663       </div>
12664       <div class="tags">
12665
12666
12667         Tags: <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>.
12668
12669
12670       </div>
12671     </div>
12672     <div class="padding"></div>
12673
12674     <div class="entry">
12675       <div class="title">
12676         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu_roaming_workstation___at_the_university_of_Oslo.html">Debian Edu roaming workstation - at the university of Oslo</a>
12677       </div>
12678       <div class="date">
12679          3rd August 2010
12680       </div>
12681       <div class="body">
12682         <p>The new roaming workstation profile in Debian Edu/Squeeze is fairly
12683 similar to the laptop setup am I working on using Ubuntu for the
12684 University of Oslo, and just for the heck of it, I tested today how
12685 hard it would be to integrate that profile into the university
12686 infrastructure.  In this case, it is the university LDAP server,
12687 Active Directory Kerberos server and SMB mounting from the Netapp file
12688 servers.</p>
12689
12690 <p>I was pleasantly surprised that the only three files needed to be
12691 changed (/etc/sssd/sssd.conf, /etc/ldap.conf and
12692 /etc/mklocaluser.d/20-debian-edu-config) and one file had to be added
12693 (/usr/share/perl5/Debian/Edu_Local.pm), to get the client working.
12694 Most of the changes were to get the client to use the university LDAP
12695 for NSS and Kerberos server for PAM, but one was to change a hard
12696 coded DNS domain name in the mklocaluser hook from .intern to
12697 .uio.no.</p>
12698
12699 <p>This testing was so encouraging, that I went ahead and adjusted the
12700 Debian Edu scripts and setup in subversion to centralise the roaming
12701 workstation setup a bit more and avoid the hardcoded DNS domain name,
12702 so that when I test this tomorrow, I expect to get away with modifying
12703 only /etc/sssd/sssd.conf and /etc/ldap.conf to get it to use the
12704 university servers.</p>
12705
12706 <p>My goal is to get the clients to have no hardcoded settings and
12707 fetch all their initial setup during installation and first boot, to
12708 allow them to be inserted also into environments where the default
12709 setup in Debian Edu has been changed or as with the university, where
12710 the environment is different but provides the protocols Debian Edu
12711 uses.</p>
12712
12713       </div>
12714       <div class="tags">
12715
12716
12717         Tags: <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>.
12718
12719
12720       </div>
12721     </div>
12722     <div class="padding"></div>
12723
12724     <div class="entry">
12725       <div class="title">
12726         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Circular_package_dependencies_harms_apt_recovery.html">Circular package dependencies harms apt recovery</a>
12727       </div>
12728       <div class="date">
12729         27th July 2010
12730       </div>
12731       <div class="body">
12732         <p>I discovered this while doing
12733 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Automatic_upgrade_testing_from_Lenny_to_Squeeze.html">automated
12734 testing of upgrades from Debian Lenny to Squeeze</a>.  A few packages
12735 in Debian still got circular dependencies, and it is often claimed
12736 that apt and aptitude should be able to handle this just fine, but
12737 some times these dependency loops causes apt to fail.</p>
12738
12739 <p>An example is from todays
12740 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/~pere/debian-upgrade-testing//test-20100727-lenny-squeeze-kde-aptitude.txt">upgrade
12741 of KDE using aptitude</a>.  In it, a bug in kdebase-workspace-data
12742 causes perl-modules to fail to upgrade.  The cause is simple.  If a
12743 package fail to unpack, then only part of packages with the circular
12744 dependency might end up being unpacked when unpacking aborts, and the
12745 ones already unpacked will fail to configure in the recovery phase
12746 because its dependencies are unavailable.</p>
12747
12748 <p>In this log, the problem manifest itself with this error:</p>
12749
12750 <blockquote><pre>
12751 dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of perl-modules:
12752  perl-modules depends on perl (>= 5.10.1-1); however:
12753   Version of perl on system is 5.10.0-19lenny2.
12754 dpkg: error processing perl-modules (--configure):
12755  dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
12756 </pre></blockquote>
12757
12758 <p>The perl/perl-modules circular dependency is already
12759 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/527917">reported as a bug</a>, and will
12760 hopefully be solved as soon as possible, but it is not the only one,
12761 and each one of these loops in the dependency tree can cause similar
12762 failures.  Of course, they only occur when there are bugs in other
12763 packages causing the unpacking to fail, but it is rather nasty when
12764 the failure of one package causes the problem to become worse because
12765 of dependency loops.</p>
12766
12767 <p>Thanks to
12768 <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2010/06/msg00116.html">the
12769 tireless effort by Bill Allombert</a>, the number of circular
12770 dependencies
12771 <a href="http://debian.semistable.com/debgraph.out.html">left in Debian
12772 is dropping</a>, and perhaps it will reach zero one day. :)</p>
12773
12774 <p>Todays testing also exposed a bug in
12775 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/590605">update-notifier</a> and
12776 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/590604">different behaviour</a> between
12777 apt-get and aptitude, the latter possibly caused by some circular
12778 dependency.  Reported both to BTS to try to get someone to look at
12779 it.</p>
12780
12781       </div>
12782       <div class="tags">
12783
12784
12785         Tags: <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>.
12786
12787
12788       </div>
12789     </div>
12790     <div class="padding"></div>
12791
12792     <div class="entry">
12793       <div class="title">
12794         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/First_Debian_Edu_test_release__alpha0__based_on_Squeeze_is_released.html">First Debian Edu test release (alpha0) based on Squeeze is released</a>
12795       </div>
12796       <div class="date">
12797         27th July 2010
12798       </div>
12799       <div class="body">
12800         <p>I just posted this announcement culminating several months of work
12801 with the next Debian Edu release.  Not nearly done, but one major step
12802 completed.</p>
12803
12804 <blockquote>
12805 <p>This is the first test release based on Squeeze. The focus of this
12806 release is to test the user application selection. To have a look,
12807 install the standalone profile and let the developers know if the set
12808 of installed packages i.e. applications should be modified. If some
12809 user application is missing, or if there are some applications that no
12810 longer make sense to be included in Debian Edu, please let us know.
12811 Also, if a useful application is missing the translation for your
12812 language of choice, please let us know too.</p>
12813
12814 <p>In addition, feedback and help to polish the desktop (menus,
12815 artwork, starters, etc.) is appreciated. We would like to ship a nice
12816 and handy KDE4 desktop targeted for schools out of the box.</p>
12817
12818 <p>The other profiles should be installable, but there is a lot more
12819 work left to be done before they are ready, so do not expect to
12820 much.</p>
12821
12822 <p>Changes compared to the lenny based version</p>
12823
12824 <ul>
12825 <li>Everything from Debian Squeeze
12826 <ul>
12827   <li>Desktop environment KDE 4.4 => the new KDE desktop in
12828          combination with some new artwork
12829   <li>Web browser Iceweasel 3.5
12830   <li>OpenOffice.org 3.2
12831   <li>Educational toolbox GCompris 9.3
12832   <li>Music creator Rosegarden 10.04.2
12833   <li>Image editor Gimp 2.6.10
12834   <li>Virtual universe Celestia 1.6.0
12835   <li>Virtual stargazer Stellarium 0.10.4
12836   <li>3D modeler Blender 2.49.2 (new application)
12837   <li>Video editor Kdenlive 0.7.7 (new application)
12838 </ul></li>
12839 <li>Now using Kerberos for password checking (migration not finished).
12840     Enabled for:
12841 <ul>
12842   <li>PAM
12843   <li>LDAP
12844   <li>IMAP
12845   <li>SMTP (sender verification)
12846 </ul>
12847 </li>
12848 <li>New experimental roaming workstation profile for laptops.</li>
12849 <li>Show welcome page to users when they first log in. The URL is
12850     fetched from LDAP.</li>
12851 <li>New LXDE desktop option, in addition to KDE (default) and Gnome.</li>
12852 <li>General cleanup (not finished)</li>
12853 </ul>
12854 <p>The following features are not working as they should</p>
12855
12856 <ul>
12857 <li>No web based administration tool for creating users and groups. The
12858     scripts ldap-createuser-krb and ldap-add-user-to-group can be used
12859     for testing.</li>
12860 <li>DVD installs are missing debian-installer images for the PXE boot,
12861     and do not set up the PXE menu on eth0 because of this. LTSP
12862     clients should still boot from eth1 on thin client servers.</li>
12863 <li>The restructured KDE menu is not implemented.</li>
12864 <li>The LDAP server setup need to be reviewed for security.</li>
12865 <li>The LDAP directory structure need to be reworked.</li>
12866 <li>Different sets of packages are installed when using the DVD and the
12867     netinst CD. More packages are installed using the netinst CD.</li>
12868 <li>The jackd package fail to install. This is believed to be caused by
12869     some ongoing transition, and hopefully should be solved soon. The
12870     jackd1 package can be installed manually for those that need it.</li>
12871 <li>Some packages lack translations. See
12872     http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/Status/Squeeze for updated status,
12873     and help out with translations.</li>
12874 </ul>
12875
12876 <p>To download this multiarch netinstall release you can use</p>
12877
12878 <ul>
12879 <li><a href="ftp://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/squeeze-alpha/debian-edu-6.0.0+edua0-CD.iso">ftp://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/squeeze-alpha/debian-edu-6.0.0+edua0-CD.iso</a></li>
12880 <li><a href="http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/squeeze-alpha/debian-edu-6.0.0+edua0-CD.iso">http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/squeeze-alpha/debian-edu-6.0.0+edua0-CD.iso</a></li>
12881 <li>rsync -avzP ftp.skolelinux.org::skolelinux-cd/squeeze-alpha/debian-edu-6.0.0+edua0-CD.iso</li>
12882 </ul>
12883 <p>To download this multiarch dvd release you can use</p>
12884
12885 <ul>
12886 <li><a href="ftp://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/squeeze-alpha/debian-edu-6.0.0+edua0-DVD.iso">ftp://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/squeeze-alpha/debian-edu-6.0.0+edua0-DVD.iso</a></li>
12887 <li><a href="http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/squeeze-alpha/debian-edu-6.0.0+edua0-DVD.iso">http://ftp.skolelinux.org/skolelinux-cd/squeeze-alpha/debian-edu-6.0.0+edua0-DVD.iso</a></li>
12888 <li>rsync -avzP ftp.skolelinux.org::skolelinux-cd/squeeze-alpha/debian-edu-6.0.0+edua0-DVD.iso</li>
12889 </ul>
12890
12891 <p>There is no source DVD available yet. It will be prepared when we
12892 get closer to the final release.</p>
12893
12894 <p>The MD5SUM of these images are</p>
12895
12896 <ul>
12897 <li>3dbf45d59f42a53518b6e3c9ec3b5eb6 debian-edu-6.0.0+edua0-CD.iso</li>
12898 <li>22f2cbfce281d1c6e478be452638675d debian-edu-6.0.0+edua0-DVD.iso</li>
12899 </ul>
12900
12901 <p>The SHA1SUM of these images are</p>
12902 <ul>
12903 <li>c53d1b69b40cf37cd27aefaf33f6f6a3821bedf0 debian-edu-6.0.0+edua0-CD.iso</li>
12904 <li>2ec29d7db676d59d32197b05c277ffe16348376c debian-edu-6.0.0+edua0-DVD.iso</li>
12905 </ul>
12906 <p>How to report bugs:
12907 http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/HowTo/ReportBugsInBugzilla</p>
12908
12909 <p>Please direct replies to debian-edu@lists.debian.org</p>
12910 </blockquote>
12911
12912       </div>
12913       <div class="tags">
12914
12915
12916         Tags: <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>.
12917
12918
12919       </div>
12920     </div>
12921     <div class="padding"></div>
12922
12923     <div class="entry">
12924       <div class="title">
12925         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/One_step_closer_to_single_signon_in_Debian_Edu.html">One step closer to single signon in Debian Edu</a>
12926       </div>
12927       <div class="date">
12928         25th July 2010
12929       </div>
12930       <div class="body">
12931         <p>The last few months me and the other Debian Edu developers have
12932 been working hard to get the Debian/Squeeze based version of Debian
12933 Edu/Skolelinux into shape.  This future version will use Kerberos for
12934 authentication, and services are slowly migrated to single signon,
12935 getting rid of password questions one at the time.</p>
12936
12937 <p>It will also feature a roaming workstation profile with local home
12938 directory, for laptops that are only some times on the Skolelinux
12939 network, and for this profile a shortcut is created in Gnome and KDE
12940 to gain access to the users home directory on the file server.  This
12941 shortcut uses SMB at the moment, and yesterday I had time to test if
12942 SMB mounting had started working in KDE after we added the cifs-utils
12943 package.  I was pleasantly surprised how well it worked.</p>
12944
12945 <p>Thanks to the recent changes to our samba configuration to get it
12946 to use Kerberos for authentication, there were no question about user
12947 password when mounting the SMB volume.  A simple click on the shortcut
12948 in the KDE menu, and a window with the home directory popped
12949 up. :)</p>
12950
12951 <p>One step closer to a single signon solution out of the box in
12952 Debian Edu.  We already had PAM, LDAP, IMAP and SMTP in place, and now
12953 also Samba.  Next step is Cups and hopefully also NFS.</p>
12954
12955 <p>We had planned a alpha0 release of Debian Edu for today, but thanks
12956 to the autobuilder administrators for some architectures being slow to
12957 sign packages, we are still missing the fixed LTSP package we need for
12958 the release.  It was uploaded three days ago with urgency=high, and if
12959 it had entered testing yesterday we would have been able to test it in
12960 time for a alpha0 release today.  As the binaries for ia64 and powerpc
12961 still not uploaded to the Debian archive, we need to delay the alpha
12962 release another day.</p>
12963
12964 <p>If you want to help out with implementing Kerberos for Debian Edu,
12965 please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.</p>
12966
12967       </div>
12968       <div class="tags">
12969
12970
12971         Tags: <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>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet</a>.
12972
12973
12974       </div>
12975     </div>
12976     <div class="padding"></div>
12977
12978     <div class="entry">
12979       <div class="title">
12980         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/OpenStreetmap_one_step_closer_to_having_routing_on_its_front_page.html">OpenStreetmap one step closer to having routing on its front page</a>
12981       </div>
12982       <div class="date">
12983         18th July 2010
12984       </div>
12985       <div class="body">
12986         <p>Thanks to
12987 <a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Opengeodata/~3/wUTCzDZk3lc/project-of-the-week-which-way-home">todays
12988 opengeodata blog entry</a>, I just discovered that the
12989 OpenStreetmap.org site have gotten
12990 <a href="http://nroets.dev.openstreetmap.org/demo/index.html?layers=B000FTFTT">support
12991 for calculating routes</a>.  The support is still experimental and
12992 only available from the development server, until more experience is
12993 gathered on the user interface and any scalability issues.</p>
12994
12995 <p>Earlier, the routing I knew about using the OpenStreetmap.org data
12996 was provided by <a href="http://maps.cloudmade.com/">Cloudmade</a>,
12997 but having it on the main page is required to make everyone aware of
12998 the issue.  I've had people reject Openstreetmap.org as a viable
12999 alternative for them because the front page lacked routing support,
13000 and I hope their needs will be catered for when routing show up on the
13001 www.openstreetmap.org front page.</p>
13002
13003       </div>
13004       <div class="tags">
13005
13006
13007         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/kart">kart</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/web">web</a>.
13008
13009
13010       </div>
13011     </div>
13012     <div class="padding"></div>
13013
13014     <div class="entry">
13015       <div class="title">
13016         <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>
13017       </div>
13018       <div class="date">
13019         17th July 2010
13020       </div>
13021       <div class="body">
13022         <p>This is a
13023 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Time_for_new__LDAP_schemas_replacing_RFC_2307_.html">followup</a>
13024 on my
13025 <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
13026 work</a> on
13027 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Combining_PowerDNS_and_ISC_DHCP_LDAP_objects.html">merging
13028 all</a> the computer related LDAP objects in Debian Edu.</p>
13029
13030 <p>As a step to try to see if it possible to merge the DNS and DHCP
13031 LDAP objects, I have had a look at how the packages pdns-backend-ldap
13032 and dhcp3-server-ldap in Debian use the LDAP server.  The two
13033 implementations are quite different in how they use LDAP.</p>
13034
13035 To get this information, I started slapd with debugging enabled and
13036 dumped the debug output to a file to get the LDAP searches performed
13037 on a Debian Edu main-server.  Here is a summary.
13038
13039 <p><strong>powerdns</strong></p>
13040
13041 <a href="http://www.linuxnetworks.de/doc/index.php/PowerDNS_LDAP_Backend">Clues
13042 on how to</a> set up PowerDNS to use a LDAP backend is available on
13043 the web.
13044
13045 <p>PowerDNS have two modes of operation using LDAP as its backend.
13046 One "strict" mode where the forward and reverse DNS lookups are done
13047 using the same LDAP objects, and a "tree" mode where the forward and
13048 reverse entries are in two different subtrees in LDAP with a structure
13049 based on the DNS names, as in tjener.intern and
13050 2.2.0.10.in-addr.arpa.</p>
13051
13052 <p>In tree mode, the server is set up to use a LDAP subtree as its
13053 base, and uses a "base" scoped search for the DNS name by adding
13054 "dc=tjener,dc=intern," to the base with a filter for
13055 "(associateddomain=tjener.intern)" for the forward entry and
13056 "dc=2,dc=2,dc=0,dc=10,dc=in-addr,dc=arpa," with a filter for
13057 "(associateddomain=2.2.0.10.in-addr.arpa)" for the reverse entry.  For
13058 forward entries, it is looking for attributes named dnsttl, arecord,
13059 nsrecord, cnamerecord, soarecord, ptrrecord, hinforecord, mxrecord,
13060 txtrecord, rprecord, afsdbrecord, keyrecord, aaaarecord, locrecord,
13061 srvrecord, naptrrecord, kxrecord, certrecord, dsrecord, sshfprecord,
13062 ipseckeyrecord, rrsigrecord, nsecrecord, dnskeyrecord, dhcidrecord,
13063 spfrecord and modifytimestamp.  For reverse entries it is looking for
13064 the attributes dnsttl, arecord, nsrecord, cnamerecord, soarecord,
13065 ptrrecord, hinforecord, mxrecord, txtrecord, rprecord, aaaarecord,
13066 locrecord, srvrecord, naptrrecord and modifytimestamp.  The equivalent
13067 ldapsearch commands could look like this:</p>
13068
13069 <blockquote><pre>
13070 ldapsearch -h ldap \
13071   -b dc=tjener,dc=intern,ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no \
13072   -s base -x '(associateddomain=tjener.intern)' dNSTTL aRecord nSRecord \
13073   cNAMERecord sOARecord pTRRecord hInfoRecord mXRecord tXTRecord \
13074   rPRecord aFSDBRecord KeyRecord aAAARecord lOCRecord sRVRecord \
13075   nAPTRRecord kXRecord certRecord dSRecord sSHFPRecord iPSecKeyRecord \
13076   rRSIGRecord nSECRecord dNSKeyRecord dHCIDRecord sPFRecord modifyTimestamp
13077
13078 ldapsearch -h ldap \
13079   -b dc=2,dc=2,dc=0,dc=10,dc=in-addr,dc=arpa,ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no \
13080   -s base -x '(associateddomain=2.2.0.10.in-addr.arpa)'
13081   dnsttl, arecord, nsrecord, cnamerecord soarecord ptrrecord \
13082   hinforecord mxrecord txtrecord rprecord aaaarecord locrecord \
13083   srvrecord naptrrecord modifytimestamp
13084 </pre></blockquote>
13085
13086 <p>In Debian Edu/Lenny, the PowerDNS tree mode is used with
13087 ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no as the base, and these are two
13088 example LDAP objects used there.  In addition to these objects, the
13089 parent objects all th way up to ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
13090 also exist.</p>
13091
13092 <blockquote><pre>
13093 dn: dc=tjener,dc=intern,ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
13094 objectclass: top
13095 objectclass: dnsdomain
13096 objectclass: domainrelatedobject
13097 dc: tjener
13098 arecord: 10.0.2.2
13099 associateddomain: tjener.intern
13100
13101 dn: dc=2,dc=2,dc=0,dc=10,dc=in-addr,dc=arpa,ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
13102 objectclass: top
13103 objectclass: dnsdomain2
13104 objectclass: domainrelatedobject
13105 dc: 2
13106 ptrrecord: tjener.intern
13107 associateddomain: 2.2.0.10.in-addr.arpa
13108 </pre></blockquote>
13109
13110 <p>In strict mode, the server behaves differently.  When looking for
13111 forward DNS entries, it is doing a "subtree" scoped search with the
13112 same base as in the tree mode for a object with filter
13113 "(associateddomain=tjener.intern)" and requests the attributes dnsttl,
13114 arecord, nsrecord, cnamerecord, soarecord, ptrrecord, hinforecord,
13115 mxrecord, txtrecord, rprecord, aaaarecord, locrecord, srvrecord,
13116 naptrrecord and modifytimestamp.  For reverse entires it also do a
13117 subtree scoped search but this time the filter is "(arecord=10.0.2.2)"
13118 and the requested attributes are associateddomain, dnsttl and
13119 modifytimestamp.  In short, in strict mode the objects with ptrrecord
13120 go away, and the arecord attribute in the forward object is used
13121 instead.</p>
13122
13123 <p>The forward and reverse searches can be simulated using ldapsearch
13124 like this:</p>
13125
13126 <blockquote><pre>
13127 ldapsearch -h ldap -b ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no -s sub -x \
13128   '(associateddomain=tjener.intern)' dNSTTL aRecord nSRecord \
13129   cNAMERecord sOARecord pTRRecord hInfoRecord mXRecord tXTRecord \
13130   rPRecord aFSDBRecord KeyRecord aAAARecord lOCRecord sRVRecord \
13131   nAPTRRecord kXRecord certRecord dSRecord sSHFPRecord iPSecKeyRecord \
13132   rRSIGRecord nSECRecord dNSKeyRecord dHCIDRecord sPFRecord modifyTimestamp
13133
13134 ldapsearch -h ldap -b ou=hosts,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no -s sub -x \
13135   '(arecord=10.0.2.2)' associateddomain dnsttl modifytimestamp
13136 </pre></blockquote>
13137
13138 <p>In addition to the forward and reverse searches , there is also a
13139 search for SOA records, which behave similar to the forward and
13140 reverse lookups.</p>
13141
13142 <p>A thing to note with the PowerDNS behaviour is that it do not
13143 specify any objectclass names, and instead look for the attributes it
13144 need to generate a DNS reply.  This make it able to work with any
13145 objectclass that provide the needed attributes.</p>
13146
13147 <p>The attributes are normally provided in the cosine (RFC 1274) and
13148 dnsdomain2 schemas.  The latter is used for reverse entries like
13149 ptrrecord and recent DNS additions like aaaarecord and srvrecord.</p>
13150
13151 <p>In Debian Edu, we have created DNS objects using the object classes
13152 dcobject (for dc), dnsdomain or dnsdomain2 (structural, for the DNS
13153 attributes) and domainrelatedobject (for associatedDomain).  The use
13154 of structural object classes make it impossible to combine these
13155 classes with the object classes used by DHCP.</p>
13156
13157 <p>There are other schemas that could be used too, for example the
13158 dnszone structural object class used by Gosa and bind-sdb for the DNS
13159 attributes combined with the domainrelatedobject object class, but in
13160 this case some unused attributes would have to be included as well
13161 (zonename and relativedomainname).</p>
13162
13163 <p>My proposal for Debian Edu would be to switch PowerDNS to strict
13164 mode and not use any of the existing objectclasses (dnsdomain,
13165 dnsdomain2 and dnszone) when one want to combine the DNS information
13166 with DHCP information, and instead create a auxiliary object class
13167 defined something like this (using the attributes defined for
13168 dnsdomain and dnsdomain2 or dnszone):</p>
13169
13170 <blockquote><pre>
13171 objectclass ( some-oid NAME 'dnsDomainAux'
13172     SUP top
13173     AUXILIARY
13174     MAY ( ARecord $ MDRecord $ MXRecord $ NSRecord $ SOARecord $ CNAMERecord $
13175           DNSTTL $ DNSClass $ PTRRecord $ HINFORecord $ MINFORecord $
13176           TXTRecord $ SIGRecord $ KEYRecord $ AAAARecord $ LOCRecord $
13177           NXTRecord $ SRVRecord $ NAPTRRecord $ KXRecord $ CERTRecord $
13178           A6Record $ DNAMERecord
13179     ))
13180 </pre></blockquote>
13181
13182 <p>This will allow any object to become a DNS entry when combined with
13183 the domainrelatedobject object class, and allow any entity to include
13184 all the attributes PowerDNS wants.  I've sent an email to the PowerDNS
13185 developers asking for their view on this schema and if they are
13186 interested in providing such schema with PowerDNS, and I hope my
13187 message will be accepted into their mailing list soon.</p>
13188
13189 <p><strong>ISC dhcp</strong></p>
13190
13191 <p>The DHCP server searches for specific objectclass and requests all
13192 the object attributes, and then uses the attributes it want.  This
13193 make it harder to figure out exactly what attributes are used, but
13194 thanks to the working example in Debian Edu I can at least get an idea
13195 what is needed without having to read the source code.</p>
13196
13197 <p>In the DHCP server configuration, the LDAP base to use and the
13198 search filter to use to locate the correct dhcpServer entity is
13199 stored.  These are the relevant entries from
13200 /etc/dhcp3/dhcpd.conf:</p>
13201
13202 <blockquote><pre>
13203 ldap-base-dn "dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no";
13204 ldap-dhcp-server-cn "dhcp";
13205 </pre></blockquote>
13206
13207 <p>The DHCP server uses this information to nest all the DHCP
13208 configuration it need.  The cn "dhcp" is located using the given LDAP
13209 base and the filter "(&(objectClass=dhcpServer)(cn=dhcp))".  The
13210 search result is this entry:</p>
13211
13212 <blockquote><pre>
13213 dn: cn=dhcp,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
13214 cn: dhcp
13215 objectClass: top
13216 objectClass: dhcpServer
13217 dhcpServiceDN: cn=DHCP Config,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
13218 </pre></blockquote>
13219
13220 <p>The content of the dhcpServiceDN attribute is next used to locate the
13221 subtree with DHCP configuration.  The DHCP configuration subtree base
13222 is located using a base scope search with base "cn=DHCP
13223 Config,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no" and filter
13224 "(&(objectClass=dhcpService)(|(dhcpPrimaryDN=cn=dhcp,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no)(dhcpSecondaryDN=cn=dhcp,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no)))".
13225 The search result is this entry:</p>
13226
13227 <blockquote><pre>
13228 dn: cn=DHCP Config,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
13229 cn: DHCP Config
13230 objectClass: top
13231 objectClass: dhcpService
13232 objectClass: dhcpOptions
13233 dhcpPrimaryDN: cn=dhcp, dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
13234 dhcpStatements: ddns-update-style none
13235 dhcpStatements: authoritative
13236 dhcpOption: smtp-server code 69 = array of ip-address
13237 dhcpOption: www-server code 72 = array of ip-address
13238 dhcpOption: wpad-url code 252 = text
13239 </pre></blockquote>
13240
13241 <p>Next, the entire subtree is processed, one level at the time.  When
13242 all the DHCP configuration is loaded, it is ready to receive requests.
13243 The subtree in Debian Edu contain objects with object classes
13244 top/dhcpService/dhcpOptions, top/dhcpSharedNetwork/dhcpOptions,
13245 top/dhcpSubnet, top/dhcpGroup and top/dhcpHost.  These provide options
13246 and information about netmasks, dynamic range etc.  Leaving out the
13247 details here because it is not relevant for the focus of my
13248 investigation, which is to see if it is possible to merge dns and dhcp
13249 related computer objects.</p>
13250
13251 <p>When a DHCP request come in, LDAP is searched for the MAC address
13252 of the client (00:00:00:00:00:00 in this example), using a subtree
13253 scoped search with "cn=DHCP Config,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no" as
13254 the base and "(&(objectClass=dhcpHost)(dhcpHWAddress=ethernet
13255 00:00:00:00:00:00))" as the filter.  This is what a host object look
13256 like:</p>
13257
13258 <blockquote><pre>
13259 dn: cn=hostname,cn=group1,cn=THINCLIENTS,cn=DHCP Config,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
13260 cn: hostname
13261 objectClass: top
13262 objectClass: dhcpHost
13263 dhcpHWAddress: ethernet 00:00:00:00:00:00
13264 dhcpStatements: fixed-address hostname
13265 </pre></blockquote>
13266
13267 <p>There is less flexiblity in the way LDAP searches are done here.
13268 The object classes need to have fixed names, and the configuration
13269 need to be stored in a fairly specific LDAP structure.  On the
13270 positive side, the invidiual dhcpHost entires can be anywhere without
13271 the DN pointed to by the dhcpServer entries.  The latter should make
13272 it possible to group all host entries in a subtree next to the
13273 configuration entries, and this subtree can also be shared with the
13274 DNS server if the schema proposed above is combined with the dhcpHost
13275 structural object class.
13276
13277 <p><strong>Conclusion</strong></p>
13278
13279 <p>The PowerDNS implementation seem to be very flexible when it come
13280 to which LDAP schemas to use.  While its "tree" mode is rigid when it
13281 come to the the LDAP structure, the "strict" mode is very flexible,
13282 allowing DNS objects to be stored anywhere under the base cn specified
13283 in the configuration.</p>
13284
13285 <p>The DHCP implementation on the other hand is very inflexible, both
13286 regarding which LDAP schemas to use and which LDAP structure to use.
13287 I guess one could implement ones own schema, as long as the
13288 objectclasses and attributes have the names used, but this do not
13289 really help when the DHCP subtree need to have a fairly fixed
13290 structure.</p>
13291
13292 <p>Based on the observed behaviour, I suspect a LDAP structure like
13293 this might work for Debian Edu:</p>
13294
13295 <blockquote><pre>
13296 ou=services
13297   cn=machine-info (dhcpService) - dhcpServiceDN points here
13298     cn=dhcp (dhcpServer)
13299     cn=dhcp-internal (dhcpSharedNetwork/dhcpOptions)
13300       cn=10.0.2.0 (dhcpSubnet)
13301         cn=group1 (dhcpGroup/dhcpOptions)
13302     cn=dhcp-thinclients (dhcpSharedNetwork/dhcpOptions)
13303       cn=192.168.0.0 (dhcpSubnet)
13304         cn=group1 (dhcpGroup/dhcpOptions)
13305     ou=machines - PowerDNS base points here
13306       cn=hostname (dhcpHost/domainrelatedobject/dnsDomainAux)
13307 </pre></blockquote>
13308
13309 <P>This is not tested yet.  If the DHCP server require the dhcpHost
13310 entries to be in the dhcpGroup subtrees, the entries can be stored
13311 there instead of a common machines subtree, and the PowerDNS base
13312 would have to be moved one level up to the machine-info subtree.</p>
13313
13314 <p>The combined object under the machines subtree would look something
13315 like this:</p>
13316
13317 <blockquote><pre>
13318 dn: dc=hostname,ou=machines,cn=machine-info,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
13319 dc: hostname
13320 objectClass: top
13321 objectClass: dhcpHost
13322 objectclass: domainrelatedobject
13323 objectclass: dnsDomainAux
13324 associateddomain: hostname.intern
13325 arecord: 10.11.12.13
13326 dhcpHWAddress: ethernet 00:00:00:00:00:00
13327 dhcpStatements: fixed-address hostname.intern
13328 </pre></blockquote>
13329
13330 </p>One could even add the LTSP configuration associated with a given
13331 machine, as long as the required attributes are available in a
13332 auxiliary object class.</p>
13333
13334       </div>
13335       <div class="tags">
13336
13337
13338         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>.
13339
13340
13341       </div>
13342     </div>
13343     <div class="padding"></div>
13344
13345     <div class="entry">
13346       <div class="title">
13347         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Combining_PowerDNS_and_ISC_DHCP_LDAP_objects.html">Combining PowerDNS and ISC DHCP LDAP objects</a>
13348       </div>
13349       <div class="date">
13350         14th July 2010
13351       </div>
13352       <div class="body">
13353         <p>For a while now, I have wanted to find a way to change the DNS and
13354 DHCP services in Debian Edu to use the same LDAP objects for a given
13355 computer, to avoid the possibility of having a inconsistent state for
13356 a computer in LDAP (as in DHCP but no DNS entry or the other way
13357 around) and make it easier to add computers to LDAP.</p>
13358
13359 <p>I've looked at how powerdns and dhcpd is using LDAP, and using this
13360 information finally found a solution that seem to work.</p>
13361
13362 <p>The old setup required three LDAP objects for a given computer.
13363 One forward DNS entry, one reverse DNS entry and one DHCP entry.  If
13364 we switch powerdns to use its strict LDAP method (ldap-method=strict
13365 in pdns-debian-edu.conf), the forward and reverse DNS entries are
13366 merged into one while making it impossible to transfer the reverse map
13367 to a slave DNS server.</p>
13368
13369 <p>If we also replace the object class used to get the DNS related
13370 attributes to one allowing these attributes to be combined with the
13371 dhcphost object class, we can merge the DNS and DHCP entries into one.
13372 I've written such object class in the dnsdomainaux.schema file (need
13373 proper OIDs, but that is a minor issue), and tested the setup.  It
13374 seem to work.</p>
13375
13376 <p>With this test setup in place, we can get away with one LDAP object
13377 for both DNS and DHCP, and even the LTSP configuration I suggested in
13378 an earlier email.  The combined LDAP object will look something like
13379 this:</p>
13380
13381 <blockquote><pre>
13382   dn: cn=hostname,cn=group1,cn=THINCLIENTS,cn=DHCP Config,dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
13383   cn: hostname
13384   objectClass: dhcphost
13385   objectclass: domainrelatedobject
13386   objectclass: dnsdomainaux
13387   associateddomain: hostname.intern
13388   arecord: 10.11.12.13
13389   dhcphwaddress: ethernet 00:00:00:00:00:00
13390   dhcpstatements: fixed-address hostname
13391   ldapconfigsound: Y
13392 </pre></blockquote>
13393
13394 <p>The DNS server uses the associateddomain and arecord entries, while
13395 the DHCP server uses the dhcphwaddress and dhcpstatements entries
13396 before asking DNS to resolve the fixed-adddress.  LTSP will use
13397 dhcphwaddress or associateddomain and the ldapconfig* attributes.</p>
13398
13399 <p>I am not yet sure if I can get the DHCP server to look for its
13400 dhcphost in a different location, to allow us to put the objects
13401 outside the "DHCP Config" subtree, but hope to figure out a way to do
13402 that.  If I can't figure out a way to do that, we can still get rid of
13403 the hosts subtree and move all its content into the DHCP Config tree
13404 (which probably should be renamed to be more related to the new
13405 content.  I suspect cn=dnsdhcp,ou=services or something like that
13406 might be a good place to put it.</p>
13407
13408 <p>If you want to help out with implementing this for Debian Edu,
13409 please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.</p>
13410
13411       </div>
13412       <div class="tags">
13413
13414
13415         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>.
13416
13417
13418       </div>
13419     </div>
13420     <div class="padding"></div>
13421
13422     <div class="entry">
13423       <div class="title">
13424         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Idea_for_storing_LTSP_configuration_in_LDAP.html">Idea for storing LTSP configuration in LDAP</a>
13425       </div>
13426       <div class="date">
13427         11th July 2010
13428       </div>
13429       <div class="body">
13430         <p>Vagrant mentioned on IRC today that ltsp_config now support
13431 sourcing files from /usr/share/ltsp/ltsp_config.d/ on the thin
13432 clients, and that this can be used to fetch configuration from LDAP if
13433 Debian Edu choose to store configuration there.</p>
13434
13435 <p>Armed with this information, I got inspired and wrote a test module
13436 to get configuration from LDAP.  The idea is to look up the MAC
13437 address of the client in LDAP, and look for attributes on the form
13438 ltspconfigsetting=value, and use this to export SETTING=value to the
13439 LTSP clients.</p>
13440
13441 <p>The goal is to be able to store the LTSP configuration attributes
13442 in a "computer" LDAP object used by both DNS and DHCP, and thus
13443 allowing us to store all information about a computer in one place.</p>
13444
13445 <p>This is a untested draft implementation, and I welcome feedback on
13446 this approach.  A real LDAP schema for the ltspClientAux objectclass
13447 need to be written.  Comments, suggestions, etc?</p>
13448
13449 <blockquote><pre>
13450 # Store in /opt/ltsp/$arch/usr/share/ltsp/ltsp_config.d/ldap-config
13451 #
13452 # Fetch LTSP client settings from LDAP based on MAC address
13453 #
13454 # Uses ethernet address as stored in the dhcpHost objectclass using
13455 # the dhcpHWAddress attribute or ethernet address stored in the
13456 # ieee802Device objectclass with the macAddress attribute.
13457 #
13458 # This module is written to be schema agnostic, and only depend on the
13459 # existence of attribute names.
13460 #
13461 # The LTSP configuration variables are saved directly using a
13462 # ltspConfig prefix and uppercasing the rest of the attribute name.
13463 # To set the SERVER variable, set the ltspConfigServer attribute.
13464 #
13465 # Some LDAP schema should be created with all the relevant
13466 # configuration settings.  Something like this should work:
13467 #
13468 # objectclass ( 1.1.2.2 NAME 'ltspClientAux'
13469 #     SUP top
13470 #     AUXILIARY
13471 #     MAY ( ltspConfigServer $ ltsConfigSound $ ... )
13472
13473 LDAPSERVER=$(debian-edu-ldapserver)
13474 if [ "$LDAPSERVER" ] ; then
13475     LDAPBASE=$(debian-edu-ldapserver -b)
13476     for MAC in $(LANG=C ifconfig |grep -i hwaddr| awk '{print $5}'|sort -u) ; do
13477         filter="(|(dhcpHWAddress=ethernet $MAC)(macAddress=$MAC))"
13478         ldapsearch -h "$LDAPSERVER" -b "$LDAPBASE" -v -x "$filter" | \
13479             grep '^ltspConfig' | while read attr value ; do
13480             # Remove prefix and convert to upper case
13481             attr=$(echo $attr | sed 's/^ltspConfig//i' | tr a-z A-Z)
13482             # bass value on to clients
13483             eval "$attr=$value; export $attr"
13484         done
13485     done
13486 fi
13487 </pre></blockquote>
13488
13489 <p>I'm not sure this shell construction will work, because I suspect
13490 the while block might end up in a subshell causing the variables set
13491 there to not show up in ltsp-config, but if that is the case I am sure
13492 the code can be restructured to make sure the variables are passed on.
13493 I expect that can be solved with some testing. :)</p>
13494
13495 <p>If you want to help out with implementing this for Debian Edu,
13496 please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.</p>
13497
13498 <p>Update 2010-07-17: I am aware of another effort to store LTSP
13499 configuration in LDAP that was created around year 2000 by
13500 <a href="http://www.pcxperience.com/thinclient/documentation/ldap.html">PC
13501 Xperience, Inc., 2000</a>.  I found its
13502 <a href="http://people.redhat.com/alikins/ltsp/ldap/">files</a> on a
13503 personal home page over at redhat.com.</p>
13504
13505       </div>
13506       <div class="tags">
13507
13508
13509         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>.
13510
13511
13512       </div>
13513     </div>
13514     <div class="padding"></div>
13515
13516     <div class="entry">
13517       <div class="title">
13518         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/jXplorer__a_very_nice_LDAP_GUI.html">jXplorer, a very nice LDAP GUI</a>
13519       </div>
13520       <div class="date">
13521          9th July 2010
13522       </div>
13523       <div class="body">
13524         <p>Since
13525 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/LUMA__a_very_nice_LDAP_GUI.html">my
13526 last post</a> about available LDAP tools in Debian, I was told about a
13527 LDAP GUI that is even better than luma.  The java application
13528 <a href="http://jxplorer.org/">jXplorer</a> is claimed to be capable of
13529 moving LDAP objects and subtrees using drag-and-drop, and can
13530 authenticate using Kerberos.  I have only tested the Kerberos
13531 authentication, but do not have a LDAP setup allowing me to rewrite
13532 LDAP with my test user yet.  It is
13533 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/j/jxplorer.html">available in
13534 Debian</a> testing and unstable at the moment.  The only problem I
13535 have with it is how it handle errors.  If something go wrong, its
13536 non-intuitive behaviour require me to go through some query work list
13537 and remove the failing query.  Nothing big, but very annoying.</p>
13538
13539       </div>
13540       <div class="tags">
13541
13542
13543         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>.
13544
13545
13546       </div>
13547     </div>
13548     <div class="padding"></div>
13549
13550     <div class="entry">
13551       <div class="title">
13552         <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>
13553       </div>
13554       <div class="date">
13555          3rd July 2010
13556       </div>
13557       <div class="body">
13558         <p>Here is a short update on my <a
13559 href="http://people.skolelinux.org/~pere/debian-upgrade-testing/">my
13560 Debian Lenny->Squeeze upgrade testing</a>.  Here is a summary of the
13561 difference for Gnome when it is upgraded by apt-get and aptitude.  I'm
13562 not reporting the status for KDE, because the upgrade crashes when
13563 aptitude try because of missing conflicts
13564 (<a href="http://bugs.debian.org/584861">#584861</a> and
13565 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/585716">#585716</a>).</p>
13566
13567 <p>At the end of the upgrade test script, dpkg -l is executed to get a
13568 complete list of the installed packages.  Based on this I see these
13569 differences when I did a test run today.  As usual, I do not really
13570 know what the correct set of packages would be, but thought it best to
13571 publish the difference.</p>
13572
13573 <p>Installed using apt-get, missing with aptitude</p>
13574
13575 <blockquote><p>
13576   at-spi cpp-4.3 finger gnome-spell gstreamer0.10-gnomevfs
13577   libatspi1.0-0 libcupsys2 libeel2-data libgail-common libgdl-1-common
13578   libgnomeprint2.2-data libgnomeprintui2.2-common libgnomevfs2-bin
13579   libgtksourceview-common libpt-1.10.10-plugins-alsa
13580   libpt-1.10.10-plugins-v4l libservlet2.4-java libxalan2-java
13581   libxerces2-java openoffice.org-writer2latex openssl-blacklist p7zip
13582   python-4suite-xml python-eggtrayicon python-gtkhtml2
13583   python-gtkmozembed svgalibg1 xserver-xephyr zip
13584 </p></blockquote>
13585
13586 <p>Installed using apt-get, removed with aptitude</p>
13587
13588 <blockquote><p>
13589   bluez-utils dhcdbd djvulibre-desktop epiphany-gecko
13590   gnome-app-install gnome-mount gnome-vfs-obexftp gnome-volume-manager
13591   libao2 libavahi-compat-libdnssd1 libavahi-core5 libbind9-50
13592   libbluetooth2 libcamel1.2-11 libcdio7 libcucul0 libcurl3
13593   libdirectfb-1.0-0 libdvdread3 libedata-cal1.2-6 libedataserver1.2-9
13594   libeel2-2.20 libepc-1.0-1 libepc-ui-1.0-1 libexchange-storage1.2-3
13595   libfaad0 libgd2-noxpm libgda3-3 libgda3-common libggz2 libggzcore9
13596   libggzmod4 libgksu1.2-0 libgksuui1.0-1 libgmyth0 libgnome-desktop-2
13597   libgnome-pilot2 libgnomecups1.0-1 libgnomeprint2.2-0
13598   libgnomeprintui2.2-0 libgpod3 libgraphviz4 libgtkhtml2-0
13599   libgtksourceview1.0-0 libgucharmap6 libhesiod0 libicu38 libisccc50
13600   libisccfg50 libiw29 libkpathsea4 libltdl3 liblwres50 libmagick++10
13601   libmagick10 libmalaga7 libmtp7 libmysqlclient15off libnautilus-burn4
13602   libneon27 libnm-glib0 libnm-util0 libopal-2.2 libosp5
13603   libparted1.8-10 libpisock9 libpisync1 libpoppler-glib3 libpoppler3
13604   libpt-1.10.10 libraw1394-8 libsensors3 libsmbios2 libsoup2.2-8
13605   libssh2-1 libsuitesparse-3.1.0 libswfdec-0.6-90 libtalloc1
13606   libtotem-plparser10 libtrackerclient0 libvoikko1 libxalan2-java-gcj
13607   libxerces2-java-gcj libxklavier12 libxtrap6 libxxf86misc1 libzephyr3
13608   mysql-common swfdec-gnome totem-gstreamer wodim
13609 </p></blockquote>
13610
13611 <p>Installed using aptitude, missing with apt-get</p>
13612
13613 <blockquote><p>
13614   gnome gnome-desktop-environment hamster-applet python-gnomeapplet
13615   python-gnomekeyring python-wnck rhythmbox-plugins xorg
13616   xserver-xorg-input-all xserver-xorg-input-evdev
13617   xserver-xorg-input-kbd xserver-xorg-input-mouse
13618   xserver-xorg-input-synaptics xserver-xorg-video-all
13619   xserver-xorg-video-apm xserver-xorg-video-ark xserver-xorg-video-ati
13620   xserver-xorg-video-chips xserver-xorg-video-cirrus
13621   xserver-xorg-video-dummy xserver-xorg-video-fbdev
13622   xserver-xorg-video-glint xserver-xorg-video-i128
13623   xserver-xorg-video-i740 xserver-xorg-video-mach64
13624   xserver-xorg-video-mga xserver-xorg-video-neomagic
13625   xserver-xorg-video-nouveau xserver-xorg-video-nv
13626   xserver-xorg-video-r128 xserver-xorg-video-radeon
13627   xserver-xorg-video-radeonhd xserver-xorg-video-rendition
13628   xserver-xorg-video-s3 xserver-xorg-video-s3virge
13629   xserver-xorg-video-savage xserver-xorg-video-siliconmotion
13630   xserver-xorg-video-sis xserver-xorg-video-sisusb
13631   xserver-xorg-video-tdfx xserver-xorg-video-tga
13632   xserver-xorg-video-trident xserver-xorg-video-tseng
13633   xserver-xorg-video-vesa xserver-xorg-video-vmware
13634   xserver-xorg-video-voodoo
13635 </p></blockquote>
13636
13637 <p>Installed using aptitude, removed with apt-get</p>
13638
13639 <blockquote><p>
13640   deskbar-applet xserver-xorg xserver-xorg-core
13641   xserver-xorg-input-wacom xserver-xorg-video-intel
13642   xserver-xorg-video-openchrome
13643 </p></blockquote>
13644
13645 <p>I was told on IRC that the xorg-xserver package was
13646 <a href="http://git.debian.org/?p=pkg-xorg/xserver/xorg-server.git;a=commit;h=9c8080d06c457932d3bfec021c69ac000aa60120">changed
13647 in git</a> today to try to get apt-get to not remove xorg completely.
13648 No idea when it hits Squeeze, but when it does I hope it will reduce
13649 the difference somewhat.
13650
13651       </div>
13652       <div class="tags">
13653
13654
13655         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>.
13656
13657
13658       </div>
13659     </div>
13660     <div class="padding"></div>
13661
13662     <div class="entry">
13663       <div class="title">
13664         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Caching_password__user_and_group_on_a_roaming_Debian_laptop.html">Caching password, user and group on a roaming Debian laptop</a>
13665       </div>
13666       <div class="date">
13667          1st July 2010
13668       </div>
13669       <div class="body">
13670         <p>For a laptop, centralized user directories and password checking is
13671 a bit troubling.  Laptops are typically used also when not connected
13672 to the network, and it is vital for a user to be able to log in or
13673 unlock the screen saver also when a central server is unavailable.
13674 This is possible by caching passwords and directory information (user
13675 and group attributes) locally, and the packages to do so are available
13676 in Debian.  Here follow two recipes to set this up in Debian/Squeeze.
13677 It is also possible to set up in Debian/Lenny, but require more manual
13678 setup there because pam-auth-update is missing in Lenny.</p>
13679
13680 <h2>LDAP/Kerberos + nscd + libpam-ccreds + libpam-mklocaluser/pam_mkhomedir</h2>
13681
13682 This is the traditional method with a twist.  The password caching is
13683 provided by libpam-ccreds (version 10-4 or later is needed on
13684 Squeeze), and the directory caching is done by nscd.  The directory
13685 lookup and password checking is done using LDAP.  If one want to use
13686 Kerberos for password checking the libpam-ldapd package can be
13687 replaced with libpam-krb5 or libpam-heimdal.  If one is happy having a
13688 local home directory with the path listed in LDAP, one can use the
13689 pam_mkhomedir module from pam-modules to make this happen instead of
13690 using libpam-mklocaluser.  A setup for pam-auth-update to enable
13691 pam_mkhomedir will have to be written until a fix for
13692 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/568577">bug #568577</a> is in the
13693 archive.  Because I believe it is a bad idea to have local home
13694 directories using misleading paths like /site/server/partition/, I
13695 prefer to create a local user with the home directory in /home/.  This
13696 is done using the libpam-mklocaluser package.</p>
13697
13698 <p>These packages need to be installed and configured</p>
13699
13700 <blockquote><pre>
13701 libnss-ldapd libpam-ldapd nscd libpam-ccreds libpam-mklocaluser
13702 </pre></blockquote>
13703
13704 <p>The ldapd packages will ask for LDAP connection information, and
13705 one have to fill in the values that fits ones own site.  Make sure the
13706 PAM part uses encrypted connections, to make sure the password is not
13707 sent in clear text to the LDAP server.  I've been unable to get TLS
13708 certificate checking for a self signed certificate working, which make
13709 LDAP authentication unsafe for Debian Edu (nslcd is not checking if it
13710 is talking to the correct LDAP server), and very much welcome feedback
13711 on how to get this working.</p>
13712
13713 <p>Because nscd do not have a default configuration fit for offline
13714 caching until <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/485282">bug #485282</a>
13715 is fixed, this configuration should be used instead of the one
13716 currently in /etc/nscd.conf.  The changes are in the fields
13717 reload-count and positive-time-to-live, and is based on the
13718 instructions I found in the
13719 <a href="http://www.flyn.org/laptopldap/">LDAP for Mobile Laptops</a>
13720 instructions by Flyn Computing.</p>
13721
13722 <blockquote><pre>
13723         debug-level             0
13724         reload-count            unlimited
13725         paranoia                no
13726
13727         enable-cache            passwd          yes
13728         positive-time-to-live   passwd          2592000
13729         negative-time-to-live   passwd          20
13730         suggested-size          passwd          211
13731         check-files             passwd          yes
13732         persistent              passwd          yes
13733         shared                  passwd          yes
13734         max-db-size             passwd          33554432
13735         auto-propagate          passwd          yes
13736
13737         enable-cache            group           yes
13738         positive-time-to-live   group           2592000
13739         negative-time-to-live   group           20
13740         suggested-size          group           211
13741         check-files             group           yes
13742         persistent              group           yes
13743         shared                  group           yes
13744         max-db-size             group           33554432
13745         auto-propagate          group           yes
13746
13747         enable-cache            hosts           no
13748         positive-time-to-live   hosts           2592000
13749         negative-time-to-live   hosts           20
13750         suggested-size          hosts           211
13751         check-files             hosts           yes
13752         persistent              hosts           yes
13753         shared                  hosts           yes
13754         max-db-size             hosts           33554432
13755
13756         enable-cache            services        yes
13757         positive-time-to-live   services        2592000
13758         negative-time-to-live   services        20
13759         suggested-size          services        211
13760         check-files             services        yes
13761         persistent              services        yes
13762         shared                  services        yes
13763         max-db-size             services        33554432
13764 </pre></blockquote>
13765
13766 <p>While we wait for a mechanism to update /etc/nsswitch.conf
13767 automatically like the one provided in
13768 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/496915">bug #496915</a>, the file
13769 content need to be manually replaced to ensure LDAP is used as the
13770 directory service on the machine.  /etc/nsswitch.conf should normally
13771 look like this:</p>
13772
13773 <blockquote><pre>
13774 passwd:         files ldap
13775 group:          files ldap
13776 shadow:         files ldap
13777 hosts:          files mdns4_minimal [NOTFOUND=return] dns mdns4
13778 networks:       files
13779 protocols:      files
13780 services:       files
13781 ethers:         files
13782 rpc:            files
13783 netgroup:       files ldap
13784 </pre></blockquote>
13785
13786 <p>The important parts are that ldap is listed last for passwd, group,
13787 shadow and netgroup.</p>
13788
13789 <p>With these changes in place, any user in LDAP will be able to log
13790 in locally on the machine using for example kdm, get a local home
13791 directory created and have the password as well as user and group
13792 attributes cached.
13793
13794 <h2>LDAP/Kerberos + nss-updatedb + libpam-ccreds +
13795   libpam-mklocaluser/pam_mkhomedir</h2>
13796
13797 <p>Because nscd have had its share of problems, and seem to have
13798 problems doing proper caching, I've seen suggestions and recipes to
13799 use nss-updatedb to copy parts of the LDAP database locally when the
13800 LDAP database is available.  I have not tested such setup, because I
13801 discovered sssd.</p>
13802
13803 <h2>LDAP/Kerberos + sssd + libpam-mklocaluser</h2>
13804
13805 <p>A more flexible and robust setup than the nscd combination
13806 mentioned earlier that has shown up recently, is the
13807 <a href="https://fedorahosted.org/sssd/">sssd</a> package from Redhat.
13808 It is part of the <a href="http://www.freeipa.org/">FreeIPA</A> project
13809 to provide a Active Directory like directory service for Linux
13810 machines.  The sssd system combines the caching of passwords and user
13811 information into one package, and remove the need for nscd and
13812 libpam-ccreds.  It support LDAP and Kerberos, but not NIS.  Version
13813 1.2 do not support netgroups, but it is said that it will support this
13814 in version 1.5 expected to show up later in 2010.  Because the
13815 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/s/sssd.html">sssd package</a>
13816 was missing in Debian, I ended up co-maintaining it with Werner, and
13817 version 1.2 is now in testing.
13818
13819 <p>These packages need to be installed and configured to get the
13820 roaming setup I want</p>
13821
13822 <blockquote><pre>
13823 libpam-sss libnss-sss libpam-mklocaluser
13824 </pre></blockquote>
13825
13826 The complete setup of sssd is done by editing/creating
13827 <tt>/etc/sssd/sssd.conf</tt>.
13828
13829 <blockquote><pre>
13830 [sssd]
13831 config_file_version = 2
13832 reconnection_retries = 3
13833 sbus_timeout = 30
13834 services = nss, pam
13835 domains = INTERN
13836
13837 [nss]
13838 filter_groups = root
13839 filter_users = root
13840 reconnection_retries = 3
13841
13842 [pam]
13843 reconnection_retries = 3
13844
13845 [domain/INTERN]
13846 enumerate = false
13847 cache_credentials = true
13848
13849 id_provider = ldap
13850 auth_provider = ldap
13851 chpass_provider = ldap
13852
13853 ldap_uri = ldap://ldap
13854 ldap_search_base = dc=skole,dc=skolelinux,dc=no
13855 ldap_tls_reqcert = never
13856 ldap_tls_cacert = /etc/ssl/certs/ca-certificates.crt
13857 </pre></blockquote>
13858
13859 <p>I got the same problem here with certificate checking.  Had to set
13860 "ldap_tls_reqcert = never" to get it working.</p>
13861
13862 <p>With the libnss-sss package in testing at the moment, the
13863 nsswitch.conf file is update automatically, so there is no need to
13864 modify it manually.</p>
13865
13866 <p>If you want to help out with implementing this for Debian Edu,
13867 please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.</p>
13868
13869       </div>
13870       <div class="tags">
13871
13872
13873         Tags: <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>.
13874
13875
13876       </div>
13877     </div>
13878     <div class="padding"></div>
13879
13880     <div class="entry">
13881       <div class="title">
13882         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/LUMA__a_very_nice_LDAP_GUI.html">LUMA, a very nice LDAP GUI</a>
13883       </div>
13884       <div class="date">
13885         28th June 2010
13886       </div>
13887       <div class="body">
13888         <p>The last few days I have been looking into the status of the LDAP
13889 directory in Debian Edu, and in the process I started to miss a GUI
13890 tool to browse the LDAP tree.  The only one I was able to find in
13891 Debian/Squeeze and Lenny is
13892 <a href="http://luma.sourceforge.net/">LUMA</a>, which has proved to
13893 be a great tool to get a overview of the current LDAP directory
13894 populated by default in Skolelinux.  Thanks to it, I have been able to
13895 find empty and obsolete subtrees, misplaced objects and duplicate
13896 objects.  It will be installed by default in Debian/Squeeze.  If you
13897 are working with LDAP, give it a go. :)</p>
13898
13899 <p>I did notice one problem with it I have not had time to report to
13900 the BTS yet.  There is no .desktop file in the package, so the tool do
13901 not show up in the Gnome and KDE menus, but only deep down in in the
13902 Debian submenu in KDE.  I hope that can be fixed before Squeeze is
13903 released.</p>
13904
13905 <p>I have not yet been able to get it to modify the tree yet.  I would
13906 like to move objects and remove subtrees directly in the GUI, but have
13907 not found a way to do that with LUMA yet.  So in the mean time, I use
13908 <a href="http://www.lichteblau.com/ldapvi/">ldapvi</a> for that.</p>
13909
13910 <p>If you have tips on other GUI tools for LDAP that might be useful
13911 in Debian Edu, please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.</p>
13912
13913 <p>Update 2010-06-29: Ross Reedstrom tipped us about the
13914 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/g/gq.html">gq</a> package as a
13915 useful GUI alternative.  It seem like a good tool, but is unmaintained
13916 in Debian and got a RC bug keeping it out of Squeeze.  Unless that
13917 changes, it will not be an option for Debian Edu based on Squeeze.</p>
13918
13919       </div>
13920       <div class="tags">
13921
13922
13923         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>.
13924
13925
13926       </div>
13927     </div>
13928     <div class="padding"></div>
13929
13930     <div class="entry">
13931       <div class="title">
13932         <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>
13933       </div>
13934       <div class="date">
13935         24th June 2010
13936       </div>
13937       <div class="body">
13938         <p>A while back, I
13939 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Time_for_new__LDAP_schemas_replacing_RFC_2307_.html">complained
13940 about the fact</a> that it is not possible with the provided schemas
13941 for storing DNS and DHCP information in LDAP to combine the two sets
13942 of information into one LDAP object representing a computer.</p>
13943
13944 <p>In the mean time, I discovered that a simple fix would be to make
13945 the dhcpHost object class auxiliary, to allow it to be combined with
13946 the dNSDomain object class, and thus forming one object for one
13947 computer when storing both DHCP and DNS information in LDAP.</p>
13948
13949 <p>If I understand this correctly, it is not safe to do this change
13950 without also changing the assigned number for the object class, and I
13951 do not know enough about LDAP schema design to do that properly for
13952 Debian Edu.</p>
13953
13954 <p>Anyway, for future reference, this is how I believe we could change
13955 the
13956 <a href="http://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-ietf-dhc-ldap-schema-00">DHCP
13957 schema</a> to solve at least part of the problem with the LDAP schemas
13958 available today from IETF.</p>
13959
13960 <pre>
13961 --- dhcp.schema    (revision 65192)
13962 +++ dhcp.schema    (working copy)
13963 @@ -376,7 +376,7 @@
13964  objectclass ( 2.16.840.1.113719.1.203.6.6
13965         NAME 'dhcpHost'
13966         DESC 'This represents information about a particular client'
13967 -       SUP top
13968 +       SUP top AUXILIARY
13969         MUST cn
13970         MAY  (dhcpLeaseDN $ dhcpHWAddress $ dhcpOptionsDN $ dhcpStatements $ dhcpComments $ dhcpOption)
13971         X-NDS_CONTAINMENT ('dhcpService' 'dhcpSubnet' 'dhcpGroup') )
13972 </pre>
13973
13974 <p>I very much welcome clues on how to do this properly for Debian
13975 Edu/Squeeze.  We provide the DHCP schema in our debian-edu-config
13976 package, and should thus be free to rewrite it as we see fit.</p>
13977
13978 <p>If you want to help out with implementing this for Debian Edu,
13979 please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.</p>
13980
13981       </div>
13982       <div class="tags">
13983
13984
13985         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>.
13986
13987
13988       </div>
13989     </div>
13990     <div class="padding"></div>
13991
13992     <div class="entry">
13993       <div class="title">
13994         <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>
13995       </div>
13996       <div class="date">
13997         16th June 2010
13998       </div>
13999       <div class="body">
14000         <p>A few times I have had the need to simulate the way tasksel
14001 installs packages during the normal debian-installer run.  Until now,
14002 I have ended up letting tasksel do the work, with the annoying problem
14003 of not getting any feedback at all when something fails (like a
14004 conffile question from dpkg or a download that fails), using code like
14005 this:
14006
14007 <blockquote><pre>
14008 export DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive
14009 tasksel --new-install
14010 </pre></blockquote>
14011
14012 This would invoke tasksel, let its automatic task selection pick the
14013 tasks to install, and continue to install the requested tasks without
14014 any output what so ever.
14015
14016 Recently I revisited this problem while working on the automatic
14017 package upgrade testing, because tasksel would some times hang without
14018 any useful feedback, and I want to see what is going on when it
14019 happen.  Then it occured to me, I can parse the output from tasksel
14020 when asked to run in test mode, and use that aptitude command line
14021 printed by tasksel then to simulate the tasksel run.  I ended up using
14022 code like this:
14023
14024 <blockquote><pre>
14025 export DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive
14026 cmd="$(in_target tasksel -t --new-install | sed 's/debconf-apt-progress -- //')"
14027 $cmd
14028 </pre></blockquote>
14029
14030 <p>The content of $cmd is typically something like "<tt>aptitude -q
14031 --without-recommends -o APT::Install-Recommends=no -y install
14032 ~t^desktop$ ~t^gnome-desktop$ ~t^laptop$ ~pstandard ~prequired
14033 ~pimportant</tt>", which will install the gnome desktop task, the
14034 laptop task and all packages with priority standard , required and
14035 important, just like tasksel would have done it during
14036 installation.</p>
14037
14038 <p>A better approach is probably to extend tasksel to be able to
14039 install packages without using debconf-apt-progress, for use cases
14040 like this.</p>
14041
14042       </div>
14043       <div class="tags">
14044
14045
14046         Tags: <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>.
14047
14048
14049       </div>
14050     </div>
14051     <div class="padding"></div>
14052
14053     <div class="entry">
14054       <div class="title">
14055         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Officeshots_taking_shape.html">Officeshots taking shape</a>
14056       </div>
14057       <div class="date">
14058         13th June 2010
14059       </div>
14060       <div class="body">
14061         <p>For those of us caring about document exchange and
14062 interoperability, <a href="http://www.officeshots.org/">OfficeShots</a>
14063 is a great service.  It is to ODF documents what
14064 <a href="http://browsershots.org/">BrowserShots</a> is for web
14065 pages.</p>
14066
14067 <p>A while back, I was contacted by Knut Yrvin at the part of Nokia
14068 that used to be Trolltech, who wanted to help the OfficeShots project
14069 and wondered if the University of Oslo where I work would be
14070 interested in supporting the project.  I helped him to navigate his
14071 request to the right people at work, and his request was answered with
14072 a spot in the machine room with power and network connected, and Knut
14073 arranged funding for a machine to fill the spot.  The machine is
14074 administrated by the OfficeShots people, so I do not have daily
14075 contact with its progress, and thus from time to time check back to
14076 see how the project is doing.</p>
14077
14078 <p>Today I had a look, and was happy to see that the Dell box in our
14079 machine room now is the host for several virtual machines running as
14080 OfficeShots factories, and the project is able to render ODF documents
14081 in 17 different document processing implementation on Linux and
14082 Windows.  This is great.</p>
14083
14084       </div>
14085       <div class="tags">
14086
14087
14088         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/standard">standard</a>.
14089
14090
14091       </div>
14092     </div>
14093     <div class="padding"></div>
14094
14095     <div class="entry">
14096       <div class="title">
14097         <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>
14098       </div>
14099       <div class="date">
14100         13th June 2010
14101       </div>
14102       <div class="body">
14103         <p>My
14104 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Automatic_upgrade_testing_from_Lenny_to_Squeeze.html">testing
14105 of Debian upgrades</a> from Lenny to Squeeze continues, and I've
14106 finally made the upgrade logs available from
14107 <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/debian-upgrade-testing/">http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/debian-upgrade-testing/</a>.
14108 I am now testing dist-upgrade of Gnome and KDE in a chroot using both
14109 apt and aptitude, and found their differences interesting.  This time
14110 I will only focus on their removal plans.</p>
14111
14112 <p>After installing a Gnome desktop and the laptop task, apt-get wants
14113 to remove 72 packages when dist-upgrading from Lenny to Squeeze.  The
14114 surprising part is that it want to remove xorg and all
14115 xserver-xorg-video* drivers.  Clearly not a good choice, but I am not
14116 sure why.  When asking aptitude to do the same, it want to remove 129
14117 packages, but most of them are library packages I suspect are no
14118 longer needed.  Both of them want to remove bluetooth packages, which
14119 I do not know.  Perhaps these bluetooth packages are obsolete?</p>
14120
14121 <p>For KDE, apt-get want to remove 82 packages, among them kdebase
14122 which seem like a bad idea and xorg the same way as with Gnome. Asking
14123 aptitude for the same, it wants to remove 192 packages, none which are
14124 too surprising.</p>
14125
14126 <p>I guess the removal of xorg during upgrades should be investigated
14127 and avoided, and perhaps others as well.  Here are the complete list
14128 of planned removals.  The complete logs is available from the URL
14129 above.  Note if you want to repeat these tests, that the upgrade test
14130 for kde+apt-get hung in the tasksel setup because of dpkg asking
14131 conffile questions.  No idea why.  I worked around it by using
14132 '<tt>echo >> /proc/<em>pidofdpkg</em>/fd/0</tt>' to tell dpkg to
14133 continue.</p>
14134
14135 <p><b>apt-get gnome 72</b>
14136 <br>bluez-gnome cupsddk-drivers deskbar-applet gnome
14137   gnome-desktop-environment gnome-network-admin gtkhtml3.14
14138   iceweasel-gnome-support libavcodec51 libdatrie0 libgdl-1-0
14139   libgnomekbd2 libgnomekbdui2 libmetacity0 libslab0 libxcb-xlib0
14140   nautilus-cd-burner python-gnome2-desktop python-gnome2-extras
14141   serpentine swfdec-mozilla update-manager xorg xserver-xorg
14142   xserver-xorg-core xserver-xorg-input-all xserver-xorg-input-evdev
14143   xserver-xorg-input-kbd xserver-xorg-input-mouse
14144   xserver-xorg-input-synaptics xserver-xorg-input-wacom
14145   xserver-xorg-video-all xserver-xorg-video-apm xserver-xorg-video-ark
14146   xserver-xorg-video-ati xserver-xorg-video-chips
14147   xserver-xorg-video-cirrus xserver-xorg-video-cyrix
14148   xserver-xorg-video-dummy xserver-xorg-video-fbdev
14149   xserver-xorg-video-glint xserver-xorg-video-i128
14150   xserver-xorg-video-i740 xserver-xorg-video-imstt
14151   xserver-xorg-video-intel xserver-xorg-video-mach64
14152   xserver-xorg-video-mga xserver-xorg-video-neomagic
14153   xserver-xorg-video-nsc xserver-xorg-video-nv
14154   xserver-xorg-video-openchrome xserver-xorg-video-r128
14155   xserver-xorg-video-radeon xserver-xorg-video-radeonhd
14156   xserver-xorg-video-rendition xserver-xorg-video-s3
14157   xserver-xorg-video-s3virge xserver-xorg-video-savage
14158   xserver-xorg-video-siliconmotion xserver-xorg-video-sis
14159   xserver-xorg-video-sisusb xserver-xorg-video-tdfx
14160   xserver-xorg-video-tga xserver-xorg-video-trident
14161   xserver-xorg-video-tseng xserver-xorg-video-v4l
14162   xserver-xorg-video-vesa xserver-xorg-video-vga
14163   xserver-xorg-video-vmware xserver-xorg-video-voodoo xulrunner-1.9
14164   xulrunner-1.9-gnome-support</p>
14165
14166 <p><b>aptitude gnome 129</b>
14167
14168 <br>bluez-gnome bluez-utils cpp-4.3 cupsddk-drivers dhcdbd
14169   djvulibre-desktop finger gnome-app-install gnome-mount
14170   gnome-network-admin gnome-spell gnome-vfs-obexftp
14171   gnome-volume-manager gstreamer0.10-gnomevfs gtkhtml3.14 libao2
14172   libavahi-compat-libdnssd1 libavahi-core5 libavcodec51 libbluetooth2
14173   libcamel1.2-11 libcdio7 libcucul0 libcupsys2 libcurl3 libdatrie0
14174   libdirectfb-1.0-0 libdvdread3 libedataserver1.2-9 libeel2-2.20
14175   libeel2-data libepc-1.0-1 libepc-ui-1.0-1 libfaad0 libgail-common
14176   libgd2-noxpm libgda3-3 libgda3-common libgdl-1-0 libgdl-1-common
14177   libggz2 libggzcore9 libggzmod4 libgksu1.2-0 libgksuui1.0-1 libgmyth0
14178   libgnomecups1.0-1 libgnomekbd2 libgnomekbdui2 libgnomeprint2.2-0
14179   libgnomeprint2.2-data libgnomeprintui2.2-0 libgnomeprintui2.2-common
14180   libgnomevfs2-bin libgpod3 libgraphviz4 libgtkhtml2-0
14181   libgtksourceview-common libgtksourceview1.0-0 libgucharmap6
14182   libhesiod0 libicu38 libiw29 libkpathsea4 libltdl3 libmagick++10
14183   libmagick10 libmalaga7 libmetacity0 libmtp7 libmysqlclient15off
14184   libnautilus-burn4 libneon27 libnm-glib0 libnm-util0 libopal-2.2
14185   libosp5 libparted1.8-10 libpoppler-glib3 libpoppler3 libpt-1.10.10
14186   libpt-1.10.10-plugins-alsa libpt-1.10.10-plugins-v4l libraw1394-8
14187   libsensors3 libslab0 libsmbios2 libsoup2.2-8 libssh2-1
14188   libsuitesparse-3.1.0 libswfdec-0.6-90 libtalloc1 libtotem-plparser10
14189   libtrackerclient0 libxalan2-java libxalan2-java-gcj libxcb-xlib0
14190   libxerces2-java libxerces2-java-gcj libxklavier12 libxtrap6
14191   libxxf86misc1 libzephyr3 mysql-common nautilus-cd-burner
14192   openoffice.org-writer2latex openssl-blacklist p7zip
14193   python-4suite-xml python-eggtrayicon python-gnome2-desktop
14194   python-gnome2-extras python-gtkhtml2 python-gtkmozembed
14195   python-numeric python-sexy serpentine svgalibg1 swfdec-gnome
14196   swfdec-mozilla totem-gstreamer update-manager wodim
14197   xserver-xorg-video-cyrix xserver-xorg-video-imstt
14198   xserver-xorg-video-nsc xserver-xorg-video-v4l xserver-xorg-video-vga
14199   zip</p>
14200
14201 <p><b>apt-get kde 82</b>
14202
14203 <br>cupsddk-drivers karm kaudiocreator kcoloredit kcontrol kde kde-core
14204   kdeaddons kdeartwork kdebase kdebase-bin kdebase-bin-kde3
14205   kdebase-kio-plugins kdesktop kdeutils khelpcenter kicker
14206   kicker-applets knewsticker kolourpaint konq-plugins konqueror korn
14207   kpersonalizer kscreensaver ksplash libavcodec51 libdatrie0 libkiten1
14208   libxcb-xlib0 quanta superkaramba texlive-base-bin xorg xserver-xorg
14209   xserver-xorg-core xserver-xorg-input-all xserver-xorg-input-evdev
14210   xserver-xorg-input-kbd xserver-xorg-input-mouse
14211   xserver-xorg-input-synaptics xserver-xorg-input-wacom
14212   xserver-xorg-video-all xserver-xorg-video-apm xserver-xorg-video-ark
14213   xserver-xorg-video-ati xserver-xorg-video-chips
14214   xserver-xorg-video-cirrus xserver-xorg-video-cyrix
14215   xserver-xorg-video-dummy xserver-xorg-video-fbdev
14216   xserver-xorg-video-glint xserver-xorg-video-i128
14217   xserver-xorg-video-i740 xserver-xorg-video-imstt
14218   xserver-xorg-video-intel xserver-xorg-video-mach64
14219   xserver-xorg-video-mga xserver-xorg-video-neomagic
14220   xserver-xorg-video-nsc xserver-xorg-video-nv
14221   xserver-xorg-video-openchrome xserver-xorg-video-r128
14222   xserver-xorg-video-radeon xserver-xorg-video-radeonhd
14223   xserver-xorg-video-rendition xserver-xorg-video-s3
14224   xserver-xorg-video-s3virge xserver-xorg-video-savage
14225   xserver-xorg-video-siliconmotion xserver-xorg-video-sis
14226   xserver-xorg-video-sisusb xserver-xorg-video-tdfx
14227   xserver-xorg-video-tga xserver-xorg-video-trident
14228   xserver-xorg-video-tseng xserver-xorg-video-v4l
14229   xserver-xorg-video-vesa xserver-xorg-video-vga
14230   xserver-xorg-video-vmware xserver-xorg-video-voodoo xulrunner-1.9</p>
14231
14232 <p><b>aptitude kde 192</b>
14233 <br>bluez-utils cpp-4.3 cupsddk-drivers cvs dcoprss dhcdbd
14234   djvulibre-desktop dosfstools eyesapplet fifteenapplet finger gettext
14235   ghostscript-x imlib-base imlib11 indi kandy karm kasteroids
14236   kaudiocreator kbackgammon kbstate kcoloredit kcontrol kcron kdat
14237   kdeadmin-kfile-plugins kdeartwork-misc kdeartwork-theme-window
14238   kdebase-bin-kde3 kdebase-kio-plugins kdeedu-data
14239   kdegraphics-kfile-plugins kdelirc kdemultimedia-kappfinder-data
14240   kdemultimedia-kfile-plugins kdenetwork-kfile-plugins
14241   kdepim-kfile-plugins kdepim-kio-plugins kdeprint kdesktop kdessh
14242   kdict kdnssd kdvi kedit keduca kenolaba kfax kfaxview kfouleggs
14243   kghostview khelpcenter khexedit kiconedit kitchensync klatin
14244   klickety kmailcvt kmenuedit kmid kmilo kmoon kmrml kodo kolourpaint
14245   kooka korn kpager kpdf kpercentage kpf kpilot kpoker kpovmodeler
14246   krec kregexpeditor ksayit ksim ksirc ksirtet ksmiletris ksmserver
14247   ksnake ksokoban ksplash ksvg ksysv ktip ktnef kuickshow kverbos
14248   kview kviewshell kvoctrain kwifimanager kwin kwin4 kworldclock
14249   kxsldbg libakode2 libao2 libarts1-akode libarts1-audiofile
14250   libarts1-mpeglib libarts1-xine libavahi-compat-libdnssd1
14251   libavahi-core5 libavc1394-0 libavcodec51 libbluetooth2
14252   libboost-python1.34.1 libcucul0 libcurl3 libcvsservice0 libdatrie0
14253   libdirectfb-1.0-0 libdjvulibre21 libdvdread3 libfaad0 libfreebob0
14254   libgail-common libgd2-noxpm libgraphviz4 libgsmme1c2a libgtkhtml2-0
14255   libicu38 libiec61883-0 libindex0 libiw29 libk3b3 libkcal2b libkcddb1
14256   libkdeedu3 libkdepim1a libkgantt0 libkiten1 libkleopatra1 libkmime2
14257   libkpathsea4 libkpimexchange1 libkpimidentities1 libkscan1
14258   libksieve0 libktnef1 liblockdev1 libltdl3 libmagick10 libmimelib1c2a
14259   libmozjs1d libmpcdec3 libneon27 libnm-util0 libopensync0 libpisock9
14260   libpoppler-glib3 libpoppler-qt2 libpoppler3 libraw1394-8 libsmbios2
14261   libssh2-1 libsuitesparse-3.1.0 libtalloc1 libtiff-tools
14262   libxalan2-java libxalan2-java-gcj libxcb-xlib0 libxerces2-java
14263   libxerces2-java-gcj libxtrap6 mpeglib networkstatus
14264   openoffice.org-writer2latex pmount poster psutils quanta quanta-data
14265   superkaramba svgalibg1 tex-common texlive-base texlive-base-bin
14266   texlive-common texlive-doc-base texlive-fonts-recommended
14267   xserver-xorg-video-cyrix xserver-xorg-video-imstt
14268   xserver-xorg-video-nsc xserver-xorg-video-v4l xserver-xorg-video-vga
14269   xulrunner-1.9</p>
14270
14271
14272       </div>
14273       <div class="tags">
14274
14275
14276         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>.
14277
14278
14279       </div>
14280     </div>
14281     <div class="padding"></div>
14282
14283     <div class="entry">
14284       <div class="title">
14285         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Automatic_upgrade_testing_from_Lenny_to_Squeeze.html">Automatic upgrade testing from Lenny to Squeeze</a>
14286       </div>
14287       <div class="date">
14288         11th June 2010
14289       </div>
14290       <div class="body">
14291         <p>The last few days I have done some upgrade testing in Debian, to
14292 see if the upgrade from Lenny to Squeeze will go smoothly.  A few bugs
14293 have been discovered and reported in the process
14294 (<a href="http://bugs.debian.org/585410">#585410</a> in nagios3-cgi,
14295 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/584879">#584879</a> already fixed in
14296 enscript and <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/584861">#584861</a> in
14297 kdebase-workspace-data), and to get a more regular testing going on, I
14298 am working on a script to automate the test.</p>
14299
14300 <p>The idea is to create a Lenny chroot and use tasksel to install a
14301 Gnome or KDE desktop installation inside the chroot before upgrading
14302 it.  To ensure no services are started in the chroot, a policy-rc.d
14303 script is inserted.  To make sure tasksel believe it is to install a
14304 desktop on a laptop, the tasksel tests are replaced in the chroot
14305 (only acceptable because this is a throw-away chroot).</p>
14306
14307 <p>A naive upgrade from Lenny to Squeeze using aptitude dist-upgrade
14308 currently always fail because udev refuses to upgrade with the kernel
14309 in Lenny, so to avoid that problem the file /etc/udev/kernel-upgrade
14310 is created.  The bug report
14311 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/566000">#566000</a> make me suspect
14312 this problem do not trigger in a chroot, but I touch the file anyway
14313 to make sure the upgrade go well.  Testing on virtual and real
14314 hardware have failed me because of udev so far, and creating this file
14315 do the trick in such settings anyway.  This is a
14316 <a href="http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/debian-26/failed-dist-upgrade-due-to-udev-config_sysfs_deprecated-nonsense-804130/">known
14317 issue</a> and the current udev behaviour is intended by the udev
14318 maintainer because he lack the resources to rewrite udev to keep
14319 working with old kernels or something like that.  I really wish the
14320 udev upstream would keep udev backwards compatible, to avoid such
14321 upgrade problem, but given that they fail to do so, I guess
14322 documenting the way out of this mess is the best option we got for
14323 Debian Squeeze.</p>
14324
14325 <p>Anyway, back to the task at hand, testing upgrades.  This test
14326 script, which I call <tt>upgrade-test</tt> for now, is doing the
14327 trick:</p>
14328
14329 <blockquote><pre>
14330 #!/bin/sh
14331 set -ex
14332
14333 if [ "$1" ] ; then
14334     desktop=$1
14335 else
14336     desktop=gnome
14337 fi
14338
14339 from=lenny
14340 to=squeeze
14341
14342 exec &lt; /dev/null
14343 unset LANG
14344 mirror=http://ftp.skolelinux.org/debian
14345 tmpdir=chroot-$from-upgrade-$to-$desktop
14346 fuser -mv .
14347 debootstrap $from $tmpdir $mirror
14348 chroot $tmpdir aptitude update
14349 cat > $tmpdir/usr/sbin/policy-rc.d &lt;&lt;EOF
14350 #!/bin/sh
14351 exit 101
14352 EOF
14353 chmod a+rx $tmpdir/usr/sbin/policy-rc.d
14354 exit_cleanup() {
14355     umount $tmpdir/proc
14356 }
14357 mount -t proc proc $tmpdir/proc
14358 # Make sure proc is unmounted also on failure
14359 trap exit_cleanup EXIT INT
14360
14361 chroot $tmpdir aptitude -y install debconf-utils
14362
14363 # Make sure tasksel autoselection trigger.  It need the test scripts
14364 # to return the correct answers.
14365 echo tasksel tasksel/desktop multiselect $desktop | \
14366     chroot $tmpdir debconf-set-selections
14367
14368 # Include the desktop and laptop task
14369 for test in desktop laptop ; do
14370     echo > $tmpdir/usr/lib/tasksel/tests/$test &lt;&lt;EOF
14371 #!/bin/sh
14372 exit 2
14373 EOF
14374     chmod a+rx $tmpdir/usr/lib/tasksel/tests/$test
14375 done
14376
14377 DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive
14378 DEBIAN_PRIORITY=critical
14379 export DEBIAN_FRONTEND DEBIAN_PRIORITY
14380 chroot $tmpdir tasksel --new-install
14381
14382 echo deb $mirror $to main > $tmpdir/etc/apt/sources.list
14383 chroot $tmpdir aptitude update
14384 touch $tmpdir/etc/udev/kernel-upgrade
14385 chroot $tmpdir aptitude -y dist-upgrade
14386 fuser -mv
14387 </pre></blockquote>
14388
14389 <p>I suspect it would be useful to test upgrades with both apt-get and
14390 with aptitude, but I have not had time to look at how they behave
14391 differently so far.  I hope to get a cron job running to do the test
14392 regularly and post the result on the web.  The Gnome upgrade currently
14393 work, while the KDE upgrade fail because of the bug in
14394 kdebase-workspace-data</p>
14395
14396 <p>I am not quite sure what kind of extract from the huge upgrade logs
14397 (KDE 167 KiB, Gnome 516 KiB) it make sense to include in this blog
14398 post, so I will refrain from trying.  I can report that for Gnome,
14399 aptitude report 760 packages upgraded, 448 newly installed, 129 to
14400 remove and 1 not upgraded and 1024MB need to be downloaded while for
14401 KDE the same numbers are 702 packages upgraded, 507 newly installed,
14402 193 to remove and 0 not upgraded and 1117MB need to be downloaded</p>
14403
14404 <p>I am very happy to notice that the Gnome desktop + laptop upgrade
14405 is able to migrate to dependency based boot sequencing and parallel
14406 booting without a hitch.  Was unsure if there were still bugs with
14407 packages failing to clean up their obsolete init.d script during
14408 upgrades, and no such problem seem to affect the Gnome desktop+laptop
14409 packages.</p>
14410
14411       </div>
14412       <div class="tags">
14413
14414
14415         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>.
14416
14417
14418       </div>
14419     </div>
14420     <div class="padding"></div>
14421
14422     <div class="entry">
14423       <div class="title">
14424         <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>
14425       </div>
14426       <div class="date">
14427          6th June 2010
14428       </div>
14429       <div class="body">
14430         <p>If Debian is to migrate to upstart on Linux, I expect some init.d
14431 scripts to migrate (some of) their operations to upstart job while
14432 keeping the init.d for hurd and kfreebsd.  The packages with such
14433 needs will need a way to get their init.d scripts to behave
14434 differently when used with sysvinit and with upstart.  Because of
14435 this, I had a look at the environment variables set when a init.d
14436 script is running under upstart, and when it is not.</p>
14437
14438 <p>With upstart, I notice these environment variables are set when a
14439 script is started from rcS.d/ (ignoring some irrelevant ones like
14440 COLUMNS):</p>
14441
14442 <blockquote><pre>
14443 DEFAULT_RUNLEVEL=2
14444 previous=N
14445 PREVLEVEL=
14446 RUNLEVEL=
14447 runlevel=S
14448 UPSTART_EVENTS=startup
14449 UPSTART_INSTANCE=
14450 UPSTART_JOB=rc-sysinit
14451 </pre></blockquote>
14452
14453 <p>With sysvinit, these environment variables are set for the same
14454 script.</p>
14455
14456 <blockquote><pre>
14457 INIT_VERSION=sysvinit-2.88
14458 previous=N
14459 PREVLEVEL=N
14460 RUNLEVEL=S
14461 runlevel=S
14462 </pre></blockquote>
14463
14464 <p>The RUNLEVEL and PREVLEVEL environment variables passed on from
14465 sysvinit are not set by upstart.  Not sure if it is intentional or not
14466 to not be compatible with sysvinit in this regard.</p>
14467
14468 <p>For scripts needing to behave differently when upstart is used,
14469 looking for the UPSTART_JOB environment variable seem to be a good
14470 choice.</p>
14471
14472       </div>
14473       <div class="tags">
14474
14475
14476         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>.
14477
14478
14479       </div>
14480     </div>
14481     <div class="padding"></div>
14482
14483     <div class="entry">
14484       <div class="title">
14485         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/A_manual_for_standards_wars___.html">A manual for standards wars...</a>
14486       </div>
14487       <div class="date">
14488          6th June 2010
14489       </div>
14490       <div class="body">
14491         <p>Via the
14492 <a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/robweir/antic-atom/~3/QzU4RgoAGMg/weekly-links-10.html">blog
14493 of Rob Weir</a> I came across the very interesting essay named
14494 <a href="http://faculty.haas.berkeley.edu/shapiro/wars.pdf">The Art of
14495 Standards Wars</a> (PDF 25 pages).  I recommend it for everyone
14496 following the standards wars of today.</p>
14497
14498       </div>
14499       <div class="tags">
14500
14501
14502         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>.
14503
14504
14505       </div>
14506     </div>
14507     <div class="padding"></div>
14508
14509     <div class="entry">
14510       <div class="title">
14511         <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>
14512       </div>
14513       <div class="date">
14514          3rd June 2010
14515       </div>
14516       <div class="body">
14517         <p>When using sitesummary at a site to track machines, it is possible
14518 to get a list of the machine types in use thanks to the DMI
14519 information extracted from each machine.  The script to do so is
14520 included in the sitesummary package, and here is example output from
14521 the Skolelinux build servers:</p>
14522
14523 <blockquote><pre>
14524 maintainer:~# /usr/lib/sitesummary/hardware-model-summary
14525   vendor                    count
14526   Dell Computer Corporation     1
14527     PowerEdge 1750              1
14528   IBM                           1
14529     eserver xSeries 345 -[8670M1X]-     1
14530   Intel                         2
14531   [no-dmi-info]                 3
14532 maintainer:~#
14533 </pre></blockquote>
14534
14535 <p>The quality of the report depend on the quality of the DMI tables
14536 provided in each machine.  Here there are Intel machines without model
14537 information listed with Intel as vendor and no model, and virtual Xen
14538 machines listed as [no-dmi-info].  One can add -l as a command line
14539 option to list the individual machines.</p>
14540
14541 <p>A larger list is
14542 <a href="http://narvikskolen.no/sitesummary/">available from the the
14543 city of Narvik</a>, which uses Skolelinux on all their shools and also
14544 provide the basic sitesummary report publicly.  In their report there
14545 are ~1400 machines. I know they use both Ubuntu and Skolelinux on
14546 their machines, and as sitesummary is available in both distributions,
14547 it is trivial to get all of them to report to the same central
14548 collector.</p>
14549
14550       </div>
14551       <div class="tags">
14552
14553
14554         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>.
14555
14556
14557       </div>
14558     </div>
14559     <div class="padding"></div>
14560
14561     <div class="entry">
14562       <div class="title">
14563         <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>
14564       </div>
14565       <div class="date">
14566          1st June 2010
14567       </div>
14568       <div class="body">
14569         <p>It is strange to watch how a bug in Debian causing KDM to fail to
14570 start at boot when an NVidia video card is used is handled.  The
14571 problem seem to be that the nvidia X.org driver uses a long time to
14572 initialize, and this duration is longer than kdm is configured to
14573 wait.</p>
14574
14575 <p>I came across two bugs related to this issue,
14576 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/583312">#583312</a> initially filed
14577 against initscripts and passed on to nvidia-glx when it became obvious
14578 that the nvidia drivers were involved, and
14579 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/524751">#524751</a> initially filed against
14580 kdm and passed on to src:nvidia-graphics-drivers for unknown reasons.</p>
14581
14582 <p>To me, it seem that no-one is interested in actually solving the
14583 problem nvidia video card owners experience and make sure the Debian
14584 distribution work out of the box for these users.  The nvidia driver
14585 maintainers expect kdm to be set up to wait longer, while kdm expect
14586 the nvidia driver maintainers to fix the driver to start faster, and
14587 while they wait for each other I guess the users end up switching to a
14588 distribution that work for them.  I have no idea what the solution is,
14589 but I am pretty sure that waiting for each other is not it.</p>
14590
14591 <p>I wonder why we end up handling bugs this way.</p>
14592
14593       </div>
14594       <div class="tags">
14595
14596
14597         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>.
14598
14599
14600       </div>
14601     </div>
14602     <div class="padding"></div>
14603
14604     <div class="entry">
14605       <div class="title">
14606         <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>
14607       </div>
14608       <div class="date">
14609         27th May 2010
14610       </div>
14611       <div class="body">
14612         <p>A few days ago, parallel booting was enabled in Debian/testing.
14613 The feature seem to hold up pretty well, but three fairly serious
14614 issues are known and should be solved:
14615
14616 <p><ul>
14617
14618 <li>The wicd package seen to
14619 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/508289">break NFS mounting</a> and
14620 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/581586">network setup</a> when
14621 parallel booting is enabled.  No idea why, but the wicd maintainer
14622 seem to be on the case.</li>
14623
14624 <li>The nvidia X driver seem to
14625 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/583312">have a race condition</a>
14626 triggered more easily when parallel booting is in effect.  The
14627 maintainer is on the case.</li>
14628
14629 <li>The sysv-rc package fail to properly enable dependency based boot
14630 sequencing (the shutdown is broken) when old file-rc users
14631 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/575080">try to switch back</a> to
14632 sysv-rc.  One way to solve it would be for file-rc to create
14633 /etc/init.d/.legacy-bootordering, and another is to try to make
14634 sysv-rc more robust.  Will investigate some more and probably upload a
14635 workaround in sysv-rc to help those trying to move from file-rc to
14636 sysv-rc get a working shutdown.</li>
14637
14638 </ul></p>
14639
14640 <p>All in all not many surprising issues, and all of them seem
14641 solvable before Squeeze is released.  In addition to these there are
14642 some packages with bugs in their dependencies and run level settings,
14643 which I expect will be fixed in a reasonable time span.</p>
14644
14645 <p>If you report any problems with dependencies in init.d scripts to
14646 the BTS, please usertag the report to get it to show up at
14647 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/pkgreport.cgi?users=initscripts-ng-devel@lists.alioth.debian.org">the
14648 list of usertagged bugs related to this</a>.</p>
14649
14650 <p>Update: Correct bug number to file-rc issue.</p>
14651
14652       </div>
14653       <div class="tags">
14654
14655
14656         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>.
14657
14658
14659       </div>
14660     </div>
14661     <div class="padding"></div>
14662
14663     <div class="entry">
14664       <div class="title">
14665         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/More_flexible_firmware_handling_in_debian_installer.html">More flexible firmware handling in debian-installer</a>
14666       </div>
14667       <div class="date">
14668         22nd May 2010
14669       </div>
14670       <div class="body">
14671         <p>After a long break from debian-installer development, I finally
14672 found time today to return to the project.  Having to spend less time
14673 working dependency based boot in debian, as it is almost complete now,
14674 definitely helped freeing some time.</p>
14675
14676 <p>A while back, I ran into a problem while working on Debian Edu.  We
14677 include some firmware packages on the Debian Edu CDs, those needed to
14678 get disk and network controllers working.  Without having these
14679 firmware packages available during installation, it is impossible to
14680 install Debian Edu on the given machine, and because our target group
14681 are non-technical people, asking them to provide firmware packages on
14682 an external medium is a support pain.  Initially, I expected it to be
14683 enough to include the firmware packages on the CD to get
14684 debian-installer to find and use them.  This proved to be wrong.
14685 Next, I hoped it was enough to symlink the relevant firmware packages
14686 to some useful location on the CD (tried /cdrom/ and
14687 /cdrom/firmware/).  This also proved to not work, and at this point I
14688 found time to look at the debian-installer code to figure out what was
14689 going to work.</p>
14690
14691 <p>The firmware loading code is in the hw-detect package, and a closer
14692 look revealed that it would only look for firmware packages outside
14693 the installation media, so the CD was never checked for firmware
14694 packages.  It would only check USB sticks, floppies and other
14695 "external" media devices.  Today I changed it to also look in the
14696 /cdrom/firmware/ directory on the mounted CD or DVD, which should
14697 solve the problem I ran into with Debian edu.  I also changed it to
14698 look in /firmware/, to make sure the installer also find firmware
14699 provided in the initrd when booting the installer via PXE, to allow us
14700 to provide the same feature in the PXE setup included in Debian
14701 Edu.</p>
14702
14703 <p>To make sure firmware deb packages with a license questions are not
14704 activated without asking if the license is accepted, I extended
14705 hw-detect to look for preinst scripts in the firmware packages, and
14706 run these before activating the firmware during installation.  The
14707 license question is asked using debconf in the preinst, so this should
14708 solve the issue for the firmware packages I have looked at so far.</p>
14709
14710 <p>If you want to discuss the details of these features, please
14711 contact us on debian-boot@lists.debian.org.</p>
14712
14713       </div>
14714       <div class="tags">
14715
14716
14717         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>.
14718
14719
14720       </div>
14721     </div>
14722     <div class="padding"></div>
14723
14724     <div class="entry">
14725       <div class="title">
14726         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Pieces_of_the_roaming_laptop_puzzle_in_Debian.html">Pieces of the roaming laptop puzzle in Debian</a>
14727       </div>
14728       <div class="date">
14729         19th May 2010
14730       </div>
14731       <div class="body">
14732         <p>Today, the last piece of the puzzle for roaming laptops in Debian
14733 Edu finally entered the Debian archive.  Today, the new
14734 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/libp/libpam-mklocaluser.html">libpam-mklocaluser</a>
14735 package was accepted.  Two days ago, two other pieces was accepted
14736 into unstable.  The
14737 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/p/pam-python.html">pam-python</a>
14738 package needed by libpam-mklocaluser, and the
14739 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/s/sssd.html">sssd</a> package
14740 passed NEW on Monday.  In addition, the
14741 <a href="http://packages.qa.debian.org/libp/libpam-ccreds.html">libpam-ccreds</a>
14742 package we need is in experimental (version 10-4) since Saturday, and
14743 hopefully will be moved to unstable soon.</p>
14744
14745 <p>This collection of packages allow for two different setups for
14746 roaming laptops.  The traditional setup would be using libpam-ccreds,
14747 nscd and libpam-mklocaluser with LDAP or Kerberos authentication,
14748 which should work out of the box if the configuration changes proposed
14749 for nscd in <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/485282">BTS report
14750 #485282</a> is implemented.  The alternative setup is to use sssd with
14751 libpam-mklocaluser to connect to LDAP or Kerberos and let sssd take
14752 care of the caching of passwords and group information.</p>
14753
14754 <p>I have so far been unable to get sssd to work with the LDAP server
14755 at the University, but suspect the issue is some SSL/GnuTLS related
14756 problem with the server certificate.  I plan to update the Debian
14757 package to version 1.2, which is scheduled for next week, and hope to
14758 find time to make sure the next release will include both the
14759 Debian/Ubuntu specific patches.  Upstream is friendly and responsive,
14760 and I am sure we will find a good solution.</p>
14761
14762 <p>The idea is to set up the roaming laptops to authenticate using
14763 LDAP or Kerberos and create a local user with home directory in /home/
14764 when a usre in LDAP logs in via KDM or GDM for the first time, and
14765 cache the password for offline checking, as well as caching group
14766 memberhips and other relevant LDAP information.  The
14767 libpam-mklocaluser package was created to make sure the local home
14768 directory is in /home/, instead of /site/server/directory/ which would
14769 be the home directory if pam_mkhomedir was used.  To avoid confusion
14770 with support requests and configuration, we do not want local laptops
14771 to have users in a path that is used for the same users home directory
14772 on the home directory servers.</p>
14773
14774 <p>One annoying problem with gdm is that it do not show the PAM
14775 message passed to the user from libpam-mklocaluser when the local user
14776 is created.  Instead gdm simply reject the login with some generic
14777 message.  The message is shown in kdm, ssh and login, so I guess it is
14778 a bug in gdm.  Have not investigated if there is some other message
14779 type that can be used instead to get gdm to also show the message.</p>
14780
14781 <p>If you want to help out with implementing this for Debian Edu,
14782 please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.</p>
14783
14784       </div>
14785       <div class="tags">
14786
14787
14788         Tags: <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>.
14789
14790
14791       </div>
14792     </div>
14793     <div class="padding"></div>
14794
14795     <div class="entry">
14796       <div class="title">
14797         <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>
14798       </div>
14799       <div class="date">
14800         14th May 2010
14801       </div>
14802       <div class="body">
14803         <p>Since this evening, parallel booting is the default in
14804 Debian/unstable for machines using dependency based boot sequencing.
14805 Apparently the testing of concurrent booting has been wider than
14806 expected, if I am to believe the
14807 <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2010/05/msg00122.html">input
14808 on debian-devel@</a>, and I concluded a few days ago to move forward
14809 with the feature this weekend, to give us some time to detect any
14810 remaining problems before Squeeze is frozen.  If serious problems are
14811 detected, it is simple to change the default back to sequential boot.
14812 The upload of the new sysvinit package also activate a new upstream
14813 version.</p>
14814
14815 More information about
14816 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/LSBInitScripts/DependencyBasedBoot">dependency
14817 based boot sequencing</a> is available from the Debian wiki.  It is
14818 currently possible to disable parallel booting when one run into
14819 problems caused by it, by adding this line to /etc/default/rcS:</p>
14820
14821 <blockquote><pre>
14822 CONCURRENCY=none
14823 </pre></blockquote>
14824
14825 <p>If you report any problems with dependencies in init.d scripts to
14826 the BTS, please usertag the report to get it to show up at
14827 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/pkgreport.cgi?users=initscripts-ng-devel@lists.alioth.debian.org">the
14828 list of usertagged bugs related to this</a>.</p>
14829
14830       </div>
14831       <div class="tags">
14832
14833
14834         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>.
14835
14836
14837       </div>
14838     </div>
14839     <div class="padding"></div>
14840
14841     <div class="entry">
14842       <div class="title">
14843         <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>
14844       </div>
14845       <div class="date">
14846         14th May 2010
14847       </div>
14848       <div class="body">
14849         <p>In the recent Debian Edu versions, the
14850 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/HowTo/SiteSummary">sitesummary
14851 system</a> is used to keep track of the machines in the school
14852 network.  Each machine will automatically report its status to the
14853 central server after boot and once per night.  The network setup is
14854 also reported, and using this information it is possible to get the
14855 MAC address of all network interfaces in the machines.  This is useful
14856 to update the DHCP configuration.</p>
14857
14858 <p>To give some idea how to use sitesummary, here is a one-liner to
14859 ist all MAC addresses of all machines reporting to sitesummary.  Run
14860 this on the collector host:</p>
14861
14862 <blockquote><pre>
14863 perl -MSiteSummary -e 'for_all_hosts(sub { print join(" ", get_macaddresses(shift)), "\n"; });'
14864 </pre></blockquote>
14865
14866 <p>This will list all MAC addresses assosiated with all machine, one
14867 line per machine and with space between the MAC addresses.</p>
14868
14869 <p>To allow system administrators easier job at adding static DHCP
14870 addresses for hosts, it would be possible to extend this to fetch
14871 machine information from sitesummary and update the DHCP and DNS
14872 tables in LDAP using this information.  Such tool is unfortunately not
14873 written yet.</p>
14874
14875       </div>
14876       <div class="tags">
14877
14878
14879         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>.
14880
14881
14882       </div>
14883     </div>
14884     <div class="padding"></div>
14885
14886     <div class="entry">
14887       <div class="title">
14888         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/systemd__an_interesting_alternative_to_upstart.html">systemd, an interesting alternative to upstart</a>
14889       </div>
14890       <div class="date">
14891         13th May 2010
14892       </div>
14893       <div class="body">
14894         <p>The last few days a new boot system called
14895 <a href="http://www.freedesktop.org/wiki/Software/systemd">systemd</a>
14896 has been
14897 <a href="http://0pointer.de/blog/projects/systemd.html">introduced</a>
14898
14899 to the free software world.  I have not yet had time to play around
14900 with it, but it seem to be a very interesting alternative to
14901 <a href="http://upstart.ubuntu.com/">upstart</a>, and might prove to be
14902 a good alternative for Debian when we are able to switch to an event
14903 based boot system.  Tollef is
14904 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/580814">in the process</a> of getting
14905 systemd into Debian, and I look forward to seeing how well it work.  I
14906 like the fact that systemd handles init.d scripts with dependency
14907 information natively, allowing them to run in parallel where upstart
14908 at the moment do not.</p>
14909
14910 <p>Unfortunately do systemd have the same problem as upstart regarding
14911 platform support.  It only work on recent Linux kernels, and also need
14912 some new kernel features enabled to function properly.  This means
14913 kFreeBSD and Hurd ports of Debian will need a port or a different boot
14914 system.  Not sure how that will be handled if systemd proves to be the
14915 way forward.</p>
14916
14917 <p>In the mean time, based on the
14918 <a href="http://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2010/05/msg00122.html">input
14919 on debian-devel@</a> regarding parallel booting in Debian, I have
14920 decided to enable full parallel booting as the default in Debian as
14921 soon as possible (probably this weekend or early next week), to see if
14922 there are any remaining serious bugs in the init.d dependencies.  A
14923 new version of the sysvinit package implementing this change is
14924 already in experimental.  If all go well, Squeeze will be released
14925 with parallel booting enabled by default.</p>
14926
14927       </div>
14928       <div class="tags">
14929
14930
14931         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>.
14932
14933
14934       </div>
14935     </div>
14936     <div class="padding"></div>
14937
14938     <div class="entry">
14939       <div class="title">
14940         <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>
14941       </div>
14942       <div class="date">
14943          6th May 2010
14944       </div>
14945       <div class="body">
14946         <p>These days, the init.d script dependencies in Squeeze are quite
14947 complete, so complete that it is actually possible to run all the
14948 init.d scripts in parallell based on these dependencies.  If you want
14949 to test your Squeeze system, make sure
14950 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/LSBInitScripts/DependencyBasedBoot">dependency
14951 based boot sequencing</a> is enabled, and add this line to
14952 /etc/default/rcS:</p>
14953
14954 <blockquote><pre>
14955 CONCURRENCY=makefile
14956 </pre></blockquote>
14957
14958 <p>That is it.  It will cause sysv-rc to use the startpar tool to run
14959 scripts in parallel using the dependency information stored in
14960 /etc/init.d/.depend.boot, /etc/init.d/.depend.start and
14961 /etc/init.d/.depend.stop to order the scripts.  Startpar is configured
14962 to try to start the kdm and gdm scripts as early as possible, and will
14963 start the facilities required by kdm or gdm as early as possible to
14964 make this happen.</p>
14965
14966 <p>Give it a try, and see if you like the result.  If some services
14967 fail to start properly, it is most likely because they have incomplete
14968 init.d script dependencies in their startup script (or some of their
14969 dependent scripts have incomplete dependencies).  Report bugs and get
14970 the package maintainers to fix it. :)</p>
14971
14972 <p>Running scripts in parallel could be the default in Debian when we
14973 manage to get the init.d script dependencies complete and correct.  I
14974 expect we will get there in Squeeze+1, if we get manage to test and
14975 fix the remaining issues.</p>
14976
14977 <p>If you report any problems with dependencies in init.d scripts to
14978 the BTS, please usertag the report to get it to show up at
14979 <a href="http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/pkgreport.cgi?users=initscripts-ng-devel@lists.alioth.debian.org">the
14980 list of usertagged bugs related to this</a>.</p>
14981
14982       </div>
14983       <div class="tags">
14984
14985
14986         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>.
14987
14988
14989       </div>
14990     </div>
14991     <div class="padding"></div>
14992
14993     <div class="entry">
14994       <div class="title">
14995         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Forcing_new_users_to_change_their_password_on_first_login.html">Forcing new users to change their password on first login</a>
14996       </div>
14997       <div class="date">
14998          2nd May 2010
14999       </div>
15000       <div class="body">
15001         <p>One interesting feature in Active Directory, is the ability to
15002 create a new user with an expired password, and thus force the user to
15003 change the password on the first login attempt.</p>
15004
15005 <p>I'm not quite sure how to do that with the LDAP setup in Debian
15006 Edu, but did some initial testing with a local account.  The account
15007 and password aging information is available in /etc/shadow, but
15008 unfortunately, it is not possible to specify an expiration time for
15009 passwords, only a maximum age for passwords.</p>
15010
15011 <p>A freshly created account (using adduser test) will have these
15012 settings in /etc/shadow:</p>
15013
15014 <blockquote><pre>
15015 root@tjener:~# chage -l test
15016 Last password change                                    : May 02, 2010
15017 Password expires                                        : never
15018 Password inactive                                       : never
15019 Account expires                                         : never
15020 Minimum number of days between password change          : 0
15021 Maximum number of days between password change          : 99999
15022 Number of days of warning before password expires       : 7
15023 root@tjener:~#
15024 </pre></blockquote>
15025
15026 <p>The only way I could come up with to create a user with an expired
15027 account, is to change the date of the last password change to the
15028 lowest value possible (January 1th 1970), and the maximum password age
15029 to the difference in days between that date and today.  To make it
15030 simple, I went for 30 years (30 * 365 = 10950) and January 2th (to
15031 avoid testing if 0 is a valid value).</p>
15032
15033 <p>After using these commands to set it up, it seem to work as
15034 intended:</p>
15035
15036 <blockquote><pre>
15037 root@tjener:~# chage -d 1 test; chage -M 10950 test
15038 root@tjener:~# chage -l test
15039 Last password change                                    : Jan 02, 1970
15040 Password expires                                        : never
15041 Password inactive                                       : never
15042 Account expires                                         : never
15043 Minimum number of days between password change          : 0
15044 Maximum number of days between password change          : 10950
15045 Number of days of warning before password expires       : 7
15046 root@tjener:~#
15047 </pre></blockquote>
15048
15049 <p>So far I have tested this with ssh and console, and kdm (in
15050 Squeeze) login, and all ask for a new password before login in the
15051 user (with ssh, I was thrown out and had to log in again).</p>
15052
15053 <p>Perhaps we should set up something similar for Debian Edu, to make
15054 sure only the user itself have the account password?</p>
15055
15056 <p>If you want to comment on or help out with implementing this for
15057 Debian Edu, please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.</p>
15058
15059 <p>Update 2010-05-02 17:20: Paul Tötterman tells me on IRC that the
15060 shadow(8) page in Debian/testing now state that setting the date of
15061 last password change to zero (0) will force the password to be changed
15062 on the first login.  This was not mentioned in the manual in Lenny, so
15063 I did not notice this in my initial testing.  I have tested it on
15064 Squeeze, and '<tt>chage -d 0 username</tt>' do work there.  I have not
15065 tested it on Lenny yet.</p>
15066
15067 <p>Update 2010-05-02-19:05: Jim Paris tells me via email that an
15068 equivalent command to expire a password is '<tt>passwd -e
15069 username</tt>', which insert zero into the date of the last password
15070 change.</p>
15071
15072       </div>
15073       <div class="tags">
15074
15075
15076         Tags: <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>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet</a>.
15077
15078
15079       </div>
15080     </div>
15081     <div class="padding"></div>
15082
15083     <div class="entry">
15084       <div class="title">
15085         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Thoughts_on_roaming_laptop_setup_for_Debian_Edu.html">Thoughts on roaming laptop setup for Debian Edu</a>
15086       </div>
15087       <div class="date">
15088         28th April 2010
15089       </div>
15090       <div class="body">
15091         <p>For some years now, I have wondered how we should handle laptops in
15092 Debian Edu.  The Debian Edu infrastructure is mostly designed to
15093 handle stationary computers, and less suited for computers that come
15094 and go.</p>
15095
15096 <p>Now I finally believe I have an sensible idea on how to adjust
15097 Debian Edu for laptops, by introducing a new profile for them, for
15098 example called Roaming Workstations.  Here are my thought on this.
15099 The setup would consist of the following:</p>
15100
15101 <ul>
15102
15103  <li>During installation, the user name of the owner / primary user of
15104    the laptop is requested and a local home directory is set up for
15105    the user, with uid and gid information fetched from the LDAP
15106    server.  This allow the user to work also when offline.  The
15107    central home directory can be available in a subdirectory on
15108    request, for example mounted via CIFS.  It could be mounted
15109    automatically when a user log in while on the Debian Edu network,
15110    and unmounted when the machine is taken away (network down,
15111    hibernate, etc), it can be set up to do automatic mounting on
15112    request (using autofs), or perhaps some GUI button on the desktop
15113    can be used to access it when needed.  Perhaps it is enough to use
15114    the fish protocol in KDE?</li>
15115
15116  <li>Password checking is set up to use LDAP or Kerberos
15117    authentication when the machine is on the Debian Edu network, and
15118    to cache the password for offline checking when the machine unable
15119    to reach the LDAP or Kerberos server.  This can be done using
15120    <a href="http://www.padl.com/OSS/pam_ccreds.html">libpam-ccreds</a>
15121    or the Fedora developed
15122    <a href="https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Features/SSSD">System
15123    Security Services Daemon</a> packages.</li>
15124
15125  <li>File synchronisation with the central home directory is set up
15126    using a shared directory in both the local and the central home
15127    directory, using unison.</li>
15128
15129  <li>Printing should be set up to print to all printers broadcasting
15130    their existence on the local network, and should then work out of
15131    the box with CUPS.  For sites needing accurate printer quotas, some
15132    system with Kerberos authentication or printing via ssh could be
15133    implemented.</li>
15134
15135  <li>For users that should have local root access to their laptop,
15136    sudo should be used to allow this to the local user.</li>
15137
15138  <li>It would be nice if user and group information from LDAP is
15139    cached on the client, but given that there are entries for the
15140    local user and primary group in /etc/, it should not be needed.</li>
15141
15142 </ul>
15143
15144 <p>I believe all the pieces to implement this are in Debian/testing at
15145 the moment.  If we work quickly, we should be able to get this ready
15146 in time for the Squeeze release to freeze.  Some of the pieces need
15147 tweaking, like libpam-ccreds should get support for pam-auth-update
15148 (<a href="http://bugs.debian.org/566718">#566718</a>) and nslcd (or
15149 perhaps debian-edu-config) should get some integration code to stop
15150 its daemon when the LDAP server is unavailable to avoid long timeouts
15151 when disconnected from the net.  If we get Kerberos enabled, we need
15152 to make sure we avoid long timeouts there too.</p>
15153
15154 <p>If you want to help out with implementing this for Debian Edu,
15155 please contact us on debian-edu@lists.debian.org.</p>
15156
15157       </div>
15158       <div class="tags">
15159
15160
15161         Tags: <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>.
15162
15163
15164       </div>
15165     </div>
15166     <div class="padding"></div>
15167
15168     <div class="entry">
15169       <div class="title">
15170         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Great_book___Content__Selected_Essays_on_Technology__Creativity__Copyright__and_the_Future_of_the_Future_.html">Great book: "Content: Selected Essays on Technology, Creativity, Copyright, and the Future of the Future"</a>
15171       </div>
15172       <div class="date">
15173         19th April 2010
15174       </div>
15175       <div class="body">
15176         <p>The last few weeks i have had the pleasure of reading a
15177 thought-provoking collection of essays by Cory Doctorow, on topics
15178 touching copyright, virtual worlds, the future of man when the
15179 conscience mind can be duplicated into a computer and many more. The
15180 book titled "Content: Selected Essays on Technology, Creativity,
15181 Copyright, and the Future of the Future" is available with few
15182 restrictions on the web, for example from
15183 <a href="http://craphound.com/content/">his own site</a>. I read the
15184 epub-version from
15185 <a href="http://www.feedbooks.com/book/2883">feedbooks</a> using
15186 <a href="http://www.fbreader.org/">fbreader</a> and my N810. I
15187 strongly recommend this book.</p>
15188
15189       </div>
15190       <div class="tags">
15191
15192
15193         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/fildeling">fildeling</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>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/web">web</a>.
15194
15195
15196       </div>
15197     </div>
15198     <div class="padding"></div>
15199
15200     <div class="entry">
15201       <div class="title">
15202         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Kerberos_for_Debian_Edu_Squeeze_.html">Kerberos for Debian Edu/Squeeze?</a>
15203       </div>
15204       <div class="date">
15205         14th April 2010
15206       </div>
15207       <div class="body">
15208         <p><a href="http://www.nuug.no/aktiviteter/20100413-kerberos/">Yesterdays
15209 NUUG presentation</a> about Kerberos was inspiring, and reminded me
15210 about the need to start using Kerberos in Skolelinux.  Setting up a
15211 Kerberos server seem to be straight forward, and if we get this in
15212 place a long time before the Squeeze version of Debian freezes, we
15213 have a chance to migrate Skolelinux away from NFSv3 for the home
15214 directories, and over to an architecture where the infrastructure do
15215 not have to trust IP addresses and machines, and instead can trust
15216 users and cryptographic keys instead.</p>
15217
15218 <p>A challenge will be integration and administration.  Is there a
15219 Kerberos implementation for Debian where one can control the
15220 administration access in Kerberos using LDAP groups?  With it, the
15221 school administration will have to maintain access control using flat
15222 files on the main server, which give a huge potential for errors.</p>
15223
15224 <p>A related question I would like to know is how well Kerberos and
15225 pam-ccreds (offline password check) work together.  Anyone know?</p>
15226
15227 <p>Next step will be to use Kerberos for access control in Lwat and
15228 Nagios.  I have no idea how much work that will be to implement.  We
15229 would also need to document how to integrate with Windows AD, as such
15230 shared network will require two Kerberos realms that need to cooperate
15231 to work properly.</p>
15232
15233 <p>I believe a good start would be to start using Kerberos on the
15234 skolelinux.no machines, and this way get ourselves experience with
15235 configuration and integration.  A natural starting point would be
15236 setting up ldap.skolelinux.no as the Kerberos server, and migrate the
15237 rest of the machines from PAM via LDAP to PAM via Kerberos one at the
15238 time.</p>
15239
15240 <p>If you would like to contribute to get this working in Skolelinux,
15241 I recommend you to see the video recording from yesterdays NUUG
15242 presentation, and start using Kerberos at home.  The video show show
15243 up in a few days.</p>
15244
15245       </div>
15246       <div class="tags">
15247
15248
15249         Tags: <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>.
15250
15251
15252       </div>
15253     </div>
15254     <div class="padding"></div>
15255
15256     <div class="entry">
15257       <div class="title">
15258         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/After_6_years_of_waiting__the_Xreset_d_feature_is_implemented.html">After 6 years of waiting, the Xreset.d feature is implemented</a>
15259       </div>
15260       <div class="date">
15261          6th March 2010
15262       </div>
15263       <div class="body">
15264         <p>6 years ago, as part of the Debian Edu development I am involved
15265 in, I asked for a hook in the kdm and gdm setup to run scripts as root
15266 when the user log out.  A bug was submitted against the xfree86-common
15267 package in 2004 (<a href="http://bugs.debian.org/230422">#230422</a>),
15268 and revisited every time Debian Edu was working on a new release.
15269 Today, this finally paid off.</p>
15270
15271 <p>The framework for this feature was today commited to the git
15272 repositry for the xorg package, and the git repository for xdm has
15273 been updated to use this framework.  Next on my agenda is to make sure
15274 kdm and gdm also add code to use this framework.</p>
15275
15276 <p>In Debian Edu, we want to ability to run commands as root when the
15277 user log out, to get rid of runaway processes and do general cleanup
15278 after a user.  With this framework in place, we finally can do that in
15279 a generic way that work with all display managers using this
15280 framework.  My goal is to get all display managers in Debian use it,
15281 similar to how they use the Xsession.d framework today.<p>
15282
15283       </div>
15284       <div class="tags">
15285
15286
15287         Tags: <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>.
15288
15289
15290       </div>
15291     </div>
15292     <div class="padding"></div>
15293
15294     <div class="entry">
15295       <div class="title">
15296         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_Edu___Skolelinux_based_on_Lenny_released__work_continues.html">Debian Edu / Skolelinux based on Lenny released, work continues</a>
15297       </div>
15298       <div class="date">
15299         11th February 2010
15300       </div>
15301       <div class="body">
15302         <p>On Tuesday, the Debian/Lenny based version of
15303 <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Skolelinux</a> was finally
15304 shipped.  This was a major leap forward for the project, and I am very
15305 pleased that we finally got the release wrapped up.  Work on the first
15306 point release starts imediately, as we plan to get that one out a
15307 month after the major release, to include all fixes for bugs we found
15308 and fixed too late in the release process to include last Tuesday.</p>
15309
15310 <p>Perhaps it even is time for some partying?</p>
15311
15312 <p>After this first point release, my plan is to focus again on the
15313 next major release, based on Squeeze.  We will try to get as many of
15314 the fixes we need into the official Debian packages before the freeze,
15315 and have just a few weeks or months to make it happen.</p>
15316
15317       </div>
15318       <div class="tags">
15319
15320
15321         Tags: <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>.
15322
15323
15324       </div>
15325     </div>
15326     <div class="padding"></div>
15327
15328     <div class="entry">
15329       <div class="title">
15330         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Automatic_Munin_and_Nagios_configuration.html">Automatic Munin and Nagios configuration</a>
15331       </div>
15332       <div class="date">
15333         27th January 2010
15334       </div>
15335       <div class="body">
15336         <p>One of the new features in the next Debian/Lenny based release of
15337 Debian Edu/Skolelinux, which is scheduled for release in the next few
15338 days, is automatic configuration of the service monitoring system
15339 Nagios.  The previous release had automatic configuration of trend
15340 analysis using Munin, and this Lenny based release take that a step
15341 further.</p>
15342
15343 <p>When installing a Debian Edu Main-server, it is automatically
15344 configured as a Munin and Nagios server.  In addition, it is
15345 configured to be a server for the
15346 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/HowTo/SiteSummary">SiteSummary
15347 system</a> I have written for use in Debian Edu.  The SiteSummary
15348 system is inspired by a system used by the University of Oslo where I
15349 work.  In short, the system provide a centralised collector of
15350 information about the computers on the network, and a client on each
15351 computer submitting information to this collector.  This allow for
15352 automatic information on which packages are installed on each machine,
15353 which kernel the machines are using, what kind of configuration the
15354 packages got etc.  This also allow us to automatically generate Munin
15355 and Nagios configuration.</p>
15356
15357 <p>All computers reporting to the sitesummary collector with the
15358 munin-node package installed is automatically enabled as a Munin
15359 client and graphs from the statistics collected from that machine show
15360 up automatically on http://www/munin/ on the Main-server.</p>
15361
15362 <p>All non-laptop computers reporting to the sitesummary collector are
15363 automatically monitored for network presence (ping and any network
15364 services detected).  In addition, all computers (also laptops) with
15365 the nagios-nrpe-server package installed and configured the way
15366 sitesummary would configure it, are monitored for full disks, software
15367 raid status, swap free and other checks that need to run locally on
15368 the machine.</p>
15369
15370 <p>The result is that the administrator on a school using Debian Edu
15371 based on Lenny will be able to check the health of his installation
15372 with one look at the Nagios settings, without having to spend any time
15373 keeping the Nagios configuration up-to-date.</p>
15374
15375 <p>The only configuration one need to do to get Nagios up and running
15376 is to set the password used to get access via HTTP.  The system
15377 administrator need to run "<tt>htpasswd /etc/nagios3/htpasswd.users
15378 nagiosadmin</tt>" to create a nagiosadmin user and set a password for
15379 it to be able to log into the Nagios web pages.  After that,
15380 everything is taken care of.</p>
15381
15382       </div>
15383       <div class="tags">
15384
15385
15386         Tags: <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>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sitesummary">sitesummary</a>.
15387
15388
15389       </div>
15390     </div>
15391     <div class="padding"></div>
15392
15393     <div class="entry">
15394       <div class="title">
15395         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Relative_popularity_of_document_formats__MS_Office_vs__ODF_.html">Relative popularity of document formats (MS Office vs. ODF)</a>
15396       </div>
15397       <div class="date">
15398         12th August 2009
15399       </div>
15400       <div class="body">
15401         <p>Just for fun, I did a search right now on Google for a few file ODF
15402 and MS Office based formats (not to be mistaken for ISO or ECMA
15403 OOXML), to get an idea of their relative usage.  I searched using
15404 'filetype:odt' and equvalent terms, and got these results:</P>
15405
15406 <table>
15407 <tr><th>Type</th><th>ODF</th><th>MS Office</th></tr>
15408 <tr><td>Tekst</td> <td>odt:282000</td> <td>docx:308000</td></tr>
15409 <tr><td>Presentasjon</td> <td>odp:75600</td> <td>pptx:183000</td></tr>
15410 <tr><td>Regneark</td> <td>ods:26500     </td> <td>xlsx:145000</td></tr>
15411 </table>
15412
15413 <p>Next, I added a 'site:no' limit to get the numbers for Norway, and
15414 got these numbers:</p>
15415
15416 <table>
15417 <tr><th>Type</th><th>ODF</th><th>MS Office</th></tr>
15418 <tr><td>Tekst</td> <td>odt:2480 </td> <td>docx:4460</td></tr>
15419 <tr><td>Presentasjon</td> <td>odp:299   </td> <td>pptx:741</td></tr>
15420 <tr><td>Regneark</td> <td>ods:187       </td> <td>xlsx:372</td></tr>
15421 </table>
15422
15423 <p>I wonder how these numbers change over time.</p>
15424
15425 <p>I am aware of Google returning different results and numbers based
15426 on where the search is done, so I guess these numbers will differ if
15427 they are conduced in another country.  Because of this, I did the same
15428 search from a machine in California, USA, a few minutes after the
15429 search done from a machine here in Norway.</p>
15430
15431
15432 <table>
15433 <tr><th>Type</th><th>ODF</th><th>MS Office</th></tr>
15434 <tr><td>Tekst</td> <td>odt:129000</td> <td>docx:308000</td></tr>
15435 <tr><td>Presentasjon</td> <td>odp:44200</td> <td>pptx:93900</td></tr>
15436 <tr><td>Regneark</td> <td>ods:26500     </td> <td>xlsx:82400</td></tr>
15437 </table>
15438
15439 <p>And with 'site:no':
15440
15441 <table>
15442 <tr><th>Type</th><th>ODF</th><th>MS Office</th></tr>
15443 <tr><td>Tekst</td> <td>odt:2480</td> <td>docx:3410</td></tr>
15444 <tr><td>Presentasjon</td> <td>odp:175</td> <td>pptx:604</td></tr>
15445 <tr><td>Regneark</td> <td>ods:186       </td> <td>xlsx:296</td></tr>
15446 </table>
15447
15448 <p>Interesting difference, not sure what to conclude from these
15449 numbers.</p>
15450
15451       </div>
15452       <div class="tags">
15453
15454
15455         Tags: <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>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/web">web</a>.
15456
15457
15458       </div>
15459     </div>
15460     <div class="padding"></div>
15461
15462     <div class="entry">
15463       <div class="title">
15464         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/ISO_still_hope_to_fix_OOXML.html">ISO still hope to fix OOXML</a>
15465       </div>
15466       <div class="date">
15467          8th August 2009
15468       </div>
15469       <div class="body">
15470         <p>According to <a
15471 href="http://twerner.blogspot.com/2009/08/defects-of-office-open-xml.html">a
15472 blog post from Torsten Werner</a>, the current defect report for ISO
15473 29500 (ISO OOXML) is 809 pages.  His interesting point is that the
15474 defect report is 71 pages more than the full ODF 1.1 specification.
15475 Personally I find it more interesting that ISO still believe ISO OOXML
15476 can be fixed in ISO.  Personally, I believe it is broken beyon repair,
15477 and I completely lack any trust in ISO for being able to get anywhere
15478 close to solving the problems.  I was part of the Norwegian committee
15479 involved in the OOXML fast track process, and was not impressed with
15480 Standard Norway and ISO in how they handled it.</p>
15481
15482 <p>These days I focus on ODF instead, which seem like a specification
15483 with the future ahead of it.  We are working in NUUG to organise a ODF
15484 seminar this autumn.</p>
15485
15486       </div>
15487       <div class="tags">
15488
15489
15490         Tags: <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>.
15491
15492
15493       </div>
15494     </div>
15495     <div class="padding"></div>
15496
15497     <div class="entry">
15498       <div class="title">
15499         <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>
15500       </div>
15501       <div class="date">
15502         27th July 2009
15503       </div>
15504       <div class="body">
15505         <p>Since this evening, with the upload of sysvinit version 2.87dsf-2,
15506 and the upload of insserv version 1.12.0-10 yesterday, Debian unstable
15507 have been migrated to using dependency based boot sequencing.  This
15508 conclude work me and others have been doing for the last three days.
15509 It feels great to see this finally part of the default Debian
15510 installation.  Now we just need to weed out the last few problems that
15511 are bound to show up, to get everything ready for Squeeze.</p>
15512
15513 <p>The next step is migrating /sbin/init from sysvinit to upstart, and
15514 fixing the more fundamental problem of handing the event based
15515 non-predictable kernel in the early boot.</p>
15516
15517       </div>
15518       <div class="tags">
15519
15520
15521         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>.
15522
15523
15524       </div>
15525     </div>
15526     <div class="padding"></div>
15527
15528     <div class="entry">
15529       <div class="title">
15530         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Taking_over_sysvinit_development.html">Taking over sysvinit development</a>
15531       </div>
15532       <div class="date">
15533         22nd July 2009
15534       </div>
15535       <div class="body">
15536         <p>After several years of frustration with the lack of activity from
15537 the existing sysvinit upstream developer, I decided a few weeks ago to
15538 take over the package and become the new upstream.  The number of
15539 patches to track for the Debian package was becoming a burden, and the
15540 lack of synchronization between the distribution made it hard to keep
15541 the package up to date.</p>
15542
15543 <p>On the new sysvinit team is the SuSe maintainer Dr. Werner Fink,
15544 and my Debian co-maintainer Kel Modderman.  About 10 days ago, I made
15545 a new upstream tarball with version number 2.87dsf (for Debian, SuSe
15546 and Fedora), based on the patches currently in use in these
15547 distributions.  We Debian maintainers plan to move to this tarball as
15548 the new upstream as soon as we find time to do the merge.  Since the
15549 new tarball was created, we agreed with Werner at SuSe to make a new
15550 upstream project at <a href="http://savannah.nongnu.org/">Savannah</a>, and continue
15551 development there.  The project is registered and currently waiting
15552 for approval by the Savannah administrators, and as soon as it is
15553 approved, we will import the old versions from svn and continue
15554 working on the future release.</p>
15555
15556 <p>It is a bit ironic that this is done now, when some of the involved
15557 distributions are moving to upstart as a syvinit replacement.</p>
15558
15559       </div>
15560       <div class="tags">
15561
15562
15563         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>.
15564
15565
15566       </div>
15567     </div>
15568     <div class="padding"></div>
15569
15570     <div class="entry">
15571       <div class="title">
15572         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Debian_boots_quicker_and_quicker.html">Debian boots quicker and quicker</a>
15573       </div>
15574       <div class="date">
15575         24th June 2009
15576       </div>
15577       <div class="body">
15578         <p>I spent Monday and tuesday this week in London with a lot of the
15579 people involved in the boot system on Debian and Ubuntu, to see if we
15580 could find more ways to speed up the boot system.  This was an Ubuntu
15581 funded
15582 <a href="https://wiki.ubuntu.com/FoundationsTeam/BootPerformance/DebianUbuntuSprint">developer
15583 gathering</a>. It was quite productive.  We also discussed the future
15584 of boot systems, and ways to handle the increasing number of boot
15585 issues introduced by the Linux kernel becoming more and more
15586 asynchronous and event base.  The Ubuntu approach using udev and
15587 upstart might be a good way forward.  Time will show.</p>
15588
15589 <p>Anyway, there are a few ways at the moment to speed up the boot
15590 process in Debian.  All of these should be applied to get a quick
15591 boot:</p>
15592
15593 <ul>
15594
15595 <li>Use dash as /bin/sh.</li>
15596
15597 <li>Disable the init.d/hwclock*.sh scripts and make sure the hardware
15598    clock is in UTC.</li>
15599
15600 <li>Install and activate the insserv package to enable
15601    <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/LSBInitScripts/DependencyBasedBoot">dependency
15602    based boot sequencing</a>, and enable concurrent booting.</li>
15603
15604 </ul>
15605
15606 These points are based on the Google summer of code work done by
15607 <a href="http://initscripts-ng.alioth.debian.org/soc2006-bootsystem/">Carlos
15608 Villegas</a>.
15609
15610 <p>Support for makefile-style concurrency during boot was uploaded to
15611 unstable yesterday.  When we tested it, we were able to cut 6 seconds
15612 from the boot sequence.  It depend on very correct dependency
15613 declaration in all init.d scripts, so I expect us to find edge cases
15614 where the dependences in some scripts are slightly wrong when we start
15615 using this.</p>
15616
15617 <p>On our IRC channel for this effort, #pkg-sysvinit, a new idea was
15618 introduced by Raphael Geissert today, one that could affect the
15619 startup speed as well.  Instead of starting some scripts concurrently
15620 from rcS.d/ and another set of scripts from rc2.d/, it would be
15621 possible to run a of them in the same process.  A quick way to test
15622 this would be to enable insserv and run 'mv /etc/rc2.d/S* /etc/rcS.d/;
15623 insserv'.  Will need to test if that work. :)</p>
15624
15625       </div>
15626       <div class="tags">
15627
15628
15629         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>.
15630
15631
15632       </div>
15633     </div>
15634     <div class="padding"></div>
15635
15636     <div class="entry">
15637       <div class="title">
15638         <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>
15639       </div>
15640       <div class="date">
15641          2nd May 2009
15642       </div>
15643       <div class="body">
15644         <p>There are two software projects that have had huge influence on the
15645 quality of free software, and I wanted to mention both in case someone
15646 do not yet know them.</p>
15647
15648 <p>The first one is <a href="http://valgrind.org/">valgrind</a>, a
15649 tool to detect and expose errors in the memory handling of programs.
15650 It is easy to use, all one need to do is to run 'valgrind program',
15651 and it will report any problems on stdout.  It is even better if the
15652 program include debug information.  With debug information, it is able
15653 to report the source file name and line number where the problem
15654 occurs.  It can report things like 'reading past memory block in file
15655 X line N, the memory block was allocated in file Y, line M', and
15656 'using uninitialised value in control logic'.  This tool has made it
15657 trivial to investigate reproducible crash bugs in programs, and have
15658 reduced the number of this kind of bugs in free software a lot.
15659
15660 <p>The second one is
15661 <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coverity">Coverity</a> which is
15662 a source code checker.  It is able to process the source of a program
15663 and find problems in the logic without running the program.  It
15664 started out as the Stanford Checker and became well known when it was
15665 used to find bugs in the Linux kernel.  It is now a commercial tool
15666 and the company behind it is running
15667 <a href="http://www.scan.coverity.com/">a community service</a> for the
15668 free software community, where a lot of free software projects get
15669 their source checked for free.  Several thousand defects have been
15670 found and fixed so far.  It can find errors like 'lock L taken in file
15671 X line N is never released if exiting in line M', or 'the code in file
15672 Y lines O to P can never be executed'.  The projects included in the
15673 community service project have managed to get rid of a lot of
15674 reliability problems thanks to Coverity.</p>
15675
15676 <p>I believe tools like this, that are able to automatically find
15677 errors in the source, are vital to improve the quality of software and
15678 make sure we can get rid of the crashing and failing software we are
15679 surrounded by today.</p>
15680
15681       </div>
15682       <div class="tags">
15683
15684
15685         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>.
15686
15687
15688       </div>
15689     </div>
15690     <div class="padding"></div>
15691
15692     <div class="entry">
15693       <div class="title">
15694         <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>
15695       </div>
15696       <div class="date">
15697         28th April 2009
15698       </div>
15699       <div class="body">
15700         <p>Julien Blache
15701 <a href="http://blog.technologeek.org/2009/04/12/214">claim that no
15702 patch is better than a useless patch</a>.  I completely disagree, as a
15703 patch allow one to discuss a concrete and proposed solution, and also
15704 prove that the issue at hand is important enough for someone to spent
15705 time on fixing it.  No patch do not provide any of these positive
15706 properties.</p>
15707
15708       </div>
15709       <div class="tags">
15710
15711
15712         Tags: <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>.
15713
15714
15715       </div>
15716     </div>
15717     <div class="padding"></div>
15718
15719     <div class="entry">
15720       <div class="title">
15721         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Recording_video_from_cron_using_VLC.html">Recording video from cron using VLC</a>
15722       </div>
15723       <div class="date">
15724          5th April 2009
15725       </div>
15726       <div class="body">
15727         <p>One think I have wanted to figure out for a along time is how to
15728 run vlc from cron to do recording of video streams on the net.  The
15729 task is trivial with mplayer, but I do not really trust the security
15730 of mplayer (it crashes too often on strange input), and thus prefer
15731 vlc.  I finally found a way to do it today.  I spent an hour or so
15732 searching the web for recipes and reading the documentation.  The
15733 hardest part was to get rid of the GUI window, but after finding the
15734 dummy interface, the command line finally presented itself:</p>
15735
15736 <blockquote><pre>URL=http://www.ping.uio.no/video/rms-oslo_2009.ogg
15737 SAVEFILE=rms.ogg
15738 DISPLAY= vlc -q $URL \
15739   --sout="#duplicate{dst=std{access=file,url='$SAVEFILE'},dst=nodisplay}" \
15740   --intf=dummy</pre></blockquote>
15741
15742 <p>The command stream the URL and store it in the SAVEFILE by
15743 duplicating the output stream to "nodisplay" and the file, using the
15744 dummy interface.  The dummy interface and the nodisplay output make
15745 sure no X interface is needed.</p>
15746
15747 <p>The cron job then need to start this job with the appropriate URL
15748 and file name to save, sleep for the duration wanted, and then kill
15749 the vlc process with SIGTERM.  Here is a complete script
15750 <tt>vlc-record</tt> to use from <tt>at</tt> or <tt>cron</tt>:</p>
15751
15752 <blockquote><pre>#!/bin/sh
15753 set -e
15754 URL="$1"
15755 SAVEFILE="$2"
15756 DURATION="$3"
15757 DISPLAY= vlc -q "$URL" \
15758   --sout="#duplicate{dst=std{access=file,url='$SAVEFILE'},dst=nodisplay}" \
15759   --intf=dummy < /dev/null > /dev/null 2>&1 &
15760 pid=$!
15761 sleep $DURATION
15762 kill $pid
15763 wait $pid</pre></blockquote>
15764
15765       </div>
15766       <div class="tags">
15767
15768
15769         Tags: <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/video">video</a>.
15770
15771
15772       </div>
15773     </div>
15774     <div class="padding"></div>
15775
15776     <div class="entry">
15777       <div class="title">
15778         <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>
15779       </div>
15780       <div class="date">
15781         30th March 2009
15782       </div>
15783       <div class="body">
15784         <p>Where I work at the University of Oslo, one decision stand out as a
15785 very good one to form a long lived computer infrastructure.  It is the
15786 simple one, lost by many in todays computer industry: Standardize on
15787 open network protocols and open exchange/storage formats, not applications.
15788 Applications come and go, while protocols and files tend to stay, and
15789 thus one want to make it easy to change application and vendor, while
15790 avoiding conversion costs and locking users to a specific platform or
15791 application.</p>
15792
15793 <p>This approach make it possible to replace the client applications
15794 independently of the server applications.  One can even allow users to
15795 use several different applications as long as they handle the selected
15796 protocol and format.  In the normal case, only one client application
15797 is recommended and users only get help if they choose to use this
15798 application, but those that want to deviate from the easy path are not
15799 blocked from doing so.</p>
15800
15801 <p>It also allow us to replace the server side without forcing the
15802 users to replace their applications, and thus allow us to select the
15803 best server implementation at any moment, when scale and resouce
15804 requirements change.</p>
15805
15806 <p>I strongly recommend standardizing - on open network protocols and
15807 open formats, but I would never recommend standardizing on a single
15808 application that do not use open network protocol or open formats.</p>
15809
15810       </div>
15811       <div class="tags">
15812
15813
15814         Tags: <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>.
15815
15816
15817       </div>
15818     </div>
15819     <div class="padding"></div>
15820
15821     <div class="entry">
15822       <div class="title">
15823         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Returning_from_Skolelinux_developer_gathering.html">Returning from Skolelinux developer gathering</a>
15824       </div>
15825       <div class="date">
15826         29th March 2009
15827       </div>
15828       <div class="body">
15829         <p>I'm sitting on the train going home from this weekends Debian
15830 Edu/Skolelinux development gathering.  I got a bit done tuning the
15831 desktop, and looked into the dynamic service location protocol
15832 implementation avahi.  It look like it could be useful for us.  Almost
15833 30 people participated, and I believe it was a great environment to
15834 get to know the Skolelinux system.  Walter Bender, involved in the
15835 development of the Sugar educational platform, presented his stuff and
15836 also helped me improve my OLPC installation.  He also showed me that
15837 his Turtle Art application can be used in standalone mode, and we
15838 agreed that I would help getting it packaged for Debian.  As a
15839 standalone application it would be great for Debian Edu.  We also
15840 tried to get the video conferencing working with two OLPCs, but that
15841 proved to be too hard for us.  The application seem to need more work
15842 before it is ready for me.  I look forward to getting home and relax
15843 now. :)</p>
15844
15845       </div>
15846       <div class="tags">
15847
15848
15849         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>.
15850
15851
15852       </div>
15853     </div>
15854     <div class="padding"></div>
15855
15856     <div class="entry">
15857       <div class="title">
15858         <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>
15859       </div>
15860       <div class="date">
15861         29th March 2009
15862       </div>
15863       <div class="body">
15864         <p>The state of standardized LDAP schemas on Linux is far from
15865 optimal.  There is RFC 2307 documenting one way to store NIS maps in
15866 LDAP, and a modified version of this normally called RFC 2307bis, with
15867 some modifications to be compatible with Active Directory.  The RFC
15868 specification handle the content of a lot of system databases, but do
15869 not handle DNS zones and DHCP configuration.</p>
15870
15871 <p>In <a href="http://www.skolelinux.org/">Debian Edu/Skolelinux</a>,
15872 we would like to store information about users, SMB clients/hosts,
15873 filegroups, netgroups (users and hosts), DHCP and DNS configuration,
15874 and LTSP configuration in LDAP.  These objects have a lot in common,
15875 but with the current LDAP schemas it is not possible to have one
15876 object per entity.  For example, one need to have at least three LDAP
15877 objects for a given computer, one with the SMB related stuff, one with
15878 DNS information and another with DHCP information.  The schemas
15879 provided for DNS and DHCP are impossible to combine into one LDAP
15880 object.  In addition, it is impossible to implement quick queries for
15881 netgroup membership, because of the way NIS triples are implemented.
15882 It just do not scale.  I believe it is time for a few RFC
15883 specifications to cleam up this mess.</p>
15884
15885 <p>I would like to have one LDAP object representing each computer in
15886 the network, and this object can then keep the SMB (ie host key), DHCP
15887 (mac address/name) and DNS (name/IP address) settings in one place.
15888 It need to be efficently stored to make sure it scale well.</p>
15889
15890 <p>I would also like to have a quick way to map from a user or
15891 computer and to the net group this user or computer is a member.</p>
15892
15893 <p>Active Directory have done a better job than unix heads like myself
15894 in this regard, and the unix side need to catch up.  Time to start a
15895 new IETF work group?</p>
15896
15897       </div>
15898       <div class="tags">
15899
15900
15901         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>.
15902
15903
15904       </div>
15905     </div>
15906     <div class="padding"></div>
15907
15908     <div class="entry">
15909       <div class="title">
15910         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Checking_server_hardware_support_status_for_Dell__HP_and_IBM_servers.html">Checking server hardware support status for Dell, HP and IBM servers</a>
15911       </div>
15912       <div class="date">
15913         28th February 2009
15914       </div>
15915       <div class="body">
15916         <p>At work, we have a few hundred Linux servers, and with that amount
15917 of hardware it is important to keep track of when the hardware support
15918 contract expire for each server.  We have a machine (and service)
15919 register, which until recently did not contain much useful besides the
15920 machine room location and contact information for the system owner for
15921 each machine.  To make it easier for us to track support contract
15922 status, I've recently spent time on extending the machine register to
15923 include information about when the support contract expire, and to tag
15924 machines with expired contracts to make it easy to get a list of such
15925 machines.  I extended a perl script already being used to import
15926 information about machines into the register, to also do some screen
15927 scraping off the sites of Dell, HP and IBM (our majority of machines
15928 are from these vendors), and automatically check the support status
15929 for the relevant machines.  This make the support status information
15930 easily available and I hope it will make it easier for the computer
15931 owner to know when to get new hardware or renew the support contract.
15932 The result of this work documented that 27% of the machines in the
15933 registry is without a support contract, and made it very easy to find
15934 them.  27% might seem like a lot, but I see it more as the case of us
15935 using machines a bit longer than the 3 years a normal support contract
15936 last, to have test machines and a platform for less important
15937 services.  After all, the machines without a contract are working fine
15938 at the moment and the lack of contract is only a problem if any of
15939 them break down.  When that happen, we can either fix it using spare
15940 parts from other machines or move the service to another old
15941 machine.</p>
15942
15943 <p>I believe the code for screen scraping the Dell site was originally
15944 written by Trond Hasle Amundsen, and later adjusted by me and Morten
15945 Werner Forsbring.  The HP scraping was written by me after reading a
15946 nice article in ;login: about how to use WWW::Mechanize, and the IBM
15947 scraping was written by me based on the Dell code.  I know the HTML
15948 parsing could be done using nice libraries, but did not want to
15949 introduce more dependencies.  This is the current incarnation:</p>
15950
15951 <pre>
15952 use LWP::Simple;
15953 use POSIX;
15954 use WWW::Mechanize;
15955 use Date::Parse;
15956 [...]
15957 sub get_support_info {
15958     my ($machine, $model, $serial, $productnumber) = @_;
15959     my $str;
15960
15961     if ( $model =~ m/^Dell / ) {
15962         # fetch website from Dell support
15963         my $url = "http://support.euro.dell.com/support/topics/topic.aspx/emea/shared/support/my_systems_info/no/details?c=no&amp;cs=nodhs1&amp;l=no&amp;s=dhs&amp;ServiceTag=$serial";
15964         my $webpage = get($url);
15965         return undef unless ($webpage);
15966
15967         my $daysleft = -1;
15968         my @lines = split(/\n/, $webpage);
15969         foreach my $line (@lines) {
15970             next unless ($line =~ m/Beskrivelse/);
15971             $line =~ s/&lt;[^>]+?>/;/gm;
15972             $line =~ s/^.+?;(Beskrivelse;)/$1/;
15973
15974             my @f = split(/\;/, $line);
15975             @f = @f[13 .. $#f];
15976             my $lastend = "";
15977             while ($f[3] eq "DELL") {
15978                 my ($type, $startstr, $endstr, $days) = @f[0, 5, 7, 10];
15979
15980                 my $start = POSIX::strftime("%Y-%m-%d",
15981                                             localtime(str2time($startstr)));
15982                 my $end = POSIX::strftime("%Y-%m-%d",
15983                                           localtime(str2time($endstr)));
15984                 $str .= "$type $start -> $end ";
15985                 @f = @f[14 .. $#f];
15986                 $lastend = $end if ($end gt $lastend);
15987             }
15988             my $today = POSIX::strftime("%Y-%m-%d", localtime(time));
15989             tag_machine_unsupported($machine)
15990                 if ($lastend lt $today);
15991         }
15992     } elsif ( $model =~ m/^HP / ) {
15993         my $mech = WWW::Mechanize->new();
15994         my $url =
15995             'http://www1.itrc.hp.com/service/ewarranty/warrantyInput.do';
15996         $mech->get($url);
15997         my $fields = {
15998             'BODServiceID' => 'NA',
15999             'RegisteredPurchaseDate' => '',
16000             'country' => 'NO',
16001             'productNumber' => $productnumber,
16002             'serialNumber1' => $serial,
16003         };
16004         $mech->submit_form( form_number => 2,
16005                             fields      => $fields );
16006         # Next step is screen scraping
16007         my $content = $mech->content();
16008
16009         $content =~ s/&lt;[^>]+?>/;/gm;
16010         $content =~ s/\s+/ /gm;
16011         $content =~ s/;\s*;/;;/gm;
16012         $content =~ s/;[\s;]+/;/gm;
16013
16014         my $today = POSIX::strftime("%Y-%m-%d", localtime(time));
16015
16016         while ($content =~ m/;Warranty Type;/) {
16017             my ($type, $status, $startstr, $stopstr) = $content =~
16018                 m/;Warranty Type;([^;]+);.+?;Status;(\w+);Start Date;([^;]+);End Date;([^;]+);/;
16019             $content =~ s/^.+?;Warranty Type;//;
16020             my $start = POSIX::strftime("%Y-%m-%d",
16021                                         localtime(str2time($startstr)));
16022             my $end = POSIX::strftime("%Y-%m-%d",
16023                                       localtime(str2time($stopstr)));
16024
16025             $str .= "$type ($status) $start -> $end ";
16026
16027             tag_machine_unsupported($machine)
16028                 if ($end lt $today);
16029         }
16030     } elsif ( $model =~ m/^IBM / ) {
16031         # This code ignore extended support contracts.
16032         my ($producttype) = $model =~ m/.*-\[(.{4}).+\]-/;
16033         if ($producttype &amp;&amp; $serial) {
16034             my $content =
16035                 get("http://www-947.ibm.com/systems/support/supportsite.wss/warranty?action=warranty&amp;brandind=5000008&amp;Submit=Submit&amp;type=$producttype&amp;serial=$serial");
16036             if ($content) {
16037                 $content =~ s/&lt;[^>]+?>/;/gm;
16038                 $content =~ s/\s+/ /gm;
16039                 $content =~ s/;\s*;/;;/gm;
16040                 $content =~ s/;[\s;]+/;/gm;
16041
16042                 $content =~ s/^.+?;Warranty status;//;
16043                 my ($status, $end) = $content =~ m/;Warranty status;([^;]+)\s*;Expiration date;(\S+) ;/;
16044
16045                 $str .= "($status) -> $end ";
16046
16047                 my $today = POSIX::strftime("%Y-%m-%d", localtime(time));
16048                 tag_machine_unsupported($machine)
16049                     if ($end lt $today);
16050             }
16051         }
16052     }
16053     return $str;
16054 }
16055 </pre>
16056
16057 <p>Here are some examples on how to use the function, using fake
16058 serial numbers.  The information passed in as arguments are fetched
16059 from dmidecode.</p>
16060
16061 <pre>
16062 print get_support_info("hp.host", "HP ProLiant BL460c G1", "1234567890"
16063                        "447707-B21");
16064 print get_support_info("dell.host", "Dell Inc. PowerEdge 2950", "1234567");
16065 print get_support_info("ibm.host", "IBM eserver xSeries 345 -[867061X]-",
16066                        "1234567");
16067 </pre>
16068
16069 <p>I would recommend this approach for tracking support contracts for
16070 everyone with more than a few computers to administer. :)</p>
16071
16072 <p>Update 2009-03-06: The IBM page do not include extended support
16073 contracts, so it is useless in that case.  The original Dell code do
16074 not handle extended support contracts either, but has been updated to
16075 do so.</p>
16076
16077       </div>
16078       <div class="tags">
16079
16080
16081         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
16082
16083
16084       </div>
16085     </div>
16086     <div class="padding"></div>
16087
16088     <div class="entry">
16089       <div class="title">
16090         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Using_bar_codes_at_a_computing_center.html">Using bar codes at a computing center</a>
16091       </div>
16092       <div class="date">
16093         20th February 2009
16094       </div>
16095       <div class="body">
16096         <p>At work with the University of Oslo, we have several hundred computers
16097 in our computing center.  This give us a challenge in tracking the
16098 location and cabling of the computers, when they are added, moved and
16099 removed.  Some times the location register is not updated when a
16100 computer is inserted or moved and we then have to search the room for
16101 the "missing" computer.</p>
16102
16103 <p>In the last issue of Linux Journal, I came across a project
16104 <a href="http://www.libdmtx.org/">libdmtx</a> to write and read bar
16105 code blocks as defined in the
16106 <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_Matrix">The Data Matrix
16107 Standard</a>.  This is bar codes that can be read with a normal
16108 digital camera, for example that on a cell phone, and several such bar
16109 codes can be read by libdmtx from one picture.  The bar code standard
16110 allow up to 2 KiB to be written in the tag.  There is another project
16111 with <a href="http://www.terryburton.co.uk/barcodewriter/">a bar code
16112 writer written in postscript</a> capable of creating such bar codes,
16113 but this was the first time I found a tool to read these bar
16114 codes.</p>
16115
16116 <p>It occurred to me that this could be used to tag and track the
16117 machines in our computing center.  If both racks and computers are
16118 tagged this way, we can use a picture of the rack and all its
16119 computers to detect the rack location of any computer in that rack.
16120 If we do this regularly for the entire room, we will find all
16121 locations, and can detect movements and removals.</p>
16122
16123 <p>I decided to test if this would work in practice, and picked a
16124 random rack and tagged all the machines with their names.  Next, I
16125 took pictures with my digital camera, and gave the dmtxread program
16126 these JPEG pictures to see how many tags it could read.  This worked
16127 fairly well.  If the pictures was well focused and not taken from the
16128 side, all tags in the image could be read.  Because of limited space
16129 between the racks, I was unable to get a good picture of the entire
16130 rack, but could without problem read all tags from a picture covering
16131 about half the rack.  I had to limit the search time used by dmtxread
16132 to 60000 ms to make sure it terminated in a reasonable time frame.</p>
16133
16134 <p>My conclusion is that this could work, and we should probably look
16135 at adjusting our computer tagging procedures to use bar codes for
16136 easier automatic tracking of computers.</p>
16137
16138       </div>
16139       <div class="tags">
16140
16141
16142         Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug</a>.
16143
16144
16145       </div>
16146     </div>
16147     <div class="padding"></div>
16148
16149     <div class="entry">
16150       <div class="title">
16151         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/When_web_browser_developers_make_a_video_player___.html">When web browser developers make a video player...</a>
16152       </div>
16153       <div class="date">
16154         17th January 2009
16155       </div>
16156       <div class="body">
16157         <p>As part of the work we do in <a href="http://www.nuug.no">NUUG</a>
16158 to publish video recordings of our monthly presentations, we provide a
16159 page with embedded video for easy access to the recording.  Putting a
16160 good set of HTML tags together to get working embedded video in all
16161 browsers and across all operating systems is not easy.  I hope this
16162 will become easier when the &lt;video&gt; tag is implemented in all
16163 browsers, but I am not sure.  We provide the recordings in several
16164 formats, MPEG1, Ogg Theora, H.264 and Quicktime, and want the
16165 browser/media plugin to pick one it support and use it to play the
16166 recording, using whatever embed mechanism the browser understand.
16167 There is at least four different tags to use for this, the new HTML5
16168 &lt;video&gt; tag, the &lt;object&gt; tag, the &lt;embed&gt; tag and
16169 the &lt;applet&gt; tag.  All of these take a lot of options, and
16170 finding the best options is a major challenge.</p>
16171
16172 <p>I just tested the experimental Opera browser available from <a
16173 href="http://labs.opera.com">labs.opera.com</a>, to see how it handled
16174 a &lt;video&gt; tag with a few video sources and no extra attributes.
16175 I was not very impressed.  The browser start by fetching a picture
16176 from the video stream.  Not sure if it is the first frame, but it is
16177 definitely very early in the recording.  So far, so good. Next,
16178 instead of streaming the 76 MiB video file, it start to download all
16179 of it, but do not start to play the video.  This mean I have to wait
16180 for several minutes for the downloading to finish.  When the download
16181 is done, the playing of the video do not start!  Waiting for the
16182 download, but I do not get to see the video?  Some testing later, I
16183 discover that I have to add the controls="true" attribute to be able
16184 to get a play button to pres to start the video.  Adding
16185 autoplay="true" did not help.  I sure hope this is a misfeature of the
16186 test version of Opera, and that future implementations of the
16187 &lt;video&gt; tag will stream recordings by default, or at least start
16188 playing when the download is done.</p>
16189
16190 <p>The test page I used (since changed to add more attributes) is
16191 <a href="http://www.nuug.no/aktiviteter/20090113-foredrag-om-foredrag/">available
16192 from the nuug site</a>.  Will have to test it with the new Firefox
16193 too.</p>
16194
16195 <p>In the test process, I discovered a missing feature.  I was unable
16196 to find a way to get the URL of the playing video out of Opera, so I
16197 am not quite sure it picked the Ogg Theora version of the video.  I
16198 sure hope it was using the announced Ogg Theora support. :)</p>
16199
16200       </div>
16201       <div class="tags">
16202
16203
16204         Tags: <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/nuug">nuug</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>.
16205
16206
16207       </div>
16208     </div>
16209     <div class="padding"></div>
16210
16211     <div class="entry">
16212       <div class="title">
16213         <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/Software_video_mixer_on_a_USB_stick.html">Software video mixer on a USB stick</a>
16214       </div>
16215       <div class="date">
16216         28th December 2008
16217       </div>
16218       <div class="body">
16219         <p>The <a href="http://www.nuug.no/">Norwegian Unix User Group</a> is
16220 recording our montly presentation on video, and recently we have
16221 worked on improving the quality of the recordings by mixing the slides
16222 directly with the video stream.  For this, we use the
16223 <a href="http://dvswitch.alioth.debian.org/">dvswitch</a> package from
16224 the Debian video team.  As this require quite one computer per video
16225 source, and NUUG do not have enough laptops available, we need to
16226 borrow laptops.  And to avoid having to install extra software on
16227 these borrwed laptops, I have wrapped up all the programs needed on a
16228 bootable USB stick.  The software required is dvswitch with assosiated
16229 source, sink and mixer applications and
16230 <a href="http://www.kinodv.org/">dvgrab</a>.  To allow this setup to
16231 work without any configuration, I've patched dvswitch to use
16232 <a href="http://www.avahi.org/">avahi</a> to connect the various parts
16233 together.  And to allow us to use laptops without firewire plugs, I
16234 upgraded dvgrab to the one from Debian/unstable to get one that work
16235 with USB sources.  We have not yet tested this setup in a production
16236 setup, but I hope it will work properly, and allow us to set up a
16237 video mixer in a very short time frame.  We will need it for
16238 <a href="http://www.goopen.no/">Go Open 2009</a>.</p>
16239
16240 <p><a href="http://www.nuug.no/pub/video/bin/usbstick-dvswitch.img.gz">The
16241 USB image</a> is for a 1 GB memory stick, but can be used on any
16242 larger stick as well.</p>
16243
16244       </div>
16245       <div class="tags">
16246
16247
16248         Tags: <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/video">video</a>.
16249
16250
16251       </div>
16252     </div>
16253     <div class="padding"></div>
16254
16255     <div class="entry">
16256       <div class="title">
16257         <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>
16258       </div>
16259       <div class="date">
16260          7th December 2008
16261       </div>
16262       <div class="body">
16263         <p>This weekend we had a small developer gathering for Debian Edu in
16264 Oslo.  Most of Saturday was used for the general assemly for the
16265 member organization, but the rest of the weekend I used to tune the
16266 LTSP installation.  LTSP now work out of the box on the 10-network.
16267 Acer Aspire One proved to be a very nice thin client, with both
16268 screen, mouse and keybard in a small box.  Was working on getting the
16269 diskless workstation setup configured out of the box, but did not
16270 finish it before the weekend was up.</p>
16271
16272 <p>Did not find time to look at the 4 VGA cards in one box we got from
16273 the Brazilian group, so that will have to wait for the next
16274 development gathering.  Would love to have the Debian Edu installer
16275 automatically detect and configure a multiseat setup when it find one
16276 of these cards.</p>
16277
16278       </div>
16279       <div class="tags">
16280
16281
16282         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>.
16283
16284
16285       </div>
16286     </div>
16287     <div class="padding"></div>
16288
16289     <div class="entry">
16290       <div class="title">
16291         <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>
16292       </div>
16293       <div class="date">
16294         25th November 2008
16295       </div>
16296       <div class="body">
16297         <p>Recently I have spent some time evaluating the multimedia browser
16298 plugins available in Debian Lenny, to see which one we should use by
16299 default in Debian Edu.  We need an embedded video playing plugin with
16300 control buttons to pause or stop the video, and capable of streaming
16301 all the multimedia content available on the web.  The test results and
16302 notes are available on
16303 <a href="http://wiki.debian.org/DebianEdu/BrowserMultimedia">the
16304 Debian wiki</a>.  I was surprised how few of the plugins are able to
16305 fill this need.  My personal video player favorite, VLC, has a really
16306 bad plugin which fail on a lot of the test pages.  A lot of the MIME
16307 types I would expect to work with any free software player (like
16308 video/ogg), just do not work.  And simple formats like the
16309 audio/x-mplegurl format (m3u playlists), just isn't supported by the
16310 totem and vlc plugins.  I hope the situation will improve soon.  No
16311 wonder sites use the proprietary Adobe flash to play video.</p>
16312
16313 <p>For Lenny, we seem to end up with the mplayer plugin.  It seem to
16314 be the only one fitting our needs. :/</p>
16315
16316       </div>
16317       <div class="tags">
16318
16319
16320         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>.
16321
16322
16323       </div>
16324     </div>
16325     <div class="padding"></div>
16326
16327     <p style="text-align: right;"><a href="english.rss"><img src="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/xml.gif" alt="RSS Feed" width="36" height="14" /></a></p>
16328     <div id="sidebar">
16329
16330
16331
16332 <h2>Archive</h2>
16333 <ul>
16334
16335 <li>2013
16336 <ul>
16337
16338 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/01/">January (11)</a></li>
16339
16340 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/02/">February (9)</a></li>
16341
16342 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/03/">March (9)</a></li>
16343
16344 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/04/">April (6)</a></li>
16345
16346 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/05/">May (9)</a></li>
16347
16348 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/06/">June (10)</a></li>
16349
16350 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2013/07/">July (6)</a></li>
16351
16352 </ul></li>
16353
16354 <li>2012
16355 <ul>
16356
16357 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/01/">January (7)</a></li>
16358
16359 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/02/">February (10)</a></li>
16360
16361 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/03/">March (17)</a></li>
16362
16363 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/04/">April (12)</a></li>
16364
16365 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/05/">May (12)</a></li>
16366
16367 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/06/">June (20)</a></li>
16368
16369 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/07/">July (17)</a></li>
16370
16371 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/08/">August (6)</a></li>
16372
16373 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/09/">September (9)</a></li>
16374
16375 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/10/">October (17)</a></li>
16376
16377 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/11/">November (10)</a></li>
16378
16379 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2012/12/">December (7)</a></li>
16380
16381 </ul></li>
16382
16383 <li>2011
16384 <ul>
16385
16386 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/01/">January (16)</a></li>
16387
16388 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/02/">February (6)</a></li>
16389
16390 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/03/">March (6)</a></li>
16391
16392 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/04/">April (7)</a></li>
16393
16394 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/05/">May (3)</a></li>
16395
16396 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/06/">June (2)</a></li>
16397
16398 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/07/">July (7)</a></li>
16399
16400 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/08/">August (6)</a></li>
16401
16402 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/09/">September (4)</a></li>
16403
16404 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/10/">October (2)</a></li>
16405
16406 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/11/">November (3)</a></li>
16407
16408 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2011/12/">December (1)</a></li>
16409
16410 </ul></li>
16411
16412 <li>2010
16413 <ul>
16414
16415 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/01/">January (2)</a></li>
16416
16417 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/02/">February (1)</a></li>
16418
16419 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/03/">March (3)</a></li>
16420
16421 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/04/">April (3)</a></li>
16422
16423 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/05/">May (9)</a></li>
16424
16425 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/06/">June (14)</a></li>
16426
16427 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/07/">July (12)</a></li>
16428
16429 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/08/">August (13)</a></li>
16430
16431 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/09/">September (7)</a></li>
16432
16433 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/10/">October (9)</a></li>
16434
16435 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/11/">November (13)</a></li>
16436
16437 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2010/12/">December (12)</a></li>
16438
16439 </ul></li>
16440
16441 <li>2009
16442 <ul>
16443
16444 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/01/">January (8)</a></li>
16445
16446 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/02/">February (8)</a></li>
16447
16448 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/03/">March (12)</a></li>
16449
16450 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/04/">April (10)</a></li>
16451
16452 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/05/">May (9)</a></li>
16453
16454 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/06/">June (3)</a></li>
16455
16456 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/07/">July (4)</a></li>
16457
16458 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/08/">August (3)</a></li>
16459
16460 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/09/">September (1)</a></li>
16461
16462 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/10/">October (2)</a></li>
16463
16464 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/11/">November (3)</a></li>
16465
16466 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2009/12/">December (3)</a></li>
16467
16468 </ul></li>
16469
16470 <li>2008
16471 <ul>
16472
16473 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2008/11/">November (5)</a></li>
16474
16475 <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/archive/2008/12/">December (7)</a></li>
16476
16477 </ul></li>
16478
16479 </ul>
16480
16481
16482
16483 <h2>Tags</h2>
16484 <ul>
16485
16486  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/3d-printer">3d-printer (13)</a></li>
16487
16488  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/amiga">amiga (1)</a></li>
16489
16490  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/aros">aros (1)</a></li>
16491
16492  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bankid">bankid (4)</a></li>
16493
16494  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bitcoin">bitcoin (7)</a></li>
16495
16496  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bootsystem">bootsystem (12)</a></li>
16497
16498  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/bsa">bsa (2)</a></li>
16499
16500  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian">debian (83)</a></li>
16501
16502  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/debian edu">debian edu (137)</a></li>
16503
16504  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/digistan">digistan (10)</a></li>
16505
16506  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/docbook">docbook (9)</a></li>
16507
16508  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/drivstoffpriser">drivstoffpriser (4)</a></li>
16509
16510  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english (209)</a></li>
16511
16512  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/fiksgatami">fiksgatami (21)</a></li>
16513
16514  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/fildeling">fildeling (12)</a></li>
16515
16516  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/freeculture">freeculture (11)</a></li>
16517
16518  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/frikanalen">frikanalen (11)</a></li>
16519
16520  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/intervju">intervju (37)</a></li>
16521
16522  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/isenkram">isenkram (7)</a></li>
16523
16524  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/kart">kart (18)</a></li>
16525
16526  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ldap">ldap (8)</a></li>
16527
16528  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/lenker">lenker (6)</a></li>
16529
16530  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ltsp">ltsp (1)</a></li>
16531
16532  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/multimedia">multimedia (25)</a></li>
16533
16534  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/norsk">norsk (234)</a></li>
16535
16536  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/nuug">nuug (153)</a></li>
16537
16538  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/offentlig innsyn">offentlig innsyn (8)</a></li>
16539
16540  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/open311">open311 (2)</a></li>
16541
16542  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/opphavsrett">opphavsrett (44)</a></li>
16543
16544  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/personvern">personvern (65)</a></li>
16545
16546  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/raid">raid (1)</a></li>
16547
16548  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/reprap">reprap (11)</a></li>
16549
16550  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/rfid">rfid (2)</a></li>
16551
16552  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/robot">robot (7)</a></li>
16553
16554  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/rss">rss (1)</a></li>
16555
16556  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/ruter">ruter (4)</a></li>
16557
16558  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/scraperwiki">scraperwiki (2)</a></li>
16559
16560  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sikkerhet">sikkerhet (29)</a></li>
16561
16562  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sitesummary">sitesummary (4)</a></li>
16563
16564  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/skepsis">skepsis (4)</a></li>
16565
16566  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/standard">standard (43)</a></li>
16567
16568  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/stavekontroll">stavekontroll (3)</a></li>
16569
16570  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/stortinget">stortinget (7)</a></li>
16571
16572  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/surveillance">surveillance (15)</a></li>
16573
16574  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/sysadmin">sysadmin (1)</a></li>
16575
16576  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/valg">valg (7)</a></li>
16577
16578  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/video">video (38)</a></li>
16579
16580  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/vitenskap">vitenskap (4)</a></li>
16581
16582  <li><a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/web">web (26)</a></li>
16583
16584 </ul>
16585
16586
16587     </div>
16588     <p style="text-align: right">
16589  Created by <a href="http://steve.org.uk/Software/chronicle">Chronicle v4.6</a>
16590 </p>
16591
16592   </body>
16593 </html>